kari-no-sugata

Regarding Shalash, it feels to me that her facial features seem slightly Asian. Did anybody else get the feeling? One cool thing I like about her image is that it feels rather unusual for fantasy. With that moon in the background and the flat landscape, I could almost imagine it being used for a SF book as well - the crystal dress helped too I think. It would be interesting to get some background info on what the art is supposed to represent.

@maxal Thanks for the thoughtful reply. Good points. But I don't think you're considering Amaram's position enough. This is not purely political for Amaram - it's religious as well. Amaram's cause would be advanced significantly if many people believe or suspect that Kaladin was the killer. Kaladin and Dalinar are both Radiants while Adolin isn't. In this brave new world with the Radiants returning even Adolin wonders about his real position relative to Shallan and the other Radiants. Also, there are many people who consider Radiants to be bad news and are pre-disposed to distrust them. We've seen this several times already and something significant is certainly on the cards. Dalinar also directly appointed Kaladin. Discrediting Kaladin would discredit the Radiants in general (including Dalinar) and Dalinar who appointed him. For Amaram, this would not be a minor achievement. Accusing Adolin would only be meaningful if it could be believed. I agree that if Adolin could be realistically accused then it would probably be more significant for Dalinar. But if Amaram doesn't have a good case against Adolin then that doesn't matter. A bad case that nobody would believe serves no purpose. I'm not sure why you think that the evidence is easy to get as it hasn't come up at all yet - even when Shallan reviewed the state of the investigation this didn't come up. And don't forget that Kaladin also has a Shardblade and is known to have one. So far, there's nothing specifically pointing to Adolin in terms of what is known in-world.

Part of me feels that I shouldn't continue with my theory that Amaram will publicly accuse Kaladin of being behind Sadeas's murder... because it's just too plausible and that I could spoil things for others. I don't feel this way about my theories particularly often, yet I've been dead wrong in the past in similar cases so I'm going to continue. It's hard trying to get into Amaram's mind but he could be considered a religious fanatic as he wants to Heralds to return in glory and is willing to do some very shady things in order to achieve that. I'm not sure what he really thinks about the Knights Radiant - he agreed to go along with Dalinar hanging a Radiant cape around him but privately I think he didn't like the idea. Traditionally, Vorinism blames the Radiants for their betrayal and venerates the Heralds. Either way, by Dalinar becoming a Radiant (a villain in a traditional Vorin sense) and so obviously going against Vorin tradition and claiming that the Almighty is dead is probably not going to go down well with Amaram. I suspect he would see Dalinar as both a traitor to Vorinism and a competitor. If he's willing to come back publicly that pretty much automatically makes him an antagonist to Dalinar. To achieve his goals, Amaram would need to undermine and replace Dalinar politically, socially and religiously. If Amaram is going to guess at someone having killed Sadeas and use that to undermine Dalinar then by the very nature of the problem he would have no proof. Maybe he has some real evidence and maybe not. But if we assume he has no direct evidence then I think it's unlikely that he would go after Adolin. I think this should be fairly obvious - Adolin is well known and definitely does not have the sort of personality or public image where people would be inclined to believe that Adolin could be the killer. As an in-world argument, it fails the "smell test", as it were. I think it's dangerous to assume that just because we know that Adolin is the killer that everyone would reach the same conclusion. If Amaram is going to publicly accuse someone without real evidence (I'm sure he'll suggest that any real evidence has been covered up) then it's much more of a political attack. In other words, it has to sound plausible and Adolin being the killer would not sound plausible. Also, a political attack is more effective if it is hard to refute. If one person accuses another of something and no decent arguments are offered in return then that is an effective attack even if the accuser has no real evidence. In political circles, it's often suggested to "define" your opponents before they can define themselves (in the public mind). Adolin is already defined, so real evidence would be needed to accuse him and for it to stick. I have suggested Renarin before as being a possible target as well. He's basically the sort of kid that bullies would pick on. However, thinking about it some more he would also likely fail the "smell test" - he's too well known for being weak etc. While he might be a bit creepy in many people's eyes, I don't think many people would consider him to be the sort of person to stab Sadeas in the eye. This leads us to Kaladin. I've suggested a long list of circumstantial evidence before and I'm not going to repeat that. I'm not sure how many of those points will come up in the book if my theory is correct though - some certainly, though probably not all. The biggest advantage with politically attacking Kaladin though is that he is "undefined" - people know of him but not really much about him. He would be publicly known for jumping into the duelling arena to help Adolin but he might be remembered more for what he did at the end that got him arrested by Elhokar. It's also extremely convenient that Kaladin is away. That means that it's up to Dalinar and co to offer a defence on his behalf. If they struggle with that then they would be losing the argument. To quote from chapter 22: Kaladin would fit that oh-so-well. I wouldn't be surprised if Amaram privately believes this to be true as well, or at least that it is likely. It would be easy enough to find people who would say that Kaladin has a bad attitude and so on. It would be easier to define him as the bad guy than probably anybody else. To be clear about one thing: this is politics. I'm not saying that "everyone" would agree with Amaram or anything like that. Maybe not even a majority. More like "this will make things politically difficult for Dalinar". Actually, I'm sure that some would never believe Amaram's accusations or think that they're worth bothering with. However, unless Dalinar can offer a good defence then he'll struggle politically. The best defence would be to find the real killer, obviously. It's also possible that Dalinar would argue for a "duel" over this - a classical knightly duel over reputation. And of course, Adolin would be the one to fight for Kaladin's reputation. Which would be rather ironic as Adolin would be 100% convinced that Kaladin wasn't the killer... but would he be able to fight properly knowing that it was him that was guilty instead? If the story does go down this path then the longer this situation continues for the more pressure it would put on Adolin to come clean. And then one day Kaladin opens the portal in Alethkar, returns to Urithiru and points out the big bad Voidbringer army that's about to attack and then wonders why everyone is looking at him funny...

