Brandon Sanderson’s epic Stormlight Archive fantasy series will continue with Wind and Truth, the concluding volume of the first major arc of this ten-book series. A defining pillar of Sanderson’s “Cosmere” fantasy book universe, this newest installment of The Stormlight Archive promises huge developments for the world of Roshar, the struggles of the Knights Radiant (and friends!), and for the Cosmere at large.
Reactor is serializing the new book from now until its release date on December 6, 2024. A new installment will go live every Monday at 11 AM ET, along with read-along commentary from Stormlight beta readers and Cosmere experts Lyndsey Luther, Drew McCaffrey, and Paige Vest. You can find every chapter and commentary post published so far in the Wind and Truth index.
We’re thrilled to also include chapters from the audiobook edition of Wind and Truth, read by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading. Click here to jump straight to the audio excerpt!
Note: Title art is not final and will be updated as soon as the final cover is revealed.
Chapter 33: The Conflux of All Darkness and Sorrow
May you have the courage someday to walk away. And the wisdom to recognize that day when it arrives.
—From The Way of Kings, fourth parable
Lift gasped at the sudden flood of light.
She’d been near Dalinar’s perpendicularity before, but the wonder still struck her every time. That powerful illumination shining straight through her, making her transparent. Even hidden in the little air tunnels as she was, it overwhelmed her.
Today, within that light, she saw herself as she could have been. Standing tall and proud, unafraid of the future, because the hand of someone loving rested on her shoulder. In this vision she was dressed in the Iriali clothing of her childhood, where her family had moved when she’d been young.
What if she’d stayed there, in Rall Elorim, instead of… wherever the wind put her? Would she have become that girl—that confident young woman—with gleaming hair, wearing an Iriali short shirt, her shoulders and midriff exposed? As if she didn’t care that people saw she was growing up?
This version of her didn’t seem afraid of anything.
Lift reached for that version of herself, her fingers barely visible in the light, and she thought she felt a comforting song flow through her. And that hand. On the shoulder, with tan skin and painted nails… so familiar. Though the rest of the figure was invisible, Lift knew that hand, so soft despite its calluses.
If she could just hold it one more time…
But there was no substance to this vision. And Lift knew, confronted by this at last, something she’d been lying to herself about. She didn’t believe her mother was dead. Oh, she said it. She said it over and over, the way her great-uncle had always sworn by the name of the god he hated. In case that god was watching, in case fate was checking on her, because if you said it then nobody would ask what was really in your heart.
She didn’t believe; she physically couldn’t. Her mother would hold her again, and life would be warm. But Lift… she couldn’t change. What if Mother returned and didn’t recognize her? What if Mother looked for her and didn’t see her, so found some other little girl to love?
Life had been perfect for a few months. Why couldn’t it have stayed that way?
“Lift?” a trembling voice said from behind her in the shaft. The vision vanished. “I’m scared.”
Wyndle? But no. That was…
She turned sharply, and saw Gavinor in her shadow, gazing past her into the room where Navani and Dalinar were opening their perpendicularity.
From the wall next to her, Wyndle’s vine formed a mouth. “Oh dear. Did you know he was following us?”
“Of course not,” Lift hissed. “Gav! What are you doing!”
“You said,” the boy whispered, “we have to learn when to obey and when to not obey. I saw you sneak in. This is a time to not obey?” He shrank further before that light.
Storms. It was one thing to be caught peeking in on important meetings. It was quite another to be caught corrupting the starvin’ crown prince and grandson of the starvin’ Bondsmiths. They’d string her up. Worse. They’d stop letting her steal their desserts.
She tried to shoo Gav back down the small tunnel, but he was frozen in place. With a sigh, she twisted around so she could push him back before her. She’d miss whatever awesome thing Dalinar and Navani were doing, but whatever. She startled a strange purplish cremling as they crawled. Those things were all over in the air shafts. She wondered what they tasted like boiled, but had never managed to catch one. She also wondered if anyone else suspected what they really were.
She got Gav moving at last, and everything was fine until Navani gave a shout—and the light started to pull them toward it. Lift screamed as she slid backward through the tunnel, pushing hard on the walls to stop herself, but then Gav collided with her, shoving them both out into the room.
“Mistress!” Wyndle cried. “Oh my! Mistress!”
Air rushed around them in a roar, rivaling the sounds of the waterfalls that had made listening in so difficult. With the powerful light blinding her, she lost track of where she was—and Gav slipped from her grip.
They were… they were both being pulled toward that rift. Sliding across the rough ground, bumping over stones. In her panic, she tried something she’d never managed before.
She became un-awesome. Instead of slipping freely, she tried to make herself grind against the ground, maybe stick. Unfortunately, the friction just made her flip upward instead. She flew through the too-bright air straight toward the rift—
—until someone seized her by the arm and held her, a figure that cast a shadow in the wrong direction. A man all in black, grunting, struggling against the powerful rift until finally the perpendicularity vanished.
Lift slumped to the ground, dropping like a kite with no wind. She could barely see anything, just shapes and shadows, though her vision quickly began to return.
“Thanks,” she muttered.
“You’re lucky I sensed you watching again,” Wit said. “I almost missed grabbing you from the air. You both owe me.”
She relaxed, and Wyndle came scuttling over.
“Oh! What was that!” Wyndle said. “Master Hoid, what happened?”
“I wish I knew,” Wit said. “Their anchors are gone. And… well, so are they.”
“Wait,” Lift said, opening her eyes. “They went in, like, totally? Bodies too?” Whenever she’d snuck into Dalinar’s visions, she’d left her body behind.
“Yes,” Wit said. “And you? No thanks for the rescue? Figures.”
Lift frowned at that until she saw the cremling from earlier fluttering away on wings that could barely hold it in the air. So when Wit had said “both” of them, he’d meant…
Lift sat bolt upright. “Gav!”
“What?” Wit asked.
“Did you grab Gavinor? He was sneaking through the tunnels behind me!” She leapt to her feet, searching around. “You saved him, right?”
“I didn’t see him,” Wit admitted.
“Why not!” she shouted. “You saw me!”
“Lift, you’re so highly Invested I’m surprised normal people can’t feel it. You glow so brightly to my life sense that you outshine anyone nearby. You’re sure Gavinor was here?”
She nodded, then the two of them looked—slowly—toward the bare portion of stone where the portal had been.
“Well, shit,” Lift said.
“You heard that from Zahel, haven’t you?” Wit said, his eyes growing distant.
“Why do people keep saying that?”
“Rosharans don’t use that particular word as an epithet,” Wit said, his expression still strange as he turned in a slow circle. “You’re only going to confuse people.”
“The best words are the ones most people don’t understand.”
“That is literally the opposite of how language should function.”
“Yeah, ’cuz you make sense all the time. Anyway, what are you doing? Should we be panicking?”
“Design and I are peeking into the Cognitive Realm,” Wit said. “In case we were lucky, and the Bondsmiths dropped into Shadesmar.”
“And?” Lift guessed.
