Shallan, sleepless in Sebarial’s luxurious quarters, scatters maps across her bed and compares an ancient depiction of Natanatan with a modern map of the Shattered Plains. She argues the old cartography is imprecise and that Stormseat’s true site matches the Plains, despite scholarly objections. She plants hints in Sebarial’s ledgers to entice him with Urithiru’s promise, notes Navani is occupied nursing an ailing Dalinar, and worries over unanswered letters to her brothers.

Reviewing Amaram’s notes, Shallan links the Parshendi’s fine weapons to scavenging from ruins and reasons Stormseat once housed an Oathgate to Urithiru. She wonders why Amaram seeks to return the Voidbringers rather than fight them. She concludes the Plains were not always shattered; Stormseat likely broke during the Last Desolation, fracturing the region like smashed porcelain.

Pattern presses Shallan to accept truths about their bond and her past, urging her to remember what she once could do, including crafting sound with illusions. Shallan recoils from reopening traumatic memories, visualizing a huddled, broken version of herself, and insists her constructed persona keeps her functional. She agrees to relearn her abilities without delving into the pain.

Testing with an illusion of Veil, Shallan fails to produce sound but observes mechanics: large illusions consume her Stormlight and suppress her glow, and they blur at a distance. Pattern’s proximity stabilizes the image. She infuses Pattern with Stormlight and attaches the illusion to him, letting the image persist and glide as he moves. She plans to hide him within future illusions, takes a quick drink, and returns to sketching to refine more natural motion.