I'm not sure Elhokar remembered it much. If Dalinar finds out that Kaladin was involved with the assassination plot initially, he would definitely care about that. I agree it seems unlikely that Moash would testify about it. It'll be interesting to see what happens here. It would be really awesome for Elhokar if he argues with Dalinar about this and takes Kaladin's side. Would be a good moment I think. Remember Amaram's "darkborn" comment? Some people care about such things.

Shallan definitely cares about who killed Helaran, that's for sure. She considers Sadeas to be "crem" so I can't imagine her being that concerned about who killed him in the general sense, though obviously it would force her to re-evaluate Adolin when it comes out, but it's hard to predict how big a change that would be for her. Edit: Just to be clear, I think that long-term Shallan would be able to get over Kaladin killing Helaran. It's not like Kaladin benefited from it - just the opposite. I know. But I think people underestimate just how protective Dalinar is of Elhokar. If Moash testifies that Kaladin was genuinely involved with a plot to kill Elhokar, even if he stopped, then that is going to hurt. Dalinar cannot let that slide. I don't think that Dalinar would lose his trust of Kaladin in the end (particularly if/once he has a good understanding of the Windrunner Oaths) but for sure it's going to be hard if that bit with Elhokar comes out. Even without that, Dalinar would struggle to make a good defence - using the Windrunner Oaths would sound very dodgy to people who are not inclined to trust Radiants anyway.

