Interlude 11

An interlude featuring two separate storylines: Adolin Kholin recruiting and training new soldiers for the siege at Azimir, including encounters with would-be recruits who don't meet physical requirements; and Venli experiencing visions from the stones during a highstorm that reveal ancient history about the Shattered Plains' creation and destruction by Honor, prompting her to plan an expedition to Narak.

Adolin visits soldier camps to boost morale by learning and using soldiers' names, recognizing that men fight for each other rather than abstract ideals. The campaign's grueling nature is wearing on troops, with constant alertness required and mounting casualties. Adolin then conducts recruitment and selection at a staging area, using physical standards to choose soldiers capable of facing warforms. He encounters Sarqqin, a blacksmith who has filed official papers to live as a man, and Zabra, a girl dressed as a boy hoping to join the military. Unable to place them in combat roles due to size and strength requirements, Adolin assigns them to support positions—Zabra as a messenger with possibility of archery training later. He demonstrates through a shield-pushing exercise why physical capability matters in formation fighting. Before departing for duty in the dome, Adolin is warned that an enemy assault is imminent. In a parallel sequence, Venli shelters with the chasmfiends during the highstorm and uses Stormlight to commune with the stones beneath her. The stones reveal visions of ancient history: a grand civilization with blue-skinned humans who built a city at the Shattered Plains using incredible power. They built it around the time of Urithiru and Nohadon, before Radiants formally existed. The stones suggest singers once sang with the planet's natural forces. Honor himself destroyed this city, shattering the landscape, possibly because they used Surges without the Radiant structure. Venli learns there is strange alien stone at the Plains' heart—from the fourth moon—that went haywire when gods came. The stones show her nine figures with swords (Aharietiam, when the Heralds vanished) and urge her to come to Narak to see the truth. Venli decides to lead an expedition there despite the ongoing war, hoping to learn more about her people's true history.