#being drunk is great but god the taste of whiskey gave me flashbacks!!!!! and made me puke

[frankenstheythem]

im back from the situation but not unaltered

[msjr0119]

Hold my girl

Part 1 - Back in the Big Apple

No one really knows about TRR Main characters past …. Most of this series is based on flashbacks from her childhood. I’ve changed the main characters name to, Freya Johnson as Riley Brooks is used in my other series.

This series has been on hiatus for months! Click here for the introduction.....Tagging my combined tag list from everything I’ve done- if you want to be removed let me know 👍🏼

@annekebbphotography @burnsoslow @drakesensworld @ladyangel70 @kingliam2019 @bbrandy2002 @butindeed @bascmve01 @drakewalker04 @pedudley @captain-kingliamsqueen @duchessemersynwalker @insideamirage @of-course-i-went-to-hartfeld @kozabaji @texaskitten30 @ibldw-main @kimmiedoo5 @nikkis1983 @dangerouseggseagleartisan @gnatbrain @walker7519 @lodberg @cmestrella @hopefulmoonobject @addictedtodrakefanfic @angi15h @liamxs-world @rafasgirl23415 @notoriouscs @yukinagato2012 @dcbbw @qammh-blog @nz1091 @beardedoafdonutwagon @drakexnadira

******

Daniel was tired from his shift at the bar. He had offered to work overtime doing a 12 hour shift- not like he had anything better to do. Barely staying awake, constantly yawning, constantly checking the clock. Time was going slow today. His thoughts were all about seeing Freya Johnson again.

Before Freya up’d and left for a once in a lifetime adventure to a Mediterranean country, it was fun at work. They always laughed and mimicked the customers. She was fun. She made him enjoy work. Their manager treat them both like absolute shit but having each other got them through their shifts.

He was happy for Freya, he just missed her deeply- he had known her since they were four years old and was always close to her, taking her under his wing. He grew up to love her but knew he didn’t want to cross the friend zone. Daniel was happy having Freya in his life as his ‘BFF’.

Every year on the 19th February, they would both book the day off work. It was a date that meant so much to Freya and having Daniel with her every day for the last eight years on that date meant so much to her. It was her adopted parents anniversary of their death.

They would do some of the things her parents used to do with her when she was younger; having cronuts for breakfast in her favourite cafe along with the special vanilla milkshake, a walk around Central Park taking in the beautiful scenery and ending the day seeing a musical on Broadway.

After the musical, they would visit the graves of Grace and Paul Johnson. Freya would place a beautiful bouquet and tidy up the flowers and grass growing around them. When they passed away Freya decided to update them on this date about her life by writing a diary and reading it out to them. She placed the diary at the front of their grave and updated it every time she visited. Also around the graves were photos of the Johnson’s with Freya when she was younger, photos of Freya and Daniel, photos of Freya’s life achievements such as gaining her degree- her parents would have been so proud of her she always thought.

After the visit, Daniel would then drive them both to the local beach and to the secret cove that Freya called her “secret place” and let off Chinese lanterns into the sky in memory of Grace and Paul. Freya knew that is wasn’t a secret and there was other people that visited the beach but it was the memory of what her parents said to her that always stuck in her mind.

*****

12 years ago, Freya aged 12

“Now Freya, this is mine and your moms secret place. We used to come here when we fell in love whilst on vacation. It is special to us, and this is always why we wanted to share it with you. Maybe in your future you can share this with someone special in your life?”

���Dad? What if I don’t find anyone special? I only have Daniel as my friend. Everyone else is horrible to me.” She said in an upset tone of voice. Not really wanting to hear her parents response, she skipped some stones into the sea.

“Freya sweetheart, you are special, you are beautiful, clever and kind hearted. You will have a wonderful future ahead of you. I promise. We will be with you all of the way.” said Grace softly as she pulled Freya in for a tight loving squeeze.

*****

24hours ago- New York

The bar was extremely quiet. Daniel was bored, twiddling his thumbs. There were two locals in; James Mckrey and Brody Clark.

