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Eight months after his last day in Amaram's army, Kaladin rides as a branded slave in a caged wagon belonging to a Thaylen slaver named Tvlakv. The caravan crosses the Unclaimed Hills, moving slaves to coastal cities along untraveled routes. Kaladin bears three brands: the original deserter glyphpair from Amaram's army, and a fresh, infected shash brand — "Dangerous" — given to him by his most recent master after his tenth failed escape.

Two other slaves try to speak with him in turn — one bargaining half his food for a place in the next escape attempt, the other curious about Kaladin's story. He turns them both away. He has stopped trying to escape, and stopped trying to save anyone else. Around him a small windspren in the shape of a young woman keeps pace with the wagons — the windspren — and impossibly uses his name, asks why he no longer fights, and remembers things he has done before. Kaladin tells himself she is only mimicking, the way spren do.

When the caravan halts that night, Tvlakv inspects his stock. One slave is coughing with the grindings; Kaladin, the darkeyed son of a surgeon, knows the man can be saved with extra water and sugar over five days. He breaks his silence to say so. Tvlakv listens, then has the mercenary Bluth club the slave to death rather than risk the rest of the wagon. Kaladin throws himself against the bars in fury — and in the same motion crushes and loses the leaves of blackbane he had been saving to poison Tvlakv's evening tea.

Defeated, he sinks against the bars and bows his head. His the windspren keeps darting around him, looking confused — caring, somehow, in a way no spren is supposed to be able to.