The Tragedy of Thaylen Field

[AonEne]

Just started a second reread, thanks I hate it  

[Samrat]

On 7/31/2018 at 5:20 PM, Overlord Jebus said:

Chapter One: Oathbreaker

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Odium rested his hand on the shoulder of the huddled Dalinar Kholin. “It’s done, Dalinar. The pain has passed. Stand up and claim the station you were born to obtain.”

Alone.

Dalinar held a fist to his chest.

So alone.

It hurt to breathe, to think. He opened bleeding fingers and looked at his hand. A hand that had taken so much from so many. From himself.

Help me.

Dalinar couldn’t do this anymore.

It wasn’t my fault.

The cries started to fade. The pain that had almost overwhelmed him lifted. Dalinar’s body cooled and his muscles relaxed, his hand falling limply to the dry stone beneath him. In that moment, he felt peace for the first time since he could remember. Evi’s death wasn’t his fault, Odium had done that. His cravings for wine, his neglect of his sons, the death of his brother. That wasn’t him. That was the monster Odium had turned him into. Odium had taken his life and left it a trail of tragedies.

Dalinar climbed to his feet, looking up at Odium and felt hate.

Odium smiled back.

A fire deep inside Dalinar exploded. Rage and frustration and lust and passion. From deep within, Dalinar felt a terrible heat flow through him, his chest, his arms, his legs, his hands, his feet, his fingers, his toes. He felt it rise up his neck and burn across his skull. Dalinar lost control of what he felt, what he thought, all was a swirling mass of emotion.

D A L I N A R !

A voice cried in his mind, like a spear thrust into a hurricane. It was battered away and forgotten before Dalinar could even comprehend it. Dalinar felt a tugging inside before an awful slicing sensation. Dalinar had a momentary awareness of losing something vitally important before that too was swept away in the torrent burning through him.

 ---

Kaladin held Adolin. The prince's breathing and heart rate had slowed far too much. He felt heavy, limp. Adolin had lost consciousness. Kaladin went cold. This wouldn’t end here. This couldn’t end here. Numb, Kaladin gently placed Adolin on the ground, indicating to Shallan to hold his head. Kaladin stood. He took his knife and faced the closest Fused. The armored face grinned at him as it kicked lightly off the ground, gliding slowly towards him, spear raised.

Kaladin lunged at the Fused, grabbing the haft of the spear and pulling it close to him, driving the knife forward. The Fused dodged the strike with ease, using the momentum of Kaladin's pull to twist out of the way and throw Kaladin to the ground. Dazed, Kaladin watched as the two Fused took Pattern by the arms and another two wrestled to restrain Syl. Shallan still knelt by the Adolin, the final Fused raising it’s spear for an executioner's strike.

A great thundercrack, like the sky breaking, sounded and a powerful gust of wind struck them. It threw the Fused that still hung in the air back whilst knocking those that weren’t already on the ground down. Beads clattered and roared. It felt like all the air was being sucked from one side of them to the other... Towards.... Towards Thaylen City.

Kaladin rolled onto his front and looked over to see a great pillar of black smoke and red lightning swirled near the far side of the Oathgate bridge. A great spinning mass that spread across the whole sky, coming down and reducing to a single point. A single golden light in the midst of thousands. The Fused around Kaladin recovered quickly and, upon seeing what was happening, took off whooping and cheering.

Syl had landed near Kaladin and had crawled towards him. She held his hand and looked out over Thaylenah.

Kaladin watched, not quite understanding, as the golden light at the nexus of the maelstrom wavered and faded until it was replaced with a fierce red light.

“No...” Kaladin heard Syl whisper. He looked over to find tears streaming down her face.

For a moment, Kaladin hoped the Fused had forgotten about them until one turned around and quickly flew towards Kaladin and Syl. It lay the flat of its spear on Kaladin's back before kneeling down beside him and pointing at the red and black mass.

“You see that, Radiant?” the Fused said, spitting the word like a curse. “That’s us winning.”

The Fused angled it’s spear and drove it down into Kaladin's back.

 ---

Dalinar stood before Odium. He felt his enemy's presence inside him as clearly as he saw the old man in front of him. His mind was at war with his body. Hate and fury compelled his body to move, to strike out, but Odium, the presence he had let in held him back. Odium reached out and touched Dalinar's face.

