The Blinding Knife (Lightbringer)

by Brent Weeks

  Acknowledgments

  From millimeter waves to martial artists to Magic: The Gathering, I needed a lot of help with this one. In addition to those I’ve thanked in previous books (whom I still owe), a few people deserve repeated or new thanks. Thank you first to my wife, Kristi, without whom I’d be working some job I hated. Thanks for tolerating the six-day workweeks for the last couple years, honey. I’ll try to be more sane… eventually. Thank you to Elisa, for taking on so many of the business duties so that I can write more. Thank you to Don Maass, Cameron McClure, and the rest of DMLA for finding the right people for us to work with, for guidance, for expert explanations, and for excellent story advice and encouragement. The writer’s life is too often solitary, and you’ve been sanity and wisdom.

  Thank you to Orbit Books (Devi, Anne, Alex, Tim, Susan, Ellen, and Lauren P. especially), who all continue to amaze me with the hard work they do, their innovation, and their responsiveness. I hear horror stories from writers who landed elsewhere, and I’m glad to call Orbit home. Thank you to all those behind the scenes who make the whole machine run so smoothly.

  Thank you to Mary Robinette Kowal (Shades of Milk and Honey) for being my first ever beta reader. Excellent feedback, and great catches. You made the book better. Plus, that one thing, that place in book 3 where things look really bad, and you suggested something to make it utterly horrible? Yeah, I’m totally stealing that.

  Thank you to mathematics professor Dr. N. Willis, who read The Black Prism and immediately asked me if I’d played Magic: The Gathering. (His sneaky way of seeing if I would play with him, without admitting his geekery straight out.) I had never played MtG, but soon saw the mathematical beauty of the game. The seed for the in-world game Nine Kings was planted there (though the mechanics and play are different). To forestall some emails I know I’ll get about this: Yes… but it’ll be years. Thanks also for helping me structure the Blackguard trial, which somehow got incredibly complicated. Go figure.

  Thank you to a certain special forces friend of mine, E.H., who got me the (declassified, totally legal!) brief on millimeter wave technology. Who says fantasy can’t use cutting-edge science?

  A big thanks to Sergeant Rory Miller, whose books on violence should become necessary texts for those who wish to depict violence convincingly in their fictional worlds, and for those who wish to avoid it in the real one! (Start with Meditations on Violence.) For one thing only I don’t forgive him: talking about rates of adrenaline release in a world and time period that doesn’t yet have the word “adrenaline” was hell. (Thanks to Peter H. at Powell’s for hand-selling that book to me—and hand-selling mine to others!)

  Thank you to Alfred, Lord Tennyson, whose “Ulysses” I quoted briefly in both The Black Prism and The Blinding Knife as being written by Gevison. Immortal lines, sir. Meant to acknowledge you in the last book and overlooked it. My apologies.

  Last, thank you to my readers. I love what I do, and I get to keep doing it because of you. That’s a huge privilege and an honor, and I feel a debt of gratitude to you. I can’t promise you much except that I’ll work my hardest to tell you the best stories I can. How about I do that, and you keep forcing my books on your friends. Deal?

  —Brent Weeks

  Books by Brent Weeks:

  Perfect Shadow (e-only novella)

  THE NIGHT ANGEL TRILOGY

  The Way of Shadows

  Shadow’s Edge

  Beyond the Shadows

  Night Angel (omnibus)

  THE LIGHTBRINGER SERIES

  The Black Prism

  The Blinding Knife

  Appendix

  On Monochromes, Bichromes, and Polychromes

  Most drafters are monochromes: they are able to draft only one color. Drafters who can draft two colors well enough to create stable luxin in both colors are called bichromes. Anyone who can draft solid luxin in three or more colors is called a polychrome. The more colors a polychrome can draft, the more powerful she is and the more sought after are her services. A full-spectrum polychrome is a polychrome who can draft every color in the spectrum. A Prism is always a full-spectrum polychrome.

