Adolin keeps fighting Abidi despite exhaustion, pain from his stump, and failing strength. Realizing he cannot win by simply surviving, Adolin changes tactics and attacks as though he is trying to crack a section of Abidi’s Plate, using the expectation to create openings. As he lands repeated precise blows, Adolin reaches a deeper understanding of himself: Evi taught him to care, and much of his anger at Dalinar came from wanting his mother’s faith in Dalinar to be justified. Letting go of that old anger, Adolin decides he can still become the kind of man Evi believed in, someone who fights for a purpose.

Adolin then uses Abidi’s rage against him, blocks a killing strike with his aluminum candelabra, and drives his sword through Abidi’s eye slit. The move would have ended most duels, but Abidi heals, seizes Adolin, and makes it clear that skill alone will not be enough. While hanging helplessly in Abidi’s grip, Adolin realizes Maya was right: he has been trying to do everything alone. He finally accepts that his true role is not to be the greatest swordsman, but to lead, and he offers a desperate plea for help.

That plea is answered by a chorus of voices as Abidi hurls Adolin into a wall. A burst of light strips Abidi of his Plate and surrounds Adolin, and the Plate spren form around Adolin to protect him from the impact. Adolin recognizes that his Plate has been obeying his old instruction to serve his armor standbys, and now those spren return to him directly, even reshaping the leg armor to fit his peg leg with a flexible metal foot. With orange-red light glowing from the armor, Adolin stands again, newly protected and newly certain of who he is, then charges the now-unarmored Abidi.

Elsewhere, Neturo keeps beating and throwing Szeth, but in a brief moment of clarity Szeth hears his father beg for help through the fury. Szeth realizes Ishu’s control has turned the people around him into puppets and that the Herald’s madness has spread through Shinovar, driving away spren and hollowing out the land. As Ishu keeps shouting for obedience, Szeth remembers how his whole life he has asked others to tell him what is right, surrendering judgment to fathers, masters, and rulers. Refusing that pattern at last, Szeth rises under the blows, claims his own agency, and shouts, “I am my own agent. I make my own choices. I. Am. THE LAW!” as Light erupts around him.