Difference between revisions of "Kaladin"

In 1164, at age ten, Kaladin helped his father perform a surgery on a fifteen-year-old girl named [[Sani]], who had badly injured her [[safehand]]. They would havehad to amputate the girl's third finger but were able to save Sani'sthe other four fingers. When Kaladin expressed his thoughts about soldiers, his father told him there were two kinds of people in the world; those who saved lives, and those who took lives. Lirin announced he would like to send him to Kharbranth when he turned sixteen years old to train as a much better surgeon than Lirin.{{ref|b|sa1|c|10}}

In mid-1166, Kaladin told Laral thatabout Lirin's wanted to send Kaladin to Kharbranth. At age twelve, he was becoming interested girls for the first time, and he was attracted to Laralintentions. She was angry that he hadn't toldmentioned her about his father's intentionsit for two years. At Laral's encouragement, Kaladin fought with a boy named [[Jost]] withusing quarterstaffs. At first, Jost easily overwhelmed Kaladin, but once he grew angry because he was in pain, Kaladin felt an [[Thrill|exhilaration]] and almost beat the older boy, but stopped at the last instant because he didn't want to hurt him. When he lost, Kaladin asked Jost to teach him how to fight, but the older boy refused by saying that Kaladin should be what he is. He met with Tien, and he walked towards home thinking about what he wanted to be. When they got home, Lirin told Kaladin that Brightlord Wistiow was dead, and he had left them a goblet full of spheres so Kaladin would study to be a master surgeon in Kharbranth, then return home.{{ref|b|sa1|c|16}}

Towards the end of 1166, Wistiow's replacement Roshone arrived with a retinue that impressed the young Kaladin.{{ref|b|sa1|c|25}} Roshone'sThis arrival saw thatturned the fortune of Kaladin's family turned for the worse in the next year, as the Brightlord applied pressure so they would spend the spheres Lirin got from Wistiow. Following the Citylord's direction, the townspeople stopped making donations for Lirin's work, although they still helped in secret in little ways. Around this time Tien started working as a carpenter's apprentice. One night, while Kaladin was studying in his father's surgery room at age fourteen and a half, few men tried to break in through the door. Lirin confronted them without showing fear, and the men told Lirin to give themsteal the sphere, and. Lirin respondedconfronted bythem uncoveringwithout theshowing [[Stormlight|light]] of the spheresfear. Once out of darkness, Kaladin recognized theThe men as [[Luten]], [[Horl]] and [[Balsas]], and his fear evaporated. Losinglost their nerve, the menand faded into the night without a word.{{ref|b|sa1|c|31}}

Four months after the townspeople stopped their donations, Roshone invited Lirin to the mansion for dinner, and Kaladin accompanied him. After Kaladin let out an outburst, Lirin told him to wait in the kitchen. Humiliated, Kaladin went to the kitchenthere as Roshone's son Rillir sauntered in with Laral. Rillir tried to get Kaladin to fetch them supper. Kaladin responded by saying he was no kitchen servant, but he proved no match for the lighteyed boy and was even more embarrassed as the two left at Laral's insistencewordplay. When Lirin walked in, Kaladin told him that he wanted to be a surgeon, surprising his father. As they discussed how their meeting went, Kaladin realized that his father had, indeed, stolen the spheres from Wistiow. Lirin claimed that Wistiow would have given them those spheres if he could regain enough lucidity and that he had merely made sure that promises were kept. Kaladin said he would go to Kharbranth even with stolen spheres, but he would find a way to pay them back to Laral eventually. He told his father that from then on he wanted to be called by his full name "Kaladin."{{ref|b|sa1|c|37}}

Some time later, Roshone and Rillir were brought to Lirin's surgery room with serious injuries that they had sustained while hunting [[whitespine]]. Kaladin and Lirin quickly assessed that Rillir was beyond their help and, despite the Brightlord's protest, started working on the older man's wounds. They anesthetized both the father and son with [[dazewater]], because it was the only mercy they had to offer Rillir. There was an instant where Lirin could have killed Roshone and got away with it by cutting the femoral artery of the already bleeding man, and both Lirin and Kaladin considered it. However, Lirin looked at his son's eyes and went on to saving Roshone as Rillir died. That evening, Kaladin asked why his father hadn't let Roshone die. Lirin answered that it would be murdering Roshone and that he wasn't a killer. He said the lighteyes didn't care about life, so he must. As Kaladin considered his father's words, he realized he would have killed Roshone if he were in Lirin's place.{{ref|b|sa1|c|41}} The next day, Lirin spent one of the spheres from Kaladin's education money for the first time.{{ref|b|sa1|c|44}}

In the [[Weeping]] of 1168, Brightlord Meridas Amaram visited Hearthstone with his army. Kaladin and his family went to a gathering in the town square called by Roshone. There, they saw that Laral was now engaged to Roshone himself after Rillir's death. When the crowd quitedquieted, Amaram spoke to the crowdthem to announce he was there to recruit new soldiers for the army. When only six men volunteered, Amaram told Roshone to announce the men they would conscript. He could not take Kaladin, because as his father's apprentice, he provided an essential function to the town. However, Tien wasn't under the same protection of the law, so Roshone got his revenge by forcing the younger boy into military. Amaram tried to get Roshone to choose someone else, but when the citylord didn't budge, he told Lirin he would make Tien a runner boy for a year or two so that he wouldn't be in combat. Kaladin tried to take Tien's place, but Roshone refuseddenied him claiming law said he could choose whomever he wanted. So instead, Kaladin volunteered to join the army alongside Tien. Kaladin promised his parents he would bring Tien back in four years. The two brother reported to the army and their drill sergeant [[Hav]].{{ref|b|sa1|c|47}}

