Wind and Truth (The Stormlight Archive, #5)

by Brandon Sanderson

Then Odium, God of Passions, destroyed Kharbranth entirely—the one city he’d bargained all his mortal life to protect.

Holy shit

Loved that life had conquered such depths, as marked by the bobbing green glow of circular lifespren with their delicate spines.

Is this actuslly a sentence?

Timbre thrummed. A theory: the meeting of storm and storm had never again been so violent as it had been that first time, when plateaus had been destroyed. Was that another clue? Had this location caused the violence of that convergence? Were others weaker because they happened elsewhere? Or was it what they’d guessed originally: that the violence of that first convergence had been caused by the Everstorm’s exultant inception?

This got me fucked up last night! Is this similar to what happened before?

The other chasmfiends followed, carrying singers, and making several trips—easily cresting the dam by moving, as they often did in here, with their legs pressed against either side of the chasm.

Why does this make me think of pikmin lol

“My moral philosophy is to do the most good I can in any situation,” Jasnah said.

feint could work even if you knew it was a feint, because it left you worried about what else you might be missing.

There had been joy. But so often it had seemed a fabrication carefully constructed to let them pretend. It was hard to remember those good times as she hid there hearing the shouts.

“The truth becomes a frailer memory here, day by day. Our new leader has told us where we came from, what humankind did to its homeworld, and you two refuse to let me tell everyone. Liars. Liars to the core.”

Hopping up and down, Glys said, making a high-pitched sound like she’s in pain.

Girl me too lol

him, standing a few inches taller than he was. She studied him, and her expression softened—her humming changing to a comforting rhythm. Then she bent forward, took Dalinar’s head in her hands, and kissed him.

Slay

“The thing is, the deepest truths always sound a little trite. Because we all know them, and feel foolish being reminded.”

“I know he can sound logical, so it’s natural we’ve tried logic in return. But it won’t work. You can’t persuade someone delusional with logic.”

floating blue balls that expanded as they faded into nothing.

Lol

At least his leg had a storming fine tombstone.

Hahaha

“I’ve never met anyone who wants to do the right thing more than you, Szeth.” “Wanting has never been enough, Father.”

“You aren’t relearning the same lessons,” Pattern said. “You’re reinforcing them. In math, you can know a thing, yes, but it is the proof that teaches the deeper truth. Life is your proof, Shallan.”

Unite them. Who he had been. Who he was. Who he would become.

“Ah, Dalinar,” the voice said. “Listen. Remember. The question is not whether you will love, hurt, dream, and die. It is what you will love, why you will hurt, when you will dream, and how you will die. This is your choice. You cannot pick the destination, only the path.”

But we are not creatures of destinations. It is the journey that shapes us. Our callused feet. Your callused feet. Our backs strong from carrying the weight of our travels. Your back strong from carrying the weight of your travels. Our eyes open. Your. Eyes. Open. You kept the pain, Dalinar.

For the substance of our existence is not in the achievement, but in the method…”

“No,” Dalinar replied. “Understanding has never led to hatred. Show me. I cannot take your pain, but I can help you carry it.”

He held one of the things, the duty and power. The man before her was a Dawnshard. But they were not supposed to be anywhere near one another. No two had been placed on the same planet, and for very good reason.

“You … That’s why no one can find it. You gave it up, but then took it again at some point, hiding it—because the signs would be dismissed as lingering aftereffects of your long-standing tenure. Then … you brought it here to Roshar? Why in all the cosmere would you do something so reckless? Even you should know better.”

Fear the old man who welcomed failure when young. If he has survived this long, he learned.

MY FOLLOWERS ON ALASWHA HAD DIED WITH HONOR. TO THE POWER, HONOR IN DEATH WAS THE SAME AS HONOR IN LIFE. THAT WAS ALL IT CARED ABOUT, WHICH TERRIFIED ME.

Oh yeah. He was an absolute tool, wasn’t he? And that’s coming from a girl who is currently a spear.

“Derethil learned a lesson that day—one I’ve learned, and you must learn. Even if an emperor makes the laws, when we uphold them, the laws become ours. The responsibility ours. And every action those people took … that blood was on their hands.”

“From me,” Taravangian said. “And the fact that I hold this city in the palm of my hand, ready to crush it. If you turn me away, I will be forced to do so. For your own good.”

Rolling my eyes SO HARD right now

“BRILLIANT,” I WHISPERED TO HER. “WITH THESE RESTRICTIONS, NO MORTAL WOULD EVER BE POWERFUL ENOUGH TO DESTROY THE PLANET.” UNLESS … NO. THAT WAS RIDICULOUS TO CONSIDER.

“My core,” she said, “is rationality. It is not hatred. I am not defined by my heresy, no matter how much people have tried to do so.”

Jasnah continued. “My goal is nothing more than the freedom of mind, body, and will for all. Let them worship how they wish, but let them do so with their eyes open, having all the relevant information.”

“If you assume I will crusade against religion or other Shards simply because they exist, then you make a mistake. The same mistake made by all who give petty, casual thought to my heresy. They assume I replace religious ideology with an ideology of their absence. That is not the case. I am against dogma of any variety. God, nationality, or philosophy—when you become a slave to it without capacity to change or reconsider, that is the problem.”

