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cosmereplay · 3 months

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Day 9: In the shadows

Rated General, Evi/Sja-anat, Oathbringer spoilers

“He won’t answer my letters or spanreeds!” Evi grumbled to herself in a huff as she entered her bedroom. She was walking easily again, a scant few weeks after the baby’s birth, her second. “I will not have a nameless child!”

Sja-anat slid upwards, looking through a tall mirror inlaid on a stand, placed in the room facing Evi’s bed. She may have missed her husband while he was away, but she was no longer lonely, for Sja-anat kept her company, taking her secrets. These days, though, she kept more than she passed on to Odium.

The sun-haired woman, her only worshipper, sat on the edge of the bed facing Sja-anat. She had the infant tucked into a wrap dress, nestled close to her chest. She looked down, pulling open the top of the wrap to peek at her nameless child.

The baby awakened. He twisted, then let out a soft cry. He was still so very new to the world, and the present-ness of it caused Sja-anat to pause. Even now, he grows. He will never be this little again. She considered the nature of the passage of time as Evi removed her wrap, then tried unsuccessfully to feed him.

“He won’t latch. Why is this so much harder this time?” Evi cried out eventually, on the verge of tears. “I can’t even feed him. Those whitespines will take him away and give him to a nursemaid. He doesn’t need a nursemaid. He needs me. Why can’t I do this?”

Sja-anat watched and waited, knowing that sometimes Evi spoke her thoughts out loud, and could be startled if Sja-anat answered her. As she had already learned, it was possible to scare the human’s milk away. She floated between worlds, waiting for the perfect moment to speak, a time that would bring comfort rather than fear. She was certain it would arrive, just as certain as she had been that the child would arrive safely.

Evi rocked and kissed the infant, but he continued to mewl. She looked up, then, as if only just now noticing Sja-anat.

“I need to calm down,” she said. “I need a distraction. Spirit, please help me.”

There it was. The perfect moment.

“Name him,” Sja-anat said. “Name him tonight. His father has not answered for long enough.”

“You are right, of course, dear Spirit,” Evi sighed, and looked down at the baby. “The Alethi like to choose names that speak to the child’s identity. We should choose a name close to his father’s, so Dalinar won’t forget it.” She laughed, but it was sad laugh. The mirth couldn’t lift the heaviness of that truth. The Blackthorn had barely been aware of her pregnancy.

“The baby is of you,” Sja-anat countered, an anxiety urging her on. “He was made from your essence. He should be named for you.”

“He will know he is of me.” Evi cuddled him in close. “I’ll always be there for him, but his father won’t be. His name should be a reminder that he is of Dalinar.”

The words brought pain, but of course, Sja-anat kept her own knowledge close. She had her own favourite name. Re-lin, meaning ‘born unto darkness’, for the futures she saw for the boy were grim.

And yet, together, they might create something wonderful. They could be family.

“You wish his name to be ‘Son of Blackthorn’?” Sja-anat asked.

“Yes, well, not quite so directly,” Evi said, and her lips turned to a thoughtful smile. “Dallin,” she said. “Dal-lin. Born unto Dalinar.”

“I do not like it.”

Evi chuckled. “Well it must be a name you approve of, dear Spirit. How about Narin? Nar-in, born unto Dalinar.”

Sja-anat considered. “If you insist on naming him after the Blackthorn, add a part for you. His older brother is named only for the Alethi. Let this child hear some of your language.”

“We Rirans give our children their own names, as a new perspective for The One,” Evi said, then sat and thought, absently patting the baby, who had settled again. “Though there are favourites. If he were to have a Riran name, I might give him a more popular name, so he could hear himself as a part of Rira. Yah, for Yaysi? Yadallin? Hm, it sounds too similar to Adolin.”

“I do not like it.”

“Kei, for Kellai?”

“I do not wish for him to be named after a Herald.”

Evi looked at Sja-anat for a long time, thinking. “Re? It is a good name, and not from a Herald. I have known a few Res, all good people.”

“Re. For Rira. Yes.” Sja-anat hoped she had not answered too hastily. Re, for darkness, for secrets, for Evi.

“Redallin? No, I don’t like the sound of it. Renarin? Hm, that might be nice. Renarin.”

Re-Narin. Just as Re-Shephir was the Mother of Shadows, Re-Narin would be the Son of Shadows. Born unto the darkness of the days of the Blackthorn. Born unto Odium’s champion. Born unto death. Born unto long, hard days and longer, lonelier nights.

“Born unto the Blackthorn and Evi. Born unto Alethkar and Rira. Let him know he is of two people, two worlds,” Sja-anat said.

"Thank you, Spirit," Evi said, and stepped forward to touch the mirror reverently. "I will burn incense and seal the name in the Riran way. I will tell the Vorin ardents. And I will seal my promise to name him with your blessing." She touched her forehead to the mirror, and Sja-anat could feel the warmth of her intention.

To keep him safe from Odium, Sja-anat would never be able to show a hint of interest in the boy. He would be born unto shadows, born of the love of those who could only watch from afar. In the future, she would do her best to hide him from Odium. Until then, this would be the only blessing she could give.

“Then it is sealed. His name will be...Re-narin.”

If you are thinking, hey, I would like to know why Sja-anat thinks that Evi worships her, you can read my fic Of Me (Rated Mature, 3000 words) and find out how they met in this AU

#minifemslashfeb2024 #cosmere femslash february #evi/sja-anat #evi x sja-anat #evi kholin #sja-anat stormlight #unmade stormlight #stormlight fanfic #my fic #oathbringer spoilers

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gal-palanaeum · 3 months

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Of Me by cosmere_play

Rated Mature, 3000 words, Evi/Sja-anat Bound by her god to take the Blackthorn's secrets, Sja-anat follows his wife. Through years of ever closer association, Sja-anat's future is changed, and the most precious secrets she discovers are her own.

Teen-rated excerpt below:

Sja-anat wasn’t cunning like Odium was, and at times she followed her passions without thought. Curiosity, perhaps, had driven her to allow herself to be seen. She stalked behind the frightened woman, gliding as effortlessly as a windspren.

In turn, the human paced the halls, perhaps thinking she could escape the shadow that haunted her, but Sja-anat knew every reflective surface of the Kholinar palace. There would be no escape. She was a powerful spren: ancient, unchanging, and endlessly patient. On Odium’s orders she had been sent to take the Blackthorn’s secrets, to be used to secure him as His champion in the war to come. Odium was confident that He would win the man’s heart, but He did not rely on His confidence alone, for He too was ancient. Careful. Plotting. Sja-anat was Odium's tool, picked up once again.

And Sja-anat would be used, for she was of Him, unmade and remade to His liking.

She followed the wife of the Blackthorn as the woman more waddled than walked, pregnant with her first child. She cast furtive, sweaty glances behind her, then slowed to face her fear. Her brow furrowed as she tracked Sja-anat’s movement through a mosaic of mirrored tile. Sja-anat stopped and watched. The human nodded as if she had confirmed something. She turned away, then waddled as quickly as she could toward her private rooms.

There, the Blackthorn’s wife ordered her servants to bring forward a large mirror, taller than a human and bolted into a rotating frame. She had them move a large cushioned chair in front of it, and then she ordered them all out.

