Chapter 68

Szeth is pulled into Shadesmar by his former mentor Pozen and forced into a trial combat against two Honorblade-wielders. After a desperate fight where he recovers Nightblood from the depths of the bead ocean, Szeth defeats the Edgedancer and confronts Pozen, who ultimately sacrifices himself. Szeth escapes Shadesmar using Pozen's Honorblade and reunites with Kaladin in the physical world.

Szeth sits with Kaladin, hesitating to share details about the Voice he heard as a child. After setting down his bowl, he accidentally steps into Shadesmar—the realm of beads and spren. Panicking, he uses Stormlight to create a platform and encounters Pozen-son-Nash, his old teacher and bearer of an Elsecaller Honorblade, who has come to test him. Pozen presents this as a necessary trial for Szeth's aspirations, though Szeth claims to seek no position. Szeth's Shardblade cannot manifest as a weapon in Shadesmar; his spren appears instead as a strange figure of blackness and stars. A second opponent emerges: a young Shin woman in grey robes bearing the Edgedancer Honorblade, who attacks Szeth with arrows and swordplay in a tube of beads that Pozen constructs. Szeth nearly loses, his hands cut by the Blade, but he heals using Stormlight and manages to strike back, temporarily defeating the Edgedancer. Pozen then directly attacks using the beads themselves, battering Szeth until he discovers Nightblood submerged in the depths—the black sword that somehow manifests in Shadesmar as a glowing golden blade. With Nightblood's aid, Szeth defeats the Edgedancer, reducing her to motes of light. Pozen then offers Szeth a final test: to Elsegate them home, a skill Szeth has never mastered. As Szeth approaches, Pozen falls on his own Honorblade and dies, his body evaporating into mist. Stranded in Shadesmar with no clear escape, Szeth takes Pozen's gemstones and Honorblade and, driven by urgency for his quest and his need to learn about his father's death, attempts an Elsegate himself. The Honorblade responds to his desperation, opening a rift in reality. Szeth tumbles through and lands in the physical world with Nightblood and both Honorblades. Kaladin finds him and questions his absence, but Szeth deflects while considering his next move against the Lightweaver monastery. Szeth's spren attempts to explain away his poor performance during the battle, and Szeth responds with a cryptic warning about illusions.