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 27: What Is Right
Twenty-six years ago
Szeth’s father, Neturo-son-Vallano, knelt beside the new stone. Szeth’s mother, Zeenid-daughter-Beth, was overseeing painting classes in the town, so they’d sent her a message via Tek, one of their carrier parrots. Wind blew across them, bringing with it the pungent scent of the gathered sheep in the nearby pasture.
Szeth hid behind his father, peeking out. He wasn’t certain why this new stone frightened him so. He loved their rock, and a new one was surely cause for celebration, but shamefully… he wished he hadn’t found it. Something new meant possible celebration, possible attention, possible change. He preferred quiet days full of languid breezes and bleating sheep. Nights beside the hearth or the firepit, listening to Mother tell stories. He didn’t want some grand new thing. Szeth had what he loved.
“What do we do, Father?” Elid asked. “Call the Stone Shamans?”
“It depends,” he said. “Depends.”
Their father was a calm man, with a long beard he liked to keep tied with a green ribbon at the bottom, matching ones on his arms, together forming his splash. He got to wear three, as his duty of training other shepherds elevated him. His head was shaded by his customary tall reed hat with a wide brim, and he had a bit of a paunch that spoke to his talent as a cook. He had all the answers. Always.
“What about it is uncertain, Father?” Szeth said, peeking around at the little stone. “We just do what is right.”
Father glanced at their larger stone, then at this one. “A single rock is a blessed anomaly. Two… might mean more. It might mean the spren have chosen this region.”
“What do you mean?” Elid asked, hands on her hips.
“I mean there might be other rocks,” Father said, “hiding beneath the surface here. Stone Shamans will want to set aside the entire region, preserve it and watch it for a few years to see if anything else emerges.”
“And… us?” Szeth asked.
“Well, we’ll have to move,” Father replied. “Tear down the house, in case it’s accidentally on holy ground. Set up wherever the Farmer finds land for us. Maybe in the town.”
In the town? Szeth turned, looking into the distance—though the rolling hills prevented him from seeing Clearmount unless he climbed up on top of one. It was close enough to walk to in an hour or so, but he found the place noisy, congested. In the town, it felt like the mountains weren’t just around the corner, because buildings blocked them out. It felt like the meadows had gone brown, replaced by dull roads. You couldn’t smell the sea breezes.
He didn’t hate the town. But he got the sense that it hated the things he loved.
“I don’t want to move!” Elid said. “We found a rock! We shouldn’t be punished.”
“If it’s right though,” Szeth said, “then we have to do it. Right, Father?”
Father stood up, pulling at his trousers, and waited. Soon Szeth picked out his mother hurrying along the path between hills toward their home. She wore a long green skirt as her splash—while it was only one piece, that size… well, it was an audacious amount for her station. She had a white apron over the front, and curly light brown hair that bunched up around her head like a cloud.
She was carrying one of the town’s shovels—a relic crafted from metal that had never seen rock, Soulcast by an Honorbearer and gifted to them.
Szeth gaped, his jaw dropping. That couldn’t mean…
Mother hurried up to them, shovel on her shoulder. Father nodded toward the new rock, and Mother let out a relieved sigh. “So small? Your note had me worried, Neturo.”
“Mother?” Szeth said. “What are you doing?”
“Merely a quick relocation,” she said. “I borrowed one of the shovels, but didn’t tell anyone why. We’ll dig up the rock and move it a few hundred yards. Let it rain a little, so it seems to have naturally poked up, then tell everyone.”
Szeth gasped. “We can’t touch it!”
Mother pulled out a pair of gloves. “Of course not. That’s why I brought gloves, dear.”
“That’s the same thing!” Szeth said, horrified. He looked to his father. “We can’t do this, can we?”
Father scratched at his beard. “Depends, I suppose, on what you think, son.”
“Me?”
“You found the rock,” Father said, glancing at Mother, who nodded in agreement. “So you can decide.”
“I choose whatever is right,” Szeth said immediately.
“Is it right for us to lose our home?” Father asked.
“I…” Szeth glanced at the house.
“There might be dozens of rocks underneath here,” Father said. “If that’s the case, then we should absolutely move. But in the hundreds of years that rain has fallen on this region, only two have emerged. So it’s unlikely. Moving the stone a few hundred yards will still make the shamans watch this area, but with the rocks being farther apart, the worry will be more nebulous. But that requires us to move it. In secret.”
“We hate the stonewalkers,” Szeth said, “because of how they treat rock.”
Father knelt down, one hand on Szeth’s shoulder. “We don’t hate them. They simply don’t know the right way of things.”
“They raid us, Father,” Elid said, folding her arms.
“Yes, well,” he said. “Those men are evil, but it’s not because they live in a place with too much stone. It’s because of the choices they make.” He smiled at Szeth. “It’s okay, son. If you want us to turn this in now, well, we’ll do it.”
“Can’t you just… tell me what to do?” Szeth asked.
