60. Veil Walks

Spoiler Warning: This page contains spoilers for Words of Radiance through Chapter 72. If you haven’t read this far, you may want to turn back.

Summary

Unable to sleep, Shallan dives into scholarship from her plush bed in Sebarial’s camp. She excitedly compares an ancient map of the Epoch Kingdom Natanatan with a modern one copied from Amaram’s wall, concluding that the lost capital of Stormseat was not in the nearby mountains but directly on the Shattered Plains. She reasons the Plains were shattered during the Last Desolation and that Stormseat housed an Oathgate to Urithiru. Pattern gently presses her to remember her past and her full abilities, but Shallan resists, showing an illusion of her “true” self as a broken, weeping girl. She practices her Lightweaving, attempting to add sound to an image of Veil. When she cannot, she discovers instead that by infusing Pattern with Stormlight and attaching the illusion to him, the false Veil remains stable even when Shallan steps away—though it glides rather than walks. The experiment marks a major leap in her control.

Key Events

  • Shallan cross-references ancient and modern maps, placing Stormseat on the Shattered Plains.
  • She theorizes the Plains were literally shattered, not naturally cratered, and that an Oathgate to Urithiru is hidden there.
  • Pattern asks Shallan to confront the buried memories of her childhood and her first bond.
  • Shallan resists, conjuring an image of her traumatized younger self to illustrate why she must repress those truths.
  • She attempts to make her Veil illusion produce sound but fails.
  • Shallan discovers she can sustain the Veil illusion remotely by pushing Stormlight into Pattern and attaching the image to him.

Character Development

Shallan: This chapter deepens the fracture at her core. Her scholarly zeal—sprawling papers, map comparisons, a cunning note to Palona to manipulate Sebarial’s ambitions—shows her strategic mind. Yet when Pattern pushes for the truth, she reveals a brutally honest self-portrait: a flinching, hollow girl for whom laughter was squeezed out. Her insistence that this is the “real” Shallan frames her entire persona as a survival mechanism. The breakthrough with Pattern, attaching an illusion to him, is a practical victory that sidesteps the emotional reckoning he demands.

Pattern: He continues to evolve through the bond. His accidental sarcasm—“I’m sorry that your mystical, godlike powers do not instantly work”—delights him, and he notes how his connection to Shallan enables human-style communication. His pressure on Shallan to remember is not cruelty but a necessary push toward fuller power and self-knowledge.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

  • Truth vs. Lies: Shallan’s Lightweaving is literally fueled by truths, yet she lives a self-admitted “deep lie.” The chapter dramatizes the cost of that lie: suppressed power and a fractured identity.
  • Maps and Patterns: Maps are central props. The ancient map is inaccurate by modern standards, but Shallan’s imaginative leap finds the true pattern. Pattern’s complaint that “that is not a pattern” underscores the tension between rigid data and creative insight.
  • The Shattered Plains as Broken City: Shallan’s theory reframes the entire setting. The Plains are not a natural wonder but the wreckage of a civilization destroyed so profoundly that scholars miss its nature.

Why This Chapter Matters

“Veil Walks” is a turning point for Shallan’s magical competence. The ability to anchor an illusion to Pattern and sustain it at a distance is a foundational skill—the first step toward the mobile, autonomous disguises she will need later. Narratively, the chapter ties her personal arc to the novel’s central mystery: the location of Urithiru. By placing Stormseat on the Plains, Shallan connects her scholarship directly to the main plot. Emotionally, it crystallizes the stakes of her repression. She cannot fully access her powers without facing her past, but she is nowhere near ready to do so.

Study Questions and Answers

  1. Why does Pattern insist Shallan must “know yourself. And remember,” and how does she respond?
    Pattern recognizes that her suppressed memories block the full abilities she once possessed. Shallan responds by conjuring an image of her younger, shattered self, arguing that those memories would cripple the functional identity she has constructed to survive.

  2. What breakthrough does Shallan achieve with her illusion of Veil in this chapter?
    She learns to sustain the illusion at a distance by infusing Pattern with Stormlight and psychically attaching the image to him. Though the illusion initially only glides, the ability to separate it from her own position is a major advancement.

  3. What evidence leads Shallan to conclude Stormseat was on the Shattered Plains?
    She cross-references an ancient map of Natanatan with a modern map from Amaram, notes Amaram’s observation about masterly Parshendi weapons likely scavenged from ruins, and theorizes the Plains themselves are the shattered remnants of the city destroyed during the Last Desolation.

Navigation