Just in case you didn't notice since it wouldn't have been very obvious - I edited my post just before you posted to add something similar (the paragraph beginning "btw"). A few more thoughts on this theory: The biggest weakness with Amaram pushing this argument right now is that most people think that the same killer was behind the copy-cat murder. It would be very hard to frame Kaladin for this. However, the info Shallan just got would nullify this "problem", ironically enough. Kaladin's "best friend" Moash was behind a plot to kill Elhokar, and even Kaladin was involved for a time. That could easily come out. I'm sure those on Taravangian's side would like to make that happen. Kaladin has just met a relatively important guy who could plausibly contact others through spanreed. If that guy spotted that Kaladin was with parshmen, then that would be very dangerous to Kaladin's reputation - ie he's not just gone "dark" he's travelling with Voidbringers and making no attempt to contact others even though he had the chance. Amaram saw how Kaladin killed Helaran - by stabbing him through the eye. ie Kaladin has "previous" with stabbing lighteyed Shardbearers through the eye. Sounds very plausible in retrospect! (Even though it's dead wrong) I think it's likely that Shallan will find out that Kaladin was the one to kill Helaran in OB, but I had thought that this might not come out until Kaladin returns. However, if Amaram makes a big splash with the argument that Kaladin killed Sadeas then that aspect could come out. So Kaladin's image in Shallan's mind would take a hit and she might believe Kaladin was behind Sadeas's death as well. If the Moash and Elhokar assassination aspect comes out then even Dalinar might worry that he has misjudged Kaladin. Imagine the pressure Adolin would be under if even people like Shallan and Dalinar suspect Kaladin could have been the one who killed Sadeas.

It'll take some years before the idea of a Windrunner assassinating sometime becomes implausible though. I need more sleep too. This week has been terrible. That darn Everstorm Amaram wouldn't be targeting Dalinar's current allies so much as making a plausible sounding argument to Sadeas's allies. And to make things worse, Dalinar is now working on an international stage and the world doesn't trust him. It also doesn't help that Kaladin probably won't be coming back to Urithiru anytime soon (a few weeks at least). Even if Amaram has no direct evidence he can make some weasel-worded arguments that play well to the gallery. Consider the following: Kaladin is officially darkeyed. That might not matter much for Dalinar but to others it does, particularly to people who matter. Kaladin received a whole load of money for what would sound like a "weak" reason to others - to visit home. Kaladin left the day of Sadeas's death, more or less. Kaladin is a highly skilled fighter and as a Windrunner could easy move around. Given the uncertainty of Sadeas's time of death that would make it very hard for Kaladin to have a good alibi. It would be easy to find people who would say that Kaladin hated Sadeas. Kaladin has just gone "dark" (no longer sending reports). Kaladin wouldn't be around to defend himself. btw, it's clear that not everyone is happy with the return of the Radiants. This has been made clear several times already. There would be some who would be willing to believe a Radiant could be an assassin just based on their culture. And consider the abilities that the Assassin in White had... (Windrunner...) I think such arguments would play very well to Sadeas's supporters. Even without any real evidence. It would put a lot of pressure on Dalinar to produce the real killer. And of course it would put a lot of pressure on Adolin.

How to win friends and influence people... with a Shardblade. Slightly off-topic, but with the return of Amaram... here's a thought: if he could undermine Kaladin it would help his reputation in return. And Kaladin just happened to suspiciously leave Urithiru just after Sadeas was killed to "spend more time with his family". And of course Kaladin is no fan of Sadeas and this should be fairly obvious. So, might Amaram try to frame Kaladin?

I think it's clear enough that Sadeas's primary target was Dalinar. Perhaps taking down Adolin first was part of that or not but it's hard to be sure. In one scene Sadeas was very nervous about Adolin but didn't seem worried about him either before or after. Anyway, we can only guess as to how Ialai would see things with Sadeas now dead. The possibility of the Ghostbloods and Ialai teaming up is deliciously dangerous but given Mraize's comments, it seems that this isn't the case. Is it possible that Mraize is lying through his teeth to Shallan though? I'm sure he's lying (or being dishonest) to some degree but could he be lying about his opinion of Sadeas and Ialai? Maybe. Doing so would possibly cause Shallan to underestimate Ialai. But would that be better for him than being honest? It's hard to say. I don't see Ialai being up to the task of being a big-time villain for the series unless she already is a high-ranking member of an organisation like the Ghostbloods and has the possibility to grow beyond what we've seen so far. Sadeas had essentially overstayed his welcome and I'd be surprised if Ialai survives the book - as villains they're a bit too simple and straightforwardly villainous, if that makes sense. At the moment, it looks highly likely that Shallan will turn on the Ghostbloods in Urithiru at some point - the only thing stopping her currently is that they have her brothers. Mraize and Iyatil are only part of the Ghostbloods though and so even if Mraize and Iyatil die in this book we'll almost certainly see more of the Ghostbloods later on. It's possible that Mraize could tempt Shallan with information that would help her achieve her goals but at the moment he doesn't seem to be trying to do this - while I'm sure she'd like to know what happened to Helaran, having that information might make little practical difference (depending upon the details of course). He seems surprisingly unconcerned about how hostile Shallan is. Is he just that confident that he can turn Shallan around at a later point? So all in all it's rather hard to predict what's going on with Mraize and Ialai. In the short term it looks like the Kholins and Shallan would have to deal with Amaram, who is secretly a Son of Honor, while Ialai takes a back seat. I wonder what approach Amaram is going to take...

