Theory on Navani's blackmailer/threatener [Dawnshard Spoilers!]

[Pattern he/him]

After reading Dawnshard and seeing Nikli refer to Navani as "Mother of Machines", my theory on the origin of the threat towards Navani in chapter 9 is that one of the Sleepless has had enough of Navani making progress with fabrials and now tries to stop her.

It would have been easy for a hordeling to enter the Fourth Bridge and deposit the spanreed ruby there without anyone noticing, especially since there are hordelings that are able to fly

Whether it would be a rogue Sleepless like Arclomedarian or one aligned with Yelamaiszin, the First, remains unclear to me.

Edit: Well, this theory of mine can be flushed down. Issue is answered in RoW.

Edited November 21, 2020 by Pattern
RoW answered this question

[Karger he/him]

I had the same thought back when the chapter first came out.  However now I am less sure as Navani would almost certainly be clued in on who the sleepless were by the time of the spanreed conversation.

[ftl]

She would be clued in to who they are, but I think would have no reason to connect the Sleepless with "advocate for Spren".

[Shardsplinter he/him]

I was an advocate of it being a Sleepless, but now I'm in doubt. I still find the Sleepless theory one of the most logicals, but I'm struggling with the fact that because of the events of Dawnshard Navani has a context for what the Sleepless are. The problem here is that IFRC Brandon has said you can dive into RoW without reading Dawnshard. Thing is I don't see a scenario where she doesn't reference that previouse knowledge from Dawnshard if her blackmailer turns out to be a Sleepless ( which would be a Dawnshard spoiler IMHO) The other possibility is that it's a Sleepless but she doesn't find out on this book, but that would simply seem like no pay-off on a plot set from part 1. But then again, it is Sanderson, if someone can Dodge spoilers it's him. So maybe it's a Sleepless and -no surprise- it will be delt with beautifly.