Words of Radiance (Stormlight Archive, The)

by Sanderson, Brandon

  She groaned a long groan, then looked to the side, where Wit stood.

  He grinned at her.

  She stabbed her hand out in the blink of an eye, mist twisting around her arm and snapping into the form of a long, thin sword pointed at Wit’s neck.

  He cocked an eyebrow.

  “How did you find me?” she asked.

  “You’ve been making quite a disturbance on the other side,” Wit said. “It’s been a long time since the spren had to deal with someone alive, particularly someone so demanding as yourself.”

  She hissed out a breath, then pushed the Shardblade closer. “Tell me what you know, Wit.”

  “I once spent the better part of a year inside of a large stomach, being digested.”

  She frowned at him.

  “That is a thing that I know. You really should be more specific in your threats.” He looked down as she twisted her Shardblade, rotating the tip, still pointed at him. “I’d be surprised if that little knife of yours poses me any real threat, Kholin. You can keep waving it about if you want, though. Perhaps it makes you feel more important.”

  She studied him. Then the sword burst to mist, vaporizing. She lowered her arm. “I don’t have time for you. A storm is coming, a terrible storm. It will bring the Voidbringers to—”

  “Already here.”

  “Damnation. We need to find Urithiru and—”

  “Already found.”

  She hesitated. “The Knights—”

  “Refounded,” Wit said. “In part by your apprentice who, I might add, is exactly seventy-seven percent more agreeable than you are. I took a poll.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “Okay, so it was a rather informal poll. But the ugly lizard-crab-thing gave you really poor marks for—”

  “About the other things.”

  “I don’t tell those kinds of lies, Jasnah. You know that. It’s what you find so annoying about me.”

  She inspected him, then sighed. “It is part of what I find so annoying about you, Wit. Only a very small part of a vast, vast river.”

  “You only say that because you don’t know me very well.”

  “Doubtful.”

  “No, really. If you did know me, that river of annoyance would be an ocean, obviously. Regardless. I know things that you do not, and I think you might actually know some that I do not. That gives us what is called synergy. If you can contain your annoyance, we might both learn something.”

  She looked him up and down, then drew her lips to a line and nodded. She started walking directly toward the nearest town. She had a good sense of direction, this woman.

  Wit strolled up beside her. “You realize we’re at least a week away from civilization. Did you need to Elsecall this far out in the middle of nowhere?”

  “I was somewhat pressed at the time of my escape. I’m lucky to be here at all.”

  “Lucky? I don’t know if I’d say that.”

  “Why?”

  “You’d likely be better off on the other side, Jasnah Kholin. The Desolation has come, and with it, the end of this land.” He looked at her. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be sorry,” she said, “until we see how much I can salvage. The storm has come already? The parshmen have transformed?”

  “Yes and no,” Wit said. “The storm should hit Shinovar tonight, then work its way across the land. I believe that the storm will bring the transformation.”

  Jasnah stopped in place. “That’s not how it happened in the past. I have learned things on the other side.”

  “You are correct. It is different this time.”

  She licked her lips, but otherwise did a good job containing her anxiety. “If it’s not happening as it did before, then everything I know could be false. The words of the highspren could be inaccurate. The records I seek could be meaningless.”

  He nodded.

  “We can’t depend upon the ancient writings,” she said. “And the supposed god of men is a fabrication. So we can’t look to the heavens for salvation, but apparently we can’t look toward the past either. So where can we look?”

  “You’re so convinced that there is no God.”

  “The Almighty is—”

  “Oh,” Wit said, “I don’t mean the Almighty. Tanavast was a fine enough fellow—bought me drinks once—but he was not God. I’ll admit, Jasnah, that I empathize with your skepticism, but I don’t agree with it. I just think you’ve been looking for God in the wrong places.”

  “I suppose that you’re going to tell me where you think I should look.”

  “You’ll find God in the same place you’re going to find salvation from this mess,” Wit said. “Inside the hearts of men.”

  “Curiously,” Jasnah said, “I believe I can actually agree with that, though I suspect for different reasons than you imply. Perhaps this walk won’t be as bad as I had feared.”

  “Perhaps,” he said, looking up toward the stars. “Whatever else might be said, at least the world chose a nice night upon which to end. . . .”

