(title hidden — not yet read)

(summary hidden — not yet read)

Navani sits quietly in her cell of a library room and waits — hours pass; she requests food and is given it; the guard and the Deepest One outside her door will not answer her questions. She is too sick to her stomach to dare try speaking to the Sibling. After all her assurances and promises, she has, in the end, proven untrustworthy.

Raboniel arrives at last, dressed in a Thaylen vest over trousers and blouse — traditionally male, an arrangement she does not seem to mind. She shoos the guards away from the door. Navani stands and bows. She has been hurt, outmatched, and defeated; she will not let anger and humiliation rule. She needs information.

You did not persist in trying to contact me, Raboniel says; I assume you realised what had happened. *How long were you listening in on my conversations with the Sibling, Ancient One?* Navani asks. *Always,* Raboniel says — when she could not be listening herself, she had another Fused doing it. The full shape of Navani's failure settles over her: she had pried the secret of the third node out of the Sibling and walked straight into the enemy's plan.

You shouldn't be too hard on yourself, Raboniel tells her. The Sibling is to blame — always so innocent, and unaware of their own naïveness. *When I touched the pillar,* she explains, *I knew the Sibling was awake but pretending to be dead. So I let the ruse continue, and I listened. I could not know that decision would bear fruit, but that is why you nurture nine seeds and watch for the one that begins growing.*

Navani tells her what the Sibling had said — that they could not outthink her. *Yes, I heard that,* Raboniel answers. It made her worry you had spotted the surveillance — it seemed too obvious a line to use as a distraction. *How?* Navani presses. *How did you do it, Ancient One? Surely the Sibling would have known if their communication could be compromised.* Raboniel hums a rhythm, walks over and taps Navani's stacks of notes, and refuses to answer the technical question. Study, she says. *Find us answers about Light. Stop trying to fight me; help me end this war instead. That was always your purpose here.*

Nausea stirs in Navani — she has already thrown up once from what she has cost the Sibling. She forces it down and, as Raboniel turns to go, asks her one more question. The Windrunner — did you kill him, Ancient One? I did not, Raboniel says, though I did land a fine cut on him. You have likely realised that he succeeded in destroying the node — the shield is still up. However, when he was spotted fleeing the tower a good half hour later, his wound had not yet healed; so the Sibling's transformation is almost complete, and the Windrunner's powers are quite unreliable now. *I find it unlikely he survived after running out into the storm.*

*Into the storm?* Navani asks. *Yes. A pity. Perhaps the Sibling can tell you if he is dead or not — if so, I should very much like to study his corpse.*

Raboniel leaves. Navani pushes through her sickness to write, then burn, a prayer of protection for Kaladin. It is all she can do. Then she rests her head on the table and tries to think about the profound scope of her failure.

This is the end of Part Three.