Here we are, my friends, already at the end of the Edgedancer reread. Can you believe it? It’s been a lot of fun, and now we’re hitting the finale, with thunder and lightning and Heralds, oh my! Join Lyndsey and me as we watch the climax play out, in and above the Tashi’s Light Orphanage. Discussion and pancakes, ahoy!
The Awesomeness
Chapter 19: The Everstorm is bearing down on our heroine, and she hurries back to the orphanage only to find the door open. She confronts Nale and his lack of emotions in an attempt to get him to waste what little Stormlight he has remaining, but he sees through her ruse and pins her clothes to the floor with a knife. The Stump reappears and smacks Nale with a piece of wood, but he turns and strikes her and she falls. He stabs her, intending to use her as bait, but Lift ducks around him and exits onto the rooftop. Wyndle blocks Nale’s strike by becoming a Shard…rod, and Lift forces Nale to confront the reality of the Everstorm. He admits that he has failed, that he was wrong—then he flies off.
Chapter 20: Denouement! Lift eats some pancakes (because of course she does) and makes the horrifying discovery that there are only nine types. She summons Wyndle as a Shardfork (I’m torn between giving her an affectionate smile and rolling my eyes) and tells him that they’re heading back to Azimir. Before leaving, Lift pauses long enough to give a pancake to the guard she’d caused so much trouble for, then heals as many of the refugees as she can. She and Wyndle saunter off into the sunset, hopefully to return in Oathbringer…
Kadasixes and Stars
I can’t defeat him. I’ve got to change him.
Lyn: I love love love this. Nale—though his actions are awful—does have what he believes are altruistic reasons for doing them. Making him realize this will turn him from a dreadful enemy into an extremely powerful ally, and storms above are our heroes going to need all the help they can get. This seems like another running theme in The Stormlight Archive, and it’s something that I appreciate more and more with each successive reread. Violence can’t solve all the world’s problems—as a matter of fact, it solves very few of them. We see this in our world, echoing through the annals of history. Kill one man and his children rise up to avenge him, and the cycle of violence continues, unending. But if you can manage to put yourself into the shoes of the other person, if you empathise, if you can help them to understand that what they’re doing is hurtful to others and is not the right path—therein lies the path to true peace. “I will unite instead of divide. I will bring men together.” “I will protect those I hate, so long as it is right.”
Alice: I agree, Lyn; this is one of the most profound statements in the series so far—which is saying something in a series full of profound statements. The best part is that so often in fantasy, “changing someone” involves magic, but not this time. The only magic Lift uses is when Wyndle blocks the blow so Nale doesn’t kill her. She effects the change through a purely human interaction, engaging him with words, information, and finally a hug.
On a lighter note, though, I have to include another quote:
“You’re an insult to the order you would claim,” Darkness said, striding after her.
“Sure, probably,” Lift called. “Storms, I’m an insult to my own self most days.”
“Of course you are,” Darkness said, reaching the bottom of the steps. “That sentence has no meaning.”
She stuck her tongue out at him. A totally rational and reasonable way to fight a demigod.
A: Before she gets all profound, she gives him some nonsense just to … keep him off balance? Distract him? Whatever—it’s pure Lift.
Pet Voidbringer
“There are Words that you must speak.”
They won’t help.
Tonight, the Words were the easy part.
L: She’s so right about this. Facing what’s practically a demigod, when you’re just a teenager (maybe a pre-teen) is a pretty tall order.
A: But- but- but- but the Words are Important!!! (and she’s gonna need that Shardthingy…)
“I can make Stormlight.”
“Yes. Baffling, but true.”
L: I don’t have much to say about this except that I love Wyndle’s response.
Wyndle sighed a long, soft sigh, melting away, transforming into a silvery length of metal.
L: Did he do this because she’d already said the words in her heart, or was he breaking the rules in order to save her?
A: You know, that’s a good question. I sort of assumed it was the former, but that’s partly because I assume the spren are bound by the rules. One possibility is that they do have some leeway when their human’s life is threatened at this stage (Shallan?). Another is that, spoken Words or no, she’s living the Words she needs to speak. The biggest argument against either of these is that Syl needed Kaladin to literally speak the Words back in WoR. The most notable difference is that Syl is an honorspren and might be bound more tightly than a cultivationspren… and that the Stormfather was watching and trying to stop her from returning to Kaladin. I suspect that at least for certain orders, there may be a tiny bit of leeway. It would be an interesting question to ask Sanderson sometime when you see him, though.
