Lyn: Hi Paige.
Paige: What’s up?
L: And welcome back to you, our lovely Cosmere Chickens! We’ve got an emotional chapter this week, so get those hankies or boxes of tissues handy (or, for those of you who don’t much care for Veil, your cheerleading pom-poms).
Reminder: We’ll be discussing spoilers for the entirety of the series up until now. If you haven’t read ALL of the published entries of The Stormlight Archive (this includes Edgedancer and Dawnshard as well as the entirety of Rhythm of War), best to wait to join us until you’re done.
In this week’s discussion we also discuss some things from Mistborn in the Cosmere Connections section, so if you haven’t read it, best to give that section a pass.
Heralds: Nalan (Nale), Herald of Justice. Skybreakers (Gravitation, Division). Just/Confident. Role: Judge.
L: An interesting choice for Herald for this chapter. I would guess that he was chosen primarily because of the property of gravitation and division. This whole chapter is about the division within Shallan’s mind, and the gravitation between her disparate personalities. Another consideration could be the fact that she’s encountering a literal judge at the end, but my spheres would be on the former interpretation.
P: I would go with the latter option, myself. Shallan is intent on “killing” Adolin’s judge, Kelek. And then is interrupted by the spren who will play judge for the last day of the trial.
L: I was an English major; trained to look for the symbolism in everything. We’ll blame my interpretation on that…
Icon: Pattern
Epigraph:
I felt it happen to Jezrien. You think you captured him, but our god is Splintered, our Oathpact severed. He faded over the weeks, and is gone now. Beyond your touch at long last.
I should welcome the same. I do not. I fear you.
P: Allow me to reiterate how sad I am that Jezrien is truly gone.
Chapter Recap
WHO: Adolin, Shallan/Veil/Radiant/”Formless”
WHEN: 1175.4.19.4 – The day after Chapter 90.
WHERE: Lasting Integrity, Shadesmar
(Note: For the “when” notations, we are using this wonderful timeline provided by the folks at The 17th Shard.)
RECAP: Shallan comes to terms with her past and resolves one of the multiple aspects of her personality.
Chapter Chat — The Strongest of Mind
Formless awoke early on the day of Adolin’s final judgment.
P: Brandon starts this chapter off with a bang, doesn’t he? What we’ve seen of Formless so far is like quiet rumblings, not a full-blown takeover.
L: Gotta love a killer opening line. Get it?
“Thank you,” Adolin said, “for Shallan’s support last night. I needed her.”
“There are some things only she can do,” Formless said. Would that be a problem, now that Shallan no longer existed?
Buy the Book
Rhythm of War
P: Ope! Was there some Battle of the Personas that took place while Shallan slept? Because she had certainly existed the night before, and was strongly in control of herself. Or does this turn of events have to do with the dreaded task Shallan was sent to perform?
L: I think it might have been one of those “last dinner” types of things. She had already decided what she was going to do, and decided to give Adolin one final night with her.
“What’s wrong, Veil?” Adolin said, sitting up in bed. “You seem different.”
Formless pulled on her coat. “Nothing’s different. I’m the same old Veil.”
Don’t you use my name, Veil thought deep inside. Don’t you dare lie to him like that.
Formless stopped. She’d thought Veil locked away.
P: Well, Adolin certainly notices that something is off. If anyone would, it would be him, and/or Pattern. And interesting that Veil makes an appearance when Formless thought her locked away. The Battle of the Personas didn’t go quite as Formless had intended, it seems.
Also, go Veil! This Veil is so different than how I read the character (sub-character?) during the beta. That version had ill intensions, or so I thought. But I love Veil in this chapter!
L: Agreed. This is one of those little improvements that most readers will never realize happened, and it made such a huge impact.
“No,” Adolin said. “Something is different. Become Shallan for a moment. I could use her optimism today.”
“Shallan is too weak,” Formless said.
“Is she?”
“You know how troubled her emotions are. She suffers every day from a traitorous mind.”
P: As someone who also suffers every day from a traitorous mind, I can attest to how weak it makes me feel. Yet people are constantly telling me how strong I am. Do they see something I don’t? Adolin certainly sees more in Shallan. “Is she?” Adolin asks. He knows better than that. As he shows us in a moment.
L: Often time, others can see our strengths much better than we can ourselves. We are our own harshest critics, and this certainly is the case with Shallan!
“We don’t always see strength the right way,” Adolin said. “Like, who is the better swimmer? The sailor who drowns—giving in at long last to the current after hours of fighting—or the scribe who has never stepped into the water?”
