Puuli, a lighthouse keeper, moves through his storm-battered coastal town gathering blown wood and ship planks while telling everyone the loss is tragic. Outwardly sympathetic, he secretly feels excitement at the "new storm" and what it might herald. He passes Sakin, recently widowed yet again, and notes ruined homes once sheltered by cliffs that his family remembers being reshaped mid-storm.

At the cove, Puuli meets a foreign captain with tan skin and long eyebrows, whose ship has been smashed against the rocks, leaving only the mast visible. He salvages usable boards and continues aiding neighbors—helping Au-lam clear a barn, watching Hema-Dak’s children, and assisting the Drummer brothers with a torn sail—as fishers worry about surviving storms now coming from both directions.

Puuli returns to his squat, sturdy lighthouse, which he calls Defiance, leaves fruit for Kelek, and dries stormwood by the banked daytime fire. He reflects on the lighthouse’s endurance and the Stormfather’s awareness of its importance, recalling family history and the reshaping of the land during tempests.

Remembering his grandfather’s words, Puuli contemplates a prophecy: sailors from the hidden Origin will come to reclaim Natanatan, arriving with light in their pockets when the night is darkest. Interpreting the new storm as that sign, he resolves to keep Defiance’s flame high and watch for their approach.