This week’s installment of the Wind and Truth reread isn’t for the faint of heart, Cosmere Chickens. Things are looking Very, Very Bad for our heroes on several fronts, and losses and deaths abound. Moash viciously brings down another founding member of Bridge Four, a Shardbearer falls, and the Azimir dome crumbles. We’ll discuss all this and more as we dive into chapters 81, 82, and 83. Get your beverage of choice ready for some heartfelt salutes to the fallen, and let’s begin…
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
Day 7 continues with chapter 81, “The Scholar With a Spear.” Our Radiants and soldiers are still doggedly defending Narak Prime. The plan is to trick the enemy forces into focusing on Narack Three rather than Narak Prime. They’ve set up a decoy: a Lightweaving of a store of infused gemstones that they only wished they had. Things are getting hairy, and then, amazingly, the singers and Fused head to Narak Three.
Then Sigzil gets a message from Leyten that they’ve found him. They’ve found Moash.
POV switch!
Adolin reveals a massive aluminum chain that he plans to use to trip the approaching thunderclast. He has the wagon on which the chain sits hooked up to Gallant, who is none too happy about it. They head toward the thunderclast, hoping to head it off. Neziham, the Azish Shardbearer who isn’t long for this world, is with Adolin, sent by Kushkam. They hear horns indicating a massive attack inside the dome but Adolin convinces him to stay to fight the thunderclast, telling Neziham where to aim his Blade to incapacitate the beast if they’re able to bring it down.
At one point, Adolin conveys to Maya that he might need her. She pleads with him to let her finish her mission, saying she’s almost there.
POV switch!
We get a short POV from Commandant Kushkam, leading the charge against the Deepest Ones who have literally begun rising up from the stones of the plaza in front of the dome.
POV switch!
When Sigzil arrives where Leyten has indicated that Moash would be, Leyten and his squires are fighting with no Stormlight and no Surges. Moash has a fabrial that cuts them off and they’re fighting him in the conventional way. Only Moash has access to Surges, and he has an Honorblade. Sig calls for the retreat, telling the others to get out—but he realizes that Moash is using Lashings to keep Leyten and the others from leaving. Then Leyten signals for his two remaining squires—Moash already got one of them—to flee to the sides, and he moves in to distract Moash.
Leyten grapples with Moash and a moment later, Sigzil is there and rams his special knife into Moash’s back. Moash turns to look at him and then Sigzil sees his eyes: diamond glowing with Voidlight. *shudder* Sig tries to engage and get Moash talking, telling him that he doesn’t have to do this. Moash claims he’s been betrayed in favor of the lighteyes, and suddenly Vienta realizes that Moash can see her, though she’s hidden. Sig tells her to go but then Moash lashes himself upward and slashes with a knife that bends the light.
It’s not Vienta that he kills, but Leyten’s spren. Then he attacks Leyten himself, stabbing him in the chest with the anti-Stormlight knife. Moash—being the coward that he is—then flees as more soldiers approach. Sig cradles Leyten, who gives a death rattle as he dies; Drew talks about it below. Leyten speaks as Sigzil and says that he’s the Scholar with a Spear and that he dies by the hands of a friend. It’s really quite bone-chilling. Though, of course, we know that Moash doesn’t kill Sigzil in this book.
Chapter 82, “The Primary Purpose of Science,” opens with Navani, still appearing as Melishi in the vision when the Windrunner stood against the Skybreakers. She’s able to converse with the Sibling in real time, as they share a small Connection with Navani “close” to the tower. The Sibling says that they cannot bring Navani, Dalinar, and Gavinor back to the Physical Realm. They suggest that perhaps one of their siblings might know how, but Navani tells them that the Stormfather refuses to help.
They lose their connection. Navani and Dalinar talk about Connection and, in short, determine that they need to Connect to the future vision of the Recreance. Dalinar says that they can’t trust what the Stormfather has told them. Navani says that the Sibling told her to follow the Windrunner, Garith.
In the midst of this, little Gav, who had fallen asleep in Dalinar’s lap, wakes to say he heard his father again. Of course, we know it’s not his father, and I begin to feel so much anger at what Odium is doing to him.
