Books Wind and Truth Reread Wind and Truth Reread: Chapters 88-90 Featuring Szeth’s unexpected reunion, Venli’s major discovery, and Dalinar’s torment. By Paige Vest, Lyndsey Luther, Drew McCaffrey | Published on August 11, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share Greetings, Sanderfans, and welcome back to our Wind and Truth reread! This week we cover chapters 88, 89, and 90, and wow, are they packed full of gasp-inducing moments! Sigzil and his forces are desperately low on Stormlight… but he might have an idea. Dalinar is having a storm of a time in the Spiritual Realm, tormented by awful visions. Jasnah is facing defeat at Odium’s hand. Szeth faces someone from his past. And Venli finds something that Odium wants to protect very, very badly. It’s an exciting week, so let’s jump right in… The book has been out long enough that most of you will hopefully have finished, and as such, this series shall now function as a re-read rather than a read-along. That means there will be spoilers for the end of the book (as well as full Cosmere spoilers, so beware if you aren’t caught up on all Cosmere content). Paige’s Commentary: Plot Arcs Chapter 88 is titled “Cycle of War” and opens with Sigzil and company having just dispatched Yelig-nar. It had taken a concentrated effort. While the defenders were focused on bringing down the Unmade, Narak Three was lost. They retreat to Narak Prime and drop the bridge into the chasm. Sigzil stands on the battlements, observing the celebrating singers, then turns to his new Radiant reinforcements, sent by Jasnah. But he has no Stormlight for them and Vienta estimates that they’ll run out completely by the end of the day or early the next. As they sit now, they have to hold out for two more days—and at least some of that time will see them fighting with no Stormlight. Sig speaks with General Winn, who compliments Sigzil’s leadership in the face of losing another close ally to a traitor, and they discuss the need for a new plan, given their dire situation. Sigzil instructs the general to call a planning meeting. POV Shift! Dalinar is consumed by the chaos of the Spiritual Realm. He sees face after bloody face, each dying. Then he sees himself conquering an unfamiliar world as the Blackthorn. He finds himself being taken through a vision from his past: the night Gavilar died. Then little Gavinor finds Dalinar and they’re cast back into the chaos together. Dalinar asks the power of the Spiritual Realm what will happen if he wins the contest and makes peace. But the things he sees tell him that war will come again, time and time again, because Odium will prompt humans to break their word. Then he tells the power, Honor’s power, that he needs it in order to truly defeat Odium. At this point, Odium snatches Gav away and sends Dalinar reeling through vision after horrifying vision. Chapter 89 is titled “Revelations” and opens with Kaladin and his party approaching the Dustbringer monastery. Kaladin wonders what will happen as he struggles to retain the peace he’d experienced the previous night. He and Nale engage in some verbal sparring, arguing about whether laws are right just because they’re old, arguing about whether elders are wise just because they’re old. Kaladin gets frustrated, as Kaladin is wont to do. But then he remembers how Adolin used to listen to him and how much it helped him, so he tries that approach with Nale. Kaladin says that perhaps he hasn’t listened to Nale enough and asks him to talk of his early days as a Herald. Nale seems suspicious but also smug at winning the argument. So he talks, and Szeth watches intently as the Herald recalls his first rebirth and how Odium would execute singers who wouldn’t kill for him and how, over centuries, had built groups of them who were “trained only for death.” Then he talks of how he stopped them and Kaladin asks if he remembers how it felt. Nale begins thinking back, and mentions wanting to see Lift again—but when Kaladin encourages him, he shuts down the conversation. Kaladin sees that he tried to spur on the conversation too soon instead of just letting Nale talk. Szeth tells him it doesn’t matter, that the past is dead and that there’s an Unmade in Shinovar and it must be dealt with. Then Nale calls Szeth “Truthed” and Szeth seems pretty wowed by the Herald’s words. They approach a small town with people hiding behind doorways and a feeling of darkness in the air. Kaladin fears he’s led Szeth wrong because this place has obviously been corrupted and is clearly in need of help—so why should he be encouraging Szeth to stop fighting? Then he