14: PAYDAY

After deciding to fight for his bridgemen's survival, the morning after the highstorm, a newly resolute but still rejected bridgeleader attempts to establish authority over Bridge Four. He acquires his pay through intimidation of the corrupt sergeant, then spends the morning performing exhausting training with a bridge plank to prove his resolve to the watching crew. Meanwhile, his companion spren examines her own growing consciousness and the disturbing changes occurring within her.

The day after his suicidal crisis in the highstorm, a reinvigorated but uncertain how to act on it, awakens Bridge Four before dawn and demands they organize for training. The bridgemen defiantly refuse; when he drags out the man named moash as an example, the crew mocks him and appeals to sergeant gaz, who confirms that bridgeleaders have authority only in the field during active runs. gaz also reveals he's been skimming kaladin's pay. kaladin corners him between barracks, agrees to pay him one sphere weekly in exchange for non-interference, and takes back four diamond marks rightfully belonging to him. gaz dismisses kaladin's claim to earn authority, insisting rank alone grants it. kaladin disagrees, believing authority comes only from those who grant it. in the lumberyard, kaladin borrows a heavy bridge plank and runs back and forth for hours under the noon sun, working himself to exhaustion while bridgemen watch in confusion and skepticism. rock bets other crewmen that the plank is lightweight, losing his wager when kaladin performs the feat multiple times. kaladin dismisses the crew for lunch, with afternoon duty approaching and evening cleanup chores afterward. in an alleyway afterward, kaladin lies collapsed and gasping when syl lands on him with urgent news: she realizes she has changed and grown conscious in a way unprecedented for sprens, understanding concepts like death, lying, and sarcasm only recently. she questions whether she is changing, and kaladin suggests this is his influence, or merely part of being herself. syl expresses terror at the possibility of forgetting this new consciousness if her memory cycles as most sprens' do. kaladin suggests this transformation may be normal and cyclical, but offers no comfort.