Alone, the woman sat carefully and leaned over her round belly, tapping the surface of the mirror. “Come, speak to me, spirit,” she said in heavily-accented Alethi. Her yellow eyes darted back and forth across the glass, searching. “Stop hiding. Whoever you are, you want something, so out with it!”

The human was frightened, but her courage and curiosity were stronger. Sja-anat liked that. She, too, was curious, and had not interacted with a human for many years, so she granted the request and slid upwards, allowing herself to be seen in the mirror. She took the form of a shadow, an imposing reflection of a willowy woman with long flowing hair, a black smoky silhouette with bone-white hollow eyes.

Yellow eyes widened, and the woman jerked her finger back. “Who are you?” she asked in a small voice.

I am a powerful spirit, Sja-anat answered, wishing to test the woman’s mettle. She mouthed the words in her reflection as she spoke directly into her mind. Mere rumours of me have terrified even the most powerful humans of ancient times.

The human simply leaned back in the chair, one hand rubbing the side of her belly with a grimace. She was still sweating. “I am too sore to play games,” she said.

Sja-anat paused, feeling a strange passion arise. Why are you not afraid of me? Humans name me monster.

The woman huffed a soft laugh. “There are monsters all around me every day. I have grown used to them. Besides, now I have a little monster inside me,” she said, poking her belly with a smile. “A monster in the mirror is hardly scary.”

You are not afraid of monsters?

The woman met her eyes. “I am not, and I can prove it. You see? I married one.”

Sja-anat tilted her head at the mention of the Blackthorn. Then you are also a monster, for you are of him.

“Hmm.” The Blackthorn’s wife stood and started to pace again, but watched the mirror carefully as she considered. “I am of him…yes. But I am also of me. Evi. A unique perspective of the One. As you are too.”

Sja-anat hummed, taking in her words.

The human Evi continued to pace, slowly, barefooted across thick carpet. “Do you give boons and curses?” she asked eventually.

No, Sja-anat said. Giving away that little would not endanger her, and could buy her more confidences. Such were humans.

Evi paused, then nodded slowly to herself. “If only you did,” she muttered. “Are you lonely, perhaps? Do you wish to talk?” she asked more loudly, looking at Sja-anat with open curiosity.

Odium would be pleased by this arrangement.

Yes, she answered. I am.

This will be.

Keep reading

#femslash february #wlw cosmere #cosmere femslash fic #cosmere fanfic #evi x sja-anat #evi/sja-anat #evi kholin #sja-anat stormlight #sja-anat #oathbringer

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knight-of-skyloft · 2 years

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Re the ask game: Smoke and Mirrors 👀

She stands behind Evi, close enough that they'd be touching, if they could touch.

"Do you feel anything?" Evi says softly, watching Sja-anat's smoky hand trace the lines of her shoulder.

"No," she says, then reconsiders. "Almost. I do not feel the texture of your dress, or the shape of your body. I feel… the essence of you. The way you see yourself."

Evi lays her fingers on her upper arm. In the mirror she is covering Sja-anat's hand with her own. "And how do I see myself?"

A plant brought far from the rocks where it sprouted, withering in the cold. A shadow cast by the Blackthorn, clinging to his feet. Two children with mixed hair-- oh, so much of Evi is her sons, in her mind. "Very differently than the way I see you." Evi looks up at the mirror, and Sja-anat can read the question in her eyes. "You are a stripe of sunlight falling from a clouded sky," she says. She doesn't know how else to explain how lonely Evi is, and how beautiful in her loneliness.

Evi glances at the floor, considering this. Her fingers tighten over her sleeve, like she is squeezing Sja-anat's hand. And then she turns over her shoulder, her lips brushing the invisible, intangible echo of Sja-anat's jaw. The place where it would be in the Physical Realm.

Then she tilts her head upwards, and in the mirror they are kissing.

#evi/sja-anat #stormlight archive

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lamaery · 3 months

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some more art for femslash February featuring Eshonai and Azure being the best worldhopping girlfriends out there. Leshwi and Jaxlim sharing a passion for growth and gardening.

(sorry I just had to add this comment from discord 😆) and Sja-Anat and Evi which could be loosely seen as accompanying art to this ficlet by @cosmereplay

(disclaimer: non of these ships I came up with myself but they were suggested by the amazing people from the Bridge Four Discord, when I asked for potential couples to scribble pictures for) 😀

#cosmere #cosmere femslash february #procreate #character art #stormlight archive #brandon sanderson #cfsbf #roshar #leshwi #jaxlim #cosmere singer #evi #Sja-anat #azure #eshonai #id in alt #id in alt-text

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single-use-ship-of-theseus · 3 years

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so let’s talk about this, because this is cool as heck. So Son of Thorns is a very cool title, but it also has an interesting implication. At first I thought that that this is just referring to Dalinar, the blackthorn, but the I realized that it says Thorns, plural. Meaning that Evi is also a thorn, which I think is very badass. I feel, though, that this title is referring to something more than Renarins parentage, because I’m not really sure if/how Sja-Anat knew of Evi, so I’m very interested to know why Sja-Anat used this title for Renarin? Is it something that’s already been established by someone, the sleepless, perhaps? Anyway, my most humble apologies for the terrible structure of this post, as I realize that it probably doesn’t make much sense.

#cosmere #the cosmere #the stormlight archive #Cosmere theories #Stormlight theories #row #rhythm of war #theories #renarin #renarin kholin #Dalinar #Dalinar kholin #Evi #Evi kholin #sja anat #sja-anat

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pocketramblr · 2 years

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❛ you have to step out of this darkness and let them see you for who you are, like i have. ❜ with stormlight archive?

Renarin wasn't sure if he liked the Kholinar Palace better or worse these days.

It was quieter, less crowded.

He didn't have to get drinks for his father- in fact, he was sure Father hadn't had a sip since he returned one last time to collect Adolin and the army.

He had smelled like the Old Magic then, and Renarin prayed that his mother had been right about it.

But he missed Adolin, he missed Father. Jasnah was gone, and Renarin felt awkward around Asudan and Navani.

His aunt would try to push him to the Ardentia if he tried to watch her work.

So instead he sat alone in his room, looking at the gardens below where some spots were lit by sphere lanterns.

There was a couple with a chaperone down there.

His mother used to watch the gardens too, following the couples and the children with her eyes.

She didn't like to look at the scholars and scribes.

Renarin didn't want to join the Ardentia. He was a man, and his Riran heritage shone in his hair. He'd rather go to the Old Magic and ask for the boon to fight.

He hadn't thought it possible before, not to be an Alethi soldier, but his father had so perhaps...

Well. Either way, the Vorin Church wanted him as little as he wanted it.

Jasnah would know what to do. His brilliant cousin knew all about her own place in the world, and how others could find theirs.

He should write to her, but the thought of asking a scribe and dictating his worries turned his stomach.

There were enough rumors about him. No need to start more.

"Are you sure?" A woman's voice asked, and Renarin jerked, looking behind him.

He clutched the bottle of sapphire tighter.

No one was there.

Movement at his window, and he looked back- ah.

The Woman.

She stood behind his reflection in the window pane, a translucent women with loose black hair and a simple tunic without sleeves.

She didn't care about her safehand being out in front of him. Mother had always been the same.

The Woman said she knew Mother well.

He relaxed his grip on the wine bottle, holding it out in offer.

"No, you know I can't. Thank you though, Son of Thorns." Her smile was gentle and her teeth were sharp.

