Summary:Words of Radiance/Chapter 32
| Chapter 32: The One Who Hates | |
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| Words of Radiance Summary | |
| Follows | Chapter 31: The Stillness Before |
| Precedes | Chapter 33: Burdens |
| Analytics | |
| Viewpoint | [[Kaladin, Shallan]] |
The spren betrayed us, it's often felt.
Our minds are too close to their realm
That gives us our forms, but more is then
Demanded by the smartest spren,
We can't provide what the humans lend,
Though broth are we, their meat is men.
—From the listener Song of Spren, 9th stanza
- Characters
- Kaladin (Point of view)
- Shallan Davar (Point of view))
- Beld
- Eth
- Hobber
- Adolin Kholin
- Dalinar Kholin
- Elhokar Kholin
- Navani Kholin
- Renarin Kholin
- Mart
- Moash
- Pattern
- Ralinor
- Stormfather
- Sylphrena
- Szeth-son-son-Vallano
- Plot summary
- Ishanah 1173
Kaladin falls asleep during the highstorm and dreams he is the storm and speaks to the Stormfather about Syl. The Stormfather says that Kaladin will betray and kill Syl and that he is already beginning to do so. As they speak, a second larger storm with red lightning appears and the Stormfather says he is sorry and that He comes. Kaladin wakes up as Adolin and Renarin are discussing the upcoming meeting with the Parshendi envoy. Kaladin goes to the balcony to check on the weather but only sees the diminishing of the winds as the highstorm passes.
Pattern whimpers during the highstorm and ignores Shallan as the highstorm passes over.
Syl tells Kaladin something is wrong and that the One who Hates is coming, and that something bad is going to happen. Heeding Syl's warning, he goes into Dalinar's and Navani's small room to tell them they need to take the king and leave the palace and head into the warcamp. Kaladin explains that his instincts sense danger and Dalinar agrees to trust his senses and leave the palace despite Elhokar's dissent. Kaladin sends Beld and Hobber to scout their way out and leaves Moash and Ralinor to guard their rear while Mart and Eth stay with the king. As they flee through the palace, they find a dark hallway where the spheres were drained of light and a hole cut into the palace through the rock wall. Szeth appears, stormlight leaking from his body.
Dalinar orders Renarin to take the king and flee. Dalinar, Adolin and Kaladin stay to fight Szeth, Dalinar and Kaladin armed with spears and Adolin with his shardblade. The three rush Szeth but he eludes them using a lashing, then binds Adolin to the ceiling. Kaladin and Dalinar both stab Szeth with their spears, but he chops the weapons in half with his blade and smacks down Dalinar as he heals using stormlight. Adolin falls to the ground when the lashing runs out, and he stays down. Kaladin uses his spear like a quarterstaff and with Syl flying around him attacks Szeth, hitting him a few times and forcing him to draw in more stormlight. Szeth is able to dodge a strike and stab Kaladin through his arm with the shardblade, causing it to go numb and lifeless, and Kaladin then is kicked into a wall, and slumps in frustration as Szeth goes to chase down his prey.
Syl tells Kaladin that Szeth is not a radiant but something worse and pleads for Kaladin to get up. Dalinar confronts Szeth and says he won't let the king die but Szeth says he is there to kill Dalinar instead. Dalinar catches the shardblade as Szeth swings it at him for a killing blow, and Kaladin arrives and knocks both himself and Szeth through the hole in the wall into open air.