Well, hello there, Edgedancers! It’s time for another run at the reread, so we can polish it off before Oathbringer destroys all other books.
Things are getting heady up in here, what with internet Indicium info searches, crazy assassins, flying minions, and friendly swords. But no pancakes this week. Also, no Lyn, because she is up to her eyeballs in sewing up gorgeous costumery for an Event this weekend. We’ll miss her, but we’ll soldier on anyway.
The Awesomeness
Chapter 15: Lift finds the where Darkness’s minion had her hired info-seekers working, complete with all three minions. Wyndle takes his courage by the vines and sneaks in to watch, listen, and not get caught. Lift waits tensely while musing on deep philosophies, then ducks into the shadows as the minions depart. The assassin stops, looks at Lift, consults his sword, and turns away. Wyndle reports that while he didn’t understand what they were talking about, they know who their suspect is. The chase begins!
Chapter 16: Lift follows with difficulty through the Grand Indicium, and eventually the minions come to an exit. Lift and Wyndle slip to the side, climb out a window, and hide in the bushes to see where they go. Two of them inhale Stormlight and fly off through the city in search of their quarry. The assassin scares Lift half to death when he starts talking to her, but despite all his crazy-talk, he gives her the information she needs: they seek an old philosopher who seems to change appearance or vanish in blind alleys, and hangs out near the Tashi’s Light orphanage.
Kadasixes and Stars
“Storms!” Lift said, flopping backward on the carpet. “Storming Mother of the World and Father of Storms above! He about made me die of fright.”
“I know!” Wyndle said. “Did you hear me not-whimpering?”
“No.”
“I was too frightened to even make a sound!”
I just had to include this one, for two reasons. One is Wyndle’s not-whimpering, and the other is Lift’s curse, which we borrowed for the “Shards, curses, and Old Magic” unit. No, I don’t really have anything profound to say about it. I just like it.
Pet Voidbringer
“I’ll do it,” Wyndle whispered.
This whole section is pure gold. Wyndle is terrified almost out of his mind; he doesn’t think the journeyman Skybreakers’ spren can see him, but he’s not sure, and if they do, he can quite possibly be destroyed. The visuals of Wyndle are so good: “huddled down on the ground, vines tightening around him;” “vines twisted about one another, tightening into knots;” “vines scrunched as they tightened against one another;” “settled down, coiled about himself.” Combined with his whispers and whimpers, I just ache for the little guy! But he chooses to go anyway:
“Right. Listen and scream. I can listen and scream. I’m good at these things.”
Oh, Wyndle. You’re so beautiful.
Journey before Pancakes
Shockingly enough, there isn’t any food in these chapters. Not any at all. How terribly sad.
Friends and Strangers
Szeth
The assassin, clothing tattered, head bowed, with that large sword— it had to be some kind of Shardblade— resting on his shoulder.
“I do not know, sword-nimi,” he said softly, “I don’t trust my own mind any longer.” He paused, stopping as if listening to something. “That is not comforting, sword-nimi. No, it is not.…”
Still crazy after all these years…
For whatever reason, he still seems to be wearing the tattered white clothing given him by the Parshendi, or replicas thereof given him by Taravangian to make sure everyone knew it was the same guy. Also, from that same passage, it seems that when he’s moving, the afterimage is less pronounced. Is that because his soul attaches itself to a location if he sits still too long?
“I ain’t nobody,” Lift said.
“He kills nobodies.”
“And you don’t?”
“I kill kings.”
“Which is totally better.”
He narrowed his eyes at her, then squatted down, sheathed sword held across his shoulders, with hands draped forward. “No. It is not. I hear their screams, their demands, whenever I see shadow. They haunt me, scramble for my mind, wishing to claim my sanity. I fear they’ve already won, that the man to whom you speak can no longer distinguish what is the voice of a mad raving and what is not.”
Yikes. I think I developed more sympathy for him in this one chapter than I did in all of the first two books. But I do wonder what the others think of him conversing with his sword all the time.
The Philosopher
“The report described a man who has been spotted vanishing by several people in the city. He will turn down an alleyway, then it will be empty when someone else follows. People have claimed to see his face twisting to become the face of another. My companions believe he is what is called a Lightweaver, and so must be stopped.”
Heh. Lightweaver, indeed! No, ladies and gentlemen, this is something you are totally not prepared to deal with. Not even a little bit.
Nightblood
Well, there’s our favorite Awakened sword again. It’s worth noting that when Szeth drew it out a little, Lift felt “a sudden, terrible nausea,” so she’s in the category of “good people” as far as Nightblood is concerned. Then we get this bit:
“But you didn’t attack me.”