…
“I’m not explaining it well. I just… I don’t think Shallan is as weak as you say. Weakness doesn’t make someone weak, you see. It’s the opposite.”
P: Adolin’s examples will come in handy for Veil later in the chapter. But for now, we’ll leave it here. Let me just say that it’s difficult for me personally to think that having experienced weakness makes someone strong.
L: Remember, in order to climb, you have to start in a low place.
“What’s happening?” he said. “Something is very wrong with you, Shallan. I have handled this so poorly. I talked to Wit yesterday, and he—”
“You’re still doing that?” Formless said. “You’re still disobeying me?”
Pattern pulled away further.
“I’ve had enough of you,” Formless hissed. “Stay here and cover for me with Adolin. We’ll talk about this at length after the trial.”
P: And just as Adolin had felt something was off, Pattern can also tell that Shallan isn’t acting right. Especially for her to snap at him this way. Poor Pattern. Despite being chastised so harshly, he continues trying to reach her as we’ll see below.
It was time to become the woman she’d been building toward ever since she left her home to steal from Jasnah. Formless could finally join the Ghostbloods. She didn’t care about Shallan’s past. Let it sleep. She could be like Veil, who didn’t have to worry about such things.
P: So would Shallan (because we know she’s still in there) allow “Formless” to abandon Adolin? Renounce her Oaths? Again? How exactly does she expect to pull off joining the Ghostbloods, I wonder?
“I thought it would be the man, your husband, who came for me. I wonder if he knows I’ve had trouble fighting these days. It’s so hard to decide. To do anything really…”
“Is that why you’ve been so hard on Adolin?” Shallan asked. “At the trial?”
Kelek shook his head. “You two stumbled into a little war of ideologies. The older honorspren—they’re so frightened of what happened to their predecessors. But the young ones want to go fight.”
P: And this is confirmation of what we’ve seen from the honorspren during the trial. Some who seem to support Adolin but others who condemn him outright.
“I have information that could help you,” Shallan said. “But I want to trade. There isn’t much time for us to—”
She was interrupted as the door slammed open, revealing several honorspren—including Lusintia, the one Shallan had impersonated. She gestured aggressively at Shallan…
P: Oops, it seems that Shallan’s disguise as Lusintia didn’t go unnoticed.
“Attempting to influence the course of the trial?” Lusintia demanded. “Colluding with the judge?”
“She was… doing nothing of the sort,” Kelek said, stepping up beside Shallan.
P: And here we go. In trying to run from her pain and become Formless, in trying to kill Kelek, she could very well have doomed Adolin.
Lusintia stopped, but then looked over her shoulder toward a bearded male honorspren. Shallan recognized him as Sekeir, the one who had acted as prosecutor against Adolin on the first day of the trial. An important spren, perhaps the most important in the fortress. And one of the oldest ones.
“I think, Honored One,” Sekeir said softly, “that you might be having another bout of your weakness. We shall have to sequester you, I’m afraid. For your own good…”
P: Oopsie.
Music, Mechanisms, and Manifestations of Light
She glanced at herself in the mirror, and found the Lightweaving to be perfect. She looked exactly like Lusintia, the honorspren woman. She even gave off the same faint glow. This was going to be so easy.
P: This plan comes back to bite her in the fanny (as we just saw above), though going as herself would have been no better.
Shallan turned, breathing out, and Stormlight exploded from her like her life’s own blood. It painted the room before her, coloring it, changing it to a lush garden. Covered in bright green vines and shalebark of pink and red.
Within it, a hidden place where a girl cried. The girl wept, then screamed, then said the terrible words.
“I don’t want you! I hate you! I’m done! You never existed. You are nothing. And I am finished!”
P: How very like Shallan, to use her Lightweaving talent to remember her past. And how heartbreaking for young Shallan to have gone through what she did and to have broken Oaths she didn’t know she had even made.
Spren and Shadesmar
Memories flooded her. Playing in the gardens as a child, meeting a Cryptic. A beautiful, spiraling spren that dimpled the stone. Wonderful times, spent hidden among the foliage in their special place. The Cryptic encouraged her to become strong enough to help her family, to stand against the terrible darkness spreading through it.
Such a blessed time, full of hope, and joy, and truths spoken easily with the solemnity and wonder of a child. That companion had been a true friend to an isolated child, a girl who suffered parents who constantly fought over her future.
Her spren. A spren who could talk. A spren she could confide in. A companion.
P: Finally she remembers her first spren. And I think she owes Pattern an apology.
