Wind and Truth

Shallan sees a vision of her childhood in which her parents are having a fierce argument: something they did many times. In the vision, Shallan finds her brothers hiding, as she had in real life, and tells them a story. At the end of the vision, her child self sees her spren, Testament, for the first time.

Renarin experiences a vision from his childhood: an incident in which some older boys were bullying him, and his brother, Adolin, stepped in to defend him.

Rlain also sees a vision from his past. He revisits the conversation in which he volunteered to become a spy in the Kholin household at great risk to himself. In revisiting the memory, he realizes that his so-called friends did not protest or think twice about sending him into danger.

Navani, Dalinar, and Gavinor find a vision of the Knights Radiant gathering in Urithiru. It has been 2,000 years since the Heralds walked away from the Oathpact.

Adolin and Kushkam grow increasingly concerned that their forces won’t be able to withstand three more days of battle. Distantly, Adolin hears Maya’s voice promising him that help is coming. Kushkam repeats an important phrase in Azir’s law and tradition, saying, “As long as the emperor is on his throne, Azir stands” (799). (Later, this technicality will lead Adolin and Yanagawn to fight to hold the throne room even after the rest of the city has fallen.) Suddenly, a thunderclast arrives to attack Azimir.

The fighting intensifies on the Shattered Plains. Sigzil receives word that Moash has been spotted.

Sigzil finds Moash fighting Leyten, another member of Kaladin’s original bridge crew. Moash has brought a rare fabrial device that creates an anti-stormlight field, rendering Sigzil and Leyten’s windrunner abilities useless. Moash kills Leyten, as well as Leyten’s spren.

Adolin takes a team of soldiers to string a massive aluminum chain across an intersection in the thunderclast’s path. Adolin and Neziham prepare to fight the giant, but only Neziham’s shardblade can harm the creature. Adolin doesn’t have his shardblade because Maya is away.

Elsewhere in the city, Kushkam sees Fused emerging from underground. Kushkam himself leads the charge against these new Fused.

Navani communicates with the Sibling (a spren as powerful as the Stormfather) for the first time since entering the Spiritual Realm. The Sibling does not remember much from those long-gone days but advises Navani to follow one of the windrunners. Navani and Dalinar are getting better at controlling what visions they experience. They use their new skills to move to another moment in time, 10 years later than their current vision.

Adolin tries to trip the thunderclast with the massive chain. The thunderclast is large enough to toss him around, so this is perilous work. He takes a lot of hits and is injured. The thunderclast kills Neziham and tears the chain apart.

This chapter continues the flashback to Szeth’s past.

Szeth defeats the windrunner Honorbearer, winning his blade and his title. Finally, the voice in his head invites him to come to “the holy grotto” (825) to meet the source of the voice.

Lying in the street and feeling defeated, Adolin recalls how his brother Renarin saved him from a different thunderclast a year ago. Hmask arrives and pulls Adolin to his feet, giving Adolin a bit of hope. Adolin borrows Neziham’s shardblade, picks up a length of the chain, and jumps onto his horse to pursue the thunderclast.

Adolin climbs a tower, then leaps onto the giant’s back, using the chain to latch himself in place. The thunderclast tries to shake Adolin off, throwing him around violently. Adolin’s shardplate is failing, having taken too many hard hits. Finally, he succeeds in stabbing the giant but cannot cut himself loose in time. When the thunderclast topples over, it lands on Adolin.

The two Heralds, Shalash and Taln, are in the hospital when Odium’s forces overtake it. Enraged by the fact that the Fused have decided to attack the hospital, the injured Heralds fight back, defeating countless Fused and Parshendi soldiers.

Renarin figures out how to use his thoughts to control his experience of the Spiritual Realm and makes a gallery through which he can view different visions. Through one of the windows in his gallery, he sees Ba-Ado-Mishram. He empathizes with the complex emotions that he senses in her: not simple anger, but confusion, worry, terror.

Renarin sees Rlain through another window in his gallery and enters Rlain’s vision. They share a quiet, romantic moment.

Adolin awakens in the battle hospital to find that his right leg has been amputated below the knee. There is hope that a Radiant will be able to regrow the limb once the crisis is over. Adolin and his friends rush to investigate the status of the battlefield. They find Yanagawn and his guard standing in front of a huge pile of bodies—those killed by the Heralds Ash and Taln. The Heralds died in the fight, but their efforts, combined with the firebombs and the felling of the thunderclast, have allowed the human forces to hold Azimir.

Dalinar and Navani are in a vision of a parley between human and Parshendi forces. They discover that the windrunner is secretly in a romantic relationship with a Parshendi. He is attempting to broker peace, but the other Radiants suspect him of treachery. They follow him when he sneaks off to meet his Parshendi partner.

Kaladin plays his flute and makes dinner while listening to Szeth. Szeth is in a rare expressive mood and wants to talk through his feelings with Kaladin. The two commiserate about the pain of survivor’s guilt. Kaladin gently urges Szeth to try following his own heart. After their conversation, Szeth walks away, but his spren, called “12124,” appears in front of Kaladin and asks for therapeutic help. Just like Szeth, the spren is torn between following the orders of the other spren and doing what he feels to be right. The wind shows Kaladin a brief vision of Nale’s millennia of heroic deeds in defense of humanity. They spot a river of light in the sky—it is the glow of thousands of spren, traveling to see what will happen at the end of Szeth’s pilgrimage.

Rlain, Renarin, and Shallan discuss the possible clues that Mishram may have left them by showing them specific visions from the past.

Dalinar realizes that the windrunner in the vision is not betraying humanity as the other ancient Radiants suspect. Instead, the two lovers are trying to arrange a peace deal. In the vision, Ba-Ado-Mishram arrives at the meeting. Mishram senses the other Radiants in their hiding spots, where they had secretly followed the windrunner.

One of the Radiants, a bondsmith named Melishi, deceives Mishram, attacking her with a gemstone; she doesn’t know that the gemstone can be used to imprison her. (Melishi does this at Honor’s urging.) Melishi captures Mishram, thus removing her power from the Parshendi, forcing them into the passive “slaveform” that they wear for many centuries afterward. After this moment, the Radiants abandon their orders and do not exist for centuries until Kaladin becomes the first Radiant of a new age (an event described in The Way of Kings). Now that Dalinar has seen this evidence of Honor’s shame and betrayal, the Stormfather decides not to protect Dalinar from Odium anymore.

Renarin, Shallan, and Rlain also witness the vision of Mishram’s betrayal. As the Stormfather removes his protection, Odium becomes aware of all of them in the Spiritual Realm. He tears them from the current vision and separates them all into prisons of mist.

Ever since Navani and Dalinar’s departure, Lift has been wearing a lightweaving disguise that makes her look like Navani; this ruse is to ensure that no one will notice that the queen is missing. Lift is restless. The Sibling informs Lift that it has been hearing a strange voice deep within its halls; Lift realizes that the voice belongs to her missing pet parrot, which she calls a “chicken.”

The Sibling helps Lift to find the secret room where the parrot is being kept, alongside Zahel. Lift fights off the Ghostbloods who have been keeping Zahel and the bird prisoner. Then, she accepts Zahel’s offer to become her teacher.

Interlude 14 reveals Odium’s thoughts about Dalinar, now that he has captured Dalinar in the Spiritual Realm. Odium wants to break Dalinar’s will and convince Dalinar to join his conquest of the Cosmere.