Fifth of Daybreak

Adolin's in a bad spot, I think we can all agree. He cannot move forward without hurting his house in some way, by either revealing himself as the killer or failing to catch the murderer of a Highprince, giving evidence that Dalinar is incapable of protecting the city he has just discovered. But I have a theory of how Adolin might respond to this in a way that just might be politically savvy enough to work. He admits it. Point blank. He calls for a meeting of the Highprinces to say he's solved the murder. Once they've arrived, he calmly announces that he has not only figured out who killed Sadeas, but has a confession. He then explains that he killed Sadeas. He explains how he ran into Sadeas in the tower alone, and how Sadeas began immediately to tell Adolin about the lies he would begin spreading about house Kholin, about Urithiru. He'll explain that when he asked Sadeas why, Sadeas told him that it was the way things had to be, that it was Dalinar or him. Finally, he will tell them that Sadeas told him of his intent to take everything from his father and his house, as he has tried to do before and had almost killed him in the process. In short, Adolin will tell the truth. Adolin will then let Chaos ensue and all of the Highprinces bluster, the perfect image of calm until Dalinar, feeling betrayed, will ask him why he would take such a drastic step. Adolin will tell him that, according to Alethi tradition, he took this as both an insult and declaration of war on his house, and that under the authority granted him by the boon of the king he engaged Sadeas in a duel to the death. I think that he will then issue a challenge to Amaram, and that if Amaram thinks Adolin went against justice, for Amaram to take up the cause of House Sadeas in the dueling arena and meet him in battle. I think this will appeal to Dalinar, who will be conflicted. It will allow a testing of crimes for both Amaram and Adolin while not testing his own personal loyalties or sense of honor. I also think this will not go well for Adolin. Amaram has Oathrbringer now, and I know that Brandon has said that in WoK prime he had considered making Amaram a duel wielding Shardbearer. This gives him not only the means to do so but the opportunity to show that he's a force to be reckoned with. Amaram won't of course kill Adolin, but if he leaves him without shards and leaves house Kholin humiliated after all of Adolin's victories it would go a long way towards deepening the conflict inside of Urithiru. Plus it would be a really storming cool fight to watch.

Realistically it will take me at least a few days to a week if I get distracted enough. My friend will have it done in a day and a half and it freaks me out. Another friend's mother claimed she could read War and Peace in a sitting, and she wasn't one for idle boasting. As QuiGon would say, "there's always a bigger fish." Iirc Kindle estimated my WoR read time around 13-14 hours. It's been a few years since so I'm not confident in my margin of error.

@Shadowmancer I think you meant this one

I might just be hyping myself up for another let down then. Just for storms and sprinkles, I'd like to lay out my reasoning for why I'd expect a major Adolin moment in our last set of preview chapters. Through Way of Kings we see him confident and cocksure in his ways, believing Dalinar to be weak. He starts to understand some of Dalinar's actions, but is ultimately reinforced in his ways by Sadeas's betrayal, as he was right. In Words of Radiance, his usefulness and skill is Paramount to their success, and he finally has a woman who not only keeps him interested but seems to want to stay interested in him. His success in the arena and newfound kinship with Kaladin are reinforced by the bridgemen adopting Renarin so readily and warmly. The world is stark, the Assassin in white bested them once, but he's training to overcome it and there's been no obstacle yet that he hasn't been able to overcome somehow. Then comes the assassination attempt. He let his causal betrothed fall to her death. This causes a huge reaction. This is the first time he's on screen (as far as a quick search shows) after: It's one of the first times he's truly felt powerless. Fast forward to the shattered plains. He's effective against the Parshendi, but he loses Sureblood, and then is rendered powerless against the assassin in white again, despite being in plate and his extra training. Now he finds out his new best friend, his girlfriend, his brother, and his father all have the same powers that made him, the most accomplished warrior alive, impotent. In the strain if everything that happened, he snaps when no one is there to hold him back against his long time enemy. He might not be much use against the new threats, but he can do something here to this cremling. But Dalinar then places him in charge of the investigation. He's now become impotent once again. He cannot complete his task without hurting his house, or fail to complete it without doing the same. He's frozen, completely unable to act in any meaningful way. It's not something he's ever experienced before. Fast forward again to chapter 29, at the very least he should be able to find this copycat killer, but Shallan has already taken the lead, and has found the cause, something he doesn't understand. He makes his assault confidently, he even with the help of another shardbearer and a compliment of spearmen is overwhelmed insanely quickly. Meanwhile Renarin is healing the hurt bridgemen, keeping midknight essence off his back, and Shallan is sending the thing running just by touching it. I just don't think we've ever seen Adolin fail until the end of Words of Radiance, and since that time iirc we haven't been back to his perspective. I feel like there's a reason for that, but I might just be setting myself up for a fall. It just seems like Adolin is in the perfect position for a crisis of character as of right now.

That's what makes reading Kaladin chapters so storming relatable!

It is in the context of good storytelling. Are you familiar with the concept of Chekhov's gun? It stems from a book of his writing advice. 'If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don’t put it there."

Othbringer? Never heard of it.

I'm not convinced entirely that what he's doing with the new Listeners is bad. What if he's able to recruit some of them over to Dalinar?

@Calderis You the man.

I feel like Khriss's words in the Ars Arcanum at least tangentially supports the OP. Emphasis mine.

Oh by all means, I'm not even saying it's likely, I'm just saying it's an idea that appeals to my particular sensibilities. Gaz approaches Bridge Four while Kaladin is gone because Kaladin scares the ever blowing storms out of him, and Bridge Four relunctantly agrees to let him buy them drinks. He and Drehy hit it off, and Gaz explains his debts and how bad he felt about everything. Bridge Four eventually comes to accept and forgive Gaz. But then my favorite part, Kaladin comes back and finds out, and his only reaction is "Gaz?!?! I mean...Gaz?!?" And then he just walks out of the room with his hand in the air. Or better yet flies away.

I actually like this. Gaz is inspired to make amends for his past by Shallan's influence and approaches Drehy. They go to a bar and hit it off.

It says right in the text Shallan felt like the only reason that they weren't swept away in a display of strength was because Re-Shephir wanted to learn how to fight with spears. Then Shallan does her magic Light show which gives them just a moment to regroup. They are able to mount an offensive long enough to give Shallan a chance touch Re-Shephir, and then freak it out enough to retreat. I think you're overestimating the minute or so offensive they put on that they were barely able to sustain with the most accomplished shardbearer alive and two protoradiants as well as the significance of a single retreat after being caught completely off guard by the same type of power that had bested you before.

It probably is too myopic to look at just that phrase alone. I'm too hyped on Stormlight for my own good right now. Keep me sane guys haha.

@maxal one of these Tuesdays ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ we're almost there.

Now the big question is how far "away" is and whether this might lead toward discovery of the chalk marks. The text gives me the impression that 'away' from Sadeas was also toward his chalk mark. If they are able to correlate the window with the floor Sadeas was killed, it might lead them to the chalk mark, but that's assuming that any of that information is passed to someone who would do something with it. (It's almost like we never left that thread in 2014)

My fault. I had been imagining Words of Radiance incorrectly for three years.

In honor of my new Midnight Essenceness

Has anyone ever noticed or discussed this before? Emphasis mine:

Shipped.

I'm guessing it's not a process you'd want to watch.

Haha like I said, I'm not the best one to talk to about this subject... I compulsively listen to the books, which I didn't stop doing over the past two years. I didn't keep up on the forums though, so I'm not as knowledgable about things outside of onscreen canon.

That was a quick debunking Have an upvote. And an extra kudos for the easy to search keyword.

That's pretty well implied by the fight.