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Jasnah returns to the alcove and orders Shallan out at once. Shallan retreats to the porter-shaft and crumples there, painspren crawling from the stone beside her. The bribed servants then call her back: Jasnah has read the brushpen letter Shallan left under the books, has apologized for her anger, and grants a privilege she has given no aspiring ward — Shallan may petition again, after she has done years of work on history and philosophy. Shallan thanks her and walks out of the Conclave knowing that years is exactly what House Davar does not have.

Outside, the middle moon Nomon is rising pale blue over Kharbranth, and Yalb — who should be back aboard the Wind's Pleasure — is sitting cross-legged on a rock above the gardens with four city guardsmen, having just won eighty chips off them at kabers. He cheerfully admits to Shallan that he cheated and walks her down the lantern-lit roadway toward the docks. She is shocked at his impropriety and charmed at his certainty that she is perfect, and he tells her — invoking the Passions — that a third hand is always lucky. She gives him the sketch she made of him and the porter, takes a fresh Memory of his expression as he stares at it, and changes her mind.

She returns to the Veil, rents the alcove next to Jasnah's for two skymarks, fills its lamp with patchwork spheres, and settles in to cram all the history and philosophy that an evening can hold. Jasnah — having bribed the servants to warn her — appears at the doorway with the Soulcaster hidden under a black glove. She lines up the satchel's contents on the desk: brushes, pencils, lacquer, almost-empty money pouches, the princess's own portrait, and a private notebook of plants and animals sketched on the Wind's Pleasure. The nature notebook is the argument that wins her. "If I cannot be rid of you, then I might as well make use of you." Jasnah sends Shallan to her rooms in the Conclave and tells her the morning will be early. Shallan writes a quick burning-prayer of thanks and goes to find a servant to fetch her trunk from the ship. The first step of her plan is done.