Wind and Truth

Kaladin and Szeth visit Szeth’s childhood home.

This chapter continues the flashback to Szeth’s past.

The young Szeth and his family, along with other shepherding families in the area, seek refuge from a raiding party. Raids by “stonewalkers” (people from outside of Shinovar) are common.

Szeth encounters the Farmer, their community leader, and asks him for help in delineating the clear line between right and wrong. The Farmer tells Szeth that the difference between people and animals is that people have free will. This confuses and frustrates Szeth, who longs for the comfort of being told right from wrong and prefers the peace of simply following orders.

Molli—the nearly blind, elderly sheep whom Szeth loves—is missing. Szeth heads into the night alone to find Molli.

Adolin, Emperor Yanagawn, and Commander Kushkam meet to discuss the defense of Azimir.

In speaking with Yanagawn, Adolin realizes that the young emperor has never been educated in military strategy. Adolin offers to teach Yanagawn to play Towers, a card game that mimics battle tactics.

May Aladar, a high-born Alethi woman and an ex-girlfriend of Adolin’s, is assigned to be his head scribe. May is also a talented archer.

This chapter continues the flashback to Szeth’s past.

Near his family’s homestead, Szeth discovers three Shin men irreverently sitting on a stone and roasting meat. Szeth doesn’t immediately realize it, but these soldiers have killed Molli in order to eat her. They are ostensibly in the area to defend residents from foreign raiders.

Szeth rushes one of the drunk soldiers and hits him, but because Szeth is only a child, the man tosses him away easily. When Szeth falls to the ground, his hand finds the stone that his family hid earlier. When the man attacks Szeth again, the boy hits the soldier on the head with the rock, killing him.

Szeth hits the man several times. When he stops, he hears a voice in his head. Szeth will hear this voice for years to come. The narrative does not yet reveal the source of that voice. (When Szeth later begins training with the Shardbearers from the monasteries, the narrative will reveal that the other Shardbearers hear the voice too; they all think it is a powerful spren. However, the novel’s final twist will reveal that the voice is that of Ishar, the Herald who has become corrupted by drawing on Odium’s power.)

Adolin and May prepare a battle hospital near the Oathgate dome. They have one Radiant with healing abilities. A secure saferoom lies below the improvised hospital, where Emperor Yanagawn can retreat should the battle turn against them.

The first enemy combatants appear through the Oathgate.

The first monastery that Szeth and Kaladin visit appears to be abandoned, but they soon discover residents hiding there and learn that all the people of the area have been hearing the voice that Szeth himself has heard for years. Inside the monastery, they find Rit, the Honorbearer of the Stonewardens. Szeth steps forward to duel her.

In Azimir, powerful Parshendi warriors attack the front lines of soldiers. Adolin jumps in to help, wearing his Shardplate, which makes him immensely fast, powerful, and difficult to injure. Adolin takes down many Parshendi troops before he sees Abidi the Monarch approaching.

Szeth’s battle with the Stoneward Honorbearer is challenging because she can shape and liquify rock at-will. Eventually, Szeth surrenders to his trust of his spren and allows himself to be encased fully in rock. His spren is testing him; after Szeth passes this test, the spren grants him permission to use Division, his second Surge (the second set of his Radiant powers). With Division, Szeth has the ability to break down any material. He makes the stone disappear and slays the Honorbearer, claiming her blade.

Adolin and Abidi the Monarch duel, surrounded by a raging battle of their forces. Neither wants to risk being drawn toward the enemy lines, so they withdraw from each other.

After killing the Honorbearer, Szeth tells Kaladin about the Shin tradition of pilgrimage. To become an Honorbearer, a trained warrior must defeat the previous bearer and then travel to all the other monasteries in order to prove their abilities by dueling each Honorbearer.

In Azimir, the Parshendi army retreats through the Oathgate into Shadesmar. Adolin and his friends celebrate the day’s victory.

Adolin offers to show Yanagawn how to use his Shardplate and Shardblade. Commander Kushkam and Adolin talk strategy, building their trust in each other after the day’s battle.

Maya, Adolin’s spren, heads to Shadesmar to recruit other spren to their cause. Adolin will not be able to summon Maya as a blade while she is away. He thinks that she is going to recruit Honorspren, but the narrative will later reveal that she is recruiting fellow Deadeyes (spren who were bonded as Shardblades and were then abandoned).

In Azimir, a thief named Baxil meets with a person named Axies, who collects and studies spren. In exchange for an unnamed spren trapped in a gem, Axies offers special bandages that Baxil needs in order to survive a unique curse that he bears. Axies tells Baxil that two Heralds (Shalash and Taln) are in Azimir. Baxil used to work for Shalash.

Taravangian, now the embodiment of Odium’s powers, decides to let his uber-logical side rule for a time before swapping and letting his uber-emotional side rule for a time. He travels to Kharbranth, the city that he ruled as a human king, to recruit his trusted former advisor, Dova. Dova is the Herald Battar in disguise. To get Battar to betray her role as Herald, Taravangian promises her a planet of her own to rule.