Navani creates a Connection to the near future of the vision and they appear in another vision, with the Windrunner they’ve been seeking, looking about a decade older—the same age he did when Dalinar first saw him in a vision of the Recreance, which began at Feverstone Keep.
POV shift!
Adolin does his best to wrap that chain around the thunderclast’s feet, but he’s not going to be nearly as successful as Luke was against that AT-AT. (For anyone too young to know what I’m taling about, see Tom Holland’s Spider-Man toppling Ant-Man in Captain America: Civil War, where he references my Star Wars reference.)
POV shift!
Kushkam is still outside the dome, dazed after being near the impact of a boulder that had been dropped by a Heavenly One. He suddenly feels a shock of coldness and his mind clears. The young Edgedancer has given him Healing and he orders someone to get her a helmet and to keep her alive before he grabs a pike and heads back into the fighting. Then a group of enormous Fused burst from the dome. Kushkam sends orders to drop the firebombs.
POV shift!
Adolin runs for the loose end of the chain, planning to hook it around the thunderclast’s other foot. To no avail. The thunderclast kicks and throws Adolin down the street, leaving Adolin lying on the ground, every piece of plate cracked and leaking Stormlight. Then, tragically, the thunderclast literally smashes Neziham to a bloody pulp, breaks the aluminum chain, and continues on its trek toward the dome.
Chapter 83, a Szeth flashback chapter titled “Hired Blade,” takes place nine and a half years before present day. Szeth has dealt the killing blow to the Windrunner Honorbearer, Tuko-son-Tuko, who has some interesting things to say before he dies—and I’m not just talking about the death rattle. He says that he knew Szeth would come for him the moment they sent him to train. He calls Szeth one of Pozen’s “glassy-eyed sheep” and predicts that Szeth will be thrown away, too. He urges Szeth to walk away, insisting “[y]ou don’t have to follow him.” And then the death rattle. (Again, see Drew’s section for more on the death rattles.)
So Szeth has won and is the Windrunner Honorbearer. He’s annoyed at the other Honorbearers as they seem more intent on congratulating themselves than congratulating him. Then he’s left with Sivi and tells her that they used him to kill Tuko. Sivi says he was sent by the spren; he counters by saying that he was sent by all of them. Sivi admits that Tuko was talking of rebellion, of civil war. Then Szeth says he wants to meet the Voice. She hedges, but then the Voice speaks to them both:
You have all done well. Let him fly to me, then go on his second pilgrimage.
Szeth, come to me at Ayabiza and seek the holy grotto beyond it. There, you will know the full extent of Truth—and you will have your answers.
Dun-dun-dunnn…
Of course, this is what causes Szeth himself to rebel and then be cast out… but we’re not quite there yet!
Lyndsey’s Commentary: Character Arcs and Maps
Chapter 81’s arch Heralds are Nale x2 and Vedel x2. Double the hooded Herald, double the… fun? Nah. There’s nothing fun about this chapter. I’d assume that we’re seeing Nale since Sigzil is fighting the Skybreakers over on Narak Prime, and Vedel is standing in for Adolin, as she usually does.
What a strange assortment of Heralds we have on chapter 82. Ishar at least makes sense, as we do see quite a lot of our resident Bondsmiths Navani and Dalinar, not to mention Melishi. Battah (Herald of the Elsecallers, attributes of Wise/Careful and role of Counselor) seems out of left field, though… as does the Wild Card, whom we usually see in connection to Hoid. He’s nowhere to be seen in this chapter, or anything connected to him… and while I suppose several of the characters could be seen as exemplifying the attributes of Careful/Wise, it seems like a bit of a reach.
Chapter 83 is a Szeth flashback chapter, so it tracks that Ishar shows up twice in the decaying arch. Jezrien’s presence can be explained by the fact that Szeth wins his Honorblade here, defeating the Windrunner in battle. And Battah of the Elsecallers, our final arch Herald…? Well, she’s not here for Sivi (Willshaper) or Moss (Lightweaver). Pozen, however, who is the guiding force behind a lot of this, does hold the Elsecaller Honorblade.
