The Well of Ascension

56

HOW CAN VIN STAND THIS? Elend wondered. He could barely see twenty feet in the mists. Trees appeared as apparitions around him as he walked, their branches curling around the road. The mist almost seemed to live: it moved, swirled, and blew in the cold night air. It snatched up his puffs of breath, as if drawing a piece of him into it.

He shivered and kept walking. The snow had melted patchily over the last few days, leaving heaps in shadowed areas. The canal road, thankfully, was mostly clear.

He walked with a pack over his shoulder, carrying only the necessities. At Spook’s suggestion, they’d traded their horses at a village several days back. They’d rode the creatures hard the last few days, and it was Spook’s estimation that trying to keep them fed – and alive – for the last leg of their trip to Luthadel wouldn’t be worth the effort.

Besides, whatever was going to happen at the city had likely already occurred. So Elend walked, alone, in the darkness. Despite the eeriness, he kept his word and traveled only at night. Not only was it Vin’s will, but Spook claimed that night was safer. Few travelers braved the mists. Therefore, most bandits didn’t bother watching roadways at night.

Spook prowled ahead, his keen senses allowing him to detect danger before Elend blundered into it. How does that work, anyway? Elend wondered as he walked. Tin is supposed to make you see better. But what does it matter how far you can see, if the mists just obscure everything?

Writers claimed that Allomancy could help a person pierce the mists, somehow. Elend had always wondered what that was like. Of course, he had also wondered what it felt like to feel the strength of pewter, or to fight with atium. Allomancers were uncommon, even among Great Houses. Yet, because of the way Straff had treated him, Elend had always felt guilty that he hadn’t been one.

But, I ended up as king eventually, even without Allomancy, he thought, smiling to himself. He’d lost the throne, true. But, while they could take his crown, they could not take away his accomplishments. He’d proved that an Assembly could work. He’d protected the skaa, given them rights, and a taste of freedom they’d never forget. He’d done more than anyone would have expected of him.

Something rustled in the mists.

Elend froze, staring out into the darkness. Sounds like leaves, he thought nervously. Something moving across them? Or… just the wind blowing them?

He decided at that moment that there was nothing more unnerving than staring into the misty darkness, seeing ever-shifting silhouettes. A part of him would rather face down a koloss army than stand alone, at night, in an unknown forest.

“Elend,” someone whispered.

Elend spun. He put a hand to his chest as he saw Spook approaching. He thought about chastising the boy for sneaking up on him – but, well, there wasn’t really any other way to approach in the mists.

“Did you see something?” Spook asked quietly.

Elend shook his head. “But I think I heard something.”

Spook nodded, then darted off into the mists again. Elend stood, uncertain whether he should continue on, or just wait. He didn’t have to debate for very long. Spook returned a few moments later.

“Nothing to worry about,” Spook said. “Just a mistwraith.”

“What?” Elend asked.

“Mistwraith,” Spook said. “You know. Big goopy things? Related to kandra? Don’t tell me you haven’t read about them?”

“I have,” Elend said, nervously scanning the darkness. “But, I never thought I’d be out in the mists with one.”

Spook shrugged. “It’s probably just following our scent, hoping that we’ll leave some trash for it to eat. The things are harmless, mostly.”

“Mostly?” Elend asked.

“You probably know more about them than I do. Look, I didn’t come back here to chat about scavengers. There’s light up ahead.”

“A village?” Elend asked, thinking back to when they’d come this way before.

Spook shook his head. “Looks like watchfires.”

“An army?”

“Maybe. I’m just thinking you should wait behind for a bit. It could be awkward if you wander into a scout post.”

“Agreed,” Elend said.

Spook nodded, then took off into the mists.

And Elend was alone in the darkness again. He shivered, pulling his cloak close, and eyed the mists in the direction from which he’d heard the mistwraith. Yes, he’d read about them. He knew they were supposed to be harmless. But the thought of something crawling out there – its skeleton made from random sets of bones – watching him…

Don’t focus on that, Elend told himself.

He turned his attention, instead, to the mists. Vin was right about one thing, at least. They were lingering longer and longer despite the sunrise. Some mornings, they remained a full hour after the sun came up. He could easily imagine the disaster that would befall the land should the mists persist all day. Crops would fail, animals would starve, and civilization would collapse.

Could the Deepness really be something so simple? Elend’s own impressions of the Deepness were seated in scholarly tradition. Some writers dismissed the entire thing as a legend – a rumor used by the obligators to enhance their god’s aura of divinity. The majority accepted the historical definition of the Deepness – a dark monster that had been slain by the Lord Ruler.

And yet, thinking of it as the mist made some sense. How could a single beast, no matter how dangerous, threaten an entire land? The mists, though… they could be destructive. Kill plants. Perhaps even… kill people, as Sazed had suggested?

He eyed it shifting around him, playful, deceptive. Yes, he could see it as the Deepness. Its reputation – more frightening than a monster, more dangerous than an army – was one it would deserve. In fact, watching it as he was, he could see it trying to play tricks on his mind. For instance, the mist bank directly in front of him seemed to be forming shapes. Elend smiled as his mind picked out images in the mists. One almost looked like a person standing there, in front of him.

The person stepped forward.

Elend jumped, taking a slight step backward, his foot crunching on a bit of ice-crusted snow. Don’t be silly, he told himself. Your mind is playing tricks on you. There’s nothing–

The shape in the mists took another step forward. It was indistinct, almost formless, and yet it seemed real. Random movements in the mists outlined its face, its body, its legs.

“Lord Ruler!” Elend yelped, jumping back. The thing continued to regard him.

I’m going mad, he thought, hands beginning to shake. The mist figure stopped a few feet in front of him and then raised its right arm and pointed.

North. Away from Luthadel.

Elend frowned, glancing in the direction the figure pointed. There was nothing but more empty mists. He turned back toward it, but it stood quietly, arm upraised.

Vin spoke of this thing, he remembered, forcing down his fear. She tried to tell me about it. And I thought she was making things up! She was right – just as she’d been right about the mists staying longer in the day, and the possibility of the mists being the Deepness. He was beginning to wonder which of them was the scholar.

The mist figure continued to point.

“What?” Elend asked, his own voice sounding haunting in the silent air.

It stepped forward, arm still raised. Elend put a useless hand to his sword, but held his ground.

“Tell me what you wish of me!” he said forcefully.

The thing pointed again. Elend cocked his head. It certainly didn’t seem threatening. In fact, he felt an unnatural feeling of peace coming from it.

Allomancy? he thought. It’s Pulling on my emotions!

“Elend?” Spook’s voice drifted out of the mists.

The figure suddenly dissolved, its form melting into the mists. Spook approached, his face dark and shadowed in the night. “Elend? What were you saying?”

Elend took his hand off his sword, standing upright. He eyed the mists, still not completely convinced that he wasn’t seeing things. “Nothing,” he said.

Spook glanced back the way he had come. “You should come look at this.”

“The army?” Elend asked, frowning.

Spook shook his head. “No. The refugees.”

“The Keepers are dead, my lord,” the old man said, sitting across from Elend. He didn’t have a tent, only a blanket stretched between several poles. “Either dead, or captured.”

Another man brought Elend a cup of warm tea, his demeanor servile. Both wore the robes of stewards, and while their eyes bespoke exhaustion, their robes and hands were clean.

Old habits, Elend thought, nodding thankfully and taking a sip of the tea. Terris’s people might have declared themselves independent, but a thousand years of servitude cannot be so easily thrown off.

The camp was an odd place. Spook said he counted nearly a thousand people in it – a nightmare of a number to care for, feed, and organize in the cold winter. Many were elderly, and the men were mostly stewards: eunuchs bred for genteel service, with no experience in hunting.

“Tell me what happened,” Elend said.

The elderly steward nodded, his head shaking. He didn’t seem particularly frail – actually, he had that same air of controlled dignity that most stewards exhibited – but his body had a slow, chronic tremble.

“The Synod came out into the open, my lord, once the empire fell.” He accepted a cup of his own, but Elend noticed that it was only half full – a precaution that proved wise as the elderly steward’s shaking nearly spilled its contents. “They became our rulers. Perhaps it was not wise to reveal themselves so soon.”

Not all Terrismen were Feruchemists; in fact, very few were. The Keepers – people like Sazed and Tindwyl – had been forced into hiding long ago by the Lord Ruler. His paranoia that Feruchemical and Allomantic lines might mix – thereby potentially producing a person with his same powers – had led him to try and destroy all Feruchemists.

