(title hidden — not yet read)

(summary hidden — not yet read)

Lopen tears through the corridors of Urithiru in the air a few feet above everyone's heads, marvelling at the variety of peoples gathered in the tower city — Steen with cord-bound beards, wrapped Tashikki, sapphire-blue Natanatans — and amusing himself with the thought that everyone, like a mountain seen from a distance, looks roughly the same in the abstract and is only really himself up close. Rua, shaped today as a winged chull, leads him to the Reshi delegation he was supposed to meet at the Oathgate and missed because Cord's cooking ran his lunch long. He drops out of the air in front of them and introduces himself as the Lopen, Windrunner, poet, and humble servant.

A tall braided figure named Talik steps up to speak for King Ral-na. Lopen, with no warning and no by-your-leave, grips Talik by the arm, infuses him, and Lashes the two of them in a long climb up the side of the great atrium window — story after story past balconies of staring onlookers — until they hang in the air a thousand feet above the floor in front of the snow-tipped mountains. Talik suspects he is being intimidated. Lopen, baffled, explains he just thought a man from a kingdom that lives on the back of a giant crab would enjoy a high view; Rua dramatises the stupidity of the misread with six hands clapped to his head. Talik admits the spectacle is rather wonderful, and softens.

Hanging in the air, Talik raises the real question. The Reshi are a small, proud people who have spent centuries being ignored by mainland kings and noticed only when convenient. Thaylenah trained him; he knows the pattern. Why are Dalinar and Jasnah suddenly so interested? Lopen is honest about it: the coalition fears the enemy will route troops by sea to land an invasion in Jah Keved, and they would prefer to have the Isles on their side. They are trying to be good about it, he allows, but the Alethi cultural reflex is still to conquer, and learning another way will take them time. Lopen pitches the same case he made to Dalinar: small peoples — Herdazian, Reshi, even Thaylen — together add up to a great deal, and the war has come for all of them, not just the great kingdoms. Talik agrees to recommend his king listen.

Before they descend, Talik raises a careful question of his own. The king — one of his parents — has been undergoing dramatic physical changes, first taken for a divine gift, lately understood to be tied to a spren he keeps seeing that burns through the insides of objects in tree-shaped patterns. Lopen names the order on the spot: Dustbringer. He warns Talik to bring the matter to Dalinar alone, not to anyone among the small handful of Dustbringers already at the tower — the politics around them is complicated, and the order may need to grow on its own terms. Then he flies Talik back down to where the king's spearmen are arguing furiously with Dalinar's soldiers.

Kaladin has arrived. Lopen hands Talik to him with the casual lie that the tour of the tower had been very informative, and Kaladin pulls Lopen aside for the long-suffering version of their usual conversation: he had counted on Huio to keep Lopen reined in, Lopen went alone, Lopen probably did something the diplomatic corps will have to apologise for. Lopen promises to be more careful. Kaladin lets it pass; he has another reason for finding him.

The queen wants another mission sent to Akinah — the same place where Leyten was dropped into the ocean after something stripped his Stormlight mid-flight, and where his report mentioned strange spren in the clouds. Navani is convinced something important is hidden inside the standing storm. With the order stretched thin, Kaladin is sending Windrunners by ship rather than by air, and he wants Windrunners who can swim. That means Lopen and Huio. He also wants Rock, one of the few other Bridge Four men who can swim and whose Horneater Sighted eyes could spot any Voidspren hiding in the clouds. Lopen tells him Rock will not go — it is his wedding anniversary — and proposes his Horneater daughter Cord in his place: she can swim, she can see spren, Rua likes her.

Kaladin agrees but is uneasy about the mission. Something about it does not feel right; he would go himself if he could. Lopen, with one hand on his shoulder, promises to bring everyone home. Kaladin sends him to fetch Huio and Cord and to report to the queen's scribe Rushu for the parts of the briefing he does not want said in a public corridor. From there they will Oathgate across to Thaylen City and present themselves at the docks in the morning. Lopen, swearing he is always careful, swings off to find Huio and tease him about being volunteered.