Rhythm of War

Jasnah searches her notes for something that might help retake Urithiru. She is also concerned that Odium can see too far into the future for them to fight him, but Wit reminds her that all they need to do is make sure Odium cannot win, rather than seeking Odium’s complete loss. He has put together a draft of a contract for Dalinar and Odium’s contest of champions. His version of the contest is more about testing the hearts of the champions rather than traditional fighting.

The Sibling contacts Kaladin, calling for help because the Fused have found the final node for her tower shield. The Sibling also reveals that the Fused will kill all the Radiants once they’ve breached this final gemstone node. At the Sibling’s request, Kaladin sends Rlain and Dabbid to Navani and then heads to the node. Meanwhile, Teft and Lift head to the infirmary, intending to wake all the unconscious Radiants.

In council, Dalinar suggests to the allied monarchs that he should send a small team to Urithiru through Shadesmar. That will give him time to go to Tukar to recruit the Herald Ishtar to help Dalinar learn about his powers.

Before they head on their separate missions, Dalinar asks Jasnah to read and write the undertext—basically annotations and footnotes—for his memoir, titled Oathbringer.

Venli gathers her singer allies to leave for the Alethi capital. Her spren, Timbre, is disappointed that she is abandoning the Radiants and humans. When Venli discovers that Moash, the human working against the Alethi coalition and the only one who can operate the Oathgate teleportation device, has left, she decides to return and rescue Kaladin and his family.

Moash left the Oathgate at Raboniel’s bidding—she gives him the spren-killing dagger and orders him to break the Sibling’s final node and then kill Kaladin and Navani.

Numb over handing her enemies a weapon to kill spren, Navani paints a glyph in prayer. Burning her prayer, Navani discovers that the dagger Raboniel used on her daughter has some anti-Voidlight remaining.

Kaladin prepares himself for death as he moves to the atrium, where the final gemstone node sits. The Pursuer meets Kaladin and attacks.

Kaladin and the Pursuer wrestle, with Kaladin taunting the Fused before slipping away with the levitation glove.

Teft and Lift get past the singers guarding the infirmary and lock themselves in. However, before Lift can heal the Radiants, Moash comes out of hiding and slices through Lift’s legs with his sword. Moash then turns to Teft.

Rlain and Dabbid are taken into custody by singer guards on their way to Navani.

As a crowd forms, the fight between Kaladin and the Pursuer continues, with Kaladin goading the Fused into using up power and becoming vulnerable. Leshwi explains that with a crowd watching, the Pursuer will not ruin his reputation by retreating to renew his body.

Teft and Moash fight. Although Teft succeeds in manifesting his spren as a spear, Moash stabs the spren with the anti-Stormlight dagger. Teft’s spren dies, leaving Teft without a weapon. When Moash stabs Teft, the older man dies “[c]onfident, and somehow still full of hope” (1117).

Kaladin uses the levitation glove to push the Pursuer into a window. As the Pursuer flees, Kaladin moves toward the infirmary, but he stops as Teft’s body lands on the ground before him.

When Kaladin kneels over Teft in despair, Moash orders the Fused not to touch Kaladin. Moash destroys the Sibling’s final node and orders the Pursuer to kill Lirin if Kaladin recovers. Before leaving, Moash suggests Kaladin seek release from his pain by serving Odium or killing himself.

Raboniel waits to corrupt the Sibling until she knows Moash has broken the node and killed Kaladin. Just then, Navani traps Raboniel with a hidden torture fabrial.

Navani stabs Raboniel with the anti-Voidlight dagger. As Raboniel slowly dies, Moash stabs Navani, but she manages to get away before he can kill her.

Kaladin pulls himself from his despair, and the Pursuer attacks. Kaladin again weakens the Pursuer and then traps him against a window and beheads him. Another Fused grabs Lirin and drags him to the roof, where he throws Lirin off. Kaladin is forced to jump off as well.

As Moash begins to chase Navani, Raboniel does something surprising: She defends Navani by stabbing Moash, draining his Stormlight. While he wrestles with the Fused, Navani reaches out to the Sibling through the crystal pillar.

When Leshwi agonizes that she needs Raboniel’s permission to prevent the Pursuer’s troops from killing the humans trying to defend the Radiants, Venli reveals that she is also a Radiant.

On the way to Tukar, the Stormfather—Dalinar’s powerful spren—pulls Dalinar into a vision to show him Kaladin jumping off the tower of Urithiru. The Stormfather agrees to slow time so Dalinar can help Kaladin, who is again falling into despair over all those he could not save. At the same time, the Stormfather encourages Kaladin to speak the words of the next Ideal so he can attain the next level of magical power and save himself and his father. Kaladin still believes his weakness makes him useless, so Dalinar sends Kaladin a vision.

The vision shows Kaladin’s younger brother, Tien, who died young after being conscripted. However, the vision’s fully grown Tien urges Kaladin to focus on being grateful for his time he had with Tien, Teft, and others, rather than his failure to save them.

Back in reality, Kaladin takes Syl’s hands and successfully says the Words for his next Ideal.

Leshwi kneels before Venli, overjoyed at the prospect of spren returning to the singers. She joins the battle against the Pursuer’s troops.

Seeing that Rlain cannot reach the Sibling in time to bond her and save the tower, Navani asks the Sibling to bond with her instead. The Sibling rejects her.