Storms… Pattern was here. Not her new Pattern, the first one. The deadeye. Shallan needed to find her.
P: Yes, she does need to find the deadeye… but as Shallan next tells herself, that’s a job for later.
Bruised and Broken
L: There’s a lot to go over in this chapter, and I think all of it belongs here, in this section.
“Who do you think is stronger?” Adolin asked. “The man who has walked easily his entire life, or the man with no legs? The man who must pull himself by his arms?”
L: Adolin the philosopher, as usual.
P: I adore our young Highprince!
L: So do I.
I know what you’re doing, Veil whispered. I’ve finally figured it out.
Formless froze. She checked on Radiant—tucked into the prison of her mind, trying to break free but unable to speak. So why could Veil?
Well, she could ignore a voice or two. Formless sat at the desk and sketched the layout of the judge’s home. They’d paced it off yesterday, and peeked in windows. With her talent for spatial awareness, this floor plan should be accurate.
You aren’t a new persona, Veil thought. If you were, you couldn’t draw like that. You can lie to yourself, but not me.
P: Formless, it seems, is unable to keep Veil contained in the prison of her mind. Why is this, I wonder? Is it because Veil is the strongest of the personas? Because she’s the closest to Shallan?
L: I think, deep down, she doesn’t actually want to keep Veil imprisoned.
“Veil,” Pattern said. “This is not a good idea.”
He is right, Veil thought. He is right, Shallan.
I am Formless, she thought back.
No you’re not, Shallan.
P: Honor love you, Veil! I love the way she goes to bat for Shallan here. You can’t pull the wool over her eyes, Shallan.
Formless was a composite of the three—a single person with Shallan’s drawing and Lightweaving abilities, Radiant’s determination and ability to get things done, and Veil’s ability to push aside the pain. Veil’s ability to see the truth.
The best of all three of them.
L: Still lying to yourself, Shallan…
P: Definitely lying to herself. Except Veil is seeing the truth here.
“He said to tell you that we trust you,” Pattern said. “And love you. He said I should tell you that you deserve trust and love. And you do. I’m sorry I’ve been lying. For a very long time. I’m so sorry. I didn’t think you could handle it.”
L: You know… I’m often iffy on Wit. I have trouble trusting him. But this is truly beautiful, and so kind of him to say. Of all the characters in Stormlight, Wit seems to truly love Shallan. I’m never sure what about her in particular it is that makes him care for her so deeply. Storms know that there are a whole slew of broken people in this world who deserve love and kindness, but this one Wit is drawn to more than any other. He’s often snippy with Kaladin, for instance, who is arguably just as traumatized (in different ways).
P: Wit certainly has a soft spot for her. One of my favorite scenes in the series is when he tells her the story of the Girl Who Looked Up in Oathbringer. Just thinking of how much he obviously cared for her in that scene nearly brings me to tears. He’s so gentle with her and speaks so kindly to her. I just love it.
You’re pretending to be like me, Veil thought. But Wit is right. You deserve to be loved, Shallan. You do.
P: She is pretending; she’s pretending she’s not Shallan, pretending that she replaced Shallan because it’s easier than feeling the pain.
I… Radiant said, her voice distant. I killed Ialai.
L: Ah. And finally we get the answer to this particular mystery.
P: And I would have pegged Veil for that particular murder.
Also, it seems that Formless isn’t containing Radiant very well, either. Newbie.
I saw… Radiant whispered, that you were about to do it. That you had poison secreted in your satchel. So I stepped in. To protect you. So you… didn’t have to do it. To prevent… what is happening to you now… Shallan…
P: And here we see Radiant also calling Formless Shallan. Shallan may have thought she could fool herself into becoming someone new but it seems she can’t fool her personas.
L: Of course she can’t. They’re part of her. You can close all the windows to try to hide what’s going on inside the house, but that doesn’t hide anything from the people who are actually inside.
P: And how heartbreaking that Radiant was afraid that this would happen, that Shallan might continue to splinter.
Kelek was here. She revealed Mraize’s knife, then stepped forward.
As she did so, she felt a coldness—like a sharp breeze. Stormlight left her in a rush. Formless paused, then glanced over her shoulder.
Veil stood behind her.
“I know why you’re doing this, Shallan,” Veil said. “There’s no fourth persona. Not yet. You’ve given yourself another name, so you can tuck away the pain. You take that step though, and it will be real.”
“This is who I want to be,” Formless said. “Let me go.”
P: Shallan is willing to kill Kelek (and part of her own mind) in order to avoid the pain. She’s suffered for so long that she would rather leave her life behind and seek a new one than face that pain. Our poor Shallan.
