62. Keeper of Forms

Navani receives word from Kaladin about the previous night's battle and learns that the spanreeds he acquired contain corrupted spren powered by Voidlight. Raboniel confronts Navani about her scholars' lack of progress, separates her from them to work alone, and reveals a mysterious third type of Light called Towerlight—a mixture of Stormlight and Lifelight. Through scholarly debate about emulsifiers, Navani gains some rapport with Raboniel, who grants her access to experimental materials.

Navani hears from Kaladin via the Sibling that he collapsed after the previous night's events and couldn't reach the Oathgates; his Lashings don't work and he must use Adhesion to climb. He reports stealing twelve complete spanreeds, which Syl has determined contain corrupted spren fueled by Voidlight rather than Stormlight. Navani realizes this means she cannot create working fabrials without Raboniel's knowledge and decides to work toward warning Dalinar, though Kaladin expresses reluctance to leave. Navani's plan unfolds in three steps: maintaining their position, contacting Dalinar, and understanding the tower's mechanisms. She enlists young engineer Tomor to secretly retrieve a single-person lift device he designed, with plans to help Kaladin reach different floors faster. Raboniel arrives and accuses Navani of deliberately wasting time with her scholars, then reorganizes their work so Navani operates separately, receiving written directions from her subordinates that Raboniel will vet. During this confrontation, Navani witnesses a singer soldier wielding her dead son Elhokar's Shardblade, Sunraiser, testing it against a mysterious blue shield that regenerates instantly. Raboniel brings Navani to a private chamber and presents a small diamond filled with an unusual teal-hued Light called Towerlight—a mixture of Stormlight and Lifelight that the Sibling had mentioned. Raboniel theorizes about mixing different forms of Light and whether Stormlight and Voidlight could coexist as a model for human-singer unity. Navani challenges Raboniel's philosophical assumption that oil and water are opposites by demonstrating an emulsion, prompting Raboniel to acknowledge gaps in her knowledge. Raboniel grants Navani gemstones to power fabrials and tasks her with experimenting on the Towerlight, while allowing her to continue communicating with scholars via written ciphers, which Raboniel promises to challenge her spren to decipher. Left alone in the library, Navani contacts the Sibling through a hidden crystal vein and demands to know the locations of the remaining nodes to prevent their discovery, but the Sibling refuses, demanding she devise defensive plots first.