Temple 22

**Chapter 22**

As Clarissa tries to come to grips with her new situation, her captors demand to know whether there are prophecies among the books, and if she knows where they are. Before anything can come of this, Nathan saunters in and offers to buy her. The soldiers threaten to kill him, so he does a Mysterious Something, and all three soldiers come down with intestinal distress. They hurry off to find a bathroom . . . instead of, you know, gutting the mysterious stranger who just cast a spell on them. \~/

Nathan asks Clarissa if she is willing to come with him. Clarissa is still in shock, and wants to know if whatever Nathan wants her for is dangerous. He says yes it is, she might even die, but at least she'll die doing something noble instead of being a sex slave. He further exposits that *"you once had a prophet living here, and he wrote down some of his prophecies. [. . .] you fools view them as revelations of divine will."* Because religion is stupid and evil, and anyone who has religious faith must therefore also be stupid.

Clarissa leads Nathan down into the archives where he starts grabbing books that contain prophecies (without asking her which is which) and throwing them in a heap in the middle of the floor. She asks why he picked her, and he shows her a line in one book: *"Should she go freely, one ringed will be able to touch that long trusted into the winds alone."*

Clarissa is naturally curious and Nathan is uninformative, stating that she should not try to understand prophecy. *"I know that you people try to do that, but I am a prophet, and I can tell you with a great deal of authority that such an endeavor is futile. No matter what you think, what you fear, you will be wrong."*

This ties into the ongoing theme that only the Privileged Elite are allowed to have any *real* knowledge, power, or influence, while the stupid, common, sheeplike masses will only get everything wrong and muck it all up if they try to do anything. Remember, kids, unless you were just born special - a prophet, a war wizard, a Mindrapist - then nothing you do can ever matter. You are destined for a life of brute labor in service to your betters, so shut up and appreciate any scraps they might let fall your way. \~/

Also, doesn't this make prophecies pretty much useless? If prophets are fantastically rare, as they seem to be, and only another prophet can interpret a prophecy (because there is no chance that any scum commoner could ever possibly figure it out) . . . what's the point? Prophecies are supposed to predict future events, either as a sign of divine power or so they can be influenced in some way. They might just as well be angsty teen poetry, given how useless they apparently are.

And, wait a minute, Jagang is a dream walker, not a prophet. How is he interpreting prophecies? Why is he trying to collect them, and how can he invoke them if he can never hope to truly understand them? Why does Nathan care? If Jagang isn't a prophet, and therefore cannot comprehend the true subtle awesomeness of a prophecy . . . shouldn't they be useless or counterproductive to him? Let him have them, let him operate on a flawed uinderstanding, while Nathan and Warren (who are *true* prophets and thus can understand prophecies) interpret them correctly.

\~/ Stupid illogical magic system.

Anyway, Nathan tells Clarissa to go back upstairs and lead the soldiers down into the archives, and if they give her trouble, to threaten them with the dream walker. Clarissa is naturally hesitant, but Nathan insists, so she complies. She goes upstairs, outside, and . . .

Well, there are dead bodies everywhere, and the women of Renwold are being raped. Terry Goodkind is mercifully vague with the descriptions, but yeah. Gotta keep things edgy and mature, I guess. \~/

To the vast surprise of no one, some soldiers decide it would be a dandy idea to rape Clarissa, too. I mean, she's a woman, right? After some rathe vile fondling, she remembers to threaten them with the dream walker and they reluctantly follow her. Back in the archives, the pile of books Nathan had selected are now ashes, and he orders them to start packing up the remaining books. They do as he said, because apparently Imperial Order soldiers are trained to obey whoever yells at them - no chain of command or anything. \~/

Nathan leads Clarissa out of the archives, where she has a small panic attack over the horrors she's seen. Nathan speechifies to her that this is war, the winner makes the rules, you can't save everyone, etc. Clarissa agrees to help him, because what choice does she have? Nathan casts a spell on her so she won't be able to see the horror or hear the screams, then leads her out of Renwold and into the countryside.

I'll note that Nathan is generally very aloof toward Clarissa, even when she is quite understandably panicking and freaking out over everything she has ever known being horribly destroyed, and her own potentially hideous fate. I'm not taking any drinks for it, since Nathan has been kept imprisoned since he was a toddler by the Nuns, who are demonstrably horrible people, with his only human contact being Nuns and the occasional prostitute. Whether Terry Goodkind intended this or not, I think his reserved demeanor makes sense for someone with his background.

Drinks: 5

Rape Count: 2

<Previous Chapter  -  Next Chapter>