Welcome back to the Edgedancer reread, fellow Cosmere fans! Alice is celebrating her 30th wedding anniversary this week (Congratulations Alice!) so I’ll be tackling chapters 3 and 4 all by my lonesome this week.
First of all, a teensy note to answer some comments I saw on various social media platforms in regards to the previous reread post. Edgedancer is included in Arcanum Unbounded, Brandon Sanderson’s collection of Cosmere short stories and novellas. The novella will be released as a stand-alone book soon, but as of now, the only way to read it is within the pages of AU, which I highly recommend you pick up! Along with Edgedancer, you’ll find stories from all the different worlds connected to Roshar, from Scadrial (the Mistborn series) to Sel (Elantris).
Without further ado, let’s awesome our way into this week’s chapters!
The Awesomeness
In chapter 3, Hauka, a Yeddaw guard, is having a truly terrible day. First she encounters a merchant who she suspects has raided nearby fields in war-torn Emul and stolen their grain, then a young woman leads her for a merry chase around the guard station (the young woman being Lift, of course). She steals some of the guards’ pancakes, awesome’s her way around Hauka, and dumps the thief’s stolen cart of grain down into the poor part of town.
As we move into chapter 4, Lift takes a walk through town after her flirtation with anarchy, admiring clothes and architecture. Wyndle drops another hint (more like comes right out and SAYS) that he becomes a Shardblade but, again, Lift either doesn’t get it or ignores it. She reveals that she’d stolen a book from Hauka in the previous chapter, but according to Wyndle it doesn’t have anything important in it, just Hauka’s schedule. She notices a strange cremling on the wall, then tosses the “worthless” book over her shoulder. It hits a woman, a guard accuses her of assault, and we’re off to another chapter break!
Kadasixes and Stars
A strange little cremling crawled up the wall beside her. Smaller than most, it was black, with a thin carapace and a strip of fuzzy brown on its back that seemed almost spongy.
Lovely little gun on the mantlepiece, here. We’ll find out more about this creature later, but for now it’s worthwhile simply to note its presence, since it will come back into play.
“I suppose I need to get you to say the Words, don’t I? That’s my job? Oh, this is miserable.”
Poor Wyndle. A commenter last week pointed out that he reminds them of C-3PO, and I couldn’t agree more. He and Lift are like… if C-3PO had been paired up with Luna Lovegood instead of R2-D2.
Pet Voidbringer
Lift wasn’t supposed to be able to touch Wyndle.
“You must be stuck partially in the cognitive.”
This is a time when I wish I had Alice here! I’m admittedly not as studious of a Cosmere scholar as she, and tend to gravitate more towards character study than worldbuilding theorycrafting, but I’ll take a stab at this, since I feel as if it’s a BIG clue as to what’s happening with Lift, and why she’s so very different. If she were stuck partially in the Cognitive Realm (aka Shadesmar), it could explain quite a few things, like the fact that she doesn’t seem to age (like the spren), her odd way of metabolizing food into surgebinding instead of using stormlight for the same purpose, and – as mentioned here – why she can touch Wyndle. Is this a side effect of her trip to the Nightwatcher? If she asked not to change, is tying her to the Cognitive Realm the Nightwatcher’s way of doing so? Is this her boon… or her curse? Or both? Even more interesting to consider is whether or not she can affect change or interact directly with people or objects in the Cognitive Realm. If someone like Jasnah were there, could Lift interact with her? With the spren living there? Could she travel there herself, despite the fact that she shouldn’t have the power of an Elsecaller or Willshaper?
“Shoes are important to war,” Wyndle said, spitting out a splatter of vines on the wall about him – she wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean.
This is just a Wyndle-ism that I find fascinating. In my head I almost see it like a paint splatter! Is this an expression of disgust at the thought of war?
“You are going to slam me into people, aren’t you? I’m going to be a weapon.”
The only way he could spell it out any clearer for her would be to give her twenty-seven 8×10 color glossy photos with circles and arrows.
It tickled, the way his main vine shot out other little vines.
Again, she’s not supposed to be able to touch him…. Curiouser and curiouser.
Journey before Pancakes
“Tuk-cake. You eat them for prosperity in the year to come.”
