Nan Balat sits on his mansion porch in vine-laden Jah Keved, methodically tearing apart small crabs to soothe chronic pain from a bad leg break. He hides this habit even from Eylita. The gardens’ songlings and his axehound, Scrak, occupy the green as he leans on a cane.

It has been almost six months since Shallan left. A spanreed message announces she has succeeded in the first step of their plan by becoming Jasnah Kholin’s ward, positioning her to steal a Soulcaster. Balat worries that his sheltered sister is terrified and that he should not have let her go.

Watching Scrak toy with a captured songling, Balat calls himself a coward. He argues that only a woman could get close enough to Jasnah, rationalizing why he stayed home to manage the house, yet the excuses feel hollow. He continues mutilating a crab, prying its shell apart for the resistive relief.

Balat reflects on their father’s brutality, which drove Asha Jushu to vice and Tet Wikim to despair; only he and Shallan were spared physical abuse. With Helaran and their father dead, the Davars feel like “cripples.” Regret mounting, Balat is interrupted when Wikim rushes in with urgency and says, "We have a problem."