"What do you need?" He asked, finally pouring himself a glass.

He tried very much not to drink sometimes, but when the hallucinations started, what was really the point in resisting?

"I have an offer for you. My power is cousin to that you and Evi called Old Magic."

"Cousin?"

"I will grant you a companion who will make you strong, a warrior to rival the Knights Radiant of old."

A boon.

A curse.

"What is the cost?"

The Woman shrugged. "Nothing more than what you wished. Your king will be arriving home soon to visit, go with him to the Shattered Plains when he returns."

He did long to go, but he'd be a hindrance there. Father had to focus on the war, and Adolin on... Well, everything else the heir had to do.

But if he was just staying in his rooms here, he could do that there just as easily, surely?

"The bond works slowly, and you must be the one to strengthen it, to strengthen the both of you."

He finished the glass and poured another.

"Then you know I can't do what you ask." Just like everyone else. He couldn't be a solider, he couldn't be an ardent, he could hardly be a son- he certainly couldn't do whatever magic this was.

"You mother entrusted me to you, and I know I can entrust my son to you." The Woman had a steady look.

His mother was dead.

"You need to step out of this darkness and let them see you for who you are, like I have." The Woman touched his shoulder's reflection. "You who was born unto himself, Prince Kholin, will lead my Enlightened Knights."

Perhaps the wine made him brave.

Perhaps it made him stupid.

"I'll try."

Her smile widened. "Then say the words."

Renarin didn't know where the words came from, and by morning he never remembered saying them. All he knew was the blistering headache of overindulging in drink, and that his cousin was supposed to arrive the next day.

A flicker of red danced at the corner of his vision- but Glys was shy and young, and would prefer to wait a little time before re-introducing himself.

#who was it that had that meta about Evi and Sja-anat....#i probably made renarin sound too old in this but i know don't know when he left Kholinar for the plains!!! man his book is gonna wreck me #pocket talks to people #ask game #my writing

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paradoxcase · 5 years

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I’ve been putting the epilogue aside for a bit, but I just got to the part of the Meat Epilogue where John dies, and I just realized that this epilogue essentially killed all of the asexual “romance is dumb and boring” John headcanons. Ahh, well.

I just finished Part 2 of Oathbringer! Thoughts:

I enjoyed the part about Kaladin realizing that actually, lighteyes have their own caste system too that he just never noticed before. I seem to remember that Kaladin was high-ranking for darkeyes, I wonder if he didn’t pay as much attention to castes within the darkeyed community as much because of that.

I liked Wit’s scene with Shallan after she screwed up by giving out the food, and I hope this character development has consequences. Actually, the way Dalinar is remembering how he screwed up with Evi reminds me of how Shallan is being forced to face her past as well. Maybe this isn’t tied specifically to cryptics and confronting your past is a fundamental part of being a Radiant, so much so that it can break through the Nightwatcher’s blessing/curse? Also, I did notice that one of the chapter quotes indicated that the fourth ideal seemed a little strange.

Speaking of Dalinar, I sort of suspected that it would wind up being that he’d killed Evi somehow. Also, throughout these flashbacks, I’ve been trying to chart Sadeas’s path from loyalist to betrayer, because one of the things that really didn’t match up for me in the first book was Dalinar’s memory of Sadeas as being unfalteringly loyal versus what Sadeas actually did in the book. But I’ve come to the conclusion that actually, Sadeas’s motivations haven’t changed. He supported Gavilar because Gavilar was a strong king who could unite Alethkar and actually did have the qualities he needed to have to hold the kingdom together afterwards, and also Gavilar listened to Sadeas and trusted him when making important decisions. When he died, the kingdom was left to Elhokar, who was kind of incompetant, and Dalinar, who Sadeas had always seen as a brute who has no political acumen, and every time he tries to do something remotely political he gets taken advantage of. Sadeas probably wanted to get rid of them both so that the kingdom could be ruled by someone he thought would actually be able to hold it together and who would listen to Sadeas’s advice. I don’t know who he had in mind, though, presumably one of his supporters, maybe even Amaram, who is charismatic, has political acumen, and trusted Sadeas.

I noticed there were notes left behind from Radiants who had tried to prevent the Voidbringers from having access to Voidlight by capturing an Unmade. I hope we hear more about that in the future.

Azure is obviously a Radiant, as she’s been to Shadesmar and has a spren who showed up in Shadesmar. That doesn’t really explain why her shardblade is weird and she can’t dismiss it, but hopefully we’ll find out more.

Sja-anat told the truth, so I wonder if she’ll become an ally now. That would be pretty interesting!

I was really kind of upset with the way Moash and the parshmen’s story resolved in this part, but I guess this had to happen for Kaladin’s character development. I am glad that Elhokar progressed to the point where he could say the first ideal, even if Moash killed him before he could finish it. I love how this book makes me get attached to characters who were completely unsympathetic when they’re first introduced, and after reflecting on it, I also like how this part of the story didn’t make it so that all of the sympathetic characters conveniently survived, because I think it made a good point. I guess Moash is not getting reformed at this point? Or maybe he will. Gaz was reformed after all, and I still think that Gaz was strictly worse than Moash, by like, a lot.

Ok, I think that’s all my reactions.

#homestuck #homestuck epilogue #the stormlight archive

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preservationandruin · 6 years

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Oathbringer Liveblog Part Three, Chapters 77-82

Well, now that I’m somewhat recovered, let’s go on. (I wasn’t kidding about the last part upsetting me; I know I’m hyperbolic very often, but I was actually shaking and crying and couldn’t keep reading).

Anyway. That’s behind us and lives only in our nightmares. On with the book.

Kaladin learns more about Highmarshal Azure, who I remain very gay for; Veil attends the world’s least exciting orgy; I create bullshit memes; Kal gains an army, and Shallan gets some much-needed therapy and a heart-to-heart.

Kal is running into a shelter from the Everstorm, making it in. They blow in slower than highstorms, but are less easy to predict. Also, looks like Syl hasn’t given up her old windspren-esque trick of sticking people’s shoes to the floor. He’s meeting up with Adolin and Shallan, and he’s picked up on the fact that Shallan sometimes seems to have a thing for him and other times is totally happy with Adolin.

At some point Shallan is going to have to deal with all this persona shit. Anyway, Kaladin hates being in stormshelters, of course, and we get that Elhokar is working on his plans through the storm. Adolin even notes that he’s doing much, much better than anyone hoped.

I’m...I’m really proud of Elhokar. He’s dedicated himself to something--to reclaiming his city and rescuing his wife and child--and he’s actually managing to pull it off well.

Anyway, Kaladin has learned that the wall guard is somehow producing food, they might have a Soulcaster, and that they seized emerald stores in the city. Also, Kal notes that Azure is “tough to read” and I’m still very gay for them.

(my roommate, summing up my feelings on Azure: A woman who can kick my ass? Yes please!)

Anyway, Kal thinks she might have an honorblade. Adolin is looking at Kaladin’s issued side sword, and we get this:

“Longer...like Shardblades?” Kaladin asked. “Well, yes, they break all kinds of rules,” Adolin waved the sword through a few motions, then sheathed it. “I like this highmarshal of yours.” “It’s not even her weapon,” Kaladin said, taking it back. “You boys done comparing your swords?” Shallan asked.

