Wind and Truth

Shallan and Adolin enjoy the luxury of their rooms in the Tower of Urithiru.

There are enemy armies approaching on three fronts: toward Azimir, approaching through Shadesmar; toward Thaylen City, approaching by boat; and marching on the Shattered Plains. Dalinar calls a meeting with the leaders of his coalition. On his way to the meeting, he is approached by Cultivation.

Shallan plots to go on the offensive against the Ghostbloods. She wants to beat them to Ba-Ado-Mishram’s prison.

Dalinar speaks with the avatar of Cultivation. She tells Dalinar that he needs to understand the history of their world before he can defeat Odium. She reminds him that because the avatar of Honor, Tanavast, is dead, Honor’s power is now seeking a new vessel. She advises Dalinar to go to the Spiritual Realm. Dalinar’s spren, the Stormfather, does not like this idea.

Adolin and Emperor Yanagawn answer Dalinar’s summons for the leadership meeting.

Shallan and her Lightweavers assume disguises, hoping to spot a Ghostblood who will lead them to the organization’s hideout.

The leadership meeting begins tensely. Dalinar promises that the coalition will do everything possible to hold off the attacking armies for eight days, at which point the contest of champions will take place and hopefully bring lasting peace.

Wit sees a loophole in their contract with Odium. Because of the wording in the contract, the force that holds the capital city of a country at the time of the contest will be entitled to possess that entire country.

Shallan and the Lightweavers track a Ghostblood to their hideout.

Szeth and Kaladin arrive on the border of Shinovar, near the place where Szeth grew up. Kaladin is shocked to see that Shinovar hosts a completely different ecosystem of plants and animals because the mountains protect the landscape from the brutal force of the Highstorms.

The council of monarchs plan to send the bulk of their Knights Radiant to defend the Shattered Plains because the attacking force there includes Fused. Sigzil as the highest ranking Windrunner, will lead the forces there. The council hopes that a relatively small number of troops will be able to defend the city of Azimir, given that the attacking army must approach through the pinch point of the dome-enclosed Oathgate. Adolin volunteers to go to Azimir. He is a legendary fighter and possess both Shardplate (full-body armor formed of a spren) and a Shardblade. The council agrees to send a large defending force of traditional military to defend Thaylen City. Jasnah (Dalinar’s niece) will lead the forces there alongside Queen Fen.

Shallan and a few of the Lightweavers use the Oathgate to travel from Urithiru to Narak on the Shattered Plains, where the Ghostbloods are hiding. Narak is an ancient city that has been converted to host a military base and barracks. Shallan and her crew create disguises for themselves, pretending to be a work crew so that they can watch the front of the Ghostblood hideout.

Sigzil grapples with imposter syndrome as he processes the fact that he has been made leader of the Windrunners in Kaladin’s absence and is now also the general of the forces that will defend Narak and the Shattered Plains.

Lift, a teenage Knight Radiant, eavesdrops on a conversation that Dalinar, Navani, Fen, Wit, and Jasnah are having. They are discussing Cultivation’s advice that Dalinar visit the Spiritual Realm and attempt to take up Honor’s power. They all agree that it is a huge risk. Jasnah wonders if they might renegotiate with Odium now that the god has a new avatar. Wit is aghast at her suggestion that they might negotiate terms to protect Roshar while leaving Odium free to attack the rest of the universe. (Later in the novel, Odium will use this conversation against Jasnah when they debate for the fate of Thaylen City.)

As Kaladin and Szeth make their way deeper into Shinvar, Kaladin initiates a conversation about the “rough time” (210) that Szeth has been having lately. Szeth resists the conversation, believing himself to be deserving of any pain that he bears.

Szeth tells Kaladin that an Unmade is in Shinovar, corrupting the land and its people. Szeth believes that the Unmade has been there since his childhood. (In the final chapters of the novel, it will be revealed that Szeth was mistaken: the corruptive presence is not an Unmade, but is instead Ishar the Herald who has been corrupted and is causing the destruction of Shinovar.)

The Stormfather expresses strong displeasure that Dalinar is considering going to the Spiritual Realm; the spren does not want Dalinar to know the full truth about Honor’s past behavior, when the god broke oaths and behaved in a way that was anathema to his power and everything he stood for.

Wit informs Dalinar about some of the dangers of the Spiritual Realm, warning that time moves differently there, and that one can easily become lost.

At the entrance to their hideout, Ghostbloods have a device that enables them to tell if Stormlight (magic) is being used, so Shallan and the Lightweavers cannot wear their magic disguises to sneak in. Shallan and her crew take out the guard at the front so that Shallan can impersonate her—wearing a mask and wig—and enter the hideout. Shallan must enter alone, but she carries a messaging device so that she can alert the Lightweavers if she needs help.

This chapter is set 26 years before the main events of the plot and is the first of many flashbacks that tell Szeth’s story.

Szeth is 11 years old. He and his family live in rural Shinovar, where they tend a flock of sheep. Szeth has a strong affection for one of his family’s sheep, an ewe named Molli.

Szeth and his older sister, Elid, are in the fields when Szeth finds a stone that is partially embedded in the ground. In Shinovar, ordinary people are forbidden from touching stones, which are sacred objects. The stone is therefore a potentially dangerous discovery.

Shallan enters the Ghostblood hideout and finds a trophy room displaying other-worldly objects. In one of the cases, Shallan sees a reflection of Sja-anat, an Unmade who is the sister to Ba-Ado-Mishram.

