14. Voice

Shallan deals with the aftermath of her wedding while processing fragmented memories of her traumatic childhood. She encounters Mraize disguised as a guardsman near her brothers' quarters, and he reveals the Ghostbloods' true goal: controlling access to Shadesmar to trade Stormlight with other worlds. Mraize tasks her with infiltrating the honorspren fortress of Lasting Integrity to find and extract information from Restares, a former Sons of Honor leader who knows secrets about King Gavilar's experiments with Voidlight.

The chapter opens with Shallan recovering from a hangover caused by Veil's drinking at the wedding celebration. After attending to her duties as wife of a highprince, Shallan visits her brothers' quarters, where she sketches by the hearth and grapples with suppressed childhood memories of her family and her mother's death. She notices creationspren mimicking objects from her past, including a disturbing image of burning souls resembling her and her brothers. Jushu comments on the strange drawing, forcing Shallan to confront the reality of her present situation rather than idealizing her past.

While studying Ialai's notebook for information about Ghostblood movements in Shadesmar, Shallan recognizes a disguised Mraize among the guardsmen chatting with her brothers on the balcony. She realizes this is a deliberate show of power—a threat that he can access her loved ones at will. After her brothers leave, Mraize arranges a meeting in the tower gardens, where he commends her work eliminating the Sons of Honor and questions her commitment to the Ghostbloods, particularly her refusal to accept the organization's tattoo. He presents her with a diamond broam containing Stormlight and explains the organization's true objective: establishing trade routes through Shadesmar to transport Stormlight to other worlds like Nalthis and Scadrial, circumventing the Horneaters' monopoly.

Mraize reveals that Investiture is bound to specific worlds and cannot travel far without becoming progressively heavier—a fundamental limitation that restricts even Radiants from leaving Roshar, Ashyn, or Braize. He claims to have discovered a solution to this problem. Shallan reports that Sja-anat has agreed to send a spren to the tower to investigate potential Ghostblood recruits for bonding, and mentions Ialai's suspicion of a spy close to Dalinar. Mraize clarifies that the spy belongs to the Ghostbloods, not the Sons of Honor, and hints cryptically that the spy is among Shallan's Lightweavers.

Mraize explains that the Sons of Honor were eliminated because Gavilar discovered how to carry Voidlight from Braize before the Everstorm, and Restares—possibly Gavilar's ally or the Sons of Honor's founder—knows these secrets. The Ghostbloods cannot reach Restares because he has taken asylum in Lasting Integrity, the honorspren fortress in Shadesmar, which is closed to them. Mraize assigns Shallan the mission of infiltrating the fortress to locate and extract information from Restares. He promises complete answers about the Ghostbloods' operations, the nature of the world, and crucially, about Shallan's own past and missing memories—suggesting her family may have had connections to the organization. Despite Radiant's resistance, Shallan accepts the mission, recognizing that Mraize holds information about her suppressed childhood that she desperately wants to recover.