61. Obedience

A flashback to one and a half years before the present timeline reveals Shallan's life under her father's increasingly tyrannical rule. When her brother Balat defies him over a forbidden courtship and mentions their absent brother Helaran, their father orders Helaran's assassination and later violently confronts his wife Malise, whose moral objections trigger his rage.

The chapter opens with Shallan describing her coping mechanisms during a period when her father grew distant and cruel despite rising wealth and power. During a tense lunch, Balat challenges their father's authority by defending his courtship of Eylita Tavinar, a woman beneath their station. When Balat invokes the forbidden name Helaran, their father responds by having Balat's prize axehound pups executed as punishment. In the kennel afterward, Balat reveals he met Helaran two days prior, who warned him he might not return for a long time and asked Balat to watch over the family. Balat urges Shallan to flee with him and Eylita to Vedenar, but Shallan refuses, insisting someone must stay to help their father. Shallan then overhears her father ordering his guard captain Rin to hunt down and kill Helaran in exchange for a Shardblade, fearing Helaran could ruin their house. Malise, Shallan's stepmother, discovers this plot and confronts her husband about his immorality, leading to a violent argument that drives her father to rage about obedience in the household.