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Kaladin walks back into Urithiru from the airship field at the head of a hundred laughing Windrunners — squires and full knights of his old officers' squads — and wants nothing in the world so much as to disappear. The crews sense his mood without knowing yet that Dalinar has just retired him. Lopen tries a bad joke; Skar offers a sparring session; Sigzil holds back battle reports until tomorrow. Rock alone reads him true and keeps his distance, even sending Syl flitting nervously off above the crowd.

They split into Knight-and-squires clusters at the tower mouth. Teft is pulled aside by one of the groups; the rest scatter. Kaladin gives them the captain's nod that means *I have important things to do, run along*, and strides through the strata-lined corridors to his highlord's quarters. The rooms are vast and almost empty of furniture. He closes the door, sinks down with his back to the wall, and breaks. He cannot cry. Exhaustionspren and agonyspren gather around him, and Moash's old refrain — *only one way out* — finds him in the dark.

A knock saves him. Syl has gone to fetch Adolin, because, she says, Kaladin is intimidatable by perhaps three people and the queen was likely to turn him into a goblet. Adolin pushes in, grabs him by the arm, makes him swear on his oaths that he should be left alone tonight — and grins when Kaladin cannot get the words out. Kaladin changes coat, glares at Syl, thanks her, and goes.

Adolin takes him to Jez's Duty in the Ten Rings — the highprince's favourite winehouse, a stormshelter-themed place where the patrons cheer instead of bowing. Tonight it is a wedding party for Jor, the house bouncer, whom Kaladin does not recognise despite eight months of being dragged here; Rock is over with his family drinking Horneater mudbeer. In the reserved booth at the back, Veil is already deep into her cup. Shallan is letting her have the night.

Kaladin orders an orange, chilled, refuses the barmaid's push toward something stronger — Veil backs him with a snap — and admits, when Adolin is away, that he doesn't drink in his moods because Stormlight will burn the alcohol off and he often won't let it. Veil feeds him a piece of news: Ialai was murdered, not a suicide; the public line is suicide, the truth is one of their own people was bribed. Then her hair runs blonde and Radiant sits up, telling him to get the full report from Dalinar — there are oddities about it that trouble her — and confessing that half-formed personas wait behind the Three to see if their balance really holds. Pattern hums quietly from inside the tabletop and asks how human children come out.

Adolin returns. The three of them — and the table — fall into Veil-and-Adolin's running joke of who they're going to fix him up with next. Veil points out tall barmaids; Adolin critiques their blouses; Kaladin mostly deflects. Eventually Veil slides out across Adolin in a deliberate maneuver and disappears into the crowd to find the barmaid, then ends up at a corner table playing breakneck for chips.

With her gone, Adolin scoots in closer. *So what's going on. This is more than Lyn.* Kaladin tells him: Dalinar relieved him of active duty. Adolin curses his father, then asks the surgeon's question — what do we do about it? — and listens, without piety, when Kaladin says you don't. Adolin reminds him that the Blackthorn is only a man and has been terribly wrong before. He doesn't think Kaladin needs to be benched permanently; he just needs a way to be able to think. Pattern joins in: she hides it, but things are still wrong. Adolin reveals his real motive — if there is a way to help Kaladin, maybe there is a way to help her too. Kaladin turns the question back: why no Radiant order has picked him up. It's that sword, Kaladin says; old Shards block new bonds. *I'm not "getting rid" of Maya,* Adolin answers, with a finality that ends the conversation.

Jor arrives with his new bride Kryst for Adolin's introduction; he is, of course, already holding a gift. The evening softens. Veil returns more than a little drunk, claims the alcohol can't reach Shallan from where she's standing. Syl declares she wants to take up gambling. Kaladin is still miserable, but the misery dims around people, and he is grateful for the pretending.

Then Rock steps up to the booth, and the others slip away. Kaladin's stomach drops; he knows what it is. *Was good suggestion to wait,* Rock says. His family rested, his children settled. Now he must return to the Horneater Peaks and submit to his people's justice for having lifted the bow that saved Kaladin's life — Horneater first-Shardbearer tradition that the elder daughter Cord thinks is foolish, but that he will honour anyway. He will take his wife Song and the younger children. Cord and Gift will stay. Kaladin warns him about Moash. Rock grins and asks if Skar and Drehy, who have always wanted to see the Peaks, might fly the family up. Kaladin gives both the leave and his blessing.

They embrace once — a final crushing Horneater hug — and Rock tells him he goes to the gods, and warns him there is at least one such already living here, a powerful tricky god whose flute Kaladin should not have lost. *I don't think Wit is a god, Rock.* Rock taps his head — *airsick as always* — bows deferentially in a way Kaladin has never seen, and leaves the winehouse with Song. Forever. Kaladin slumps in the booth, comforted at least by the knowledge that Rock will not be around to watch him be removed from his post.