“No. The sword likes you.”
That’s… encouraging… I’d really, really like to know what the sword said to Szeth in some of these scenes!
Storming Mother of the World and Father of Storms Above
If the world was full of people like Lift, wouldn’t they just leave halfway through planting to go catch lurgs? Nobody would protect the streets, or sit around in meetings. Nobody would learn to write things down, or make kingdoms run. Everyone would scurry about eating each other’s food, until it was all gone and the whole heap of them fell over and died.
You knew that, a part of her said, standing up inside, hands on hips with a defiant attitude. You knew the truth of the world even when you went and asked not to get older.
Being young was an excuse. A plausible justification.
So once again, we have Lift touching very lightly on her request to the Nightwatcher, but this time there’s something more. As quoted above, she knows that she’s spent years being irresponsible, and she implies that she asked to not get older so that she’d always have the excuse of being too young. But then you combine it with this one, and there are some deeper, heartbreaking implications:
When you were always busy, you didn’t have to think about stuff. Like how most people didn’t run off and leave when the whim struck them. Like how your mother had been so warm, and kindly, so ready to take care of everyone. It was incredible that anyone on Roshar should be as good to people as she’d been.
She shouldn’t have had to die. Least, she should have had someone half as wonderful as she was to take care of her as she wasted away.
Someone other than Lift, who was selfish, stupid.
And lonely.
We can’t say for certain, but I think this implies that Lift blames herself, deep down, for her mother’s death – whether that’s valid or not. It sounds like she maybe took off one day while her mother was ill, and when she came back, her mother was dead. Whether Lift could have done anything about that we don’t yet know — and probably won’t for another ten or fifteen years — but she still seems to blame herself, and apparently went to the Nightwatcher looking for a rationale to justify having been untrustworthy.
New theory: Lift asked to not grow up so as to have an excuse for being immature. Instead, the Nightwatcher gave her extra level-ups on being an Edgedancer, so that she could take care of those who are forgotten or ignored: a way to keep it from happening to others, rather than a way to not be blamed for them. Prevention, rather than rationalization.
Darkness & Co.
The journeyman Skybreakers can fly. They can suck in Stormlight and fly. So… does this mean they’re bonded to spren? For all that they seem so much lower than Nale, it appears that they actually are Radiants. I guess maybe that makes sense, being as he’s a Herald? Speaking of which…
“He really is wrong, isn’t he?” Lift said. “That one you say is a Herald. He says the Voidbringers aren’t back, but they are.”
“The new storm reveals it,” the assassin said. “But … who am I to say? I am mad. Then again, I think that the Herald is too. It makes me agree that the minds of men cannot be trusted….”
Everything Else
“Voidbringer,” Lift said, “can you find whatever number she just said?” (232)
“Yes.”
“Good. ’Cuz I don’t got that many toes.”
Nothing in particular. It’s just so Lift.
Poor parshmen. There weren’t many in the city, not as many as in Azimir, but by the prince’s orders they were being gathered and turned out. Left for the storm, which Lift considered hugely unfair.
And as it turns out, from the WoB turned up by you good folks last week, that’s the absolute worst thing they could have done to themselves. If they’d been kept in bunkers – or in the Indicium – they’d have been protected from the effect of the Everstorm, at least this time around. Wyndle’s belief that it probably wouldn’t hurt them, and also that they might be turning into Voidbringers, highlight just how limited the knowledge of Voidbringers is, even among the spren.
Listen, a part of her whispered.
There it is again, this time in context of Lift sitting there worrying about Wyndle and thinking about her excuses and her mother. Listen.
“Will you fight them, little Radiant?” the assassin asked. “You, alone, against two journeyman Skybreakers? A Herald waiting in the wings?”
She glanced at Wyndle. “I don’t know. But I have to go anyway, don’t I?”
If my theory is correct, she has stepped up to the task of being there.
Finally, one last thing… it’s far from perfect, but I finished it:
Raindrops on Shardblades and whiskers on axehounds,
bright glowing spheres and fresh pancakes in mounds,
grasses that retract and skyeels with wings,
these are a few of my favorite things…Spren-bonded horses and chicken in curry,
cremlings with purpose and scribes in a hurry,
Storms full of power, a Wit who can sing,
these are a few of my favorite things…When the bridge falls,
When the ship burns,
When the whitespine stabs,
I simply remember my favorite things
and then I don’t feel so bad.Lighteyes in havahs with safehands close-covered
Shalebark and highstorms and Oathgates discovered
Autumns that randomly turn into springs,
These are a few of my favorite things!When the job stinks,
When my head whirls,
When real life is sad,
I simply escape to my fantasy worlds,
and then I don’t feel so bad.
