Five and a half years earlier, Dalinar travels by stormwagon to Hexi with Felt as guide, intent on visiting the Nightwatcher. The caravan leaves them near the lush, storm-sheltered Valley. As night falls, Dalinar enters alone, haunted by drink, guilt, and the weeping of the dead.

Deep inside, panic seizes him. He hears Adolin’s pleas and others burning, sees a horrific future of conquest and atrocities he might become, and drops Oathbringer. The Nightwatcher appears, calling him Son of Honor and Son of Odium, offering wealth, fame, and strength; Dalinar instead asks for forgiveness, which confounds her.

Cultivation arrives, dismisses the Nightwatcher, and leads Dalinar through the underbrush. She offers a boon and a curse: a careful excision to let him grow. The cost is high—she will take his memories of Evi, which will eventually regrow, becoming a dangerous weapon against her adversary. Dalinar consents, and the forest engulfs him as the pruning is done.

Dalinar crawls out at dawn. Felt and Malli help him, but he needs no bandages; he simply cannot remember his wife, not even her name, though the rest of his life is clear. The screams are gone, replaced by emptiness. Resolute, Dalinar vows to abandon drink, orders preparations to renew the Parshendi campaign, and asks for The Way of Kings to be read to him again.