Ow, Wyndle’s voice said in her head.
L & A: ::gigglesnort::
“I will listen,” Lift shouted, “to those who have been ignored!”
L: I always get the shivers when Words are spoken. So cool.
A: ::nods:: There’s not much to add, but YES. Something about the Ideals just has a goosebump-inducing effect… not to mention fist-pumping and whooping!
“There is… a connection between our power, when condensed, and metal.”
L: ::eyes Mistborn and wonders if there’s a connection::
A: I’ll bet there is. There has to be. Can’t see any way for this to not be true (she says with complete, unfounded confidence…).
L: Shardfork. SHARD. FORK. Need I say more?
A: Well, I just have this to add: BAHAHAHAHAhahahaha! (I love the Shardfork.)
“I was a very regal fork, wouldn’t you say?”
“Y’know, Wyndle. It’s strange, but… I’m starting to think you might not be a Voidbringer after all.”
L: SHE CALLED HIM BY HIS NAME!
A: I hate to suggest it, but is this a sign of maturity? Or just a sign that she finally got tired of the game? Much as I adore Lift, I have to admit that I could be happy to see her occasionally not lie to herself about everything.
L: Well, she’s definitely way more mature than she lets on. I think it’s all just been a game to get under his skin, but she finally respects and cares enough to let him in.
Journey before Pancakes
L: Since this is the final chapter, let’s review the “ten” pancakes we’ve discovered! (Really only nine, since they dedicate the “idea” of one to Tashi.)
- Tuk-cake—eaten for prosperity
- Clemabread—thick and granular, with spicy paste at the center. Later Lift says it breaks apart easily, almost a mush.
- ???—One of the pancakes was salty, with chopped up vegetables.
- ???—Another tasted sweet. (This one is mentioned a few times.)
- ???—The third variety was fluffier, almost without any substance to it, though there was some kind of sauce to dip it in.
- ???—A dense variety, with mashed-up paste in the center that was too sticky and salty.
- ???—Covered in little crunchy seeds.
- ???—Has sugar in the center.
- ???—A type with a real thick, mealy texture.
A: I’m not sure if the clemabread was one of the pancakes, though; it strikes me as more of an everyday food you find anywhere in the area. Lift was familiar with it, at least. But that leaves us with one missing. Oops…
L: Hmm, you’re right. “Sweet” ones were mentioned more than once, so maybe there are several varieties of sweet ones.
A: Well, I’d certainly go for several varieties of sweet ones. Chocolate, raspberry, apple… I mean, think how many varieties of danish you see! I love them all and then some.
I don’t suppose he needed the extra words (given that he was shooting for 18,000 and ended up with 40,000), but I sort of wish Sanderson had given each variety a name and a purpose, just for the fun of it.
Friends and Strangers
The Stump
“Leave my kids alone, you monster.”
L: Shades of Molly Weasley here, and I love it.
A: This was a beautiful thing. As one who (I’m reasonably sure) sometimes comes across to kids as a cranky old lady, I loved the mama-bear attitude here. I may not be very accepting of some of their nonsense, but don’t you dare touch my kids! (I drove the school van for my daughter’s middle-school volleyball team this year… scared the living daylights out of them all when someone had her seat belt unbuckled on the freeway. But don’t anyone touch my girls!)
L: I feel much the same about the younger members of the cosplay community I interact with at conventions, so I totally get where you’re coming from. I think Stump gets a bad rap from Lift in the limited time we got to know her.
The old lady cracked as she hit, and fell limp, motionless.
L: ::wince::
A: Not quite sure why he thought he needed to stab her too. That fall sounds like enough damage. Ow.
Mik
L: His mother came back for him! HOORAY!
A: I loved this scene so much. SO MUCH.
Huh, Lift thought. The mom couldn’t have known that Mik had been healed— it had only happened yesterday, and the city was a mess following the storm.
A: She came back to get Mik even though she “knew” it would be super-hard to take care of him with such severe brain damage. I’m glad he was healed, but I’m even more glad she came back before she knew about it. ::sniffle::
Storming Mother of the World and Father of Storms Above
“Majestic as Damnation’s own gonads.”
L: This one needs a reaction gif.
A: Because you wouldn’t want The Fork to complain about you being crass. Nope.
