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

El. Time to check in with our creepiest of creepy dudes.

Icons: Jez and Nalan. Gonna guess this has to do with ruling (El is presumably in charge of a bunch of stuff now) and suffering.

Um, there are clear split priorities here. El hopes for the guards he’s about to betray to not lose their careers when he steals from the vault. Why would his actions that are (presumably) on Odium’s orders/behalf be breaking with the rule of the Fused, who are (presumably) on a pretty tight leash given Odium’s countdown to the champion fight?  Something is very interestingly askew.

Oh, apparently the Nine were expected to have issued a warning not to obey El, so this is a long-standing difference of opinions. The plot thickens.

El choosing to treasure his emotions internally without releasing them into the rhythms is an interesting take on valuing Passion. Weird perspective to think that sharing/manifesting your feelings lessens them.

El is pretty critical of the Fused-created social structure hypocritically rewarding and punishing passion in different contexts. Which, fair, it’s absolutely an abuse of the system and departing from their professed utopian values. But at the same time, that’s kind of what happens when ideologies start interacting with the real world and people have competing interests. 

Stealing Jez? Bold move.

Wait, no. Murdering Jez with anti-light? My first thought was “Woah!” but after only a second of reflection I have to wonder why this is something he has to sneak to do. Pretty sure Raboniel was planning on finding a way to inflict perma-death on the radiant spren and the Heralds, and I doubt the rest of the Fused would have been opposed. Why isn’t this something the Nine already did? Does killing him open up a gap in the Oathpact that someone else can fill? Does it unravel the oathpact and set dominoes tumbling on any of the later oaths, upending the foundation for the Fused’s permanence? I’m probably speculating way too much when El is going to tell us in a sentence or two.

Quote

“Goodbye, old friend.” 

Chills! And questions! I suddenly want to know more about El and all these millennia-old relationships. There’s a reason I chose “old friend” for my profile tag. Such a rich trope throughout so many stories.

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“The fault is theirs for not warning you about me. And perhaps I bear some fault. For being me. Naturally.”

Ha! I love it. He’s got jokes.

I really got caught up in this convo with the “new Odium”—quite compelling. Not a ton to say about it yet, beyond curiosity about the job El is about to get.

Notably, El really has been stripped of rhythms. From the wording so far in this chapter I thought it was a personal choice, and previous to that I thought it was something forbidden to him, not fundamentally removed. I definitely need some clarity on this.

Why is Natanatan so important? I presume that’s the prize that Odium needs and his goal for wanting the Shattered Plains. 

Hm. First of all, HYPE for Dai-gonarthis. We need more info on these unmade, and as bad of news as this is for the good guys, I am excited to see the Black Fisher. Especially because of the mention of an Elsegate, which sounds Except, wasn’t Dai-Gonarthis responsible for the death rattles too? Am I remembering wrong? Because fast travel and portal generation seems like an odd match to wringing out prophetic death visions. I can see a way to square that relationship, but want to know if I’m right about them belonging to the same entity before I do too much theory crafting.

Very curious that El posits the only alternative to an Elsegate is a corrupted Elsecaller or an Honorblade. I assume he means corrupted as in “spren enlightened by Sja-anat” rather than just “defected to our side.” Either way, though, it suggests that this is an application of surges that isn’t available to Regals or Fused. Why would that be? They aren’t missing any of the Elsecaller surges, and even if a Fused is limited to a single surge rather than the pair that radiants get, wouldn’t “Transportation” be sufficient for getting where you want to go?

Uh, that’s not good. They’re headed to the perpendicularity in the Horneater Peaks, which is bad news for the Unkalaki. If I recall, Odium’s people already controlled that area, but using it as a staging ground for a massive assault is another matter. Also, “I will pay her price later” doesn’t suggest that Odium is flush with funds. Maybe you shouldn’t go into debt to the Black Fisher to get your miracle door. Just saying, this sounds like something that could backfire.

El’s fascination with humanity is making me very nervous. It seems like a good thing for him to not desire their annihilation, but he’s bent on “helping them realize their passions,” which…I mean, we already had the Thrill driving Alethi war-mad for generations, and humanity is pretty good at overcoming inhibitions to cater to their own desires. This reminds me of the “Lady of Wishes” reputation that preceded Raboniel. She didn’t really live up to the horror, tempered as she was by Navani and her reasonableness, but I have a feeling that El might.