Difference between revisions of "Summary:Rhythm of War"

{{epigraph|

Regardless, I will try to do as you suggest. However, you seem more afraid of the Vessel. I warn you that this is a flaw in your understanding.}}

 

Navani checks in on her scholars and tries out the new version of the lift device. It now takes the form of a glove that will pull the wearer in different directions and at different speeds. As they confer, they are interrupted by a soldier who has captured a person caught replacing the ruby in the spanreed. She sends him to her chamber for interrogation, and one of the soldiers tells her that the person they captured is one that is associated with the Windrunners. She then gets notification through spanreed of an explosion.

 

Venli and her company have come across a patrol of soldiers, and they kill them. Venli is not handling the battle well, and Raboniel is surprised given the battle between the Parshendi and the humans. Venli responds by telling her that she had been a scholar, not a fighter. She thinks to herself that doesn't want to kill anymore, and just hopes to get out of the situation without doing any more.

 

=== Chapter 38: Rhythm of the Terrors ===

{{epigraph|

You have not felt what I have. You have not known what I have. You rejected that chance—and wisely, I think.}}

 

Navani discovers that the explosion killed the two researchers who were running stormlight tests on the dark sphere she had left with them. She leaves Rushu to investigate what she can from the remains of the explosion.

 

Venli watches as Raboniel continues to infuse the pillar with Voidlight. Just as Raboniel finishes infusing the pillar, succeeding in inverting the towers defenses and turning them against the Radiants instead of the Fused, an alarm sounds as the humans realize that they are being invaded.

 

=== Chapter 39: Invasion ===

{{epigraph|

However, though you think not as a mortal, you are their kin. The power of Odium’s Shard is more dangerous than the mind behind it. Particularly since any Investiture seems to gain a will of its own when not controlled.}}

 

Teft begins to seize at the same moment that Kaladin feels something strong press on him. He shakes it off and goes to check on Teft, whom he presumes had a stroke. They go to take him to a nearby clinic; Kaladin tries to lash him to make him easier to carry, and it doesn't work.

 

Kaladin panics and begins to disassociate and flashback. He studies a scalpel, which he finally picks up.. He tries to make his way toward the screams and fighting that he can hear, but he is overwhelmed with a cold sweat and a heavy weight. He is brought out of his disassociation by Syl, who says that she could not go far from him without losing herself, though she learned that they are bringing in troops via the Oathgate. Lirin finds Kaladin and helps talk him down from fighting, saying that he is in no shape, and if they discover him, they will likely kill the rest of his family.

 

=== Chapter 40: In for All ===

{{epigraph|

My instincts say that the power of Odium is not being controlled well. The Vessel will be adapted to the power’s will. And after this long, if Odium is still seeking to destroy, then it is because of the power.}}

 

Navani and her scribes reach the map room and find officers there, including a darkeyed Battalionlord named Teofil. They discuss strategy and decide that the best thing they can do is to try to reverse what has happened by getting to the basement. Navani communicates with the Sibling through a garnet vein in the wall. She learns that the Sibling was asleep until they felt a bondsmith in the tower and has stayed hidden. They recognize Raboniel, calling her the Lady of Pains, and knows that she intends to go farther than just reversing the suppression abilities of the tower, that she wants to change who they are. The Sibling agrees to help Navani prevent that from happening.

 

=== Chapter 41: The Most Dangerous ===

{{epigraph|

Of course, I admit this is a small quibble. A difference of semantics more than anything.}}

 

Venli and Raboniel make their way through the tower and encounter the Pursuer. Raboniel gives him leave to carry out his tradition and kill Kaladin, though giving instructions to kill only the humans that resist. Venli feels conflicted: she is part of an invading Fused force while becoming a Radiant, but she really just wants to stay neutral and only help her people. She realizes that Raboniel is primarily there because she is interested in the discoveries of the humans and their fabrials, wanting to partnership with them to end the war for good.

