Kaladin follows a growing sense of urgency through the Windrunner quarters and finds Skar drilling new recruits in field discipline. Skar is teaching them to keep hold of their weapons by secretly throwing unattended spears out the window while they practice building a defensible camp. As Kaladin watches, he asks whether any honorspren have arrived with the one following Dabbid, but Skar says only one has come so far, though more are supposedly on the way.

Kaladin then reveals the real reason he came: he is worried about leaving and wants Skar to look after Sigzil. Skar reassures him about Sigzil and even suggests Lopen is maturing, then presses Kaladin on whether he has properly said goodbye before departing. When Kaladin admits he has not, Skar gives him a hard look until Kaladin relents and agrees to visit Rlain’s celebration before he goes. Skar also mentions that Drehy is expected to bring Adolin and Shallan back from Shadesmar later that night. As the recruits finally realize their spears are gone and descend into chaos, Kaladin hugs Leyten, gathers his pack, and leaves with Syl, who says it is now time to fetch her own things.

In Shadesmar, Shallan crashes into the bead ocean and nearly panics under the pressure of old terror, guilt, and memories tied to her childhood and Testament. Radiant takes control, uses Stormlight and her understanding of the beads to form a temporary platform, and prepares to search for Adolin. Drehy then swoops in carrying Adolin, saving him from drowning in the beads. After Shallan embraces Adolin, Drehy explains that the Heavenly Ones did not behave like cautious scouts; they launched a deliberate attack meant to kill the group, so he hid the spren in the beads and ordered his squires to scatter.

Radiant quickly realizes something is wrong with the enemy’s tactics, and before the group can regroup, two Heavenly Ones burst up from the beads and strike. Radiant is thrown back into the bead ocean, the platform collapses, Adolin falls in again, and Drehy is hit as well. Beneath the surface, a Fused drags Radiant into a hollow space formed inside the beads and pins her there. He identifies himself as Abidi the Monarch, boasts that he sustains his sanity by bathing in Radiant blood, and begins stabbing her to test how much Stormlight she has left.

Under that pressure, Shallan finally answers the truth she has been circling. Radiant asks whether she is ready and what the Words are, and Shallan admits plainly that she is afraid: afraid of the world, for her family, and most of all of herself. Instead of hiding behind one of her personas, she claims that fear openly. The beads react, light pours from her eyes, and Shallan reaches a deeper mastery of this realm.

As Abidi mocks what he assumes is another illusion, Shallan makes Radiant physically real behind him, complete with a Shardblade. Radiant drives the Blade through the Fused, drawing real blood. Shallan’s answer to Abidi and to her own long instability is decisive: she asserts that reality is what she decides it to be.