Eight years earlier, Venli secretly revels in new rhythms while publicly masking them with the old ones. She directs scholars to pursue nimbleform, resenting that Eshonai and other warforms garner glory. Ulim flatters and belittles her people, warning of disciplined human armies and insisting conflict is inevitable.

Ulim explains logistical hurdles to bringing more Voidspren, the brewing new storm, and a Herald impeding plans. He recounts how Ba-Ado-Mishram once Connected to all singers, whose imprisonment broke their souls, and says Odium’s solution is to “prime the pump” by pushing Venli’s people into stormform to summon the Everstorm.

As Venli navigates the crowded city, she yearns for recognition and debates her ancestors’ rejection of the Unmade. Visiting her mother, Jaxlim—who struggles with memory—Venli listens to an ancestral song and briefly re-centers on the vow to avoid forms of power and gods.

Ulim reframes the choice as pragmatism, not worship. Venli concludes that hiding is over since Eshonai led humans to the Shattered Plains; enslavement elsewhere proves what humans will do. Between gods and human brands, she chooses desperate action.

Venli instructs Ulim to have his agents influence the Alethi to invite listeners to their palace. She will bring her people to witness human might, instill terror, and make them receptive to promises of power—paving the way to forms of power and the Everstorm. Ulim agrees as Venli comforts her mother.