(title hidden — not yet read)

(summary hidden — not yet read)

Skar of Bridge Four finishes a punishing timed run up to the Urithiru Oathgate in full marching pack — a full mile of market and ramp, just under ten minutes — only to learn that Drehy managed the same circuit on a sip of Stormlight in under six. Sigzil is running baseline trials on every member of the crew with a ledger and a clock borrowed from Navani, fussing over why a quarter Basic Lashing makes Drehy half as heavy and not a quarter. Two weeks on, Skar is the last fighting man in Bridge Four who still hasn't found the trick of drawing in the Light. Lopen strolls overhead on the ceiling; Bisig crashes trying to copy him and stands on the ceiling anyway, embarrassed.

Teft sits down beside him with a chouta and a quiet, prickly mood. He insists he has barely touched the moss in days — the world is the problem, not the moss — and asks how long the men have known. Skar lies for him and says nobody has noticed; the truth is that everyone has. The two of them trade pasts the way the crew has lately begun trading them: Teft the addict, Drehy who struck an officer, Eth caught planning to desert with his brother, simple Hobber swept up in a drunken brawl that left a man dead. Skar tells his own version: turned away by the Blackcaps for being a runt, told he'd be reconsidered if he came back equipped, and so stupid enough to steal the gear from the Blackcap quartermaster and end up with a slave brand and a sale to Sadeas's army for his trouble.

Kaladin arrives late with thirty fresh hopefuls scraped together from across the Alethi army — several of them lighteyed, which troubles him in a way Skar gently points out is silly. He slots his Blade into the keyhole of the Oathgate control building and translates the whole party to Narak, where the short scribe Ristina meets them on the platform edge, counts heads, and tells him the merchants are complaining about how long he made them wait. Kaladin tells her the Knights Radiant are not the merchants' doormen; Ristina writes the message down as though she fully intends to deliver it word for word.

They walk through Narak — once a Parshendi stronghold, now a waystop — past sentries in Dalinar's colours and in Ruthar's, past a plateau where Aladar's Blackcaps are practising bridge runs under the new shared-spoils system, and Skar is privately ashamed at how often he forgets that Rlain, walking with them, is one of the crew at all. At the training plateau, Rock's children set up a water station; Moash's conspicuous absence hangs over the officers' meeting like an executioner's axe. Kaladin frets that no recruit besides the original crew has yet breathed in Light — although Syl privately tells him several "feel right" and won't say who — and worries about Fused raids on caravans that don't add up to any real strategic gain. Teft takes the new hopefuls off to drill formations while Bridge Four practises landings and aerial sprints overhead.

After an hour fetching water and feeling useless among them, Skar spots Lyn sitting alone on a rock — the only one of her scout-women squad still trying for the Windrunners, certain she has just been quietly replaced. He sits down beside her, takes out his practice emerald, and tells her the story of the first time he ever saw Kaladin use Light: arrows curving past him in mid-air on a bridge run, bending toward Kaladin in the front rank, because Kaladin was thinking not about flying but about saving the men beside him. He presses the emerald into Lyn's hand, lets her flail at it for ten minutes, then refuses to let her quit. He demands she answer why she wants this. *Because I want to soar,* she says. Not good enough. *Because I want to help.* That, he tells her, is the answer. As long as she keeps trying there is a chance; when she gives up is when the dream dies. She closes her hand around the emerald, takes a single sharp breath, and begins to glow.

Skar feels — to his own surprise — only delight, and a quiet thought that perhaps his place will be on the support team after all, helping others become Radiants. Teft curses cheerfully and tows Lyn over to Kaladin. Skar strolls to Rock's station, complains about the Horneater tea, and tells Rock in genuine resignation that he means to come work with the cook crew — only to have Rock point out that he is, in fact, glowing. He had given his last gemstone to Lyn without realising what he had drawn in. He runs whooping for the others.