Page 218 of The Well of Ascension
Instead, he pulled Vin close, her shoulder up against his chest, head beneath his chin. “I wish I knew the right things to say, Vin,” he whispered. “Seeing you like this makes every protective instinct inside of me twist. I want to make it better—I want to fix everything—but I don’t know how. Tell me what to do. Just tell me how I can help!”
She resisted his embrace a little at first, but then sighed quietly and slid her arms around him, holding him tightly. “You can’t help with this,” she said softly. “I have to do it alone. There are…decisions I have to make.”
He nodded. “You’ll make the right ones, Vin.”
“You don’t even know what I’m deciding.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “I know I can’t help—I couldn’t even hold on to my own throne. You’re ten times as capable as I am.”
She squeezed his arm. “Don’t say things like that.
Please?”
He frowned at the tension in her voice, then nodded. “All right. But, either way, I trust you, Vin. Make your decisions—I’ll support you.”
She nodded, relaxing a bit beneath his arms. “I think…” she said. “I think I have to leave Luthadel.”
“Leave? And go where?”
“North,” she said. “To Terris.”
Elend sat back, resting against the wooden wall.Leave?he thought with a twisting feeling.Is this what I’ve earned by being so distracted lately?
Have I lost her?
And yet, he’d just told her that he’d support her decisions. “If you feel you have to go, Vin,” he found himself saying, “then you should do so.”
“If I were to leave, would you go with me?”
“Now?”
Vin nodded, head rubbing his chest.
“No,” he finally said. “I couldn’t leave Luthadel, not with those armies still out there.”
“But the city rejected you.”
“I know,” he said, sighing. “But…I can’t leave them, Vin. They rejected me, but I won’t abandon them.”
Vin nodded again, and something told him this was the answer she had expected.
Elend smiled. “We’re a mess, aren’t we?”
“Hopeless,” she said softly, sighing as she finally pulled away from him. She seemed so tired. Outside the room, Elend could hear footsteps. OreSeur appeared a moment later, poking his head into the hidden chamber.
“Your guards are growing restless, Your Majesty,” he said to Elend. “They will soon come looking for you.”
Elend nodded, shuffling over to the exit. Once in the hallway, he offered a hand to help Vin out. She took the hand, crawling out, then stood and dusted off her clothing—her typical shirt and trousers.
Will she ever go back to dresses now?he wondered.
“Elend,” she said, fishing in a pocket. “Here, you can spend this, if you want.”
She opened up her hand, dropping a bead into his hand.
“Atium?” he asked incredulously. “Where did you get it?”
“From a friend,” she said.
