Shallan roams Urithiru’s lower levels alone despite Dalinar’s order to travel in pairs, contemplating the tower’s emptiness and wrongness. She discovers an abandoned theater and, with Pattern watching, stages a grand Lightweaving of a childhood tale, The Girl Who Looked Up. The story’s revelations—people behind a wall being the hidden evil, a girl stealing light and bringing storms—leave Shallan emotionally shaken as her Stormlight runs low and the illusions collapse.

As the audience of shadows fades, one figure actually rises and departs. Alarmed, Shallan gives chase, adopting her Radiant persona and summoning her Shardblade. She races through twisting corridors, is momentarily surrounded by fleeting illusions of her own selves, and arrives at a circular room lined with deep wall slots venting air.

Peering into a slot, Shallan sees a distorted, humanlike mass squeezing through the narrow passage—eyes reflecting light, joints bending wrong—then deduces it is heading toward the Breakaway market. She dismisses her Blade, shifts to Veil, and sprints for the crowded cavern.

In the market, a commotion centers on Rock, his hand pierced by a knife. Witnesses report a long coat and hat on the fleeing attacker. Shallan notes the victim resembles the Horneater she recently stabbed and that the assault happened near All’s Alley, suggesting a copycat or calculated misdirection. The unknown assailant escapes.

Ishnah—the thief Shallan previously contacted—approaches, begging to join Veil’s secret organization for knowledge and security amid chaos. Weighing the Ghostbloods’ nature and risks, Shallan refuses and departs, unsettled by both the prowling shadow in the vents and the escalating dangers within Urithiru.