Navani convenes Aladar, Hatham, Sebarial, and Brightness Bethab to address mounting crises in Urithiru while Dalinar withdraws in grief. The highprinces press her on the delayed highking proclamation and on leadership. They present urgent problems—clogged plumbing exhausting Soulcasters, dwindling emeralds and water, labor shortages, and lumber control near the warcamps. Navani rejects conquest, argues for unity, and commits to restoring the tower’s farms and water systems.

Her resolve steadies the coalition, which agrees to continue coordinated solutions. Despite private frustration at Dalinar’s drinking and the burden on her, Navani chooses to support him and keep order until he recovers.

Escorted by Bridge Four Windrunners led by Leyten, Navani tours the tower. Their banter reveals they prefer quiet duty, are awaiting Kaladin to resume Windrunning practice with the Honorblade, and that Teft recently faced charges for firemoss intoxication. Navani worries others will see her as the power behind the throne.

In the archives, Jasnah oversees a large transcription effort on the tower’s gemstone records. Renarin, noticeably happier among Bridge Four, searches for patterns in the storage drawers; Jasnah prefers he remain for study. Jasnah reports few fabrial details so far, is oddly unsettled that the Dawnchant may soon be decoded, and reasserts the value of history.

Reviewing Jasnah’s papers, Navani finds accounts that Renarin scrawled numbers and malformed glyphs around Dalinar’s palace before the Everstorm—warnings from his spren he was too uncertain to voice. Another note describes Lift’s spren as a crystalline shimmer. Troubled, Navani takes copies of translations and goes to check on Dalinar.