Part 70 (1/2)

Like me, Elend thought, smiling wryly. Elend thought, smiling wryly.

”The mists are gone,” Yomen said.

Elend nodded. ”Both day and night.”

”The skaa fled inside when the mists vanished. Some still refuse to leave their homes. For centuries, they feared being out at night because of the mists. Now the mists disappear, and they find it so unnatural that they hide again.”

Elend turned away, looking back out. The mists were gone, but the ash still fell. And it fell hard. The corpses that had fallen during the night hours were nearly buried.

”Has the sun always been this hot?” Yomen asked, wiping his brow.

Elend frowned, noticing for the first time that it did did seem hot. It was still early morning, yet it already felt like noon. seem hot. It was still early morning, yet it already felt like noon.

Something is still wrong, he thought. he thought. Very wrong. Worse, even. Very wrong. Worse, even. The ash choked the air, blowing in the breeze, coating everything. And the heat . . . shouldn't it have been getting The ash choked the air, blowing in the breeze, coating everything. And the heat . . . shouldn't it have been getting colder colder as more ash flew into the air, blocking the sunlight? ”Form crews, Yomen,” Elend said. ”Have them pick through the bodies and search for wounded among that mess down there. Then, gather the people and begin moving them into the storage cavern. Tell the soldiers to be ready for . . . for something. I don't know what.” as more ash flew into the air, blocking the sunlight? ”Form crews, Yomen,” Elend said. ”Have them pick through the bodies and search for wounded among that mess down there. Then, gather the people and begin moving them into the storage cavern. Tell the soldiers to be ready for . . . for something. I don't know what.”

Yomen frowned. ”You sound as if you're not going to be here to help me.”

Elend turned eastward. ”I won't be.”

Vin was still out there somewhere. He didn't understand why she had said what she had about the atium, but he trusted her. Perhaps she had intended to distract Ruin with lies. Elend suspected that somehow, the people of Fadrex owed her their lives. She'd drawn the koloss away-she'd figured something out, something that he couldn't even guess at.

She always complains that she's not a scholar, he thought, smiling to himself. he thought, smiling to himself. But that's just because she lacks education. She's twice as quick-witted as half the ”geniuses” I knew during my days at court. But that's just because she lacks education. She's twice as quick-witted as half the ”geniuses” I knew during my days at court.

He couldn't leave her alone. He needed to find her. Then . . . well, he didn't know what they'd do next. Find Sazed, perhaps? Either way, Elend could do no more in Fadrex. He moved to walk down the steps, intending to find Ham and Cett. However, Yomen caught his shoulder.

Elend turned.

”I was wrong about you, Venture,” Yomen said. ”The things I said were undeserved.”

”You let me into your city when my men were surrounded by their own koloss,” Elend said. ”I don't care what what you said about me. You're a good man in my estimation.” you said about me. You're a good man in my estimation.”

”You're wrong about the Lord Ruler, though,” Yomen said. ”He's guiding this all.”

Elend just smiled.

”It doesn't bother me that you don't believe,” Yomen said, reaching up to his forehead. ”I've learned something. The Lord Ruler uses unbelievers as well as believers. We're all part of his plan. Here.”

Yomen pulled the bead of atium free from its place at his brow. ”My last bead. In case you need it.”

Elend accepted the bit of metal, rolling it over in his fingers. He'd never burned atium. For years, his family had overseen its mining-but, by the time Elend himself had become Mistborn, he'd already either spent what he'd been able to obtain, or had given it to Vin to be burned.

”How did you do it, Yomen?” he asked. ”How did you make it seem you were an Allomancer?”

”I am am an Allomancer, Venture.” an Allomancer, Venture.”

”Not a Mistborn,” Elend said.

”No,” Yomen said. ”A Seer-an atium Misting.”

Elend nodded. He'd a.s.sumed that was impossible, but it was hard to rely on a.s.sumptions about anything anything anymore. ”The Lord Ruler knew about your power?” anymore. ”The Lord Ruler knew about your power?”

Yomen smiled. ”Some secrets, he worked very hard to guard.”

Atium Mistings, Elend thought. Elend thought. That means there are others too . . . gold Mistings, electrum Mistings That means there are others too . . . gold Mistings, electrum Mistings . . . Though, as he thought about it, some-like aluminum Mistings or duralumin Mistings-would be impossible to find because they couldn't use their metals without being able to burn other metals. . . . Though, as he thought about it, some-like aluminum Mistings or duralumin Mistings-would be impossible to find because they couldn't use their metals without being able to burn other metals.

”Atium was too valuable to use in testing people for Allomantic powers anyway,” Yomen said, turning away. ”I never really found the power all that useful. How often does one have both atium and the desire to use it up in a few heartbeats? Take that bit and go find your wife.”

Elend stood for a moment, then tucked the bead of atium away and went down to give Ham some instructions. A few minutes later, he was streaking across the landscape, doing his best to fly with the horseshoes as Vin had taught him.

Each Hemalurgic spike driven through a person's body gave Ruin some small ability to influence them. This was mitigated, however, by the mental fort.i.tude of the one being controlled.