“I’ve known Keepers, friend,” Elend said softly. “I find it hard to believe that they could have been easily defeated. Who did this?”

“Steel Inquisitors, my lord,” the old man said.

Elend shivered. So that’s where they’ve been.

“There were dozens of them, my lord,” the old man said. “They attacked Tathingdwen with an army of koloss brutes. But, that was just a distraction, I think. Their real goal as the Synod and the Keepers themselves. While our army, such as it was, fought the beasts, the Inquisitors themselves struck at the Keepers.”

Lord Ruler… Elend thought, stomach twisting. So, what do we do with the book Sazed told us to deliver to the Synod? Do we pass it on to these men, or keep it?

“They took the bodies with them, my lord,” the old man said. “Terris is in ruins, and that is why we are going south. You said you know King Venture?”

“I… have met him,” Elend said. “He ruled Luthadel, where I am from.”

“Will he take us in, do you think?” the old man asked. “We have little hope anymore. Tathingdwen was the Terris capital, but even it wasn’t large. We are few, these days – the Lord Ruler saw to that.”

“I… do not know if Luthadel can help you, friend.”

“We can serve well,” the old man promised. “We were prideful to declare ourselves free, I think. We struggled to survive even before the Inquisitors attacked. Perhaps they did us a favor by casting us out.”

Elend shook his head. “Koloss attacked Luthadel just over a week ago,” he said quietly. “I am a refugee myself, Master Steward. For all I know, the city itself has fallen.”

The old man fell silent. “Ah, I see,” he finally said.

“I’m sorry,” Elend said. “I was traveling back to see what happened. Tell me – I traveled this way not long ago. How is it that I missed you in my journey north?”

“We didn’t come by the canal route, my lord,” the old man said. “We cut across country, straight down, so that we could gather supplies at Suringshath. You… have no further word of events at Luthadel, then? There was a senior Keeper in residence there. We were hoping, perhaps, to seek her counsel.”

“Lady Tindwyl?” Elend asked.

The old man perked up. “Yes. You know her?”

“She was an attendant at the king’s court,” Elend said.

“Keeper Tindwyl could be considered our leader now, I think,” the old man said. “We aren’t certain how many traveling Keepers there are, but she is the only known member of the Synod who was out of the city when we were attacked.”

“She was still in Luthadel when I left,” Elend said.

“Then she might live still,” the old man said. “We can hope, I think. I thank you, traveler, for your information. Please, make yourself comfortable in our camp.”

Elend nodded, rising. Spook stood a short distance away, in the mists near a pair of trees. Elend joined him.

The people kept large fires burning in the night, as if to defy the mists. The light did some good in dispelling the mists’ power – and yet the light seemed to accentuate them as well, creating three-dimensional shadows that bewildered the eye. Spook leaned against the scraggly tree trunk, looking around at things Elend couldn’t see. Elend could hear, however, some of what Spook must be inspecting. Crying children. Coughing men. Shuffling livestock.

“It doesn’t look good, does it?” Elend said quietly.

Spook shook his head. “I wish they’d take down all these fires,” he muttered. “The light hurts my eyes.”

Elend glanced to the side. “They aren’t that bright.”

Spook shrugged. “They’re just wasting wood.”

“Forgive them their comfort, for now. They’ll have little enough of it in the weeks to come.” Elend paused, looking over at a passing squad of Terris “soldiers” – a group of men who were obviously stewards. Their posture was excellent, and they walked with a smooth grace, but Elend doubted they knew how to use any weapons beyond a cooking knife.

No, there is no army in Terris to help my people.

“You sent Vin back to gather our allies,” Spook said quietly. “To bring them up to meet with us, perhaps to seek refuge in Terris.”

“I know,” Elend said.

“We can’t gather in Terris, though,” Spook said. “Not with the Inquisitors up there.”

“I know,” Elend said again.

Spook was silent for a moment. “The whole world is falling apart, El,” he finally said. “Terris, Luthadel…”

“Luthadel has not been destroyed,” Elend said, looking sharply at Spook.

“The koloss–”

“Vin will have found a way to stop them,” Elend said. “For all we know, she already found the power at the Well of Ascension. We need to keep going. We can, and will, rebuild whatever was lost. Then we’ll worry about helping Terris.”

Spook paused, then nodded and smiled. Elend was surprised to see how much his confident words seemed to soothe the boy’s concerns. Spook leaned back, eyeing Elend’s still steaming cup of tea, and Elend handed it over with a mumble that he didn’t like heartroot tea. Spook drank happily.

Elend, however, found matters more troubling than he’d admitted. The Deepness returning, ghosts in the mist, and Inquisitors making a play for the Terris Dominance. What else have I been ignoring?

57

“LOOK, WE ALL KNOW WHAT we need to do,” Cett said, pounding the table. “We’ve got our armies here, ready and willing to fight. Now, let’s go get my damn country back!”

“The empress gave us no command to do such a thing,” Janarle said, sipping his tea, completely unfazed by Cett’s lack of decorum. “I, personally, think that we should wait at least until the emperor returns.”

Penrod, the oldest of the men in the room, had enough tact to look sympathetic. “I understand that you are concerned for your people, Lord Cett. But we haven’t even had a week to rebuild Luthadel. It is far too early to be worrying about expanding our influence. We cannot possibly authorize these preparations.”

“Oh, leave off, Penrod,” Cett snapped. “You’re not in charge of us.”

All three men turned to Sazed. He felt very awkward, sitting at the head of the table in Keep Venture’s conference chamber. Aides and attendants, including some of Dockson’s bureaucrats, stood at the perimeter of the sparse room, but only the three rulers – now kings beneath Elend’s imperial rule – sat with Sazed at the table.

“I think that we should not be hasty, Lord Cett,” Sazed said.

“This isn’t haste,” Cett said, pounding the table again. “I just want to order scout and spy reports, so that we can have information we need when we invade!”

“If we do invade,” Janarle said. “If the emperor decides to recover Fadrex City, it won’t happen until this summer, at the very earliest. We have far more pressing concerns. My armies have been away from the Northern Dominance for too long. It is basic political theory that we should stabilize what we have before we move into new territory.”

“Bah!” Cett said, waving an indifferent hand.

“You may send your scouts, Lord Cett,” Sazed said. “But they are to seek information only. They are to engage in no raids, no matter how tempting the opportunity.”

Cett shook a bearded head. “This is why I never bothered to play political games with the rest of the Final Empire. Nothing gets done because everyone is too busy scheming!”

“There is much to be said for subtlety, Lord Cett,” Penrod said. “Patience brings the greater prize.”

“Greater prize?” Cett asked. “What did the Central Dominance earn itself by waiting? You waited right up until the moment that your city fell! If you hadn’t been the ones with the best Mistborn…”

“Best Mistborn, my lord?” Sazed asked quietly. “Did you not see her take command of the koloss? Did you not see her leap across the sky like an arrow in flight? Lady Vin isn’t simply the ‘best Mistborn.’ ”

The group fell silent. I have to keep them focused on her, Sazed thought. Without Vin’s leadership – without the threat of her power – this coalition would dissolve in three heartbeats.

He felt so inadequate. He couldn’t keep the men on-topic, and he couldn’t do much to help them with their various problems. He could just keep reminding them of Vin’s power.

The trouble was, he didn’t really want to. He was feeling something very odd in himself, feelings he usually didn’t have. Disconcern. Apathy. Why did anything that these men talked about matter? Why did anything matter, now that Tindwyl was dead?

He gritted his teeth, trying to force himself to focus.

“Very well,” Cett said, waving a hand. “I’ll send the scouts. Has that food arrived from Urteau yet, Janarle?”

The younger nobleman grew uncomfortable. “We… may have trouble with that, my lord. It seems that an unwholesome element has been rabble-rousing in the city.”

“No wonder you want to send troops back to the Northern Dominance!” Cett accused. “You’re planning to conquer your kingdom back and leave mine to rot!”

“Urteau is much closer than your capital, Cett,” Janarle said, turning back to his tea. “It only makes sense to set me up there before we turn our attention westward.”

“We will let the empress make that decision,” Penrod said. He liked to act the mediator – and by doing so, he made himself seem above the issues. In essence, he put himself in control by putting himself in between the other two.

Not all that different from what Elend tried to do, Sazed thought, with our armies. The boy had more of a sense of political strategy than Tindwyl had ever credited him with.

