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Rhythm of War Read-Along Discussion: Chapter Nine

Greetings, O Intrepid Early Readers of the RoW! It’s story time again! Now that you’ve read Chapter Nine, come on in and join us in thinking through Kaladin’s battle aftermath, Navani’s travel & study session, and Shallan’s mission conclusion. Two sub-arcs concluding, and one clearly opening up new mysteries. Let’s go!

Reminder: we’ll potentially 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, best to wait to join us until you’re done.

In this week’s discussion we also discuss some minor magic-system things from Mistborn in the Fabrial Technology section, so if you haven’t read it, consider giving that section a pass.

Also: Yes, we know there may be small typographical or continuity errors in these chapters. They have been through a very thorough gamma read since this version, and those errors won’t be in the published version.

Chapter Recap

WHO: Kaladin, Navani, Shallan
WHERE: Hearthstone, travelling, Shattered Plains
WHEN: Day One, cont.

Kaladin and the Windrunners escort the Fourth Bridge before being called away to escort Dalinar and Navani to the Shattered Plains, and Kaladin wrestles with his depression and his feelings about Moash. On the way, Navani discovers a strange spanreed ruby that’s been left in her travel-room—and is accused by a mysterious writer of being a monster for her work with fabrial technology. Meanwhile, Shallan and Adolin head towards Narak and discuss Shallan’s secrets, some of which she still isn’t fully ready to tell him. She does reveal a bit about the Ghostbloods, though not that she’s a part of the organization… and through it all, a Formless identity swirls in the back of her mind.

Overall Reactions

A: With three perspectives in this chapter, it’s hard to have an “overall” reaction. Kaladin’s POV was mostly just wrapping up the departure from Hearthstone. Navani had some fascinating insights for us on fabrial science—most of which we’ll talk about below. Shallan had some revelations that mean a lot more to the reader than they do to the characters, and start making overt ties between Roshar and the rest of the Cosmere. However, there is one event that really grabbed my attention, which is the stand-out of the chapter for me.

Navani cocked her head, noticing something odd. The wall beside her reflected a faint shade of red, blinking on and off. Like the light of a spanreed.

A: Like… What in Damnation is going on? Being from Earth instead of Roshar (and having watched far too many action-adventure movies) my first reaction to the blinking light was that someone had bugged her bubble; second was that a bomb was about to go off. Fortunately, Navani (being the curious sort she is) quelled that fear for me right away:

She leaned back, then peeked under her table. There, stuck to the bottom with some wax, was a tiny ruby. No, half a ruby. Part of a spanreed, she thought, picking it free with her fingernail.

She held it up between her fingers and studied the steady pulsing light. Yes, this was a spanreed ruby…. It had clearly been stuck here for her to find. But who would do it so sneakily?

A: Theory time! Who is it? According to the beta spreadsheet, my thoughts were (in order): a spren, the Sibling, Nightwatcher, Cultivation, and a Dysian Aimian. (At this point, Navani had already mentioned the trip to Aimia and the cache of Soulcaster fabrials they’d found there, so maybe that’s why I fastened onto that notion soon-ish.) The trick is, how did a spren manage to move a physical object that well? Plus, who better to sneak into Navani’s airshell to plant a spanreed ruby than a purpose-formed cremling? That, more than anything, made me think that one of the Sleepless was on the other end.

(What I do find amusing about this reaction is that I was so busy thinking about who could have planted the ruby that I completely forgot to think about who could actually use a spanreed to write messages…)

L: An Aimian makes the most sense to me, too, as an Aimian would absolutely be able to take form into order to write the messages.

You must stop what you are doing, the pen wrote out, using a cramped, nearly illegible version of the Alethi women’s script. Immediately. … You are the monster Navani Kholin. You have caused more pain than any living person.

A: Uh… gulp? Sleepless mad at Navani? Or someone else? We know so little about them that it’s hard to say whether a Sleepless would be offended by capturing spren for fabrials.

L: Navani, a monster? This is particularly interesting to note in regards to her character arc so far, in which we’ve seen her relationship with Gavilar and how emotionally abusive it was. She thought herself a bit of a monster for wishing for his death, and then it happening… so thematically, this development makes a lot of sense.

A: You know, I kinda skipped over that part because I was so curious about the correspondent. It is an interesting theme—and the more so because the ways in which she’d call herself a monster are so different than the accusation this person is making.

You capture spren. You imprison them. Hundreds of them. You must stop. Stop, or there will be consequences.

