Summary

In Chapter 4, which is narrated from the second person point of view, Essun hears what she identifies as screaming from her room. She notices a group of people carrying a screaming man down from topside. In the infirmary, it takes six people to hold down the man. After he is given a shot to make him unconscious, Lerna cuts open the legs of the man’s pants. Blue jewels appear to be attached to his legs. Lerna tries to pull one off the man. It hurts him so badly that he curses. Essun realizes they are not jewels but bugs that shoot boiling water. They are boiling the man alive.

Essun spots Alabaster across the infirmary and senses he is using orogeny. One of the bugs freezes over and is dead. Lerna looks at Essun and she shakes her head at him to...