“I see the remnants of one corpse—Malwish, by that broken mask—and a destroyed chamber. That’s curious. But no sign of Gav, Dalinar, or Navani. Unfortunately, it seems they did go into the Spiritual Realm.”
“Which means…?”
Wit focused on her, then drew his lips to a line. “We have to hope that Dalinar finds his way back in the next eight days.”
“And if he doesn’t?” She glanced at Wyndle, who had shrunken into a small pile of vines, whimpering softly. Storms. Gav would be terrified. Could she do anything?
“This complicates everything,” Wit said. “The contract has provisions for Dalinar’s death before the deadline, his stalling for time, or if his arrival is prevented by another. But if he doesn’t show up because of his own choices… I believe that will be a forfeit.”
“Meaning we lose.”
“Worse,” Wit said. “It will be as if Dalinar broke the contract, violating his oath. As Dalinar represents Honor, the power of which is maintaining Odium’s place on this planet… if Dalinar doesn’t show up, that will liberate Odium entirely. He’ll be free to rampage in the cosmere again.”
Storms. Maybe Gav wasn’t the only one in trouble. Except… “Don’t we want Odium to leave?”
“Odium unbound would be terrible,” Wit said, crossing to where the portal had opened. He knelt to press his fingers on the stone. “If he weren’t being held in check by fear of the other Shards, you have no idea the destruction he would cause.”
“Sure, right,” Lift said. “But we’ve had to deal with him for… like forever. Surely someone else can do it.”
Wit didn’t reply.
“Can you do something?” Lift asked, stepping up to him and squatting down. “Bring them back? The times I cheated my way in, I had Dalinar to guide me.”
“I don’t know,” Wit said softly. “I warned them. I will… try to think of something that will help. It might take time.” He looked toward the door. “That was a knock.”
“You can hear that over the rush of the water?”
He nodded, standing.
“Do we… tell them?” Lift asked.
“Depends,” Wit said. “How eager are you to start a massive tower-wide riot? Dalinar and Navani are the glue that holds together the nation and the Radiants. I think the only thing keeping people from full-on panic is the belief that somehow the Blackthorn will handle the upcoming contest. If people find out he’s gone…”
“Right,” she said as another knock came, this time louder. “What do we do, then?”
“We do the smart thing, of course,” Wit said, starting to glow as he drew in Stormlight. “We lie.”
* * *
As night fully took the landscape, Kaladin had to admit defeat. His stew was a disaster. It tasted like crem.
Kaladin had helped Rock dozens of times, though Huio, Lopen, and Dabbid had proven to be the most capable. Still, it shouldn’t have been that hard for him. Just cut everything up and toss it in. Part of the reason he’d brought such a large pack was because he’d requested spices and vegetables.
He squatted by his little cook pot, a poor substitute for Rock’s great cauldron, frustrated. Maybe more pepper? He sprinkled it in and tried the mess, which now tasted like slightly spicier crem. He groaned in frustration and slumped on his rock. First moon was up, illuminating Szeth as he lay on his back on the grass—no bedroll, only a blanket as a pillow. He was munching on a ration bar.
“Not working?” Syl whispered. She sat on a rock nearby, full sized, violet-fringed ko-takama skirt rippling in the wind.
“It just needs to simmer,” Kaladin lied.
“Did you use… chunks of ration bars in that?”
“Needed meat. Ration bars are basically jerky.”
Perhaps that hadn’t been the best choice. But, well, maybe… maybe if it cooked longer? He halfheartedly offered up another pinch of spice to the bubbling pot. But storms, he’d taken so long that Szeth had already eaten his own dinner. The whole point of an evening stew was to draw people in, getting them to open up as they ate something unexpectedly good.
Only Szeth didn’t seem to care about what tasted good.
Try anyway, Kaladin thought at himself. Dalinar asked you.
“So,” Kaladin said, turning away from the fire to face Szeth, “this is your homeland.”
“Obviously,” Szeth said.
“Your house anywhere close?”
“Nearby,” Szeth said.
“Want to visit?”
Szeth shrugged, his eyes now closed. “There is nothing for me there.”
“Still might help.”
“I told you that I need no help.”
Kaladin turned and stirred the stew, mostly to be doing something. “I used to think that too,” he said, loud enough Szeth could hear from behind. “Actually, I used to say it. I always knew I needed help. Part of you does too, Szeth. It’s not weakness to admit it. We can quiet those voices.”
“You misunderstand,” he replied. “When I say I do not need help, it is not because I lack the ability to recognize my faults. It is not normal that I am chased by the voices of the dead. Likewise, I recognize that others are not so daunted by decisions as I am.
“When I say I need no help, it is because this is how I should be. I have murdered many innocents. I chose to follow the broken traditions of a people who were so scared of the Truth, they exiled me rather than face it. Because of this, I deserve suffering. It is right. If you were to heal it, you would do something immoral. Therefore I tell you I do not want your ‘help.’ Leave me alone.”
“It’s not immoral to stop hurting, Szeth,” Kaladin said, looking back again.
Szeth just closed his eyes and didn’t respond.
Damnation. Kaladin gritted his teeth. Then he forced himself to get out the flute and lay Wit’s paper explanations in front of him. He needed something to relax him, and maybe this would help.
He was wrong.
It had been barely a day since Wit had shown him the positionings, but Kaladin fumbled as he tried to replicate them. He first couldn’t make a single sound. Then what followed was a breathy, weak noise, nothing like the beautiful and light music Wit had made.
After a half hour of stubbornly trying to play, Kaladin tossed the flute down—causing it to stick in the soft soil like a knife in wood. He heaved himself off the rock by the fire and stalked out into the night, kicking at the stupid grass as it refused to get out of his way.
Syl stepped up beside him in the moonlit darkness. She was better at being of help than he was, because she knew to stay quiet while he breathed in and out, trying to exhale away his frustrations.
“I can’t do this, Syl,” he said. “The only thing I’ve ever been good at is war. Even when I was forced on leave, I found a way to fight for the tower. I am useless unless I’m killing something.”
“You know that’s not true.”
“But I don’t,” Kaladin snapped. “I’ve always been too good at killing. You recognize that; it’s what drew you to me.”
“I was drawn,” she said, “to willpower, determination, and a desire to protect. Yes, I like the way you dance with the wind when you use a spear, but it’s not the killing, Kaladin. It never was.”
He didn’t respond, staring off into the darkness.
“This is your dark brain talking,” she said. “You weren’t killing when you rescued Bridge Four. You pulled thirty men out of the darkness and the chasms, then you forged them into something wonderful.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I forged them into killers.”
“A family,” Syl said. “Don’t try to distort it. I was there, Kaladin. You did it because you couldn’t stand to let them keep dying. You did it out of love.”
He glanced to the side and saw her staring at him indignantly, full sized, impossible to ignore. Storming woman. She was right.
“Szeth,” she said, “is no more hopeless than they were. You remember how unwilling Rock was at the start?”
