An epigraph outlines logicspren-driven mechanisms that enable clocks, hinting at evolving fabrial science. In Urithiru, ten days after Hearthstone, Dalinar announces Kaladin’s role is “evolving.” Kaladin publicly promotes Sigzil to oversee Windrunner administration and Skar to lead missions, then leaves, uneasy but stable, resolved to find purpose beyond command.

Kaladin visits the tower’s outer plates, where fields are grown by emerald Light and listener rhythms. Rlain oversees drummers whose music, combined with Light, draws lifespren and sustains crops, cracking the gemstones like fabrials. Kaladin offers Rlain a reluctant honorspren, Yunfah; Rlain gratefully refuses, rejecting a coerced bond and insisting on a spren who chooses him for who he is.

Seeking guidance, Kaladin finds Zahel on laundry detail. After probing Kaladin’s beliefs and motives, Zahel tests him in a duel among wind-whipped sheets, using cloths to bind, misdirect, and dominate. Syl scouts for Kaladin, and Zahel seems to sense her. Despite Kaladin’s resourcefulness, Zahel repeatedly traps and disarms him, then declares Kaladin doesn’t belong among ardents: he still loves the fight and would eventually leave.

Afterward, Kaladin presses for answers. Zahel distinguishes himself from Wit, calls himself a “Type Two Invested entity,” and explains with metaphors of fossils and imprints that some souls, drenched in power at death, leave a duplicate reattached to a body. He identifies the Fused as such beings, often immortal, fed by Odium’s power, increasingly intent-bound and sprenlike.

Zahel advises that weaker Type Twos can fade if not reinvested, but stronger ones require disruption of the soul by an exceptionally dangerous weapon; otherwise they persist. Kaladin raises the hope of peace with the Fused. Zahel warns of their narrowing purpose over time and says “she” takes their memories, leaving the implication unresolved as Kaladin departs, unsettled but informed.