Well, you did ask…
Join us in the comments! Don’t forget to mark any Oathbringer spoilers! There are only two more installments in the Edgedancer reread! AAVAALAAAAANNNNCHE!
Alice finds herself very grateful for this reread these days, as the Oathbringer early releases have gotten to the point that she dares not participate in the discussion much. It is a difficult thing! Rumor has it that Lyndsey will be back next week with a second Stormlight Cosplay article, this time with Shardblades! Sometime soon, there will be a refresher on the nations and cultures of Roshar, and that Stormwarden article should be coming along too. Gotta keep busy for the remaining three and a half weeks before the big release!
Yay! Completed filk!
I wonder what “-nimi” means. I’m assuming it means something like Japanese “chan” or “kun” (seeing as those are the only suffix modifier type things I’m familiar with) which makes Szeth sound kinda adorable.
Woohoo the re-read is here! Great stuff as always Alice. Thanks to you, I can’t get that song out of my head!
Concerning the wannabe Skybreakers, it’s pretty evident that they are spren-bonded. I’m sure Darkness (hello my old friend) made exceptions for Skybreakers he found. I’m assuming he recruited them instead of killing them.
Yep, these are great chapters – I love how both Wyndle and Lift step up/ reveal they true nature. Though, how could the Skybreakers have killed Wyndle? I mean, Nightblood might be able to kill spren, but Szeth can’t draw it yet without killing himself, can he? He needs a hack to invest stormlight – but from Zahel’s/Vasher’s presence we know that such a hack exists. And, presumably, Nale knows how to do it. Could a larkin be involved?
BTW, I have been reading various WoBs, and apparently, Nightblood would kill it’s owner if they developed particularly strong pangs of conscience/ sense of self-blame for their past misdeeds. So, this might be the reason why Vasher chose to give it away? And I sort of wonder why Szeth is still alive. Oh, well. At least, I didn’t hate him in this novella and could finally see some perspectives for his character.
I still hate the fact of his survival, though, and that Nale and apparently also Sanderson himself, consider him honorable. He wasn’t! He kept doing what he knew was terrible wrongs not because he wanted to uphold a code, but because he was afraid of posthumous oblivion. That’s just incredibly selfish and cowardly. Sigh.
Oh, and why are highspren going along with Ishar’s/Nale’s mad Radiant extermination program? I thought that the sapient spren knew that a Desolation was coming? That’s why they supposedly started bonding people again, so WTH, highspren?
Just have to say, very well done Alice on the song. I thoroughly enjoyed that.
Come on, November!
My 2 favourite Stormlight characters meet.
I wonder if the Nigjtwatcher’s boon/curse (as has been theorized) is slowly dissipating because as Lift progresses further along as a KR, she is starting to actively action on aspects she purposely wanted to avoid – accountability, responsibility, etc…
So chosing to grow up, from a mental perspective has spurred physical changes, as if part of her boon was to remain childlike until she was capable dealing with her past trauma.
——–
Also “yay”for the full lyrics, yet “booo” for the full day of humming ahead….
Well done on the song.
Why are you surprised that the spren do not have much information on the Everstorm. IIRC, the Stornfather confirmed that the Everstorm is new. It had never occurred in prior Desolations. If the forces of Odium did not use an Everstorm in the past, how would spren understand the Everstorm’s effects on Parshmen.
BTW, do we know (or have good faith basis to suspect) if the high level spren — those in the past that bonded with KRs — know that Pashmen were at one point in time Voidbringers? I did not get that impression (from Edgedancer or the 1st 2 books).
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewHB
aka the musespren
I love our Thursday rereads! Keep up the good work, I look forward to them every week :)
Thanks for the rereads as always. Great work. Really enjoyed the new sound of music lyrics.
“Whether Lift could have done anything about that we don’t yet know – and probably won’t for another ten or fifteen years…” *cries inside*
Isilel @3 – re: Wyndle being killed, I sort of assumed from context that it would be the other spren who could kill him, not the Skybreakers… though I guess if they attacked him with Shardblades it might be the same thing.
Andrew @7 – I’m not surprised that the spren don’t understand the Everstorm’s effects – just pointing out further evidence that they, too, are mostly in the dark. We know (a little) more than they do, because the author tells us stuff he hasn’t told them yet!
