WARNING: Late Arrival Spoilers abound for previous books in The Stormlight Archive.
An abandoned ship is discovered, last seen looking for the lost city of Akinah on the scoured land of Aimia. Queen Fen of Thaylenah and Queen Navani of Urithiru fund an expedition to find the city and discover its secrets. They hire the Wandersail, the most advanced ship in the Thaylen fleet, owned by new trademaster Rysn. Rysn is given the ardent Rushu to search for secrets, the Windrunners Lopen and Huio to protect her, and the Horneater Cord to cook.
But everyone on the ship has their own goals and secrets. The captain is not pleased with how her ship ended up in Rysn's hands. Rysn is mostly in the expedition in a desperate attempt to heal her rare pet. The Windrunners are searching for the Oathgate, Cord has the sacred Sight of her people, and Rushu is hungry for ancient fabrials.
And this is hardly the first expedition to Aimia. Some return. None ever, ever find what they were looking for.
This novella provides examples of:
- Accidental Discovery: Huio disassembles a spanreed, and when he puts it back together it doesn't work right. Rushu realizes that accidentally leaving a piece of aluminum inside the casing has caused the sympathetic movement to decouple; now only lateral movement is sympathetic, side-to-side movement is normal—meaning that she can quickly give Rysn a hover chair. Rushu says that a lot of important discoveries are accidents.
- Amplifier Artifact: It's implied that the Dawnshards act as these, elevating other Invested Arts to titanic power but incapable of being used on their own. This is part of why the Sleepless end up allowing Rysn to remain the Change Dawnshard, since without a spren bond she cannot actually use the Command to do anything.
- Ancient Conspiracy: The Sleepless, who we have learned in previous books are dedicated to hiding something on Aimia at all costs. They are guarding the Dawnshard, a Cosmic Keystone that was one of four used to unmake Adonalsium.
- Ancient Tradition: Rock's family are part of one, including Cord. They are the traditional guardians of Cultivation's Perpendicularity in the Horneater Peaks.
- Anti-Climax: Lopen accidentally swears an Ideal again. He doesn't hate anyone, so the traditional third Windrunner Ideal ("I will protect even those I hate") doesn't work for him. But when he realizes that his cousin sometimes resents him for his unkind pranks, he resolves to protect people from himself—and that turns out to be enough.Lopen: Storm me! You did it again? I almost died out there, and you accept the Words now?
Stormfather: It is the right time.
Lopen: Where's the drama? The sense of timing? You're terrible at this, penhito!
Stormfather: I take offense at that. Be glad for what you have. - Blasé Boast: Nikli is incredibly unconcerned with physical harm, despite being on a ship with dozens of angry sailors, two Knights Radiant, and an artifabran.Nikli: I assure you, good man-at-arms. There is nothing you can do to me that will get you the answers you desire.
- Anti-Magic: Something living in the air and waters around Aimia drains Stormlight, which is why they need to send a ship instead of Windrunners. It turns out that Sleepless bred with Larkin to acquire their Investiture-draining metabolism, though it apparently isn’t as effective as the original thing.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Sleepless, as it turns out, are not limited to tiny hordelings. Some of their bodies are full on Greatshells.
- The Bus Came Back: Yalb, one of the sailors thought dead after Shallan sunk the ship, is alive and well.
- Continuity Nod: The mural in the tunnel, depicting "People with hands forward, falling through what appeared to be portals, emerging into... light?" looks eerily similar to the one in Elantris in the tunnel leading to the lake.
- Cool Chair: After hearing of certain fabrial breakthroughs, Rysn was hoping she would get a Super Wheelchair, maybe one that could fly. But at first it seems that the linked fabrials are too linked and won't let her move while lifted. But then they accidentally discover how to break some of the linkages, and she has a hover chair! It's still limited, but far better than anything she had before.
- Crazy-Prepared: The Sleepless are all for never letting anyone even reach Aimia, so there should be no reason to hide anything there. It's entirely prepped anyway in case they miss something, going so far as to construct fake ruins of an entire city.
- Commonality Connection: Rysn and the Lopen quickly form an Odd Friendship, bonding over the shared experience of living with a disability. It is easy to forget these days, but when the Lopen was introduced he had lost an arm and didn't regrow it until the end of Words of Radiance.
- Cosmic Keystone: The Dawnshards, the four divine Commands that were used to create the universe. They still exist, and were used to splinter Adonalsium. Rysn absorbs, and thus becomes, the Dawnshard of Change.
- Cultural Rebel: Cord, Rock's daughter. She thinks that Rock, in insisting on sticking to their birth-order caste system and demanding judgement for breaking it to defend Kaladin, is being pure Lawful Stupid. And she will tell anyone who cares to listen.
- Deadpan Snarker: Ardent Rushu in her conversations with the Lopen can be quite snarky.
- Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Discussed and defied. While Cord tells Rysn that most tales of humans competing with the Sleepless involve tricking them, Rysn sticks to honest dealings.