reminds himself that Szeth wants to stop fighting—and that he should be able to choose for himself when he puts down his weapons. POV Shift! Venli and her group finally reach the central plateaus and see that signs of the battle above are more obvious. Shouting and screaming, figures leaping across the chasms, bodies floating in the rivers. The chasmfiends want to eat the dead, which kind of cracks me up, but Venli and the others ask them not to and so they don’t. They confer about what to do next. Venli says she feels it just ahead. Thude observes that’s the heart of Narak and a new member of the Five says that it’s calling to them. Venli has a moment of uncertainty, wondering if Odium is leading them into a trap, but is reassured by another member of the Five. Still, they call for a vote of the Five. As they discuss the matter, one asks why they need the answers they might find inside Narak. Leshwi joins the discussion and insists that they’ll be destroyed without the answers. But then her eyes begin to glow red and she admits that she’s still unable to fully resist Odium’s power. She suggests she stay back while the others go on. The Five vote unanimously to continue. Venli senses that the tone is ahead… but also down. They reach the central plateau and Venli peeks into Shadesmar to see if any Fused are around. She sees none, but the tone is coming from beneath the ground. She touches the wall and the stones tell her she is nearly there. She opens a hole in the wall which reveals a tunnel. Thude instructs the others to stay back and Venli and the Five head down into the tunnel. It’s getting so exciting! POV Shift! Jasnah and Fen have reached a compromise: The Radiants went to the Shattered Plains, while the bulk of Jasnah’s conventional troops remain at Thaylen City. Jasnah wishes that she could have sent Radiants to Adolin, but they don’t control that Oathgate. She knows that Emul and Tashikk have betrayed them; Jasnah feels that she should have seen that coming. As Fen goes to discuss matters with the Merchant Council, Jasnah returns to Taln’s temple to project what might happen at the Shattered Plains. She is visited by none other than Odium who appears to her as “a black mist with a strange golden light at the core, tinged red on the outsides.” It billows toward her and she produces fearspren. She tells Odium he cannot hurt her and he assures her that he’s there to compliment her. Then he reveals himself to be Taravangian and announces that Thaylen City will fall by the following evening. And we all know how he will cause the city to fall. The conniving snake. Chapter 90 is titled “Candle Before the Storm” and is a Szeth POV as he returns to the Dustbringer monastery. Nightblood is speaking to him and reports that the swords say they’re almost home. Szeth doesn’t know what that means and hands off the Honorblades to Kaladin. He asks Nale if he needs to worry about two Honorbearers attacking him again. Nale says that his test is of a different sort and that he will only face one foe. Szeth tells Kaladin and Syl that he doesn’t want their help today. Kaladin objects, but Szeth reiterates his request as Nale nods in approval. As Szeth summons his Shardblade, he speaks to his spren, who says it’s been thinking about what it means to swear oaths, and states that it needs more time to figure things out. Szeth is amazed by this but proceeds into the monastery. He sees a lone figure inside, wrapped in cloth, covering even her head. He dismisses his Blade and tells the figure that he will not fight her. His spren appears and tells Szeth he needs to fight, but Szeth is pondering how what’s happened in Shinovar could ever have come to pass. How they’d all been taken in, how even his father was taken in. He says nobody will tell him the truth and he must try to find answers, as the Dustbringer approaches him, running. Szeth wonders why the Honorbearers vanish to smoke when he kills them. His spren is growing frantic, insisting that he fight off the attack; instead, he uses his surges to avoid the Dustbringer’s Blade. He asks his opponent what this is all about, but she’s growing frustrated and demands that he fight her. And in that moment, Szeth recognizes her voice. He looks into her eyes and knows his sister. “I will not fight you,” he whispered. “I will not kill you. Do as you must.” The Honorbearer swings her sword toward him but stops. She swings again but stops again. Szeth asks if they all let him win, if the whole thing has been a sham. His spren tells him that they all are supposed to try to kill him and again, his sister goes on the