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

Chapter 96 (A Thousand Lies)
Icons: Vev again. Loving? Healing? Coming after the previous chapter, let’s hope it’s thematic healing for Venli.

Epigraph: Wait, what? Why are we supposed to let Ba-Ado-Mishram out? (And presumably Yelig-nar as well, or any others that are caught.) Is it out of sympathy because “trapped forever” is a fate worse than death? Or is it because that’s a bad outcome for other reasons–power perpetuated, Intent sequestered, etc. If we let her/them out, how does that improve anything? Remember how we’re in a war against them?
Oh, maybe it’s another piece of what is tying Odium to Roshar? Maybe he can’t leave while his Unmade are here? That seems unlikely. I’m going to go with the merciful interpretation, where Kelek is horrified at the idea of eternity in confinement.

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Actually, I know it’s not directly relevant, but before we jump into the chapterI want to note something I’ve been thinking about after the recent chapters: I’m not entirely comfortable with how close together Dabbid and Maya both regained their voices. It sets an obvious parallel to compare their situations, which really aren’t comparable. It’s a coincidence of appearance in how their injuries manifest, and with as much thought as I’ve given it so far (admittedly not a ton) I don’t see anything valuable coming from an attempt to compare or contrast the two. I think it forces a narrower reading of their characters and their traumas, and in this case that’s a bad thing. I suspect that to Brandon it was two separate stories that aligned in this place, and if anything he thought the parallelism was a degree of added depth, but that doesn’t seem to be the case from my perspective.

I’ll wait and see if anything more is made of it, but for now I’m going to register that as a minor complaint of the book’s construction.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.
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Interesting note that crying is less common when you can express your sorrow or pain through the rhythms. I’d make a comment about the Weeping (as in the weather phenomenon) but that name is clearly a human invention and not influenced by any of the same forces.

She told the whole story? That’s a good thing, but it’s kind of long, right? How long are they sitting there talking?

I’m not sure if Rlain has a point or not. Venli leading the Fused to the remaining listeners seems like a lower risk because don’t they already know where those “nomads” are? Why would they need Venli to do it? 

Quote

“I didn’t have the first notes of understanding what it meant to be a traitor.”

The notes idiom is worth mentioning, but also Ow. Props to Rlain for being willing to work with her despite what he just learned.

That’s not bad reasoning that the rescue attempt will create enough chaos to cover for your group. I’m not sure that Timbre will be happy with you standing by while the attempt at freedom is made. That sounds like a suitably dramatic point to have a change of heart and speak your oaths.

With that said, Venli doesn’t sound like she is doing much in the way of planning here. I guess that means the plan can’t go too wrong, if there isn’t a plan to start with? Silver lingings.

And yes, Venli is hoping to see Jaxlim again. That reunion is the culmination she is looking for, whether or not it manifests in this story.