Wizard 41

**Chapter 41**

This is a bad one folks. How bad? So bad that *it killed my computer.* That's right; this is my second stab at sporking the Torture Chapter, because shortly after I completed the first sporking, my motherboard ceased to function.

Even non-sentient electronic devices are repulsed by this book.

Also, I'm adding a new wrinkle to the Drinking Game: Take an extra drink for ever page in which Richard is tortured for a significant amount of time. I was originally going to make that every paragraph, but my liquor store doesn't stock 50-gallon drums of whiskey for some odd reason.

Richard wakes up. He remembers Denna and gets angry, which causes horrible pain. He thinks of Kahlan, which calms him down, which turns off the pain.

It turns out Richard is in a stone room and still has his sword and knife. Denna is there, and she blathers some Generic Psycho-Slut talk and punches him in the mouth. This time Richard controls his anger by thinkuing of the Hartland woods. Denna orders him to address her as Mistress, and Richard immediately decides that “Mistress Denna” will be, to him, a term of disrespect. Um...sure, Richard.

Richard tries to strangle Denna, reasoning that if she's turning his sword's magic against him, attacking her without the sword might work. It doesn't. Denna says that she told Richard to think something pleasant about *her,* not *“some boring trees.”* Apparently she can read his mind now. She forces him to grope her \~/, but Richard decides that her hair is pretty and *“force[s] himself to think of [her hair] as beautiful.”*

We learn that Rahl wants Richard trained specifically. Denna muses that she may take Richard as a mate. \~/

Richard thinks about how Rahl will undoubtedly gut him in order to find the answer to a question – where the Magic Book is – but that, since Richard memorized it, all will be in vain. Strangely, Denna doesn't comment on this or react to it at all. I say “strangely” because it has been established that she can read Richard's mind, and this sounds like something that would be of interest to her and to Rahl.

There's more torture. It's described in unnecessary detail for four solid pages.

Oh, and there's also a bit where Richard realizes that he's helpless and Denna is going to break him. His response? *“Richard imagined his sense of self, his dignity, as a living thing , saw it in his mind. He imagined a room. A room that was impervious to anything, to any harm. He put his dignity , his self-respect, into that room, and locked the door. No one would have a key to that door. Not Denna, not Darken Rahl. Only him.”*

Got that? Remember it; there will be a quiz.

Eventually, Richard and Denna attend a feast held by Queen Milena. One of the men Kahlan pardoned is dragged in and convicted of some crime or other, and PV sentences him to be beheaded. PV expresses an interest in seeing how Denna handles punishments, and Denna invites her to stop by anytime.

More torture. PV stops by to watch and Denna invites her to join in. Yes, PV starts torturing Richard. \~/ Richard feels *“something inside him [come] awake.”* Um...yeah. PV gloats that she will kill Kahlan, but first *“I'm going to let all the guards rape her, every one!”*

WHAT?! What the hell kind of thought is this for a little girl? We're never told PV's age, but Rachel seemed to be young – she was delighted with the gift of a doll, and by her speech and manner I wouldn't think she was older that eight or so. That would make PV...what, ten? How many ten-year-old *princesses* even know what sex is, let alone rape? And how many are such sadistic psychopaths as to wish it on their enemies? \~/\~/ Again, instead of a more interesting character – and a powerful child could indeed be an interesting quasi-villain – we get cartoonish, Snidely Whiplash-style, mustache-twirling evil for evil's sake.

Anyway, all this somehow makes Richard feel sorry for PV, perhaps sensing what a one-dimensional character she is. *“The sadness came over him in a wave. At that feeling, he was surprised to feel the thing in him that had come awake rise up.”*

Yeeaahhh...\~/

So, using his new-found Mysterious Power, Richard kicks PV in the face, shattering her jaw and severing her tongue. Now, this scene is quite justifiably infamous: the purported hero maims a little girl! However, something I find equally disturbing is that, in context, the little girl is a hellspawn who almost seems to deserve it. As a result, I can't muster the outrage I should feel at *any* scene in which a small child is severely injured – PV is a “small child” in physical appearance only. So that's two drinks for the “hero” kicking a little girl's face in, and two more for the little girl in question being so one-dimensionally sadistic that I barely care that she got her face kicked in. \~/\~/\~/\~/

So Denna decides to take Richard as her mate. There's more torture, implied sex, and – best of all – implied torture-sex. \~/

Yay.

Drinks: 11

Torture Drinks: 5

Total Drinks: 16

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