In Azir, Adolin turns his fight with Abidi after discovering that an aluminum candelabra can catch the enemy’s Blade. Once he stops retreating and fully commits, Adolin uses his training, precision, peg, and unconventional off-hand weapon to keep Abidi from using the full advantage of Plate. When Abidi demands why Adolin is risking himself for a foreign throne room, Adolin answers that the invasion made it everyone’s fight and that he promised to help, revealing how deeply that promise matters to him.

In Shinovar, Szeth is overwhelmed by attacks from all sides as the Honorbearers and his own family beat him down under Ishar’s direction. Szeth resists the impulse to answer with lethal force, yields, and is told he is not allowed to stop until he truly fights and loses. While enduring the assault, Szeth notices a discrepancy in the count of the Honorbearers and realizes the missing Edgedancer is the one he killed with Nightblood in Shadesmar, suggesting that Nightblood destroyed her in a way the others did not return from.

Elsewhere, Rlain and Renarin kneel beside Ba-Ado-Mishram’s cracked gemstone prison and debate what to do now that they have found it. Hiding it again seems dangerous, yet freeing her could unleash another catastrophe. As they question the imprisoned Unmade, they realize that although Ba-Ado-Mishram speaks of destroying humankind and taking vengeance, she likely led them to her because after two thousand years of imprisonment she still desperately hopes someone will free her.

Back with Ishar, Kaladin watches the Honorbearers’ violence rise and fall with Ishar’s emotions, which makes Ishar’s control over them even more alarming. Nale admits that the Heralds are not right and says they need help, but Ishar insists he has become a god, that he took Odium’s power and made it his own, and that he bears the Heralds’ darkness without breaking. Syl warns Kaladin that countless spren are nearby and terrified because something dangerous is coming.

Kaladin first tries to challenge Ishar’s claim to godhood by pointing out that coerced obedience is not worship, but Ishar sees through the tactic and attacks Kaladin’s sense of usefulness instead. Kaladin absorbs the blow without collapsing inward, recognizing that his worth does not depend on successfully saving everyone. He then tells Ishar the truth directly: Ishar is not a god but a man who needs help. Ishar rejects that completely, hints at frightening plans for the spren, and orders Szeth to fight, sending all attention back to Szeth just as his Stormlight begins to run out.