Top of the morning to you, oh fine rereaders of the Oathbringer! Welcome back to the excruciatingly detailed investigation, as we sit in on a highly informative conversation between Dalinar and the Stormfather. Also, Bridge Four. Also also, team Sadeas fail.

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. This week, there’s no direct discussion of wider Cosmere issues. But if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Dalinar
WHERE: Urithiru, Azimir
WHEN: 1174.2.1.5 (11 days after his last appearance in Chapter 59; 8 days after Chapter 63)

Dalinar retrieves Jezrien’s Honorblade from its hiding place, and has a protracted discussion of Heralds and Bondsmiths on his way to deliver it to Bridge Four; he’s hoping they can use it to continue practicing their Windrunner powers in Kaladin’s absence. He then prepares to depart, solo, for Azir, to talk them into joining his coalition. On his way to the Oathgate, he breaks up a skirmish between Aladar and Sadeas soldiers which is rapidly moving from “mock” to “real” as the soldiers antipathy toward one another overcomes their discipline.

Truth, Love, and Defiance

Title: Binder of Gods

Before he was Herald of Luck, they called him Binder of Gods.

AA: In context, Stormfather is telling Dalinar about the powers he now holds—powers that were once held by Ishar. While Dalinar doesn’t do any god-binding in this chapter, the title seems portentous.

Heralds

Ishar—Herald of Luck, Binder of Gods, patron of the Bondsmiths, associated with the role of Priest, the divine attributes Pious and Guiding, and the essence Sinew. Jezrien—Herald of Kings, patron of the Windrunners, associated with the role of King, the divine attributes Protecting and Leading, and the essence Zephyr.

Buy it Now

AA: Ishar’s connection to this chapter is obvious, since the title refers to him, much time is spent talking about him, and Dalinar-the-Bondsmith is the viewpoint character. Jezrien is a little less obvious, though they talk about him a bit as well; most likely, he’s here because his Honorblade is entering service again.

Icon

Kholin Glyphpair for a Dalinar POV

Epigraph

The disagreements between the Skybreakers and the Windrunners have grown to tragic levels. I plead with any who hear this to recognize you are not so different as you think.

—From drawer 27-19, topaz

AA: This week we have a Stoneward expressing concern about conflict between Skybreakers and Windrunners. I wonder if the disagreements were about whatever caused the Recreance, and if perhaps this is the beginning of what made the Skybreakers decide not to participate. Pure conjecture, but I do wonder.

AP: I can definitely see how those two orders in particular would be in conflict. The Skybreakers focused on law and rules and the Windrunners focused on matters of honor and moral rightness. I expect to see a lot more conflicting coming between Nale’s group and the rest of the Radiants.

Stories & Songs

AA: Roll up your sleeves, boys and girls. There’s a lot of information about the Heralds coming up here…

“There are some who assumed you were one of the Heralds,” Dalinar noted to the Stormfather, who rumbled in the back of his mind. “Jezerezeh, Herald of Kings, Father of Storms.”

Men say many foolish things, the Stormfather replied. Some name Kelek Stormfather, others Jezrien. I am neither of them.

AA: I thought it was a nice touch to address this, finally. We’ve seen both assumptions in play, and we mostly knew neither was true. It’s just fun to see the misconceptions across the world, and know that they are misconceptions.

“But Jezerezeh was a Windrunner.”

He was before Windrunners. He was Jezrien, a man whose powers bore no name. They were simply him. The Windrunners were named only after Ishar founded the orders.

AA: I mean… we knew this, of course, but it’s such a different angle on who the Heralds were. Each one was unique, and used his or her unique set of powers to help humanity defend itself against the parsh and the Fused. I really would like to get some clue as to how many Desolations happened before the orders were founded; I’m just curious about this sort of thing.

AP: I don’t remember this info before. I think it’s interesting that one of the Heralds decided that they all needed more organization and just sorted them all into Orders.

AA: It’s been hinted more than outright stated, mostly. Syl told Kaladin some of it—when the spren decided to try and bond humans to give them the Heralds’ powers, Ishar decided that it was a nice idea but needed some structure and limitations. Dalinar’s vision with Nohadon hinted that some of the initial Surgebinders were dangerously unreliable at that point. Speculation is that Ishar bound the spren to the Ideals so that Surgebinders, which then took on specific Orders with their own sets of guidelines, were required to live by those guidelines or lose their powers.

… Ishar founded the orders.

“Ishi’Elin,” Dalinar said. “Herald of Luck.”

Or of mysteries, the Stormfather said, or of priests. Or of a dozen other things, as men dubbed him. He is now as mad as the rest. More, perhaps.

[…]

“Do you know where they are?”

I have told you. I do not see all. Only glimpses in the storms.

“Do you know where they are?”

Only one, he said with a rumble. I … have seen Ishar. He curses me at night, even as he names himself a god. He seeks death. His own. Perhaps that of every man.

AA: That’s not disturbing or anything. He “perhaps” seeks the death of every man? Great…

Tezim, the god-priest of Tukar? Is it him? Ishi, Herald of Luck, is the man who has been waging war against Emul?”

Yes.

“For what purpose?”

He is insane. Do not look for meaning in his actions.

AA: We now know for sure where Ishar is and what he’s doing… if not why. I wonder if it’s true that there is no meaning but insanity in his actions. Also, this ended, once and for all, my cherished theory of Vasher and Ishar being the same person. Ah, well. It was fun while it lasted.

AP: It also seems kind of sad, a thousands of years old being with unknown powers, who doesn’t know who he really is anymore. Most of the heralds seem tragic to me. But then again it’s hard to be sympathetic when he’s set himself up as a god and wants to destroy everything. I also have trouble with the multiple names for the Heralds. It’s really confusing to me. I can see why you might think Vasher and Ishar might be the same!

AA: It really is sad—every one of the Heralds we’ve seen so far, except Taln, is just… lost.

I had thought during WoR that Zahel might be Ishar, but there was pretty compelling evidence that he was Vasher. Then I tried to figure out if maybe Vasher and Ishar were the same, and with no more evidence than we had for a while there, it looked like a possibility. Slim, maybe, but still a possibility. But now, not so much.

Squires & Sidekicks

“This,” he said to the men of Bridge Four, “is the Honorblade your captain recovered. … Anyone who holds this will immediately gain the powers of a Windrunner. Your captain’s absence is interrupting your training. Perhaps this, though only one can use it at a time, can mitigate that.”

AA: Well, it makes a certain amount of sense, I guess…

Teft reached out, then drew his hand back. “Leyten,” he barked. “You’re our storming armorer. You take the thing.”

AA: Why? Because he feels unworthy of the Honorblade, or because he’s already two steps into the process of becoming a Knight Radiant?

AP: I think because he’s already bonded to a spren. The spren might not like him holding another blade. Is there a similar reaction to holding a dead blade?

L: That’s an interesting question. I fall more in the side of him feeling unworthy of it—this is a holy object to them, and Teft already has a lot of baggage regarding his self-worth.

AA: Aubree, the only reason I don’t put it down to the bond is that neither Dalinar nor Kaladin had any problem with the Honorblade. It’s an artifact, not a dead spren.

“Airsick lowlanders,” Rock the Horneater said, shoving forward and taking the weapon. “Your soup is cold. That is idiom for ‘You are all stupid.’ ”

AA: Rock is adorable. That is all.

AP: I like his practicality.

The clock fabrial on his forearm dinged, and Dalinar stifled a sigh. She’d learned to make it ding?

AA: Heh. Also, I just realized I don’t have a good unit for talking about fabrials. Huh. I just wanted to note something here, though. Someone complained elsewhere about how long it should have taken to go from alarm clocks to alarm wristwatches… and I just realized yesterday what the big difference is. In the real world, it was a matter of getting the same sort of mechanism to function in a much smaller formats. This isn’t a mechanism; it’s a fabrial. Navani just needed to make the fabrial tooling and readout smaller. At least that makes sense to me.

Two of his Shardbearers—Rust and Serugiadis, men who had the Plate only—practiced with massive Shardbows,

AA: Just for what it’s worth, these two received the Plate won from Jakamav and Elit in the infamous four-on-one “duel” back in Words of Radiance. Hi, guys! Nice to see you again!

A significant number of the common soldiers sat around holding spheres, staring at them intently. Word had spread that Bridge Four was recruiting. He’d lately noticed numerous men in the hallways holding a sphere “for luck.” Dalinar even passed a group out here who were talking about swallowing spheres.

AA: We not going to meet anyone else who decides to swallow gemstones, or anything. No sir. Not a hint of foreshadowing here, sir!

The Stormfather rumbled with displeasure. They go about this backward. Foolish men. They can’t draw in Light and become Radiant; they first must be approaching Radiance, and look for Light to fulfill the promise.

AA: Quite true. But very human behavior, nonetheless.

Two blocks of spearmen pressed against each other on the plateau … Dalinar saw the warning signs of things going too far. Men were shouting with real acrimony, and angerspren were boiling at their feet. … Green and white on one side, black and maroon on the other. Sadeas and Aladar.

[…]

Dalinar shouted, and Stormlight shimmered along the stones before him… The rest got stuck in the Stormlight, which glued them to the ground. This caused all but the most furious to stop their fighting. He pulled the last few apart and pushed them down, sticking them by their seats to the stone next to their angerspren.

AA: Well, that’s a neat trick if you can do it! But it does not bode well for army discipline if you have to resort to sticking their butts to the ground to make them shut up. As Dalinar notes, for all Amaram’s reputation as a general, he’s not doing a good job as Mr. Sadeas. Dalinar excuses it as “well, he’s never had an army this size before,” but you can’t help wonder if it’s incompetence or disinterest. Is he already setting up to betray Dalinar? He and Jasnah come up with a very clever plan to keep the Sadeas army busy and productive … and which will naturally come back to bite them.

AP: It makes me wonder what Amaram is actually up to during this time. Sons of Honor shady activities? What led him to Odium?

AA: And will we ever find out?

Places & Peoples

“I did a great deal of business with the Azish when I was younger,” Fen said from behind him. “This might not work, but it is a much better plan than traditional Alethi strutting.”

AA: But of course, you’re not going to tell us what the plan is. Well, I’ll admit it’s much more fun to watch it roll out than to be told.

He couldn’t write to them of course, but he could flip the reed on and off to send signals, an old general’s trick for when you lacked a scribe.

AA: Silly Alethi strictures anyway.

Tight Butts and Coconuts

It clicked. “Stormfather!”

Yes?

“Oh. Uh, that was a curse.… Never mind.”

AA: Bahahahahaaaaa! … I mean, it had to happen sometime, right?

Weighty Words

But do not look toward the powers of others, even those who share your Surges. Their lot is not yours, and their powers are small, petty things. What you did in reknitting those statues was a mere trifle, a party trick.

AA: Ooof. Weighty words, indeed. Reknitting those statues seemed pretty impressive at the time, and now they’re “a party trick”? Okay, then! I think this is the first time it’s really put right in our faces that the Surges are not necessarily used the same way by the Orders that share them. (So, for example, Truthwatchers might not use Illumination the same way Lightweavers do, as has occasionally been suggested.)

L: Interesting that the Stormfather appears to be putting the powers of the Bondsmith above the others… which is expanded upon in the next quote.

Yours is the power Ishar once held. Before he was Herald of Luck, they called him Binder of Gods. He was the founder of the Oathpact. No Radiant is capable of more than you. Yours is the power of Connection, of joining men and worlds, minds and souls. Your Surges are the greatest of all, though they will be impotent if you seek to wield them for mere battle.

AA: So no pressure, there, Dalinar old buddy.

But what does he mean, “Yours is the power Ishar once held”? Does Dalinar hold all the powers of a Herald? (I’ve always assumed that the Heralds had something … I don’t know, something more than the Knights Radiant who emulated them. Aside from the Oathpact and all the good times on Braize, I mean.) Has this always been true of Bondsmiths? Or just the one bonded to the Stormfather? Or just Dalinar, now that Tanavast is dead? And when he’s called “Binder of Gods,” is that referring to the Singer ancestors, or to Odium? I would guess the former, since the following sentence references the Oathpact. GAH! I want to know it aaaaaaallll!!

AP: So, like, all the info we needed for the big reveal at the end was right here for us! During the beta, a group of us mostly theorized that this, with the “unite them,” meant that Dalinar was going to reconstruct the shards of Honor back together, or even recombine the shards to make a Voltron-type being we called the Almightier. Making a perpendicularity is pretty cool and all, but I’m still holding out hope for the Almightier.

A Scrupulous Study of Spren

Dalinar lowered the Honorblade, looking eastward toward the Origin. Even through the stone walls, he knew that was where to find the Stormfather.

AA: For some reason, I find this fascinating. The Stormfather resides at the Origin? Gah! I want to know where and what it is in the worst way.

“When … when were you thinking of informing me of this?”

When you asked. When else would I speak of it?

“When you thought of it!” Dalinar said. “You know things that are important, Stormfather!”

He just rumbled his reply.

Dalinar took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. Spren did not think like men.

[…]

“Did you know that I could heal the stone?”

I knew it once you did it, the Stormfather said. Yes, once you did it, I always knew.

“Do you know what else I can do?”

Of course. Once you discover it, I will know.

AA: And it’s just as frustrating for Dalinar as it was for Kaladin—or maybe more so! “Spren did not think like men,” indeed! I really like this aspect of the world-building, no matter how frustrating it is to feel like the spren could tell us All The Things, if only they would. It makes sense that since spren don’t have the same frame of reference as humans, they will see things much differently. It’s a little easier with someone like Pattern, because we’re frequently reminded that he’s sort of a personification of maths, and looks like a fractal. Sylphrena and the Stormfather both seem so much more human that it’s easy to forget their alien nature.

AP: What I like about this is how the spren grow in awareness as their bonded Radiants grow in ability. Once Dalinar can do it, the Stormfather “always knew” that he was able to. He’s able to remember more. Spren to full Radiants are likely pretty powerful! And that means that it’s likely that Dalinar/Stormfather aren’t done leveling up. If Dalinar is this powerful at relatively low Radiant level, what will he be able to do when he’s got his full abilities?

AA: I can’t wait to find out!

“Are there others like me out there?” he finally asked.

Not right now, and there can ever be only three. One for each of us.

“Three?” Dalinar said. “Three spren who make Bondsmiths. You … and Cultivation are two?”

The Stormfather actually laughed. You would have a difficult time making her your spren. I should like to see you try it.

AA: ::gigglesnort::

“Then who?”

My siblings need not concern you.

AA: And oh, the speculation about them… We can be pretty confident that the Nightwatcher is one (I think that’s confirmed later?), but The Other Sibling is still a huge question. The epigraphs in Part Three seem to strongly hint that the Sibling is connected to Urithiru somehow, but there are still so many questions… (More about this below!)

AP: But also, the Stormfather confirms that there is not currently another Bondsmith! Let the speculation continue as to who the other two could be!

L: Lift is the closest person we know to Cultivation, but she’s already got her own powers… This makes me wonder, though. Do the other Bondsmiths necessarily have to have the same secondary surges, I wonder?

AA: I think they must, Lyn, although I’m betting that the way they use the Surges will be as unique to each Bondsmith as they are to the Order.

As for speculation on the other two, I half expect Navani to bond one of them. I can’t decide if it’s more likely she’d bond the Nightwatcher in her role as Mother, or the Sibling in her role as Engineer/Artifabrian. I’d love to see Rushu bond the Sibling, though; I think that would be perfect. Not only is she a fabrial expert (suitable to the spren who makes Urithiru function), she’s an ardent and apparently asexual, as the Sibling seems to be. I also think Rock would make an awesome Bondsmith.

“Have I ever asked how you renew these [spheres]?”

Honor’s power, during a storm, is concentrated in one place, the Stormfather said. It pierces all three realms and brings Physical, Cognitive, and Spiritual together momentarily in one. The gemstones, exposed to the wonder of the Spiritual Realm, are lit by the infinite power there.

AA: I wonder if Dalinar remembered this conversation later. That’s pretty much exactly what he did in the Big Moment, isn’t it? So… he sort of was a highstorm?

AP: Yep, it’s all right there for us!

“Could you renew this sphere, now?”

I … do not know. He sounded intrigued. Hold it forth.

Dalinar did so, and felt something happen, a tugging on his insides, like the Stormfather straining against their bond. The sphere remained dun.

It is not possible, the Stormfather said. I am close to you, but the power is not—it still rides the storm.

L: The implication being that this is something he could do, eventually.

AP: Or could Dalinar create additional perpendicularities at battle sites, providing an infinite recharge to troops?

Sheer Speculation

AA: There are a number of theories floating around about the Sibling, and I’m sure I haven’t heard them all. There are a few people holding strongly to the idea that Cusicesh is the Sibling, but I don’t quite get how that works with the Urithiru tie. One of the conclusions people jumped to was naturally that three Siblings and three Shards meant that the third one had to be connected to Odium, but Sanderson precluded that when he said that the Unmade are to Odium what Nightwatcher is to Cultivation and Stormfather was to pre-shattering Honor.

Buy it Now

So what is the Sibling? We’ll have this discussion many times before the next book comes out, I’m afraid. One theory that I rather like is that Odium was trying to splinter the Sibling and was making Unmade out of the pieces he could break off, so the Sibling withdrew to prevent any further damage. A bit far-fetched, but interesting.

The one I personally believe has the most logical support is that the Sibling is the spren of the stone. The planet, the continent, the landmass, whatever you want to call it. This makes sense to me because if the Stormfather was the spren of the highstorms, and the Nightwatcher was the spren of life, living things, growth… wouldn’t there logically be a spren of “the ground” as it were?

AP: One theory I liked is that one sibling is of Honor (Stormfather), one is of Cultivation (Nightwatcher), and one is somehow a fusion of their two powers.

L: The Sibling being Of Stone would make sense as to why Szeth’s people venerate stone, as well.

AP: And could tie in to the unique stone patterns in Urithiru.

Quality Quotations

It was shortsighted of him to see such an ancient weapon merely as the sword of the Assassin in White.

AA: Yes, it is.

He hoped he could remember it exactly to repeat to Navani—of course, if the Stormfather was listening, he’d correct Dalinar’s mistakes. The Stormfather hated to be misquoted.

Thus endeth this week’s infodump discussion—and what a fascinating infodump it was! Didn’t even feel like one, at least not to me! Jump into the discussion below, and then join us again next week for Chapter 65, wherein Dalinar tries his hand at diplomacy, guided by the plans of Fen, Jasnah, and Navani.

Alice is “enjoying” winter in the Pacific Northwest. She thought winter was going to be on a Monday this year, but it seems to be stretching. Might even be a whole week!

Lyndsey is busy hunting lucky emblems with the pint-and-a-half in Kingdom Hearts 3. If you’re an aspiring author, a cosplayer, or just like geeky content, follow her work on Facebook or her website.

Aubree will form… the HEAD!!

We love a Lawful Good warrior in fiction—those who believe in the inherent goodness of others, and in the ability of laws to impart fairness and equality. They typically find a place in law enforcement, though in science fiction and fantasy that can mean anything from an ancient order of mystic knights to a specialized branch of the Ministry of Alchemy. Their devotion to rules and order may elicit eye rolls or exasperated sighs from more roguish-types, but we’ve got a lot of respect for characters that try to uphold a code. Well, within reason, anyway…

We’re highlighting a few of our favorite by-the-book advocates in genre fiction—add your own picks in the comments!

Captain Carrot—Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett

Buy Guards! Guards! from:

If there was ever a way to make a stickler for rules and regulations lovable, Terry Pratchett certainly found it in Captain Carrot Ironfoundersson of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. It’s not Carrot’s fault that he’s so adamant about going by the book—specifically the actual tome The Laws and Ordinances of the The Cities of Ankh and Morpork, a book that he is probably the sole reader of. Described as “the Disc’s most linear thinker,” Carrot was raised by dwarfs, and happily accepts their straight-forward approach to the world. When Carrot joined the Watch, his “old-fashioned” view of justice got him into trouble when he arrested the leader of the entirely legal Thieves’ Guild on his first day. He’s since won over a lot of people despite his affinity for rules, and is always quick to outwit people who dismiss him as dim… because simplicity is not the same as stupidity.

Agent Onsi Youssef—The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark

Buy The Haunting of Tram Car 015 from:

Agent Hamed Nasr isn’t particularly happy to be handed a new recruit for a partner, but he doesn’t have much choice as an employee of the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities. Agent Onsi Youssef may have a sweet tooth and a penchant for asking too many unrelated questions while working, but he knows his training backwards and forwards, and probably memorized some manuals on the way. Although Hamed might not appreciate Youssef’s by-the-book style, with a case involving a haunted tram car in the city of Cairo, he’s going to need all the help he can get…

Captain “Clever” Cleaver—Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary K. Wolf

Buy Who Censored Roger Rabbit? from:

The source material for ’80s favorite Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is quite different from its movie counterpart in a number of ways. The book includes a character named Captain Cleaver, a toon policeman who has zero interest in Eddie Valiant’s shenanigans. Worried about the private detective’s devil-may-care attitude messing up his own investigation, he makes it his business to harangue Valiant on a regular basis. Interestingly, the character was originally slated to appear in the film version in much the same capacity, but was cut out as the movie’s tone evolved.

Donald Morgan—The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

Buy Turn Coat from:

In a fun twist on the Good Cop trope, Donald Morgan isn’t an enforcer of physical laws, but magical ones. As the warden of the White Council, this was a job assigned to him, and one that he took deadly seriously, even to the point of being willing to give up his own life. Harry Dresden eventually realizes that Morgan has been doing this job for centuries, which is part of his obsession with the law—in the past, mercy has never worked where he’s employed it, so he made the decision to only ever follow the letter of the law.

Eliasz—Autonomous by Annalee Newitz

Buy Autonomous from:

Eliasz is one of those interesting characters who initially seems completely by the book, and ends up going off in a completely different direction by the time the story comes to a close. While tracking down a pharmaceutical pirate named Jack, Agent Eliasz is assigned a robot named Paladin for the case. At the start of the mission, everything is ordered and precise for the military-trained Eliasz and his new partner. But the longer he gets to know Paladin, the more curious he becomes about his ‘bot partner—and if there’s any possible way for them to be more intimate. Essentially, Eliasz casts the rulebook aside because he falls in love.

Nale—The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson

Buy The Way of Kings from:

A member of the Knights Radiant, Nale skirts the line between Lawful Good and Lawful Neutral—he believes in the justness of his cause, but his Order of Skybreakers literally includes “I will put the law before all else” as one its Ideals. For Nale, this means carefully following the laws of whatever land he is currently in—even on his quest to hunt down new magic users. Nale exploits local laws and customs to further his quest, in one case having filled out all relevant paperwork in order to act as a magistrate and execute a surgebinder for thievery. When his efforts were thwarted by a royal pardon, Nale relented because her escape—while personally frustrating—was still lawful.

Greetings, fellow soldiers and scholars! This week our intrepid friend Alice is imprisoned in an icy cage of power outages and snowstorms and hence won’t be joining us, but Aubree and I are ready to don our colorful caps and journey through the Oathgate to Azimir with Dalinar. What will he find here? Edgedancers? Noodles? Pancakes? Maybe even… essays and agreements?! Come along and find out on this week’s edition of Politics Made (Not) Fun and (Never) Easy!

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. There are no greater Cosmere spoilers in this chapter’s reread, but if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Dalinar Kholin
WHERE: Azimir (L: For this map, I’ve included a simple color key and some approximate locations of armies mentioned in the chapter, as well as armies we know of from previous chapters. I don’t recall all of the mentions of parshmen army locations mentioned so far, but from now on I’ll endeavor to keep track of them as they’re mentioned.)
WHEN: 1174.2.1.5, immediately following the previous chapter.

Dalinar arrives in Azir and is confronted with a group of viziers and soldiers. After a brief discussion with the Stormfather, he determines that he can use one of his Surges to understand and speak their language. After doing so, he presents several persuasive essays from Queen Fen, Navani, and Jasnah to sway the Azish to his side. They are appropriately impressed, and lead him into the city for further discussion. They leave him outside of the palace and he encounters Lift, who promptly eats his lunch. The viziers return and inform Dalinar that emissaries from almost all of the Azish cities and provinces will come to Urithiru to discuss a treaty.

Truth, Love, and Defiance

Title: Verdict

L: Not much to say about this one. While the word isn’t directly used, it’s clear through context that the Azish have come to a verdict about Dalinar and his offer.

A: It’s the name of Jasnah’s argument as well. See? You’re getting the levels of Superior Understanding!

Heralds

Vedel, Edgedancers, loving/healing. Palah, Truthwatchers, learned/giving.

L: Well, Vedel is clearly here because Lift makes an appearance. But Palah, Herald of the Truthwatchers and patron of the aspects of learned/giving? I suppose in regards to learning, Navani, Fen, and Jasnah’s essays could fit in.

A: I definitely think it’s about the essays, and the scholarship they demonstrate.

Icon

Kholin glyphpair.

Epigraph

Now that we abandon the tower, can I finally admit that I hate this place? Too many rules.

—from drawer 8-1, amethyst

L: This Willshaper might be onto something. God knows that, if the Skybreakers were as involved as the last few gemstones indicated, this place was a hotbed of regulations back in the day.

A: Especially if they were actively feuding with the Windrunners!

Stories & Songs

“Most of that country is on fire now, due to either the parshmen or Tezim’s armies.”

Tezim. Who was a Herald.

L: The more I find out about this guy, the more fascinated I am by him. I want to know moooooore. What happened to him in the intervening years to push him in this direction? What’s going on in his head?

A: I also hope we get his backstory. I really want to know what all the heralds have been up to in the past few thousand years.

Bruised & Broken

He felt a chill, and the pressure of something hidden trying to thrust itself into his consciousness. There was more to remember about that place.

L: Hoo boy, Dalinar. You don’t want to open that door yet, trust me.

A: It’s coming though! Stay tuned for next week!

L: I do have to say though… I’m glad that the breakthrough happened at the end of the chapter and not here. He definitely wouldn’t have been in the right headspace to deal with the Azish after the revelation that’s coming.

“I was that man,” Dalinar said. “I’ve merely been blessed with enough good examples to make me aspire to something more.”

L: This is a beautiful sentiment, though not… entirely true. He needed a little supernatural push in addition to those good examples.

Buy it Now

A: I’d consider a memory wipe a heckin’ big supernatural push! I also like how the flashbacks reinforce that the Azish are right to be skeptical of Dalinar. Not long ago he was a super bad dude. He’s had a very rapid turn around in his personal growth, but it was only five-ish years ago that he was that monster.

Places & Peoples

Empty of people, it was lit by sphere lamps along the walls. Sapphires. Coincidence, or a gesture of respect to a Kholin visitor?

A: Oh, it was definitely intentional. The Azish are sticklers for ceremony and protocol.

The writing was in Azish, a funny language made of little markings that looked like cremling tracks.

L: Hmm, something like cuneiform, I wonder?

A: I think cuneiform is probably on the right track. He compares it unfavorably to the “sweeping verticals” of the women’s script, which remind me of an EKG machine whose settings are messed up.

L: They’ve always reminded me of sound waves, myself.

He had heeded Queen Fen’s plan, trusting that he couldn’t bully his way through Azir with a sword. Instead, he had brought a different kind of weapon.

An essay.

L: ::gasp:: The horror!

A: I can dig it. The Azish can be paralyzed with bureaucracy, but it’s a nice contrast to the brutal warlike mentality of the Alethi. It would be nice if more battles could be won with logical arguments!

L: If only.

“That’s an allusion to the Grand Orientation. And… storms… she quotes Prime Kasimarlix in three successive stages, each escalating the same quote to a different level of Superior Understanding.”

L: I have no idea what that means, but clearly Jasnah’s speaking their language. I would expect no less from a scholar of her standing, of course, but it’s really nice to see people who fully appreciate her intellect.

A: It’s a neat rhetorical trick if you can do it!

One woman held her hand to her mouth. “It’s written entirely in a single rhythmic meter!”

L: Okay, so, here this one I get. / A rhythmic meter’s tough, it’s true / and one in rhyme is harder yet / so Jasnah’s essay’s quite the coup. (No, seriously though, writing in Iambic meter is REALLY hard. I did it once for all of the dialogue for a character in a novelette I wrote and I wanted to toss my computer out the window by the end of it. I can only imagine how much harder the meters in Azish could be!)

A: What I’m getting from this is that Jasnah is basically Lin Manuel Miranda. She’s not throwing away her shot!

…she obviously didn’t know much about Alethkar, if she assumed all Alethi darkeyes were like chulls to be herded around. The lower classes had a long and proud tradition of rights related to their social ranking.

L: Dalinar, I love you man, but maybe it’s you who doesn’t know much about the real Alethkar. Just sayin’.

A: Seriously. Especially since his good buddy Kaladin was a slave a few months ago.

“Unfortunately for the Azish, the control building alone was not the gate. A Radiant could make this entire dome vanish, replaced with an army in the middle of Azimir. He’d have to be delicate about how he explained that.”

A: That would indeed be problematic! Though they handle the revelation better than expected…

“What would it do,” she said, “if we built a structure halfway across the plateau perimeter? Would it slice the thing in two?”

A: …And ask some good questions! I see Oathgate testing in the future.

Interesting. Alethi parshmen had acted Alethi—immediately gathering for war. The Thaylen parshmen had taken to the seas. And the Azish parshmen… well, they’d done something quintessentially Azish. They had lodged a complaint with the government.

A: Interesting indeed! This reinforces that the Parsh were not unaware of what was happening to them when they were blocked from the rhythms. They took on aspects of the cultures they were living among. I very much look forward to the Parsh outside of Odium’s control.

L: I’ve always rather liked this little touch. It makes so much sense that they’d take on the societal constructs of the societies they’re from—they don’t know anything else. They as a people have forgotten their own myths, mannerisms and rhythms. Naturally they’d assimilate them from what they see around them!

Both [Alethkar and Theylenah] had been distracted from a more subversive disaster, the economic one.

L: Yeah, losing a huge portion of your blue collar work force is gonna mess you up before long. What do you do when all of the trash collectors and farmers and janitors and construction crews and train conductors up and vanish? Society is built on a bedrock of labor, and if that bedrock isn’t refilled, civilization will crumble. People will get sick because things aren’t cleaned. They’ll starve, not have places to live as their homes deteriorate, not be able to get to their white collar jobs without the public transportation they once relied on. It’s a slow-moving disaster, but perhaps the most dangerous one.

A: It’s not even that slow moving. We recently saw the sanitation disaster in the US national parks from a month without maintenance. Imagine a major city without trash pickup for a month.

Was it because deep down, he didn’t trust their gilded words and intricate promises, all contained in documents he couldn’t read? Pieces of paper that were somehow stronger than the strongest Shardplate?

L: I feel for him a bit here. It’s hard to trust your safety and the safety of those you love to something you barely understand, especially when you’ve been raised to depend so entirely on the sword and spear to keep you safe. That’s something real, something physical. You can see the sword blocking your enemy’s. Trade agreements and politics, however… that’s more nebulous. Ideas are harder to trust than steel. I get his trepidation. However…

“The contests of kingdoms are supposed to be a masculine art,” he said.

L: Aaaaaand goodwill. Lost. The women are clearly doing better than you are, here, Dalinar. ACCEPT IT.

A: I’m with you completely here. The strict gender dichotomy is poison to Alethkar, and is keeping them from reaching their full potential. Though, considering how toxic the Alethi honor/revenge cycle is, that is probably a good thing.

“Lots of boys is afraid of girls.”

“I’m not—”

“They say it changes when you grow up.”

L: Maybe it shouldn’t. ;)

The Alethi favored solid colors, perhaps some embroidery. The Azish preferred their decorations to look like the product of a painter having a sneezing fit.

L: Personally I can see the beauty in both aesthetics. I bet Adolin would too.

A: The clothing alone! So many new tailors to meet!

Tight Butts and Coconuts

Might as well eat something… except his cloth-wrapped lunch lay open, crumbs on the table, the wooden curry box empty save for a few drips.

L: Well, we all know what that means!

“Kind of bland,” she said.

“Soldier’s rations,” Dalinar said. “I prefer them.”

“‘Cuz you’re bland?”

L: I adore Lift. Her comedy is almost always punching up, though interestingly… I doubt she’d see it that way. She seems to view everyone on an equal keel with her, whether they’re the poorest beggar or the wisest vizier. I do love that about her.

A: I also think the childlike quality of her humor is captured well. When she makes a juvenile joke, it’s because she is a child, not that she’s acting like one.

“Your name is Lift, right?”

“Right.”

“And your order?”

“More food.”

L: All I have to say.

Weighty Words

“Would you help me understand?” he whispered to the Stormfather.

What makes you think I can?

“Don’t be coy,” Dalinar whispered.

L: I love how Dalinar doesn’t ever back down from the Stormfather. He lays it all out like it is. Maybe that’s why the Stormfather bonded him to begin with—because he knew that Dalinar wasn’t going to roll over and show his belly every time the Stormfather raised his voice.

“You can make me speak Azish.”

The Stormfather rumbled in discontent. That wasn’t me, he finally said. It was you.

“How do I use it?”

Try touching one of them. With Spiritual Adhesion, you can make a Connection.

L: Two things here. First of all, interesting that this also seemed to work for the people he brought into the visions with him. Secondly, the Stormfather is way more forthcoming with knowledge about the Surges than any of the other spren we’ve seen so far…

A: Maybe it’s because he’s a more advanced type of spren, on the level of the Nightwatcher. I think he’s more forthcoming because he actually knows more, and can guide Dalinar differently than the other spren. It makes up for limitations in other areas, like not being able to form a Shardblade. Though I will note, I don’t particularly care for the casual grabby hands on that Dalinar used to accomplish this particular feat.

L: Yeah, he definitely seems to have retained a lot more of the knowledge he used to have than the other sapient spren. Maybe because he stayed in the physical realm rather than shifting over into Shadesmar?

Buy it Now

You know, this brings up an interesting question. The other spren who were bonded to Radiants before the Recreance fell and became “dead.” Why didn’t these higher spren, who presumably were bonded to the previous Bondsmiths?

The enemy is united against us, went her essay’s final argument. They have the unique advantages of focus, harmony, and memories that extend far into the past. Resisting them will require our greatest minds, whether Alethi, Azish, Veden, or Thaylen. I freely give state secrets, for the days of hoarding knowledge are gone. Now, we either leather together or we fall individually.

L: Damn. Navani’s one heck of a writer. Who can argue against that?

A: I mean, humans are super good at arguing out of spite. Luckily for Navani the Azish prize logical argumentation.

“This is a work of art,” Noura said.

“Is it… persuasive?” Dalinar asked.

“It provokes further consideration,” Noura said, looking to the others, who nodded.”

A: This is what you say when you don’t want to concede the argument outright. :D

Magical Motivations

“Lift cocked her head. “Huh. You smell like her.”

“Her?”

“The crazy spren who lives in the forest.”

“You’ve met the Nightwatcher?”

“Yeah… You?”

He nodded.”

A: Which, like, we knew that Lift had met with the Nightwatcher, but the bit about smells is new! That could prove very useful. What else can Lift actually sniff out?

L: Yeah, that’s fascinating. I suspect that she can more sense it than smell it, per se, but she just uses the word smell because she’s more familiar with it.

A Scrupulous Study of Spren

Logicspren burst around them in the shape of little stormclouds.

A: I think these dudes are new. I’m not sure about the association of logic with storm clouds, which seem chaotic to me.

Quality Quotations

He remembered what had happened to Evi. It had started in a cold fortress, in highlands once claimed by Jah Keved.

It had ended at the Rift.

L: Okay folks, ready your tissue boxes for the next few rereads, because you know what’s coming. We’ll only be covering Chapter 66 next week even though it’s a short chapter, mainly because all three of us are currently in the midst of a beta read with a strict deadline. Feel free to leave your comments below, and as always please remember to remain respectful of one another’s varied opinions and theories!

Lyndsey is done with Kingdom Hearts 3 and so very confused by that ending… but at least now she’ll have time to work on cosplay again. If you’re an aspiring author, a cosplayer, or just like geeky content, follow her work on Facebook or her website.

Aubree is buying stock in Kleenex in preparation for the next few flashback chapters.

Well, I hope you’re all prepared for Dalinar being an absolute twit, because in this chapter he’s putting his hat in the ring for the award of All Time Worst Husband Ever. He also gets highly equivocal ratings on the Dad front; at least there are some upvotes in that category to balance the downers.

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. There’s no Cosmere discussion in the post this week, though as always, we make no promises about the comment discussion. But if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Dalinar
WHERE: A highland keep on the border between Alethkar and Jah Keved (L: As usual when we don’t have an exact city, this is my best guess. Since they mention the Vedens I figure this place has to be on the mountain range nearest to that city, and since the Horneater Peaks are actually part of Jah Keved, the mountain range I’ve indicated seems to be the most likely location that this chapter takes place.)
WHEN: 1166 – Eleven years ago

Dalinar is schooling Adolin on the ways of war when Evi arrives. After his son leaves, Dalinar and Evi get into an argument about whether or not they’ll ever be returning to Kholinar. Dalinar wants to stay on the warpath for the rest of his life, and when Evi breaks down, he grudgingly “admits defeat” and agrees to head back to Kholinar for a year after the battle for the Rift.

Truth, Love, and Defiance

Title: Strategist

“What kind of strategist would I be if I couldn’t foresee the next battle?”

AA: The irony is that he can see the next battle in the effort to unify Alethkar, and how to win it, but he can’t stop seeing his relationship with his wife as a series of battles—and he doesn’t know how to win those.

L: She’s an unknown enemy. He can understand other soldiers trying to kill him, but someone who genuinely cares about him and their sons? This is a mystery to him. It reminds me of a quote from Sun Tzu’s Art of War:

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

Dalinar knows himself, but he can never hope to understand her. Not that he has much time left to try…

AP: The real problem here is that as an Alethi he sees everything as a battle. Your spouse should not be your adversary. You should be a team fighting external battles together. The baseline of their relationship is conflict, and Evi isn’t equipped to handle that. We know that Dalinar matures later and his relationship with Navani is much more healthy. But it’s sad that he didn’t figure it out sooner.

Heralds

The sole Herald is Chach, patron of the Dustbringers, associated with the role of Guard and the divine attributes of Brave and Obedient.

AA: Throughout Words of Radiance, Chach was frequently the Herald for chapters where Adolin was heavily involved; though he is part of this chapter, I don’t think his presence is enough to account for the choice of Herald. My best guess is that she’s actually here for Evi, who is doing her best to be brave and obedient in accordance with Alethi social expectations.

AP: The Dustbringers are also associated with destruction, and for me, this marks the beginning of the end of Dalinar and Evi’s relationship. Dalinar is obedient to Gavilar’s orders, and Evi is attempting to be brave in the face of her continued isolation in Alethi society.

Icon

Reverse Kholin Glyphpair for a Dalinar flashback

Stories & Songs

“I’ve thought … maybe the only answer, to make you proud, is to go to the Nightwatcher and ask for the blessing of intelligence. The Old Magic can change a person. Make something great of them—”

“Evi,” Dalinar cut in. “Please, don’t speak of that place or that creature. It’s blasphemous.”

AA: I can’t help wondering what she’d have gotten for boon and curse if she’d done it. Ironic, isn’t it, that her death—and his part in it—eventually drives him to commit the “blasphemy” he decries here.

AP: This conversation also likely put the idea in his head.

Relationships & Romances

Though the last few fights had been disappointing, having his son with him had been an absolute delight. Adolin hadn’t gone into battle, of course, but he’d joined them at tactics meetings. Dalinar had at first assumed the generals would be annoyed at the presence of a child, but it was hard to find little Adolin annoying. He was so earnest, so interested.

…

Now he had to explain his choices, vocalize them for the ears of an eager young boy who had questions for everything—and expected Dalinar to know the answers.
Storms, it was a challenge. But it felt good. Incredibly good.

AA: The best part of this chapter was Dalinar enjoying his son’s company. That was so much fun.

L: I do really love seeing them connect like this. Adolin quite clearly looks up to his father so much.

Buy it Now

AA: Yes, he does, and I find that appropriate and endearing. Granted that Dalinar isn’t exactly the ideal man in our modern terms, he’s pretty close to the Alethi ideal man, so it’s very right for Adolin to admire him. The funny thing is that when we see Dalinar interact with Evi, we see all his faults, and yet she’s the one person most directly responsible for making sure his sons see him as a great man.

AP: Adolin is about 12 here, so he’s the right age to start getting this type of training. He’s also the right age to still idolize his dad, who wasn’t around for most of his childhood.

AA: By way of contrast to Dalinar’s enjoyment of Adolin, though, there’s… this:

“Well, we could travel someplace warm. Up to the Steamwater. Just you and I. Time together. We could even bring Adolin.”

“And Renarin?” Evi asked. “Dalinar, you have two sons, in case you have forgotten. Do you even care about the child’s condition? Or is he nothing to you now that he can’t become a soldier?”

AA: Ouch. Just as you started to think maybe he was a good dad…

Seriously, though, I feel sorry for the man at the same time I want to smack him. I completely understand Evi’s anger at the way he’s ignoring his “defective” son—the son who, through no one’s fault, will never be any of the things that “make a man” in Alethi culture. Dude, he’s still your son! Still your responsibility, still in need of your love and respect. And Dalinar, the quintessential Alethi, simply has no clue how to respond to either the child or the situation. I don’t think the Alethi do parenting classes, more’s the pity.

L: Then there’s this:

The other son was unfit for battle, and spent most of his time in Kholinar.

L: “The other son.” Ouch. It’s like he can barely even be bothered to remember poor Renarin’s name.

AA: I know, right? I want to beat him severely about the head and shoulders, every time I read that line. He’s a human being and your son, you oaf!

AP: This whole sequence is heartbreaking. Evi is completely right to be angry. It does make me appreciate that, in the present timeline, Dalinar is attempting to repair this relationship. I think his surge of Connection is helping him to gain empathy. This chapter coming immediately after he handles an intangible “battle” with the Azish deftly contrasts how far he has come.

“Run along, son,” Dalinar said. “You have geography lessons today.”

“Can I stay? I don’t want to leave you.”

L: This is simultaneously sweet and painful. It’s great to see Adolin adoring his father so much, forging a real connection with him—but knowing what’s coming, it’s just… ugh. Soon Dalinar’s going to sink down into alcoholism and start ignoring both his sons.

AP: Yeah, it definitely gets worse before it gets better. So much worse.

“No, Evi,” he said as he made another notation, “I doubt we will ever settle back in Kholinar again.”

…

Satisfied, he looked up. And found Evi crying.