“You’re running again,” Veil said. “You think you don’t deserve Adolin, or your place as a Radiant. You’re terrified that if your friends knew what you truly were, they’d turn away from you. Leave you. So you’re going to leave them first.
L: Oof. I think anyone who’s ever experienced depression can sympathize with this sentiment. The worst part is that often, we know it’s not true in our hearts. And yet, that insidious whisper won’t stop telling us that it is.
P: I feel personally attacked by this, Veil. And I do, because this is how I feel about my friends. If they saw the real me, they’d leave me.
L: I wouldn’t. (Hug)
“You figure if you become the despicable person the darkness whispers that you have been, then it will all be decided.”
L: Why bother trying to deny it? This is probably the most insidious of those whispers.
P: Right? And Shallan seems to truly think she is that horrible person, that person who would murder a Herald in cold blood.
“Who is the strongest of mind? The woman whose emotions are always on her side? Or the woman whose own thoughts betray her? You have fought this fight every day of your life, Shallan. And you are not weak.”
L: Dear readers, if you also have these thoughts from time to time, I hope that you might remember this as well.
You are not weak. You are stronger than you know. Your trials have hardened you. I’m sorry that you’ve had to endure them; in a perfect world, no one should have to endure depression, or trauma. But you’re not weak for having had these experiences. And you, like Shallan, are loved not out of pity, but for the incredible person that you are.
P: I have nothing to add here but tears.
“You can bear it,” Veil whispered. She stepped forward, eye-to-eye with Shallan. “You can remember it. Our weakness doesn’t make us weak. Our weakness makes us strong. For we had to carry it all these years.”
“No,” Shallan said, her voice growing soft. “No. I can’t…”
“You can,” Veil whispered. “I’ve protected you all these years, but it’s time for me to leave. It’s time for me to be done.”
“I can’t,” Shallan said. “I’m too weak!”
“I don’t think you are. Take the memories.” Veil reached out her hand. “Take them back, Shallan.”
Shallan wavered. Formless had vanished like a puff of smoke, revealing all her lies. And there was Veil’s hand. Inviting. Offering to prove that Shallan was strong.
P: And here, Shallan can hold to the charade no longer. Her poorly formed persona evanesces into nothing and she can join her strength with Veil’s in order to face the memories.
“I know what you are,” Shallan whispered. “You’re the blankness upon my memories. The part of me that looks away. The part of my mind that protects me from my past.”
“Of course I am,” Veil said. “I’m your veil, Shallan.”
L: This one hits very hard. All this time, and the answer to the secret was right in front of us.
P: And here is where I was convinced that Veil really did have Shallan’s best interests at heart. And that she’d done her best to protect Shallan. During the beta read, I was certain that Veil was trying to become Shallan and be the dominant, or the only, persona. A lot changed though, and I’m glad that it did because I like this result a lot better.
L: This is so much stronger, and so much more impactful.
“I killed her,” Shallan whispered. “I killed my spren. My wonderful, beautiful, kindly spren. I broke my oaths, and I killed her.”
L: Ahh. And the other shoe finally drops. Not only did poor Shallan lose her mother and her father at her own hands… she lost the only friend she ever had. She lashed out in a moment of pain, and in so doing broke her oaths. She couldn’t possibly understand what she was doing—she was only a child. Were she older, I might say that her trauma is no excuse for hurting those around her. But the fact remains… she was too young to understand the consequences of her actions. And now, unfortunately, she must live with those consequences.
P: She does need to live with those consequences. And with some healing, she can face them.
Veil became Stormlight, glowing brightly. The color faded from her, becoming pure white. Her memories integrated into Shallan’s. Her skills became Shallan’s. And Shallan recognized everything she had done.
L: Another step towards healing, and towards growth.
P: As much as I haven’t cared for Veil much since Words of Radiance, I was a bit sad to see her go. But only for a moment, because this means that Shallan is healing and that makes me happy!
As there was nothing left for Veil to protect Shallan from feeling, she began to fade. But as she faded, one last question surfaced: Did I do well?
“Yes,” Shallan whispered. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
And then, like any other illusion that was no longer needed, Veil puffed away.
L: Well, this one absolutely broke me.
P: I’m not crying, you’re crying.
Cosmere Connections
“Old Thaidakar has always wanted my secrets,” Kelek said.
L: Old Thaidakar? I suppose Kelsier has been around for quite awhile, in the grand scheme of things. It’s just so odd to see him referred to as old.
P: Especially by a being as old as Kelek!
L: Era two of Mistborn takes place between books five and six of Stormlight, so we know that Kel’s been “dead” for about 300 years. Not too old compared to Kelek!
Brilliant Buttresses
“You must know what Wit said,” Pattern replied. “He is so wise. He seems to like you and hate everyone else. Ha ha. He made fun of me. It was very funny. I am like a chicken. Ha ha.”
P: Leave it to Wit—and Pattern—to give us a chuckle in the middle of this difficult chapter.
L: A chicken. Haha indeed, Pattern.
L: That was an emotional chapter. I think we’re going to need some time to process it. We’ll be leaving further speculation and discussion to you in the comments, and hope to join you there! Next week, Alice and Paige will be back with chapter 94.
Lyndsey is currently working three jobs in addition to working on these articles from time to time, and all of them are various shades of geeky (renaissance faire costumer & performer, and magic wand-maker). She’s also written one novel and is working on several more. If you enjoy queer protagonists, snarky humor, and don’t mind some salty language, check out book 1.
Paige resides in New Mexico, of course. And she’s all in with the AL East pennant race. Go Yankees! Links to her other writing are available in her profile.
I had always feared Veil and thought Radiant was the positive side.
This chapter was a happy reunion though and I was just glad to see Shallan willing to integrate and grow and trust herself more.
Keep up the great work, ladies!
Since Oathbringer, I never trusted Veil. I did feel that she was trying to become the dominant one, that Shallan had put to much faith in this identiny, with all of her talk that Veil knew about the streets. I am sad that Veil basically dies here, but it does kind of show that different personalities are there to help the person if they are suffering from awful trauma, but they shouldn’t take over a person’s life.
I also feel so bad for Pattern here, and though I understand what Shallan is going through, she just seems to forget that if she does become Formless here, she would be killing our Pattern as well.
Do we know what the darkness spreading through Shallan’s family the first Cryptic spoke of was? Unless I’m forgetting something, Words of Radiance suggested that her father’s descent into madness was caused by Shallan killing her mother, which obviously hadn’t happened yet when she made her first bond. Was Shallan’s mother involved in secret societies (the Skybreakers?) even before the bond?
@3
It’s possible that Shallan’s mother was involved before then. I’m inclined to think so. Plus her father had a connection to the Ghostbloods.
But there is a WOB that states that an Unmade was influencing the family.
Questioner
Was Shallan’s family, during her childhood, being influenced by an Unmade?
Brandon Sanderson
Um, yes.
Questioner
Was it the corrupting–
Brandon Sanderson
I’ll RAFO that, but yes, there is some external influence there.
JordanCon 2018 (April 22, 2018)
@@.-@ Huh. I never even thought it was a unmade. I just thought it was a bad family life. Sometimes, the very real situations Brandon puts in over does the magical aspect.
@Veovim, Words of Brandon confirm that one of the Unmade was influencing the Davar family.
Chapter 93 is amazing. Shallan confronting her different personas and realizing she does not need them to be herself. She is strong enough to be everything Shallan needs to be. Yet, I wonder what will happen if Shallan and her Radiant personas disagree. With 3 personas, the personas would (for the most part) only act if two of the personas agreed. Hopefully, she will not have such a disagreement. If the disagreement results in a “shutdown,” Shallan may create a new persona. That would be taking several steps backwards in her development.
My only problem with this solution is I wonder if it would have been a better moral (for lack of a better word / maybe truer to real life DID) that Shallan has to learn to live and cope with her personas rather than reach a healing via integration. At least the healing was through Shallan’s understanding herself (i.e., coming to terms with her past) rather than a “magical” cure. If I had to guess, Shallan said those words to her Cryptic after she killed her Mother in self-defense. Even before this Chapter, I believed the dead eye Cryptic who Adolin saw in the market and at his trial was Shallan’s prior spren.
I hope the Honorspren learn that the bond was made with a child, not an adult human. Not sure if they would view it differently if they learned a spren bonded a child. I wonder if that is an unintentional flaw in the Nahel Bond mechanism that the Heralds did not realize when they created/agreed to let spren form a Nahel Bond with humans. I tend to think it was. I cannot think that anyone (human or spren) would think it is a good idea for a spren to bond a child. Bonding a child creates a lot of moral issues. First and foremost (IMO) is how is a child able to grasp the seriousness of the Oaths. Some adults cannot grasp the consequences of swearing the Ideals. I wonder if Brandon will explore this in future SA books. I will have to RAFO.