I shouldn’t think about her, he told himself, closing his eyes. Yet, it was hard not to. Everything Sazed did, everything he thought, seemed wrong because she was gone. Lights seemed dimmer. Motivations were more difficult to reach. He found that he had trouble even wanting to pay attention to the kings, let alone give them direction.

It was foolish, he knew. How long had Tindwyl been back in his life? Only a few months. Long ago, he had resigned himself to the fact that he would never be loved – in general – and that he certainly would never have her love. Not only did he lack manhood, but he was a rebel and a dissident – a man well outside of the Terris orthodoxy.

Surely her love for him had been a miracle. Yet, whom did he thank for that blessing, and whom did he curse for stealing her away? He knew of hundreds of gods. He would hate them all, if he thought it would do any good.

For the sake of his own sanity, he forced himself to get distracted by the kings again.

“Listen,” Penrod was saying, leaning forward, arms on the tabletop. “I think we’re looking at this the wrong way, gentlemen. We shouldn’t be squabbling, we should be happy. We are in a very unique position. In the time since the Lord Ruler’s empire fell, dozens – perhaps hundreds – of men have tried to set themselves up as kings in various ways. The one thing they shared, however, was that they all lacked stability.

“Well, it appears that we are going to be forced to work together. I am starting to see this in a favorable light. I will give my allegiance to the Venture couple – I’ll even live with Elend Venture’s eccentric views of government – if it means that I’ll still be in power ten years from now.”

Cett scratched at his beard for a moment, then nodded. “You make a good point, Penrod. Maybe the first good one I’ve ever heard out of you.”

“But we can’t continue trying to assume that we know what we are to do,” Janarle said. “We need direction. Surviving the next ten years, I suspect, is going to depend heavily on my not ending up dead on the end of that Mistborn girl’s knife.”

“Indeed,” Penrod said, nodding curtly. “Master Terrisman. When can we expect the empress to take command again?”

Once again, all three pairs of eyes turned to Sazed.

I don’t really care, Sazed thought, then immediately felt guilty. Vin was his friend. He did care. Even if it was hard to care about anything for him. He looked down in shame. “Lady Vin is suffering greatly from the effects of an extended pewter drag,” he said. “She pushed herself very hard this last year, and then ended it by running all the way back to Luthadel. She is in great need of rest. I think we should let her be for a time longer.”

The others nodded, and returned to their discussion. Sazed’s mind, however, turned to Vin. He’d understated her malady, and he was beginning to worry. A pewter drag drained the body, and he suspected that she’d been forcing herself to stay awake with the metal for months now.

When a Keeper stored up wakefulness, he slept as if in a coma for a time. He could only hope that the effects of such a terrible pewter drag were the same, for Vin hadn’t awoken a single time since her return a week before. Perhaps she’d awake soon, like a Keeper who came out of sleep.

Perhaps it would last longer. Her koloss army waited outside the city, controlled – apparently – even though she was unconscious. But for how long? Pewter dragging could kill, if the person had pushed themselves too hard.

What would happen to the city if she never woke up?

Ash was falling. A lot of ashfalls lately, Elend thought as he and Spook emerged from the trees and looked out over the Luthadel plain.

“See,” Spook said quietly, pointing. “The city gates are broken.”

Elend frowned. “But the koloss are camped outside the city.” Indeed, Straff’s army camp was also still there, right where it had been.

“Work crews,” Spook said, shading his face against the sunlight to protect his overly sensitive Allomancer’s eyes. “Looks like they’re burying corpses outside the city.”

Elend’s frown deepened. Vin. What happened to her? Is she all right?

He and Spook had cut across country, taking a cue from the Terrismen, to make certain that they didn’t get discovered by patrols from the city. Indeed, this day they’d broken their pattern, traveling a little bit during the day so that they could arrive at Luthadel just before nightfall. The mists would soon be coming, and Elend was fatigued – both from rising early and from walking so long.

More than that, he was tired of not knowing what had happened to Luthadel. “Can you see whose flag is set over the gates?” he asked.

Spook paused, apparently flaring his metals. “Yours,” he finally said, surprised.

Elend smiled. Well, either they managed to save the city somehow, or this is a very elaborate trap to capture me. “Come on,” he said, pointing to a line of refugees who were being allowed back into the city – likely those who had fled before, returning for food now that the danger was past. “We’ll mix with those and make our way in.”

Sazed sighed quietly, shutting the door to his room. The kings were finished with the day’s arguments. Actually, they were starting to get along quite well, considering the fact that they’d all tried to conquer each other just a few weeks before.

Sazed knew he could take no credit for their newfound amiability, however. He had other preoccupations.

I’ve seen many die, in my days, he thought, walking into the room. Kelsier. Jadendwyl. Crenda. People I respected. I never wondered what had happened to their spirits.

He set his candle on the table, the fragile light illuminating a few scattered pages, a pile of strange metal nails taken from koloss bodies, and one manuscript. Sazed sat down at the table, fingers brushing the pages, remembering the days spent with Tindwyl, studying.

Maybe this is why Vin put me in charge, he thought. She knew I’d need something to take my mind off Tindwyl.

And yet, he was finding more and more that he didn’t want to take his mind off her. Which was more potent? The pain of memory, or the pain of forgetting? He was a Keeper – it was his life’s work to remember. Forgetting, even in the name of personal peace, was not something that appealed to him.

He flipped through the manuscript, smiling fondly in the dark chamber. He’d sent a cleaned-up, rewritten version with Vin and Elend to the north. This, however, was the original. The frantically – almost desperately – scribbled manuscript made by two frightened scholars.

As he fingered the pages, the flickering candlelight revealed Tindwyl’s firm, yet beautiful, script. It mixed easily with paragraphs written in Sazed’s own, more reserved hand. At times, a page would alternate between their different hands a dozen different times.

He didn’t realize that he was crying until he blinked, sending loose a tear, which hit the page. He looked down, stunned as the bit of water caused a swirl in the ink.

“What now, Tindwyl?” he whispered. “Why did we do this? You never believed in the Hero of Ages, and I never believed in anything, it appears. What was the point of all this?”

He reached up and dabbed the tear with his sleeve, preserving the page as best he could. Despite his tiredness, he began to read, selecting a random paragraph. He read to remember. To think of days when he hadn’t worried about why they were studying. He had simply been content to do what he enjoyed best, with the person he had come to love most.

We gathered everything we could find on the Hero of Ages and the Deepness, he thought, reading. But so much of it seems contradictory.

He flipped through to a particular section, one that Tindwyl had insisted that they include. It contained the several most blatant self-contradictions, as declared by Tindwyl. He read them over, giving them fair consideration for the first time. This was Tindwyl the scholar – a cautious skeptic. He fingered through the passages, reading her script.

The Hero of Ages will be tall of stature, one read. A man who cannot be ignored by others.

The power must not be taken, read another. Of this, we are certain. It must be held, but not used. It must be released. Tindwyl had found that condition foolish, since other sections talked about the Hero using the power to defeat the Deepness.

All men are selfish, read another. The Hero is a man who can see the needs of all beyond his own desires. “If all men are selfish,” Tindwyl had asked, “then how can the Hero be selfless, as is said in other passages? And, indeed, how can a humble man be expected to conquer the world?”

Sazed shook his head, smiling. At times, her objections had been very well conceived – but at other times, she had just been struggling to offer another opinion, no matter how much of a stretch it required. He ran his fingers across the page again, but paused on the first paragraph.

Tall of stature, it said. That wouldn’t refer to Vin. It hadn’t come from the rubbing, but another book. Tindwyl had included it because the rubbing, the more trustworthy source, said he’d be short. Sazed flipped through the book to the complete transcription of Kwaan’s iron-plate testimony, searching for the passage.

Alendi’s height struck me the first time I saw him, it read. Here was a man who was small of stature, but who seemed to tower over others, a man who demanded respect.

Sazed frowned. Before, he’d argued that there was no contradiction, for one passage could be interpreted as referring to the Hero’s presence or character, rather than just his physical height. Now, however, Sazed paused, really seeing Tindwyl’s objections for the first time.

And something felt wrong to him. He looked back at his book, scanning the contents of the page.

There was a place for me in the lore of the Anticipation, he read. I thought myself the Holy First Witness, the prophet foretold to discover the Hero of Ages. Renouncing Alendi then would have been to renounce my new position, my acceptance, by the others.

Sazed’s frown deepened. He traced the paragraph. Outside, it was growing dark, and a few trails of mist curled around the shutters, creeping into the room before vanishing.

Holy First Witness, he read again. How did I miss that? It’s the same name the people called me, back at the gates. I didn’t recognize it.

