It’s November! One more month-ish until the Wind and Truth release! It’s also Monday which means, dearest Sanderfans, that is time for another Wind and Truth read-along discussion! ::fanfare::
Last week we dove into chapters 25 and 26, with Dalinar, Navani, and Wit, and also some thrilling Shallan shenanigans… that girl, always getting mixed up with dangerous secret societies. ::shakes my head:: This week, we’re spending time with young Szeth, picking up where we left off with Shallan, and checking in on the buddy-cop adventure unfolding in Shinovar in chapters 27 and 28. That’s so much happening already, right? But we’ve still got a month to go, friends! And we are loving that we get to share these initial chapters with you, so let’s get to it…
Oh, and be sure to check out the social media section at the end of the article to see if we’ve spotlighted one of your comments!
Note that this post will possibly (likely) contain full Cosmere spoilers, so beware if you aren’t caught up on all Cosmere content. And please remember, when posting or commenting about these preview chapters on social media, follow your platform’s spoiler rules. Your comments here, however, don’t need to be spoiler-tagged, so feel free to comment as you will down below!
Paige’s Summary and Commentary
Chapter 27 is titled “What is Right” and it’s another Szeth flashback. Remember, he’s 11 years old and has just discovered a new rock on his family’s homestead. (Well, Molli the sheep discovered it. I guess her licking it wasn’t desecrating it.) So now, Szeth’s father, Neturo-son-Vallano is inspecting the rock as they wait for Szeth’s mother, Zeenid-daughter-Beth to arrive. Szeth, who’s fearful, asks his father if they’ll have to tell the Stone Shamans about the rock and he doesn’t get a straight answer… His father just tells him that it depends. Wait, what? It depends? On what? And here we see Szeth wishing he hadn’t found the rock, for though it will surely be cause for celebration, it could mean change and he doesn’t want change. He loves his life as it is, and my heart aches for this younger, more innocent Szeth who was capable of love.
Neturo says that the Stone Shamans may decide to close off the area, in case more stones appear. That they would have to tear down their house and possibly move to the town. Szeth doesn’t seem overly fond of the town; he likes how he can see the mountains and smell the sea breeze from their homestead. Szeth’s sister Elid says that she doesn’t want to move, that they shouldn’t be punished for finding a rock. Szeth, however, keeps going back to how they must do what is right. If it’s right that they have to move, then that’s what they’ll do.
Then Zeenid arrives and Szeth is shocked to see her carrying a Soulcast shovel. She says that they’ll relocate the rock a few hundred yards away and Szeth is appalled that she’s going to touch the rock. But she brought gloves! No need to touch any sacred rocks here, son! But Szeth asks his father if they can really do this and he says that it depends on what Szeth thinks, since he found the rock. Oh, great idea… Put the decision in the child’s hands. Well, the child says he’ll do what is right and his father counters with asking if losing their home is right. Dude. So not cool.
Szeth brings up the stonewalkers, stating that they’re hated because of how they treat rocks and his father gently corrects him, saying they just don’t know the right way. Elid pipes up, saying that the stonewalkers raid them and Neturo concedes and says that those men are evil but not because they walk on stone but because of the choices they make. Then he tells Szeth that they can move the rock if that’s what Szeth wants to do. Szeth asks if his father can’t tell him what to do and is told that no, he must make the choice but that Neturo will accept whatever Szeth decides. Szeth says they 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.
Szeth didn’t understand how they could all relax when it wasn’t right to move the rock. He wonders if he is somehow broken and thinks that if that’s what they had all wanted, why hadn’t they just done it instead of making him choose? …You’re killing me, here, Brandon!
So Zeenid digs out the rock, scraping the Soulcast shovel against it several times and each time, Szeth cringes at the sound. She reveals an 8-inch gray rock which Szeth thinks could fit in his hand. As they all stare at the rock, a horn sounds. It’s a raid—stonewalkers have reached the coast. Neturo tells Seth they must move the sheep inland, away from the sea, and Zeenid plucks the rock from the ground and hides it in a nook amongst the roots of a nearby tree.
