Wind and Truth

Sigzil’s strategy works; the enemy forces focus their attacks on Narak Four, diverting their energy from other crucial locations. Despite this success, Sigzil realizes that his troops will not have enough Stormlight to continue fighting at the same level of intensity for long.

Venli and her group of dissenting Parshendi discuss what their departure from Odium’s forces may mean.

This chapter continues the flashback to Szeth’s past.

Szeth quickly rises to become the best fighter in his training group at the Stoneward monastery. He gets in trouble for speaking his mind, and his mother visits him while he is running laps as punishment.

Szeth’s father now has a prestigious administrative position at the monastery. He brings Szeth along to a meeting with the General and Pozen, an Honorbearer (the same one whom the adult Szeth duels in Shadesmar in Chapter 53). Szeth asks Pozen how to tell right from wrong. Pozen advocates for trusting the wisdom of one’s superiors. Pozen recommends that the General send Szeth out on a raid defense, as this exercise will harden Szeth. Although violence doesn’t come naturally to Szeth, he is grateful for Pozen’s confident conviction about how to discern right from wrong.

Dalinar finds another anchor to the next vision just in time. As the vision is dissolving, the Stormfather begs Dalinar not to continue down this path, because he fears what the visions will reveal to Dalinar.

Thude (a Parshendi warrior) sings a song to Venli and the other dissenters to teach them the history of the chasmfiends. The creatures were long seen as monsters to be hunted for their valuable gem hearts, but now the Parshendi dissenters have formed a mutually beneficial bond with the animals. Having heard the history of the chasmfiends, Venli wonders why their breeding ground is in the Shattered Plains. She realizes that some kind of magic has drawn the Parshendi, the chasmfiends, and even the humans to the Shattered Plains over the centuries.

This chapter continues the flashback to Szeth’s past.

Szeth is now 19 and has been training as a soldier for eight years. He leads a group of soldiers defending a Shin fishing village against a party of seafaring raiders.

At the prompting of the voice in his head, Szeth devises a plan to give the raiders a show of force, even though the usual tactic is to surrender to the raiders without resistance. He still believes the voice to be the spren of the rock that he found years ago. Now, Szeth and his men allow themselves to be taken as captives onto the raider ships before springing their attack and setting fire to the ships. Szeth fights fiercely on his ship before swimming to help his embattled men on another ship. In the end, he threatens and frightens the beaten raiders to an extreme.

Suddenly, the General and Szeth’s father arrive in the village; the General is livid with Szeth for taking liberties with his orders.

Adolin worries that his armies won’t be able to endure days of fierce fighting. Between battles, he walks the camp and speaks with the soldiers. He watches with growing desperation for the promised reinforcements, but they never arrive.

The Azish army recruits anyone they can from the civilians in the city. A young woman, Zabra, unsuccessfully tries to disguise herself as a boy in order to join the fight. Adolin sends her to work under May with the promise that she can train with a bow and arrow while she works with the messengers. (Later, Zabra will be one of the final troops standing with Adolin and Yanagawn when they make their final play to defend the throne room from Odium’s forces.)

Venli decides to travel to Narak to understand the magic that pulls Roshar’s residents there. The stones call her to investigate, just as the voice of the wind called Kaladin to travel to Shinovar.

Jasnah Kholin arrives in Thaylen City. She and Queen Fen discuss the defense of the city. It has only been one year since the city was last decimated by battle, and Fen worries that they have not had time to rebuild their navy and defenses enough to truly fend off an attack.

Dalinar, Navani, and Gavinor arrive in their next vision, which is set on the day the Oathpact was formed between the Heralds and Honor. Renarin, Rlain, and Shallan also arrive to witness this event. In the vision, the Heralds prepare to take the step into immortality.

Sigzil and a few other Radiants battle a Thunderclast, a stone giant animated by a spren of Odium. Once the Thunderclast is defeated, they continue to battle other Fused.

In their shared vision, Dalinar, Navani, Gav, Rlain, and Renarin watch as Tanavast (the avatar of Honor during the time of the vision) appears in the tent amongst the Heralds.

In the battle for Azimir, Odium’s forces devise a ploy to draw the Azish Shardbearer Neziham too far into enemy lines so that they can overtake him and claim his armor. Adolin and his guard beat back the enemy forces and rescue Neziham.

In the vision that Dalinar, Navani, Shallan, Rlain, and Renarin are witnessing, Honor and the Heralds discuss the specifics of the Oathpact. They will create a circle of magic by bonding 10 people’s oaths to the god Honor. This act will enable his power to flow through them, effectively imprisoning Odium and his Fused in a cycle of Desolations on Roshar. One by one, the Heralds make their oaths.

In Shinovar, Szeth admits to Kaladin that their “therapy” conversations have been helping him.

In the Spiritual Realm, Mraize is hiding in the vision and has taken on Honor’s form. He suddenly attacks Shallan. “Formless” then appears and taunts Shallan, urging her to kill not only Mraize but also Dalinar and Navani. Shallan retreats from the vision.

Still in the vision, Dalinar and Navani watch as Taln is recruited to be the final Herald. He resists because he is not interested in power or immortality, but in the end, he accepts, and the Oathpact is sealed. Just as the vision is dissolving, Dalinar (in the body of Kalak) is handed an Honorblade, which will serve as an anchor to carry them through thousands of years of visions until the time when the Heralds abandon their blades.

Szeth and Kaladin reach the next monastery, which happens to be the first monastery where Szeth lived when he was in training. The monastery is empty, but Szeth leads Kaladin to the dorms and pulls out a loose brick. His toy sheep is still hidden behind it. Szeth becomes emotional and reveals more about his childhood trauma to Kaladin. Suddenly, the Herald Nale arrives.

In Azimir, Adolin welcomes an honorspren named Notum. Notum does not want to bond with a human but wants to help with the war efforts nonetheless.

On the Shattered Plains, Sigzil and a few other Windrunners realize that Odium’s forces have created an Elsegate—a portal that allows travel between the realms. Sigzil sees Moash, with his new gemstone eyes, appear through the gate.

This chapter continues Szeth’s flashback.

Szeth’s commanding officers decide to punish him for his disobedience by sending him to guard a high pass in the mountains; it is a remote, solitary posting. He is relieved and pleased that this will be his fate, but the voice in his head is not pleased. The voice speaks into the minds of the three Honorbearers who are part of the sentencing committee. They interrogate Szeth about his experience with the voice. When they hear that he has been following the voice’s guidance for years, they decide that he must train to be an Honorbearer.

Szeth’s father and sister accompany him to the new monastery, but his mother refuses to uproot her life again.

Zahel is a religious scholar (an “ardent”) and a renowned swordmaster who taught both Adolin and Renarin how to fight with their Shardblades. He was taken captive by the Ghostbloods and is now imprisoned in a secret room in Urithiru, where he is being tortured. He shares his prison with a parrot. (Later in the novel, Lift will rescue Zahel while she is searching for her lost pet parrot, which she calls a chicken.) Zahel’s torturer, a woman named Axindweth, calls him by a different name, Vasher, and demands that he give up his magical power, which she calls “Breaths.”

(Nightblood will later mention the name of Vasher to Szeth. Vasher created Nightblood many centuries ago, although the narrative does not yet reveal this fact. Vasher also appears in other works by Brandon Sanderson, including Warbreaker, which is set in the cosmere universe.)

Taravangian, functioning as Odium, realizes that both his emotional side and his logical side agree on their mutual desire to conquer. He reasons that someone will always be the conqueror in any situation, so it might as well be him. In this moment, he becomes fully aligned as the avatar of the god Odium and is no longer torn between conflicting parts of himself.