Kalak
For centuries, these 10 god-beings have been Groundhog Day’ing epic Desolation battles. This time they did rather well, with most of them surviving (ha! sucks to be Talenel). Now would be a great time to call it quits and break the Oathpact. “But mankind relies on us” “Meh, they have the Radiants” “OK, sounds good, but we have to leave our magic swords stabbed here in the ground”.
Szeth
Big party at King Gavilar’s house to celebrate the treaty with the Parshendi. But not for Szeth - he has to duck out while wearing a white bathrobe to go kill the king. Szeth is from Shinovar, but the white-robe thing is a wholesome Parshendi tradition so that the target can see it coming. Lots of drunk people. Szeth goes to kill the king, sucking power out of the light bulbs that line the corridors. This gives him Stormlight that allows him to walk on walls and glue people to ceilings. He also draws his big misty/shiny sword, a Shardblade, which can slice through anything except people (kinda). He kills the king, but the king gives Szeth a small present before he dies: a little crystal sphere on a chain that glows with a black light. Awww, how nice. “They must.. not.. get it..” he croaks out. The king also leaves a cryptic message for Szeth to give to his (the king’s) brother, which Szeth tastefully writes on the ground in the king’s blood. Looks like the treaty is broken.
Cenn
Kaladin paid money to bring this young, barely trained recruit into his unit. Why would he do that? They fight the enemy (vengeance for the king’s assassination!), keeping Cenn protected as best they can. Things go well in the battle up until they don’t: an enemy with a Shardblade appears.
Kaladin
Kaladin is now a slave. How did that happen? He’s locked in a slave cage eating slop and being harassed by a windspren (a sexy/glowy tinkerbell/navi sprite) that only he can see. He has slave marks and “dangerous” branded on his forehead. He has tried to escape before (unsuccessfully, obviously) and is close to losing hope. The windspren starts talking to him regularly, which is weird. She knows his name, which is weird. She taunts him for starting to lose hope.
Shallan
Shallan arrives in Kharbranth. Big city for country girl. She seeks Jasnah Kholin, infamous heretic of the royal family, to become her ward. Desperately, because her father is dead (shhh! no one knows), and her family is near destitute.
Kaladin
More sexy taunts because Kaladin doesn’t cry. Uh oh, the slave wagon train is lost. Kaladin is a slave because he’s an army deserter, but he isn’t really (isn’t really a deserter - he is really a slave). They make it to The Shattered Plains, the king’s army is camped here.
Shallan
Jasnah carries a Soulcaster, a bit of gem-encrusted jewelry which allows her to cast.. souls? It looks just like the one Shallan’s father had. That’s convenient. OMG the king is here. Well, not the real king, but a local king. Jasnah uses her Soulcaster to save the king’s granddaughter by turning a large boulder into a puff of thick smoke. Yay! However, Jashah is unimpressed with Sallah the Under-educated Country Bumpkin, and refuses to accept her as a ward. Not good. Shallan needs to become her ward so she can steal her Soulcaster - swapping it with her broken one.
Kaladin
The slaves are released so they can be inspected for purchase. Kaladin wants to join an army and hold a spear again, but his “dangerous” brand doesn’t help. He gets assigned to bridge duty. That doesn’t sound too bad. Kaladin gets assigned to Bridge Four and learns that his job is to carry bridges. OK, still not too bad. Carry them so the proper army can cross the chasms to battle to the Parshendi. Oh.. run first into battle while carrying a massive bridge. Without shields. This.. could be bad. But at least Kaladin learns the name of his half-naked glow-sprite: Sylphrena. Meh, too long. How ‘bout just “Syl”?
Shallan
She needs to steal that Soulcaster to save her family. So she must convince Jasnah to accept her as her ward. Back to the library, she camps out in Jasnah’s alcove and waits. She draws for a bit, writes a letter, and then Brother Kabsal, an ardent, arrives also seeking Jasnah. He’s young and bald and they flirt. Shallan reveals that she likes jam. When Jasnah finally returns, she is not happy.