- Don't Make Me Destroy You: The Sleepless trying to stop the expedition really doesn't want to be forced to kill them all, and Rysn in particular. When their identity is revealed they go so far as to beg Rysn to turn back, and pretend to be imprisoned while trying a complex bluff as a last ditch attempt to avoid it.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: A quiet but emphatic version. Rysn has absolutely had it with people asking 'but why?' As in 'but why would you try to take care of yourself and live as independently as you can when you're rich enough you don't need to?'
- Due to the Dead: When the dead Santhid turns up, Rysn nearly faces a mutiny. Santhids are enormously rare symbols of good luck, and to see one dead is about as blatant an ill omen as it gets. Until Rysn manages to spin it as good luck that its body was found against all odds by people who would give it a proper burial.
- Easy Logistics: Apparently, Alethkar has historically had a near-monopoly on Soulcasters that can produce food, and Rysn suspects that this is a far larger part of the reason behind their legendary military prowess than they would like to admit.
- Eloquent in My Native Tongue:
- In this book and all of his previous appearances, Huio speaks with very broken Alethi. As seen during his conversations with Lopen in Herdazian, Huio is clearly very intelligent and articulate; the Alethi language is just particularly difficult for him.
- Cord also has a problem with her extremely limited Alethi, and is incredibly relieved when she learns that she and Rysn both speak Veden. Rysn decides not to mention that most people consider the Alethi and Veden languages to be nearly identical (which is why so many people speak both).
- Ghost Ship:
- How the plot starts. The Sleepless hole a ship and send it towards the mainland, as they often do. They were unaware that this was a new ship with plenty of safety functions against sinking, so some sailors stumble upon it and realize where it came from.
- The Wind's Pleasure has earned this reputation amongst sailors, since it not only vanished in the middle of a voyage, it vanished right under the sailors' feet. It actually vanished because Shallan Soulcast it into water to save herself and the crew.
- Heel Realization: Rysn manages to make the Sleepless realize that in pursuing their goals they have, with the best of intentions, become as ruthless as the organizations they are attempting to stop.
- Hidden Disdain Reveal: Downplayed. Although Huio swears his Third Ideal - the one about protecting those you hate - while defending Lopen, he makes it clear that he doesn't hate his cousin, but he does find Lopen's "friendly" riffing far more hurtful than his cousin realizes.
- Hostile Terraforming: Inverted. Aimia is desolate and uninhabitable, but before the Scouring it had been made livable by some kind of Magitek. The first move in the war was to destroy the fabrials, with disastrous results.
- Hostile Weather: Aimia is surrounded by a constant storm for unknown reasons. Among other effects, this keeps out the highstorms and means any gems on the island won't recharge. It also means that the ruins aren't buried in crem.
- Hugh Mann: While the Sleepless swarms can imitate humans, they're not particularly good at it. Even Nikli, their best infiltrator, needs to use "tattoos" to cover up the more obvious seams and play a Funny Foreigner to cover up behavioral missteps.
- Insectoid Aliens: The Sleepless are confirmed to be aliens not native to Roshar, despite their superficial similarity to the local fauna.
- Jerkass Realization: After Huio swears his third Ideal, he explains to Lopen that some of the people close to him find his constant teasing and joking at their expense actually hurtful. This leads to Lopen understanding the need to protect others from himself, accidently swearing his own third Ideal.
- Latex Perfection: A more biological version of this than normal. Nikli, the Sleepless on the expedition, has hordeling components even better adapted for humanoid disguise than is typical for Sleepless. It can stand up to close scrutiny in good light, albeit with the aid of disguising 'tattoos'.
- Living Macguffin: Rysn by the end. She has become the Dawnshard of Change, keeping it safe but with no ability to employ it on her own.
Word of God is that, while holding it will change her and by the end we see her displaying effects similar to the Third Heightening, as things stand she has no capacity whatsoever to use its awesome powers herself. Notably, one of the conditions the Sleepless impose for letting Rysn live after claiming the Dawnshard is that she must never bond a spren, because doing so would allow her to use the Dawnshard. - Loophole Abuse: Attempted. Cord challenges Nikli to a duel to the death. When he begrudgingly accepts, she crows that he's fallen into her trap—as Rock's daughter, killing her would violate an ancient pact between the Horneaters and their gods, so he has no choice but to concede. Except he has no idea what the hell she's talking about. Cord sheepishly admits that the pact was with an entirely different set of gods, and she was just guessing that it would apply to him.
- Manipulative Bastard: Rysn is a benevolent one. She is a very well-trained trader, and has become very good at seeing from other's perspectives and proffering deals.