I....I just.... Listen. What happens here is Adolin takes and expertly uses Kaladin’s sword and then Shallan makes an unsubtle dick joke. Retroactively making the exchange...much more suggestive. I’m just saying that’s literally the conversation.

(sorry, I couldn’t resist)

Anyway, back to the rational analysis. Shallan got a copy of the book Mythica, which attributes personalities to the Unmade. That could be useful. And, although I am attempting to deal with this without screeching, Brandon throws this brick at my head:

Yes, it was uncomfortable to watch [Adolin and Shallan.] Kaladin liked them both...just not together.

I’m JUST SAYING, KALADIN STORMBLESSED IS BI.

Shallan, back with the book, notes that the book speaks of nine unmade, although some sources recount ten. Shallan thinks that two, in fact, might be in the city-- Sja-anat, the Taker of Secrets, who corrupts spren--as we’ve been seeing in the city--and Ashertmarn, the Heart of the Revel.

They’re discussing their possibilities in the city, and Kaladin sees a weird cremling.

It had a multitude of legs, and a bulbous body, with a strange tan pattern on its back.

Me: thinks about Dysian Aimians Me:

Anyway, Adolin and Shallan go on a cute romantic walk...right after an Everstorm, which fucks with the ambiance, but it’s what they’ve got. Adolin was promised a viewing of Shallan’s sketches.

Other Alethi couples kept their distance in public, but Adolin had been raised by a mother with a fondness for hugs.

I’m so glad Adolin kept that quality even after Evi died. I’m so glad he’s remained a soft boy.

Unfortunately, Shallan is considering making a new personality--someone who is “good enough” for Adolin, a “perfect bride.” The idea scares her, and I hope that she doesn’t do it. She’s experimenting with how far she can go with her powers.

Nobody could see her. Had anyone ever seen her? She stopped on the street corner, wearing shifting faces and clothing, enjoying the sensation of freedom, clothed yet naked skin shivering at the wind’s kiss. Around her, people ducked into buildings, frightened. Just another spren, Shallan/Veil/Radiant thought. That’s what I am. Emotion made carnal.

This seems bad. Shallan is losing herself more and more. Could it be the influence of one of the unmade? Sja-anat corrupts men as well as spren.

Vathah, also, seems to have become one of Shallan’s squires--he puts a lightweaving on himself on accident. Vathah is almost overwhelmed by it all. Anyway, Veil is going to the revel, to try to infiltrate. She’s starting to forget that Veil is a persona--she says that it would be easier to discard Shallan than to discard Veil.

She’s heading up the steps to the Oathgate platform.

Anyway, Kaladin is on top of the wall. Usually he likes the air after storms--of course--but this one is all wrong.

More about Azure. She always keeps her gloves on; she looks Alethi, and the knowledge that light orange is an Alethi eye color has opened up whole new worlds of OC creation for me. He goes to sit next to Azure and we cut back to Veil.

I don’t trust when Brandon does quick cuts like this. It means something will go horribly wrong. It means that shit will go down. We’re a ways from the end of the Part, too, which means that a lot of shit might be going down between now and then.

I trust nothing and nobody.

All the people up here on the platform are “reborn,” given new names that they barely remember--Veil’s is Kishi.

A variety of people passed by, occasionally scooping food off the tables with their bare hands. They laughed and shouted. Many had been ardents, marked by brown robes. Others were lighteyes, though their clothing had...decayed? it seemed a fitting word for these suits with missing jackets, havah dresses whose skirts were ragged from brushing the ground. Safehand sleeves ripped off at the shoulders and discarded somewhere.

This sounds like the world’s most dismal feast and orgy.

Veil is hearing the voices again, but Pattern seems to be humming to counteract them. She notices--there are no visible servants. She’s also not allowed to go “inward” towards where the Oathgate control would be.

“Everyone wants to go inward their first time,” he said. “You aren’t allowed. Enjoy this. Enjoy the feeling. It’s not our fault, right? We didn’t fail her. We were only doing what she asked. Don’t cause a storm, girl. Nobody wants that...”

This is...this is the ardent who was supposed to train Pai, isn’t it. Also, this refrain--it’s not your fault, Moash, you only did what people do. It’s not your fault, you were only doing what she asked. It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault.

Abdicating responsibility for peace of mind. Abdicating free will for comfort. Partying at the world’s worst revel while the city burns down around you. Nero fiddles while Rome burns and you can see so clearly where Sanderson got his inspiration, can’t you? You just have to look around at people. I’m not going to make this too real, but this apathy and excess--it exists.

I think Shallan’s idea about the Midnight mother is right. I think they were people once, these Unmade. It explains why they’re the things people do and want to do, but twisted even worse.

Anyway, the place that was once a prayer room is now used for “another sort of experience,” and honestly this book has had both Shallan and Dalinar impaled, I think we can say that people are fucking.

Shallan takes a new face--Kishi means mystery. Fitting. She ducks a man going for her safehand drunkenly, and slips into the outer ring and through it, heading inward. I hope Pattern is with her--she sent him off to distract her guard/guide, but it didn’t say he came back. I hope he did.

I don’t want her going into this alone.

Kaladin is sitting with Azure and have I mentioned that I don’t trust when Sanderson cuts between two characters in rapid succession through a chapter because I know what he’s doing here.

Kaladin asks Azure about her Shardblade, why she is so sure nobody will take it. She asks, in return, about his shash brand.

“How did you end up in the city?” Azure said. “Sadeas’s lands are far to the north. There are several armies of Voidbringers between here and there, by report.” “I flew. How about you, sir? You couldn’t have been in the city long before the siege began; nobody talks of you earlier than that time. They say you appeared right when the guard needed you.” “Perhaps I was always here, but merely blended in.”

Also, I love how Kaladin just blatantly tells the truth about how he got in here, but it sounds like he’s bullshitting. I suspect that Azure, too, is telling the truth in a way that sounds like bullshit.

Kaladin looked her in the eyes. “Why won’t you let anyone talk about the fact that you’re a woman, Azure? Noro, don’t faint. You’ll embarrass us all.”

Turns out, the officers came up with that all on their own--so Azure does refer to herself as a woman. Good to know. Also, this is what I suspected. Anyway, she asks if Kaladin was “chasing her” but before he can answer, drums sound. Attack on the wall.

Over to Shallan/Radiant/Veil/Kishi again. This inner ring is...unnerving.

A woman with long hair dragging on the ground looked toward her, grinning with clenched teeth and bleeding gums. She crawled, one hand after another, her havah shredded, faded. She was followed by a man wearing rings glowing with Stormlight, in contrast to his ripped clothing. He giggled incessantly. The food on the tables here rotted, and was infested with decayspren.

Yet again, Pattern has to break her from the thrall of the Revel. She keeps going inward, noting that the voices are combining into a rhythm.

Into a heartbeat.

She stepped between the buildings and entered a moonlit square, colored violet from Salas above. Instead of the control building, she found an overgrown mass. Something had covered the entire structure, like the Midnight Mother had enveloped the gemstone pillar beneath Urithiru. The dark mass pulsed and throbbed. Black veins as thick as a man’s leg ran from it and melded with the ground nearby. A heart. It beat an irregular rhythm, bum-ba-ba-bum instead of the common ba-bum of her own heartbeat. Give in. Join the revel. Shallan, listen to me. She shook herself. That last voice had been different. She’d heard it before, hadn’t she? She looked to the side, and found her shadow on the ground, pointed the wrong way, toward the moonlight instead of away from it. The shadow crept up the wall, with eyes that were white holes, glowing faintly.

