What a juicy and surprising section we have to discuss! Thanks again to u/NewAndNewbie for helping me out with my schedule issue. Discussion questions in the comments below.

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Schedule

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Summary:

Pattern from Shallan's sketchbook-warning, if you flip through it, it might skip ahead.

Chapter 17: A Pattern

POV: Shallan, "Dullform" Listener Songs of Listing (final stanza)

• Shallan is riding along in the wagon with Bluth. She begins to sketch again, from plants to an idealized Bluth portrait. They pause for lunch and notice smoke on the horizon. The deserters following them have stopped for lunch and don't care if they see their campfire. Shallan applies more knobweed to her injured feet.
• Shallan attempts to speak to the parshmen but doesn't get far. She knows Jasnah's theory but can't bring herself to believe it. There is another column of smoke that appears ahead of them. Shallan demands to hear Tvlakv and his companion's discussion about what to do, feeling surrounded by enemies. A Highstorm is coming. Shallan convinces the group to go towards the second column to seek aid against the deserters following.
• Shallan sketches as they drive, images of the things and people she's seen, including Yalb and Jasnah. She realizes something and demands Bluth to let her get into her wagon. Inside, she talks to Pattern to try and understand what happened the night before, when she glowed and was transformed. Pattern reveals that she should eat Stormlight, so she learns she can take in Stormlight but doesn't know what to do with it. Pattern also reveals he is a scholar and, reluctantly, that the Knights Radiant (KR) killed their bonded spren. Pattern accepts she will do this to him; Shallan swears she won't, despite her "oaths". Pattern urges her to speak truths.

Chapter 18: Bruises

POV: Kaladin, "Scholarform", Listener Songs of Listing.

• Kaladin is at the training ground, watching over Adolin and Renarin's practice. His troops are understaffed and pulling multiple shifts. Syl and Kaladin are watching Adolin practice, which makes Kaladin recall when Adolin called his Shardblade last book, to step in defending a whore in Sadeas's camp.
• Zahel is training Renarin as Kaladin comes over. Renarin jumps off the building and is doing everything Zahel instructs. Zahel challenges Kaladin and offers to train him. Kaladin declines rather ungraciously. Zahel get a blunted Shardblade to go one-on-one with Kaladin and they spar, with Kaladin getting the worst of it when Adolin steps in to stimulate two assassins with Shadblades and tosses Kaladin with his Shardplate ability. Kaladin is stunned, Zahel berates Adolin for his stupidity. Kaladin takes in Stormlight to recover secretly. Zahel "kills" him and compares him to Adolin in training, telling him he doesn't know how to fight against a Shardbearer. Syl questions Kaladin's motivation in fighting.

Chapter 19: Safe Things

POV: Shallan flashback to 5 1/2 years before we met her in the first book.

• Shallan is mute. Maids gossip that she was in the room when her father caught his wife with her lover and killed them.
• Nan Helaran, her eldest brother appears. He gives her a sketchbook to help her draw again. Unfortunately, she draws the murder scene. He tells her he will be away, and she needs to watch over the family, especially Balat, who abuses his dog. He notices what she is drawing and instructs her to draw plants, animals, anything else. Helaran tells her they will have vengeance.
• Their Father, Brightlord Davar, comes in to berate Helalan for running off. They have words and Helaran accuses him of murder and summons a Shardblade to challenge him. Everyone is shocked. Shallan speaks again to stop him killing their father. Helaran has new friends who have given this to him and have to do important work away. He claims he will be back. Her father has a fit.

Chapter 20: The Coldness of Clarity

POV: Shallan, "Artform", Listener Songs of Listing.

• The second smoke is a camp that has been attacked by bandits. They are a caravan of traders, with some guards left, families and Parshmen. Tvlakv wants to leave before they are seen. Scouts from the camp find them, including Tyn, an armed Alethi woman, and reveal they are surrounded by bandits. Shallan offers her protection and wants to join their camp regardless. The bandits that attacked the camp come back for a second round.
• Shallan orders her group to help them. She takes Bluth in the wagon and rides to the deserter camp. They are shocked to see her. Shallan solicits their help to defend the camp, beginning to glow again as she persuades them to change their status, be honorable and offers her protection to the deserters if they will help her. Their leader, Vathah is skeptical, but his men join the fight. Bluth leads the charge in the wagon. Eventually, Vathah joins the fight too and Shallan recovers her strength. Pattern congratulates her on using her power, telling her she is "Lies and truth" and that can transform people with her Surge. We learn Shallan's special power!

Chapter 21: Ashes

POV: Shallan, "Meditationform", Listener Songs of Listing.

• With the deserters help, the camp is saved but at a high cost. Bluth took his portrait from Shallan's sketchbook and died in the action. Shallan negotiates with the caravan leaders for passage to the Shattered Plains and supplies, uniting their caravans. She tries talking to Vathah, who grabs her accusatively. Pattern intervenes and convinces Vathah to release Shallan. Shallan then confronts Tvlakv, demanding the slaves as payment for saving him and buys one of his wagons. She frees the slaves, offering a salary with the condition they put most of the wages towards their slave debt.
• The caravan families bless the soldiers with their thanks.