Does this mean that Shallan has spoken her 4th Truth and can wear live spren Shardplate?
Radiant killing Ialai to preempt the Shallan persona (whether Shallan called it Shallan or Formless). I did not see that coming. At this point during my initial read, I was holding out hope (however faint) that Ialai had killed herself. If I had to guess I would have said either Shallan’s persona (either herself or Formless). I am glad that Formless is not a 4th persona. I agree with Veil. It is actually what Shallan wants to call the combined Shallan, Radiant & Veil (an amalgamation of the three). Perhaps it represents the worst of the three Personas. What Shallan feels she needs to be to get the job done; do what she thinks are evil things.
Paige and Lyndsey. I agree more with Paige. In this chapter, I think Nale represents the judgment that Shallan actually makes regarding not to kill Kalak. Further, Shallan had a sort of judge like role when she decided that she no longer need Veil.
I agree with Lyndsey. In order to grow stronger, you sometimes have to overcome some weakness.
Steven Hedge @2. IMO, it is not that Shallan forgets that if she becomes Formless, she will break her bond with Pattern. Rather, Shallan does not care. She wants to cut all ties from her prior life, including Pattern. Yet, what makes Shallan useful to the Ghostbloods (and able to survive as one of them) is her ability to Surgebind. Breaking her Oaths would cause her to lose her ability to Surgebind.
Hmm. On second thought, Steven, maybe I agree with your point after all.
I also was surprised to discover that it was Radiant who killed Ialai. Like Paige, I thought it was Veil.
My recent reread of this chapter happened to occur soon after I reached out, for the first time, to seek professional treatment for my disordered undereating, so it was especially valuable. Eating disorders are complex mental illnesses that nobody chooses, but they’re stigmatized by their popular framing as the result of selfish, foolhardy surrender to societal brainwashing. It’s easy to feel ashamed and “weak” for having one, and to believe that people without any are evidently stronger-willed than me because they receive but successfully resist the same messages about food and bodies. It’s important to be told that constantly fighting my own thoughts and emotions doesn’t mean I’m weak.
I’ve never felt “iffy” about Wit. I simply think he’s The Best, except when Lift is The Best. But I agree that his kindness to Shallan is especially endearing.
I was unhappy about Veil vanishing from the story, but at least she went out in a wonderful way.
Does this imply that the dagger would have worked as intended if Honor was still alive/during the last desolation?
I have a hunch that Shallan thinks this because some part of her knows that she already has murdered (or, at the very least, killed) a Herald. Until recently I’ve been ambivalent about the “Shallan’s mother was Chanarach” theory, but the more I think about it the more I think what we’ve seen from Shallan in RoW backs that up. One of the things that comes up frequently in this book is her fear that if anyone learns the truth about her and the horrible thing she did, everyone will turn on her and leave her. We’re meant to think, especially after this chapter, that this horrible unforgivable thing is breaking her bond to Testament, but that feels off to me. Yes, breaking her bond was a horrible thing but I can’t see her being so deathly afraid that everyone in her life would abandon her if they found out about it. I know fear isn’t exactly a rational thing, but being afraid everyone will abandon you over accidentally breaking a bond when you were a child just feels a little out of proportion to me.
However, if Shallan knew her mother was a Herald then, with everything she’s learned she knows that killing Chanarach would have sent her back to Damnation, where she would have been tortured until she broke, and that means that this whole Desolation is Shallan’s fault. All of the pain, all of the death, everything that anyone has had to endure is laid at her feet. It doesn’t matter that the Everstorm and the Desolation were going to happen anyway, Shallan would still feel like everything is all her fault. And if Shallan thinks this war is all her fault, that’s something I can believe she’d be terrified everyone would abandon her over if they found out. It feels like the level of fear she has about anyone finding out is more proportional to this than to her having broken her bond to Testament.
@7 AndrewHB
I agree with this point wholeheartedly. One thing I don’t understand is how a child was even able to swear the First Ideal or the later Truths. We know that Intent matters in the Cosmere – it’s why you can’t just say the right words and advance to the next Ideal; you have to mean them. How could a child understand, let alone mean, the First Ideal? For that matter, what Truths would a child have to acknowledge that let young Shallan advance to the Third Ideal? She has to have gotten at least that far or she wouldn’t have been able to summon Testament as a blade.
The implications of this are disturbing. If a child can enter into a bond without fully understanding what she’s doing, then the theory that Todium may use Gavinor as his champion in the contest becomes a real possibility. I’ve argued against that theory because it seems to me that in order to have Intent you also have to have understanding. If you don’t really know and understand what you’re Intending, does it count? But if a child is able to bond a spren and progress through Truths without a full understanding of what she’s doing, who’s to say another child can’t be talked into acting as Odium’s champion?
