portable magic

I promise, it's my last Sanderson.  Until  tomorrow.  =)

This is my favorite of the three I read today, also the longest.  

Shai is an artist.  The people around her don't believe she is, after all, she's a Forger.  One of the lowest of the low.  Only fit to be killed, except, they need her.  Somehow the Emperor's soul got lost, and only a master Forger could remake it.  So they decided to make Shai do it.

Shai dives in to the job, because it means she won't die.  Yet.  

In order to Forge the emperor back to himself, she needs to know everything about him, because a soul won't believe anything that isn't really and truly possible.  She can Forge the broken window in her room to be a beautiful stained glass window, only because it once was.  She can Forge her room to be a little larger by convincing the room the last time it was divided, the division was more in her favor.  They are not big changes, when you really think about things, because they are plausible.  But how well do you need to know a person to come up with plausibility for them?

In reading his most private thoughts, in speaking with those who knew him best, in learning about him from the servants, she comes to really know the man.  Just as she comes to know anyone who spends any decent amount of time around her.  So Shai sets out to Forge the emperor's soul, and make it into what he really is, in the same way she Forges her room to be what it really is.

Because, Shai is an artist.

I loved Shai, and how she truly saw a person.  I wish I could see other's that clearly.  Often it's too easy to lie to onesself, much less others.  And I loved the old man who spent countless days with Shai as she tested the bits that would make up a man's soul, while testing the soul of the main actually in front of her in an entirely different way.  I think I liked him more than her, actually, because in the end, he saw her,