L: This poor woman. I can’t even imagine how difficult her life was, being carted around from battle to battle, never knowing if her husband, who she was trying so hard to love, would come back alive… and to watch him as he started molding one of her sons into (what she surely must have seen as) a carbon copy of himself while completely ignoring the other. That must have been the hardest part, I think—trying desperately to help her son be a better man than his father, while also not speaking ill of him (as she clearly must not have, since Adolin adores him so). Evi was a storming saint.

AA: Pretty much, yeah. We’ll talk about it again in a much later flashback, but it’s clear that she virtually never criticized Dalinar in the boys’ hearing. She praised him as the “only honest officer in the army, the honorable soldier. Noble, like the Heralds themselves. Our father. The greatest man in Alethkar.” Come to think of it, she rarely criticized him at all, though she did sometimes let him know how frustrated she was with certain of his behaviors.

AP: Evi is definitely too good for him. I like how we get all these hints about what a good and loving parent she was. Evi has finally created a home for herself and her family in Kholinar, in preparation for her husband coming home, and now Dalinar is pulling the rug out from under her. I can’t imagine the pain and frustration of having to deal with a spouse who is not supportive or invested in the relationship, and who openly plays favorites with his kids, while at the same time trying to raise them to love and respect their father. It’s exhausting just to write it out!

She rubbed her eyes, and he wondered if she’d see through his attempt to change the subject. Talking about her people often smoothed over their arguments.

L: I’d like to point out how f***ing manipulative this is. He’s not trying to change the subject to make her feel better—all he cares about is his own comfort. He doesn’t like her crying in front of him and brings up a subject he doesn’t actually give a damn about just to make himself more comfortable. UGH. How dare this woman cry in front of him. HOW DARE SHE HAVE FEELINGS.

AA: I suspect she knew exactly what he was doing, at some level, but she went along with it because she didn’t enjoy the argument, and she did enjoy talking about her people, even if she knew she’d never see them again.

AP: Evi hates conflict, so I think she’s perfectly willing to embrace the deflection. As much as I like Evi, she does not stand up for herself, and doesn’t know how to advocate for herself.

“We’ll go back to Kholinar after I deal with the rebellion at the Rift. I’ll promise you at least a year there.”

“Really?” Evi said, standing up.

“Yes. You’ve won this fight.”

“I… don’t feel like I’ve won…”

L: Because she didn’t. What she really wanted was for him to understand and want to return, to want to spend time with his sons and with her. Instead he’s just doing it to shut her up. That’s not winning, not by a long shot. Not for her.

AP: Oh, not at all. Dalinar feels like he’s giving her some great gift, but he really doesn’t get it. The lack of empathy is stunning.

AA: Honestly, I feel awful for both of them. They’re so storming different in virtually every way. I firmly believe that each loved the other to some extent, each in their own way, but… a set of Shardplate isn’t much foundation for a marriage. In this chapter, though, it sure looks like Evi was the one doing the vast majority of the work of adjusting to the other’s needs. Dalinar even realizes that, to some extent:

She’d never be a great scribe—she didn’t have the youthful training in art and letters of a Vorin woman. Besides, she didn’t like books, and preferred her meditations. But she’d tried hard these last years, and he was impressed.

AA: I wonder if he ever told her he appreciated her efforts. He recognizes that it was hard work, but he just sort of assumes that having learned so much, of course she would enjoy the Vorin way of life. Of course.

AP: I doubt that he ever did. She is acting out of self preservation, trying her best to fit into her adopted culture. The relationship is so one sided here. The best evidence of her success is how much everyone believed that they had a loving marriage and it was completely believable that Dalinar would be in such deep mourning for her that he refused to speak her name for years.

Storms, I don’t deserve that woman, do I?

L: No. No, you don’t.

AA: Not even a little bit, dude.

The really sad thing is that there have been flashes where it almost looked like he could, and perhaps even like he really wanted to. But then battle and conquest would demand his attention, and he’d willingly turn to that duty, and he never quite got around to actually understanding his wife.

AP: Definitely not. I’m glad he is doing better on his second try with Navani.

Well, so be it. The argument was her fault, as were the repercussions.

L: My reaction to this.

Bruised & Broken

“No, son, the most important thing we’ve won is legitimacy. In signing this new treaty, the Veden king has recognized Gavilar as the rightful king of Alethkar.

…

It was gratifying to see how much one could accomplish in both politics and trade by liberally murdering the other fellow’s soldiers. These last years full of skirmishes had reminded Dalinar of why he lived.

AA: He still thinks of himself as someone who lives for battle and killing. As the general and strategist he’s grown into (per Gavilar’s letter), he sees the value of having Gavilar’s government recognized by another country. Deeper down, though, he doesn’t really fight for Gavilar, for Kholin power, or for Alethkar: He fights because he loves to fight… because he’s addicted to the Thrill.

AP: The way he spins this also feeds into how Adolin views his father. We see Dalinar’s real motivation. Adolin just gets a valuable life lesson on politics and strategy.

Places & Peoples

“Conversation is a contest to them,” Evi said, throwing her hands up. “Everything has to be a contest to you Alethi, always trying to show up everyone else. For the women it’s this awful, unspoken game to prove how witty they are.”

L: Interesting parallel to Shallan, here. I wonder if the Alethi and Jah Keved are close enough in societal norms that Shallan’s constant attempts to be witty are reflections of this.

AA: Heh. I’m not sure Shallan had enough exposure to society to be all that versed in “societal norms”—though of course, she would have had some social life before her mother went ‘round the twist. Back to the moment, though, this is one of the many, many ways where I feel terrible for Evi. She’s a gentle soul, and one who simply likes to get along with people. She was raised in a culture that valued peace, and she probably fit in beautifully there. (At least until whatever-it-was caused her and her brother to grab the Shardplate and run…) For the sin of disliking personal conflict, the Alethi assume she’s just kind of dumb. Because obviously, if you don’t do well at word-fights, it can’t be because you don’t care about that kind of contest; it has to be because you’re mentally deficient. ::eyeroll::

AP: Yeah, the Alethi culture just doesn’t value Evi’s strengths. Her kindness and loyalty doesn’t get her very far here. I’d like to see more about Rira, and what it might have looked like if she had stayed.

AA: (Well, we know it was warmer than Alethkar, if nothing else!)

AP: She mentions that they were outcasts because of Toh stealing shardplate. But is she typically Riran? Or is she especially meek even for them? Or is she considered quite bold because she left with Toh?!

AA: Well, from what little we saw of him, Toh was every bit as disturbed by conflict as Evi—maybe more so. Now that he got Evi and the Shardplate taken care of, he’s been up in Herdaz for the last ten years being protected by Alethi guards. (I don’t think very highly of him, frankly!) Whatever their reason was for hiking off with the Plate—whether they really stole it, or were just refusing to give it up to someone who tried to take it from them, or whatever—the one bit of credit I can give Toh is that he did try to find someone capable of protecting the two of them and making use of the Shardplate.

Also, Adolin will get it when he turns 16, so that’s a good thing. Deserving kid, our Adolin.

Tight Butts and Coconuts

“If you pay attention in your lesson, I’ll take you riding tomorrow.”

AA: This made me snicker a bit. I wonder if Dalinar ever knew how Adolin felt about horses when he was younger; I can’t help but remember his comment back in Chapter 10:

He’d spent many of those days, before he was fully a man, on campaign with his father during border skirmishes with Jah Keved. Adolin had been afraid of horses back then, though he’d never have admitted it.

AA: Dalinar thought he was promising the kid a real treat, and it was more of a terror. Heh.

Buy it Now

L: Sounds about par for the course for past!Dalinar.

AA: It does, doesn’t it? He’s not a horrible father—to Adolin, anyway—but he’s not exactly the most sensitive to what makes other people happy. Except maybe Navani.

AP: It’s another sign of his self-centeredness. Riding a horse would have been a great treat for him as a boy. So of course it would be a great treat for Adolin! And I’d argue that he is definitely a terrible father. Showing blatant favoritism to one child is incredibly damaging. It’s a great testament to Evi that her sons have a good relationship despite this.

Weighty Words

I would like to speak in person at length about all of this—indeed, I have important revelations of my own I would like to share. It would be best if we could meet in person.

AA: I wonder if Gavilar was getting the Unite Them Visions treatment from the Stormfather at this point, and was preparing to share that information with Dalinar. As far as we know, he never did so—but then, the man Dalinar became after the Rift was not someone you’d entrust with any sort of secret. He became an even more fearsome threat to be held over the heads of anyone who might consider rebelling against Kholin rule, but he also became an unpredicatble, drunken brute that… well, I sure wouldn’t trust him with anything sensitive!

Murky Motivations

Be warned, we are certain now that one of the other highprinces—we don’t know who—is supporting Tanalan and his rebellion.

L: Was… was it ever revealed who this was? I keep thinking Sadeas, but that’s wrong, isn’t it?

AA: I don’t think it was ever revealed, though if it was, I guess we’ll find out when we get there! I’m pretty sure the Sadeas connection was a fake; at the time, he had nothing to gain from undermining the Kholins, and everything to gain from continuing to be at the right hand of power.

Quality Quotations

“Unfortunately, our meeting will have to wait a few storms longer.”

AA: I just like that phrasing, so I thought I’d quote it.

In case you didn’t get enough of it, we’ll have another marriage to consider next week! We won’t spend much time on it, though; there’s a lot going on when we return to Kholinar. Strategy sessions, disguises, and a familiar voice await us! For now, join us in the comments, and we’ll see you there.

Alice is still half-buried in snow, but at least the power came back on. Also, the Starsight beta is finished, which was a crazy ride.

Lyndsey is really not a fan of young!Dalinar, in case that didn’t come through. If you’re an aspiring author, a cosplayer, or just like geeky content, follow her work on Facebook or her website.

Aubree is going to hug her kid in a very un-Alethi fashion.

I hope you’re all ready to sit criss-cross apple sauce, because this week Uncle Hoid’s in the house and ready to regale us all with a lovely tale of arrogance, trickery, and loss. It’s always a fun time when Hoid shows up, and this week’s reread is full of theorizing, comments on the craft of story-telling (both inter-textually and meta-textually), and… you guessed it, Cosmere Connections!

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. Since Hoid shows up in this chapter, we do a fair amount of talking about him and some aspects of the magic system from Warbreaker, so if you haven’t had a chance to read that one yet (and if you haven’t, you really should before things begin heating up in the next few chapters) you may want to sit this chapter out. There’s also a little discussion of how the White Sand sand works, but it’s not really a plot spoiler. And, it goes without saying at this point, but if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Shallan/Veil
WHERE: Kholinar
WHEN: 1174.1.10.3 (the day after Chapter 63)

Shallan, as Veil, goes for a walk through the marketplace. She discovers that the rich lighteyes are prioritizing giving food to the rich over the poor (surprise surprise) and runs into a familiar face telling stories to the beleaguered populace.

Truth, Love, and Defiance

Title: Mishim

Everyone knows that Mishim is the cleverest of the three moons.

And thus begins the story that Sigzil failed to tell. Also, I’d never noticed this, but Deana pointed out in the beta that Hoid’s storytelling chapters are usually titled for the story. So that’s cool.

Herald

Paliah, patron of Truthwatchers, the Scholar, associated with the attributes Learned and Giving.

AA: The first thing I had to notice was that, despite Wit’s appearance, we don’t have the Joker in one of the Heralds slots. This is unusual. Instead, we have Paliah in all four slots. My best guess is that Shallan is trying hard to study the city, to learn as much as she can about what’s going on and why the Cult of Moments is such hot stuff. She also gets frustrated with the way the limited free food keeps getting doled out to the (obviously) servants of noble houses, rather than to the actual poor and needy, which in retrospect is clearly a set-up for her later plan of giving food to those who need it as a means of attracting the attention of the cult.

Alternatively, the entire Learned/Giving thing could apply to Wit.

Icon

Pattern

Epigraph

This generation has had only one Bondsmith, and some blame the divisions among us upon this fact. The true problem is far deeper. I believe that Honor himself is changing.

—From drawer 24-18, smokestone

AA: The Skybreaker who left this recording seems to be an insightful sort. We don’t know the specific timing of Tanavast’s death, nor how long it took Honor to “die,” nor exactly where the Recreance fell in that sequence. We have only the Stormfather’s statement that “in the days leading to the Recreance, Honor was dying.” If we are correct in assuming that the Recreance followed fairly closely on the heels of the departure from Urithiru, he’s correct—Honor himself was not just changing; he was dying.

L: I also find it interesting that that generation only had one. Does this imply that the Bondsmith was bonded to either the Sibling or Cultivation, seeing as how Honor was changing? Or… is Honor sort of an umbrella term for all three of them, implying that the Bondmith bond itself is intrinsically linked to Honor and hence weakening?

AA: I really wish I knew the answer to that! It seems pretty solid that the Sibling is not the one bonded at this time, because of the comments in the gemstone archives about the Sibling withdrawing. Given that this Skybreaker thinks Honor is changing, and the Bondsmith doesn’t seem to have much to say about the subject, I tentatively theorize that Melishi was bonded to the Nightwatcher. It seems like that might make sense, in that a Cultivation-oriented Bondsmith might have a better understanding of the way the parsh are connected to Ba-Ado-Mishram. But… that’s totally speculative.

Thematic Thoughts

They were at war, the city was falling, but all she wanted to do was listen to the end of this story.

L: This is such a beautiful sentiment. We see it so often—the human desire for stories is so deeply ingrained in our psyches that it transcends society. All cultures have stories, and interestingly, many of them follow the same basic paths. This path—popularly dubbed The Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell, is so deeply entrenched in us that we subconsciously recognize it, and if a story isn’t quite matching up to the story beats we expect, it will feel “wrong.” How often, when watching a film or reading a book, have you noticed that the hero of the piece reaches a dark place about ¾ of the way through? Watching them claw their way back up to victory from that place is highly rewarding for us on a deep psychological level, and it’s absolutely fascinating to study. This need to relate to fictional characters and to partake of their joys and their sadnesses despite (or because of) our own personal struggles is what makes fiction so very important, whether you choose to engage with it through the written page, the movie screen, television, or plays or podcasts. Or even by listening to a street busker tell a story with different colored smoke.

Buy it Now

Stories allow us to remove ourselves from the trials of our own lives and experience the victories of someone else, and the meta-textual nature of Wit/Hoid is pretty fascinating in this respect. In many ways he subtly breaks the fourth wall, winking to the reader even as he speaks to Shallan or Kaladin.

AA: ::applauds::

Stories & Songs

“This story takes place during the days of Tsa,” Wit continued. “The grandest queen of Natanatan, before that kingdom’s fall.”

L: Rather than quote the entire story, I’m just going to paraphrase it here (and hopefully do a better job of it than Sigzil when he tried to tell the same story back in Chapter 35). Queen Tsa was an architect and one night Mishim, the cleverest moon, passed by and spoke to her as she rested in her high tower. Mishim praised her on her buildings in an attempt to trick her into switching places, for she wished to be able to partake of human pleasures. On her fourth try, Mishim finally appealed to Queen Tsa’s vanity and convinced her to switch places. For one night, Mishim enjoyed the pleasures of mortal life. She enjoyed herself so much that she neglected to return with the dawn, and spent the day worrying that Tsa would tell Salas or Nomon (the other two moons) about her trickery. The next night, Tsa threatens to remain in the heavens, having found that she quite enjoys it, and Mishim panics. She reminds Tsa that Tsa broke their agreement, and Tsa agrees to rescind her place. Nine months later, Tsa gives birth to a child with blue skin, and Mishim realizes that this was her plan all along, to spend a night with Nomon, to mother a son born of gods.

“And that is why, to this day, the people of Natanatan have skin of a faintly blue shade. And it is why Mishim, though still crafty, has never again left her place. Most importantly, it is the story of how the moon came to know the one thing that before, mortals had only known. Loss.”

L: This seems an interesting choice of story to tell a people who are already on the brink of despair. You’d think that a story about victory or one that ends in joy would be better choices, and even Shallan questions this:

“Why that story?” she asked. “Why now?”

“I don’t give the meanings, child,” he said. “You should know that by now. I just tell the tale.”

L: Good old Hoid, always with another secret question. Maybe Hoid is trying to prepare them, in his own way, for what he suspects is coming. If even the gods can feel loss, then they’re in good company. They’re not going to be alone.

AA: I am constantly at a loss on the reason for this story. Obviously, it’s rather hilarious to see the contrast between Hoid’s telling and Sigzil’s, and for that alone I love it. But along with Hoid, Sanderson has to have a reason for this story. We get to see Hoid’s sand-storytelling, similar in materials but not in method, to what he used for Siri in Warbreaker. We get a cosmology-fairy-tale about the blue Natanatan skin, which we know is actually due to some Siah Aimian blood. We get a story about the moons as personalities… but no hint (that I can see) of what the moons really are.

As I recall, there’s some mystery to the Rosharan moons, and I wonder if there’s something hidden in the story about it, but I can’t see it if it’s there! I’ve theorized a connection between the moons and the Bondsmith spren, but I can’t make it make sense. *Sigh*

L: Maybe we’re just over-thinking it? If Hoid’s just telling the story in order to give a little escape to the people, maybe that’s really all there is to it.

AA: Me? Overthink??? Surely you jest.

L: Ha. I mean generally speaking, Sanderson does have at least one (if not more) reasons for everything he puts into his stories. But maybe this one really is more superficial, just Hoid helping out the people and simultaneously giving the reader a bit of worldbuilding. If it were me… I’d be using in-world stories to foreshadow things that happen later in the series. But I can’t think of anything that he could possibly be setting up with this one.

AA: For all the obvious reasons, I had to go look up everything we know about the moons last night. One thing that has come up is that, while we don’t know whether the moons are natural or artificial bodies, they were placed in their particular orbits artificially. One assumes that this was Adonalsium’s doing, but it could have been the Shards. Could he be going somewhere with that? I admit it’s not likely, but it’s all I’ve got.

L: We’ve delved too greedily and too deep into the theory-pool for me. I’m bowing out. I’ll stick to the character and story structure analyses! And the memes/gifs, of course. Gotta earn my GenX/Millenial creds.

Relationships & Romances

“Thanks to the Lightweaver’s excellent reconnaissance,” the king said, “it is evident my wife is being held captive by her own guards.”

AA: I don’t know whether to applaud Elhokar’s loyalty to his wife, or grind my teeth at his unwillingness to accept that she might simply be a horrible person.

L: Gotta love those rose-tinted glasses. At least he does appear to really love her.

AA: He does, and I have to like that part. Kaladin and Adolin point out some of the problems with his assumption, and he really doesn’t want to hear it. His defense of even marrying her despite familial objection is more of the same:

Aesudan was always proud, and always ambitious, but never gluttonous. … Jasnah says I shouldn’t have married her—that Aesudan was too hungry for power. Jasnah never understood. I needed Aesudan. Someone with strength…”

AA: It would be funny if it weren’t sad; it sounds like Elhokar was trying to marry someone that (many observers would say) was just like his sister—and his mother, for that matter.

L: Well, I mean… that does happen quite often in real life.

AA: In this family of outwardly strong, capable people, how did he turn out to be the weak link? Up until just recently, the only thing we’ve seen in him that might look like strength is his ability to arrogantly act like he’s right because he’s the king. From what little we know of her, it sounds like Aesudan used a similar tactic, and he mistook her apparent strong will for a strong mind.

Honestly, the more I see from Elhokar’s perspective, the more I pity him… but it only rarely makes me think more highly of him. Despite his sister’s insight, he picked a wife who saw him as a means to power, but who was never going to have any respect for him. Poor stupid princeling. What a miserable marriage. I wonder how much she undermined him, both before and after he became king.

Also, no wonder Jasnah had an assassin watching her sister-in-law. I’m betting the two of them never, ever felt like sisters…

L: And from what we now know about Alethi female relationships, it’s even less surprising.

Bruised & Broken

What lingered was that single glimpse she’d seen in the mirror: a glimmer of the Unmade’s presence, beyond the plane of the reflection.

The mirrors in the tailor’s shop didn’t show such proclivities; she had checked every one. Just in case, she’d given a drawing of the thing she’d seen to the others, and warned them to watch.

AA: We don’t really know why Shallan was able to see Sja-anat, nor whether the others would have been able to see her had they been present. My theory is that they would not have seen her, and Shallan could do so partly because of her bond with Pattern and partly because of her own messed-up head. Either way, this “spot-the-Unmade” gig seems to be Shallan’s specialty. I was impressed that, this time, she was much quicker to tell the rest of the team about it and get them watching. She’s not very good at keeping them informed about what she’s up to, but at least she’s registered that taking on an Unmade requires help!

L: Yeah, I was really happy to see that too. It always annoys the heck out of me when a character in a book ::cough Harry Potter cough:: refuses to tell other characters extremely important information that they really should have.

AA: YES. All the yes. If they aren’t going to share the information, they at least need to have a good reason, even if the reason is that “it seemed too insignificant.” That failure with no supporting validation drives me bonkers.

“I needed Aesudan. Someone with strength…”

L: I really do feel bad for Elhokar. He recognized his failings even then, but clearly didn’t know how to go about overcoming them without some kind of role model. Now that he has one (namely, Kaladin) he’s making real strides towards bettering himself.

AA: I… don’t quite know what to say about Elhokar. He recognized his character weakness and sought to correct it, which is more than many of us do. But wowsa! Did he ever spend most of his life picking terrible role models and confidants! I wonder how much more Dalinar could have helped him in that five-year stretch before Gavilar’s assassination, if he hadn’t spent most of his time drunk out of his skull. But what about Gavilar and Navani? If you had to choose between what we know of Dalinar and Evi vs. Gavilar and Navani as parents, it seems like the latter’s children should have had all the advantages, but you’d never know it by their sons. Instead, you have this:

“It’s a good plan, Elhokar,” Adolin said. “Nice work.”

A simple compliment probably should not have made a king beam like it did. Elhokar even drew a gloryspren.

AA: Did Gavilar never spend any time with his son, teaching and encouraging him? How is it that such a simple compliment from his younger cousin has such a dramatic effect? (Also, for the first time, we get to see Elhokar get a gloryspren when Dalinar isn’t around. How ‘bout that?)

L: And what does it say about Navani? Honestly, this makes me like her less. Reading between the lines, she seems like she was a pretty terrible mother to her son, which frustrates me, because she’s pretty awesome otherwise.

AA: I know, right? For all that I adore Navani, and for all the flaws I see in Evi’s “perfect paragon” approach, I have to say Evi did a better job in a harder situation.

Except… she hadn’t even been able to save her own family. She had no idea what Mraize had done with her brothers, and she refused to think about them.

L: Interesting to note that she drops out of Veil and into Shallan, here. She does so again later on, when Hoid shows up, too.

AA: Given how we ragged on those shifts in the beta, you know they were deliberate. It’s really a fascinating twist, and one that bears watching. I do love the way Hoid brings out so much truth that Shallan generally tries to hide from.

L: Well, that seems to be Hoid’s M.O. Ironic, considering how much time he spends revealing said truths through fiction.

AA: I won’t look it up, but somewhere there’s a quote from Robert Jordan about how much easier it is to talk about Truth if you do it in a fantasy tale. It ties back to the Thematic Thoughts, doesn’t it?

Squires & Sidekicks

He was dressed, strangely, in a soldier’s uniform—Sadeas’s livery, with the coat unbuttoned and a colored scarf around his neck.

The traveler. The one they called the King’s Wit.

L: Well hello there, Hoid! And what exactly are you doing here in a Sadeas uniform?

Buy it Now

AA: My thought exactly. Sadeas??

L: Maybe it’s just because this is one of the only other names we (the readers) would recognize, other than the Kholins—and wearing a Kholin uniform in the city right now would be a Bad, Bad Idea.

Wit glanced to his side, where he’d put his pack. He started, as if surprised. Shallan cocked her head as he quickly recovered, jumping back into the story so fast that it was easy to miss his lapse. But now, as he spoke, he searched the audience with careful eyes.

L: Interesting. Did he sense Shallan here, or is there something else going on?

AA: In this case, you have to look at the end of the scene. The jar of black sand in his pack was white on the side facing Shallan; if I’m correct about that sand, this told Hoid that someone nearby in that direction was using investiture. So he knew there was someone there, doing something, and he wanted to know who, and what, and why.

He just recognized me, she realized. I’m still wearing Veil’s face. But how… how did he know?

L: How indeed? Something from Nalthis, perhaps? Fourth Heightening, granting Perfect Life Sense? I always thought that this would allow him to sense if something were living, but not necessarily the differences between living beings, but I may be wrong. Alice? You’re the Warbreaker authority.

AA: I’m not entirely sure what all is at work here. We know he was looking for a magic-user, and somehow he saw through her Lightweaving. It might be because of his own Yolish version of Lightweaving that he can see through hers, or it might be another magic he’s using. If we’d seen him drink anything, I’d be searching the Allomancy charts for hints.

L: Seventh Heightening could also be at play here, recognizing that she’s using a Lightweaving on herself…? Do we have any idea really of how many Breaths Hoid actually has?

AA: No idea. Probably a fair few, but I’m not sure he’d have tried hard enough to get that many. Still, this is Hoid. Now I want a scene where Hoid, Zahel, and Azure all come around the corners and see each other at once.

L:  I imagine it would look something like this.

Places & Peoples

“They got rules. Gotta be a certain age. And if you’re too poor, they shove ya out of line.”

“For what reason?”

The boy shrugged. “Don’t need one, I guess. They say you’ve already been through, ’cept you haven’t.”

“Many of those people … they’re servants from wealthy homes, aren’t they?”

The urchin nodded.

Storming lighteyes, Veil thought as she watched. Some of the poor were shoved out of line for one infraction or another, as the urchin had claimed. The others waited patiently, as it was their job. They’d been sent by wealthy homes to collect food. Many bore the lean, strong look of house guards, though they didn’t wear uniforms.

Storms. Velalant’s men really had no idea how to do this. Or maybe they know exactly what they’re doing, she thought. And Velalant is just keeping the local lighteyes happy and ready to support his rule, should the winds turn his way.

AA: Politics, even while the world as they know it is ending. By the end of this segment, I was coming to actively dislike the people of Kholinar. The lighteyes, at least.

L: Yeah, gotta admit, I’m with Kaladin on that one at least some of the time. The super-rich rarely seem to be able to see beyond their own wants and desires to truly empathize with those who aren’t as well off—it’s just so far from their realm of understanding that they can’t conceive of what it’s like. Unless they’re Adolin, and even then he’s got his blind spots.

Tight Butts and Coconuts

“It was beautiful.”

“Yes,” he said. Then he added, “I miss my flute.”

L: I still find it hilarious that Kaladin lost this, and I suspect Hoid’s never going to let him hear the end of it.

AA: Hey, now that Amaram’s gone, do you suppose the flute will resurface? That’d be fun to see.

L: I can’t imagine that Sanderson would have made such a big deal of it, and kept bringing it up, if it wasn’t going to resurface at some point. If it’s a Red Herring Gun on the Mantle, it’s a damn good one.

Weighty Words

King Elhokar sat at the room’s table, earnestly … writing something? No, he was drawing. … [S]he rounded to peek over the king’s shoulder. He was doing a map of the city, with the palace and the Oathgate platform. It wasn’t half bad.

AA: So… Elhokar had latent artistic skills after all. During the first two books’ discussion, I recall people finding it difficult to believe Elhokar was seeing Cryptics, because there was no indicator of any of the skills said to be common to Lightweavers. Ask and you shall receive?

Also, every time I see him starting to do something like this—something that goes outside His Assigned Role In Life—I just ache for the poor boy. He could probably have had a great life doing things he enjoyed, if only his father hadn’t decided Alethkar needed Gavilar As King. He’d probably have been perfectly happy as an ardent in a monastery.

L: Yeah. He reminds me a lot of Renarin in this way—being constrained by the roles his heritage and society have imposed on him.

AA: ::nods vigorously:: I’m sad now. I wish we could have seen Renarin and Elhokar together more. Stupid Moash anyway.

L: ::forcefully restrains self from saying it::

Cosmere Connections

“I don’t like the sound of this Azure person. See what you can find out about him and his Wall Guard.”

L: Him. Right.

AA: It’s so funny to look back now. On the first read, we all assumed—just like Elhokar—that Azure was a man. It’s not even a conscious assumption; it’s just a given in this world and this nation. I’m betting it never crossed anyone’s mind, character or reader, to wonder if maybe this could be a woman. (I’ll make an exception to that, though: Anyone who was up on the WoBs and knew they should be looking for Vivenna might have wondered when they saw the name.)

You didn’t need to prove how much you could drink in order to look tough—but that was the sort of thing you couldn’t learn without wearing the coat, living in it.

L: This reminds me a great deal of Wayne from Mistborn Era 2, and his various hats/personas. Sanderson has a lot of characters and ideas that show up again and again in his works—a lot of people have rightfully pointed out the similarities between Kelsier and Kaladin, for instance, in regards to character archetypes. Shallan/Veil and Wayne are very different, but it’s interesting to see this little aspect of their personalities that is mirrored between books.

I’d also like to point out that this isn’t a failing of Sanderson’s—it’s something that, if you read enough works by any author, you’ll begin to see. Authors tend to gravitate towards certain archetypes because either they understand them better or because there’s something about them that, subconsciously or consciously, they find of note. If you read enough Stephen King, you’ll notice a lot of writer characters that suffer from some sort of substance abuse, for instance. This doesn’t mean that they’re falling back on lazy stereotypes, just that they see something intrinsically interesting about this type of character that they need several different avenues to explore. It’s like coming at a problem from different angles to try to understand it better—or convey it better to multiple people.

AA: (I’m like… hey, look, Wayne uses hats and Shallan uses coats! Lyndsey, on the other hand, can actually evaluate what he’s doing and why. This, folks, is why we have an actual writer involved in rereading. Or, well, one of the reasons.)

L: Good to know that that expensive BA in English Lit isn’t being wasted.

Wit thrust his hand high in his smoke, drawing the line of white into the shape of a straight pillar. His other hands swirled a pocket of green above it, like a whirlpool. A tower and a moon.

That can’t be natural, can it? Shallan thought. Is he Lightweaving? Yet she saw no Stormlight. There was something more… organic about what he did.

L: So is this just his Yolish Lightweaving in effect, or is he combining several forms of investiture here? (I’ll speculate a bit more on this in the speculation section below…)

AA: I was wondering whether it was the magic system that made it seem “organic,” or if it’s just his depth of experience. He’s been doing Yolish Lightweaving for a very, very long time; it’s practically his native language. Shallan is still learning her skill, so maybe it’s no wonder Hoid’s mastery looks so different. All the same, it looks very different from anything we’ve seen done by anyone else.

L: That makes a lot of sense, actually. Sort of how Shallan’s drawing skills would seem effortless to someone who was a struggling beginner!

A Scrupulous Study of Spren

…pools of angerspren. Some looked like the normal pools of blood; others were more like tar, pitch-black. When the bubbles in these popped, they showed a burning red within, like embers.

AA: Yeah, and that’s not creepy or anything.

L: I love it.

Appealing/Arresting/Appraising/Absorbing Artwork

L: This is such a cool set of drawings. I find the painspren to be pretty unsettling either way, but the corrupted ones are definitely way creepier. They look like the hands of some haggard old crone in a Rankin/Bass movie from the 70s or the 80s. The hungerspren, on the other hand, totally look like Flying Snitches.

AA: Sanderson really came up with a lot of detail on the spren—and all of it is so quirky. Some of it is cute, and some of it is creepy, and some of it is just plain bizarre. And then in the next section we’ll see how the part that’s visible to humans in the Physical realm is just a small part of the way the same spren appears in the Cognitive. The world-building sorta blows my mind if I think about it too hard.

L: For sure. He’s put so much into this world, when so many fantasy authors fall back on the same old Tolkien-esque races and themes. Not to say that those stories are bad—I love me some elves and shape-shifting dragons, not gonna lie—but Sanderson has really put thought into everything and tried to make his world entirely unique. It’s mind-boggling to consider how much he’s got to keep in his head all at once, even with the help of personal wikis and assistants!

Back to the drawing, though. I especially love the sketch of the Fused on the bottom right. Look at that spear! It makes total sense to have a spear that long if you’re going to be engaging in aerial combat… though you’d think it would risk getting tangled up in their cloth… trail… thingies.

AA: That spear reminds me of a sarissa, though a flying Fused would use it very differently than the Macedonians did. Do you suppose the long trailing flittery-bits served any useful purpose for these folks, or is it sheer vanity? To the best of my recollection, all the flying Fused wore clothing that deliberately elongated their form. It seems not merely useless, but possibly a weakness during combat. Not only could you get your 20-foot spear tangled up in the excess fabric, someone on the ground could grab it and mess up your flight pattern pretty dramatically.

L: Well, I suppose they could be using them sort of like the Mistborn cloaks, except there’s no mist here to hide in. If their legs were more obscured, I’d say that they were counting on people attacking the strips of cloth mistaking them for viable targets, but in the drawing we can clearly see the legs, so…. Yeah. Seems more of a liability than anything, really. I guess we’re just going to have to assume that it’s Rule of Cool.

Sheer Speculation

Shallan slipped forward and glanced inside his pack, catching sight of a small jar, sealed at the top. It was mostly black, but the side pointed towards her was instead white.

L: Okay so. If we’re assuming that Hoid is at the Tenth Heightening (WHO KNOWS RIGHT), could he have been using Perfect Invocation here? Pulling colors from the black substance in this bottle to color the smoke, and leaving the remainder white? (This whole aspect of the magic system is strange though, seeing as how black is the ABSENCE of color and white is the PRESENCE of all colors, as shown through prisms, so shouldn’t drawing color out of something turn it black and not white…? But I digress.) Am I totally misreading how Perfect Invocation is supposed to work? I just feel like there’s got to be something to this black and white bottle. Otherwise, why would Sanderson have put it in here?!

AA: I have to admit that it would be awesome to have him using black sand to pull color for Awakening, but I’m reasonably sure that’s not what he’s doing. Now, I have no idea how he could have gotten hold of a bottle of sand from Taldain, since the planet is supposed to be very difficult to access. Still, there it is.

L: I knew I should have gotten around to reading those White Sand comics I’ve had lying around… Please tell me what I’m missing here, Alice!

AA: The sand of Taldain is naturally black, but in the presence of active investiture (which includes their sun, oddly enough), a microorganism in the sand makes it turn white. (FWIW, I’m pretty sure this is WoB information, and you wouldn’t actually get it from reading the story.) In this case, I’m pretty sure Shallan’s Lightweaving was what turned it white. If you recall, when Shallan first met Mraize in the warcamp where he had all those odd off-world artifacts, one was a vial of pale sand. We have a WoB that it wasn’t being charged by Shallan’s illusion in that case, but I think we’re supposed to register that the sand was already pale when she walked in, meaning it had been in the presence of active investiture already. Anyway, here the sand is white only on the side facing Shallan, so I think we’re supposed to recognize that detail.

L: That makes a lot more sense than my crazy Heightening speculations.

Quality Quotations

Someone needed to do something. Veil needed to do something. Infiltrating the Cult of Moments suddenly seemed too abstract. Couldn’t she do something directly for these poor people?

AA: Gee, can you spell “foreshadowing”?

Next week we’ll be delving into chapter 68, when Hoid and Shallan actually talk for a while. As always, feel free to join in the conversation in the comments below!

Alice is just happy to see signs of approaching spring. Yes, she’s still looking at unmelted snow piles from three weeks ago. Come on, sun!

Lyndsey is nearing completion on one of seven (yes you read that right) costumes she’s making for Anime Boston this year, because clearly she’s a raving lunatic. If you’re an aspiring author, a cosplayer, or just like geeky content, follow her work on Facebook or her website.

This week’s reread is featuring Hoid, so you just know it’s going to be full of witticisms and mysteries! Our favorite world-hopper’s never straight forward about anything, and he’s certainly in rare form this week as he drops hints about everything from his age to his role in the Cosmere. And along the way, he imparts a bit of wholesome advice to Shallan, nestled in amongst the jokes and snark.

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. There are multiple Cosmere hints scattered throughout the discussion, because Hoid, so be wary of that. But if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Shallan/Veil
WHERE: Kholinar, an inn in the marketplace
WHEN: 1174.1.10.3—Immediately after Chapter 67

Shallan and Wit/Hoid chat in an Inn.

(Phew, that was a tough one this week, guys. I think I need to go lie down for awhile.)

Truth, Love, and Defiance

Title:  Aim for the Sun

“Why are you here?”

“To open the Oathgate,” Shallan said. “Save the city.”

Pattern hummed.

“Lofty goals,” Wit said.

“What’s the point of goals, if not to spur you to something lofty?”

“Yes, yes. Aim for the sun. That way if you miss, at least your arrow will fall far away, and the person it kills will likely be someone you don’t know.”

AA: I really like the choice of title this week. For all the witty repartee, Shallan is sincere in her desire to do a very important thing—not for the sake of “having lofty goals” but because it desperately needs to be done, and she’s the tool best suited for the task. At the same time, considering what their small party is up against, it’s aiming very, very high. Naturally, Wit has just the right words… and a snarky tagline to keep it from being saccharine.

Heralds

Joker

L: This one’s pretty self-explanatory—Hoid’s here.

AA: Indeed. And he’s very much in wild-card mode, too.

Icon

Pattern

Epigraph

My research into the cognitive reflections of spren at the tower has been deeply illustrative. Some thought that the Sibling had withdrawn from men by intent—but I find counter to that theory.

—From drawer 1-1, first zircon

L: Oooooh now this is a juicy little tidbit. Before we get into the intent bit, I’d like to point out that it’s interesting that the Knights Radiant of old didn’t have a name for the Sibling either. Cultivation and Honor had proper names, sibling is more… a descriptor. Why is so little known about them? And what drew them away?!

Buy it Now

AA: I hadn’t thought about that before; apparently it’s been just “Sibling” for a long, long time. I’ll bet the Parsh had another name for them at one time; I’d sure like to know what it was! (Nightwatcher, too.) I have a feeling that any other name might give away more about the Sibling than Sanderson wants to reveal just yet. (Let me just say, if/when he does give us another name, he’d better include a good reason for leaving all the gemstone references as “Sibling”!)

This is the first of three gemstones in this particular drawer. We’ll deal with all three as a unit when we get to Chapter 70; this week we’ll just look at the first. Here we have an Elsecaller who’s been peeking into Shadesmar to see what the spren around the tower look like there. Why?? Were they being corrupted, like the ones we’re seeing in the main timeline in Kholinar? Did the Sibling withdraw to avoid contamination by Sja-anat? Was Odium attempting to annex the Sibling as “his superspren” to match NW/Cultivation and SF/Honor, causing the Sibling to recoil away from humanity and spren alike?

At this point, I’m beginning to think the Unmade were converging on Urithiru, maybe challenging the Sibling. We know (or think we know) that Re-Shephir was trapped in the cellar by a Lightweaver. Was Sja-anat nearby corrupting the spren? Was Moelach affecting the Truthwatchers’ visions? Was Nergaoul causing some of the flaring tempers that the gemstones hint at? Ah, so many questions.

Stories & Songs

“Are you one of them?” Shallan blurted out. “Are you a Herald, Wit?”

“Heavens, no,” Wit said. “I’m not stupid enough to get mixed up in religion again. The last seven times I tried it were all disasters. I believe there’s at least one god still worshipping me by accident.”

L: It’s so hard to know what’s legit and what’s BS with him. This could very well be real, for all we know.

AA: In the beta, someone suggested that he might be referring to the Court of Gods on Nalthis with that last remark. I’d thought of it in terms of the Shardic Vessels, but I have to admit, Nalthis is more likely. Also sort of hilarious, when you think about it!

AP: Count me in the camp that thinks he’s telling the truth, or at least truthiness. He’s opening up to Shallan for some reason. He’s telling her that he’s not what she thinks he is, and also that her world is much larger than she realizes. I have her pegged for more Cosmere involvement as a result, once her Rosharan adventures are over.

L: I could definitely see that. Hoid’s obviously taken quite a shine to her.

“Child, when [the Heralds] were but babes, I had already lived dozens of lifetimes. ‘Old’ is a word you use for worn shoes. I’m something else entirely.”

AA: I mean… it’s not like we didn’t know this, but he says it straight out! (… well, “straight” for Hoid. With him, all adjectives are relative.) It’s fascinating to get this glimpse into his past, especially with it all smashed together like this. Here’s young Shallan, trying to figure out how to function in the present, and the Unmade, who are much, much older, and the Heralds, who are apparently even older… and then there’s Hoid, who was already ancient when they were born.

“But others up on the platform actually know the spren—specifically, the creature known as the Heart of the Revel.”

“One of the Unmade.”

AP: Dun dun DUN! This will be the second direct Unmade encounter for Kholinar. (The first being Aesudan/Yelig-nar.)

Bruised & Broken

The prices raised Shallan’s eyebrows…

L: Just noting that Shallan has dropped out of “Veil” entirely here. And Wit notices this as well:

“You’re walking like a prim lighteyes, which looks silly in that costume. You’ll only be able to pull off a coat and a hat if you own them.”

“I know,” she said, grimacing. “The persona… fled once you recognized me.”

AA: I can’t help wondering, as I’m sure we’re supposed to: Was her persona affected by something magical about Hoid, or was she herself simply unable to maintain it? I guess I’m trying to figure out whether this is magic affecting her, or plain old human self-consciousness. Or, perhaps, in the face of someone who knows her deeply, her personality-disorder issues are squashed out by Truth.

AP: I don’t think she’s able to maintain a persona when the other person knows her. I don’t think the issues are squashed, and she does have some features of dissociative identity disorder, but she knows the personas are fictions. The main persona she has that is truly dissociative is Shallan the lighteyes vs. Shallan the childhood trauma victim (her core self).

L: That’s a good point, actually, Aubree. We often see her dropping her alternate personalities when she’s interacting with people she knows well, or who know her well—Adolin and Kaladin for the most part. This is usually when we see the most instances of her waffling on her name attribution in internal dialogue.

AA: It’s a good reminder that Shallan is an extremely unreliable narrator. She’s not maliciously lying to lead us astray, but her view of the world—and more especially, her view of herself—is just wrong. Right now, she still knows Veil is a disguise, even though she uses the word “persona” and is already beginning to credit “Veil” with actual personality traits. Later on, she’s going to get much worse… but we’ll talk about that when we get there.

