Temple 1

Chapter 1
Welcome, faithful readers, to oh God let's just get on with it.
Kahlan and Cara are strolling along arguing over whether or not Cara gets to kill someone. Kahlan says that “We can't just kill him. We need answers,” and Cara reminds her that she, Cara, is a professional torturer. Kahlan doesn't object to the torture bit, instead telling Cara it's no longer her job. 
This segues into talking about how terribadwrong Darken Rahl was, and how awesomesauce Richard is by comparison. “[Darken Rahl] would kill people without even bothering to determine if they were really a danger to him. Richard isn't like that and neither am I.”
Yeah, dangers like terrified old men. Or unconscious men. Or children. Or Richard's freaking brother, and no, I'm never going to let that go.
The conversation turns to Richard, as all things must, Richard being the supermassive suck hole at the center of this galaxy of awfulness. We learn that – much to Cara's disgust – Richard has been taming chipmunks and teaching them to eat seeds from the hands of his other Dominatrix torturer/bodyguards, Berdine and Raina. This important business is then dropped so we can get a two-page infodump summarizing the series and where we are now. We also get a description of the Mindrapists' Palace, including the crowds of people and the few remaining officials trying to keep order.
Kahlan notices a woman in the waiting area who has long brown hair, and finds out from one of the guards that her name is Nadine, she's here looking for her fiance, and she was told Richard could help her. Kahlan has Nadine put in a private room to await Kahlan's pleasure, and gives orders that she be shot dead if she tries to leave. Because . . . safety.
This done, Kahlan and Cara finally make their way to the room where the Mysterious Someone is being held. The corridor leading up to it is full of soldiers, all pointing pikes at the door: “there had to be fifty pikes likewise aimed at the silent door.” Because pikes are such great close-quarters weapons. \~/ And because it takes fifty soldiers, all crammed into a single corridor, to guard one prisoner. \~/
Kahlan and Cara squeeze past all the soldiers and into the room and finally meet the Mysterious Someone, who is lanky and has “young eyes” and wears an oversized soldier's uniform. He is also described with the oddly suggestive phrase: “He seemed too spare, should he make the wrong move, to permit all the steel aimed at him to find a virgin patch to penetrate.”
Kahlan shoos the soldiers out of the room, because leaving your head of state in a room with a stranger with unknown capabilities, accompanied by one single bodyguard, is just logical. \~/ She demands to know what he's about, and he politely requests his weapons back, then explains that “I'm an assassin, sent by Emperor Jagang. I'm here to kill Richard Rahl.”
I like him already.
Drinks: 3
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