In most cases-depending on the size of the spike and the length of time it had been worn-a single spike gave Ruin only minimal powers over a person. He could appear to them, and could warp their thoughts slightly, making them overlook certain oddities-for instance, their compulsion for keeping and wearing a simple earring.

75.

SAZED GATHERED HIS NOTES, carefully stacking the thin sheets of metal. Though the metal served an important function in keeping Ruin from modifying-or perhaps even reading-their contents, Sazed found them a bit frustrating. The plates were easily scratched, and they couldn't be folded or bound. carefully stacking the thin sheets of metal. Though the metal served an important function in keeping Ruin from modifying-or perhaps even reading-their contents, Sazed found them a bit frustrating. The plates were easily scratched, and they couldn't be folded or bound.

The kandra elders had given him a place to stay, and it was surprisingly lush for a cave. Kandra apparently enjoyed human comforts-blankets, cus.h.i.+ons, mattresses. Some even preferred to wear clothing, though those who didn't declined to create genitals for their True Bodies. That left him wondering about scholarly sorts of questions. They reproduced by transforming mistwraiths into kandra, so genitals would be redundant. Yet, the kandra identified themselves by gender-each was definitely a ”he” or a ”she.” So, how did they know? Did they choose arbitrarily, or did they actually know what they would have been, had they been born human rather than as a mistwraith?

He wished he had more time to study their society. So far, everything he'd done in the Homeland had been focused on learning more of the Hero of Ages and the Terris religion. He'd made a sheet of notes about what he'd discovered, and it sat at the top of his metallic stack. It looked surprisingly, even depressingly, similar to any number of sheets in his portfolio.

The Terris religion, as one might have expected, focused heavily on knowledge and scholars.h.i.+p. The Worldbringers-their word for Keepers-were holy men and women who imparted knowledge, but also wrote of their G.o.d, Terr. It was the ancient Terris word for ”to preserve.” A central focus of the religion had been the histories of how Preservation-or Terr-and Ruin had interacted, and these included various prophecies about the Hero of Ages, who was seen as a successor to Preservation.

Aside from the prophecies, however, the Worldbringers had taught temperance, faith, and understanding to their people. They had taught that it was better to build than to destroy, a principle at the core of their teachings. Of course there had been rituals, rites, initiations, and traditions. There were also lesser religious leaders, required offerings, and codes of conduct. It all seemed good, but hardly original. Even the focus on scholars.h.i.+p was something shared by several dozen other religions Sazed had studied.

That, for some reason, depressed him. It was just another religion.

What had he expected? Some astounding doctrine that would prove to him once and for all that there was a G.o.d? He felt like a fool. Yet, he also felt betrayed. This was what he'd ridden across the empire, feeling elated and antic.i.p.atory, to discover? This was what he'd expected to save them? These were just more words. Pleasant ones, like most in his portfolio, but hardly compelling. Was he supposed to believe just because it was the religion his people had followed?

There were no promises here that Tindwyl still lived. Why was it that people had followed this, or any, of the religions? Frustrated, Sazed dipped into his metalminds, dumping a group of accounts into his mind. Writings the Keepers had discovered-journals, letters, other sources from which scholars had pieced together what had once been believed. He looked through them, thought of them, read them.

What had made these people so willing to accept their religions? Were they simply products of their society, believing because it was tradition? He read of their lives, and tried to persuade himself that the people were simpletons, that they hadn't ever truly questioned their beliefs. Surely they would have seen the flaws and inconsistencies if they'd just taken the time to be rational and discerning.

Sazed sat with closed eyes, a wealth of information from journals and letters in his mind, searching for what he expected to find. However, as the time pa.s.sed, he did not discover what he sought. The people did not seem like fools to him. As he sat, something began to occur to him. Something about the words, the feelings, of the people who had believed.

Before, Sazed had looked at the doctrines themselves. This time, he found himself studying the people who had believed, or what he could find of them. As he read their words over again in his mind, he began to see something. The faiths he had looked at, they couldn't be divorced from the people who had adhered to them. In the abstract, those religions were stale. However, as he read the words of the people-really read read them-he began to see patterns. them-he began to see patterns.

Why did they believe? Because they saw miracles. Things one man took as chance, a man of faith took as a sign. A loved one recovering from disease, a fortunate business deal, a chance meeting with a long lost friend. It wasn't the grand doctrines or the sweeping ideals that seemed to make believers out of men. It was the simple magic in the world around them.

What was it Spook said? Sazed thought, sitting in the shadowy kandra cavern. Sazed thought, sitting in the shadowy kandra cavern. That faith was about trust. Trusting that somebody was watching. That somebody would make it all right in the end, even though things looked terrible at the moment That faith was about trust. Trusting that somebody was watching. That somebody would make it all right in the end, even though things looked terrible at the moment.

To believe, it seemed, one had to want want to believe. It was a conundrum, one Sazed had wrestled with. He wanted someone, something, to force him to have faith. He wanted to have to believe because of the proof shown to him. to believe. It was a conundrum, one Sazed had wrestled with. He wanted someone, something, to force him to have faith. He wanted to have to believe because of the proof shown to him.

Yet, the believers whose words now filled his mind would have said he already had proof. Had he not, in his moment of despair, received an answer? As he had been about to give up, TenSoon had spoken. Sazed had begged for a sign, and received it.