Summary:Words of Radiance/Chapter 11

Chapter 11: An Illusion of Perception
Words of Radiance Summary
Analytics
Viewpoint	Shallan Davar
Word Count	4,062

Epigraph

“But, understandably, we were focused on Sadeas. His betrayal was still fresh, and I saw its signs each day as I passed empty barracks and greving widows. We knew that Sadeas would not simply rest upon his slaughters in pride. More was coming. ”

—From the journal of Navani Kholin, Jesesach 1174

Plot Summary

Tanatakev 1173

Shallan awakes on a rock surrounded by ocean water, just offshore. She sees the santhid that saved her swim off toward the horizon. Pattern says that the ship sank and doesn't know if any of the sailors survived. Shallan forces herself to accept that Jasnah is dead. She manages to tread water and reach the shore. She waits on the beach for awhile looking for signs of survivors but sees none. Pattern says that he found someone and urges Shallan to follow him, and leads her to Jasnah's trunk, which contains her books and notes intact in a waterproof enclosure.

Shallan is unable to build a fire, so she decides to try to soulcast one. Pattern eases her into Shadesmar, and she sees large, fuzzy-looking, bird-like spren that hover overhead, which are exhaustionspren that are drawn to her. She takes a bead that represents a piece of wood and tries to persuade it that it could be fire, but it prefers to be a stick instead. Her sphere is drained of stormlight and she flees from Shadesmar, having failed to make a fire start. She gets up and starts walking, though her feet are cut up and bleeding, and ends up encountering a group of strangers around a fire, and due to her state of exhaustion, lays down next to the fire and goes to sleep.

Shallan wakes up as someone with a Thaylen accent addresses her as Brightness, but he isn't one of the sailors as she initially thinks. She realizes that they are slavers, led by a man named Tvlakv, and asserts herself as she imagines that Jasnah would, introducing herself and ordering them to retrieve Jasnah's trunk and escort her to the Shattered Plains, overcoming Tvlakv's objections by sheer force of will and gaining his reluctant compliance.

Characters

Present

• Shallan Davar (Point of view)
• Bluth
• Pattern
• Tag
• Tvlakv
• Stick

Setting

The Frostlands.

Notable

• In the present the symbol to represent Shallan has become an inverted version of Pattern.
• This is the same Tvlakv that transported Kaladin to the Shattered Plains and sold him to Highprince Sadeas.

Quotes

“ I am a stick. ”

—Stick

Chapter Header

Pattern Inverted

Battar wedge

See Also

• Tor.com Re-read

Notes

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