  Merely being able to draft a color, though, isn’t the sole determining criterion in how valuable or skilled a drafter is. Some drafters are faster at drafting, some are more efficient, some have more will than others, some are better at crafting luxin that will be durable, some are smarter or more creative at how and when to apply luxin.

  On Disjunctive Bichromes/Polychromes

  On the light continuum, sub-red borders red, red borders orange, orange borders yellow, yellow borders green, green borders blue, blue borders superviolet. Most bichromes and polychromes simply draft a larger spectrum on the continuum than monochromes. That is, a bichrome is most likely to draft two colors that are adjacent to each other (blue and superviolet, red and sub-red, yellow and green, etc.). However, some few drafters are disjunctive bichromes. As could be surmised from the name, these are drafters whose colors do not border each other. Usef Tep was a famous example: he drafted red and blue. Karris White Oak is another, drafting green and red. It is unknown how or why disjunctive bichromes come to exist. It is only known that they are rare.

  On Outer-Spectrum Colors

  There is a small and controversial movement claiming that there are more than seven colors. Indeed, because colors exist on a continuum, one could argue that the number of colors is infinite. However, the argument that there are more than seven draftable colors is more theologically problematic for some. It is commonly accepted that there are other resonance points beyond the seven currently accepted ones, but those points are weaker and much more rarely drafted than the core seven. Among the contenders is one color far below the sub-red, called paryl. Another equally far above superviolet is called only chi.

  But if colors are to be so broadly defined as to include colors only one drafter in a million can draft, then shouldn’t yellow be split into liquid yellow and solid yellow? Where do the (mythical) black and white luxins fit? How could such (non)colors even fit on the spectrum?

  The arguments, though bitter, are academic.

  On Subchromacy and Superchromacy

  A subchromat is one who has trouble differentiating between at least two colors, colloquially referred to as being color-blind. Subchromacy need not doom a drafter. For instance, a blue drafter who cannot distinguish between red and green will not be significantly handicapped in his work.

  Superchromacy is having greater than usual ability to distinguish between fine variations of color. Superchromacy in any color will result in more stable drafting, but is most helpful in drafting yellow. Only superchromat yellow drafters can hope to draft solid yellow luxin.

  On Luxin (with sections on physics, metaphysics, effects on personality, legendary colors, and colloquial terms)

  The basis of magic is light. Those who use magic are called drafters. A drafter is able to transform a color of light into a physical substance. Each color has its own properties, but the uses of those building blocks are as boundless as a drafter’s imagination and skill.

  The magic in the Seven Satrapies functions roughly the opposite of a candle burning. When a candle burns, a physical substance (wax) is transformed into light. With chromaturgy, light is transformed into a physical substance, luxin. Each color of luxin has its own properties. If drafted correctly (within a tight allowance), the resulting luxin will be stable, lasting for days or even years, depending on its color.

  Most drafters (magic-users) can only use one color. A drafter must be exposed to the light of her color to be able to draft it (that is, a green drafter can look at grass and be able to draft, but if she’s in a white-walled room, she can’t). Each drafter usually carries spectacles so that if her color isn’t available, she can still use magic.

  PHYSICS

  Luxin has weight. If a drafter drafts a luxin haycart over her head, the first thing it will do is crush her. From heaviest to lightest are: red, orange, yellow, green, bl
ue, sub-red,* superviolet, sub-red.* For reference, liquid yellow luxin is only slightly lighter than the same volume of water.

  (*Sub-red is difficult to weigh accurately because it rapidly degenerates to fire when exposed to air. The ordering above was achieved by putting sub-red luxin in an airtight container and then weighing the result, minus the weight of the container. In real-world uses, sub-red crystals are often seen floating upward in the air before igniting.)

  Luxin has tactility.

  Sub-red: Again the hardest to describe due to its flammability, but often described as feeling like a hot wind.

  Red: Gooey, sticky, clingy, depending on drafting; can be tarry and thick or more gel-like.

  Orange: Lubricative, slippery, soapy, oily.