Brody was the local “playboy”. Had a new girlfriend every day. He sucked at relationships. Would always come in the bar and flirt with Freya. She knew creeps like him and knew how to handle him.

James was the lonely lightweight. He always moaned about how crap his life was, hence why he got drunk nearly every night. Daniel and Freya always felt sorry for him. Half the time they had to get him in a cab when it was closing time to make sure he got home okay- they were waiters who didn’t get paid enough for this shit.

Daniel couldn’t cope being on his own with these two and his arsehole manager. Just then Daniel heard the doors swing open. Daniel walked out of the kitchen yawning whilst putting on a fake smile.

“Good afternoon, my name is Daniel and I’ll be serving you today. Do you both need a tab.... o my god Freya?”

“DANIEL!” Freya ran up to her best friend and gave him a big tight hug. Hanging onto him for dear life, she had missed him dearly and began to regret going awol.

“You just up’d and left. You could have called or text to say you was back.”

“My cell phone coverage has been limited in Cordonia...”

“Maybe you should switch plans?” The man with the smirk said sarcastically.

“Well I’m glad you’re okay. Looks like you’re doing good. I’ve missed you.” Daniel looked over at the man who was with Freya. He looked familiar but Daniel couldn’t pin point why?

“This is Drake, my hot date.” Drake looked confused as Freya said this, rolling his eyes back he couldn’t wait to have a drink and then leave. Just then Daniel snapped him out of his trance.

“You always did have good taste.”

“I’m not her ‘hot date’! I don’t even like her that much. I’ve been lumbered with her.” Daniel noticed his friends smile fade, he knew it would only take a matter of seconds for her to fix that fake Oscar winning smile. Which it did.

“Whatever pal. Please follow me to the most romantic spot in the house! What can I get you guys?”

“One whiskey neat please.” Said Drake.

“Make that two specials Dan” smiled Freya, she knew what was in the whiskey special- if that wasn’t revenge for Drake being an arse she didn’t know what was.

Daniel walked over and poured their drinks and took them over to the booth. Every so often Daniel would check on them and chatted with them both.

“So are you back in New York for good? Or just visiting?”

“Just visiting with the royal court. We actually have a party we need to get to. I’ve missed you so much Dan, I will come and visit more often. And keep in touch. I promise.”

“I’ve missed you too Freya, it just isn’t the same here without you. Take care you two. This isn’t a goodbye, it’s a see you soon.”

He smiled and waved at her and Drake as they left. Would she keep in touch? He hoped so. He had wondered if she had visited Grace and Paul’s graves on her visit? Did she tell Drake about them? Or was it just Daniel that knew? Thoughts kept roaming through his head. He didn’t have the heart to tell her whilst she seemed so happy, that he had visited the graves on behalf of her whilst she was away. He had tidied up the graves and explained to them that Freya was away but would be back soon with an update in her diary and on her new life. He loved the Johnsons, they made him feel welcome into their family, so he felt he should do that if not for Freya but for them.

Daniels shift wasn’t ending for a few hours- his friend had left only a matter of seconds ago and he was already contemplating texting Freya but she was at a party with nobles. Would it be rude of her to read it? Daniel thought. She could read it after the party?

“Hey, it was great to see you and meet grumpy Drake! Sorry if I’m interrupting you. I’ve missed my friend so much. You seem so happy. But I need to ask you something? Dan x”

*****

Leaving the bar, Riley and Drake walked slowly through the streets of New York. Throughout her time in Cordonia, she had fallen for Drake Walker. Fallen deep and hard. He built walls around him, and she intended on knocking down each and every one. However she kept failing. She knew that Liam loved her- but she couldn’t return the love, her heart was set on the jerk that was horrendous to her.

“Why are you such an arsehole with me? Can’t you handle a joke?” She held the railing, overlooking the Hudson River.

“I’m not an arsehole Jono. I just hate that I get lumbered with you all the bastard time.” Freya began uncontrollably crying, her heart felt as though it was being stabbed constantly as if she was voodoo doll.

“Jeez! Thanks a lot Drake. See ya later.”

Riley stormed off wiping her tears away, Drake regretted what he had said. The last time he saw her cry was when she was dragged out of the Coronation. He also regretted annoying her, as he was now struggling with directions to get back to the hotel.