Shallan
Jasnah is still angry. “Go away” “Did you see my letter?” “No, what? Oh, this letter?” … “OK. Still no, but you can try again later once you’re educated.” Shallan thinks about her father’s weird maps and leaves, dejected. “Wait” she thinks “I can just buy books and study real hard tonight and be educated by tomorrow.” Back to the library. Jasnah finds her there and relents. Victory!
Kaladin
Bridge life is hard. Lots of people die. Kaladin is sad. Syl is disappointed and admits to stalking Kaladin for a long time. Not creepy at all, but she says that she’s gonna leave now. More bridgemen die. Kaladin cries.
Kaladin
Kaladin’s father Lirin is a surgeon, and Kaladin helps him while he treats a young girl’s injured hand. Kaladin wants to be soldier which makes daddy unhappy. But money has been saved to send Kaladin to Med School in Kharbranth, so that’s that.
Kaladin
Bridge life is hard. Kaladin goes to the Honor Chasm and considers jumping. Syl returns, flashes her legs and Kaladin decides not to jump. Syl apparently needs him for her to regain her memories. Kaladin returns to camp and demands to be made leader of Bridge Four. He resolves to start training the other bridgemen to work as team as part of his big plan to protect them.
Ishikk
Ishikk likes to fish. Maib keeps giving him soup so that he’ll have to marry her one day, but he gives her fish to hold her off. Détente. Three oddball foreigners have had him searching for a man called Hoid, with white hair and clever tongue, but maybe he doesn’t look like that anymore. Anyway, he’s not here.
Balat
Shallan’s brother is the kind of person who pulls legs off crabs, and his 6-legged dog likes to bite them off too. He’s injured and has to stay guarding at home while his siblings go off on adventures. He’s not bitter about that though. Not at all. Other brother comes: “We have a problem” “Uh oh”.
Szeth
His current master Took shows him off to other people in a tavern: “He’ll do anything I say”. And he does. Took is killed after leaving the tavern and now Szeth has a new master: “You’ll do anything I say?” And he will.
Adolin/Dalinar
King Elhokar the Paranoid wants to fight a chasmfiend - a fiendishly crabby creature that lives in the (wait for it) chasms. Accompanied by Adolin the Womanizer (that’s me), Dalinar of the Prophetic Nightmares (that’s my dad), and Sadeas the Conniving (that’s my dad’s old friend, who cannot be trusted). “You must unite them” the voice said in Dalinar’s fever dream, clearly referring to the various warlords under King Paranoid. They reach the shattered plain where the giant beast is to be hunted, but it snuck around behind them. Oops.
Dalinar
It takes 10 heartbeats to summon my 6-foot Shardblade. Let me count them for you. Adolin and the King also have Shardblades. They cut the chasmfiend’s legs, but it has so many. They fight. The king falls off his horse suspiciously, but Dalinar saves the king from a crushing crab-claw blow that certainly would have killed him. The beast is killed and Elhokar (the king, remember?) claims the beast’s enormous gemheart.
Kaladin
“Up and at ‘em, everyone!”, but no one gets up, much less gets at ‘em. So Kaladin starts punching and dragging them outside. They don’t care so Kaladin decides to train alone by carrying around a big block of wood. People stare. Syl zaps Kaladin so she can tell him she now knows what death is. Good for her, but it’s apparently weird for a spren-sprite to know this. What is she?
Adolin/Dalinar
A bunch of people died in the chasmfiend attack, but, hey, that’s how life goes sometimes. Dalinar is annoyed that this war isn’t really a war, but just a way for wealthy lords to claim more gemhearts. Sadeas acts like a jerk. Did you know that his bridgemen don’t have shields on purpose so they can serve as targets? Jerk. How can Dalinar work with someone like him to unite the others? Anyway, someone appears to have cut the strap on the king’s saddle just before the attack - that’s why he fell. Dalinar must investigate. Maybe the king isn’t paranoid? (He is).