“Yeah,” he admitted, thinking back to days that—though excruciating at the time—were now fond to him. Sneaking through the night with Rock and Teft, fetching bundles of knobweed. Hearing Rock laugh for the first time, describing what he’d done to Sadeas’s meal.
They were both gone now. Teft dead. Rock maybe executed by his people. Still, Kaladin forced the dark thoughts behind him and presented good thoughts, like soldiers with spears, to keep them away. Syl was right. He could claim many things about himself, but he couldn’t justify the argument that he was only a killer. And life was good. He had felt it earlier.
It didn’t banish the darkness, but active thoughts, as counters to it, really did help.
“I just don’t know what I am anymore,” Kaladin said softly, more honestly, “or who. If I’m not a soldier, what is there to me? Wit told me to figure it out, but that terrifies me, Syl. I can’t be a surgeon like my father wants. I’m not one for a quiet life seeing patients about their bruised arms and strange coughs.”
“What about their bruised minds,” Syl said, “and strange thoughts?” She looked back toward the small fire.
Remarkably, Szeth had decided to try the stew. Oh, storms. Kaladin went hurrying over with an excuse ready.
Szeth had finished his bowl by the time he arrived. “I would eat this again, if you made it.”
Kaladin frowned. Had… simmering it made it work? He tried a bite, and found it exactly as bad as before. Except, well, it was probably better than field rations. Jerky with mashed-up, dried katfruit wasn’t the most appealing meal either.
Kaladin had been comparing his stew to Rock’s masterpieces. An impossible benchmark. But when the sole competition was field rations…
Szeth stood up, then nodded to the darkness that was the basin of Shinovar. “This is wrong.”
“Wrong? I don’t see anything.”
“There should be candle lights,” Szeth explained. “Fires at the homesteads and villages. I see only darkness. It’s like they’ve all simply vanished…”
Kaladin stepped up beside him, gazing out at the ocean of black.
“I… lied to you earlier,” Szeth admitted. “I do love my people, Kaladin. My exile makes it feel like I don’t care about anything, and sometimes I tell myself I don’t deserve to care. But… the exile was—for so long—my proof that I love them. I want to help my people. That is… more important to me than the quest, though that makes me a bad Skybreaker.”
“We will help them, Szeth,” Kaladin promised.
“Perhaps we will start by visiting my family homestead. To… see if it shows us anything.” Szeth handed back his bowl, then walked off and lay down, pulling his blanket over himself and turning away from Kaladin.
Well, that hadn’t been the laughter over a stewpot Kaladin had wanted, but it was something. He settled down and ate a bowl, finishing off what was left in the pot. He tried not to compare it to Rock’s stew, and it helped.
He didn’t want to get into the habit of lowering his standards, but conversely, never being willing to reassess was just as bad. Maybe he was expecting too much from Szeth too quickly. Kaladin had been patient with Bridge Four. He could show the same patience here, despite the tension of a world close to breaking.
With that in mind, he decided to pick up the flute and give it another go. He walked a distance away to not bother Szeth and forced himself to practice, and felt wind blowing across him as he did. A peaceful wind, of this place, where the grass wasn’t afraid. A wind he found comforting.
“Is that you?” Kaladin asked, lowering the flute.
Yes, the Wind whispered in his ear, causing Syl to perk up where she’d been sitting on the ground nearby. The music the ancient one taught you… it calls to me…
“I’ve done as you asked,” Kaladin said. “I’m here. I’m still not sure why, but I’m here. Can you tell me?”
Odium changes. His goals change. I… can speak now… when it was so hard for years…
“That has to do with Odium?” Syl asked.
He changes. His attention is not on me, the Wind said. The Stones have always had the capacity to speak, but only now started doing so. I am always here… Now I warn. Odium is made anew. This is dangerous.
Stay… Watch. I will watch too. I do not have answers yet, but I feel better that you are here. Together we must preserve a remnant of Honor. Somehow…
Kaladin thought on that as the Wind faded. He found himself again thinking of his friends, fighting without him. Remembering the trauma of Teft’s death. It was a fresh wound. He couldn’t fixate on it, he knew. Not and become a new person, like Wit said.
Eventually he went back to the flute. The Wind didn’t return, and his musical attempts were just as pathetic as they’d been earlier. But storm it, there was one thing that was reliably true about Kaladin Stormblessed. Regardless of his job or his location, even if you took away his ability to fight… he was still the most stubborn fool of a person who ever lived.
So he kept right on blowing awful notes on that flute. Right until he looked up and found the Herald Ishar standing in front of him.
* * *
The tower was strange on the other side. Really strange. And Lopen was, sure, an expert in strange things. He had plenty of strange cousins. He collected them.
So, he could say with authority this place was strange. Non-strange places didn’t glow. It was like an entire building had become Radiant, sucked in some Stormlight, and was now threatening to stick Huio to the wall.
Anticipationspren followed him like a posse as he and the other two Windrunners walked to the site of the explosion. This place was a perfect replica of the tower, only made of glowing glass stuff. The tower said waking it had restored it to its natural state. Which made Lopen wonder why his arm wasn’t made of glowing crystal on this side. That would be much better than the fleshy one. Not that he minded—it was good to have two arms again, as now he could eat chouta and point at things at the same time.
But a glowing crystal arm would be pretty deevy.
“You think,” he asked, “if I thought about it a lot, my arm would turn to crystal?”
Rua, his spren, shrugged. On this side, Rua was around three and a half feet tall—with messy hair, boundless energy, and the proportions of a child. He liked to skip rather than walk, and Lopen had heard that in his home city, Rua could float around all the time. Huio found it fascinating, and was always talking about it.
Thoughts of floating spren and crystal arms evaporated as Lopen reached the site of the blast. “Here, sir,” Isasik said. “We were in here…”
A smoking, broken chamber. All four walls had been cracked, and the one by the hallway had been completely destroyed. The crystalline ground had been blasted open in a pit, and the ceiling was a fractured web.
One broken corpse lay among the destruction.
“You’re certain?” Lopen asked.
“Yes, sir. When I returned to help after rescuing the guards, this is what I found—with that one dead man, who was so broken it made me worry…”
“What?” Lopen said. “That the others ended up as person-mush?”
Isasik looked ill, but nodded.
“There ain’t no person-mush in here,” Lopen said. “This blast was big, but not big enough—sure—to leave us without some kind of sign. Honestly, I expected to encounter some Shallan bits as we walked up that hallway. Pleasant to not find any.”
“So…” Isasik said.
“So, we have to assume they went through the perpendicularity,” Lopen said. “Or otherwise escaped.”
“That would transfer them back into the Physical Realm though,” Isasik said. “None of them are there.”
Lopen didn’t reply. Something was up. Navani wasn’t talking, and so the Sibling wasn’t talking, but he could smell it when something strange had happened. He was an expert in strange. The literal walls had secrets. Important, terrible secrets.
Which was super-okay with Lopen. If important people had it in hand, then he didn’t need to worry!
“I’m going to assume others have it covered,” he told Isasik. “Come on. We need to fly the Mink’s people to Herdaz.”
