45: SHADESMAR

In the study chambers of the great library, the interlude shift from prior events. In the palace at the city of the library, chapter is from the perspective of shallan who studies king gavilar's history with jasnah, research on the voidbringers, and a deepening relationship with kabsal. When shallan attempts to sketch kabsal, she experiences a terrifying vision of otherworldly creatures with symbol-heads, which recurs as she flees through the palace. In her bedroom, a voice speaks to her from within a magical soulcaster, and she involuntarily transforms a goblet of water into blood using the device, triggering a panic that leads her to fake a self-inflicted wound to hide her use of the forbidden fabrial from jasnah.

In the vast library called the veil of the palanaeum, shallan continues her research into king gavilar's final expedition, studying historical accounts by king gavilar himself and storwarden matain. She and jasnah discuss gavilar's sudden scholarly interests in the parshendi, and shallan notices the odd discontinuity: gavilar was not naturally inclined to scholarship, yet became obsessed with the parshendi's language, society, and music. When shallan presses jasnah about urithiru, a legendary ancient city, and the voidbringers, jasnah deflects but reveals enough for shallan to understand that jasnah is searching for something historically significant—possibly to disprove vorinism itself. Later, shallan encounters kabsal in the library and they speak of the voidbringers' theology. kabsal reveals that he believes jasnah is trying to prove the voidbringers false and undermine the entire foundation of the devotaries. When shallan tells kabsal she must leave the next morning due to family matters, he becomes emotional and withdraws. To soften the blow, shallan agrees to sketch him. While drawing, however, shallan experiences a disturbing vision: she sketches strange creatures with angular symbol-heads instead of faces, figures that seem to exist in the spaces around her. As she flees the alcove in panic, she sees more of these creatures in crowded hallways, all apparently watching her. Once in her room, shallan is confronted by a voice—cold and foreign—asking "what are you?" The world transforms into a surreal landscape of black glass beads forming an endless ocean. Another voice, warm and ancient, emanates from the soulcaster she wears hidden in her sleeve, requesting that she "give" it something. When shallan returns to her physical room, she has involuntarily used the soulcaster to transform a glass goblet into blood—one of the ten essences—without placing the device on her arm. Blood spills across her floor just as jasnah approaches her room. In desperation and panic, shallan cuts her own arm with broken glass and feigns unconsciousness, allowing jasnah to find her apparently wounded, to hide evidence of the forbidden soulcasting.