“Some men, as they age, grow kinder. I am not one of those, for I have seen how the cosmere can mistreat the innocent—and that leaves me disinclined toward kindness. Some men, as they age, grow wiser. I am not one of those, for wisdom and I have always been at cross-purposes, and I have yet to learn the tongue in which she speaks. Some men, as they age, grow more cynical. I, fortunately, am not one of those. If I were, the very air would warp around me, sucking in all emotion, leaving only scorn.”

L: Hoid’s just so damn quotable.  But I put this here, in this section, mostly for that first bit about kindness. I always find it fascinating how writers deal with pseudo- or actual-immortals. It makes sense, in a way, that he would be disinclined towards kindness considering all the things he has seen (of which I am sure we know only the tiniest portion). But just because it’s understandable doesn’t necessarily make it right. And it’s worthwhile to note that Hoid actually is a great deal kinder than I think he wants to admit to himself. He obviously cares for Shallan. He helped Kaladin out of a rough spot. He seems to have a soft spot for the broken people left in the wake of the wars which sweep over the Cosmere. Because he’s a broken person himself as well, I wonder?

AP: What I like about the Cosmere is that we see examples of all of these! It’s practically filthy with immortals of one flavor or another, and they all respond to the challenge differently.

L: I have to admit, I’m partial to immortals (probably due to a certain film/TV show I loved when I was in my formative years). So I totally agree, I love that the Cosmere is simply overrun with them. Just as long as we never wind up with a Quickening situation…

“When I was young… I made a vow. … I said I’d always be there when I was needed.”

L: This could be taken so many different ways…

AP: I really want Hoid’s backstory! Especially since it seems that the one he is in Kholinar for is the spren…

L: Sucks that we’re going to be waiting a long time for it.

“Elhokar though, he worries about the wrong things. His father wore a simple crown because he needed no reminder of his authority. Elhokar wears a simple crown because he worries that something more lavish might make people look at it, instead of at him. He doesn’t want the competition.”

L: I’m really not sure if I agree with Wit’s assessment here. I find it more likely that he’s only wearing it because his father did and he’s trying so hard to keep traditions. Now… that’s not much better than what Wit suggested, not in comparison to Gavilar. Elhokar is, for certain, a weak king. But I think Wit’s doing him a disservice by not accepting the fact that he’s trying to change.

AP: Wit hasn’t been around for Elhokar’s self improvement plan. It’s very recent, and I think the assessment is accurate from when he left the shattered plains.

AA: It was at least accurate from the public face Elhokar put on. Well before the end of Words of Radiance, Elhokar came to Kaladin to seek answers, which implies that he’s been watching Kaladin and trying to figure out how to be all that. Since it was all internal, Wit didn’t see any of it; one of the last things he observed about Elhokar before he took off again was the temper tantrum at the arena, when Kaladin put his size 10 right in the middle of the carefully crafted Sadeas-trap. He stayed long enough to see Dalinar respond to Sadeas’s public twisting of the visions, and Elhokar being completely weak and powerless. So he has reason to think poorly of Elhokar, but I agree with Lyn—he’s wrong.

Places & Peoples

The only difference between Shallan’s meal and Wit’s was the sauce—hers sweet, his spicy, though his had the sauce in a cup at the side. Food supplies were tight, and the kitchen wasn’t preparing both masculine and feminine dishes.

AA: I had to note this, because it’s come up so many times in previous discussions. When resources are inadequate, you make the same basic food for everyone, and then (if you can) you make small amounts of sauce to distinguish between the men’s and the women’s.

Also, just because I’m curious, what’s with Wit getting Shallan to eat all the food?

Tight Butts and Coconuts

“Secure your wine well this evening, for the revolution will be swift, vengeful, and intoxicated!”

L: Someone remind me to petition Team Dragonsteel to put this on a shirt. I’d wear the heck out of it.

AP: I mean, a month before JordanCon is totally enough time to print shirts, right???

“You shouldn’t push people down the stairs for being sincere. You push people down the stairs for being stupid.”

L: Wise words indeed.

AP: Bad Lyn! Don’t push people down the stairs!

L: What if they’re little flights of stairs? Like… three or four steps?

AP: Then YEET!

L: As you wish.

“Sadeas counts twice.”

“Um… he’s dead, Wit.”

“What?” Wit sat up straight. … “Someone offed old Sadeas, and I missed it?”

L: Good to know that Wit’s got his priorities straight.

AP: Also a good reminder that Wit doesn’t know everything.

AA: Also, “I’d have applauded.” Heh. I don’t always agree with Wit, but we’re as one on this!

“He does grow on you, I suppose. Like a fungus.”

L: Gotta give it to him, he does have some great insults. (But not in-sluts.)

“Also, tell the innkeeper I disappeared in a puff of smoke. It will drive him crazy.”

L: I really do adore him.

AA: And at the same time, I get so frustrated. He manages to hide some good advice in his banter from time to time, but how many times has he turned a poignant moment-in-waiting into a joke, just when we thought we were going to learn something? Bah! (But I still love him.)

Cosmere Connections

“To be honest, ‘there’ has—so far—been a random location that is of absolutely no use to anyone.”

L: Is he implying that the place where he’s most needed is specific, and he knows where it is? Or is he speaking in generalizations? Argh, he makes my head hurt sometimes.

AP: I think that’s exactly what he’s saying. He knows where to go, but not why. Often his appearances are completely tangential to the main events on planet.

L: I hope that when we do wind up getting his story, it’s told something like Secret History or Ender’s Shadow where we see the same events playing out a second time, but from his perspective.

AP: I think that would be really awesome! I love those types of narrative shifts.

AA: There’d better be a little more backstory before we get to that part, though. I need to know more about Yolen, Adonalsium, and the Vessels before they were Vessels! But yes, seeing critical events of the (by then about 30) other books from his perspective would be marvy.

“I can know where I’m supposed to be, Shallan, but not always what I’m supposed to do there.”

L: This seems like he’s saying that it’s some sort of supernatural ability, like a… a premonition, or precognitive ability? Interestingly, Shallan calls him out on this later:

“Be wary of anyone who claims to be able to see the future, Shallan.”

“Except you, of course. Didn’t you say you can see where you need to be?”

“Be wary,” he repeated, “of anyone who claims to be able to see the future, Shallan.”

L: Yikes. That’s foreboding. Also… I wonder if he’s giving her a specific warning about the Truthwatchers, here? Or if he’s—again—speaking in more general terms.

AP: Why not both? I think that, as is often a flaw in precog characters, they see potential futures, but the characters have free will, so no future is set in stone (or metal).

AA: Truthwatchers, sure—meaning Renarin, at this point—but also Taravangian, Odium, and Wit himself. Probably even Cultivation. It could be that right here, Wit is vaguely hoping that Shallan will be able to pass this on to Renarin, to somehow help him start to realize that his visions are only those potential futures.

Interestingly enough, I just ran across a WoB on the subject—about how one person who sees the potential future and acts to change it can really mess up someone else who thought they saw the future. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is going to be more important later.

AP: We see that directly in Mistborn. Two atium burners neutralize one another.

“Yes, yes. I’m so storming clever that half the time, even I can’t follow what I’m talking about.”

L: Well, at least he realizes it.

“The cult reminds me of a group I knew long ago. Equally dangerous, equally foolish.”

L: Do you suppose this is something we’ve seen in another book, or is it something we haven’t seen in print yet? The only thing I can think of that comes even close are the Survivor’s followers, but they’re not really anything like the Cult of Moments in most respects…

AP: I also thought of the Church of the Survivor, but it could definitely be something we don’t know about yet.

L: Hoid’s intense dislike of Kelsier could definitely be playing into his annoyance at this particular cult following.

AA: My first thought was of the Vessels plotting to shatter Adonalsium, or possibly the rise of the Seventeenth Shard. Given the length of Hoid’s history, it could be just about anything. It could even be the Heralds. (I think the Envisagers are too recent to fit the comment.)

“Do you know anything about Wit?” she asked Pattern.

“No,” Pattern said. “He feels like… mmm… one of us.”

L: Maybe because he spends a fair amount of time in the cognitive realm?

AP: Good theory! Or perhaps because he’s “other”, not really human anymore as a result of being around too much investiture for too long.

L: So what you’re saying is, he’s basically a…

A Scrupulous Study of Spren

I can’t make the gate work; the spren of the fabrial won’t obey me.

AA: Given his apparent ability to get where he needs to go by mysterious magical means, I can’t think Hoid really cares that much about working the Oathgates. But it’s a great sneak peek at what the team is going to find when they end up in Shadesmar! Up till this moment, I don’t think we knew the Oathgates were controlled by specific spren, did we? And he specifically names it a fabrial, which the readers assumed and the characters weren’t sure of. I’m a little surprised Shallan didn’t react to some of this, but she was focused on the Cult and might not have been paying as much attention as she could have been.

Sheer Speculation

“There are two kinds of important men, Shallan. There are those who, when the boulder of time rolls towards them, stand up in front of it and hold out their hands. … Those men end up squished.”

L: It pains me ever so much to say this, but I think this is foreshadowing a death. Whether it’s Kaladin, Dalinar, or Adolin, I can’t say, but… (it literally pains me to type the words) my spheres are on Kaladin.

AP: Or it could be Elhokar. At this very moment Elhokar thinks that he can change the course of events in Kholinar just by showing up.

AA: I was thinking Elhokar too, although it’s pretty generally applicable. You could say it fit Gavilar. But I do think more of our beloved characters are going to die in the next two books. Kaladin seems a likely candidate, especially if you think of this as foreshadowing.

Oddly enough, the descriptive part also fits Vasher, but he didn’t end up squished. Also, it kind of fits past!Dalinar (though half the time he was the boulder), and he got pretty well squished; he just doesn’t remember it yet.

“Other men stand to the side when the boulder of time passes, but are quick to say, ‘See what I did! I made the boulder roll there. Don’t make me do it again! Those men end up getting everyone else squished.”

L: Kelsier. Elhokar.

Buy it Now

AA: Sadeas. Also Gavilar, sometimes. Also, maybe, possibly… Hoid?

“Is there not a third type of person?”

“There is, but they are oh so rare. These know they can’t stop the boulder. So they walk beside it, study it, and bide their time. Then they shove it—ever so slightly—to create a deviation in its path.

“These are the men… well, these are the men who actually change the world. And they terrify me. For men never see as far as they think they do.”

L: In a way, this is mirroring Kaladin’s actions in book 1. He made changes that he thought were small—but they affected the entire army in ways he didn’t foresee, because he couldn’t see the big picture. I wonder which of the three types Hoid sees himself as. I’d lean towards the third.

AP: I think you’re probably right. I also agree that Kaladin is in this group. Small actions can have major consequences. That’s a major recurring theme in Stormlight Archive as a whole: Lirin stealing the spheres, Kaladin volunteering for the army and winning a Shardblade, training the Bridgeman, Elhokar sending Moash’s grandparents to jail, Dalinar being a generally bad husband through carelessness, etc. Many of the characters’ actions are small individually, but set off huge avalanches of consequences.

AA: I think Hoid is actively trying to avoid being any of them, but really he either is, or has been, all three. Would he see the Seventeenth Shard as part of this group, or the second? Taravangian most definitely fits this list.

Quality Quotations

• “Having power is a terrible burden, the worst thing imaginable, except for every other alternative.”

AP: Preach!

• “Power is a knife,” Wit said, taking his seat. “A terrible, dangerous knife that can’t be wielded without cutting yourself.”

• “Hedonism has never been about enjoyment, Shallan, but the opposite. … It’s listening to beautiful music, performed so loud as to eliminate all subtlety–taking something beautiful and making it carnal.”

AA: So true.

• “You want to change the world, Shallan. That’s well and good. But be careful. The world predates you. She has seniority.”

There’s still a lot in this chapter that we didn’t address, so feel free to bring it all up in the comments! Next week, we’re tentatively only planning to tackle Chapter 69 unless we get a sudden charge of adrenaline and take Chapter 70 as well. Kaladin’s mission assignment coming up!

Alice is busy jumping from music to writing to doll-clothes to drama props. Always something new! Also, the beta readers are officially not apologizing for the Starsight release date moving to December.

Lyndsey is in a sequinned hell of her own making. If you’re an aspiring author, a cosplayer, or just like geeky content, follow her work on Facebook, find her on IG under @kiarrens, or check out her website.

Aubree is back from she can’t tell you where doing she can’t tell you what. Don’t pay any attention to her new spren.

Greetings, intrepid rereaders, and welcome back to the lovely besieged city of Kholinar! Home of secretive humans, creepy Cultists, creepier Unmade, and the occasional Voidbringer! Oh, yeah. This is the happening place to be, I tell you. This week, Our Heroes set out on another fact-finding mission, because So Much Is Not Known.

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. There’s no specific Cosmere discussion this week, but if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

AA: Also, because the grammar is driving me crazy, I’m starting a notation convention, at least for myself. When I’m referring to the Sibling, the pronoun will be capitalized: They, Their, Them. I’ve got to have some way to distinguish between “They, the Sibling” and “they, the Knights Radiant” or “they, the various spren.” Okay? Thanks.

Also also, Lyndsey is, regrettably, unable to join us this week. It’s a pity; she’s sure to have had some good stuff to say about the fashion!

Chapter Recap

WHO: Kaladin
WHERE: Kholinar
WHEN: 1174.1.10.5 (two days after Chapter 68)

Kaladin experiments with Stormlight to determine what will draw the Voidbringers, and determines that Lashing a rock is out of the question. The team returns to the tailor’s shop to change their clothing, and Shallan sets their disguises to match. The men are off to a party, which makes Kaladin no end of grumpy; he ducks out of the party gig and ends up meeting the Wall Guard.

Truth, Love, and Defiance

Title: Free Meal, No Strings

“I’d love to hear it. Free meal, no strings. We won’t press you into service. I give my oath.”

AA: I don’t know that there’s anything profound to say about this, other than that free anything with no strings is pretty hard to believe. It turns out to be sort of true: They don’t demand anything, but what he sees draws him irresistibly in, just because Kaladin is Kaladin. But that’s next week. This week is just promises.

Heralds

AA: Our sole Herald this week is Talenel, the Soldier, patron of the Stonewards, Herald of War. “Soldier” is probably plenty of reason for him to represent this chapter, since it’s all about Kaladin as bodyguard, culminating in his traipsing off for lunch with the Wall Guard.

Icon

Banner and Spears, for our boy Kaladin.

Epigraph

The wilting of plants and the general cooling of the air is disagreeable, yes, but some of the tower’s functions remain in place. The increased pressure, for example, persists.

—From drawer 1-1, second zircon

AA: These epigraphs are the primary source of information, so far, on what Urithiru was like when it was fully functional. Recalling that the previous sentence in this Elsecaller’s record was about what had caused the Sibling’s withdrawal, this strongly implies that Their absence is directly affecting the living conditions. (Also, that the Radiants knew the Sibling was involved in the tower’s functioning, and how it worked.) Plants that thrived (where they really shouldn’t) are wilting, and the air is cooling noticeably to match the elevation of the city. On the other hand, the air pressure isn’t as low as it ought to be, this high in the mountains—which handily answers one of the big reader complaints from the end of Words of Radiance as well as from the early-release discussions. It did seem odd that no one was noticing the thinner air, but apparently, that’s because it isn’t much thinner. It does, of course, leave us wondering just how these few functions are being maintained.

Buy it Now

(Speculation: Would it be possible that the Sibling somehow persuaded some windspren to maintain the atmospheric pressure and air circulation indefinitely? And would it also be windspren keeping the wells functional, or would that be different spren? Or am I completely out to lunch?)

AP: I’m not sure there are windspren in particular maintaining pressure, because I think that would be noticed. But then again, they haven’t really explored Urithiru very thoroughly, and they don’t know what they are looking for. My guess is some precursor to fabrials. I don’t think the radiants would need to trap spren to help them power the city; instead there was some mutual benefit to them doing so. So I agree about spren helping out to power Urithiru, but I think it extends beyond windspren.

AA: My thought was that the Sibling alone powered Urithiru when it was at peak functioning, but They knew They were being affected by something, and didn’t want to let the city completely power down while people were still trying to live there. To protect the humans, perhaps They enlisted the aid of the windspren, and/or various other spren, to at least keep some of the tower’s functions in place. Not sure that makes much sense, but the fact is that, even after hundreds of years, some of the critical needs of humans are still being met, and no one quite knows how.

Thematic Thoughts

AA: This week centers on the infiltration of Kholinar, as the team tries to balance the urgency of their mission with the need to gather information before they act. One aspect of that is testing their uses of Stormlight, to see what will draw the screaming spren and what won’t.

Kaladin drew in a small amount of Stormlight and stoked the tempest within.

…

… kneeling to infuse a small stone. He Lashed it upward just enough to make it tremble, but not enough to send it zipping into the air.

The eerie screams came soon after.

…

“I can hold Stormlight as long as I want without drawing attention,” Kaladin said. “The moment I Lash something, they come screaming.”

“And yet,” Adolin said, glancing at Shallan, “the disguises draw no attention.”

“Pattern says we’re quieter than him,” Shallan said, thumbing toward Kaladin.

AA: First off, it makes me happy to see that they’re proactively testing—and this time, doing it as a coordinated plan, rather than Shallan’s earlier solo effort back in Chapter 63. Second, I love learning about their results, and speculating along with them as to why things are working as they are.

Holding Stormlight: no problem.

Lightweaving, on herself or others, attached to a person or a gemstone: no problem.

Lashing, even a tiny bit: PROBLEM.

“Pattern says we’re quieter than him.” Does that mean Shallan is quieter than Kaladin, or that Lightweaving is quieter than Lashing? What would have happened if Kaladin had lashed himself instead of the rock? Would they have “heard” that? So many questions.

Oh, also, there’s this:

Kaladin had tested summoning her as a Blade earlier, and that hadn’t drawn the screamers, so he felt well-armed.

AA: So summoning a live Blade, at least, doesn’t trigger them. Have Adolin and Elhokar tested summoning their dead blades? I don’t recall. But they aren’t really fabrials, and they don’t activate any Surges, so I’d bet they’re okay.

There was a separate tent for people who were lighteyed but not landowners. Privileged, but not good enough to get in the doors to the actual party. In his role as a lighteyed bodyguard, that would be the place for Kaladin—but for some reason the thought of going in there made him feel sick.

AA: Is there Something Going On, or is this just more of Kaladin’s prejudice against lighteyes?  Is it just Kaladin’s “light/dark eyes issue”—he hates lighteyes in general so much that the thought of being one, and acknowledging it, makes him sick? Do we ever get more on this?

AP: I do think it is his prejudice showing through here. However, I wouldn’t dismiss it as his “issue.” He has very good reason for mistrust, based on his history. The caste system is deeply ingrained in Alethkar, and moving from one to another would be extremely uncomfortable. We only see a very few characters who are comfortable across class lines, and they are mainly soldiers.

AA: Personally, I think Kaladin takes the light/darkeyes division to an extreme in many cases, especially for a guy that was pretty close to the top of the darkeyes hierarchy. Then again, maybe for someone down at the sixth nahn, pretty much everyone was higher on the scale than they were, so maybe the eye color stratification is a little less noticeable. Kaladin was born high enough on the scale that the only people above him were first-nahn darkeyes… and all lighteyes. Maybe that’s part of why it’s more of an issue for him than for those farther down the scale? (Come to think of it, the same applies to Moash. He was born second nahn, too.)

I can understand that, having spent his life being highly aware of the line between light and dark eyes, and then having that rammed down his throat in very painful ways, it could be difficult to suddenly be the thing you’ve spent the last seven or eight years hating. My question was intended more to distinguish between “his personal feelings” and “something magicky” at the root of his feeling sick about going to the lower-lighteyes party.

AP: Oh, I definitely don’t think it’s something magical. I think it’s social conditioning. And I think the divisions are pretty extreme. It’s a caste system in which, in all but very rare instances (becoming a shardbearer), it’s impossible to change caste. That’s going to be uncomfortable to navigate. I don’t think his reactions are particularly extreme, because he had a false sense of security at second nahn, only to have it all snatched away.

Then he looked at Kaladin’s forehead and frowned.

Kaladin raised his hands to the brands there, which he could feel. But Shallan had put an illusion over those. Hadn’t she?

…

The soldiers started visibly. Yes, they could see the brands. Shallan’s illusion had worn off for some reason?

AA: Why did Shallan’s illusion fail to hold? Did Kaladin subconsciously drain the gemstone it was attached to? That’s the kind of thing that Sanderson almost always mentions, however casually the character does it, so I don’t think that’s it. Is he so resistant to change that even an illusion can’t stick to him if he doesn’t want it?

I sure seem to have a lot of questions this week…

AP: I wondered this as well. Could it be proximity? Did he get too far away from Shallan? When she set the illusion, she knew where they were going for the party. Did she unconsciously set a radius on the illusion that required less stormlight, and, when Kaladin unexpectedly goes wandering, it doesn’t hold?

Stories & Songs

The Voidbringer lingered, surrounded by dark energy, until horns nearby announced the Wall Guard approaching. The creature finally shot back into the air. People who had been hiding scuttled away, looking relieved to have escaped with their lives.

AA: This brief interaction stirs up all sorts of thoughts—primarily, pity for a people who live with this kind of thing hanging over their heads, quite literally, with no warning. The humans still technically control the city, and the Voidbringer leaves when the Wall Guard approaches. Even so, it’s clear that the flying Fused do pretty much whatever they want. I think the most pitiful part of the whole thing is the way people just seem to accept this as the new normal. It’s what humans do—we adapt—but it makes me sad to see people listlessly adapting to being terrorized.

In that spirit, I rather enjoyed watching the frustration of the Fused who couldn’t find the Surgebinding that drew the screamerspren. Neener neener.

AP: It’s really clear to me that the Fused could take the city if they wanted to. They just aren’t ready yet. And that would be terrifying to live with as well.

Relationships & Romances

“Your city is practically burning. What should you do? Throw a party, obviously.”

AA: I can’t remember the context, but I recall either reading or watching a fictional scene where the kingdom is starving, but they’re having a party in the palace; the king explains to the prince(ss) that in times like these, the king laughs loudest, and eats least, in order to keep the people hopeful. (Or something like that. Can anyone tell me what this is from?) I’d like to say this is what’s happening here, although with the Kholinar lighteyes, I suspect that it’s more trying to fool themselves into some kind of normality. Like most people do, in fact.

“Hey Skar,” Drehy said. “You ever go out drinking, even when at war?”

“Sure,” Skar said. “And back in my village, we’d have a dance in the stormshelter twice a month, even while boys were off fighting in border skirmishes.”

“It’s not the same,” Kaladin said. “You taking their side?”

“Are there sides?” Drehy asked.

AA: Oh, the burn. Tsssss…! Sure, I understand the irritation, but Kaladin does let his prejudice against lighteyes exaggerate his reactions. And I’m strongly with Drehy here: In a time like this, when you’ve got an actual nasty powerful enemy out there, you need to stop sniping at your own people. Especially, you need to stop griping about someone else’s activities when they aren’t doing anything all that different from what your friends do, and which you have no problem with if your friends are doing it.

AP: I agree that all the humans need to learn to work together. But in a city that is actually starving, the lighteyes deserve some degree of scorn for hoarding resources. I think that some influence of the Heart of the Revel is in play here. Yes, they want to forget the situation, and luckily there is an Unmade in the city willing to help them do exactly that! Even though it’s centered on the platform, I expect the influence goes well beyond into the city.

AA: The area in which I fully agree with Kaladin is this: Given that people are starving for lack of resources, it is immoral for the lighteyes to take more food than they need so they can party like nothing is wrong. We don’t know for sure that’s what’s happening, though if Skar’s rumors (quoted below) are true, they certainly have better food at the parties than most people normally get, and the fact that they have food to party with at all is a bit dodgy. If it’s just a bunch of people getting together for moral support, great; if it’s for ignoring the problems… meh; if it’s gluttonous consumption of food, it’s totally wrong. But you’re right, Aubree; If it’s that last, it probably is at least affected by the presence of the Unmade. It’s not much of an excuse.

“You look like you tripped and fell into a bucket of blue paint,” Kaladin said, “then tried to dry off with a handful of parched grass.”

“And you look like what the storm leaves behind,” Adolin said, passing by and patting Kaladin on the shoulder. “We like you anyway. Every boy has a favorite stick he found out in the yard after the rains.”

AA: Ouch. I think you deserved that, Kal… We’ve talked about Shallan’s humor a lot, and Adolin’s as well. This time it’s Kaladin trying to be funny, but not trying very hard, because everyone knows that he’s sneering at Adolin’s fashionista schtick. I’m not sure I think Adolin’s rejoinder is terribly funny, but he did manage to turn it to a joke rather than returning Kaladin’s sneer, so good on him. (You know, Kaladin is really being a pain today!)

AP: I want to point out that Adolin just called him a stick in the mud. Which is exactly what he is being.

Adolin stepped over to Skar and Drehy, clasping hands with each of them in turn. “You two looking forward to tonight?”

“Depends on how the food is in the darkeyed tent, sir,” Skar said.

“Swipe me something from the inner party,” Drehy said. “I hear they’ve got storming good pastries at those fancy lighteyes parties.”

“Sure. You need anything, Skar?”

“The head of my enemy, fashioned into a tankard for drinking,” Skar said. “Barring that, I’ll take a pastry or seven.”

“I’ll see what I can do. Keep your ears open for any good taverns that are still open. We can go out tomorrow.” He strode past Kaladin and tied on a side sword.

Kaladin frowned, looking to him, then to his bridgemen, then back at Adolin. “What?”

“What what?” Adolin asked.

“You’re going to go out drinking with bridgemen?” Kaladin said.

“Sure,” Adolin said. “Skar, Drehy, and I go way back.”

“We spent some time keeping His Highness from falling into chasms,” Skar said. “He repaid us with a bit of wine and good conversation.”

AA: Okay, I’ll be sappy here… because it just makes me happy to see the relationship between these three. (Also, can I giggle about Skar the Barbarian?) They function just fine in society as it is, and it makes not the least obstruction to a fast friendship and mutual respect. The fact that Kaladin seems categorically unable to comprehend “mutual respect” between third dahn and sixth nahn (or whatever bridgemen-turned-bodyguards are) is a sad reflection of his own issues.

AP: I’m not on board with everything being “just fine” because they can go out drinking together. The way the Alethi society is set up is a significant obstruction to this type of friendship, and this is notable for being rare. There is battlefield camaraderie and respect here that doesn’t typically exist for most other darkeyes/lighteyes relationships. I’m glad that Adolin is called out as not holding the same prejudices as most other lighteyes, but it’s far from common.

AA: Mmmm… I’m not a big fan of “forced leveling.” Now, before this comes out wrong, I’m not a big fan of this kind of social stratification, either: The idea that you’re stuck where you’re born is problematic at best. It should be noted that there are ways, especially for darkeyes, to move up the scale, and even for a family to move from nahn to dahn, but there is only one way we know of for an individual to change their eye color: spren bonding. Less rare now than it was, by a small margin, it’s obviously not available to most darkeyes.

The thing I appreciate about these guys is that they are willing to function, on a daily basis, in the world as it is. Would they like things to change? Sure, I think all three of them would, but they don’t have to spend all their time hating other people for it. I think there’s a LOT to be said for contentment (which is not the same as complacency, by the way) that is overlooked IRL as well as in fiction. These are the guys who don’t let envy of the other guy’s Stuff destroy their lives; they’ve got enough to be content, and don’t care if other people have more. Or, reversing for Adolin, he doesn’t let greed or arrogance stop him from treating everyone on their own merits, regardless of their position or their Stuff.

AP: I disagree here. I don’t think we are supposed to like the Alethi society as portrayed in the books, because it is deeply flawed. And in general, when there is an oppressive system, we expect characters to be unhappy with the oppressiveness. The fact that a few individuals can form a bond over having saved one another’s lives doesn’t mean it’s not a bad system, and doesn’t mean that they are happy with the way things are. In fact, Skar’s criticism of the lighteyes party shows that he is NOT content with the system, and I agree that he shouldn’t be. I don’t think contentment is a virtue here. It’s a sign that they (lighteyes, higher nahn darkeyes) are willing to overlook the really awful treatment of other humans because they have enough. This is a major sign of Adolin’s privilege. He’s a nice dude, but being a nice dude with a few darkeyes friends doesn’t absolve him of his complicity in perpetuating the system. I do think he has massive potential as an agent of change in Alethkar by virtue of his relationships with the former Bridgeman. He’s starting to see the cracks in the system, and his arc, based on his ability to be well liked and build relationships could absolutely make him a thought leader in changing things for the better.

AA: Oh, I’m not saying the Alethi caste system is good, at all; any enforced social structure that determines your position based on something you can’t choose or change (like your skin or eye color) is inherently flawed. And even though you can move up (or down!) within either the nahn or dahn structure, and by marriage or spren you can (on rare occasions) cross the border between structures, I’m not a fan of that kind of stratification. I’m not of fan of being complacent within that structure, either, when there are people who are actively suffering because of it. (See: the poor people being pushed out of the food lines.)

What I am a fan of is people who know how to be content (not complacent, content) when they have enough—people who are not driven by envy to demand that someone else give them things—and especially people who are able to see past the strata and respect another human being because of his character, not because of what he has or doesn’t have. Skar and Drehy know that, despite thirteen levels between them, Adolin is simply a good man who treats them like the good men they are, and they return the honor. Kaladin is still struggling with that.

“Maybe you should let me teach you how to use a side sword. You’re pretending to be head of our bodyguards tonight, and you’re lighteyed today. It looks strange for you to walk around without a side sword.”

“Maybe I’m one of those punchy guys.”

Adolin stopped in place and grinned at Kaladin. “Did you just say ‘punchy guys’?”

“You know, ardents who train to fight unarmed.”

“Hand to hand?”

“Hand to hand.”

“Right,” Adolin said. “Or ‘punchy guys,’ as everyone calls them.”

Kaladin met his eyes, then found himself grinning back. “It’s the academic term.”

“Sure. Like swordy fellows. Or spearish chaps.”

“I once knew a real axalacious bloke,” Kaladin said. “He was great at psychological fights.”

“Psychological fights?”

“He could really get inside someone’s head.”

Adolin frowned as they walked. “Get inside… Oh!” Adolin chuckled, slapping Kaladin on the back. “You talk like a girl sometimes. Um… I mean that as a compliment.”

“Thanks?”

AA: I don’t even have anything to say about this. I just wanted to quote it all. Because these two are… bizarrely priceless. Or perhaps pricelessly bizarre. Oy.

It was strange to look at Adolin in that bright outfit, stylish and glittering with golden thread, and hear him speak real battle sense.

When I was imprisoned for daring to accuse Amaram, he was the only lighteyes who stood up for me.

Adolin Kholin was simply a good person. Powder-blue clothing and all. You couldn’t hate a man like him; storms, you kind of had to like him.

AA: Okay, yes, it’s me going all mushy about this unlikely friendship as well. Kaladin tries so hard to resent Adolin. I mean, he actively tries sometimes! And in the end, he just can’t. I think it goes back to Adolin’s rare ability to simply not care about artificial boundaries; he treats everyone like a human being. (I was going to say “except Sadeas” but… nope. He got treated like a human being too. Just… like the nasty piece of work he was.)

Bruised & Broken

Adolin could get away with things like that. As he listened, Kaladin found himself feeling ashamed of his earlier attitude. The truth was, he was feeling pretty good these days. Yes, there was a war, and yes, the city was seriously stressed—but ever since he’d found his parents alive and well, he’d been feeling better.

That wasn’t so uncommon a feeling for him. He felt good lots of days. Trouble was, on the bad days, that was hard to remember. At those times, for some reason, he felt like he had always been in darkness, and always would be.

Why was it so hard to remember? Did he have to keep slipping back down? Why couldn’t he stay up here in the sunlight, where everyone else lived?

AA: Okay, okay. You’re right. Kaladin is unreasonable, but depression can do that to a person. I wish none of us knew what Kaladin was talking about… but anyone who’s lived with it knows exactly how that feels. I wonder… will he ever break free? What will it take?

AP: I thought this description of depression was so on point. When you have a bad day it seems like it will never ever be better. What makes me really sad about depictions of mental illness in the Stormlight Archive is that there is no medical treatment. We have so many options in our world to try to help people suffering from depression that just aren’t available to Kaladin & co. To me, the lack of treatment is almost more concerning than the disease. Kaladin has no way to stabilize his mood so that he can have more good days and fewer bad ones.

AA: It really is heartbreaking. Paige and I were speculating the other day: Do you suppose that in the days of the Radiants’ strength, there might have been a group within the Edgedancers or the Truthwatchers that specialized in mental health? We know that Stormlight Healing only affects the Physical, and then only to the extent that the Cognitive will allow. I still think it’s reasonable that there would have been those who chose to focus on emotional and mental healing, just using different tools.

AP: I sincerely hope that there are some in-world resources available for our characters. I’d be really dissatisfied if the answer ends up that “magic cures depression.”

Places & Peoples

It was like she was a storming surgeon, the way she lifted his arm and felt at his waist, muttering to herself. Kaladin had seen his father give physicals that were less invasive.

AA: Bahahaha! This cracks me up. In a setting like this, your tailor probably does know more about you than your doctor.

AP: I mean, it’s true tho.

“I thought that straight coats were still the style,” Adolin said. “I have a folio out of Liafor.”

“Those aren’t up to date,” Yokska said. “I was in Liafor last Midpeace, and they’re moving away from military styles. But they made those folios to sell uniforms at the Shattered Plains.”

“Storms! I had no idea how unfashionable I was being.”

AA: Oh noes!! All the shock and dismay! Poor Adolin was being unfashionable!! This is just so fun on all levels. The sneaky Liaforans know their marketing, all right.

Buy it Now

I did find it interesting that a mere six months ago, Yokska had traveled to Liafor. We haven’t really heard a lot about world travel, except for Rysn and Vstim, though of course it happens. It just stuck out to me that a Kholinar tailor would travel clear across the continent for her business. Then again, she’s Thaylen, and they do tend to travel more, it seems.

Majestic Motivations

“All right,” Elhokar said as they drew near. “Adolin and I will feel out the lighteyes for potential allies. Bridgemen, chat with those in the darkeyed guard tent, and see if you can discover anything about the Cult of Moments, or other oddities in the city.”

“Got it, Your Majesty,” Drehy said.

“Captain,” he said to Kaladin, “you’ll go to the lighteyed guard tent. See if you can—”

“—find out anything about this Highmarshal Azure person,” Kaladin said. “From the Wall Guard.”

“Yes. We will plan to stay relatively late, as intoxicated party guests might share more than sober ones.”

AA: He’s thinking pretty clearly here, giving directions, explaining things that others might not register, reviewing the plan so everyone is on the same page. Poor boy—he’s trying so hard, and he is making progress…

AP: Progress, yes, but it’s notable that Kaladin immediately disregards orders and goes wandering without telling his commanding officer about his plans. Kaladin doesn’t totally respect Elhokar as a leader yet.

AA: That really bugged me. I mean, story-wise, he makes better progress by accidentally running into the Wall Guard than he (likely) would have by going to the lighteyes’ tent, but I was annoyed by his unilateral decision to deviate from the plan. Some will say that Elhokar hasn’t yet earned authority, but Kaladin isn’t helping any.

A Scrupulous Study of Spren

The spren dispersed, vanishing as emotion spren often did.

AA: We’ve seen this happen: Shamespren or painspren or whatever pop into existence, and then just dissipate when the strength of the emotion has passed. Do spren associated with physical phenomena always move away visibly? I know we see windspren come and go, but I can’t think of any others whose arrival and departure are actually described for us. Anyone??

Onward ho! Join us in the comments, and be sure to come back next week as Kaladin eats stew with the Wall Guard and meets the mysterious Highmarshal Azure.

Alice is having fun making drama props and doll sweaters, or at least she hopes to be having fun once she works up the courage to tackle said props and sweaters. Also, if anyone is at Emerald City Comic Con today, keep your eyes open for a Wetlander sighting?

Aubree is preparing for the next highstorm by upgrading her WiFi router. Service in caves is notoriously spotty.

Well, hello there! You’re here? It must be Thursday again, then. Well, what a deal—we’ve got a new chapter to reread together! This one is all about Kaladin being surprised by a bunch of soldiers and their leader, so let’s get on in there and see what took him off guard.

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. This week we’ll be meeting a certain worldhopper from Nalthis, so of course we’ll talk about her all through the discussion. If you haven’t read Warbreaker and ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Kaladin
WHERE: Kholinar—Wall Guard barracks
WHEN: 1174.1.10.5 (immediately following Chapter 69)

Kaladin takes the Wall Guard up on their offer of a free meal with no strings, and enjoys eating stew with them (though it’s not as good as Rock’s, and they’re all lighteyes to boot). He talks with a handful of soldiers while they eat, stalling in the hopes of meeting this “Highmarshal Azure” person. It works, and he discovers to his shock that the Highmarshal is a woman. She takes him up to the wall to show him the besieging army and gives him a motivational speech, after which he returns to the lighteyes tent at the party and then accompanies the rest of the team back home.

Truth, Love, and Defiance

Title

“Highmarshal Azure” is pretty self-explanatory.

Heralds

Chana is our only Herald this week. She is associated with the role of Guard, the Order of Dustbringers, and the divine attributes Brave and Obedient. Considering that this chapter is all Kaladin hanging out with the Wall Guard, the choice is fairly obvious. When you think about his conversation with Azure, it’s even more obvious.

Icon

Banner and Spears for another Kaladin chapter

Epigraph

Something is happening to the Sibling. I agree this is true, but the division among the Knights Radiant is not to blame. Our perceived worthiness is a separate issue.

—From drawer 1-1, third zircon

AA: This is the third statement from this Elsecaller’s recording, and it’s building an interesting picture. They don’t necessarily read like a continuous statement, but I’ll post it here that way anyway, just to see what we see.

“My research into the cognitive reflections of the spren at the tower has been deeply illustrative. Some thought that the Sibling had withdrawn from men by intent—but I find counter to that theory. The wilting of plants and the general cooling of the air is disagreeable, yes, but some of the tower’s functions remain in place. The increased pressure, for example, persists. Something is happening to the Sibling. I agree this is true, but the division among the Knights Radiant is not to blame. Our perceived worthiness is a separate issue.”

Related to this, our own frequent flyer commenter Austin recently asked Brandon about the proximity of the enslavement of the parsh with the Recreance, and whether said enslavement played a role in the decision. Sanderson’s answer, paraphrased, is that:  Update: I’ve replaced my paraphrase with the exact quote as provided by Austin:

AR: How close is the enslavement of the Parshmen to the Recreance, timeline-wise?
BWS: Fairly close, as timeline issues go. But still many decades.
AR: Did it play any kind of factor in the decision?
BWS: Absolutely. Absolutely. But we’re not talking about it happening next year. But it was a factor, how about that?

ETA: That has an interesting effect on the speculation. The epigraphs are decades before the actual Recreance, and we don’t know quite how soon they proceed with the plan to trap Ba-Ado-Mishram. Hmmm. I expect this will shape some of our future discussion of the gemstone archive.

So… the spren seem to be affected by something, the Sibling is being pushed away, there is discord among the Radiants, and no one knows if or how those things are related. I like the theory that the Unmade are taking advantage of Honor’s (probably ongoing, at this point) splintering to try to infiltrate Urithiru. While we don’t see evidence in the archive of all the same kinds of issues Kholinar is facing, the presence of multiple Unmade would undoubtedly have an effect. If Sja-anat is there, she could be corrupting both sapient and natural spren. We know Re-Shephir was at some point actually trapped there by a Lightweaver. We don’t know much about the effects of several of the Unmade, but it certainly seems possible that a general air of dissatisfaction and disagreement might be a result of, say, an entity referred to as the Dustmother… (that would be Chemoarish, if you care).

Bruised & Broken

“Aren’t you afraid I’ll desert?” Kaladin asked. “Or worse, that I can’t control my temper? I might be dangerous.”

“Not as dangerous as being short manned,” Beard said. “You know how to kill people? That’s good enough for us.”

AA: I can’t help thinking that these men would fit right into Bridge Four, light eyes and all. They really are desperate; I think many of them are broken enough to become squires or Radiants themselves, if only they ever got the chance.

“This is Kal, sir!” Noro said. “Found him haunting the street outside. Deserter, with a shash brand.”

“On a lighteyes? Storms, man. Who did you kill?”

“It’s not the one that I killed that got me my brands, sir. It’s the one I didn’t kill.”

“That has the sound of a practiced explanation, soldier.”

“That’s because it is.”

AA: Heh. We’ve heard this explanation a time or two, all right.

AP: I do wonder if his reception would have been different if he were a darkeyes with the brand. It’s possible they are giving him some benefit of the doubt because he is a lighteyes. But they are definitely desperate for recruits, so maybe it wouldn’t have mattered.

AA: It’s an interesting question, though. Do his eyes ever go back to being dark while he’s with them? I don’t think so—but if they did, the reaction would be more concerning the change itself than his darkeyed status. I guess we’ll never know.

Squires & Sidekicks

Kaladin instantly loved this place, and the state of the men spoke highly of Highmarshal Azure.

…

… Kaladin now picked out another undercurrent in the room. Men sharpening weapons that had chips in them. Armorers repairing cuts in leather—cuts made by lances in battle. Conspicuously empty seats at most of the tables, with cups set at them.

These men had suffered losses.

AA: I do like watching Kaladin get the feel of this place. We get to learn so much about them through his observations.

“I know Amaram,” the man with hairy hands said. “I did secret missions for him, back in my operative days.”

Kaladin looked at him, surprised.

“Best to ignore Beard,” Lieutenant Noro said. “It’s what the rest of us do.”

AA: I really don’t have anything insightful to say about Beard here, but… I just needed to include him.

Kaladin got a second bowl of stew, and as he settled back into his place, he realized something with a shock.

Storms. They’re all lighteyes, aren’t they?

Every person in the room, from the cook to the armorers, to the soldiers doing dishes. In a group like this, everyone had a secondary duty, like armoring or field surgery. Kaladin hadn’t noticed their eyes. The place had felt so natural, so comfortable, that he’d assumed they were all darkeyed like him.

He knew that most lighteyed soldiers weren’t high officers. He’d been told that they were basically just people—he’d been told it over and over. Somehow, sitting in that room finally made the fact real to him.

AA: You’re forgetting something, Kaladin… you aren’t darkeyed any more. Honestly, sometimes he’s so determinedly darkeyed that I’m surprised even his bond can turn his eyes light.

