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"Don't your people care, Human?" Vin asked

The htly "Care?"

"That soabout, forgotten in the ash save for the ritual flaying that was the koloss for between bodies, ripping off the skin

"We take care of them," Human said

"Yes," Vin said "You pull their skin off Why do you do that, anyway?"

"They are dead," Huh of an explanation

To the side, a large group of koloss stood up, commanded by Elend's silent orders They separated the out into the ash Aas one

Vin reacted quickly She turned off her metals, burned duralu the koloss emotions As expected, they snapped under her control, just as Hu this many was more difficult, but still ithin her abilities Vin ordered them to be calm, and to not kill, then let them return to the camp Froer requiring Allonore unless their passions grew strong

Human watched them "We arefewer," he finally said

Vin started "Yes," she said "You can tell that?"

"I" Huht We died We need more We have too e pile of er had owners

You can control a koloss population through the swords, Elend had once told her They fight to get bigger swords as they grow Extra swords go to the younger, smaller koloss

But nobody knohere those come from

"You need koloss to use those swords, Human," Vin said

Human nodded

"Well," she said "You'll need to have more children, then"

"Children?"

"More," Vin said "More koloss"

"You need to give usat her

"Me?"

"You fought," he said, pointing at her shirt There was blood there, not her own

"Yes, I did," Vin said

"Give us more"

"I don't understand," Vin said "Please, just showhis head as he spoke in his slow tone "It's not right"

"Wait," Vin said "Not right?" It was the first real stateotten from a koloss

Human looked at her, and she could see consternation on his face So, Vin gave hie She didn't know exactly what to ask him to do, and that made her control of hi, trusting--for so with his instincts

He screamed

Vin backed away, shocked, but Human didn't attack her He ran into the koloss ca up ash Others backed away from him--not out of fear, for they wore their characteristic ih sense to stay out of the way of an enraged koloss of Human's size

Vin followed carefully as Human approached one of the dead bodies of a koloss who still wore his skin Hu the corpse over his shoulder and took off running toward Elend1's ca a coin and taking to the air She bounded after Hu hi unusually, true, but that was a good thing Koloss generally didn't do anything unusual They were predictable to a fault