Shallan recovers in a Kharbranth hospital after cutting her arm to mask her earlier inexplicable blood and avoid suspicion of Soulcasting. She sketches the ward and the eerie symbolheaded figures that lurk at the edges of her drawings, reflecting on her visit to a place of beads, flames, and a distant sun, and on how she may have traded infused light to make the goblet change.

King Taravangian visits, kindly arranging that Shallan may receive visitors and suggesting she return home, which suits her plan to leave and study her furtive Soulcasting on the journey. Soon after, Jasnah arrives, awkwardly apologetic for overworking Shallan. Jasnah gifts a blank Book of Endless Pages and recommends the Devotary of Sincerity, then rebuffs claims that her Voidbringer research is meant to disprove Vorinism.

Ardent Kabsal enters bearing rare strawberry jam and bread. Jasnah needles him, but agrees to taste the bread. The jam smells foul; Kabsal insists on Shallan trying it, samples it himself, then staggers and collapses. Shallan also reels, overcome by sudden dizziness and weakness, realizing they have been poisoned.

Jasnah takes charge, calling for a garnet and declaring she must Soulcast Shallan’s blood to purify it despite the danger. As Shallan fumbles open her safepouch, the garnet and Jasnah’s stolen Soulcaster spill onto the floor, drawing Jasnah’s gasp. A surge of heat rips through Shallan as the attempt begins, and she blacks out.