TWoK 3, 4 ,5 , and 6.

Yes, looks like I’ll have to do all of them. I had exams, so I procrastinated with stuff that didn’t involve writing, because then that would remind me of the studying.

All the bolding is mine — I do that for things I want to remember.

Chapter 3 — City of Bells

“A man stood on a cliffside and watched his homeland fall into dust. The waters surged beneath, so far beneath. And he heard a child crying. They were his own tears.”

- Collected on the 4^th of Tanates, year 1171, thirty seconds before death. Subject was a cobbler of some renown.

I don’t get that. He heard a child crying. They were his own tears. Makes no sense to me. Tears are … well, tears, but cries you can hear. So was he crying like a child, and he heard himself crying? Or did he hear a child cry, and then start weeping himself?

Whatever. Oh, they didn’t mention the light-eyed/dark-eyed-ness here.

Uh, about this chapter. To tell you the truth, I really don’t care about Shallan right now. This is one of the few things that really bug me in books/mangas/whatever. Why introduce a character who’s going through a lot of shit, and then pause and move on to another character who isn’t going through much shit at all? You’re making me lose interest. I mean, at least take that character to a point where we know he’s going to be okay, or things look up a bit, and then bore us. It isn’t fair to me as a reader – YES I HAVE RIGHTS DAMMIT — and it stops the flow. It does, it seriously does.

Well, to me, anyways.

I know, I know, Shallan’s probably gonna turn out to be a great character, and we have to be introduced to her at some point, but I really want to stay with Kaladin and his lovely little windspren.

Also, it doesn’t help that I… well, Shallan just reminds me of Clary. That’s never a good thing. I hate Clary. With the little sketchbook, and oh, I’m a just a red head with freckles, I’m not beautiful, but oh, look, I’m so smart! I have funny answers and I can make people laugh—

Please.

Shallan’s talk with those sailors and the captain?

Yawn.

And god, this:

“He wants to know if you’d like to be pulled the long way or the short way.” Yalb scratched his head. “I’m not right sure what the difference is.”

“I suspect one takes longer,” Shallan said.

“Oh, you are a clever one.”

I’m sorry? Was… I supposed to laugh at that? Was he being sarcastic? Was Shallan being sarcastic? Wh… what?

All right, to be fair, after a few paragraphs of me rolling my eyes at Shallan (I’m just angry that I wasn’t getting Kaladin and his windspren in this chapter, okay?), I kind of got a little bit interested.

Just a little bit. Free hand and safe hand? I want to know more. Aaand… that’s about it.

Sorry Shallan. It’s okay though, you have over 900 pages to try and impress me.

Chapter 4 – The Shattered Plains

“I’m dying, aren’t I? Healer, why do you take my blood? Who is that beside you, with his head of lines? I can see a distant sun, dark and cold, shining in a black sky.

- Collected on the 3^rd of Jesnan, 1172, 11 seconds pre-death. Subject was a Reshi chull trainer. Sample is of particular note.

As I was typing that, I remembered that we have this wonderful thing called Wikipedia. Surely there’s a wiki for this? There has to be! And I bet all these quotes have been collected by someone. I dare not go in there now though, I’ll probably spoil myself.

Oh, and look, another no light-eyed/dark-eyed-ness! I’m wondering if I should actually know by their profession – whether they are light-eyed or dark-eyed. Probably. Unfortunately, I wasn’t paying much attention to professions…

Okay, okay, okay, omgod, so this chapter starts with the windspren saying to Kaladin, “Why don’t you cry?”

And I basically jumped out of bed and eeeeeeeeeeeeeped (that’s like, a yaaay except not) because she’s back! I love her. Have I mentioned that already? UGH, she’s so adorable.

Kaladin fucking SMILES when he’s talking to her now. HE SMILES. A slave, with a shitty or no future ahead of him, SMILES at the floaty little swirly little misty little pretty little cute little – yeah, yeah, I mean the windspren. But isn’t that just lovely? It makes my heart do cartwheels.

Wait, I should probably tell you what’s happening. So they’re still going wherever the slaver Tvlakv— no really, how the hell do you pronounce that?—is taking them. Kaladin notices that they didn’t stop for their daily slop (that’s what the poor creatures get for food) and asks Tvlakv if he’s lost. He kinda is. Kaladin asks to see the map, and he … rips it to pieces.

I love this guy.

Tvlakv, a bit desperate, I suppose, tries to bargain with him. For an extra meal, if Kaladin likes.

“You want me to lead the caravan?”

“Instructions will be acceptable.”

“All right. First, find a cliff.”

“That will give you a vantage to see the area?”

“No,” Kaladin said. “It will give me something to throw you off of.”

After some talk about vengeance and what Kaladin would sell for and what not, Tvlakv … kind of seems not so bad. I mean, he’s just doing what he can to make a living.

AND THEN THE WINDSPREN TALKS AGAIN.

“What was that for?” the windspren said, walking up to him, head cocked.

“I almost find myself liking him,” Kaladin said, pounding his head back against the cage.

“But… after what he did…”

Kaladin shrugged. “I didn’t say Tvlakv isn’t a bastard. He’s just a likeable bastard.” He hesitated, then grimaced. “Those are the worst kind. When you kill them, you end feeling guilty for it.”

We then learn a bit about the highstorms. So apparently you can’t really do much during a highstorm, you just stay put in a sheltered place and wait until it passes. There’s some bits about the Stormfather, the Lost Radiants, and the Voidbringers – I guess it’s kind of like superstition to these people? Stormfather is THE god, I think, with the way they talk about him… probably the Almighty one too.

