Hearing the tower spren’s fear, Kaladin risks exposing himself to protect Urithiru. Exhausted but fueled by Stormlight, he crashes through patrols using Adhesion to Full-Lash weapons, walls, and enemies, then slips outside and through hidden passages the spren reveals. He evades a prepared blockade by cutting through shops, briefly heartening a Thaylen craftsman, and reaches the tower’s eastern wall.

There, a secret tunnel opens to the mountainside, where the Pursuer and a tall femalen Fused examine a massive sapphire node meant to draw in Stormlight. The Pursuer attacks, shedding bodies to remanifest, and briefly pins Kaladin to wait out his Light. Syl bluffs as a red spren to interrupt, letting Kaladin recover and disengage, but Kaladin realizes he cannot win a straight duel.

With Gravitation absent, Kaladin improvises: he unlaces his boots and lays Adhesion traps, forcing the Pursuer to materialize onto stuck ground. Recognizing the Fused’s fixation on the chase, Kaladin flees to provoke carelessness while begging the tower spren for a fast-sealing hidden room. He baits the Pursuer inside, then slips out as the door closes, leaving the Fused raging behind sealed stone.

Kaladin sprints back to the node, shoves the femalen Fused from her trance, and smashes the sapphire free with rubble, sending it plummeting into the abyss. He senses the tower’s darkness deepen, then staggers as the Fused drives a knife into his chest and watches his unusually sluggish healing. She coolly threatens to choose an innocent singer host upon rebirth and dissects his Surges with clinical interest.

Warned that reinforcements are coming—and that the Pursuer’s defeat will stir the enemy—Kaladin gathers his spear and shoes, his Stormlight waning and pain lingering. He withdraws into the corridors, guided by Syl and the tower spren, knowing the node is lost but the larger fight and other hidden defenses remain at risk.