Welcome to my liveblog of Rhythm of War! Index post here. Beware of spoilers.

Chapter 116 (Mercy)
Icons: Shash, Jez, and double Ishar (not mirrored) 
I’m about to give up on interpreting these odd arrangements. What is up with the mirroring/not-mirroring thing? Why 3? 

Epigraph: El is aware of the change in Odium’s vessel, and has been “waiting to worship” the new one. I’m not any more enamored of this guy than I was from the previous musings.

Good, Kaladin is intentionally taking a step back. He acknowledges that the mental health work he’s doing is valuable both for its own sake and for the healing he gets from it. Not a big moment, but it’s the right note to end his arc.

They have ten days to capture territory before the borders are finalized. That’s going to make it hard for Dalinar to keep his promise to the Mink.

“Oh, you want to be a mental health expert? Perfect timing. You have ten days to up your game and perfect your techniques, abduct Ishar for an intervention, and have him train me to fight Odium. Time to get good, soldier.”
And here I was thinking that Kaladin’s focus on healing would take him out of the front lines. Silly me.

The flute is back! After Brandon’s exasperated answers to the many times we asked about it, I figured it was going to stay lost.

Quote

“How is Lift, by the way?”
“My lunch is gone, so I’d say she’s doing fine.”

I love it. Oh, and she kept the chicken? Nice! Wait, no, Wyndle kept the chicken? How is that going to work? You garden chairs, you defective voidbringer. You’re not ready for an exotic chicken as a pet!

***
Here we’re meeting El. I have to say I’m a little disturbed by this description. He rips off his natural carapace every time he possesses a new body, and replaces it with metal. He speaks with no rhythms. He is “The one with no title.” None of these are good signs.

El was forbidden rhythms. Good grief, what did he do to earn that punishment?

Navani stole El’s title. Go Navani! 

Welp, the Pursuer is toast now. It really makes me curious what New!Odium and El felt the need to test this. I mean, it makes sense that Taravangian would want to see it for himself, since he missed the whole development series Navani and Raboniel did, but what’s the goal? What is he so eager to purge from his forces/his self to reshape his new divinity? There are lots of options, and few of them are good.

***
Urithiru is finally alive. Hooray!

Aww, Kaladin found the wooden horse. More mysteries!

***

Quote

That was his job, though. To sacrifice himself, if need be, for everyone else. In that… In that Taravangian was right.

Oh, the irony is delicious!

Interesting take on the agreement: “Wit thinks we’ve already won, but he got what he wanted.” Dalinar is right to be worried, even if Taravangian hadn’t pulled off that switcheroo. With that change, everything is much more in flux than anyone knows.

Stormfather’s mercy is… the final Eshonai flashback! Nice. Excited to see how that manifests.