“No, I don’t think that I can,” Father said. “Unfair to put you in this spot, I know, but the spren gave you the first sight. You should decide. We can move the rock, or we can move our home. I’ll accept either one.”
“Maybe we should let him sleep on it,” Mother said.
“No,” Szeth said. “No. We can… move the rock.”
All three of them relaxed as he said it, and he felt a sudden—shameful—resentment. His father said Szeth could choose, but they’d all clearly wanted a specific decision. He’d made it not because it was right, but because he had sensed their desires.
But how could they all want it if it wasn’t right? Maybe they saw something he didn’t—maybe he was broken. But if so, they should have simply told him what they intended to do, and then done it. That would have been fine. Why give him the choice? Didn’t they see that made this his fault?
Mother pulled on her gloves and started digging. Szeth winced each time the shovel scraped the stone. That metallic sound was not natural. He hoped that they would discover the rock was enormous—so that the plan had to be abandoned. In the end, it was small. Eight inches long, and a dull grey color. He could have held it in one hand, if he’d wanted.
Molli the ewe, seeming to sense his tension, rubbed up against him and he gripped at her wool, her warmth. Even Mother seemed a little unsure, now that she’d dug the rock out. She stepped back, leaving it in the hole.
“You scraped it,” Elid said. “That seems… kind of obvious.”
“Once we’ve buried it again,” Mother said, “nobody will see the scrapes.”
“How much trouble would we be in,” Elid asked, “if someone found out?”
“I suspect the Farmer wouldn’t be happy,” Father said. He laughed then, and it sounded genuine. “Might require some cake to make up for it. Don’t get that look, Szeth. We show devotion because we choose to. And so, the kind of devotion we make is ours to decide.”
“I… don’t understand,” he said. “Don’t the Stone Shamans tell us what to do?”
“They share the teachings of the spren,” Mother said, as she shouldered the shovel. “But we interpret those teachings. What we’re doing here today is reverent enough for me.”
Szeth thought on that and wondered—as this was not the first clue in his life—if perhaps this was why they chose to live outside the town. Many shepherd families lived at least part of the year inside it. His family visited each month for devotions, so he didn’t dare think that his family wasn’t faithful. Yet the older he got, the more questions he had.
How did he feel about his parents doing something he knew the shamans wouldn’t approve of?
They were still all standing there, staring at the rock, when the horns sounded. Father looked up, then whispered a soft prayer to the spren of their stone. The horns meant raiders on the southern coast. Stonewalkers.
Szeth felt an immediate panic. “What do we do?”
“Gather the sheep,” Father said. “Quickly. We must drive them toward Dison’s Valley on the other side of the town. The Farmer has troops in the region. We’ll be safe inland.”
“But this?” Szeth said, gesturing to the rock. “This!”
Mother, suddenly determined, reached down and grabbed it in her gloved hands. Together, all four of them froze, then looked toward their family stone. It sat there, unmoving. None of them were struck down. Szeth thought he could tell, from the way his parents slowly relaxed, that they hadn’t been certain.
At least this indicated his parents hadn’t been secretly moving rocks around all his life. Mother walked over to a tree nearer their house, then carefully placed the stone into a gnarled nook among the roots and hid it with leaves.
“That will do for now,” she said. “If raiders do come here, they’ll think nothing of a stone. They don’t reverence stone or the spren who live within them. You all gather the sheep; I’ll return this shovel.”
Father and Elid went to do exactly that. Szeth hugged Molli, wishing this day had never begun.
Chapter 28: Obstacle
I do not have answers, and there will always be some who denounce me for this decision I made. But let me teach a truth here that is often misunderstood: sometimes, it is not weakness, but strength, to stand up and walk away.
—From The Way of Kings, fourth parable
Iyatil ran for the larger room, giving Shallan time to reach into her sleeve and activate the spanreed strapped to her arm. A long press, locked into position, which would make the ruby on the other spanreed pulse—indicating an emergency.
Shallan turned to run up the steps.
Radiant stopped her. She’d fooled Mraize and Iyatil. She’d done it. They were just people. Deadly, capable, manipulative. But people. In some ways less capable than Shallan, for if they genuinely had spren, they were very new to them. Perhaps barely a few days into their bonding.
Instead of running, Radiant ripped away the stupid wig and mask. “Armor,” she commanded.
Shallan!
It encased her in a heartbeat, a bright glow from the front of her visor illuminating the room. Pattern followed at her summons, a brilliant, silvery sword. And Testament?
She would not ask Testament to kill again. Shallan reached her left arm to the side, and Testament appeared as a powerful shield, affixed to her arm, light as a cloth glyphward.
Shallan was no longer a child, confused, terrified, forced to kill with a gifted necklace. She had spoken Truth. And today she was the Radiant she’d once only imagined.
From the larger room with the bales of hay, Iyatil shouted to the others. “The Lightweaver is here! She was impersonating Aleen!”
