Epilogue: Great Art

In this epilogue, Wit performs an elaborate scheme to smuggle a spren—a Pattern creature—out of occupied Kholinar. While philosophizing about art and hatred to anyone who will listen, he intentionally provokes violence, befriends desperate survivors of the siege, and ultimately makes contact with the trapped spren by appearing as a mad beggar to the Fused overseeing the palace reconstruction.

Weeks after Kholinar's fall, Wit stands in line at a relief distribution, delivering a monologue about how great art requires both love and hate, using the bland man in front of him as an unwilling audience. He deliberately cuts in line to provoke the man into punching him and knocking out a tooth—part of his performance art. Moving through the devastated city, Wit speaks with its broken inhabitants, including a widow named Kheni who rocks an empty cradle with haunted eyes. He questions how much love is needed to balance the inevitable hatred inspired by meaningful art, then discovers a four-year-old girl trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building. Using magic, Wit animates a doll made from rags to coax the child out, then delivers her to Kheni as a replacement for her lost child, concluding that only one person needs to love a work of art for it to be worthwhile. Wit then adopts a disguise of madness and shuffling desperation to approach the palace work site, where the Fused overseer Vatwha fails to recognize him. He deliberately provokes singer guards into seizing him, then uses the distraction to make contact with a trapped spren—a moving Pattern creature—wedged in the palace wall. He whispers that he will take it to safety and share truths with it. The guards throw him among the beggars, where he conceals the trembling Pattern in his palm and departs.