I-3. Rysn

Rysn arrives at the moving island-creature Tai-na as representative of her ailing master Vstim to negotiate a crucial trade. After being dismissed by the king's son Talik, she desperately climbs down a rope beside the greatshell's head to appeal directly to the creature itself, falls when the rope snaps, and is mysteriously saved by the island's soul. She awakens to discover her legs are shattered but that she has been given a rare living larkin—a treasure thought extinct—by the creature itself.

Rysn travels with a trading flotilla across the Reshi Sea to the moving island Tai-na, which she discovers is actually a colossal greatshell. She arrives with her ailing master Vstim, who reveals the trade terms were set years ago and she must convince the Reshi she is worthy of their goods. At the island's head, she meets the king and Talik, the king's son and a trained trademaster educated in Thaylenah. Talik initially dismisses her for not bringing Vstim in person, but the king grants her a hearing after impressed by Rysn's argument about trust and responsibility. When the king still refuses to trade, suggesting Rysn return in a decade, Rysn makes a desperate gambit: she climbs down a rope beside the creature's massive head and appeals directly to Relu-na, the island-god itself, for boldness and mercy. The rope snaps as the creature feeds, and she falls from a tremendous height. Spren cushion her fall and save her life, but she shatters both legs in the impact. She wakes in a hut where Vstim reveals the truth: this was a controlled test he arranged with Talik to give her real trading experience. The true prize they sought was a living larkin—a small winged creature thought extinct since Aimia's fall—which the island's soul has mysteriously granted to Rysn instead of to Vstim.