As the warcamp conference breaks from arguing over the Assassin in White, Adolin—sore from wounds—reflects on the assassin’s worldwide killings and the limits of their defenses. On Dalinar’s advice he has shed his Plate while General Khal waits in reserve with a strike force, and the chamber bristles with Shardbearers.

Seeking action, Adolin confronts Relis, Ruthar’s champion, needling him about bravado and accusing him of dodging real duels. Relis refuses on protocol, so Adolin offers staggering terms: his and Renarin’s Plate and Blades plus a captured Shard—five to Relis’s two. Relis still declines, but his cousin Elit—hungry for prestige—accepts a duel in seven days, despite Relis’s protests. Adolin presses for an earlier date, intending to climb the brackets toward Sadeas by defeating Ruthar’s man.

Sadeas himself appears, needling Adolin and recasting his battlefield betrayal as a “kindness.” Adolin loses composure and threatens murder, nearly striking Sadeas in public, which would ruin him politically.

Meridas Amaram intervenes, guiding Adolin away and counseling restraint. He argues that distasteful means can serve honorable ends and claims to bridge the divide between Dalinar and Sadeas, while Adolin remains skeptical.

Adolin is then captivated by a red-haired Veden woman who approaches Dalinar and Navani. She soberly reports that Jasnah went down with the ship, delivering the Kholins confirmation of the loss.