Difference between revisions of "Summary:Oathbringer"

Veil makes her usual rounds, giving food to Grund and Muri. She is gaining a reputation as a "Swiftspren," a spren robbing the rich and giving the food to the poor. She enhances this reputation by sending Ishnah and Vathah, wearing illusions, to look like Veil. She notices a Cult of Moments procession and joins them, creating an illusion shaped like the one she saw on the Winds''Wind's Pleasure''. She gets caught up in the chanting but is jarred by a voice in her mind saying "Shallan, I'm not your enemy." She breaks free and, continuing under the illusion of a spren, tells the cultists to stop worshiping spren and go home. Shaken, she realizes that she wants to be a hero too much and it stops her from being logical like Jasnah. She hears genuine laughter and goes toward, finding Wit leading people in song. She heads back to the tailor's shop.

The battle consumes Dalinar, and when he regains his senses, he's smashing the head of a man repeatedly, surrounded by corpses. Badly wounded and plate heavily damaged, he trudges back to his camp. The men there are astounded at his return, having received the message that all were dead. Dalinar realizes it was all a trap from the start. The scouts who relayed that a caravan left were traitors. Sadeas and Dalinar don't want to besiege the city,; they want all the inhabitants to be punished, - men, women, and children. Evi tries to pacify himDalinar, but Dalinarhe orders the soulcaster to make as much oil as possible. He intends to burn the entire town for their broken oaths.

Dalinar can't sleep, being consumed with the Thrill. He hardly even feels pain, or anything else besides a burning deep down. Messengers emerge from the city bearing a flag of truce. He orders that they be shot by the archers. Sadeas and Dalinar keep back messengers from the king so they can go forward with their plan and give Gavilar plausible deniability. Sadeas assures Dalinar that he does not want to be king and questions why Dalinar thought he had betrayed him. Dalinar admits that he once wanted to rule but realized that the man needed for this atrocity and the man to rule could not be the same person. They attack at night and secure a foothold on the wall. Dalinar orders the city to be burned. Teleb tries to convince him that innocents would die, but Sadeas retorts that this would eventually save lives in the future because there would be no more rebellion. Oil is dumped on the already flammable city and set ablaze. He leads Kadash to a saferoom on the outside of the city where he assumes Tanalan is hiding and sets it ablaze with barrels of oil. Walking away from the screaming within, he spots Tanalan trying to reach the palace instead. He pleads to Dalinar to let him save his family, but Dalinar (still bothered by the screams earlier in the saferoom) admits he is an animal and he will not be so foolish as to allow survivors again. As the palace collapses, Tanalan's family dead, Dalinar decides it is enough and allows the remaining people to flee. As he moves to execute Tanalan, he comments that at least Tanalan didn't hide in that hole but he had set afire the people who were there. Tanalan laughs. The messengers that Dalinar killed at the start of the day were to tell him they had imprisoned his wife in the safehouse, which was now a prison since everyone knew about it. Dalinar strangles him to death in a fury. Kadash vomits at the realization of what they've done. Dalinar orders soldiers back to the hole, but the heat is too much. They are forced back, and Dalinar goes limp.

Evi's burned corpse is brought back to camp. She had drugged her guard and sneaked away in the night, leading people to suspect that she was a traitor. He swears the scribes to secrecy and instead has them hide her burned body. They lie that she was assassinated in the night and the city was burned as retribution. As Dalinar leaves, he hears the screams of the innocent the night before and thinks he even hears Evi.

Kaladin rushes to a stormshelter for rich folk before the Everstorm hits. He meets with Shallan and Adolin to share information. Adolin shares that Elhokar is doing better than expected at convincing lighteyes to join him. Kaladin states that he thinks Captain Azure might have an honorblade. They definitely have a soulcaster and seized emerald stones in the city. Judging the state of Kaladin's issued sword, Adolin is impressed by her. Shallan has found information on the Unmade and believes there are two in the city: Sja-anat, the Taker of Secrets, and Ashertmarn, the Heart of Revel. The former corrupting spren and the latter leadsleading people to indulge in excess. Shallan plans to infiltrate the palace that night. They all realize their dire situation as the city's fall is inevitable without the Oathgate open.

Shallan and Adolin leave the wine house and walk through the streets arm in arm. Adolin complains that he hasn't seen any of her sketches for a while, so she hands him one of her sketchbooks. He is impressed with her drawings of the various refugees. He studies a sketch of himself in his new suit, and Shallan takes the book back, knowing that the next drawing is of Kaladin. They part ways so she can steal some food as payment to the cult. Shallan changes into Veil and meets Vathah to go over the details of their food heist. The barkeep bursts into their room to try to figure out what they're up to, and Vathah unconsciously disguises himself with Stormlight. After the barkeep is dismissed, and he realizes what he has done and what he might be, he is brought to the verge of tears.