L: The fact that the unknown writer only says hundreds leads me to believe that they’re talking about Soulcasters specifically. We’ve already read in this chapter that Soulcasters, unlike normal fabrials, are trapping Radiant spren—and there aren’t nearly as many Soulcasters as there are regular fabrials. But why would Unknown Writer blame Navani for Soulcasters? It’s not like she’s making them herself, so… that theory doesn’t quite hold water, either.

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Rhythm of War

Rhythm of War

A: That’s one of the more frustrating aspects of this whole conversation. Navani argues that the honorspren themselves say that what she’s doing is fine, no worse than using chulls to pull a wagon—which is an argument I agree with, by the way—but the Writer dismisses both the argument and the honorspren.

L: Then there’s this:

You must stop creating this new kind of fabrial. I will make you stop.

L: New type of fabrial? What’s Navani doing that’s truly new?

A: Another relevant question. The only new thing I can think of (granted that we don’t have a timeline of recent advances in fabrial technology) is the way she’s using the conjoined amethysts as propulsion… but I don’t see how that is a big difference. As she points out in this very chapter, most of what she’s doing is a matter of using existing methods in innovative ways.

L: And let’s not forget that Unknown Writer is using a fabrial themselves, in order to communicate! Hypocritical much, if they’re just talking about fabrials in general?

A: Exactly. I’m really confused.

The honorspren cannot be trusted, the pen wrote. Not anymore.

L: I mean… we haven’t exactly gotten a good impression of most of the Honorspren in Oathbringer, considering they tried to haul Syl back against her will and all, but this raises a lot of questions!

A: We might know a lot more about the world if we knew who was writing this… And so we have a new mystery to carry us forward, now that the initial avalanche-battle is over.

Humans

“So, the bastard is still alive, is he?”

“We had a confirmed sighting of him two months ago, at that battle on the Veden border,” Kaladin said.

“Aye, two months ago,” Teft said. “But I figured someone on their side would have killed him by now. Have to assume they can’t stand him either.”

A: LOL. As Kaladin points out, the Fused must not hate Moash all that much, since they gave him Jezrien’s Honorblade. I still think Teft has a point…

L: I love Teft. He’s the grizzled old battle-axe type of character who doesn’t take anyone’s s*** that we all love so much. Or at least… I do.

When a hundred items indicated a pattern, then one broke that pattern, it showcased how remarkable the pattern was in the first place. Deviation highlighted natural variety.

On the other hand, that deviant stood out. Like a fraction on a page of integers. A seven within a sequence of otherwise sublime multiples of two.

A: Have I ever mentioned how much I love Navani? She’s such an engineer.

Relationships & Romances

Dalinar … flew in the line—kept aloft by a Windrunner—and wore a face mask with goggles to keep his proud nose from freezing right off. …

She smiled at his mask and three layers of coats. Nearby, lithe scouts in blue flitted one way or another. Dalinar looked like a chull that had found itself among a flock of skyeels and was doing its best to pretend to fit in.

She loved that chull. Loved his stubbornness, the concern he took for every decision. The way he thought with intense passion. You never got half of Dalinar Kholin. When he put his mind to something, you got the whole man—and had to simply pray to the Almighty that you could handle him.

A: Awwww… I really do love this peek into Navani’s heart. It takes a certain maturity to recognize the ridiculous in the one you love, and love them not only in spite of what you clearly see, but partly because of it. This might be a silly example, but she does see Dalinar’s shortcomings; she just loves the whole person, weaknesses and all.

L: Yes, this is really endearing and lovely to see.

Adolin scooted over beside her, and she felt his warmth. She closed her eyes and melted into him, breathing him in—as if she could feel his soul brushing against her own.

L: Awwww. Shallan’s such a romantic.

A: That’s so over the top. Perfect Shallan.

He’d removed his jacket, and the shirt beneath reminded her of when he came to their rooms after sparring. He always wanted to bathe immediately, and she… well, she rarely let him. Not until she was done with him, at least.

L: Ha! Atta girl, Shallan.

A: ::snort::

“You never push,” she eventually said. “Though you know I keep secrets from you.”

“You’ll tell me eventually.”

L: I have to admit, I both love and hate this. I love that Adolin trusts her enough that this isn’t a huge problem for him, but I hate that that trust isn’t reciprocated from Shallan’s end enough to just tell him these things! I don’t believe that a romantic partner needs to know everything about their partner’s life—we are all individuals and we all have things that are ours and ours alone, but at the same time… these are important things. These are things that could affect Adolin and his job, too. Things that could put his life at risk, or the lives of those they love.

