64. Personal Reminder

Kaladin wakes from nightmares and tends to the comatose Teft while processing his own battle shock and deteriorating mental state. Navani sends him a personal lift fabrial via Dabbid, and Kaladin spends the chapter learning to operate the device on the twentieth floor, practicing its mechanics and discovering both its utility and dangers.

Kaladin awakens from vivid nightmares of his friends dying, with Syl comforting him. He performs his morning routine and tends to Teft, feeding him broth while Syl discusses her recent conversation with Dalinar. Syl reveals that Dalinar connected her to her previous knight and gave her the ability to feel emotions like sadness, which she views as proof that spren can change and make meaningful choices. Kaladin acknowledges the value of her insight but remains absorbed in his own struggle with battle shock, recognizing that killing, loneliness, and stress are wearing on him. Dabbid arrives with a fabrial device—a personal lift bracer with rubies designed to levitate Kaladin up and down the tower. Kaladin later meets Navani via crystal vein communication, and she instructs him to retrieve matching Voidspren-infused rubies from stolen spanreeds and install them in weights on the twentieth floor. The device works by binding heavy weights to Kaladin's bracer via conjoined rubies; squeezing a bar in his palm triggers the pull while releasing it engages a brake. After installation, Kaladin practices using the device in a hallway, initially miscalculating his approach and crashing into a wall hard enough to break his hand. Stormlight heals the damage slowly and painfully. Over the next thirty minutes, he crashes several more times while learning to control speed and direction, eventually running through all five weights. Kaladin recognizes that while the device won't give him the combat mobility of Lashings, it has martial applications and will serve as a lift. He commits to practicing until proficient, suspecting he has only days before the Fused locate another node. He uses the focused work as a way to combat his nightmares and mental deterioration.