“But—”
“If they’re dead, can we do anything for them?”
“Well, no,” Isasik said, floating down to check on the dead man, who was very, very dead. Enough remained to tell it wasn’t any of their friends.
“If they escaped,” Lopen continued, “and don’t want anyone to know, will we help them by outing them?”
“No,” he said. “You know how Lightweavers are…”
“If they vanished into another realm, dimension, or place, is there anything we can do for them?”
“No,” Isasik said, floating up again. “That would take a Bondsmith.”
“So we report back,” Lopen said. “We’ve searched to make sure they aren’t being held captive. Now we have to assume it’s all going to work out, because whatever is going on, it’s bigger than we are.”
With that, he started toward the Oathgates. Rua hurried to catch up with him, and the spren—storm him—had a glowing crystal arm now.
“Show-off,” Lopen said, then hesitated and spoke more softly. “What do you think happened to them, naco? Why isn’t Navani more worried? Renarin is her family, and Shallan too. Navani shrugged at the news; she didn’t even put down her chouta. Have you ever seen her shrug before?” He paused. “Have you ever seen her eat chouta before?”
Rua pointed up at the distant sun, just barely visible through the refracting glass of the tower walls on this side.
“The sun?” Lopen said. “No… the realm beyond, where gods live. You think they really went there?”
Rua nodded enthusiastically.
“Well, Damnation,” Lopen said. “I guess, sure, they’re at least in the correct vicinity for some divine help…”
* * *
It was him. Ishar, standing right there in the night, on the grassy hillside. Kaladin hadn’t seen him approach, hadn’t heard anything, but he was there.
Syl gasped, getting up. Ishar turned away from the moon to study them. Kaladin had memorized the descriptions from Dalinar and Sigzil, but he didn’t need them. There was a force to this man, a feeling. Yes, he appeared like a normal person, with that ardentlike beard and bald head. Almost like… like he was a prototype for the religious order that had come after. Blue robes. Golden sash. Heavy bracelets.
But there was more unseen. The way the hairs on Kaladin’s arms stood up. The way the last vestiges of wind had suddenly vanished. The way the man could look at Kaladin and seem to see too much. That air… the very way he stood… reminded Kaladin of Ash, one of the other Heralds.
Ishar stepped toward Syl, his eyes narrowing. She raised her chin and did not grow small, though he suspected she wanted to flee. A part of Kaladin did too—wanted to be away from the gaze of this being who wasn’t entirely human.
But this was why he’d come.
“I do not… know you,” Ishar said, turning to Kaladin. “I know every other piece moving on this board. But you… I thought you were insignificant. Now you are here with the Truthless, bonded to the Ancient Daughter. What is your name?”
“Kaladin,” he replied. “Sometimes called Stormblessed.”
“Stormblessed. I do not remember blessing you.” Ishar frowned. “You are Connected to Dalinar, the false champion. And to Szeth, my servant. How?”
Kaladin steeled himself. “I was sent to help you.”
“What help needs a god?” Ishar asked.
“We all need help sometimes,” Kaladin said. “Do you… sometimes feel overwhelmed? Like you can’t trust your thoughts?” Storms. Did that sound silly?
“Dalinar sent you,” Ishar said. “I see now. He wants to confuse me, convince me I am not a god. I do not need your help, child. Your master has done enough damage already.”
“Damage?” Syl asked.
“Damage,” Ishar said, turning to regard the lightless, rolling Shin hills. “Your Bondsmith pretender attacked me. Changed me. I… saw things I thought I’d forgotten. In that moment, Tezim died, but I need that name no longer. I can be Ishar, who Ascended to the position of the Almighty.”
Dalinar had mentioned this. At the instant Navani had become a Bondsmith, Ishar had seen into the Spiritual Realm and grown lucid for a short time. So… was there an aftereffect here? Was he doing better?
Dalinar had mentioned oaths. If another were sworn near Ishar… perhaps he would return to himself. An unconventional means of therapy, but maybe…
Maybe Kaladin needed to appeal to the Herald, instead of the man. The Herald who had defended humankind for so long.
“Ishar,” Kaladin said. “We need your help.”
“Yes,” he said. “Your enemies crush and outmaneuver you because you haven’t come to me. I have plans to deal with them, and the greater threats beyond. Become my disciple, and I will show you.”
“We can… talk about that,” Kaladin said, glancing at Syl for support. “We have Ash and Taln with us, back at Urithiru. Your friends.”
Ishar sniffed. “Useless. Both of them.” He met Kaladin’s eyes. “Do you know what I do for them, child? I founded the Oathpact, so I can siphon some of their pains onto myself. I bear their darkness. Each of them would be crushed by it, were it not for me. You’ve seen Taln? He is insensate, so in the thrall of the darkness?”
“Yes,” Syl said.
“That is because I do not bear his darkness as I carry the others,” Ishar said. “They would all be as helpless if not for me. I am the conflux of all darkness and sorrow. Their pains are upon me. And still I stand before you. I am a god.”
“I just want to—” Kaladin said.
“I had not foreseen you, but perhaps I should have, considering your spiritweb and Connections.” He nodded toward Szeth in the distance. “Szeth has come to fulfill the task I set for him many years ago. His path will be difficult. If you would have my ear, prove to me that you can be of service.”
“In what way?” Syl asked.
“In helping me prepare for the end,” Ishar said softly. “The Truthless has returned at last. This land needs him.”
“Ishar,” Kaladin said. “I want to talk about the way you feel. Um… I want to—”
“I will speak to you,” Ishar said, “when the pilgrimage is finished. When the task is done.”
“But—”
Ishar’s eyes came alight, glowing as if with Stormlight—but manyfold. Beams of light that blinded Kaladin as he roared. “If you wish further audience with your god, then see his will done, child! This is the privilege of any disciple.”
The light faded, and Ishar was gone.
Storms.
“Great,” Syl said. “That went well.”
“Well?” Kaladin said. “He spouted nonsense at me, refused to listen, then vanished.”
“He also didn’t vaporize us or anything,” Syl said, floating a foot or so up into the air, shining softly in the darkness, hair blowing once more as the breeze returned. “And he’s crazy—so, you know, some nonsense is expected. He noticed you and offered you a chance to talk to him again.”
“He’ll talk to us again,” Kaladin said, “if we help Szeth do… whatever it is he’s supposed to do? We don’t have any idea what that is!” He ran a hand through his hair, but calmed himself. “That said, he seemed… a little better than Sigzil and Dalinar described him. I think.”
“We can help him, Kaladin,” she said, resting incorporeal hands on his arm. “We can try to help them all.”
“Not in time for Dalinar,” Kaladin said. “No telling how long Szeth’s little quest here will take? If Ishar won’t talk to me until it’s over…”
But, well, Wit had warned him. There was a task here that was greater than bringing Ishar to Dalinar—a task the Wind needed him to complete.
Preserve a remnant of Honor…
“What did he mean?” Syl wondered. “He said that Szeth was his servant. How?”
