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Jasnah stands. *You said we were safe! Now you say you've got the city in your hand?* *So long as we talk,* Taravangian answers, *I will not move. That was my promise. I hold the sword at bay — though you should know that while you were distracted by those empty ships, I put other plans in motion.* Fen asks for proof; he offers only his word. *Not even he can know the future for certain,* Jasnah says. *It is a threat, not a promise.* *She is unfortunately right. But my threats are not to be taken lightly.*

*So that's it? You come in here and demand I bend the knee?* *Do you love this city, Fen?* *With all my life.* *Then listen. I do not have time to perpetuate petty wars on the surface of Roshar; I have grander tasks. I must take this city tonight. See me arriving here as an attempt to do it any other way.* *My arguments will stand,* he tells her, *because Jasnah agrees. The smartest person you know, Fen, agrees with me.*

He lays out his offer point by point. First, the prenegotiated ceasefire — true, Jasnah concedes, though Wit has taught her they may lie about everything but a formal contract. Second — his strength. He unfolds papers: contracts made over the last nine days with each of the former Azish protectorates or the key cities of those too turbulent to claim entire — Steen, Dawn's Shadow, New Natanan, Sesemalex Dar, Tukar with Ishar's attention elsewhere — joining his ports in Jah Keved and a new conquest at Karanak. *In aggregate I now control every major port on Roshar. Every one. Except Thaylen City.* In the best circumstances Fen will be left with only Alethkar and Herdaz for berths. *What is a merchant city with no customers?* Third — safety as no one else can give. Fourth — contractual say in his empire alongside the singers, Thaylenah as a crown jewel of a true empire. *That's bad,* Ivory whispers. *It is what Fen wants most.* *Fen, you have a voice with us,* Jasnah says. *She is right,* Fen tells him. *I like the coalition, for all its faults.* *And if Jasnah agrees you should leave it? Because she will.* *Like Damnation I will.*

Jasnah calms herself and answers cool. Fen should not join because both Taravangian and Odium are tyrants; his murders in Jah Keved put him on a throne in the name of a greater good when better paths existed. *Is peace your only good? Freedom and volition are enormous goods unto themselves. Being protected from harm yet dominated without the chance to speak or fight is not a true good.* She offers to write his own city's *Falabratant* on self-determination. *He would not answer.* *Because you've made them all stop using spanreeds,* she answers — Kharbranth's silence explained. He concedes a tangent and admits anything he could show would be tainted by his touch and never believed — a point to her. He reaches for old Alethi grievances — Dalinar as bully, secrets kept — and Fen returns each with *mistakes which we have done better with. Dalinar is a bully at times, but I know where I stand with him, and he is doing better.*

Taravangian draws his lips to a line. *Have you asked Jasnah what she'd do in your situation?* he asks softly. *I'd obviously not side with you,* she says, and trails off. His smile has returned. *Jasnah, what would you do in Fen's situation?* *Keep my promises.* *Is that so? You would do the moral thing instead of the right thing? Do you act decisively to protect your own — to do the greatest good as you see it, regardless of cost?* She hesitates, and the cold moves through her. He couldn't know about — *Shall we speak of it? The day you came into my city, took Shallan, and went on the hunt for people to murder. The day you transformed living, breathing men into statues and smoke in an alley. That day,* he tells Fen, *when she murdered people on the streets of my city, she let her true allegiance — to Odium — be known.* He paints the lure: her walking Kharbranth at night displaying her wealth, drawing thieves so she could kill them. *A lesson for my ward,* Jasnah says, *about making difficult choices.* He tells Fen this is the soul of their conversation: she must overcome any obstacles — *do what Jasnah herself would do.* Then he takes a folded paper from a pocket and presents it. The contract is for the assassination of Aesudan — Elhokar's wife, her own sister-in-law — signed by her. While she came prepared to argue against philosophies, Taravangian has come to argue against a person. Her.

Across the world, Navani walks through Urithiru carrying a sleeping Gav. Her mind is on Dalinar, whom she abandoned — and if he cannot go to the contest of champions, she has already decided that she will. But she has heard him describe this emotion: you leave a man behind on the battlefield, and something changes in you. Relaxing would feel like a betrayal. A strange spren follows her like swaths of light around an invisible shining object — one she has never seen before. Mararin takes Gav for her. The guards at her meeting chamber draw on her, then slowly lower their swords. *You're the real one, aren't you?*

She steps through — and someone is in her seat. Herself, halfway through a meal of men's food, sticky hands, head close to the table, shoving an entire flatbread into her mouth. *One of the Fused?* she sends to the Sibling. *Look closer,* the Sibling answers, amused. *Lift?* she guesses. *Told you,* the younger guard whispers behind her, *Brightness Navani would never spend so much time staring at my arse.* *Oh, flaps!* Lift says. *Seventeen bakers and one whore! Uh — hi, Navani. I did a real good job a bein' you.* She wipes sauce on the fine havah, making real-Navani wince. *This was Wit's idea?* *He thought it would stop people panicking.* *He thought it would be funny too, admittedly,* Wit's voice says behind her — and she turns to find Dalinar in the doorway with a wit-ish twinkle. *I mostly required her to stay in bed complaining of illness. I told our leaders the truth.*

Worry for Dalinar washes the rest away. Navani takes Wit by the arm. *I left him. I had to.* *It's all right.* *I don't need calm, Wit. I need focus. You helped us into this mess, and you will help me save him.* *Of course. First — did Shallan, Gav, Rlain or Renarin return with you?* *I have Gav. But Rlain? Renarin? I didn't know they were even in there.* *Come. I think I may have determined what went wrong seven days ago — and perhaps I can think of a way to help Dalinar.*