Three and a half years earlier, Shallan attends the Middlefest Fair on House Davar’s lands. After marveling at a strange talking “chicken,” she accompanies Lin Davar to the dueling grounds, where Brightlord Revilar presents a predatory trade deal, leveraging favor with the highprince. Lin recognizes he is cornered and grows volatile.

Seizing a chance to act, Shallan slips away, confirms Eylita Tavinar will meet Balat, then presses family guard Jix to escort her into the seedy gambling pavilion. She finds Balat fixated on axehound fights and delivers Eylita’s perfumed note; Balat immediately leaves to meet her, transformed in mood.

Returning, Shallan notices a black-clad messenger who had met with Lin surreptitiously pour powder into his own drink and depart. Lin—angry over the message about Helaran—declares Helaran disinherited and reorders the succession, then asks Shallan to speak with Wikim. In the carriage, Wikim cynically rejects her concern, but she leaves him simplified highstorm-timing problems.

Outside, the messenger approaches Shallan with riddling talk about words, spren, and spheres. He warns Lin is destroying the family, then quietly shows Shallan that Wikim is already working her problems, smiling. He tells a parable on beauty, asks Shallan to name hers, and as she describes an ideal, unbroken family, he lifts lit spheres; Stormlight rises as the vision nearly takes her, but Shallan pulls back.

The messenger says she must first confront truth before she can build upon it, cannot help her yet, and reveals Helaran is in Alethkar “watching.” He departs, leaving Shallan with the realization she never learned his name.