49: TO CARE

In the chasms of the shattered plains, kaladin begins training the bridgemen in spearmanship, starting with foundational lessons on stance and the importance of caring about one's cause. He assigns rock, lopen, and dabbid to salvage duty with syl's help rather than combat training, while continuing to harbor hopes of finding an escape route eastward.

kaladin leads the bridgemen into the chasms for their first day of combat training. He reflects on the eastern route's dangers—chasmfiends, floods, scouts, and the parshendi—but remains committed to training his men quickly before sadeas can kill them. When the men arrive at a fork in the chasm, kaladin addresses them directly, rejecting the traditional sergeant's approach of humiliation. Instead, he praises their toughness and determination, emphasizing that their passion and care are what make them human fighters, not mindless killers. He demonstrates basic stance work by allowing skar, drehy, and moash to attack him while he maintains balance through proper footwork. After drilling the men in stances under teft's supervision, kaladin notices teft's quick, practiced response reveals he was a veteran soldier. Rather than train rock in combat, kaladin recruits him, lopen, and dabbid for faster salvage work in the chasms, making syl visible to them to help locate valuable objects. Rock agrees, though he expresses doubt about escape routes, noting that scouts patrol the plains and chasms are too deep to climb out safely. By the afternoon, kaladin observes remarkable progress in the bridgemen, particularly moash, drehy, and skar, who have absorbed their training with unusual determination and focus. He recognizes that sadeas's brutal treatment has inadvertently prepared them to excel as soldiers.