By day, Kaladin directs Bridge Four to gather stones while secretly stashing knobweed bundles beneath a wagon, with Syl guiding Rock to the best patches. The bridgemen haul rocks and remain aloof; Dunny is polite, Earless Jaks hostile, and Natam and Skar indifferent. Kaladin recognizes their apathy and realizes survival alone won’t inspire them.

That night, Kaladin, Teft, and Rock slip through Sadeas’s warcamp to the wagonyard, retrieve the hidden knobweed bundles, and scavenge cracked liquor bottles Syl found. Carrying their contraband past a dozing chull guard, they descend to a chasm rim to work unseen.

There, under moonlight, they “milk” the knobweed into bottles. Kaladin explains the milk’s antiseptic power against rotspren, intending to save Leyten and others. He asserts that being bridgeleader means defining their own standards, while Teft worries lighteyes will notice. Kaladin insists lighteyes ignore them—until they do not.

As they work, Rock shares his past: a Horneater retainer to a nuatoma who challenged Sadeas for Shards and lost, placing Rock in Sadeas’s service. Assigned to bridges after he “enhanced” Sadeas’s meal with chull dung, Rock’s tale sparks laughter, giving Kaladin insight into what his men need beyond safety. Kaladin then reveals he once killed a man and was thanked for it, yet became a slave after rejecting a lighteyed reward, hinting at betrayal. They continue bottling, resolved to treat the wounded and build purpose.