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I should stop here and clarify so "freed" fro the power at the Well tipped the aforementioned balance back toward Ruin, but he was still too weak to destroy the world in the blink of an eye as he yearned to do This weakness was caused by part of Ruin's power--his very body--having been taken and hidden from him

Which hy Ruin beca the hidden part of his self

47

ELEND STOOD IN THE MISTS

Once, he had found the ed to Allomancers and not to ordinary men

Yet, noas an Allo, spinning banks of vapor Rivers in the sky He al in some phantom current When he'd first displayed Allomantic powers, Vin had explained Kelsier's now-infamous motto The mists are our friend They hide us Protect us Give us power

Elend continued to stare upward It had been three days since Vin's capture

I shouldn't have let her go, he thought again, heart twisting within hireed to such a risky plan

Vin had always been the one to protect hier? Elend felt so inadequate Had their situations been reversed, Vin would have found a way to get into the city and rescue hi

And yet, Elend didn't have her flair of brash determination He was too much of a planner and was too well acquainted with politics He couldn't risk hier once, and in so doing, had risked the fate of his entire arain and put hi into Fadrex, where Yomen had already proven himself a skilled manipulator

No further word had come from Yomen Elend expected ransoht have to do if they came Could he trade the fate of the world for Vin's life? No Vin had faced a similar decision at the Well of Ascension, and had chosen the right option Elend had to follow her exaht of her captured ca mists seeht, he told hiure a way out of it She'll be all right

It felt odd, to Elend, that after a lifeti he would now find the Vin didn't see them that way, not anymore Elend could sense it in the way she ac1ted, in the words she spoke She distrusted the mists Hated them, even And Elend couldn't really bla destruction and death

Yet, Elend found it hard to distrust the ht How could they be his enehtly as he burnedin a playful wind As he stood there, they see hihed, shaking his head Who was he to trust his own instincts about the mists over Vin's? She had the instincts born of a lifeti to survive What did Elend have? Instincts born of a lifeti?

Sound ca a pair of servants carrying Cett in his chair

"That da isn't around here, is he?" Cett asked as the servants set him down

Elend shook his head as Cett waved the servants away "No," Elend said "He's investigating some kind of disturbance in the ranks"

"What happened this ti away, looking back toward Fadrex City's watch fires

"The men are restless," Cett said "They're a little like koloss, you know Leave theet themselves into trouble"

Koloss are like theht We should have seen it earlier They are men--just men reduced to their most base emotions

Cett sat quietly in the mists for a time, and Elend continued his contemplations

Eventually, Cett spoke, his voice uncharacteristically soft "She's as good as dead, son You know that"

"No, I don't," Elend said

"She's not invincible," Cett said "She's a daood Allomancer, true But, take her metals away"

She'll surprise you, Cett

"You don't even look worried," Cett said

"Of course I' et out, Vin will"

"You're in denial," Cett said

"Perhaps," Elend ad to attack?" Cett asked "Try and get her back?"

"This is a siege, Cett," Elend said "The point is to not attack"

"And our supplies?" Cett asked "Demoux had to put the soldiers on half rations today We'll be lucky not to starve ourselves before we can get Yomen to surrender"