Interludes

In this interlude, Navani completes her obsessive research into sound theory and successfully creates anti-Voidlight—a tone that repels Voidlight instead of channeling it. After Raboniel discovers the breakthrough, an explosion occurs when the two opposing Lights are mixed in a gemstone. Raboniel then uses the anti-Voidlight to mercifully kill her own daughter, who has been trapped in an endless cycle of rebirth, before revealing her true plan: to weaponize anti-Stormlight against the human Radiants.

Navani enters a fevered state of study, abandoning normal routines as she obsesses over finding a tone opposite to Voidlight. Through experimentation with physics, mathematics, and sound theory, she discovers destructive interference—a principle where waves can cancel each other out. After days of work, she creates a metal plate that produces a tone repelling Voidlight, requiring both precise tuning and intent to function. When Raboniel discovers the hidden plate and tests it, she immediately grasps the implications and forces Navani to reveal her notebook. Navani uses a Thaylen vacuum tube to create the first gemstone filled with anti-Voidlight by isolating it from sound in a vacuum, exposing it only to her new tone. Raboniel, attempting to mix the two Lights to test cancellation, accidentally creates an explosion that injures her but fails to kill her. Undeterred, Raboniel creates a second anti-Voidlight gemstone and a modified dagger to deliver it. She then stabs her own daughter—a younger Fused trapped in an endless rebirth cycle with a broken mind—granting her permanent death as an act of mercy. Afterward, Raboniel confiscates Navani's notebook and equipment, revealing her true goal: to create anti-Stormlight to permanently destroy human Radiants, whom she views as an obstacle to ending the war through immortal cycles of rebirth. She intends to test this weapon on the Radiants imprisoned in the tower.