Buy it Now

AP: It’s difficult to change your own self image. Kaladin is a darkeyes, he grew up as a darkeyes, and if his bond was broken for some reason, he would be a darkeyes again. This also makes me wonder, are lighteyes as a result of a nahel bond heritable? The people of Roshar have what we would consider to be unnatural eye colors, such as gold. Are these a result of their ancestors having brown eyes that were lightened by the bond?

AA: I have never figured out how the eye color caused by bonding (either a living or dead spren) gets into the DNA. Or maybe it doesn’t, but the fact that the bonding makes your eyes light gave everyone a reason to think that “light eyes” was the “best” form, and that became the de facto ruling class? I find that a singularly unsatisfactory explanation, though, because it requires an entire culture (several of them, even) to be incredibly stupid about agreeing on who is in charge.

Are you out there, Sah? Did they bring you and the others here? What of Sah’s little daughter, who had collected flowers and clutched playing cards like a treasured toy? Was Khen there, the parshwoman who had demanded Kaladin retain his freedom, despite being angry at him for the entire trip?

Winds send that they hadn’t been dragged further into this mess.

AA: Sigh.

AP: This makes me so sad, knowing what happens to them later.

Places & Peoples

Hush about it? Storms. This sort of thing simply didn’t happen in Vorin society. Not like in the ballads and stories. He’d been in three armies, and had never seen a woman holding a weapon. Even the Alethi scouts carried only knives. He’d half expected a riot when he’d armed Lyn and the others, although for Radiants, Jasnah and Shallan had already supplied precedent.

AP: Yaaasssss, I am here for it! I like how this was done in the narrative, and how they have to keep the “secret.” Alethi society is so messed up that they won’t promote the best people for the job, and reading about what a struggle it is for the women to be involved in any aspect of warfare can be frustrating. But to have the whole guard rally around Azure and do what they need to to preserve her authority and ability to command is awesome.

AA: It just occurred to me… Back in Words of Radiance, the assassin Liss carefully hid the fact that she possessed a Shardblade. (Shallan, of course, hid hers for many years as well, but that’s more complicated.) And we have the “masculine and feminine arts” shtick, which over time really shifted women away from even thinking about trying to get a Shardblade, or do any swordsmanship training. And yet… when it came down to the crunch, no one in the actual armies seemed to flip out about Shallan and Jasnah having Blades. Even when Shallan revealed her Blade to Vathah & co. when she killed Tyn, it seemed their reaction was more “you have a Shardblade!!” than “but you’re a girl!!” It’s almost like… when you’re fighting for your lives and homeland, you don’t really take time to care about who’s wielding the sword, if they’re good at what they do.

Not sure if that makes sense. But going forward, it’s absolutely certain that things will be changing. There are going to be a lot of women with Shardblades once the new Radiants start leveling up.

Tight Butts and Coconuts

“The highmarshal is a woman?” Kaladin hissed.

“We don’t talk about the marshal’s secret,” Beard said.

“Secret?” Kaladin said. “It’s pretty storming obvious.”

AP: It’s not though if you aren’t at the wall.

AA: But they keep hushing him even when it’s just Wall Guard. I wonder if they don’t talk about it—even among themselves—because they’re uncomfortable with it, or because they want to make sure no one slips and lets an outsider know.

Weighty Words

… his brands made something of a stir among them. Adolin and Elhokar finally emerged, their illusions intact. So what was wrong with Kaladin’s? The sphere Shallan had given him was still infused.

AA: We had fun talking about this in the comments, but we still have no proof. This eliminates one possibility: We know Kaladin didn’t drain the sphere carrying his illusion. Beyond that, we still don’t know for sure what messed up the illusion. This is obviously intentional: When someone asked Brandon about it, he said:

RAFO. (But don’t read too much into this particular RAFO.)

Whatever that means…

Meaningful/Moronic/Mundane Motivations

He went back to the mansion and forced himself to chat with some of the guards at the lighteyed tent, though he learned nothing, and his brands made something of a stir among them.

…

Kaladin gathered Drehy and Skar, then joined the king and Adolin as they started the walk home.

AA: So Kaladin goes back to the party, where he was supposed to be all along according to the plan. There are a couple of things I want to consider here…

One is the difference between the attitude toward his shash brand in the two different groups. The Wall Guard saw it as a good thing; they need dangerous men to face that army outside. The lighteyed bodyguards seem to find it much more disturbing—probably because their job is to guard their masters from people exactly like (they perceive) Kaladin, here within the city.

The other thing is the question of Kaladin playing fast and loose with the team plan. It’s pretty obvious that in terms of furthering their researches, he learned a lot more from going off script than he would have if he’d stuck to the plan. Does that justify his maverick tendencies—tendencies he would in no way tolerate in those who report to him? I could sometimes be tempted to accuse Brandon of Gary-Stuing Kaladin: When he disobeys orders and/or does his own thing, it generally turns out to have been a brilliant idea. The thing that mitigates against that accusation is that at least it sometimes fails because of other people’s behavior. (See also: Side Carry, which backfired spectacularly.) I wonder, though; was this intended to be a throw-away “Oh, that’s just the way it worked out” scenario, or are we supposed to be increasingly aware of Kaladin’s tendency to think that orders and plans don’t apply to him? And if the latter, where is this going…?

Cosmere Connections

He settled onto a long wooden bench, near a fidgety little ardent who was scribing glyphwards onto pieces of cloth for the men.

AA: I know, I’m probably just being paranoid, but… might this be Nazh? Any time there’s a random person who doesn’t seem to fit the scene, I get suspicious.

AP: I mean, maybe? But I don’t think he is out of place. Kholinar is a rough place for Ardents right now. The guard house is probably the safest place for him.

AA: Heh. Fair point. If you don’t want to be part of the whole Cult thing, you need some distance from the palace!

And then there’s this Highmarshal Azure person we were all waiting to meet.

“The highmarshal,” Noro said quickly, “is incredible. …

“He fought like a Voidbringer… We were almost overwhelmed, then Azure joined us, holding aloft a gleaming Shardblade. He rallied our numbers, inspired even the wounded to keep fighting. Storms. Felt like we had spren at our backs, holding us up, helping us fight.”

Kaladin narrowed his eyes. “You don’t say…”

AA: So what was that, anyway? It doesn’t sound like any Awakening I can think of, but it certainly sounds like Azure was doing something.

AP: She’s also definitely gotten a level up since we saw her last. No telling how many new tricks she’s learned.

The highmarshal wore an appropriately azure cloak—a lighter shade than the traditional Kholin blue—with a mail coif down around the neck and a helm carried in hand.

She was also a she.

Kaladin blinked in surprise, and heard a gasp from Syl up above.

AA: You know what I’m going to say, right? …  What was that? The mere fact of Azure turning out to be a woman might shock Kaladin, but hardly Syl. It seems like she must have seen something odd about Azure… but she never tells Kaladin what that is.

Buy it Now

AP: That’s a really good point! What did Syl notice?

He couldn’t place her age, though the scars probably made her look older than she really was.

AA: Heh. I really, really doubt that, Kaladin. She’s far older than you think! But what did she do to get those scars, and why weren’t they healed by Breaths? How much Breath (or Stormlight) is she holding now?

“Damnation me if I blame a man for deserting that,” Azure said.

AA: I kind of assume that this awkward wording is supposed to be a “foreigner!” wink? Because… that’s just so awkward.

“I want you to think,” Azure said. “I tell the men—this Wall Guard, this is redemption. If you fight here, nobody will care what you did before. Because they know if we fall, this city and this nation will be no more.”

AA: There’s a lot more to her speech, which culminates with the conviction that Kaladin will come back and join up. What happened to her in the intervening years. I so much want to know what happened since she walked out of the Hallandren palace.

AP: It also makes me wonder just how many years it has been. Do we have any kind of timeline on that?

AA: As far as I know, we don’t have a timeline. We know that the Nightblood novel comes after Warbreaker, obviously, and the only thing I could find is a WoB from 2016 where Brandon said that he didn’t think there were any books set between Nightblood and The Way of Kings, chronologically.

“I think,” Kaladin said, eyes narrowed, “I might have found us another Radiant.”

AA: Heh. Something like that. Sort of. A little bit.

I recall in the beta discussion, totally jokingly suggesting that maybe Azure could be Vivenna, though the best possibilities seemed to be a new Radiant, or maybe a Herald (Chana, likely) at a stretch. It seemed much too visible a position for any of the worldhoppers we’ve seen so far. I thought she was a Lightweaver or an Elsecaller, so she could Soulcast food without drawing the screamers (on the theory that it was mostly the fabrials that got their attention) and I was… sorta kinda almost halfway right in that she was at least the one who was organizing the supply of the food to the city. Wrong about the rest of it, though!

Quality Quotations

• But in here there’s always a stew bubbling and bread baking.

Okay, then. Let’s talk more in the comments! Next week, we’ll tackle chapter 71, going back in time with past!Dalinar as he arrives at Rathalas for the second time.

Alice is still busy with those drama props. High school musicals FTW! But at least the weather has warmed up, however temporarily.

Aubree is preparing for trouble, and make it double!

Welcome back to the Oathbringer reread, as we approach—with great trepidation—one flashback chapter closer to the moment when it all goes down. This week, though, we’re being baited by hints of hope, as Dalinar responds to Evi’s urging and makes an effort to at least talk with Tanalan.

Reminder: we’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. There are no Cosmere spoilers this week, but if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Past!Dalinar
WHERE: Rathalas (on the road, and after arrival)
WHEN: Eleven Years Ago (1162)

Dalinar and Evi talk in her carriage on the road to Rathalas. Desiring to make her happy, Dalinar approaches Tanalan and suggests that they find an accommodation which will keep his people alive. He offers a duel, which Tanalan refuses. Tanalan offers a different solution: They pretend that the entire affair was a ruse to draw out any highprinces who were willing to betray Gavilar; all Dalinar has to do is capture the caravan that just left a few hours ago.

Truth, Love, and Defiance

Title: A Sign of Humanity

“You spared that boy’s life once before.”

“An obvious mistake.”

“A sign of humanity, Dalinar…”

AA: I have to agree with Evi—the choice to spare the child’s life was a sign of humanity, and sort of an unexpected one. I’m really sad that it came back to bite him.

AP: I agree, but I totally expected this from a narrative standpoint. I really like the nuance that Sanderson provides. It’s never just black and white. Sparing the child was good, but it led to more war. Not that killing the child likely would have ended better. It likely would have inspired the people of Rathalas to rebel with a new charismatic leader in place. There are no easy answers.

Heralds

The sole Herald this week is Battar, the Counselor, patron of the Elsecallers, associated with the divine attributes Wise and Careful. This could be indicative of Evi as Dalinar’s counselor, urging him to refrain from killing. It could also refer to Dalinar’s choice to have a conversation with Tanalan, rather than going straight into battle mode.

Icon

The Inverse Kholin Shield indicates one of Dalinar’s flashbacks.

Relationships & Romances

He marched down from the west—having sent Adolin back to Kholinar—

AA: Just thought I’d throw that in: Adolin has gone back to the capital to further his education in ways other than those offered by battlefields.

AP: Yeah, I’m really glad that young Adolin wasn’t here for this.

He often heard her weeping inside the vehicle, though whenever she left it she was perfectly composed. She read letters, scribed his responses, and took notes at his meetings with generals. In every way, she was the perfect Alethi wife—and her unhappiness crushed his soul.

AA: I feel like I say this in every flashback now: Poor Evi. She’s trying so hard to fit in to her adopted culture, and she’s really doing a good job in public. But… she’s still herself, and that person is not very happy with certain Alethi habits—like all this “killing each other” shtick.

AP: The degree to which she has completely sublimated herself and her culture to fit into Alethi culture also makes me sad. She retains some of herself, but only in private, where no one else can see, and where it causes conflict with her husband, Of course, we as readers know that even as the “perfect Alethi wife” she was not fully accepted by the other Alethi women. So she is so, so alone for years. It’s heartbreaking.

“But—” She looked down, hands in her lap. “I’m sorry. I don’t want another argument.”

“I do,” Dalinar said. “I like it when you stand up for yourself. I like it when you fight.”

AA: Oh, Dalinar. You just really don’t understand your wife, do you, even after twenty years? She absolutely abhors conflict, and he thrives on it. I’m really torn on this. After twenty years, she should realize that the best way to get through to him is to stand up and argue vehemently with him. At the same time, that’s not who she is, and I’m not sure I think she should try to be.

Ugh. She needs to respect him enough to fight for what she wants, and he needs to love her enough not to demand that of her. I keep thinking that without the Thrill, and the Rift, they really could have had a good marriage eventually. The seeds are all there, but they never quite get to grow properly.

Bruised & Broken

“I see beauty in you, Dalinar Kholin. I see a great man struggling against a terrible one. And sometimes, you get this look in your eyes. A horrible, terrifying nothingness. Like you have become a creature with no heart, feasting upon souls to fill that void, dragging painspren in your wake. It haunts me, Dalinar.”

…

“You asked what I want. It is foolish, and I can see there is trouble here, that you have a duty. But… I do not wish to see you kill. Do not feed it.”

AA: I could be wrong, but I can’t help wondering if Evi can sense the Unmade. Is it possible that she was a nascent Surgebinder? Or is it just that she knows her husband well enough to recognize a change in him when the Thrill starts to affect him?

AP: The bloodlust created by the Thrill is noticeable, especially as compared to someone outside Alethkar. Evi has seen conflict before, and the way Dalinar (and the other Alethi, but especially Dalinar) acts is different and more extreme. I don’t know that she would have been able to say that it was a supernatural force for sure, but the description sure sounds that way.

AA: It’s also interesting that Dalinar wonders if she knows that he thinks of it as an outside entity. Later in the chapter, there’s a moment that becomes painful foreshadowing, both short- and long-term:

A sudden fire inside him raged against those words. Was he really going to such lengths to avoid the conflict he’d been so anticipating?

AA: That “fire” is going to drive him to survive the upcoming events, and also to massive destruction. Much later, he’s going to draw that fire in and quench it.

AP: Much, much later. What is really clear here is that like any other addict, he can fight against the need to get that high for a time, but he quickly gives into the Thrill again. The destruction of the Rift is so horrific, and I think we get a clear sense that without the Thrill events would have turned out much differently.

Buy it Now

AA: For starters, without the Thrill he’d probably have died in the ambush or on the trek back. But yes, once he got back, if he’d been able to get away from the Thrill, things could have been dramatically different.

Diagrams & Dastardly Designs

“Brightlord,” Teleb said, “a short time ago, a large guarded caravan left the Rift. We hadn’t the men to besiege the city, and you had ordered us not to engage. So I sent a scout team to tail them, men who know the area, but otherwise let the caravan escape.”

AA: In retrospect, it’s so obvious… The timing is too good to be coincidence.

AP: And “men who knew the area” are more likely to have sympathies with the locals.

AA: Oh… I hadn’t thought of that aspect. That makes me sad.

“One of your own is working against you,” Tanalan suddenly said. “The loyal highprinces? There’s a traitor among them.”

AA: My first thought is that this was a little too easy for Tanalan; why would he even have thought that Dalinar would talk to him, to hear this? But then I realized that he’s just taking the opportunity to reinforce the set-up that he started with the caravan noted above. He would know that Dalinar’s men would investigate it.

AP: It’s a really good gambit. Sow dissension among the highprinces.

“Unless, of course, this was really a ruse all along, a scheme arranged by your brother, you, and me,” Tanalan said. “A … false rebellion. Intended to trick disloyal highprinces into revealing themselves.”

“Perhaps my outrage was feigned,” Tanalan said. “Perhaps we have  been in touch since your attack here, all those years ago. You did spare my life, after all.”

AA: Play out the line…

AP: He’s obviously really good at thinking on his feet. He had a trap set up, and Dalinar is making it work much more effectively than Tanalan had ever planned.

“They couldn’t determine which one, but they claim to have seen someone in Shardplate among them.”

Shardplate? That made no sense.

Unless that is how he’s planning to see that we lose, Dalinar thought. That might not have been a simple supply caravan—it could be a flanking force in disguise.

A single Shardbearer hitting the back of his army while it was distracted could do incredible damage. Dalinar didn’t believe Tanalan, not completely. But… storms, if Sadeas secretly had sent one of his Shardbearers to the battlefield, Dalinar couldn’t just send a simple team of soldiers to deal with him.

AA: And the hook is set.

AP: And it makes sense to send a shardbearer after the group to investigate and deal with it. They just got really lucky that it was Dalinar himself. It’s a hook for the reader as well. We know present!Sadeas is a total heel and has betrayed Dalinar before. I completely believed that past!Sadeas would do the same.

AA: Oh, absolutely, Aubree. I fully believed it was possible—not only that Sadeas was willing to betray them, but that he’d have figured out a way to cover it up if it didn’t work.

The whole scheme, I have to admit, was clever. Even without the conversation, Dalinar would have had to worry about that Shardbearer, who just might turn around and sneak up behind him. Someone was going to have to go after him. And if the scouts had gotten closer (as Tanalan probably expected them to do), they’d have seen the “Sadeas” livery, meaning that Dalinar himself would probably be the one to check it out. The sad thing is that the ruse as presented would actually have worked out for Tanalan and his people, if it hadn’t been a trap. The city would have survived, as would Tanalan, his family… and Evi.

AP: Narratively, it’s just so good.

“Go back to our camp and compose a message to my brother saying that we may have brought the Rift to our side without bloodshed.” He paused, then added, “Tell him not to trust anyone. One of our closest allies may have betrayed us. I’m going to go find out.”

AA: Sigh.

AP: Yup.

Squires & Sidekicks

AA: It’s kind of fun (before we get to all the killings) to see Teleb working so closely with Dalinar here. It’s not Significant or anything, but I like seeing individuals who are part of his team for all these years.

Flora & Fauna

Eventually they reached the plains around the lake, crossing the riverbed—which was dry, except during storms. The rockbuds drank so fully of the local water supply, they’d grown to enormous sizes. Some were taller than a man’s waist, and the vines they produced were as thick as Dalinar’s wrist.

AA: Hey, looka here! We get to talk about the flora and fauna again! For all that this third book covers much more of the planet, the first two showed us much more of the stuff that grows on it. I suppose that’s because Sanderson has shifted from world-building to culture-building, as the story demands, but I do like these glimpses.

This, in particular, is a nice reminder that the Shattered Plains and Urithiru are not typical of the planet as a whole, with their freeze-dry barrenness. The lake is a stable feature, while the river only runs during storms (and probably the Weeping), but the water table is high enough to support some serious rockbud growth. I wonder if they’re a specific crop, or if these are wild vines.

Places & Peoples

She pulled her knees up against her chest. In here, she had undone and rolled back her safehand sleeve, displaying her long, elegant fingers.

“Isn’t this what you wanted?” Dalinar said, looking away from the safehand.

AA: I almost want to snicker at these two, but mostly they make me sad. Evi covers her left hand in public, as required by Vorin tradition, but when she’s alone she reverts to her western indifference toward the whole thing. This moment makes me really think about how horribly annoying it would be, after growing up without this tradition, to have spent the last twenty years having to do everything with one hand, and keep the other one all buttoned up inside a long sleeve all the time. It’s made even worse by the fact that she’s naturally left-handed.

Buy it Now

AP: It’s such a strange tradition, and so very effective at keeping the women in their very strict roles. I know the original intent was to keep the Shardblades from women, but how do you even create a cultural taboo like that? How do you get the first generation of women to go along with it? So many questions.

AA: It’s a little weird how fashions—and herd mentalities—are formed. I would imagine it was originally a matter of showing off: “See, I can do all I need to do with one hand tied behind my back wrapped up in my sleeve.” Given the competitive nature of Alethi, pretty soon every woman would be vying to prove that they could do it. Then all the men are cheering them on, so they’re showing off even more. The one I question is how they got the second generation of women to go along—the ones who are old enough to remember not doing this, and eager to prove that they can be “new and cool” somehow. Those would be the ones who I’d expect to throw off the stupidity and want to be free of the restriction. Once they went along with it, and reinforced it again, though… within four generations, it would be solid tradition, and when it’s reinforced by every aspect of your society so much that it becomes an actual taboo to show your left hand, that’s harder to break.

It also demonstrates how limited travel is from the eastern to the western parts of the continent. Sure, traders and merchants do it, but most people don’t, so they become more insular, poking fun at those who have different traditions. Remember back when Evi first showed up, Ialai and Navani thought it was so bizarre that she kept trying to eat with her safehand? We didn’t get comment from Evi, but I’m betting she was thinking how stupid and bizarre it was that she had to bundle her dominant hand up in a bag and not use it.

AP: But the men have completely bought into it too! How do you make a hand super sexy? So sexy that you can’t even look at your wife without blushing? And only the one hand. The other hand is not sexy. That’s a really strong taboo.

AA: Yes, it is. Okay, I’ll admit it: I think the “sexy safehand” pushes the limit of believability. At the same time, I think it’s a great narrative device, so… I choose to accept it anyway. Suspension of disbelief FTW.

Well, that’s what we’ve got this week. There’s surely a lot more to be said, so let’s have at it in the comments! Don’t forget to join us again next week for chapter 72—the ominously named Rockfall, back in Kholinar with Shallan and Co.

Alice is zipping from one thing to the next and sort of running in circles. Drama props, drama costumes, drama sets… But the sun is shining, so there’s that.

Aubree is spending time ruminating on the First Ideal.

Well, hello again! Fancy meeting y’all here on the Oathbringer reread! We’re back in Kholinar with the oh-so-clever infiltration team, at least one member of which is not doing a good job of staying unnoticed. Also, if you thought it was cool when Shallan got stabbed by that soldier, you’re going to love how she gets killed this week!

Reminder: we’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. There are no Cosmere discussion in the main article (though we make no promises about the comments), but if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Shallan
WHERE: Kholinar
WHEN: 1174.2.1.2 (Two days after the recon party in Chapters 69 and 70)

Shallan and her people infiltrate a local mansion to swipe their food, using multiple layers of Illusion. They get the food, but are discovered before they get away. Shallan is shot in the head with a crossbow bolt, but so terrifies the guards by doing weird things with her Illusions around the bolt that they all run away. She and her team proceed out into the city, where she gives all the food to starving people in a nominal effort to get the attention of the Cult of Moments.

Truth, Love, and Defiance

Title:  Rockfall

A former waterfall spilled down to her right, now made of crystal. The shape of flowing water crashed forever onto the stone floor, where it blossomed outward in a wave, brilliant and glistening. The mansion had changed hands dozens of times, and people called it Rockfall—despite the newest owner’s attempt over the last decade to rename it the incredibly boring Hadinal Keep.

AA: The reason for the mansion’s name is in the description, and oy! what an ostentatious thing to do. Create a bunch of four-story waterfalls solely to have them soulcast into other materials, so you can show off your wealth and power. Okay, then. The thing that’s incredibly ironic about this title choice is that, at the time it was suggested and upvoted in the beta, we had no clue what was going to happen in the next flashback chapter. Priceless.

Heralds

AA: Paliah is our only Herald this week. She’s the Scholar, patron of the Truthwatchers, associated with the divine attributes Learned and Giving. (She also strikes me as looking very angry, but that’s neither here nor there.)

AP: She doesn’t seem angry to me, all the heralds seem to have pretty neutral expressions. But that hair! Such volume!

AA: Also, I have absolutely no idea why she’s presiding over this chapter. I’ve got nothing. Okay, “giving” maybe for Shallan giving away the food at the end, but that’s pretty weak. Anyone got an idea?

Icon

Pattern, as the icon tells us that the chapter will focus on Shallan’s POV.

Epigraph

The Edgedancers are too busy relocating the tower’s servants and farmers to send a representative to record their thoughts in these gemstones.

I’ll do it for them, then. They are the ones who will be most displaced by this decision. The Radiants will be taken in by nations, but what of all these people now without homes?

—From drawer 4-17, second topaz

AA: I must say, this Stoneward has a very good point, whether he came to it on his own or in discussion with the Edgedancers for whom he speaks. Granted that in the “present” time, there aren’t very many Radiants occupying Urithiru, so virtually everyone there is either a soldier, a servant, or a merchant. But back in the day when it was full of Radiants, there would have been hundreds or thousands of ordinary people living there, managing crops and animals, cooking, cleaning, selling, buying, all those myriad activities that enable a civilization to function. The vast majority of them had probably grown up in the Tower—likely for many generations. They might know their ethnic heritage, but it’s doubtful that many of them had any significant ties to the nations they nominally “came from.” That would be the normal part… but what does happen to all the ordinary folk of a massive city when they are all being evacuated, with no apparent intent to ever return? I wonder where they went.

AP: It also emphasizes what a huge decision it was to abandon Urithiru. Whatever happened, they had time to get the staff out, but it was serious enough to make the effort to relocate everyone. I hope we get answers to what happened soon!

Stories & Songs

The city’s heartbeat was deep within these stones, old and slow. It had yet to realize something dark had moved in. A spren as ancient as it was. An urban disease.

AA: I love this description of Shallan “hearing” the heartbeat of the city itself; not the people of the city, but the single entity of City, of Kholinar. This is one of those times when the idea that everything has a cognitive component, a spren of its own, is just beautiful and fitting. So Shallan can sense the spren of the city, which is not (yet) perturbed by the presence of the Unmade. She doesn’t know yet that it’s Ashertmarn, the Heart of the Revel, but “urban disease” is a fitting description of its influence.

Buy it Now

AP: I wondered about that. Can Shallan feel the spren of the city because she is a Radiant? Or is this a “normal” Rosharan thing that anyone significantly attuned to the planet would be aware of? The next bit is also important here:

People didn’t speak of it; they avoided the palace, mentioned the queen only to complain about the ardent who had been killed.

AP: I do think they are able to feel it in some way. We didn’t know at the time, but the people are unconsciously avoiding the Queen and the palace as well because there is another Unmade there, even though we don’t know that yet.

The strange red lightning didn’t merely set fires or scorch the ground; it could break through rock, causing blasts of fragmenting stone.

AP: And then there is this tidbit. Why is it different? We have a lot of references to strange striated rocks, are they connected? Do they draw the Everstorm lightning? Considering that the normal Rosharan refuge from high storms are stone caves, this could be very important in the future.

AA: Oooooo… I hadn’t thought of that. It would be pretty cool if the reason the Everstorm damage affects Kholinar this way is because of the way it was made!

Places & Peoples

AA: It’s easy to see why the city is so tense. As if the parsh army and the refugees weren’t enough, plus the queen has clearly gone ‘round the twist, now they’ve got this new form of random destruction coming through every nine days—from the wrong direction, and doing the wrong kind of damage. (And if they only knew, there are three Unmade hanging out in the area making things weirder!)

One such strike had broken a gaping hole in the side of this ancient, celebrated mansion. It had been patched with an unsightly wooden wall that would be covered with crem, then finally bricked over.

AA: I just liked this description of how repairs are done. Honestly, though, when I read the wooden wall covered with crem, I expected that the whole thing would be soulcast to stone to match the other walls, at least under normal circumstances. I guess that would be more trouble than it’s worth now, anyway.

AP: That’s probably how it’s usually done. But right now there is a major lack of resources, and the soulcasters can’t be used.

Brightness Nananav—a middle-aged Alethi woman with a bun of hair practically as tall as she was—gestured at the boarded-up hole, and then at the floor. … “I won’t stand for them to be even a shade off. When you return with the repaired rugs, I’m going to set them beside the ones in other rooms to check!”

…

“These rugs were woven in Shinovar. They were made by a blind man who trained thirty years with a master weaver before being allowed to produce his own rugs! He died after finishing my commission, so there are no others like these.”

AA: And this is the point I was trying to get to. People are so bizarre. In the midst of the world swooping along in a handbasket with Damnation on the horizon, this lady is worried about the repairs to her rugs perfectly matching the originals.

AP: Which obviously can’t be done since they were one of a kind masterpieces made by a deceased artisan. It makes Shallan’s later portrayal not seem that far off.

Bruised & Broken

[Veil] and Vathah wore new faces. Hers was a version of Veil with too large a nose and dimpled cheeks. His was the face of a brutish man Shallan had seen in the market.

AA: In a way, this should go in Weighty Words, because technically it’s about Shallan using Illusions, and I almost put it in Squires & Sidekicks because at times I feel inclined to treat Veil as one of Shallan’s sidekicks, like Red, Vathah, and Ishnah. That’s really all I had to say about it, except that it’s interesting to note that for the moment, Shallan is still able to modify Veil’s appearance without getting too wigged out by her alternate personalities.

AP: It’s concerning that she feels the need to disguise Veil, who is herself a disguise for Shallan. This is further evidence of her mind continuing to fracture. Lies on top of lies, cryptics would be buzzing! And then this happens:

Veil took a deep breath, then let Shallan bleed back into existence. She quickly sketched Nananav from the glimpse earlier.

AP: Even though they are the same person, she needs to be “Shallan” in order to draw. Even though switching off her disguise could put her group in danger. She is losing her sense of self, and she doesn’t realize it yet.

AA: We’ve seen her do that before, to some extent, but the separation between personalities is widening dramatically.

She breathed out Stormlight, which washed over her, and became Veil fully. Then Veil became the woman who was not quite Veil, with the dimples. And then, layered on top of that, she became Nananav.

Arrogant. Talkative. Certain that everyone around her was just looking for a reason not to do things properly.

AA: Okay, there’s sort of a reason to layer the personalities like this, but it’s getting a bit ridiculous. Shallan, with Veil over her, then not-quite-Veil, then Nananav. Eventually she’ll drop the layers one at a time, if I recall correctly, so she can switch without having to recreate an illusion, but… yikes.

Why shouldn’t she be served by the best? She was a Knight Radiant. She shouldn’t have to put up with barely human deserters who looked like something Shallan would draw after a hard night drinking, and maybe while holding the pencil with her teeth.

The role is getting to you, a part of her whispered. Careful.

AA: We’ve seen Shallan lose herself in Veil before, but at least that was an imaginary person she’d crafted for long-term use with the Ghostbloods. This… this is getting creepy.

AP: I’m really concerned with Shallan’s super method acting:

Maybe she could move into Rockfall, act the part. And the former lady of the house? Well, she was an inferior version, obviously. Just deal with her, take her place. It would feel right, wouldn’t it?

With a chill, Veil let one layer of illusion drop. Storms… Storms. What had that been?

AP: What was that? It seems beyond just acting the part. Do her Orders powers (Lightweaving and Soulcasting) somehow combine to give her a supernatural insight into her subjects? That could be extremely useful.

AA: I’m not 100% sure, and I think we’ve talked about this before. There’s even a place, much earlier, where Shallan says that when she takes a Memory of someone, she takes a part of their soul. Something like that, anyway, though I might not have it quite verbatim. So maybe, maybe, she does actually make a Connection with their soul when she takes a Memory. But I can’t help thinking that it’s exacerbated and distorted by her personal mental issues, so that she’s almost not acting a part.

“Sorry,” Veil said, grabbing a sack of grain. “That woman’s head is a frightening place.”

“Well, I did say that Nananav is notoriously difficult.”

Yeah, Veil thought. But I was talking about Shallan.

AA: I’m not sure whether to sympathize with Veil or be frightened of what Shallan is doing to herself. Both, probably. I just can’t think it’s anything good to become the role you’re acting quite so thoroughly.

Shallan would have loved to linger and marvel at the artful Soulcasting. Fortunately, Veil was running this operation. Shallan… Shallan got lost in things. She’d get focused on details, or stick her head in the clouds and dream about the big picture. That comfortable middle, that safe place of moderation, was unfamiliar ground to her.

AA: You poor child. I think this is true, to an extent, but her solution is to create other people to occupy that middle ground, rather than learning to deal with it as herself. Poor child…

“Shallan/Nananav let her image distort, features sliding off her face, dripping down like paint running down a wall. Ordinary Nananav screamed and fled back toward the building. One of the guards loosed his crossbow, and the bolt took Shallan/Nananav right in the head.”

AP: Whoa. That’s some pretty intense illusion. I was expecting a stand-off between the two Nananavs. Not… whatever this was. It’s also interesting to note that the spren that Shallan conjured up are “wrongspren”—weird colored pools of blood and broken glass. I wonder if that was intentional or not.

AA: You really can’t blame Nananav for running. How very, very bizarre that would be! As for the wrongspren… I don’t know that she’d have thought to do it on purpose, but those are the things she’s been drawing lately, so I suppose it stands to reason that those are the ones she could use for Illusions most readily.

AP: And then we get to the head injury! It’s a good metric for us to learn exactly how much Stormlight is able to heal. Shallan obviously suffered a serious brain injury affecting speech and the left half of her body. So only half of a Radiant’s brain needs to be intact to heal them.

AA: Possibly not even that much; weren’t we told elsewhere that nothing but a severed or crushed head would kill them? So creepy, though:

She righted herself and looked back toward the soldiers, her face melting, the crossbow bolt sticking from her temple.

AA: If I were a guard, I’d run too.

Shallan let the illusions go, all of them, right down to Veil. Just normal, everyday Veil.

AP: Who is also an illusion. We are all worried about you, Shallan.

AA: Oh, so worried. Even the sidekicks are worried, in a rather hilarious way:

“Um, Veil?” Red said. “That crossbow bolt… the blood is staining your outfit.”

AA: “And also, I’m completely wigging out about the fact that you’re giving us orders with a crossbow bolt through your head, lady, but I’m trying real hard not to think about that part!!”

Veil didn’t know much of the Unmade. She’d never paid attention to the ardents on important matters, let alone when they spoke of old folktales and stories of Voidbringers. Shallan knew little more, and wanted to find a book about the subject, of course.

AA: Sigh. I mean, she’s been moving this direction for a long time, but when she’s dropped “all” the illusions “right down to Veil” and then keeps thinking about Shallan as another person, she’s seriously losing herself.

Tight Butts and Coconuts

She had Pattern quietly open the lock to the dumbwaiter down here, then sent him away to decoy a few servants who had been bringing wood into the bay. They pursued an image of a feral mink with a key in its mouth.

AA: At least occasionally, her imaginative Illusions crack me up. What an image!

Veil scrambled into the wagon’s seat, then slapped the chull with the steering reed. Her team, joined by Ishnah, charged back into the room and leapt into the wagon, which started moving. Step. By. Protracted. Step.

AA: Speaking of funny mental images… Kind of a bummer to have your getaway vehicle pulled by something that moves at a slow walk, when the people you’re trying to get away from are running. Just sayin’…

Muddled Motivations

Veil turned away, ashamed, thinking of the food she had hidden in the wagon. How much good could she do with all of that? How many tears could she dry, how many of the hungry cries of children could she silence?

Steady …

Infiltrating the Cult of Moments was a greater good than feeding a few mouths now. She needed this food to buy her way in. To investigate… the Heart of the Revel, as Wit had called it.

AA: This is one instance where I’m glad to see her mental conflict. She does need the food in order to investigate the things that are standing in the way of their overall mission, but I’d be worried if she didn’t even consider simply using it to feed the starving people.

“… In the meantime, do you know of anyone who could use a little extra food? People who are particularly nice or deserving, but who get overlooked by the grain rationing?… I’ve got extra to give away,” Veil explained.

AA: We’ll talk about this in a future chapter, but this is going to come back to bite—not just her, but everyone she tries to help. We’ll find out that it’s one of the situations where her other personalities, for all she puts into them, still don’t know anything Shallan doesn’t know. There may be an exception in that, as we discussed above, she might actually have Connection to the people she imitates from a Memory, but Veil is really just Shallan pretending.

By the evening, the cart was empty. Veil wasn’t certain if she could get the cult’s attention this way, but storms did it feel good to be doing something. Shallan could go off and study books, talk plots, and scheme. Veil would worry about the people who were actually starving.

AA: Well, there are schemes and there are schemes, I guess. It’s ironic that she thinks this is Veil’s clever way to give food to poor people with a facade of getting the Cult’s attention. In the end, she’ll fulfill the rationalized explanation, and regret the way she went about it.

A Scrupulous Study of Spren

What was that on the ceiling? She cocked her head at the strange sight of pools of liquid, dripping down.

Angerspren, she realized. Collecting there and then boiling through the floor. The larder was directly above them.

AA: I adore this one. We’ve talked before about how difficult it is to hide your emotions, when there are spren helpfully giving away your true feelings. We’ve also talked about how a spy would have to have extremely good self-control to avoid this; I’ll even admit that Shallan’s deep immersion would be helpful in drawing the “right” spren for her character. I’m not sure we’ve ever addressed the other side—how very useful it can be to see someone else’s emotions. In this case, they even get to see the angerspren being generated up in the pantry they just pilfered, which is an excellent bit of warning.

Okay, then. That was… fun. Just ask Vathah! Jump into the comments, and don’t forget to talk about some of the things we left out of our discussion! There was plenty more good fodder for conversation. Next week, we’ll stay in Kholinar with Kaladin and the Wall Guard in Chapter 73.

Alice is still not done with those drama props and sets, but the show is coming next week. Whee!

Aubree is slightly overwhelmed with JordanCon prep work.

Greetings, O friends of the Cosmere! Welcome back to another Oathbringer reread, wherein there are not many shenanigans—unless you count paradigm shifts. If you do, this chapter is positively awash with hijinks as subconscious changes become conscious, and assumptions are challenged by reality. Okay, so it’s mostly just Kaladin chatting with the Wall Guard guys, but it’s good stuff.

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. This week, there are very minor Cosmere spoilers, mostly having to do with Warbreaker. But if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

Also, y’all are stuck with me this week. Lyndsey is still frantically trying to do All The Things (including some gnarly costuming, natch) in preparation for Anime Boston, while Aubree got an attack of food poisoning at the critical juncture. So… our usual witty badinage is absent this week, and you get a solo from yours truly.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Kaladin
WHERE: Kholinar Wall
WHEN: 1174.2.2.2 (One week after Chapter 72; two weeks after arrival in Kholinar)

Kaladin, having joined the Wall Guard, walks the patrol beat inside the wall with Lieutenant Noro’s squad. He mostly enjoys the banter, obtaining new perspectives on how other people view the social stratification of their society, then helps guard a supply wagon until they turn it over to Velelant’s soldiers. They return to the barracks, then are sent up to the top of the Wall for duty after a short break. As Kaladin arrives, a group of Fused attack the Wall, but in a different location, apparently continuing to test the defenses. Kaladin is reminded in multiple ways that he has neither responsibility nor authority in this setting.

Truth, Love, and Defiance

Title: Telling Which Stories

Beard glanced at his arm, where he wore the traditional white armband that you’d tie a glyphward around. His was blank. “Yeah,” he said, shoving his hand in his coat pocket.

“Why not?” Kaladin said.

Beard shrugged. “Let’s just say, I know a lot about telling which stories have been made up. Nobody’s watching over us, Kal.”

I did find it amusing that Beard considers himself an expert on identifying made-up stories when he hears them. In a way, he is an expert—if only in the sense that he knows which of his stories are inventions and which are true. I suppose it works, in the “takes one to know one” category of fabrication.

Heralds

Talenel and Battar grace the chapter arch this week. Talenel is pretty obvious, as the Soldier and the Herald of War. He’s also the patron Herald of the Stonewards and is associated with the divine attributes of Dependable and Resourceful, but Soldier is enough to justify his presence. Battar is a little more difficult; she’s the Counselor, patron of the Elsecallers, and associated with the attributes Wise and Careful. It occurs to me that there’s a lot of discussion about Soulcasting in this chapter, which is something Elsecallers can do. Is that it? Or is it about Kaladin needing to exercise a lot of wisdom and caution in playing this role?

Icon

The Banner and Spears icon indicates a Kaladin chapter.

Epigraph

I am worried about the tower’s protections failing. If we are not safe from the Unmade here, then where?

Buy it Now

—From drawer 3-11, garnet

Hooooo boy. What were the tower’s protections? Are we talking about things like the temperature and pressure manipulation that makes it a comfortable place for humans to live, or are there other issues? Given the second sentence, I have to think that we’re talking about some sort of built-in magic protections, but I can’t quite think what.

The biggest question I’d like to ask, though, is whether this is when Re-Shephir showed up in the basement in the first place. Did she start to come and go down there, and was eventually trapped there by a Lightweaver before (or soon after) they abandoned the tower? I’m kind of betting on that, because it wasn’t all that much later when the Recreance happened, after which there wouldn’t have been anyone left to imprison her.

The other curiosity, assuming I’m on the right track with that one, is whether the presence of Unmade was a factor in the withdrawal of the Sibling, or vice versa. It might be that the Sibling’s retreat gave the Unmade ideas about taking up residence, or (referring back to my Unmade theory), it could be that the Sibling was pulling away to avoid being tainted or subverted by the Unmade and/or Odium. I sure would like to know…

Relationships & (B)Romances

This piece of the chapter could be broken up into different units—Squires & Sidekicks, Places & Peoples, Relationships & Romances, Tight Butts & Coconuts… However, for the sake of coherence, I’m putting it here, because I love the way Kaladin’s thinking is challenged and reshaped due to his growing friendship with Adolin.

Aside from (or along with) the momentary hilarity of this set-up, it was pure gold. In summary, the squad saw what appeared to be a “middler” who was lounging on a street corner wearing a pretty yellow suit, and they had all sorts of wisecracks and complaints about what a waste of skin someone like that was.

Kal grinned, glanced over his shoulder, looking for whoever Beard and Ved had spotted. Must be someone silly to provoke such a strong …
It was Adolin.

(I might as well note right here that Adolin was wearing a disguise, but something—either the face, the suit, the location, or the fact that he was guarded by Drehy—told Kaladin that it was indeed Adolin. It was a prearranged meeting; Adolin gave him the “all’s well” nod rather than the “return to base” headshake.)

Anyway… the other men continue to snicker or complain about people like “that roosting chicken,” and Kaladin finds himself bothered by it.

“But,” Kaladin said, “how can you say that? I mean, he’s lighteyed. Like us.” He winced. Did that sound fake? It sure is nice being lighteyed as I, of course, have light eyes—like you, my eyes are lighter than the dark eyes of darkeyes. He had to summon Syl several times a day to keep his eye color from changing.

Owwww. Similar to Shallan as Veil, Kaladin is playing a role he doesn’t know; unlike Shallan, he’s self-aware—even self-conscious—about how much he doesn’t know about his assumed role. But oh, my stars and buttons, that was awkward. Yes, dear boy, that sounded very, very fake!

Incidentally, I’m curious about his summoning Syl while being part of the Wall Guard. Does she manifest as a very, very tiny Shardblade so no one notices? A little Shard-pocket-knife? Or does he have to go to the privy so he can be alone? I’m sure she’d have a few choice comments on that situation. The logistical possibilities are… amusing.

“Like us?” Beard said. “Kal, what crevasse have you been living in? Are the middlers actually useful where you come from?”

