Dalinar awakens on a stone floor in a familiar chamber from a past Nohadon vision, disoriented and aching after days of drinking following his excommunication. Expecting a Stormfather-sent vision, he finds the sequence behaving differently. He discovers a side room where an older, lively Nohadon greets him and insists they go shopping, promising distraction from Dalinar’s burdens.

They descend into a vibrant, crowded city where Nohadon haggles for grain with an affectionate merchant. Dalinar repeatedly senses looming danger as enormous shadows and distant thuds pass overhead, but the crowd remains unconcerned. Nohadon tells a brief story of learning Shin loaf bread during a senseless post-Desolation war, hinting at life’s unfairness and balance.

As they shop, Nohadon frames leadership around principles and cost, tipping a merchant’s scales and donating the excess as a metaphor. He tells Dalinar not to expect ease from doing right, suggesting life may be balanced even when it seems unfair. Dalinar admits his urge to force unity by command, calling himself a warmonger, while voices of past guilt—Evi, children, flames—press on him.

A thunderclast appears, which Nohadon calmly touches to still it, naming this “nightmare” as Dalinar’s creation. Dalinar calls himself a hypocrite; Nohadon counters that a hypocrite can be one in the process of changing. More thunderclasts surround the city as Nohadon outlines the three realms and presses Dalinar on understanding the journey, culminating in the pointed question: “What is the most important step a man can take?”

Dalinar jolts awake in Urithiru, realizing there is no storm and that the experience wasn’t a Stormfather vision. Shaken, he feels a memory bloom into clarity—the night of Gavilar’s funeral—signaling buried truths beginning to surface.