Szeth-son-son-Vallano watches over Makkek’s gambling den, reflecting on Vorin oddities, his Truthless status, and Makkek’s demand for theatricality. He recalls killing Makkek’s old accomplices to protect the secret of the Oathstone and worries about how brazen his master has become.

Ordered to eliminate a rival named Gavashaw, Szeth slips through Bornwater, savoring brief freedom. At the landlord’s mansion he avoids killing guards, uses Stormlight and Lashings to scale walls and cut into a dome, and crafts a decoy with a Lashed wooden sphere to test for ambushes.

Inside, Szeth finds Gavashaw’s severed head. A masked man addresses him, deriding Makkek’s petty uses for Szeth and calling him squandered. Szeth denies greatness in killing and alludes to the atrocity in Alethkar, while the figure insists Szeth is capable of far worse than battlefield Shardbearers.

The intruder rolls out Makkek’s head and displays Szeth’s Oathstone, claiming to serve a new master. He hands Szeth a list naming powerful targets—six Alethi highprinces among others—and instructs him to replicate the destabilizing tactics used in Alethkar. The man then Soulcasts a wall to smoke and departs.

Szeth realizes he now serves someone who understands and will exploit his full capabilities. Bound by the Oathstone, he accepts the orders, folds the list with steady hands, and foresees the world trembling under the orchestrated chaos to come.