25. Devotary of Mercy

On the second day of the voyage through Shadesmar, Shallan's three personalities navigate her exhaustion and internal tension. After Veil seizes control to coax Shallan out of retreat, she engages in playful banter with Adolin and resumes sketching the Radiant spren, finding solace in art. Meanwhile, she continues piecing together clues about the Ghostbloods' hunt for Ba-Ado-Mishram, an Unmade, and the mystery of the spy among her crew.

Radiant begins the day in control but struggles with Shallan's withdrawn state following Veil's violation of their compact days earlier. As the expedition members busy themselves with camp tasks, Radiant reviews Ialai's book and determines that the Ghostbloods are hunting Ba-Ado-Mishram, an Unmade who granted the singers forms of power in ancient times. When Shallan's internal tension becomes unbearable, Veil takes control and deliberately makes terrible drawings of Adolin to provoke Shallan into engaging. The ploy succeeds; Shallan emerges fully and spends hours sketching the fascinating spren of Shadesmar, finding emotional restoration in the act of creation. Adolin brings her food and they discuss the book's findings about Ba-Ado-Mishram and Mraize's intentions. Shallan confesses her original scheme to rob Jasnah, which Adolin finds humorous rather than condemning. Their conversation turns lighthearted, with Adolin attempting jokes and Shallan responding with increasingly absurd wordplay. As she sketches, Dreaming-though-Awake, a mistspren, approaches and reveals that the Heralds—Nalan and Kelek among others—were present when Ba-Ado-Mishram was bound. Shallan recognizes this connection to the Sons of Honor, linking the Ghostbloods' quest to the organization she is tasked with investigating, though she remains uncertain how to untangle these threads without destabilizing herself.