Dalinar drifts in the Spiritual Realm, soothed by a seductive warmth that makes him want to stop resisting. Each time he opens his eyes, he is thrown into painful moments from his life, and he realizes that if he gives in, he may lose himself there forever. Remembering that he came for a purpose, he uses the stone Wit gave him as an anchor and forces himself toward a specific point in the past, despite a warning that what he seeks could destroy him.

Dalinar lands in a vision of ancient Roshar, inhabiting the place of a singer called Moash. He confirms that he cannot open a perpendicularity to escape, though Stormlight is present everywhere, and he is alarmed to discover that he has already lost a day. Traveling with a small group of singers through a mountain pass, he studies the landscape and realizes that the vast brown plain below is likely early Shinovar, meaning he has arrived near the moment humans first came to Roshar.

Dalinar follows the singers as they recover stolen chulls and then make camp before a storm. He notes signs of great antiquity, including the lack of metal tools, and tests the strange firm "mud" of Shinovar. While he worries about Navani being lost elsewhere in the Spiritual Realm, a silver bond suddenly forms and pulls her into the vision. Navani appears in the form of one of the singers at first, then resolves into herself, and the two compare what they know: time is passing oddly, they may not be alone in this place, and they still have no clear route home.

Trying to gather information before the vision ends, Dalinar bluntly asks the singers what they think of Honor. The answers reveal disagreement among them: one singer insists Honor is their god and that tradition should be followed, while another argues that Honor did not create the spren or the forms and says those gifts came from the "Origin of Songs," whom Navani and Dalinar identify as Adonalsium. This exchange shows that religious division among the singers already existed before humanity's arrival.

When the storm comes, Shinovar experiences only a brief, manageable downpour rather than a devastating highstorm. As the singers kneel to pray, a vast, rippling presence called the Wind manifests and speaks to Dalinar and Navani directly. The Wind recognizes them as travelers from another time, says it is a caretaker of the land that will grow quiet after new gods arrive, and notes that the "soldier and the assassin" are standing in the same place in another time, implying Kaladin and Szeth have reached Shinovar.

Dalinar presses the Wind for help in taking up Honor's power, hoping that understanding the past will let him claim it and return home. The Wind tells him Honor's power surrounds him but cannot simply be persuaded, then urges him to watch. A light splits the sky, a portal opens, and Dalinar and Navani see a world on fire beyond it, confirming that they are witnessing the imminent arrival of humans on Roshar.