Trust
POV: dalinar
Summary
Dalinar takes Adolin up to the top room of the complex the next morning and closes the door behind them. He has decided to tell his son the truth about the highstorms. He does not know, when he starts, how to start; so he just starts. He tells Adolin about the first vision — the village under the assault of the Midnight Essence creatures — and about all the visions that have come since. He tells him about Nohadon. He tells him about the Knights Radiant he has seen. He tells him about the city in the mountain that no living man has reached. He tells him that for months he genuinely believed he was going mad and that until last night he was not certain otherwise.
Adolin listens. He does not interrupt. When Dalinar is finished he asks two careful, narrow questions, the way a swordsman tests a stance. Could the visions be the result of a poison? Could they be an external Soulcaster attack on the highstorm shutters? Dalinar tells him honestly that he has considered both and ruled them out. Adolin is quiet for a long time.
He tells his father, in the end, that he does not believe the visions. He believes that Dalinar believes them, which is not the same thing. But — and here he chooses his words with care — he is going to trust Dalinar anyway. He will act as if the visions are real and as if their orders are orders. He will not say a word against his father to the camps. He says this with a steadiness that has cost him something. Dalinar, to his own surprise, finds himself unable to speak for a moment. He gets up and walks to the window and stays there for a while with his back turned. *Thank you*, he says, eventually, without turning around.