In a grim Bavland tavern, Took boasts about owning Szeth and demonstrates Szeth’s absolute obedience by ordering humiliations and self-harm. Szeth complies until invoking his one prohibition: he cannot take his own life. He endures the mockery, cultivating the image of a harmless menial to avoid being used as a killer.

Szeth reflects on years of drifting between petty masters since the Parshendi discarded his Oathstone after Gavilar’s assassination. He hides his nature as a Shardbearer and Surgebinder, considering each day spent on menial labor a victory over orders to kill. He remembers retrieving his Oathstone, being taken east by a cautious merchant, and secretly stashing Gavilar’s strange black sphere in Jah Keved.

After Took’s stories wear thin, he and Szeth leave the tavern. In the dark street of Ironsway, Took collapses, already stabbed. Footpads emerge; one prepares to throw another knife, but a companion stays his hand, judging a Shin servant harmless and potentially valuable.

As the thieves loot Took’s pouch, they find little money but pick up a nondescript stone. Szeth informs them it is his Oathstone and that its holder is his master, bound to his commands except suicide. The thief who takes it claims Szeth, planning to profit by selling him, while Szeth’s bondage continues under new, criminal authority.