The Way of Kings - Prologue

Page 21 – Prologue

Oh my god, there’s so much to keep track of.

Okay, first of all this:

“The love of men is a frigid thing, a mountain stream only three steps from the ice. We are his. Oh Stormfather … we are his. It is but a thousand days, and the Everstorm comes.”

- Collected on the first day of the week Palah of the month Shash of the year 1171, thirty one seconds before death. Subject was a dark-eyed pregnant woman of middle years. The child did not survive.

I bolded the things that I think are important to remember. Also, what’s with the thirty one seconds? I bet there’s something to that as well.

• Szeth-son-son-Vallano, Truthless of Shinovar.

I’m going to take a guess and say that this ‘son-son’ might actually mean, son of… so in this case he’s the … um… grandson of Vallano? I’m probably wrong.

• Parshendi tradition
• Shin

This tradition is foreign to this Szeth guy, and apparently he’s a servant. There’s something about this ‘Shin’ being docile and harmless. This Szeth guy is about to kill a king though…

Interesting stuff here:

They were men with skin of black marbled with red. Parshendi, they were named – cousins to the more docile servant peoples known as parshmen in most of the world. An oddity. They did not call themselves Parshendi; this was the Alethi name for them. It mean, roughly, “parshmen who can think.” Neither side seemed to see that as an insult.

• Alethi – would this be like, people from ‘Alethkar’ or ‘of Alethkar’?
• Parshendi
• Parshmen – servants
• Dalinar Kholin – king’s brother
• Jasnah – king’s daughter
• Elhokar – king’s son and heir
• Azish – dark skinned

Szeth goes on about Stormlight being sacred, Alethi scholars close to creating new Shardblades – and he thinks that if it did happen, the world will be changed. Are Alethi something like nobles? They have gems with Stormlight – and again, Szeth says it’s profane.

Oh, ‘Heralds’ appears again.

Szeth brushed by, continuing past a line of statues depicting the Ten Heralds from ancient Vorin theology. Jezerezeh, Ishi, Kelek, Talenelat. He counted off each one, and realized there were only nine here. One was conspicuously missing.

Hmmm… those names kind of sound very similar to the ones mentioned in the prelude. Not exactly the same, but Kelek, Kalak? Taln, Talenelat? And the one with the J. I don’t know if this has anything to do with that, but I just couldn’t help noticing. Also, nine. One missing. Shalash, apparently, even though the King Gavilar is said to be too devout in his Vorin worship, so Szeth is wondering why one is missing.

He also considers treading on stone profane. There’s a lot of profane things here, huh?

• Truthless
• Parshendi’s tradition is to wear white for a killing.

For if you were going to assassinate a man, he was entitled to see you coming.

This king he is going to assassinate – wouldn’t he notice the white and run for it? Or command some of his guards to kill him before he gets killed? If not, that means that Parshendi tradition/customs are not known. Guess we’ll find out.

“You there!” a voice called in Alethi.

Oh, it’s a language!

I wasn’t sure about this lighteyes, darkeyes thing, but it seems that they call some sort of people that. Darkeyes, for instance, are not allowed to carry swords?

I read the rest without actually jotting anything down because there is too much going on. All right, so this Szeth guy, the assassin, can use the power of Stormlight. Don’t quite know how it works, but he absorbs it into his body, and then he does this thing called ‘Lashing,’ and from what I understand, it’s like he makes it the point of gravity for whatever object, person, etc. So say, he grabs a guy, and then he Lashes toward the ceiling. The guy will stick to the ceiling. Or, he’s fighting, and he Lashes toward the wall, so he goes off and sticks to the wall.

He uses three types of Lashings here, and it’s Basic Lashing, Full Lashing, and Reverse Lashing… I think. I can’t find it again to confirm. Anyways, this Stormlight power or energy can only be held for a short time, and it escapes him when he breathes too, so he constantly has to refill it. The King’s place uses this Stormlight around his palace – I think it’s a palace, but I could be wrong – for light, so that works out well for Szeth.

‘Shardblades’ turn up again, and it’s basically a sword that can cut through all sorts of things, except for human bodies. When he hits people with it, it destroys their soul. Awesome, isn’t it?

Szeth is supposed to kill King Gavilar, but also get himself seen . After some fighting with guards, he sees a man get escorted by a group of soldiers – probably getting him to safety – and Szeth meets a Shardbearer, who is someone who can actually fight against a Shardblader. I’m already confused, but I’m sure it will make more sense later on. Anyways, after some more fighting, he realizes that the Shardbearer is actually the King himself, and after some more fighting, he manages to kill him.

The king says something weird though.

“I… expected you… to come,” the King said between gasps.

…

“You can tell… Thaidakar… that he’s too late…”

[Szeth tells him he doesn’t know who that is.]

“Then who…? Restares? Sadeas? I never thought…”

“My masters are the Parshendi,” Szeth said.

And the king says that makes no sense. But he tells Szeth to tell the king’s brother ( that would be Dalinar Kholin, I’m guessing) that he must find the most important words a man can say.

I don’t know what that means, and I don’t think Szeth does either, so he takes a small crystalline sphere the king gives him, and because to Szeth the request of a dying person is sacred, he writes the message the King asked on the ground in blood and then leaves.

Oh, so the Radiants were mentioned again here somewhere, ‘Knights Radiant’ and the ‘Voidbringers.’ Also, Shardblades are worth a fortune, and the Blade Szeth is cursed. Or something. Well, maybe not cursed, but I guess what he meant was that it was a lot of trouble. I’m thinking of Kalak now, and also, the beginning of the chapter started with the words of a dying pregnant woman, and now here we have a dying king giving a last message, but also telling his brother to find some important words.

Aaand the next chapters opens with the last words of a dying person too. Hmmm…

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