Moash pulls a sledge in the parshmen-led caravan advancing on Kholinar, finding the work orderly and almost peaceful compared to bridge duty. He reflects that human rule has failed and rationalizes the Voidbringers’ return as deserved, increasingly admiring the singers’ efficient logistics and measured discipline.

Amid this order, Moash notes a disturbing exception: a parshman crew in workform treated as slaves and relentlessly abused. During a break, his young parshwoman overseer explains they are punished for harboring a “false god,” a living being akin to the singers’ own living gods, the Fused.

As the column pushes to beat an oncoming storm, the abused crew falls behind; one parshman slips, revealing bleeding feet, and overseers begin brutal whippings. Moash intervenes, stops the beatings, floors one overseer, and orders the injured parshman to ride the sledge while Moash takes his place on the rope.

Though overseers consult a Fused, Moash is not punished, and the abuse ceases for the remainder of the march. The incident lays bare the singers’ internal hierarchy and hypocrisy, even as their army burns an empty village and closes the final distance to Kholinar.