In Urithiru’s secured basement, Dalinar gathers his core Radiants—Jasnah, Renarin, Shallan, and Kaladin—along with Navani. Jasnah asks Shallan to take minutes, but Shallan drifts, sketching Kaladin. The meeting centers on the nature of the enemy: Jasnah and Navani frame the parshmen-led conquest as an existential threat led by the Fused, while Kaladin presses sympathy for common parshmen caught in it. Dalinar insists on defending Alethkar and tasks Kaladin with aiding King Elhokar by opening Kholinar’s Oathgate, promising to attempt negotiation afterward.

Practical concerns arise: Kholinar is a “dark spot” to the Stormfather, spanreeds have failed, and the city may already be occupied. Dalinar outlines a small strike team—Kaladin, select squires, Adolin, and Elhokar—to slip in and activate the Oathgate. Jasnah pivots to long-term strategy, noting the immortality and Surgebinding of the Fused, and proposes finding the Heralds and—if it restores their pact—killing them. Dalinar declines to commit to that but assigns Jasnah to pursue locating the Heralds and gathering their knowledge.

They address other fronts: Navani researches the Unmade, and Jasnah urges tracking enemy movements. She asks Kaladin to train his squires for high-altitude scouting, given unreliable spanreeds; he agrees. During a break, Jasnah confronts Shallan over her inattentiveness and continued secrets, reasserts the wardship, and demands scholarly discipline, noting Shallan lacks Shardplate-like “armor.” Humbled, Shallan returns to the meeting.

Pattern then remarks the chamber has “memories.” Shallan passes this to Jasnah, who resolves to investigate in Shadesmar. The group discusses broader strategy and Oathgate access—especially the value of the distant Shin gate. Afterward, Shallan wrestles with identity and responsibility, turns to her Veil persona for decisiveness, and finds a pinned note rewarding her for driving off the Unmade. The letter reveals the truth about Nan Helaran: he had been a Skybreaker acolyte.