Kaladin
Petulant youth Kal complains to his (not quite) girlfriend that daddy wants him to be a surgeon. His younger brother Tien likes pretty rocks, but Kal just wants be a soldier so he can hold a spear and stab things. The citylord dies but leaves a giant goblet of moneyballs to pay for Kal’s Med School. How fortunate!
Kaladin
Kaladin goes shopping for medical supplies. They’re expensive. Kaladin’s moneyballs don’t glow anymore even though they were fine this morning. Odd. But more immediately, a horn calls out indicating an assault that the bridgemen need to lead. Kaladin (acting leaderly) chooses the most dangerous spot (front and center) for the final bridgerun. Somehow all the incoming arrows miss Kaladin. How lucky. After the assault, Kaladin provides medical assistance to the fallen bridgemen, something no one else has ever thought to do before.
Adolin/Dalinar
Adolin’s on a date with his latest squeeze and takes her to.. investigate King Elhokar’s cut saddle strap. What a guy! Aha! The strap was cut. Purposefully? Hard to tell. Adolin is concerned that Dalinar is going crazy with his screaming visions that happen during highstorms. Because anyone who claims the gift of prophecy is a heretic. Uh-oh, a highstorm hits unexpectedly and Dalinar needs to shelter in a barrack with a bunch of common folk who will now get to witness his highstorm vision screams.
Dalinar
The vision. He fights off an attack of Midnight Essense - six-legged skin-sacs of smoke with pointy teeth. After popping two of them, he runs away with his wife(?) and daughter(?) but they’re blocked and get surrounded by smoke-sacs. Sparkle-knights fall from the sky and they work together to defeat the shadow monsters. Radiant Knights - that’s what they are. The knights are impressed with his fighting and say he should go to Urithiru to learn more. Urithiru? The Lost City of Urithiru? This vision must be taking place in the distant past. Dalinar asks if he should trust Sadeas. The vision voice says yes. Dalinar wakes up. People are staring.
Kaladin
Kal fails to save the life of a young injured girl. This makes him feel sad and helpless. Daddy says “You gotta stop caring so much”, but Kal doesn’t.
Kaladin
Kaladin gets up and does his morning exercise routine. The Authorities are Not Pleased that Kaladin brought back injured bridgemen - what good are they if they can’t carry a bridge? Bridge Four will need to share food for the injured to eat. Kaladin volunteers his team to collect rocks, and Rock reveals his true name is Numuhukumakiaki’aialunamor.
Dalinar
The king’s saddle strap was cut, or maybe just wear and tear. Hard to tell. Navani (the king’s mom) arrives to Dalinar’s lustful gaze. But that’s his brother’s widow, so is it really appropriate? Shouldn’t he be thinking more about his dead wife, good ol’ whats-her-name? King Elhokar announces the Sadeas (that sneaky bastard) has been appointed Highprince of Information, presumably to perform a “proper” investigation in the Case of the Broken Saddle Strap.
Kaladin
Kaladin, Rock and Teft are gathering rocks while surreptitiously gathering knobweed to use as medicine. This’ll be cheaper than buying it from the apothecary.
Dalinar
Dalinar tries to unite the squabbling lordlings by proposing a joint assault to capture gemhearts. But no one wants to go with him. Adolin isn’t convinced his dad’s visions are real but isn’t a fan of everyone making fun of him.
Kaladin
Townsfolk think Kal’s dad stole the goblet of glow-money. Roshone, the new citylord, arrives to replace the dead one, but he’s not pleased being assigned to this backwater town.
Dalinar
New chaosfiend arrives and Dalinar rides out to attack it, something he hasn’t done often lately. Dal’s army use mechanical bridges instead of sacrificing bridgemen like Sadeas, so they are usually slower to arrive to the battle. Speaking of Sadeas, he visits Dalinar’s army on the hunt so that he can interview soldiers as part of his saddle strap investigation. Dalinar rides into battle and realizes he doesn’t enjoy slaughtering as much as he used to. He must be getting old.