And just like that, all of Kaladin’s assumptions about the huge differences between lighteyes and darkeyes come crashing down. He had this weird notion that all darkeyes are one group, and all lighteyes are one group, and the second group looks down on the first group en masse. Um… not so much, no. He should have known better, given the social differences between his family, at second nahn, and the rest of Hearthstone, who were fourth or fifth; with plenty of evidence that the levels mattered among darkeyes, it only makes sense that they matter among lighteyes too, but he doesn’t seem to have ever considered that. As he thinks here,

to him, lighteyes had always just been lighteyes.

Now he’s forced to realize that the “tenners”—those of the tenth dahn—have much the same attitude toward “middlers”—those of the sixth or seventh dahn—as the village children of Hearthstone once had toward him: a sort of “the useless gits think they’re so much better than us” sneer. It’s borne in on him when he suggests that they could recruit Adolin, given that he’s wearing a sword and might be able to fight; they look at him like he’s lost his marbles, and explain the realities of life.

There was an entire world represented here that Kaladin had never seen, despite it residing right next door to him.

I know, people get tired of me ranting at Kaladin for his “classist” attitudes, but honestly. He’s way too good at deciding how other people think, and being completely wrong. It’s true of a large portion of his society, of course, but we’re not in their heads, we’re in his. Which is, of course, why I love this whole scene so much: He’s coming face to face with realities he never even considered, and discovering that people don’t necessarily fit in the neat little boxes he’d stuffed them in. (What can I say—I have a deep-seated dislike of compartmentalizing people according to some trait that is completely out of their control, and then expecting them to all act and think only as members of that little group. It’s a complete denial of the worth of an individual; and besides, it’s stupid, because people are bigger than that.)

And this is the best, best, best part…:

On one hand, he wanted to tell them about Amaram and rant about the injustices done—repeatedly—to those he loved. At the same time … they were mocking Adolin Kholin, who had a shot at the title of best swordsman in all of Alethkar. Yes, his suit was a little bright—but if they would merely spend five minutes talking to him, they’d see he wasn’t so bad.

This makes me laugh so much. After all the time they spent sniping at each other with “princeling” and “bridgeboy,” Kaladin is discovering that he actually has a whole lot of respect and liking for Adolin. I could be wrong, but I don’t think his conflict is just that they’re mocking a great swordsman; I think Kaladin is upset that his friend is being mocked. The fact that he can’t tell the others the truth probably makes it worse. It’s worth pointing out, though, that due to his own prejudices it took Kaladin a lot more than five minutes… at least to acknowledge that Adolin “wasn’t so bad.”

Now all this is not to say that the tenners aren’t (at least partially) right about the middlers; it’s a fair bet that a whole lot of them are pretty useless. It’s implied that many of the middle-dahn men go into the military, where they (probably) either become decent soldiers and officers, or get themselves killed. The Guard is specifically poking fun at the ones who don’t do military service; they stay home, follow fashion trends, and have parties. Even worse,

We lost the real highlords in the riots or to the palace.

These men have had experience with good leadership. They know that the current leaders are the ones who were either too cowardly to oppose the queen’s excesses in the first place, or have only risen to their current roles as replacements for those with the courage to try. Confidence-inspiring, this is not.

Squires & Sidekicks

Clearly, we’re going to be spending a lot of time in this section this week. Most of what happens is all about Kaladin getting to know the Wall Guard guys, so… here we are.

“Stuff it, Beard,” Ved said. “You did not meet the Blackthorn.”

“I did!” the other soldier said. “He complimented me on my uniform, and gave me his own knife. For valor.”

“So THAT’S where that knife went that Dalinar was looking for in the Highstorm flashback ;)”

— Jory Phillips on the Oathbringer beta read

Sorry, I couldn’t resist sharing that one…

He had joined the Wall Guard officially upon Elhokar’s orders, and had promptly been added to Lieutenant Noro’s squad. It felt almost … cheap to be part of the group so quickly, after the effort it had been to forge Bridge Four.

This one really resonated for me. After watching Kaladin’s struggles and sacrifices to bring Bridge Four into a cohesive group, this did feel too easy. On the other hand, it makes sense. Bridge Four was a bunch of slaves who expected to die every time they left the camp, had no reason to trust one another, and only went on living because it was, maybe, marginally better than dying. The only purpose they served was to enable their highprince to get richer if his soldiers could win a battle, or forestall it by getting there first—and of course they had no hope of seeing any of those riches themselves. “Platoon Seven, Squad Two”—which definitely doesn’t have the same ring to it as Bridge Four!—is a bunch of guys who signed on to the Wall Guard. Sure, some of them don’t have stellar backgrounds, and they’re mostly the lowest dahn possible, but they’re here because they chose to be. They have training as soldiers, and they’re defending their home and/or their capital city against an army of fairy-tale horrors turned to life. They’re already a cohesive force, and they are glad to recruit an obviously capable soldier.

Well, all that, and it wouldn’t be very good writing to reproduce the Bridge Four scenario every other book.

Along with Beard, Ved, and Noro, the squad included a heavyset man named Alaward and a friendly man named Vaceslv—Alethi, but with obvious Thaylen heritage.

Great. Now we have names for the guys that are going to die in the upcoming battle. ::sniff::

He’d been given a side sword to carry at his right, a truncheon to carry at his left, and a small round shield. The first thing the Wall Guard had taught him was how to draw the sword by reaching down with his right hand—not lowering his shield—and pulling it free of the sheath.

This threw me off for a bit. Aside from being reasonably certain that left and right are switched up, I had forgotten that Kaladin never really did spend any time learning to fight with a sword. He learned some about fighting against a Shardblade, and Syl has become a Blade occasionally—but that’s been mostly for show. For all Adolin’s offers to teach him, Kaladin just never quite got around to learning the basics of using a sword in battle. It took the Wall Guard and a bunch of tenners to convince him there was anything he really needed to learn.

“…But the highmarshal knows what to do. I suspect that if we didn’t share with people like Velalant, we’d have to fight them off from seizing the grain. At least this way, people are eventually getting fed, and we can watch the wall.”

They talked like that a lot. Holding the city wall was their job, and if they looked too far afield—tried too hard to police the city or bring down the cult—they’d lose their focus. The city had to stand. Even if it burned inside, it had to stand.

That’s a tough one.

“… But first thing that Azure did when he took command? Had us attack the low monastery, by the eastern gates, away from the palace. I know men from other companies who were on that assault. The place had been overrun by rioters.”

“They had a Soulcaster, didn’t they?”

Beard nodded. “Only one in the city that wasn’t at the palace when it … you know.”

Beard doesn’t know, I think, just how they are able to use the Soulcaster without drawing the screamers, but at least we know now that they have a fabrial.

“Form up!” Kaladin shouted, right before Noro did it.

Storms. I’m not their commander. Feeling like an idiot, Kaladin took his own pike…

Oops. During the wait, while the Fused are attacking other sections of the wall, Kaladin has to forcibly restrain himself from issuing orders; each time, Lieutenant Noro says much the same thing he was thinking, just… more slowly, more relaxed, and with too much explanation. After the attack is over, he has to be reminded that Kholinar has plenty of surgeons to care for the wounded; his “field medicine training” would not be needed.

I have mixed reactions to this. For the first part, Noro may be an okay commander for guards on patrol, but it seems to me that he wouldn’t be a very good leader on a battlefield. At least compared to Kaladin, he seems very slow to issue orders or to realize when his men need a firm hand. I really feel kind of bad for Kaladin; it’s really frustrating to have to work for someone who’s not as good at their job as you are!

The surgeon’s question, though, really makes me wonder some things. As part of Sadeas’s bridge crews, the only medical care they got was what they did themselves, and Kaladin’s “field medicine”—a.k.a. genuine surgical training that he had to pretend was just something he picked up along the way—saved several lives. But what about his time in Amaram’s army? Did they not have full medical units there? What about his time as Dalinar’s bodyguard team? Why does it come as such a surprise to him that there are plenty of actual, trained surgeons—especially in the capital city—to deal with any wounded? Is it just because he’s off-balance, or is it that he’s not used to having adequate medical care in the armies? Is it likely that even in the armies, the lighteyes had lots of surgeons, while the darkeyes only got treatment after the lighteyes were all cared for? If that’s the case, then field medicine would be the only way a lot of darkeyed soldiers would survive long enough for the “real surgeons” to get to them.

Places & Peoples

It felt wrong to have to defend themselves from their own people—brought back memories of being in Amaram’s army, bivouacking near towns. Everyone had always talked about the glories of the army and the fight on the Shattered Plains. And yet, once towns got done gawking, they transitioned to hostility with remarkable speed. An army was the sort of thing everyone wanted to have, so long as it was off doing important things elsewhere.

Yep yep. I think a lot of our RL veterans could speak to this, in more ways than one.

“We’ll be fine. The good people know this food goes to them eventually.”

Yes, after they wait hours in line at Velalant’s distribution stations.

Apparently the Guard are unaware that these people really might not get any of the food later. They haven’t seen what Shallan observed, about the poor people getting tossed out of line on various pretexts so that the servants of the lighteyes can get theirs first.

Tight Butts and Coconuts

“Half of those belong to the cult anyway,” Beard noted. “One of these days, I’ll have to infiltrate that. Might have to marry their high priestess, but let me tell you, I’m terrible in a harem. Last time, the other men grew jealous of me taking all the priestess’s attention.”

Beard, you’re a nutcase. Heh.

Noro was the only one in the squad who wore a beard, though his wasn’t exactly inspiring. Rock would have laughed it to shame and euthanized it with a razor and some soap.

LOL.

Weighty Words

The two kept trying to get Kaladin to play cards with them.

It was an uncomfortable reminder of Sah and the parshmen.

This may seem like an odd place for such a quotation, but Sanderson is setting up the conflict which, a few chapters from now, will paralyze Kaladin in battle and will be one of the keys to his inability to speak his Fourth Ideal. Right now, he just feels uncomfortable with the parallels between his different groups, but it’s going to get far worse than discomfort. Poor Windrunner…

Maddened Motivations

Farther into the city—obscured by the gathering crowds—a group of people approached in stark violet, with masks obscuring their faces. Kaladin watched uncomfortably as they started whipping their own forearms. Drawing painspren, which climbed from the ground around them, like hands missing the skin.

Except these were too large, and the wrong color, and … and didn’t seem human.

“I prayed to the spren of the night and they came to me!” a man at their forefront shouted, raising hands high. “They rid me of my pain!”

“Oh no…” Syl whispered.

“Embrace them! The spren of changes! The spren of a new storm, a new land. A new people!”

There is just so much wrong here. A cult so driven by sensation—any sensation—that they go in for public self-flagellation is bad enough. The fact that they’re drawing the corrupted painspren doesn’t help any. The claim that “the spren of the night” could rid them of their pain… that’s totally creepy. What is he talking about? Are they dealing with Odium-spren and the whole “give me your pain” thing here, setting us up for the book’s ending? And just what is it that makes Syl so worried? Is she seeing Voidspren among them? So many questions!

It would have been easy to fight that crowd—they were basically unarmed. But while training prepared you for the mechanics of the fight, the emotions were another thing entirely. Syl huddled on his shoulder, staring back along the street.

I don’t really have anything to say about this; it just seemed necessary to include it.

The palace, ever in gloom, dominated the far side. The Wall Guard barely patrolled the section of wall that passed behind it.

For all that it seems odd not to patrol the wall behind the palace, it’s probably a storming good thing they don’t. Last thing the city needs is for the Wall Guard to fall prey to the assorted Unmade hanging out in that area.

Cosmere Connections

“Have you noticed the odd thing about her Shardblade? No gemstone on the pommel or crossguard.”

…

Aside from his fellow Radiants’ Blades, he’d seen one Shardblade before that didn’t have a gemstone on it. The Blade of the Assassin in White. An Honorblade, which granted Radiant powers to whoever held it. If Azure held a weapon that let her have the power of Soulcasting, perhaps that explained why the screamers hadn’t found out yet.

Kaladin’s thought about an Honorblade is a good insight for him. How does he know it’s a Shardblade, though? It’s pretty small for your average Shardblade; why doesn’t he assume it’s just an ordinary, if somewhat ornate, sword?

And the burning question… what is it, really? Is it Awakened, like Nightblood only different? What if it is just an ordinary sword?

A Scrupulous Study of Spren

Aside from the corrupted painspren summoned by the Cult, Syl is really the only spren we see in this chapter. She asks some interesting questions, though.

“Dalinar thinks God isn’t dead,” she said. “Just that the Almighty—Honor—was never actually God.”

“You’re part of Honor. Doesn’t that offend you?”

“Every child eventually realizes that her father isn’t actually God.”

She looked at him. “Do you think anybody is watching? Do you really think there isn’t anything out there?”

Buy it Now

Strange question to answer, to a little bit of a divinity.

While it’s often interesting to discuss religion in books, and especially the way Sanderson deals with religion for his characters and cultures, I always feel like I’m cheating when the subject comes up. We know so much more than they do about what’s going on in their universe, it hardly seems fair!

The Stormlight Archive has, so far, dealt with a whole lot of people who question the existence, or at least the validity, of their presumed gods. Ishar claims to be god, Jasnah denies that there is a god, Beard is sure no one is watching, and Dalinar believes that there is a god, but they were wrong in thinking that Honor was it. Here, Kaladin delivers a mini-lecture on how his beliefs have changed, which is wholly subjective, but he ends with this thought:

With all due respect, I think Dalinar’s beliefs sound too convenient. Now that one deity has proven faulty, he insists the Almighty must never have been God? That there must be something else? I don’t like it. So … maybe this simply isn’t a question we can ever answer.”

Again, it’s purely subjective, but that’s the nature of faith: If you had objective proof, you wouldn’t need “faith” to believe. Some people take that as a reason to never believe anything they see as “religion,” but fail to realize how many other things they take on faith. (That’s too big a conversation for this space, though!) Dalinar at least has some… information, however untrustworthy some might think it; he has visions, sent by Honor through the Stormfather, telling him that Honor himself, the one Vorinism calls God, has been destroyed.

While it wouldn’t be a very close parallel, one could see this as an analog to the Christian faith, where God himself was killed but returned to life. The problem (at least for me) is twofold.

One, we already know that the Shard Vessels were mortals, and some of them not very nice mortals, before they picked up the Shards. That makes them incredibly powerful, but I can’t see them as “real gods”—they only have one portion of the full godhood, and they wield that power according to their own flawed personalities.

Two, Vorinism presents Honor as God, and Cultivation as superstition. If they knew the truth, Cultivation is every bit as much “god” as Honor ever was. So… loath as I am to sneer at people’s religions, at least Vorinism is a deeply mistaken set of beliefs. What are we to do with that? People need religion, and if they reject one, they will turn to another, even though they might not call it that. Too often, what they turn to is destructive to its adherents and the society they inhabit.

Well, I hope Dalinar can follow up on his instincts and sort some things out. There is solid information to be had, although he’ll only ever be able to get it through biased sources.

Sheer Speculation

For one reason and another, I was scrolling through this chapter’s beta read comments in preparation for this discussion. I’m amused to see that “Azure = Vivenna” had by this point become my new favorite-but-obviously-looney theory. LOL. I was also absolutely sure that Azure had to be either a Lightweaver or an Elsecaller, because obviously that was how she was providing the Soulcast food to the city. Oh well…

More beta humor: At this point, a whole lot of us were speculating that Beard might be a crazy Herald. Surely there had to be something Significant about the guy! I have to admit, his claim that “no one is watching over us” would have been pretty brilliant coming from a Herald. Alas.

Quality Quotations

• ‘You know what I need for the apocalypse? You know what would be really handy? A new coat. Extra sequins.’

Okay, that’s about all I’ve got, though if you get a good discussion going in the comments you may stir up more! Join us again next week for Chapter 73, in which Shallan makes some interesting discoveries about members of her team.

Alice is done making drama props and sets, as the high school drama performance dates have arrived. Teenagers are exhausting, y’all.

In an update posted on April 16th in the Stormlight Archive subreddit, author Brandon Sanderson revealed a bit of how the next Stormlight Archive book, tentatively titled The Rhythm of War, is shaping up.

Amongst the updates regarding word counts and concurrent progress on Starsight (the sequel to Skyward), was an intriguing outline of what characters might be where after the events of Oathbringer.

Speculation ahead!

Sanderson’s explanation via the update:

Rhythm of War, however, is plotted more like The Way of Kings—meaning the separate books in it are divided by viewpoints.

In TwoK, Kaladin’s complete arc was “book one” of my outline. Dalinar’s was “book two” and Shallan’s was “book three” with all of them being interwoven into the final product, and with Part Five being a capstone epilogue to them all. This novel is similar, though with more viewpoints.

We have what I’m calling the Primary Arc, which focuses on four characters who are all together in one place, their plots interweaving. The Secondary Arc is three different characters, their arcs interweaving, but in a separate location from the primary arc. The Tertiary arc is the last two characters, in a third location.

Though we’re still a ways off from Stormlight Archive Book 4, there’s now some fun speculation we can dig into. Who do you think will appear in which arc? What locations could they take place in? In what other ways might The Rhythm of War be similar to The Way of Kings?

Welcome back to the ongoing reread of Oathbringer, as we approach the Part Three Avalanche! No, it’s not starting just yet, but it soon will be; the anticipation is getting stronger with every passing chapter. This week, Shallan as Veil is out showing off, and Shallan as Shallan has trouble getting herself back. Cue up something ominous, and join in!

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. This week, there are really no Cosmere spoilers; just a brief appearance by Hoid. But if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Shallan as Veil, Shallan as Shallan
WHERE: Kholinar markets, Yokska’s kitchen
WHEN: 1174.2.2.5 (Three days after Kaladin patrolled with the Wall Guard; eight days after Shallan burgled Rockfall.)

Shallan, as Veil, checks in with her regular poor-folk contacts, but is frustrated that she can’t do more. Encountering a parade of cultists, she creates a new Illusion and “becomes” a very convincing spren, but nearly loses herself to whatever is influencing the cult. Shocked, she tells the cultists to quit playing at being spren and go home to their families; she herself returns to the tailor’s shop for the night. Elhokar is in the kitchen, writing up lists of possible troops and contemplating heroism; Shallan does an idealized drawing of him before going to her room. Ishnah awaits her there, with a note inviting her to join the revel.

Truth, Love, and Defiance

Title: Swiftspren

“The Swiftspren!” he said, nudging one of the other beggars. “Look, the Swiftspren!”

AA: This is, to Shallan’s surprise, the name that’s been given to her (or rather, to Veil) in Kholinar. We’ll discuss the whole shindig below, rather than here.

Heralds

Jezrien is the Herald of Kings and patron of the Windrunners, associated with the divine attributes Protecting and Leading. Paliah is the Scholar, patron of Truthwatchers, with the divine attributes Learned and Giving.

AA: My best guess on Paliah’s presence is for Shallan’s research into ways she can actively help the starving people of Kholinar, as well has her plans to infiltrate the Cult. It’s not a solid connection, but it’s the best I’ve got. Jezrien, I’m almost positive, is for the drawing of Elhokar, when Shallan sees him as a true king.

AP: Pattern also reminds her of the Truths she spoke as Ideals when she starts to lose herself in her different personas.

Icon

The Pattern icon denotes a Shallan chapter… or at least one or two of her personae.

Epigraph

Today, I leaped from the tower for the last time. I felt the wind dance around me as I fell all the way along the eastern side, past the tower, and to the foothills below. I’m going to miss that.

—From drawer 10-1, sapphire

AA: I can’t think of anything significant to say about this Windrunner recording, except that it must have been recorded very shortly before he or she used the Oathgate to leave Urithiru for the last time. I wonder why none of them ever returned just for a nostalgic visit… or if they did, and we just don’t hear about it.

AP: Unmade infestation possibly? We don’t know why the city was abandoned, but we know the Night Mother was there for a long time before it was rediscovered. Whatever the reason, it was significant enough for the Radiants to feel the need to get everyone out in a hurry, and dangerous enough to prevent them from coming back.

Buy it Now

AA: You’re probably right about the Unmade infestation. From the fact that our current people are living there, the fact that the fabrials aren’t working at capacity wouldn’t necessarily be enough to keep them away. Combined with the presence of an Unmade, or two, or three… that would do it, I’d think.

Bruised & Broken

“The Swiftspren!” he said, nudging one of the other beggars. “Look, the Swiftspren!” …

“Swiftspren?” Veil asked.

“That’s you!” he said. “Yup, yup! I heard of you. Robbing rich folk all through the city, you do! And nobody can stop you, ’cuz you’re a spren. Can walk through walls, you can. White hat, white coat. Don’t always appear the same, do ya?”

AA: I have to say that there’s something very appealing about the name and its implications. Swiftspren! The “Robin Hood” of Kholinar! The effect on Veil/Shallan is… disturbing, though.

Veil smiled—her reputation was spreading. … Surely, the cult couldn’t ignore her much longer.

AA: She is, reasonably, pleased with the idea that her work should soon get the attention of the Cult. That was the (official) point, after all. But… something about all this is giving me the creeps.

“Feeding these few is something we can do.”

“So is jumping from a building,” [Pattern] said—frank, as if he didn’t understand the sarcasm he used. “But we do not do this. You lie, Shallan.”

“Veil.”

“Your lies wrap other lies. Mmm…” He sounded drowsy. Could spren get drowsy? “Remember your Ideal, the truth you spoke.”

AA: Pattern is adorable. In anyone else, this would be sarcasm, but Pattern is just stating a fact, and reminding her that while her lies are useful, she needs truth. And… she just lies some more. Lying to herself more than Pattern, I think; she speaks as though she’s correcting him, but she’s the only one who believes Veil and Shallan are two different people.

AP: As usual, Pattern is on point. I like that he keeps her grounded, and reminds her who she is. Even as Veil, she is still Shallan.

AA: Also, why does he sound drowsy? We’ve speculated that her layers of lies are beginning to smother their bond, as they did six years earlier. Thoughts? Maybe it’s something to watch for in the rest of the book?

AP: I think that’s definitely a good theory! It makes sense that, as Shallan loses herself more and more in her constructs, the bond with Pattern would start to fuzz. She needs to get back to her core Truths.

She released [the Stormlight] in a puff, then stepped through, trailing tendrils that wrapped around her and transformed her shape.

People had gathered, as they usually did, when the Cult of Moments paraded. Swiftspren broke through them, wearing the costume of a spren from her notes—notes she’d lost to the sea. A spren shaped like a glowing arrowhead that wove through the sky around skyeels.

Golden tassels streamed from her back, long, with arrowhead shapes at the ends. Her entire front was wrapped in cloth that trailed behind, her arms, legs, and face covered. Swiftspren flowed among the cultists, and drew stares even from them.

AA: First, I have to note that her “golden tassels with arrowhead shapes at the end” seems awfully similar to the description we’ll get later of the mandras—the luckspren—that pull ships in Shadesmar. I assume this is deliberate, but it’s never addressed. Hmmm.

Beyond that, though, this is an awesome visual. She doesn’t even seem to have thought about this Illusion, much less drawn it. She just does it. Poof. It may not have the depth of backstory that Veil and Radiant have, but it seems far more… intricate. (That’s not really the word I want, but I can’t find it.) It’s much more instinctive and immediate; I can’t help wondering if this is what Lightweaving is supposed to be like.

At the same time, it’s troubling to see her flow so easily into an illusion that’s not even quite human… and the next few paragraphs are absolutely terrifying. She wonders just how much she can do with her lies, and as she listens to the cultists chanting, she begins to feel their emotions—what she calls, with inadvertent wisdom, the peace of surrender—and she goes along with it.

Swiftspren breathed in their chants and saturated herself with their ideas. She became them, and she could hear it, whispering in the back of her mind.

Surrender.

Give me your passion.

Your pain.

Your love.

Give up your guilt.

Embrace the end.

AA: Sound familiar, anyone? Not that we recognized it at the time, but… Wow. This is definitely of Odium!

AP: Yup, definitely our favorite baddie!

Shallan, I’m not your enemy.

That last one stood out, like a scar on a beautiful man’s face. Jarring.

AA: SAY WHAT??? Okay, knowing what we know now, this was most likely Sja-anat, right? (Although some have suggested that it was Pattern interjecting… but I go with Sja-anat.) What a shock that was! So she stands still in surprise, and her tassels go on waving behind her, even though there’s no wind. Girl is seriously into this Illusion—so much that the cultists begin to believe that she’s a real spren, and start kneeling around her. What follows is… I don’t even know the right words. Terrifying, thrilling, awesome, and awful, all at once.

AP: Is it though? I thought it was still Odium, since that’s his MO. “I’m not really bad! I just want you to stop repressing your feelings!” Which, yes, Shallan does need to stop tamping down her emotions… but not like that! This is also exactly the wrong tack with Shallan because of her traumatic history: She doesn’t trust easily, and it just puts her on high alert and snaps her out of the trance like state she was in.

AA: Um… Well, of course it’s Odium. ::feels silly:: Since everything else was, why would it not be? At the time of the beta (and yes, I spent too much time in the beta spreadsheet last night!), our best guess was that this was Pattern trying to get through to her. It wasn’t many more chapters, though, until we met Sja-anat as more than “something in the mirror,” and for some reason I pulled that sense of familiarity back to this moment. It makes far more sense, though, that it’s Odium.

“There are spren,” Shallan said to the gathered crowd, using Lightweaving to twist and warp her voice, “and there are spren. You followed the dark ones. They whisper for you to abandon yourselves. They lie.”

The cultists gasped.

“We do not want your devotion. When have spren ever demanded your devotion? Stop dancing in the streets and be men and women again. Strip off those idiotic costumes and return to your families!”

They didn’t move quickly enough, so she sent her tassels streaming upward, curling about one another, lengthening. A powerful light flashed from her.
“Go!” she shouted.

AA: Again, the visual impact is astonishing, and in essence I agree with her speech. I just can’t help thinking it’s… a bit ill-advised, just now.

So they all run away, and she fades to black. When she’s moved away a bit, she comes back as Veil—always as Veil these days!—and worries about how easily she’d become like the cultists. Then, poor girl, she begins sorting through personalities to figure out who she needs to be. Veil wants to be a folk hero, and that makes her insufficiently logical for the job. For that she needs Jasnah, but that’s one Illusion she’s not willing or able to try. Maybe Radiant… and she just about folds in on herself, because she doesn’t know how to be what she thinks she needs to be.

AP: So, regarding her always being Veil—that is one of the oddest decisions for me, and shows how deeply dissonant her constructs are. No one in Kholinar knows Shallan; there is no need for a disguise. But Veil is the “spy” so she is Veil when she goes out. She has the skills within her to accomplish her goals, but she doesn’t know how to express them without “becoming” someone else.

Sometimes she felt like a thing wearing a human skin. She was that thing in Urithiru, the Unmade, who sent out puppets to feign humanity.

AA: Poor child. She’s coming to pieces.

AP: Worst case of impostor syndrome ever!

Veil finally let go. She folded her hat and coat, then used an illusion to disguise them as a satchel. She layered an illusion of Shallan and her havah over the top of her trousers and shirt…

AA: You know what I find most disturbing about this? It’s not the effort required to make Veil let go, it’s that she still layers an illusion of Shallan over Veil. Sure, she needs the havah instead of the trousers and shirt, but she could have released all the illusions, and then just created the illusion of the correct clothing.

AP: Yep, this is one of the passages that made me truly realize that “Lady Shallan” is another construct.

Relationships & Romances

Veil let go reluctantly, as she kept wanting to go track down Kaladin in the Wall Guard. He wouldn’t know her, so she could approach him, pretend to get to know him. Maybe flirt a little …

Radiant was aghast at that idea. Her oaths to Adolin weren’t complete, but they were important. She respected him, and enjoyed their time training together with the sword.

And Shallan … what did Shallan want again? Did it matter? Why bother worrying about her?

AA: In retrospect, this is clear and blatant foreshadowing. (Isn’t it always, in retrospect?) We’ve got Veil showing distinct interest in Kaladin; Radiant placing more value on oaths than on emotions; and “both of them”—i.e. Shallan herself—seem to be uninterested in what Shallan thinks or feels.

Squires & Sidekicks

The urchin pulled the bag of food close, closing his dark green eyes, looking … reserved. What an odd expression.

He’s still suspicious of me, she thought. He’s wondering what I’ll someday demand of him for all this.

AA: I couldn’t swear to it, but I think this is our first hint that there’s something wrong with Veil’s plan to give food to the most needy, telling herself that she’ll gain information and get the attention of the Cult to justify her plan. Grund is less grateful and happy to see her than she expects, and she just puts it down to him worrying about future demands. It doesn’t even occur to her that she’s putting him in danger with her continued attention.

She checked in on Muri next, the former seamstress with three daughters. …

Muri always had some gossip that was amusing but generally pointless.

AA: So is Muri deliberately pointless, trying to avoid attention, or is she just naturally not a useful source of information?

AP: I think it goes to Veil not making logical use of resources. Feeding Muri and her children is a good act, but it does not help her to accomplish her goal of getting closer to the Cult of Moments. It does feed into the Veil-as-folk-hero myth.

Veil left about an hour later and made her way out of the market, dropping her last package in the lap of a random beggar.

AA: And the random beggar is the one who gives her valid information. He’s the one who tells her about the “Swiftspren” they have named her.

She’d enhanced it by sending Ishnah and Vathah out, wearing illusions to look like Veil, giving away food.

AA: Aha! Her team is finally allowed to go out on their own, eh? I wonder if they’re all over the city at the same time, further enhancing her reputation by being places she couldn’t possibly have gotten to in time. The text isn’t clear, but it does make sense if the goal was to enhance her reputation. Also, it was useful:

Back in her rooms, she met Ishnah, who was grinning. The short, darkeyed woman had been out earlier, wearing Veil’s face and clothing.

She held up a slip of paper. “Someone handed me this today, Brightness, while I was giving away food.”

Frowning, Shallan took the note.

Meet us at the borders of the revel in two nights, the day of the next Everstorm, it read. Come alone. Bring food. Join the feast.

AA: Again, there’s not much to say about this, except that it’s probably a good thing she had multiple versions of herself out there so she could get this. Looks like her efforts have borne fruit; she’s invited to the party.

AP: Finally! Yay party time! There’s no way this could go wrong!

Places & Peoples

She’d hoped that Kholinar would prove to be warmer, after so long on the Shattered Plains or Urithiru. But it was cold here too, suffering a season of winter weather.

AA: This is one of the few times since the first book that I’ve noticed the random “seasons” on Roshar. For informational purposes, Roshar doesn’t actually have seasonal changes; presumably there’s very little axial tilt to the planet, so they don’t get “summer” and “winter” like we think of them. Instead, the humans refer to weather changes by the words they brought with them from their previous planet—which apparently did have regular seasons. Just thought you’d like to know, if you didn’t already.

Weighty Words

[Elhokar] raised the glowing cup to her as she gathered some flatbread and sugar. “What is that design on your skirt? It … seems familiar to me.”

She glanced down. Pattern, who usually clung to her coat, had been replicated in the illusion on the side of her havah. “Familiar?”

AA: If ever you needed it, there’s some pretty solid evidence that Elhokar had indeed been seeing Cryptics all this time. I wonder if he’s no longer seeing them much because one has begun to form a bond.

AP: Definitely! But also, what’s up with putting spheres in the drink? Elhokar is so weird sometimes.

AA: Yeah, that was… odd. Pretty, though. Maybe it’s Elhokar’s imaginative side coming through; poor guy doesn’t get much opportunity to be creative. I didn’t quote it, but when Shallan walks in here, he’s writing glyphs and numbers to plan for a palace assault. He seems quite proficient with glyphs—maybe more so than many men would be? (Yes, that’s speculation, but he also showed he could draw a good map.)

“There are few people remaining to whom I can still be a hero, Radiant. This city. My son. Storms. He was a baby when I last saw him. He’d be three now. Locked in the palace…”

AA: This makes me so sad for him. For so long, he wanted to be a hero, to honor his father’s memory by being a worthy successor. Now he’s given up most of that. He still wants to learn to be a good king and a leader, but his dreams of being a hero have distilled down to the one I can admire most: He wants to be a hero to his son, to rescue that little boy.

Cosmere Connections

It’s him, she noticed absently. Wit’s leading the songs.

AA: You knew that right away, didn’t you? As soon as there was light, and music, and laughter… you knew Hoid would be there. He may not be feeding people, but his refreshment is every bit as real as any of the food Veil gives out.

A Scrupulous Study of Spren

Pattern hummed as she stretched, exhaustionspren—all of the corrupted variety—spinning about her in the air, little red whirlwinds.

AA: Fascinating little beasties. Exhaustionspren normally look like brown jets of dust shooting up in the air around you. Now they’re little red whirlwinds.

AP: Every time we see the corrupt spren it makes me wonder what they look like in Shadesmar, and what effects the corruption has there. For this one in particular, a jet of dust sounds pretty tame, but a whirlwind, that sounds ominous to this Midwest farm girl. Tornadoes are no joke.

Buy it Now

AA: Oh, good point! Not being from tornado country, this didn’t have quite the chilling effect on me that it would on someone more intimately acquainted with the watchfulness a whirlwind can trigger. But Brandon is from Nebraska—he’d know that feeling. Clever.

Far too many hungerspren in the air, and fearspren at nearly every corner.

AA: Nothing in particular to say about this bunch, but to note that there are a lot of them hanging around Kholinar these days. The city is in bad shape.

… corrupted awespren exploded around several of their heads. Soot-black puffs.

AA: Instead of blue smoke rings, these are puffs of soot. Okay, then. Smoke and soot are both products of fire, but have very different visceral effects. More cleverness.

Appealing/Arresting/Appraising/Absorbing Artwork

“I don’t have a proper sketch of you,” Shallan said. “I want one.” …

Elhokar was a good man. In his heart, at least. Shouldn’t that matter most? He moved to look over her shoulder, but she was no longer sketching from sight.

“We’ll save them,” Shallan whispered. “You’ll save them. It will be all right.”

… It depicted Elhokar kneeling on the ground, beaten down, clothing ragged. But he looked upward, outward, chin raised. He wasn’t beaten. No, this man was noble, regal.

“Is that what I look like?” he whispered.

“Yes.” It’s what you could be, at least.

… Storms. He almost seemed to be in tears!

AA: And I am in tears. This is such a beautiful, heartbreaking scene. The moment I read “Elhokar was a good man. In his heart, at least,” I knew he was going to die. The line about “it’s what you could be” was so reminiscent of Bluth back in Words of Radiance, it was pretty much a set expectation: He would take on a near-hopeless task, and die to complete it. In the beta sheet, I wrote, “Please, let it work. … If he has to die, let him die doing something worthwhile. Let him save his son, and be a hero.” (I think this is what makes me loathe Moash so much; this scene made me care about Elhokar, and made me so sure he had the potential to be a great king, and I hate Moash all over again. It was just so petty, compared to what he could have become.)

AP: I think one of the most real things about these books is that not everyone gets to reach their potential. Sometimes mistakes have permanent consequences. Elhokar spent a lot of years being a weak and ineffective leader. He could have chosen to be better a long time ago, and didn’t. I do think this is an example of Shallan unconsciously “improving” a person through her drawing and having an effect in the cognitive realm. She is changing how Elhokar views himself, and he is able to do better because he sees himself as better. I think this is a latent Lightweaver power that she needs to explore more fully. I hope she gets the opportunity to do so.

AA: I agree. I’m pretty sure what Shallan is doing here involves a lot more than drawing motivational posters. I look forward to learning more about it!

I also agree that Elhokar spent most of the last six years being a weak king, and several years before that being a weak prince. I often forget how young he is: He was only 20 when he came to the throne, younger when Roshone’s manipulated him in the silversmith debacle, and only 26 now. Where I disagree is that I think he was trying to be better the whole time, but had no idea how. It’s not natural to him; he’s extremely pretty, but he doesn’t have his father’s charisma or his uncle’s dynamic appeal. He tried to reproduce their effects without grasping the cause, and it doesn’t work that way. Now, finally, he’s trying to pursue the kind of character that can get the results he wants. He’ll be cut short, but I think, even now, he has finally begun to be the man he always wanted to become.

And there you have it. Join us in the comments! Be sure to come back next week for some exciting times, as we rejoin Dalinar in Rathalas. We’re going to take Chapters 75 and 76 at one gulp, because it’s all one episode.

Alice is finally able to relax; the musical was well performed, and now the props are returned to storage and the sets put away. ‘Twas an excellent production! Also, have y’all checked out the new Stormlight 4 update on Reddit?

Aubree is considering a new folk hero persona.

Welcome back to the Oathbringer reread, wherein I rearrange all the things and get out of order here. Rather than tackling Dalinar’s Rathalas flashbacks this week, we’re going to examine the gemstone archive epigraphs en masse, and see what we can learn—about the Orders, about the history, about the spren, and about Urithiru.

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. There are no Cosmere spoilers in the post this week, but if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

As I noted in the comments to Chapter 74, we decided at the last minute not to tackle Chapters 75 and 76 this week. Lyndsey is exhausted from Anime Boston last weekend, and Aubree is swamped with preparation for JordanCon next weekend. Rather than taking it solo, I firmly believe that the discussion will be much better if they can participate; besides, they both really want to talk about that particular episode, and I just can’t deprive them of it. As a replacement, then, we’re going to jump ahead to the epigraphs discussion for Part Three.

Recap

WHO: The Knights Radiant of old
WHERE: Urithiru library
WHEN: Approximately 1,500 years ago (give or take a few hundred), shortly before leaving Urithiru and a few decades before the Recreance.

As you may remember, Renarin discovered the existence of the gemstone archive in Urithiru’s basement library back in Chapter 53:

Renarin stood near the far wall, which was covered in palm-size tiles. He tapped a specific one, and somehow made it pop out, like a drawer. … Renarin glanced at them, then held up what he’d found in the small drawer. A ruby, long as Jasnah’s thumb, cut into a strange shape with holes drilled in it.

Navani’s evaluation of the gemstone, after determining that it couldn’t be a fabrial, was thus:

“So many imperfections in the cut,” Navani said. “That will cause it to lose Stormlight quickly. It won’t even hold a charge for a day, I bet. And it will vibrate something fierce.”

Trying to figure out its purpose, Jasnah’s contribution was next:

Jasnah touched it, infusing the gemstone with Stormlight. It started glowing, but not nearly as brightly as it should have. Navani was, of course, right. It vibrated as Stormlight curled off it. Why would anyone spoil a gem with such a twisted cut, and why hide it?

Shallan and Pattern were the ones to identify the purpose, though:

“Storms,” Shallan whispered as other scholars crowded around. “That’s a pattern.”

“A pattern?”

“Buzzes in sequence…” Shallan said. “My spren says he thinks this is a code. Letters?”

And finally, Renarin put it together:

“Music of language,” Renarin whispered. …

Drawers slid open, one behind each white tile. A hundred, two hundred… each revealing gemstones inside.

Back during the beta read, we were very, very excited about this find. One of the more interesting speculations, which hasn’t been resolved either way, was Bob’s suggestion that Renarin’s ability to sense the gemstones may have been the Truthwatcher use of Illumination—Light, Sound and Waveforms. “Shallan can manipulate them. Renarin can sense them.” I don’t know if that’s true, but I love the idea.

Buy it Now

So they found this amazing archive… and then (in the beta) we didn’t hear any more about it. All through Part Three, nothing. Finally in Part Four, there was a brief scene in which we saw a large team working on translating the records, and what little we learned was that it seemed to be a lot of personal histories and journal entries. Deana was about ready to blow something up if we didn’t learn more about it. Being an archivist and historian herself, I suspect it was particularly galling to know that the library existed, and then not get any information from it, though she wasn’t the only one frustrated by that lack. It wasn’t until we received the gamma version that we finally learned any details: They were quoted in the epigraphs, and we all laughed. Let’s go take a look!

Rather than going in chapter sequence, for this purpose I’m going to deal with the recordings grouped by Order, just in case that seems to bring out anything interesting. Let’s start with the first Order we met and go clockwise around the Double Eye:

Windrunners

Today, I leaped from the tower for the last time. I felt the wind dance around me as I fell all the way along the eastern side, past the tower, and to the foothills below. I’m going to miss that.

—From drawer 10-1, sapphire (Chapter 74)

This first one doesn’t seem to have much significance beyond telling us that the departure of the Knights Radiant from Urithiru was imminent. It does give a glimpse into the mentality of an established, trained Windrunner, though; can you imagine how delightful it would have been to do this as a regular thing? And sure, you can jump off of any cliff (if you’re a Windrunner), but I think Urithiru would have been a special one—partly because not too many cliff faces are that tall and sheer, but mostly… I think it’s home for them.

My spren claims that recording this will be good for me, so here I go. Everyone says I will swear the Fourth Ideal soon, and in so doing, earn my armor. I simply don’t think that I can. Am I not supposed to want to help people?

—From drawer 10-12, sapphire (Chapter 86)

This recording tells us emphatically that, at least for Windrunners, living Shardplate comes with the Fourth Ideal—that ever-elusive Fourth Ideal, about which every reader has a theory. It also tells us that Kaladin is not the first of his Order to struggle with the demands it will make of him. “Am I not supposed to want to help people?” The implication is that some aspect of the Ideal places a limit on who he is supposed to help. That doesn’t really tell us much, though. Who is he supposed to be willing to not help? Those who don’t want his help? Those who are out of reach? Those who are on the “other side” from whoever he’s currently allied with? So many possibilities…

Skybreakers

We can record any secret we wish, and leave it here? How do we know that they’ll be discovered? Well, I don’t care. Record that then.

—From drawer 2-3, smokestone (Chapter 61)

The first fits with my personal perception of the attitude of the Skybreakers toward everyone else: a little arrogant, a little contemptuous, a little defiant. This impression may be completely wrong. We don’t know what “I don’t care” means in context, because we have no context. I don’t care that we’re leaving? I don’t care if anyone ever finds this? I don’t care about recording secrets? Whatever it is, he was clearly expected to care about it, and he (at least overtly) refuses to care.

I wish to submit my formal protest at the idea of abandoning the tower. This is an extreme step, taken brashly.

—From drawer 2-22, smokestone (Chapter 62)

Worded like a lawyer, which fits with the Skybreaker role, it really makes me wonder about this character… but there’s just not enough basis for speculation. What isn’t clear about the character is made up by what it tells us about the Knights Radiant: They were not all in agreement about leaving, though they were all apparently bound to obey whoever made the decision to leave. It sounds way too much like politics up in here.

This generation has had only one Bondsmith, and some blame the divisions among us upon this fact. The true problem is far deeper. I believe that Honor himself is changing.