@many re: Tune Cooties… You’re welcome. :D
LOL – great song
it’s far from perfect, but I finished it
Bah! It’s brilliant! Really well done! (I was so excited about it that I shared it with my friend who reads the books but does not follow the reread, she agreed with me that it’s perfect)
“Did you hear me not-whimpering?” and “I’ll do it.” Oh, Wyndle …
@@@@@ 1 I’d suspect nimi = sama or dono. Depending on Szeth’s feelings. Sama if he’s being respectful and implying he has lower status or dono if he’s showing serious respect without implying he is less worthy of it.
Though it being a diminuitive like chan and kun would be hilarious.
@@@@@3 Theres a WoB Szeth can use the same hack Vashel/Zahel does.
There’s also a Wob that Nightblood can change and learn more than Vasher thought.
Which is why I think Szeth who is willing to discuss things with Nightblood may be good for the sword.
I love the image of Wyndle wringing his hands (vines?) because he’s so worried. Wyndle and Lift are both such a good influence on the other, it’s really lovely to read. She makes him braver, and he gives her support. It’s a great partnership, maybe even better even than what Kaladin and Syl have.
Lift and Szeth’s talk was very interesting, a great character moment for both. They echoed Lift’s earlier assessment that Nale kills ‘little people, quiet people’, and they’ve both figured out his rationalizations make aboslutely no sense. And then Szeth decides to help her! I still don’t feel a lot of sympathy for Szeth’s actions, but I’m finally starting to understand his personality a bit better, and I do feel sympathy for his state of mind right now.
I’m also really curious to see where he’s going, since I’m not so sure he’ll be a great skybreaker. Especially not based on his reactions to Nale, and on his comments in this chapter:
‘It makes me agree that the minds of men cannot be trusted. That we need something greater to follow, to guide. But not my stone.. What good is working for a greater law, when that law can be the whims of a man either stupid or ruthless?’
Err, yeah, as far as we know that’s not exactly in line with the Skybreaker beliefs. And Nightblood is not really a Skybreaker spren of course, or even anything like it. Which I can’t imagine Nale overlooked. So maybe he never intended for Szeth to really be a Skybreaker?
The song is great, even if my attempt at singing it was a disaster. :)
Haha, the scribe is right to think that “even kings get confused by what the world throws at them.”
Isilel@3: Yeah. I had trouble getting through Szeth’s slaughter scenes in the novels, and really hoped we had seen the last of them. And now Nightblood is here to wreak more havoc and torment him. Argh.
Kudos on the song! Do you mind if I share it?
Given that Nale was talking about them attracting and bonding a spren like it was still A Thing they needed to do, I’m thinking they’re more some sort of Squire than full on spren-bonded Radiants. Nale also has his honorblade, but there’s an asterisk implied in his usage of it–maybe he’s ‘sharing’ ownership with his apprentices to avoid Oathpact-related ramifications (which is why he’s offing Radiants to begin with).
leiftinspace @17 – Feel free, though I still think it ought to be polished up…
Ha, that song is great :)
I totally interpreted the suffix Szeth gives the sword as a sign of affection, which was kind of adorable in a weird way. Wonder what kinds of conversations they are having, and I also have a feeling Szeth isn’t going to be an ideal Skybreaker – he just spent a large portion of his life telling himself he was obligated to follow an oath without thinking/question, so why would he want to do it again?
I love your Roshar version of favorite things! Well done, Alice!
AAAAAAAGH I want to discuss Oathbringer thiiiiiiiings! BIG FAT OATHBRINGER SPOILERS
So, in Oathbringer, we have Dalinar losing his boon/curse (it’s not clear which is which, since Dalinar doesn’t remember…which irks me, considering he was PRETTY CLEAR in previous books that he knew exactly what they were) at the same time we have his first onscreen use of Surgebinding. We know for a fact that his boon/curse aren’t getting weakened because of his bond to the Stormfather, but obviously something is.
Now we have Lift (lol, I almost typed Lyft) experiencing something similar. Is it possible that Surgebinding weakens the Nightwatcher’s gifts? If so, could Lift actually accidentally lose her ability to metabolize food into Stormlight?
I don’t think Nale has his Honorblade at this point, actually. Like all the Heralds, he gave it up in the very first scene of the Stormlight Archive.
Cool song Alice!!! That made my day. :-)
Sundriedrainbow @22 – Well, I can tell you this much…
all the answers are massive spoilers and the best I can do is be a horrible troll. Sorry… but I’m pretty sure that in the end, it will all make sense and you’ll love it.
