Page 303 of The Well of Ascension
Alendi will need guides through the Terris Mountains. I have charged Rashek with making certain that he and his trusted friends are chosen as those guides. Rashek is to try and lead Alendi in the wrong direction, to dissuade him, discourage him, or otherwise foil his quest. Alendi doesn’t know that he has been deceived, that we’ve all been deceived, and he will not listen to me now.
If Rashek fails to lead the trek astray, then I have instructed the lad to kill Alendi. It is a distant hope. Alendi has survived assassins, wars, and catastrophes. And yet, I hope that in the frozen mountains of Terris, he may finally be exposed. I hope for a miracle.
Alendi must not reach the Well of Ascension, for he must not be allowed to release the thing that is imprisoned there.
Sazed sat back. It was the final blow, the last strike that killed whatever was left of his faith.
He knew at that moment that he would never believe again.
Vin found Elend standing on the city wall, looking over the city of Luthadel. He wore a white uniform, one of the ones that Tindwyl had made for him. He looked…harder than he had just a few weeks before.
“You’re awake,” she said, moving up beside him.
He nodded. He didn’t look at her, but continued to watch the city, with its bustling people. He’d spent quite a bit of time delirious and in bed, despite the healing power of his newfound Allomancy. Even with pewter, the surgeons had been uncertain if he’d survive.
He had. And, like a true Allomancer, he was up and about the first day he was lucid.
“What happened?” he asked.
She shook her head, leaning against the stones of the battlement. She could still hear that terrible, booming voice.I am FREE….
“I’m an Allomancer,” Elend said.
She nodded.
“Mistborn, apparently,” he continued.
“I think…we know where they came from, now,” Vin said. “The first Allomancers.”
“What happened to the power? Ham didn’t have a straight answer for me, and all anyone else knows are rumors.”
“I set something free,” she whispered. “Something that shouldn’t have been released; something that led me to the Well. I should never have gone looking for it, Elend.”
Elend stood in silence, still regarding the city.
She turned, burying her head in his chest. “It was terrible,” she said. “I could feel that. And I set it free.”
Finally, Elend wrapped his arms around her. “You did the best you could, Vin,” he said. “In fact, you did the right thing. How could you have known that everything you’d been told, trained, and prepared to do was wrong?”
Vin shook her head. “I am worse than the Lord Ruler. In the end, maybe he realized he was being tricked, and knew he had to take the power rather than release it.”
“If he’d been a good man, Vin,” Elend said, “he wouldn’t have done the things he did to this land.”
“I may have done far worse,” Vin said. “This thing I released…the mists killing people, and coming during the day…Elend, what are we going to do?”
He looked at her for a moment, then turned back toward the city and its people. “We’re going to do what Kelsier taught us, Vin. We’re going to survive.”
THE END OF BOOK TWO
