“I’ll do it,” Dalinar said, eyes forward. Navani was lost to him. He needed to just storming accept that.
Taln gripped Ash’s hand.Ash looked at his fingers, thick and callused. Thousands of years could come and pass, and she could lose lifetimes to the dream, but those hands … she’d never forget those hands.“Ash,” he said.She looked up at him, then gasped and raised her fingers to her lips.“How long?” he asked.“Taln.” She gripped his hand in both of hers. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”“How long?”“They say it’s been four millennia. I don’t always … note the passing of time.…”“Four thousand years?”She held his hand tighter. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”He pulled his hand from hers and stood up, walking through the tent. She followed, apologizing again—but what good were words? They’d betrayed him.Taln brushed aside the front drapes and stepped out. He looked up at the city expanding above them, at the sky, at the wall. Soldiers in breastplates and chain rushed past to join a fight farther along.“Four thousand years?” Taln asked again. “Ash…”“We couldn’t continue— I … we thought…”“Ash.” He took her hand again. “What a wonderful thing.”Wonderful? “We left you, Taln.”“What a gift you gave them! Time to recover, for once, between Desolations. Time to progress. They never had a chance before. But this time … yes, maybe they do.”“No, Taln. You can’t be like this.”“A wonderful thing indeed, Ash.”“You can’t be like this, Taln. You have to hate me! Hate me, please.”He turned from her, but still held her hand, pulling her after him. “Come. He’s waiting.”“Who?” she asked.“I don’t know.”
“Thank you,” he whispered again to the Thrill, “for giving me strength when I needed it.”The Thrill churned close around him, cooing and exulting in his praise.“Now, old friend, it is time to rest.”
“Life before death, little one,” Wit whispered.
My spren claims that recording this will be good for me, so here I go. Everyone says I will swear the Fourth Ideal soon, and in so doing, earn my armor. I simply don’t think that I can. Am I not supposed to want to help people?—From drawer 10-12, sapphire
...“He was foolish, as were the other honorspren born after the Recreance. They knew something bad was coming, but wouldn’t do anything. And I heard you calling, even from so far away.…”“The Stormfather let you out?” Kaladin said, stunned by the confessions. This was more than he’d found out about her since … since forever.“I snuck away,” she said with a grin...
The dark spren flew toward the men, finding welcoming bodies and willing flesh. The red mist made them lust, made their minds open. And the spren, then, bonded to the men, slipping into those open souls.“Master, you have learned to inhabit humans?” Turash said to Subservience.“Spren have always been able to bond with them, Turash,” Odium said. “It merely requires the right mindset and the right environment.”
Questioner: How was Shallan able to bond with Pattern before she was broken?Brandon Sanderson: She was open to him even before she went through a lot of that turmoil.Questioner: I thought everybody had to be broken in order to--Brandon Sanderson: Well, thats their philosophy in-world. But im not going to say its correct or not. I will imply that there are other means as well.