 

=== Chapter 42: Armor and Teeth ===

{{epigraph|

In truth, it would be a combination of a Vessel’s craftiness and the power’s Intent that we should fear most.}}

 

Navani and her scribes follow instructions from the Sibling, infusing a gemstone found in the wall at an intersection. They use tips from the Thaylen artefabrians to make it go quicker, and once complete, it opens a hidden door that reveals a chamber with a large, uninfused sapphire.

 

Navani makes her way through the corpses of the soldiers who had fought and died to give them the time they needed to protect the tower. They bring her to Raboniel, and Navani surrenders. The people in the tower will be allowed to continue living and working, but the unconscious Radiants are to be delivered to the Fused. Raboniel asks Navani about her sketches and praises her remarkable engineering ability. Raboniel offers to hire her to work on fabrial projects, and Navani considers this, as this would give her the ability to keep an eye on what she is doing.

 

=== Chapter 43: Men and Monsters ===

 

=== Interlude I-4: Vyre ===

 

{{Anchor|Interlude 5}}

{{Anchor|Interlude I-5}}

 

=== Interlude I-5: Lift ===

[[File: Kaladin's Chapters.svg|165px|center]]

{{epigraph|I find this format most comfortable, as it is how I’ve collaborated in the past. I have never done it in this way, and with this kind of partner.}}

 

Kaladin, carrying Teft and led by Syl, looks for a place to hide. They narrowly avoid both the Pursuer and a search party. They realize that they are trapped, and Kaladin notice a faint light coming from a vein in the stone, which he follows to a gemstone embedded in the wall. He infuses it, and it reveals a door to a hidden staircase. He takes the stairs to the 11th floor and finds a dark room well away from the search parties. He collapses into sleep.

 

=== Chapter 45: A Bold Heart, a Keen and Crafty Mind ===

;Plot Summary

:''Nine years ago''

 

Eshonai is exploring the forest with a gathering party and leaves to wander on her own. She thinks about her people, and how they live in scattered families with hopes limited to conquer ancient abandoned cities. She dreams of discovery and exploration - and then finds the humans.

 

Venli is with her mother reciting the listener songs. Their family is the "First-Rhythm Family", and though they have dwindled over years, they dream of claiming one of the cities that their ancestors had once controlled. Venli finds this too small of a goa, and believes that their responsibilities shouldn't involve just knowing and remembering the songs, but implementing them. She believes that Eshonai is abandoning her duty by not learning the songs like she does. She tells her mother that she thinks she has discovered a way to take a new form - Warform - by bonding a pain spren. Venli's mother, Jaxlim, decides that they need to go seek the blessing of the Five. They do and are interrupted by sounds coming from outside of the town. At first Venli thinks it is a skirmish, but instead learns that it is Eshonai and her discovery of the humans.

 

=== Chapter 46: The Weight of the Tower ===

[[File: Kaladin's Chapters.svg|165px|center]]

{{epigraph|I approach this project with an equal mixture of trepidation and hope. And I know not which should rule.}}

 

Navani meets with Raboniel and tells her that she has accepted Raboniel's offer to work under her. They discuss the science behind the Fourth Bridge, and in doing so, Navani learns that the soulcasters were spren that chose to manifest themselves as such in the physical realm. Raboniel says that they have not been able to convince voidspren to sacrifice themselves that way. Raboniel reveals that her goal is to end the war once and for all using the information they can learn together. Navani goes to check on her scholars. She learns that two of her scholars were killed in the invasion, and tells them that they will be cooperating with the invaders for now. She puts them to work drawing sketches and writing about the experiments they had been doing before the invasion.

 

Kaladin is in a nightmare, in a landscape dark and storming. He sees three figures attack him, and he takes the spear from one of them and kills them - and then realizes that Tien was one of them. He drops the spear, turns, and finds himself on the Shattered Plains, his friends fighting and killing each other. His dying friends speak to him and tell him that this is all his fault, and Moash appears, telling him that Kaladin is the reason for their suffering. He wakes in the tower, exhausted. He searches for Syl, and she arrives letting them know that the guards have seemed to have given up the search. He asks her if she knows anything about the light that led them there, and she tells him about what she knows about the Sibling, that she was the spren of one of the Bondsmiths. He infuses the gemstone that opens the door, and they leave to find supplies.

