83. Time’s Illusion

Multiple simultaneous battles across the Shattered Plains reach critical moments: Shallan searches for the Oathgate on a circular plateau while Adolin fights Parshendi and encounters Eshonai; Dalinar saves Roion's forces but loses a plateau and receives a devastating final message from the Stormfather; Kaladin confronts Moash and Graves in the palace to prevent them from assassinating the unconscious king.

Shallan arrives on a circular plateau with soldiers and bridgemen, deducing it is the ancient dais where an Oathgate once stood. She convinces the skeptical Inadara that the plateau's perfect geometry proves it predates the shattering that created the other irregular plateaus, and that the Oathgate would have been displayed proudly as a symbol of the Vorin Right of Travel. Pattern warns that bonded Voidspren are raising a storm. Renarin senses the Everstorm approaching from the wrong direction and expresses despair at his uselessness, but Shallan orders the search to continue. Meanwhile, Adolin leads a thousand soldiers through a hollow building to surprise the Parshendi from behind their lines. The assault succeeds, with Parshendi emerging disoriented from their chanting trance, but the slaughter sickens Adolin, who drops his Blade in disgust—until Eshonai attacks him with her own Shardblade, offering him the honest fight he craves. Dalinar retreats from the northern plateau after a wound forces him to abandon the battlefield. He learns Adolin has won his sector and Aladar holds, but recognizes the situation as a losing position if the Parshendi complete their song. When confronted by a panicked Roion, Dalinar hears the voice of the Stormfather, who reveals the Voidspren are summoning a destructive opposite storm. When Dalinar demands intervention, the Stormfather refuses, announcing it is being called away by a disobedient daughter and withdrawing all further visions. In the palace, Kaladin, weakened and bleeding, stands between the unconscious king and Moash and Graves, who have discovered the king through Kaladin's blood trail. Kaladin refuses to let them kill the king, insisting the murder was not the king's fault and that they must pursue justice against Roshone instead. He argues they must be better than murderers in dark corridors. Moash, despite hesitating, ultimately refuses to back down and seals his helm to fight.