offensive, stopping just shy of killing him. She pulls the cloth from her face, revealing herself, and insists that he fight her, but he refuses. Elid tells him that their mother is dead, that she had to hold her hand as she died. She says that their father is dead, taken by the Voice, but she looks away as she says it. He approaches her, feeling calm, and as he nears her, she dismisses her Blade and he embraces her. She says she’s supposed to kill him to prove she wasn’t weak, that she wasn’t Truthless. Then she begins to fade to mist as she tells him that the Oathpact is broken and reveals that they need him to take Jezrien’s place. Szeth confronts Nale about not telling him they wanted him to be a Herald. Nale apparently doesn’t know that Taln never broke, and I find this to be completely unfair and I’m offended on Taln’s behalf! Humph! But Nale says they need to try, even though the others tell him it may not even work to bind the Fused. “We must try regardless,” Nin said. “Ishar says the only way to stop the Fused is to use our souls to lock them away, as part of an oath.” Syl is shocked that Nale wants the singers to fail because his Skybreakers are fighting alongside them and Kaladin tells her you can’t use logic to convince someone who’s delusional. Then Szeth asks Nale if he’s insane for wanting Szeth as a Herald. Nale simply answers that he’s been told that they are insane. Then he tells Szeth there are two more monasteries to visit, and that his father is at the last one. Szeth balks, saying Elid told him their father was dead. Nale’s answer is shocking: “He is. So is your sister. You think you’ve been fighting the living in these monasteries, Szeth?” Dun-dun-dunnn… POV Shift! Sigzil is in a meeting where they’re trying to decide what to do next, desperately looking for a way to last two more days with a dwindling supply of Stormlight and little chance of holding the Oathgate. There’s a lot of discouragement amongst the leadership on the Shattered Plains. They’re outnumbered, they’re almost out of Stormlight, they’ve lost sixty Radiants and squires. It’s looking pretty bad. They discuss arranging troops on Narak Prime and Narak Two, which is the Oathgate plateau. After the meeting, Sigzil asks General Winn what their chances are of lasting two more days. The general says maybe ten percent—”[w]ith heavy casualties.” Sig says that he maybe has an idea but that he wanted to see if anyone else had come up with anything better. He hasn’t worked out all the details because it seems like it might be impossible. He and Vienta have been looking over the fine points of the agreement for the contest and thinks they may have something. He says he needs time and Winn says they’ll give it to him before leaving. Vienta can’t see how it will work, how they could trick the Fused into following them off the plateau. But Sigzil still feels he’s onto something and that he could solve the problem. Vienta is still reeling from hearing Leyten’s spren Ethenia screaming. Spren aren’t supposed to be able to die… She’s having an existential crisis, and Sig has no answers for her. POV Shift! Venli and the Five reach the end of the tunnel and find a golden pool of light. Timbre tells Venli of Cultivation’s pool in the mountains and that Honor has a pool that moves around. So this is Odium’s pool, and Timbre thinks it’s been hidden until now when someone came along who was bonded both to a spren of Odium and a spren of Honor. Then one of their guards arrives down the tunnel to tell them that their Heavenly Ones have been discovered… by singers and an “extremely dangerous-looking Fused.” And of course, that’s where the chapter ends, leaving us in suspense until next week! Lyndsey’s Commentary: Character Arcs and Maps Chapter 88’s arch Heralds are Taln, Jezrien, Vedel, and Ishar. It’s somewhat rare to have four different Heralds, so let’s dig into what the meanings behind their appearances could be. Taln is likely here for his attributes as the resourceful, dependable soldier. That’s Sigzil to a T in this chapter; he’s finally found his footing as a resourceful soldier and leader despite his grief (or perhaps in part because of it). Jezrien actually shows up in the chapter, in addition to his protecting/leadership attributes, which Sigzil is also displaying. Vedel is a bit more nebulous. She’s the patron of the Edgedancers, whom we don’t see in this chapter, nor do we see a lot of healing or loving going on. Hmm. Bit of a mystery. Ishar is more obvious: He’s the patron of the Bondsmiths (representing Dalinar). Moving on to chapter 89! Here we have Nale (he was a