And then… ha-ha-ha… the chapter ends. I guess we should’ve seen that coming!
Chapter 28 is titled “Obstacle” and we’re back with Shallan, newly discovered by her Ghostblood enemies, as she calls her armor spren to her and pursues Iyatil, summoning Pattern as a blade and Testament as a shield. It’s quite a striking scene if you take the time to picture it: Shallan… Radiant… whoever… resplendent in red Shardplate with a Shardblade and a Shardshield. Damn, girl! Get it!
She pursues Iyatil back into the main room and, of course, Mraize shoots a freaking bolt at her with his handheld ballista. She easily deflects it but wonders what would happen if a bolt containing an anti-Stormlight gem were to hit one of her shards. (What would happen, do you think Sanderfans?) Well, we won’t find out because when Iyatil takes the ballista from Mraize and shoots an anti-Stormlight bolt at Shallan, she dismisses her Plate and both of her spren and just… takes the bolt directly to her side! And it injects anti-Stormlight into her body! Eww. What the crem? Pardon me while I go wash my hands because, gross.
Before she got shot though, Shallan told Mraize and Iyatil that she has seen Mishram and that they would not survive finding her. It was definitely an interesting moment, one that caught Mraize off guard; he was definitely not expecting that reveal.
Iyatil grabs a knife and intends to finish Shallan off, but is interrupted by the ceiling melting. Lo and behold, a Stoneward has made their way into the chamber accompanied by Windrunners… here to save the day. ::more fanfare::
POV shift!
Szeth has just finished telling Kaladin a bit of his childhood (double flashback duty!) and then he goes all shy and quiet and refuses to continue. Typical assassin.
They come to a place where they can see green fields and towns laid out before them… and it’s beautiful. But against the mountains in the distance, they see an unnaturally dark, shadowy place along a rise. Szeth reveals that it’s a monastery, dedicated to Taln the Herald, and it has a Darkness about it. Kaladin worries that an Unmade is housed there and they decide to make camp for the night so they can approach the monastery during daylight.
Kaladin suggests starting a campfire though Szeth resists. But Kaladin feels like Szeth needs a little bit of Bridge Four camaraderie to come out of his shell. Do you think it’ll work, Sanderfans? A campfire, a little stew, and maybe Szeth will just BOOM… open up and accept Kaladin’s therapy? What say you?
Let us know in the comments, where you can share all the juicy theories you now have, or just talk about the feelings these chapters gave you!
Lyndsey’s Commentary
Chapter 27’s chapter arch Herald is Ishi (Ishar), Herald of Luck, patron of the Bondsmiths in all four spaces. His attributes are Pious/Guiding and his role is Priest. It makes a LOT of sense for Ishi to be the Herald of this Szeth POV flashback, as the entire chapter is about piety.
Chapter 28’s Herald of choice for the chapter arch, in all four spaces, is Chana, (Chanarach), Herald of the Common Man and patron of Dustbringers. Her attributes are Brave/Obedient and her role is Guard. Kaladin’s certainly acting the guard in this chapter, and Shallan’s being brave in standing up to the Ghostbloods.
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
I honestly don’t have much to say on this one. I don’t think these bits of parable are related to the chapters they precede, so much as that they’re meant to be taken all together. Once we have the full picture, I’ll quote them all together and we’ll see what we can glean from them…
Szeth
Something new meant possible celebration, possible attention, possible change. He preferred quiet days full of languid breezes and bleating sheep.
Poor Szeth. We know, from where he is now, that everything is going to change for him. He’s going to lose his family. His culture. His way of life. His innocence. Everything about his life that he loves as a child will be irrevocably taken from him.
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.
Ah, a difficult ethical dilemma, and a difficult place to be put in for such a young child. Should the will of the people supersede the divine?
