71: RECORDED IN BLOOD

An interlude following assassin-slave character shifts from the wider narrative. The disguised-as-porter arrives to kill King of kharbranth but is caught by his true master, revealing the king is the unseen orchestrator of his murders. They visit a secret hospital underground where the dying are deliberately killed to harvest their final words, which contain cryptic visions of approaching calamity.

The chapter begins with master-assassin and possibly magically-enslaved truthless one, arrives in the city of kharbranth disguised as a laborer. He is plagued by guilt over the massacres he has committed under orders from an unknown master. He makes his way through the city and infiltrates the palace using illicit magic, descending to the upper lighteyes' privy, where he dons servant clothes. He finds King taravangian in his study and delivers his scripted message about killing the others. The king reveals himself as szeth's unseen master. He explains he included his own name on the list of targets as a protective measure and assures szeth that the instructions explicitly prohibited his killing. When szeth reluctantly admits he may have killed the palace guards, taravangian tends to them personally and demonstrates compassion. This reveals taravangian as a powerful strategist speaking szeth's shin language and quoting shin proverbs. The king leads szeth to a hidden vast hospital carved into the conclave's stone, where hundreds of beds hold the sick and dying. The purpose becomes horrifyingly clear: the patients are deliberately drained of blood and slowly killed. Their deaths are orchestrated to harvest their final words—cryptic visions spoken by the dying about approaching darkness and calamity, a phenomenon taravangian believes began seven years prior when king gavilar first explored the shattered plains. He explains he kills to prevent greater destruction and claims one man's sin is better than a people's ruin. Finally, taravangian gives szeth a new name for his assassination list: dalinar kholin, the powerful alethi highprince, whom taravangian fears will unite the alethi and interfere with his plans to fortify roshar against the coming danger.