Chapter 46

This chapter is a flashback set twenty-six years ago, depicting young Szeth as a shepherd boy during a coastal evacuation from stonewalker raiders. After helping prepare meals and having a philosophical conversation with the Farmer about choice and human agency, Szeth decides to leave the refugee camp at night to search for his missing sheep, Molli, heading toward his endangered home.

Szeth and his family are among dozens of shepherd families who have fled inland to a ravine to escape stonewalker raiders attacking the coast. While helping his mother and the Cook prepare misir wat (lentil paste) for the refugees, Szeth works with a specially designed measuring ladle that ensures perfect proportions. The Cook adds extra pepper to his food despite the tool's design, causing Szeth to doubt himself. The Farmer, a ruling peer, approaches Szeth and speaks with him about the nature of choice and human agency. When Szeth asks how the Farmer knows what to do, the Farmer explains that humans, unlike animals or natural phenomena moved by spren, must learn through trying and acting rather than receiving direction from the spren themselves. The conversation leaves Szeth with more questions than answers. Later, Szeth's sister Elid reveals that three sheep are missing, including Molli, the lamb Szeth favors. Szeth notices a red haze on the horizon indicating the raiders have attacked nearby. After unsuccessfully searching nearby flocks, Szeth reflects on his conversation with the Farmer about human choice and decides to do something uncharacteristic: he extinguishes his lamp and heads alone into the night toward his family's homestead to find Molli.