After Nale catches up with them, Szeth becomes distant and mechanical again. Kaladin and Szeth spend the morning traveling north through hotter, dustier country, then continue on foot because Szeth believes approaching the Lightweaver monastery openly would draw less attention. Kaladin sees how badly Szeth is retreating into himself and tries to restart the kind of honest conversation they had before Nale arrived.

Nale invites Kaladin to explain his objections, and the walk turns into a debate over law, morality, and free thought. Kaladin argues that laws are often cruel or broken, using Tien's conscription, his own enslavement, and the bridge crews as proof that legality does not equal justice. Nale counters that flawed law is still better than individual impulse, insists Szeth needs a moral compass outside himself, and frames Kaladin's position as mere destruction without a replacement.

As the argument continues, Nale claims Shin law is sacred because it descends from the first human laws on Roshar, given by God and Jezrien in Shinovar. Kaladin senses contradictions in Nale's reasoning but cannot expose them well enough to sway Szeth. When Kaladin finally returns to the practical point that Szeth needs compassion, not rigid doctrine, Nale strikes back by reminding Kaladin that he once left Szeth to die in a storm. Nale then reveals that they have nearly reached the Lightweaver monastery, where Szeth intends to raise his Blade and defeat the Honorbearer. Kaladin realizes he has failed; Szeth avoids his gaze, takes up his weapon again, and resumes the violent path he had confessed he no longer wanted.

The scene then shifts to Thaylenah, where Jasnah leaves a long strategy meeting troubled by an intuition she cannot yet explain. Thaylen City appears extraordinarily well defended: the harbor can be trapped with stone spikes, fabrials can detect Deepest Ones, the Oathgate is locked down, Lightweavers watch Shadesmar, Windrunners patrol the skies, and anti-Voidlight has arrived to permanently kill Fused. Because the defenses seem so complete, Jasnah concludes the problem is not conventional tactics but a hidden premise everyone is missing. With Ivory's encouragement, she decides the city needs a scholar's logic more than another general's confidence, and she hurries off to think through how Odium intends to break an apparently impregnable fortress.