On the fourth day aboard the Shadesmar barge, Shallan enjoys drawing until four Cryptics crowd her, triggering anxiety and memories of earlier terror. Radiant steadies her. The trio confirms a critical fact: Shallan’s communication device could not have turned on its own and must have been removed, proving someone on her team tampered with it. None of the three personas did it, heightening the urgency to find the spy.

Veil outlines a two-pronged plan: pressure suspects for guilty tells and seed each with a unique, secret detail to trace any leak to Mraize. After Pattern’s brief apology and musings on math and art, Shallan approaches Ishnah while peakspren Ua’pam and Unativi manifest cargo. Pushed, Ishnah confesses she secretly funded old underworld friends, unintentionally abetting a new racket, but denies Ghostblood contact and shows genuine shock. Shallan promises help and plants the first bait: she quietly claims to have seen a corrupted windspren, asking Ishnah to watch and keep it secret.

Shallan then observes Beryl Soulcasting obsidian to lavis using literal seeds as exemplars, suggesting Lightweavers may need different methods than Jasnah’s. When Shallan probes Beryl’s past, Beryl recounts leaving sex work by choice and speaks of transformation, which destabilizes Shallan; Formless stirs. Radiant takes over, directs Beryl to teach her Soulcasting approach to Ishnah, and plants the second bait: an odd gloryspren possibly corrupted by Sja-anat, to be reported privately and kept quiet.

Radiant seeks out Vathah, who is depth-sounding and scrubbing the deck with peakspren sailors, noting the absence of Reachers. Shallan resurfaces briefly to frame the Court as family; Vathah admits something in him broke—haunted by past bloodshed—and longs to become someone else. Shallan plants the third bait: a private report of a fearspren “of hers” following the barge, asking him to verify quietly without alarming others.

A moment of camaraderie follows, but Veil hints she understands why Shallan keeps Mraize and Adolin in the dark. Unwilling to face it, Shallan retreats again, leaving Radiant in control. The team continues the voyage with seeded misinformation in place, the spy hunt begun, and Shallan’s identity struggles intensifying.