Those winds felt like live things at times. And who was to say they weren’t? Were windspren attracted to gusts of wind, or were they the gust of wind? The souls of the force that now wanted so badly to destroy Kaladin’s wagon?

I don’t know buddy, but I like your questions. Also, do you think I could catch a windspren if I sat out in one of these highstorms? I’ll find a place under a rock, and I think I’ll put out an open cage, with a Kaladin doll inside.

Do you think a windspren will wander in there? What? They’ll just fly back out?

This is not fair.

The time right after a highstorm was when the land was most alive. Rockbud polyps split and sent out their vines…. Leaves unfolded from shrubs and trees. Cremlings of all kinds slithered through puddles, enjoying the banquet… the very rocks seemed to come to life.

Well, now isn’t that interesting.

Then when the storm is ending, the WINDSPREN COMES BACK.

Look, look! I mean, read, READ!

He was coming to take the windspren’s presence for granted.

She began to step around him in the air, spinning occasionally, dancing to some unheard beat.

“Windspren,” Kaladin said. “Chasing after the storm. Are you certain you don’t want to go with them?”

She glanced westward, longingly. “No,” she finally said, continuing her dance. “I like it here.”

OHMYGOD THE CUTE. I CANNOT HANDLE.

I CANNOT.

THE CUTE.

IT’S GONNA KILL ME.

I’M GONNA DIE OF THE CUTENESS.

Goddammit, I want a fucking windspren. I’m so sad I’m not even gonna bother with the rest of this chapter.

Oh, wait. So Tvlakv actually takes the slaves to the Shattered Plains, where Kaladin initially wanted to go. Hurrah.

Chapter 5 – Heretic

“I have seen the end, and have heard it named. The Night of Sorrows, the True Desolation. The Everstorm.”

- Collected on the 1^st of Nanes, 1172, 15 seconds pre-death. Subject was a darkeyed youth of unknown origin.

Oh, we’re back to identifying darkeyes, lighteyes. Also, I don’t care.

Shallan had not expected Jasnah Kholin to be so beautiful.

I don’t care.

Stormfather! This woman was the sister of a king.

I don’t care.

A Soulcaster—the word was used for both the people who performed the process and the fabrial that made it possible.

Oh? Does she have a windspren with her? Do you? No? Sorry, then, I don’t care.

Stormfather! Shallan thought. This has to be the king himself! Not Jasnah’s brother, Elhokar, but the king of Kharbranth. Taravangian.

Does he have a windspren? Not interested.

Also, Jasnah seems full of herself. Hmph.

“But you haven’t finished your testing of me yet,” Shallan said, forcing herself to be bold. “Surely you won’t give judgment until you have.”

“I haven’t finished?” Jasnah asked, frowning.

“You didn’t ask me about all of the feminine arts. You left out painting and drawing.”

“I have never had much use for them.”

…

“The visual arts are frivolity. I have weighed the facts, child, and cannot accept you. I’m sorry.”

Okay, Jasnah you haughty woman. I liked you fine until you said that. You must be a very boring person. VERY BORING. Now get a windspren or I won’t ever like you.

Six months ago, she had explained a desperate plan to her brothers. She would apprentice herself to Jasnah Kholin, scholar, heretic. Not for the education. Not for the prestige. But in order to learn where she kept her Soulcaster. And then Shallan would steal it.

I don’t have a clue as to what you’re talking about, girl, but I’m with you. Steal it. SERVES HER RIGHT.

And get a windspren while you’re at it.

By the way, does this mean that there are two? Or more than just the gems of the Soulcasting thingy? I mean there’s what she has on her hands, isn’t there? So there’s something else that goes with it?

Well, we’ll find out.

Chapter 6 – Bridge Four

Kaladin, my baby! It’s so good to see you! How are you doing? How’s your windspren?

Wha? You were thrown into this war thingy that I don’t understand and you were told to carry some bridge all across the Shattered Plains and your shoulders are bleeding and your feet are bleeding and you weren’t given any vests or shoes because that damned Gaz guy doesn’t like you? HOW HORRIBLE! You poor baby!

Everyone told stories of that night, the night when Parshendi tribesmen had murdered King Gavilar.

Ohoho, now this is funny. Wasn’t it like, one guy who did that?

He was growing delirious. Feet, running. One, two, one, two, one, two.

“Stop!”

He stopped.

“Lift!”

He raised his hands up.

“Drop!”

He stepped back, then lowered the bridge.

“Push!”

He pushed the bridge.

Die.

That last command was his own, added each time.

They make him do that, again, and again, and again. There are other slaves with him, but he’s the new one, and because that bastard Gaz doesn’t like him, he put him in the back, then shoved him to the front of the bridge. They just carry the bridge to the locations that the army would need them to cross, basically… I think…

But get this, when they return, the Parshendi (who have like, marbled skin?) attack them, with fucking arrows. And they have these poor creatures just running, with that huge thing over their shoulders. You get hit, you die.

Thankfully, even though Kaladin has no idea what’s going on and he is put at the front when they’re returning, he doesn’t die.

Actually, it’s THANKS TO THE WINDSPREN BECAUSE SHE IS LOVE.

This is now over 2000 words. I’ll talk more about the windspren next week. BUT GOSH, SHE HAS A NAME.

Sylphrena.

THE CUTESY THING HAS A NAME. I AM DEAD NOW.

I AM FUCKING DEAD.