  Yellow: In its liquid, more common state, like bubbly, effervescent water, cool to the touch, possibly a little thicker than seawater. In its solid state, it is perfectly slick, unyielding, smooth, and incredibly hard.

  Green: Rough: depending on the skill and purposes of the drafter, ranges from merely having a grain like leather to feeling like tree bark. It is flexible, springy, often drawing comparisons to the green limbs of living trees.

  Blue: Smooth, though poorly drafted blue will have a texture or can shed fragments easily, like chalk, but in crystals.

  Superviolet: Like spidersilk, thin and light to the point of imperceptibility.

  Luxin has scent. The base scent of luxin is resinous. The smells below are approximate, because each color of luxin smells like itself. Imagine trying to describe the smell of an orange. You’d say citrus and sharp, but that isn’t it exactly. An orange smells like an orange. However, the below approximations are close.

  Sub-red: Charcoal, smoke, burned.

  Red: Tea leaves, tobacco, dry.

  Orange: Almond.

  Yellow: Eucalyptus and mint.

  Green: Fresh cedar, resin.

  Blue: Mineral, chalk, almost none.

  Superviolet: Faintly like cloves.

  *Black: No smell/or smell of decaying flesh.

  *White: Honey, lilac.

  (*Mythical; these are the smells as reported in stories.)

  METAPHYSICS

  Any drafting feels good to the drafter. Sensations of euphoria and invincibility are particularly strong among young drafters and those drafting for the first time. Generally, these pass with time, though drafters abstaining from magic for a time will often feel them again. For most drafters, the effect is similar to drinking a cup of kopi. Some drafters, strangely enough, seem to have allergic reactions to drafting. There are vigorous ongoing debates about whether the effects on personality should be described as metaphysical or physical.

  Regardless of their correct categorization and whether they are the proper realm of study for the magister or the luxiat, the effects themselves are unquestioned.

  LUXIN’S EFFECTS ON PERSONALITY

  The benighted before Lucidonius believed that passionate men became reds, or that calculating women became yellows or blues. In truth, the causation flows the other way.

  Every drafter, like every woman, has her own innate personality. The color she drafts then influences her toward the behaviors below. A person who is impulsive who drafts red for years is going to be more likely to be pushed farther into “red” characteristics than a naturally cold and orderly person who drafts red for the same length of time.

  The color a drafter uses will affect her personality over time. This, however, doesn’t make her a prisoner of her color, or irresponsible for her actions under the influence of it. A green who continually cheats on his wife is still a lothario. A sub-red who murders an enemy in a fit of rage is still a murderer. Of course, a naturally angry woman who is also a red drafter will be even more susceptible to that color’s effects, but there are many tales of calculating reds and fiery, intemperate blues.

  A color isn’t a substitute for a woman. Be careful in your application of generalities. That said, generalities can be useful: a group of green drafters is more likely to be wild and rowdy than a group of blues.

  Given these generalities, there is also a virtue and a vice commonly associated with each color. (Virtue being understood by the early luxiats not as being free of temptation to do evil in a particular way, but as conquering one’s own predilection toward that kind of evil. Thus, gluttony is paired with temperance, greed with charity, etc.)

  Sub-red drafters: Sub-reds are passionate in all ways, the most purely emotional of all drafters, the quickest to rage or to cry. Sub-reds love music, are often impulsive, fear the dark less than any other color, and are often insomniacs. Emotional, distractable, unpredictable, inconsistent, loving, bighearted. Sub-red men are often sterile.

  Associated vice: Wrath

  Associated virtue: Patience

  Red drafters: Reds are quick-tempered, lusty, and love destruction. They are also warm, inspiring, brash, larger than life, expansive, jovial, and powerful.

  Associated vice: Gluttony

  Associated virtue: Temperance

  Orange drafters: Oranges are often artists, brilliant in understanding other people’s emotions and motivations. Some use this to defy or exceed expectations. Sensitive, manipulative, idiosyncratic, slippery, charismatic, empathetic.