Radiant stepped through the doorway, checking the corners. She leveled her weapon at Lieke, who had been right inside. He fled backward, stepping on purple fearspren. Radiant didn’t blame him. Facing a Shardbearer without Shards was not a wise proposition. Unless you were a storm-faced bridgeman, of course.
Across the room, Mraize took her in, then smiled. Storm him, he was proud of her. He calmly raised his hand ballista and shot a normal, non-lit bolt. She deflected it easily with her shield, and was struck by a new fear. What would happen if anti-Light met a Shardweapon?
Storms, they were in unknown territory.
Iyatil ripped the ballista out of Mraize’s hands. Nearby, the other Ghostbloods were doing themselves credit. When Shallan had pulled similar operations on groups like the Sons of Honor, there had been mass chaos. The Ghostbloods moved with deliberate coordination, spreading out, two summoning Shardblades, others producing conventional weapons.
Iyatil moved quickest of all, explaining why she’d retreated instead of engaging Shallan. Stabbing a Knight Radiant was basically useless; she needed something stronger. Iyatil pulled a bolt from Mraize’s pouch and raised a now-cocked ballista with it loaded, glowing bright. While Mraize had chosen a conventional bolt, Iyatil would shoot anti-Stormlight.
Shallan ducked back into the trophy room. She glanced over her shoulder and saw the Ghostbloods retreating toward the west side of the large chamber. Storms, of course they’d have another exit. There was no way in Damnation’s cold winds they would trap themselves—which meant she couldn’t just hold this room and wait for the others.
She stepped into the doorway and shouted, “Mraize!”
Her helmet amplified the sound, as if she’d spoken with ten times the force. Wow.
Shallan! the armor said, somehow conveying You’re welcome.
Mraize stopped retreating and turned toward her.
“Would you become the prey?” she demanded. “Running before the axehound?”
“Even a master hunter hides from the storm,” he called back. “I will face you when it is time, little knife.”
“Why not now?” she asked, advancing. Iyatil was pulling on Mraize’s arm to flee, ballista lowered to her side. Lieke opened a hidden door in the west wall. The others went through—one at a time, no pushing.
Shallan held her hands to the sides, dismissing both Pattern and Testament. “Go find the others; see what is taking them so long,” she whispered to the spren. She could resummon them, but didn’t want to risk them if that bolt was loosed.
Iyatil trained the ballista on her, but did not shoot. She knew she had exactly one shot. The others were escaping, but so long as Iyatil and Mraize were focused on Shallan, she bought time for the strike force to arrive.
“I’ve seen Mishram,” Shallan said. “Lightning in her eyes. Hair like midnight. I’ve seen her.”
That did it. The two fixated on her even more squarely.
“Mishram is imprisoned,” Iyatil said.
“Can any prison truly hold a god?” Shallan said, stepping forward. “Whatever advantage you think you can gain from her, you’re wrong. She is malevolent and terrible, the essence of hatred, imprisoned for two thousand years. She will destroy you, Mraize. Whatever your plan, it is not worth the risk.”
Mraize clasped his hands behind his back, studying her. Her argument wasn’t a good one—Mraize was willing to make big wagers, and was not driven by fear—but it was all she’d been able to come up with on the spot.
Still, he studied Radiant. Was he thinking about what she’d said…
No, Veil thought. He’s thinking how we surprised him by sneaking in here. And how bold we are to stand here, staring down that weapon.
“We don’t have to be enemies,” she said to him.
“You aren’t my enemy,” he said. “You’re my obstacle.”
Iyatil shifted.
She’s going to shoot.
Shallan dove to the side while breathing out and purposely ejecting all of her Stormlight. With some, she created two illusions: one of her jumping in the other direction, another staying in place.
Iyatil tracked the correct Shallan, then loosed.
Go! Shallan commanded the armor.
Shallan? the spren sent, but obeyed, vanishing right as the crossbow bolt took her in the ribs. She tumbled in her dive, grunting at the sudden jolt of pain. She almost drew in Stormlight, but forcibly stopped herself. No. No.
The bolt had a metal tip, with a gemstone clipped into the shaft. That tip… it was designed, like the weapons of the Fused, to move Light. In this case, it injected the anti-Light, making it seep through her. It wasn’t painful, not compared to the actual wound, but it was wrong. A cold that prowled through her veins, carried through her body with every beat of her heart.
Painspren clawed up from the stone ground around her. This feeling was unnatural, counter to her very nature, but… she felt she could have drawn it in like normal Light. She decided not to try, as it did not seem to be able to hurt her so long as she set her jaw against the pain and refused the normal Stormlight that would heal her. Because if those two met…
Through tears of pain, Shallan watched Mraize take Iyatil by the arm and gesture toward the exit. She instead pulled a knife from its sheath at her belt and moved toward Shallan.
Then, blessedly, something distracted them. Shouts from the hidden hallway?
The ceiling in the center of the room—between Shallan and the other two—melted.
