Difference between revisions of "Summary:The Way of Kings"

[[Kalak]], one of the Ten [[Herald]]s of [[the Almighty]], is walking a torn landscape after one of the [[Desolation]]s. He is on his way to meet up with whateverany of the other Heralds who have survived the battle. He contemplates simply walking away in order to avoid the torture the Heralds are forced to endure between Desolations.

The Heralds abandon mankind, leaving them in the care of the [[Knights Radiant]] and Talenel. They tell the men who fought with them that they have finally beatenwon the last battle against [[Voidbringer]]s for good, and leave Talenel and mankind to their respective fates.

The prologue begins 4500 years later with [[Szeth]], a [[Truthless]] [[Shin]] assassin, waiting quietly in a large room, watching the [[Alethi]] celebrate the signing of a peace treaty with the [[Parshendi]]. He leaves the room, noting that his Parshendi masters will soon withdraw. Szeth noteswears thatwhite under the Parshendiorders insistedof hethe wearParshendi white,to asfollow their custom dictates,traditions so that King [[Gavilar]] could see him coming.

Szeth fights his way past the Shardbearer, but soon realizes that the Shardbearer, not the man he's is chasing, is King Gavilar. He returns and fights him, eventually defeatsdefeating him by causing the balcony he is standing on to fall,collapse thoughand kill [[Gavilar]]. Szeth is nearly killed in the fight. When Szeth tells Gavilar the Parshendi sent him, Gavilar is confused and says, "The Parshendi? That makes no sense."

Gavilar then gives Szeth a strange black sphere and tells him, “You must take this. They must not get it.” He then instructs Szeth to tell Gavilar's brother [[Dalinar]] that he must “find the most important words a man can say.”

Because theas a Shin, Szeth considerconsiders a dying wish to be sacred, he leaves a notnote for Dalinar written in Gavilar's blood. He takes the sphere and leavesflees.

The opposing force arrives and the battle begins. Kaladin's squad does not lose a single man. At one point, Kaladin singlehandedly fights off six enemy spearmen to save Cenn. When an enemy [[Brightlord]] appears, Kaladin and his squad attempt to takedefeat him out. They are hindered, however, by the arrival of an enemy [[Shardbearer]]. Cenn is killed by blood loss, and the scene cuts out.

When approached by another slave about escaping, Kaladin blatantlygruffly tells him that he has no plans to escape, because it doesn'twill never work. A second slave approaches Kaladin and asks how he came to be a slave. When Kaladin doesn't respond, the other men tell their stories. It eventually comes out that Kaladin killed a man, but the one he didn'tdid not kill is the reason he's a slave.

Kaladin idly toys with a leaf of [[blackbane]], contemplating using it to poison [[Tvlakv]], his slave trader. A [[windspren]] in the form of a slender young woman, but only a handspan tall, speaks to Kaladin and wants to know what the blackbane is. Kaladin is surprised because she knows his name. In the ensuing conversation, he observes that she is much more intelligent than a typical [[spren]]. When she asks why he doesn't fight anymore, he respondssays that he's has failed.

Kaladin sees Tvlakv going to inspect a sick slave,. andKaladin tells him that the man has the grinding coughs, and will survive if given extra water. Tvlakv removes the man from the rest of the slaves, and Kaladin thinks he is going to give him water. Instead, Tvlakv brutally murders the man. Kaladin is upset over his failure to save the man.

Kaladin then realizes that inIn his anger at the other slaves' murder, he crushed the blackbane against the bars of the wagon, losing most of it.

[[Shallan Davar]] has just arrived in [[Kharbranth]], the City of Bells. She is going throughexperiences a culture-shock of sorts, amazed at the number and variety of people in the city.

After a short conversation with Captain [[Tozbek]] of the [[Wind's Pleasure]] the boat she received passage on, she receivesgets word that [[Jasnah Kholin]], the woman she has been chasing for several months, is still in the city.

Shallan goesis onvery at great length aboutnervous, howas her house's finances are in ruins since the death of her father, and that if theyshe don't find some source of income or other means of controlling their rival political houses, theyher house won't last long. She also reveals that her request to be Jasnah's ward is somehow related to resolving her house's crisis, though she does not make clear how.