That’s in response to literally everything up there. Shadows independantly moving and talking? Heart buildings with veins going into the ground? No! No thank you!

Veil forcibly re-asserts control as the wall drums sound and jumps off the Oathgate platform.

The epigraph notes that the Unmade “can perhaps be captured like ordinary spren. It would require a special prison. And Melishi.”

Who’s Melishi?

Anyway, Kal’s headed up to the wall again.

“Damnation these creatures!” Azure muttered. “I’m missing something. Like white on black...”

Oh my god. Like white on black. The same term Zahel used.

She chose Azure as a name. She has a weird sword. She said she blended in...oh my god. I know who she is.

HELLO, VIVENNA!

Anyway, both Azure and Kaladin yell “Who are you???” at each other and then mutually decide to leave that conversation for another time because oh shit, the Fused. He rallies multiple squads, not wanting to call the screamers with his lashing or reveal his Radiance.

And then one of these motherfuckers tries to lash him.

(my memes are old and my humor is bad, put up with me gang)

Being Kaladin, of course, he’s totally used to directions that are not “the earth” being “down” and reorients himself not to crash into anyone and to be fine. He also manages to time it so he can crash the fuck into the Voidbringer before it attacks Beard and the others.

“Leave. My. Men. Alone!” Kaladin clung to the clothing of the monster, spinning in the air dozens of feet above the dark city, sparkling with the light of spheres in windows or lanterns. The Voidbringer Lashed them higher, falsely assuming that the more height it had, the more advantage it would gain over Kaladin.

Oh, buddy.

He’s pulled out Syl as a knife, but is refraining from drawing in Stormlight, not wanting to give himself away. Kaladin Stormblessed no-powers fighting a Voidbringer in the sky. This is kickass.

And he cuts into its heart, with Syl’s advice, and kills it; the pair of them slam into the wall.

Anyway, he heads down to talk to Azure. He’s sort of taken control of his squad.

He found Azure surveying the Eighth Platoon’s losses near their guard tower. She had her cloak off and held oddly in one hand, wrapped around her forearm, with part of it draping down below. Her unsheathed Shardblade glittered, long and silvery.

I’m in love with her. And she uses another distinct color metaphor-- “I’d bet my red life on it.” It turns out that the Voidbringers used the storm to march their entire army close--they’ll attack before the next highstorm. Kaladin summons Syl as a blade for Azure.

“I’m here,” Kaladin said, resting the Sylblade on his shoulder, “on orders from King Elhokar and the Blackthorn. It’s my job to save Kholinar. And it’s time you started talking to me.” She smiled at him. “Come with me.”

Back over to Shallan, of course, to prolong whatever Azure is going to say. We get an interesting note from the epigraphs:

Ba-Ado-Mishram has somehow Connected with the parsh people, as Odium once did. She provides Voidlight and facilitates forms of power. Our strike team is going to imprison her.

So that’s...interesting.

Veil goes back to visit Grund, the child she’s been feeding--she notes that he’s lying, and neither she nor Pattern can piece together why. She turns herself to look like a market guard and doubles back--and hears two men talking, and one of them hitting Grund.

It turns out that Veil giving food to Grund drew attention. Thugs killed his friends, then made him wait for her so they could take the food. It turns out--this is what’s been happening to everyone she tries to help.

It startles her so much that she falls from Veil into Shallan. She was being played the entire time, causing people pain when she wanted to help. Grund died.

Back over to Kaladin.

Apparently, they lined the walls of the room they use for Soulcasting with “metal”--going out on a hunch here, saying it’s aluminum--from Hoid’s recommendation. Ithi, the soulcaster, and her sister trade off the soulcaster, working constantly. She then demands to know how Kaladin alone is supposed to save Kholinar.

“There’s a device in Kholinar,” he said, “of ancient design. It can instantly transport large groups of people across great distances.” He turned toward Azure and the others. “The Kholin armies wait to join us here. All we need to do is activate the device--something that only a select few people can do.” The soldiers looked stunned--all but Azure, who perked up. “Really? You’re serious?” Kaladin nodded. “Great! Let’s get this thing working! Where is it?” Kaladin took a deep breath. “Well, that happens to be the problem...”

Don’t it always seem to go. Anyway, back to Shallan.

She huddled someplace. She’d forgotten where. For a while she’d been...everybody. A hundred faces, cycling one after another. She searched them for comfort. Surely she could find someone who didn’t hurt. All the nearby refugees fled, naming her a spren. They left her with those hundred faces, in silence, until her Stormlight died off. That left only Shallan. Unfortunately. Darkness. A candle snuffed out. A scream cut off. With nothing to see, her mind provided images. Her father, his face turning purple as she strangled him, singing a lullaby. Her mother, dead with burned eyes. Tyn, run through by Pattern. [...] The lie that was Veil became suddenly manifest. She hadn’t lived on the streets and she didn’t know how to help people. Pretending to have experience didn’t mean she actually did.

It’s all come crashing down at once, hasn’t it. Wit comes to find her with a sphere, sitting in silence. He says that the murderer of the child was seen to; he helped make sure of it.

“You tried to help the people of the market. You mostly failed. This is life. The longer you live, the more you fail. Failure is the mark of a life well lived. In turn, the only way to live without failure is to be of no use to anyone. Trust me, I’ve practiced.” She sniffled, looking away. “I have to become Veil to escape the memories, but I don’t have the experience that she pretends to have. I haven’t lived her life.” “No,” Wit said softly. “You’ve lived a harsher one, haven’t you?” “Yet still, somehow, a naive one.”

I’m--I’m really glad that Hoid seems to have fallen haphazardly into a strange mentor role for Shallan. That he cares about her and will find her when she’s curled up in a building in the middle of a panic attack and help talk her through it. It’s a human side to him that we don’t see often--but he’s had it around her since she was a child and he tried to get her to start Lightweaving again.

I think it might be, in part, because as he’s said--trying to help people is hard. But she’s someone that he can help.

Shallan knows she needs to go back to the shop; she knows she’ll just repress this with everything else she ignores. And Wit tells her a story.

“Have you heard the story of the Girl Who Looked Up?” Shallan didn’t reply. “It’s a story from long ago,” Wit said. He cupped his hands around the sphere on the floor. “Things were different in that time. A wall kept out the storms, but everyone ignored it. All but one girl, who looked up one day, and contemplated it.” “Why is there a wall?” Shallan whispered. “Oh, so you do know it? Good.” He leaned down, blowing at the crem dust on the floor. It swirled up, making a figure of a girl. it have the brief impression of her standing before a wall, but then disintegrated back into dust. He tried again, and it swirled a little higher this time, but still fell back to dust. “A little help?” he asked. He pushed a bag of spheres across the ground toward Shallan. [...] “Hmmm,” Wit said. “Not bad. But it’s not dark enough.” “What?” “I thought you knew the story,” Wit said, tapping the air. The color and light bled from her illusion, leaving them standing in the darkness of night, lit only by a frail set of stars. The wall was an enormous blot before them. “In these days, there was no light.” “No light...” “Of course, even without light, people had to live, didn’t they? That’s what people do. I hasten to guess it’s the first thing they learn how to do. So they lived in the darkness, farmed in the darkness, ate in the darkness.”

