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Most of Rysn’s contemporaries entered a discussion asking, “What can I get from this?” Rysn had been disabused of that notion early in her training. Her babsk taught a different
way of seeing the world, training her to ask, “What need can I fulfill?”
That was the true purpose of a merchant. To find complementary needs, then bridge the distance between them so everyone benefited. It wasn’t about what you could get from people, but what you...
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the enemy had creatures—known as Fused—who used the Void’s own Light. Chiri-Chiri fed on that just as eagerly as Stormlight.
never to mistake Thaylen naval traditions for Thaylen naval regulations. Regulations, after all, were written down—which made them far, far easier to change.
denigrating
“An imperfect solution for an imperfect world,”
“Dark Soulcasting,”
“And bad omens. You should probably see it in person, Rebsk.”
lavis
Omens weren’t real. But the way people reacted to them was very real. Inverting that was all about perspective.
Be careful about jumping to conclusions, she told herself. The solution was to watch.
You will never sell anything if you don’t believe it’s worth the asking price.
espousing—”
“More science happens through lucky accidents than you’d believe, Radiant Lopen,” Rushu said. “It makes me wonder how many amazing innovations we’ve passed up because we were searching for something else, and didn’t realize what we’d done.
It wasn’t even the Dawnchant.
You were brought here, she thought to herself, by one of the Guardians of Ancient Sins. Of course she had been. That made sense. Wait. Did it? Yes, she thought. You were. There are few of them left. And so the Sleepless take up the task.
Guardian of Ancient Sins, she thought. What did that mean? Why did the idea repeat over and over in her mind?
Accept it. Know it. CHANGE.
“Everyone wants something,” Rysn said, sweat trickling down the sides of her face. “Everyone has needs. It is my job to connect the needs to the people.”
the young woman’s determination. Cord said something loudly in her own language. “We may speak in Veden,” Nikli said, “so Rysn may understand.” “Very well,” Cord said. “I challenge you! You must duel me now to the death!” “I think you’ll find I cannot be defeated by a mortal,” Nikli said. “You don’t know what you’re asking.” “Is that a yes?” Cord bellowed. “If you insist.” “Ha!” she said. “You have been tricked, god! I am Hualinam’lunanaki’akilu, the daughter of Numuhukumakiaki’aialunamor, the Fal’ala’liki’nor, he who drew the Bow of Hours at the dawn of the new millennium, heralding the years
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“The Gods Who Sleep Not are guardians of life. They seek to prevent its end.
“You say you wish to protect life. But if you continue on your current course, you’re going to have to kill Cord and me. You are going to kill Knights Radiant. If you truly are sorry you have to take such desperate actions, don’t you owe it to yourself—and the cosmere—to sit and at least see if there is another way?”
“We wish to avoid losing control of a force that could destroy the cosmere.
you. Though I love your kind, even I am persuaded as to what must be done. Our impasse cannot be resolved.” “No,” Rysn said. “There is a way.” She forcibly made herself use the careful, reasonable tone her babsk had drilled into her. “You say that the sailors have seen you—this can work to our advantage. The best fabrications are mostly true, and having many witnesses corroborate what I say will help.” Nikli shook his head. “Rysn, there are forces in the cosmere that we can barely identify, let alone track. Evil forces, who would end worlds if they could. They are hunting this place. Now that
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“Ancient Guardian,”
“We should have realized
you would find your way to this chamber, but you are no longer needed to protect the secret. At the fall of your...
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back at Chiri-Chiri. “She’s one of them. She returned to protect the treasure.”
Nikli stepped forward again. Chiri-Chiri growled. “Do not assume we would not kill an Ancient Guardian if we had to,” Nikli said to her.
“How far you have fallen,” she whispered. “You would murder the very guardians you revere? You would rip the Dawnshard forcibly from the mind of the one who bears it? You would
become the things you pretend to defend against.”
“I am of the Peaks,” Cord said. “Guardians of the pool. You know I can be trusted.”
“If we agree to this deal, we will trade the Soulcasters to Rysn for training and aid in imitating humans. That armor you wear, however, has long been reserved for guardians of the Dawnshard. If you would bear it, you will bear that burden as well.”
“If we are going to accept—and I cannot promise we will, as all the Sleepless must vote—this woman must be protected. She will need bodyguards!”
The Dawnshards are Commands, Rysn. The will of a god.”
I had always imagined the Dawnshards as weapons, like the mythical Honorblades.”
“The most powerful forms of Surgebinding transcend traditional mortal understanding,”
“All their greatest applications require Intent and a Command. Demands on a level no person could ever manage alone. To make such Commands, one must have the reasoning—the breadth of understanding—of a deity. And so, the Dawnshards. The four primal Commands that created all things.” He paused. “And then eventually, they were used to undo Adonalsium itself. . . .”
“Larger greatshells need to bond mandras—you call them luckspren—to keep from crushing themselves to death with their own weight. The mandras of this place are special. Smaller, yet more potent, than the common breeds. It is no simple thing to make a creature as heavy as a lancer—or larkin, as they are now called—fly. Chiri-Chiri will need to return every few years until she is fully grown.”
My kin insisted on two further terms, though. You must never bond a spren to become a Radiant.”
“And you,” Nikli said to Cord. “You will protect the Dawnshard, fight for its defense?”
“So, Rysn is a Shardbearer now?” Cord asked. “A . . . Dawnshardbearer?”
“No,” Nikli said. “She bears nothing.
She is the Dawnshard now. That is how it works.” He bowed to ...
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The will of a god to remake things, to demand they be better.
The power to change.
These Words are accepted.
Not that she was alone. A few hordelings accompanied her in secret. Representatives of the Sleepless, who would train with her and keep watch over her. Likely for the rest of her life.
Alethi had possessed a near monopoly on food-creating Soulcasters,