“Sazed.”

Sazed jumped, nearly toppling his book to the floor as he turned. Vin stood behind him, a dark shadow in the poorly lit room.

“Lady Vin! You’re up!”

“You shouldn’t have let me sleep so long,” she said.

“We tried to wake you,” he said softly. “You were in a coma.”

She paused.

“Perhaps it is for the best, Lady Vin,” Sazed said. “The fighting is done, and you pushed yourself hard these last few months. It is good for you to get some rest, now that this is over.”

She stepped forward, shaking her head, and Sazed could see that she looked haggard, despite her days of rest. “No, Sazed,” she said. “This is not ‘over.’ Not by far.”

“What do you mean?” Sazed asked, growing concerned.

“I can still hear it in my head,” Vin said, raising a hand to her forehead. “It’s here. In the city.”

“The Well of Ascension?” Sazed asked. “But, Lady Vin, I lied about that. Truly and apologetically, I don’t even know if there is such a thing.”

“Do you believe me to be the Hero of Ages?”

Sazed looked away. “A few days ago, on the field outside the city, I felt certain. But… lately… I don’t seem to know what I believe anymore. The prophecies and stories are a jumble of contradictions.”

“This isn’t about prophecies,” Vin said, walking over to his table and looking at his book. “This is about what needs to be done. I can feel it… pulling me.”

She glanced at the closed window, with the mists curling at the edges. Then, she walked over and threw the shutters open, letting in the cold winter air. Vin stood, closing her eyes and letting the mists wash over her. She wore only a simple shirt and trousers.

“I drew upon it once, Sazed,” she said. “Do you know that? Did I tell you? When I fought the Lord Ruler. I drew power from the mists. That’s how I defeated him.”

Sazed shivered, not just from the cold. From the tone in her voice, and the air of her words. “Lady Vin…” he said, but wasn’t sure how to continue. Drew upon the mists? What did she mean?

“The Well is here,” she repeated, looking out the window, mist curling into the room.

“It can’t be, Lady Vin,” Sazed said. “All of the reports agree. The Well of Ascension was found in the Terris Mountains.”

Vin shook her head. “He changed the world, Sazed.”

He paused, frowning. “What?”

“The Lord Ruler,” she whispered. “He created the Ashmounts. The records say he made the vast deserts around the empire, that he broke the land in order to preserve it. Why should we assume that things look like they did when he first climbed to the Well? He created mountains. Why couldn’t he have flattened them?”

Sazed felt a chill.

“It’s what I would do,” Vin said. “If I knew the power would return, if I wanted to preserve it, I’d hide the Well. I’d let the legends remain, talking about mountains to the north. Then, I would build my city around the Well so that I could keep an eye on it.”

She turned, looking at him. “It’s here. The power waits.”

Sazed opened his mouth to object, but could find nothing. He had no faith. Who was he to argue with such things? As he paused, he heard voices below, from outside.

Voices? he thought. At night? In the mists? Curious, he strained to hear what was being said, but they were too far away. He reached into the bag beside his table. Most of his metalminds were empty; he wore only his copperminds, with their stores of ancient knowledge. Inside the sack, he found a small pouch. It contained the ten rings he had prepared for the siege, but had never used. He pulled it open, took out one of the ten, then tucked the bag into his sash.

With this ring – a tinmind – he could tap hearing. The words below became distinct to him.

“The king! The king has returned!”

Vin leaped out the window.

“I don’t fully understand how she does it either, El,” Ham said, walking with his arm in a sling.

Elend walked through the city streets, people trailing behind him, speaking in excited tones. The crowd was growing larger and larger as people heard that Elend had returned. Spook eyed them uncertainly, but seemed to be enjoying the attention.

“I was out cold for the last part of the battle,” Ham was saying. “Only pewter kept me alive – koloss slaughtered my team, breached the walls of the keep I was defending. I got out, and found Sazed, but my mind was growing muddled by then. I remember falling unconscious outside Keep Hasting. When I woke up, Vin had already taken the city back. I…”

They paused. Vin stood in front of them in the city street. Quiet, dark. In the mists, she almost looked like the spirit Elend had seen earlier.

“Vin?” he asked in the eerie air.

“Elend,” she said, rushing forward, into his arms, and the air of mystery was gone. She shivered as she held him. “I’m sorry. I think I did something bad.”

“Oh?” he asked. “What is that?”

“I made you emperor.”

Elend smiled. “I noticed, and I accept.”

“After all you did to make certain the people had a choice?”

Elend shook his head. “I’m beginning to think my opinions were simplistic. Honorable, but… incomplete. We’ll deal with this. I’m just glad to find that my city is still standing.”

Vin smiled. She looked tired.

“Vin?” he asked. “Are you still pewter-dragging?”

“No,” she said. “This is something else.” She glanced to the side, face thoughtful, as if deciding something.

“Come,” she said.

Sazed watched out the window, a second tinmind enhancing his sight. It was indeed Elend below. Sazed smiled, one of the weights on his soul removed. He turned, intending to go and meet the king.

And then he saw something blowing on the floor in front of him. A scrap of paper. He knelt down, picking it up, noticing his own handwriting on it. Its edges were jagged from having been ripped. He frowned, walking over to his table, opening the book to the page with Kwaan’s narrative. A piece was missing. The same piece as before, the one that had been ripped free that time with Tindwyl. He’d almost forgotten the strange occurrence with the pages all missing the same sentence.

He’d rewritten this page, from his metalmind, after they’d found the torn sheets. Now the same bit had been torn free, the last sentence. Just to make certain, he put it up next to his book. It fit perfectly. Alendi must not reach the Well of Ascension, it read, for he must not be allowed to take the power for himself. It was the exact wording Sazed had in his memory, the exact wording of the rubbing.

Why would Kwaan have worried about this? he thought, sitting down. He says he knew Alendi better than anyone else. In fact, he called Alendi an honorable man on several occasions.

Why would Kwaan be so worried about Alendi taking the power for himself?

Vin walked through the mists. Elend, Ham, and Spook trailed behind her, the crowd dispersed by Elend’s order – though some soldiers did stay close to protect Elend.

Vin continued on, feeling the pulsings, the thumpings, the power that shook her very soul. Why couldn’t the others feel it?

“Vin?” Elend asked. “Where are we going?”

“Kredik Shaw,” she said softly.

“But… why?”

She just shook her head. She knew the truth, now. The Well was in the city. With how strong the pulsings were growing, she might have assumed that their direction would be harder to discern. But that wasn’t the way it was at all. Now that they were loud and full, she found it easier.

Elend glanced back at the others, and she could sense his concern. Up ahead, Kredik Shaw loomed in the night. Spires, like massive spikes, jutted from the ground in an off-balance pattern, reaching accusingly toward the stars above.

“Vin,” Elend said. “The mists are acting… strangely.”

“I know,” she said. “They’re guiding me.”

“No, actually,” Elend said. “They kind of look like they’re pulling away from you.”

Vin shook her head. This felt right. How could she explain? Together, they entered the remnants of the Lord Ruler’s palace.

The Well was here all along, Vin thought, amused. She could feel the pulses vibrating through the building. Why hadn’t she noticed it before?

The pulses were still too weak, then, she realized. The Well wasn’t full yet. Now it is. And it called to her.

She followed the same path as before. The path she’d followed with Kelsier, breaking into Kredik Shaw on a doomful night when she had nearly died. The path she’d followed on her own, the night she had come to kill the Lord Ruler. The tight stone corridors opened into the room shaped like an upside-down bowl. Elend’s lantern glistened against the fine stonework and murals, mostly in black and gray. The stone shack stood in the center of the room, abandoned, enclosed.

“I think we’re finally going to find your atium, Elend,” Vin said, smiling.

“What?” Elend said, his voice echoing in the chamber. “Vin, we searched here. We tried everything.”

“Not enough, apparently,” Vin said, eyeing the small building-within-a-building, but not moving toward it.

This is where I’d put it, she thought. It makes sense. The Lord Ruler would have wanted to keep the Well close so that when the power returned, he’d be able to take it.

But I killed him before that could happen.

The booming came from below. They’d torn up sections of the floor, but had stopped when they’d hit solid rock. There had to be a way down. She walked over, searching through the building-within-a-building, but found nothing. She left, passing her confused friends, frustrated.

Then she tried burning her metals. As always, the blue lines shot up around her, pointing to sources of metal. Elend was wearing several, as was Spook, though Ham was clean. Some of the stonework bore metal inlays, and lines pointed to those.