Kaladin
Kaladin sells extra knobweed medicine to make money and buy other medical supplies. This displeases the Authorities so Bridge Four is assigned to Chasm Duty (where they won’t be able to gather knobweed). Chasm Duty means dropping down into the chasms and scavenging the corpses that have been washed about for valuables. Oh, and avoiding chasmfiends. In the chasm, Kaladin does a spear dance that impresses everyone. Later he has Rock cook a delicious stew for everyone.
Adolin/Dalinar
Still worried about dad - he looks old. More Highprinces refuse Dalinor’s offer of joint assaults. Are the visions just because he’s tired? Dalinar wonders if he’s too old for all this and considers abdicating so Adolin can take over.
Rysn
Rysn is apprenticed to be a merchant, so she travels around to faraway lands with her master. Today, they’re in Shin country, trading metal for chickens. Not icky regular metal from the ground, but pure metal that was created by soulcasting shells or wood into metal. BTW, these were the traders that exchanged Szeth seven years ago. Rysn collects a pot of grass to keep as a pet.
Axies
Axies wakes up on a pile of garbage in an alley. He is a scholar trying to catalog every type of spren and is currently studying spren who appear when people are stupid-drunk (like he was last night). Just offshore, a large sea-spren leaps in the air and puts on a show, forming human faces. Everyone who watches feels a bit drained, which is probably fine.
Szeth
Szeth is out killing people he’s been told to kill, but his latest target has already been killed. Cool, that was easy. “Your skills are being wasted” a voice says. “I kill who my master tells me to” “Yeah, well I’m your master now” Szeth is given a shopping list of powerful lords and kings to kill. Oh dear.
Shallan
Shallan chats with her brother via remote letter magic. She learns that her father was involved with the shadow mob and they want their Soulcaster back, like right now. Ah well, back to studying. The king (yes, the local one) asks for a portrait and she draws one that includes a few cloaked creatures with glyph-heads in the background. Why did she do that? She looks around and the glyph-headed creatures aren’t really there. She destroys the drawing (promising to make another one) so no one will think she’s seeing things.
Kaladin/Gaz
More people follow Kaladin in the morning as he builds his army of bridgemen. Gaz (Kaladin’s boss) doesn’t like it, but they are carrying the bridges faster, so maybe it’s OK? Kaladin has a plan to carry the bridge on it’s side like a shield. I’m sure Gaz and the others will love that.
Kaladin
Kal’s dad tells him to never come back to this dinky little two-bit town once he manages to escape: “Stay in Kharbranth after Med School”. He’s drunk as he says this, but he’s not wrong. Money is tight because the new citylord Roshone has told the townspeople to stop paying for medical care. Why would he do that? Because he wants the moneyballs that Kal needs for Med School; claims that they’re rightfully his. The townsfolk form a mob to steal the glow-money but Kal’s dad embarrasses them away.
Kaladin
Carry the bridge sideways - the perfect plan. Kaladin tries it during a bridge run and… it doen’t go well. Bridge Four was fine, but the other bridges fell into chaos and Sadeas’ assault was ruined. Kick Kaladin Kick is Kick punished Kick.
Shallan
Shallan loves the scholarly life but she needs to get started thieving. Bald-boy Kabsal comes visiting “looking for Jasnah” and he brings jam! Since Jasnah doesn’t like jam, he’s clearly flirting with Shallan even though, as an Ardent, he probably shouldn’t be flirting with anyone. The Ardents are concerned for Shallan’s soul because of her association with Jasnah the Heretic, so Kabsal’s visits are perfectly innocent. Shallan finds herself falling for him (a bit). He has proof of the Almighty’s existence - music that causes sand to bounce and form city patterns. Curious, but not exactly proof.
Kaladin
Kaladin’s kicking punishment wasn’t enough. He’s to be hung upside-down outside during a highstorm. Of course, people don’t typically survive being outside during a highstorm even if they’re upside-up. Let’s see how Kaladin fares.