Sigzil
He hadn’t fit in with the scholars at home because he didn’t like sitting in musty rooms reading. He’d wanted to be out doing field research, learning and experiencing. That was why Master Hoid had chosen him as an apprentice. And it was why he was an effective Windrunner.
And now, why he could lead.
As I’ve stated before, we’re being given some very heavy-handed signals here (if you know what to look for) that Sigzil’s new-found confidence is about to be destroyed. While this chapter isn’t the death blow, it’s certainly a fatal wound, symbolically and literally.
Found him. North side.
Sigzil felt a sudden chill. Him.
Moash.
This standoff has been a long time coming. The rest of Bridge Four has just as much of a bone to pick with Moash as Kaladin does, now that he’s killed Teft in cold blood.
Adolin
He was a common man in a world of giants. Against these things, even Shardweapons were of middling effectiveness.
Adolin underestimating himself once again. He’s anything but a “common man,” but of course we’ll see this revelation come full circle by the end of the book with the Unoathed.
Was the Plate… worried?
“Not your fault,” Adolin mumbled, getting his bearings.
Dear sweet Adolin, not even questioning his connection to his “inanimate” Plate, just as he never did to his Blade. He just accepts it, much like how people will bond with pretty much anything if you put googly eyes on it.
A colossal stone fist smashed down on Neziham, crushing him against the ground. Plate exploded and popped in a sequence of spraying molten bits, and the thunderclast’s knuckles slammed into the street. Neziham’s Shardblade clanged free, rolling across the street, and didn’t vanish.
And so we lose another Shardbearer, and Adolin loses another battle (or so he thinks in this moment) against a Thunderclast.
Leyten
His squires ran in opposite directions. Leyten stood his ground to distract Moash.
Leyten proving to be a hero to the very last. He stands his ground in order to allow his squires to reach safety…
Moash lightly floated away from Sigzil, easily staying out of his reach, and landed near Leyten. There, he plunged the anti-Stormlight knife straight into Leyten’s chest.
…at the expense of his own life. And so another original member of Bridge Four falls. ::pours one out for Leyten and raises a middle finger in Moash’s direction::
Moash
“We were brothers, Sig,” Moash said. “But then you chose the Alethi lighteyes over me—you went to them, after they murdered us, degraded us. After all that, you became hounds in the laps of the Kholins.”
I’m going to take a step back from my own personal hatred of the character to attempt to provide a more unbiased view of this statement in particular. In a way, Moash is the dark version of Kaladin; a Kaladin who didn’t come to a grudging acceptance of the ruling elite—who turned instead to violent revolution.
I can understand his motivation a bit more than I did… oh, let’s say about six months ago, and leave it at that.
Moash suffered a great deal under the yoke of the lighteyes, and his actions reflect those experiences. He didn’t befriend them like Kaladin did, he never saw the other side, the humanity of the ruling class. He didn’t want to see. Will his “eyes” ever be opened to this? Will he find redemption?
Time will tell.
“I used to avoid emotion. Reject it. I welcome it now.
An interesting turn for his character. It’s just a shame that the emotions he’s welcoming are all negative ones.
Navani
She was quite aware of the injustices done to women by their society. That did not discount the different but still debilitating ones done to men.
I’m often struck by how mature Navani is, and how deep of a thinker she is. She takes nothing for granted, examining everything from every angle. A true scientist, through and through.
“Dalinar,” she said, “could you please ask before you do something unexpected with your powers?
And not only does she take the time to examine everything, she communicates her issues calmly and clearly! If every character involved in a love affair in a book would do this, we’d have a lot less novels!
“She has two children, a boy and a girl,” Navani said. “Like me. She is roughly my age. And judging by her bearing, she is proud, although she walks alone with no husband. As I did for years after Gavilar’s death.”
Her ability to empathize and form connections is another facet of her thoughtfulness.
Dalinar
“The man you were can’t fix this, Dalinar. He never could have.”
Dalinar truly has come a long way from the man he was before. His brute-force approach never would have been able to account for the intricacies of world politics on this scale.