After humans defeat the Pursuer’s soldiers, Rlain and Dabbid help Hesina treat the fighters’ wounds. Rlain convinces the remaining singers and humans to carry the unconscious Radiants to the Oathgates, hoping to use Venli’s Shardblade to power the teleportation device, but she admits she has not reached the Ideal for that.

Shardplate—magical armor that only appears on knights of the highest levels—forms around Kaladin as he nears his father.

Despite the self-doubt that the Sibling’s rejection brings up, Navani continues to urge a bond, claiming that linking two who disagree is good and encourages compromise. The Sibling accepts what Navani hisses at Moash as her Words for the bond: “Journey before destination, you bastard” (1150).

Still falling, Kaladin catches and saves his father, who has realized he should show more faith in his son. They return to the tower to help those in need.

More Fused and singers approach to attack, so Rlain asks Venli if there are other spren like hers ready to bond with singers. A spren named Tumi bonds Rlain.

While Navani starts working to drain all the Voidlight from the Sibling, Kaladin returns to the atrium and uses his new Shardplate to protect several fighters about to receive killing blows. He orders the Fused to flee, but as they do, they drop to the ground, unconscious: The Sibling has been cleared of Voidlight, which also awakens the Radiants.

Dalinar approaches the Herald Ishar, who accuses Dalinar of being Odium’s champion and draws his blade. Ishar immobilizes the Windrunners and drains their Stormlight. As Dalinar tries to reason with Ishar, Ishar tries to take the Stormfather’s bond from Dalinar for himself until Szeth uses his sword Nightblood to cut the connection. Navani’s bond with the Sibling gives Ishar a moment of mental clarity; Ishar offers to help Dalinar with his powers if Dalinar helps him recover his sanity and then retreats. Dalinar’s team finds corpses in Ishar’s tents—spren, somehow manifested in the Physical World and used for experiments.

Moash flees Urithiru in agony because the tower’s activation has limited his link with Odium and returned his negative feelings to him. When the Fused find him and take him away, the connection is re-established, but Moash is blind.

After Dalinar receives word of Urithiru’s liberation, Odium takes Dalinar into a vision, where Dalinar recognizes fear in Odium. Pressing his advantage, he offers Wit’s terms, which Odium rejects. Nevertheless, they agree to a battle of champions in 10 days.

As Raboniel dies, she asks Navani to save her from mental illness by killing her with the anti-Voidlight dagger. Navani does so and promises to end the war.

Taravangian finds a note from Renarin reading, “I’m sorry” (1183). It is accompanied by two gemstones. Szeth breaks in as a highstorm approaches, demanding to know why Ishar was wielding Szeth’s father’s blade. Just as Szeth pulls out Nightblood and pins Taravangian to kill him, Odium pulls Taravangian into a vision, and a version of Nightblood ends up in the vision as well. As Szeth murders Taravangian in the Physical Realm, Taravangian uses the sword to kill the vision’s manifestation of Odium—really, Odium’s current vessel. Taravangian takes the god’s powers and becomes the new vessel of Odium.

The remaining listeners in Urithiru are offered asylum, but most use the Oathgate to leave for the Shattered Plains. Rlain remains. The Bridge Four watch as Teft is entombed in the room where ancient Radiants had been entombed.

Taravangian struggles with conflicting desires to save or to destroy the world. His power grows, and he considers his options for defeating Dalinar and saving them all. Then, the Shard Cultivation approaches and offers to teach him.

With no more secrets between them, Shallan and Adolin discuss how to help the deadeye spren Testament, possibly in the same way Adolin helped Maya. The spren powering Mraize’s communication box connects Shallan to Mraize one last time; Shallan informs him that she will no longer work for him and orders him and the rest of the Ghostbloods to leave Urithiru immediately. She decrees that the influence of the Ghostbloods leader is at an end.

Venli and her followers approach the Shattered Plains listeners, who are suspicious of Venli. She shares that there are other spren ready to bond with listeners and attempts to reconcile with her people. Venli’s Words for her second Ideal are finally successful.

Dalinar apologizes for removing Kaladin from service, but Kaladin admits that Dalinar was right and requests permission to continue researching better treatments for those with mental and emotional illness. Dalinar also has requests: The champions contest is in 10 days, plus Kaladin would be useful in helping Ishar to work through his mental health challenges.

When the Pursuer awakes in a new body, another Fused uses an anti-Voidlight knife to kill the Pursuer.

As Dalinar second-guesses his agreement with Odium, the Stormfather approaches Dalinar, admitting he is glad he showed Kaladin mercy—something that is unusual for unforgiving Stormfather.

The novel flashes back.

Falling into a chasm during her fight with Adolin, Eshonai is carried away by the highstorm waters. As she drowns, humming the tunes of her childhood, Timbre appears to her. When Eshonai dies, the Stormfather takes her to the Cognitive Realm—he accepts her final struggle as the Words for her first Ideal, giving her the opportunity to see the world through the highstorm as she had always wanted.

Wit wanders the Alethi palace, doing tricks for corrupted spren, but his tricks and storytelling do not work on them. Odium meets Wit in the sitting room and threatens him, angered over the contract. When Wit notices differences in Odium’s mannerisms, Taravangian attacks him, fearing discovery. He takes Wit’s memories, and he and Wit re-enact the entire scene, with Wit only slightly wondering if something is wrong.