Chapter 85: The Middle Step

Warning: This summary contains full spoilers for Rhythm of War through Chapter 85. If you haven’t read up to this point, proceed with caution.

Summary

Adolin, guarded by two honorspren, climbs the sheer walls of Lasting Integrity to take in a crystalline day—a weather phenomenon in Shadesmar where a violet‑pink haze spurs rapid plant growth. From the battlements he sees their camp, but more unsettling is the growing crowd of deadeyes on the shore, now numbering about two hundred. Vaiu, his jailer, says they have been gathering for weeks, perhaps drawn by the approaching trial for Adolin’s assumed guilt in the Recreance.

Meanwhile, Shallan’s personas struggle inside the fortress. Radiant and Veil have been working to locate Restares, leader of the Sons of Honor, among the seventeen humans grandfathered into the locked‑down city. They have eliminated everyone except a reclusive man calling himself Sixteen. While waiting for Sixteen to emerge on his sixteenth‑day schedule, Pattern admits that he has been lying and using Mraize’s cube to spy on Shallan. He cryptically reveals that he bonded her as a “middle step” for the Cryptics to unite humans and spren against the coming danger.

Shallan takes control, forces her other personas aside, and intercepts Sixteen. She pulls back his hood to discover he is Shin, not the Alethi Restares. Furious and darker, she resolves to report to Mraize that Restares isn’t in the fortress. The tribunal looms, and Shallan’s internal fracture deepens.

Key Events

  • Adolin mounts the fortress wall and observes the crystalline day and the sea of beads.
  • Deadeyes gather silently on the shore in unprecedented numbers; Vaiu believes they sense the impending trial.
  • Radiant and Veil confirm that none of the other humans inside Lasting Integrity match Restares, leaving only the mysterious Sixteen.
  • Pattern confesses that he has lied and spied using the Ghostbloods’ cube.
  • Pattern reveals his original purpose: to be the “middle step” that might bring spren and humans together even if it meant his own death.
  • Shallan intercepts Sixteen, discovers he is a bald Shin man, and concludes that Mraize’s intelligence was wrong.
  • Shallan forces her personas down and decides to report the failure to Mraize.

Character Development

  • Adolin remains patient and observant, trying to understand the honorspren and the strange logic of Shadesmar. His willingness to shoulder the Recreance’s guilt for the sake of diplomacy is tested by the eerie deadeye gathering.
  • Shallan / Veil / Radiant reach a breaking point. Radiant and Veil’s cooperation fractures as Shallan reasserts dominance with a new, aggressive edge. Shallan’s immediate readiness to kill Sixteen shows a dangerous embrace of her worst impulses.
  • Pattern drops his evasive cheerfulness and admits his deception, but frames his actions as a desperate attempt to fulfill his purpose. His “middle step” confession recasts his bond with Shallan as a sacrifice of necessity, not trust.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

  • The Middle Step – Pattern’s metaphor for himself: a necessary, unglamorous link in a chain toward unity. The title forecasts not only his role but also the trial as yet another middle step in the larger conflict.
  • Crystalline Day – A rare phenomenon of growth and shimmer symbolizes the fragile potential for change even in the Cognitive Realm’s stasis, paralleling Shallan’s volatile internal evolution.
  • Deadeyes Gathering – The silent congregation outside the fortress evokes unresolved guilt and the looming weight of the Recreance, visually manifesting the stakes of Adolin’s trial.
  • Fractured Identity – Shallan’s personas no longer collaborate; she shoves them away, blurring the line between persona and original. The chapter highlights the danger when the identities unravelling.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 85 tightens two parallel crises. Adolin’s trial is no longer a distant possibility; the deadeyes’ assembly and the honorspren’s meticulous preparation signal that judgment is imminent. Simultaneously, Shallan’s mission collapses, forcing her to confront Pattern’s betrayal and her own broken psyche. The revelation that Pattern knowingly took a gamble with her life—and that she has been unknowingly monitored—destabilizes the last trust in their bond. By chapter’s end, Restares remains unfound, Shallan embraces a harder, more violent version of herself, and Adolin stands at a precipice both literal and metaphorical. The stage is set for the trial to begin.

Study Questions and Answers

  1. What does Pattern mean by calling himself “the middle step”?
    Pattern explains that Cryptics sensed a looming threat and believed bonding humans was the only way to unite the two halves of their world. He volunteered to bond Shallan knowing she might kill him, hoping his death—or his survival—would pave the way for other spren to trust humans. He is not the end goal, just a necessary link.

  2. Why is the gathering of deadeyes significant for Adolin’s situation?
    The deadeyes are spren killed in the Recreance, and they normally follow their owners in the ocean of beads. Their silent congregation outside Lasting Integrity suggests they are drawn by the upcoming trial, which will judge Adolin for the sins of his ancestors. It intensifies the emotional and symbolic stakes: the trial is not just about law but about acknowledging centuries-old collective guilt.

  3. How does Shallan’s handling of Sixteen reflect her current state of mind?
    She stalks him with stealthy precision and reaches for a weapon without thought, ready to kill if he were Restares. Her swift, cold efficiency—and her dismissal of Radiant and Veil’s protests—reveals that she is embracing a more ruthless persona. This is not Veil’s controlled reconnaissance but a reflexive turn toward violence, indicating that Shallan is losing her grip on which parts of herself are “personas” and which are core identity.

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