L: So, we talked a little earlier in the reread about Lift’s age (and I donned my foily chapeau to claim that I think she’s actually way older than she says she is). But the postscript to Edgedancer here in Arcanum Unbounded does seem to lay this theory to rest. “She actually thinks her aging stopped at ten,” he says. (I know, I know, you all were right, I’ll go sulk in a corner and ball up this hat to toss in the trash.)
A: Okay, so now I really want Sanderson to throw in a twist where she turns out to be five hundred years old, because she didn’t stop at 10, she stopped at 11… but I’m afraid it’s not going to happen. She’d have to have worse amnesia than Shallan’s.
Darkness & Co.
“Once I would have welcomed you as a sister.”
L: This makes me sad. Sad because of who he could have been, and sad because of what he’s lost, even if he doesn’t realize it (yet).
“You are right. It seems I have finally released myself from the last vestiges of guilt I once felt at doing my duty. Honor has suffused me, changed me. It has been a long time coming.”
L: Interesting that he says honor has suffused him, since honor is the realm of the Windrunners, not the Skybreakers… Whenever a character in Stormlight says something like this, I read it with a capital letter—Honor. It’s hard to see the word as just a simple turn of phrase when the powers literally walk and talk among them!
A: Too true. Still, the Skybreakers are of Honor, if not as closely tied as the Windrunners, and all the Heralds are of Honor to some extent. I have to think that he’s referring to the Shard as much as the concept.
“There are many useful emotions.”
“Which you totally feel, all the time.”
“Of course I do…” he trailed off, and again seemed to be considering what she’d said.
L: Poor guy. I still feel bad for him. He doesn’t realize how bad he’s gotten, how detached from his own humanity he is.
A: I found this whole conversation very eye-opening. I know we had the hints back in the WoR prologue, that perhaps they were all “getting worse,” but we didn’t really have much clue what that might mean. Even in the conversations we saw elsewhere with Darkness—in Azir, and here in Yeddaw with his minions—he seemed cold, but not necessarily insane (or possessed…). In this conversation, with someone who doesn’t treat him with any sort of awe or reverence, and who continually throws irrelevant comments at him, he suddenly seems far less … together. He keeps stopping to think about what she says, even though half the time it’s near nonsense. His actions don’t change, but his mind seems… slightly disconnected, or something. Like Szeth’s soul.
“I will listen,” Lift shouted, “to those who have been ignored!”
“What?” Darkness demanded.
“I heard what you said, Darkness!”
L: One could argue that Nale wasn’t exactly being ignored, but… I digress. (Later on she says “Even people like Darkness, whom I’d rather not have heard,” which clarifies this a little.)
A: Yeah, not ignored exactly, but he sort of wasn’t even listening to himself. Lift put together the pieces of what he’d said about stopping the Desolation—because she’d listened—with what was happening—clearly the Desolation. She makes him look at it, and that’s what finally breaks through the self-deception. She listened both to him, and to what was going on in the world.
In that moment it seemed, strangely, that something within him emerged. It was stupid of her to think that with everything happening—the rain, the winds, the red lightning—she could see a difference in his eyes. But she swore that she could.
L: Is Sanderson implying with that “something emerged” that something was possessing him (something like the Thrill, perhaps?) or is this just artistic license to indicate that his eyes have been opened and his mind changed? Knowing how Sanderson likes to throw these little tidbits at us and then blow our minds with them later, I’m inclined to believe the former.
A: I read this as “the part of him that had been repressed (by madness, or by Odium, or by an Unmade??) finally got free again.” His sanity? His humanity? The quality for which he was chosen as a Herald in the first place? I’m pretty sure it’s more than just changing his mind about things, one way or the other. That language is too Significant.
“Storms. Jezrien… Ishar… It is true. I’ve failed.” He bowed his head.
And he started weeping.
L: ARGH my heart breaks for this big jerk. THE THINGS HE MUST HAVE DONE. I can’t even imagine. He’s put all that guilt on the backburner and thinks he’s ascended to some higher state, but he clearly hasn’t. This realization breaks him open and all that guilt just comes pouring out. All those deaths, all at his hands, for NOTHING. (Okay so maybe I’m reading too much into this, but I do love me some angst and I really really hope we get some kind of backstory or POV chapters from him one day.)