bit hard to make out), Palah (thank goodness for that hair), Kalak (whom I only managed to identify thanks to that little forelock of hair he’s got going), and Battah. Nale plays a part in the Kaladin chapter, which explains his presence. Palah, whose attributes are Learned/Giving and whose role is Scholar, is clearly standing in for Jasnah… as is Battah, most likely, as she’s not only patron of Jasnah’s order but also has attributes of Wise/Careful and… counselor? So probably representative of Kaladin, too. Kalak is the patron of the Willshapers, Venli’s order. Finally, we have chapter 90. This arch features Chana, Jezrien, Palah (90% sure on this one, very hard to make out) and Kalak. Chana’s probably here for the connection to the Dustbringers—Szeth is in their monastery, after all. The revelation that Szeth is to take Jezrien’s place explains his presence. Kalak’s the patron of the Willshapers, here for Venli. And Palah… I’d say she represents Sigzil, the scholar turned soldier. I want to start off with this quote from the opening of Chapter 88: […] behind him an Unmade [Yelig-nar] finally died. Seriously? That’s IT? That’s all we get?! This feels like such a cheat, doing this off-screen this way. Ugh. Okay, now that I have that off my chest, let’s turn to character analysis… Sigzil Sigzil gathered the defenders and fought on, haunted by dreams of Leyten’s and Teft’s deaths. But standing tall because someone had to, and he had accepted this burden of leadership. Oh, Sigzil. Every reminder that he’s finally found his place is another twist of the knife for those of us who know his fate. Dalinar “Have you seen yourself?” […] “Don’t lose him,” Jezrien said, urgently. “Don’t let go of him.” This is especially prescient, considering what we know of Dalinar’s future. He’s about to be faced with an awful decision, an impossible decision… and only by standing fast to who he is NOW, the man he has become through all these trials and tribulations, will he have the strength to recognize the third, invisible path. This was a man Dalinar hated. Both versions of him agreed on that point. Seeing his younger self like this made him sick. I haven’t struggled with alcoholism myself, but I have dear friends who have, and this rings incredibly true to the experiences they’ve described to me. “I know what I was,” Dalinar said, standing tall. “I know I can never escape it, because I cannot bring Gavilar back. But I keep taking steps!” The most important step a man can take… the next one. I find it interesting that in a way, it’s referencing—either intentionally on the part of the author, or unintentionally but still recognizably—the 12-Step program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Dalinar has realized that he has a problem. He has examined his past errors, and seems to be in the process of trying to make amends and atone for them. This step in particular he seems to be struggling with, considering his relationship with his son. Gavinor “Everyone dies,” Gav whispered. I feel as if I have a very interesting connection with this bit of Gavinor’s character right now, as my own son is beginning to grapple with the concept of death for the first time as well. (He’s a bit older than Gav, but he’s also experienced much safer life situations than poor Gavinor.) The concept of death is a huge, scary thing for a child to consider, and I think that we as adults can forget just how jarring that realization can be. We take for granted the fact that, yes, all of us will die someday and for the most part we just try to shove that to the back of our minds. It’s something we have no control over, so we live each day and, for the most part, we don’t fear impending death around every corner. (Well. Some of us do that, thanks a lot anxiety, but it’s on a different level than that of a child who’s just learned about the concept.) My son has asked me several times over the last few weeks when I and his father will die; how many years do we have left? When will HE die? What happens after? What will happen to him should we die before him? And I’ve been left struggling to give him answers that won’t downplay mortality while at the same time not scaring him unnecessarily. It’s a hard line to walk; and an even harder one for Dalinar, as Gavinor has had to grapple with death on a very intimate level. When you see your father slain right in front of you, you have to grow up very quickly. Death becomes not a nebulous shadow half-glimpsed in the distance, but a cloaked man with a scythe standing right beside you, his bony hand on your shoulder. And now Gavinor is also