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With growing nervousness, he held the rubbing up and slapped it against the steel plate on the wall

And the two did not match

Sazed stepped back, uncertain what to think now that his suspicions had been confirers, and his eyes found the sentence at the end of the plate The last sentence, the one that the inal one on the steel plate was different from the one Sazed had written and studied

Alendi must not reach the Well of Ascension, Kwaan's ancient words read, for hethat is imprisoned there

Sazed sat down quietly It was all a lie, he thought nu the Keepers spentto understand, was a lie The so-called prophecies, the Hero of Agesa fabrication

A trick

What better way for such a creature to gain freedom? Men would die in the name of prophecies They wanted to believe, to hope If soy, twist it, what as could be acco the words on the wall, reading the second half once again It contained paragraphs that were different fro had been changed so had wished Sazed to read I write these words in steel, Kwaan's first words said, for anything not set in metal cannot be trusted

Sazed shook his head They should have paid attention to that sentence Everything he had studied after that had, apparently, been a lie He looked up at the plate, scanning its contents, co to the final section

And so, they read, I coin this frozen cave, I ah I believed in Alendi at first, I later becans, true But, well, how can I explain this?

Could it be that he fit theus foretold, of proreatest prophets of old Of course the Hero of Ages will fit the prophecies He will fit them perfectly That's the idea

And yetso about all this seems so convenient It feels almost as if we constructed a hero to fit our prophecies, rather than allowing one to arise naturally This was the worry I had, the thing that should have givento believe

After that, I began to see other problems Some of you may know of my fabled memory It is true; I need not a Feruchemist's metalmind to memorize a sheet of words in an instant And I tell you, call

The alterations are slight Clever, even A word here, a slight twist there But the words on the pages are different froers scoff at me, for they have their metalminds to prove to theed

And so, this is the great declaration I --soes has come, and that hethe prophecies change so that they refer to Alendi more perfectly

And whatever this power is, it can change words within a Feruchemist's metalmind

The others call me mad As I have said, that may be true But must not even a madman rely on his own mind, his own experience, rather than that of others? I knohat I have ers The two are not the saes, a manipulation subtle and brilliant I have spent the last two years in exile, trying to decipher what the alterations couldhas taken control of our religion, so that cannot be trusted Ithi him toward the Well of Ascension, where the uess that it sent the Deepness as aus to do as it wills

The prophecies have changed They now tell Alendi that he ive up the power once he takes it This is not as once iue And yet, the new version seems to make it a moral imperative The texts now outline a terrible consequence if the Hero of Ages takes the power for hioodman In truth, all of his actions--all of the deaths, destructions, and pains that he has caused--have hurt his were, in truth, a kind of sacrifice for hiood, as he sees it

I have no doubt that if Alendi reaches the Well of Ascension, he will take the power and then--in the naive it up Give it away to this saed the texts Give it up to this force of destruction that has brought him to war, that has tempted him to kill, that has craftily led hi wants the power held in the Well, and it has raped our religion's holiest tenets in order to get it

And so, I have s, my objections, and even my treasons were all ineffectual Alendi has other counselors now, ones who tell hi nephew, one Rashek He hates all of Khlennium with the passion of envious youth He hates Alendi even h the two have never met--for Rashek feels betrayed that one of our oppressors should have been chosen as the Hero of Ages

Alendi will need guides through the Terris Mountains I have charged Rashek withcertain that he and his trusted friends are chosen as those guides Rashek is to try and lead Alendi in the wrong direction, to dissuade hie 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 hethat 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 ain

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 lookedharder than he had just a feeeks before

"You're awake," she said,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 ti power of his newfound Alloeons 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 battle voice I am FREE