I'm sure we'll get some more before the end of Part 1. Shallan notes that Ialai is using "courtly language". Dalinar in his chapter notes that he is so used to such things that he's not used to more plain speaking (possibly hinting that Ialai isn't either). Unless Ialai has some real evidence I think her only real hope is to get Adolin to publicly admit that he threatened to kill Sadeas previously (in WoR). If she can achieve that then some of Adolin's words could be used against him - particularly when Adolin used logic to argue against the timing of Sadeas's death (if the Kholins had been behind it). I'm not sure if Ialai knows that Adolin threatened to kill Sadeas though - Sadeas's reaction was quite relaxed at the time and I doubt he felt threatened, so he might not have mentioned it to Ialai. We'll see. By themselves I don't see anything dangerous with what Adolin said. Ialai could try to spin it but without something substantial to back it up then it would look weak and desperate. But why spoil the surprise? That gives the Kholins more time to prepare. Actually, I thought of one possible reason: from Adolin and Shallan's reaction she would know that they didn't know about Amaram. She basically says that Amaram is in hiding for now. If there's an assassination attempt on Amaram now then it would become easy to blame the Kholins due to the timing - eg, Amaram was safe for 10 days but just after she tells Adolin about it there's an assassination (attempt). If this is the real Ialai then I doubt it would be a real assassination attempt because she would want Amaram to live. But the Ghostbloods might aim to actually kill Amaram for real and use that to take down Dalinar. That doesn't require Mraize to babysit Ialai though. He obviously has plans. I think this is unlikely. Sadeas was very worried about the political nature of Adolin's fight - he felt that Dalinar had outmanoeuvred him (though it was actually Shallan). Yes he was worried about Adolin too but given that Sadeas is supposedly the superior tactician it would be extremely galling to be out-thought by the "caveman" Dalinar. Also, the first attack made after that part is directly on Dalinar and Navani, not Adolin. And if Sadeas was that worried about Adolin's physical prowess he wouldn't have gone out of his way to provoke him in Urithiru (unless he has a death wish). I think Sadeas was worried about Adolin too to some degree but his primary focus was on Dalinar and if he made an attack on Adolin it would be more to undermine Dalinar.

Yeah, I forgot to add that almost certainly the average Radiant would not be like our main protagonists, who are probably extreme examples. Anyway, I would not consider Radiants to be "average" people and they're much more likely to have some odd quirks in their personality than others - it's not just the "breaking" part, they need to be able to attract a spren too. It's possible that our little Dustbringer knows Taravangian (or his people) quite well and doesn't know about the Diagram. But, it seems like a good idea to induct people into the Diagram religion and gain trust (or belief) that way. If they've been able to find enough Radiants they can probably "weed out" the less trustworthy ones after putting them through various tests. On a minor note: I would imagine Taravangian knows Shallan is there in Urithiru. He almost certainly has some spies in the place, so it would be simple enough to find out. I wonder if that affected his planning at all since Shallan is from Jah Keved, technically making him her king. I wouldn't be surprised if Shallan wants to visit her homeland as well, even if briefly. So if Taravangian is going to spring an attack (probably), a good opportunity would if/when Shallan goes over to visit since that makes the old "divide and conquer" bit easier. Or if/when Dalinar visits. Anyway, at least, we can probably expect Malata and Shallan to talk at some point (possibly as soon as the next chapter) which should give some insight into her.

