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Leshwi falls to her knees before Venli — not flying, not hovering, on her knees — and her grip on Venli's face softens as a cool, beautiful light pours through the window behind them, brighter than any sphere, bright as the sun. *What have you done, Venli? What have you done?* *I … I swore the First Ideal of the Radiants,* Venli says. *I'm sorry.* *Sorry?* Leshwi answers, a joyspren bursting around her like a blue storm. *They've come back to us. They've forgiven us.* She asks Venli's spren whether she knows an honorspren named Riah — a friend, once, precious to her, before the war when men and singers had been allies and Honor had been the god of the Dawnsingers. Timbre does not know her, and does not think any of the old honorspren survived the human betrayal. Venli offers Timbre's friends — willing to maybe try again with her kind. *My soul is too long owned by someone else for that,* Leshwi says. Then she rises into the air, rips her side sword from its sheath, and flies into the Pursuer's soldiers — calling her own troops in after her as singer fights singer.

Down at the pillar, Navani clings to the stone and asks the Sibling why they sing this rhythm. *I hear it in the darkness. Why?* the Sibling answers, soft as breath, then shows her: a place in the tower, dark from a storm outside, where a Fused hovers a foot off the ground beside someone infused with Voidlight and humans stand with them, side by side, defending the room where the fallen Radiants lie. *Emulsifier,* Navani whispers — a joined purpose, humans and singers, Honor and Odium. The vision fades, but not before Navani glimpses Rlain. *He's there,* she gasps. *Too far. Too late…* the Sibling whispers. In the hallway Moash hacks Raboniel's arm limp. *Take me,* Navani whispers. *Bond me.* *No,* the Sibling says. *You aren't worthy, Navani.*

Rlain hears the shouting long before he and Dabbid reach the atrium, and walks into a full singer civil war — a few Heavenly Ones and about twenty Regals turned against the Pursuer's soldiers, fighting beside the humans, the rest of the Heavenly Ones retreated up the atrium and gone. Their guards have run for authority. The fray ends as the side with humans wins. *They need field surgeons,* Rlain says, and starts triage — both sides, regardless of which they fought on. Dabbid returns with supplies and Hesina, who looks rattled — Lirin has been taken, Kaladin has given chase, and she is eager to have something to do. She takes over the triage. A few gruff men who Kaladin had been working with on trauma lead Rlain to a body placed reverently against the wall: Teft. Rlain falls to his knees with Dabbid beside him and sings the Song of the Fallen — a song for a dead hero. Lift, Dabbid tells him, is unconscious in the infirmary, legs dead from a Blade and bleeding from a blow to the head; she did not heal when he tried Stormlight on her.

Behind him, Leshwi and the humans are already shouting at each other over what comes next. Rlain wipes the makeup from his tattoo, strides between the groups and silences them. To the humans: *I'm Bridge Four. You know me. Will you trust me?* To the singers, barked: *You all absolutely committed treason. You acted against Odium's wishes, and he will seek retribution for that. You are as good as dead — and you Fused, you are in for an eternity of torture. Fortunately, you have two people here who can guide you — listeners from a people who escaped his control. So if you want to survive, you are going to listen to me.* Leshwi folds her arms — *fine* — and the other Heavenly Ones follow her lead. Venli hurries over, infused with deep violet Voidlight — glowing more than a Fused — and tells Rlain she is a Radiant who can run her powers on Voidlight inside the tower. *Figures,* Rlain grumbles. *Kelek's breath … I wait years, then you of all people grab a spren first.* The plan: carry the unconscious Radiants and the wounded up to the Oathgate plateau and escape to the Shattered Plains before Raboniel hears about the rebellion. Leshwi and the five other Heavenly Ones each take a wounded soldier. On the way Venli confesses to Rlain that she does not actually have a Shardblade — she lied about cutting Lift free; Timbre says she is a long way from earning one. They will have to figure something else out to work the gate.