A: Yep, Sanderson did it again. Someone I was perfectly happy to loathe has now become an object of sympathy. If he continues on this path of awareness, I’m going to have to root for him. Not sure how I feel about that…
L: Join me in my love for the anti-heroes, Alice… Joiiiiin meeeee…
“I’m sorry,” Lift said.
He looked to her, face lit red by the continuous lightning, tears mixing with the rain.
“You actually are,” he said, then felt at his face. “I wasn’t always like this. I am getting worse, aren’t I? It’s true.”
A: And this is where Lift shames everyone. She really is sorry for him, despite the fact that he just tried to kill her, and deliberately left Stump downstairs to bleed out as a trap for her. Forget grace of movement and all that—she has the heart of an Edgedancer: loving and healing.
Everything Else
“You know, the day the Almighty was handin’ our brains? I went out for flatbread that day.” … “But I got back by the time the Almighty was givin’ out looks,” Lift called. “What kept you?”
L: Man… I’ve gotta admire her guts.
She hugged Darkness.
L: MY HEART. ::clutches her chest:: Why do you do this to me, Sanderson? WHY?!
A: I’m pretty sure he feeds on our tears, Lyn. OUR TEARS GRANT HIM POWER TO WRITE. I’m… uh… not sure how I feel about that theory, either.
L: I guess that’s one explanation for his ungodly fast writing speed. No more or less plausible than the SanderBots!
A: Still and all, I loved this. I never in a million years would have expected a hug to be the climax of this story, and there it is.
Who cared about bows and swords and stuff? This opened all kinds of more interesting possibilities.
L: I’m not sure I want to know what kinds of possibilities she’s entertaining.
A: FORKS. A fork you don’t even have to carry around, you just hold out your hand and you have a fork. Heh.
Or lockpicks… or… okay, maybe I don’t want to think about it after all.
“You should have a weird little thing hanging around you. Not me. Something weirder.”
L: Oh my god, Lift. In the immortal words of Sam from Sam & Max Freelance Police, “You crack me up, little buddy.”
A: Clearly weirdness is a matter of perspective. I’m not sure even a spren can possibly be any weirder than Lift.
“I can tell,” Lift said. “You obviously don’t walk around very much.”
L: ::wince:: Apply salve directly to burned area.
A: Stormlight heals better than salve. Just sayin’…
Lift smiled and dug a pancake out of her pocket. This woman had been visited by Darkness because of her. That sort of thing earned you a debt. So she tossed the woman the pancake … then used the Stormlight she’d gotten from the ones she’d eaten to start healing the wounds of the refugees.
L: This right here is what turned me from being somewhat aloof towards her character to downright loving her. Lift has a tendency to come across as uncaring and flippant to everyone, but she really, truly cares about others beneath that irreverent exterior. The fact that she gave up her food—her food!—to someone else because she put them through a hardship is so touching. We know that food is just about the most important thing in the world to her, so it’s akin to giving up your most prized possession. And then to go around healing all the refugees… what a good heart she has. (And side-note… what poor Kaladin wouldn’t have given for that healing power, huh?)
A: Too true! I loved her just casually walking along healing everyone until she ran out of Stormlight, and then walking off into the sunset, as it were.
Kaladin would love that power, but as Lift says… healing them all is at once too big a project, and too small.
L: Well… that’s all, folks. This has been a lot of fun, and I hope that Alice and I will get a chance to return for the eventual Oathbringer reread (after the dust has had a chance to settle from the initial release, of course). Happy reading when that monster of a novel hits the shelves, Edgedancers (and all you other orders as well, especially my fellow Windrunners)!
(A: Yes, even the Skybreakers are welcome…)
Lyndsey’s baby just started walking, so you can imagine how much free time she’s had to work on her own writing lately. This doesn’t bode well for NaNoWriMo, but she’s still going to do her best. If you’re participating too, feel free to drop her a friend request!
Alice’s fond hopes of life slowing down after volleyball season seem destined to perish, but at least she has excellent Oathbringer-preparation reading to recommend if you haven’t seen them already. Lyn’s second Cosplay post was out on Monday, and Paige did an excellent write-up on what we know—and don’t know—about the Parshendi/Listeners, going into the third book. Are you hyped up yet?
Re: Wyndle becoming a shard early vs Syl: I fall into the first theory. I suspect if Kaladin wasn’t so bullheaded and stubborn, Syl would have bent the rules a little, too. Lift is stumbling across situations to live her words, but Kaladin had to be led by the nose and have his face shoved into the lesson he needed to learn, and he’s still not until the 11th hour. Im also sure some of it is also Syl enjoying the “So, Kaladin, what did we learn?” moments.