Everything was as expected. There was nothing…

Vin frowned, stepping to the side. One of the inlays bore a particularly thick line. Too thick, in fact. She frowned, inspecting the line as it – like the others – pointed from her chest directly at the stone wall. This one seemed to be pointing beyond the wall.

What?

She Pulled on it. Nothing happened. So, she Pulled harder, grunting as she was yanked toward the wall. She released the line, glancing about. There were inlays on the floor. Deep ones. Curious, she anchored herself by Pulling on these, then Pulled on the wall again. She thought she felt something budge.

She burned duralumin and Pulled as hard as she could. The explosion of power nearly ripped her apart, but her anchor held, and duralumin-fueled pewter kept her alive. And a section of the wall slid open, stone grinding against stone in the quiet room. Vin gasped, letting go as her metals ran out.

“Lord Ruler!” Spook said. Ham was quicker, however, moving with the speed of pewter and peeking into the opening. Elend stayed at her side, grabbing her arm as she nearly fell.

“I’m fine,” Vin said, downing a vial and restoring her metals. The power of the Well thumped around her. It almost seemed to shake the room.

“There are stairs in here,” Ham said, poking his head back out.

Vin steadied herself and nodded to Elend, and the two of them followed Ham and Spook through the false section of the wall.

But, I must continue with the sparsest of detail, Kwaan’s account read.

Space is limited. The other Worldbringers must have thought themselves humble when they came to me, admitting that they had been wrong about Alendi. Even then, I was beginning to doubt my original declaration. But, I was prideful.

In the end, my pride may have doomed us all. I had never received much attention from my brethren; they thought that my work and my interests were unsuitable to a Worldbringer. The couldn’t see how my studies, which focused on nature instead of religion, benefited the people of the fourteen lands.

As the one who found Alendi, however, I became someone important. Foremost among the Worldbringers. There was a place for me in the lore of the Anticipation – I thought myself the Holy First Witness, the prophet foretold to discover the Hero of Ages. Renouncing Alendi then would have been to renounce my new position, my acceptance, by the others.

And so I did not. But I do so now.

Let it be known that I, Kwaan, Worldbringer of Terris, am a fraud. Alendi was never the Hero of Ages. At best, I have amplified his virtues, creating a hero where there was none. At worst, I fear that I have corrupted all we believe.

Sazed sat at his table, reading from his book.

Something is not right here, he thought. He traced back a few lines, looking at the words “Holy First Witness” again. Why did that line keep bothering him?

He sat back, sighing. Even if the prophecies did speak about the future, they wouldn’t be things to follow or use as guideposts. Tindwyl was right on that count. His own study had proven them to be unreliable and shadowed.

So what was the problem?

It just doesn’t make sense.

But, then again, sometimes religion didn’t make literal sense. Was that the reason, or was that his own bias? His growing frustration with the teachings he had memorized and taught, but which had betrayed him in the end?

It came down to the scrap of paper on his desk. The torn one. Alendi must not be allowed to reach the Well of Ascension…

Someone was standing next to his desk.

Sazed gasped, stumbling back, nearly tripping over his chair. It wasn’t actually a person. It was a shadow – formed, it seemed, from streams of mist. They were very faint, still trailing through the window that Vin had opened, but they made a person. Its head seemed turned toward the table, toward the book. Or… perhaps the scrap of paper.

Sazed felt like running, like scrambling away in fear, but his scholar’s mind dredged something up to fight his terror. Alendi, he thought. The one everyone thought was the Hero of Ages. He said he saw a thing made of mist following him.

Vin claimed to have seen it as well.

“What… do you want?” he asked, trying to remain calm.

The spirit didn’t move.

Could it be… her? he wondered with shock. Many religions claimed that the dead continued to walk the world, just beyond the view of mortals. But this thing was too short to be Tindwyl. Sazed was sure that he would have recognized her, even in such an amorphous form.

Sazed tried to gauge where it was looking. He reached out a hesitant hand, picking up the scrap of paper.

The spirit raised an arm, pointing toward the center of the city. Sazed frowned.

“I don’t understand,” he said.

The spirit pointed more insistently.

“Write down for me what you want me to do.”

It just pointed.

Sazed stood for a long moment in the room with only one candle, then glanced at the open book. The wind flipped its pages, showing his handwriting, then Tindwyl’s, then his again.

Alendi must not be allowed to reach the Well of Ascension. He must not be allowed to take the power for himself.

Perhaps… perhaps Kwaan knew something that nobody else had. Could the power corrupt even the best of people? Could that be why he turned against Alendi, trying to stop him?

The mist spirit pointed again.

If the spirit tore free that sentence, perhaps it was trying to tell me something. But… Vin wouldn’t take the power for herself. She wouldn’t destroy, as the Lord Ruler did, would she?

And if she didn’t have a choice?

Outside, someone screamed. The yell was of pure terror, and it was soon joined by others. A horrible, echoing set of sounds in a dark night.

There wasn’t time to think. Sazed grabbed the candle, spilling wax on the table in his haste, and left the room.

The winding set of stone stairs led downward for quite some time. Vin walked down them, Elend at her side, the thumping sounding loudly in her ears. At the bottom, the stairwell opened into…

A vast chamber. Elend held his lantern high, looking down into a huge stone cavern. Spook was already halfway down the stone steps leading to the floor. Ham was following.

“Lord Ruler…” Elend whispered, standing at Vin’s side. “We’d have never found this without tearing down the entire building!”

“That was probably the idea,” Vin said. “Kredik Shaw isn’t simply a palace, but a capstone. Built to hide something. This. Above, those inlays on the walls hid the cracks of the doorway, and the metal in them obscured the opening mechanism from Allomantic eyes. If I hadn’t had a hint…”

“Hint?” Elend asked, turning to her.

Vin shook her head, nodding to the steps. The two began down them. Below, she heard Spook’s voice ring.

“There’s food down here!” he yelled. “Cans and cans of it!”

Indeed, they found rank upon rank of shelves sitting on the cavern floor, meticulously packed as if set aside in preparation for something important. Vin and Elend reached the cavern floor as Ham chased after Spook, calling for him to slow down. Elend made as if to follow, but Vin grabbed his arm. She was burning iron.

“Strong source of metal that way,” she said, growing eager.

Elend nodded, and they rushed through the cavern, passing shelf after shelf. The Lord Ruler must have prepared these, she thought. But for what purpose?

She didn’t care at the moment. She didn’t really care about the atium either, but Elend’s eagerness to find it was too much to ignore. They rushed up to the end of the cavern, where they found the source of the metal line.

A large metal plaque hung on the wall, like the one Sazed had described finding in the Conventical of Seran. Elend was clearly disappointed when they saw it. Vin, however, stepped forward, looking through tin-enhanced eyes to see what it contained.

“A map?” Elend asked. “That’s the Final Empire.”

Indeed, a map of the empire was carved into the metal. Luthadel was marked at the center. A small circle marked another city nearby.

“Why is Statlin City circled?” Elend asked, frowning.

Vin shook her head. “This isn’t what we came for,” she said. “There.” A tunnel split off from the main cavern. “Come on.”

Sazed ran through the streets, not even certain what he was doing. He followed the mist spirit, which was difficult to trace in the night, as his candle had long since puffed out.

People screamed. Their panicked sounds gave him chills, and he itched to go and see what the problem was. Yet the mist spirit was demanding; it paused to catch his attention if it lost him. It could simply be leading him to his death. And yet… he felt a trust for it that he could not explain.

Allomancy? he thought. Pulling on my emotions?

Before he could consider that further, he stumbled across the first body. It was a skaa man in simple clothing, skin stained with ash. His face was twisted in a grimace of pain, and the ash on the ground was smeared from his thrashings.

Sazed gasped as he pulled to a halt. He knelt, studying the body by the dim light of an open window nearby. This man had not died easily.

It’s… like the killings I was studying, he thought. Months ago, in the village to the south. The man there said that the mists had killed his friend. Caused him to fall to the ground and thrash about.

The spirit appeared in front of Sazed, its posture insistent. Sazed looked up, frowning. “You did this?” he whispered.

The thing shook its head violently, pointing. Kredik Shaw was just ahead. It was the direction Vin and Elend had gone earlier.

Sazed stood. Vin said she thought the Well was still in the city, he thought. The Deepness has come upon us, as its tendrils have been doing in the far reaches of the empire for some time. Killing.

Something greater than we comprehend is going on.

