After insisting on attending to her Lightweavers, Shallan returns to find Adolin discovering one of Urithiru’s restored luxuries: a hot shower. The playful scene quickly becomes intimate, and Adolin reflects on how fully he loves Shallan because their bond feels like both physical closeness and genuine understanding. In that privacy, Shallan tells Adolin she may have to miss Dalinar’s meeting because she needs to deal with Mraize and the Ghostbloods immediately.

Shallan asks Adolin to tell Dalinar and Navani about Mraize and her own past actions, because she may not have time to explain them herself. Adolin agrees, though the conversation exposes his unresolved bitterness toward Dalinar after learning that his father killed Evi. Shallan offers to talk about that pain, but Adolin refuses for now and instead listens as Shallan explains that Mraize is somewhere in Urithiru, will likely move against her soon, and might target Adolin to hurt her. Because of that threat, Shallan decides she must strike first and asks Adolin to seek authorization for Radiants if she finds the current Ghostblood base.

The two also admit how exhausted they are by war and constant separation. Adolin is moved that Shallan now trusts him with the secrets she once hid, and Shallan is relieved that he knows about Mraize, the Ghostbloods, and Formless without rejecting her. She adds that stopping Mraize matters even beyond revenge, because she still does not understand why he wants to find the prison of the most powerful Unmade. Before parting, they allow themselves a brief, joyful moment of intimacy instead of immediately returning to duty.

The chapter then shifts to Dalinar crossing Urithiru for an urgent late-night meeting. The tower is still subdued from the recent invasion, but Sigzil intercepts him with new scout reports: Odium’s forces are not only attacking Azimir and Thaylen City, but have launched a third offensive toward the Shattered Plains. The report estimates nearly a thousand Fused and at least one thunderclast, far more than Dalinar has faced before, and he reads the move as a deliberate attempt to threaten the coalition’s three strongest centers before the contest.

At the atrium, Dalinar orders Urithiru fully secured, including waking soldiers, increasing patrols, and reinforcing every likely point of entry. A brief encounter with Gavinor, suffering nightmares, reminds Dalinar of the personal cost of the war just before a mysterious Makabaki woman approaches and commands his attention. Recognizing the buried memories tied to her, Dalinar realizes the woman is Cultivation herself.