Freya- I don’t hate you at all.

[preservationandruin]

Oathbringer Liveblog, Part Four: Chapters 93-99

Onward! Also, re-stating again--please don’t answer or clarify things that I put in here! If I want to know, I’ll look it up later, but chances are I do know and just didn’t mention it explicitly or forgot as I was typing. And there’s always the danger of spoiling something. I don’t want to deal with any of that. 

The Shadesmar Road Trip contines, we get the most heartwrenching flashback yet, Dalinar Does Not Deserve His Perfect Sons, we touch in again with an unexpected maybe-ally, Kal has a vision, Szeth plays a game, and turns out Azure, who I am in love with, gets seasick. 

We’re back to the Shadesmar Road Trip, this time with Adolin, who still feels like he’s in a nightmare. Adolin is upset that he never mastered the “sleep anywhere” strategy that soldiers are supposed to have, and thinks that Dalinar would have been able to do it. He’s also still thinking about how he killed Sadeas: 

Adolin thought again of the jolt he’d felt when ramming the dagger through Sadeas’s eye and into his brain. Satisfaction and shame. Strip away Adolin’s nobility, and what was left? A duelist when a world needed generals? A hothead who couldn’t even take an insult?  A murderer?

A good man, Adolin Kholin. Someone who cares about soldiers and horses and swords. Someone who is keeping literally everyone in this group moving and who notices when people are upset, even if they’re hiding it. Someone who is trying his best. 

He starts talking to the ghost-spren again, noting that she didn’t respond, but he usually talked to his sword without it responding, so...not that different, then. He falls into practicing a kata, one without needing a sword. Azure comes to join him, around halfway through; Kaladin joins as well. Zahel taught Adolin it--actually, Zahel definitely taught all three of them it. Azure asks where Adolin learned it, he says his swordmaster; she says the same. 

They don’t know it’s the same swordmaster, which is hilarious. 

Azure says she knows a way to get back. Her hair is back to black, and her scars seem to be fading. She says she used Cultivation’s Perpendicularity to get through them--it’s in the Horneaters’ Peaks. Supposedly, there’s another one, but it’s unpredictable and dangerous. 

Makes sense, given that Honor is, well, dead. Adolin says that Azure isn’t a Knight Radiant, and asks if she’s a herald, and she laughs, although her answer isn’t very convincing to Adolin and Kaladin. She notes that her sword doesn’t have a spren because it’s a pale copy of a Shardblade. Azure notes sheepishly that you’re supposed to look out for cryptics, but Pattern seems to take that as a compliment. 

And then there’s a loud screeching, and Azure’s like. Shit. Gotta move. 

We get a drawn page, about Vorin wines. It’s annotated again; apparently the writer has had milk more intoxicating than Pink wine, Auburn wine is closest to grape wines, Sapphire is made of fermented lavis and tastes most like whiskey, winespren are supposed to be rare and look like bubbles, but the writer sees them all the time, and their only note on Horneater lager is “responsible for that embarrassing tattoo of mine.” 

That’s incredible. 

Another flashback. To Dalinar, seven years ago, rifling through drawers looking for wine. He thinks people have taken it, but my money is on him having drank all of it again. He notes that he and Gavilar went on a hunt, found “those strange parshmen” and that Dalinar had felt like his old self--and that he hated his old self. 

He barely heard the rap on his door as he flung coats out of the wardrobe. When he looked over, he saw two youths standing there. His sons. Angerspren boiled around him. Her hair. Her judgmental eyes. How many lies about him had she stuffed into their heads?  “What?” Dalinar roared.  Adolin stood his ground. Almost seventeen now, fully a man. The other one, the invalid, cringed down. He looked younger than his...what....twelve years? Thirteen? 

he doesn’t even fucking use Renarin’s name or know his age. 

THE URGE TO PHYSICALLY MANIFEST ON ROSHAR AND FISTFIGHT THE BLACKTHORN INCREASES EXPONENTIALLY EVERY TIME HE MENTIONS RENARIN HOLY SHIT DALINAR DOES NOT DESERVE HIS PERFECT SONS

Fortunately, Adolin has his shit together enough to back-sass his drunk father. Dalinar yells both of them out of the room, and then collapses. 

