As Szeth-son-Honor and Kaladin-son-Lirin fly toward Shinovar, Szeth reflects that he still dresses in white and keeps old routines even though no one now requires it. He clings to these habits because small choices feel easier than deciding his true duty to his people. As they near the Misted Mountains by a southern pass, avoiding the hostile northern border, Szeth briefly enjoys the silence from the accusing voices that haunt him.

Crossing the pass, Szeth sees Shinovar’s first patches of true soil, where the highstorms lose their force and ordinary plant life can grow. The sight overwhelms him. He drops to the ground, kneels in the dirt, and reverently touches a simple weed, moved by returning to a land where feet can stand on soil instead of stone.

Kaladin, unfamiliar with Shinovar’s unmoving plants, studies the weed with curiosity while Syl comments beside him. Szeth’s highspren appears only to him and rebukes his display of emotion as beneath a Skybreaker’s dignity, pushing Szeth back toward composure and obedience. Nightblood also speaks from Szeth’s back, but Kaladin ignores the sword and focuses on Szeth’s state.

When Kaladin hesitates even to step on the weed, Szeth bluntly mocks him for abandoning the spear and becoming a coward. The exchange irritates Kaladin, but Szeth treats his words as simple truth rather than cruelty. They continue through the pass until they reach a vista over Shinovar, where Kaladin sees for the first time a landscape covered entirely in green, ordinary vegetation. For Kaladin, the view is wondrous; for Szeth, it confirms that he has truly come home, though the condemning whispers return with the shadows.