Via spanreed, Shallan updates her brothers on Jasnah’s vigilance: the Soulcaster is worn by day and locked away at night. Her family’s situation deteriorates—debts mount, the highprince ails, and their resources dwindle. Nan Balat reveals that Luesh has died and that dangerous men, connected by a three-diamond symbol, demanded the Soulcaster’s return. Concluding their father had powerful backers, they insist Shallan steal a working Soulcaster despite not knowing how to use one. Fearing exposure and execution, Shallan agrees and burns the correspondence.

Back at the Palanaeum’s Veil, Shallan spars with Jasnah over rhetoric and scholarship, coining “errorgance” as they discuss the Assuredness Movement and treatises on Gavilar’s assassination. Jasnah presses Shallan to interpret evidence and draw conclusions, valorizing informed action over mere accumulation of knowledge, while Shallan wrestles with guilt over her plan to betray her mentor.

King Taravangian arrives for lunch and requests a portrait. Jasnah deflects questions about her Soulcaster’s origin, then engages the king in a candid debate on faith, law, and morality, arguing that human morality can exist independent of the Almighty. As Shallan sketches, her hands render two tall, cloaked, symbol-headed figures in the balcony doorway. Startled, she destroys the drawing and promises a replacement; Taravangian departs to visit the hospitals.

Afterward, Jasnah counsels Shallan on wielding wit with care and praises Taravangian’s peaceful earnestness, lamenting a culture that derides peacemakers. She admits to rhetorical overstatement while maintaining scholarly open-mindedness. Shallan counters with the authority of heartfelt belief. Buoyed by praise yet conflicted by her impending theft and disturbed by the inexplicable figures, Shallan struggles to resume the portrait.