A: Well said. There are hints that she has more issues from her childhood to face, but the part that really grates on me is her involvement with the Ghostbloods. That could put the two of them in direct conflict if she’s not careful enough—and even if she is—and it really bothers me.

I trust you, Shallan. But sometimes… I wonder if I can trust all three of you. Veil especially.”

L: A valid thought, honestly.

A: Totally. What a hard situation for Adolin. As if your spouse switching personas with no notice isn’t bad enough, feeling that you can trust one but not another. How can you really try to plan anything, if you’re afraid one aspect of her might betray you?

Please, she whispered. Save me.

Veil reluctantly emerged. She sat up, not pulling against Adolin any longer—and he seemed to understand, shifting his position in the seat. He had an uncanny ability to tell which of her was in control.

L: This is amazing, that he can tell so quickly which of them is in control. It speaks highly to how observant he is, and how much he loves her, that he can pick up on those little subtle differences she’s undoubtedly giving off in each of her personas.

A: He never seems to argue about it or resent it, either—though I can’t believe he likes it. I’m really torn about this. I love that he can sense the shift so quickly, and that he’s so supportive of her even when he can’t really like the necessity. But I worry about enabling… :(

She would tell Adolin everything, eventually. She’d told him some already. About her father, and her mother, and her life in Jah Keved. But not the deepest things, the things she didn’t even remember herself. How could she tell him things that were clouded in her own memory?

L: Well, I’m glad to see this, at least.

A: There’s the bit I was thinking of earlier… What horrible memories of childhood are still buried in unacknowledged memories? Killing her mother, watching her father deteriorate from loving to abusive to murderous, killing her father, trying to protect her (useless) brothers… What further trauma is she still hiding? How much worse can it get?

Bruised & Broken

When Tien had died, and when he’d failed Elhokar. Foolish though it was, the second one hurt almost as much as the first. He hadn’t particularly liked the king. Yet somehow, seeing Elhokar die as he nearly spoke the first Radiant Ideal…

A: I can relate to this. For the first two and a half books, I didn’t particularly like Elhokar either. I didn’t hate him, but he wasn’t a likable guy. Then halfway through Oathbringer, he started facing his own faults, looking for good examples to follow, and showing an unaccustomed humility. Just as I started to like him sometimes, to see him begin the first Ideal and then be cut down… Yeah, I still cry every time I read it.

It didn’t belong in the sky.

One might argue that Kaladin didn’t either.

L: Poor, poor Kaladin. This just hurts so much to read.

Why didn’t I kill him? he thought. I’ll kill parshmen and Fused for existing, but when I face Moash, I lock up? Why?

He felt so stupid. How had he been so easy to manipulate? Why hadn’t he simply rammed his spear into Moash’s too-confident face and saved the world a whole ton of hassle? At the least it would have shut the man up. Stopped the words that dripped from his mouth like sludge…

A: I can’t disagree… except that Kaladin being who he is, he could never do that.

L: Killing a friend, even one that had betrayed him? Yeah. Not in Kaladin’s MO.

Why couldn’t he remember those times, the warm times? Sitting at the fire with real friends?

Real friends including a man who had just tried to persuade him to go kill himself.

A: I’m just hoping he remembers this! Whatever Moash may have been in the past, he is not a friend now. Just… NO.

L: He’s long past that, yeah. Talk about burning bridges.

“You freeze whenever you hear reports of lost Windrunners.”

When he heard of his soldiers dying, he always imagined running bridges again. He heard the screams, felt the arrows in the air.…

“Please,” she whispered. “Tell me what to do. I can’t understand this about you. I’ve tried so hard. I can’t seem to make sense of how you feel or why you feel that way.”

A: I don’t know who to feel worse for—Kaladin coming apart at the seams, or Syl trying desperately to understand and help him. This is one of the times I’m really grateful to have already been told that the Windrunner numbers had increased so dramatically; it means that “lost Windrunners” doesn’t necessarily mean anyone we know.

L: I feel for Syl here, too. While it’s awful to be in that depressive state, in some ways, it’s just as bad to be on the outside looking in, not knowing what to do to help someone you love. Even worse for someone who hasn’t experienced depression themselves, who can’t possibly understand how it feels from the inside.

“Renarin said he found you kneeling there. No weapon in hand. Like you’d frozen in battle.”

