Chapter 75

This flashback chapter takes place twenty-three years before the present timeline, showing young Szeth-son-Neturo at age fourteen training in a military camp. After besting other trainees in combat and defying a sergeant's unjust punishment, Szeth is brought to meet an Honorbearer named Pozen-son-Nash, to whom he poses fundamental questions about determining right and wrong.

Young Szeth trains at a Stoneward monastery military camp where he consistently defeats other boys in sparring, having devoted himself to mastering combat through rigorous practice. When Sergeant Szrand punishes him without cause, Szeth refuses the unjust order and injures the sergeant in the ensuing fight, leading his father Neturo to summon him. Rather than discipline, Neturo reveals plans for Szeth's future at the camp and takes him to meet Pozen-son-Nash, a high-ranking Honorbearer visiting to inspect the camp. Szeth is struck by the Honorbearer's Honorblade and asks Pozen how one determines what is right when truth seems different for different people. The Honorbearer instructs him to follow the chain of command, which ultimately traces to God himself. When Szeth expresses difficulty with hurting others despite it being correct, a female Honorbearer named Sivi suggests this is not a flaw, but Pozen counters that a soldier cannot afford hesitation. Pozen then orders Szeth to work shifts at the slaughterhouse to accustom himself to death, and instructs the General to assign Szeth to the rear guard during the next raid so he may learn through experience. Szeth accepts these orders, finally finding someone willing to provide the firm direction he has been seeking.