Mik’s mom coming back was probably my favorite part, ha.
But right on to everything you wrote about Lift, Darkness and what true ‘victory’ is.
I took Wyndle’s sigh as knowing that it would hurt when he transferred into a Shardrod and stopped the Shardblade.
I think the greater importance of Nale “waking up” is that he can convince the other Heralds that the Desolation has arrived. He may be somehow able to snap them out of their respective slides. I think that for the each of the other Heralds to regain their normalcy, each Herald has to accept the realization that the Desolation has started. He/she can no longer take any actions to deny/prevent the Desolation from occurring. In this way, he or she must recommit to his/her Oath. I think that what went unspoken in this chapter is that Nale recommitted to the Oathpact. Now he will actively fight against Odium and the Voidbringers.
Now that Nale appears to be “reawaken”, I want a conversation between him and Amaram. I wonder if such a conversation would change the zealot Amaram. I could see it analogous to Paul’s transformation from Saul.
Can we all agree that the perfect weapon for Lift is a trident. I hope that becomes her Shardweapon of choice. Part weapon, part utensil, all awesomeness.
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewHB
aka the musespren
@1, I can now envisage Syl, facing Kaladin while sitting on his knee as he pouts in a corner, asking that very question in a little-sister-but-motherly way.
Thanks for the reread, Alice and Lyndsey.
I concur. My heart. I can’t deal with the immensity of Lift’s wonderfulness. Nobody can. Nobody can resist her. The Assassin in White confides in her. The incredibly deadly sword Nightblood likes her. The creeptastic Dysian Aimian even the Heralds fear to oppose philosophizes to her. And the powerful, ancient, ruthless Skybreaker Nale listens to her and lets her hold him as he plunges into grief.
And on the occasions when she can’t bring out the best in people simly by being herself, she makes them do what she needs them to do, by force of mischief, string-pulling, wit, and unbreakable determination.
Healer of bodies and minds, witness and defender of the downtrodden, troublemaker, big eater, snarkmaster, with human imperfections that only make her a more perfect character. She is almost exactly the heroine I long wanted to write. Thank you, Sanderson, for writing her.
And people who have not read Keys to the Kingdom cannot understand just how much the Shardfork means to me, though reading A Song of Ice and Fire might give some idea.
I can’t defeat him. I’ve got to change him. A trope most dear to me for so many years, harmfully unrealistic in real life and thus criticized in fiction. But just this once, we’re allowed to accept and revel in it.
“You know, the day the Almighty was handin’ our brains? I went out for flatbread that day.” I should say that to myself on the very frequent occasions when I mentally beat myself up for anything that demonstrates lack of intelligence.
“Storms, I’m an insult to my own self most days.” That sentence makes perfect sense to me and is all too relatable.
I desperately want to read more about Lift, despite dreading what it will do to me.
Why were the Parshmen put outside in a storm? People clearly didn’t know that this was the worst possible thing for everyone, but why did they think it was a good idea?
Thanks gals, it has been a fun trip through this reread.
Personal theory: When Lift when to the Nightwatcher her blessing was granted by making Lift a splinter of Honor. She will grow to maturity but won’t age thereafter. This also explains how she can create Stormlight – she partakes of Honor’s essence and doesn’t need an outside source.
I’ve completely missed the “something emerged from him and his eyes changed” until just now.
Interesting. But I see any questionstouching on that as being RAFO.
Lift figures that she can make stormlight from the food she ate while Darkness can’t. But how does she know that stormlight is the source of her awesomeness? Its been a while since I read the books, but I am pretty sure she never fed on the stormlight directly from a sphere. Did Wyndle give her that piece of information at some point? Lift has always associated her awesomeness with the food she eats, hasn’t she? So how did she arrive at the conclusion that Darkness would run out of stormlight while she wouldn’t? For that matter, how did she figure out that The Stump was feeding on the stormlight from the spheres? If memory serves, Lift doesn’t actually know that she is awesome because of stormlight or that stormlight from spheres can be fed upon, does she? Has my memeory failed to serve me? Does anybody know what happened there?
When I originally heard about Edgedancer I was excited, except that I didn’t really like Lift. She was too annoying, it got on my nerves. But now I love her so much!!!! I wish everyone could do a little more hugging and listening and forking and a lot less fighting.
