Summary

The Prelude begins with a first-person narration by a character named Kalak. He is walking over a desolate battlefield littered with dead bodies, some of which are human and many that are not. Kalak is happy that he survived this fight as he has died before in others. However, he does not want to go back to the hellish place that he and others are forced to live within in between the Desolations. Walking over to a large rock formation that was the designated meeting place for his companions, Kalak only encounters one other, Jezrien. He spies seven swords driven point down into the rock, forming an incomplete circle. Jezrien informs Kalak that only one of their ten men, Talenel, has perished in the fighting and that the rest have made the decision to dissolve the Oathpact, leaving only the Knight Radiants to protect...