Kaladin meets with Dalinar in Urithiru and finds Szeth already there, dressed in white and preparing for his return to Shinovar. Dalinar praises Kaladin’s early success helping traumatized soldiers and confirms that this journey is meant to support Kaladin’s new role as a healer of the mind, not just a fighter. When Dalinar says Szeth will accompany him, Kaladin objects that Szeth is dangerously unstable and needs treatment, not a crusade, but Dalinar clearly expects Kaladin to try to help Szeth during the mission.

Dalinar leads Kaladin and Syl to the roof, where Kaladin reflects on being back at the place where he once tried to throw himself off the tower. Syl speaks with him about home, Urithiru, and the fact that the singers have also reclaimed lands that were once theirs. Dalinar then admits his uncertainty about the coming contest with Odium and worries that by arranging it he may have endangered everyone. To continue the conversation privately, he asks Kaladin to fly him to a distant snowy peak beyond the tower’s warmth.

On the mountain, Dalinar studies Urithiru from the outside and speaks about the endless cycles of war between humans and singers. He says they must start changing by refusing to discard people they fear are broken, including Szeth. Dalinar compares this request to the way Kaladin once felt worthless after being removed from command and asks him for a different kind of rescue: to try to save both Szeth and the Herald Ishar. Kaladin says he will try, though he warns that Wit told him he may not return in time to help in the contest and that Ishar may not aid Dalinar as hoped. Kaladin also admits that the Wind seems to be speaking to him.

Dalinar explains why the Shinovar mission matters so much. Ishar is active, dangerous, and likely in possession of the Honorblades, and Shinovar has remained suspiciously quiet throughout the war. Dalinar believes Ishar may try to interfere with the contest and says Szeth cannot be trusted with the mission’s nuance or hard decisions, so Kaladin must watch him, assess Shinovar, and possibly reach Ishar despite the Herald’s madness. Kaladin privately doubts that he is qualified to treat a Herald whose condition may be partly supernatural, but he accepts because no one else is available.

Dalinar then reveals a second purpose for the private talk. Because Adolin and Renarin have refused, Jasnah is committed to Alethkar, and Dalinar and Navani may both die in the coming crisis, Urithiru needs an heir. Dalinar gives Kaladin a formal letter naming him as the preferred successor, with Dami as the next choice if Kaladin refuses. Kaladin is shaken by the offer, feeling that becoming royalty conflicts with his old hatred of lighteyed power and with his sense of himself as damaged. Dalinar argues that nobility is a matter of character and duty, not blood, and Kaladin ultimately refuses to decide immediately but agrees to consider the offer and keeps the letter.