Oathbringer

Shallan, Adolin, Kaladin, and Azure contemplate survival methods and how to move around in Shadesmar, where they are trapped on a single platform hanging above the soul of the Unmade. Azure explains that they are in Shadesmar, the Cognitive Realm, where spren live. It is the opposite of the Physical Realm; where there is land in the Physical Realm, there is a sea of beads, or the souls of people and things, in the Cognitive Realm, and where there is water in the Physical Realm, there is land in the Cognitive Realm. Shallan discovers that she can sense what physical items are by touching their souls. She finds the Oathgate control room and a door and alternately manifests them in the Cognitive Realm. The group members move, one by one, toward land. Shallan realizes that Odium had engaged Sja-anat to kill them; she sent them to Shadesmar instead.

Adolin feels overwhelmed and useless in a world with new mystical powers. He tries to support those around him and distract everyone from their pain. When they reach land, he takes over as leader and orders them to rest.

The Herald Nale recruits Szeth, the Assassin in White who killed Gavilar and other world leaders, to join the Skybreakers. This is the only order of Radiants who survived after the Radiants betrayed their oaths. The group watched for the next Desolation for thousands of years under Nale’s leadership. Szeth carries the sword Nale gave him, which has a soul, speaks to Szeth in his mind, and requires much Stormlight for it to feed. The sword says it destroyed things with evil. It speaks of its previous owner, Vasher (a character from Sanderson’s Warbreaker). Szeth, consumed with thoughts of cleansing his homeland, Shinovar, of the people who turned him into a Truthless assassin, goes to the location of the test to determine his membership as a Skybreaker.

Kaladin recalls a conversation with his squad leader in Amaram’s army after Kaladin froze in practice battle for the first time when he feared the idea of hurting his “enemy.” The squad leader comforted Kaladin and told him it was normal to freeze. He reminded Kaladin that the desire to not hurt others is evidence of sanity. Kaladin realizes that he never truly feared hurting another person. He had known he could hurt, and that fact frightened him. Returning to the present in Shadesmar, Kaladin and Syl speak while the others sleep. Syl tries to talk about what happened and convince Kaladin to rest, but Kaladin pushes away his feelings and insists he simply lost focus.

Szeth’s test is to find escaped criminals—murderers—and kill or return them to the nearby prison. He finds one and they fight. After Szeth paralyzes the man, he questions him to learn how he escaped. He also asks the man about the prison’s living conditions. He determines that the conditions are horrific; the nobleman running it uses the money sent to him for personal purposes rather than the prison’s security and living conditions. The man asks if the Skybreakers have a writ of execution; on receiving confirmation, he kills “the worst of the criminals” (881). When Szeth draws his sword to kill the man, he feels the sword’s cries to destroy evil as liquid darkness flows from it onto Szeth and the man. Szeth is permitted to swear the second Ideal.

Adolin, overwhelmed, practices a Kata, or a series of movements meant to help swordsmen learn how to move their bodies. Azure and Kaladin join him. Afterward, the group discusses how to return to the Physical Realm. They discuss various Oathgates and perpendicularities, which Azure explains are portals between Realms. They hear a screech and Azure tells them to run—they have attracted an angerspren, which in this realm are massive and deadly.

Dalinar, Gavilar, and a group of Alethi are away in the wilderness where conduct a hunt and encounter the listeners for the first time. Back in civilization, Dalinar’s frantic search for the alcohol Gavilar hid leads to a confrontation between him and his sons. Renarin remains and offers a small bottle of wine. He pardons his father for his rage. Renarin shares how glowingly Evi spoke of Dalinar to their sons. Dalinar breaks down crying in Renarin’s arms.

The group in Shadesmar runs from the angerspren. Kaladin’s simmering anger over the deaths in Kholinar and their inability to return and help the others summoned the angerspren. As they flee, Azure explains that most peninsulas in the realm like the one they are running on have lighthouses on the end, so they hike for two days to reach it as Kaladin calms his emotions to avoid further spren encounters. Syl shares memories of her old Knight and how her father locked her away after she nearly lost herself upon her Knight’s death.

Navani and Dalinar lead the procession of leaders into the Urithiru meeting room. The gathering includes the Alethi highprinces (and Ialai Sadeas), the Kholins, Queen Fen of Thaylenah, Taravangian, the leader of the city-state Natan, and the leaders of Azir, including Yanagawn. Dalinar still struggles with his returned memories of Evi, so Navani conducts the meeting.

Navani struggles to maintain order as the leaders all demand different steps toward their mutual goal of saving Roshar from the Voidbringers. To quell the chaos, Navani suggests they create an official coalition of monarchs with laws and procedures about how the nations will interact and share resources. She offers tasks and official responsibilities according to each nation’s strengths and informs the coalition of the mission in Alethkar. The meeting ends with agreements for Alethi troops to send aid to some of the leaders’ nations.