He goes on with the story--the girl being told she shouldn’t go beyond the wall or she’ll die. He asks Shallan if the girl is brave or stupid--says she’s both. Shallan says it’s not stupid to ask questions and try to learn things; Shallan asks what he’s trying to teach her, and he says he’s an artist, not a teacher.

“Weren’t we in the middle of a story about a girl climbing a wall?” Shallan asked. “Yes, but that part takes forever,” he said. “I’m finding things to occupy us.” “We could just skip the boring part.” “Skip?” Wit said, aghast. “Skip part of a story?” Shallan snapped her fingers, and the illusion shifted so that they stood atop the wall in the darkness. The girl in the scarves finally--after toiling many days--pulled herself up beside them. “You wound me,” Wit said. “What happens next?” “The girl finds steps,” Shallan said. “And the girl realizes that the wall wasn’t to keep something in, but to keep her and her people out.” “Because?” “Because we’re monsters.” Wit stepped over to Shallan, then quietly folded his arms around her. She trembled, then twisted, burying her face in his shirt. “You’re not a monster, Shallan,” Wit whispered. “Oh, child. The world is monstrous, at times, and there are those who would have you believe that you are terrible by association.” “I am.” “No. For you see, it flows the other direction. You are not worse for your association with the world, but it is better for its association with you.”

I’m taking a break here because--holy shit, gang, this is so important. The world can be awful and brutal and hard, and sometimes being in the world is awful and brutal and hard, but you make it better.

By living, by talking, by making art, by surviving one day at a time, you make the world a better place--it doesn’t make you worse. And that’s true no matter what you’ve lived through or had to do.

“What do I do, Wit?” She whispered. “I know...I know I shouldn’t be in so much pain. I had to...” She took a deep breath. “I had to kill them. I had to. But now I’ve said the words, and I can’t ignore it anymore. So I should...should just die too, for having done it...” Wit waved to the side, toward where the girl in the scarves still overlooked a new world. What was that long back she had set down beside her? “So you remember,” Wit said gently, “the rest of the story?” “It’s not important. We found the moral already. The wall kept people out.” “Why?” “Because...” What had she told Pattern before, when she’d been showing him this story? “Because,” Wit said, pointing, “beyond the wall was God’s Light.” It burst alight in a sudden explosion: a brilliant and powerful brightness taht lit the landscape beyond the wall. Shallan gasped as it shone over them.

So the girl took the light, and brought it back to her people, and it brought the storms--but each storm in turn renewed the light. And people, even though it was harder now, didn’t want to go back--because now, they could see.

Wit makes illusions of Shallan, saying that a lot has happened to that poor girl--Shallan says that other people have suffered more and get along “fine,” which is. God, that’s so relateable. I have to be okay because other people have it worse and they’re fine.

But they’re not, and that’s not what it’s about.

“Poor fool,” Shallan whispered. “Everything she tries only makes the world worse. She was broken by her father, then broke herself in turn. She’s worthless, Wit.” She gritted her teeth, found herself sneering. “It’s not really her fault, but she’s worthless.”

I’m glad even Shallan, even here at her most self-loathing, recognizes that her father was a horrible person. Yeah, he had to go through some shit too, but that doesn’t justify the immense amount of abuse he visited on others.

Anyway, Wit asks about the other illusory Shallan--Shallan says it’s the same, gives it the same memories--and it forgives itself. And Shallan recoils from that feeling of forgiveness as though she was burned.

“It’s terrible,” Wit said, stepping up beside her, “to have been hurt. It’s unfair, and awful, and horrid. But Shallan...it’s okay to live on.” She shook her head. “Your other minds take over,” he whispered, “because that look so much more appealing. You’ll never control them until you’re confident in returning to the one who birthed them. Until you accept being you.” “Then I’ll never control it.” She blinked tears. “No,” Wit said. He nodded toward the version of her still standing up. “You will, Shallan. If you do not trust yourself, can you trust me? For in you, I see a woman more wonderful than any of the lies. I promise you, that woman is worth protecting. You are worth protecting.”

THIS! IS! SO! IMPORTANT!

Accept the pain, but don’t accept that you deserved it. That’s what he leaves her with.

And she walks back, Veil’s outfit but Shallan’s body, and Adolin sees her--immediately hugs her while kind of rambling about how worried he was although he knew better than to be worried because he’s unkillable and have I mentioned that Adolin Kholin is a pure ray of sunshine and light--and then looks at her outfit.

“Nice,” Adolin said. “Shallan, that’s sharp. The red on white.” He stepped back, nodding. “Did Yoska make that for you? Let me see the hat on.”

And, of course, he loves it. Starts offering suggestions. Suggests her wearing a sword with it.

And then Kaladin shows up with, uhhhhhhh, the ENTIRE WALL GUARD.

Adolin sighed softly. “Of course. He’s probably their leader now or something. Storming bridgeboy.”

I love that Adolin is just like well, of course. Leave Kaladin alone for a few days and he has somehow gathered an army who listens to him. Typical. It’s even funnier because it’s honestly true.

The soldiers grew hushed as they saw Adolin, then the king, who was already dressed.

I...I’m dying a little over the fact that the narration decided it needed to specify that Elhokar had clothes on.

Like, we could have probably assumed that, but it’s Elhokar, so it was like. We’d better reassure them that yes, Elhokar does look like a presentable human being.

Well, anyway, they have an army now.

#oathbringer spoilers #stormlight archive liveblog #veil doing ghostthings #to be unmade you have to be made #one does not simply lash kaladin stormblessed

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nightblink · 6 years

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Blink Reads Oathbringer - Chapters 77-82

Some rather short chapters in this one, which leads me to believe that events are accelerating towards Shit Hitting The Fan very quickly, because things have been going far too well for the mission as a whole to continue that way for much longer.

Also, Shallan finally faces a truth.

Chapter Seventy-Seven – Stormshelter

….considering we're back to Kholinar chapters, the positioning of this new graphic, and what's happening in Kholinar, I'd say it's safe to assume that this Sja-Anat, Creator, Corrupter, The Taker of Secrets is the Unmade suffusing the core of the city. Well then. 'With one touch she corrupts.' uh. Not good, not good-

Oh, hey, we finally get a Truthwatcher's recording! They're…. shit, they're calling to attention the still-fighting 'parsh' and saying that something 'must be done about' them. That's- but how did you come up with the concept of enslaving them, of all things?!

Another everstorm. How many does this make now? I've lost count. Ooops.

Ayyyy, and he's meeting up with the rest of Team OT3! And for once remembers noticing how Shallan – or perhaps Veil – snuck glances at him. With OT3 glasses on, this is excellent material. Without…? Eeeeuuuugh. You can definitely see the psuedo-framework of a love triangle, but while Veil's eyeing Kaladin for his attractiveness (“brooding good looks”), Kaladin still has an idealized vision of Shallan in his head and hasn't gotten to the point of knowing her as a person where I'd be comfortable with them in a relationship.

Elhokar's gotten so much better. Even though I have a bad feeling that this will all turn south soon, I'm glad he's been doing so well recently.