Kaladin glows fiercely to try to hold back the queen's troops. It halts them momentarily, but they go forward again. Kaladin rushes down the steps and hears Parshendi singing. One of them is Sah, his friend.

The Oathgate control building shakes violently as it activates. Adolin falls onto a hard surface and rolls off into a sea of glass beads. Azure pulls him back up onto the platform. He notices that the sky is different, being-- pitch-black with long, strange clouds stretching towards a small and distant sun, -- and that they are surrounded by an ocean of beads. There are two large spren nearby, one black-colored and one red. Pattern remarks that it is a bad situation, startling Adolin, causing him to run into Sylphrena. He also notices [[Mayalaran|another spren]] with scratched out eyes next to her. Azure says that she hates this place.

Venli tells a biased account of the [[War of Reckoning]] to a group of gathered singers, portraying the listeners as a heroic group that fought against the humans who sought to enslave them for years and Venli as a brave leader who discovered the secrets of stormform. She finishes her story by telling about the listeners sacrificing themselves for the singers' freedom and encouraging them to fight for Odium. When her speech is over, a femalenfemale singer in scholarform brings her a cup of water, and expresses doubt at what they were told to do. Venli expresses frustration at how far behind the singers are. She returns to the town's mansion, where she is staying, and Rine derides her for being arrogant. Venli laments that the singers are so far behind, still stuck in Alethi customs. She suggests using human slaves to help speed up the work, but Rine tells her that they must kill all the humans to prevent them from manifesting Surgebinding. Venli returns to her room to pack and frees the spren from her pouch. It zips around and looks at various things in the room, pulsing to the rhythm of Curiosity. Venli realizes that she is attuning to the old rhythms, not the new ones of power, and tells the spren to go away. It pulses to Resolve and stays.

Kaladin uses his experience in scouting to sneak up on the lighthouse. He settles down to watch it for a bit, and anticipationspren crawl up from the beads and start waving their tongues like banners. Kaladin tries to kick them away, but they won't budge, so he merely continues forward. He peakspeeks through a window and sees an old Shin man, reading by spherelight. He somehow senses Kaladin and calls out. Kaladin is forced to reveal himself.

The corrupted spren lands on Shallan's arm, and she hears the voice of Sja-anat. She warns herShallan that Odium has minions on this side that will hunt them. She lied to him and said that they were far away from the transfer point, but she fears that Odium doesn't trust her anymore. The spren flies off.

Kaladin has walked up to the forbidden deck and is looking through a spyglass. The captain comes and asks him to not upset his crew. Kaladin again demands the release of Syl. The captain explains that she is too young to have a bond and he could just kill him to break it. Kaladin asks him if that is honorable, and the captain doesn't answer, ashamed. But he still won't release Syl. Kaladin moves off and contemplates the ideals that he has sworn, wondering how difficult the fourth one will be. Lights begin to appear around him, causing quite a stir amongst the crew, who gasp and scurry away. Syl speaks in his mind -- he is close to finding the fourth ideal. The captain comes over, amazed at the windspren around Kaladin. They're almost always in the Physical Realm and he has never seen them before. Kaladin once again appeals to him; he is a Windrunner sworn to protect, and the Bondsmith who leads them is in danger. The captain is astonished that there is a bondsmithBondsmith at all and replies that he will consider helping them.

Dalinar awaits the next highstorm, minutes away. Navani is nervous for him, -- this beingis thehis first visit to the visions since Odium appeared to him in one. But-- but Dalinar needs to know his enemy. The highstorm arrives and he enters the vision with Nohadon as a younger man. A parshendi woman is there, in the place of the king's counselor. The Stormfather warns that Odium is aware of what is going on and is coming. Dalinar asks him to resist so he can talk with Venli.

The meeting is going very well with everyone encouraged about the defenses. Renarin starts to look uncomfortable and excuses himself from the room. Dalinar feels something wrong. The Stormfather says a storm is coming. All the spanreeds in the room light up; there are reports of an early everstormEverstorm arriving in Shinovar. They decide to break, but the Stormfather says there's more coming. He goes over to Navani and Jasnah, who have received a translation of the [[Eila Stele]] which tells of events before the first Desolation. It reveals that ''humans'' were the Voidbringers, arriving in Roshar and conquering the parshmen. This would eventually cause the Recreance. Taravangian has apparently received the same news and expresses concern that the Radiants' powers are too dangerous. Fen has received word about Elhokar swearing to Dalinar as highking, and Noura has learned that Dalinar is holding back information on his visions that included visits from Odium. The whole room erupts in arguments, and Dalinar realizes that he has been outflanked diplomatically. The coalition is falling apart.