“My champion, how do you feel?” Odium said as he tilted his head up, as if he was really looking at Dalinar for the first time “Ah, passionate, that’s good. Now...” Odium stepped back and held out a hand in front of himself. A line of red flame swirled into being around his hand, materialising into a great, golden Shardblade that fell into Odium's grip. The Blade's colour was so light it was almost white. Dalinar felt his head compelled to move, to look down the length of the Blade. It ended with a great curved hook.

Odium held the Blade out, presenting it to Dalinar.

---

“Mistress!” Wyndle said. “Oh, mistress!”

For once, Lift didn’t have the will to tell him to shut up. She focused everything on those tendrils creeping up her arms, like deep, dark vines.

The assassin lay on the ground, staring upward, practically covered in those vines. Lift held them at bay, teeth gritted. Her will against the darkness until . . .

“Behind you!”

An arm looped under Lift's arms and threw her backwards. Lift flew through the air for a moment before hitting the ground. This wasn’t the first time Lift had been thrown through the air, though. She rolled with her landing and was able to spring back onto her feet.

“Did that sword just try to eat me?!” said Lift, looking down at the arms. Her hands were completely black and she struggled to move her fingers. The tendrils running down her arms didn’t fade.

“Mistress, I’ve only seen swords eat things in the Cognitive Realm so it wouldn’t be completely out of question for one to start eating you here in the Physical Realm,” Wyndle replied, his vines rising out of the ground next to Lift.

Lift pointed toward Szeth and the lithe Fused standing over him.

“What’s it doing?” She asked, as the Fused reached for a pouch on its waist and poured the contents over Szeth. Spheres, infused spheres. With the bag empty, the Fused dropped the bag on Szeth and pointed back towards the city. Lift heard it bark something at Szeth before it took off and flew into the air.

“Remind me I need to learn how to fly,” Lift said, running over to Szeth. She watched as the light of the spheres faded, the blackness retreating from Szeth's skin. Lift reached him just as he rose, the black sword still dripping smoke.

“What'd the voidbringer say?” Lift said.

Szeth looked back towards where Dalinar and Odium stood. Lift turned and could see something was happening between them.

“Our master has asked for me,” Szeth said.

“Oh, I was asking the sword,” said Lift, pointing towards the blade in Szeth's hands. Lift could still see traces of black on Szeth's fingers.

Szeth didn’t reply and launched up into the air and towards Dalinar, leaving Lift alone in the middle of the Voidbringer army.

“Mistress, don’t forget, you need to learn how to fly.”

---

“Fitting, don’t you think?” Odium said, inspecting the golden white Shardblade “I call it Oathbreaker.”

Dalinar screamed, but no noise left his mouth. He raged and fought and struggled and wanted nothing more than to grab the Shardblade and shove it down Odium’s-

Dalinar's arms responded to that. He reached out and grabbed the Shardblade. He lifted it from Odium's hands and went to strike him down, but the moment he tried, he lost control again. Instead, Dalinar's arms held the Shardblade up, the flat of the blade facing him. Dalinar looked back upon himself. His eyes glowed red.

Starting with the hand that held Oathbreaker, red fire began to consume him. As it coalesced around Dalinar, it begin to form the shape of midnight black Shardplate. It traveled across Dalinar's body until he was entirely encased.

Dalinar lowered the great Blade, holding it out to the side, the tip cutting a small groove in the ground.

“Now, I have things I need to concentrate on elsewhere. Go, my champion, and kill everyone in the city,” Odium said.

Dalinar looked to Amaram, to the armies around him. His head turned to watch as the Assassin in White scooped something up off the ground as he flew back to Dalinar. He turned to Thaylen City and Dalinar's mouth smiled.

“Oh and Dalinar... there’s two Heralds just...” Odium pointed towards some buildings near the break in the wall behind them, “over there. I’d like you to start with them.”

And with that, Odium vanished into a white mist.

Inside the prison of his mind, Dalinar screamed.

 

 

That's how George R.R Martin would have done it....

[Truthwatcher at the Rim]

Had to keep reminding myself this isn't canon...  

I'm so glad it isn't, but at the same time, your writing was beautiful and easy to read.  Thank you for making me cry