1. Santhid

Shallan sketches aboard Captain Tozbek's ship in Longbrow's Straits and encounters a rare santhid creature swimming alongside. Jasnah emerges from her cabin and, after observing Shallan's curiosity, finally begins explaining Shadesmar—the Cognitive Realm—and the nature of spren. Jasnah also reveals she has arranged a betrothal between Shallan and Adolin Kholin, her cousin, to secure Shallan's family against their debts and enemies.

Shallan is aboard ship sailing toward the Shattered Plains, still recovering from her betrayal of Jasnah in Kharbranth. While sketching the ocean, she discovers strange embossed patterns appearing on her papers, which she suspects relate to Shadesmar, the otherworldly realm she glimpsed during her earlier transgression. When a rare santhid—a massive, reclusive sea creature—appears alongside the ship, Shallan initially attempts to convince Captain Tozbek to lower her into the water for a closer observation, but he refuses on safety grounds. Jasnah arrives on deck and, rather than scolding Shallan, takes a seat beside her. She begins explaining that Shadesmar is not a physical location but the Cognitive Realm—a plane of existence composed of thought and mind where spren, which are personified ideas given sentience, dwell in cities. Jasnah reveals that spren brought Shallan to her, and that an ancient betrayal between humans and spren occurred. She further discloses that she has arranged a betrothal between Shallan and Adolin Kholin, Jasnah's cousin and son of Dalinar, to save Shallan's house from its debts and the Ghostbloods' threats. Jasnah also mentions her mother Navani may repair Shallan's broken Soulcaster. Upon learning of the betrothal, Shallan is delighted, seeing it as a solution to her family's problems. Jasnah teaches Shallan that power is largely an illusion of perception, and that commanding presence comes from how one carries oneself rather than from actual authority. Emboldened by this lesson, Shallan uses a commanding tone to override Captain Tozbek's refusal, and he halts the ship. She is then lowered into the water wearing a glass-faced mask, where she observes the santhid's true form—a majestic, ancient creature with long blue tendrils, rippled skin, and a large eye—surrounded by schools of fish and arrow-shaped spren.