Shallan enters the ancient vision in a singer body alongside Renarin and Rlain, who explain that Glys and Tumi are masking them by assigning them local forms so neither the people in the vision nor Dalinar will recognize them. The three realize that the Ghostblood assassins watching Dalinar and Navani could be hidden as anyone nearby, so Shallan insists their first goal is to remain unobtrusive and observe. As they descend, Shallan also notices that she can naturally match singer rhythms in this borrowed form, and she suspects an unspoken closeness between Renarin and Rlain.

Drawing on Veil’s habits and the survival skills Shallan learned in childhood, Shallan decides to infiltrate more deeply on her own. She slips away from her role as a nervous singer scout, creates a decoy illusion, and then Lightweaves herself into the form of a human refugee without needing a drawing first, marking a clear advance in her abilities. Using a trapped animal as cover, she positions herself close to Dalinar and Navani while looking for the person most likely to be surveilling them.

Shallan realizes that one of the other supposed helpers at the animal is almost certainly Mraize, because he has chosen the same convenient cover and fallen back into a familiar false persona. When Dalinar walks away to speak with the Stormfather, Shallan decides this is her best chance and attacks with her anti-Stormlight dagger. Radiant takes over for the strike, but Mraize sees the motion, stops her arm, and admits that he has feared Shallan ever since learning she killed Tyn. Because Mraize is stronger, because Shallan cannot summon armor in this realm, and because a direct knife fight would favor him, Shallan changes tactics, feigns panic, and lets nearby refugees seize and restrain Mraize instead.

Before Shallan can turn that advantage into anything decisive, Formless appears beside her as a smoke-headed version of herself and declares that it is not gone, but rather the inevitable self shaped by all that was done to Shallan. The confrontation destabilizes Shallan completely. The vision collapses into mist, Pattern holds her steady, and Renarin explains that their spren believed they were close to drawing the notice of divine powers in this place. Shallan, Rlain, and Renarin withdraw to recover and regroup, with Shallan bitterly noting that trying to murder someone always makes a scene.

Elsewhere in the vision, Dalinar speaks with the Stormfather, who sadly comments on the Ashyn animals coming through the portal and explains which species will vanish, survive, or adapt on Roshar. The Stormfather admits he carries only echoes of Tanavast’s memories, then describes the Wind as a fallen godlike remnant tied to Roshar’s original creator. When Dalinar presses him about Honor’s death and why Honor’s power has accepted no successor, the Stormfather says the power will not accept another who would do what Honor did, then tries to force Dalinar to leave. Dalinar refuses, determined to see what truly happened rather than the version the Stormfather chose to show him, and the argument worsens when the Stormfather slips and reveals familiarity with Gavilar. Enraged and defensive, the Stormfather abandons Dalinar in the vision after telling him that the lies he has heard are the ones he deserves.