This is my reaction blog for Wind and Truth. Beware of spoilers! Index post here. 

A Lift chapter! Huzzah! I saw the feast POV symbol and got confused for a moment. I’d almost forgotten which symbol was hers.

Title: Secret Handshakes
Lift is gonna make up some secret handshakes. I can’t wait to see how impractical they are.

Icon: Vev
Edgedancer in the house.

Epigraph: Don’t apply judgements or aphorisms to situations they don’t fit. Fair.

I’d criticize Shallan for how long it took her to recognize elsecalling, but she’s got a giant ballista bolt through her ribs. She gets a pass.
Whaaat? Her painspren are the wrong color when she’s got anti-stormlight in her? How in Braize does that work?! I am so confused. Are the spren feeding on the light somehow? Surely there aren’t alternate versions of each spren waiting to spring into existence for whatever flavor of light they encounter. 

Quote

“My ego is big enough to count for between two and four people, depending on the day and my mood.”

Okay, that’s hilarious. I hope that Alethi has the same double meaning for ego so that Shallan’s joke is as good in the original. I’m only slightly disappointed that her alter-egos didn’t chime in here in appreciation.

I was confused for a second about how she got off-world armor before remembering she was wearing Aleen’s clothes. 

Oh, that’s good. Erinor the stoneward figured out the secret exit and they managed to capture most of the fleeing ghostbloods. I thought that part of the operation was a wash.

Quote

“I am very glad you did not get killed while I was not here. I should like to be there when you die. It is a thing friends do for friends.”

A sweet sentiment, if a bit charged for modern spren and for Shallan’s history in particular. There’s some uncomfortable subtextual implications there.

Iyatil isn’t going to be happy to have all her trophies confiscated. If she makes it out of the spiritual realm, I guarantee she’s planning a heist to get them back.

Little Shallan apparently experimented with peering into (and possibly reaching into??) Shadesmar before she suppressed all those memories. Tell me more.

Ooo, she can peer through and see them making their escape towards Urithiru in a madra-pulled boat. Can they notice someone watching like this? Can anyone? That seems like a method of spy-observation to be aware of and think about counters to.

I don’t know why I didn’t really analyze it before, but Shallan is right that her corporeal transfer to Shadesmar breaks the established rules of Radiant order delineations. I kind of wrote it off before as me not fully understanding what the surges can do, but this makes more sense. She explains it as the increased link from a second nahel spren allows her to pull herself through, which I buy. 

Glad she is planning to get backup. Since Lift is the next part of the chapter, does that mean she’s joining the spying/exploration party? Or is she picking someone else? 

I wasn’t too concerned about Lift’s exploding chamber pot instructions until it turned out she’s teaching them to 5-year old Gavinor. Navani is in for a headache.
Lift is jealous of Baramaz, the pretty Edgedancer who is in charge of the order. And she apparently has a crush on Sigzil. We are getting actual teenager fun times with Lift this year. Poor girl. At first I thought her interest in Sig was because of his past association with Wit, but it’s very clearly the attraction sort of interest. 

Quote

“Gav, do you think he likes poetry?”
“I…don’t know what that is.”
“Yeah. I don’t either... It’s just a term I’ve heard girls say. Somethin’ about words’n’rust, right?”

I love it. I’d say “never change, Lift,” but I’m not going to undermine your entire character arc like that. Instead I’ll just say “good luck, I’m rooting for you no matter what you decide to chase.” It’s especially funny because when she engages her listening skills Lift can have some of the most poetic way of speaking.

And of course Wyndle has expanded from chairs to footstools. Seventeen poems about Iriali footstools feels like it might have exhausted the source material, but I suppose that if you love something you can praise it in many ways.

Hm. Lift has been hanging out with Zahel, and has been listening to the way he talks, including both profanity and more profound characteristics I’m sure. I still don’t know what to think about Zahel after the earlier hints he may be more involved than it appeared, but I trust Lift to notice if something is off.

Nobody has seen Zahel since the attack on the tower. Does that mean he missed the entire occupation, or just that he’s been missing since it was retaken? I assume the first. That’s another strike against him.

Glad that Lift has made an extended effort to befriend Gavinor. Her abandoned child senses were tingling, and for good reason. He is struggling with feeling unwanted

The Sibling “liked Lift on account of her being awesome.” I didn’t think of that. Lift’s use of her special light (is it Towerlight? Cultivationlight?) would endear her to them, wouldn’t it.

Lift wants to go rescue her chicken–the one she met for like five seconds before Mraize stuck her in a cage. That sounds like a motivation to include her in the spy crew!

Oh, she’s not particularly interested in Sigzil, she’s just generally noticing the boys. Drehy’s tight uniform is doing it for her, too.

Fascinating info about spren familial structure. I’ll just copy it out here:

Quote

“Wyndle, do spren have families?”
“Why, yes they do, Your Highness! Though we require only one parent, so many spren do not pair bond. But it’s also not uncommon for us to do so! Why, even formal marriage isn’t unheard of. I have a mother, who is a dear and kind soul who spends her time gardening shoes.”

In that context, it’s worth remembering that Syl is the “last daughter” of the previous generation who were apparently children of the Stormfather directly, rather than descended through a line of honorspren. It also goes against my previous assumption that many spren emerged from collective perception. This goes back to Navani’s scholars thinking about farming domesticated flamespren–how does all of that life cycle stuff work? And are sapient spren like those who bond Radiants different from the elemental and emotional spren in that regard?

Lift being a friend by offering to help Gavinor take bloody revenge. Sure, it’s concerning, but it’s what they both need.

Lift has no interest in hearing Wyndle’s commentary about her burgeoning adolescence. 

Quote

“Hey Tower… Are all cultivationspren like this? Or did I get stuck with the druff?
“I’d have to say you got stuck with a druff. Whatever that is.”

Yup, Sibling’s got her back. You’re out of luck, Wyndle. Take your cues from Lift and stop telling people to be mature.

“You’re a building. Can’t respect someone that people fart inside of.”
“Oh really? Let me tell you about skin mites and gut flora.”
Well played, Sibling.

This teasing banter between Lift and Sibling, pulling in little Gav, is fabulous. Wyndle is ever the straight man in this comedy routine.

Aww, Lift acknowledges Wyndle’s friendship with the secret handshake she made up for Gav. Very sweet.

Oh dear. Gloomspren. That’s another new one, I think. If we’ve seen it before it would have been around Kal, though.

Wait a minute. Lift was hanging out with Gav talking while his nursemaid was off grabbing herself some snacks? Is the world backwards? Is everything a lie? Well, I suppose that Lift did spend half that time chewing on random food she’d stuffed in her pockets so maybe that was an overreaction.