Greetings, Sanderfans! Happy Monday and welcome back to our Wind and Truth reread. As Day 7 nears its end, we pick up with Dalinar snogging a Regal, witness Melishi the Bondsmith’s capture of Mishram, glimpse a more confident Renarin, and celebrate Lift finally getting to be the hero! You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll cheer! Come join us as we discuss the last two chapters of Day 7 and its two interludes (one of which is incredibly awesome!).
The book has been out long enough that most of you will hopefully have finished, and as such, this series shall now function as a re-read rather than a read-along. That means there will be spoilers for the end of the book (as well as full Cosmere spoilers, so beware if you aren’t caught up on all Cosmere content).
Paige’s Commentary: Plot Arcs
Chapter 86 is titled “River of Light” and as it opens, we rejoin Kaladin as he continues with his mission to help Szeth. He plays the flute, he makes stew for Szeth—who pointedly asked for it after Nale was praising ration bars—and he talks to the Wind.
We actually see something of a breakthrough with Szeth. He talks to Kaladin about the choice he must make in terms of continuing to kill people, and Kaladin just listens and nods. Then Szeth says that he would welcome Kaladin’s thoughts. Well, here’s a twist!—Szeth actually asking Kaladin for guidance!
Instead of offering advice, though, Kaladin tells Szeth the story of when he was a slave, and another slave by the name of Goshel asked him to teach the rest of them to fight so that they could escape. Kal could tell that the man had been a soldier, and it eventually came to light that Goshel had killed his commanding officer. Szeth is appalled by this, of course, until Kaladin informs him that Goshel’s commanding officer had ordered Goshel to burn a village.
Szeth realizes why Kaladin told the story, because Szeth himself is being ordered to do something that he really doesn’t want to do, and doesn’t feel is right. But he also feels as if he has no choice but to continue killing the shaman at each monastery.
Kaladin asks Szeth how following orders is working out, in terms of his thoughts and emotions, and Szeth admits it’s not going well. I don’t know, though… I mean, Szeth seems to have improved his mindset since setting off on this quest with Kaladin. Just days ago, he was unwilling to listen to Kaladin at all and now he comes to him for advice. He joins him for stew in the evenings, he listens to Kaladin.
I think that just having someone to listen to you is a huge help; it’s why therapy is such a great thing. You talk about your issues with the therapist, they listen, they give you tools to use, as Kal does here, and they remind you of those things when you forget. Then they applaud your progress when you tell them the next time that you remembered you had the tools and used them correctly.
So at this point in the story, not looking ahead just yet, but Kaladin is starting to see some success in his therapy with Szeth. And it’s really awesome to follow along with this arc! I kind of can’t wait to talk to my therapist in a couple of weeks to tell her about this chapter. Szeth helps himself to another bowl of stew and wanders off. Kaladin resists the urge to go after him because Szeth must make his own choices. Thinking it through, Kaladin reaffirms that he has to live for himself.
Syl senses something different in the bond at this point, and asks Kaladin if something just changed. Kaladin says he doesn’t feel any different and Syl says she feels warmth and peace. It’s rather a nice moment
Then Szeth’s highspren shows up, asking for therapy. It’s touching and comical at the same time, to meet this spren, 12124. Considering the fact that we know where he’ll end up going and who he’ll end up going there with, it’s super cool to see him now, as a spren bonded to a human for the first time. He’s uncertain about who to listen to and how to behave. Kaladin suggests that 12124 talk to Szeth, listen to his opinions, and find out what he wants—and also not to be too hard on himself. It’s very sweet, and the highspren says he feels better and then vanishes.
Kaladin decides to take some stew to Nale, who he finds floating fifty feet above the ground. The Wind shows up asking Kaladin to help Nale. (Like he doesn’t have enough on his to-do list?) But then she shows Kaladin memories of the Herald standing up for people, fighting for them, protecting them. She doesn’t want the Heralds to die as they are, broken and miserable, she wants them to find peace again.
So not only is Kaladin using therapy to help Szeth, but he’s providing his services to Szeth’s spren, who will soon be Aux. And he’s supposed to somehow help Ishar. And now the Wind wants him to save Nale and the other Heralds? Our boy has his work cut out for him for the next few days!
POV Shift!
Shallan speaks with Renarin about what exactly Mishram said to him during their encounter. Rlain thinks they need to find her prison if only to keep it from Mraize, and Shallan agrees. Renarin is hesitant, though. Glys says that Mishram’s been manipulating their visions and Shallan asks the others if they saw Mishram’s face or anything odd in their last visions. Then she confesses that she changed her vision from one where she killed her mother to another, happier time.