Kaladin
Upside-down Kaladin flops around in the winds of the highstorm. He sees the giant face of the Stormfather in the thunderclouds. It smiles at him and he survives the storm. A miracle! Teft (one of the bridgemen) starts to suspect that maybe there’s something special about Kaladin.
Shallan
Jasnah taking a bath so this seems like the best time to steal her Soulcaster, but Shallan has doubts about thievery. Lesson time for Shallan: They go for an evening stroll to lure thieves that try to rob them. It works! Jasnah kills them in exciting ways: burning, lightning zaps and turning one into a crystal statue. A practical lesson on morality. Shallan is shaken by the violent display and swaps her fake Soulcaster for the real one. The theft is complete.
Kaladin
Kal joins his father to have dinner at Roshone’s house. Kal’s (not really) former girlfriend is there. She’s rich and has totally moved on. Neither she, nor Roshone’s son, want to associate with riff-raff like Kal. Kaladin’s father reveals that he might have slightly manipulated the documents to inherit the previous citylord’s moneyballs. But that’s not really stealing, right, because he kinda promised them? Right?
Kaladin
Kaladin is badly injured from the highstorm. Teft gives him glow-money to see if he can suck out the power and start healing. He does! Kaladin is still in bad shape, but now he’ll survive. Teft needs to tell the Envisagers (who are they?) about this discovery, but they’re all dead so that’ll be a bit challenging.
Shallan
Disturbed by Jasnah’s killings, Shallan starts drawing.. pictures of a richly-dressed man dead on the ground. Ugh. Where did that come from? What’s wrong with her? Jasnah apparently hasn’t noticed the theft. Shallan needs to get out of here once it’s not longer suspicious to do so. Three weeks should do it.
Kaladin
Kaladin wakes up. He should be dead, but he recovered unnaturally fast. “I must be super lucky”. To celebrate, (almost) everyone shaves off their beard.
Kaladin
Roshone and his brat were hunting a Whitespine but things got reversed and now Kaladin’s dad needs to patch them both up. Roshone survives (darn) but his son doesn’t.
Shallan
Jasnah still hasn’t said anything about the broken soulcaster. Is she trying to keep it a secret? Shallan’s attempts to use the soulcaster have been unfruitful. Kabsal arrives, with jam, and.. is it just me or is it getting hot in here? One week left until she has to leave.
Kaladin
The failure during the last bridge assault resulted in Kaladin’s bosses’ boss getting executed. His no-nonsense replacement arrives and assigns Bridge Four to permanent Chasm duty. Now the knobweed is gone for good, but the chasms are private enough that Kaladin can start teaching everyone how to use a spear so they can escape.
Kaladin
Brightlord Amaram arrives in town to gather recruits for the army. When there aren’t enough volunteers, Roshane (hissss) chooses Tien, Kaladin’s woefully unprepared younger brother. Kaladin volunteers as well to protect him, promising to bring him back home safely in four years.
Shallan
Shallan tells Kabsal (and his jam) that she needs to leave. One last drawing, with those glyph-heads standing in the background. Wait, what!? She runs away and makes another drawing. Again with glyph-headed people. They’re following her, back to her room where she accidentally soulcasts a goblet into blood, which make a sticky mess in her room. Huh, how did I do that without touching the Soulcaster? What is because of the glyph monsters? Knock, knock. “Are you OK?” Uh-oh, all this blood will prompt questions. I’ll feign a suicide attempt and hope people don’t look closely.
Kaladin
Kaladin dreams of flying over the Shattered Plains. A voice warns him that “Odium is coming”. Kaladin shaves off his beard and a parshman (one of those passive relatives ofd the Parshendi that everyone is killing) joins the bridge crew.
