89. The Four

Spoiler Warning: This page contains major reveals for Words of Radiance. Read on only if you have finished the chapter or the book.

Summary

Dalinar awakens from a dream of warmth in his childhood home, noting no highstorm preceded it. Adolin, exploring Urithiru’s dark corridors, encounters Sadeas brazenly planning to undermine Dalinar. Rage overtakes Adolin; the two men grapple, and Adolin stabs Sadeas through the eye with his side knife, killing him. He cleans evidence and flees.

Dalinar reaches the tower summit and confronts the Stormfather, who admits sending the visions at the Almighty’s command but declares humanity doomed. Dalinar speaks the Second Ideal (“I will unite instead of divide”) and the Stormfather reluctantly accepts, bonding him. Summoning his Shardblade, Dalinar hears screams and instantly unbonds the weapon.

Later, in the topmost chamber, Dalinar demonstrates his new powers. Renarin steps forward, revealing Stormlight has healed his eyesight; he is a Truthwatcher. Four Radiants—Dalinar, Kaladin, Shallan, and Renarin—stand together. The Stormfather confirms the Everstorm will transform parshmen into Voidbringers. Kaladin resolves to fly to Hearthstone, and Dalinar blesses the attempt, limited Stormlight notwithstanding.

Key Events

  • Adolin murders Sadeas: In a blind fury, Adolin kills Highprince Sadeas by stabbing him in the eye, then disposes of Oathbringer and fabricates an alibi.
  • Dalinar bonds the Stormfather: On the roof, Dalinar speaks the Second Ideal specific to the Bondsmiths, causing the Stormfather to accept him as a Radiant despite previous hostility.
  • Dalinar unbonds his Shardblade: Merely summoning the Blade triggers screams from the dead spren; he drops it and severs the bond instantaneously.
  • Renarin revealed as a Truthwatcher: Renarin admits his eyesight was healed by Stormlight, and his spren Glys makes him the fourth Radiant present.
  • The Everstorm’s purpose confirmed: The Stormfather tells Dalinar the Everstorm will touch parshmen and give them “new forms”—the Voidbringers.

Character Development

  • Dalinar: Moves from seeking answers to active commitment. He accepts the Bondsmith mantle not as a weapon but as a unifier, reflecting growth from warmonger to diplomat-prophet.
  • Adolin: The chapter dramatizes his breaking point. His murder of Sadeas shows the gulf between his own morality and his father’s idealized view of him, and introduces a dark, secret-shrouded turn.
  • Renarin: Steps into the light, literally and figuratively. His quiet admission of being a Truthwatcher reframes his earlier “weakness” in the arena as a Radiant’s sensitivity, not cowardice.
  • The Stormfather: Evolves from a hostile, disinterested force into a reluctant partner. His warnings that Dalinar will have “no Shards” underscore his nature as an angry, wounded fragment of Honor.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

  • Unity and Division: Dalinar’s Second Ideal—“I will unite instead of divide”—directly counters Sadeas’s claim that the kingdom cannot have two generals. The ideal becomes the chapter’s thematic centre.
  • Vision and Insight: Dalinar’s unsent dream of warmth, Renarin’s healed eyes, and even Adolin’s dim hallway confrontation emphasize the motif of seeing or failing to see truth.
  • Legacy of Shardblades: The scream when Dalinar summons his Blade, and Adolin’s disposal of Oathbringer, highlight that Shardblades are dead spren, reinforcing the horror behind Alethi power.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter cements the new core group of Knights Radiant and provides the reader with the most concrete understanding yet of the Bondsmith order. Dalinar’s rejection of his Shardblade in favor of the Stormfather’s bond is a profound gesture that separates him from the Alethi traditionalists. Meanwhile, Adolin’s killing of Sadeas removes the story’s primary internal political antagonist in a shocking, intimate murder that bypasses honor entirely. Revelation of Renarin as a Truthwatcher completes the quartet, giving the fledgling Radiants a seer-like asset and tying Adolin even more tightly into the emerging order of surgebinders, even if he himself is not one. The Everstorm’s confirmed function sets the stage for a continent-wide catastrophe, raising the stakes beyond political infighting.

Study Questions and Answers

  1. Why does the Stormfather initially refuse to bond Dalinar, and what changes its mind? The Stormfather is a fragment of Honor, not a god, and resents humanity for bringing death to spren. It claims Dalinar has already failed because the Everstorm exists. Dalinar’s recitation of the First Ideal and his specific Second Ideal—to unite instead of divide—convince the Stormfather to accept the Words, even though it warns of painful consequences.

  2. What does Dalinar’s immediate unbonding of his Shardblade signify? The scream he hears upon summoning the Blade confirms it is a dead spren. By dropping it and severing the bond, Dalinar symbolically abandons the old Alethi way of power through dead spren and chooses the living bond of a Radiant, even if it means going into battle without the weapon that defined him.

  3. In what ways does Adolin’s murder of Sadeas mirror or contrast with Dalinar’s moral path? Adolin acts on personal rage, circumventing law and honor, and then conceals the crime; Dalinar openly binds himself to a higher ideal in the open air. Where Dalinar pursues unity through oath, Adolin eliminates a divider through violence. Adolin’s act—and his father’s belief that Adolin is a “better man”—creates dramatic irony, highlighting the moral complexity within the Kholin family.

← Previous Chapter | Book Hub | Next Chapter →