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

Chapter 55 (Friendship with the Open Sky)
Epigraph: Yes, between this one and the last one, I’m heavily leaning toward Raboniel as our mystery author. Disturbing.

“Spren are immortal, even if you kill them.” Thanks for the cheery thought, Syl.
Is this the first time we’ve gotten a name for Syl’s previous Radiant? I don’t remember reading the name Relador before, but I’ve also been going through this book in fits and starts, so it wouldn’t be surprising if I forgot it. Hm, just did a search and I commented on this back in Syl’s interlude I-1. I’m just forgetful.

Good work Syl, calling Kaladin out on his poor coping strategies. That one in particular was a particularly blatant contradiction. “Good, you’re confronting loss. I always just ignore things to feel better.”
Aww, that was a very sweet paragraph about how spren are people. It’s obviously the reader’s view since we see these characters from the outside, but I didn’t even realize that spren would be dealing with that existential question of being a product of mankind.

The soulcast syringe is cool. Makes sense that’s how they’d produce metal items.
A Syl-syringe? Interesting idea. How about a Syl-scalpel, or clamp or suture needle. She could really help out with the surgeon thing in ways I hadn’t thought about.

Dabbid being directed to Kaladin by the Sibling makes sense, but how did he get past the patrols and checkpoints? More hidden doors, I assume? Kaladin and Teft are still on an upper floor, correct?

Alright, we get some wall climbing, since apparently the Full Lashing falls under the “quiet” form of surgebinding. Did we know that already from the Kholinar segment of the last book? Actually, do we have confirmation that the remaining abilities under the suppressive effect of the tower are the same set that don’t attract the screamer spren? It makes sense that would be the case, but I don’t think there’s enough data points to really conclude that for sure.

Kal, why’d you take off your socks? I don’t understand this plan. Oh, are the socks a barrier to being able to infuse the boots? I wouldn’t have thought that was an issue. 

Interesting that the windspren are being attracted while he’s using Full Lashings rather than doing anything to do with flight. That seems to be a first for him.

Well, that’s an answer to the reader at least. Not sure if Kaladin will conclude that they are using voidlight to power everything, since he hasn’t seen any of the other fabrials powered that way.

Oh, he doesn’t need to figure it out. He can mug the scouts for their spanreed and let Navani do the thinking part. Good division of labor, and lets us have an exciting stealth sequence… soon. Since the next chapter is apparently Venli, it will have to wait.