  Associated vice: Greed

  Associated virtue: Charity

  Yellow drafters: Yellows tend to be clear thinkers, with intellect and emotion in perfect balance. Cheerful, wise, bright, balanced, watchful, impassive, observant, brutally honest at times, excellent liars. Thinkers, not doers.

  Associated vice: Sloth

  Associated virtue: Diligence

  Green drafters: Greens are wild, free, flexible, adaptable, nurturing, friendly. They don’t so much disrespect authority as not even recognize it.

  Associated vice: Lust

  Associated virtue: Self-control

  Blue drafters: Blues are orderly, inquisitive, rational, calm, cold, impartial, intelligent, musical. Structure, rules, and hierarchy are important to them. Blues are often mathematicians and composers. Ideas and ideology and correctness often matter more than people to blues.

  Associated vice: Envy

  Associated virtue: Kindness

  Superviolet drafters: Superviolets tend to have a removed outlook; dispassionate, they appreciate irony and sarcasm and word games and are often cold, viewing people as puzzles to be solved or ciphers to be cracked. Irrationality outrages superviolets.

  Associated vice: Pride

  Associated virtue: Humility

  LEGENDARY COLORS

  Chi (pronounced KEY): The postulated upper-spectrum counter-part to paryl. (Often referred to in tales as “far above superviolet as paryl is below sub-red.”) Also called the revealer. Its main claimed use is nearly identical to paryl—seeing through things, though those who believe in chi say its powers far surpass paryl’s in this regard, cutting through flesh and bone and even metal. The only thing the tales seem to agree on is that chi drafters have the shortest life expectancy of any drafters: five to fifteen years, almost without exception. If chi indeed exists, it would mostly be evidence that Orholam created light for the universe or for his own purposes, and not solely for the use of man, and would move theologians from their current anthropocentrism.

  Black: Destruction, void, emptiness, that which is not and cannot be filled. Obsidian is said to be the bones of black luxin after it dies.

  Paryl: Also called spidersilk, it is invisible to all but paryl drafters. It resides as far down the spectrum from sub-red as most sub-red does from the visible spectrum. Believed mythical because the lens of the human eye cannot contort to a shape that would allow seeing such a color. The alleged color of dark drafters and night weavers and assassins because this spectrum is (again, allegedly) available even at night. Uses unknown, but linked to murders. Poisonous?

  White: The raw word of Orholam. The stuff of creation, from which all luxin and all life was formed. Descriptions of an earthly form of the stuff (as diminish
ed from the original as obsidian supposedly is from black luxin) describe it as radiant ivory, or pure white opal, emitting light on the whole spectrum.

  COLLOQUIAL TERMS

  Students at the Chromeria are encouraged to use the proper names for each color, but the impetus to name seems unstoppable. In some cases, the names are used technically: pyrejelly is a thicker, longer-burning draft of red that will burn long enough to reduce a body to ash. In other cases, the reference becomes precisely the opposite of the technical definition: brightwater was first a name for liquid yellow luxin, but Brightwater Wall is solid yellow luxin.

  A few of the more common colloquialisms:

  Sub-red: Firecrystal

  Red: Pyrejelly, burnglue

  Orange: Noranjell

  Yellow: Brightwater

  Green: Godswood

  Blue: Frostglass, glass

  Superviolet: Skystring, soulstring, spidersilk

  Black: Hellstone, nullstone, nightfiber, cinderstone, hadon

  White: Truebright, starsblood, anachrome, luciton

  On the Old Gods

  Sub-red: Anat, goddess of wrath. Those who worshipped her are said to have had rituals that involved infant sacrifice. Also known as the Lady of the Desert, the Fiery Mistress. Her centers of worship were Tyrea, southernmost Paria, and southern Ilyta.

  Red: Dagnu, god of gluttony. He was worshipped in eastern Atash.

  Orange: Molokh, god of greed. Once worshipped in western Atash.

  Yellow: Belphegor, god of sloth. Primarily worshipped in northern Atash and southern Blood Forest before Lucidonius’s coming.