Sadly we don’t get any description of how the tuk-cake tastes, or what it might contain. I do rather like the purpose for them, though, as it follows a rich tradition of “lucky” foods in our own world. And who couldn’t use a little more prosperity? (Tin-foil hat time – perhaps this is a super-subtle indication that Lift will be coming into some good luck in the coming year?)
Friends and Strangers
“Did you know we were considering bonding this nice cobbler man instead of you?”
This is obviously a reference to Ym, from one of the interludes in Words of Radiance. (sobs) YM, WHY? I’ll never get over this. He was only in one chapter but he was so wonderful! I teared up when Darkness killed him. Aside from my everlasting grief, however… Upon reading this, I went back and re-read Ym’s interlude, because I wondered if his spren might not have been Wyndle. However, his spren was female, and appears as points of light. So can we surmise from this that the potential to be a Radiant isn’t locked to one order? That a potential Knight may attract spren of two (or more!) different types? Is it only because the two orders (Edgedancers and Truthwatchers) are adjacent on the chart of orders, and share a surge? It’s a fascinating concept, and if true, one that I hope might be explored in future installments.
Storming Mother of the World and Father of Storms Above
“It was snatched up quicker than a pretty whore in Bavland.”
Never change, Lift.
Wyndle: “Oh, blessed mother.”
This is a fascinating one. Is the mother he swears to the Nightwatcher? Or some other deity the spren worship?
Darkness & Co.
Nothing in this chapter. Perhaps the next!
Everything Else
They were in the home lands, and the need to cover up before Nun Raylisi – the enemy of their god – was minimal.
I love this touch of worldbuilding. And, naturally, I hone in on any and all mention of clothing like a hawk to prey.
“That god-king of the Tukari… there were all sorts of wild rumors about him.”
Well that’s an intriguing little snippet of information. I hope that we eventually learn more about him and these wild rumors, whatever they might be!
Well, that’s all for this week! Some interesting tidbits about the cognitive realm, Lift’s boon/curse, and those tricky little cremlings in this chapter, so feel free to don your tinfoil chapeaus in the comments section, and join Alice and I next week for more Lift shenanigans!
Lyndsey is a writer and cosplayer. She is currently working as an actress for the Connecticut Renaissance Faire, and feels as if she’s been hit by the Knight Bus after this week’s Labor Day weekend. You can see more of her work on her website or follow her musings on facebook or twitter.
I think you could have put the part about Lift stealing the guard’s datebook under the Darkness heading. I think this was part of her investigation on where he is and what he’s doing..
I forget, what’s with the cremling?
I love the comparison of Lift and Wyndle to Luna and C-3PO! And now I’m curious about the mother Wyndle swears to. As if there wasn’t enough of the things I’m curious about. *Sigh … *
@3 I have the impression that “mother” refers to Cultivation.
@2. He’s a piece of the Aimian at the end of the story. (Or is he Nalan’s larkin? Now that I think about it, I’m not sure which.)
Is “mother” Cultivation? Or Nightwatcher? Or are they the same? Oooo…
As for Ym, I’m glad to see you aren’t under the mistaken impression that Ym was going to be an Edgedancer. Good job! Brandon has already come out and said he was going to be a Truthwatcher.
Well, a quick trip to the interview database shows that Brandon has said Cultivation and Nightwatcher are not the same but are related. Similar to Stormfather/Honor.
Little to nothing to do with the reread, but the reference to a certain Restaurant made me smile (seriously, Lift would have to be hit over the head *with Wyndle* to get it).
Somebody did ask Brandon about the “mother”
That’s a curious way to answer…he left a whole lot of wiggle room there.
@5, thanks, I remember now. Though what Aimian actually is still eludes me, that type of creature seemed to come out of nowhere. Judging from the Oathbringer cover, though, there’s a lot we don’t know still about Roshar and its inhabitants.
Hey yeah, Lyn…. Did the “Restaurant” reference drop in because of thoughts about Alice?
C-3PO… perfect. I cant believe I never saw it before now. wyndle’s voice will sound like him in my head from now on. LOL
Nice work, Lyndsey! I literally laughed out loud over “He and Lift are like… if C-3PO had been paired up with Luna Lovegood instead of R2-D2.” What a mental image!!