Then Glys interrupts to alert Renarin that Dalinar and Navani are currently in an important moment in time, when Mishram was originally captured—so off they go to join the vision.
Chapter 87 is titled “Love and Betrayal” and opens with Dalinar (as Garith) being kissed by the Regal. He doesn’t pull away, but also doesn’t respond very enthusiastically, and she asks him if he’s all right, pointing out that that he had wanted to show the others. So at Dalinar’s urging, she tells the other Windrunners of how she and Garith met. The Windrunners are shocked, insisting that the singers are their enemies, and Dalinar argues that they’re people, the same as them
Then Dalinar gets a feeling that this vision isn’t going to end well when the Regal tells him that “she” agreed to come, and that his allies need to know that the singers’ new god is different. As Mishram approaches, Dalinar sees the face of the present-day imprisoned Mishram in the face of the Mishram in the vision. It flickers back and forth, and then settles on then Mishram.
Mishram suddenly senses the presence of the others—Melishi begins creeping up behind her with a large gemstone. Garith’s lover, upon seeing the Bondsmith, gets very excited, thinking that now the others will listen to him and they can forge a peace. Dalinar wishes he could tell Mishram to run, knowing what will happen, but he can only watch as Honor’s voice gives the order and Melishi imprisons the spren. Dalinar feels as if something in the world rips apart and the rhythms and tones of Roshar stopped for a few seconds before coming back. Then the singers all scream and change to Dullform right there in front of everyone. It’s rather ghastly.
As Garith confronts Honor for breaking their oath, Honor shows him a vision of Garith himself leaving thousands dead. Honor says that the Radiants will end up destroying Roshar. And finally, Dalinar understands the Recreance. All of the visions he’s seen, all of the information he’s gathered over the last days in the Spiritual Realm, and he finally understands.
Honor looks at Dalinar and admits that he’s the Stormfather. He says he must stop hiding them from Odium, that Dalinar is Odium’s now. And Dalinar is thrust back into the Spiritual Realm with no Connection. And Odium is there.
So, pretend we don’t know what will happen next: Dalinar has learned just about all he can in the Spiritual Realm and the Stormfather freaking abandons him to Odium. He has no Connection to Navani and Gavinor, and he still needs to find Honor and do what he came to this storming place to do…but it’s looking pretty dire!
POV Shift!
Renarin kneels beside the fallen Regal who had kissed Garith. He tells Rlain that he doesn’t blame Mishram for hating them but Rlain says that Mishram is wrong. He says that singers can love but they associate powerful emotions with him (meaning Odium)…though it doesn’t stop them from hating. They see Dalinar talking to “Honor” and Melishi hiding behind the god. Before heading that way, Renarin tells Garith that he’ll find a way to make it right and it’s almost as if the Windrunner looks directly at him and nods, tears in his eyes.
The vision unravels but Renarin hears what the Stormfather tells Dalinar about belonging to Odium’s. Then he’s thrust out of the vision, losing track of everyone for a moment. When they’re all back together, Renarin comments that they need a Connection to find Mishram. However, as they attempt to Connect to her by feeling how she and the other Unmade must have felt in that moment of betrayal, a shadow falls over them and Odium thrusts them apart, separating them until he has time to deal with them.
Thus ends Day Seven.
Interlude 13 is a Lift interlude and WOW! is it… well, awesome. I won’t recount the play-by-play, but we get to see Lift not only rescue her red chicken, but Zahel, as well. And he’s so impressed by her talent that he offers to teach her. After feeling inadequate and guilty over Gavinor’s loss for so long, and incompetent whenever she needed to do something, she finally stands up and says “Not today!” and truly becomes awesome. She realizes that she can’t be ten anymore, that she needs to grow, to learn. It’s quite a moment for her and I was captivated while rereading this section. I’m keeping it brief, here, but needless to say I got rather emotional…
Interlude 14 is, of course, an Odium interlude and it is titled “The Correct Future” and it’s very short. He plans to deal with Sja-anat’s “rats” at a later time; for now, he focuses on Dalinar. He feels that he has to break him down so he can rebuild him. Well, that’s terrifying. Odium’s going to hurt Dalinar in order to win, and we all know how he’s going to do that, don’t we? *sigh*
Lyndsey’s Commentary: Character Arcs and Maps
Hoid’s influence is strong in this chapter, both in the music that Kaladin plays and the way he tries to guide Szeth and 12124 with stories and questions. Nale is also obvious, as he appears personally in the chapter as well as representing Szeth (and 12124 as well) as Skybreakers. And finally we have Palah (though I’ll note that I really had to zoom in and squint to figure out it was her), who’s probably here to represent our resident two Truthwatchers in the last part of the chapter.
