Dieno, the Mink, lies bound at an outpost by the sea, awaiting execution by beheading. As a Herdazian judiciary reads out his crimes under singer supervision, Dieno mocks the method of his death and keeps talking to buy time. His thoughts reveal how his latest attempt to save Herdaz failed: Windrunners dropped his force short of the capital, he tried to infiltrate through childhood caves, repeated cave-ins forced his troops into the open, and moonlight exposed them to an enemy army before they could reach the city.

Knowing Herdaz will not be saved by him and hoping only that Dalinar’s coming contest might still matter, Dieno looks for any chance to escape. He deliberately goads the officials into discussing a more dramatic execution with a mallet, and when the headsman looks away, Dieno slips free of his bonds. He yanks the chain at his neck to throw the assistant off balance, shoves the youth from the platform, and turns the execution into a spectacle that the watching crowd unexpectedly cheers.

The headsman swings at Dieno, but the falling assistant drags Dieno off the platform before the blow lands. Dieno crashes down, injures the young man, then seizes the chain and uses it to fend off attacking singer guards. He dives under the wooden platform, where the cramped beams hinder the bulky warform soldiers while his smaller frame lets him slip through.

Dieno reaches the wall of the fort and looks for a way out, but soldiers close in from every side and the drop below offers no real escape. On the last evening before the contest, he accepts that he may finally be trapped and reflects that he has given everything he can for Herdaz. He climbs onto the battlement prepared to jump rather than submit.

Before Dieno can act, heavy impacts shake the wall and stop everyone in place. Out in the misty ocean, a colossal greatshell rises, so immense that it towers above the entire fort. The chapter ends with Dieno recognizing that this monstrous arrival has transformed his execution into a far larger and stranger final act.