Shallan, acting as Radiant, brings Renarin and Rlain to Urithiru’s Oathgate and crosses into Shadesmar to continue the pursuit of Mraize and Iyatil. The awakened tower’s dazzling form nearly overwhelms Shallan, so Radiant takes control and joins Windrunners already searching the area. When no sign of the fugitives appears, Radiant explains the Ghostbloods to Renarin and Rlain, reveals that the organization has ties to offworld powers and to Sja-anat’s Enlightened spren, and says she believes Mraize’s team intends to exploit Dalinar’s coming portal to reach their objective.

Renarin and Rlain then use their unusual sight to locate Dalinar and Navani inside the tower from Shadesmar, confirming that both Bondsmiths are moving toward a place where the experiment will occur. In the Physical Realm, Navani leads Dalinar, Wit, and Gav into Urithiru’s lower levels. Navani comforts Gav, who is frightened by spren and by the revelation that the tower itself is alive, by showing him how the tower’s systems serve ordinary people. That reassurance reinforces Navani’s sense that Urithiru is a living, benevolent creation worth protecting.

At a secluded cistern room, Dalinar and Navani prepare for a dangerous test: entering the Spiritual Realm to view the past directly. Wit produces a stone from Ashyn and explains that it can act as an anchor, Connecting them to humanity’s arrival on Roshar so the vision can be used as a controlled experiment. He also admits that he cannot provide precise instructions, only instinct and experience, making clear that the method is uncertain and perilous even to him. Dalinar and Navani tether themselves with lines of Light and prepare to open a perpendicularity anyway, because they need a way to uncover hidden history.

Back in Shadesmar, Radiant’s group races through Urithiru toward the Bondsmiths. Renarin, overwhelmed by the tower’s brightness, motion, and swarms of spren, privately asks Shallan to speak. He tells her that he and Rlain have seen a vision they think shows Ba-Ado-Mishram, and he warns that involving themselves may be catastrophic. As Shallan admits more about Testament and her unusual bond, Renarin realizes Shallan did not bring him merely as backup; she hopes Glys and other Enlightened spren might help navigate the Spiritual Realm and perhaps find Mishram’s compromised prison before the Ghostbloods do.

Renarin remains uneasy, but he continues because abandoning Shallan would also pull Rlain away and leave her with even less caution. When the group reaches the Shadesmar version of the cistern room, they see Dalinar, Navani, and Wit as glowing souls and notice two hidden souls in the walls. Rlain identifies a cultivationspren and Pattern concludes that the watcher is Lift, not an enemy. Renarin then presses Shallan about what powers or disguises the Ghostblood infiltrators might use. As Shallan reviews the expected team—two short people and one tall—she suddenly notices that the three soldiers she placed outside the door match that exact description, suggesting the posted guards may be the disguised Ghostbloods she came to stop.