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Rlain finds Venli crying in the partitioned-off section of the tower infirmary, alone behind the curtain that hides the Shattered Plains map he had stolen for her. She rarely cries — usually she only attunes Mourning — but today she cannot stop. The map is annotated, and a note that Raboniel passed her along with it confirms what she had not let herself hope: a population of listener nomads survives in the hills near the Unclaimed Hills. Thousands of her people are alive.

She tells Rlain who they are. Thude is the one who led them away. He had refused stormform, and so had most of the femalens and malens closest to Eshonai. Back then Venli would have had them killed for that defiance — but Eshonai separated them out instead and let them slip away into the wilds, the same sister who in stormform still fought hard enough to spare them when the rest of Venli's plan was tearing the listeners apart. Rlain presses for more. Venli tells him *everything*, attuning Pleading: "A thousand lies, Rlain."

Rlain explains why he came. Kaladin is awake. Teft is awake. They are planning to wake the rest of the captive Radiants in the infirmary, but the stormform guards in the room are a problem, and if Venli knows anything that could help, now is the time. Coaxed by Timbre, she gives him the whole raw story — the strange human woman with the sphere, Ulim, her own pursuit of new forms, every step that led up to Thude and the others walking away from her. She does not soften any of it. As she talks, Rlain visibly pulls away — shocked, then angry. When she finishes, he says it flat: she is a monster, she did this, she is responsible. He grants, after a pause, that the enemy would probably have found another way without her — but the truth still stands.

She tells him her plan. Raboniel has released her from infirmary duty and given her a writ that requisitions whatever she needs; daily transfers run to Kholinar through the Oathgates, and she can buy passage to the Shattered Plains under cover of a scouting flight with the Heavenly Ones. Rlain points out the obvious trap: Raboniel *wants* her to bolt and lead the Fused straight to the surviving listeners. Yes, Venli knows. She is not in a rational state. She has to see them with her own eyes, even if she has to walk there.

Rlain argues that they should focus on freeing the captive Radiants first. If she is truly sorry, helping with that is the way to prove it; afterward they can seek the surviving listeners without leading the Fused to them. Venli refuses. This is not her fight. She attunes Betrayal; so does he. He concedes that he does not want her with them right now but that they need her, that he thinks she is trustworthy *because* she told him this. Then he tells her something quieter: through the months of running bridges and training with Bridge Four, he had sometimes wondered, deep down, whether he was a traitor — and he now realises he had no idea what the word meant. He ducks out.

Venli packs the map. In the main infirmary room she pulls aside Dul and Mazish — her two confidants among the surviving listeners hidden in the tower — and tells them it is time. They have been siphoning rations, water, blankets and clothing from supplies meant for the Radiants; Harel has packs ready in the storage room. Mazish says her people are eager and think they can survive months in the cold of the peaks. Venli shows them the writ and explains the better plan: ride the next transfer down to Kholinar, use the writ to walk out of the city, and disappear east into the wilderness past Alethkar the way their ancestors did so many generations before. From there she hopes to scout ahead toward the Unclaimed Hills with the help of the Heavenly Ones without revealing what she is really looking for. It feels like too much weight for one writ — and she knows Raboniel will eventually share what she knows with the other Fused — but she does not care anymore.

She tells Dul and Mazish to gather the others. The humans' rescue attempt will give them their cover; she wants the survivors out within a day or two. The two attune Resolve. They trust her more than she trusts herself. She does not expect the listeners who escaped the Fused to welcome her — she expects accusation and condemnation. But they took Jaxlim with them, and if her mother is still alive, her mother is the only person who might still love Venli despite everything she has done.