Nine years earlier in Hearthstone, ten-year-old Kaladin hurries into Lirin’s surgery where Sani, a fifteen-year-old girl, lies sedated by winterwort. Lirin insists on ritual cleanliness and careful preparation, using Stormlight-lit spheres for steady illumination. As Kaladin cleans debris from Sani’s mangled hand, he identifies a shattered third finger that cannot be saved.

Lirin performs the amputation and repairs the remaining injuries while Kaladin assists, handing tools, managing sutures, and bandaging. Kaladin notes the townspeople’s expectations and the surgeon’s burden: success is assumed, and loss becomes blame. Lirin cauterizes, applies lister’s oil against infection, and reminds Kaladin to control his nerves so worry does not hinder action.

Afterward, while cleaning, father and son argue about war and honor. Kaladin idolizes soldiers and lighteyes, citing border threats and glory; Lirin counters with skepticism of warfare and myths, corrects Kaladin’s confusion about Heralds and Radiants, and emphasizes practical, observable medicine. He rejects the idea of protecting by killing, telling Kaladin, “There are two kinds of people in this world… those who save lives, and those who take lives.”

Seeing Kaladin’s aptitude, Lirin quizzes him on winterwort and fiddlepox, praises his quick mind, and reveals he has been saving to send Kaladin to Kharbranth at sixteen for formal surgical training. The promise offers a path shaped by skill and compassion, deepening Kaladin’s emerging tension between the call of the spear and the duty of the scalpel.