Stone in a hole maybe eight feet across poured down, as if it had suddenly become mud. It splashed on the floor of the cavern—missing the podium by inches and touching none of the people—then instantly hardened. Through that hole came a dozen Windrunners one after another—the last carrying Erinor, Darcira’s husband, a Stoneward. That explained the meltiness.
Hand on her wound—bloodied fingers around the crossbow bolt—Shallan met Mraize’s eyes.
Then he, Iyatil, and Lieke—who had been lingering—vanished. The air around them warped with a light tinged black-violet, and they were gone.
* * *
Szeth trailed off, having told Kaladin a little about his family as they walked through the forest for a few hours. A story of the discovery of a rock, told in fits and starts. Kaladin hadn’t interrupted, enjoying hearing the other man open up—plus, learning about the Shin was genuinely interesting.
This time when Szeth trailed off, he didn’t continue.
“You heard a horn?” Kaladin eventually prompted. “What did that mean?”
“I’m done for now,” Szeth said.
Kaladin sighed, but otherwise contained his annoyance. At least that story had been something. They soon reached a sharp drop-off. Here the trail wound down in a series of steep switchbacks, so they took a quick jaunt into the sky. Kaladin felt invigorated, bathed in the light of a sun that had passed its zenith and was now working toward the horizon.
“Do you have forests near your home?” Szeth asked as they lazily drifted down, skimming the tops of the foliage.
“Not like this,” Kaladin said. “I didn’t see a true forest until I reached the Shattered Plains, and took a trip to the harvesting operations a half day’s march north.”
“I always thought there couldn’t be trees outside Shinovar,” Szeth said, Stormlight escaping his lips. “How could they grow in a land with no soil?”
“And I,” Kaladin said, “never imagined you’d have them here. With nothing for their roots to grip.”
Szeth grunted at that, then Lashed himself in a steady swoop along the mountainside. Kaladin followed as the trees dwindled, and they approached Shinovar proper: a vast plain of vibrant green. Kaladin had seen many a field before, but he realized that up until this moment, he’d never seen something so alive as this prairie. Though again, there were no lifespren, which he found odd.
Regardless, fields back home had grass, but with more space between the blades, so the brown cremstone filtered through. Here the grass grew like moss, achieving an aggressive density. As if the individual blades had formed mobs, armies, pike blocks.
Following Szeth, he landed on an outcropping on the slope. As Szeth sat down to inspect the land before them, Kaladin walked to the edge, his Stormlight giving out, and his full weight settled on him, his feet sinking into the soft soil to an unfamiliar degree. The entire view—with the rolling hills of green and a thick blanket of grass—made him think of an ocean. Each of those hills a swell or wave, with trees like ships. There was even what he thought might be a herd of wild horses in the distance. Incredible.
“I see it now,” Kaladin whispered.
“What?” Szeth asked.
“I see how your land survives. That grass… it doesn’t move, doesn’t react. Yet it feels as if it could swallow everything. Like it wants to consume me.”
“It will, once you die,” Szeth said softly. “It will take all of us. Undoubtedly later than we deserve.”
What a delightful way of thinking. Syl landed next to Kaladin, becoming full sized and trimmed in violet. She was grinning, naturally. “Look at the solitary trees!” she said, pointing. “Look at them just sitting there alone, without a care in the world.”
Here, trees didn’t need companions with whom to lock roots. But Kaladin, now that he thought to look closer, found the buildings more unusual. This region wasn’t terribly well populated, but he picked out one town, maybe the size of Hearthstone—and several lonely homesteads.
Those buildings seemed so unprotected, practically shouting for the storms to take them. Though they were distant, he thought they were wooden, and appeared flimsy. With flat walls to the east, and windows on those sides as well. He knew people here didn’t have to fight the storms, but those homes unnerved him. Made him think the people must be weak, innocent, in need of protection. Like lost children wandering a battlefield.
“This is wrong,” Szeth said.
“Yeah,” Kaladin said, kneeling beside him in the knee-high grass. “How do people live here?”
“Peacefully, when your kind let them,” Szeth said, his eyes narrowed. He sat somewhat awkwardly, the strange black sword strapped to his back. It was a good example of why one normally summoned a Shardblade, instead of carrying it. The weapon was awkwardly sized: too long to be worn at the waist, but difficult to draw when strapped to the back like that.
Szeth glanced at him and shook his head. “Something is wrong here. Not the things you see with a stonewalker’s perspective, Kaladin. Look. Does that region seem… darker than it should?”
Kaladin followed Szeth’s pointing finger to a rise on the right, along the cliffsides of the mountain. It was darker than the stones and soil around it. But… there was no visible cloud to cause that shadow. Kaladin narrowed his eyes and thought he could see wisps of blackness rising from it.
“What’s over there?” Kaladin asked.
“The monastery,” Szeth said. “We have ten of them. Most are homes of the Honorblades.”
