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"Why?" Yo "Because they are now Allo to fall as easily as everyone assumed If you need me, I'll be on the front lines!"

There is so, it was Preservation's sign to mankind

Preservation knew, even before he imprisoned Ruin, that he wouldn't be able to communicate with humankind once he diminished himself And so, he left clues--clues that couldn't be altered by Ruin Clues that related back to the fundamental laws of the universe The nu unnatural was happening, and that there was help to be found

It ure this out, but e eventually did understand the clue--late though it was--it provided a much-needed boost

As for the other aspects of the nu that Suffice it to say that it has great ra how the world, and the universe itself, works

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SAZED TAPPED HIS PEN against the htly "Very little of this last chunk is different fros--perhaps to keepthe alterations It's obvious that he wanted to es"

"He wanted her to release him," said Haddek, leader of the First Generation His companions nodded

"Perhaps she was never the Hero," one of the others offered

Sazed shook his head "I believe that she is These prophecies still refer to her--even the unaltered ones that you have told me They talk of one who is separate froht between torlds Ruin just emphasized that Vin was the one, since he wanted her to come and free him"

"We always assu voice

"So did everyone else," Sazed said "But, you said yourself that all the prophecies use gender-neutral pronouns That had to be intentional--one does not use such language in old Terris by accident The neutral case was chosen so that ouldn't knohether the Hero was male or female"

Several of the ancient Terris stones, still sitting in the chamber with the ather, was so of a holy place for the kandra

He tapped his pen, frowning What was bothering him? They say I will hold the future of the entire world on book written so long ago The words of the First Generation confir for Vin to do Yet, the power at the Well of Ascension was gone Used up How could she fight without it? Sazed looked up at his audience of ancient kandra "What was the power at the Well of Ascension, anyway?"

"Even we are not certain of that, young one," Haddek said "By the tiods had already passed fro the Terris with only the hope of the Hero"

"Tellforward "How did your gods pass from this world?"

"Ruin and Preservation," said one of the others "They created our world, and our people"1

"Neither could create alone," Haddek said "No, they could not For, to preserve soh destruction only"

It was a coy--Sazed had read it in dozens of the religions he'd studied The world being created out of a clash between two forces, sometimes rendered as chaos and order, sometimes named destruction and protection That bothered hi new in the thingshi was coies have a shared, and true, root?

"They created the world," Sazed said "Then left?"

"Not i one They had a deal, those two Preservation wanted to create men--to create life capable of emotion He obtained a promise from Ruin to help make men"

"But at a cost," one of the others whispered

"What cost?" Sazed asked

"That Ruin could one day be allowed destroy the world," Haddek replied

The circular chamber fell silent

"Hence the betrayal," Haddek said "Preservation gave his life to i the world"

Another cood It was one that Sazed himself had witnessed in the birth of the Church of the Survivor

Yetthis ti back, trying to decide how he felt For some reason, he had assumed that the truth would be different The scholarly side of hiued with his desire for belief How could he believe in soical clichés?

He'd coiven one last chance to find the truth Yet, now that he studied it, he was finding that it was shockingly siions he had rejected as false

"You seem disturbed, child," Haddek said "Are you that worried about the things we say?"

"I apologize," Sazed said "This is a personal problees"

"Please, speak," one of the others said

"It is complicated," Sazed said "For soions of s were true I had begun to despair that I would ever find a religion that offered the answers I sought Then, I learned that ion still existed, protected by the kandra I ca to find the truth"

"This is the truth," one of the kandra said