Kaladin
Kaladin has been in the army for 4 years and he plans on re-enlisting. He can’t go home because of his broken promise to protect Tien. Kaladin pays money for a young, untrained recruit to be transferred to his unit. Ohhh, we read about this in chapter 1. As before, the battle goes fine but then an enemy with a Shardblade appears. The Shardbearer kills many of Kaladin’s men (his friends!) and then goes to attack Amaram, the leader of the army that Kaladin serves. He manages to kill the Shardbearer by stabbing it through the visor’s eye-slit. Killing a Shardbearer entitles you to claim their weapons, but Kaladin doesn’t want it because it gives him icky vibes. He gives it to one of his men who survived.
Shallan
Shallan is recovering after her “suicide attempt”. Well, it’ll at least provide a decent excuse to leave for home. (Local) King Taravangian runs the best hospital in the world, so she is well taken care of. Jasnah visits and apologizes for overworking Shallan. Kabsal arrives with jam. Strawberry jam. Yum. Jasnah takes the jar of jam and.. ewww.. she sticks her finger in the jam!? What is wrong with people? Geez. Who knows where that finger’s been. The jam is now disgusting, which is exactly what you expect to happen when you stick your dirty mitts in it like that. Why are rich people always like this? Never caring if they ruin things that belong to other people. Kabsal, on the other hand, is super polite about the whole thing. Eating some of the jam (even though it now smells terrible) to save Jasnah the embarrassment of having to publicly face what she’s done. Unfortunately, he collapses and hey, Shallan is not feeling too well herself. “She’s been poisoned!” Jasnah goes to cure her by soulcasting, but that’s probably not gonna work well because Shallan stole the device from her a few chapters ago. As she’s losing consciousness, Shallan reveals the stolen Soulcaster to Jasnah (“please save me”), and then screams in pain.
Kaladin
Kaladin starts teaching the bridgemen how to fight with a spear while they’re supposed to be searching the chasms.
Shallan
Shallan awakens in a private room in the hospital. Guarded. Ugh. Now she’s been caught as a thief. Jasnah visits and tells her that “Kabsal” (probably not his real name) was bringing poisoned bread with the antidote in the jam. He was using Shallah to get to (“get to” as in “kill”) Jasnah, who doesn’t eat jam but might eat bread. Jasnah’s finger-poking somehow messed up the jam-antidote, so instead of poison+antidote, it was just poison. Anyway, stupid girl, you need to leave now, you’ve thrown this wonderful opportunity away.
Kaladin
Kaladin killed a Shardbearer, but didn’t claim the weapons. Has anyone ever done that before? Was that a mistake? He could have had a life of luxury. But the blade felt.. wrong somehow. Amaram arrives. “Why didn’t you claim the Shardblade?” “Uhh. I don’t know” Amaram has his guards kill everyone who could be a witness and claims the Shardblade for himself. “I was very brave killing that Shardbearer all by myself, wasn’t I?” But he’s merciful with Kaladin - he gets branded (on his forehead!) a slave for “deserting” the army.
Baxil
Baxil and Av are helping their mistress slash paintings and bust up statues in the palace. Why is she doing this?
Geranid
Geranid is measuring spren so that they stop changing size.
Szeth
Szeth is going through his list, killing people. Lots of people.
Adolin/Dalinar
Another highstorm. Another vision. This time he’s a guard on the ramparts of a winter fortress. A group of Radiants (ah, so this vision must be from long ago) are approaching the castle. Not just a group, but pretty much all of them. They stop outside the castle, stab their shiny blades into the ground, take off their Shardarmor and then.. just walk away. Dalinar runs after them to ask “why”. Why did they abandon their swords and their duty? They don’t respond other than to say “read the book” and “unite them”. The other soldiers from the castle are fighting to claim the magic weapons and armor - there’s not enough for everyone. His vision ends and he returns. He should probably start writing these down, but since men can’t write he’ll need to have Navani (the king’s widow that he absolutely shouldn’t be starting a relationship with) scribe for him.
Kaladin
A bridge run with Kaladin in front. The Parshendi archers target him but none of their arrows hit. Weird how that keeps happening.