having to deal with the realization that his grandfather, whom he relies on, isn’t perfect. This is something Adolin, a full-grown man, has been struggling with, so to expect little Gavinor to come to grips with it is unrealistic. And, of course, Odium is behind it all, pulling the strings of this sweet, traumatized child’s life in order to turn him into a game piece that he can maneuver into checkmate position against Dalinar. The Heralds […] getting through to Nale wasn’t so much about persuading him that he was wrong, but about reminding him of the person he’d been. I’d read a whole book on Kaladin interviewing the Heralds in Braize after the events of Wind and Truth. “The man I was,” Jezrien said. “He escaped me. I let him go, like leaves before a storm. Have you seen him? I… would be him again. Please.” Yet another example of the madness of the Heralds; and unfortunately, Jezrien won’t live long enough to benefit from Kaladin’s therapy. And speaking of our favorite former Bridgeboy… Kaladin Certain skills—like being able to resist his own thoughts—had helped him, with time and practice. I do find it interesting that Kaladin is drawing on his own personal experiences in order to attempt to build a method of therapy from the ground up. It makes me wonder how many of the progenitors of early therapy also suffered from the very things that they helped others to overcome. Part of me wants to say that it feels… unscientific, too biased perhaps, to attempt to construct a method based primarily on one’s own experiences and not from an outsider (and therefore more unbiased) perspective. But then again, who better to assess whether the methods are working than one who has experienced them directly? I wonder what Navani would say about all this… “Could you tell me about some of the best parts of being a Herald, maybe from the early days?” Ah yes…. People like talking about themselves. Kaladin learning that most obvious of facts a bit late in life, it seems. Better late than never? Why should Kaladin be encouraging Szeth to stop fighting? Because he wants to, Kaladin reaffirmed. And every soldier should have the option to put down their spear if they choose to and are willing to pay the cost. Just as he himself put down the spear, when he was ready. Venli “Last time I did anything like this, I was playing into Odium’s hands. I did it willingly. I knew what I was doing.” I’m glad to see her questioning her actions here. As usual in a Venli chapter, it shows immense growth. Szeth “Is that another word of Lift’s?” Szeth said, smiling. Speaking of growth… back in books 1 and 2 I never would have imagined that we’d ever see Szeth smile about something. He and Nightblood (and Lift, I suppose) have such fascinating friendships. They definitely rate high on the unexpected companions list. If we had a new member, an unparalleled warrior, as Jezrien was—a man with no attachments to this world, a man who always does what is needed…” So this whole time they’ve been molding him into the soulless killer they needed. No empathy, no family, no friends, no country to call his own… just empty talent. A sword, thrust into the ground to complete the circle and seal the Oathpact. …Of course, the Heralds didn’t factor in a certain Bridgeboy’s influence. Elid “You broke our family! You destroyed our name. Stories about you have chased me all my life. Truthless, they whispered, as if you were a disease that could spread.” Another girl who has been through too much. Dragged from home to home, never finding a place to put down roots and form a community to replace the family that she’d lost… It’s no wonder Elid feels so betrayed by her little brother. Drew’s Commentary: Invested Arts & Theories A world he didn’t know. A distant place where he brought death, destruction, and waste as the Blackthorn, in armor the color of coal. A world of strange beautiful architecture, all aflame; he ground its ashes beneath his heels. Ahhh, another Blackthorn vision. So many options for this one—maybe Nalthis? Taldain? Perhaps even Scadrial, given how foreign their architecture is to Rosharans? The crazy thing here is how prophetic these feel. Sure, Dalinar himself seems to have been preserved from the grasp of Retribution, but we’ve got that crazy Blackthorn spren deal instead. And for those who have read Isles of the Emberdark, it’s pretty darn clear that Roshar isn’t hesitating to send people out to the stars… “I can sometimes feel where I need to be… so I came here…” Okay, so this is a potential bombshell. Is this a Jezrien-specific phenomenon, or is it universal to Heralds? Because this