It seems likely that Mraize considers her to be a random unstable element, so simply "suppressing" her would give him a small advantage but probably not worth him spending too much time on. If this is the real Ialai then I suspect he's using her to some degree for now and will then discard her in a way that maximises the gains for himself - eg tries to engineer Dalinar's downfall with her death, or something. This bit (with a few lines removed in between): She's suggesting that Sadeas's murder is something that Dalinar intended/caused and that Adolin knows this - she's accusing Dalinar of ruling through murder and fear of murder. She's almost going as far as suggesting "are you here to kill me as well?" Then compare this to the end: The gap between the two seems fairly large, though subtle.

I think all Radiants are somewhat "broken" and we shouldn't expect to see any "happy and well adjusted" Radiants. I think most of the Radiants we know a fair bit about would not consider them to be best suited to the job of saving the world or the like. Putting it another way, if some Radiant appears to be confident then it's probably an act or front of some kind. While I think that assuming that someone is trustworthy because they are a Radiant is foolish that doesn't mean we should distrust them either. I think it's entirely possible that Taravangian knew about her before he came to Jah Keved. I dunno how much he knows about finding Radiants etc but he seems to know some things. It would be logical to prepare forces in advance and the first stop was always Jah Keved. I also think he would likely be quite careful about who he trusts. It's entirely possible that there's already multiple Radiants working with Taravangian. If we knew just how common Radiants were currently and how easy it would be to find one if you knew how we could make a better guess as to whether this person is a lucky find after coming to Jah Keved and not someone who Taravangian particularly trusts, or the opposite. Flipping the question around: I doubt this woman would have any particular reason to trust Dalinar and co. If she is genuinely from Jah Keved and only met any Diagramists recently then she might trust Taravangian because others do but might not have much more trust than that.

I agree that the serialisation makes a big difference. I'm trying to think back to WoR without intensively re-reading it but I don't think there's much of a change. When we'll have read the whole book I'm sure the experience will be rather different. The serialisation sure does highlight some things. For example, there's very little "passive" information in the chapters - nearly everything is immediately relevant. This does mean that there's an awful lot of detail that we can only guess at. When we're reading a few chapters a week that "missing" information stands out a lot more, I think, because we have much more time to ponder and argue about it. There's also very little overlap between the different POV characters - we see very little of Shallan and Adolin from Dalinar's POV, and vice-versa. Somewhat like in WoR, Adolin is about the only POV character we get to see quite a lot of from other POV characters. In WoR, there were some early chapters with significant amounts of Dalinar and Kaladin and later on significant amount of Kaladin and Shallan, but I think that'd be less than 10% of the book. I'd be rather surprised if there's nothing similar for OB - we'll just have to wait for it.

I wonder if any Unmade have been killed before. It's possible that they have and Odium recreated them. Or maybe they self-regenerate after a long time? Are the Unmade weaker or stronger than they are in the past? If it's not an Unmade, what is it? Something below an Unmade? Something more like Midnight Essence but a different type? Some other kind of "normal" Voidbringer? In which case, where did it come from? Did someone bring it to Urithiru or was it always there? I think a lot of us (me included) are assuming that it's Unmade because it seems ephemeral and more passive/reactive, which seems to fit the Unmade more, but maybe it's just good at hiding? Whatever it is... can it killed conventionally? (ie with pure physical weapons) Can "normal" people kill it? If not, what is it weak to? Stormlight in general? Particular Surges? Another question: why does it seem like Shallan is the only one on the protagonist side to have felt something odd? Nobody else has hinted at this AFAIK. Has it simply just not come up or is it very hard for others to notice? Why/how did Mraize notice it?