 

=== Chapter 47: A Cage Forged of Spirits ===

[[File: Kholin_Crest.svg|125px|center]]

{{epigraph|I approach this project with inspiration renewed; the answers are all that should matter.}}

 

Dalinar and the Mink are in a flying platform overseeing the battle between the Alethi and the Vedenar. The Vedens are accompanied by some infused and Skybreakers. A scribe comes with news from Urithiru. The report says that those at the tower accidentally deployed a device that interferes with both Radiant powers and the Oathgates, and that they were only able to deliver this message by hiking out of range. Dalinar and the Mink both suspect that that this was intentionally caused by Taravangian as a way to isolate them during his betrayal, though they both believe that there is more to this.

As they continue to survey the battle, Szeth, in disguise at Dalinar's side, grabs and pulls him away as a Skybreaker appears. The Skybreaker turns out to be Nalan, the Herald, who tells Dalinar that he has to submit because his war is unjust. He asks how he has access to the surges of Honor, that this should not be possible. Nalan attacks and Dalinar touches him at the Stormfather's urge. In doing so, he forges a connection with him and sees flashes of his past, along with eight lines of light extending from him into the distance. He realizes that the lines are the Oathpact; most of them are weak, one is broken, and another is still vibrant and powerful. Nalan breaks away and leaves, and Dalinar is left considering the importance of his powers and the kind of work that it would enable him to do - specifically that of reforging the Oathpact.

 

=== Chapter 48: Scent of Death, Scent of Life ===

;Plot Summary

:''Nine years ago''

 

Eshonai and the humans try to find ways to communicate with each other, and as they do so, they realize all the ways that they differ: humans are in all forms at all times; they have singers in dullform that she finds "fascinating and disturbing". Eshonai found the humans so much more advanced than the singers and spends as much time possible learning from them. The humans ask to see the plains, and Eshonai escorts them. During the trip, one of the humans, a surgeon's assistant with many rings on her right hand, asks Eshonai questions about the spren that she can see and whether any have talked to her, which Eshonai thinks is a myth. Gavilar and Eshonai talk about the greatshells, and they misinterpret her and assume that the singers worship them. The party decides to take a break, and as she was helping them set up a tent, the woman with the rings asked if she could see Venli's knife. She and Gavilar talk about it and think it must have come from a time around the false desolation. They are interrupted by the sounds of a chasm fiend emerging, and soon after, the group leaves. Venli reveals to Gavilar that the knife was found in the ruins of the city at the center of the Shattered Plains, and Gavilar gets very excited, especially when he realizes that the singers have stories of ancient days that include the Radiants. The humans leave them with a gift of weapons and asks only to be able to hear the singer songs the next time they meet.

 

=== Chapter 49: Soul of Discovery ===

 

;Plot Summary

 

Navani has her scholars doing busy work as they are being watched carefully. She periodically pauses to rest against the wall and speaks to the Sibling in private. The Sibling says that Raboniel does not yet know that she is awake; the Midnight Mother had told the Fused that the Sibling had been dead for a long time, when instead they were just asleep. Navani manages to convince the Sibling that they need to work together, though the Sibling is resistant because they are not interested in becoming bonded to a human. The Sibling reveals that there are three other nodes connected to their heart, and Navani needs to find a way to protect them from being corrupted. Navani asks why the Sibling did not activate the defenses that she had, and the Sibling says that when the humans found the Unmade that kept singers from changing forms, it injured them. It caused them to lose the rhythm of Light, and the tower stopped working. The rhythm of Odium is now corrupting her. The Sibling tells her that there are two Radiants that she can detect, still awake in the tower. One is Lift, awake because Cultivation gave her the power to use Light differently, but in a cage surrounded with aluminum at the moment. The other is Kaladin, and she suspects that she can detect him because he is close to Honor and the surge of Adhesion. Navani asks the Sibling to contact him.

 

Navani and Kaladin exchange information, and she tells him that they need to figure out how the Fused are making the Oathgates work. Kaladin is going to do what he can, and they say goodbye.