Alethi Fashion folio

Chapter 22: Lights in the Storm

POV: Kaladin, "Stormform", Listener Songs of Winds.

• The Highstorm comes to the camp. Kaladin hears something in the storm. He is with the king and Kholin family and the head of the king's guard, Idrin. Adolin is looking at a fashion folio. Kaladin sees something in the ruby in the fabrial that is providing the heating. Renarin reveals it was built by his aunt (Jasnah). Elhokar is impressed with Kaladin's logic when Adolin challenges him on why they are all there. We learn Dalinar and Navani are in the next room together but no numbers this time.
• Dalinar reveals he is trying to convince Amaram to join him and switch from Sadeas's camp. Amaram is trying to argue Dalinar and Sadeas should join together instead. Adolin can't get anyone to duel him. Kaladin points out that no one will want to risk their Shards. Dalinar reveals he wants to undermine or even kill Sadeas, to convince the middle-ground to join him in a real kingdom. Elhokar is skeptical.
• Kaladin is exhausted, as are his men. He uses Stormlight to keep alert. He asks Dalinar to talk, rehearsing his revelation of Amaram's treachery. He and Dalinar walk and talk, and Kaladin tells him what happened. Dalinar is skeptical and asks for proof and Kaladin's silence about this topic. Dalinar also reprimands Kaladin for overstepping his role with him and family. Syl comes to talk to Kaladin, who is angry that Dalinar didn't take him seriously. He vows his own justice. Syl tells him not to be a "Skybreaker" and reveals she is worried about him. Kaladin returns to camp.
• His men are nostalgic about the days of the bridge. Lopen's cousin, Punio, joins the regiment, skipping out of another army. Shen asks for a spear to prove he is of Bridge Four, but Kaladin can't risk the controversy. Shen says he is a slave instead of a real Bridge Four which shocks Kaladin to realize. Natam breaks in and says an assassin is after the king!

Chapter 23: Assassin

POV: Kaladin, "Nightform", Listener Song of Secrets.

• The king is safe. Kaladin runs to Elhokar and is surprised by the worry he feels for them. The king berates Idrin. Moash shows him the balcony, where a section of railing dropped. The metalwork has been sliced by a Shardblade. Dalinar talks to Kaladin one-on-one about the attempt. Kaladin calls the assassins cowards for their attempts to make Elhokar's death look like an accident. Dalinar asks him to keep the fact that a Shardblade did the cut secret and tells him the king requested he be put on bodyguard duty. Dalinar tells him it was an inside job and asks if he can trust Kaladin.
• Dalinar requests Kaladin to focus on training and to get only the bridgemen he trusts as the king's guards. He says a real attempt, like from Sadeas, would be more dangerous and the worst is still to come. Elhokar is hysterical.

Chapter 24: Tyn

POV: Shallan, "Decayform", Listener Song of Secrets.

• We meet Gaz again! The deserters are making Shallan a comfortable wagon. Vathah ridicules Gaz for sucking up to Shallan. He and Shallan exchange words. Shallan tries to make plans for her arrival by reading Jasnah's notes on the Alethi court. She asks Gaz how much debt he has. Pattern checks on her when she is alone.
• Pattern points out truth is subjective. We learn about the Cognitive Realm, the Spiritual Realm, which is pure truth, and Voidbringers, which have their own spren. Pattern says spren are shattered power and his kind is made from the "Power given thought by the perceptions of men" and there is another class of spren, emanating from Odium.
• Tyn invites her for dinner in her luxurious tent. She confronts Shallan into revealing her con, saying she has a spanreed and looked her up. She offers her help in whatever scheme Shallan has cooked up, which she believes is blackmailing Dalinar. Shallan feels accepting her offer is the best course and is unwilling to reveal anything more.

Chapter 25: Monsters

POV: Kaladin, "Smokeform", Listener Song of Histories.

• Kaladin and his men are to be trained on horses. They are skeptical, except Moash, who is eager. Dalinar sends his stablemaster, Jenet, who brings elderly horses for them to practice on. She is unconventional and refreshing to Kaladin's eyes. We find out Jenet and Adolin had a thing, and she throws rocks at him. Kaladin's horse, Spray, is tricky and slow. He approaches Natam to hear about who was on the balcony and could have been the inside man. Syl teases Kaladin and, in their conversation, Kaladin realized the balcony was compromised after the storm.
• Adolin teases Kaladin on his old horse and points out Dreamstorm, a wild one. Kaladin heads over, taking in Stormlight. Jenet and Adolin watch skeptically as Kaladin attempts to mount Dreamstorm, who doesn't take his attempts lightly. But a challenge is a challenge and Kaladin manages to hold on as Dreamstorm tries to thrash him off-and eventually succeeds in bucking him. Still, the two have a moment in the grass.
• Dalinar shows up and asks him to take some men and patrol on horseback to learn-not Dreamstorm. Adolin thanks Kaladin for not mentioning his role in mounting Dreamstorm. Kaladin approaches Natam again to ask who was on the balcony after the storm and finds out Moash was out there. Kaladin is confused but gets furious at the sight of Amaram.

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The next section will be reading Chp. 26- I-8 with discussion on May 3.