I feel like between Kaladin's reports and the evidence shown with the loyalty of her men and the proof in the Wall Guard's defense, order, and discipline, Adolin's definitely considering offering to solidify Azure's position as highmarshal, even if he has to forcefully shut up those who'd complain about a woman not only fighting, but in command.

“You boys done comparing your swords?” Oh, Shallan's definitely thinking OT3 thoughts…

Hmmm. Kaladin describes some of the lighthearted banter between Shallan and Adolin as 'nauseating', and 'Kaladin liked them both… just not together.' Could be taken as romance-repulsion, but considering his own interactions with the both of them, it feels more like jealousy – though of their closeness/friendship or their romance is debatable (as well as for which one, which… more pairing fodder).

[squints] Huh. So, going with the visions, definitely nine Unmade… but do they predate Odium, and were changed by his influence, or are they, in essence, Splinters of his?

Oh, shit, two Unmade in Kholinar? UM. Ashertmarn being the other one, basically encouraging hedonism/The Revel, as opposed to the Corruptor, Secret-Taker.

See, the way Kaladin describes it, I feel like he and Shallan are growing into friends, if rather rockily since neither of them are actually any good at it? And Veil-Shallan is confusing her “goddamn he's hot, I'd tap that” feeling(s) with actual I-want-to-be-with-you attraction. It's not quite a love triangle, but I worry that it's going to cause serious complications nonetheless.

Shallan's adopted family isn't the same as yours is, Kal, let her be with her differences. Besides, in giving them purpose, and a different avenue to explore their lives, even those you knew like Gaz aren't the same as they were before.

Ooo, that's… I'm with Adolin on this one, you do not want to let the city fall. Not only would you lose the tactical advantage of the Oathgate, but all those people! The refugees, the Kholinari! For once, Kaladin is thinking of the practicalities; Adolin is considering his home and people.

….that cremling is an important tidbit, isn't it. I'm wondering if the 'bug' means they were bugged.

Ahhh, and here's Shallan thinking about her personalities basically as people separate from herself, once again (which. They're not, they're part of you, even if you can't bring yourself to realize that – the part that wants to be a hero, the part the thinks Adolin too predictable, the part that wants to live unconstrained by the responsibility and structure that you carry with you. It's still a facet of you, even if you've given it a face so you don't have to 'deal' with things yourself.)

tbh, I want to see the Impossible Falls. Sanderson, please tell me there's a sketch of that later in this book.

(Your father's son, in more ways than build and blood – and part of that is the Blackthorn, even with how terrible he was. The sun scorches even as it provides.)

...honestly, if he saw the picture of Kaladin on the page after, with Veil's touch of lust in its strokes, he'd probably just agree.

[hums very happily at Adolin confirming Shallan's skill as learned effort and worthy of praise, noting her hard work] She needs compliments like that – things that confirm that her skill is beyond just the innate, but attributable to practice and the dedication that she's put into it. It'll help her self-confidence and feelings of worth in herself, Shallan, as well as reinforcing a good viewpoint, especially so when he speaks of Radiants – her – creating art once the war is over.

I'm so glad that Evi taught her sons that it was all right to touch, to hug and to have physical contact – Adolin himself seems a very tactile type, even beyond just my headcanon, and can you imagine if he was deprived of touch? He's probably not granted it much beyond his immediate family anyway, which makes me doubly glad that Shallan is accepting of this particular idiosyncrasy of his.

Oh, Shallan. Those abysmal feelings of self-worth are only making your personality problems worse, and infecting your relationships besides…

Ooooo, he's noticed, even though she doesn't realize it. “Who do you become?” indeed.

“Thank you for being you, Adolin.” '“Everyone else was taken already,” he mumbled.' E x c u s e me while I go scream about this man and his own tendency to change himself to fit the situation and how his own feelings of self-worth likely suffered though all the rejections of him.

….I was going to be good about this and then she described him as being like a sunrise which is literally part of my character tag for him on l-c and-

And we're back to the slipping of personality. Hello again, Veil-Shallan. Gotta agree with you on that one, sometimes the storm and rain are preferable – both literally and metaphorically.

Huh. This openness and vulnerability…….. huh.

“Maybe.”

Maybe.

Well, I have to say that I agree with Vathah here. Better cremation than being soulcast into a statue. That's just creepy. I wonder how that particular tradition started, though, and if it's only practiced in Vorin lands, or all across Roshar?

!!!! VATHAH'S A SQUIRE. VATHAH'S A LIGHTWEAVER SQUIRE. AWESOME.

Chapter Seventy-Eight – The Revel

Another Truthwatcher recording, and the Radiants can somehow deprive the Fused/Parshmen of that 'Voidlight' energy? How? Where does it come from? Does it act in the same way as stormlight, or does it differ from stormlight in about the same measure as, say, hemalurgy does from allomancy? I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS, BRANDOSANDO-

'Shallan would be easier [to abandon].' a) Veil is ruthless, but we already knew this. b) This is a reflection of Shallan's thinking, and I worry that she's subconsciously – or even consciously – wanting to subsume her own personality with the ones she's given life to, since she thinks they're more 'worthy' than her true, broken core self.

The windspren are corrupted here too. Syl might not be able to even masquerade as a normal windspren if she'd be setting herself apart by sheer virtue of non-corruption. Again with the smell of mold, though, this time in the wake of the Everstorm as opposed to association with Parshendi or chasmfiend blood! Hmmm, not there's another question – is it just greatshells that have a mold-smell to their blood, or is it all of the standard Rosharan fauna, because that could be an indication of whether they're bonded to spren or not.

Kaladin notes that Azure looks 'very Alethi', but I still have that niggling suspicion of Nalthian in the back of my head, and we know that not only are Returned able to use Stormlight as sustenance in place of Breaths, but they'd be nearly the only non-Rosharan Cosmerans generally taller than even the Alethi...

The people under the influence of the- Ashertmarn, the Reveler, the incarnation of hedonism and gluttony – are definitely under the influence from what we can tell, there's definitely the feeling that these people wouldn't be acting this way if they were 'themselves'. They're drunk on it; most likely, this Unmade's touch is what was affecting Aesudan.

'They moved like fish in a school' – for all that Veil disdains her true, core personality, Shallan's way of viewing the world and her method of description still slips through, informing one as to who the base is that the mask is built upon.

“We were only doing what she asked.” WHO. The queen, the Unmade?

….so. Azure refers to her sword as a her, and doesn't deny anything when Kaladin calls the sword a Shardblade. Points granted towards her being a Radiant.

“I flew.” [SNORTS] It's not as if the truth sounds like anything other than a joke to these people who don't know of Randiants, so why not?

“They're Alethi” - With the way she said that, I'm counting it as points against her being Alethi, even if it turns out she is and just spent time amongst Westerners like Kaladin is thinking, but I'm especially suspicious when she asks her question.

...well, shit. And here we were maybe just about to get some answers. These POVs are bouncing back and forth really quickly, and that's not striking any confidence that this is going to turn out well…

...well. That inner ring is just delightfully creepifying. Thank the Heralds for Pattern, as the Unmade's influence was threatening to break through even Shallan's cracked-yet-fortified mentality (though now we have more confirmation that Veil is there in an attempt to avoid truly facing what she's done).

!!! Voices! Voices that aren't the Unmade speaking to her, and her shadow pointing the wrong way – some sort of influence from Shadesmar! She's lucky that whatever-it-was warned her too. The Mindnight Mother was one thing, trapped beneath Urithiru and just really starting to spread its tendrils, but this… that has been accumulating power, and if she'd sprung the trap they'd all be doomed.

