Shallan tries to calm herself by sketching outside Urithiru, but her drawings turn harsh and surreal as she wrestles with Pattern’s apology for helping her kill her mother. She insists she hates the sword, not Pattern, and struggles to capture the tower’s vastness. A scout arrives to summon her to Dalinar, and Shallan notes she has drained spheres, feeling guilty over the cost. The scout admires Shallan’s art and awkwardly asks about Radiants.

As they traverse Urithiru’s winding, striated corridors, Shallan centers herself and enters Dalinar’s newly furnished meeting room. Dalinar, Navani, Adolin, and Renarin discuss the Makabaki: Azir’s new emperor, the war between Tukar and Emul, and Tezim’s claims. Dalinar asks Shallan’s counsel; she demurs, citing limited experience. Pattern offers little and fears Dalinar; Adolin jokes, and Dalinar admits the burden of uniting lands he barely knows.

Drawn by an odd pull as Dalinar passes, Shallan instinctively breathes in Stormlight and places her hand on a map, projecting a vast, living topography of Roshar. Dalinar recognizes the Stormfather’s perspective blending with Shallan’s Lightweaving. The illusion consumes all her Stormlight, but Dalinar deems the practice worth the cost, and the map becomes the centerpiece of their planning.

Using the projection, Dalinar outlines a strategy: protect and supply the world by securing cities with Oathgates, leveraging mobility to counter the enemy’s reach. He mentions a nine-shadowed champion from his visions. They identify Oathgate cities across Roshar and prioritize Azir, Jah Keved, and Thaylenah for their political, manpower, and naval strengths. Kholinar’s status remains unknown, and Dalinar asks Shallan for insight into her homeland’s postwar state.

The meeting is interrupted when the scout, Lyn, returns to report another murder in Urithiru, abruptly shifting the council’s focus back to dangers within the tower.