Teft left the sentence dangling, implying a little more. Like you’d frozen in battle. Again. It hadn’t happened that often. Only this time, and that time in Kholinar. And the time when Lopen had nearly died a few months back. And… well, a few others.

A: So… five or six, maybe seven or eight? How many times in the last year has he been unable to continue a battle because he’d frozen? He’s got to know he can’t keep doing this. I think we talked about this before: if you’re at risk of freezing up in the middle of a fight, you do more harm than good by being there. Your friends can’t count on you to watch their backs, and they’re going to be so concerned with watching your back that they won’t be as effective as they should. Kaladin really should see the problems baked into this particular cake.

L: He should, but I can also see him continuing to ignore them, for many reasons. I could absolutely see him thinking that “the only thing worse than your friends dying to try to protect you, is your friends dying because you weren’t there to help them when they needed it.”

She pulled closer, and couldn’t help imagining it. What he would do if he knew the real her. If he knew all the things she’d actually done.

It wasn’t just about him. What if Pattern knew?

L: Wait a second. Pattern? What doesn’t Pattern know?!

A: Is… is there something horrible buried in her pre-Pattern memories? Wouldn’t that mean something from … I don’t know, maybe 7 or 8 years old, before she developed that precociously early Nahel bond? This just gets more complicated.

And deep within Shallan, something else stirred. Formless. She had told herself that she would never create a new persona, and she wouldn’t. Formless wasn’t real.

L: Yiiiikes. This is extremely concerning. The very fact that she’s named it is… oof. That’s step 1 on the road to New-Persona-Ville.

A: Noooooo!! Not only is it a clear step, it sounds like a very dangerous one. “Formless” is just so worrisome. Veil and Radiant have distinct forms and purposes, but… what is implied by calling this thing Formless, and saying it’s “not real?”

Father thinks I did something terrible. But… I was right, Veil. I’m not going to let someone hide behind social propriety while threatening my family. I won’t let them use my honor against me.

L: That line about Dalinar… That’s got to hurt, given how much Adolin looks up to him.

A: Their relationship must be changing, and I can’t help thinking the change is going to hurt both of them. I don’t really see how Dalinar can think that what Adolin did was all that terrible in comparison to his own deeds, other than that Dalinar’s actions were mostly in the form of conquest. (Which isn’t really better, but whatever…) Is it back to that “I wanted you to be a better man than me” issue, and Dalinar thinks it’s “terrible” because it doesn’t fit that image? If so, and if Dalinar’s autobiography has come out, that particular problem has to go both ways now.

L: Oh yeah. I really want to find out what Adolin’s thoughts on that autobiography are.

Keeping secrets from Adolin was eating at her from the inside. Fueling Formless, pushing it toward a reality.

L: Hooboy. This cannot be good.

A: Nope. Nopity nope nope.

Weighty Words / The Knights Radiant

She waved toward the gathered Windrunners. “They’re congratulating Laran,” Syl explained. “She spoke the Third Ideal while we were in that burning building.” …

“In a minute here, you’re going to go congratulate that girl for saying her Third Ideal. It was rough on her, like it is on most of us. She needs to see your approval.”

A: For a quick reminder, Laran was another of the Kholin scouts turned Windrunner squires, along with Lyn; we saw them together a couple of times in Oathbringer. Teft’s comment is at once illuminating and obvious: a situation that requires you to protect even those you hate—and promise to do so forever—is going to be a painful situation. It makes you wonder, for each new Windrunner… what was their challenge? Kaladin had to protect Elhokar, Teft had to protect himself in order to protect his friends; who, in this battle at Hearthstone, did Laran have to protect even though she didn’t want to?

L: I’m so fascinated by all the side-characters, I would love to know their stories too! But… at the same time, I don’t want this story to spiral into Wheel of Time territory where we need a glossary to keep track of all the characters…

A: Indeed. I remember someone asking Brandon, when The Way of Kings first came out, how he was going to keep the series from sprawling with all these side characters, like the WoT did. His answer was, “I have one advantage over Robert Jordan. I’ve read Robert Jordan.” Much as I loved that series, I have to admit that the side stories got overwhelming. Not the different arcs of the main characters, but the gazillions of side characters. Morgase’s story was interesting in itself, like I’m sure Laran’s would be—but IMO it doesn’t really help the main storyline enough to justify the rabbit trail.

Cosmere Connections

Like this page—a list of terms or names her spies had heard. She was trying to define what they were.” Shallan moved her finger down the page.

