Veil slips into Kholinar’s streets, savoring the city’s tense chaos while noting refugees, ransacked mansions, and costumed cultists. Near the palace, she observes unnaturally behaving soldiers and an Oathgate platform occupied by the cult, with smoke and distant screams. Meeting Kaladin at the steps, she decides to infiltrate alone, disguising herself as Lyn to deliver Elhokar’s letter.

Inside the shadowed entry, the atmosphere feels wrong. After a captainlord verifies her story, a soldier abruptly runs Veil through. She feigns death, taking only a whisper of Stormlight to survive and remain still, instructing Pattern to be silent. The guards carry her deeper into the palace.

Veil passes lines of near-motionless soldiers and glimpses, within a tall mirror, a shadowy figure with white eyes that seems to notice her. Dumped in a wine cellar beside richly dressed corpses, she steadies herself, adopts a servant illusion, and navigates into the Kholin mausoleum. With Pattern mimicking the captain’s voice to draw guards away, she slips outside.

Veil hides in a ruined building and sends Pattern to fetch Kaladin. He arrives, checks on her, and helps her withdraw. The attempt confirms the palace is controlled by a malign force, the soldiers are compromised, and the Oathgate is in hostile hands.