I think Adolin’s disposition on strength and weakness to Shallan actually states the theme of this book. Not “Strength before Weakness,” exactly, but how “Weakness becomes Strength.”
And that, I think, is the best way to understand the themes of this series. If the first three books have the themes “Life before Death,” “Strength before Weakness,” and “Journey before Destination,” then the latter three form a ketek, with a similar but opposite formulation, “Destination becomes Journey,” “Weakness becomes Strength,” and “Death becomes Life.” (I’m not tied to “become” as the verb. I toyed with “beget” for that Old Testament feel. It doesn’t even have to start with a b, though the alliteration works better if it does.) And yes, I realize that in a five book series, this means that the middle book has two themes (or one longer one): “Journey before Destination becomes Journey.” But I think that’s what it means to take the next step: every destination is just the beginning of another journey. We’re always changing, always growing.
I appreciated the differentiation from DID, specifically how that level of disassociation would interact with Shallan’s lightweaving, making the personas more or less real based on her thought process and emotional distress. If she isn’t careful the lies can become the new version of her, that’s what makes the concept of Formless so dangerou. This is from the website:
https://www.brandonsanderson.com/the-ten-orders-of-knights-radiant/
@11 Lance.
Yes, I was going to make a comment about this theory, but you beat me to it.
It had already seemed possible, but the preview of the prologue of SA5, seem to almost completely confirm this theory (i.e., the hearld that broke was not taln but rather Channa, who had been killed by Shallon right before the assassination of Gavilar).
I also like how you tie Shallon’s psychological hangups with the desolation.
@14 thanks for that info from Brandon on the Light Weavers. That means that the child, Shallan, could have stated the truth about herself as ” I chose my life over my Mother because she wants to kill me”. That is a monster truth for a child.
I’m guessing that in the next book we may get Radient’s reason for existing melding back into Shallan. I’m not exactly sure what Radient symbolizes? Is it competence and decision making? The ability to fight directly rather than using Light Weaving to trick the enemy. Shallan and Jashna used Light Weaving in dramatically different ways in the battle of Theylan City.
@CiraNaes: that quote made me think of how the Truthwatchers, theoretically, would also emphasize telling truth from fantasy or fiction. (“Theoretically” because we know almost nothing about the Truthwatchers yet, original recipe or “enlightened”.) And they are, of course, the other Radiants who have Lightweaving.
You know how Allomancy is defined as either pulling or pushing? Could the Radiants also have “inward vs outward” versions of the same Surges?
@goddessimho: Jasnah does not have Lightweaving. She has Transportation and Soulcasting (which is what she used). Shallan also has Soulcasting, though she does not do it that much–is that what you meant?
@carl, oops, you’re correct. I got myself mixed up. I was thinking about their fighting styles being so different and merged it into them using the same power differently when they were fighting. I will say that even had Shallan been able to use soul casting as effectively as Jashna she would be more likely to use it less directly than Jashna’s in your face style. She isn’t by nature wanting to confront issues/enemies directly. She just was driven to it by circumstance and then wasn’t able to face the fallout as the child she was.
Regarding Shallan and Jasnah’s soulcasting, I wonder if the differences in in what they’re able to accomplish are only partly due to experience and more due to the surges used by the Elsecallers. Elsecallers use Transformation and Transportation; is it possible they are inherently stronger in and have greater dexterity with soulcasting because they have a greater Connection to the Cognitive Realm? Maybe the ability to physically travel to Shadesmar gives them more influence over the souls of objects there. Or, perhaps, the “resonance” of their two surges manifests in enhanced with soulcasting.
I was pretty unhappy about the revelation here. It shouldn’t be possible to bond with a child, how can they say the oaths with understanding? And on the spren side, they should not seek a child to bond with – did Testemant encourage Shallan to kill her mother?
I also was wondering about the epigraph, and what the implications were for that.
Regarding Shallan, I loved this chapter as the whole concept of self-image, healing, self worth and integrating/accepting the less pleasant truths of ourselves, and finding strength/regrowth in weakness/brokenness is a theme I like (and sometimes pops up in my own writing) and I loved that moment where Veil finally gives Shallan her memories back, now that she is strong enough to face them, having protected her for long enough.
I’ll miss Veil, but also glad Shallan is on a path of realizing she can just be herself. (And I also think Adolin is a total sweetheart, it’s really sweet how much he appreciates and specifically asks for Shallan. I just really like what they each give each other.)