“Who knows,” Kaladin said. “He calls me a disciple and thinks he’s the Almighty.” He took a deep breath and packed up his flute, his music papers, and his gemstone light. “But… I guess you’re right. That could have gone far worse, and we can ask if Szeth has any thoughts tomorrow. For now though, I need some sleep.”
They hiked to the campfire, where Szeth was snoring quietly. Kaladin packed up dinner and banked the fire, absorbed in his thoughts. They tried to turn dark, but he kept battering them back with positive thoughts, like soldiers fighting on his behalf. Reminders that he had succeeded in the past, and could succeed again. Reminders that an idea wasn’t true just because it entered his head.
The darkness was still there and wanted him to believe things would never change, but this little victory proved the opposite. Because while he might never be rid of the thoughts permanently, he was done letting them win.
The End of Day Two
Excerpted from Wind and Truth, copyright © 2024 Dragonsteel Entertainment.
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More support for the recent theory that the “the burdens of nine become mine” death rattle might be from the POV of Ishar rather than Taln.
It might explain why they all think he’s the sane one.
Also speaking in all caps just like SF immediately made Ishar as stormfaker theory we’ve had for a year come roaring back to life..
Seeing indoors, sensing the death of the herald Chana when Shallan killed her, lot of discrepancies, once we got the recent chapters suspecting the real SF and lines from Jasnah and Sibling it seemed less likely but this almost confirms it for me.
Also the path he set Szeth on..? Has he been influencing him all along and made him truthless? From what we know he didn’t go retrieve his blade til after but who knows, and the unmade is involved somehow.
So many moving parts..
Wtf is up with Navani..? My guess is it’s the Sibling inside her body since her mind/soul went into the spiritual. Or maybe a GB lightweaver I guess, they really need to do their own sand testing.
I love how Hoid is way more straight up with Lift, he isn’t his usual self talking down to her.
Cool that they both know the sleepless cremling was in there haha.
I assume Hoid has lightweaved himself and lift to cover the fact that Navani and Dalinar are missing.
Yeah I assumed it was Lift, hence the eating.
Maybe the burden isn’t the madness. Perhaps to Ishar the burden is Sanity. Surrendering to the darkness is less painful than living knowing all they have done. All of the other heralds still have their mental problems so Ishar can’t be in possession of their madness. If Ishar returns their burdens the heralds may be retored.
I would not be surprised if that viewpoint could be applied to several of the heralds. Or better yet, Ishar could be putting the burdens of others onto Taln, why is why he is asking for the almighty to release him.
“Why isn’t Navani more worried? Renarin is her family, and Shallan too. Navani shrugged at the news; she didn’t even put down her chouta. Have you ever seen her shrug before?” He paused. “Have you ever seen her eat chouta before?”
Lift has many strengths, but it seems acting is not one of them.
Friggin Gavinor?! Storming Ishar? Sleepless definitely there?!
If you eat 1 sleepless cremling, does it make you feel full as if you ate the whole host, but not bloated? And possibly hungry in an hour?
Lift needs to find out.
8/10 to go!
oh boy, How is a certain someone impersonating Navani going to ness things up?
Also, who else thinks Gav is going to come back A LOT older when he returns?
I think he will come back older, highly highly invested, and a lot more knowledgeable of the spiritual realm than any current living being. Even Wit hasn’t spent that much time there and if Gav comes back, let’s say mid 20s or even 30s, he had to have survived and lived those years in a realm of essentially raw investiture. Dudes gonna be the champion, and smoke odium to the dirt. Dudes gonna come back as the king that never was and could ever be. It’s about to get spicy yall.
Dude might come back as champion, but I’d put my bet at him being Odiums not Dalinars.
But he will be very angry.
Oh wow! Love that idea! Didn’t even think of that.
Just fan theorizing here, but what if being in the spiritual realm he gains investiture from every shard. Allomantic feruchemical bondsmity with awakening and sons as well as an automated army while moving around roshar on sand like a sandworm from dune.
Bondsmith, aons*
I was thinking just that before he got siphoned into the perpendicularity !! I’m 90% sure he’ll come back older and more plot-relevant, though what role he’ll play is up in the air ofc. Who knows what the Spiritual Realm is like
I do! and when he gets back he is going to be a spren-hating genocidal maniac. Calling it now: Major antagonist for the back 5
Oh no! I hope not. But the spren hating could be why Sigzel has a dead spren. But I really I hope you are wrong!!!
Welp, Gavinor is screwed
great chapter, Im so excited for the 6th.
“Together we must preserve a remnant of Honor. Somehow…”
Sounds like the oathpact is getting reforged, y’all and our bridge boy is taking the place of who?? none other than the WR herald, jezrian. feels fitting too since the vacancy was made by Moash. and K has been bearing agonies to protect others this whole time.
OH MY FUCK?!?!?!?!?! This possibity had never even occured to me before seeing this… and FUCKING KAL as The King of Fucking Heralds patron AND Head of the Order of Windrunners, Stormblessed AND Blessed of the Wind. My mind did the same thing as Dalinars perpindicularity this chapter.
Almighty, I hope this is Kaladin’s fate. It would be much better than the death that I fear was foreshadowed in the earlier chapters
Nah. I hope not. If anything, the Oathpact is shown to be full of flaws. It’s not a reliable way. I’m not saying Kaladin won’t be able to bear that for thousands of years. There’s going to be another solution. At the very least, an Oathpact 2.0, one that doesn’t involve infinite torture. Just like the Sibling who is always surprised that there new ways to do things differently. Also, I’m not sure how to feel about this, but Kal is just discovering a new purpose, a new way of protecting. If it’s just him being thrown in Blaize, yeesh, Brandon give him a break already.
I believe Kal will survive. He won’t become Honor. He won’t be part of reforging the Oatchpact, at least not involved with him going to hell. This makes me excited how Kal is going to “disappear” for the next couple of books.
i don’t’ know, being a herald is just a fate worse than death to me, as we see from all of the Heralds, the Fused, and even Zahel and Hoid and kelsier clearly regret some of the immortality and restrictions
Could see him possibly paring up with the lovely Leshwi another child of the wind if this is the case.
Why? The heralds made an incredibly selfless sacrifice and endured thousands of years of torture, and are now stuck with the trauma of that. That would be an awful fate for Kaladin, or for anyone.
Naw, just another Saturday for Kal. He tortures himself more than that.
LOL
Well, I thought Lift and Gav would go through the portal, and be another buddy cop adventure duo.
I was half right.
My new tin-foil theory is that Gav will come back (likely before the contest) as a fully grown man with a life of full experiences and knowledge. If that happens, does he become the Champion to take on T-Odium, with all that knowledge and experience?
And if Gav is lost in the Spiritual Realm until the back five,, does he wander alone until he finds a way out? Also, who does he meet along the way?
I agree with you regarding Gav. I could see him being the Champion to fight Todium, as he said he will kill those who hurt his father (who would pass up the opportunity to take out Moash).
But also I could see him taking the dark path and showing up in the back five as a not so good person.
