Navani’s Notebook: The Crystal Pillar Room

Navani takes command of the tower's defenses as Fused and Stormform Regals pour in through the basement. She discovers that the enemy has somehow corrupted the Sibling, a spren that is the soul of the tower, causing it to suppress the Radiants' powers instead of the Fused's. She decides to launch an assault to retake the crystal pillar room in the basement, and makes contact with the Sibling itself—learning that reversing the pillar's configuration is the only way to restore the Radiants.

As Navani arrives at the map room, she finds officers and soldiers gathered around maps showing enemy positions on multiple floors. Commander Lyon is unconscious from taking on a spren, leaving no Tower Guard leadership. Battalionlord Teofil reports that Stormform Regals and Heavenly Ones are advancing from the basement and landing on balconies throughout the tower. The soldiers initially hesitate to follow Navani's orders, but when she proposes a bold plan to assault the basement and retake the crystal pillar room—where she suspects the enemy has disabled the tower's defenses—Teofil supports her decisively. He explains that defensive barricades will ultimately fail against enemies with powers, making an immediate aggressive strike their only real chance. Navani notes that Tshadr, the tower's only non-Radiant Shardbearer, was killed, and his Shardplate taken by the Heavenly Ones, suggesting the enemy had detailed intelligence. As troops prepare to assault downward, Navani approaches a line of red garnet crystal running through the map room wall and makes contact with the Sibling—the tower's governing spren. The Sibling reveals it was put to sleep long ago but awakened by Dalinar's Bondsmith powers. The Lady of Pains (a high Fused) has partially corrupted the Sibling, reversing its power-suppression so it now weakens Radiants instead of the Fused. The Sibling refuses to fully explain how to undo this corruption, expressing distrust of humans and their dangerous knowledge of Surgebinding. However, it hints that its last Bondsmith created a protective method long ago, and finally asks Navani to bring Stormlight—a great deal of it.