72. Selfish Reasons

Kaladin and Shallan fight a chasmfiend in the chasms using a borrowed Shardblade. After a brutal battle where Kaladin is severely wounded, they kill the creature and race against time to carve a shelter in the chasm wall before the highstorm arrives.

Kaladin discovers that Shallan possesses a Shardblade, which surprises him since touching it causes him no pain—unlike the screaming sensation he experienced before. Shallan insists he take the blade to help them survive and instructs him to lead the chasmfiend toward the warcamps so she can retrieve her satchel containing sketches of the Shattered Plains. Kaladin engages the massive creature in combat within the narrow confines of the chasm. The fight is desperate; Kaladin struggles without Stormlight to enhance his abilities and is severely wounded when the chasmfiend bites his leg. At a critical moment, Kaladin creates an illusory duplicate of himself using Stormlight—a new ability he doesn't fully understand—which distracts the beast. He manages to thrust the Shardblade through the creature's mouth into its brain, killing it. Shallan, who has been creating illusions to distract the chasmfiend, emerges from hiding and extracts Kaladin from the creature's jaws, binding his wounds. Realizing a highstorm approaches in roughly two hours, they devise a plan: Shallan will use her Shardblade to carve handholds up the chasm wall and hollow out a shelter above the waterline while Kaladin remains below due to his injuries. After over an hour of exhausting work, Shallan creates a shallow cubby. As the storm arrives with rising water and howling wind, Kaladin climbs toward her, pulling himself up the handholds despite his pain as the stormwall hits.