 

=== Chapter 50: Queen ===

[[File: Kholin_Crest.svg|125px|center]]

{{epigraph|When in such a state, detachment is enviable. I have learned that my greatest discoveries come when I abandon lesser connections.}}

 

Dalinar is in the command tent with other leaders as they plans their next offensive. They have defeated Taravangian’s troops and have him in prison, but Dalinar still suspects that this is only one part of his plan. The reports coming from the tower indicate that the Radiant powers were knocked out by a device that Taravangian had, one similar to the one that Kaladin had found.

 

Jasnah calls for Renarin, who heals him, and then she names Ruthar forfeit of title. Dalinar expresses disappointment at how Jasnah handled the situation, and Jasnah announces that she did it in part to justify the elimination of the barbaric practice of trial by sword. Jasnah leaves, and Renarin tells Dalinar that he has had an episode, and Dalinar says that he will speak to him about it soon.

 

=== Chapter 51: To Sing Hopeless Songs ===

[[File: Venli Chapters.svg|115px|center]]

{{epigraph|This song—this tone, this rhythm—sounds so familiar, in ways I cannot explain or express.}}

 

{{anchor|Chapter 52}}

 

=== Chapter 52: A Path Toward Saving ===

[[File: Eshonai and Venli Flashback Chapters.svg|115px|center]]

 

Venli is with her mother, and it is becoming clear that Jaxlim is suffering from an Alzheimer's-type condition, as she continues to forget the songs that she has never forgotten before. Venli leaves and joins her sister on the scouting tower, and Eshonai says that she is leaving with a scout group to investigate smoke in the distance, that they think might be the humans returning for a second visit.

 

The humans are visiting the listeners, and Venli is frustrated with how much they are hounding her about the songs that they know. The human with the rings, named Axindweth, surprises Venli by speaking to her in the listener language and by questioning Venli about the wisdom of following the path of her ancestors. Axindweth tells her that there are great things that the Listeners could accomplish if they had the right forms of power, including the ability to heal her mother. Axindweth gives Venli a gemstone and tells her to break it in a storm.

 

=== Chapter 53: Compassion ===

[[File: Venli Chapters.svg|115px|center]]

{{epigraph|I am led to wonder, from experiences such as this, if we have been wrong. We call humans alien to Roshar, yet they have lived here for thousands of years now. Perhaps it is time to acknowledge there are no aliens or interlopers. Only cousins.}}

 

Venli is listening to reports from other Singers. She learns that Kaladin is awake, took Teft, and is running loose in the tower. She also knows that the Pursuer is after him and that his family has been identified, are locked away and are to be executed. Venli leaves to tell Leshwi, who then takes Kaladin's family into her protection.

 

=== Chapter 54: The Future Become Dust ===

[[File: Kholin_Crest.svg|125px|center]]

{{epigraph|It would have been so easy if Voidlight and Stormlight destroyed one another. Such a simple answer.}}

 

;Characters

[[File: Kaladin's Chapters.svg|165px|center]]

{{epigraph|We must not let our desires for a specific result cloud our perceptions.}}

 

Kaladin is feeding Teft, and Syl talks about how she feels when she thinks about her old knight, Relador. Kaladin realizes that she is processing his death the first time, and they talk about how they learn to deal with depressing thoughts. Suddenly, Dabbid appears with broth, having been led there by the Sibling.

 

Kaladin leaves Dabbid to watch Teft to learn what he can about the old skates and how the fabrials are working. He uses adhesion to climb up and down the side of the tower. They scope out some scouts and realize that they are communicating with those operating the oathgates using spanreeds.

 

=== Chapter 56: Nodes ===

[[File: Venli Chapters.svg|115px|center]]

{{epigraph|But how can we not, in searching, wish for a specific result? What scientist goes into a project without a hope for what they will find?}}

 

Venli has put her group in charge of taking care of the unconscious Radiants. She notices that the Windrunners are closer to waking than the other Radiants. They're concerned about their condition, and Venli decides to bring Lirin here to take care of their health. Venli leaves and finds Raboniel with a team trying to come up with a way to find the nodes. Venli learns that their normal methods of detecting powers do not work because of the tower itself. They ask Venli what she thinks about where the nodes would be, and she inadvertently gives them a clue as to where it might be.

