Interlude 17

This interlude, set nine and a half years before the main timeline, follows Szeth as he visits the Bondsmith monastery and is summoned to meet the entity he has believed to be the Voice—only to discover it is actually one of the Unmade, a powerful enemy of humankind that has manipulated him since childhood. Szeth witnesses imprisoned and tortured spren, learns the truth about his servitude, and makes the choice to flee.

Szeth arrives at the Bondsmith monastery, a sacred site where the nine Honorblades were once kept in stone sheaths. He reverences the empty slots and prays before the absent blade of Talmut, reflecting on the saint who chose to remain in Damnation for humanity's sake. The Voice, which has guided him throughout his life, summons him to a meeting and instructs him to follow a hidden path into a cavern. As Szeth ascends the narrow ledge, he senses something dark and profoundly wrong. Entering the cavern tunnel, marked with Shardblade cuts, he discovers a horrifying chamber filled with spren—windspren, flamespren, gloryspren, angerspren, and others—nailed to the walls with crystal spikes, tortured and screaming. The Voice reveals that these spren are being transformed to serve its purposes. The entity manifests as a shadow with human proportions, and Szeth realizes with terror that he has been serving one of the Unmade, not a god or spren, since his childhood. The Voice demands his worship, claiming the decision is already made. However, remembering his father's words about trusting him to decide, Szeth chooses to turn and flee rather than submit, proving stronger in this moment than he has ever been.