The authors give the story a harder push when they explain the group, later known as the Heroes of the Lance, travels to Xak Tsaroth, which is the broken city where Riverwind previously found the magical staff. The sixteenth chapter, ""A bitter choice. The greatest gift."" presents the earlier conversation between Goldmoon and her deceased mother, Tearsong, and an appearance of Mishakal, goddess of healing and protector of the "Blue Crystal Staff" Goldmoon carries, in which she explains the different sacrifices Goldmoon must make in order to obtain the goddess' gift and the tasks she must fulfill, including the retrieval of the Disks of Mishakal, a sacred book of platinum with the teachings of Paladine, highest god of light in Krynn within it.