13. The Day’s Masterpiece

Shallan travels by wagon across the Frostlands with the slaver Tvlakv's caravan, studying the unfamiliar flora while enduring rough conditions and the merchant's minimal hospitality. She secures privacy by converting an empty slave cage into a traveling compartment, then privately examines Jasnah's trunk and confronts her grief while Pattern reveals he was drawn to her because of lies in her family history and confirms the Voidbringers' return is imminent.

Shallan sits beside Bluth, one of Tvlakv's mercenaries, as their wagon rattles across the Frostlands. She attempts conversation to pass the journey and observes the region's unusual flora—hardy shrubs and small rockbuds adapted to the cold. When Bluth takes offense at her scholarly language, Shallan diplomatically explains that everyone has areas of ignorance, comparing her inability to make fire to his unfamiliarity with formal words. At the midday halt, she observes parshmen in a cage weaving hats and notices painspren emerging from her injured feet. She requests that Tvlakv allow her to occupy one of the empty slave wagons by affixing its wooden sides, framing it as a carriage for her comfort. Though reluctant, Tvlakv complies, and she takes possession of the key. Inside the wagon, Shallan bathes her blistered feet and opens Jasnah's trunk, finding it filled with books and notes. Pattern emerges and reveals he was sent to her because of lies within her family and because of the impending Voidbringer threat. Shallan discovers a sketch of Jasnah she had drawn—kept by Jasnah despite the woman's supposed disdain for visual art. Grief overwhelms Shallan as she realizes all her sketchpads and drawings were lost in the ship's sinking, along with the broken Soulcaster she hoped to repair. Pattern insists she will draw again, and Shallan resolves that those responsible—a group likely connected to Kabsal and her father—sought to control knowledge of the Voidbringers for profit. She commits to continuing Jasnah's work and reaching the Shattered Plains with the books.