Shallan's latest chapter wasn't as exciting as expected but it does confirm or re-affirm Shallan's attitude towards certain others: Sadeas and Ialai are "crem" in Shallan's eyes - Shallan is almost certainly in the "that’s one problem solved" camp with Palona. We don't see her reasoning though. She practically calls Mraize and the Ghostbloods "evil", or at least that some of the actions have been evil. We can at least guess at her reasoning here but I was surprised at how antagonistic she was - I had expected Shallan to be more cautious and instead her attitude is quite similar to their final meeting in WoR, despite Mraize having her brothers. While Shallan is "me too" in terms of having a "vendetta" with Amaram. She had seemed to be mellowing out a little bit towards him in WoR but maybe she changed her opinion of him when he was disgraced? (Perhaps she thinks that Helaran had a reasonable reason for attacking Amaram...?) I'm not that surprised that Shallan doesn't know that Amaram stole the Shardblade and didn't earn it (and that it was Kaladin who won it) as Amaram's downfall wasn't particularly public and those involved except for him left for Urithiru so perhaps the details didn't get very far? There was no indication that others were talking about the details that I remember.

Just to be clear, I have no problems with the aviar theory, though I guess that one will require a WoB to settle unless Mraize starts boasting about the bird's origins later on to Shallan. Anyway, glad you're warming up to my theory though I'm sure it'll be some time until we get any confirmation (positive or negative) within the book. If I turn out to be completely wrong it won't be the first time Separately to my specific theory, do you agree with my assessment of Ialai's chances? (ie she's either dead or doomed with Mraize there) I'm not sure Mraize knows who Taln really is but since Taln blocked Iyatil's attempts to assassinate Amaram I'm sure they're going to take some kind of interest. Either way, Amaram is "competition" to the Ghostbloods but I wonder who is going to get to him first? (The Ghostbloods, Shallan, Kaladin, Dalinar's side or someone else?) btw, it seemed a bit unnecessary to me for Ialai to mention Amaram. While reveal this bit of info in advance? (If anything it puts pressure on Amaram since he's been officially outed before he's ready... That would benefit the Ghostbloods but does that benefit Ialai in any way?) Adolin killed Sadeas because he was a "real and present danger" to his family who would not give up. Adolin was angry at Ialai for verbally attacking/insulting Dalinar directly or indirectly. Perhaps his "shame" at being the one to actually kill Sadeas added to his emotions (quite likely given the previous chapter). It seemed to me that Ialai first tried to imply that Sadeas was murdered "under orders" then backed down to suggesting it might have been by someone in Dalinar's camp taking the initiative based on something Dalinar said. I can't see anything much deeper than that. It's not like Ialai is addressing a crowd either.

I wouldn't call it "crackpot". Maybe "far-fetched". Crackpot would be that Ialai had been Iyatil all this time Would you consider this to be more crackpot or less crackpot than "Mraize has a Aviar"? Yeah, the chapter was definitely disappointing if there's nothing else going on beyond the obvious. We essentially had two chapters devoted to this - Adolin coming to Shallan for "moral support" and then the scene itself. So there was definitely "build-up" but all we really got was Amaram is confirmed to be in Urithiru (something we knew already even if the characters didn't) but that's hardly that important, and Mraize basically confirming things we (and Shallan) already knew or suspected. Actually the previous chapter was more meaningful. If this chapter doesn't have some kind of payoff later then it's rather below standard (ie weak relative to the rest of the work). Adolin specifically came to Shallan because Ialai scares him. But Adolin handled things fine and Ialai never comes across as scary. Yet Sadeas considers her to be super dangerous and it's clear she's used to assassination and the like. Considering what the Alethi are generally like, Ialai felt... average. Adolin mentions his mother yet Ialai makes no nasty comments about her. What's so important about Ialai that Mraize himself has to supervise her? If all he had to do was "keep an eye on her" that should be left to others. So why does Mraize specifically have to supervise her? Why is it something only he can do? If Ialai had mentally collapsed and become a shadow of her former self, then that might explain her not being scary or threatening but that wouldn't explain why Mraize is there by itself. According to Mraize himself, it sounds like the Ghostbloods want to play off the Voidbringers with the normal people and weaken both sides. They are not playing for small stakes. In other words, there's no way that Mraize is merely "keeping an eye on that one". According to Mraize, Ialai isn't with the Ghostbloods. If that's really the case (and that seems reasonable) then Ialai is toast one way or the other. Mraize is perfectly fine with assassinating Jasnah. There's no way he's too afraid to kill/whatever Ialai. So I would say that either Ialai is drugged or magically manipulated or something like that. Or has been replaced. And given that Ialai started out with a hunting metaphor and that her speech patterns feel rather different to the Ialai we've seen before, I'm going to go with the idea that she's been replaced with Iyatil for now. In which case, I'd guess that the real Ialai has been killed and tossed off the convenient mountain or is being kept alive somewhere - possibly being tortured for information as well, or for fun since apparently Mraize likes that.