About that Cognitive Realm thing… That is such a mystery. There are theories and theories, but no solid evidence of how this will connect to anything else. She can physically touch Wyndle, and I think you’re right on it being related to metabolizing food into Investiture… but I don’t know why it works. And I have guesses on some other things – but most of them aren’t worth trying to verbalize at this point.
About Ym… ::sniffle sniffle:: I had a longstanding theory that Ym was an Edgedancer because of the appearance of his spren and the way Wyndle is described as “how he would appear to people not Lift” – and Brandon even confirmed that the appearance of Ym’s spren was important, but he wouldn’t either confirm or deny the connection I was drawing.* When I read the alpha version of Edgedancer, I took this statement to be confirmation of my theory. (To be fair, others took it as just the opposite.) Anyway, then sometime later Brandon spilled it at a signing or something, and *poof* went my theory. I’m still sad about that. :( Why didn’t Ym see Darkness’s coming and get out of Dodge? Oh well. It’s not the first theory I’ve had wrong, and I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last!
ETA:
* He did say it was a reasonable theory, though.
Also: Alice’s Restaurant FTW!
@13 you’d convinced me with your Ym = Edgedancer reasoning, so you don’t have to be alone in your wrongness. Oh well.
Has there been any WOB about how the spren choose their charges? Or who decides when there is a person with attributes that make him/her perfect for more than one Order? Is there like a bidding war? An established pecking order? As we know from an epigraph in WOK, not all spren have perfect judgement in picking their companions. If one Order fails will another pick them up like on the free agent market?
@15 – First come, first serve?
Luna Lovegood is my role model. I sometimes wish Lift were also my role model, and in a few ways, she is. I am very pleased by your likening Lift to Luna.
@15-My guess is the method of choosing is different for each order/spren.
For Windrunners, it seems that it is more of a personal choice, Syl defied orders to chose Kaladin.
For Edgedancers it sounds more like a democratic process, both who to choose and who will be the one bonded.
It will be interesting if there is a fight between spren over a person. Again, I think methods of resolution will vary.
According to Jasnah, the spren have similar politics and organizations as humans.
What I wonder is how representative of their respective type are the spren we’ve seen. Are all cultivationspren as neurotic as Wyndle? Are all honorspren like Syl? (The indication for that one is “no”, since she’s a rebel, but still)
Wetlandernw @13
It took a while, but you eventually convinced me about Ym’s spren also. Well, we have a description of a Truthwatcher’s spren to work with now. Could be useful.
So if Windle would have bonded with Ym instead of Lyft then he would have become an Edgedancer. Instead he was bonded by a Cryptic and was on the path to Lightweaver before he died. I guess that means Cryptics and Cultivationspren look for similar qualities in their bondmates. Is that because they are on the Cultivation side of the Radient Diagram? Is there a person out there that appeals to both the Honor and the Cultivation side? All probably RAFO.
@21 – He would have become a Truthwatcher. They have the surges of Illumination (like Lightweavers) and Regrowth.
My mistake. I had a thought that those who share surges and thus are close to each other on the chart would have spren who look for similar qualities in their bondmates. But then the counterpoint is Windrunners vs. Skybreakers and they couldn’t be more different.
They were in the home lands, and the need to cover up before Nun Raylisi – the enemy of their god – was minimal.
*thumbs through her copy of The Spotter’s Guide To Shards Of Roshar*
Why, I do believe we’ve found a common red-eyed Rayse, Odium adonalsii. “O. adonalsii is known for its unusual migratory patterns and periodic murder sprees.”
Lindsey, IMO I do not think Lift has the knowledge of Knights Radiant and Shardblades fully understand what Wyndle says. Lift has a lot of street smarts. She lacks general historical knowledge. I would expect that knowledge of Shardblades is part of that general historical knowledge she lacks.
I love the image of C-3PO trying to have a conversation with Luna Lovegood. I would pay to hear that conversation. A modern day Who’s on First.
