Temple 37

Chapter 37
Kahlan writes a letter to Richard, in which she informs him that just as he has to do things she would rather he not, now she has to do something he would probably rather she not. She asks him to leave her to it, says that Cara is ignorant and should not be punished, and reaffirms that she loves him. She re-reads the letter, satisfied that it is "vague enough to mean anything" and thus is utterly useless, and then seals it with the Mother Mindrapist's seal, which is "twin lightning bolts."
Wait a second.
Really? Really The symbol of the Mindrapists is the same as the Schutzstaffel, the most hated and feared Nazi paramilitary organization, the people that even the common Wehrmacht soldiers considered to be bloodthirsty, psychotic sadists? That's the symbol you chose to represent the heroic, long-suffering Confessors, servants to all, who labor without thanks for the good of the many? I mean, I think it's very fitting given how we've seen the Mindrapists behave, but I somehow doubt that's what Terry Goodkind was going for. Maybe he didn't intend this association, but there aren't a lot of organizations that use the twin lightning bolt motif. A Google search for "twin lightning bolts" gives "twin lightning bolts Nazi" as the only suggested search term, and aside from real lightning bolts and surfboards, is the primary image found.
See, this is why research is something other, better authors don't disdain. I realize Google didn't exist in 1997, when this book was published, but how hard is it to get a book on symbols from the library?
So now the Mindrapists are actual, literal Nazis. Marvelous. \~/\~/
Kahlan muses on the symbolism of the lightning bolts, stating that they represent the Con Dar, aka Blood Rage, aka Blue Lightning of Sue Fury that is the Minus Magic element of the Mindrapists' power. She then digs through her drawer and gets out "clothes she had worn before, when she had been on her journeys, better suited to what she was going to do than her white Mother Confessor's dress." Except I seem to remember that the Teflon wedding dress was what she wore on her journeys. I seem to remember ranting about it in Book 1. I seem to remember it being a plot point, as people would recognize Kahlan by her dress and provide her with whatever she might need. \~/
This is the author who credits himself with having "irrevocably changed the face of fantasy," and "raised the standards." I guess consistency isn't a "standard."
So after a paragraph of Kahlan getting dressed, she also collects the knife made from Chandelier's grandfather's arm bone and we get a brief infodump on it. Kahlan thinks about how she had killed Prim with it, "a man who had been her friend but had turned to the Keeper."
Prim was never your friend, Kahlan. You bullied and threatened his boss, Chandelier, into being your slave-bodyguard, but there was never any suggestion of friendship. Yes, he tried to kill you for no good reason, and was revealed as a Satanist, also for no good reason, but he was never your friend.
Kahlan exposits how the Mud People heroically slaughtered all the Jocopo after the spirits told them to, and how Chandelier was a badass. "Kahlan knew few men who were as good protectors of their people as Chandalen."
That may be true, but we've never seen it. For all that I defend him, what have we ever seen Chandelier do to protect the Mud People? He failed to protect them from Richard, he couldn't protect them from Darken Rahl, he was useless when the Bantak attacked, he was abused and threatened by the two White Devils, and his own elders threw him at Kahlan's nonexistent mercy. Frankly, he seems like a social pariah and we've never seen him succeed at protecting his people. \~/
"In a battle with the army of the Imperial Order, Chandalen had been death itself. So had she."
You just can't let him have anything, can you Kahlan? Even when praising Chandelier you have to horn in and praise yourself, too. Way to backhandedly dismiss the fighting prowess of a man who has trained his entire life as a tribal protector. \~/
Kahlan kisses the bone knife, then ties it to her forearm. She puts on a cloak, and Terry Goodkind wastes several sentences establishing its weight (light) and color (light tan). Kahlan thinks about how she has no weapon other than the knife and her Mindrapist power. "Shota was wary of a Confessor's power: no one was immune to the touch of a Confessor."
Except for Richard. And Darken Rahl. And Zedd. And any spellcaster controlled by Jagang. So really, no one is immune to a Mindrapist's touch except for all the people who are. \~/
Kahlan thinks that she won't have to touch Shota, since she can just fry her to ashes with the Blue Lightning of Sue Fury. She thinks that she can't call up the lightning to defend herself, only to defend someone she loves. She therefore engages in some tortured rationalization for a few paragraphs to establish that Richard is in danger and Kahlan zapping Shota will be defending him, specifically:
#Richard wants to marry Kahlan.