He still couldn’t believe that Vin going to the Well would be dangerous. She had read; she knew Rashek’s story. She wouldn’t take the power for herself. He was confident. But not completely certain. In fact, he was no longer certain what they should do with the Well.

I have to get to her. Stop her, talk to her, prepare her. We can’t rush into something like this. If, indeed, they were going to take the power at the Well, they needed to think about it first and decide what the best course was.

The mist spirit continued to point. Sazed stood and ran forward, ignoring the horror of the screams in the night. He approached the doors of the massive palace structure with its spires and spikes, then dashed inside.

The mist spirit remained behind, in the mists that had birthed it. Sazed lit his candle again with a flint, and waited. The mist spirit did not move forward. Still feeling an urgency, Sazed left it behind, continuing into the depths of the Lord Ruler’s former home. The stone walls were cold and dark, his candle a wan light.

The Well couldn’t be here, he thought. It’s supposed to be in the mountains.

Yet, so much about that time was vague. He was beginning to doubt that he’d ever understood the things he’d studied.

He quickened his step, shading his candle with his hand, knowing where he needed to go. He’d visited the building-within-a-building, the place where the Lord Ruler had once spent his time. Sazed had studied the place after the empire’s fall, chronicling and cataloguing. He stepped into the outer room, and was halfway across it before he noticed the unfamiliar opening in the wall.

A figure stood in doorway, head bowed. Sazed’s candlelight reflected the polished marble walls, the silvery inlayed murals, and the spikes in the man’s eyes.

“Marsh?” Sazed asked, shocked. “Where have you been?”

“What are you doing, Sazed?” Marsh whispered.

“I’m going to Vin,” he said, confused. “She has found the Well, Marsh. We have to get to her, stop her from doing anything with it until we’re sure what it does.”

Marsh remained silent for a short time. “You should not have come here, Terrisman,” he finally said, head still bowed.

“Marsh? What is going on?” Sazed took a step forward, feeling urgent.

“I wish I knew. I wish… I wish I understood.”

“Understood what?” Sazed asked, voice echoing in the domed room.

Marsh stood silently for a moment. Then he looked up, focusing his sightless spikeheads on Sazed.

“I wish I understood why I have to kill you,” he said, then lifted a hand. An Allomantic Push slammed into the metal bracers on Sazed’s arms, throwing him backward, crashing him into the hard stone wall.

“I’m sorry,” Marsh whispered.

58

“LORD RULER!” ELEND WHISPERED, pausing at the edge of the second cavern.

Vin joined him. They had walked in the passage for some time, leaving the storage cavern far behind, walking through a natural stone tunnel. It had ended here, at a second, slightly smaller cavern that was clogged with a thick, dark smoke. It didn’t seep out of the cavern, as it should have, but billowed and churned upon itself.

Vin stepped forward. The smoke didn’t choke her, as she expected. There was something oddly welcoming about it. “Come on,” she said, walking through it across the cavern floor. “I see light up ahead.”

Elend joined her nervously.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Sazed slammed into the wall. He was no Allomancer; he had no pewter to strengthen his body. As he collapsed to the ground, he felt a sharp pain in his side, and knew he had cracked a rib. Or worse.

Marsh strode forward, faintly illuminated by Sazed’s candle, which burned fitfully where Sazed had dropped it.

“Why did you come?” Marsh whispered as Sazed struggled to his knees. “Everything was going so well.” He watched with iron eyes as Sazed slowly crawled away. Then Marsh Pushed again, throwing Sazed to the side.

Sazed skidded across the beautiful white floor, crashing into another wall. His arm snapped, cracking, and his vision shuddered.

Through his pain, he saw Marsh stoop down and pick something up. A small pouch. It had fallen from Sazed’s sash. It was filled with bits of metal; Marsh obviously thought it was a coin pouch.

“I’m sorry,” Marsh said again, then raised a hand and Pushed the bag at Sazed.

The pouch shot across the room and hit Sazed, ripping, the bits of metal inside tearing into Sazed’s flesh. He didn’t have to look down to know how badly he was injured. Oddly, he could no longer feel his pain – but he could feel the blood, warm, on his stomach and legs.

I’m… sorry, too, Sazed thought as the room grew dark, and he fell to his knees. I’ve failed… though I know not at what. I can’t even answer Marsh’s question. I don’t know why I came here.

He felt himself dying. It was an odd experience. His mind was resigned, yet confused, yet frustrated, yet slowly… having… trouble…

Those weren’t coins, a voice seemed to whisper.

The thought rattled in his dying mind.

The bag Marsh shot at you. Those weren’t coins. They were rings, Sazed. Eight of them. You took out two – eyesight and hearing. You left the other ones where they were.

In the pouch, tucked into your sash.

Sazed collapsed, death coming upon him like a cold shadow. And yet, the thought rang true. Ten rings, embedded into his flesh. Touching him. Weight. Speed of body. Sight. Hearing. Touch. Scent. Strength. Speed of mind. Wakefulness.

And health.

He tapped gold. He didn’t have to be wearing the metalmind to use it – he only had to be touching it. His chest stopped burning, and his vision snapped back into focus. His arm straightened, the bones reknitting as he drew upon several days’ worth of health in a brief flash of power. He gasped, his mind recovering from its near death, but the goldmind restored a crisp clarity to his thoughts.

The flesh healed around the metal. Sazed stood, pulling the empty bag from where it stuck from his skin, leaving the rings inside of him. He dropped it to the ground, the wound sealing, draining the last of the power from the goldmind. Marsh stopped at the mouth of the doorway, turning in surprise. Sazed’s arm still throbbed, probably cracked, and his ribs were bruised. Such a short burst of health could only do so much.

But he was alive.

“You have betrayed us, Marsh,” Sazed said. “I did not realize those spikes stole a man’s soul, as well as his eyes.”

“You cannot fight me,” Marsh replied quietly, his voice echoing in the dark room. “You are no warrior.”

Sazed smiled, feeling the small metalminds within him give him power. “Neither, I think, are you.”

I am involved in something that is far over my head, Elend thought as they passed through the strange, smoke-filled cavern. The floor was rough and uneven, and his lantern seemed dim – as if the swirling black smoke were sucking in the light.

Vin walked confidently. No, determinedly. There was a difference. Whatever was at the end of this cavern, she obviously wanted to discover it.

And… what will it be? Elend thought. The Well of Ascension?

The Well was a thing of mythology – something spoken of by obligators when they taught about the Lord Ruler. And yet… he had followed Vin northward, expecting to find it, hadn’t he? Why be so tentative now?

Perhaps because he was finally beginning to accept what was happening. And it worried him. Not because he feared for his life, but because suddenly he didn’t understand the world. Armies he could understand, even if he didn’t know how to defeat them. But a thing like the Well? A thing of gods, a thing beyond the logic of scholars and philosophers?

That was terrifying.

They finally approached the other side of the smoky cavern. Here, there appeared to be a final chamber, one much smaller than the first two. As they stepped into it, Elend noticed something immediately: this room was man-made. Or, at least, it had the feel of something man-made. Stalactites formed pillars through the low-ceilinged room, and they were spaced far too evenly to be random. Yet, at the same time, they looked as if they had grown naturally, and showed no signs of being worked.

The air seemed warmer inside – and, thankfully, they passed out of the smoke as they entered. A low light came from something on the far side of the chamber, though Elend couldn’t distinguish the source. It didn’t look like torchlight. It was the wrong color, and it shimmered rather than flickered.

Vin wrapped an arm around him, staring toward the back of the chamber, suddenly seeming apprehensive.

“Where is that light coming from?” Elend asked, frowning.

“A pool,” Vin said quietly, her eyes far keener than his. “A glowing white pool.”

Elend frowned. But, the two of them didn’t move. Vin seemed hesitant. “What?” he asked.

She pulled against him. “That’s the Well of Ascension. I can feel it inside of my head. Beating.”

Elend forced a smile, feeling a surreal sense of displacement. “That’s what we came for, then.”

“What if I don’t know what to do?” Vin asked quietly. “What if I take the power, but I don’t know how to use it? What if I… become like the Lord Ruler?”

Elend looked down at her, arms wrapped around him, and his fear lessened a bit. He loved her. The situation they faced, it couldn’t easily fit into his logical world. But Vin had never really needed logic. And he didn’t need it either, if he trusted her.

He took her head in his hands, rotating it up to look at him. “Your eyes are beautiful.”

She frowned. “What–”

“And,” Elend continued, “part of the beauty in them comes from your sincerity. You won’t become the Lord Ruler, Vin. You’ll know what to do with that power. I trust you.”