Also, since you mentioned the word ‘evanesce’ now I have to bring up one of my favorite songs by Evanescence which came out on their album last year, but the commentary made me think about: Broken Pieces Shine. (interestingly enough, there are a few songs of theirs which have always made me think of Shallan, as they do have a lot of songs about pain/trauma/healing and sometimes dissociation)
A couple of people have mentioned this, but I’ll quote @bookworm1398:
You seem to be applying US legal thinking to a magical creature that’s made of thoughts.
That is, the Cryptic involved is of the same “race” as Pattern. She presumably understood humans as little as he did when he first entered the Physical Realm. It’s very possible that she did not know Shallan was a child. After all, size has nothing to do with age among spren.
The question of the child understanding the bond also does not arise, because that isn’t a requirement (of the magic). Kaladin very nearly killed Sylphrena because he didn’t understand that he was breaking an oath, as an adult.
On a different subject, will Shallan’s guilt be relieved when she realizes she didn’t kill her mother at all, and she’s now Returned from Braize? Or will it transmute to fury at her mom for literally lying to Shallan for her entire life?
I love this chapter. It was kind of painful to not be the one writing about it – but not painful enough to give up a day of my anniversary vacation. :) The revelation of Veil’s purpose (which many of the readers understood, but Shallan had clearly avoided thinking through) was really lovely, and the “Did I do well?” just about broke my heart. She maybe did too well, and/or for too long, but she enabled Shallan to grow up to the point where she could face her memories without collapsing. Come to think of it, that’s pretty much what Cultivation did for Dalinar, too: gave him time to change and become a person who could face what he’d done and not fall back into being that person.
There’s a lot of discussion about Testament bonding Shallan as a child, and I’m totally with Carl @22 on this. Spren had been separated from humans for a very long time, and even now after several years of increased bonding, they don’t really understand human growth and maturation. And I’m not convinced that a child can’t understand the Ideals, at least enough to create a true bond with a spren; they just understand at a different level than an adult. As others have said, even the adults don’t necessarily understand exactly what their Ideals mean all the time. Particularly in this age when neither the spren nor the humans have much concept of what being a Knight Radiant is all about and how it all works, both species are feeling their way forward, and there are bound to be problems. (Okay, the Skybreakers and highspren have kept all the traditions, training, explanations, etc., but since they support the Fused/Odium, they aren’t exactly helpful.) Whether or not it was wise for Testament to bond with Shallan, I can’t see it as either nefarious or illegitimate.
jer @15 – It would have been courteous to either white out your spoiler, or at the very least put a spoiler warning in front of it. Just sayin’.
@23 Alice,
ooops, and done! Sorry to all!
@22 Carl: “On a different subject, will Shallan’s guilt be relieved when she realizes she didn’t kill her mother at all, and she’s now Returned from Braize? Or will it transmute to fury at her mom for literally lying to Shallan for her entire life?”
Not to mention that her mom tried to kill her. THAT would be an awkward reunion.
I don’t remember having encountered the theory that Shallan’s mother was Chana. But after doing a little extra reading I agree that the theory is plausible.
@23 Wetlandernw: I’m totally with you on the “Did I do well?” The question (and Shallan’s awnser) it’s one of the most beautiful moments in the series, so far. And a moment Shallan really deserved, because Brandon has been a little unfair with her, regarding her Truths, in comparison with Kaladin’s or Dalinar’s Oaths. They’ve never been as climatic or epic, but this moment of hers it’s a real climax and it’s epic, even if it is a private and inner epic, wich is, actually, the kind of epic a Lightweaver’s Truth should have. Shallan deserved a chapter about her progression as a Radiant like this, and we deserved it too, and I’m so glad a grateful for it.
Hey, uh, mods? I’m hoping this post gets through with extra numbers on my username & email, because I think the spambot has been eating my comments. I haven’t said anything weird afaik (rarely even comment at all) but I did link to wikipedia at one point (for some joke about stormlight hoverbikes?), and that’s about when I noticed my comments not showing up. not even a “moderator removed this comment” placeholder, just, every comment goes straight to the bitbucket. I thought maybe creating an account would get around it, but apparently I already have one and it’s disabled? and I don’t know what to do about that either, or how it happened. so, uh, help?
as for my actual comment… eh, I don’t want to say too much in case the spambot eats this too, but all these comments about strength got the song “strong in the real way” (from Steven Universe) stuck in my head :) this was certainly quite a chapter.