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"Why, yes," Breeze said "While I do happen to like black as a color for suits, I otherwise find it a somewhat uninspired hue"

"What else would the ash be?"

Breeze shrugged "Well, Vin says that there's soht? Some evil force of doom or whatever? Well, if I were said force of doom, then I certainly wouldn't have used my powers to turn the land black It just lacks flair Red Now, that would be an interesting color Think of the possibilities--if the ash were red, the rivers would run like blood Black is so et about it, but red--you'd always be thinking, 'Why, look at that That hill is red That evil force of doo to destroy me certainly has style' "

"I'm not convinced there is any 'evil force of doom,' Breeze," Sazed said

"Oh?"

Sazed shook his head "The ashmounts have always spewed out ash Is it really that much of a stretch to assume that they have become more active than before? Perhaps this is all the result of natural processes"

"And the e, Lord Breeze," Sazed said "Perhaps it was si the day for thecolder, and so the er"

"Oh? And if that were the case,the day in the winters? It was colder then than the summer, but the rew silent Breeze ion off of his list, he wonderedan enemy in this "force" Vin had felt He didn't know anymore He didn't believe for a moment that she would have fabricated her stories Yet, if there were no truth in the religions, was it toobecause it was time?

"Green," Breeze finally said

Sazed turned

"Now, that would be a color with style," Breeze said "Different You can't see green and forget about it--not like you can black or brown Wasn't Kelsier alway1s talking about plants being green, once? Before the Ascension of the Lord Ruler, before the first time the Deepness came upon the land?"

"That's what the histories claihtfully "Style indeed," he said "It would be pretty, I think"

"Oh?" Sazed asked, genuinely surprised "Most people horeen plants rather odd"

"I thought that once, but now, after seeing black all day, every dayWell, I think a little variety would be nice Fields of greenlittle specks of colorwhat did Kelsier call those?"

"Flowers," Sazed said The Larsta had written poems about them

"Yes," Breeze said "It will be nice when those return"

"Return?"

Breeze shrugged "Well, the Church of the Survivor teaches that Vin will soure while she's at it, sheback the plants and the flowers See to do, for so his head "Lord Breeze," he said, "I realize that you are siethat you accept the teachings of the Church of the Survivor"

Breeze hesitated Then, he smiled "So I overdid it a bit, did I?"

"A tad"

"It's difficult to tell with you, my dear man You're so aware of my touch on your emotions that I can't use much Allomancy, and you've been sowell, different lately" Breeze's voice greistful "Still, it would be nice to see those green plants our Kelsier always spoke of After six months of ashwell, it h for an old hypocrite like me"

The sense of despair inside Sazed wanted to snap that siotten hie the fact that the plants were dying and the world was ending

It wasn't worth fighting, because nothing

Sazed forced hiht, but it was difficult He worried, sometimes, about his melancholy Unfortunately,even the effort to care about his own pessimistic bent

The Larsta, he told hiion You need to make a decision

Breeze's co The Larsta focused so"divine" Well, if divinity was in any way related to art, then a god couldn't in any way be involved in as happening to the world The ash, the disinative," as Breeze had put it It was coion not true, Sazed wrote at the bottos are directly contradicted by observed events