—From drawer 24-18, smokestone (Chapter 67)

This seems oddly insightful for a Skybreaker, which may just mean that my perception of Skybreakers is off. In the role of Judge, I guess I just don’t expect them to be philosophers or theologians. This one, however, seems to have realized that something is going wrong with Honor; it seems reasonable that this is during the middle of the splintering, when Honor hadn’t yet lost all control, but was definitely starting to fracture. We’re told elsewhere that the revelations of the Eila Stele were not unique to 1174 or the Recreance, but that before, Honor was always there to walk (or talk) them through it. It’s interesting that the Skybreaker here is seeing abnormal divisions among the Knights Radiant, and ties it to changes in the Shard, which has always been their guide.

Dustbringers

If this is to be permanent, then I wish to leave record of my husband and children. Wzmal, as good a man as any woman could dream of loving. Kmakra and Molinar, the true gemstones of my life.

—From drawer 12-15, ruby (Chapter 59)

This is so unexpected, given what little we knew of Dustbringers prior to this. I, at least, always had an impression of a destructive bent, along with a certain amount of hostility. That can be blamed partly on the in-world “Words of Radiance,” which doesn’t speak flatteringly of the Order, and partly on Malata, who seriously came across as a vindictive sort. Her spren doesn’t exactly help, since Ash is deeply resentful of humans and of Honor, and takes great delight in breaking things.

All that said, the other point to make from this recording is that the Radiants were a very diverse group—this is apparently a Thaylen woman, or at least a woman who married a Thaylen man and gave their children Thaylen names. It’s rather nice to get the reminder that the Radiants of old had families; it makes them more relatable, in a way. It also may be where a lot of the light eyes came from.

Good night, dear Urithiru. Good night, sweet Sibling. Good night, Radiants.

—From drawer 29-29, ruby (Chapter 87)

Once again, this is just not the tone I expected from Dustbringers! This one sounds very affectionate, not merely toward his own spren or Order, but toward their home, the Sibling spren, and all Radiants. It’s also confirmation that he expects to be leaving all of those, and soon.

Edgedancers

There are no Edgedancer records; I think we’re to take this lack in the epigraphs as confirmation that the Stoneward (see below) was right, and that no Edgedancers were willing to take the time to make recordings. We don’t know, of course, how long it took to make a recording, but it at least implies a certain urgency to leaving Urithiru; not one of the entire Order was willing to risk abandoning any of the non-Radiant folks by taking unnecessary time away from their self-assigned responsibility.

Truthwatchers

I worry about my fellow Truthwatchers.

—From drawer 8-21, second emerald (Chapter 60)

Welp. That’s just frustrating. Why are you worried, you Truthwatcher? What do you see? And… we get nothing.

Something must be done about the remnants of Odium’s forces. The parsh, as they are now called, continue their war with zeal, even without their masters from Damnation.

—From drawer 30-20, first emerald (Chapter 77)

A coalition has been formed among scholar Radiants. Our goal is to deny the enemy their supply of Voidlight; this will prevent their continuing transformations, and give us an edge in combat.

—From drawer 30-20, second emerald (Chapter 78)

Our revelation is fueled by the theory that the Unmade can perhaps be captured like ordinary spren. It would require a special prison. And Melishi.

—From drawer 30-20, third emerald (Chapter 79)

Ba-Ado-Mishram has somehow Connected with the parsh people, as Odium once did. She provides Voidlight and facilitates forms of power. Our strike team is going to imprison her.

—From drawer 30-20, fourth emerald (Chapter 80)

We are uncertain the effect this will have on the parsh. At the very least, it should deny them forms of power. Melishi is confident, but Naze-daughter-Kuzodo warns of unintended side effects.

—From drawer 30-20, fifth emerald (Chapter 81)

Surely this will bring—at long last—the end to war that the Heralds promised us.

—From drawer 30-20, final emerald (Chapter 82)

I’m going to address these as if it’s intended to be a continuous recording, since they are labeled as the first through fifth, and then the final, emeralds in the drawer. This draws a somewhat different picture than I’d had in my head before. I’d assumed that after Aharietiam (the Prelude at the beginning of The Way of Kings) things were relatively peaceful as both sides recovered from the war, and then there were just the usual occasional wars popping up, as seems endemic to humanity.

According to these, though, there has been an ongoing war for nearly three thousand years. It probably ebbed in intensity from time to time, but it seems like it’s really been going on the entire time. We don’t know when Ba-Ado-Mishram formed that Connection; it might be a relatively recent development, or it might be something they have finally figured out, or it might be that they have finally found a solution to something they’ve known for a while.

I do find this confusing, though, because it seems that the idea of trapping Ba-Ado-Mishram in a perfect gem is something the scholars—Truthwatchers and other Orders—came up with as a group, and Melishi was part of the planning. But there’s that epigraph in Words of Radiance Chapter 58, which says,

So Melishi retired to his tent, and resolved to destroy the Voidbringers upon the next day, but that night did present a different stratagem, related to the unique abilities of the Bondsmiths; and being hurried, he could make no specific account of his process; it was related to the very nature of the Heralds and their divine duties, an attribute the Bondsmiths alone could address.

That sounds like Melishi did something other than what was planned. So I’m confused. Is it likely that the writer of the in-world “Words of Radiance” simply didn’t know about the extended planning, and so presents it as being something Melishi came up with overnight? That’s the best explanation I’ve got, since we know that the book was put together from hearsay, combining “facts, lore, and superstition.” Maybe the gemstones tell the truth behind the stories.

In any case, it looks like both Melishi and Naze-daughter-Kuzodo were right; it worked, and there were unintended side effects. They were planning to merely block the parsh ability to use Voidlight, presumably so that they couldn’t take on the “forms of power”—the Odium-connected ones, the ones the Listeners so assiduously avoided. I believe, anyway, that they didn’t intend to remove the ability to block all transformation; just the Void forms. They overshot their mark, and turned nearly an entire species from sapient to merely sentient.

Don’t tell anyone. I can’t say it. I must whisper. I foresaw this.

—From drawer 30-20, a particularly small emerald (Chapter 85)

I separated this one, because it’s from the same drawer—presumably meaning the same Truthwatcher—but the emerald isn’t numbered like the rest, and the fact that it’s “particularly small” almost sounds like it was meant to be unnoticed by the others. My burning question about it is what she foresaw. Was this, perhaps, added after the plan was executed? Did she feel horribly guilty because she foresaw how the parsh would be affected, and did nothing to stop the plan? That’s my primary theory. A less-likely one (IMO) is that she is fearful of admitting that she foresaw anything, if they were already operating under the notion that seeing the future is of Odium. (I think that idea was pushed during the backlash from the Heirocracy, and before that point no one associated seeing the future with Odium.)

Lightweavers

I am worried about the tower’s protections failing. If we are not safe from the Unmade here, then where?

—From drawer 3-11, garnet (Chapter 73)

This is the only Lightweaver recording we get to see. My best guess is that we are supposed to be reminded of Re-Shephir’s presence in the tower back in Part One, and realize that the Unmade were seeking to infiltrate Urithiru during this time. It’s hard to say which things are cause, and which are effect; we just don’t know enough. Were the Unmade making inroads because the protections were failing, or were the protections failing because the Unmade were figuring something out? I also have to wonder if this was the same Lightweaver who ultimately trapped Re-Shephir long enough to make her fear Lightweavers.

Elsecallers

My research into the cognitive reflections of spren at the tower has been deeply illustrative. Some thought that the Sibling had withdrawn from men by intent—but I find counter to that theory.

—From drawer 1-1, first zircon (Chapter 68)

The wilting of plants and the general cooling of the air is disagreeable, yes, but some of the tower’s functions remain in place. The increased pressure, for example, persists.

—From drawer 1-1, second zircon (Chapter 69)

Something is happening to the Sibling. I agree this is true, but the division among the Knights Radiant is not to blame. Our perceived worthiness is a separate issue.

—From drawer 1-1, third zircon (Chapter 70)

We already talked about this in the relevant chapters to some extent, but it combines interestingly with the other recordings that imply discord among the Radiants. They seem to all agree that bad things are happening with respect to Urithiru and the Sibling, but they have differing opinions on the root causes… which generally means they have differing opinions on what, if anything, needs to be changed. This Elsecaller believes that the Sibling is being forced into withdrawal, and that it’s not because of internal strife. Unfortunately, though, he doesn’t present a theory as to what is causing it.

As the duly appointed keepers of the perfect gems, we of the Elsecallers have taken the burden of protecting the ruby nicknamed Honor’s Drop. Let it be recorded.

—From drawer 20-10, zircon (Chapter 83)

Well, hello there. We’ll meet you again, many chapters from now. What a lot of connections are to be made with this one little epigraph! Perfect gems will be mentioned a couple of times more, before we discover what they’re really good for. I wonder if the Elsecallers were involved in the plan to entrap Ba-Ado-Mishram, and if they contributed the appropriate prison intentionally.

Willshapers

I returned to the tower to find squabbling children, instead of proud knights. That’s why I hate this place. I’m going to go chart the hidden undersea caverns of Aimia; find my maps in Akinah.

—From drawer 16-16, amethyst (Chapter 63)

Now that we abandon the tower, can I finally admit that I hate this place? Too many rules.

—From drawer 8-1, amethyst (Chapter 65)

We already talked about these in the chapter discussions, but I have to wonder—did all the Willshapers dislike Urithiru? If so, is it really because of the rules and political fighting? Or is it that the decreasing presence of the Sibling is causing the discord among those living in Urithiru, and the Willshapers (with their inherent love of adventure) simply find the atmosphere distasteful, blame it on something convenient, and are glad to leave?

Stonewards

As a Stoneward, I spent my entire life looking to sacrifice myself. I secretly worry that is the cowardly way. The easy way out.

—From drawer 29-5, topaz (Chapter 58)

Again, we’ve already talked about the specific content back in Chapter 58. What strikes me now, as I work through all the recordings we’re given, is the variation in how the opportunity was used. The Truthwatchers and Elsecallers recorded some of the results of their scholarship (for which I thank them, personally!) while others were much more personal. This Stoneward is pretty introspective. The next one, less so, but still personal:

The disagreements between the Skybreakers and the Windrunners have grown to tragic levels. I plead with any who hear this to recognize you are not so different as you think.

Buy it Now

—From drawer 27-19, topaz (Chapter 64)

This one focuses outward, seeking unity but at a personal level. The next is a very different angle:

The Edgedancers are too busy relocating the tower’s servants and farmers to send a representative to record their thoughts in these gemstones.

I’ll do it for them, then. They are the ones who will be most displaced by this decision. The Radiants will be taken in by nations, but what of all these people now without homes?

—From drawer 4-17, second topaz (Chapter 72)

This Stoneward seems to stand second only to the Edgedancers themselves in compassion for others. Most of the others talk about the Knights Radiant, or about Urithiru. One talked about her family. This is the only one who comments on the effect leaving Urithiru will have on the ordinary folk of the tower, and I’m really glad it’s included. I mean… I probably wouldn’t have thought about it, either. It’s easier to focus on the power-people, the ones who are going to shape the history of centuries to come. I wonder where all of them ended up.

The enemy makes another push toward Feverstone Keep. I wish we knew what it was that had them so interested in that area. Could they be intent on capturing Rall Elorim?

—From drawer 19-2, third topaz (Chapter 84)

And… Fine. Just FINE. Remind me that Feverstone Keep is still a mystery. This is our sole clue to its location, implying that it’s somewhere near Rall Elorim, or at least between Rall Elorim and the rest of the continent. The city itself could be a red herring; there might be something else out there that matters to them. I just noticed on the map that the city of Eila is also in that general vicinity. Is that Significant in the discovery that led to the Recreance? So many questions.

Bondsmiths

Not surprisingly, we have no Bondsmith recordings. We’re told that there is only one Bondsmith at this point. It could be that Melishi chose not to record anything, or it could be that giving us his recordings would be information we aren’t allowed to see at this point. For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure Melishi had to be bonded to Nightwatcher—either that, or he was extremely secretive about what was going on with his spren, and no one was willing to speculate even in private. We know that the Sibling and Honor both had Something Going Wrong, but there’s no indication that Melishi was worried about his spren, or affected by something weird in their bond. I would still bet that he had more information about what was going on with the other two than he was apparently willing to share, though.

Peripheral Points

I have to share one other thing from the beta, which has absolutely nothing to do with the gemstone archive. I just ran across it while looking for our reactions to the scene, and it made me laugh. If you recall, the archive was discovered in the same chapter where Amaram tried to force a private conversation with Jasnah, and got his… ego handed to him on a platter. This is my one and only (I think) request for a cameo; it wasn’t exactly serious, but it sure would have been fun:

[Amaram is] such an absolute ass, but he really does think he’s all that and a bag of chips. Can we please get rid of him? Please? I’d be happy to climb into the book as the world’s most unlikely assassin. I’m sure Brandon can write it so it works.

Except… we need to find where he’s got Taln hidden. Maybe I can torture it out of him first?

To which Mark replied

I totally want to see that cameo.

Alas, it was not to be. Brandon had other plans to get rid of Amaram. Maybe I could assassinate Moash instead. That would be fun. Or maybe Ialai will show up again to cause trouble and need to be removed? Heh.

Anyway, we’ll be back in force next week, I hope, with Chapters 75 and 76: Dalinar’s flashbacks to the second battle at the Rift.

Alice is still awaiting her cameo—and to be perfectly honest, she doesn’t expect one. “An unlikely assassin” would be pretty fun, though. Just sayin’…

Welcome to Rathalas, everyone. Such a lovely place… This week on the Oathbringer Reread, we return to the city where, once upon a time, Dalinar showed mercy to the wife and the young son of his adversary. Sadly, in Alethkar, such signs of humanity are not often reciprocated.

As you may have noticed, we decided to break up the two chapters after all; it was just too much to cram into one week. Sorry, not really very sorry at all.

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. This week, there is no wider Cosmere discussion, but we definitely make references to later events. If you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Past!Dalinar
WHERE: Rathalas
WHEN: 1162 (About eleven years ago)

Dalinar and a company of his elites charge off after the suspicious caravan reported by the scouts. As they catch up, Dalinar notices a number of small inconsistencies, but doesn’t put it together until his momentum has carried him right into the landslide ambush. When he regains consciousness, he realizes that Tanalan’s men will want to retrieve his Shards; he lets them do the spade-work, then springs up to confront them with a live Shardbearer instead of a dead one. Oops. When they’re all dead, he makes his way by star-reckoning back to the Rift, determined to destroy Rathalas once and for all.

Truth, Love, and Defiance

Title: Only Red

Dalinar saw only red.

… Behind him lay a pile of corpses with burned eyes, piled high around the hole where Dalinar had stood, fighting against them.

AA: This moment comes from the aftermath of the ambush, when Dalinar begins to return to sanity after his Thrill-berserker fight with Tanalan’s men. In retrospect, it’s pretty obvious that this is connected to the red associated with Nergaoul, though we didn’t know as much about it at the time.

Buy it Now

AP: It doesn’t let up until the end of Chapter 76 either. It’s a long burn.

Heralds

Nalan (Skybreakers, Judge, Just and Confident, Vapor, Smoke/Fog) and Talenel (Stonewards, Soldier, Dependable and Resourceful, Talus, Rock/Stone)

AA: Well, there are just all sorts of things going on here. For the first chapter, Nalan as judge doesn’t really make a lot of sense, unless you view Dalinar as a sort of Judgement Descendeth Upon Thee figure. The one other thing I’m seeing is his (too late) putting together all the clues that add up to “It’s a trap!”

AP: Judgement as divine retribution fits for sure. Dalinar is also overconfident when going right into the ambush.

AA: Talenel is everywhere, though. Dalinar as soldier. The soldiers who go with him. The rocks that fall on them. Dalinar’s resourcefulness in letting the enemy dig him out for his Shards, only to destroy them all. And of course, his long march back to the Rift, going cross-country to avoid searchers. I have to wonder if the Thrill is, perhaps, akin to the “madness” associated with Taln. (For reference, there is a madness associated with each of the Heralds, but that list isn’t public. In fact, so little is known about them that we have no clue whether “madness” means a mental illness, or something linked to an Unmade, or… what. No clues.)

Icon

Kholin Glyphpair, inverse for a Dalinar flashback

Thematic Thoughts

Two fires burned inside him. First the energy of the Plate, lending power to each step. The second fire was the Thrill.

AA: Hello there, Unmade. So… interesting to meet you here.

AP: It’s so interesting to me to go back and reread this section, knowing what we do now about the Unmade. It’s so obvious that the extreme battle lust is supernatural in origin, but I completely missed it the first time around. Since we have so much “battle magic” associated with the Shardplate and Shardblades, I didn’t even think about the Thrill in supernatural terms. I had put it more in the category of a “runner’s high” or an adrenaline surge, when obviously it’s much more than that.

The Thrill seemed to transform within him as he ran, soaking into his tiring muscles, saturating him. It became a power unto itself. So, when they crested a hillside some distance south of the Rift, he felt somehow more energetic than when he’d left.

AA: Okay, this is weird. Is Nergaoul feeding Dalinar Voidlight? Or Stormlight? How is this working?

… All around him, Tanalan’s men’s eyes seemed to glow. They gathered and grinned at him; he could see the Thrill thick in their expressions. … Blood streaming down the side of his face, Dalinar grinned back at them.

AA: Just in case anyone needed the reminder, Nergaoul doesn’t really choose a side. If the Thrill can dominate both sides, so much the better for him. I’m curious, though; Dalinar is one man with a Shardblade and badly damaged Shardplate, fighting against a large-ish group of men with normal swords and armor. Does his extra connection to Nergaoul, nurtured by Odium all these years, make a difference in the outcome of this fight? Obviously even damaged Plate is better than nothing, and a Shardblade is far more effective than anything the others have, but if they stood back and just threw rocks at him for a while, would that have worked better? Or… is Odium/Nergaoul playing tricks here? Is the same Thrill that apparently strengthens Dalinar responsible for making the Rifters throw themselves at him and get slaughtered instead of taking a more prudent approach?

AP: I do think the extra connection that was fostered does make a difference, as well as the base skill level of the fighters involved. I think the Thrill interferes with rational decision making for sure. Throwing rocks and a wounded enemy is much less satisfying to a bloodlust monster than a risk taking last stand.

Drained, he bound the worst of his wounds, then grabbed Oathbringer and set it on his shoulder. Never had a Shardblade felt so heavy.

He started walking.

Along the way, he discarded pieces of Shardplate, which grew too heavy. He’d lost blood. Far too much.

…

The Thrill returned to urge him on. For this walk was a fight. A battle.

AA: Same question occurs… is the Thrill feeding him Investiture somehow? And further… he’s not a Radiant yet. How is he able to use Stormlight or Voidlight at this point? Or is Nergaoul somehow giving him strength directly?

AP: I think the latter. Those who are healed by Stormlight/investiture don’t have to be able to access it themselves. This seems similar. Somehow the Unmade is fortifying Dalinar so that he can go out and keep fighting.

AA: Oh, good point! It’s not necessary for Dalinar to be healing himself. In fact, he may not necessarily be healing much at all; he’s just getting supernatural strength from the Unmade.

In that darkness, shadowed figures seemed to accompany him. Armies made of red mist at the corners of his vision, charging forces that fell to dust and then sprouted from shadow again, like surging ocean waves in a constant state of disintegration and rebirth.

AA: Aside from being seriously creepy, this seems so very much like some of the imagery from the Thaylen Field battle. In that far-future event, the red fog is much in evidence, plus Shallan makes a lot of Illusory soldiers. I’m not sure how parallel this is supposed to be, but the similarity is strong.

AP: It’s definitely meant to be a parallel. Reading this passage after knowing what Nergaoul’s influence looks like makes it really obvious what’s happening here.

AA: As a side note… this is the most fun part of doing an in-depth reread. You actually stop and think about things like this, and you discover connections that were impossible to see on the first read. The battle on Thaylen Field didn’t necessarily remind me of this flashback, but rereading this scene now irresistibly reminds me of the later scene.

Relationships & Romances

Evi, comforted by Brightness Kalami, was weeping, though Ialai studied the table full of maps.

AA: Minor rabbit trail… Obviously Ialai wouldn’t be as emotionally affected by Dalinar’s presumed death as Evi would; Ialai’s husband is right here, and her role is to help evaluate the plans and logistics. I can’t help wondering what Navani would have been doing—either as Gavilar’s wife, or if she had married Dalinar instead.

“Dalinar?” Evi stood up. “Husband?” She stepped forward, toward the table.
Then he turned toward her, and she stopped. Her unusual, pale Westerner skin grew even more starkly white. She stepped backward, pulling her hands toward her chest, and gaped at him, horrified, fearspren growing up from the ground around her.

Dalinar glanced toward a sphere lantern, which had a polished metal surface. The man who looked back seemed more Voidbringer than man, face crusted over with blackened blood, hair matted with it, blue eyes wide, jaw clenched. He was sliced with what seemed to be a hundred wounds, his padded uniform in tatters.

AA: I love this moment, in a weird way. Seeing Evi’s reaction to the physical appearance of her husband gives it much more impact. But I have to ask again, referring back to the previous flashback where Evi said, “Do not feed it”—does Evi sense the influence of the Unmade here? Is she reacting solely to Dalinar’s appearance, or can she see Nergaoual’s presence in him? I can’t prove it, but I have a strong suspicion that it’s the latter.

“You shouldn’t do this,” Evi said. “Rest. Sleep, Dalinar. Think about this. Give it a few days.”

AA: Poor Evi. Dalinar listened to her earlier, and it gave Tanalan the opportunity to reinforce the ambush set-up. It’s not her fault, of course; Dalinar himself acknowledged that Tanalan had set it up far in advance, and it never depended on attempting to negotiate. But he blames her anyway, and would rather follow Sadeas’s approach than Evi’s now.

AP: It’s not just that. At this point, he is so under the influence of the Thrill that he is unable to stop and take a break to think it through. He’s thoroughly committed now.

Oh, and someone take my wife to her tent so she may recover from her unwarranted grief.

AA: And that’s the last time we’ll see Evi alive. But we’ll talk about that next week.

AP: Oh Evi, sigh. It’s really horrific from her point of view. She knows her husband is a warrior, but she has rarely had to confront that evidence so directly. I absolutely give her credit for attempting to take action within her moral code. But we will look at how horribly wrong that goes next week…

Diagrams & Dastardly Designs

Sadeas, a traitor? Impossible. He had supported Gavilar all along. Dalinar trusted him. And yet…

AA: And yet… scarcely a single reader doubted that Sadeas could be a traitor, and I’m betting a high percentage of us believed the story completely. Seeing this in a flashback has a very mixed effect; at this point in time, Sadeas was still loyal to the Kholins, but we know he got over that eventually. It does put a slightly different spin on that conversation, back in The Way of Kings, where Dalinar tells Adolin that Sadeas is still loyal to Elhokar and is to be trusted, even though they hate each other. I wonder how much of Dalinar’s assumption of Sadeas’s loyalty comes from having suspected him at Rathalas and been proven wrong.

AP: Yep, I was completely taken in by it right until the last second.

Ahead, down the hill and at the mouth of a canyon, a frantic group was scrambling to arms.

AA: Or maybe a not-so-frantic group pretending to look frantic…

Wait.

His momentum wouldn’t let him stop now. Where was the enemy Shardbearer?

Something is wrong.

AA: Ya think?

Why would they put on Sadeas’s colors if they’re a secret envoy bringing contraband supplies?

AA: Now’s a fine time to wonder.

He saw no sign of a Shardbearer as the enemy gathered above. And … those uniforms …

He blinked. That … that was wrong.

…

This … this was a trap. …

Sadeas was not a traitor. This had been designed by the Rift and its highlord to lure Dalinar in, then drop stones to crush him. …

AA: It’s plot-convenient, but it’s also totally believable. Dalinar trusted his scouts; it didn’t occur to him that they could do a good job for a long time and then turn on him. The set-up, for all the minor inconsistencies, was eminently plausible, and Dalinar (especially with the Thrill energizing him) just couldn’t put together the clues until it was too late.

A fire ignited inside him.

You have been betrayed, Dalinar. Listen. He heard voices—men picking through the wreckage of the rockslide. …  Stones scraped, and the burden upon him lightened. The Thrill built to a crescendo. The stone near his head rolled back.

Go.

AA: Try to ambush the Blackthorn, would you? Good luck with that!

It really should have worked, though. Even Plate can’t be counted on to keep you alive when a mountainside falls on you. Why did it fail? Was it just a matter of a few seconds’ timing so that he wasn’t hit by as much rock as they intended? Sheer luck? Or was it the Thrill working to keep Odium’s future champion alive?

AP: Plot device, Mr. Frodo! Really though, it’s an unpredictable trap. Huge risk, but huge reward with plate and a blade if it succeeds. And (seemingly) low risk to Tanalan if it failed, because his city was already under siege. He sure misjudged that one…

“We sent a team of scouts to inform you as soon as Tanalan turned on us and cast our soldiers off his walls. Our force reported all men lost, an ambush…”

…

“You sent the same scouts,” he whispered, “who first spied on the caravan, and reported seeing a Shardbearer leading it?”

“Yes,” Teleb said.

“Traitors,” Dalinar said. “They’re working with Tanalan.”

AA: Here’s where a little, insignificant line from Chapter 71 suddenly becomes a Big, Important Note: “I sent a scout team to tail them, men who know the area…” Men, in other words, who had families locally, who could be induced to betray Dalinar for money or for the lives of their families. Possibly, men who had “joined” the Kholin forces exactly for such an opportunity.

“They used my name to betray you,” Sadeas said, then spat to the side. “We will suffer rebellions like this time and time again unless they fear us, Dalinar.”
Dalinar nodded slowly. “They must bleed,” he whispered. “I want them to suffer for this. Men, women, children. They must know the punishment for broken oaths. Immediately.”

AA: It’s… not incomprehensible. As noted, they were betrayed by their own scouts, and using the name of a loyal ally. Their anger is understandable. The extent of their anger, though… understandable or not, it’s indefensible. The escalation is just wrong. You know the old saying, “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth”? People have made snarky jokes about it being a quick way to a sightless, toothless world, but that’s because we leave out the context. In context, part of the point is that the punishment can only be as severe as the crime. You’re not allowed to kill someone who knocked out your tooth and call it “justice”—that’s how you get the old “Hatfield and McCoy” scenario. So here, in response to a betrayal and the ambush of Dalinar and his company of elites, they set out on an unjust retribution: the destruction of the city and all its inhabitants. Not merely the fighting men, not just the highlord or even his family, but all the people. Men, women, children, babies, elderly, those who have no defense, even those who might disagree with their highlord’s refusal to join Gavilar. No opportunity for anyone to surrender. Dalinar and Sadeas are going to “teach them a lesson.” “Make them an example.” Militarily, and particularly in Alethi culture, I would imagine it “makes sense” in its way. But it’s still wrong.

AP: Even within Alethi culture it’s wrong and goes against the honor codes. There are not allowances to kill an entire city full of non-combatants. It also shows the relationship between Dalinar and Sadeas in a greater depth. When you’ve been committing war crimes together, Dalinar’s abrupt and complete personality change has to come as quite a shock to Sadeas. It’s very difficult for the reader to reconcile this version of Dalinar with the honorable general we know from the prior books. I’m sure it would be even more difficult for in-world characters to do the same.

AA: I still believe Sadeas was an utter slime, but seeing this side of Dalinar, and the way they worked together on these campaigns—you’re right, it makes Sadeas’s attitude toward him in The Way of Kings and Words of Radiance much more understandable. It’s a fascinating parallel: Most readers sympathize with the Dalinar we grew to appreciate in the first books, and have a hard time with past!Dalinar. For the Alethi, it’s the reverse: They appreciated the Blackthorn and have a hard time with Code-following Dalinar. (I love the way Sanderson twists my perspectives sometimes…)

“I promised Tanalan that his widows would weep for what I did here, but that is too merciful for what they’ve done to me.

“I intend to so thoroughly ruin this place that for ten generations, nobody will dare build here for fear of the spirits who will haunt it. We will make a pyre of this city, and there shall be no weeping for its passing, for none will remain to weep.”

AA: Dastardly designs indeed. Well, not exactly dastardly, since that implies cowardice as well as malice, but this escalation is malicious and unwarranted. In my (not-at-all-humble) opinion.

AP: And again worth repeating that we know he’s under the strong influence of an Unmade here, and it shows how powerful that influence is. We know that Dalinar is a well accomplished general, and this is incompatible with the degree of retribution shown here.

Squires & Sidekicks

The elites who accompanied him were the product of years of planning and training. Primarily archers, they wore no armor, and were trained for long-distance running. Horses were magnificent beasts…

For today, however, he didn’t need horses. Men were better suited for long-distance running, not to mention being much better at scrambling over broken hillsides and uneven rocks. This company of elites could outrun any harrying force he’d yet to meet. Though archers, they were proficient with the sword. Their training was unparalleled, and their stamina legendary.

AA: I just wanted to quote this for the record. It’s one of the few glimpses we get into the matured version of the berserker crew Dalinar had begun to pull together back in the first flashback chapter of this book. Back then, it was pretty much “whoever can keep up with me.” Now, they’re highly trained specialists in various areas, so he has different groups to call on for specific situations. It’s pretty impressive, really.

Tight Butts and Coconuts

AA: In the “curses” department, I was amused by this one:

“Stormfather,” one of them said, stumbling back. “Kelek and the Almighty himself!”

AA: Given what a sight Dalinar must have been when he made it back to the camp, I’d say the reaction is probably justified, but the triple callout makes me snicker a little.

Buy it Now

A Scrupulous Study of Spren

He turned to the side, where Oathbringer protruded from a rock where he’d stabbed it. The … gemstone on the pommel was cracked. That was right. He couldn’t dismiss it; something about the crack had interfered.

AA: I love the casual mention of the gemstone’s importance in bonding a Shardblade. Probably everyone here remembers already, but sometime in the decades after the Recreance, when the worst of the fighting had died down, those who held the Shardblades began to decorate them. On Roshar, the best decorations always involve Stormlight, which means gemstones, so inevitably someone discovered that with a gemstone in place, he could make a Blade so much his own that he could summon and dismiss it at will. Now we learn that damage to the gemstone damages that bond.

Night fell, and he threw off his last piece of Shardplate, leaving only the neck brace. They could regrow the rest of it from that, if they had to.

AA: This might be a weird place for the quotation, but the way my brain is working today, it makes the most sense. Is the neck brace a significant piece from which to regrow the Plate, or is it just the easiest to carry in his current condition? I really would like to know more about the process of regrowing Plate. How do the spren (presumably) decide which part to return to? Is it just the piece that’s got the most Stormlight, or do some pieces have higher priority than others? So many things I want to know…

AP: I think the plate can be regrown from any piece. And a gorget is a pretty easy piece to carry. It’s a consistent weight on the shoulders/neck, and isn’t taking him conscious effort to carry since it’s not impeding his movement like a cracked arm or leg piece.

AA: I’m pretty sure you’re right about that. I couldn’t find the WoB, but I know there’s one about two people using competing pieces of Plate to try to regrow the set, and what would happen. So Dalinar is assuming that his people will regrow his set from the neck piece before anyone finds any of the bits he dropped in the woods and beats him to it. Also, that does make a lot of sense as the piece to keep, when you say it that way.

Quality Quotations

• Momentum. A fight was all about momentum.

AA: Nice callback to the first flashback in Oathbringer!

Well, oof. That was a whole lot of painful. I do apologize for the last-minute change from two chapters to one, but it really was necessary. We’ll be back next week for the battle… and its aftermath. Chapter 76, one of the most agonizing in the book, coming right up.

Alice is enjoying the arrival of what appears to be genuine spring weather. She hopes not to have a Rosharan weather effect and suddenly get winter again.

Aubree is recovering from JordanCon, aka the Ribbon Wars. Can’t wait to do it again next year!

Greetings, good folk of the fandom! Welcome back to the Oathbringer reread, in which a city goes up in flames and so do your friendly neighborhood rereaders. Well, not quite… This is a tough chapter, though. We return one last time to the Rift, when all the bad things go down.

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. There is no wider Cosmere discussion this week, but if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

Also, Lyndsey’s back!

Chapter Recap

WHO: Past!Dalinar
WHERE: Rathalas
WHEN: 1162 (About 11 years ago, the same night as chapter 75 and into the following morning)

Dalinar and Sadeas review their battle plan—to completely destroy Rathalas as a message to every highlord in the kingdom that defiance is not an option. They attack immediately, at night; once the walls are taken, the Kholin troops torch the entire city from the top and the bottom. Dalinar takes Kadash and a squad of elites to personally burn out the hiding place where he found Tanalan Sr. 22 years ago. Not long after, he sees Tanalan trying to reach his family in the palace, and brings him up for a final confrontation. Tanalan reveals that the hiding place is now a prison, and he’d put Evi there after she came to him to plead for his surrender. Once her body is recovered, Dalinar instructs his scribes to let it be known that Evi had been assassinated the previous night, allowing everyone to think that Rathalas was destroyed as retribution.

Truth, Love, and Defiance

Title: An Animal

“I,” Dalinar said softly, “am an animal.”

“What—”

“An animal,” Dalinar said, “reacts as it is prodded. You whip it, and it becomes savage. With an animal, you can start a tempest. Trouble is, once it’s gone feral, you can’t just whistle it back to you.”

AA: Under the influence of the Thrill, he’s not exactly wrong. Tanalan didn’t realize what he was starting.

AP: Not wrong at all. And after Dalinar realizes what he’s done in killing the prisoners, he believes it himself as well.

Heralds

Chana (Dustbringers, Guard, Brave & Obedient, Spark, Fire)  and Nalan (Skybreakers, Judge, Just and Confident, Vapor, Smoke/Fog)

AA: Like last week, I don’t see much of Nalan except as Judgement Descendeth, and the antithesis of Justice when Dalinar orders the envoy shot without a meeting. Oh, and there’s plenty of smoke to go around…

Chana, like Taln in the previous chapter, is everywhere. The soldiers on the wall guarding their homes. Dalinar’s elites guarding him. The courage and obedience on both sides. Evi’s courage in making one last effort to negotiate peace. Sparks. Fire.

Fire everywhere.

Buy it Now

Icon

Kholin Glyphpair, inverse for a Dalinar flashback

Thematic Thoughts

AA: This week, we’re using this section to collect most of the discussion of the battle, starting with the planning and moving all the way through until the fighting is over.

L: I’m going to be doing a bit of talking about the military strategies at play here, and how they relate to the ethics of the situation at hand. War and ethics are very sticky conversations to have, so be aware of that going in.

The generals had drawn up a new set of battle plans to take the city walls, as instructed by Sadeas. Dalinar inspected and made a few changes, but told them to suspend making plans to march down into the city and clear it. He had something else in mind.

AA: “Something else” indeed. Soulcasters who can make oil are tremendously useful when you want lots of fire.

“An envoy is leaving the city. Flying the flag of truce.”

“Shoot them dead,” Dalinar said calmly.

“Sir?”

“Arrows, woman,” Dalinar said. “Kill anyone who comes out of the city, and leave their bodies to rot.”

…

Sadeas nodded in approval…

AA: The plan, though they haven’t explicitly said so, is that every single person dies. No negotiations, no surrender, no survivors. You can sort of (maybe) see Dalinar’s point in destroying the envoy, and we won’t learn until the end of the chapter what the envoy was there to discuss.

AP: I think that plan is pretty clear, and definitely so after the order to kill the envoy. I do wonder why no one noticed that Evi was missing though. Surely she should have been missed prior to the battle?

AA: She should have, and the fact that her guard wasn’t standing outside her tent should also have been noticed. But Dalinar was focused on his own goals, and assumed that she would go where he’d ordered—and stay there. I don’t think he spared her another thought after ordering her away. It seems that no one else thought to check on her later, or send her breakfast, or anything.

L: I’d assume that everyone was just way too busy preparing for the upcoming battle to even consider her. Even the people preparing food and such would be focused on the soldiers, if they weren’t going off to fight themselves. Regarding the killing of the envoys though… this is a d*ck move by all accounts, and (as we will see) very unsound from a military point of view. How differently would this battle have played out, should Dalinar have done the right thing and actually learned that his wife was a prisoner of war?

“I’ve been able to stall the scribes,” Sadeas whispered, “as you ordered. Gavilar doesn’t know that you live. His orders from before were to wait and lay siege.”

…

“Do you think he could do what needs to be done here?” Sadeas fell silent.

“No,” he finally said. “No, not now. I wonder if you can either. This will be more than just death. It will be complete destruction.”

…

“There has to be someone in this kingdom capable of doing what needs to be done, and it can’t be the man sitting on the throne. Continue to hold the scribes back; it will be better if my brother can reasonably disavow what we’re about to do.”

AA: In those ellipses, Dalinar and Sadeas have a conversation about Gavilar, trust, betrayal, and plausible deniability.

AP: Saying without saying. Apart from the complete evil they participate in here, they do hold Gavilar in high regard, and want to insulate him from the consequences of their actions.

AA: It’s one of the few positive notes in this chapter, isn’t it?

L: This is such a difficult conversation, because often in war terrible things must be done in order to bring about peace. The question is, where is the line? How many innocents must die before that line is crossed from “necessary casualties” to “evil act?” I don’t envy anyone, either in real life or fiction, who needs to make a decision such as that.

“Time to attack.”

Amaram turned from where he stood with the other generals. “Now, Dalinar? At night?”

“The bonfires on the wall should be enough.”

“To take the wall fortifications, yes,” Amaram said. “But Brightlord, I don’t relish fighting down into those vertical streets in the night.”

Dalinar shared a look with Sadeas. “Fortunately, you won’t have to…”

AA: Hello there, slimeball Amaram. (I hate that man…) His presence here, though, explains a lot of his remarks to Dalinar in previous conversations.

AP: Yeeaahh… it’s got to be difficult for anyone who knew Dalinar at the Rift to square that with Dalinar on the Shattered Plains, much less Dalinar the Bondsmith.

AA: Exactly.

The other thing I wanted to note about this moment is that a few paragraphs earlier, Sadeas was worried that word would get back to Gavilar before morning and he’d tell them not to do it. A lot of the officer’s wives had spanreeds linked to Kholinar, and there’s no saying some of them wouldn’t be sending messages to keep the court informed of what was happening. Rather than doing an end run around direct orders, they’re going to implement their plan before those orders can come.

L: “Better to ask forgiveness than permission,” indeed. There’s a lot of quotes from Sun Tzu’s Art of War that are applicable to Dalinar’s strategy here, but this one is particularly relevant to this part:

He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.

AA: Wow. That gives me such weird vibes. Granted that the sovereign isn’t necessarily the best strategist, he’s (in most ways) still the one with the moral responsibility for what is done by his generals, and therefore ought to have (at least) veto power when they go too far. But you’re right, Lyndsey, it’s not easy to tell where the lines should be drawn. We get a little better perspective from hindsight, but even then it’s not easy.

No Shardbearers led this time; Dalinar was too weak, and his Plate was in shambles. Sadeas never did like exposing himself too early, and Teleb couldn’t rush in alone.

They did it the mundane way, sending men to be crushed by stones or impaled by arrows as they carried ladders.

…

Dalinar strode across the field, passing fallen men bloody and dead. They’d died almost in ranks where waves of arrows had struck. He also passed a cluster of corpses in white, where the envoy had been slaughtered earlier.

AA: Sigh. While I understand their reasoning in not leading with Shardbearers this night, their willingness to send so many of their own men to die for the sake of attacking right now really grates on me. (And I think it’s supposed to.) They could have chosen to give Dalinar time to recover, and they could have worked on regrowing his Shardplate. They could even have sent some scouts back along Dalinar’s route to retrieve as many original pieces as possible to reduce the regrowth time. But they wanted to attack before Gavilar could stop them, because they are convinced that they need to give the entire kingdom a Lesson.

AP: They couldn’t though. Not and keep Gavilar ignorant of what they were doing. And they knew it. The high casualties on their side underscore what a heinous move this is.

AA: Right. They aren’t willing to risk Gavilar finding out too soon, so off goes the Light Brigade. As a side note… Something interesting came across my messages a while back that I think bears some attention in this regard. Brandon is an American citizen, raised with American values; while he does a better job than most of us of “getting into the head” of characters from a vastly different society, his ideals of honor and virtue are, at the core, essentially based in Judeo-Christian values, or what we commonly see as Western values. What Dalinar and Sadeas do in this scene is, I think, intended to make us react negatively.

This creates an interesting conflict of perspective when you get into a discussion with someone from a completely different background and value set: In some cultures, what they do here is the reasonable and correct action, and Gavilar shouldn’t try to stop them. They shouldn’t feel shame for these actions, because it was the right thing to do. I’m never quite sure what to do with that; in the interests of civil debate, I have to try to see their perspective, but at the same time it’s very jarring. You run into the conflict between “I strongly believe this is the right thing to do” and “You have a right to your own beliefs.”

It’s really hard, especially in a large group discussion, to get people to acknowledge that a) it’s okay to be sure you’re right, and at the same time b) the other guy has a right to disagree with you. (Worth noting: If you have an opinion at all, you should think you’re right. You’d be foolish to hold a position you think is wrong. That doesn’t mean you have to hate people who hold a different opinion.)

L: Perhaps it’s just because I’ve studied a lot of historical wars, but I can at least understand their reasoning here. It’s like Ender Wiggin’s philosophy from Ender’s Game.

“I destroy them. I make it impossible for them to ever hurt me again. I grind them and grind them until they don’t exist.”

If we’re going to look at real life analogies, we need look no further than the end of World War 2. There are a lot of parallels that can be drawn between Rathalas and Hiroshima/Nagasaki. The allies could have chosen purely military targets for the atomic bombs, but they didn’t, in order to send a definitive message. They believed that the war would never end unless such a message was conveyed, and the bombing of Pearl Harbor was certainly in the backs of their minds when making that decision.

Terrible, terrible things are done in war in the name of trying to achieve peace. Innocents murdered. Cities wiped off maps. Who can say what is right, and what is wrong? Is it possible that if Dalinar hadn’t done what he had, that this spark of rebellion would have fueled a flame of war that would result in millions more dead? Would more innocents have suffered? There’s no way to know for sure.

AA: Too true. Even hindsight isn’t really 20/20, because you can’t know what would have happened if you’d done something else. We can say “might have” all day, but it’s still only a possibility, and “might not have” is just as valid.