- Multilayer Façade: Rysn and the Sleepless's final strategy. They tell the general public that the expedition to Aimia encountered the Sleepless guarding a cache of Soulcaster fabrials, but that Rysn was able to win her crew's life and the Soulcasters from the Sleepless in a duel of wits. They then share with Queen Navani and other dignitaries the first secret, that in exchange for her crew's life and the Soulcasters Rysn agreed to train the Sleepless in imitating humans, and that a few of them followed her to Urithiru for that training. While not a lie, this secret's primary function is to provide something for those who dig into the story to discover, so that they'll stop before they find the real secret: that Rysn has become one of the titular Dawnshards, and that the Sleepless are actually guarding her from those who might try to might wish to acquire and misuse a Dawnshard.
- No Man Should Have This Power: The Sleepless are terrified of anyone gaining the titular Dawnshard, believing that its great power could only be used by an individual with the knowledge and insight of Adonalsium themself. It was one of the four Commands used to make the entire universe and later kill Adonalsium, and the last person who messed with a Dawnshard (Ishar) destroyed an entire planet. In the end, they find a compromise: Rysn accidentally absorbs it, but because she is un-Invested she cannot actually harness its power. As long as she swears to never bond a spren, she is allowed to keep it hidden within her.
- Oddly Small Organization: The Sleepless are pure paranoia fuel, with Surveillance as the Plot Demands over most of Roshar and running an Ancient Conspiracy with cosmic implications. As it turns out there are only twenty-four Sleepless on the planet, and only twenty of them are actually in on the conspiracy.
- Physical God: We get a bit more perspective on the Horneater religion, and learn that they have a different definition of god than the Alethi. It includes reverence for certain spren, certain powerful entities like Hoid, and the Sleepless. The latter, due to being incredibly dangerous and essentially invincible, are surprisingly high up the scale.
- The Reveal: The Dawnshards have been mentioned several times in earlier Stormlight books, as ancient weapons or artifacts that no one knows anything about any more. It turns out that the Dawnshard of the title is an almighty Command, at least somewhat related to Nalthian Breaths. The four Dawnshards were what were used to kill Adonalsium, and they could destroy worlds if used correctly. Rysn accidentally takes the Command, making her the new Dawnshard.
- Revealing Cover Up: Rysn convinces the Sleepless that all their attempts to hide the city just draw more attention to it. Her compromise is to let her people survive and report most of their findings, enough to justify all the secrecy, but hide the greatest secret somewhere else.
- Realpolitik: Cord realizes that knowledge of Cultivation's Perpendicularity getting out means that the Horneater Peaks are suddenly on the map. They have survived in the past with little interference because it's an arduous journey and they don't have anything to trade worth the trip, but the Perpendicularity changes all that. And she is afraid that Jasnah and Dalinar will, with the best of intentions, annex them in all but name for the greater good.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: The expedition faces increasingly blatant ill omens designed to turn the ship back without violence, from maggoty grain to a dead Santhid. They are all engineered by the Sleepless, who have bigger secrets to keep.
- Shoot the Dog: While the Sleepless are sympathetic, their opening gambit to stop the expedition is poisoning the ship's pet skyeel. Being willing to kill the helpless and beloved pet to make a point is a sign of how ruthless they can be when pressed.
- Simple, yet Awesome: A cutting-edge medical breakthrough on Roshar are modern style wheelchairs that allow you to propel yourself rather than one set up like a wheelbarrow that requires a porter.
- Snowball Lie: Discussed at the climax. The Sleepless plan to Kill and Replace the crew to spread a false story about Aimia, but Rysn tells them that they're not good enough liars to pull it off, and that all their plans to protect Aimia are only making it look more and more like Forbidden Fruit. This helps convince them to let the crew live as Secret Keepers with a much more feasible lie.
- Spotting the Thread: While Nikli did a good job framing Cord as the ship's traitor, the fact that Nikli was the only person actively trying to convince Rysn to turn back put him as her prime suspect.
- Supernaturally-Validated Trans Person: The dramatic changes Talik says the Reshi king has experienced after becoming a Dustbringer are implied (and confirmed by Sanderson
) to be Stormlight transitioning his body into male. - Square-Cube Law: Like other greatshell species, Larkins need to periodically bond to certain spren called Mandras/luckspren as they grow to avoid being crushed under their own weight, or even fly, the bonded spren lessening the effects of gravity on them. The catch is, they sometimes need ones from specific locations, like how Chiri-Chiri needs to return to Aimia for one.
- What You Are in the Dark: Despite being terrified and alone, Rysn rejects the Sleepless' offer to save herself at the cost of the crew and continues to press for a deal that saves her men. Word of this reaching Drlwan is what finally let her accept Rysn as her rebsk.
- You Are Not Alone: Rysn is an avid correspondent with other people across Roshar with disabilities. The sense of community and shared experience is extremely empowering, and it helps her fight off her depression.
- Your Mind Makes It Real: It turns out that the relative motion of conjoined fabrials has more to do with human perception of frame of reference than anything else. It should have been obvious: this is why, for example, spanreeds don't need to take the curvature of the planet into account.
