Navani’s Notebook: Experiments

Venli discovers that thousands of her people, the listeners, survived and escaped to the Shattered Plains under her sister Eshonai's protection. She confesses her role in the conquest to Rlain, then decides to abandon the mission to rescue the Radiants in favor of seeking out these survivors, hoping to find her mother among them.

Venli finds herself crying over a map showing the location of surviving listeners in the Unclaimed Hills—her people, thousands strong, who escaped when Eshonai separated them and refused to enforce stormform conversion. Rlain discovers her distress and learns the full extent of Venli's betrayals: her acceptance of the strange human woman's sphere, her role in the conquest, and her earlier willingness to see those who refused stormform killed. Rlain is devastated, calling her a monster, but recognizes she may still be valuable to their cause of rescuing the awakening Radiants. He urges her to help with this task first before pursuing the listeners, warning that Raboniel has clearly orchestrated Venli's discovery of the map to use her as a tracker to find the survivors. Venli refuses. She has already coordinated with Dul and Mazish, fellow Parshendi who have prepared supplies and are ready to flee. She plans to use Raboniel's writ of authority to pass through the Oathgates and escape to the eastern wilderness, eventually making her way to the Shattered Plains. Her true motivation surfaces only at the end: among those survivors is her mother, Jaxlim, possibly the only person who might still love her despite everything she has done.