Dalinar visits Prime Yanagawn’s lavish field residence for a strategy meeting, noting the dense Azish pageantry. He joins Jasnah and Vizier Noura as the onlookers disperse. Szeth waits outside as guard. The monarchs sit as equals with the Prime, beginning a candid review of the situation at Urithiru.

Jasnah outlines grim facts: fabrials fail near the tower; the enemy has sealed the caverns; Shardblades can breach rubble but attackers would be exposed; mountain approaches are impossible; and Radiant suppression nullifies their battlefield balance. Kaladin’s powers persist but are insufficient alone. She argues for realistic planning, sparking a debate on “hope,” with Yanagawn defending it and Jasnah warning it can impede necessary action.

Dalinar proposes inserting a small team through Shadesmar and opening a perpendicularity, but the Stormfather doubts Dalinar is ready and they lack ships. He then suggests a bolder path: approach Ishar to recruit his Bondsmith expertise. Noura warns the Heralds are mad; Jasnah cites troubling letters. Dalinar insists on going personally, leaving the Mink in military command while Jasnah and Wit craft a contract to bind Odium. The aim is to force a contest and learn to restore the Oathpact, then free Urithiru by disabling the suppression fabrial.

The meeting adjourns, with Yanagawn asking after Lift; Dalinar believes the Radiants there are likely unconscious. Outside, Szeth hands Dalinar his manuscript. Dalinar presents Oathbringer to Jasnah and requests an open undertext, transforming a hidden tradition into public dialogue. Jasnah accepts, promising rigorous, respectful critique—“Hope is always irrational,” she had said earlier—while Dalinar frames their collaboration as uniting atheist and believer to guide a changing world.