“You storming idiot,” Lopen said, his expression dark but his grin wide as he leveled his spear. “It’s not the number of hands that makes a man, but the number of cousins.”

GODS DID NOT WEEP OVER THE FALLEN; THEY REJOICED OVER THE VICTORIES OF THE LIVING.

A … FOURTH MOON? IN SPLINTERS? IT REACTED TO US, AND I SAW PEOPLE THERE—NEW ONES, WATCHERS, WHO HAD BEEN HIDDEN FROM ME.

I was soooo right

THAT WAS NOT ALUMINUM. IT WAS SOMETHING GREATER. SOMETHING … THAT RESPONDED TO OUR CLASH, THE GROUND LIQUEFYING IN A PATTERN, DICTATED BY THE TONE AND THE STRANGE NATURE OF THE PLACE. WE VAPORIZED AN ENTIRE CAPITAL CITY IN SECONDS.

YYYUUUUPPPPP

Would you make peace with me? THE SHADOW ASKED. If you could, and he did not stop you? BA-ADO-MISHRAM WAS HER NAME. “YES,” I SAID.

This path leads to both pain and joy, Glys said. “So much better to feel,” Renarin said, “than to take the path that leads to only greyness and safe solitude. This is what I want. Him, yes, but also the life where we try to blend these worlds.”

Then he stepped forward. “Renarin?” “Yes,” Renarin said. Then he took a deep breath, reached for Rlain, and kissed him.

Oommmgggg

HOW CAN YOU NOT WEEP FOR THE FALLEN? NOHADON’S BOOK. YES … IT HAD BEEN CENTURIES SINCE THAT MAN HAD DIED. SUCH A CURIOUS INDIVIDUAL.

I FELT PROFOUNDLY UNWORTHY, FOR THE QUIET PIECE OF MYSELF WAS BECOMING LOUD NOW. THE PIECE THAT KNEW THAT I, AND THE FIFTEEN OTHERS, HAD DONE SOMETHING TERRIBLE ON YOLEN.

WITHOUT WHAT YOU HAVE BECOME, THE WIND WHISPERED. HAVING NO GOD IS FAR PREFERABLE TO HAVING A HEARTLESS ONE. AND A GOD WHO CARES? YOU KILLED THAT GOD.

“NO MORE INCREASING GIFTS OF POWER TO OUR MINIONS,” I SAID. “WHAT THE MORTALS HAVE, THEY KEEP—BUT THAT IS IT. NO DIRECT CONFRONTATION BETWEEN US, AND NO FURTHER EXPANSION OF OUR POWERS TO OUR PEOPLE. WE LEAVE THEM ALONE…” BECAUSE THEY DESERVE BETTER THAN US.

The night seemed endless. And Adolin thought, as he moved from station to station—bloodletting with a spear, bloodletting with a pike, lying on the ground and bleeding hope—that he knew what it was like to be dead.

How dare Dalinar Kholin—who had butchered all his life—be the one to offer such an uplifting message? How dare the Blackthorn, soaked in blood, claim the high ground? How dare he judge Adolin for killing Sadeas and protecting their family, when Dalinar had burned Adolin’s mother alive?

Damn Adolin

At least Adolin could fight back. The call came and he filed in, letting those who had been fighting pull the wounded to safety through the center of the pike line. There, Adolin realized he was smiling. Stupid bridgeboy. Where did he get off, being so inspiring? A moment of brightness. Then back to Damnation.

Ogmy god this is so cute

I WRESTLED WITH THE POWER, INSISTING THAT IT SEE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DOING GOOD AND BEING HONORABLE. IT LASHED BACK AGAINST ME, FOR WHAT I’D DONE WAS NEITHER.

The exact issue jaanah had

IT WOULD HAVE TO BE THE PERFECT INDIVIDUAL. HONORABLE, BUT ALSO MERCIFUL. A WARRIOR, BUT ALSO A LEADER. MOST IMPORTANTLY, THEY COULD NOT BE LIKE THOSE OF US WHO HAD DESTROYED ADONALSIUM. I COULDN’T HAVE SOMEONE WHO WANTED THE POWER. IT HAD TO BE SOMEONE WHO PROVED THEMSELVES WITHOUT KNOWING THEIR REWARD.

Together we will hope that the man we have all chosen as our champion can resist whoever Odium chooses to be his. Because whatever happens tomorrow, I think that secretly, Dalinar Kholin is both champions.”

Interesting

His was a numbness of four levels. Numbness of ear, as he turned off the part of him that empathized with the screaming of his fellows as they died. Numbness of mind, as he just kept doing what he was doing, muscle memory now completely dominant. Numbness of body, as he felt less like a man and more like meat Soulcast into a man’s shape. Thrusting his spear and holding his shield with limbs that could not be his, because they were too sluggish, too heavy, too dead. As if they had already climbed onto the pyre ahead of him.

Damn the depoctons o Adolin's struggles in this book is always getting me