Well, enough philosophizing (temporarily, anyway). Moving on…

He stopped at the edge of the cliff, looking down at a city built on platforms, rising up along the widening sides of the rift of stone. It was little wonder they thought so highly of themselves as to resist. Their city was grand, a monument of human ingenuity and grit.

“Burn it,” Dalinar said.

AA: Military decision or not, this just hurts my heart. I hate to see beautiful things destroyed for the sake of making a statement.

L: A statement that could save other lives, so understandable, but… yes. Seeing monuments, artwork, architecture that’s stood for hundreds (or thousands) of years destroyed always hurts my soul too.

“There are thousands of people in there, sir,” Teleb said softly from his side. “Tens of thousands.”

“This kingdom must know the price of rebellion. We make a statement today.”

“Obey or die?” Teleb asked.

“The same deal I offered you, Teleb. You were smart enough to take it.”

“And the common people in there, the ones who didn’t get a chance to choose a side?”

Sadeas snorted from nearby. “We will prevent more deaths in the future by letting every brightlord in this kingdom know the punishment for disobedience.”

AA: For the record, I love Teleb and I hate Sadeas, because even more than the city itself, these are people. Teleb considers the individuals involved—tens of thousands of people who have no influence over the decisions of their highlord, who would perhaps willingly or even gladly be part of Gavilar’s kingdom. Sadeas, as we’ve seen many times before, doesn’t care about people as such. They’re just numbers, unless he knows them personally (and sometimes even then). Whether it’s the innocent civilians dying to prove a point here, or the bridgemen dying because they make a good distraction for the Parshendi archers, Sadeas only values people for what they’re worth to him.

Dalinar… I’m angry at him, though he has some mitigating circumstances: He was ambushed and nearly killed, and he’s influenced deeply by the Thrill. That doesn’t make him less culpable, but it does make him slightly more sympathetic. But I deeply dislike this Dalinar.

AP: At the same time, Teleb goes along with it. He is also culpable in these atrocities. I also disagree that Dalinar is at all sympathetic here. Any sympathy I have for him is for the man I know he will become, not who he is now. All Alethi are influenced by the Thrill, not all of them commit war crimes.

AA: I’m not sure I’d concede that Teleb went along with it. He didn’t stop it… but he couldn’t have. He’s one of Dalinar’s elites, but he’s no highprince to overrule Dalinar and Sadeas. Could he have argued more? Maybe, but it still wouldn’t have done any good.

L: He could have walked away, not taken part. It wouldn’t have stopped the atrocities that occurred, but at least he wouldn’t have been a part of them.

AA: But that could be said of every single soldier on the field.

As for Dalinar… considering that I find him only slightly more sympathetic than Sadeas, of all people, that’s really not saying much for him! I just have to acknowledge that his physical injuries, combined with anger over the betrayal by his scouts and the double-cross by Tanalan, makes him more susceptible to bad decisions anyway, urged on by an oddly ever-present Thrill. So there are some minimally mitigating factors. Sort of.

L: It looks like I’m the only one who thinks that in addition to the Thrill and the anger from the ambush, there’s a valid military strategy here. Right or wrong? Who knows. But valid from a strategic perspective.

AP: It’s definitely a military strategy. The argument is whether it is a right/just course of action.

AA: Which brings us to the burning question: How do you balance “valid military strategy” with “just course of action”? The more I think about it, the less clear the answers become. I hate to say it, but I can almost approve Sadeas’s rationale more than Dalinar’s. Sadeas wants to make the point that it’s just not worth defying Gavilar’s rule, and he’ll do whatever it takes to make that point. Dalinar is just angry and wants to pay them back for the double-cross. (I really hate to give credit to Sadeas!)

L: It’s possible that that’s all that is going on in Dalinar’s head… but I think subconsciously the strategy is there too.

Captainlord Kadash had fifty for him, along with two barrels of oil.

…

Dalinar led his group down one level to a location he remembered so well: the hidden door set into the wall. …

“Light those,” he said, pointing to the barrels. “Roll them down and burn out anyone hiding inside.”

…

Nobody tried to flee, though he thought he heard cries of pain inside. Dalinar watched as long as he could, until soon the smoke and heat drove him back.

AA: Oh, there’s Kadash! He’ll be back in a bit… Perhaps it’s worth reminding ourselves that he was present at the previous Rift battle, but at that time he was body-guarding Gavilar and wasn’t with Dalinar when he broke into this tunnel. He may or may not know what Dalinar is trying to do here.

AP: At the same time, at least Kadash tries to atone for his errors here by becoming an Ardent. It certainly doesn’t absolve him completely, but in contrast to Teleb and Sadeas, at least he is trying to do better.

AA: I’m going to address that further down (in Squires & Sidekicks), because if you won’t give Teleb a pass, I don’t think Kadash gets one either.

AP: I absolutely do not give Kadash a pass. I merely note that of the people involved here, he is the one we know makes substantive personal changes as a result of this event. Dalinar does as well, but only by virtue of forgetting that it ever happened.

L: I’m with Aubree on this one. He is making real efforts to atone for his sins and not just conveniently “forgetting” (supernaturally or not) that they happened.

Just below the cliff here—one tier down into the city—was a beautiful white building. A palace. Farther out along the walkways, a group of people fought to reach the building. The wooden walkways were on fire, and preventing their access. Shocked, Dalinar recognized Tanalan the younger from their encounter earlier.

Trying to get into his home? Dalinar thought. Figures darkened the building’s upper windows; a woman and children. No. Trying to get to his family.
Tanalan hadn’t been hiding in the saferoom after all.

AA: Here’s the first big hint that the saferoom was significant in a way Dalinar didn’t expect. Whoever was screaming, it wasn’t Tanalan, nor his family. Who could it be?

Dalinar released a long breath, suddenly feeling his exhaustion even more deeply. “It is enough,” he said, turning toward Sadeas. “Let the rest of the people of the city escape out the mouth of the canyon below. We have sent our signal.”

“What?” Sadeas said, hiking over. …

“Dalinar…” Sadeas said. “I prepared a battalion below, with archers, per your orders.”

“My orders?”

“You said to ‘Kill anyone who comes out of the city and leave their bodies to rot.’ I had men stationed below; they’ve launched arrows in at the city struts, burned the walkways leading down. This city burns from both directions—from underneath and from above. We can’t stop it now.”

AA: Too late to change your vicious strategy now, Dalinar. Too late in so many, many ways…

AP: Yep. However, this is telling and speaks to the character of both Dalinar and Sadeas. Dalinar hesitates, and relents. Sadeas is all in.

L: I’m glad to see this from Dalinar. Not only is it showing a spark of humanity, but… I hate to harp on it, but this too is a good military strategy. Allow your enemy a way to retreat and they won’t feel trapped, and won’t fight as hard. However, Sadeas, moron that he is, took Dalinar’s previous orders and ran all out with them without even stopping to question. A good soldier follows orders, but a great soldier questions those orders when they seem unsound if there is time to do so. Not every leader is infallible, and mistakes can be made.

AA: Does this go back to “Sadeas wants to send a message and doesn’t care about anything else?” It seems that his concern is with the long term effect, not the short term, so it’s valid. On the other hand, does it create a different long-term problem? As a visual symbol, will it make people surrender quickly, or will it make them resist more strongly because they assume they’re all dead anyway?

Dalinar set his jaw. Earlier today, the soldiers of his army—so carefully trained over the years to resist pillaging and the slaughter of civilians—had burned a city to the ground. It would ease their consciences to think that first, the highlady had been murdered.

AA: I don’t even know what to say about this. All those years of training his soldiers not to kill civilians, thrown away because he was angry, and now justified to them by a lie. While I can be glad that Gavilar and Dalinar had become more restrained after those early years, presumably in the interests of appearing benevolent compared to tradition (or something), the contrast with this battle is harsh.

AP: It absolutely is, and that’s the point, I think. It’s also a very weak lie. The Highlady was killed so every citizen of Rathalas had to die?

L: Well yeah. A noble’s life is worth way more than a simple commoner, duh. (Tons of sarcasm here in case that wasn’t clear.)

Stories & Songs

AA: This doesn’t really quite feel like the right place for the Thrill discussion, but… it is the influence an Unmade, so we’ll go with it.

He should hurt more. Shouldn’t he? Storms … he was so numb, he could barely feel anything, aside from that burning within, simmering deep down.

The Thrill was an unsatisfied lump inside Dalinar, but he was wrung out, worn down. So he continued to wait until finally, Teleb and Sadeas joined the fight…

Kadash’s men shot them down with shortbows. That annoyed Dalinar; all of this fighting, and nothing with which to feed the Thrill.

He drew his lips to a line, and shoved down the Thrill. He would not let himself enjoy this. That single sliver of decency he could keep back.

Wood cracked as more sections of city collapsed. The Thrill surged, and Dalinar pushed it away. “We’ve gone too far.”

Dalinar could feel that heat, so terrible. It mirrored a sense within him. The Thrill … incredibly … was not satisfied. Still it thirsted. It didn’t seem … didn’t seem it could be satiated.

Tanalan died with a smile on his lips. Dalinar stepped back, suddenly feeling too weak to stand. Where was the Thrill to bolster him?

Dalinar barely had the strength to stand. The Thrill had abandoned him, and that left him broken, pained.

AA: Okay, that’s a lot of quotations… but it’s interesting to read them all together. It almost looks deliberate—pushing him, supporting him, driving him, and then at the end dropping him, so that he’s left needing another fix.

AP: It reads to me that the Thrill drops him because he stops actively fighting. It’s trying to push him to become more involved.

L: I could see it going either way. Its motives are just so… foreign to us that it’s hard to get a read on it.

Relationships & Romances

“You should not have betrayed me,” Dalinar whispered, raising Oathbringer. “At least this time, you didn’t hide in your hole. I don’t know who you let take cover there, but know they are dead. I took care of that with barrels of fire.”

Tanalan blinked, then started laughing with a frantic, crazed air. “You don’t know? How could you not know? But you killed our messengers. You poor fool. You poor, stupid fool.”

Dalinar seized him by the chin, though the man was still held by his soldiers. “What?”

“She came to us,” Tanalan said. “To plead. How could you have missed her? Do you track your own family so poorly? The hole you burned … we don’t hide there anymore. Everyone knows about it. Now it’s a prison.”

…

“Go back,” he shouted at his elites. “Search that hole. Go…” He trailed off.

AA: Poor, stupid fool indeed. Too late…

Dalinar is genuinely shocked and horrified at the thought that he killed Evi. I’m glad to see that much. I guess.

AP: To tie this in with the above, the Thrill also could not withstand the shock of Evi’s loss. Dalinar isn’t a complete monster, but damn.

Fool woman. The scribes didn’t know Evi well enough. She hadn’t been a traitor—she’d gone to the Rift to plead for them to surrender. She’d seen in Dalinar’s eyes that he wouldn’t spare them. So, Almighty help her, she’d gone to do what she could.

AA: For all the flaws in their relationship, Dalinar did understand his wife, and she understood him.

L: Yeah. Poor thing. I have to wonder if, deep down, she suspected that this would wind up being a suicide mission, but felt strongly enough about it to risk it regardless.

AP: She’s not stupid, she understood the risk. One of her main issues is that others underestimate her capacity and capabilities because she doesn’t know the language or culture. The fact that she does it anyway speaks to her underlying courage.

This is your fault, he thought at her. How dare you do this? Stupid, frustrating woman.

This was not his fault, not his responsibility.

AA: GAAHHHHHH! Dalinar, you rat. Although… okay, I have to be fair. It was her decision to go to Tanalan secretly, and without that decision, she would not have been imprisoned in the former saferoom. It was also Tanalan’s decision to imprison her rather than letting her return to Dalinar alone. And it was Dalinar’s decision not to accept any envoy from the city. This is not a place where it’s easy to define responsibility, to be perfectly honest.

“She did not betray us,” Dalinar snapped. “Keep the discovery of her body quiet, Kalami. Tell the people … tell them my wife was slain by an assassin last night. I will swear the few elites who know to secrecy. Let everyone think she died a hero, and that the destruction of the city today was done in retribution.”

AA: Why is it that “retribution for the assassination of the highprince’s wife” is a more acceptable rationale than “retribution for betrayal and attempted murder of the highprince”?

Anyway, this is probably the story Adolin and Renarin were told: Their mother was killed by assassins from Rathalas, and their father completely demolished the city as payback. It will be interesting to see their reactions to the truth…

L: I wonder how much of that “let them think she died a hero” business is to salvage his own reputation. Is there any glimmer of him wanting her to be remembered this way because he loved her, do you think? Or is it all posturing and excuses to cover his own ass?

AP: I think it’s CYA all the way. He would obviously rather be remembered as someone who loves his wife. But it’s mainly to cover up what really happened.

AA: I think there’s a kernel of concern for Evi in wanting her portrayed as a hero rather than (as Kalami assumed) as a traitor, but I also think that about 2% of that is about loving Evi, and 98% about how it would reflect on him.

Why didn’t he just tell them what he learned from Tanalan, that she went to him in a last-ditch effort to negotiate a surrender, and Tanalan imprisoned her? We’ve speculated a lot on how the world—and particularly his sons—will react to the fact that Dalinar (almost) personally killed Evi, rather than her being assassinated by the Rathalans. Now I wonder how they will react to learning that she died because Tanalan imprisoned an envoy (however unofficial), and that she was only there to make him understand that if he didn’t surrender, all his people would die. I think the boys might find a lot of encouragement in that, rather than merely hating Dalinar for unknowingly killing her in that saferoom. There are multiple layers of lies to be peeled back.

Squires & Sidekicks

“Then know this, Dalinar,” Sadeas said, low, his voice like stone grinding stone. “I would cut out my own heart before betraying Gavilar. I have no interest in being king—it’s a job with little praise and even less amusement. I mean for this kingdom to stand for centuries.”

AA: As we’re told in the earlier books, this is a lot of why Sadeas supports Elhokar; he doesn’t want to be king himself, but he definitely wants the kingdom run his way. He likes the role of “the power behind the throne” because you get most of the power without any of the responsibility when things go poorly. (At least, that’s my interpretation. There’s a point in Words of Radiance where Ialai starts talking about a coup, so maybe that was starting to change.)

L: It’s as if he wants to be like Littlefinger from A Song of Ice and Fire, except Littlefinger was a master at reading people and manipulating them. Sadeas has the desire, but not the skill to pull it off.

Kadash was on his knees, looking woozy, a pile of vomit on the rock before him.

AA: I want to address an earlier exchange here. Kadash has taken an active part in torching the city. Just a few paragraphs prior to this moment, he was standing at the edge of the Rift, looking at the destruction; we’re not told what he’s thinking, but he’s just standing there watching it burn, with no apparent dismay. It’s not until he realizes who was down that tunnel that he has this reaction. He was just fine with destroying the city—he “went along with it” if you will—so he’s just as much guilty of war crimes as anyone. It was only the discovery that he (or at least, the squad of elites under his direct command) had burned Evi alive that turned him away from soldiering and to the ardentia. His “repentance” had little to do with killing tens of thousands of people; it had everything to do with killing one person. Does that make him somehow better than Teleb? I don’t see that it does.

L: We don’t know what he was thinking, though. It’s entirely possible that he was deeply disturbed by everything he was doing and only going along with it because he trusted Dalinar so deeply; but the realization of what happened to Evi was the final push that made him realize his leader wasn’t infallible after all, and if that was true… Without getting a POV section from him, we really can’t know for sure which way his thoughts were going.

AA: Well, I specifically asked Brandon about this after we discussed it back in the Chapter 4 comments. (I got to see him at ECCC 2018 just a few days after that discussion, so it was on my mind!) There were a lot of people saying that Kadash was sickened by the destruction, and I was arguing that it was Evi’s death that turned him. Brandon agreed with my point. Kadash was right there near the end of the battle, bringing the oil and the torches to one of the few areas that wasn’t already on fire, so I don’t think there’s much in his defense.

Teleb’s wife, Kalami, led the discussion; she thought that Evi must have defected.

…

Kalami smiled at him, a knowing—even self-important—smile. His lie would serve a second purpose. As long as Kalami and the head scribes thought they knew a secret, they’d be less likely to dig for the true answer.

AA: I find this scene unsettling. I sort of liked Kalami, but this side of her… I guess it’s pretty typically Alethi, but I find it decidedly unpleasant. Then again, we really saw almost nothing of her until this book; the death of her husband at Narak may have changed her attitudes considerably.

Bruised & Broken

As he departed, he strangely heard the screams of those people in the Rift. He stopped, wondering what it was. Nobody else seemed to notice.

Yes, that was distant screaming. In his head, maybe? They all seemed children to his ears. The ones he’d abandoned to the flames. A chorus of the innocent pleading for help, for mercy.

Evi’s voice joined them.

L: Ouch. At least he feels regret for his actions, and not just because of Evi. He hears the children first.

Diagrams & Dastardly Designs

“You were right about the scouts who turned traitor. We bribed one to turn on the others, and will execute the rest. The plan was apparently to separate you from the army, then hopefully kill you. Even if you were simply delayed, the Rift was hoping their lies would prompt your army into a reckless attack without you.”

AA: I wonder just what it took to bribe that one scout. Was that one just easily bribed by either side, or did they pick a likely candidate and put… pressure… on him/her? Torture wouldn’t at all surprise me as part of Sadeas’s approach to bribery.

Buy it Now

AP: I assumed whoever flipped first got the deal. But then again, I watch way too much Law & Order.

A Scrupulous Study of Spren

He watched as the fires spread, flamespren rising in them, seeming larger and more … angry than normal.

AA: What do you think? Is Dalinar imagining it, or is it true? If true, why would these flamespren be larger and more angry?

AP: Whenever we have weird spren or other supernatural activity, I immediately assume Unmade influence. They react to emotion, and the Thrill is certainly whipping emotions here into a frenzy.

AA: Good point!

Well. That was… interesting, and somewhat wrenching. It’s just never straightforward, is it? But that’s what makes it good writing—it reflects the complexity of real life, albeit without the same consequences.

Join us again next week for Chapter 77, in which there is not much action, but a whole boatload of information to discuss. For now, dive into the comments and let’s see how we can make sense out of this mess.

Alice is enjoying spring and a few non-crazy days to catch up with life.

Lyndsey is finally back from all her work for Anime Boston. If you’re an aspiring author, a cosplayer, or just like geeky content, follow her work on Facebook or her website.

Aubree is measuring this trench coat for non-owl related reasons.

Greetings, O Readers of the Re! This week in Oathbringer, our heroes learn about Unmade, do a little strategizing, and do some crazy—literally—shenanigans. Well, Shallan does, anyway. Also, a new squire emerges.

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. There’s no wider Cosmere discussion this week, but if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Kaladin, Shallan, Veil
WHERE: Kholinar
WHEN: 1174.2.3.2

Kaladin, Shallan, and Adolin meet in a stormshelter to compare notes and plan their next moves. Shallan shares information from her new book, Hessi’s Mythica, about the Unmade currently resident in Kholinar. Once the Everstorm has passed, they go their separate ways—Kaladin back to the Wall Guard Barracks, Adolin back to the tailor’s place, and Shallan to meet Vathah and prepare for her next heist and her infiltration of the Cult.

Truth, Love, and Defiance

Title: Stormshelter

This was one of those fashionable places that—while technically a stormshelter—was used only by rich people who had come to spend the storm enjoying themselves.

AA: The chapter doesn’t focus particularly on the shelter itself, but on the conversation; later, it’s also pointed out what happens to those who had no shelter during the storm.

Heralds

Shalash, the Artist, is associated with the divine attributes of Creative and Honest and is the patron of Lightweavers.

AA: As patron of Lightweavers, she’s also associated with Illusion, and that’s a major theme in this chapter. From Kaladin’s bafflement over Shallan’s differing behaviors toward him, to the disguise Adolin wears, to the multiple Illusions she creates while she’s alone, to the end of the chapter where she settles into being Veil, it’s a Theme… and let’s not forget Vathah creating his first Illusion! Shallan’s artwork is a secondary theme; she carves a very nice drawing into the tabletop, she has a whole new collection of drawings for Adolin to admire, and she makes use of those drawings to create some of her Illusions later. I’d say Shalash is well represented in the chapter!

Icon

Kaladin’s Banner and Spears icon gets the spotlight, but he shares the POV with Shallan, and then with Shallan-as-Veil.

Epigraph

Something must be done about the remnants of Odium’s forces. The parsh, as they are now called, continue their war with zeal, even without their masters from Damnation.

—From drawer 30-20, first emerald

AA: I always thought this was odd. Aharietiam was, by the time they were preparing to abandon Urithiru, about three thousand years past. Is this saying that the parsh have been zealously waging war against the humans for that entire time? Once Taln and all the ancestor souls were back on Braize, it would have been Humans with Radiants (no Heralds) vs. Parsh with Voidforms (no Fused), which is not completely unequal, but… it doesn’t quite make sense. The only way I can make sense of this is to assume that the war ended at Aharietiam for a long time, giving both sides a chance to recover and rebuild their societies with only occasional hostilities. Then, somewhere in more recent history, Ba-Ado-Mishram figured out how to make the kind of Connection that would allow the Parsh to bond the voidspren even without the Fused present, and so the war rekindled at a level that again threatened to engulf the world. Does that make sense?

AP: Well, we know that several of the Unmade were active during that time. It’s no surprise that they would continue to cause trouble.

Stories & Songs

Everstorms didn’t quite match up with scholarly projections. The previous one had arrived hours earlier than anyone had guessed it would. Fortunately, they tended to blow in slower than highstorms. If you knew to watch the sky, there was time to find shelter.

AA: Nice little foreshadowing detail here. We can’t know about it yet, but Odium has the ability to speed up or slow down the Everstorm, to some extent. Whether he’s just now experimenting with this, or whether he’s using that ability sparingly at this point, we don’t know. Maybe there will be a clue in the next Venli Interlude, which happens only a couple days after this.

“One of my contacts finally tracked down a copy of Hessi’s Mythica. It’s a newer book, and has been poorly received. It attributes distinct personalities to the Unmade.”

AA: Unmade ahoy! Now we finally get to start learning about them, like we learned about the Knights Radiant in the previous book, from in-world documentation. As always, we have to be a little skeptical of in-world research, since it may be unreliable. At the same time, Sanderson does make use of it to give a lot of great information that would be otherwise implausible for us to learn. So… here goes, I guess.

Rather than trying to quote and comment, I’m going to attempt a quick summary. Hessi says that there are nine Unmade, probably originally ancient spren from before humanity’s arrival on Roshar. Not all of them were destroyed at Aharietiam, and some are active now. Two of them appear to be active in Kholinar now. Sja-anat, the Taker of Secrets, is recognizable by the presence of the corrupted spren around the city. Ashertmarn, the Heart of the Revel, leads people to indulge in excesses; its presence is confirmed not only by the behavior in the palace, but by Wit’s statement back in Chapter 68:

“… The common members wander the streets, moaning, pretending to be spren. But others up on the platform actually know the spren—specifically, the creature known as the Heart of the Revel.”

AA: Regarding the Unmade in general and these two in particular, this is all pretty solid information, so far as it goes; most of it is confirmed elsewhere. So… two Unmade hanging around the palace, which just coincidentally also houses Elhokar’s family and the Oathgate—their two objectives in the city.

“How do we fight two?” Kaladin asked.

“How do we fight one?” Adolin said.

AA: Indeed. As he points out, they didn’t exactly “fight” Re-Shephir; mostly they (or Shallan) frightened her into leaving. Shallan’s book doesn’t say much about fighting them; it seems Hessi’s only advice is to beat feet. Not exactly helpful, under the circumstances. Oh, and it also says that the Unmade can corrupt people as well as spren. (No, really?)

AP: And unbeknownst to them there are actually three! The Unmade Yelig-nar is possessing the Queen, though they haven’t made that connection yet. It’s also interesting to note that Hessi says there could be ten Unmade instead of nine. I suspect that is significant and could show up in later books.

AA: I just assumed that was because of the Rosharan penchant for everything in tens. But… yes, it could be significant later.

Schemes & Strategems

“What if I can’t open [the Oathgate]?” Shallan asked. “What then?”

“We have to retreat back to the Shattered Plains,” Kaladin said.

“Elhokar won’t leave his family.”

“Then Drehy, Skar, and I rush the palace,” Kaladin said. “We fly in at night, enter through the upper balcony, grab the queen and the young prince. We do it all right before the highstorm comes, then the lot of us fly back to Urithiru.”

“And leave the city to fall,” Adolin said, drawing his lips to a line.

AA: One of the things I both love and hate about Sanderson’s writing is that he doesn’t actually let the Classic Fantasy Solution work—because it doesn’t. Kaladin has this cool scheme to use his new magic powers to achieve one of their primary objectives, and it would work as far as it goes. Unfortunately, Adolin has to go and point out the fact that if they bug out via Windrunning, they leave the city—citizens, refugees, and all—to the mercy of the Voidbringers. That doesn’t—and shouldn’t—sit right with any of them.

(Of course, as it works out in the end, it might have been the better solution. They didn’t really make much difference except in freeing the Palace Guard guys so they could die fighting. Elhokar and Aesudan both died, all five squires and little Gavinor got left behind, the city fell, and the remaining leaders ended up in Shadesmar. One could almost wish they’d gone with Kaladin’s plan after all…)

Anyway… there’s a nice little discussion about how a fortified city is supposed to be able to be defended by a relatively small garrison, but it won’t work here because flying Voidbringers plus Cult plus enormous invading army. (Plus thunderclasts, but they don’t know that yet.)

Relationships & Romances

Kaladin lingered, watching Shallan laugh at something Adolin said, then poke him—with her safehand—in the shoulder. She seemed completely enthralled by him. And good for her. Everyone deserved something to give them light, these days. But … what about the glances she shot him on occasion, times when she didn’t quite seem to be the same person? A different smile, an almost wicked look to her eyes …

You’re seeing things, he thought to himself.

AA: Is this the first time Kaladin has (sort of) registered that Veil is really a different “person” than Shallan? I think it must be; he’s always just assumed she was Shallan wearing a disguise and being a good actress, rather than Shallan morphing into a different person altogether.

L: Kal’s never been the most observant of people, but Shallan has been very good about keeping her multiple identities a secret. It makes sense that he’d only really start noticing this when it directly affects him…

AP: He has no reason to suspect Shallan’s actual degree of mental illness. It’s reasonable to assume that Veil is just a disguise to that Shallan wears using her Lightweaving powers. To an outside observer, she does act pretty weird.

“Oh hush,” she said, and batted his arm in a playful—and somewhat nauseating—way.

Yes, it was uncomfortable to watch the two of them. Kaladin liked them both … just not together.

AA: Sigh. I think we’ve all had that experience, maybe? But it does make me chuckle a bit.

L: This touch of jealousy is very realistic, even more so because Kaladin can’t quite put his finger on why he’s feeling the way he is.

“There’s kind of an army in the way,” Kaladin said.

“Yes, amazingly your stench hasn’t cleared them out yet.” Shallan started leafing through her book.

Kaladin frowned. Comments like that were part of what confused him about Shallan. She seemed perfectly friendly one moment, then she’d snap at him the next, while pretending it was merely part of normal conversation. But she didn’t talk like that to others, not even in jest.

What is wrong with you, woman? he thought.

AA: I have to admit I don’t really get it either, but I’m probably forgetting something. I don’t buy his theory that she’s embarrassed by what they shared back in their chasm ordeal. (He, quite reasonably, doesn’t get why she’d be this way sometimes, and then give him sly grins and winks other times; we know it’s because Veil likes him and that persona slips through sometimes.) At this point, my best guess for why she throws these insults at him and no one else is that he’s sort of a fill-in brother for her, and the only person in her immediate vicinity that remotely qualifies. It’s the kind of stuff she’d have said in private with her brothers, and they’d know she was teasing; sometimes her weird humor—puns, insults, and all—was the only thing that kept them halfway sane. Any other ideas?

Buy it Now

L: Honestly, I think she’s afraid of what she/Veil feels towards him and is lashing out because of it. She’s outwardly denying that she feels anything, like a little boy who makes fun of the girl he likes as a smokescreen.

AP: I’m sure that’s part of it, but Kaladin isn’t familiar with Alethi Lighteyes women’s culture and their penchant for throwing shade. Which Shallan often tries with varying degrees of success. We’ve also talked about her humor before, which tends to land flat when she is “punching down”.

He put his arm around her, pulling her closer as they walked. Other Alethi couples kept their distance in public, but Adolin had been raised by a mother with a fondness for hugs.

AA: D’awwwww. Also, ouch for the reminder of last week. Thanks for that, then.

L: Yet another example of how Adolin’s upbringing has left him with different societal norms. He doesn’t care what other people think of him and his relationship, he’s confident.

Bruised & Broken

“Elhokar is working on last-minute plans through the storm,” Adolin said. “He’s decided to reveal himself tonight to the lighteyes he’s chosen. And … he’s done a good job, Kal. We’ll at least have some troops because of this. Fewer than I’d like, but something.”

AA: It makes me sad that even Adolin is surprised that Elhokar has done a good job of something. I think this is part of why I get so angry about him being killed—he had finally started to quit worrying about what people thought of him, was focused on a worthy task, and was starting to demonstrate that he was good at some things. We’re starting to see that he’s got the makings of a good king after all, and then… but we’ll get to that in a few weeks.

L: He’s making good progress towards actual change. Then… :(

AP: I’m glad he’s trying to do better, but it underscores what an ineffective and weak ruler he was for years before this.

AA: Yes, Adolin’s reaction is telling. Even he didn’t know Elhokar had this in him.

Still, she lingered, enjoying Adolin’s presence. She wanted to be here, with him, before it was time to be Veil. She … well, she didn’t much care for him. Too clean-cut, too oblivious, too expected. She was fine with him as an ally, but wasn’t the least bit interested romantically.

AA: Ugh. Shallan is so broken… She’s so okay with being different people. Like… completely different people occupying her mind and body.

L: Yeah, this is SUPER problematic. Having emotional attachments to multiple people isn’t a bad thing, but segmenting your own personality obviously isn’t healthy in any way, shape, or form. Not for her, and not for Adolin or Kaladin, either.

AP: Agreed that this is very serious. The degree of dissociation among her personas is increasing to a worrying degree.

I can become anything. Adolin deserved someone far better than her. Could she … become that someone? Craft for him the perfect bride, a woman that looked and acted as befitted Adolin Kholin?

It wouldn’t be her. The real her was a bruised and sorry thing, painted up all pretty, but inside a horrid mess. She already put a face over that for him. Why not go a few steps farther? Radiant … Radiant could be his perfect bride, and she did like him.

The thought made Shallan feel cold inside.

AA: Shallan, NO!!

L: Well, at least it’s making her feel cold inside about it. She’s realizing how bad this is, which is a step forward.

AP: That she retains some insight is good. But she needs a much better support system. Her upbringing has taught her not to rely on others, but girl needs help. She can’t manage her mental illness in her own. Roshar is in serious need of some mental health professionals.

“What do you do out there, Shallan? Who do you become?”

“Everyone,” she said. Then she reached up and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you for being you, Adolin.”

“Everyone else was taken already,” he mumbled.

Never stopped me.

AA: I… don’t even have anything to say about this. It’s just… it needed to be quoted.

AP: I’m just going to repeat SHALLAN, NO!!

She felt her face changing as she walked, draining Stormlight from her satchel. … Face after face. Life after life. … She unbuttoned her havah up the side, then let it fall. She dropped her satchel, which thumped from the heavy book inside. She stepped forward in only her shift, safehand uncovered, feeling the wind on her skin. She was still wearing an illusion, one that didn’t disrobe, so nobody could see her. … She stopped on the street corner, wearing shifting faces and clothing, enjoying the sensation of freedom, clothed yet naked skin shivering at the wind’s kiss. Around her, people ducked away into buildings, frightened. Just another spren, Shallan/Veil/Radiant thought. That’s what I am. Emotion made carnal.

AA: Now that’s just weird and creepy and disturbing. Girl is nuts.

L: I can kind of understand. As a theater kid, being able to become someone else for awhile is very attractive, especially if you’re not happy with who you are to begin with. But Shallan’s taking it to the extreme.

AP: Shallan is the artsy and dramatic one, remember? While this does underscore the difference in the two personas, it also shows a disturbing lack of impulse control on Shallan’s part.

“…I think Shallan was making illusions off and on for years before she said the oaths. But then, it’s all kind of muddled in her head. I had my sword when I was very young, and…”

AA: … and she doesn’t even know whether to speak in the first person or the third.

AP: This starts to become really common in this section of the book.

Squires & Sidekicks

The Wall Guard might have a Soulcaster, and was definitely producing food somehow. It had seized emerald stores in the city—a fact he’d recently discovered.

“Azure is … tough to read,” Kaladin finished. “She visits the barracks every night, but never talks about herself. Men report seeing her sword cut through stone, but it has no gemstone. I think it might be an Honorblade, like the weapon of the Assassin in White.”

AA: It just feels wrong to place Azure as a “sidekick”… but where else? At this point, she is peripheral to the story.

Anyway, so now we know there’s a firm basis to Azure-has-a-Shardblade: It cuts through stone, and no ordinary sword could do that.

AP: Also a good reminder that Honorblades don’t have gems powering them like dead Shardblade do. It also throws the readers off of Azure being a world hopper because it’s an alternate explanation for her weird Shardblade. Where are the other honorblades anyway? I keep expecting them to show up.

AA: As far as we know, the Shin still have seven of them, but I do expect them to come into play one way or another; that should happen by book 5 at the latest, when Szeth takes center stage.

Vathah had taken to planning operations under Ishnah’s guidance, and was proving quite proficient.

AA: That’s kind of fun to read. I’ll admit I still don’t have much affection for Vathah, but he’s starting to grow on me. Especially with the end of this chapter.

“You know, when you reformed me from banditry, I figured I was done with stealing.”

“This is different.”

“Different how? We stole mostly food back then too, Brightness. Just wanted to stay alive and forget.”

“And do you still want to forget?”

He grunted. “No, suppose I don’t. Suppose I sleep a little better now at night, don’t I?”

AA: He’s finally starting to let go of his cynicism, maybe? A little?

Vathah was gone, replaced by a bald man with thick knuckles and a well-kept smock. Shallan glanced at the picture on the table, then at the drained sphere beside it, then back at Vathah.

“Nice,” she said. “But you forgot to do the back of the head, the part not in the drawing.”

“What?” Vathah asked, frowning. She showed him the hand mirror. “Why’d you put his face on me?”

“I didn’t,” Veil said, standing. “You panicked and this happened.” …

“We’ll do the mission as planned, but tomorrow you’re relieved of infiltration duty. I’ll want you practicing with your Stormlight instead.”

“Practicing…” He finally seemed to get it, his brown eyes opening widely. “Brightness! I’m no storming Radiant.”

“Of course not. You’re probably a squire—I think most orders had them. You might become something more.”

AA: That was unexpected, I have to say! Cool, though. Also, one of the last things we’ll see of Vathah until the very last chapter, so we’ll have to wait until the next book to see how it goes.

L: Also, a very cool verification for us as readers that yes, Lightweavers can also have squires who take on some of their powers, just like the Windrunners.

Flora & Fauna

Kaladin finished his drink, wishing it were one of Rock’s concoctions instead, and flicked away an odd cremling that he spotted clinging to the side of the bench. It had a multitude of legs, and a bulbous body, with a strange tan pattern on its back.

AA: Hey, look, there’s a Dysian Aimian in Kholinar!

L: WHICH ONE IS IT? WHY’S IT SPYING HERE? I can’t wait to find out more about their motives!

AP: The Dysian Aimians are such a cool little detail. It’s totally seamless as an easter egg. Of course an establishment in a city under siege might get bugs. But I now automatically get suspicious of any lone cremling we see scuttling around.

Weighty Words

Their Radiants were not a battle-ready group, not yet. Storms. His men had barely taken to the skies. How could they be expected to fight those creatures who flew so easily upon the winds? How could he protect this city and protect his men?

AA: Okay, I could be wrong on this, but I suspect this is a hint at the Fourth Ideal that Kaladin can’t say: He’s having trouble with the fact that he can’t protect everyone. One way or another, it’s got to be something to do with accepting that fact.

L: I think you’re absolutely right. I think the ideal will be something like “I will protect those I can, and accept that I can’t save everyone.”

AP: I totally agree with both of you. To move forward, Kaladin has to accept that he is not capable of protecting everyone, because right now, the fact that he can’t save everyone is breaking him. We will definitely get to talk about this more, later in the book.

“You’re getting better, if that’s possible.”

“Maybe. Though I don’t know how much I can credit myself with the progress. Words of Radiance says that a lot of Lightweavers were artists.”

“So the order recruited people like you.”

“Or the Surgebinding made them better at sketching, giving them an unfair advantage over other artists.”

AA: I don’t know if this is significant or not. It’s interesting, either way.

L: This is an interesting distinction. Sort of a chicken or the egg situation.

AP: I think the magic does make her better. It also allows her to “see” and capture a situation—like her portraits that show the best version of a person, or her drawings of Urithiru and Kholinar showing the Unmade’s influence that she wasn’t able to consciously figure out.

A Scrupulous Study of Spren

“Be glad the door got stuck.”

Syl sat on the hinges, legs hanging over the sides. Kaladin doubted it had been luck; sticking people’s shoes to the stone was a classic windspren trick.

AA: It’s been a long time since we saw Syl playing tricks! In the middle of the doom and gloom of Part Three, it’s nice to have this little callback to the time she stuck Kaladin’s bowl to his fingers and stuff like that.

L: For sure. I just wish that Syl and Pattern has played more of a part in the conversation. Sometimes it feels like they’re not “real” characters and only foils, not really taking part in bigger conversations between the main players. Is this because they’re still holding on to that “we can’t interfere” mindset that they’d lived under for so long?

AP: I think that’s exactly it. I expect they will get more involved as the series progresses and the Knights Radiant don’t have to hide their identities. They can’t exactly hop up on the table here and join the conversation without being suspicious.

… Adolin reached out toward Kaladin. “Let me see your sword.”

“My sword?” Kaladin said, glancing toward Syl, who was huddling near the back of the booth and humming softly to herself. A way of ignoring the sounds of the Everstorm, which rumbled beyond the stones.

“Not that sword,” Adolin said. “Your side sword.”

AA: This cracked me up—Kaladin is so used to only ever having Syl as a sword that he totally forgets he’s carrying a normal one. Heh. But also, poor Syl, doing her very best to ignore the Everstorm, which probably feels even more wrong to spren than it does to humans. Or… wrong on a different level, anyway.

L: Who would remember that they have a dinky little arming sword when they’ve got a SHARDBLADE?

Appealing/Arresting/Appraising/Absorbing Artwork

AA: The Mythica is introduced with some very nice artwork.

L: It reminds me of a Tarot card.

AP: I really like how it’s outlined by the “wrongspren” that we’ve seen in the city. Any significance to the crooked lines on the border? Some sort of glyphs?

A mother with her daughter, sitting in shadow, but with her face looking toward the horizon and the hints of a rising sun. A thick-knuckled man sweeping the area around his pallet on the street. A young woman, lighteyed and hanging out a window, hair drifting free, wearing only a nightgown with her hand tied in a pouch.

“Shallan,” he said, “these are amazing! Some of the best work you’ve ever done.”

“They’re just quick sketches, Adolin.”

“They’re beautiful,” he said, looking at another, where he stopped. It was a picture of him in one of his new suits.

AA: LOL

Okay, I love the descriptions of them all, and they’ll come into play later in the chapter, but his reaction to the picture of himself is so funny.

L: It’s got to be cool to see how someone else views you. Good thing he stopped when he did, though I’m not sure he would have been upset by her sketch of Kaladin (unless it was Kal half naked giving a sultry wink or something).

Quality Quotations

“A longer blade would be impractical.”

“Longer … like Shardblades?” Kaladin asked.

“Well, yes, they break all kinds of rules.”

AA: Yes, I’d like a side of Fourth Wall with my snark, thanks. Heh.

That was a lot of crazy! Join us next week for even more crazy, as Shallan gets into the Cult of Moments in Chapter 78.

Alice is planning to take next week off!

Lyndsey is busy preparing for this season of renaissance faires, but if you’re an aspiring author, a cosplayer, or just like geeky content, follow her work on Facebook or her website.

Aubree is probably reading too much into the fact that she found a lone centipede in her window planter today.

This week on the Oathbringer Reread, Aubree and I will be taking a disturbing journey into the Heart of the Revel with Shallan/Veil/Kishi/whoever the heck Shallan’s pretending to be at the moment… Stay tuned for giant black blob of gluttony vs the woman of a million faces! And simultaneously, in one corner of the Kholinar wall… the boy blue, the brooding wonder, the Shardbearer supreme—Kaaaaaaaaaladin Stormblessed! In the other corner, also in blue, the Worldly Woman, the Princess of Persuasion, the Commander in Chief—Viv—I mean, Azure! Who will reign supreme in these two battles before us?

Well, we won’t find out this week as one ends in a distraction and the other in a timely escape, but come along anyway and join us in the comments!

(I’m just now realizing that I have a tendency towards using Wrestling-style intros for some reason, despite the fact that I don’t much care for wrestling… Look, it’s just fun, all right?)

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. There may be some small spoilers for Warbreaker in here as well, since a certain Worldhopper is present. As always, if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Veil, Kaladin
WHERE: Kholinar (not bothering with a map this week, as all of the events take place either on the wall or the Oathgate platform.)
WHEN: 1174.2.3.2 (same day as the previous chapter)

Veil arrives at the Oathgate plaza and presents her offering, thereby gaining access to the platform and the revelers on it. She is assigned a “guide,” but easily ditches him and makes her way into the center of the platform, where she encounters a giant pulsating mass of goo. Her “shadow” informs her that it’s a trap, and Veil takes over again to extract Shallan from the situation.

Meanwhile, Kaladin cozies up to Azure in an attempt to get more information from her. They parry questions back and forth for a few minutes before they hear the drums heralding an impending attack…

Truth, Love, and Defiance

Title: The Revel

Heralds

Jezrien, protecting/leading, Windrunners. Battah, wise/careful, Elsecallers.

It’s pretty clear that Jezrien’s here because Kaladin and Azure are embodying his trait of leadership. Battah, I believe, is present because Shallan is certainly being very careful as she progresses into the Heart of the Revel. In a way, we could say that Kal’s represented by this too, as he’s being awfully selective in his replies to Azure’s questions (and vice versa).

Icon

Pattern, usually indicative of a Shallan POV chapter, though she shares this one with Kaladin.

Epigraph

A coalition has been formed among scholar Radiants. Our goal is to deny the enemy their supply of Voidlight; this will prevent their continuing transformations, and give us an edge in combat.

