Kaladin brings Bridge Four men to Dalinar’s lighteyed training grounds, enduring hostile stares. Zahel tests their obedience, then focuses on Renarin’s control of Shardplate—even making him eat delicately in armor. Zahel produces a Shardblade so Kaladin’s team can acclimate; Moash, Yake, and Teft handle it, while Kaladin refuses out of resentment but asks Zahel to swing at him without a guard to confront his fear.

Adolin arrives, gives a tacit nod of respect, and leaves Kaladin to train while Zahel assigns Ivis to teach the ten sword stances. As practice continues, Shallan enters seeking permission from Sister Nall to update the royal records of Shardplate and Shardblades. She banters with Adolin, returns Kaladin’s boots, and settles to sketch while Adolin and Zahel spar for Renarin’s instruction.

Kaladin, suspicious of Shallan’s sudden proximity, keeps watch. Moash joins him and reveals that King Elhokar effectively condemned his grandparents to die in the dungeons to protect a corrupt friend. Moash admits involvement in a plot against Elhokar and presses Kaladin to meet the organizers; Kaladin, torn between loyalty to Bridge Four and his duty, promises to listen and to tell no one until then.

Syl confronts Kaladin, urging him to go to Dalinar, but he insists on investigating first. Troubled, Kaladin practices barefoot in the sand, wrestling with contradictions in Alethi society and his own ideals—protection versus vengeance. He questions Syl about justice, killing, and what it does to him; she warns that obsession with Amaram twists him from his purpose.

Ivis corrects Kaladin’s forms as he struggles to adapt spear instincts to Shardblade stances. When Kaladin asks Zahel to teach Dalinar’s “lastclap,” Zahel dismisses it as unreliable and urges practical training instead. Kaladin returns to practice, determined yet unsettled by the choice he has made regarding the king and Moash’s conspirators.