This chapter’s a doozy, isn’t it? Fitting that we have a wide range of Heralds to represent it. Palah and Shalash are likely here as symbols of their respective Radiants, while Jezrien is here for Garith and Nale… hmm. Why is Nale here? He wasn’t present in the scene, nor were any of his Skybreakers. My best guess is that he’s here since Melishi is acting like a judge? But that’s a stretch.
Vedel being represented twice tracks, since she’s the Herald of the Edgedancers. The Wild Card, as usual, is here to represent Hoid’s influence on the scene – he’s the one casting the illusion on Lift to look like Navani, after all. And Chana? I think she’s here because Lift is displaying her trait of Bravery.
Finally. we have Odium’s interlude, and this one features: Nale, Ishar x2, and Vedel. This is a lot of Heralds for so short a chapter. Ishar can be explained by Dalinar’s presence as a Bondsmith and because Odium feels that he’s being pious and guiding Dalinar to a better future. Vedel, probably due to her attribute of healing; Odium (horrifically) thinks he’s doing that, too. And Nale, for justice. As always, Taravangian is justifying his own horrible acts under the lens of gentle, loving, guiding, justice. (Ugh.)
Kaladin
He’d believed, deep down, that he would return to Urithiru with the secrets of the Heralds—maybe even with Ishar—and save the day.
This is some nice lampshading of the fact that a good portion of the fandom also thought/hoped this in the leadup to this book.
Aside from that, however, it’s a good indicator of how far Kaladin has come. He’s come to terms with the fact that he doesn’t need to be the hero and save everyone all the time. (And yet, he sort of does anyway, doesn’t he?)
He worried that more of his friends might have died during this most recent fighting[…]
This one hits hard, considering the fact that he’s right. Leyten’s just died at this point.
With the song’s help, he felt… felt he could remember the fallen—but remarkably, not feel their loss was his fault.
So much progress, in (relatively) so short a time.
Szeth deserves to make his own choices, he thought. If I step in, I take that from him—and that’s not who I want to be.
This recognition of having to be aware of his instincts and when they might be antithetical to his desires is another big step for him.
Szeth
I should carry on, regardless of the cost to me.”
He feels that he needs to atone for his sins; for the murders he carried out on the orders of others. His self-flagellation is understandable, if not necessarily warranted.
12124
“I don’t feel like I’m helping, but I’m also making them all disappointed!”
Who hasn’t been there, trapped between two choices which feel equally as bad? If he does as his fellow Highspren demand, he ruins Szeth’s life. If he helps Szeth, he disappoints his “family” and his own kind. Caught between a rock and a greatshell.
The Heralds
If they die now, they die as they are. But their journey is not complete, Kaladin.
I quite liked this whole exchange with the Wind, showing Kaladin all the good things that Nale did back when he was sane. It’s easy to forget that these characters were heroes for millennia, since all we see is the mad side of them. But they deserve a chance to heal, just like anyone else.
Shallan
Shallan wanted to ignore the comment, but to do so risked Formless. So she acknowledged it.
I can’t get over how much progress Shallan has made since the last book, too. She’s not sticking her head in the sand anymore; just calmly acknowledging the horrors of her past, and setting them aside until she has time and energy to deal with them.
More and more, she was trying to let the points of light—not the darkness between them—guide her.
This seems like a direct result of her remembering that night when she told stories to her brothers. These flashbacks are helping her, despite BAM’s best efforts to the contrary.
Dalinar/Navani
He felt a moment of discomfort and betrayal himself, for Navani’s sake. He knew that she would understand, but few people would enjoy seeing their spouse in the arms of another.
I mentioned this last week, but it sure is a good thing that Navani is as understanding and mature as she is!
Dalinar
[…] he’d attacked Herdaz in his youth, yet the Mink worked with him. His people had fought the Vedens for centuries, and now one was his daughter-in-law.
Honestly I’m surprised to see this type of introspection so late in the game for Dalinar. I’d have thought that he’d have had this particular revelation already—after all, Kaladin did, and he’s not nearly so old and “wise” as we expect Dalinar to be.
