I-2. Ym

This interlude follows Ym, an elderly Iriali cobbler in the city of Iri, as he completes his day by crafting shoes and helping a street urchin. The chapter reveals Ym's philosophical beliefs about the cosmere and his mysterious healing abilities before ending with a shocking confrontation: a man in a black and silver uniform, wielding a Shardblade, executes Ym for his involvement in a forty-year-old murder.

Ym works in his cobbler shop, carefully carving a wooden last while interacting with a strange spren—a shimmer of light that speaks hesitantly and seems drawn to him. A young, injured street urchin enters seeking shoes. Ym cleans the boy's feet and discovers a badly infected wound on one foot. Using a powerful sphere hidden in his drawer, Ym performs a miraculous healing that removes all signs of infection and pain, an ability he keeps carefully disguised. As Ym fits the boy with shoes, he explains his Iriali philosophy: that all beings are fragments of a single entity (One) experiencing itself through different lives, and that they are all the same person in different circumstances. He gives the shoes freely, asking only for the boy's story in exchange. The boy leaves, calling Ym a nice person despite finding his philosophy strange. The spren warns Ym that "he's still here." Moments later, a man with dark Makabaki skin and a pale crescent scar on his cheek emerges from Ym's back room. The man accuses Ym of being an accomplice to murder from forty years ago: Ym delivered poisoned wine as a desperate young man needing money, not knowing it would kill someone. The man, wearing a black and silver uniform and carrying a Shardblade, pursues Ym through the dark streets. Despite his age and breathlessness, Ym attempts to flee but is quickly cornered against a barber shop. The man runs him through with the Shardblade, declaring that justice does not expire.