Kaladin stands back with Syl and watches Szeth fight six Honorbearers at once. Szeth uses Lashings, speed, and Nightblood to dominate the battle, and Kaladin realizes the wind itself seems to fear Szeth. Kaladin then notices the spren of his armor as countless presences connected to the Wind of Roshar, and through them he senses that something momentous and dangerous is happening at Urithiru.

At that same turning point, Dalinar feels Renarin and Rlain release Ba-Ado-Mishram. The ending of that ancient discord convinces Dalinar that a long-broken wrong has finally been corrected, and he understands that this had been preventing Honor from fully returning. Seeing honor expressed through the choices and redemption of many different people, Dalinar forms the needed Connection with the power, and Honor is reborn in Dalinar Kholin.

With that spiritual shift, Szeth feels inwardly freed as well. He stops delaying and moves decisively against the Honorbearers, killing Pozen, his first teacher, and then Moss, whom Szeth mourns as the only true friend among them. Szeth weeps as he kills them, because he sees the fight not as triumph but as a painful duty required to bring peace.

Elsewhere, the freed Ba-Ado-Mishram fills the chamber with black smoke and manifests before Renarin and Rlain in a furious, vengeful form. When Mishram calls Renarin evil simply because he is human, Rlain throws himself in front of Renarin and argues that humans and singers are both mixtures of good and evil, and that nothing can change unless that truth is accepted. Mishram does not kill them, but her rage erupts in light and force, ejecting Rlain, Renarin, Shallan, and the spren from the Spiritual Realm back to the Oathgate plateau in Shadesmar.

Back in Shinovar, three opponents remain: Szeth's sister Elid, an older Truthwatcher, and Szeth's father. The Truthwatcher unleashes visions of the people Szeth has killed, while Nightblood urges greater destruction and begins consuming Szeth in turn. Elid attacks while accusing Szeth of ruining their family, and Szeth accepts his guilt without letting it break him; he realizes the accusing shadows only rule him if he grants them power. Seeing that Elid is no longer truly alive but something corrupted, Szeth kisses her forehead and kills her with Nightblood, giving her peace.