Szeth
“Honor-nimi,” Szeth said, “you fought well.”
Tuko spat bloody spittle into Szeth’s face.
A fair reaction.
This made me chuckle. Only Szeth would react to someone spitting blood in his face with a “fair, I deserved that.”
“Or perhaps someone will kill me in delayed retribution for what I’ve done.” That felt good. Knowing that all of these acolytes who glared at him with such vitriol might someday have their own chance to kill him.
What a twisted life this poor boy had led, that he welcomes the chance for bloody retribution to be doled out to him.
Over five years since he’d last seen his sister. And at least a few months since that had finally stopped hurting.
Ouch. I don’t know what hurts more; the fact that it’s been so long since he’s seen his sister, or that the pain from that has finally abated.
Strategy
On the Narak front, we’re seeing the Skybreakers along with the Fused forces attacking Narak Prime. However, they turn mid-chapter to the fake gem archive on Narak Three, just as Sigzil had hoped they would.
Meanwhile, over in Azimir, the thunderclast and the Fused have arrived. The thunderclast begins moving towards the dome (shaded in blue below), and Deepest Ones arise from the plaza surrounding the dome to begin their own assault (represented by red Xs on the map). Things aren’t looking good for Adolin and company… especially when the Thunderclast kills the other Shardbearer, and the Fused crack open the dome like an overcooked egg.
Heavenly Ones were buzzing high above the city, dropping boulders—artillery that, after millennia of practice, they knew how to make as dangerous as any siege weapon.
Bad news for Azimir all around.
Drew’s Commentary: Invested Arts & Theories
“The Scholar with a Spear! I die by the hands of a friend! My spren screams in death, and I know that I have failed to lead! I am no captain! I am nothing! Vyre strikes me, and my eyes burn!”
Moelach’s presence on the Shattered Plains means we still get some new death rattles, and this one of course stands out. On a first read, this appears to be prophecy of Sigzil’s death later in the book… but on reread we know that he avoids it by breaking his bond with Vienta.
Now, this would hardly be the first time that future sight is shown to be mutable in The Stormlight Archive. Renarin is probably the most obvious example, when Jasnah elects not to kill him in Oathbringer, but we have other instances as well. This seems to be the latest.
But there’s still an awful lot of runway for Moash, clearly. Who knows what lies in store for him in the back five (and maybe after)? Sigzil is obviously still alive in the future of the Cosmere, as we know thanks to The Sunlit Man, but he does have at least one new spren bond in his future.
And then again, there’s the name used: Vyre. “Vyre” is a title, and while Moash currently holds that title, who’s to say that we won’t see some narrative echoes in another friend assuming that title much later?
I think this death rattle still has a strong chance of being true prophecy.
Got stopped on my way out of the city. Evidently I hadn’t filled out the proper forms for stealing a map. After four hours of mind-numbing paperwork—and an exorbitant fee—they let me go, map in hand. No wonder there’s so little crime here.
I always get a nice spike of joy whenever I see Nazh’s handwriting on one of these in-world maps or sketches.
For those who don’t know or don’t remember, Nazh has been hanging around for a while now. He works with Khriss (the author of the Ars Arcanum at the end of every book), he’s from Threnody originally, and he’s a sort of Cosmere James Bond. He gets into and out of tight places. Frequently.
The idea that Nazh got caught stealing this map and just had to spend four hours filling out forms, rather than being thrown into prison or caught fighting for his life, gives me a good chuckle. There’s a lot more to come with Nazh in the future of the Cosmere—including in the brand-new Isles of the Emberdark, which was just published on July 10. He’s a fascinating character.
“Perception,” she said, remembering the research into spren. “Perception changes Investiture, Dalinar. Wit talked about this place, and how it is a shifting web of Connections.”
Such a small, throwaway line. But such an important one nonetheless.
There are a lot of capital letters in the Cosmere, especially when it comes to the Invested Arts. Thanks to the metals charts in Mistborn, we know of the Spiritual attributes: Identity, Fortune, Connection, and of course Investiture itself. But undergirding all of them is a unifying operative.