I’m wondering if there is a list somewhere with all the types of pancakes and why you eat them that we just don’t have because we don’t actually need it. Seems like something that could easily be tucked into a folder and not shared just for the sake of not sharing. Or because, you know, word count.
Thanks ladies! Good job getting us all up to date and properly hyped 12 days before the release. I may have to break down and read some of the chapters I’ve been avoiding because I just can’t take it anymore! Anyone else looking forward to all the new WoB that will be coming with the new tours?
RE: Shardblades before oaths. I wonder two things about this. First each order might be a reflection of the nature of the spren so a windrunner would require more rigid conformity while lightweaver doesn’t even speak oaths. So with Lift perhaps he can form a shard blade without the oath being spoken with great difficulty but the oath creates a pathway for the spren to connect. Kind of like the difference between a lightning strike and a superconductor.
Or perhaps Lift is a special case in this area as so many others.
Thanks for the re-read!
Seemed everything had gone wrong again. Just in a new way this time. That could describe most events in the history of humanity, on Earth or elsewhere.
Aaaah. Great re-read
Im making pancakes for dinner :)
Before I dive into the comments, just wanted to give kudos to Alice and Lyndsey for a fantastic reread, especially with the humour and style that perfectly fit onto a story featuring Lift!
Much appreciated.
It’s funny, but when I read Wyndle’s sigh I took it as a sigh of contentment, or pleasure that both he and Lift were progressing to the next level per say.
So Lift + Wyndle = forking awesome… Which I always believed was the case, but it is now officially SA canon.
I am going to be honest, I had zero clue how Lift was going to defeat Darkness, the ending with the hug was beyond anything I would have ever conceived, and yet, after reading seems to make obvious sense that should have been the direction of my thinking.
(I actually thought Szeth, at Nightblood’s insistence, would come to her defense and force Darkness to back down).
I still believe her boon / curse had something to do with her physical immaturity, maybe for reasons of not wanting to grow-up and deal with reality or wanting some control over her life because of much traumatic changes. I now believe that her body has started to physically mature again because she now has accepted change with saying her oaths.
So I am wondering if the Nightwatcher’s boon / curse remains in place as long as the person needs it, then either dissipates or changes.
Oathbringer spoilers:
(Just like w/ Dalinar in Oathbringer)
Spoilers over.
I mean, if anyspren is going to be hard bound to Da Rules, it’s gonna be frickin’ Syl. (I admit my bias against her.)
Re: metal
There’s Something Special about metal in the Cosmere at large, but I don’t think it’s related to Scadrial. When Investiture is a solid, it’s *always* metal – lerasium, atium, Shards. When it’s a liquid, it’s…whatever a Shardpool is. (Well of Ascension, the blue lake on Sel, the Horneater pools, Patji’s Eye, maaaaaybe the cool ball that Kelsier uses to take on Preservation). Vaporous Investiture hasn’t been nailed down to a specific gas that I know of – we’ve seen Ruin’s vaporous form, Stormlight, Breath, the Mists on Scadrial, maaaaaybe the Shades on Threnody.
Metal on Scadrial acts as it does because of something special about Scadrial itself – the planet is what makes the magic of the Metallic Arts act through metal. On Roshar, the magic seems to act through oaths, and maybe gemstones? On Nalthis, it’s the Commands, on Sel, it’s “shape” (aons, the writing on the stamps, the bones, kata).
So spren must become metal because they’re Splinters of Honor or Cultivation, and the only way for them to be physical is to be metal, because that’s a Law of the Cosmere.
Wouldn’t it be dangerous to eat with a Shardfork?
Lift always reminds me of my little sister. They’re both basically the same age, both are obsessed with food, and are both equally part awesome and part annoying.
@20 I had that thought first thing too, but I guess a Radiant can just heal any tongue nerve damage they suffer. I would worry more about teeth since you don’t naturally repair those even like bones, but if you can survive a fall into a chasm, Stormlight can heal just about anything.
@11 I have had the same question. In Lift’s first interlude, we directly hear Lift being confused about why Nale’s minions are removing the spheres from the hallway as she walks. She has no idea that she is using the same Stormlight as in the spheres. I have wondered/worried about whether she can even draw Stormlight from external sources. What if her boon is Stormlight from food–a more plentiful, constant supply than spheres generally speaking–but her curse is that she cannot draw it in the normal fashion? Or maybe she can do both, but I don’t think we’ve ever seen her get Stormlight/awesomeness besides from food. So I agree, the way she can figure out about Darkness and Stump using Stormlight made me scratch my head as well.