-From drawer 30-20, second emerald

L: Interesting tidbit here, as always from the Drawer-Stones. When they say continuing transformations, I wonder if this is referring to the different forms the Listeners already have and can switch between (envoy, war, etc), or if they mean that these forms are continuously evolving into new ones.

AP: I mean, they are pretty constantly transforming, from the point of view of humans who can’t shapeshift.

L: I also find the part about denying them Voidlight to be really interesting. Were they trying to find a way to end the Everstorm, or maybe sever the Listeners’ connection with Odium?

AP: I think this is the plan that ends in the creation of the Parshmen. Cutting them off from the rhythms entirely. It worked better than they could have ever expected.

Stories & Songs

However, not long after starting, she began to hear the voice.

Let go.

Give up your pain.

Feast. Indulge.

Embrace the end.

L: Yikes. I can certainly see how this might be attractive to a population who’s given up hope of rescue.

AP: Definitely! There are lots of voices going around in Kholinar these days. It makes me wonder who is susceptible to being able to hear the Unmade. Is it the same cracks in the spirit web that allow potential bonds with spren? Are these poor unfortunate souls we see at the revel the population of potential Radiants in Kholinar that have just been neutralized?

L: I don’t know, I don’t think there would be enough “cracked” people. I think the Unmade is just relying on people who are depressed and have no hope. It’s easier to convince someone to just give in and accept the end if they’re already halfway there to begin with.

AP: But in cosmere terms, isn’t depression a type of spirit web crack? There should have been hundreds of Radiants already. And instead because of a combination of deliberate interference and the Heralds abandoning their duty, we have… ten? And a handful of squires. Odds are bleak. To me, this fits into the pattern of squashing the Radiants before they can even get started.

Buy it Now

L: I always viewed it as… more of a traumatic event than “just” depression. (I am putting “just” in quotations here to hopefully make it clear that I’m not downplaying depression—I suffer from it as well.) All of the people we’ve seen so far who have “gone Radiant” have had some pretty hefty traumas to deal with—some in addition to preexisting conditions. Kaladin’s little brother died “because” of him and he was also “responsible” for the deaths of his men, and getting thrown into slavery and all… Shallan killed her father, Dalinar killed his own wife, Teft’s got his drug addiction, Eshonai felt she failed her entire people… It just seems like, within the context of the story, it takes an Inciting Event to crack a soul. The hairline cracks may be there to start, but it’s the Event that cracks them open like an egg and allows the Bond to take place. This is my own speculation, of course, but… we’ll see!

The voices in her head combined from whispers to a kind of surging rhythm. A thumping of impressions, followed by a pause, followed by another surge. Almost like…

L: A song, perhaps? (I realize it’s supposed to be like a heartbeat, but I can’t help but wonder if there might not also be a connection here to the Rhythms.)

AP: I think that’s definitely a potential connection! But the heart imagery is undeniable.

She looked to the side, and found her shadow on the ground, pointed the wrong way, toward the moonlight instead of away from it. The shadow crept up the wall, with eyes that were white holes, glowing faintly.

I’m not your enemy. But the heart is a trap. Take caution.

L: Hello, Unmade #2! (Also, I can’t help but see that shadow as a Heartless from Kingdom Hearts…)

AP: Oh geez, now I do too! I’m also not really sure what to make of Sja-anat. I keep thinking she is playing the long game and this is another deception. I definitely don’t think the Unmade are working together in a coherent way. Actually, I’m not sure if they are capable of working together. TBD.

L: For some weird reason, I trust her. Time will tell if that backfires on me…

AP: I really, really hope you are right though! I want to like/trust her. I just don’t yet.

Bruised & Broken

Should she have created a new persona, a false face, to not expose Veil?

But Veil is a false face, a part of her said. You could always abandon her.

She strangled that part of her, smothered it deep. Veil was too real, too vital, to abandon. Shallan would be easier.

L: I suspect that this is going to wind up being a major character moment for her in a later book. She’s going to have to make a choice and “kill” one or the other. I am disturbed that she thinks killing off Shallan would be easier—but it does make sense. Shallan is deeply damaged, and she doesn’t like to look too deeply at that. Veil is confident and doesn’t come with years worth of emotional baggage. Of course it would be easier to kill off the part of her that’s more “damaged.” Fixing herself will take work. Giving herself up to Veil is easy.

AP: I agree. I think that Shallan needs to reconcile her personas in order to really heal. It would be super dramatic if she actually had to destroy one or the other.

Within that ring, time wouldn’t matter. She could forget Shallan, and what she’d done. Just… give in…

L: Kishi is a particularly dangerous persona for her to adopt right now. I rather wish she’d stuck with Veil. She’s already inclined towards trying to “be” someone else, and Kishi is one of the revelers. This is putting her perilously close to actually crossing that line and joining them.

AP: It’s like the ultimate form of method acting!

Squires & Sidekicks

This wasn’t the type of inspection that was intended to actually find problems–this was a chance for the men to show off for their highmarshal. They swelled as she told them they “just might be the finest platoons of fighting men I’ve ever had the privilege of leading.” Kaladin was certain he’d heard those same words from Amaram.

L: It’s really nice to see someone else who understands how to build morale and forge bonds of loyalty.

AP: I just plain like Azure here. It’s great to see the character development from where she started on Nalthis.

L: Same. I wasn’t really a huge fan of her in Warbreaker, but I love who she’s become! (Granted, I am partial to badass women in armor carrying weapons, so…)

AP: I mean, same…

Then Kaladin and Azure threw themselves back from the bench at nearly the same time. “To arms!” Kaladin shouted. “There’s an attack on the wall!”

L: Kal, 1. Azure, 0.

AP: He’s tipping his hand here! It isn’t going to matter much veeerrrry sooooonnn.

L: Azure and Kaladin.

Places & Peoples

She must have spent time as a mercenary out west, Kaladin thought. Sigzil had once told him that women fought in the west, particularly among mercenaries.

L: I wonder if he means that Alethi women fought, or that the women of those particular countries did? With the Alethi aversion to female fighters, this really makes me wonder. Also… what does he mean by “out west,” exactly? Almost everything is west of Kholinar.

AP: I think he is referring to Alethi women, since he makes a point of thinking how very Alethi Azure looks. I could definitely see Alethi women who didn’t fit into the very strict gender expectations leaving to join mercenary groups. But since, as you say, everything is west, it could just as easily be other countries/cultures.

Tight Butts and Coconuts

“How did you end up in this city?” Azure asked. “Sadeas’s lands are far to the north. There are several armies of Voidbringers between here and there, by report.”

“I flew.”

L: I have to giggle at Kal’s flippant (yet honest) response here. Their back-and-forth is fantastic—both subtly testing the other, trying to wean out some information. It’s a bit like watching a tennis match, neither player quite managing to get the ball past the other.

“I am your commanding officer, you realize. You should answer me when I ask questions.”

“I’ve given answers,” Kaladin said. “If they aren’t the ones you want, then perhaps your questions aren’t very good.”

L: Kal with the sass-attack!

AP: But also? This is a problem. Kal is very bad at accepting orders. We’ve seen several times where he just does his own thing and undermines the command structure. I expect that this will eventually have serious consequences.

L: Well… he’s good at following orders if he believes that his commanding officer knows what they’re doing. Which… honestly, doesn’t make him a terribly good soldier in some respects. There’s a fine line between “I’m not following this order because I think I know better” (cough Poe Dameron cough) and “I’m not following this order because I am morally opposed to it.” We’ve already seen him screw this up a few times—when he tries the side carry in The Way of Kings, and when he challenges Sadeas after Adolin’s disastrous three vs one duel in Words of Radiance. Now… technically, he does outrank Azure here, and he probably does have more information at his disposal than she does. But it’s still a problematic tendency that I hope doesn’t wind up biting him in the ass.

Cosmere Connections

She was also very Alethi, with the skin tone and hair, her eyes a glimmering light orange.

L: I have to admit I don’t recall descriptions of Vivenna with any real clarity save for the Royal Locks. Has she disguised herself somehow, or do her country’s physical characteristics just line up particularly well with those of the Alethi?

AP: The hair!! She is exceptionally good at controlling her emotions, and keeping her hair black, as mentioned in Warbreaker. Black hair is traditionally Alethi. The eyes I’m not sure about. I can’t tell if it’s Rosharan weirdness because of her “shardblade” connection, or if she can change more than her hair now. I don’t recall her skin tone being mentioned in Warbreaker, so I don’t know if that’s significant or not.

L: Yeah, it was more the skin tone that threw me than anything. Being able to change your own hair color at will sure is a handy trick—wish I could do it, it would make cosplaying so much easier!

A Scrupulous Study of Spren

She could feel Pattern’s vibrations on her coat. It seemed to counteract the voices, clearing her head.

L: Something supernatural going on here (their bond blocking the interference of the Unmade), or is it simply something “real” that’s keeping her from spiraling down into the Revel, anchoring her?

AP: I think it’s intentional interference. Pattern’s humming rhythms could possibly be a good tool to disrupt the Rhythms of the Unmade. Lightweavers should definitely have a tool that lets them disrupt deception that comes from another source. We have only seen one Lightweaver so far, but it seems to me that they should be able to see through or counteract the effects of other Lightweavers.

Sheer Speculation

…one of the guards held up a torch—not a sphere lamp…

L: Why aren’t they using spheres? Do the Unmade perhaps have fear of spheres being so close to them, seeing as how the Stormlight is being contained in gems much as the Unmade could be? These aren’t “perfect” gems, but I wonder if maybe the Unmade are twitchy about any gems being nearby.

AP: Well, more practically, they know that the Knights Radiant are back. Stormlight-infused lanterns are a potential source of power for the enemy. No need to make it easier to fight you.

L: That’s a good point.

Next week we’ll be diving head first into chapters 79 and 80, as both are pretty short. Join us then and, as always, in the comments for more spirited discussion with fellow fans.

Lyndsey is happy to have finally passed her test for Basic Figure Skating Skills Level 6, and actually rather liked the ending of Game of Thrones. If you’re an aspiring author, a cosplayer, or just like geeky content, follow her work on Facebook or her website.

Aubree is really looking forward to going to a party this weekend! But not that kind of party…

Hear ye! Hear ye! It’s another Oathbringer reread, with two—count ‘em, two—chapters this week! (Okay, short ones. But two of them.) Kaladin has a first-time victory for the Wall Guard, when he brings down a Fused in battle. Shallan, on the other hand, realizes something distinctly not a victory. Mixed emotions up in here this week, peeps.

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. There are spoilers for Warbreaker in the Cosmere Connections unit, so if you haven’t read it yet, you need to get with the program. (Seriously. Go read it.) And if you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Kaladin, Shallan
WHERE: Kholinar wall, streets
WHEN: 1174.2.3.2 (same day as chapters 77 and 78)

Kaladin leads “his” troops up onto the wall to defend against the attacking Voidbringers. He kills one and reveals who he really is to Azure. Meanwhile, Veil!Shallan returns to the people she’s been supplying food to, only to learn that her good deed has backfired tremendously and made the people into victims – especially young Grund, who dies at the hands of the street toughs who have been stealing all the food from them after Veil leaves.

Truth, Love, and Defiance

Titles 

Chapter 79: Echoes of Thunder

Kaladin charged up the stairwell beside Highmarshal Azure, the sound of drums breaking the air like echoes of thunder from the departed storm.

AA: I don’t know that it’s significant to the rest of the chapter, but that sure is an appropriately portentous title!

L: And a beautiful simile to boot.

Chapter 80: Oblivious

“How oblivious are you, woman?”

L: We’ll get into this more down in the “Bruised and Broken” section.

AA: Yeah… not sure whether to sniffle or sigh.

Heralds

L: There’s no question why Jezrien’s heading Chapter 79. Kaladin is living up to his Windrunner ideals to a T, protecting and leading the men on the wall. Ishi, however, heading up Chapter 80, I’m not quite so sure on. Maybe because Shallan thought that her actions were pious?

AA: I’ve been pondering this for hours, and the best I can come up with is the combination of Shallan intending to be pious (and perhaps “guiding” as well) and then turning out to be ignorant and dangerous instead. I’m not sure that’s quite “opposite” of Ishi’s characteristics, but it’s close. It’s also possible that it has to do with Ishi’s associated madness, but since we don’t know exactly what that is, we can’t judge.

Icons

Kaladin’s spears (Kaladin POV), Pattern (Shallan POV)

Buy it Now

Epigraphs

Our revelation is fueled by the theory that the Unmade can perhaps be captured like ordinary spren. It would require a special prison. And Melishi.

—From drawer 30-20, third emerald

L: We know that the Unmade can be trapped in perfect gemstones, but is this the first time we’ve had it mentioned that a Bondsmith is needed for this process?

AA: … Uh… Oh, good grief. It never even occurred to me that you actually have to have a Bondsmith to trap an Unmade, but I’m betting it’s not coincidence that we’ve only seen it happen (you know what I mean) with a Bondsmith doing the deed. I wonder, is that only for Unmade, or would it also be required to trap a Voidspren?

L: Going off of that, I wonder if it’s possible to capture the “souls” of the Fused too? So they can’t be constantly reborn?

AA: Sure would be nice! It’s something Kaladin considers in this chapter; it doesn’t matter that he kills one, because it’ll just grab another body in the next Everstorm. It also makes me wonder (again) what was in those black-glowing spheres Gavilar had. I doubt they were Unmade, but they could have been Voidspren, or Voidlight… but could they have been ancestor-souls?

Ba-Ado-Mishram has somehow Connected with the parsh people, as Odium once did. She provides Voidlight and facilitates forms of power. Our strike team is going to imprison her.

—From drawer 30-20, fourth emerald

L: So… did they succeed? If B-A-M is the source of all Voidlight (that can’t be right, can it?) then she must be around somewhere. If not, maybe she acts as… a conduit? She channels it more effectively, or can hold it like a sphere/reservoir and allow others around her to access it?

AA: I’m pretty sure Odium is the actual source of Voidlight, but being a Splinter of Odium gives her access to his power, meaning that she was able to give the parsh people access to all the nasty-forms once she figured out how to Connect with them properly. I’m not sure what the mechanism is, but since the Unmade are much more localized than the Shards, it seems reasonable that they at least have to be in her general vicinity. Like the Thrill. Or like the Everstorm, in fact.

As for succeeding, I’m assuming they did, and that’s what “broke” the parsh. Somehow, trapping her not only took away their access to the Voidforms, it removed their ability to take any forms at all. It must have blocked their gemhearts, somehow… but I don’t quite know how.

Or… we don’t know that it was exactly this scheme that succeeded. There’s that line from the in-world Words of Radiance, where Melishi had some new idea that he didn’t have time to explain. But it was something along this line.

Stories & Songs

Even worse, the one he’d killed would be reborn. Unless the Heralds set up their prison again, Kaladin couldn’t ever really kill one of the Fused.

L: Are there any Listeners left for them to bond with? For some reason I got the impression that all of them had either been killed or bonded already.

AA: We don’t really know for sure what the status of the Listeners is. We have a healthy suspicion (but I don’t think we have confirmation?) that they were the preferred hosts for the Fused, because they hadn’t lost mental function like the parshmen had. But when they run out of Listeners, you know the Fused will use whatever parsh bodies are available, and there are a lot of those.

It’s yet another mark of how desperate humanity is this time. Not only do they have a mere handful of fledgling Knights Radiant and one semi-functional Herald, they don’t even have a way to take out any of the Fused for more than nine days at the most. (That’s the expected interval of Everstorms, isn’t it?) It really doesn’t bode well.

Bruised & Broken

“Hate…” Grund whispered. “Hate you.” … “Why couldn’t you leave me alone?” he whispered. “They killed them all. My friends. Tai… … You drew them,” he hissed. “You strutted around, throwing food. You thought people wouldn’t notice?” He closed his eyes. “Had to sit all day, wait for… for you. My life was waiting for you. It wasn’t here when you came, or if I tried to hide the food, they beat me.”

“How long?” she whispered, feeling her confidence shake.

“Since the first day, you storming woman. Hate… hate you… Others too. We all… hate you…”

L: Well damn. That’s the ultimate kick in the stomach. Not only is she the reason this poor kid is dying, the thing she thought was the right thing to do wound up backfiring almost completely.

AA: This is one of the first big cracks in Shallan’s build-up of Veil—the point where she has to face the fact that that Veil doesn’t know anything Shallan doesn’t, including how the “underworld” of a city works. Veil has become the smart, street-savvy person who has none of Shallan’s perceived weaknesses, and “so much better” at navigating the city and being useful to the team. Now it turns out that she isn’t better at all (duh, because she’s not someone else!), and all the people she was “helping” hate her with a justifiable passion.

L: Shallan’s not stable to begin with, and something like this is just going to push her further into instability, as is proven when she can’t even manage to hold onto Veil’s persona through her grief and guilt. (Although I’m happy to see that it’s Shallan she reverts to rather than one of the other personas…)

AA: You optimist, you. Always seeing the bright side!

It’s true, though, and a small moment of encouragement that she maintains the Illusion while dropping the persona.

“They took the food I gave you, didn’t they? Storms, they killed Grund!”

Muri stopped, then shook her head. “Poor kid. Better you than he.”

AA: While I can’t exactly blame Muri for her thought, it just adds to the load of guilt and pain. I’m really torn about this. I can’t think that Shallan deserves to be killed for her ignorance—but that poor boy, Grund, didn’t deserve to be killed for her ignorance either.

Weighty Words

Using [Stormlight] for Lashing would attract screamers, and in this darkness, even drawing in a small amount would reveal him for what he was. The Fused would all attack him together; he would risk undermining the mission to save the entire city.

Today he protected best through discipline, order, and keeping a level head.

L: Glad to see that he’s learning to put aside his (albeit noble) intentions to save Everyone in order to preserve the greater battle plan.

AA: It’s almost a shock to see him put the mission first in a scenario like this, isn’t it? Very un-Kaladin-like, but it’s good to see him developing a wider view. (Unlike the side carry episode, for example, or the four-on-one “duel”…)

He could protect without Stormlight. He’d protected people long before he could fly.

L: Yeah, but… not from an assault like this, Kal. When you’re being attacked by a superior force you can’t hold back your most effective weapons. He’s stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one. If he reveals himself, he puts their entire mission at risk. If he doesn’t, the wall falls. Darned Kobayashi Maru tests…

AA: Well, this time at least, he manages to do something very useful without revealing himself. Which is rather cool, even if we know perfectly well that it won’t work more than once or twice at most.

The Fused wanted Kaladin to crash into them, but it had made a mistake.

The sky was his.

L: Aaaaaaaw yeah.

AA: Love it. It’s like when he challenged Szeth during the battle of Narak.

Annoyingly, it also reminds me of when Moash killed that Fused. I’m sure the parallel is totally intentional, though it feels weird for Kaladin to be imitating something Moash did already. (For the sake of my sanity, I’m happy that Kaladin is the master who actually can fly, and Moash’s success was solely the result of Kaladin’s teaching. I can pretend that makes it different.) In both cases, though, they were able to kill a Fused because they were used to being in the air; not only did they not panic, they were able to use the effects of the Lashings to their own advantage.

Kaladin responded immediately to the Lashing, and reoriented himself in the blink of an eye. Down became the direction he was falling.

AA: It must be said: “The enemy’s gate is down!”

“Leave. My. Men. Alone!”

L: Kaladin’s full of badass moments and sayings in this chapter, and he’s just getting started…

The woman studied him, and reluctantly Kaladin summoned Syl as a Shardblade. Noro’s eyes bulged, and Ved nearly fainted–though Beard just grinned.

“I’m here,” Kaladin said, resting the Sylblade on his shoulder, “on orders from King Elhokar and the Blackthorn. It’s my job to save Kholinar. And it’s time you started talking to me.”

L: I do love Kaladin’s dramatic streak.

AA: Heh. Absolutely. Oh, one other thing that made me laugh in this chapter: When it came right down to a battle, Kaladin kinda sorta forgot he wasn’t in charge. He’s shouting orders and demanding reports, including from his nominal commander. So much for subterfuge. It also just occurred to me that Kaladin doesn’t exactly reveal his entire identity; he just lets them see that he’s a Shardbearer without clarifying that he’s a Knight Radiant. I wonder if that was intentional, or if he’s so used to it that he didn’t think about making it clear. Or if it matters.

On another subject… for all her failures, Shallan is getting better at Lightweaving.

As she wove into the market, she put her hand before her face, changing it with a wave of the fingers. She took her hat off, folded it, and covertly Lightwove it to look like a waterskin. Each was a little change that nobody would notice. She tucked her hair into her coat, made it look shorter, then finally closed her coat and changed the clothing underneath. When she took off the coat and folded it up, she was no longer Veil, but a market guard she’d drawn earlier.

AA: I enjoyed the sequence of small changes, little things no one will notice unless they’re watching her carefully and specifically. It’s clever and sneaky, and a perfect way to get lost in a crowd.

Cosmere Connections

“I’m missing something, like white on black…”

L: Love these Nalthis sayings, though this one… doesn’t seem to make much sense to me. I suppose if I were from Nalthis I’d get it!

AA: I never comprehend any of these color metaphors. Or most of the adjectives, for that matter. I just sort of assume they make sense in the original language… Actually, I suspect Brandon means for them to make no sense, so they register as “foreign” signals.

He found Azure surveying the Eighth Platoon’s losses near their guard tower. She had her cloak off and held oddly in one hand, wrapped around her forearm, with part of it draping down below.

L: Sounds to me like she’d been Awakening it. Using it as a shield, or something? Alice, you’re the Warbreaker expert, care to weigh in?

AA: If you weren’t already convinced that this was Vivenna, this description of the cloak (especially after the so-Nalthian saying) seems to me like proof positive. We never get to see her actually using it in battle, but I’ve assumed she used it as a shield. We saw similar things done in Warbreaker; Vasher Awakens his cloak with the Command “Protect me” in the Prologue, for example, as well as several times later in the book. There’s a scene where a guy wears an over-long cloak and uses it to lift him up to see above the heads of the crowd. Apparently a cloak can be really strong if it’s properly Awakened! In protecting, it does things like this:

Vasher’s cloak, however, suddenly whipped out—moving on its own—and grabbed the surprised man by the arms. (Warbreaker, Chapter 49)

AA: Neat trick if you can pull it off!

Vivenna’s Awakened cloak also grabs, and then drops, an arrow someone shot at her, and Vasher’s cloak fights multiple opponents on its own part of the time. I doubt Azure is using it in such an obvious fashion here in Kholinar, but it can still make an excellent shield, and much easier to carry than the normal kind. Warmer, too.

“I’d bet my red life on it.”

L: There’s another one…

A Scrupulous Study of Spren

Kaladin! Syl’s voice, in his head. I sense something… something about its power. Cut upward, toward the heart.

L: The GEMheart you mean, Syl?

AA: I’ve always wondered exactly what she could sense. Is it just that there’s a center of Voidlight, or does she sense the soul of the Fused? Or are those the same thing?

The Shardknife struck something brittle and hard.

L: Yep, there it is.

AA: We had a discussion of this in the beta, and, I think, hit on something revealing. Someone commented that if the gemhearts are so easily broken, and if breaking them is instant death, then that would make the Fused awfully vulnerable to the Knights Radiant. We came to the conclusion that the design/function of the Honorblades, and thus the Shardblades modeled after them, now makes a whole different kind of sense: Their primary purpose was to destroy gemhearts, essentially ignoring the surrounding flesh. The fact that they also work super well against thunderclasts is an awesome bonus, I have to say—but it seems probable that this is more a side effect than the original intent.

Quality Quotations

Syl landed on his shoulder and patted him on the side of the head.

Well folks, that wraps up another week! As always, join us in the comments below for more nitpicking, theory-crafting, and general good-natured geekery. Next week we’ll be tackling chapters 81 and 82, as 81 is very short.

Alice enjoyed her week off, hanging out with her sister. Now she’s back and ready to give Aubree a break.

Lyndsey is so excited to be playing the (new) Sheriff of Nottingham in this year’s Mutton and Mead Festival in Massachusetts on June 15 and 16. If you’re an aspiring author, a cosplayer, or just like geeky content, follow her work on Facebook or her website.

Hey, there! Welcome back to the Oathbringer Reread, wherein things are getting tense and clearly building up to… something dramatic. But what might it be? Well, we’re not there yet; this week Kaladin makes a discovery that gives us a lot of information, but mostly is a disappointment when considering his needs. Meanwhile, Shallan faces some very hard truths and gains encouragement from an unexpected source.

Reminder: We’ll potentially be discussing spoilers for the entire novel in each reread. If you haven’t read ALL of Oathbringer, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

In this week’s reread we also discuss some things from Mistborn in the Cosmere Connections section, so if you haven’t read it, best to give that section a pass.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Kaladin and Azure, Shallan and Wit
WHERE: On the wall of Kholinar, in Muri’s tiny room
WHEN: 1174.2.3.3 (the day after the previous chapter)

Kaladin tells Azure who he really is and discovers that the way they’re getting food is a Soulcaster secreted away in an aluminum-lined bunker. Meanwhile, Shallan has an emotional breakdown and is visited by Hoid, who gives her some much needed advice and—of course—a story.

Truth, Love, and Defiance

Titles

Chapter 81: Ithi and Her Sister

We keep poor Ithi and her sister working nonstop, trading off the Soulcaster.

A: Indeed. They’re turning into vines, but they’re feeding people.

Chapter 82: The Girl Who Stood Up

“I see only one woman here,” Wit said. “And it’s the one who is standing up.”

A: The Girl Who Stood Up isn’t a direct quote from the chapter, but rather a combination of the name of the story (see also Chapter 25, The Girl Who Looked Up) and the above quote.

Heralds

Chapter 81: Battah (Counsellor, Wise/careful, Elsecallers) and Kalak (Maker, Resolute/Builder, Willshapers)

A: I’m guessing Battar represents both the caution shown in hiding the Soulcasters, and the fact that they’re Soulcasting—something we’ve seen our favorite Elsecaller demonstrate a knack for doing. Could Azure also reflect the role of Counsellor? Kalak, also on a guess, is tied to the determination of Azure and the Soulcasters to do whatever needs to be done for the city. But those are just guesses.

Chapter 82: Joker and Talenelat (Soldier, Dependable/Resourceful, Stonewards)

A: The Joker is pretty obvious: Hoid is central to the entire story with Shallan. Taln is mostly likely there for the final scene of the chapter: Kaladin and the Wall Guard “army” he brings to Elhokar.

Icons

Kaladin’s Banner and Spears; Shallan’s Pattern

Epigraph

We are uncertain the effect this will have on the parsh. At the very least, it should deny them forms of power. Melishi is confident, but Naze-daughter-Kuzodo warns of unintended side effects.

—From drawer 30-20, fifth emerald

A: Can I just point out the Knight Radiant from Shinovar here? We saw at least one Thaylen in the earlier epigraphs, and I suspect, given the wording of the Chapter 62 epigraph (“I wish to submit my formal protest…”) it’s likely that author is Azish. I like seeing the many origins—and I wish we had a few more made clear! Also, Naze-daughter-Kuzodo was spot on.

Buy it Now

Surely this will bring—at long last—the end to war that the Heralds promised us.

—From drawer 30-20, final emerald

A: As was pointed out in the comments a few weeks ago, the war here is probably referring to the False Desolation, even though the Heralds made their promise several millennia earlier. I sure would like to know just how much warring went on between Aharietiam and the False Desolation, but I suppose it at least continued sporadically the whole time.

Thematic Thoughts

“There’s a difference between listening to your elders and just being as frightened as everyone else.”

L: We see this theme repeated time and again in recent chapters, and in the story as a whole. Following orders blindly without question, or simply accepting what you see/read/hear as truth without pausing to consider for yourself, are often questioned. As Wit said in The Way of Kings, “The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.” Autonomy and free will are integral parts of this story, and a recurring theme.

“People learn things from art.”

“Blasphemy! Art is not art if it has a function.” … “Take this fork, “Wit said. “It has a use. Eating. Now, if it were ornamented by a master artisan, would that change its function? … No, of course not. It has the same use, ornamented or not. The art is the part that serves no purpose.”

“It makes me happy, Wit. That’s a purpose.”

L: This is just a really interesting insight.

Stories & Songs

The woman had an inhuman look to her; she seemed to be growing vines under her skin, and they peeked out around her eyes, growing from the corners and spreading down her face like runners of ivy.

L: Every time I see this, it creeps me out. I feel so bad for these people who are providing a service for the societies in which they live, and pay for it with their lives.

A: To be fair, soldiers often provide a service and pay with their lives too. But I’ll agree, this is particularly creepy, because it’s such a slow and visible process, and it changes them into something not human before they actually die.

So they lived in the darkness, farmed in the darkness, ate in the darkness.

L: This has to be allegory.

A: Well, yes and no, assuming that this is a fable from the time humans arrived on Roshar. Yes, in that I’m pretty sure it wasn’t literally dark where they lived. But also no, in that the Misted Mountains block so much of the storm effect from Shinovar—and maybe blocked the highstorms entirely, at the time—that they were essentially without Investiture from the Stormlight. If I’m guessing right (which, who knows!) they lived for a time without Investiture, but eventually someone didn’t like the restriction of staying on their side of the mountains, and discovered that farther east, there was magic to be had… And all of this is predicated on the idea that Hoid is using a cosmology fable to address Shallan’s personal issues, which is pretty meta.

L: Well, I meant something more along the lines of darkness being symbolic of ignorance, but… all that too.

A: I wonder how many levels of allegory we’re going to see in this story before we’re done with it!

L: If there’s anything I learned in my college literature classes, it was that there’s always another allegory.

And then… light, for the first time in the village, followed by the coming of the storms—boiling over the wall.

A: Continuing the cosmology interpretation, I have no idea whether this change was literally that dramatic, or whether someone blasted a cut through the mountains to allow the storms to enter, or… quite what this represents in historical fact. Come to think of it, we don’t even really know that they were originally restricted to what is now Shinovar, but it makes the most sense.

“The people suffered,” Wit said, “but each storm brought light renewed, for it could never be put back, now that it had been taken. And people, for all their hardship, would never choose to go back. Not now that they could see.”

L: There are a lot of different interpretations of this, lots of ways that it could be analyzed or applied. In this particular case, I love that Hoid is helping Shallan to see that each storm (hardship in her life) is followed by light (understanding, learning, knowledge).

A: It’s a hard way to learn, but effective if you can take it.

Bruised & Broken

With nothing to see, her mind provided images.

Her father, face turning purple as she strangled him, singing a lullaby.

Her mother, dead with burned eyes.

Tyn, run through by Pattern.

Kabsal, shaking on the floor as he succumbed to poison.

Yalb, the incorrigible sailor from the Wind’s Pleasure, dead in the depths of the sea.

An unnamed coachman, murdered by members of the Ghostbloods.

Now Grund, his head opened up.

L: Poor thing. When you see it all listed out like this, it’s really no wonder she has issues.

A: This is why it hurts me so much when I see readers who dislike Shallan and characterize her as a spoiled brat—or worse, a spoiled brat who kills people when she doesn’t get her way. The first three were directly her doing, and each of them was either self-defense or defense of others. Kabsal died of his own poison, attempting to kill Jasnah. Yalb (aside from the fact that he might not be dead) was dumped into the sea by her Soulcasting, but the Ghostbloods were planning to kill everyone on board because of Jasnah, not Shallan. The other two… yes, they were killed because of their association with her, but the killing was done by evil people who made their own choices. Those last four are not her fault—though it will take a while for her to accept that—but I don’t comprehend readers who don’t get it.

L: This said, it’s totally fair for people not to like a character for any reason at all. We all have things that draw us towards or push us away from certain character archetypes. But it’s entirely possible to dislike a character because of who they are while still appreciating the fact that they’re a well-written character. For instance, I despise Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games. If she were a real person, she’s not someone I would want to interact with. But I can still appreciate that she’s well-written.

A: Same for Moash, for that matter. Or Sadeas or Amaram. I loathe the characters, but they’re very well written.

Veil had tried to help these people, but had succeeded only in making their lives worse. The lie that was Veil became suddenly manifest. She hadn’t lived on the streets and she didn’t know how to help people. Pretending to have experience didn’t mean she actually did.

L: Although I’m sad that it took such an awful event to open her eyes to this, I’m glad that it happened. This is such an important realization for Shallan to have.

A: So true. She’ll never quit breaking herself in pieces until she realizes it doesn’t work.

She had to stop this. She had to get over the tantrum and go back to the tailor’s shop.

She’d do it. She’d shove all this to the back of her mind, with everything else she ignored. They could all fester together.

L: Ugh. No, Shallan! First of all, the fact that she views this legitimate breakdown as a tantrum proves how little she knows about healing her own issues. Secondly… I really wish that she would open up to Adolin or Kaladin about all this. Wit is nice to be able to talk to, but he’s not around often, and Shallan really needs someone close to her to confide in.

A: I’ll agree that she needs someone to talk to, but as someone with (much lesser!) experience in dissociating oneself from traumatic events, this is much harder than it sounds. It’s pretty hard to convince yourself that there’s any value whatsoever in trying to reintegrate that person with this one.

L: True. And it’s similarly hard to reach out for help, even to those you’re closest to.

He leaned down, blowing at the crem dust on the floor. It swirled up, making the figure of a girl. It gave the brief impression of her standing before a wall, but then disintegrated back into dust. He tried again, and it swirled a little higher this time, but still fell back to dust.

“A little help?” he asked. He pushed a bag of spheres across the ground toward Shallan.

L: I feel as if he’s doing this to help her break out of her funk. Giving her something concrete to do, rather than sit and passively watch. I don’t believe for a minute that he was actually having trouble with so small an illusion.

A: Not for a skinny minute.

“And the girl realizes that the wall wasn’t to keep something in, but to keep her and her people out.”

“Because?”

“Because we’re monsters.”

Wit stepped over to Shallan, then quietly folded his arms around her. “Oh, child. The world is monstrous at times, and there are those who would have you believe that you are terrible by association.”

“I am.”

“No. For you see, it flows the other direction. You are not worse for your association with the world, but it is better for its association with you.”

A: Right here is where the fable’s (purported, at least by me!) origin and its equal application to Shallan breaks down. I can’t say that the humans who left Shinovar were necessarily monsters, but the eventual conflict with the Singers had some monstrous impacts on the world. From here on, the allegory is for Shallan alone. (And maybe some of us.)

The illusion of Shallan to the left gasped, then backed up against the wall of the room, shaking her head. She collapsed, head down against her legs, curling up.

“Poor fool,” Shallan whispered. “Everything she tries only makes the world worse. She was broken by her father, then broke herself in turn. She’s worthless, Wit.”

“And that one?”

“No different,” Shallan said, tiring of this game. She gave the second illusion the same memories. Father. Heleran. Failing Jasnah. Everything.

The illusory Shallan stiffened. Then set her jaw and stood there.

A: I … I want to say something profound about this, but it’s pretty profound on its own. I’ll shut up. (Temporarily.)

“It’s terrible,” Wit said, stepping up beside her, “to have been hurt. It’s unfair, and awful, and horrid. But Shallan… it’s okay to live on.”

A: I’m here to tell you, that’s not easy.

L: It’s definitely not.

She shook her head.

“Your other minds take over,” he whispered, “because they look so much more appealing. You’ll never control them until you’re confident in returning to the one who birthed them. Until you accept being you.”

A: I feel so awful for Shallan here, because this really is true. Everything you imagine yourself to be is fake, if you can’t accept that your own experiences are part of you. Not that you have to wallow in them, but you have to acknowledge them before you can get over them.

Accept the pain, but don’t accept that you deserved it.

L: And there it is. The Words she needed all along. But how long will it be until she truly embraces them? As much as I wish that this could be a major turning point for her character, true healing takes time and effort. It would be unrealistic for her to suddenly pull a 180 here and be completely well. But this is a step in the right direction for her, a signpost showing her the way towards true healing.

A: Actually, it is a major turning point in one sense. It will definitely be a long process, but in a way it’s like the list of deaths earlier. When you accept that the person who caused you the pain did an evil thing, and it was their own decision to do it, you start the process of dealing with it in a different, and hopefully better, way.

For what it’s worth, it’s really important for the people trying to help—the people like Wit, here—to realize that, right or wrong, victims of abuse or trauma often do feel like it’s their own fault. Take the killing of Shallan’s mother: Lady Davar may or may not have been a loving mother originally, but when she discovered that Shallan was Surgebinding, she (and her Skybreaker associates) decided that even an 11-year-old girl had to be killed for it. If Lady Davar didn’t tell Shallan it was her own doing, I’ll eat my hat. I’d bet she made it eminently clear that it was Shallan’s actions that made this necessary; an 11-year-old girl, even one who defends herself by any means available, will still internalize that blame and believe it. We saw directly in the flashbacks how her father told her that all his terrible behavior was her fault. Of course she believed it deep down, even though on the surface she could (maybe) deny it.

We all believe it deep down, because we all know that we’ve done wrong or foolish things (whether or not in relation to the incident in question). The place we need to get to is the realization that, even if we did make unwise decisions at the time, the other person was still responsible for their own actions, and we’re responsible for ours. Of course, in Shallan’s case as with most childhood abuses, she hadn’t even made unwise decisions; she was a child who had no way of knowing what to do about the situation. As an adult, you can look back and think, “If only I had…”—but as a child, you didn’t have the knowledge or experience to tell you what to do.

Places & Peoples

“You cut a tunnel in one of the windblades, sir?” Beard asked, shocked.

“This has been here longer than any of us have been alive, soldier,” Battalionlord Hadinar said.

L: Interesting. I wonder if these tunnels were created at the same time as the Windblades? If not, might they affect how they function?

A: Ooooh. I hadn’t thought about that! We know that the windblades protect the city from the highstorms, but I’ve always wondered if there was more to them. If the tunnels interfere… that would be fascinating. At the same time…

This corridor, cut through the stone, reminded Kaladin of the strata of Urithiru.

L: Yet another reminder that there’s Something Going On that links these two.

A: And that makes me think that it’s pretty reasonable that the corridors were part of the original design. After all, given the way they provide easy shortcuts without vulnerability to an enemy—or a storm—it seems like an excellent plan.

Tight Butts and Coconuts

“Nice,” Adolin said. “Shallan, that’s sharp… The red on white.”

L: Stars and stones, but I love Adolin.

A: So not what Shallan was expecting. Adolin is the best.

She turned, frowning. It sounded like marching. “A parade this early?”

They looked out at the street and found Kaladin approaching along with what seemed to be an army of five or six hundred men, wearing the uniforms of the Wall Guard.

Adolin sighed softly. “Of course. He’s probably their leader now or something. Storming bridgeboy.”

L: Storming bridgeboy indeed! I suspect that Adolin has a smidge of jealousy here. He’s a great leader in his own right, but Kaladin just makes it seem so effortless. Adolin works hard to be a good person and a good leader—not that Kaladin doesn’t, but from an outsider perspective, it must not seem that way.

A: I think I’ve exhausted my store of deep thinking for today, but this makes me laugh and sigh at the same time. These two are such a pair. I think you’re right, Lyndsey, that Adolin is displaying a smidge of jealousy. Kaladin does seem to just fall right into leadership positions, as if being a Knight Radiant wasn’t enough. I think Kaladin is a little jealous of Adolin in much the same way. He gets along with everyone so easily, as if being a prince wasn’t enough. There’s probably more to it than that—for both of them—but it’s a very realistic dynamic.

Cosmere Connections

The only other person in the room was the fidgety ardent who painted glyphwards for the platoon.

A: Is it just me, or do others immediately suspect Nazh of infiltrating the Wall Guard for some unknown reason? Just me? I don’t know that it’s him, but every time our attention is drawn to an ardent who doesn’t seem to have a plot-relevant reason to be there, I suspect Nazh.

“Why didn’t the screamers come for you?”

Azure pointed at the sides of the room, and for the first time Kaladin noticed the walls were covered in reflective metal plates. He frowned and rested his fingers against one, and found it cool to the touch. This wasn’t steel, was it?

…

“He warned us to only Soulcast inside a room lined with this metal.”

L: I find the different ways that metal is utilized in the Cosmere to be utterly fascinating. Apparently we have a WoB that this particular metal is aluminum, not steel. This really makes me wonder about connections between the different magic systems of the Cosmere.

A: Aluminum has bizarre properties throughout the Cosmere, and last I checked, Brandon and Peter hadn’t quite got the details sorted out. It’s magically inert, which is just weird. On Scadrial, you can’t affect it with Allomancy, though a Feruchemist can use it to story Identity. On Roshar, you can Soulcast stuff into aluminum, but you can’t Soulcast aluminum into anything else. Shardblades also can’t cut aluminum magically, but only in the same way any other sword would be able to cut through a thin sheet of it—foil, or something the weight of a soda can. Oh, also, Nightblood’s sheath is made of aluminum.

“Soon after the strangeness at the palace began,” Azure said, “a man pulled a chull cart up to the front of our barrack. He had these sheets of metal in the back. He was… an odd fellow. I’ve had interactions with him before.”

“Angular features?” Kaladin guessed. “Quick with an insult. Silly and straight, somehow all at once?”

L: Sup, Hoid.

A Scrupulous Study of Spren

For a while, she’d been … everybody. A hundred faces, cycling one after another. … All the nearby refugees had fled, naming her a spren.

A: It occurs to me that this would look very, very much like Cusicesh, the enormous spren in the bay at Kasitor from The Way of Kings, Interlude 5:

That face is shifting, bewilderingly quick. Different human faces appear on the end of its stumplike neck, one after another in blurred succession.

Is that why they call her a spren? Or is it just that they have no other context for Illusion of the sort Shallan has shown them?

L: Oooooooooor is that spren actually some sort of… Lightweaver-adjacent?

A: I only wish we knew!

Quality Quotations

“I cannot judge the worth of a life. I would not dare to attempt it.”

 

“The longer you live, the more you fail. Failure is the mark of a life well lived.”

 

“We could just skip the boring part.”

“Skip?” Wit said, aghast. “Skip part of a story?”

That final scene, where Kaladin and Azure march up with their little army, sets up next week’s reread. We’ll just be doing Chapter 83, “Crimson to Break,” as they begin the attempt to retrieve Elhokar’s family and open the Oathgate.

Alice is crazy busy with end-of-the-school year activities. Who knew parents were just as busy as kids at this point? At least, that seems to be the case with high-schoolers who aren’t quite old enough to drive themselves.

Lyndsey adopted a new puppy and named him Sirius Black, because of course she did. If you’re an aspiring author, a cosplayer, or just like geeky content, follow her work on Facebook or her website.