Despite Amaram's promise to Lirin, because recruitment was slower than desired, the older messenger boys, including Tien, were soon organized into several squads of reserve units. According to [[Dalar]], these squads would not see combat unless the army was in serious danger. Less than four months after his enlistment, Kaladin took part in his third real battle. The enemy force tried to take over a hilltop Amaram's army was trying to hold onto. As the battle went worse for the Amaram's side, messenger boys were assigned to Brightlord [[Sheler]]'s company. Kaladin ran recklessly through the battlefield to reach his brother as the lines of Amaram's army buckled. On the southeast side of the hill, he saw Tien and two other boys placed in front of the enemy army as bait by Squadleader [[Varth]]. While running towards his younger brother, he killed a man for the first time, although he didn't get much chance to reflect on it in the battle chaos. The enemy soldiers took Varth's bait and killed the three boy, while Kaladin could do nothing but watch. Weeping and bleeding from wounds taken during his run, he hugged Tien's dead body until long past the end of the battle.{{ref|b|sa1|c|67}}

On the month of Ishi of the year 1172, Kaladin fought his final battle in Amaram's army. Prior to the battle, Kaladin bribed Squadleader [[Gare]] so the man would send [[Cenn]] to Kaladin's squad. He returned back to his squad and started telling his sergeant, [[Dallet]], to take care of Cenn once he arrived but cut off when he saw that the younger boy had already made his way there.{{ref|b|sa1|c|47}} Dallet and Kaladin surveyed the battlefield and decided they would fight around a nearby hill. Once the signal to march was given, Kaladin's squad ran ahead of the rest of Amaram's army, thereby avoiding the volleys of arrows the enemy sent their way. For the better part of an hour, they held the small hill they'd chosen as their battlefield, only engaging squads that got close to their position. The larger battle, however, didn't nearly go as well, and after the larger body of Amaram's force broke, Kaladin's squad had to retreat. Before they were halfway across the field however, a large group of enemy soldiers intercepted them. The two sides met in a crash, and in the chaos Cenn got too close to enemy soldiers. Kaladin rushed to the young boy's help, defeating six enemy spearmen, and saw to his wounds.{{ref|b|sa1|c|1}} Nearby an enemy battalionlord was trying to rally his soldiers to mount a counterattack. After seeing to his men, Kaladin decided to attack the enemy officer in the hopes killing a so high ranked officer would be enough to get them to the Shattered Plains. Kaladin himself struck the killing blow on the enemy battalionlord.

As he surveyed the field, they noticed a Shardbearer cutting through Amaram's army. Kaladin ran towards the six men he'd left behind, but could not get there before the Shardbearer killed them all. In anger, Kaladin ran after the Shardbearer followed by his twenty remaining men. They reached him just as the Shardbearer was about to kill Amaram himself, and Amaram's honor guard abandoned their charge. Led by Kaladin, his men attacked the Shardbearer but were barely able to scratch the Shardplate. The man easily killed sixteenmost of his Kaladin's men with a few strokes of his Blade, and the last four scrambled away. Facing the Shardbearer by himself, Kaladin dodged a few of the other man's swings, then eventually killed him by ramming the broken head of his spear through the visor slit of the enemy's Plate. Kaladin's remaining men, as well as Amaram, were amazed by what Kaladin had done. [[Coreb]] tried to get him to take the Shards, but disgustedDisgusted by the thought of wielding the same Blade that had claimed the lives of so many of his friends, Kaladin said he was giving them to Coreb and walked away to the warcamp, alone and crying.{{ref|b|sa1|c|47}}

Kaladin was called to the warcenter a few hours later. He sat in one of the smaller chamber mulling over the events of the day, while he waited for Amaram to come out of the conference he was holding with his counselors to discover the identity of the Shardbearer. Kaladin rose as Amaram entered the chamber along with his stormwarden, aand group of lighteyed officerssoldiers, onefollowed of whom was carrying the Shardblade wrapped in cloth, andby the four surviving members of Kaladin's squad, followed by two of the lesser lighteyes in Amaram's honor guard. Amaram praised Kaladin on his bravery andAfter askedasking why he hadn't taken the Blade. Kaladin hedged and said he wanted to give the Shards to Coreb, the best fighter among his surviving men. Without another word, Amaram ordered the men'sdeaths death.of Kaladin was incapacitated by Amaram's men. TheKaladin Brightlord knelt on one knee nextapologized to the lyingincapacitated Kaladin, apologized for killing the men because he couldn't afford them to talk about what happened. He said after thinking over it for hours and being convinced by [[Restares]] he'd decidedsaying that the Blade would serve Alethkar the best with himself. Claiming itKaladin was a mercy, he had Kaladin branded as a slave for deserting the army.{{ref|b|sa1|c|51}}

Kaladin spent the next eight months under five different slavemasters in harsh conditions of constant beatings and deprivation. He always demanded his wages be given to him as was required by the law, but the slavemasters always managed to cheat him out of it by charging for housing or food. He managed to keep his defiance and made ten escape attempts, even managing to get away a few times, but he was always captured and taken back. Around his sixth month of slavery, he noticed [[Sylphrena|a windspren]] following him around. He spent time with a [[Selay]] man<!-- named Goshel --> who told him about about the [[Old Magic]] and its ability to curse people under his fifth slavemaster. In his last escape attempt, he led a group of twenty armed slaves, but all of them except Kaladin died. According to Kaladin, he should have been killed for that, but finding him "intriguing," his previous master, instead, branded his fore forehead with the ''shash'' [[glyph]], meaning dangerous, in addition to the ''sas nahn'' [[glyphpair]] already there and sold him for a pittance to another slavemaster named [[Tvlakv]].{{ref|b|sa1|c|2}}{{ref|b|sa1|c|4}}{{ref|b|sa1|c|43}}