  THE END OF

  Book Two of

  THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE

  ARS ARCANUM

  THE TEN ESSENCES AND THEIR HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS

  The preceding list is an imperfect gathering of traditional Vorin symbolism associated with the Ten Essences. Bound together, these form the Double Eye of the Almighty, an eye with two pupils representing the creation of plants and creatures. This is also the basis for the hourglass shape that was often associated with the Knights Radiant.

  Ancient scholars also placed the ten orders of Knights Radiant on this list, alongside the Heralds themselves, who each had a classical association with one of the numbers and Essences.

  I’m not certain yet how the ten levels of Voidbinding or its cousin the Old Magic fit into this paradigm, if indeed they can. My research suggests that, indeed, there should be another series of abilities that is even more esoteric than the Voidbindings. Perhaps the Old Magic fits into those, though I am beginning to suspect that it is something entirely different.

  Note that I currently believe the concept of the “Body Focus” to be more a matter of philosophical interpretation than an actual attribute of this Investiture and its manifestations.

  THE TEN SURGES

  As a complement to the Essences, the classical elements celebrated on Roshar, are found the Ten Surges. These—thought to be the fundamental forces by which the world operates—are more accurately a representation of the ten basic abilities offered to the Heralds, and then the Knights Radiant, by their bonds.

  Adhesion: The Surge of Pressure and Vacuum

  Gravitation: The Surge of Gravity

  Division: The Surge of Destruction and Decay

  Abrasion: The Surge of Friction

  Progression: The Surge of Growth and Healing, or Regrowth

  Illumination: The Surge of Light, Sound, and Various Waveforms

  Transformation: The Surge of Soulcasting

  Transportation: The Surge of Motion and Realmatic Transition

  Cohesion: The Surge of Strong Axial Interconnection

  Tension: The Surge of Soft Axial Interconnection

  ON THE CREATION OF FABRIALS

  Five groupings of fabrial have been discovered so far. The methods of their creation are carefully guarded by the artifabrian community, but they appear to be the work of dedicated scientists, as opposed to the more mystical Surgebindings once performed by the Knights Radiant. I am more and more convinced that the creation of these devices requires forced enslavement of transformative cognitive entities, known as “spren” to the local communities.

  ALTERING FABRIALS

  Augmenters: These fabrials are crafted to enhance something. They can create heat, pain, or even a calm wind, for instance. They are powered—like all fabrials—by Stormlight. They seem to work best with forces, emotions, or sensations.

  The so-called half-shards of Jah Keved are created with this type of fabrial attached to a sheet of metal,
enhancing its durability. I have seen fabrials of this type crafted using many different kinds of gemstone; I am guessing that any one of the ten Polestones will work.

  Diminishers: These fabrials do the opposite of what augmenters do, and generally seem to fall under the same restrictions as their cousins. Those artifabrians who have taken me into confidence seem to believe that even greater fabrials are possible than what have been created so far, particularly in regard to augmenters and diminishers.

  PAIRING FABRIALS

  Conjoiners: By infusing a ruby and using methodology that has not been revealed to me (though I have my suspicions), you can create a conjoined pair of gemstones. The process requires splitting the original ruby. The two halves will then create parallel reactions across a distance. Spanreeds are one of the most common forms of this type of fabrial.

  Conservation of force is maintained; for instance, if one is attached to a heavy stone, you will need the same strength to lift the conjoined fabrial that you would need to lift the stone itself. There appears to be some sort of process used during the creation of the fabrial that influences how far apart the two halves can go and still produce an effect.

  Reversers: Using an amethyst instead of a ruby also creates conjoined halves of a gemstone, but these two work in creating opposite reactions. Raise one, and the other will be pressed downward, for instance.

  These fabrials have only just been discovered, and already the possibilities for exploitation are being conjectured. There appear to be some unexpected limitations to this form of fabrial, though I have not been able to discover what they are.

  WARNING FABRIALS

  There is only one type of fabrial in this set, informally known as the Alerter. An Alerter can warn one of a nearby object, feeling, sensation, or phenomenon. These fabrials use a heliodor stone as their focus. I do not know whether this is the only type of gemstone that will work, or if there is another reason heliodor is used.

  In the case of this kind of fabrial, the amount of Stormlight you can infuse into it affects its range. Hence the size of gemstone used is very important.

  WINDRUNNING AND LASHINGS

  Reports of the Assassin in White’s odd abilities have led me to some sources of information that, I believe, are generally unknown. The Windrunners were an order of the Knights Radiant, and they made use of two primary types of Surgebinding. The effects of these Surgebindings were known—colloquially among the members of the order—as the Three Lashings.