A hand fell on his shoulder. “Father?”  “Adolin, so help me--” Still kneeling, Dalinar turned, then cut off. It wasn’t Adolin, but the other one. Renarin had returned, timid as always, his spectacled eyes wide and trembling. He held something out.  A small bottle. “I...” Renarin swallowed. “I got you one, with the spheres the king gave me. Because you always go through what you buy so quickly.”  Dalinar stared at that bottle of wine for an endless moment. “Gavilar hides the wine from me,’ he mumbled. “That’s why none is left. I...couldn’t possibly...have drunk it all....”  Renarin stepped in and hugged him. Dalinar flinched, bracing as if for a punch. The boy clung to him, not letting go.  “They talk about you,” Renarin said. “But they’re wrong. You just need to rest, after all the fighting you did. I know. And I miss her too.”  Dalinar licked his lips. “What did she tell you?” he said, voice ragged. “What did your mother say about me?”  “The only honest officer in the army,” Renarin said, “the honorable soldier. Noble, like the Heralds themselves. Our father. The greatest man in Alethkar.” 

First of all, a twelve-year-old is using his allowance to buy alcohol for his neglectful father who, most of the time, only calls him “the invalid.” 

That’s heartbreaking enough. And second, it shouldn’t be Renarin’s job to defend Dalinar! Dalinar is being a horrible father, to Renarin specifically, and dealing with that, rationalizing it--I think a lot of kids have done that, although not to the degree that Renarin has had to, and doing that--making excuses, even in your own head, for your parents and how their behavior hurts and breaks you--that’s exhausting, shattering, self-esteem-destroying work. I’ve done it, I know. 

Third of all, Evi never told the boys anything bad about Dalinar, and Dalinar flinches away from Renarin’s hug like he’s scared of affectionate contact, which also hurts. 

I’m not saying that Dalinar is a monster. In some ways, he is, but in this moment he’s more pathetic than anything else. But that doesn’t change the fact that my sympathy in this moment is with Renarin, a boy who literally used his allowance--given to him by his uncle because his own father is habitually too drunk to do it--to buy alcohol for his father. 

Hell, Dalinar gets angerspren looking at his sons. What Renarin is doing here is very, very brave. 

Oh, Almighty. Oh God. Oh God, please...I’ve started to hate my sons. Why hadn’t the boys learned how to hate him back? They should hate him. He deserved to be hated.  Please. Anything. I don’t know how to get free of this. Help me. Help me... Dalinar wept and clung to that youth, that child, as if he were the only real thing left in a world of shadows. 

At least he knows how utterly far this has gone, how desperate it really is. They haven’t learned to hate him because--despite their current self-esteem issues and doubts--they’re good men. 

But God, thinking about the way Renarin is making excuses for Dalinar to everybody in this scene hurts me. 

Epigraph, on Yelig-nar, the one that Aesudan has apparently bonded: 

Yelig-nar had great powers, perhaps the powers of all Surges compounded in one. He could transform any Voidbringer into an extremely dangerous enemy. Curiously, three legends I found mention swallowing a gemstone to engage this process. 

That explains why there was a crystal-like thing shining in Aesudan’s chest. She fuckin ate a crystal to get power from Yelig-nar. 

Over to Kal on what I will keep calling the Shadesmar Road Trip. Apparently the shrieks are coming from angerspren, and the pools that they are in the physical plane are just their drool. Kaladin admits that it’s probably his frustration that is drawing them. He also thinks, to himself, that he’s clinging to anger because it’s better than “the darkness.” 

Depression, anxiety, the thought that something bad is always around the corner. God, it’s a fucking mood. He’s trying so hard to avoid falling back into the numbness where he became someone he hated. Also, we get something interesting about Syl: 

“Where did you live? When you were young, on this side?”  “It was far to the west,” She said. “A grand city, ruled by honorspren! I didn’t like it, though. I wanted to travel, but Father kept me in the city, especially after...you know...”  “I’m not actually sure that I do.”  “I bonded a Knight Radiant. Haven’t I told you of him? I remember...” She closed her eyes as he walked, chin up, as if basking in a wind he could not feel. “I bonded him soon after I was born. He was an elderly man, kindly, but he did fight. In one battle. And he died...” 