I knew it! The Ghostbloods collapsed the perpendicularity to get sucked into the Spiritual realm. In fact, they may have intended to do so the whole time.
This makes me wonder if they might have a deal with Odium… Though if Iyatil actually cares about the safety of Scadrial even a little bit, this would be counter-productive. It is interesting that Dalinar being prevented from appearing by another is accounted for in the deal… So if it could be proven that the Ghostbloods are responsible, there might be a way to lawyer their way out of disaster even if he is late?
Poor Gavinor! It seems that people who foresaw this were right. Might the “suckling child” now happen in the Spiritual Realm instead of during the Duel?
Wit and Lift are cosplaying as Dalinar and Navani?! And Hoid seems to have a cordial relationship with a Sleepless, who has been spying on the whole thing, and whose cremling he rescued, hm…
Wow, Kaladin’s part is explosive! And his bumbling is pretty endearing and believable. Is Ishar trying to pick up Honor? Intriguing, that he claims to be responsible for Szeth’s exile and supports his quest. Also, could whatever he is doing to the other Heralds account for them considering him sane, when he clearly isn’t? Is he making them worse instead of better?
I also really disliked him eyeing Syl like that – more fodder for her being made corporeal in the Physical, I guess.
I do’nt think she cares about Scadriel, her conversation with Shallan implies that she doesn’t agree with the mission, and Felt doesn’t like her at all, and he would be a man who would care about Scadriel.
Currently predicting that someone (maybe even Lift? no real basis for that, just a thought) is going to bond the Nightwatcher in order to bring Dalinar, Navani, and Gavinor back home. Cultivation’s Perpendicularity is much more stable than Honor’s, so it’s unlikely that that would actually be necessary, but I think it would be really cool so I’m sticking with the theory.
My latest crazy theory is that Lift already has bonded the Nightwatcher, in addition to her bond to Wyndle. In support:
Wit says she is super highly invested, which a Bondsmith would be (I don’t know that we’ve seeh him remark about Dalinar or Navani’s Investiture level for reference)Lift is the only character we see utilize Lifelight, and the other two Bondsmiths are depicted as (near-?)exclusively using the corresponding light. E.g., we’ve seen a handful of scenes just in the past couple weeks where Dalinar is specifically portrayed as drawing in Stormlight despite being in the tower with universal access to Towerlight, and there’s not really a rhetorical reason to highlight that it’s stormlight specifically so often; contrast that with Navani who is depicted as drawing strength “from the tower” and not shown that I recall as drawing in stormlight for surgebinding purposes. (Not that we’ve seen her surgebind much at all, mind you.)Lift seems to have access to Fortune in this scene, seeing herself as she could have been; this is analogous to what Shallan has been doing. (Yes, she’s literally at a perpendicularity in this scene and could be accessing the Spiritual Realm because of that.)There’s something suspicious about the way she always refers to capitalized Mother, making me think it’s either Nightwatcher or Cultivation who held that role.She was able to get into Dalinar’s visions, perhaps demonstrating some (subconscious?) use of Connection
“I do not… know you,” Ishar said, turning to Kaladin. “I know every other piece moving on this board. But you… I thought you were insignificant.” “I had not foreseen you, but perhaps I should have, considering your spiritweb and Connections.”
I wonder what Ishar means when he says that he thought Kaladin was insignificant. Even more curious are the words: “spiritweb” and “Connections”. I immediately thought he was referring to “connections” as in the Bondsmiths power of connection to others and to power. I do not recognise “spiritweb” as a word that has been used in the series before however. I haven’t read the entirety of the cosmere so if anyone knows if these words are used in another setting let me know!
Im pretty sure that in yumi and the nightmare painter hoid mentioned that term.
Taravangian and Odium also overlooked him. I wonder if the wind hid him somehow.
If I’m not mistaken, Mistborn. Idk if you’ve read it so I won’t spoil it but if you have, think of Hemalurgy as part of the person’s spiritweb being ripped apart. I think it’s a fancy way of saying their Spirit + Connection
Spiritweb is a term used by arcanists and the more “cosmere-aware” / realmatically educated individuals in the cosmere (like Wit, Khriss, Zahel, etc.)
As far as I know the term spiritweb was really only explained in depth in Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. It’s a term that just means all of their connections in the spiritual realm. So their spiritweb contains their connections to their planet, country, language, and every person they’ve ever met. If a character were to look at another character’s spiritweb they would see how they are connected to everything in the Cosmere through the spiritual realm. At least that’s how I understand it. If you want to know more go to the Coppermind wiki and search up “connection” or “spiritweb” and see what comes up (just to warn you these pages will contain spoilers for books you haven’t read). Hope this helps!
Thank you for the reply! Now I’m even more intrigued.
Google “cosmere” and “spiritweb”
“Spiritweb” has come up quite a few times in the Stormlight Archive and elsewhere in the Cosmere (Kriss mentions it in the Ars Arcanum of TLM, for example). There’s a page on it on Coppermind.
Thanks, perhaps I’ve just missed it during my reading of the series. I tend to avoid the coppermind and other wikis to not get spoiled.
Lift needs a hug
Wit says that Dalinar has to be back for the contest, but why?
The terms of the contest say “We each send a willing champion“.
Someone has to turn up, and that someone has to be in some way “sent” by Dalinar, but it doesn’t have to be Dalinar. Not even the spirit of the deal implies that it has to be Dalinar. If Dalinar can make contact in some way, even for an instant, and tap a willing champion, that’s fine, surely?
I agree, he’s in the spirit realm. Can he not just pull someone into a vision and ask them to do it?
for all we know, he might not be able to unless under some very special circumstances, like during a storm. we also don’t know what his bond with the stormfather would be like in the Spiritual realm
Do we get another round of Interludes in a week, or are we done because next week includes the release?
Lift being much more invested than the other POV radiants is interesting. I think I got this theory from someone else in comments, but that really has me buying the theory that Cultivation has been grooming replacements for all 3 of the Roshar Shards – she means for Dalinar to ascend to Honor and she wants Lift to be ready to ascend when Cultivation has to sacrifice herself to re-trap Odium.
Lots of people getting sucked into the Spiritual Realm was necessary, and we definitely got foreshadowing that (almost) everyone there would get there. Still, it doesn’t feel quite right to me as the result of anti-light hitting the perpendicularity.
Gav in the Spiritual Realm is unexpected… I really want to believe that his unexpected presence there was why he’s been unusually significant in the early part of this book, and it’s not about him being the focus of that death rattle. I don’t have any particular guesses as to why he’ll matter in the Spiritual Realm, though. Very curious to see where other theories go with that.
I wonder how quickly it happens that one of these visions includes Chanarach, and Shallan’s like, “MOM! WHAT?!” Then again, she’s almost certainly seen depictions of Chana lots of times and probably memory-holed them as she does so well. So maybe we start with hints that she’s memory-holing instead of directly revealing right off the bat.