Dalinar
Winter is coming, let’s have a feast. Wit is there, and says the Dalinar can call him Hoid. Hey, that’s the person the fisher-person was looking for earlier. Here he is everyone! Wit warns Dalinar to be careful because he is at the center of the whirlwind that is happening now. Sadeas makes an announcement about the saddle strap investigation. Dalinar fears the worst, but Saleas reveals that the king’s regular saddle was replaced with a different one before leaving the palace. Dalinar is innocent of wrongdoing! Saleas claims that his intent all along was to prove Dalinar innocent. So “trust Sadeas” was right. Dalinar suggests they do a joint assault and Sadeas agrees. Finally, unity is happening!
Kaladin
Sadeas’ army is assaulting the Parshendi and Dalinar’s army comes to help. Victory! To celebrate the successful collaboration, Kaladin and friends are sent down into the chasms to garbage-pick. They find a bunch of moneyballs and devise a way to sneak them out by hiding them under a bridge.
Dalinar
Another joint assault. Enemy reinforcements arrive and Sadeas is in trouble, so Dalinar charges to save him. That’s what friends are for, after all.
Kaladin
Another death in Bridge Four, with the unfortunate bridgeman yelling odd prophecies before he dies. Apparently there’s a lot of that going around lately. Kaladin finally realizes that he feeds off Stormlight to gain super abilities: healing, strength, fightness. And he glows. It must be Syl’s fault. And he can bind things (oh! like the guy in the white robe). He goes for a long walk and finds Wit (or Hoid, or whatever he’s called), who gives him a flute.
Adolin/Dalinar
Adolin has a duel. He wins.
Kaladin
Kaladin practices sucking Stormlight. It’s hard, but he gets better at it. Bridge Four is so good at bridging that they are awarded the honor of going on every single assault. He grabs some dead-Parshendi-armor and stashes it under a bridge for later.
Adolin/Dalinar
Dalinar gets pulled into a vision, even though there’s no highstorm. How did that happen? He’s talking to Nohadon, the guy who wrote the book he’s been quoting at length for the last few years. He learns nothing from the vision, but Navani recognizes some of the gibberish he was speaking, and she writes it down so she can investigate further.
Dalinar
Dalinar smooches Navani. I hope no one finds out.
Kaladin
Bridge assault and Kaladin has a plan: he brings glowbulbs and the Parshendi armor, which is basically the same as wearing a Parshendi corpse on his body. The Parshendi are not pleased with this and target Kaladin exclusively, sparing the other bridgemen. He, of course, dodges or blocks all the arrows.
Kaladin
Spear practice.
Dalinar/Kaladin/Adolin
Dalinar and Navani are now an item. But they’re trying to keep it quiet. The horns sound to announce a new chasmfiend assault. On the main plateau. Dalinar and Sadeas plan the joint assault.
Dalinar/Kaladin
The combined Dalinar and Sadeas army is attacking on the plateau with a giant rock formation called The Tower. The Parshendi are already there. Attack! Kaladin is out in front with his taunting-armor to draw attacks to him. They miss! The assault is going great, and then.. oh wait. It looks like Sadeas is retreating. Abandoning them when they’re surrounded by the Parshendi and then taking all their bridges away. I guess “trust Sadeas” was not such a great idea after all.
Kaladin/Dalinar
Sadeas is retreating. Why? The battle’s just begun. Did he get killed? Nope, there is is looking all bright and shiny and unharmed. He sees Dalinar’s abandoned army in the distance. “I said you couldn’t trust him”. Thank you Adolin, but now’s not really the time. The battle continues. This is probably the end.