Syl used to be the spren for another Radiant. She says that she lost herself when she lost him, but soon after that was the Recreance, and the fact that she didn’t have a bond meant that she survived. The Stormfather, thousands of years later, found her and took her home. 

Suddenly, how protective he is of her makes sense. He thought she died once, found her broken, tried to protect her. She left anyway, sneaking out of the city to go to the physical realm as a windspren. 

And then they find what they’re looking for--a lighthouse. 

Over to Navani! She says that every person brings their own chair as they meet for the first meeting of monarchs. Dalinar, apparently, just tried to bring a stool and she had to talk him out of it. He asked Navani to lead the meeting, and she’s worried about him. 

She’s also trying to convince him that Adolin and Elhokar escaped safe. Well. Adolin did. Oh, god, she just finished mourning Jasnah. Navani doesn’t deserve the news that Elhokar is dead. 

At least bridge four can always raise a mood: 

Bridge Four piled into the room after them. Many had brought simple seats, but the Herdazian had stumbled onto the lift with a chair so grand--inlaid with embroidered blue cloth and silver--it was almost a throne. 

FUCKING HELL LOPEN

Bridge Four had, characteristically, taken the news of their leader’s potential fall with laughter. Kaladin is tougher than a wind-tossed boulder, Brightness, Teft had told her. He survived Bridge Four, he survived the chasms, and he’ll survive this. 

I’m pretty sure Bridge Four is 99% positive Kaladin just. Can’t die. I mean, he was strung up in a highstorm, and that was only the tip of the iceberg of things that should have killed Kaladin Stormblessed. 

Also, we get that Bridge Four swaps the Honorblade between themselves to “be unpredictable.” I love them. 

JASNAH ACTUALLY DID BRING A FUCKING STOOL OH MY GOD WHY ARE SHE AND DALINAR  LIKE THIS

Ialai comes and doesn’t carry her own chair because fuck your Kholin rules. Who’s to bet that, like her husband before her, she is woefully incorrect about the genre of book she’s in? Petty Alethi politics don’t matter anymore. 

At least Amaram is off in Thaylenah. 

The Radiants--like the little Reshi who was currently outeating the Horneater bridgeman, almost as if it were a contest. 

Nice to see that Lift is here and in fine form. 

SEBARIAL AND PALOMA JUST DIDNT BRING CHAIRS AT ALL. Sebarial backsnarks Navani and she considers how utterly, utterly possible it would be to just fucking throw him off of Urithiru. 

Never change, Sebarial. 

We get that Navani’s mother probably had dementia of some sort--lucid on some days, not on others. 

Oh fuck, Ialai is talking. She’s like, wow, where should we invade first??? 

THE TIME FOR INVASION IS OVER, IALAI. FUCK OFF. 

And everyone just goes with it. Navani decides to start adjudicating tasks. The Azish viziers to give them codes of interaction and protocol to follow. The Thaylens to decide trade. The Alethi generals to help reclaim lands that are needed, and fortify existing settlements. Navani cuts off Ialai, who’s angling to talk about warmongering, to suggest concentrating on defenses; Dalinar agrees. 

Navani is thinking about she needs the Blackthorn and I’m just thinking--no. No, you don’t. You need Dalinar Kholin; you need the man who you fell in love with, you need the Bondsmith. 

You do not need the Blackthorn. 

Another epigraph: 

Of the Unmade, Sja-anat was most feared by the Radiants. They spoke intensively of her ability to corrupt spren, though only “lesser” spren--whatever that means.

Interesting. And yet, she tried to help them. Ask my son. What did she mean by that? Who is her son, who she was speaking about? 