Kaladin specifically thinking about ideals being sworn near Ishar definitely has me extra curious about who’s going to be swearing ideals in this book. It’s only 10 days, but we’re bound to get at least a couple over the course of the book. I wonder if we already see Ash start dustbringer oaths. Szeth kinda has to reach the 4th ideal. I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if he has an awesome end of the book, reaching the 5th ideal in a hugely important swing. But maybe that’s too much to expect. I do expect Kaladin to reach the 5th ideal. My guess is that it brings in Jezrien’s Leadership aspect, something along the lines of “I will lead/inspire others to protect…” I hope Shallan reaches her 5th ideal, but I don’t have a solid guess apart from being about her mother being Chana. I’d also like to see more ideals for Navani, Rlain, and Dalinar. Dalinar should get plate again before the end, and if he doesn’t reach the 5th ideal, it seems relatively unlikely that we ever see a 5th ideal Bondsmith. Lift hitting 4 or 5 would be cool, but at least the 5th seems likely to wait for her book.
Shallan’s 5th will probably be, ” I killed my own Mother, and her death started a Desolation.”
Brandon always tells us “Taln did not break.” But Taln reappears in TWoK. *Someone* broke on Braize for Taln to return. (Which I still believe confused Odium, “4500 years, and one of you damned Heralds dies finally‽ I had this Big Red storm planned and everything!”)
We will have two Interludes to close out the preview posts next Monday, before the book comes out on Friday.
Mraize needs to win
love how incredibly loyal this person is to mraize. keep it up dude we support you <3
Commenting here to support MraizeBro. We need to keep the flag flying.
OK, here’s a crazy thought which is probably crazy but I can’t get it out of my head.
What if Lift’s mom never existed?
We know that Autonomy creates avatars and seeds them around various planets. What if Lift is an Avatar of Cultivation? But instead of placing Lift on some other world, Cultivation placed her on Roshar so that Cultivation herself can go elsewhere…?
and here i thought shallans memory holes were complicated haha
SETTLE DOWN!
So Brandon said that WaT preview chapters cover about a third of the book.
The first two days take up an entire third?
I guess that kind of confirms that the contest will happen at the end of the book, instead of three-quarters or so
the 33 chapters so far cover 15 hours of content… the Audiobook on amazon is 62 hours, so just around a quarter of the book.
Damnation, I need this storming book in my hands already! This is so many more characters in the spiritual realm than I expected going in. I am very curious what’s it’s going to be like in there.
Next Friday can’t come quickly enough!
Dalinar: opens a perpendicularity and accidentally gets trapped in the spiritual realm, possibly sealing the fate of everyone in the Cosmere
…Pans over to Kaladin who is sitting in the grass playing the flute very badly
I gotta say I love the juxtaposition of their current timelines
Well. Dalinar said he wanted to spend more time with Gav! Now they’re on a family trip with all the time in the world!
…all the time in the world!
…all the time in the world!
…all the time in the world!
…all the time in the world!
…all the time in the world!
…all the time in the world!
Also Kal is just one man in need of medication that hasn’t been invented yet and between Syl, Szeth, Nightblood, the Wind, Ishar, and whatever Unmade is lurking around has way too many Loony Demigods on his hands.
I don’t think Gav and Dalinar are ending up in the same place.
I suspect no one will even know Gav is in the Spiritual Realm (so no one will be looking for him), nor am I convinced they all end up together, in one place/location.
The question is: will Gav wander alone or will he be paired with someone?
And who?
what if Gav ends up with the Gohstbloods and forms an attachment to them
YES! I absolutely hope so!!!!! please yes. Think of the drama of this idea. Probably, it will happen.
NO! I hope not!!!! please no. I do not like that idea. But probably will happen.
Going to really be interesting to see who ends up where and with whom in the Spiritual Realm.
Is it just me or kaladin’s shrink act is getting boring? Old kaladin had all kind of action scenes and leadership themes. This kaladin is all about “how do u feel about that?” Or “I want to talk about ur feelings”
Yes, I think Sanderson is wandering into “it’s how I feel inside” and other such debates a bit too much. Where I wouldn’t skip even a line of the first two books, I have been skimming through a lot of sections since then.
Maybe these sections make sense for people who are dealing with personal or social issues but for an admirer of epic fantasy, this kind of writing is becoming increasingly therapeutic and not very interesting. Plus these sections are overtly huge, leaving the story progression in limbo at times.
Also, in these preview chapters, many times I get a feeling of disjointedness. Sometimes things are moving too far ahead and at other times the character is stuck in the same place we left them three or four chapters ago, kind of like the Game of Thrones Season 8. And to think there are five more books yet to be written and all the supposed future central characters going into personal crisis of the modern sort, I fear that it may turn too boring very quickly.
Idk I feel like this chapter was showing all of that not working with Ishar, but perhaps that’s just me.
Have we been reading the same books? Kaladin’s whole deal is that he can’t fight anymore and he can’t be a soldier; meaning he won’t have any more action scenes or at least fight action scenes it seems. In fact, it would be very cruel if he had to physically fight again.
Seeing how alot of people were complaining about how kaladin was too mopey last book, be patient. there’s not lot of actoin here because him and Szeth are on a different kind of mission. patience.
Journey before destination.
I see comments in this thread and other chapters about people believing/hoping the Oathpact will be reforged, with various characters replacing Heralds.
Could someone explain why they think this would happen, or even be a good thing? Besides requiring the endless torture of a few individuals, the Oathpact ultimately did not work, and led to repeated world destroying wars.
I don’t see any real benefit to reforging it, besides more delay, and I don’t think it would be a very satisfying story for things to just go back to how they were in the past.
I agree with you.
Reforging the oathpact is drawback
The singers anf hunans need to find a way to coexist
Maybe they will forge a non-torture oathpact together
I agree and honestly I think that’s the way it will eventually go, myself.
Wit already said reforming the oathpact wouldn’t work. That Taln hadn’t broken, but Odium had managed to bring the old singer souls to roshar a new way and that with the storm now, it wouldn’t work.
Shallan got stabbed in the eye! And Gav is in the spirt realm! Brandon Sanderson better explain.
Hmmm, is it possible that the remnant of Honor’s power has taken over Ishar, and it’s manifesting and gaining sentience through him?
Also, is adult Gav gonna come back and lead Teft’s squires in their vengeance pact against Moash?
Actually, I think it’s the Unmade in Shinovar that’s corrupting Ishar. And the remnant of Honor’s power might be part of it. We don’t know what it is (definitely not Ishar’s Honorblade), but it might just be what Kal needs to Connect to Honor’s Power and Ascend. Kal will find out some truths here and Ascend, instead of Dalinar finding them in the Spiritual Realm.
YOU HAD ONE JOB GOVERNESS!!
Wit and Lift masquerading as Dalinar and Navani was NOT on my WaT Bingo card!!!
That was a perfect way to bring in the ‘shit’, btw, especially after all the debate a few threads ago!
Also…Gavinor getting sucked in WITHOUT Lift was like the worst of all possible worlds! Poor baby!
(Speaking of poor baby…did we know that Lift was Iriali? Or that her mother wasn’t dead but had just left?)