Navani, seeing Dalinar’s continued distress, suggests they take Taravangian’s offer to visit Vedenar, so Dalinar can gain a new perspective. He agrees and Navani continues her conversations with the other leaders. She feels powerless despite her great win of uniting the leaders.

Kaladin recalls one of his attempts to escape when he was enslaved. In the memory, he holds the hand of a woman, Nalma, and they try to run from hunters of enslaved people. As they move, she steps into a trap he somehow missed. He holds her as she dies, and the hunters find him. The hunters kill all the runaway enslaved people except Kaladin. They use him as a warning to other enslaved people.

Kaladin scouts the lighthouse before the others join him. They believe Kaladin is there to have his fortune told. As the lighthouse keeper looks in his records to tell Kaladin when a ship will arrive, Kaladin touches the man’s fortune-telling sphere on the table. Kaladin sees a vision in which Dalinar is surrounded by enemies as Odium’s champion approaches; he believes it shows that Dalinar is doomed without aid. When it ends, he races to bring the others to the lighthouse and negotiate with the Shinn man, Riino, for food and supplies.

A corrupted spren appears near the others and they try to hide, but when the spren touches Shallan, she hears Sja-anat. The Unmade informs her that Odium suspects they survived, but that the Unmade has given him a false explanation for why. She warns Shallan to watch for Odium’s minions hunting them in Shadesmar.

The group discusses locations to pursue but disagrees over options. Kaladin draws the city he saw in his vision. He believes Dalinar is in that city. Shallan recognizes it as Thaylen City. Since they also know that the Thaylen City Oathgate is open, he suggests they might be able to get back to the Physical Realm through that gate, rather than going to one of the perpendicularities. A ship approaches.

Szeth and the other squires compete in a test of their martial abilities. The goal is to have the fewest spots of color on their clothing, which indicates the least blows. Szeth finds a loophole. He swims back to shore to wash the color from his clothes, and although the enslavers praise him, they also warn him that loopholes are dangerous to rely on. When he finds ways to excuse his near-breaking of rules, the enslavers are impressed and realize Szeth is closer to his spren than they thought. Szeth claims he will say the Third Ideal and bond a spren that very moment, but Nale, the Herald, arrives, and stops him, claiming there are things Szeth needs to understand before he swears the Ideal. He orders all the enslavers to join him on a trek. He leaves behind most of the squires and claims he will teach them the two greatest secrets he knows.

The Shadesmar group travels in the ship of Lightspren, commonly called Reachers. Kaladin accompanies the captain, Ico, into the hold, where he asks questions to learn about Shadesmar. At Syl’s insistence, Kaladin takes water to Shallan and asks about her drawings and notes on the spren they see. They joke and discuss their unfamiliar surroundings and how the spren around them live. In a serious moment, he asks Shallan how she keeps laughing after the darkness of her childhood. They each believe something is wrong with them for how they handle pain.

Dalinar tours Vedenar. He still feels the pain and despair of his returned memories. Each new encounter in the city pains Dalinar, and he unexpectedly feels the Thrill building inside of him. He nearly loses control when ardents arrive to inform him the church excommunicated him, so he flees to Urithiru and returns to wine to numb the pain and the rage of the Thrill.

Adolin spends hours in the captain’s quarters where he alters extra clothes offered to him and some of his own into something more fashionable. He worries as he does so about his potential new role as king of Alethkar, now that Elhokar is dead. He speaks with Azure about duty and the life of nobility. Adolin claims one cannot abandon responsibility while Azure admits that she gave up her role as queen to someone more capable.

As they approach Celebrant, a city in Shadesmar, Ico finally allows Adolin to retrieve his deadeye spren, the spren of his Shardblade, from the hold. They speak of the nature of deadeyes. The humans and their spren disembark in the city and Ico points them toward the dock registrar to find another ship to take them closer to the perpendicularity or Thaylen city. The group splits up to find supplies and to determine what their options are for travel.

Shallan finds several possible ships to board, but only one captain agrees to take them on. They are told to wait for inspection, and then they see that the Fused conduct the inspections. Someone recognizes Syl in the market and Syl admits there is a large reward for her return home. A spren clerk on the dock agrees to help Shallan when she reveals that she is a Radiant and that oaths are being spoken again; he stalls the inspections while Shallan and Azure meet back up with the rest of the group. Syl claims they need to avoid a ship run by her kin, honorspren, but when the only ship willing to accept their group sails away, she decides to save the entire group by revealing herself to the honorspren so that they accept the group on board. The ship sails away from the Fused.