As to his abhorrence of making decisions in general… We still see this inclination in Szeth in the present. He prefers to be told what to do. And in a way, who can blame him? If you’re not the one making the decisions, the responsibility for said decisions can’t be laid at your feet.
We show devotion because we choose to. And so, the kind of devotion we make is ours to decide.”
“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.”
Taking the holy word of your religion and interpreting it how you wish is something that we see in the real world in almost every organized religion. It’s why there are so many variations of Christianity. The very nature of the written (or spoken) word is such that it’s open to interpretation. But of course, this goes against Szeth’s nature. He wants everything to be black and white, to be told what to do, to not have responsibility thrust upon his shoulders. But life is never that simple, and we rarely get what we want.
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.
So the flashback we’re seeing is Szeth telling his own story to Kaladin. I’m honestly surprised that Kaladin’s managed to get this level of openness from him so swiftly, but I’m also happy to see it, for Szeth’s sake. He’s kept his trauma and pain bottled up for so long, with no one to listen to him. He needs this. He needs a friend.
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.
Ah, yes. The good old stew trick, of course. It’s nice to see that Rock’s legacy lives on, regardless of where he is…
Shallan
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.
Okay. That’s really cool. I’m also really glad to see Shallan being as sympathetic and understanding as she currently is. She’s really taking the time to think about her actions and how they’re affecting those she cares about.
She almost drew in Stormlight, but forcibly stopped herself.
I’m so impressed with her growth. She’s always been smart, of course, but this cool-headed analysis of the situation and doing the right thing—scientifically—in the heat of the moment is incredibly impressive.
Cultural Analysis
“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.”
I feel like there’s a deeper meaning here. Maybe it’s just the English Major in me looking for symbolism, but the lack of soil in Szeth’s perspective could also be symbolic of his peoples’ view that the Stonewalkers lack virtue. How can goodness “grow” in a land with no adherence to divinity? On Kaladin’s side, the Alethi seem to view the Shin as very wishy-washy, almost childlike. This makes sense, from a culture that holds war and battle in such a high regard, when looking at a pacifist culture. How can their culture “grow” when they have no strength, no bedrock of war upon which to base themselves?
Drew’s Commentary: Invested Arts & Theories
While Szeth’s flashbacks have started off relatively slow (when it comes to the magic and lore of the world, at least), things are starting to heat up a tad. It’s helped by the direct connection drawn between the flashback and Szeth’s conversation with Kaladin as they head into Shinovar.
“That darkness,” Kaladin said, “reminds me of the darkness around the Kholinar palace. An Unmade lived there. You really met one here, in Shinovar?”
And so we begin with the Cleansing of Shinovar plotline. Readers have been theorizing about what’s going on in Shinovar for ages now, and the Unmade have always been the leading possibility. But which Unmade are we dealing with here?
A few of them can be crossed off the list straight away: Sja-anat, Ba-Ado-Mishram, and Nergaoul have all been busy elsewhere, as have Re-Shephir, Ashertmarn, and Yelig-nar. That leaves us with three potential culprits: Moelach, Dai-Gonarthis, and Chemoarish.
Moelach is probably another one we can rule out, but it’s not a for-sure thing. Moelach, the Unmade that causes the Death Rattles, is known for moving around—and in fact Szeth notes in both The Way of Kings and Rhythm of War that Death Rattles were at one time common in Shinovar. But this taint on the region seems more permanent than Moelach would be capable of.
Then there’s Chemoarish, the Dustmother. We know basically nothing about her, except that, according to Hessi’s Mythica, she’s not one of the mindless Unmade. This is actually pretty noteworthy, since the three mindless Unmade are all one-word names (Nergaoul, Moelach, and Ashertmarn), and the more aware/sapient of them have hyphenated names (like Sja-anat and Ba-Ado-Mishram). So Chemoarish already holds a strange place in the pantheon of Unmade. I think we should be keeping an eye out for any signs of dustlike phenomena, whether in Shinovar or elsewhere.