Kaladin
Kaladin is annoyed (even more) at Sadeas for the dishonor of abandoning his allies. The other bridgemen are also bothered. They lag behind contemplating escape from Sadeas - everyone will think they died in the assault. Syl realizes that she’s an honorspren - she feeds off honor and binding oaths. The bridge crew go back to help Dalinar - it’s the honorable thing to do after all. Kaladin runs in front again, but there’s only one bridge to target and he can’t protect everyone. He screams, drinks some Stormlight and sucks ALL of the arrows into his shield. Pretty impressive. The Parshendi stare wide-eyed and run away yelling “Lisan al Gaib”. Kaladin remembers back when Tien was killed. Can’t let that happen again to my friends. He charges the Parshendi and leaps into the air, sucking Stormlight out of their beard-bubbles. Kaladin is glowing. You might even say Radiant.
Adloin/Dalinar/Kaladin
Dalinar’s army rushes to the bridge, and it surprised to see the bridgemen fighting and defending it. A Parshendi Swordbearer appears. I guess I have to deal with this now, mano a mano, but Dalinar is exhausted. He drops to the ground and gets pinned by the weight of his armor. The enemy Shardbearer speaks to him: “Ha! I found you”, but Kaladin breaks in an saves him before they can continue their chat. Kaladin orders Dalinar into his horse to retreat.
Navani
Sadeas arrives back at camp, bearing news of Dalinar’s unfortunate death in battle. How surprised he was when Dalinar arrives back at camp. Dalinar confronts Sadeas and buys all the bridgemen from him for the cost of his Shardblade. He then confronts King Elhokar, attacking him and forcing the king to make him Highprince of War. Oh, and I’m dating your mother.
Shallan
Jasnah is disappointed and angry with her, Kabsal is dead, and she’s to be shipped off in the morning. How did things get so messed up? She thinks back. Jasnah had eaten some of the bread, but wasn’t poisoned… She confronts Jasnah: The Soulcaster she has is a fake. That’s why she didn’t notice when the device was switched. She can soulcast without a device. Just like Shallah can (poorly). Of course, Jasnah doesn’t believe it. Clearly this thief can’t actually soulcast, so Shallah proves it by entering the shadow world of glass bubbles. Dangerous, yes, but Jasnah goes in and saves her. OK, you can be my ward again.
Szeth
Szeth is in Kharbranth to kill King Taravangian (the one with the granddaughter Jasnah saved). Surprise! The king has Szeth’s Oathstone, so it was the king all along ordering these assassinations. Why? Well, the king has been collecting the prophetic final words that some people scream as they die. That’s why he has the hospital - so he can collect people about to die. I have a new name to add to the To Kill list: Davinar.
Shallan
“What are these glyph-headed people in my drawings?” “Oh, some kind of spren related to your ability - we’ll figure it out later.” “OK, why are you looking for the Voidbringers from the ancient myths?” “Because they were real, and we didn’t defeat them - we enslaved them instead”. Enslaved? Oh, the Parshmen. They’re the Voidbringers!?
Kaladin
Syl really doesn’t like Shardblades, and is glad Kaladin doesn’t use them. Dalinar enlists Kaladin and his team to be his bodyguards.
Shallan
Yep, you’re right. The Parshmen slaves are the Voidbringers. I wonder how bad it would be if they suddenly reverted to being Voidbringers again? Hmmmm… Very Bad. Shallan and Jasnah need to go to the Shattered Plains and talk with the army people and the king (the real one).
Dalinar
Vision Time: A repeat of an earlier one he had where he talked with a mysterious cloaked figure. Dalinar asks questions, but the figure can’t hear him and just recites the same thing as last time. Oh, so earlier when I asked if I could trust Sadeas, you weren’t really answering. “That’s correct, I wasn’t”. The mysterious figure is The Almighty, but is dead now. Killed by Odium. That name again.
Wit
At the city gates of Kholinar (Dalinar’s hometown. That’s right: He’s Dalinar of Kholinar), Wit is waiting with the guards. Someone with a Shardblade cuts open the gates and enters the city. He’s in pretty bad shape, though. He says he’s Talenel’Elin (the only one who didn’t abandon the Oathpact during the last Desolation), saying the next Desolation is upon us. He collapses and drops his Shardblade, which doesn’t disappear (like they do for everyone else). You’re a bit late.