Kaladin arranges a private storm bunker from an elderly lighteyed waystop keeper in Vamah lands, learning that multiple caravans from Revolar have gone silent. He secures food and warns the man not to witness their arrival, maintaining the fiction of a secretive brightlord.

Kaladin returns to the parshmen and leads them in before the approaching highstorm. Their numbers have grown to nearly a hundred, gathered by unseen Voidspren guiding scattered groups toward an unspecified “gathering.” Khen promises to speak for Kaladin there, while the Everstorm’s recurrence underscores the strangeness of the times.

As the highstorm hits, Kaladin debates returning to his allies but delays, intending at least to contact Navani by spanreed. A glowing yellow spren appears openly to him, walking on spikes of golden stone, and calls him out as a liar about being a captive, noting the parshmen are less than a month old.

The spren, identifying herself as a messenger, invites Kaladin to fight for the parshmen and says the decision will be made at their destination, which is near. She probes how he predicted the highstorm; Kaladin deflects. The spren vanishes, leaving Kaladin maintaining his cover while the group continues toward the gathering.