 

=== Chapter 57: Child of Odium ===

[[File: Eshonai and Venli Flashback Chapters.svg|115px|center]]

 

The humans are visiting the Listeners a second time and are going to be leaving soon. Dalinar speaks with Venli and warns her against his brother, indicating that he is showing a dangerous degree of interest in them.

 

Eshonai is grateful when Venli returns, as she was worried. But then Eshonai realizes that Venli is not attuned to the rhythms, and it takes Venli a couple of tries to attune to them.

 

=== Chapter 58: Spanreeds ===

[[File: Kaladin's Chapters.svg|165px|center]]

{{epigraph|I find this experience so odd. I work with a scholar from the ancient days, before modern scientific theory was developed. I keep forgetting all the thousands of years of tradition you completely missed.}}

 

Kaladin breaks into one of the laundry rooms in the tower by accessing a balcony, and Syl goes to see where they can find spanreeds. She finds a spanreed hub and leads Kaladin there, pretending to be a voidspren to draw guards away. Kaladin finds a ventilation shaft that he can use to get above the room while avoiding detection. He does, and then uses adhesion to pull up a group of spanreeds. Kaladin returns to the hall and finds the Sibling blinking a light at him. She tells him that they have found another node and that she needs him to save her.

 

=== Chapter 59: The Lattice of a Growing Crystal ===

[[File: Kaladin's Chapters.svg|165px|center]]

{{epigraph|This point regarding the Rhythm of War’s emotional influence will be of particular interest to El.}}

 

Kaladin follows the Siblings light, fighting off guards as he needs to, using different maneuvers than those to which he is accustomed. The Sibling leads him through hidden passageways, periodically running into refugees. They end at an open air tunnel with Raboniel infusing a node with the Pursuer standing by. The Pursuer and Kaladin fight, and the Pursuer is stopped from killing him by Syl who pretends to be voidspren. Eventually, the Pursuer has to leave to find more Voidlight, and Kaladin tricks him into chasing him, ultimately locking him in a room. Kaladin returns to the node and destroys it with a rock. He realizes that he is unable to heal as quickly, and Raboniel manipulates Kaladin into not killing her.

 

=== Chapter 60: Essai ===

[[File: Venli Chapters.svg|115px|center]]

{{epigraph|Who is this person? You used no title, so I assume they are not a Fused. Who, then, is El?}}

 

Venli has been told of Rlain's presence and goes to see him. The guards tell her that he is considered a human sympathizer, but she manages to convince the guards to let her speak with him alone. She does, and Rlain recognizes her. They exchange their stories, and she realize that they have overlapping goals. She tells him that she saved Kaladin's family, and she promises to help him get out.

 

Venli found Raboniel in Dalinar's former rooms accompanied by some fused, some humans, and Mraize. Mraize is making a deal for access to the Oathgates, and presents Lift in a cage as a gift. Venli asks Raboniel if Rlain can be released into her care as he is the only other of her kind left, and Raboniel agrees. She leaves and arrives at her room where she attempts to swear the next ideal, " I will seek freedom for those in bondage. " Her words are rejected as she realizes that she cannot be true to this having watched a human child in a cage, that this ideal applies to all, not just Rlain.

