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Chapter 20


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

Chapter 20 (The Unseen Court)
Epigraph: A letter! Who is this one from? Relative youth, but not Sazed since we heard from him in the last book. So I’m guessing this one isn’t a Vessel. The first letters were to/from Frost, also not a vessel, so that’s not unprecedented. Without knowing more I’m going to go out on a limb and guess this is the president of Silverlight University. Seems as likely as anything else I could guess.

Header: Taln and Ash. Do they appear in this chapter? Is it an association with Shallan and Adolin? Hoping for the former (especially since we’re all hoping for Adolin to go the edgedancer route when he awakens his blade.)

As you know by now, I am very much here for the internal conflict of Shallan’s aspects, so this chapter opening is fun for me. It does make me wonder, though--how much of the harmony she’s achieved so far is dependent on her radiant abilities? Either through actual magic or through the ritual reinforcing her divisions of personality, she actively transitions between the three aspects, accompanied by visible lightweavings each time (if the scene at the tavern is any indication). That’s not strictly necessary, since we saw her shift personas while talking to Ialai without compromising her disguise, but it makes me wonder what would happen if Shallan were deprived of stormlight. Would she have difficulty shifting? Would Radiant and Veil start to fade (less likely) or merge (more likely) as the barriers between her selves broke down?

The Veden version of the takama is the vakama? That’s original. And the only difference is pleats in the skirt? I can see why that would be an important distinction to the over-militarized cultures of Alethkar and Vedenar, but it comes across as very silly to me.

Quote

It might seem like regression, but Radiant was certain this last knot of agony was the final answer. The final truth. Shallan was terrified that the nes she loved would turn on her when they found out the extent of her crimes.

This frames it in a very understandable way. Given Shallan’s mother turned on her to the extreme that she did, and Shallan was forced to murder her father, she’s got trust issues to an incredible depth. 

I also think it’s fascinating that the two personas Shallan has created to inhabit and help buffer her from the world are both lacking the fear of betrayal that is at her core and is presumably her final truth to confront. That means that her Shallan persona retains all of it, possibly at an enhanced intensity.

Yeah, I’m very amused by Radiant giving advice about staying in control of your illusions rather than letting them control you. Nice to see the order expanding, though twenty is still fewer than I would have expected after a year. I guess my expectations go thrown off by the “strength of squires” Windrunners.

Oh, the Unseen Court is the Lightweaver group? I was expecting that to be a spren reference.

Stump joined? Really? I am shocked she didn’t stay at her orphanage, or at least her city. I’m excited to see she’s an Edgedancer now, though. I look forward to seeing her interact with the rest of the cast. She’ll be an interesting contrast to Lift.

I kind of hope that there really is a spy among Shallan’s people. If there isn’t and Ialai was assassinated at range by someone else, this is going to be a frustrating mole hunt with no payoff. I’m not entirely sure what to suspect, but I’m leaning towards this being misdirection by Mraize to keep her occupied.

What is this attack of nausea? Oh, no. Veil forced herself to the surface? And did so to countermand Shallan’s decision after Veil and Radiant had both asked her to be in charge on this matter? Eeek. That will definitely disrupt their balance. At the same time, I’m glad it has an obvious cause and isn’t an unrecognized attack.

Oh dear. Radiant was acting as peacekeeper to preserve the compact, but in practice she abetted Veil in taking over for a full day and keeping Shallan suppressed. Looks like those trust issues aren’t going away any time soon.

I wonder where Mraize’s inter-realm radio comes from. It’s inconveniently bulky, too. I misread it the first time and was imagining something substantially smaller.
 

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