Includes SPOILERS for The Stormlight Archive through Wind and Truth.

Redemption is a prominent theme in Wind and Truth's ending as to who exactly wrote Knights of Wind and Truth on Roshar. It's a trick Sanderson has used before in books like The Hero of Ages, but there's an additional emotional twist that's very subtle.

Szeth is one of the most iconic characters in the Stormlight Archive books, with the "wore white on the day he was to kill a king," line from The Way of Kings etched into the minds of Sanderson fans. That made it all the more exciting that Szeth was the primary POV character in Wind and Truth, though he's rarely the Szeth readers know from that original assassination prologue. The new book unlocks fresh layers to the character, building a level of sympathy for him one might not have expected.

Szeth Met His Wife Just After Wind And Truth's Ending

Masha Helped Szeth Bury Kaladin

Many readers will have picked up on the fact that Szeth gets married following the end of Wind and Truth. Following the encounter with the Heralds, Ishar and Nale, Kaladin accepts his duties as Jezrien's replacement, leaving his mortal body behind as he s his new kin on Braize. Szeth finds Kaladin's body, believing that he'd been killed, and goes to bury him in honor of his help along their journey, surprisingly having grown deeply fond of the man who previously defeated him in Words of Radiance.

Masha was the daughter of the family that Szeth and Kaladin purchased their wagon from

This is when Szeth meets his wife, Masha-daughter-Shaliv, who helps him bury Kaladin's body near the final monastery. However, her presence is alluded to earlier in the book, with Sanderson sharing an important detail that many readers will have missed. Masha was the daughter of the family that Szeth and Kaladin purchased their wagon from, though she was asleep at the time. Crucially, Szeth describes her family home, saying: "They seemed good people, both wearing their splashes brightly, living on their own, away from city or town—reminding him of his own family." This detail is essential to Szeth's arc.

What Szeth's Marriage To Masha Really Means

Szeth's Story In Wind And Truth Is About Returning Home

One of Wind and Truth's most striking moments is when Kaladin realizes that Szeth was taken from his home as a child to be trained as a soldier, just like Tien. This is the part of the novel where Kaladin goes from not understanding the Assassin in White to having a deep, empathetic connection to the man. Szeth was a boy taken from his family and taught to be a killing machine. His life is far more tragic than the reader has been led to believe.

That's why it's so powerful that Szeth's quest in Wind and Truth isn't about becoming a renowned warrior, or a Herald, for that matter; it's about Szeth returning home. Szeth finds Masha, and they establish a connection, but the profound experience for him is that he marries into a home that reminds him of his family. After all these years, Szeth has finally realized that he deserves to live, and he's freed himself from everything and returned to the closest thing he could find to his life before everything went wrong.

Masha-daughter-Shaliv Wrote Knights Of Wind And Truth In-World Text

Masha Is A Renowned Scholar On Roshar

The more obvious detail about Masha is that she's the author of Knights of Wind and Truth, which she wrote to honor her husband and Kaladin, whom she believed to be dead. Masha is a scholar, and funnily enough, she's actually been mentioned before. Masha's name pops up very briefly in chapter 56 of Oathbringer, which establishes that she's a historian with a focus on the Recreance, whose work Jasnah has read, suggesting they share a mutual respect.

This minor details helps, as otherwise it might have felt shoehorned for the author of the epigraph text from Wind and Truth to be a character introduced at the last minute. Masha was a pre-established scholar in this world, so it makes perfect sense that she'd take an interest in Szeth and want to tell his story. This is just one of the many examples of long-term planning in The Stormlight Archive, with many of Brandon Sanderson's ideas planned decades ago.