Intent.
The Shards have Intents, the Dawnshards have Intents (Commands), and the utilization of Investiture itself requires Intent. And as Navani so rightly points out, perception affects intent.
Someone like Hoid, or Khriss, or Vasher, someone who has dedicated long spans of time to investigating the nature of Invested Arts, is much more capable with those powers than even someone naturally powerful, like Vin or Elend. They know and understand the limitations of different Invested Arts, and have spent a long time figuring out how to exploit them.
That’s how you have Hoid storing memories in Breaths, preventing himself from being overwhelmed by the weight of all the years he’s lived, or Vasher fueling his Divine Breath and continued existence with Stormlight rather than with a Breath per week.
I strongly suspect that the coming conflicts in the Cosmere will be driven by the pursuit of deeper knowledge just as much as they will by access to natural resources like metals or raw Investiture.
“I climb!” Tuko shouted, ragged. “I climb the wall of grief toward the light, locked away above! I climb, the weight of my darkened twin on my back, and seek the captive! The light I love! I… Storms… the light I love!”
This is a particularly dense death rattle, without an immediately intuitive meaning. That said, the fact that it’s happening at all is just as interesting to me. This means that there was an Unmade active in Shinovar a decade previously—perhaps just before Moelach was lured to Kharbranth for Taraganvian’s hospital experiments.
It goes to show how corrupted Ishar truly was, that he was so ingrained in Shinovar but didn’t take action against one of his enemy’s greatest lieutenants.
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 with our discussion of chapters 84 and 85!
Are Death Rattles on Roshar limited to what might happen on Roshar in the future? Or could someone have a death rattle about something that could/will happen on another Cosmere planet?
It’s tapping into the Spiritual, which as far as we know isn’t regionally specific like the cognitive
But so far everything has been Roshar related
The bigger question is WTF the point of the unmade even is 😆
Unnerve the enemy..?
Odium already has fufuresight.
I’ve always subscribed to the idea moelach is doing something way more important and the death rattles are just an AOE side effect
Difficult to assess imo. All we can say at the time of WaT is, that Moelach is bound to Roshar, its clients are dying on Roshar, so there is no Connection to the wider Cosmere. If people had connections to the wider Cosmere, who can say.
“Perception affects Intent” is also important because it explains how or why Shards can change. Rayse’s intent was that the Shard would represent Passion, so it was probably more split among all emotions rather than just the odious ones. Sazed is in search of Harmony, but the actions of outside forces might lead to Discord instead.
Just popping in to mention that I got Edgedancer vibes from the way Adolin slipped around the thunderclast’s legs during that fight. Do you think he was any more or less awkward than Lift on any given day?
Moash didn’t remotely suffer under the lighteyes even a fraction of what Kal did, his grandparents being left to die because of Roshone blows, absolutely, but Kal, Rock, others had friends and family viciously murdered in front of them and were enslaved haha.
If he truly believed that he wouldn’t have ran away when Renarin showed him he could have become radiant if he wasn’t suckered into the Diagram conspiracy.
He’s still hung up on book 1 BS when everyone else has long since moved past it, the caste system is basically nonexistent, dark eyed radiants have positions far above light eyes and he’s utterly full of it.
Hell, why would he want his pain taken away again if he didn’t realize he was a giant piece of shit 😆
Would love a cocky encounter with Herald Kal and he just casually ends him, especially since he killed Jezrien his predecessor. Not angrily, not a drawn out fight, just instant OHKO
Haha not just navani, the fact ALL the characters communicate, actually discuss issues, address things bugging them, compared to wheel of time where you could remove 6/7 books of BS if people actually did that 😂
It’s so refreshing a
Yeah we know future sight isnt remotely set in stone, there’s a billion different outcomes, I think the death rattles usually play out because the party involved isn’t directly hearing them
..this is the first instance where the recipient/subject of the death rattle is directly there to hear it, and therefore try and avoid it.
Maybe Leyton had some involvement, or Moelach can control it to try and hinder/help Sigzil. All the ones we heard on the plains or in the Diagram hospital were all about other people