Kaladin’s fight against the dark thoughts…I feel that.
I think that we’re meant to believe that her mother is dead, but that even though Lift has been telling everyone that she’s still internally suffering under a delusion that her mother is not dead, i.e., that she hasn’t really accepted that her mother is dead.. This desire to be reunited with her mother and go back to the time when everything was good is underpinning her request of the Old Magic to not change.
I got curious about this, so I went back to check. Found these excerpts in WoR (Lift’s interlude):
It doesn’t actually state it as a fact, only that her mother told her that.
However, here’s confirmation that she looks like Reshi, and with the black hair it seems unlikely she is Iriali unless it was dyed:
It does say she grew up in Iri, which could explain why she saw herself grown up as Iriali.
I realized the thing that got me was that it said she saw herself with ‘gleaming’ hair, which I initially pictured as ‘golden’ like the Iriali but now I realize might just have meant shiny/healthy looking dark hair. I remembered her as Reshi but had basically forgotten she’d mentioned growing up there.
I can’t believe how close we are to SA 5! This will be the biggest book so far in the cosmere (in every sense of the word). We are getting a conclusion to a lot that began years ago in TWoK, it’s very exciting.
Don’t know how I feel about the child lost in time trope, Gav might very well become Todium’s champion now.
To quote Lift, “Well, shit”
I’m hooked
Well played releasing this chapter by itself at T-minus 10 days. I’m LITERALLY waiting with bated breath!
Gav is 1000% going to be Odium’s champion.
He just got dropped into a time-acceleration chamber, untethered.
We are now going to hear very little concrete about him for the rest of the book, get distracted by other, more plausible possibilities for Odium’s champion, and then he will be waiting for Dalinar (or Adolin) as the spitting image of Gavilar at the final contest of champions.
No!!! Oh no!! What a horrible idea. Makes sence, but I am hoping this is not what happens.
Yeah I like that. Maybe he’s waiting there and then Dalinar can’t go through with the contest and Adolin steps in instead.
I read this chapter and was super interesting, a very nice way to end day 2.
Wit said that Lift is heavily invested and we know she can touch the cognitive. She has a mysterious “Mother” who maybe is not dead . What if Lift is not just touched by cutivation, could she be Cultivation daughter, created by her mother as a contingency plan?
Bah… I hate that Gav is lost alone in the Spiritual Realm. And all this time I was thinking that Gav and Oroden would be a team in the Back 5.
I’m very excited to see what Wit would do now! He has every incentive to keep Odium locked up in Rosharn system. He might even find some botched up solution.
I don’t know how the Sibling and Stormfather will work knowing that Navani and Dalinar are simply gone beyond time and space! Maybe, since they are both bondsmiths, they will know what to do even if their connection to the physical world is broken. They still have their watches, right?
I’m more interested in what Shallan will do the GBs. Will they even end up in the same place? I hope Mraize murders Iyatil. I think Iyatil is interested in Mishram because Misharm is a splinter of Adonalsium and not of Odium.
And Ishar… I think he is simply lying. He’s just too delusional and/or hellbent on whatever he is doing. Already calls himself The Almighty! I thought that maybe the Unmade in Shinovar has done something to Ishar and is controlling him. If Ishar looks unnatural, it is not because he is a Herald, but because he has the touch of the Unmade. It would be highly improbable if the Unmade and Ishar haven’t interacted at all in Shinovar.
And Szeth is just too important. I think he’ll survive whatever Ishar has planned for him, and he might even take up the place of Dalinar and be his Champion.
See, now i can buy the gav being champion theory. Before, it felt like just the idea of it wasted all of Dalinar’s growth, where he constantly has not surrendered but just seeing his grandson, he would just give up and be ok with conquest? no that ruins character development, but now having a chance where Gav might be forcibly grown up and convinced to be Odiums champion, and Dalnar still has to fight him, that’s good drama and doesn’t ruin Dalinar either, as you can still have him questioning himself whether he can do it
I wonder if Szeth will take on Honor’s power of law and order, (the whole become law thing) and be what helps bind Taravangian, to some degree. Honor and the Windrunners seem to be tightly bound. So if so, it makes sense that those two need to journey together.
I also wonder what Kaladin’s relationship with the wind will make of him. A power that predates the Shards on Roshar. I like his efforts in gaurding of his thoughts to prevent his grasp on the reality from slipping. I like that he still fights his depression, it’s not instantly gone, but that he is fighting and winning. Haven’t seen him fight this way before.
I wonder if the Lopen will take on the challenges of the tower or if he will just go to Herdaz
Okay..is Navani possessed..? Did the Sibling enter her body since she’s in the spiritual?
And BOOM! Ishar was Stormfaker theory was on the rocks but just got a huge push again. Once we saw the SF could be shady we figured well it must have been him
But I kept saying..then how did he sense the herald Chana being killed by Shallan? How was he able to see inside? It made way more sense to be Ishar manipulating Gavilar, and needed big leaps to actually be SF. especially since all the other heralds we know were already there. Doesn’t mean something isn’t going on with SF.
Curious about the oathpact spreading their pain out, they always said Ishar was the sane one which never made sense, maybe the link influences them somehow.
Gav being sucked into the spiritual is great, actually makes him part of the story. And I love how Hoid rescued the Sleepless alongside Lift, it’s cute how she’s actually one of the closest to being realmatically aware, and Hoid just kind of speaks normally to her. The fact shes so invested by Cultivation does add more to the theory she’s a potential vessel for the shard.
Damn, so many moving parts..Szeth and Kal making progress, Ishar just immediately appearing like that so early in their shinovar quest line.
And of course, Lopen being the damn best as always.
no, its most likely lift with a lightweaving given by Wit to hide the fact she was missing.
Adolin will ascend to Honor.
man that would be the most absolute random possible thing to happen ngl
I’d actually think that it is Zeth that will, the reason is that he has almost nothing to lose when Adolin, or Dalinar has something to lose.
Plus, Zeth has a better chance of getting into the spiritual realm than Adolin is. This is because Zeth one is near Ishar, and also because of the unmade that is in Shinovar.
I think Navani is actually Wit wearing a lightweaving.
I think he’s probably Dalinar. Navani sounds a lot more like Lift to me
He must pick it up, the fallen title! The tower, the crown, and the spear!
—Collected on Vevahach 1173, 8 seconds pre-death, by the Silent Gatherers. Subject was a prostitute of unknown background.
That’s right, folks! I’m bringing up a Death Rattle! I think I’ve figured this one out. I think that ‘he’ is the Lopen, Once and Future King! The Tower and the Crown have been sucked into the Spiritual Realm. The Spear is in Shinovar, and won’t be back “in time.” And just now the Lopen gets a PoV where he shrugs off responsibility for everything? That sounds like the beginning of an arc to me, baby!
Well of course Gav gets pulled into the Spiritual Realm… Odds are he’s gonna be a champion, though for which side?
I will take a break here and just wait for the FULL book in December 6!!