The legendary weapons of the Heralds. Szeth had wielded one when killing old King Gavilar. It, unfortunately, had fallen into other hands… the hands of a man who should have been Kaladin’s brother.
“You keep the Honorblades in monasteries?” Kaladin asked.
“One for each Radiant order, though Talmut’s is missing, of course, as is Nin’s. Ishu has claimed his too, now. Regardless, when a person is elevated as I was in my youth, they travel to each monastery on pilgrimage, training at those that have an Honorblade, mastering each Surge. That one ahead is the first I lived in, but it has no Blade.”
“Which one is it?” Syl asked from the edge of their overlook, gazing straight along the mountainside to that distant fortress on the ridge. “Which Blade should it have held?”
“Talmut’s,” Szeth said. “You call him Talenelat, or Taln. Stonesinew, the Bearer of Agonies.”
“That darkness,” Kaladin said, “reminds me of the darkness around the Kholinar palace. An Unmade lived there. You really met one here, in Shinovar?”
“Yes,” Szeth said softly.
“When was this?” Kaladin said. “After you discovered a rock on your family’s ground?” He hoped to prompt more of the story.
“The meeting was much later,” Szeth said, “but that day with the rock, and the raid… that was the beginning.”
“Do you want to tell me more?” Kaladin asked.
“None of that matters. All that matters is the quest.”
“And the people, your family, the—”
“None of it matters,” Szeth repeated. “We should camp here for the night and visit the monastery in the morning. Unless you want to investigate that place now.”
Kaladin shoved aside his annoyance at Szeth and looked again at the patch of darkness. Then he glanced at the sun, which was getting close to setting. He wasn’t certain how all this connected—Ishar, Dalinar’s request of him, and Szeth’s story. But if there was an Unmade, he didn’t want to risk encountering it at night. Kaladin had faced them at Kholinar, where he’d failed to protect the people. Even the Unmade he’d eventually defeated—when it had worn Amaram’s body—had been extremely dangerous.
“Camping sounds good,” Kaladin said. “But let’s do it farther back and around that bend, to shelter the cookfire.”
“We don’t need a cookfire,” Szeth said. “We have travel rations.”
Kaladin insisted, however. Thankfully Szeth joined him, and offered no further complaint about a cookfire. Because Kaladin needed this man to open up.
And he figured he’d try an old standby.
Excerpted from Wind and Truth, copyright © 2024 Dragonsteel Entertainment.
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Wind and Truth
I wonder if using the capitalised words “Stone”, “Winds”, and “Nights” in the first three paragraphs was intentional or if I’m just going crazy trying to find patterns and foreshadowing
Haha it’s been popping up since way back in the early chapters, when we were getting the Wind epigraphs, and a few chapters ago Sibling explained they’re proto spren from the early days. Wind is separate from SF and was speaking to Kal, Night was transformed into nightwatcher but detached from human perception.
Stone well likely be finding out about soon, and has popped up in early books in Szeth povs.
Winds and Nights are at the start of sentences, they should be capitalized. Stone Shaman is a proper name, which should be capitalized.
I would say the crazy part.
Agreed. But the amount of people who search for stuff like this is remarkable
True but the coincidence of using all of them in ways that they gramatically makes sense with capitals within a hundred words? And specifically the three Old Magic spren mentioned together like 5 chapters ago? I am probably insane, but it is weird if it was accidental. (I assume at least the Wind mention is intentional because its been associated with Szeth before).
I guess Szeth sees his life as a slippery slope fallacy.
At least he wasn’t as rigid in his youth, it makes him more likeable. But maybe being flexible at that moment is what causes his family’s downfall.
Mraize being a proud mama hen tickled me. I suspect he wants to protect roshar and wants shallan on his side.
Yes, I think the repercussions of the decision to move the stone are likely what made Szeth so rigid in his fierceness to do what is right / by the law (or traditions, such as the oathstone). He no longer believes in the spirit of the law, much in the way Nale has become (if he was ever any different) .
I expect the spirit of the law is something he will discover and help him reach the next idea (if he survives the book).
Well the Ghostbloods assault ended up being a bit anticlimatic. I did love Shallan stepping up though. I’m left wondering, did Mraize and company ran into shadesmar (transportation surge), or is there some other power involved?
STEW BONDING LET’S GOOOOO!!
Huh, so the Ghostbloods didn’t demonstrate any off-world powers, after all, but if anti-Light is _that_ dangerous to Spren even in their metallic phase, then the Radiants are in a really bad place. Let’s hope that Shallan overreacted and that raysium isn’t abundant enough for lots of anti-stormlight ammunition to exist.
Iyatil definitely isn’t a Coinshot, then, since she wouldn’t have needed to get close to finish Shallan if she was. It also seems that people who suggested that the enlightened Spren of her and Mraize were Inkspren were right. Interestingly enough, it seems that they relied on voidlight instead of more accessible stormlight.