Re potential Knight Radiant attracting more than one type of spren: I do not believe the placement on the chart of orders is the key. Rather, I believe the key is the philosophy (for lack of a better word) of the spren. I do not think that a honorspren and a highspren would be attracted to the same person. The core of the spren’s philosophy are too different. However, there may be other orders that share more a philosophical ideal. I think a key for Edgedancers (and by extension, cultivation spren) are the willingness of the human to sympathize with those who are not as well off in life (remember those who have been forgotten; listen to those who have been ignored). These traits fit Ym’s personality. As a result, one can surmise that the philosophical ideals of a Truthwatcher share some of the philosophical ideals of Edgedancers. The differences between these orders may be more apparent as the Ideals progress.
The placement of these two orders on the chart may be a coincidence. If it is relevant, consequence of the two Orders having common core philosophical ideals rather than their placement on the chart causing cultivation spren and the Truthwatcher spren to be attracted to the same candidate.
For a 13 year old, Lift is really Roshary (it would not be right to use the word “earthy.”)
Thanks for reading my musings.
AndrewHB
aka the musespren
I think Lyft is gonna be hitting the books after the events in Edgedancer. She might be getting some interlude action to show her progress. Something’s coming and she has realized that she can no longer be the willfully ignorant girl she has been to this point.
This reread really needs an “unreliable narrator:” section. All of the times in which Lift is clearly smarter than she lets on.
In this chapter she acts like she does not understand the value of the book, but she was clearly extracting the guard’s schedule from it (to be used in a later chapter).
Wyndle makes a similar comment in the WOR interlude, about Lift being in the Cognitive Realm, right? The part when she uses him to climb a wall?
I’m pretty mixed about Lift in general, though I like Wyndle a lot, but TBH I still love these stories because I am waiting for the day when Lift shows up and is just way more awesome at everything than Kaladin. It will be glorious.
Heh, I have always staunchly maintained that Ym was a Truthwatcher. His interest in stories and fascination with the Iriali philosophy/religion seemed to point in the direction of somebody looking for deep truths. Though, to be fair, if I had known the third ideal of Edgedancers back during WoR, I wouldn’t have been so sure. “I will listen to those who have been ignored” agrees with what he was doing too – though, of course, he wasn’t just listening, but actively pursuing the stories.
I also now wonder if it is hard-coded in the Order which Surge is going to develop first, or if it is more individual.
And yes, of course a person could be interesting to different spren Orders if they had qualities that those spren were looking for. For instance, Dalinar also has strong Leadership and Protecting traits, I could easily see him becoming a Windrunner in different circumstances.
Speaking of which – Radiancy has to extend the knights life-spans, right? Because the spren seem to bond quite a few older people, who might have trouble reaching the fifth Ideal before dying otherwise – and then it is back to square one with a new person, as far as I understand the proceedings.
The little reference to being stuck in the Cognitive; I’m not sure at the time I really thought about it (since I’ve never totally grasped all of Realmatic theory anyway) but it definitely leads to some interesting questions about how, why, what that means for any of Lift’s unique abilities, etc.
Regarding Ym – presumably a Radiant’s powers are dependent on which spren binds you but I do wonder if there is an aspect of personality or character that attracts specific spren to a given person and how they duke out who gets to bond whom. Spren politics… :) Or is it one of those ‘written in your spiritweb’ things and you’re just destined from the start to be predisposed to one particular spren (assuming you ‘snap’). And could anybody be a Radiant if they snap appropriately and a spren takes a shine to you for whatever reason, or is there also an inborn component? I’m not up on all the WOBs so maybe somebody answered this already :)
I wonder if any Radiants have been able to choose between different orders. Like if the spren came to them and presented their cases? IIRC, the Radiant in Dalinar’s vision (the one where he fought the Midnight Essences) made some comments along the lines of they could use a man like Dalinar and said he should go to Uri (can’t spell it). So maybe back then it was a lot more organized? Maybe the orders had spren waiting for good candidates?
It was my understanding that before the Recreance, Urithru was where the Radients trained new recruits. Since you need a Nahel bond to become a Knight I assume the bonding spren congregated there to look for companions. It could have been a formalized process as there were Bondsmiths who actually knew what they were doing back then. I also assume that spren were much more willing to enter into the contract back then judging from the amount of blades left behind.