I'm not suggesting that Iyatil looks like Ialai, but that she is using a disguise. ie she's wearing a mask still, just a different kind. I was highly sceptical about it myself until I saw the hunter analogy. That seems like a specific "tell" to me. Either way, I found the initial thing I pointed out to be quite odd - it seems way too convenient. As for Amaram, they'll probably use him for their own ends then sacrifice him, since Iyatil wants him dead for reasons unknown.

From chapter 22: Did you find this bit suspicious? Ialai gives Mraize and Shallan a reason to be alone together for a fairly frivolous reason. Mraize takes forever to return a chair but Ialai never criticises him for this. Shortly after Mraize and Shallan return Ialai ends the meeting. Ialai didn't press Adolin that hard except to throw out some vague accusations either. Her style of speech also seems a bit off to me (rather wordy)... though this is very hard to be sure on. Also, it seems that Mraize had no connection with Sadeas before but can now casually walk around with a "chicken" on his shoulder in front of Ialai without comment. Normally you'd want two guards at least as well. So... theory time! The Ghostbloods saw an opportunity with Sadeas dead and bumped off Ialai as well. Iyatil has replaced Ialai and any "odd" explanation can be explained with "grief". Sounds far-fetched? Well, consider this: Ialai starts out with a hunting metaphor, just the sort of thing that Iyatil and Mraize go for. If this theory is true, I suspect Mraize and Iyatil were using Adolin as a test (to see if he picks up on anything). Shallan was a bonus.

Lots of people are researching the Desolations and presumably the Radiants now. This knowledge is probably spreading like wildfire...

I checked that out too. There's no obvious similarities that stand out but Liss is clearly able to disguise herself. I wouldn't assume that we've seen her before. Rather than trying to peg her into being something she's not, might be better to worry about what she can do, how experienced she is, whether she has her own agenda or is part of the Diagram group and so on.

Anyway, glad that Dalinar's story feels like it's getting somewhere. As expected, the world doesn't trust him or the Alethi.

Heh, looks like having 1 week to ponder "what happens next" led my imagination to go into overdrive. Not much to say about Shallan's chapter except I was hoping for more. Is Mraize actually telling the truth? He didn't come across as being nearly so dangerous as before. Kaladin's chapter was quite interesting though, but still fairly low key. Dalinar finally gets a follow-up chapter and various things have happened. Hello Mr T, how goes? Feeling the empathy a bit strongly today? I'm feeling a bit nervous about there being a Dustbringer here. I don't think we've heard of this person before. I couldn't find any references at least.

Well, our weekly highstorm is getting close. Will any of my thinking on how the meeting between Shallan, Adolin, Ialai and Mraize will unfold be even slightly correct? It's so hard to predict since the other two are quite mysterious (in my mind) and we don't know what they know. Will the tension be ratcheted up even further? Nervous times Looking further ahead... one thing I've felt a few times is that while Shallan and Adolin are somewhat acting like a "team", Shallan hasn't really warmed up to the other Kholins at Urithiru. I wonder if that will continue through the book. I can imagine some things where Shallan and Dalinar at least will have very different viewpoints unless they change. Shallan is sort of in a different faction, currently. Might that actually become more significant? Or will she properly join Team Kholin?