ByDanielD
A very happy Veteran’s Day/Remembrance Day/Armistice Day to our readers, and to the veterans in today’s chapters: Dalinar, Renarin, Drehy, Lift, Sigzil, and especially Rlain (running those bridges was as dangerous a job as you could have in Sadeas’ army). Today’s chapters feature more character development than plot development, but that doesn’t make them any less important — journey before destination, after all. We get some insight into Lift’s continued maturity, and then Renarin and Rlain share a moment that is very meaningful to the young Kholin — and holds a terrifying vision of the future.
To best enjoy this article, first read chapters 29 & 30 of Wind and Truth over at ReactorMag.com. This article contains major spoilers for all the previous Stormlight Archive books.
Shallan peeks into Shadesmar. Lift keeps Gav company and learns about microbiomes.
This chapter opens with an epigraph I really liked:
Those who offer blanket condemnation are fools, for each situation deserves its own consideration, and rarely can you simply apply a saying—even one of mine—to a situation without serious weighing of the context.
—From The Way of Kings, fourth parable
It’s a bit of a “no duh” — of course you shouldn’t blanket apply sayings or judgements. But people love using quotes and judgements that way, so maybe it isn’t so no duh. Especially in these polarized times, where everyone seems more and more comfortable painting with broad brushes, this parable struck me as timely.
Not a ton to take in here; this is mostly a wrap up of her semi-successful raid on the Ghostblood hideout. It’s fun seeing people be impressed with the leather armor Shallan stole — probably cow leather, though I don’t think it’s been specifically noted that Scadrial has cows.
It is surprising that Shallan is surprised that Mraize was able to get away, and it takes her a moment to realize it was probably the Surge of Transportation that allowed them to escape. Her confusion stems from her not thinking it was possible that the Ghostblood Radiants were able to use their powers effectively, but that was never a particularly well-founded assumption.
It’s still not totally clear how or why Shallan is able to peek into Shadesmar and even pull herself there, but the current best guess is that it’s because she has bonded two spren. It makes sense that bonding spren, which are from the Cognitive Realm, would give the human doing the bonding easier access to the home realm of the spren.
She almost tried pulling herself all the way into Shadesmar, something she wasn’t supposed to be able to do with her powers—but which she’d done before regardless. Two bonds. Two spren. Storms, that explained some curious events in her past; instead of her pulling them into her realm, they pulled her somewhat into theirs.
The chapter ends with Shallan planning to ask someone for help with the Ghostbloods — I’m having a hard time thinking of who she’s going to go to, since she’s already got the Windrunners helping her with this operation. Perhaps Jasnah, as she was the original Radiant fighting against the organization.
There are likely going to be a lot more Lift chapters in this book — whether that’s good news or not is no doubt a contentious subject among readers. The way she interacts with Gaz is very sweet; we knew about this side of her from the Edgedancer novella, but it’s still a shock when Lift is being something besides obnoxious.
Her deal with Cultivation obviously hasn’t ended up how she expected, as Lift continues to mature despite asking not to change — her personality hasn’t seemed to shift, so my current guess is she’ll remain “herself” even as her body develops. In any case, Lift has a crush on Sigzil, it seems, and she also admires Drehy’s figure; the typical teenage urges appear to be manifesting in the young Edgedancer.
“I don’t stare at him,” Lift said, watching the Azish Windrunner give orders to subordinates. So confident, yet so studious. Not a brute, like so many of the Alethi. He had thoughts. He was smart. Not so tall as to be intimidating, but tall enough to be striking.
She’s not wrong.
It’s tough reading the sections with Gav — the poor kid is seriously traumatized. Who wouldn’t be, after your mom got taken over by an Unmade and your dad got killed trying to rescue you? He’s lucky he has Lift, who is relatively wholesome in her interactions with Gav — even if the section starts with her apparently having explained to the boy how to build an exploding toilet.
What really surprised me in this chapter was Lift’s unhappiness with being left out of the meeting Dalinar was holding, and her jealousy at Baramaz leading the Edgedancers instead of her. It doesn’t strike me as very Lift-like to want to participate in meetings or lead a Radiant order, but apparently those are things she wants! This may also be part of her development, but if the boon she received really stopped her from changing, it can’t be that. Perhaps she has always wanted to be more involved in things, and now that she’s actually close to those things, it hurts more when she is left out.
The Sibling confirms something I’d speculated about previously, in that spren’s personalities can vary significantly, even among spren of a specific type. this means Wyndle is extra dorky, which makes sense — Maya sure doesn’t seem like someone who would have a chair garden. Druff or not, Lift sharing the secret handshake with Wyndle is a sweet moment, and marks a real turning point in the relationship between the Edgedancer and her spren — she doesn’t even call him a voidbringer once during the whole scene.
