“Need a hand? Hmmmmm?”
“You didn’t literally bring me a hand, did you, Ulaam?”
Ulaam furtively tucked one arm behind his back. “Would I be so crass, Miss Tress?”
“Haunting. A nightmare made manifest.”
“Kind of like my face?” Kaladin asked.
Adolin glanced at him, then grinned. “Fortunately, Shallan covered it up for you with that illusion.”
Kaladin found himself smiling.
I think I am late, this time. I think … I fear, oh God, that I have failed. No. This is not right, is it? How long has it been? Where am I? I … am Talenel’Elin, Herald of War. The time of the Return, the Desolation, is near at hand.…
Yes, the Stormfather said. But you must have Connection for a vision. You must have a reason for it. A meaning. It cannot be just anything.
GOOD. Dalinar said, forging a bond.
What are you doing?
CONNECTING HIM. Dalinar said. UNITING HIM.
I wonder if you could do that to a man. Pull him apart, emotion by emotion, bit by bit, bloody chunk by bloody chunk. Then combine them back together into something else.
Kaladin had failed Moash. As soundly as he'd failed Dunny, Mart, and Jaks. And of them all, losing Moash hurt the most. Because in those callous eyes, Kaladin saw himself.
"Did you know that? You are deeply connected to the remnants of a god."
"Whom you killed."
"Yes. I'll kill the other one too, eventually. She's hidden herself somewhere, and I'm too ... shackled."
"It's patently unfair," he said. "A mortal should NOT be able to stand beside one of the Bearers of the Contract and seem a fair match to their skill in imitation."
"Aw, jealousy," Wayne said. He breathed it in. "Smells like cherry blossoms."
"But dont worry - like I said, you're right nice, but you ain't got enough punch for me. I like women what could take my face clean off with a good roundhouse."
"You prefer women who could beat you up?"
"Sure. It's a thing."
How often had he dreamed of hearing that voice again? He'd wept for the wish to tell her one last time of his love. To explain the hole, gaping like the wound from a shotgun blast, left in him by her death.
To apologize.