Dalinar attends a sparsely populated cold-weather feast, feeling increasingly isolated among the highprinces and uneasy about Sadeas’s ongoing investigation. Wit slips in, unusually serious, hinting that the “winds are changing,” dropping strange terms, and warning that Sadeas plans a revelation before leaving under the name Hoid. Concerned, Dalinar quietly has Adolin position loyal guards.

Dalinar mingles briefly with Highprince Hatham, a Natan dignitary named Au-nak, and an ardent whose calculated insult reveals courtly manipulation. Distracted by Sadeas and Elhokar, Dalinar breaks off and confronts them, demanding the investigation’s results. Sadeas calls the feast to attention and presents findings: the king’s saddle girth was indeed cut, eight Shardplate sapphires cracked, and a young groom, Fin, testifies the saddle was switched before the horse reached Dalinar’s camp.

Sadeas concludes the tampering preceded Dalinar’s involvement, making Dalinar an unlikely suspect and suggesting someone aimed to implicate him—or kill the king under cover of an “accident.” The crowd disperses, disappointed of scandal. Dalinar, stunned but relieved, confronts Sadeas privately. Sadeas berates Dalinar’s recent self-righteousness yet says he sought to clear him to find the real culprit, rejecting the notion that eight gemstones cracked by chance.

Pressed on strategy and the stalled war, Dalinar proposes an alliance: Sadeas’s swift bridges seize plateaus and hold; Dalinar’s heavier troops arrive to press the advantage, potentially yielding a Shardblade. They agree on terms—gemhearts two-thirds to Sadeas; any captured Blade to Sadeas, the Plate to Dalinar for Renarin. Sadeas accepts in principle, opening the door to coordinated assaults and a possible turning point in the campaign.