Ba-Ado-Mishram
“Odium would burn them, so I made my play, infusing myself with the full power of his perpendicularity.
Rather than taking the power for her own selfish means, she’s doing so to try to make peace and save her people.
Garith/Shmone
Drawing shockspren, Garith caught the direform next to him, preventing her from hitting hard, but all four singers began to writhe and scream.
I can’t even imagine the heartbreak this poor Windrunner endured in this moment and the ones to come. To watch as your lover’s mind and personality are wrenched from them, never to be the same? It’s like an immediate version of Alzheimer’s, and I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.
He clung to his love and started humming. A rhythm. The Rhythm of Joy. A human, outside of one of the visions, had learned them—and was desperately trying to bring her back.
This is utterly heartbreaking.
The Radiants of Old
Garith would walk away from his oaths, as would most of the others, because what were words like those after a tragedy like this? After God abandoned you, and you saw what you believed was the future?
Suddenly it all becomes clear. The only reason these people abandoned their spren, their friends and bosom companions… their oaths… their occupations… their entire lives. They did it to save the world… the very reason they took their oaths to begin with, so required them to abandon them.
Rlain
People can be wonderful or terrible; an enemy, though, can only be something to fight.”
Rlain consistently impresses me in how wise, empathic, and understanding of others he is. He quietly assesses situations and people, thinking deeply on them before voicing his opinion – if he does at all.
“What is it?” Rlain asked, subtly putting himself between the thing and Renarin.
Awwwww he’s protecting him! Not that Renarin needs protection anymore, as we’ve seen, but it’s a sweet instinct regardless.
Lift
They kept giving her games or books to try to keep her occupied. As if she could read. “Young ladies are supposed to like these,” they said. As if she were a lady.
I don’t know who these people are who they put in charge of Lift, but they clearly don’t know our girl very well. At least they gave her a bunch of exotic foods, that’s actually a pretty good idea that might keep her distracted.
For about five minutes, anyway.
“I just wanna be parta stuff,” she muttered. “I was one of the first. And I’m never part of anything.”
Ah, like most children, she just wants to be involved. Unfortunately, Adults are the ones choosing her future, and Adults tend to underestimate her based on her age and a desire to keep her safe. How dare they?
I’ll trip. I’ll knock into people. People are dyin’. Gav is lost. But I’m here in this uncomfortable chair, savin’ nobody. Because if I were there? It goes wrong.
Ahhh, and here we see Lift find her maturity. Kind of. She’s blaming herself and thinks that if she just stays out of the way, things will be better… when in reality, the things that went wrong did so for a lot of varied reasons, of which she was only one small part.
Then smiled at him. “Thanks for backin’ me up.”
“Always,” he said.
I’m very glad that Lift has such a stalwart and true friend. After all she’s been through, she deserves one.
Even if he is a Voidbringer.
And what she wanted, what she needed, was to be a hero. Even if only to a single frightened animal.
One can hardly blame her for that. Who wouldn’t want to be a hero?
She hated the weakness inside that refused to admit, deep down, that she was alone.
Poor kid. She’s not alone. She has Wyndle, if she’d only recognize it.
But everything… everything was changing, no matter what she decided. Even the Nightwatcher had lied to her. She couldn’t pretend she was ten anymore. Pretending she was ten…
That had gotten Gav in trouble. Because she refused to grow, and refusing to grow meant refusing to learn.
Even Lift is accepting her flaws and moving past them in this book.
Taravangian/Odium
The destruction of Kharbranth would be his greatest sacrifice, its loss evidence of commitment.
Sanderson is doing a really great job of blurring the language just enough to make first-time readers believe it, while showing re-readers (like us, dear Chickens) what’s really going on. The entire “sacrifice” was nothing but a ploy to get Cultivation off his back.
Maps
Kaladin, Szeth, Nale, and their Spren are just outside of the Dustbringer monastery when they see the Great Spren Migration over their heads, heading north towards the last three monasteries.
Drew’s Commentary: Invested Arts & Theories
“Maybe I should have joined the dissenters.”
We’ve briefly touched on the other faction of the Skybreakers, much earlier in the Readalong/Reread, but this is another good reminder about them—and a reminder that they’re active right now. This offshoot faction really feels like a big ole question mark.
