65. The One Who Deserves It

In a flashback set one and a half years before the main timeline, Shallan learns that her father has ordered the assassination of her brother Helaran. She reads Jasnah Kholin's writings on women's autonomy and is inspired to act, confronting her fear and taking decisive steps to help her family escape her father's abusive control.

The chapter opens with Jasnah Kholin's philosophical writings about women's roles and the power of choice. Shallan has just overheard her father order Helaran's assassination and retreats to her room. Guards stand watch in the hallway, likely preventing Malise from fleeing. Shallan, emboldened by Jasnah's words about agency and choice, overcomes her fear and leaves her room, walking past the guards to find her father in the feast hall. She prepares his favorite spiced wine and serves it to him, watching his rare moment of clarity before he lapses into complaints about his disobedient family members. She then goes to the gardens where Balat is sitting amid cremling claws, having killed his axehounds. Shallan tells him of Father's assassination order for Helaran and convinces him to flee with Malise and Eylita when their father travels to Vedenar in a few months. She promises to contact Helaran and arrange their meeting. Overcoming her stammer and anxiety, Shallan persuades the guards to let her enter her father's sitting room, where she finds Malise injured with a split lip and broken arm. She tends to Malise's wounds and informs her of the escape plan, revealing that Helaran is a powerful Shardbearer who can protect them. When Malise questions why their father doesn't hate Shallan as he hates everyone else, and notes that if she and Balat leave, Shallan will become the target, Shallan quietly acknowledges this possibility before departing.