Thanks Lyndsey,
Fun chapters, but that’s a given since we’re reading about Lift. I totally felt for Hauka; she’s just trying to do her job and then she has to deal with the force of nature that is our Lift. And then we have our first pancake sighting!
Wyndle’s comment about needing to get Lift to say the Words: “That’s my job?” was interesting. He keeps on claiming he doesn’t want to become a Shardblade, but his words (and actions) keep on refuting that. He and Lift are both big on saying one thing while meaning/doing another.
@25 – Lift knows some about Shardblades. She knew that Yeddaw was carved by Shardblade (she heard that and other Shardblade-related facts from the noodles in Azir), she knows that they are effective weapons (she even mentions she may need one to fight Darkness) and she also knows that Wyndle knows more about them then he lets on. She probably knows more about Shardblades than the average person would.
@many Re: Ym – I also thought he was an Edgedancer up until the Word of Brandon stating otherwise. I do find it interesting that as a Truthwatcher, Ym (& most likely the Stump) seem to embody Edgedancer ideals: “Remember those who have been forgotten,” “Listen to those who have been ignored.” I am really curious to see if that overlap is common among other neighboring Radiant Orders.
I have this odd suspicion that the guard captain is going to end up being mildly important. Considering how often she shows up in this novella.
@34
Maybe she becomes Lyft’s squire.
@@@@@ 35 – EvilMonkey – I believe that Lyft is actually Uber’s squire. LOL
Sorry, I can’t help myself. ;-)
*groan*
Is there WOB that every KR has to wield a shardblade? We know in Kaladin/Syl’s case she can become any weapon he needs and his weapon of choice is the spear. But it appears (at least to me), that all other KRs use shardblades. Just wondering if they actually have to or if they prefer to (i.e., Wyndle not wanting to, Lift not being trained as a swordsperson).
@@@@@ 38 – The Stormfather made his views pretty clear on the topic of Dalinar and shardblades when Dalinar swore his oaths. So not every KR has to wield a shardblade.
thepupxpert @38 – There is a WoB about it – please forgive me for not taking the time to look it up – that talks about how a sword isn’t a necessary form, but it’s the default because of the Honorblades and the preference for swords in the culture. Something like that, anyway. So it’s up to the Knight & spren what they want to use/be, but everyone sort of goes with sword unless they have a reason not to.
Also, it makes me wonder if there are other Shardthings out there which were in another form at the time their Knights quit, and they just aren’t recognized because of the difference.
Wetlandernw @40 “it makes me wonder if there are other Shardthings out there”. Tries to imagine what else a shardthing could be besides a weapon. <Head implodes>
Of course Lift and Wyndle already have a unique relationship in that she can “climb” him and use him for support; no other KR that we’ve seen can do that.
I’m off the theory that soulcasters are spren but in a different form other then swords, they can do too much to be just fabrials and don’t seem to be able to be made.
Other shardthings… like a spoon?
You asked before why people dislike Lift, and I think Hauka’s chapter perfectly exemplifies why I don’t like her. She’s an irresponsible troublemaker. And the worst part is, we get hints that she’s supposed to be somewhat intelligent, so we must assume a lot of her childishness is born of stubbornness.
And yes, I get that’s the point of Lift — after all, she didn’t want to change, so it would make sense that part of her “not changing” feels very forced, as more of a persona than who she “actually” is. Doesn’t mean I have to like her, though. Then add to that how she squanders her abilities, never listens to Wyndle, etc. You just want to shake her.
Also, I think the comparison of her to Luna is unjust. You are confusing Luna’s whimsical nature with immaturity, when in fact she’s one of the more mature kids in HP. I could never see Luna causing so much trouble simply because she could, knowing all the while it’s the wrong thing to do. And while conversing with Luna might involve chasing a few non-sequitors, she wouldn’t be purposefully dense like Lift is, nor would she intentionally tweak people.
Well I’ll stop beating the dead horse, but that’s my reasoning for why Lift is one of the most annoying characters I’ve ever had to read. For me, reading Edgedancer is an exercise in willpower. I really want to know this story, but reading through and about Lift leaves me with my jaw aching from how much I’m clenching it. This isn’t to knock Sanderson as a writer though… kudos that he can write such an annoying child so convincingly that it makes me want to get my tubes tied =P