#Shota sent Nadine to marry Richard
#Richard does not love Nadine
#Therefore, Shota is endangering Richard.
#Therefore, Kahlan can and should murder Shota with the Power of Love.
See, it all makes sense! \~/ Because magic operates on legal jagon and technicalities!
The stupid starts coming thick and fast, so there are about to be a lot of quotes.
"Kahlan knew how magic worked. This was magic from within her. Like the magic of Richard's sword, it worked through perception."
No comment. \~/
"if Kahlan felt justified in its use to defend Richard, the Con Dar would do her bidding."
"Felt justified" is the worst activation condition for anything, ever.
"Kahlan had justification: Shota was harming Richard. The Con Dar would work against her."
In the same sense that your mother nagging you about getting married is "harming" you, and thus deserving of death. \~/
"Kahlan paused, sitting back on her heels, and prayed to the good spirits that they would guide her. She wouldn't want to think she was doing this for vengeance, or that she was setting out to murder someone."
Except that that is exactly what she's doing. She's used tortured quasi-logic to justify murder, and is going to Agaden Reach with the express purpose of murdering Shota. \~/
"She wondered if she was trying to put justification to something that couldn't be justified."
Yes, Kahlan. Yes you are.
"No, she wasn't going with the intention of killing Shota."
Yes. Kahlan. Yes you are. You just spent half a chapter establishing that. \~/
Kahlan looks at her wedding dress and tears up, then steels herself. "She was the Mother Confessor whether she liked it or not; Shota lived in the Midlands, and was therefore one of her subjects."
Except that Richard dissolved the Midlands by his authority as And Who's Going To Stop Me? Since Shota has not yet formally surrendered to him, she is beholden to neither him nor Jagang, and most especially not Kahlan. It works both ways; you can't destroy a legal entity (the Midlands) and then use the laws of that same legal entity to enforce obedience. If Kahlan intends to claim that she is still the Empress of the Midlands, that places her in direct opposition to Richard. She will be required to either surrender to him (something she has already done in her role as Queen of Galea and Kelton, but not as the Mother Mindrapist), or by Richard's own decree she is cut off from D'Hara until such time as she can be conquered.
Yes, Kahlan is just one person, and yes, she's pretty firmly allied with Richard, but if she gets to use legal technicalities and rationalization, so do I. The Mother Mindrapist either surrenders all authority over the now-defunct Midlands, or she is Richard's enemy. Those are the only two options. \~/
Kahlan climbs out the fire escape - no, really. Behind a wardrobe is "a knotted rope [. . . ] there in case of fire, so that the Mother Confessor could escape from the balcony." She heads up toward the Keep on foot, and quickly decides the only way to get past the sentries is stealth. This lasts for three paragraphs before the senties surround her with drawn swords.
Well, at least she's not also a ninja.
Kahlan reveals who she is, and decides on a new plan: "a bit of truth, mixed in with their fear of magic." She tells the soldiers that Richard is exhausted from looking for a magical plague cure, and she is afraid that he'll get the plague himself, and then rocks will fall and everyone will die. She claims to have snuck away because she's going somewhere with magic to help Richard find a plague cure. She informs the soldiers that if they want to help, they will have to deny ever having seen her, even if Richard looks them in the eye and asks directly.
I'm pretty sure Kahlan is asking them to commit treason, or at minimum, to dishonor themselves. Their loyalty is to Richard, not her, so she is asking them to turn against their lawful sovereign on the advice of . . . well, to be blunt, a woman who is currently warming his bed, and who up until a couple of months ago, was the bitterest enemy of their country.
The captain reasonably states that if Richard asks them directly, they can't lie to him. Kahlan says "Then you may as well slay him on the spot. That's what you'll be doing."
Kahlan is a lying, manipulative bitch. \~/
She swears the soldiers to silence "on lord Rahl's life," thus making them criminal accomplices who can be executed for endangering their ruler's fiance and lying to him about it. Isn't she just a paragon of virtue? \~/
We cut to Kahlan and the sliph. The sliph reassures Kahlan that she can easily take her to Agaden reach, and no, she will never tell anyone. She uses oddly suggestive language like "no one will know what we do together. No one will know of your pleasure." There's a quick recap on how the sliph works, and then Kahlan gets sliphed and the chapter ends.
Drinks: 14
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