The final potential Unmade culprit is Dai-Gonarthis, who according to Hessi may not even be one of the Unmade, but also might be responsible for the Scouring of Aimia. To me, this is a possible red flag waving, as what happened in Shinovar is still such a mystery…but maybe it’s another “Scouring” in progress?
Oh, and another long-lasting mystery? Taln’s Honorblade. Ever since it disappeared en route to the Shattered Plains after the epilogue of The Way of Kings, people have been feverishly guessing about what happened to it. One of the leading theories is that the Shin Stone Shamans figured out that Taln was back and went to get their mitts on it.
“Talmut’s”, Szeth said. “You call him Talenelat, or Taln. Stonesinew, the Bearer of Agonies.”
If the disappearance of the Honorblade was indeed the doing of the Stone Shamans, we’re gonna find out sooner rather than later. If not, one of the most contentious mysteries of The Stormlight Archive will live on!
Meanwhile, back on the Shattered Plains, Shallan is dealing with a new set of problems. Not only are the Ghostbloods (at least some of them) now bonded to Enlightened Radiant spren, but they have one heckuva weapon for taking down Radiants like Shallan, Testament Shardshield or no.
What would happen if anti-Light met a Shardweapon?
Shallan might be wondering about this, but this is a nice bit of dramatic irony. We already know what happens when this stuff comes into contact with a spren, and it’s not pretty. It was a great call to dismiss both Testament and her Plate before the bolt connected, to be honest. I can’t imagine an anti-light mini-ballista would have treated either of those very well. And speaking of great calls by Shallan, it was probably a clutch decision to not give in to either the urge to draw Stormlight to heal or to suck in the anti-Light that punched through her.
Then there’s this:
Then [Mraize], Iyatil, and Lieke—who had been lingering—vanished. The air around them warped with a light tinged black-violet, and they were gone.
There are a few potential possibilities for what this is. Clearly there’s something weird with their Surgebinding, given the Enlightened spren angle. Thus, the black-violet thing, which is reminiscent of Voidlight. But what did they even do? Was this a weird Lightweaving? Or is one of them an Elsecaller? We really haven’t seen much of Transportation, but the epilogue of Words of Radiance does give us one clue.
The air in front of him blurred, as if heated in a ring near the ground. A streak of light spun about the ring, forming a wall five or six feet high. It faded immediately—really, it was just an afterimage, as if something glowing had spun in the circle very quickly.
This doesn’t sound exactly like what Mraize and Iyatil did, but it’s pretty close, yeah? Especially with the differences brought through the Enlightened bond. What do you think? Are the Ghostbloods Lightweaving or Elsecalling here?
Fan Theories
Daxelkurtz on Reddit says this:
This is probably very silly, but I wonder if “Unite Them” is about to happen in another way. I wonder if the three Bondsmiths are about to meet, for the first time in many millennia: Dalinar, bonded to the Stormfather; Navani, bonded to the Sibling; and Ba-ado-Mishram, bonded to the Nightwatcher.
This week’s “Reddit comment that made Lyn crack up” goes to the aptly named laughinglord with this gem: **
I will always have a soft spot for Kelsier. But damn buddy, choose better people in your crew. Mraize is a trigger pull away from becoming a moustache-twirling villain!
Also, before anyone comes across this sentence from the end of chapter 27 and notes it as a typo:
They don’t reverence stone or the spren who live within them.
We assure you, coming right from Dragonsteel, that the wording is intentional.
We’ll be keeping an eye on the comment sections of posts about this article on various social media platforms and may include some of your comments/speculation (with attribution) on future weeks’ articles! Keep the conversation going, and PLEASE remember to spoiler-tag your comments on social media to help preserve the surprise for those who choose to wait for the full release. See you next Monday with chapters 29 and 30!