sounds exactly like the use of Fortune that Hoid leverages to find his way into the middle of important events. If it’s the same, what is the mechanism? Is it simply strong Connection to a Shard? If so, with which Shard does Hoid find this power? If not (and I suspect not), I wonder what element of the Herald Investiture quiver lets them tap into this. Maybe something as-yet-unexplained with the Night? There are certainly some very strange elements waiting to have light shed upon them when it comes to the Nightwatcher. Heck, just look at Lift and her unique abilities… The Old Magic remains largely inscrutable even after five of these books. Some might assume that Light and anti-Light are opposites, as can be found in philosophy, though not truly in actual physical science. Hot banishes and destroys cold. Light banishes and destroys dark. Likewise, one might say that Light and anti-Light are opposites in that they are mutually destructive. I have to give a shoutout to Brandon here for playing with some nice subtext. Of course, light/dark and heat/cold are not in fact opposites, but rather one is the absence of another. The language here is directly subversive. This epigraph leads by saying that Light and anti-Light aren’t opposites, then brings up examples from “actual physical science.” And Navani connects her examples back to anti-Light with the word “likewise” but we know that dark and light are not mutually destructive, the way she implies; nor are heat and cold. Cold is simply the absence of heat, and dark is simply the absence of light. Is this an indication that anti-Light is simply an absence of Light? Or can we assume from the inaccurate analogy here that there is something more to it, and anti-Light and Light are truly mutually destructive forces? I tend toward the latter. It could be an extremely destructive talent, but was less valuable in a duel than it was in battle, where close proximity could allow you to set entire swaths of ground and people aflame. I still have issues with this. Why would this be less valuable? In practice, here (and elsewhere in this book), Division comes across as flashy but limited in range and power. But statements like this make is sound like a Skybreaker or Dustbringer should be able to wreck huge areas. In a one-on-one duel, that ability should be extremely useful. One person can only move so far, after all, and if you can essentially cast an area-of-effect fireball, it stands to reason that you can probably catch your opponent in that area. “Wait,” Syl said, appearing full sized next to Kaladin. “Will a new Oathpact even do anything? The Fused came back this time because of the Everstorm, right?” This line is one that has me waffling, on the other hand. From one perspective, this is important—fandom theories have been going HARD on the topic of rebuilding the Oathpact for more or less this reason. The Everstorm makes the prison irrelevant, since the souls of the Fused don’t go back to Braize. But it also feels very on-the-nose, from a narrative sense. There are many moments in this book where it feels like Brandon is speaking directly to the fandom at large, trying to go “don’t worry, I hear you,” and it often rubs me the wrong way. It’s not quite breaking the fourth wall in a traditional sense, but, from my perspective, it feels like an accidental version of that. They found a magnificent golden pool of light. Okay, so sure, many of the “big reveals” in Wind and Truth were guessed (and widely circulated as theories) years before the book came out. But this one came out of left field. The vast majority of fans assumed that Odium’s perpendicularity was on Braize, if they thought about it at all. But nope—it’s on Roshar. Well… it was. We’ll, uh, get into that more at the end of the book. Nevertheless, this was an excellent revelation and explained why the Shattered Plains were such an important location for so long, despite being in the boonies and feeling disconnected from the rest of civilization. Odium has his fingers on Braize, of course, but he Invested on Roshar. Crazy stuff. We’ll be keeping an eye on the comment sections of posts about this article on various social media platforms and may include some of your comments/speculation (with attribution) on future weeks’ articles! Keep the conversation going, and PLEASE remember to spoiler-tag your comments on social media to help preserve the surprise for those who haven’t read the book yet. See you next Monday for our discussion of chapters 91 through 94![end-mark] The post <i>Wind and Truth</i> Reread: Chapters 88-90 appeared first on Reactor.