Nale feels a brief sense of recovery after recent events, but that ends when Ishar suddenly senses a catastrophe: the Stormfather is dead, Dalinar has failed, and Taravangian has become Retribution by consuming Honor. Ishar explains that Retribution will reclaim the pieces of Honor carried by the Heralds and then seize and remake the spren. With no highstorm and no Stormlight, Nale believes Roshar has finally lost.

The Wind proposes one remaining defense: the ten Heralds might use their Connection to Honor to bind Retribution in a limited way and keep the spren beyond his immediate reach. Ishar realizes this would require reforging the Oathpact. Nale is horrified by the thought of returning to Braize and enduring torture again, but the Wind offers a possible improvement: Ishar may be able to hide the Heralds’ minds inside a vision between Returns, sparing them conscious torment even if their souls still bear the pact.

Ishar and Nale look over the battlefield. Kaladin and Szeth are both alive but badly injured, Syl is grieving, and Nightblood is inert after the struggle. Nale places the Honorblades into a circle, but Jezrien’s place remains empty. Szeth cannot take the role because he is unconscious and unable to speak the Words, and at that moment a new darkness gathers in the sky. Ishar identifies it as the Night of Sorrows and says the True Desolation has truly arrived.

Kaladin then forces himself up and joins the discussion. Syl, shaken by the Stormfather’s death, explains that the spren now risk being absorbed and remade by Retribution, while the Wind confirms that Dalinar is dead, Cultivation has fled, and Roshar has lost its divine protections. When Nale argues that Szeth should become the new Herald because Ishar prepared him for it, Kaladin refuses. Kaladin says Szeth chose peace and must be protected, then accepts that he himself should take Jezrien’s place despite the risk of centuries of separation and possible torture.

Wearing the blue Kholin cloak, Kaladin walks to the circle while remembering the many earlier versions of himself and understanding that each one still belongs to him. He speaks his own Words of acceptance, and with Syl helps create a new Honor-made spear to fill the final place in the ring. The other Heralds answer Ishar’s summons, the Oathpact is successfully reforged, and Kaladin is transformed into a new Herald. When Ishar welcomes him, Kaladin names himself the Herald of Second Chances, and Ishar says the next steps are to make Kaladin immortal and then leave Roshar.