Adolin lies stunned after failing to stop the thunderclast and is shaken by memories of the day Renarin once saved him from one. That memory sharpens Adolin’s deeper fear: Renarin no longer needs protecting, and Adolin feels obsolete after a lifetime of being the dependable one. When the wounded Thaylen soldier Hmask tries to lift him anyway, Adolin remembers that the people of Azimir still need him. He rises, takes Neziham’s Shardblade, calls for Gallant, and rides ahead of the monster to make one more attempt.

Elsewhere, Ash sits beside Taln’s bed and reflects on their betrayal of him and on the terrible endurance that let him carry Roshar through millennia of torment. The battle outside suddenly goes quiet, and Heavenly Ones led by Abidi enter the hospital to slaughter the wounded and break the defenders’ morale. Taln stops muttering, stands from his bed, and reveals himself. Abidi reacts with horror and flees, because even unarmed and long-broken, Taln remains terrifying. Taln then launches himself into battle for the first time in over four thousand years.

Back in the streets, Adolin climbs a watchpost ahead of the thunderclast, secures the remains of a chain to himself, and leaps onto the creature’s back. His first strike with the Shardblade is not enough to kill it, and the thunderclast tries to shake him loose while his Plate continues failing from lack of Stormlight. Adolin is flung outward on the chain, barely recovers his grip, and then uses the creature’s motion to reach its neck. He drives the Blade into the weak point and kills the thunderclast, but before he can free himself from the chain, the collapsing body falls on top of him.

Renarin is pulled from a vision of Adolin saving him and returns to the Spiritual Realm. Unlike in the past, he is no longer terrified by what he sees, because he now understands himself as a Truthwatcher and accepts his bond with Glys. Renarin shelters the frightened Glys within himself, then imposes order on the overwhelming possibilities by shaping them into stained-glass windows that display different people and scenes. Among those windows he encounters Ba-Ado-Mishram, who darkens nearby visions and admits she showed him these images so he would find her. Glys explains that Mishram has influenced the visions and that reaching her prison will require a deep Connection, soul to soul.

Renarin next steps into Rlain’s vision and finds him lonely rather than desiring solitude. The two speak openly about being treated as useful but separate, about feeling like burdens, and about how others failed to understand them. Renarin awkwardly asks about singer romance, and Rlain admits he has thought about a relationship with Renarin and reveals that he once pursued another male singer, Harvo, in mateform. Their talk moves from theory to confession, and they finally take each other’s hand, with Renarin feeling Rlain’s rhythms directly. When Glys says Shallan has arrived, Renarin learns she has noticed the moment with delighted excitement. He and Rlain rejoin her, and Renarin says they need to compare what they have seen because Mishram has hidden a secret inside the visions.