Renarin has a vision, and Rlain is able to enter it.
This is a new chapter header image, right? Renarin and Rlain standing back to back, with the stained glass of a vision behind them. Good news for Renarin, as it suggests the two men will be spending a significant amount of time together this book — and we learn in this chapter that Renarin has feelings for the singer.
Renarin disliking how things have changed since the Sibling woke up creates an interesting perspective shift for the reader — while obviously it’s better that Urithiru is alive again, and even though Renarin dismisses his thoughts as “silly”, it’s not wrong to prefer things brisk. Renarin’s unique personality is captured nicely by a particularly strong simile from Brandon:
After the report, Drehy lingered, and Renarin started to sweat more in his jacket. This was the part of conversations he always had trouble with. He’d already said thank you. Should he try small talk? How should this end? Everyone else seemed to know what to do—they flowed in and out of conversations like eels in a shared current.
Renarin was the rock in that current.
We’ve spent a lot of time criticizing Brandon’s similes, so it felt important to highlight one that was strong. As an aside, based on the plant talk in this section, it sounds like Brandon did at least a bit of research into how agriculture works; the consideration of pollinators is a real one when trying to cultivate plants.
The conversation with Drehy is another sweet moment from today’s chapters, especially because of how well Drehy offers Renarin support. The way Renarin asks for clarification when he can’t understand Drehy’s body language, and the way Drehy offers Renarin an opportunity to ask questions — without telling Renarin what to do — demonstrates real friendship and support.
We know that Venli doesn’t actually talk to her spren, and now Rlain’s spren Tumi seems to be similar, though the chapter states that “Tumli rarely spoke” — so it sounds like spren who bond listeners can speak, but tend to pulse rhythms instead. Rlain harmonizing with his spren is neat — having musical conversations sounds very satisfying.
Rlain seems to be able to be more “himself”, with the influence of his current form suppressed, thanks to being a Radiant. This tracks with what we know about a person’s Spiritweb — because Rlain is Radiant, he is more able to maintain the version of Rlain that he sees himself as.
The most important part of this chapter is Renarin’s vision, however. Rlain being able to enter the vision is a cool surprise, and obviously means a lot to Renarin. Until now, he has been alone in the visions, unable to really share them with anyone. There’s a lot to unpack here with the vision, first and foremost this bit about the old gods:
“Do we know why they appear?” Rlain said. “What determines when we see one of these, and which… possibility is depicted?”
“I haven’t been able to figure that out,” Renarin said. “Not fully. Though Glys says…”
“Swells,” Glys said. “There are swells in the rhythms of Roshar. Currents, and old gods, will watch.”
“Old gods,” Rlain said as Tumi, in his gemheart, changed to the Rhythm of the Lost. “The Unmade?”
“Older,” Glys said. “Older still than Honor, Cultivation, and Odium.”
In addition to revealing more about how the visions work, this is yet another mention of the gods before the Shards. It’s becoming clear that The Wind, and similar gods, will probably end up playing a pivotal role in Wind and Truth — heck, Wind is right there in the title!
Another part of the visions that stood out to me is the two images of Renarin on the throne — no differences are mentioned, but it seems strange that this image would appear twice. I suspect there are a few paths Renarin can take on his way to leadership. The fact that he’s wearing singer clothes makes me wonder if him and Rlain do end up together; it could also mean that Renarin does something to help unite singers and humans. Renarin’s attempts at humming the rhythms during this scene support the idea that he ends up unifying his people with the singers in some way.
The other futures shown include Dalinar seeing Alethkar destroyed, and a vision of twelve figures in a field. The first one isn’t as interesting, as it’s what we saw in Dalinar’s vision, but the next one is worth examining. One of the figures is almost certainly Syl — a woman described as having very blue skin, white hair, and a blue skirt. Renarin’s sense of peace from the image suggests that there’s a future in which Kaladin and Szeth succeed in their mission — the scene takes place in a green field, making it very likely to be Shinovar.
There’s also the window with Bo-Ado-Mishram in it. The Unmade is ready to destroy the world if she gets free, and given the “burning cities” and “broken bodies” appearing in the windows her rage creates in the vision, it’s very possible she gets her wish. What Rlain reveals about the Unmade is a minor revelation: Bo-Ado-Mishram, and her desire to keep the war going until the humans were exterminated, is the main cause of the singers abandoning their gods. Let’s hope she remains imprisoned. The information doesn’t change anything, but it’s exciting getting more details on the mysterious past of Roshar.
A couple of very good chapters this week — let us know your thoughts on them in the comments! I’ll leave you with some guesses of mine based on what we read today:
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