  BASIC LASHING: GRAVITATIONAL CHANGE

  This type of Lashing was one of the most commonly used Lashings among the order, though it was not the easiest to use. (That distinction belongs to the Full Lashing below.) A Basic Lashing involved revoking a being’s or object’s spiritual gravitational bond to the planet below, instead temporarily linking that being or object to a different object or direction.

  Effectively, this creates a change in gravitational pull, twisting the energies of the planet itself. A Basic Lashing allowed a Windrunner to run up walls, to send objects or people flying off into the air, or to create similar effects. Advanced uses of this type of Lashing would allow a Windrunner to make himself or herself lighter by binding part of his or her mass upward. (Mathematically, binding a quarter of one’s mass upward would halve a person’s effective weight. Binding half of one’s mass upward would create weightlessness.)

  Multiple Basic Lashings could also pull an object or a person’s body downward at double, triple, or other multiples of its weight.

  FULL LASHING: BINDING OBJECTS TOGETHER

  A Full Lashing might seem very similar to a Basic Lashing, but they worked on very different principles. While one had to do with gravitation, the other had to do with the force (or Surge, as the Radiants called them) of Adhesion—binding objects together as if they were one. I believe this Surge may have had something to do with atmospheric pressure.

  To create a Full Lashing, a Windrunner would infuse an object with Stormlight, then press another object to it. The two objects would become bound together with an extremely powerful bond, nearly impossible to break. In fact, most materials would themselves break before the bond holding them together would.

  REVERSE LASHING: GIVING AN OBJECT A GRAVITATIONAL PULL

  I believe this may actually be a specialized version of the Basic Lashing. This type of Lashing required the least amount of Stormlight of any of the three Lashings. The Windrunner would infuse something, give a mental command, and create a pull to the object that yanked other objects toward it.

  At its heart, this Lashing created a bubble around the object that imitated its spiritual link to the ground beneath it. As such, it was much harder for the Lashing to affect objects touching the ground, where their link to the planet was strongest. Objects falling or in flight were the easiest to influence. Other objects could be affected, but the Stormlight and skill required were much more substantial.

  LIGHTWEAVING

  A second form of Surgebinding involves the manipulation of light and sound in illusory tactics common throughout the cosmere. Unlike the variations present on Sel, however, this method has a powerful Spiritual element, requiring not just a full mental picture of the intended creation, but some level of connection to it as well. The illusion is based not simply upon what the Lightweaver imagines, but upon what they desire to create.

  In many ways, this is the most similar ability to the original Yolish variant, which excites me. I wish to delve more into this ability, with the hope to gain a full understanding of how it relates to Cognitive and Spiritual attributes.

  TOR BOOKS BY

  BRANDON SANDERSON

  THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE

  The Way of Kings

  Words of Radiance

  THE MISTBORN SERIES

  Mistborn

  The Well of Ascension

  The Hero of Ages

  The Alloy of Law

  Warbreaker

  Elantris

  The Rithmatist

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Brandon Sanderson grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. He lives in Utah with his wife and children and teaches creative writing at Brigham Young University. In addition to completing Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time®, he is the author of such bestsellers as the Mistborn trilogy, Warbreaker, The Alloy of Law, The Way of Kings, The Rithmatist, and Steelheart. He won the 2013 Hugo Award for The Emperor’s Soul, a novella set in the world of his acclaimed first novel, Elantris. For behind-the-scenes information on all his books, visit brandonsanderson.com.

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  WORDS OF RADIANCE

  Copyright © 2014 by Dragonsteel Entertainment, LLC

  All rights reserved.

  Illustrations preceding chapters 22 and 49 by Dan dos Santos

  Illustrations preceding chapters 3, 17, 30, 45, 54, 70, 75, and 77 by Ben McSweeney

  Maps, rear endpapers, and illustrations preceding chapters 5, 11, 14, 35, 60, 65, 80, 83, and the Endnote by Isaac Stewart

  Front endpapers by Michael Whelan and Ben McSweeney

  Cover art by Michael Whelan

  Edited by Moshe Feder

  A Tor Book

  Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

  175 Fifth Avenue

  New York, NY 10010

  www.tor-forge.com

  Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

  The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

  ISBN 978-0-7653-2636-2 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-1-4299-4962-0 (e-book)

  e-ISBN 9781429949620

  First Edition: March 2014

 

 

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