Stone 19

**Chapter 19**

Richard wakes up. He lies to Verna about how his arms got bloody, and suddenly decides he will not shave as long as he is collared. *“It would be his way of proclaiming to them that a collar was unjust, that he knew he was nothing more than their prisoner, and that he would not believe their spurious protestations to the contrary. There could be no justification for a collar, and there would be no compromising of that basic truth – none, not ever.”*

I'm not sure why there's no justification for a collar – **a** collar, not just **this** collar – but whatever. More importantly, why is Richard so determined that he is a prisoner? What has Verna done, aside from acting preachy and patronizing, to indicate that her *“spurious protestations”* are, in fact, spurious? This seems like Richard deciding on something and bending the facts to fit his supposition.

Oh wait; that's a common Sue trait. Never mind.

Verna offers to start teaching Richard to control his gift. We get an infodump on magic, as perceived by the Nuns, starting with *“the force of life,”* which they call Han, but I shall call the Force. The Force is what is used when you pick something up; your Force causes your hand to grasp the object and lift it. Wizards and sorceresses learn to do this using the Force directly, bypassing the hand. There's another comment on how sorceresses are weaker than wizards, for no apparent reason.

There's more infodumping on how the Force works, and that love is a very weak expression of the Force, and how Richard hates *hates* **hates** magic. Richard's first lesson is to learn to touch his Force, which he will do by meditating on a single word or object. He decides to focus on the Sword of the Homicidal Hobo.

He focuses on the sword, and suddenly has a vision, or hallucination, or some damn thing, of the Garden of Life. There are dead, burned guards lying everywhere, and Darken Rahl is gloating over the Doomsday Boxes. He greets Richard, and the acid trip ends. We learn that Richard had been meditating (although that word is not used) for over an hour, though it seemed like only a few minutes to him.

Richard combs the horses and has a conversation with Verna, in which we learn that the horses don't have names and she considers them *“dumb animals.”* Richard, of course, is a Lover of All Creatures and is good and kind and gentle to the noble steeds. He names the horses Jessup, Bonnie and Geraldine, which names Verna recognizes from a book called *The Adventures of Bonnie Day.* This was Richard's favorite book as a child (wait; was his father rich? Books were damn expensive in the time before the printing press, especially fiction novels).

Richard takes apart the bridles and smashes the eeeeeevil spade bits with his sword. Verna freaks out and chastises him for destroying their only means of controlling the horses (not to mention property that wasn't his). Richard speechifies \~/ to Verna about how spade bits are bad, you can control a horse with kindness, etc, etc.

Yes, Richard is lecturing Verna on being kind. That's got to be a drink for irony. \~/

There's some more chatter. Verna decides that she will probably be hung for bringing Richard back. Richard thinks to himself about how Verna is pretending to be friendly, but is really *“trying to train him.”* Well, yeah. That's what she *said* she was doing.

Verna offers Richard her friendship, but Richard declines, stating that *“There are no shades of gray in this matter. Only friends and enemies. Friends don't keep friends in a collar and hold them prisoner. I intend to have this collar off. When I decide it's time, any friends will help me. Those who try to stop me won't be my friends; they'll be dead enemies.”*

Drinks: 2

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