Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive #4) - Brandon Sanderson Page 0,358

front of me the Blade taken from the corpse of my son.”

Raboniel stiffened. She glanced at the warform with the weapon. “I did not know.”

Didn’t she? Or was this another game?

Raboniel turned, nodding for Navani to follow as they walked away from the shield.

“If I might ask, Ancient One,” Navani said, “why do you give the Blades you capture to common soldiers, and not keep them yourselves?”

Raboniel hummed to one of her rhythms, but Navani could never tell them apart. Singers seemed to be able to distinguish one rhythm from another after hearing a short word or a couple of seconds of humming.

“Some Fused do keep the Blades we capture,” Raboniel said. “The ones who enjoy the pain. Now, I fear I must make some changes in how you and your scholars operate. You are distracted, naturally, by preventing them from giving me too much information. I have unconsciously put you in a position where your obvious talents are wasted by foolish politicking.

“These are the new arrangements: You will work by yourself at my desk in a separate room from the other scholars. Twice a day, you may give them written directions, which I will personally vet. That should give you more time for worthwhile pursuits, and less for deceit.”

Navani drew her lips to a line. “I think that is unwise, Ancient One,” she said. “I am accustomed to working directly with my scholars. They are far more efficient when I am personally directing their efforts.”

“I find it difficult to imagine them being less efficient than they are currently, Navani,” Raboniel said. “We will work this way from now on. It is not a matter I care to debate.”

Raboniel had a long stride, and used it purposely to force Navani to hurry to match her. Upon reaching the scholars’ chambers, Raboniel turned left instead of right—entering the room Navani’s scholars had been using as a library.

Raboniel’s desk in this chamber had once belonged to Navani. The Fused gestured, and Navani sat as instructed. This was going to be inconvenient—but that was Raboniel’s intent.

The Fused went down on one knee, then picked through a box on the floor here. She set something on the desk. A glass globe? Yes, like the one that had been near the first node Navani had activated.

“When we discovered the node operating the field, this was connected to it,” Raboniel said. “Look closely. What do you see?”

Navani hesitantly picked up the globe, which was heavier than it appeared. Though it was made of solid glass, she spotted an unusual construction inside. Something she hadn’t noticed, or understood, the first time she’d seen one of these. The globe had a pillar rising through the center.…

“It’s a reproduction of the crystal pillar room,” Navani said, her eyes widening. “You don’t suppose…”

“That’s how the field is created,” Raboniel said, tapping the globe with an orange carapace fingernail. “It’s a type of Soulcasting. The fabrial is persuading the air in a sphere around the pillar to think it is solid glass. That’s why cutting off a piece accomplishes nothing.”

“That’s incredible,” Navani said. “An application of the Surge I never anticipated. It’s not a full transformation, but a half state somehow. Kept in perpetual stasis, using this globe as a model to mimic…”

“There must be similar globes at the other nodes.”

“Clearly,” Navani said. “After this one was detached, did it make the shield seem weaker than before?”

“Not that we can tell,” Raboniel said. “One node must be enough to perpetuate the transformation.”

“Fascinating…”

Don’t get taken in, Navani. She wants you to think like a scholar, not like a queen. She wants you working for her, not against her.

That focus was even more difficult to maintain as Raboniel set something else on the table. A small diamond the size of Navani’s thumb, full of Stormlight. But … was the hue faintly off? Navani held it up, frowning, turning it over in her fingers. She couldn’t tell without a Stormlight sphere to compare it to, but it did seem this color was faintly teal.

“It’s not Stormlight, is it?” she asked. “Nor Voidlight?”

Raboniel hummed a rhythm. Then, realizing Navani wouldn’t understand, said, “No.”

“The third Light. I knew it. The moment I learned about Voidlight, I wondered. Three gods. Three types of Light.”

“Ah,” Raboniel said, “but this isn’t the third Light. We call that Lifelight. Cultivation’s power, distilled. This is something different. Something unique. It is the reason I came to this tower. It is a mixing of two. Stormlight and Lifelight. Like…”

“Like the Sibling is