She smiled hesitantly, then nodded. However, she didn’t move forward into the cavern. Instead, she pointed at something over Elend’s shoulder. “What’s that?”

Elend turned, noticing a ledge on the back wall of the small room. It grew straight out of the rock just beside the doorway they had entered. Vin approached the ledge, and Elend followed behind her, noticing the shards that lay upon it.

“It looks like broken pottery,” Elend said. There were several patches of it, and more of it was scattered on the floor beneath the ledge.

Vin picked up a piece, but there didn’t seem to be anything distinctive about it. She looked at Elend, who was fishing through the pottery pieces. “Look at this,” he said, holding up one that hadn’t been broken like the others. It was a disklike piece of fired clay with a single bead of some metal at the center.

“Atium?” she asked.

“It looks like the wrong color,” he said, frowning.

“What is it, then?”

“Maybe we’ll find the answers over there,” Elend said, turning and looking down the rows of pillars toward the light. Vin nodded, and they walked forward.

Marsh immediately tried to Push Sazed away by the metal bracers on his arms. Sazed was ready, however, and he tapped his ring ironmind – drawing forth the weight he had stored within it. His body grew denser, and he felt its weight pulling him down, his fists feeling like balls of iron on the ends of lead arms.

Marsh immediately lurched away, thrown violently backward by his own Push. He slammed into the back wall, a cry of surprise escaping his lips. It echoed in the small, domed room.

Shadows danced in the room as the candle grew weaker. Sazed tapped sight, enhancing his vision, and released iron as he dashed toward the addled Inquisitor. Marsh, however, recovered quickly. He reached out, Pulling an unlit lamp off the wall. It zipped through the air, flying toward Marsh.

Sazed tapped zinc. He felt something like a twisted hybrid of an Allomancer and a Feruchemist, his sources of metal embedded within him. The gold had healed his insides, made him whole, but the rings still remained within his flesh. This was what the Lord Ruler had done, keeping his metalminds inside of him, piercing his flesh so that they would be harder to steal.

That had always seemed morbid to Sazed. Now, he saw how useful it could be. His thoughts sped up, and he quickly saw the trajectory of the lamp. Marsh would be able to use it as a weapon against him. So Sazed tapped steel. Allomancy and Feruchemy had one fundamental difference: Allomancy drew its powers from the metals themselves, and so the amount of power was limited; in Feruchemy, one could compound an attribute many times, drawing out months’ worth of power in a few minutes.

Steel stored physical speed. Sazed zipped across the room, air rushing in his ears as he shot past the open doorway. He snatched the lamp out of the air, then tapped iron hard – increasing his weight manyfold – and tapped pewter to give himself massive strength.

Marsh didn’t have time to react. He was now Pulling on a lamp held in Sazed’s inhumanly strong, inhumanly heavy, hand. Again, Marsh was yanked by his own Allomancy. The Pull threw him across the room, directly toward Sazed.

Sazed turned, slamming the lamp into Marsh’s face. The metal bent in his hand, and the force threw Marsh backward. The Inquisitor hit the marble wall, a spray of blood misting in the air. As Marsh slumped to the ground, Sazed could see that he’d driven one of the eye-spikes back into the front of the skull, crushing the bone around the socket.

Sazed returned his weight to normal, then jumped forward, raising his impromptu weapon again. Marsh, however, threw an arm up and Pushed. Sazed skidded back a few feet before he was able to tap the ironmind again, increasing his weight.

Marsh grunted, his Push forcing him back against the wall. It also, however, kept Sazed at bay. Sazed struggled to step forward, but the pressure of Marsh’s Push – along with his own bulky, weighed-down body – made walking difficult. The two strained for a moment, Pushing against each other in the darkening light. The room’s inlays sparkled, quiet murals watching them, open doorway leading down to the Well just to the side.

“Why, Marsh?” Sazed whispered.

“I don’t know,” Marsh said, his voice coming out in a growl.

With a flash of power, Sazed released his ironmind and instead tapped steel, increasing his speed again. He dropped the lamp, ducking to the side, moving more quickly than Marsh could track. The lamp was forced backward, but then fell to the ground as Marsh let go of his Push, jumping forward, obviously trying to keep from being trapped against the wall.

But Sazed was faster. He spun, raising a hand to try to pull out Marsh’s linchpin spike – the one in between his shoulder blades, pounded down lengthwise into the back. Pulling this one spike would kill an Inquisitor; it was the weakness the Lord Ruler had built into them.

Sazed skidded around Marsh to attack from behind. The spike in Marsh’s right eye protruded several extra inches out the back of his skull, and it dribbled blood.

Sazed’s steelmind ran out.

The rings had never been intended to last long, and his two extreme bursts had drained this one in seconds. He slowed with a dreadful lurch, but his arm was still raised, and he still had the strength of ten men. He could see the bulge of the linchpin spike underneath Marsh’s robe. If he could just–

Marsh spun, then dexterously knocked aside Sazed’s hand. He rammed an elbow into Sazed’s stomach, then brought a backhand up and crashed it into his face.

Sazed fell backward, and his pewtermind ran out, his strength disappearing. He hit the hard steel ground with a grunt of pain, and rolled.

Marsh loomed in the dark room. The candle flickered.

“You were wrong, Sazed,” Marsh said quietly. “Once, I was not a warrior, but that has changed. You spent the last two years teaching, but I spent them killing. Killing so many people…”

Marsh stepped forward, and Sazed coughed, trying to get his bruised body to move. He worried that he’d rebroken his arm. He tapped zinc again, speeding up his thoughts, but that didn’t help his body move. He could only watch – more fully aware of his predicament and unable to do a thing to stop it – as Marsh picked up the fallen lamp.

The candle went out.

Yet, Sazed could still see Marsh’s face. Blood dripped from the crushed socket, making the man’s expression even harder to read. The Inquisitor seemed… sorrowful as he raised the lamp in a clawlike grip, intending to smash it down into Sazed’s face.

Wait, Sazed thought. Where is that light coming from?

A dueling cane smashed against the back of Marsh’s head, shattering and throwing up splinters.

Vin and Elend walked up to the pool. Elend knelt quietly beside it, but Vin just stood. Staring at the glittering waters.

They were gathered in a small depression in the rock, and they looked thick – like metal. A silvery white, glowing liquid metal. The Well was only a few feet across, but its power loomed in her mind.

Vin was so enraptured by the beautiful pool, in fact, that she didn’t notice the mist spirit until Elend’s grip tightened on her arm. She looked up, noticing the spirit standing before them. It seemed to have its head bowed, but as she turned, its shadowy form stood up straighter.

She’d never seen the creature outside of the mist. It still wasn’t completely… whole. Mist puffed from its body, flowing downward, creating its amorphous form. A persistent pattern.

Vin hissed quietly, pulling out a dagger.

“Wait!” Elend said, standing.

She frowned, shooting him a glance.

“I don’t think it’s dangerous, Vin,” he said, stepping away from her, toward the spirit.

“Elend, no!” she said, but he gently shook her free.

“It visited me while you were gone, Vin,” he explained. “It didn’t hurt me. It just… seemed like it wanted me to know something.” He smiled, still wearing his nondescript cloak and traveling clothing, and walked slowly up to the mist spirit. “What is it you want?”

The mist spirit stood immobile for a moment, then it raised its arm. Something flashed, reflecting the pool’s light.

“No!” Vin screamed, dashing forward as the spirit slashed across Elend’s gut. Elend grunted in pain, then stumbled back.

“Elend!” Vin said, scrambling to Elend’s side as he slipped and fell to the ground. The spirit backed away, dripping blood from somewhere within its deceptively incorporeal form. Elend’s blood.

Elend lay, shocked, eyes wide. Vin flared pewter and ripped open the front of his jacket, exposing the wound. The spirit had cut deeply into his stomach, slashing the gut open.

“No… no… no…” Vin said, mind growing numb, Elend’s blood on her hands.

The wound was very bad. Deadly.

Ham dropped the broken cane, one arm still in a sling. The beefy Thug looked incredibly pleased with himself as he stepped over Marsh’s body and reached his good hand toward Sazed.

“Didn’t expect to find you here, Saze,” the Thug said.

Dazed, Sazed took the hand and climbed to his feet. He stumbled over Marsh’s body, somehow distractedly knowing that a simple club to the head wouldn’t be enough to kill the creature. Yet Sazed was too addled to care. He picked up his candle, lit it from Ham’s lantern, then made his way toward the stairs, forcing himself onward.

