Shallan wakes after Veil’s drinking with a pounding head, finishes administrative meetings, and burns a cryptic note promising a spren will come. Seeking company, she visits her brothers, sketches by the hearth, and is forced into memories of her fractured past and the lurking threat of Formless. She studies Ialai’s notebook, noting references to Shadesmar routes.

Balat and Eylita return with a fellow guardsman. Veil’s vigilance catches the man’s voice: Mraize, posing as “Gobby.” His presence near Balat is a pointed warning. After he departs, Shallan follows to the garden to confront him.

Mraize praises her results against the Sons of Honor, pressures her commitment, and uses his strange green “chicken” to illustrate predation as it kills a mole. He outlines the Ghostbloods’ objective: exporting Stormlight—Investiture—to other worlds, explaining Connection limits that bind Investiture and Radiants to Roshar. He admits he has a solution but needs her help, asserts Dalinar’s control of Oathgates aids their broader aims, and clarifies Ialai had only intercepted a Ghostblood agent near Dalinar. He hints a spy among Shallan’s Lightweavers, accepts Sja‑anat sending a spren to test his people, and reveals Gavilar once transported Voidlight from Braize, making him a danger the Sons could not be allowed to emulate.

Finally, Mraize assigns Shallan to reach Restares—former leader of the Sons of Honor—now sheltered in the honorspren fortress, Lasting Integrity. He promises full disclosure about the cosmere, Radiants, and Shallan’s past upon her successful return, while claiming he will not hunt her if she chooses to leave afterward. Drawn by the promise of answers and fearing the Ghostbloods’ long reach into her family, Shallan knows she will take the hunt.