“Nalathis. Scadarial. Tal Dain. Do you recognize any of those?”

L: Nalthis is the world in which Warbreaker takes place. Scadrial is Mistborn. Taldain, White Sand. The spelling changes are likely artifacts of translation into this language—language/names on Roshar (in Alethi anyway) seem to follow a pattern of attempting to create harmony by making them as symmetrical as possible. The fact that the Ghostbloods have so much information about other worlds in the Cosmere isn’t surprising, given that we’ve seen Mraize with a bunch of artifacts. But it is fascinating that they know this much.

A: It really makes me wonder whether, or how much, Our Heroes are going to learn about the wider Cosmere in this book! Or the next, at least.

L: It makes me wonder how important it’s going to be, going forward, that people actually read the other books and realize that there are connections. Up until now, it’s been possible to just read Stormlight and enjoy it without the added knowledge of additional tie-ins. Now… it seems as if we’re heading into an Avengers: Infinity War scenario, in which watching the film without knowing the rest of the MCU will result in a lesser experience. (I’d like to point out that Stephen King pulled a similar trick with the Dark Tower series, in which it was connected to almost all of the other books he had written. However, King’s connections were either subtle enough or explained within the text enough that even if you hadn’t read The Stand, or Insomnia, or IT, you could still read Dark Tower and totally get what was going on. I… am starting to think that Sanderson’s work is heading in a more MCU direction than this.)

A: For years, we’ve known that they would tie together eventually. I just didn’t expect this level of connection in the first Stormlight Archive set! Sure, Dragonsteel or Mistborn Era Four, but…

L: Same. I was expecting it in Dragonsteel, or whatever the Hoid-book was supposed to be…

A: Yeah. When we start visiting about Yolen for reals, everything has to tie together. This is just a lot earlier than anticipated. (Hey, readers! When we get to the full reread, or even the spoiler review discussions, if you’re someone who hasn’t read the rest of the Cosmere, I’m going to want to hear your reactions to the chickens that are now hatching from what used to be Easter eggs. Can you still read Stormlight and just accept that those are other worlds, or is it damaging the experience?)

Secret Societies

“We’ve been hunting them. Ialai was leading them.”

“No, dear, she was leading the Sons of Honor. The Ghostbloods are a different group.”

L: I have to laugh at this, because like Adolin, I have issues keeping them all straight sometimes too! (Also, writing-craft-wise, this is a really good way to remind the reader of this.)

A: I agree—brilliant way to infodump without infodumping! Megan and I did an article on the Secret Societies a while back, and it was work to sort them out! (And after this book, there’s a good chance the whole article could be rewritten with new information. Naturally.)

Honestly, I’m not sure what they want, besides secrets. They were trying to get to Urithiru before Jasnah, but we beat them to it.” Led them to it might have been more accurate. “I’m not at all sure what they want those secrets for.”

“Power,” Adolin said.

That response—the same one she’d given to Ialai—now seemed so simplistic. Mraize, and his inscrutable master Iyatil, were deliberate, precise people. Perhaps they were merely seeking to glean leverage or wealth from chaos of the end of the world.

L: I’m glad that Shallan is asking this, because it’s a question I’ve been wondering about for a long time, too. Like her, I don’t believe that it’s so simple, especially given all the links to other worlds in the Cosmere we’ve seen from Mraize. (He’s got an aviar from Sixth of the Dusk, among other things.)

A: Power, at least in terms of “political power on Roshar,” is definitely starting to look irrelevant to these people. It probably is still about power in one way or another, but on a much larger scale, and quite possibly with goals that Shallan has no means to comprehend.

Circled several times on one page at the end of the list was the word “Thaidakar” with the note, He leads them. But who is he? The name seems a title, much like Mraize. But neither are in a language I know.

L: I feel as though the identity of this person is going to become important, someday.

A: It has to, right? That name showed up in the first prologue, with Gavilar’s “You can tell Thaidakar that he’s too late.” Who’s Thaidakar, and what is he too late for? We have to find out someday.

What We Missed (In the Timeskip)

And the time when Lopen had nearly died a few months back.

L: Wait, what? Boy, I hope we find out about this in Dawnshard.

A: Ooooh, I hadn’t considered that! I assumed it was just a battle, but given what Sanderson has said about Dawnshard, that makes a lot of sense. So we get to find out before November, maybe!

The Soulcaster cache discovered in Aimia earlier in the year had brought an incredible boon to the coalition armies.