 

=== Chapter 61: Oil and Water ===

[[File: Navani Chapters.svg|105px|center]]

{{epigraph|In other circumstances, I would be fascinated by this sand to the point of abandoning all other rational pursuits. What is it? Where did it come from?}}

 

Navani speaks with Kaladin, thanking him for helping to protect the tower. She reassures him that he did not fail, even though he had to break the node. He tells her that he can no longer fly, and was able to get some of the Fused spanreeds, which Syl has determined work through corrupted spren. Navani goes to check on her scholars, and thinking through her problems, realizes that the lifting glove that her engineer created might be helpful for Kaladin. She arranges for the engineer to leave it in a place that Kaladin could retrieve it. Raboniel has Navani accompany her to some Singers testing a unique shield against some shardblades, one of which had been Elhokar's. Raboniel asks Navani to help understand the shield, and Navani refuses, informing her that one of the blades had been her sons, which was news to Raboniel. Raboniel takes Navani to her former office which Raboniel has claimed. Inside, Raboniel shows Navani a fabrial that demonstrates how the crystal pillar room is being protected. Navani is distracted by a diamond sphere filled with Towerlight, the Sibling’s light, which is a combination of Stormlight and Lifelight, Cultivation’s light. They discuss ways of mixing different types of light. Raboniel believes that Voidlight and Stormlight are opposites and can't be mixed, but Navani thinks they can with the right kind of emulsifier. Raboniel leaves Navani, and Navani finds a vein of crystal and speaks with the Sibling, who is convinced they will die soon. Navani tries to convince the Sibling to tell her where the nodes are so that they can protect them, but they refuse. Navani begins her research into the science of light.

 

=== Chapter 62: Keeper of Forms ===

[[File: Eshonai and Venli Flashback Chapters.svg|115px|center]]

 

Venli and Eshonai are meeting with the elders of the Listeners, where Venli is telling them that she can create warform because she has trapped a pain spren in a sphere. Eshonai is there because she has received word that Gavilar has extended an invitation to establish formal relations with the Listeners. Eshonai wants to convince the other elders that they should reach out to the other Listeners to create a unified people. The elders say they will consider her proposal. She leaves and finds her mother, who can't remember where she is. Jaxlim eventually comes to lucidity, and admits that she knows that her life is coming to the end. Venli joins them and tells them that they've been approved to try warform. Venli explains that she wants her mother to try to take on the form because it might heal her, and Eshonai is excited about that, though she is worried that her sister is humming an unusual rhythm.

 

=== Chapter 63: Practice ===

[[File: Kaladin's Chapters.svg|165px|center]]

{{epigraph|I am told that it is not the sand itself, but something that grows upon it, that exhibits the strange properties. One can make more, with proper materials and a seed of the original.}}

 

Kaladin wakes from nightmares. Syl tells Kaladin that she asked Dalinar to help her understand Kaladin better, and it seems to have helped her remember her old knight who died, but she is sad, grieving him for the first time. She says that she thinks that spren can change, even though they say they can't. Kaladin and Syl agree that they will talk with each other when they are feeling sad. Dabbid returns and gives Kaladin the glove that Navani left for him, and he goes to a crystal vein to talk with her. She tells him what the glove does, how to get to the weights in the shaft, and how to replace the rubies with those filled with Voidlight. Kaladin and Syl go to the shaft and replace the rubies there, then go to an empty hall and practice using it.

 

=== Chapter 64: Personal Reminder ===

 

Jasnah fights on battlefield in Shardplate. In order to get a more accurate impression of the experience of a common soldier, she initially foregoes usage of her Surgebinding abilities, but ends up using soulcasting when she comes into conflict with one of the Magnified Ones. {{expand}}

 

Jasnah is going into war, thinking of how inadequate the descriptions and depictions of war has been in her studies. She is wearing her shardplate, dulled so as to not reveal who she is. She is determined to confront the enemy without using her powers so that she can fully understand the feeling of war. She fights with a Fused capable of growing carapace vines over her and decides to use her powers, soulcasting the air to oil and slamming steel and flint together and lighting everyone near her on fire. She loses herself in the battle, and eventually an edgedancer medic convinces her to rest. Wit brings her fruit, and they discuss her experience and what she is trying to prove to herself and others. They discuss the future of battle, and she returns to war.

 

The battle is over. Jasnah has arrived at her tent and speaks with the Mink, who assures her she made the right decision, that they won the day. He also tells her that something has disturbed Wit, and she finds him in her tent writing. He tells her that one of the Sleepless was disguised in his things, and that their secrets have been compromised.

 

=== Chapter 65: Hypothesis ===