Dalinar awakens in a dream after he passes out from drinking too much. The dream reveals an elderly Nohadon, the ancient king and author of The Way of Kings, the book Dalinar studied to become the honorable man he is now. The man takes Dalinar shopping in the marketplace, tells him stories, and talks to Dalinar about the cost of being principled. He speaks Dalinar’s own words to him: “Sometimes, a hypocrite is nothing more than a man who is in the process of changing” (967). Alongside them walk thunderclasts, massive monsters from other visions of the Desolations. Before waking, Dalinar hears Nohadon remind him of the journey and ask him what the most important step a man can take is. Dalinar wakes to reality and remembers the night of Gavilar’s funeral.

Navani runs Urithiru and diplomacy while Dalinar confronts his demons. She meets with the highprinces and their representatives to discuss the coalition and Dalinar’s distressing absence and return to drinking. They also discuss the issue of Dalinar becoming high king, supplies running low, and the population within the tower. They even question whether Dalinar intends to conquer the world through his coalition. She visits the basement where scholars gather to study and sees Renarin happy as he searches for a pattern among the stones stored in drawers. Jasnah translates the gemstones, which Navani hopes will help them understand the way the Urithiru fabrial(s) work. Navani looks through Jasnah’s notes about Renarin and other Radiants. The existence of these notes troubles and confuses Navani.

The highprinces of Alethkar watch the interment of Gavilar’s body, and Elhokar demands the highprinces pledge to avenge his father with a war against the parshendi. Dalinar seeks escape in the bottle but hears Jasnah reading aloud from a book. The words, which speak of a journey and self-discovery, attract Dalinar. Jasnah tells him it is the book from which Gavilar took the quote he wrote on the ground as he died. At Dalinar’s request, Jasnah reads it to him. Afterward, Dalinar admits to Adolin that he has been a poor father, expresses his pride, and pledges to go to war with Elhokar. However, he insists that he and his elites go ahead. They travel via the river so he can secretly visit the Nightwatcher and ask her to transform him.

Nale and the Skybreakers fly to a minor nation, Marat, and Nale takes Szeth to its courthouse, where they discuss justice. Despite Szeth’s insistence that Nale is a Herald, Szeth’s sword believes Nale might be evil. Nale shares that he failed to prevent the desolations and tells Szeth he must choose a law or sense of justice to which he must swear himself for the Third Ideal. Szeth points out that Nale hunted Surgebinders and that he chose what laws to enforce to find them. Before Szeth swears the Ideal, Nale tells Szeth that he must know about the decision the Heralds made long ago, on the day now called Aharietiam, when they sacrificed one of their own to “end the cycle of pain and death” (988).

Dalinar’s dream of Nohadon helps him return to himself and feel more functional. He finds Taravangian and insists they attend the meeting of monarchs together. Dalinar apologizes to the other monarchs and highprinces for abandoning his duties, and the meeting resumes.

Dalinar realizes that the Voidbringers will not attack Jah Keved because the Alethi and Veden people know the terrain too well because they fought on it for generations. The monarchs discuss other possibilities and realize that they will instead attack Thaylen City because it was hit hardest by the Everstorm and is vulnerable. They create plans of defense. Dalinar also realizes that he does not only have to speak to Odium and asks the Stormfather to bring a servant of Odium into the next vision.

Taravangian reveals to Adrotagia that Dalinar recovered from his ordeal, which is problematic for their plans. Taravangian orders Adrotagia to release the secrets they gathered about Dalinar the same day as the translations of the Dawnchant. This makes the released secrets impossible for anyone to trace back to them.

The Shadesmar group travels on the honorspren ship. The crew keeps Syl locked up in one of the cabins. Shallan and Kaladin map out where they are and discuss how they can escape the ship and get to the Shadesmar equivalent of Thaylen City. Azure reveals that she is chasing the man who brought a specific weapon to Roshar from her world; it is a Shardblade that bleeds black smoke, which Szeth now carries. Shallan admits her personality struggle to Adolin. In return, he admits to killing Sadeas.

Kaladin and the captain, Notum, argue over Syl’s captivity. Learning of Dalinar’s bond with the Stormfather, Notum agrees to consider releasing Syl. The Fused pursue the ship.

Dalinar and Navani receive word confirming that the Fused are building a navy before Dalinr joins a vision into which the Stormfather has also brought Venli. The Stormfather holds off Odium, who knows Dalinar is in another vision, while Dalinar pleads with Venli for a truce between their people.

