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In those days, an Allomancer didn't need duralumin to take control of a kandra or koloss A sih In fact, this ability was one of the main reasons that the kandra devised their Contracts with the humans--for, at that time, not only Mistborn, but Soothers and Rioters could take control of them at the merest of whims

21

DEMOUX SURVIVED

He was one of the larger group, the fifteen percent who grew sick, but did not die Vin sat atop the cabin of her narrowboat, ar her --which, as always, she wore in her ear Koloss brutes trudged along the towpath, dragging the barges and boats down the canal Many of the barges still carried supplies--tents, foodstuffs, pure water Several had been emptied, however, their contents carried on the backs of the surviving soldiers,rooes, looking toward the front of the narrowboat Elend stood at the prow, as usual, staring west He did not brood He looked like a king, standing straight-backed, staring deteroal He looked so different now froer hair, his unifor worn Not raggedthey were still clean and sharp, as white as things could get in the current state of the world They were just no longer new They were the uniforht

Vin knew hih to sense that all was not well However, she also knew hih to sense that he didn't want to talk about it for thepewter unconsciously to heighten her balance She slid a book off a bench beside the boat's edge, and settled down quietly Elend would talk to her eventually--he always did For the e her

She opened the book to the raph The Deepness must be destroyed, the words said I have seen it, and I have felt it This naive it is too weak a word, I think Yes, it is deep and unfathomable, but it is also terrible Many do not realize that it is sentient, but I have sensed its mind, such as it is, the few times I have confronted it directly

She eyed the page for aback on her bench Beside her, the canal waters passed, covered with a froth of floating ash

The book was Alendi's logbook It had been written a thousand years before by a es Alendi hadn't completed his quest; he had been killed by one of his servants--Rashek--who had then taken the power at the Well of Ascension and becoly close to Vin's own She had also assues She had traveled to the Well, and had been betrayed She, however, hadn't been betrayed by one of her servants--but1 instead by the force imprisoned within the Well That force was, she assues in the first place

Why do I keep coain Perhaps it was because of what Human had said to her--that the mists hated her She had felt that hatred herself, and it appeared that Alendi had felt the sabook's words? The force she had released, the thing she called Ruin, had proven that it could change things in the world Ss, yet important ones Like the text of a book, which hy Elend's officers were now instructed to send all es via ardless, if there had been any clues to be gained by reading the logbook, Ruin would have reo Vin felt as if she'd been led by the nose for the last three years, pulled by invisible strings She had thought she was having revelations andwas following Ruin's bidding

Yet, Ruin is not oht If it were, there would have been no fight It wouldn't have needed to trick hts

Even that knowledge was frustrating What good were her thoughts? Always before, she'd had Sazed, Elend, or TenSoon to talk with about problems like this This wasn't a task for Vin; she was no scholar Yet, Sazed had turned his back on his studies, TenSoon had returned to his people, and Elend was far too busy lately to worry about anything but his army and its politics That left Vin And she still found reading and scholarship to be stuffy and boring

Yet, she was also beco as necessary, even if she found it distasteful She was no longer just her own person She belonged to the New Empire She had been its knife--noas time to try a different role

I have to do it, she thought, sitting in the red sunlight There is a puzzle here--so to be solved What was it Kelsier liked to say?

There's always another secret

She reroup of thieves, proclai that they would overthrow the Lord Ruler and free the eood ones We can rob the unrobbable and fool the unfoolable We kno to take an incredibly large task and break it down to eable pieces, then deal with each of those pieces

That day, when he'd written up the teaoals and plans on a small board, Vin had been amazed by how possible he had made an iun to believe that Kelsier could overthrow the Final Ein like Kelsier did, by listing the things that I know for certain

There had been a power at the Well of Ascension, so thatalive, i the power to destroy its bonds Maybe she could have used that power to destroy Ruin instead, but she'd given it up

She sat thoughtfully, tapping her finger against the back of the logbook She could still remember wisps of what it had felt like to hold that power It had awed her,1 yet at the saht In fact, while she held it, everything had felt natural The workings of the world, the ways of menit was like the power had beenas well

That was a tangent She needed to focus on what she knew before she could philosophize on what she needed to do The poas real, and Ruin was real Ruin had retained soe the world while confined--Sazed had confirmed that his texts had been altered to suit Ruin's purpose Now Ruin was free, and Vin assus and the falling ash

Though, she res for certain What did she know about Ruin? She had touched it, felt it, in that moment she had released it It had a need to destroy, yet it was not a force of siht And, it didn't see it wanted Almost as if it followed specific rules

She paused "Elend?" she called

The emperor turned from his place beside the prow