Blood 50

Chapter 50
This chapter beings with Verna meeting Kahlan and Adie. Verna and Kahlan greet each other like old friends, despite the fact that the last time they met, Verna was dragging Richard away in a collar. They catch up and Verna says she's trying to get the remaining Nuns clear before Jagang shows up to be evil. Kahlan says she's the bait to draw Richard in, and runs off, leaving Adie with Verna.
Suddenly, the harbor blows up. Okay.
Verna finds and rescues Warren, and they have a touching reunion. Aww.
Suddenly, we cut to Richard, who is murdering Red Sheep left and right. Why they're attacking him I do not know. We learn that the Bad Nuns and the Red Sheep are murderizing each other, and the Red Sheep keep attacking Richard as well. Richard has failed to find Kahlan, and is now looking for a Bad Nun to “make her talk.” Richard is apparently still able to call on the magic of the Sword of the Homicidal Hobo, even though it's half a continent away: “he was the true Seeker of Truth, and was bonded irrevocably to its magic.”
I thought the Sword's magic was contained in the Sword itself, and allowed it to cut through anything? How does that help Richard? \~/
Richard sees a woman with a knife or a death dildo, so he sneaks up on her, ninja-kicks her knife away, and puts his own knife to her throat. “Hilariously,” it turns out to be Kahlan herself. They catch up, and Richard angsts for a bit because it seems Zedd and Gratch are dead. This uses up a couple of pages, and then Richard somehow breaks Kahlan's collar.
“Without cognitive reasoning, but through the need and fury, he felt the power swell from the calm center and surge through his arm.
“The collar shattered in his hand like sunbaked dirt.”
It was pretty clearly established in the last book that removing a collar requires the cooperation of the sorceress doing the removal and the person in the collar, since the collar is linked to the latter's magic. Nevertheless, Sue powers trump established rules. \~/
We learn that Kahlan rescued Ahern off-camera and he and the Nuns are escaping to the north.
Cut to Richard meeting Kevin, who hastens to assure him that “I'm loyal [. . .] Nearly all the guards are.” Because buying chocolate and whores for some people over the course of a few weeks is enough to persuade them to foreswear their oaths and betray their country. \~/\~/ Richard meets up with Verna and Warren, and Richard gives Verna the Popette's ring which he had made Ulicia give him earlier (yes, it happened, and I didn't mention it because who cares?).
It's once again reiterated that Jagang is coming to take over the Big Stone Witch House and live there forever, yadda yadda. Everyone agrees that this is bad, and then Richard says, Hey, what if I just wreck the place? One of the random Nuns, Phoebe, doesn't want Richard to Michael Bay the palace because it's their home, and she doesn't want to grow old and die in a few measly decades when she had been expecting to have centuries. I can actually understand and appreciate that, and that part of the scene is handled rather well.
Verna's reaction is . . . interesting.
“Our oath is to serve, not simply to live long. If you wish to live a long and empty life, Phoebe, you can remain with the Sisters of the Dark. If you wish to live a meaningful, helpful, fulfilled life, then come with us, with the Sisters of the Light, to our new life beyond what has been.”
Black or white. Good or evil. There are only ever two sides. I'm not taking a drink for it, but it certainly seems to sum up Terry Goodkind's morality.
Phoebe does not choose to join with the demon-worshiping Satanists who are the antithesis of everything she believes in. Verna makes the same offer to all the other Nuns, and shockingly enough, none of them opt to publicly betray their fellows and side with, y'know, Satan, thus betraying everything they've ever said, done, or worked for.
This might be an effective scene if it wasn't so profoundly stupid. \~/
More people wander up to dump off some exposition. Jagang's advance guard is in the city, and the Red Sheep are fighting them. Why? Last we heard, the Red Sheep and the Imperial Order were allies. The Misters were working with both of them. Why would the Sheep suddenly attack their purported allies for no apparent reason? Is it just because they're EEEEEVIL, and all evil people hate everyone and everything?
I've seen more believable scenarios in cartoons from the '80s. \~/\~/
Anyway, Ulicia and her compatriots are smashing up the harbor for . . . some reason, and torturing the rapist sailors from the Lady Sefa. So glad we had that loose thread tied up. Richard tells Verna to take the Nuns and rendezvous with the hundred thousand soldiers he has looking for Kahlan, while he and Kahlan take the sliph back to Aydindril.
Verna informs everyone that Jagang is a dream walker, and the only protection from him is to swear fealty to Richard. Richard interrupts her to explain that he doesn't want loyalty born of compulsion, and they should only swear if they feel – wait, no? He doesn't? Actually, Richard says that if they're going to swear loyalty to him, they're going to do it the right way: with one “reflection” of the “Master Rahl guide us” devotion thingy.
So in other words, Richard insists that they worship him.
. . .
\~/\~/\~/\~/
Drinks: 11
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