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You have dooht before Vin had thrust the spear through his heart He'd known Even then--before the un hearing the strange thus that led her to the Well of Ascension--even then, she'd worried

Be careful what you speakonly your thoughts are safe

I have to figure this out I have to connect e have, find the way to defeat--or outwit--this thing that I've loosed

And I can't talk this over with anyone, or it will knohat I'

Rashek soon found a balance in the changes he made to the world--which was fortunate, for his power burned away quite quickly Though the power he held seemed ihiion Perhaps he understood ive him credit for

Either e had hiren rather than green, and where people could survive in an environular basis

6

I'M TOO WEAK, Marsh thought

Lucidity came upon hi hiht on in the drea behind his actions

He continued to walk through the koloss camp Ruin still controlled hiainst Marsh's mind--when it didn't focus on hihts returned

I can't fight it, he thought Ruin couldn't read his thoughts, of that he was fairly confident And yet, Marsh couldn't fig1ht or struggle in any way When he did, Ruin iain This had been proven to Marsh a dozen tier, perhaps halt a step, but that was the best he could do

It was depressing However, Marsh had always considered himself to be a practical e the truth He was never going to gain enough control over his body to kill hih the camp Did it ever stop these days? He alo of his mind When his mind was his own, Marsh saw only pain and destruction When Ruin controlled hi of beauty, the red sun a marvelous triumph, the world a place of sweetness in its death

Madness, Marsh thought, approaching the center of cao mad Then I won't have to deal with all of this

Other Inquisitors joined hi with quiet swishes of their robes They didn't speak They never spoke--Ruin controlled them all, so why bother with conversation? Marsh's brethren had the normal spikes in their heads, driven into the skull Yet, he could also see telltale signs of the new spikes, jutting from their chests and backs Marsh had placedthe Terrismen that had either been captured in the north or tracked down across the land

Marsh himself had a new set of spikes, soh the chest They were a beautiful thing He didn't understand why, but they excited hih death, and that was pleasant enough--but there was more He knew, somehow, that the Inquisitors had been incomplete--the Lord Ruler had withheld some abilities to make the Inquisitors more dependent upon him To make certain they couldn't threaten him But nohat he'd kept back had been provided

What a beautiful world, Marsh thought, looking up into the falling ash, feeling the light, co flakes upon his skin

I speak of us as "we" The group Those of us ere trying to discover and defeat Ruin Perhaps hts are now tainted, but I like to look back and see the suh ere all involved in different processes and plans

We were one That didn't stop the world fro

7

THEY GAVE HIM BONES

TenSoon flowed around theans, sinew, and skin He built a body around the bones, using skills gained over centuries spent eating and digesting humans Corpses only, of course--he had never killed a s

After a year in his pit of a prison, he felt as if he had forgotten how to use a body What was it like to touch the world with rigid digits, rather than a body that flowed against the confines of stone? What was it like to taste and sue and nostrils, rather than with every bit of skin exposed to the air What was it like to

To see He opened his eyes and gasped, drawing first breath into re of wonder and oflight He had forgotten that, during the months of neardown at his ar his face1 with a tentative hand

His body wasn't that of any specific person--he would have needed a model to produce such a replica Instead, he had covered the bones with h that he kne to create a reasonable approxiht even be a little grotesque That, however, was ain