In the conversation that follows, Tvlakv mentionssays that he's is only comfortable with the idea of Kaladin escaping because he knows that he wants revenge on Brightlord [[Amaram]] more than he does on Tvlakv. Kaladin realizes that if Tvlakv knows about Amaram, then he also knows that Kaladin isn't actually a deserter, as the official story given when he was sold says. Tvlakv acknowledges this, but says that it's the story they will stick to because men who are guilty of high crimes are difficult to sell at a good price.

As Shallan meets Jasnah Kholin for the first time, she thinks about how beautiful she is.admires Jasnah is exactly what Shallan thinksas the ideal beauty – tall, Alethi tan skin, long dark hair. She is talking to a man who Shallan later identifies as [[Taravangian|King Taravangian]] of [[Kharbranth]].

Jasnah rejects Shallan as her ward because of her lack of education in history and philosophy. Shallan is frustrated, but decides to persevere in trying to become Jasnah's ward. It is then that Shallan reveals that she wishes to become Jasnah's ward not out of scholarly pursuit, but in order to steal her Soulcaster to help her family's finances recover.

The woman decides that Kaladin and his companions are to be made members of the bridge crews. Kaladin and his new immediate superioursuperior, [[Gaz]], take an instant dislike to each other, and as a result, Kaladin is placed in one of the worst locations on the bridge when they are called on a bridge run, without the benefit of shoes or vest for protection.

After several hours of agonizing running with the brigde, they arrive at the final chasm, where the enemy Parshendi are waiting on the other side. They take heavy fire while placing their bridge. Kaladin is the only survivor in the front row.

He wakes up several hours later when the windspren who's been following him shocks him with some sort of energy. Kaladin realizes that if he doesn't hurry, he will be left behind. The spren tells him that her name is Sylphrena, or [[Syl]].

Though he's is exhausted, Kaladin is told that if he doesn't help to carry the bridge back, he will be left. He takes a spot on the bridge and begins the long way back to camp.

Kabsal tells Shallan that he is trying to convert Jasnah, an avowed athiest, to [[Vorinism]]. He leaves, asking her to let Jasnah know that he had come by to speak with her. She agrees, and begins to lacquer her drawings. She realizes that she's been there for quite a while, and begins to gather her things, leaving the letter for Jasnah. Before she can leave, however, Jasnah appears in the doorway.

Jasnah scolds Shallan, telling her that she had already made her decision. Shallan is embarrassed that she disturbed Jasnah again and leaves. After only a few moments, however, Jasnah calls her back and apologizes to her and gives her Shallan's money pouch that she left behind.

Shallan asks Jasnah to read the letter she had written for her earlier. Jasnah is impressed that she is self-taught, and agrees to accept Shallan as her ward once she has adequately learned philosophy and history. Shallan is pleased by this, but knowsworries that itshe won'tcannot belearn fast enough to save her house.

In a last ditch attempt to convince Jasnah to take her as her ward, Shallan buys several books on history and philosophy and begins to study them, planning to impress Jasnah with her rapid learning just before Jasnah leaves Kharbranth. Before long, however, she is interrupted by Jasnah, who had paid the servants to tell her if Shallan returned to the palacePalaneum.

Jasnah asks to see Shallan's satchel. When she comes across Shallan's sketches with notes on biology, she asks why she made them, to which Shallan replies that she wanted to. It is ultimately the fact that Shallan pursues scholarship in her free time (in the form of her sketches and notes), along with her persistance, that convince Jasnah to accept her as her ward.

A few new arrivals are brought in, and Kaladin sees a young boy who reminds him of his younger brother [[Tien]]. In general, Kaladin is handling the transition to life as a bridge crew member poorly, snapping at Syl and becoming despondent. Syl leaves, unable to continue watching him in his current state.

The bridge crews are called on another run, and the boy who reminded him of Tien is killed, as well as the only remaining man from Kaladin's first bridge run. Kaladin thinks to himself that he's is dead inside, then begins to cry.

Kaladin is outside just after a Highstorm, going to the [[Honor Chasm]] to commit suicide. Gaz stops him, accusing him of trying to steal spheres left out in the Highstorm from others, but Kaladin simply ignores him and goes.

Just as Kaladin is about to give up and step into the chasm, Syl reappears, carrying a single blackbane leaf which she had brought hoping to make Kaladin happy. When Kaladin expresses his frustrations at his previous failures to protect people, Syl convinces him to try again, arguing that the bridgemen are going to die anyway, so his efforts cannot hurt.