@@@@@22 SunDriedRainbow
OB: [I’ve been following all the theories, and I have absolutely no clue :D. I think that Dalinar maybe thought he knew which was his boon and his curse, but after re-examination he might be starting to doubt it. He did say he doesn’t actually remember the encounter. I don’t think it’s surgebinding though. Since that’s a combination of Cultivation/Honor’s magic, and the Nightwatcher is at least from the Cultivation side.
Then again I don’t really like the painrial theory either.. (I refuse to accept the ‘Navani is his wife now’ as an actual valid theory. It’s too horrible.) I’m sure it’s going to be something completely unexpected, based on my past experience with guessing plot twists. :)]
[Wasn’t the reason that Lift’s ‘boon’ is weakening simply that she misinterpreted what the Nightwatcher gave her? She asked for something really weird and the Nightwatcher just went like ‘well I guess this is vaguely similar?’ If not, you might have a point, but still Lift is on the cultivation side of the surgebinding spectrum, and I don’t really see how those two magics would cancel each other out.]
@@@@@ 23 Carl
Brandon Sanderson has said that Nale is using his Honorblade, and that he took it back (from the Shin?), but I don’t think we know when or why. However, there’s ‘an asterik’ as he put it, that’s going to come up in the next book. So that’ll be something interesting.
@@@@@ 25 Wetlandernw
OB: [ :( ]
#25 Wetlandernw:. This brings up an issue. I am 71years old and having the worse trouble with pulling up any spoiler postings. Just now, under #26 Elle: I pulled up her posting to Sundried rainbow, but could not make her post to you appear. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.
AlerieCorbray @27 – Her post to me was just two characters, so it may be that you just didn’t realize you had the whole thing! (I didn’t, at first.)
@@@@@ 27, 28
Oops, sorry, I just couldn’t think of a clearer way to express my feelings on the matter. :)
I’ll remove the empty space in that comment and edit it a bit for clarity.
But honestly, I would totally NOT want to spoil the way those things play out. You would – quite justifiably – hate me forever. I’ll try not to be a troll about it, though. Sorry…
#28 Wetlandernw:. Thanks. It was confusing. I like the new words to the song. It is a great way to illustrate what a unique world Roshar is.
#29 Elle:. I feel your pain, but Wetlandernw told us something important. If we are patient, we will eventually get answers in the books. That is better than never knowing. I am a glass half full kinda person. We have a brand new book coming our way in just under a month and maybe it has the answers you seek or maybe it is the next volume. At least Brandon is writing like a house a fire. It could be worse. You could be waiting for George RR Martin to finish his ASOIAF series. Some of us don’t think that is going to happen.
#30 Wetlandernw:. You would never be a troll and I for one appreciate your honesty. Although you better be careful before you attract an honor spren and start turning into a radiant.
This a dumb question but I’ve never seen it. Do the heralds have spren of their own or do they use the dawnshards/honorblades for their power?
@25 wetlandernw YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU
@26 Elle Everything you bring up is totally valid. I’m still not 100% on the whole honor/cultivation surgebinding thing…I don’t get why Windrunners and Edgedancers aren’t the 12 o’clock and 6 o’clock orders, when they have Honorspren and Cultivationspren. But you’re right, it wouldn’t make a ton of sense for Cultivation’s magic to cancel out her own boon.
I will say, with regard to this:
“Wasn’t the reason that Lift’s ‘boon’ is weakening simply that she misinterpreted what the Nightwatcher gave her? She asked for something really weird and the Nightwatcher just went like ‘well I guess this is vaguely similar?”
I’m pretty sure that’s just speculation. We know Lift asked to not get older, and we know she IS getting older, but we don’t know why or how. I honestly really liked Lyn’s tinfoil theory about Lift having been a child for thousands of years.
Basically IS IT OATHBRINGER DAY YET
edited to add to Elle: I also hate the “navani is his wife” theory and will be furious if it is true
#33 Adam England:. Another dumb question that is related. If a Herald like Nale picks up a regular shardblade does he hear the dead spren screaming? Personally, I believe that he is using an honor blade.
@35
That’s actually a good question…for which there is no answer yet.
There is a lot of questions/confusion in the comments on if, or whether Nale/Darkness is using an Honorblade. As was mentioned in this comments thread. Nale is using HIS Honorblade, however there is something going on with that. The quote from Brandon is here:
http://www.theoryland.com/intvmain.php?i=1178