Where are they? What are they doing? Why didn’t they come forward to speak with Dalinar’s Radiants? Why aren’t they fighting in the Desolation—or, if they are, what hidden battlefront are they on? Could they be deep in enemy territory, perhaps in Iri or Rira? I can’t help but think about the clashes the coalition forces have had with the Skybreakers in Rhythm of War and now on the Shattered Plains, and how much help it would have been to have their own contingent.
Your duty here is far more important. I need a champion too. All of the spren will need one.
This whole conversation between Kaladin and the Wind is tantalizing. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve said that Wind and Truth revealed so many new elements of the magic and world of Roshar, but I’ll say it again. There is clearly more to learn still about the Wind, Stone, and Night—and the Heralds! I think it’s easy to feel like we have a great understanding of them after this book, between the histories we saw through Dalinar’s eyes and the new insight from Taln and Nale and Ishar… but we have to remember that the back five books are supposedly going to focus a lot more on the Heralds.
Sanderson doesn’t reveal his secrets ahead of time. We may have a solid understanding of the history of the Heralds after Wind and Truth, but these moments with the Wind are lampshading some serious new potential with the Heralds in the coming years. There’s this, for instance:
The Heralds are Connected to Honor, the Wind said. In a way that once gave them power over Odium, they can also have power over Honor. And all his creations. To bind them.
It feels a tad innocuous in the moment, but Retribution recontextualizes so much about this. Having a sort of reverse ability to act upon Retribution via Honor could be a serious game-changer. And then of course there’s the spren, which we already know are protected by the new Oathpact, and the potential of Honor splitting off from Retribution (maybe being bound away from Taravangian by the collective Heralds?) and being re-established as a discrete Shard.
Lots to think about, here.
And, at long last, we get the true events of the Recreance.
Sure, the idea of Surgebinding unfettered was part of it. The Radiants didn’t want to repeat the mistakes of Ashyn on Roshar. But the core of it, the unvarnished essence, was that Honor himself encouraged an utter betrayal of oaths. And speaking of betrayals?
“You, Dalinar,” the Stormfather said, sounding exhausted, “have seen far too much. I hope you are satisfied. I… I must stop hiding you from Odium. You are his. And this is… this is his domain now.”
The Stormfather is much, much more than Dalinar suspected, much more than he ever revealed. We’re not quite to the answers for that just yet, but we see a totally new side of him here. This is so far beyond the Stormfather lying, way back in the prologue. This is world-altering stuff.
And so we come to the end of Day Seven… but not the end of this week’s commentary! We still have the post-Day interludes, and one of them is just chock full of Cosmere goodness:
However, a cage hung from the ceiling with her chicken in it. Her heart leaped. Hanging near it was some old guy. He seemed to be unconscious, or maybe dead, hanging by a chain from the ceiling, and was way, way too naked.
Lift is really growing up now, and part of that maturity is apparently getting thrown into the deep end of interplanetary Cosmere politics. She goes looking for her Aviar and finds who else but Vasher, tortured and imprisoned by the Ghostbloods. And not just any Ghostbloods:
One woman in a havah, with rings glittering on her fingers.
Axindweth, a full Feruchemist. At this stage of the Cosmere, vanishingly rare and terrifyingly powerful.
And Lift beats her, despite her enhanced speed. She does it in such an impressive manner that she even gets the full attention of Vasher, who makes her an offer.
“You need,” he said softly, “a teacher.”
Lift’s unique ability to metabolize Investiture, combined with Vasher’s centuries of knowledge and combat skills, promises some truly incredible stuff to come in book six—which, if you recall, is planned to be the Lift flashback book. We’ve got a treat waiting for us on the far side of the Roshar gap.
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 haven’t read the book yet.
See you next Monday as we reach the beginning of Day Eight—join us for our discussion of chapters 88, 89, and 90!
One nitpicking question:
Do we really know that Axindweth is a ghostblood?
While they have certainly knowledge of each other, she exhibits very mercenary vibes and none of the loyality they at least pretend to have for each other.
At least I never saw it confirmed.
The question may be more about which faction of Ghostbloods she belongs to.
Well, are there more than two?
As of Iyatil, I do not have the impression, that she would accept her authority, especially because she seems to be more capable.
As for Kelsier, he is certainly ruthless, but Axindweth exhibits a certain selfishness, something I think goes against his principles.
What we do know is, that they were all around Gavilar, Vasher included. So it stands to reason, that they did at least have known each other since that time.
But the only known fact is that Mraize murdered Gereh, the other Feruchemist associated the the Kholins, and that Gereh was an antagonist of Axindweth.