Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive, #4)

by Brandon Sanderson

Gavilar had invited one of the world’s most prominent artifabrians to visit Kholinar, and he hadn’t bothered to tell Navani?

What a fucking dick

He would be angry if she interrupted him. Well, good. He should be seeing to his guests, rather than assuming she’d handle everything and everyone. Unfortunately, at the moment she … well, she would have to handle everything and everyone.

He had never used his strength against her, not in that way, but there had been words. Comments. Threats.

fuck Galivar

You are no scholar. You merely like being near them. You are no artifabrian. You are merely a woman who likes trinkets.

I wish she realized sooner that this is all lies to hurt her

Don’t let his lies become your truth. Fight it.

She might be the things he said, but he was no more than a backwater thug with too much luck and a knack for fooling good men into following him.

“I obey the person who holds the sword to my neck, General,” Lirin said. “Same as I always have.”

Kaladin pointedly avoided looking at his father, to not betray their relationship. Besides, he knew what he would see. Disappointment. So, nothing new.

“Well,” she said, hands on hips, “we showed him.” “He almost killed me twice.” “I didn’t say what we showed him.”

Being Radiant did not, unfortunately, make one immune to the awkwardness of puberty.

“Yes, we want twenty identical, mysterious robes, sewn with ancient arcane symbols. They’re for … parties.”

He always wanted to bathe immediately, and she … well, she rarely let him. Not until she was done with him, at least.

naughty!

Adolin might claim he was different from his father, but in fact they were two shades of the same paint.

“Dear,” she said, “considering who you’re talking to, anything I am prone to try will be—by definition—crazy.”

“Is there really anyone who doesn’t like smart girls?” Kaladin said. “Me,” Veil said, raising her hand. “Give me dumb ones, please. They’re so easy to impress.”

At least she knows what she likes lol

This hadn’t just been about Shallan. Damnation. Had he let Adolin outsmart him? Maybe he should get something stronger to drink.

All gemstones leak Stormlight at a slow rate—but so long as the crystal structure remains mostly intact, the spren cannot escape.

batteries also discharge like this

He can see her, Kaladin decided as Zahel carefully hung another scarf.

has to be related to being at a high heightening

Jasnah says that a being having vast powers doesn’t make them God, and concludes—from the way the world works—that an omnipotent, loving deity cannot exist.”

“I don’t have to believe,” the voice drifted back. “I know gods exist. I simply hate them.”

“You’re not unwelcome because you lost; you’re unwelcome because you don’t belong with us.”

You can’t be to blame for everything.

No army, no matter how clean its reputation, walked away from war untainted.

Lift was likely somewhere, judging from the state of the snack table—

Handy, the way Aunt Navani’s device let him time himself—if everyone had clocks, he’d spend way less time waiting around at winehouses for his friends to arrive.

“It was a stealth joke,” Shallan said. “Hiding in plain sight, like a Lightweaver. That’s what makes it genius.”

Shallan, that was awful.” “You’re full of awe,” she said. “Got it.”

“I know how you feel. Dark, like there’s never been light in the world. Like everything in you is a void, and you wish you could just feel something. Anything. Pain would at least tell you you’re alive. Instead you feel nothing. And you wonder, how can a man breathe, but already be dead?”

“We need to study their responses, use an empirical approach to treatment instead of just assuming someone who has suffered mental trauma is permanently broken.”

Time to create the study of Psychology! Let's do that talk therapy!

Sebarial laughed. “How much do you suppose I can pocket before Dalinar would find my thieving too blatant?” “Stay under five percent,” Navani said. “Four and nine-tenths it is,”

Someone who embodies both Preservation and Ruin. A … sword, you might say, who can both protect and kill.

She found it odd that the gemstones in circulation as spheres were always so flawed that they lost Light quickly. She said that they should vary, and more perfect ones should be found on occasion—but that wasn’t the case.

Is it better to have more abilities, or to have one ability handled expertly?

Realizing that no matter how isolated you thought you were, no matter how often your brain told you terrible things, there were others who understood.

Notum’s grand white steed was almost a horse, though it was more graceful and supple, with long legs and a neck that bent in a way no physical spine could manage. It had large eyes but seemingly no mouth, and its hair waved in a phantom wind, like long glowing ribbons.

Musicspren are described as ribbons in the physical realm "spinning translucent ribbons"

Do you think it’s normal for a person to look as if their parentage involved an anvil and an uncommonly stern stormcloud?” “So … what are you saying about me?” “That you take after your mother, obviously.”

The Ryshadium understood. You took special care of a soldier who had left part of herself on the battlefield.

Never underestimate the simple intimidating force of a man who won’t back down.

Never underestimate the worth of being willing to hold. Your. GROUND.

I always live, Kaladin thought, a bitter thought echoing from long ago. So I can keep suffering.

“What do you think they’ll do to the family of the Radiant who attacked them? You’d probably kill a few before you died. Stormfather knows, you’re good at breaking things. Then they’ll come and string me up. Do you want to see that happen to me? To your mother? To your baby brother?”

Fuck you

You weren’t supposed to be fond when someone stole from you. Ruined the entire experience.

“I’m not supposed to be liked,” Lift snapped. “I’m a shadow. A dangerous and unknown shadow, moving mysteriously from place to place, never seen. Always feared.”

Tell me, do you beat your children because you’re a sadist, or because you’re a coward and they are the only ones who won’t dare fight back?

She was the one with the rings on her exposed hand.

Terris!

“Oh, I’ve always been good with languages,”

coppermind?

We call humans alien to Roshar, yet they have lived here for thousands of years now. Perhaps it is time to acknowledge there are no aliens or interlopers. Only cousins.

Everyone had expected impotence, inexperience. Roshar had gone centuries without the Radiant bond. These had no masters to train them; they had to discover everything on their own. How did they do so well?

Do not be so quick to share your stormshelter with men you just barely met. Don’t offend, but also don’t be too quick to bend.

He was so tired. But today, he couldn’t afford to be tired. He had to be Kaladin Stormblessed. Kaladin Stormblessed fought anyway.