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"You're storing quite a large nu at his fingers again "Surely you have other metalminds prepared from before?"

"I used all ofmy way to Luthadel," Sazed said "And I have no health stored at all--I used up the last of it overco in the South I always intended to fill another one, but we've been too busy I do have soood selection of tinminds Still, one can never be too well prepared, I think"

"Perhaps," Tindwyl said She glanced back at the group around the table "If it gives us so to do other than think about the inevitable, then preparation has not been wasted, I think"

Sazed felt a chill "Tindwyl," he said quietly "Why did you stay? There is no place for you here"

"There is no place for you either, Sazed"

"These are my friends," he said "I will not leave them"

"Then why did you convince their leaders to leave?"

"To flee and live," Sazed said

"Survival is not a luxury often afforded to leaders," Tindwyl said "When they accept the devotion of others, they must accept the responsibility that comes with it This people will die--but they need not die feeling betrayed"

"They were not--"

"They expect to be saved, Sazed," Tindwyl hissed quietly "Even those men over there--even Dockson, the most practical one in this bunch--think that they'll survive And do you knohy? Because, deep down, they believe that so that saved them before, the only piece of the Survivor they have left She represents hope to them now And you sent her away"

"To live, Tindwyl," Sazed repeated "It would have been a waste to lose Vin and Elend here"

"Hope is never wasted," Tindwyl said, eyes flashing "I thought you of all people would understand that You think it was stubbornness that kept me alive all those years in the hands of the Breeders?"

"And is it stubbornness or hope that kept you here, in the city?" he asked

She looked up at hi moment in the shadowed alcove Planners talked in the ballrooht fro slivers of illumination across the walls Slowly, aardly, Sazed put his ar him hold her

He released his tinminds and let his senses return in a flood

Softness from her skin and warmth from her body washed across hiainst his chest The scent of her hair--unperfu he'd smelled in three days With a clumsy hand, Sazed pulled free his spectacles so he could see her clearly As sounds returned fully to his ears, he could hear Tindwyl breathing beside him

"Do you knohy I love you, Sazed?" she asked quietly

"I cannot fathoive in," she said "Other , but if you pound on the like the wind Always there, so willing to bend, but never apologetic for the times when you must be firm I don't think any of your friends understand what a power they had in you"

Had, he thought She already thinks of all this in the past tense Andit feels right for her to do so "I fear that whatever I have won't be enough to save theh to save three of the to send theht, too"

Sazed just closed his eyes and held her, cursing her for staying, yet loving her for it all the saan to beat

And so, I have amble

51

THE MISTY RED LIGHT OFthat should not have existed Mist died before daylight Heatit inside of a closed room made it condense and disappear It shouldn't have been able to withstand the light of the rising sun

Yet it did The farther they'd gotten fros The change was slight--they were still only a few days' ride fro, the er than she'd anticipated--they didn't even weaken as the sun caht Deepness She was increasingly sure that she was right about it, though she couldn't know for certain Still, it felt right to her for some reason The Deepness hadn't been some monster or tyrant, but a forceA creature could be killed TheThe Deepness wouldn't oppress with priests, but use the people's own superstitious terror It wouldn't slaughter with arht so that couldn't feel anger, pain, hope, or mercy?

Yet, it was Vin's task to do just that She sat quietly on a large boulder beside the night's firepit, her legs up, knees to her chest Elend still slept; Spook was out scouting