The Way of Kings: Chapter 72

Before she gets started with her serious scholarly assignment, Shallan asks if Jasnah Soulcast her blood. Big yes from the scholar. She remade it again and again to fight the poison. This was easy enough because blood is one of the Essences, despite Jasnah’s lack of skill with organics. Shallan has more questions, curious about fabrials, spren, and more, and Jasnah has some answers. She brings it back to the Knights Radiant, and tells Shallan that she’ll explain more as she trains her, but first they need to talk about Voidbringers.
Shallan asks if Jasnah thinks they’re going to return, admitting that she read her mentor’s notes while trying to figure out Soulcasting. Jasnah admits as much, only moderately disgruntled, and Shallan wonders why Jasnah believes folk tales about Voidbringers, but doesn’t believe in the Almighty.
“It strikes me that religion - in its essence - seeks to take natural events and ascribe supernatural causes to them. I, however, seek to take supernatural events and find the natural meanings behind them. Perhaps that is the final dividing line between science and religion. Opposite sides of a card.”
So, Jasnah thinks the Voidbringers had a “real-world correlate,” and she’s assembled some notes to help Shallan reach the same conclusion. Shallan reads the page, then looks up in shock. The evidence points to an unavoidable conclusion: the Voidbringers were the Parshmen, and they were never destroyed. They were enslaved.
- by Carl Engle-Laird
Quote of the Chapter: