Through the Sibling, Navani finally speaks with Kaladin. She reframes his failed defense as buying time while she seeks to purge the tower and restore proper Light. Kaladin reports Gravity Lashings are suppressed, Adhesion still functions, healing is slower, and he has stolen spanreeds whose spren are corrupted to use Voidlight. He and Dabbid are safe, and he worries about reaching distant floors; Navani promises a solution and asks him to watch for Lift.

Seeking a practical fix, Navani quietly tasks junior engineer Tomor to smuggle out his experimental single-person lift glove and leave a map to counterweights on the twentieth floor. She intends to repurpose the stolen conjoined rubies to power it and coach Kaladin through installation, turning stolen enemy tech to their advantage.

Raboniel arrives, sees through Navani’s stalling, and orders her isolated at a separate desk, with only vetted written instructions to her scholars. At the shielded pillar hall, a warform soldier tests Elhokar’s Shardblade against the field; sliced portions vanish and regrow, and Navani hides her grief. In the library, Raboniel presents a glass globe modeled on the pillar and explains the shield is a Soulcasting half-state—air persuaded to behave like glass, self-maintaining from the model.

Raboniel then reveals a sphere of Towerlight, a mix of Stormlight and Lifelight that only trickles due to the tower’s malaise. They discuss whether Lights are opposites; Navani counters the “oil and water” analogy by emulsifying oil and water to demonstrate coexistence. Raboniel agrees to supply working gems, warns she will break any ciphers, and posts a guard.

Alone, Navani contacts the Sibling via a hidden crystal vein. The Sibling, failing and bitter, reports only two nodes remain and refuses to reveal their locations until Navani presents diversion plans. Accepting the constraint, Navani begins cataloging everything she knows about Light to forge a path to freeing the tower.