As to Szeth, I have wondered if his family being “given to the Honorblades”, as he mentioned in… RoW, I think? Was a punishment, but now it seems that they were elevated instead. Which agrees with my impression of Szeth in WoR, where he thought about himself as highly educated. His parents being mildly rebellious freethinkers is a bit of a surprise, heh.
Yeah, the “elevated” language was really interesting. I guess since we know the Stone Shamans are respected and are the carriers of the Honorblades, it would make sense that training with them was a sign of respect. Especially since we also heard a couple chapters ago that the Honorbearers never do something so lowly as fight against the stonewalker raids (even though they would totally kick ass).
I’m pretty sure Iyatil wouldn’t have any allomantic powers, since her people didn’t come into contact with allomancers until recently (at which point allomancy is super rare and diminished in potency).
But Kelsier is open to hemalurgy, if a donor deserves to die from his PoV, or is dying anyway and can be convinced to agree to it. As he confirms in the epilogue to TLM in his thoughts.
His high-level agents should all have a couple of Metallic Arts, whether they were born with them or not. Not to mention medallions and allomantic grenades.
And that former steward of Kholins, whose Aviar Lift adopted and whose fondness for metal jewelry suggests that he had been a ferring worldhopper was murdered by Mraize in RoW in a way that strongly suggested spiking.
Let’s go!
Finally we get our first substantial dose of Shinovar. Can’t wait for it to be developed fully
I am pretty sure that a spren manifested as a blade or sheild could survive the bolt. It would bounce off, because there would be no stormlight that it is in it. They aren’t directly stormlight, but manifestations of a god metal, so I think she should have just summoned testament as a shield. Getting shot with that is bad. Also is her body under pressure, like it was in the knife Navani used? Explode Shallan?
We’ve heard that humans are too leaky to hold stormlight well, so my intuition would be that her body is not under pressure and we wouldn’t see a catastrophic release of energy.
But I am happy that I was not the only one to ask the question!
But it only took a touch for Moash to kill Phendorana.
I’m not sure. It’s solid investiture and the Raysium would conduct it on contact. Sure it’s technically an alloy of Tanavastium and Koravidiumium but that still means that it’s investiture. The split second of contact might have killed Testament or Pattern. At the very least, it would blow a hole in them, which can’t be good.
True, but it is SOLID. I am pretty sure the light reacts that way when it is actually directly touching other light. It is in a gemstone, not just floating around, so I am pretty sure it would react like a normal arrow bouncing off of a blade, but it might not if the gemstone cracks, and releases the light onto the blade. We will probably find out eventually. Also, I don’t think the bolt is raysium. Does it say it is?
“The bolt had a metal tip, with a gemstone clipped into the shaft. That tip… it was designed, like the weapons of the Fused, to move Light.”
That’s definitely Raysium there, and that is a fair point, that light should only affect light, it’s still anti-investiture as well.
That being said this is a “better safe than sorry” situation. Backup was on the way and she wouldn’t die immediately. It was a calculated risk.
We won’t know until we see it happen but most radiants are NOT on the list to try this out.
Good point. That is Raysium. Better safe than sorry is true. Let’s try it with Venli’s spren.
It’s a metal plate though, which is what Navani used to make anti-light in the first place. I don’t think it matters if the light is gaseous or solid, so long as you can make it vibrate with the right Tone, and smacking it will definitely make it vibrate. Whether the bolt would be able to transfer the proper vibration in that instant remains to be seen
They used Rsysium to conduct anti-voidlight too
nooooooo not timbre!
I am sure Navani will soon have a reply to these anti-radiant weapons.
I loved these two chapters! The casual reference to parrots, Kal’s Alethi perspective of grass clumping together like soldiers, the fact that Szeth perceives his family as devoted, yet is shocked by their treatment of the new stone. I’m so worried/pre-sad for what is going to happen to them.
And I’m so glad we didn’t have to wait another Monday to hear what happened to Shallan in the hideout. Radiant taking control in this moment was amazing. And storms, the shardshield! Goosebumps, I tell you. Hearing Shallan figure out how to deal with this anti-voidlight situation in real-time is so stressful. Definitely not looking forward to the consequences this will have on Roshar.
We’ve seen a Sylshield already a couple books ago, so I guess I was not as excited to see Testament used in this way. But it is nice to see Shallan give the consideration of not wanting to use Testament to kill more.
I’ve added a spoiler tag to the original post. Hope that helps!
Wow it would have been nice to warn people of your spoilers. Ffs
Some of us are waiting to read them in order and would appreciate not getting spoilers in the comments
Also, I think people are reading a bit too much into the theories about Wind, Stone, and Nights. The actual explanation is gonna be something much simpler imo, excepting Stormfather I guess. May be it’s just a matter of taking the existing Rosharan spren and re-making them into their Shardic images by Honor, Cultivation, and Odium. Which basically would mean all of these Spren are unmade. Because if Stormfather is lying, that means the spren has deviated from its nature, which is mostly what unmade are.