(Please, as with all of my questions, don’t actually answer these) 

Kaladin is remembering again--some of the slaves who got caught as he was trying to lead them to freedom. Now,  in Shadesmar, he’s scouting ahead to see what’s in the lighthouse. Also, apparently what look like streamers in the physical realm with anticipationspren are, actually, tongues. Great. 

Well, Kal finds the lighthouse keeper--an old Shin man--and totally fails at staying stealthy. Pattern and Syl are chatting, bonding. 

“So,” Syl said, sitting on a rock nearby and swinging her legs. “I’ve always wondered. Does the world look weird to you, or normal?”  “Weird,” Pattern said. “Mmm. Same as for everyone.”  “I guess neither of us technically have eyes,” Syl said, leaning back and looking up at the glassy canopy of their tree-mushroom shelter. “We’re each a bit of power made manifest. We honorspren mimic Honor himself. You Cryptics mimic...weird stuff?”  “The fundamental underlying mathematics by which natural phenomena occur. Mmm. Truths that explain the fabric of existence.”  “Yeah. Weird stuff.” 

Adolin gives Shallan a backrub and she threatens to kill him if he stops. I’m...so glad that Adolin is canonically basically a cuddlebug. It’s so good. 

Shallan asks Adolin’s opinion of Azure and he gives a fucking opinion of her fashion sense i’m going to scream I love Adolin Kholin. He points out, though, that clothing says a lot about people, which he’s right about. Also I love that somehow the colors aren’t right for her skin, given where she comes from. I guess when every color gets super-saturated, matching subtle shades to your skin can get a bit difficult....

Shit. They found a corrupted gloryspren coming that way. 

The Shin man in the lighthouse thinks Kaladin’s come for a fortune, because this is the Rii oracle. Isn’t...isn’t Rii an Aon? Could that be related? I have no idea. What the fuck even is Shadesmar (I know what Shadesmar is don’t @ me) 

Anyway Kaladin touched a sphere full of light and “felt himself get carried away by the storm” so that’s great, thanks for that Kal. 

Back over to the gang running into a corrupted gloryspren. Oh, Sja-anat is talking through it!

The corrupted gloryspren landed on Shallan’s arm. Odium suspects that you survived, a voice said in her mind. That...that was the voice of the Unmade from the mirror. Sja-anat. He thinks something strange happened to the Oathgate because of our influence--we’ve never managed to Enlighten such powerful spren before. It’s believable that something odd might happen. I lied, and said I think you were sent far, far from the point of transfer.  He has minions in this realm, and they will be told to hunt you. So take care. Fortunately, he doesn’t know you’re a Lightweaver--he thinks you’re an Elsecaller for some reason.  I will do what I can, but I’m not sure he trusts me any longer. 

It seems like Sja-anat is really trying to help them. I like her more and more. Anyway, it also seems like Shallan’s Elsecaller ploy actually worked. Although more worryingly it means someone in Urithiru might be feeding information to Odium. 

I’m staring directly at Amaram, although I know that’s unlikely, but listen, I hate him. 

Kaladin sees Dalinar kneeling on the storm, with nine shadows around him, and knows that Dalinar is in huge danger. Shit. 

He sees a vaguely familiar city, with a wall and an ocean beyond, but it stops. Apparently, you can only see shit if you’re invested, and the “shin” man is, in fact, Selish; he says “merciful Domi.” 

Canned food exists in Shadesmar. I wonder--is it imported from Scadrial, or have other cultures picked it up? 

Adolin talks about Rathelas. 

“Rathalas was where my mother was killed,” Adolin said. “Assassinated by rebels. Her death drove my father into a fury. We almost lost him to the despair.” He shook his head, and Shallan rested her hand on his arm. “It’s...not a pleasant event to think about. Sadeas burned the city to the ground in retribution. My father gets a strange, distant expression whenever someone mentions Rathalas. I think he blames himself for not stopping Sadeas, even though he was mad with grief at the time, wounded and incoherent from an attempt on his own life.” 

Oh god I knew he didn’t know the truth but having it confirmed hurts even more. He thinks Sadeas gave the burn order. 

Anyway, the place Kaladin drew was Thaylen City. He thinks they could use it to get back. 

Fuck Amaram is in Thaylen City. 

