In a ruined monastery, Kaladin faces Nale with only spear skill and judgment to rely on. The Wind warns that a storm is coming tomorrow and says Kaladin is needed alive for it, but offers no more help than a voice. Kaladin uses old training from before his powers, studies the room, and carefully deflects Nale's probing attacks while realizing that Nale is fighting like an ancient master whose intentions are much harder to read than his movements.

Kaladin gradually gains confidence and experiments with his Shardplate and Syl's changing forms, using the armor to absorb hits while trying to punish Nale at close range. Kaladin manages to cut Nale's uniform, but Kaladin's unfamiliarity with his own Plate becomes a disadvantage. Nale briefly manifests his own Plate only to show the gap in control between them, knocks Kaladin down, and coldly tells Kaladin to do better if he is going to die well. Kaladin then dismisses most of his Plate and returns to a simpler spear style that suits him better.

As the duel continues, Kaladin presses Nale hard enough to force conversation. Nale confirms that he sent Helaran to kill Amaram and says that, had he understood Kaladin was the true danger, Nale would have come personally to kill Kaladin on that battlefield. When Kaladin argues that murdering budding Radiants never could have stopped the Desolation, Nale cites Ishar as the source of his orders and tries to preserve his old logic, even while slipping into contradiction. Kaladin tries to reach Nale through memory and innocence rather than reason, invoking Cenn's death and asking how a man claiming justice can dismiss a child as collateral damage. Nale answers that law and cause justify any number of youthful deaths.

That exchange sharpens Kaladin instead of breaking him. Remembering who he is beyond compulsion, Kaladin realizes that he is protecting Szeth by choice and that love, not numbness, now steadies him against loss. Kaladin launches a strike that should have landed, but Nale suddenly moves with impossible speed and avoids it by the narrowest margin. Nale then reveals that Kaladin had likely been good enough to defeat most opponents, yet not a Herald using true skill. He also remarks that Windrunners become most dangerous when driven to protect others, turning Kaladin's emotional strength into an object of study.

Once Nale stops holding back, the duel becomes hopeless. Szeth tries to end the fight by offering obedience, but Nale says he now has legal authority to execute Kaladin because Kaladin agreed to the duel and is corrupting Szeth. Nale seizes Kaladin, smashes him repeatedly into stone until Kaladin's armor explodes away, and leaves him broken on the floor. Syl steps in front of Kaladin and calls the act unfair, and Szeth's spren also pleads for Nale to stop, but Nale ignores both spren and advances. As Kaladin struggles to rise in agony, he hears a distant flute.