What is the “forced to kill with a gifted necklace”? I know she was given an aluminum necklace from her father that she used to pay off her brother’s debts. I dont remember her killing anyone with it. Unless it was supressing testatment and weakening what remained of their bond.
She offered it in trade for Jushu’s debts, but they tossed it back to her and only took her brother’s dagger. Then she choked her dad with it while singing him a lullabye
She killed her father by choking him to death with it
Ugh, so short this week. I need MORE!
Kaladin fixing Szeth the bridge four way. :D
Yeah, let’s have Szeth sleep on the rock that he’s too scared to touch! Yeah, I know that’s not what she meant, but I was totally looking for someone to gasp and say “Mother, how could you?” :D
Lol that same thing occured to me. XD
That is just an idiom for thinking an idea through.
Like “Consulting it with the pillow”. Not actually sleeping on the rock
I know – I was just wishing someone in-story would misunderstand or make a wisecrack about it. But Szeth’s family isn’t really that sort. If Wit or The Lopen had been there, they totally would have, regardless of the solemnity of the occasion.
Oof. I happened to read this at a rather fragile time and just started crying when I read Szeth’s part (kinda inconvenient as I was in my work cafeteria).
I know Szeth gets a lot of hate, but as somebody who experiences severe decision paralysis (and it’s only gotten worse over the past several years) and struggles to know who/what is trustworthy, while desperately trying to do what is right, I relate deeply to Szeth’s struggle here. I mentioned on a few of my other comments that I suspect he’s also on the autism spectrum and this really cements it for me, especially with the way he is TRYING to adhere to the code but really struggling with the shades of grey.
That said – while I don’t really care for the Skybreakers and their very legalistic/rigid attitude as a whole, I did roll my eyes just a tad at ‘oh we decide ourselves how to worship’. I mean, yes, to a point, that’s fine, but it also feels a little circular to me, haha (because I’m more like Szeth lol).
I agree it was a hard thing to put on him. He reminds me SO much of my son. (Who did in fact once start crying because I happened to question something his teacher said…it wasn’t even a huge deal in my view but it was clear he was REALLY struggling with the fact that we both thought something different.)
I wonder if Szeth ends up turning his parents in and that’s why he’s elevated.
(Anyway, also, very exciting with Shallan and all that – the bullets remind me of the anti-allomancer bullets.)
Totally agreed with your view.
Although regarding Szeth’s elevation, don’t think he’ll turn his parents. As per his conversation with Ishar, Szeth’s father had the Isharan honorblade, hence Neturo would have been elevated too as well.
I think they were trying to use the moment as a gentle teaching opportunity for Szeth. They needed him to realize, on his own, that blindly following their religious leaders isn’t always the best path. I imagine it’s a difficult thing to teach for a lot of religious families
It would be kind of similar to Teft’s backstory
Ok, I wasn’t the biggest fan of Shallan, but she all out of bubble gum here.
Yeah, seeing her finally have the upper hand over Mraize was so satisfying. I think Iyatill might have recognized Shallan is on her level now. It was only a matter of time after they snuck into Dalinar’s war camp together
Getting shot in the ribs can’t be good if you are pregnant. Or getting a bunch of anti-investiture injected into you.
She’ll heal once the anti light is out of her system, though. She’ll be fine
Wait wait wait wait wait! Do we know for certain that Shallan is one hundred percent, totally, unequivocally, and absolutely pregnant? I mean, I realize that it’s a solid theory with plenty of evidence to back it up, but I just can’t picture Shallan having children and apparently not knowing about it?
Also, anytime I look at the name Kaladin I get goosebumps and I get excited. Bro just has an air about him; the fighty, punchy, stabby kind of air. And getting Szeth to talk over a bridge four fire type meal? That made me very happy. But I think the best part for me in these chapters was when Shallan was thinking “Facing a Sharbearer without Shards was not a wise proposition. Unless you were a storm-faced bridgeman, of course.” Oh our beloved Kaladin. You really are quite different, aren’t you.
Yeah, we can put ripe odds on her being pregnant.
And yeah, storm-faced bridgeman lol. reminds me of Syl mocking him in RoW, “we’re going to get up at dawn to practice scowling at each other”
“did you just say ‘punchy…’?”i know its not the same context but it reminded me of Kaladin referring to to a hand-to-hand fighter as a “punchy guy”
I know Mraize has his fans, but I find him to be the cosmere equivalent of a hemorrhoid, a useless pain in the ass.
All he seems to do is stand around being dramatic and failing miserably in every endeavor. Looking forward to him getting insta-gibbed by Mishram as soon as she is released and he tries to control her.
“Even the Unmade he’d eventually defeated—when it had worn Amaram’s body—had been extremely dangerous.” – Anyone know when this happened? Struggling to remember :x
It was during the Battle of Thaylen Field. Amaram swallowed the gem containing Yelig-Nar so that they bonded. He grew carapace under his armor and also got access to the surges thanks to the bond, and they fought with Kal. However, it was Rock who finally dealt the killing blow … er … killing shot with a Shardbow.