Not all parts of the sharblade is dangerous, there is a hilt. Just like when Syl becomes a shield or a spear, parts or none of it are dangerous to touch. The ShardFork may not be dangerous at all, especially given it was not made for combat.
Intent might be the most important part of the equation.
Heh. I had briefly wondered about the Shardfork being dangerous, too, but then I figured that only the points of a regular fork are sharp, so the same should be true of a Shardfork – and I don’t know about y’all, but I don’t habitually stab myself with my fork. Also, as noted, Stormlight-healing.
I’m so glad y’all enjoyed our reread – we had a lot of fun doing it!
1o types of pancake, 10 Heralds. 10 is Honor’s number.
Only there are really nine types of pancake. Odium’s number.
I actually don’t think that’s terribly significant, I just think Sanderson was putting a joke for alert fans.
@11 & @22 – Just yesterday I put that same question in the thread for last week’s post. It must be that Wyndle told her about how stormlight is “supposed” to work, but I don’t remember that happening on-camera.
Alice & Lyndsey – thank you SO much for tiding us over till the big day, Nov. 13th. Will either or both of you be at the release event? If so, hope to meet you then!
I have to admit I really disliked Lift when I first read her. So much so I wouldn’t read Edgedancer when it came out.. Though I have to say that may have been due to the fact I had just shepherded my 4 kids through their teens and college years. I had had enough of awesomeness and snark. Haha. So thank you so much for doing this. It made me read Edgedancer and now I love Lift.. I can’t wait to read more about her!
aggie1 @26 – Lyndsey will be at the big release party on the 13th/14th. I, sadly, will not.
However, you’ll see a LOT of the other beta readers there!
@21. Agreed. This is still sort of a difficult read because she is so annoying, but at the same time so much happens here, mostly driven by how awesome she is as a character. She managed to make the two most irredeemable characters in the series to date completely sympathetic.
Bravo Sanderson.
Thanks for the book club, Alice and Lyndsey.
@2: When I read this part, my assumption was that Mik’s mother had heard that kids were getting better at this orphanage. Someone desperate might take the chance that a miracle could occur by dropping him off for a few days. And she seemed desperate.
No, I think the story works better when you realize the mother was going to take her child back unconditionally.
First, thank you both so much for doing this reread. These last two chapters are both amazing, for different reasons. All your points about Nale, Lift, the Stump and Mik are great.
Maybe Lift figured out that what she’s making is stormlight because Nale and the minions very ostentatiously removed all the spheres from the corridor when they captured her in the first interlude? Combine that with some of Wyndle’s old recollections, and she could’ve figured it out. She’s a smart cookie.
Second, I have a potential theory/thought experiment about why Wyndle could transform before Lift technically said the third Ideal.
So there are a few points I believe we know from the books and WoBs
– There’s something about cosmere magic that makes it manifest as metal in the physical realm
– The more invested something is, the harder it is to influence with other investiture
– To move between the cognitive and physical real, you have to create a small perpendicularity (like what elsecallers do) or use a pre-existing one
So what I think spren do when they want to bond with a human is they have to squeeze themselves through the cracks between the Cognitive and Physical realm. This is traumatic, and causes them to lose their memories (until the bond progresses).
Then as they bond, through investiture and oaths, they slowly open a tiny spren-shaped perpendicularity to the cognitive realm. (maybe not technically a perpendicularity, but I wouldn’t know how to describe it otherwise). Because of this the spren gains more of their personality/memories back (they can reconnect to it) and this larger connection makes it easier for the new surgebinder to use surges.
And shardblades are very invested (more than plate), and thus hard to move. So I theorize the third oath here would be when the connecting is strong enough that the spren can manifest in the physical realm as a sword (though some orders get a blade earlier/later, which doesn’t quite work with this theory).
Now, as Wyndle theorized, Lift is partially in the Cognitive realm. So instead of Wyndle having to move all of the shardblade-investiture all the way to the Physical realm, they can instead meet in the middle.
