Words of Radiance

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, illness or death, physical abuse, and enslavement.

Adolin practices throwing his Shardblade but is tired, having stayed up all night guarding Dalinar’s rooms, haunted by Szeth’s attack. He visits Navani, who is working with her scholars to test a new fabrial, a device powered by gems that connects two platforms so that when one rises, the other falls. This will help archers on the battlefield.

Shallan takes a palanquin to Dalinar’s warcamp, where she discovers that he is in a meeting with the highprinces and Elhokar. She puts on a confident façade and has her soldiers announce that she is Adolin’s betrothed. Guards allow her to walk into the meeting, where Kaladin recognizes her. She admits to him that she lied when they first met, and he refuses to let her see Dalinar. She gives him a communication between Jasnah and Navani as proof, and after showing it to Dalinar, he escorts her to him.

During a break in the meeting, Adolin approaches Relis, the son of Highprince Ruthar, one of Sadeas’s strongest allies. Adolin wagers all his family’s Shardblades and Shardplates, but Relis refuses. However, Eilt, Relis’s ambitious cousin, agrees to the terms.