Venli admits that Odium is the reason there will never be a negotiation; she suggests surrender and the hope that Odium will not destroy humans. The vision begins to break apart and burn, and Venli runs; as she turns back, she sees Dalinar glowing and holding together the balcony on which he stands in the vision. As the vision continues to crumble, Venli wonders why she still follows Odium, now that he has killed her people to wake the Fused. Timbre pulses and glows near Venli, which warms and comforts her. She is sent away from the vision, and Dalinar experiences great pain before regaining consciousness. He sees Odium; the Stormfather weeps from the pain of holding Odium back. Odium still refuses to compete in a contest of champions.

The honorspren ship attempts to outpace the Fused, but the Fused are too fast. Notum gives in and agrees to let them all, including Syl, go. He hopes to protect Syl from the Fused. Azure stays behind with the honorspren, both to help them with the Fused and to pursue her quest for Szeth’s sword. Shallan, Kaladin, Adolin, and their spren jump into the ocean of beads and fall to the shallow floor, near land, and Shallan finds the soul of a room to manifest so they can breathe and wait for the ship and the Fused to pass. They walk to land and then Kaladin flies them all further inland to avoid detection. They plan to hike from there to the Thaylen City Oathgate.

Amaram reports on the repairs in Thaylen City and tries to convince Dalinar to trust him. He assumes, like many others, that Dalinar intends to conquer the Thaylen. At another meeting of the monarchs, news arrives of the Everstorm, which passes days earlier than in recent weeks. At the same time, translations of the Dawnchant, particularly a section called the Eila Stele, arrive; it reveals that the Voidbringers were not the parshmen but rather humans, who arrived on Roshar after accidentally destroying their own world with Surgebinding. Jasnah claims it is the truth that destroyed the Radiants. A final piece of news arrives, which Fen asks Dalinar to explain: that Elhokar swore to accept Dalinar as highking and that Dalinar kept secret the two visions in which he “fraternized” with Odium. As arguments break out between the monarchs, Dalinar sinks to his seat, overwhelmed by a battle he feels he cannot fight.

Kaladin recalls Tarah, a girl he courted when he was a soldier, after Tien’s death but before his conflict with Amaram. She tells him she is leaving. He cannot agree to a transfer to stand house guard near her because he feels he must protect the young army recruits. She tells him that “[m]aybe someday you’ll learn how to be there for the living, not just for the dead” (1048).

Kaladin leads his companions in Shadesmar on a hike toward Thaylen City. He remembers Tarah’s words and urges his companions anxiously so he can get to Dalinar. He obsesses over the possibility of failing again, as he feels he did in Kholinar. They reach the top of a hill and see Thaylen City below them, Oathgate uncorrupted, but they also find an army of spren guards the bridge that leads to it.

Dalinar stands just outside of the meeting area and listens to the Stormfather’s explanation of how the final generation of Knights Radiant, when they discovered their true history as Voidbringers, abandoned their oats in an attempt to avoid destroying yet another world.

The men of Bridge Four who accompanied Dalinar into Thaylen City leave for Urithiru, to tell the other Bridge Four members what they learned; they tell Dalinar they will wait to make decisions about whether to keep fighting for Dalinar after they can speak with Kaladin, hoping for guidance from the man.

The Azish head to the port to leave on Taravangian’s ships; Taravangian also withdraws his support from the coalition. Fen admits that the only reason she is not also abandoning the alliance is because she needs the Alethi army to help defend against the coming attack from the Singer army and Fused.

Venli speaks to more singers in Marat. She feels anger over how the Fused treated her. She is confused about why they no longer allow her to speak of her heritage, only the parts of her story that will inspire the singers to fight. They carry her to a boat, where she sees a massive navy gathered for an assault on Thaylen City; one of the Fused explains that they fight to give the world to the singers, and their descendants, and to find their final sleep.

Rysn, a banker with paralysis who dreams of adventures, works on Queen Fen’s ledgers in the Thaylen Gemstone Reserve and visits with her old enslaver. While conducting an audit of the reserve, a queen’s guard kills the other soldiers and steals the King’s Drop, a massive ruby. Rysn tries to flee with it while the thief is distracted by another guard. The thief’s disguise, an illusion, crumbles, revealing a Fused. Rysn reaches a dropped crossbow and kills the Fused.

Teft arrives in Urithiru with the other Bridge Four members who had been in Thaylen City; he considers how he can be functional, despite his struggle with addiction. His spren pushes him to say further oaths and to admit to the others that he has done so, but he ignores her. She stops and tells him something is wrong, so he runs to the barracks and finds Rock and two other Windrunner squires, Bisig and Eth, wounded. Eth was carrying the Honorblade from Dalinar; Teft realizes someone came for it. While someone races to bring Renarin for healing, Bisig wakes enough to tell them a man came in disguise. He wore a Bridge Four coat—the coat Teft sold when in the depths of firemoss addiction. He falls back, consumed with shame, as the others care for Rock and Bisig.