At the usually tranquil Jokasha Monastery, arguments erupt as master scholars debate the Everstorm’s speed and threat. Seeking peace from the noise and bustle, Ellista relocates from the library to the forest, determined to read despite the monastery’s growing fixation on the new storm.

She dives into the romance An Accountability of Virtue, reacting passionately to its characters’ choices. Ardent Urv startles her, prompting Ellista to hide the book. Urv asks after her progress on Bendthel’s Dawnchant transcriptions, which had stalled for many due to the storm.

Reviewing Ellista’s notes, Urv recognizes substantial progress. Ellista argues the Dawnchant script once spanned Roshar as a codified scholarly writing system, not a universally spoken language. After a Desolation, the language had become moribund; scribes began using the script phonetically for other tongues, leading to flawed transcriptions and, eventually, early forms of modern glyphic systems.

Urv connects this to his struggles with the Covad Fragment, suggesting it may be such a phonetic transcription rather than true Dawnchant, explaining prior translation roadblocks. Ellista’s examples include early proto‑Thaylo‑Vorin radicals and intermediate Thaylen forms that illustrate the transition.

After teasing Ellista about her romance—and revealing a sequel about the protagonist’s sister—Urv proposes a trade: he will lend the sequel if Ellista helps translate a stubborn Dawnchant section for a patron with a strict deadline. Ellista’s scholarship and their pact set the stage for further breakthroughs.