He had to keep going. He had to get to Vin.

Vin cradled Elend in her arms, her cloak forming a hasty – and dreadfully inadequate – bandage around his torso.

“I love you,” she whispered, tears warm on her cold cheeks. “Elend, I love you. I love you…”

Love wouldn’t be enough. He was trembling, eyes staring upward, barely able to focus. He gasped, and blood bubbled in his spittle.

She turned to the side, numbly realizing where she knelt. The pool glowed beside her, just inches from where Elend had fallen. Some of his blood had dribbled into the pool, though it didn’t mix with the liquid metal.

I can save him, she realized. The power of creation rests just inches from my fingers. This was the place where Rashek had ascended to godhood. The Well of Ascension.

She looked back at Elend, at his dying eyes. He tried to focus on her, but he seemed to be having trouble controlling his muscles. It seemed like… he was trying to smile.

Vin rolled up her coat and put it beneath his head. Then, wearing just her trousers and shirt, she walked up to the pool. She could hear it thumping. As if… calling to her. Calling for her to join with it.

She stepped onto the pool. It resisted her touch, but her foot began to sink, slowly. She stepped forward, moving into the center of the pool, waiting as she sank. Within seconds, the pool was up to her chest, the glowing liquid all around her.

She took a breath, then leaned her head back, looking up as the pool absorbed her, covering her face.

Sazed stumbled down the stairs, candle held in quivering fingers. Ham was calling after him. He passed a confused Spook on the landing below, and ignored the boy’s questions.

However, as he began to make his way down to the cavern floor, he slowed. A small tremor ran through the rock.

Somehow, he knew that he was too late.

The power came upon her suddenly.

She felt the liquid pressing against her, creeping into her body, crawling, forcing its way through the pores and openings in her skin. She opened her mouth to scream, and it rushed in that way too, choking her, gagging her.

With a sudden flare, her earlobe began to hurt. She cried out, pulling her earring free, dropping it into the depths. She pulled off her sash, letting it – and her Allomantic vials – go as well, removing the only metals on her person.

Then she started to burn. She recognized the sensation: it was exactly like the feeling of burning metals in her stomach, except it came from her entire body. Her skin flared, her muscles flamed, and her very bones seemed on fire. She gasped, and realized the metal was gone from her throat.

She was glowing. She felt the power within, as if it were trying to burst back out. It was like the strength she gained by burning pewter, but amazingly more potent. It was a force of incredible capacity. It would have been beyond her ability to understand, but it expanded her mind, forcing her to grow and comprehend what she now possessed.

She could remake the world. She could push back the mists. She could feed millions with the wave of her hand, punish the evil, protect the weak. She was in awe of herself. The cavern was as if translucent around her, and she saw the entire world spreading, a magnificent sphere upon which life could exist only in a small little area at the poles. She could fix that. She could make things better. She could…

She could save Elend.

She glanced down and saw him dying. She immediately understood what was wrong with him. She could fix his damaged skin and sliced organs.

You mustn’t do it, child.

Vin looked up with shock.

You know what you must do, the Voice said, whispering to her. It sounded aged. Kindly.

“I have to save him!” she cried.

You know what you must do.

And she did know. She saw it happen – she saw, as if in a vision, Rashek when he’d taken the power for himself. She saw the disasters he created.

It was all or nothing – like Allomancy, in a way. If she took the power, she would have to burn it away in a few moments. Remaking things as she pleased, but only for a brief time.

Or… she could give it up.

I must defeat the Deepness, the Voice said.

She saw that, too. Outside the palace, in the city, across the land. People in the mists, shaking, falling. Many stayed indoors, thankfully. The traditions of the skaa were still strong within them.

Some were out, however. Those who trusted in Kelsier’s words that the mists could not hurt them. But now the mists could. They had changed, bringing death.

This was the Deepness. Mists that killed. Mists that were slowly covering the entire land. The deaths were sporadic; Vin saw many falling dead, but saw others simply falling sick, and still others going about in the mists as if nothing were wrong.

It will get worse, the Voice said quietly. It will kill and destroy. And, if you try to stop it yourself, you will ruin the world, as Rashek did before you.

“Elend…” she whispered. She turned toward him, bleeding on the floor.

At that moment, she remembered something. Something Sazed had said. You must love him enough to trust his wishes, he had told her. It isn’t love unless you learn to respect him – not what you assume is best, but what he actually wants…

She saw Elend weeping. She saw him focusing on her, and she knew what he wanted. He wanted his people to live. He wanted the world to know peace, and the skaa to be free.

He wanted the Deepness to be defeated. The safety of his people meant more to him than his own life. Far more.

You’ll know what to do, he’d told her just moments before. I trust you…

Vin closed her eyes, and tears rolled down her cheeks. Apparently, gods could cry.

“I love you,” she whispered.

She let the power go. She held the capacity to become a deity in her hands, and she gave it away, releasing it to the waiting void. She gave up Elend.

Because she knew that was what he wanted.

The cavern immediately began to shake. Vin cried out as the flaring power within her was ripped away, soaked up greedily by the void. She screamed, her glow fading, then fell into the now empty pool, head knocking against the rocks.

The cavern continued to shake, dust and chips falling from the ceiling. And then, in a moment of surreal clarity, Vin heard a single, distinct sentence ringing in her mind.

I am FREE!

59

VIN LAY, QUIETLY, WEEPING.

The cavern was still, the tempest over. The thing was gone, and the thumping in her mind was finally quiet. She sniffled, arms around Elend, holding him as he gasped his final few breaths. She’d screamed for help, calling for Ham and Spook, but had gotten no response. They were too far away.

She felt cold. Empty. After holding that much power, then having it ripped from her, she felt like she was nothing. And, once Elend died, she would be.

What would be the point? she thought. Life doesn’t mean anything. I’ve betrayed Elend. I’ve betrayed the world.

She wasn’t certain what had happened, but somehow she’d made a horrible, horrible mistake. The worst part was, she had tried so hard to do what was right, even if it hurt.

Something loomed above her. She looked up at the mist spirit, but couldn’t even really feel rage. She was having trouble feeling anything at the moment.

The spirit raised an arm, pointing.

“It’s over,” she whispered.

It pointed more demandingly.

“I won’t get to them in time,” she said. “Besides, I saw how bad the cut was. Saw it with the power. There’s nothing any of them could do, not even Sazed. So, you should be pleased. You got what you wanted…” She trailed off. Why had the spirit stabbed Elend?

To make me heal him, she thought. To keep me… from releasing the power.

She blinked her eyes. The spirit waved its arm.

Slowly, numbly, she got to her feet. She watched the spirit in a trance as it floated a few steps over and pointed at something on the ground. The room was dark, now that the pool was empty, and was illuminated only by Elend’s lantern. She had to flare tin to see what the spirit was pointing at.

A piece of pottery. The disk Elend had taken from the shelf in the back of the room, and had been holding in his hand. It had broken when he’d collapsed.

The mist spirit pointed urgently. Vin approached and bent over, fingers finding the small nugget of metal that had been at the disk’s center.

“What is it?” she whispered.

The mist spirit turned and drifted back to Elend. Vin walked up quietly.

He was still alive. He seemed to be getting weaker, and was trembling less. Eerily, as he grew closer to death, he actually seemed a bit more in control. He looked at her as she knelt, and she could see his lips moving.

“Vin…” he whispered.

She knelt beside him, looked at the bead of metal, then looked up at the spirit. It stood motionless. She rolled the bead between her fingers, then moved to eat it.

The spirit moved urgently, shaking its hands. Vin paused, and the spirit pointed at Elend.

What? she thought. However, she wasn’t really in a state to think. She held the nugget up to Elend. “Elend,” she whispered, leaning close. “You must swallow this.”

She wasn’t certain if he understood her or not, though he did appear to nod. She placed the bit of metal in his mouth. His lips moved, but he started to choke.

I have to get him something to wash it down, she thought. The only thing she had was one of her metal vials. She reached into the empty well, retrieving her earring and her sash. She pulled free a vial, then poured the liquid into his mouth.

Elend continued to cough weakly, but the liquid did its work well, washing down the bead of metal. Vin knelt, feeling so powerless, a depressing contrast to how she had been just moments before. Elend closed his eyes.

Then, oddly, the color seemed to return to his cheeks. Vin knelt, confused, watching him. The look on his face, the way he lay, the color of his skin…

She burned bronze, and with shock, felt pulses coming from Elend.

He was burning pewter.