Or maybe it’s because she had already done everything except speak the words out loud. :)
Third, about Nale and Honor, I think there’s a WoB out there that while Honorspren believe they are the ones closed to Honor, there is disagreement between the spren. The Highspren argue they always uphold the law, which is much closer to Honor than this very subjective morality thing. So I guess Nale has also come to see honor this way. He upholds the ‘oaths’ of the country to the letter (because he doesn’t trust himself anymore?).
@25 The tenth pancake is the idea of a pancake sacrificed to Taln. Who can’t show up and eat it because for the last few thousand years he’s been being tortured on another planet.
On the Shardrod befgore the third oath, we have a WoB IIRC that says that not all the orders follow the same pattern for getting Shardblade and Plate.
Of course I had thought that the Spren had to initially be a blade when summoned.
@33: Dedicated to Tashi. Who has been theorized to be Taln or Ishar or Tanavast, but it hasn’t been confirmed.
The way that Nale says that “Tashi doesn’t care much for what you do here. In fact, I’d pray that he doesn’t reach your city, as I’d doubt you’d like the consequences” suggests that Tashi is a) someone Nale believes to be still alive, and b) dangerous.
I’m leaning towards it being Ishar, personally, because there’s been a theory for some time that Tezim, the God-King of Tukar, is really Ishar, and [Oathbringer spoilers] Tezim calls himself “Herald of Heralds and bearer of the Oathpact”, which gives some more credence to the idea. Tezim is also has as much of a God-complex as you’d expect from his title, and it’s the “smite first and ask questions later” sort of god.
@Steve-son-son-Charles: I like your username. I don’t know why, but it just tickles me.
Something I just noticed, flipping through chapter 19: after Lift challenges Darkness to “deny what is happening!”, the narrative refers to him as Nale. And it calls him Nale for the rest of the chapter, until she hugs him and then he’s Darkness again.
While never 100% confirmed, the Shardfork is believed to be a shout-out to this parody released 3 years ago (so way before Edgedancer)
Confirmed list of things in Stormlight 3
A&L, thanks for doing this reread. I loved this story and am a huge Lift fan. I hope we see more of her in oathbringer, but I suspect we will have to wait for latter books. The Heralds are such wild cards in this story, it will be interesting to see what happens to Nale (and Szeth) now.
Did anyone else find Lift’s restatement of the third ideal to be similar to Kaladin’s third ideal? “I will protect those I hate, as long as it is right.”
“But I will listen to those who are ignored, she thought. Even people like Darkness, whom I’d rather never have heard.”
I don’t suppose it necessarily has to be something special about the third ideal, but the two we’ve seen (Shallan’s being an exception, since there are no set ideals after the first) both have something about acting against your own natural inclination. The problem is that I can’t tel if that’s just Lift’s commentary or if it is meant to be part of the true meaning of the ideal.
@34 Nale’s referring to the point that if Taln shows up that means another Devastation has started in that bit. “Ishar believes so long as one is bound.” etc.
Plus nine real pancakes for the nine heralds present on Roshar and one conceptual pancake for the absent one.
When Kaladin got his Blade Syl was “dead”. That is probably why it took an explicit oath, while normally acting the right way can be enough. Lift was already listening to people, while Kaladin had just decided to protect Elhokar after all after doing the wrong thing for a while.
Lifts listens to people, even if she doesn’t always admit it. She heard talk about Dalinar and the refounding of the Knights in the palace in Azir before she left. That must be how she figured out that other Knights use Stormlight (and maybe understood what it is that she is doing and that Wyndle is no voidbringer, even if she only admits it at the end of the book).
@39: That still leaves the “Tashi doesn’t care much for what you do here” part. Plus the present tense- I don’t think that Nale knows that Taln is back yet.
There’s nothing proven. It could be Taln, it could be Ishar, it could be someone else. But until we get confirmation, I think we should avoid absolute declarations.
Walker @@@@@ 36: Thank you so much for sharing that link. I don’t know which item made me laugh most!
Sorry, stepped in to say that and not advance the conversation in any way. :)
For me, Wyndel’s sigh was a, “Finally…”, as the block that kept him from transforming was removed. He’d been trying to get her to say the Words, because he knew there was something he should be able to do for her, but couldn’t yet. She admits the Words in her heart, which caused the change within her, which released him to become more.
Also, thoroughly enjoyed the reread, thanks so much!
Will we ever get an Elantris reread?
Ben @44 – Hard to say! I’d love to reread all of the Cosmere on here, but it’s a big undertaking! That would be a nice short one to do either before or after Oathbringer, though.