Inside the vision of the Oathpact’s founding, Renarin survives a conversation with the future Heralds by letting Glys feed him the exact lines that belonged to the original participants. The experience briefly relieves Renarin’s lifelong fear of saying the wrong thing, even as he reflects on how much of his life has been shaped by other people’s expectations. When Gavinor suddenly asks an unscripted question, Glys notices that the moment no longer matches the vision’s original course, and Renarin realizes this may help identify hidden intruders: anyone who cannot follow the vision exactly could expose themself as one of the assassins, though Renarin also sees that one deviation can force others off script too.

Dalinar, watching the same scene, quickly explains Gavinor’s interruption away as something said by a spren so the vision can continue. Jezrien comforts Vedel over the destruction of her people and frames their gathering as the moment they finally turn from the wrong god. Vedel gestures toward the being they must now approach, and Honor himself, Tanavast, appears in the tent. Dalinar recognizes how important this moment is and desperately hopes to secure an Honorblade as an anchor before the vision ends.

At Narak Four, Sigzil recovers after being thrown aside by the thunderclast Kai-garnis. Stonewards soften the ground beneath the monster’s feet, allowing Radiants to bring it down, but its corpse becomes a bridge through the breached wall and enemy forces surge in behind it. Sigzil organizes a defensive perimeter and fights beside Windrunners and Edgedancers, then confronts one of the new Focused Ones after seeing it kill an Edgedancer with a blow too catastrophic for Stormlight to heal. His spear barely penetrates the Fused’s strange layered body, and from the way its body wraps loosen and retighten, Sigzil deduces that the creature stores force like a set of coiled springs.

The battle grows more chaotic as Skybreakers force Sigzil back into the air and conventional troops struggle to hold the plateau. Reinforcements arrive from Narak Prime, including Dami the Stormwall in towering Plate, and Sigzil decides to test Vienta’s calculations in live combat. By using multiple Lashings to build extreme speed, Sigzil drives his spear completely through a Focused One’s head and smashes it into the ground, proving the new Fused can be killed if struck hard enough. The discovery rallies the defenders, buys time for the line to stabilize, and lets Sigzil hand local command to others when Leyten’s blinking ruby warning reports something strange on another plateau.

In Azimir’s dome, Adolin rushes into his Plate and joins the defense, already suspecting the enemy will try to bring down one of the defenders’ Shardbearers. He spends hours plugging weak points in the line, only to realize the singers’ real plan when they suddenly swarm him with direforms while attacking the Azish Shardbearer Neziham on the far side of the field with aluminum-banded shields that can block a Blade. Refusing to retreat the way the enemy expects, Adolin charges forward instead, smashes through the enemy fortification, and keeps moving fast enough to turn confusion and fear into a rout. Guided by the honorspren Notum, Adolin reaches Neziham in time, drives off the attackers with sheer brutality, and saves the fallen Shardbearer. Abidi the Monarch then notices Notum, decides Adolin must be a Radiant, and threatens to claim both Adolin’s corpse and the city, but he withdraws rather than risk being surrounded. With the field secured, Adolin prepares to question Notum directly.