Chapter 79 – Echoes of Thunder

Okay, so the Truthwatcher proposes that the Unmade can be captured, given a 'special prison' and 'Melishi'. But. wtf is Melishi?

Ooop, there's another colour saying, and Azure used it instinctively, like we've seen Zahel/Vasher doing and confusing the hell out of all the Alethi around him. Yeaaaah, I'm pretty convinced that you're a Nalthian of some kind or another.

“Who are you?” That's a long story and perhaps not appropriate when the Voidbringers are attacking, you two!

'his own men' Because of course he's already adopted them and been thinking of them as 'his men', even when he's not their commanding officer – though he yells out orders as if he's the Highmarshal or Prince himself.

EHEHEHEHEHEHEHEH. It's going to blow his cover like nothing else, but come on – try to Lash a Windrunner, will you?

….or, amazingly, managing to use only his senses – that have adjusted to flight – and not any Lashings that would alert the Voidspren.

Oh but I am living for these midair clashes

Oooooo, so, for the Fused/Voidbringers, it's not the spine that an opponent should aim for, but whatever that 'brittle' thing is around the area of it's heart – a gemheart, most likely. Mmm, but while Kal managed to avoid the attention of the Voidspren, there's not way that his stunt (much less surviving said stunt) managed to go unnoticed.

….ooop. Looks like you're standing out as the first to kill a Voidbringer on the Wall, Kal, even before Azure. HEHEHEHEHEHEH. And of course he slips back into command-mode like he's back with the Kholin army, rather than amongst a ragtag group defending Kholinar.

[squints at Azure] ….that cloak… did you try to Awaken it.

AND ANOTHER COLOUR SAYING. YOU'RE A NALTHIAN, I SWEAR. You're just really good at outwardly looking like an Alethi, enough to convince all the Wall Guard.

HEH. At least with that proclamation of authority, she's now decided to listen to him – maybe even trust him.

We shall see.

Chapter Eighty – Oblivious

...that title isn't referring to Kaladin's very-Demi perception, is it? [ba-dum, tiss]

[blinks furiously while attempting to figure this out] So. This Ba-Ado-Mishram must be one of the Unmade, given the last input from the Truthwatchers and the obvious intent now to capture her, since she'd the one prolonging the conflict and providing the source of power to the Parsh(men?(endi?). But that 'she provides Voidlight' - !!!!! that doesn't come from Odium himself, but one of the Unmade?

“After fleeing the Oathgate platform, she'd met up with Vathah” - you mean, after he dragged your broken body away from the base of the platform. Jfc, but Radiants can tank some serious damage. And '[g]oing back home would have left her too much time to think' – too much time to be Shallan, thinking of the Unmade and whatever-it-was that addressed you from Shadesmar and even perhaps needing to face who you really are underneath all the masks, mmm?

...methinks your informant/contact is compromised, Veil-Shallan.

[winces] Yeah. Not in the way I'd thought, with the cult, but a more “normal”, yet no less deadly influence. Of course there would be gangs that prey on the weak and manipulate the desperate.

Oh ho ho. So Veil has a limit – she wanted to be the Hero, but when that dream/mirage collapsed, so did she, leaving Shallan – the core, the Real One – without mask to divert away the pain of a death she's going to mark herself responsible for. Veil's the 'streetwise one', the 'darkeyes', the one who tries to be the folk hero, but at her core she's still Shallan – and Shallan only has her mind and imagination with which Veil draws herself; there's not real experience or reality behind the fiction of 'Veil'. Shallan keeps her Veil-mask's speech patterns when she talks to Muri, too, reinforcing the image of Veil as a mask, no matter how strong the created-personality is.

Oh, Shallan. The trauma never stops for you, does it? You tried to paint yourself as a hero, but it backfired in our face spectacularly.

Chapter Eighty-One – Ithi and Her Sister

...have we heard about an Ithi before. Who is this, what is it referencing-

Truthwatcher recording again – I think this makes mare recordings from them than from any other order thus far. As to the 'unintended side effects'… that'd be dullform, I'd bet a handful of spheres on it.

[hums and smiles] A regal name indeed.

Oh Beard. [cackles] Gotta keep up with the story, even if the details shift a little...

!!! The walls are covered in a metal that Kaladin doesn't recognise? Is it aluminum? I bet it's aluminum, isn't it. On top of that, they were brought by Wit? Yeaaaaaah, I see what you're doing here, Sanderson.

But as an aside, Azure has had dealings with Hoid before, and didn't mention what she called him.

She also doesn't pause in jaw-dropped wonder like everyone else when he mentions the abilities of the Oathgate. Mmm, you know and definitely are more than you're letting on, Azure.

Chapter Eighty-Two – The Girl Who Stood Up

Sorry to burst your bubble, last Truthwatcher recording, but… that's not gonna happen. This war will last a while yet.

Shallan's fragile shield is cracking, breaking, leaving her with nowhere to hide – and finally admitting to herself that the masks are a lie to pretend even to herself. It almost seems a harder truth for her to admit than the fact that she killed her mother.

Wit. Thank god you're here, Shallan needs someone with her right now, some point of contact, no matter how small, or she's just going to curl up and wither away.

“I haven't lived her life.” “No. You've lived a harsher one, haven't you?” Another truth that she'd prefer to run from, as that life was suffering, that life broke her – she'd much rather be an assured, streetwise con, but that's not who she is. No matter how much she tries to Be The Mask, Veil isn't truly real – a part of her, yes, but not the separate, competent person she'd rather be, if only so she wouldn't hurt so much.

Oh no, no, don't you start suppressing this again-!

Oooo, more details about the story. Wit knows an older version, less changed by time, doesn't he; or perhaps even the events that became the story in the first place?

'“Skip?” Wit said, aghast. “Skip part of a story?”' Thank the heavens for Hoid injecting some small measure of levity into this moment. Shallan needs as much light as she can get, even while facing the darkness she tries to repress.

Oh. Oh, Hoid. From freezing in shock at her hug in the warcamps, and now to this.

[hums] Not quite Prometheus or Pandora's box, but there's a little bit of those feelings – the bringer of light, of terrible storms but of a brightness that changed the world forever.

“I see only one woman here, and it's the one who is standing up. Shallan, that has always been you. You just have to admit it. Allow it. … It's all right to hurt.” [breathes out low] W i t. Oh, Shallan, he's right, and finally you're hearing it aloud. You can live, you are worth protecting, even if you can't see it right now yourself. Perhaps not soon, but now that you've heard it… perhaps you can work on accepting it.

Adolin. You stayed up all night with worry for her, didn't you? And even that hug – reassuring yourself and her, you're making yourself The Stable One once more, but you can tell there's something wrong, can't you? So once again, you go for the levity rather than pushing her to explain.

Hah – and then the real levity approaches, because honestly, Kaladin at the head of yet another group of people that he's managed to adopt? Priceless.

#blink reads oathbringer #oathbringer spoilers #adolin once again confirmed built tall and broad af; yaaaas #why can't this awkward not-really-love-triangle just be an ot3 already #oh yeah because SOMEONE HAS PERSONALITY PROBLEMS #I continue to worry very much for Shallan #very very much

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