Posing as a porter in crowded Kharbranth, Szeth bears the weight of past massacres as he prepares to kill his final target, King Taravangian. He infiltrates the palace via the servants’ privy, uses Lashings to descend into the lighteyes’ level, disguises himself, and silently disables the two study guards to meet the king.

Szeth delivers the required message—"The others are dead. I’ve come to finish the job"—but Taravangian reveals foreknowledge of Szeth’s identity and methods. Producing Szeth’s Oathstone, the king admits he placed his own name on the list as cover and forbids Szeth from harming him. He tends the injured guards, then leads Szeth deeper into the palace.

In a hidden, white-painted ward filled with beds, Taravangian shows patients being slowly bled to death while scribes record their last utterances. He claims these “death rattles” began about seven years ago, near Gavilar’s explorations, and that the visions warn of a coming catastrophe. He frames both his hands-on killings and Szeth’s assassinations as necessary sins to build stability, saying, “I am the monster who will save this world.”

Taravangian adds a new target: Dalinar Kholin. Fearing Dalinar’s unification of the Alethi will disrupt his plans, he orders Szeth to kill Dalinar quickly and brutally. Tormented but bound to obedience, Szeth accepts the command as the screams of the dead haunt him.