In the next room, several people are gathered. Among them is Mraize, who was Shallan’s superior and mentor when she was working with the Ghostbloods. Mraize’s boss, Iyatil, is also in the room. Shallan maintains her disguise while listening to the Ghostblood meeting.

Shallan learns that the Ghostbloods were spying on her while she was in Shadesmar; they heard every conversation that she had with Adolin and Kalak about the location of Ba-Ado-Mishram’s prison. Mraize and Iyatil plan to search for the prison by following Dalinar when he enters the Spiritual Realm.

Navani resolves to go to the Spiritual Realm with Dalinar.

Shallan’s cover is almost blown when Iyatil begins issuing orders to her in a language that she doesn’t understand. Shallan distracts Iyatil by pointing out Sja-anat’s presence on a reflective doorknob. Shallan discovers that Mraize and Iyatil possess surgebinding powers (one of the most potent magical abilities in the cosmere).

Shallan also learns that the Ghostbloods are in possession of anti-Stormlight: a dangerous new discovery that can kill spren. Anti-Stormlight also reacts explosively when it meets Stormlight.

Iyatil finally sees through Shallan’s disguise.

Chapter 27 resumes the flashback into Szeth’s childhood.

Szeth’s parents want to hide the stone that Szeth found rather than reporting its discovery to leadership; reporting the stone would likely lead to their property being confiscated. They ask Szeth to make the final decision because he is the one who found it. He decides to go along with his parents’ plan to move the stone.

Now that Shallan’s ruse has been discovered, she prepares to attack the Ghostbloods by summoning her Shardplate, her Shardblade (the sword form of her spren, Pattern). She also summons the new shield form that she is experimenting with for her other spren, Testament.

Iyatil shoots Shallan with an arrow infused with anti-Stormlight, so Shallan dismisses her armor and her two spren because they are creatures of pure Stormlight. The arrow hits Shallan but does no more damage than a mundane weapon would. Shallan’s backup arrives, and Mraize and Iyatil retreat into Shadesmar by using their powers.

Szeth observes that a darkness shrouds Shinovar; it is coming from a nearby monastery. (Shinovar’s monasteries are home to the ancient Honorblades: the swords of the Heralds.)

Lift has a conversation with her spren, Wyndle, and with Gavinor. She observes that no one has seen the sword master and ardent, Zahel. (Ardents are religious leaders. Later in the book, when Lift is looking for her lost pet bird, she will accidentally discover where Zahel is being held prisoner by the Ghostbloods and will free him.)

Lift and Gavinor share a secret handshake. (Oathbringer, the third novel in the series, describes the events of the Battle of Kholinar, in which Gavinor’s mother allowed him to be tortured by spren, after which Gavinor’s father—then king of Alethkar—was killed while Gavinor was in his arms.)

Renarin Kholin is in the fields near Urithiru with his companion Rlain. Both men are bonded to spren that have been influenced by the Unmade Sja-anat. Renarin has a crush on Rlain and watches the Parshendi man admiringly while he works. Now in a race against the Ghostbloods, Shallan asks for their help to enter the Spiritual Realm and search for Ba-Ado-Mishram’s prison.

Shallan, Rlain, and Renarin enter Shadesmar to follow Mraize and Iyatil, who are seeking Dalinar in order to find Ba-Ado-Mishram’s prison. The guards that are stationed near the Oathgate inform Shallan that they haven’t spotted the fugitives. (Too late, Shallan will realize that these guards are in fact the Ghostbloods in disguise.) From Shadesmar, they can see a glow where Navani and Dalinar are in the Physical Realm. Navani and Dalinar are planning an experiment to see if they can access the Spiritual Realm. They will use a rock that Wit gives them—an ancient souvenir from 7,000 years ago when humanity migrated to Roshar—to anchor them to a specific moment in time.

Dalinar uses his powers to open a portal called a “perpendicularity,” which connects all three realms. Just then, in Shadesmar, Shallan realizes that Mraize and Iyatil are masquerading as guards. Both Iyatil and Mraize have anti-Stormlight daggers. Mraize throws his dagger into the perpendicularity, creating a massive explosion and severing Dalinar and Navani’s ties to the Physical Realm.

Lift, the Knight Radiant, was spying on Dalinar and Navani when they opened the perpendicularity. Unbeknownst to Lift, Dalinar and Navani’s grandson Gavinor had followed. When the perpendicularity collapses after Mraize’s attack, Gavinor is pulled into the Spiritual Realm. Meanwhile, Wit disguises himself and Lift as Dalinar and Navani so that no one will notice that they are missing.

Kaladin makes stew for himself and Szeth, but it doesn’t taste good. Kaladin also tries to play the flute, but because he is just a beginner, his music does not sound good. Still, he persists and is surprised when Szeth enjoys a bowl of stew. This gesture indicates Szeth’s first small willingness to connect with Kaladin and listen to what Kaladin has to say.

Ishar, the Herald, visits Kaladin’s camp in the night. Kaladin is unnerved to realize that Ishar thinks of himself as the Almighty—as Honor, as a god.

Interlude 3 follows El, a Fused of Odium. El enters a vault in the Parshendi-occupied city of Kholin. There, he finds the gemstone imprisoning the Herald Jeziren and destroys it with an anti-Stormlight dagger. Odium appears and assigns El command of the armies attacking the Shattered Plains.

Cultivation and Odium meet for a conversation. Cultivation urges Odium to look up at the stars—with their god-like senses, they can see the other planets where other gods rule. Cultivation sees this as evidence that each Shard can have its own domain without need for clashes or war. However, Odium sees proof that the other Shards can be conquered one by one.