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Ruthlessness is the very nored it "You've been listening to Cett too ic I find difficult to ignore I grew up as an idealist, Vin--we both know that's true Cett provides a kind of balance The things he says are much like what Tindwyl used to say"

He paused, shaking his head "Just a short ti Do you knohat the noble houses did to ensure that they found the Allo their children?"

"They had them beaten," Vin whispered A person's Allo trauht to the brink of death and survive--only then would their powers be awakened It was called Snapping

Elend nodded "It was one of the great, dirty secrets of so-called noble life Fas had to be brutal for them to evoke1 Alloenerally specified an age before adolescence When a boy or girl hit that age, they were taken and beaten near to death"

Vin shivered slightly

"I vividly remember mine," Elend said "Father didn't beatabout the beatings was that most of them were pointless Only a handful of children, even noble children, beca"

"You stopped those beatings, Elend," Vin said softly He had drafted a bill soon after becoo a supervised beating when they ca to children

"And I rong," Elend said softly

Vin looked up

"Allomancers are ourout over the doh Alloal to search out Allomancers inof children"

"And if those beatings could save lives?" Elend asked "Like exposing ained his powers as a Mistborn after he was trapped in the Pits of Hathsin What would have happened if he'd been beaten properly as a child? He would always have been Mistborn He could have saved his wife"

"And then wouldn't have had the courage or motivation to overthrow the Final Empire"

"And is e have any better?" Elend asked "The longer I've held this throne, Vin, the s the Lord Ruler did weren't evil, but si, he do him to look down at her "I don't like this hardness in you, Elend"

He looked out over the blackened canal waters "It doesn't control s the Lord Ruler did I' worries ths He looked down and met her eyes "I can hold this throne only because I know that at one point, I illing to give it up in the naht If I ever lose that, Vin, you need to tell ht?"

Vin nodded

Elend looked back at the horizon again What is it he hopes to see? Vin thought

"There has to be a balance, Vin," he said "Somehoe'll find it The balance bete wish to be and e need to be" He sighed "But for now," he said, nodding to the side, "we silanced to the side as a small courier skiff froside theirs A e spectacles, as if atte to obscure the intricate Ministry tattoos around his eyes, and he was s happily

Vin sator was always a bad sign That was before she'd known Noorden Even during the days of the Lord Ruler, the contented scholar had probably lived e proof that even in the confines of what had once b1een--in her opinion--the oodoff of the skiff and bowing A couple of assistant scribes joined hiers

"Noorden," Elend said, joining the man on the foredeck Vin followed "You have done the counts I asked?"

"Yes, Your Excellency," Noorden said as an aide opened up a ledger on a pile of boxes "Iabout and the like"

"I'h as always, Noorden," Elend said He glanced at the ledger, which seeh all Vin saas a bunch of random numbers

"What's it say?" she asked

"It lists the nuht thousand, nearly six thousand were taken by the sickness We lost about five hundred and fifty"

"Including one ofhis head

Vin frowned Not at the death, at so at her mind

"Fewer dead than expected," Elend said, pulling thoughtfully at his beard

"Yes, Your Excellency," Noorden said "I guess these soldier types are e skaa population The sickness, whatever it is, didn't strike the up "How do you kno many should have died?"

"Previous experience,these deaths with so to determine exactly what causes it Perhaps that will lead us to a way to treat it I've hadto find clues of other diseases like this It seeht on by--"

"Noorden," Vin said, frowning "You have figures then? Exact numbers?"

"That's what His Excellency asked for, my lady"

"How many fell sick to the disease?" Vin asked "Exactly?"

"Well, lethis scribe away and checking the ledger "Five thousand two hundred and forty-three"

"What percentage of the soldiers is that?" Vin asked