Droplets
POV: kaladin
Summary
The day Syl left, in the wake of a fading highstorm, Kaladin strips off his vest and sandals in front of Gaz and walks down toward the Shattered Plains for the Honor Chasm — the one path of choice the bridgemen have. Even Gaz lets him pass; men headed for the chasm are given that small respect. Kaladin sits with his legs over the lip, watches the rain plunge down into nothing, and rambles to his absent father Lirin about the Lost Radiants' shades, about Tien, about all the men he has failed.
He decides not to jump. The bleeding eyes of the Tien-shaped boy who died this morning have decided it for him: one more try. He drops the blackbane leaf over the edge, opens his other hand to let Syl rise — and she returns to him, bright and encouraged — and walks back up to the yard.
He finds Gaz still hunched over his sphere basket and takes him down by the throat in the rain. He tells the sergeant that Kaladin Stormblessed has died at the chasm; what is standing over him now is a vengeful ghost. Bridge Four is his — Gaz can assign work but Kaladin is bridgeleader. He will collect his full bridgeman wages instead of paying down his slave debt, and Gaz will keep one in every five marks as the price of staying out of his way. Gaz nods.
Back inside the barrack Kaladin kneels by each huddled bridgeman in turn and threatens, prods, and shames the names out of them. Teft is the first — white-haired, no slave mark, transferred to Bridge Four from another crew as punishment. By Kelek, Teft mutters when Kaladin says they will have a hard day tomorrow, every day is a hard day. Kaladin moves on to the next man, and the next. Syl alights on his leg, bright and happy. He repeats each name like a gem held carefully in mind. He still feels grim and tired and wet. But he wraps the responsibility around him like a climber's last handhold.
THE END OF Part One.