Ok but Kate Readings performance of shallans armor spren is now my new favorite thing in the cosmere. Sorry, Stick is now only a close second.
I’m sorry, but who is Stick?
In WoR when shallan tries to soul cast up a fire after the shipwreck there’s a whole conversation with a stick that’s became kinda its own thing online. I think Stick even had its own tshirt and joke chapter for awhile on dragon steel. But now I’m solidly team creationspren and patiently awaiting their own shirt and chapter.
Oh, thanks :) I love her reading of Wyndle and Pattern as well.
Stick is still better though
Look Moash, you could have a SHARD STICK and you choose Stick??? Shun the non-believer!!
I have a crazy theory that is kind of proved by this whole book so far. When I finished book four, I thought that Kaladin would go to Shinovar and become Honor. I know it is kind of hyping up dalinar, but I do not think it is him. Kaladin fulfills the vessel of honor much better than dalinar. He is called son of tanavast by the stormfather. He is literally sacrificing himself to help save everyone else. That is honorable. Second crazy theory. Adolin is going to be Odium’s champion. His passionate anger shown in the duels against other shardbearers, and his murdering of Sadeas shows his rage. He also in book four was angry at his father, and was rebelling against everyone else. His anger against Dalinar really shows this. He hates his father, up to the point of irrationality. I also think that Dalinar is going to lose the contest to Adolin. Odium was trying to find a person who would cause a big blow morally, and that will be Adolin. I am excited for all of your thoughts. Pleas respond.
I think Kaladin becomes Honor.
The Stormfather keeps saying the Power can’t go to someone who wants it.
Stormfather names Kaladin, and only Kaladin, the “Son of Tanavast”. Perhaps that’s because Kaladin is the most like Tanavast of all of his children. We already know Kaladin doesn’t want to be Nobility or Royalty.
Sounds like the perfect candidate. Hoid sees it, which is why he said it outright.
I think “Son of Tanavast” is the SF’s equivalent of your grandma’s “dear”
But the stormfather also called Dalinar son of tanavast in the second book.
Pretty sure he has only used “Son of Tanavast” for Kaladin. There have been a few mentions of “Child of Tanavast”, but usually it’s just “Child of Honor”.
This Szeth chapter was released a while back as a sample and I really love this glimpse into their society and how it’s a great parallel to Kals childhood, cool bookend since it’s the WoK-KoW ketek.
Szeth still respects his father since he didn’t want to shame him by using his name, using his grandfather’s instead, I hope Ishar was wrong and he isn’t dead, but likely run into his mom and sister at least.
I absolutely love that the flashbacks are actually being told to Kal so he knows what we know and can explore them with Szeth, that’s a great choice.
Also..Szeth and Kal standing on the grass looking at a dark aura in the distance is the cover image we’ve been hyped about for a year now haha.. we’re finally here guys. Only other image is Dalinar walking up the steps to the challenge.
Shallan is an absolute unit now and I love how she basically is a full blown GB now and more competent than them in some ways. If she wasn’t trying to get info or capture them she could have absolutely just killed them all..
They must have enlightened Ink spren to be able to teleport like that..but we knew Ivory was the only one bonded, maybe since Adolin revealed the truth about the recreance these are some of the first and Sja Anat found them..? I guess it could be Cryptics, but definitely got more of a teleport vibe there.
I really hope we get another appearance by Kelsier to chew them out for going rogue and seeking out BAM, we know from TLM they’re disconnected from the chain of command.
But goddamn I just can’t wait to finally get into shinovar proper..there’s two more chapters of his flashbacks we got as samples released already until we’re finally into new territory, been waiting 15 years to find out about the place.
Haha holy crap! So we’ve theorized for years if Szeth trained on the honorblades before or after being made truthless, it’s hard to say if it would be considered unworthy like soldiers or noble because the gods. but it makes sense they’re in separate temples, and that they’d be messing with Talns considering that the everstorm smashed his statue in Thaylen City haha, they really don’t like the man.
Please please give us the lore dump, they aren’t holding them for the heralds, we know that from Szeth in RoW, they might know the truth about aharetiam and Taln, but then they should have known the everstorm would return, so the unmade either perverted their teachings or they’ve always been flawed..likely tied to the shin invasions and possibly a bulk of the missing Shards being kept here.
Also I love it..cooking around a campfire, the Bridge 4 special. If it could turn those wretches into windrunners it can absolutely get through to Szeth
Yep, the flawless “stew treatment”
Did anyone else feel like Neturo was being a bit manipulative, whether intentionally or not? He made it seem like it was Szeth’s choice, but then guilt tripped him into choosing what he wanted.
Was pretty obvious to me. We can move the rock, or we will have to move the house away from the place you love into the city, which you don’t like.