Shit. 

Well, hopefully he’ll be gone by the time Kaladin and company get there, I say, knowing that’s almost certainly not going to happen and that Kaladin will interact with Amaram. 

I’m also realizing how many characters we don’t like or trust know the truth about Rathalas. Ialai almost certainly does. Navani does not. Amaram was there, so he does. If the wrong person tells Adolin about that---shit. That could be really bad. 

An interesting point from the Mythica: 

Sja-anat was often regarded as an individual, when others--like Moelach or Ashertmarn--were seen as forces. 

Explains why Sja-anat is the one making contact now. She can think for herself. 

Anyway, Szeth is heading out with some other Skybreaker squires. They’re having a test of martial competence. They’re...essentially going to be playing paintball. I’m going to shit. 

And Szeth is actually having fun, for once! I’m so glad. He deserves to have fun every once in a while. Although he immediately feels guilty for feeling happy. 

Nightblood has apparently forgotten that Denth--well, VaraTreledees--is dead. Then again, Nightblood’s grasp of death is...nebulous. 

Anyway, Szeth is just like. I’m the fucking assassin in white. I’m not losing this paintball game. 

Unfortunately, he’s the clear near-winner,  so they’re ganging up on him. Unfortunately, he over-exerted himself, and runs out of Stormlight and gets hit by like 60 pouches of color and then falls into the Purelake. 

He still won, though--because the rules say whoever has the least marks on their uniform wins, and his was washed off in the Purelake. 

NALE’S BACK!!!

He says that he’s going to tell them--all of them--the two “greatest secrets” he knows, before Szeth bonds his spren. 

We get a sketch of a mandra, which seems to be a huge beautiful eel-like beast of burden in Shadesmar. 

Another interesting tidbit, I think we have the spren who gives the Thrill: 

Nergaoul was known for driving forces into a battle rage, lending them great ferocity. Curiously, he did this to both sides of a conflict, Voidbringer and human. This seems common of less self-aware spren. 

Kaladin woke up last, which worries him--it’s a sign that he’s slipping back down, again. We get that the owners of the ship are called lightspren, but they’re commonly called Reachers, and look like humans with bronze skin. 

Syl actually--looks human, here. her dress is red, her hair is black,  and her skin is tan, like Kaladin’s. Kaladin is talking with Ico, the captain. 

Syl is pouting because they won’t let her ride one of the mandas that pull the ship. She’s very put out about this. 

“Horses are bad enough. I’m not about to get onto something that doesn’t even have legs.”  “Where’s your sense of adventure?”  “I dragged it out back and clubbed it senseless for getting me into the army.” 

Turns out her skin and hair are a Lightweaving, because she doesn’t want rumors of a travelling honorspren spreading,  so she’s hiding as human. 

Syl is still trying to matchmake Kaladin and Shallan. We also get a mention of Tarah, who we heard about in the first book, I think--here we get that she left Kaladin. 

Oh, Kal. 

Also, we get that Azure is completely awful on ships. 

Also, looks like the mandras might be related to the arrowhead spren that Shallan imitated as Swiftspren--she notes that she’s seen them around things that fly or are too big for their mass. Also they die too far from human population centers, and sometimes they “drop,” possibly into the Physical realm. 

I want to ride a mandra now, I’m with Syl. 

Shallan is also having trouble drawing, sometimes. That’s not good. 

“I had a splinter once,” Shallan noted. “It eventually got out of hand.”  “You...you did not just say that.” 

You can just feel Kaladin going through the stages of grief in response to that pun. 

Shallan says that Azure is interesting because she’s mysterious and Kaladin indignantly protests that he’s mysterious. Also Shallan’s comments on Azure are just a tad bi. 

Bi Shallan being canon is still the best thing. 

He notes that being around Shallan is nice, but not in the same way as either of the women he’s been in love with. it’s different. That bodes well for both my “Kaladin and Shallan have a mutually healthy and supportive friendship” and “please god no love triangle” desires. Unfortunately,  he praises her ability to repress things, which to him sounds wonderful, but... isn’t. Whoops, Kal, you fucked that one up.