In Dalinar’s vision, Jezrien, Ishar, Chana, and Vedel discuss traveling east and leaving Battar behind to keep working on making the harsh land fertile. Dalinar presses Ishar and Jezrien about secret plans connected to making Heralds, but they refuse to explain and reveal that writing does not yet exist in this era. Shalash then bursts in, furious that she is still treated like a child despite being decades old, and her outburst reminds Dalinar that the ribbon she drops was the vision’s previous anchor, meaning the scene is beginning to collapse.

At Narak, Thude sings a new song from the chasmfiends’ perspective while listeners care for the great beasts. Venli learns that the chasmfiends remember humans and listeners not as prey but as rival creatures; they fought back when challenged, but the true horror came when people began killing their pupating young on the Shattered Plains. Rather than pursue vengeance, a surviving group eventually offered a kind of truce to Venli’s people, and now they live alongside the listeners because they value the care, companionship, and practical help the arrangement provides.

The song leads Venli to a strategic argument with Thude, Bila, and Jaxlim. Because Odium will eventually notice any surviving listeners who escaped his control, Venli suggests that alliance with humans may be necessary for survival. Thude and Bila reject that idea, insisting that dependence on human rulers would betray listener independence, while Venli is left frustrated and forced to confront her own lingering pride. Jaxlim comforts her, and Venli accepts the embrace while resolving to keep resisting her selfish impulses.

Venli cannot let go of one question raised by the song: why chasmfiends must undergo their final transformation specifically on the Shattered Plains. She confronts one directly and receives a shared memory of being drawn to the area by songs in the stones, where power flowed both from the sky and from the ground during pupation. That revelation makes Venli suspect the Shattered Plains contain an older, deeper source of significance beyond the Oathgate, abandoned Shardblades, and military history, but a coming highstorm interrupts further investigation.

Meanwhile, Navani comforts a frightened Gavinor and speaks directly to the Wind, which confirms that Dalinar’s idea of becoming Honor is both possible and meaningful, though it would be painful and uncertain. The Wind also says it is preparing its own champion to protect the spren if Dalinar fails. As the vision fades, Dalinar realizes that Nale and Taln are the missing Heralds from this era and that Jezrien carries a stone debt-token linking him to Nale. Ignoring the Stormfather’s plea not to expose him, Dalinar seizes the token from Jezrien, avoids Chana’s attempt to stop him, grabs Navani and Gavinor, and uses the token as a new anchor to force their next jump through the visions.