L: There’s that trip to Aimia showing up again!

A: I am really looking forward to reading about this! (On the assumption, or is it confirmed? that this is what takes place in Dawnshard… I guess that might be fan speculation, come to think of it.)

L: We know from one of Brandon’s recent posts that 25% of the viewpoints are from Lopen and 75% from Rysn… but that’s about it, other than the preview from his mailing list, which we shall not discuss here!

Fabrial Technology & Spheres

A pewter cage will cause the spren of your fabrial to express its attribute in force—a flamespren, for example, will create heat. We call these augmenters. They tend to use Stormlight more quickly than other fabrials.

A: Again, this is similar to the Allomantic properties of pewter, which manifest as increased strength, speed, durability, balance, and healing. I think we’ve proved by now that certain properties of metals are consistent across the Cosmere when Investiture is involved.

There’s just so much in this chapter about fabrials. I adored every word of it; my geeky little engineer’s heart was skipping for joy. I won’t quote all the things (I mean, you just read the chapter!) but a few things of note:

  • The fabrial Lift brought back from the manor is essentially a smaller version of a particular set of stones in the gemstone pillar at Urithriu. Navani speculates that the latter might be Urithiru’s way of suppressing the abilities of the Fused so they simply can’t function in the Tower.
  • Fabrial science really is science; the behavior of the trapped spren is so logical that the engineers have predicted designs they couldn’t construct at the time, but which worked as expected when the technology advanced far enough to build them.
  • Just as Navani’s flying Fourth Bridge is made up of multiple fabrials working together, they have discovered that much of Urithiru’s functionality is similar—the big amazing fabrial-city is a collection of well-designed smaller processes. Navani & her engineers have been able to upgrade some of the fabrials, so that the lifts run faster and the waterworks are more efficient.
  • They’ve discovered the capability to use Oathgates to enter Shadesmar at will, and have used it to study fabrials and the spren that “drive” them. Most of the fabrial-trapped spren are easily recognizable on the other side.
  • Soulcasters are a unique case. The spren trapped in the gemstones fabrials are not visible in the Physical realm, but in the Cognitive they appear to be very small versions of the higher-level spren that normally form Nahel bonds. (Thanks for the catch on that one! In most fabrials, the spren are trapped in the gemstones, but that is clearly not the case with Soulcasters, and the book doesn’t say gemstone.)

L: You’re totally in your element here, with all this theory-crafting and -resolving about Urithiru and fabrials. I’ll just stick to my character arc and overall plot notes and let you have at it! All I will note is how disturbed I am that all this time, Soulcasters were being powered by what appears to be captive Radiant spren. Enslaving the non-sapient ones is a little distasteful, but overall the spren seem to be content enough. This… this gives me the heebie jeebies, especially considering what happens to people who use the Soulcasters too much.

A: I wish I could spend a lot more time on the theory-crafting, but I’ll limit it for now… As you say, the thought of captive Radiant spren is deeply disturbing. I put forward a theory sometime during the reread (and I’m too lazy to look it up for documentation) that maybe the Soulcasters (and possibly that healing fabrial Nale used on Szeth) are actually an equivalent to the Shardblades—that some of the Radiant spren took a different physical form than others at the Recreance, and have been trapped in that form ever since. I’m not convinced that it holds up, for a couple of reasons. One, we saw a Knight Radiant using one of those healing fabrials in Dalinar’s Midnight Essence vision, so that would require a bonded spren going with another Knight in the form of a fabrial. Two, Navani says that they look like smaller versions of the sapient spren in Shadesmar, but Shardblades are deadeyes there. So that theory is probably wrong in itself, but… maybe it leads somewhere else?

 

We’ll be leaving further speculation to you in the comments, so have fun and remember to be respectful of the opinions of others!

Alice is sunburned from a wonderful day out on the lakes, thanks to a friend with a nice boat. Beyond that, she’s looking forward to Dawnshard, which she hopes to be allowed to beta read in the near future.

Lyndsey is trying to write this article as her three-year-old son attacks her with stuffed dragons, and she couldn’t be more proud. If you’re an aspiring author, a cosplayer, or just like geeky content, follow her work on Facebook or Instagram.

About the Author

Alice Arneson

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About the Author

Lyndsey Luther

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Lyndsey lives in Connecticut. She’s in the process of closing on a house (yes, in this dreadful market) so please wish her the best of luck, and follow her on Facebook or TikTok!
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