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Yomen pulled the bead of atium free from its place at his brow "My last bead In case you need it"

Elend accepted the bit of ers He'd never burned atiu--but, by the time Elend himself had become Mistborn, he'd already either spent what he'd been able to obtain, or had given it to Vin to be burned

"How did you do it, Yomen?" he asked "How did you make it seem you were an Allomancer?"

"I am an Allomancer, Venture"

"Not a Mistborn," Elend said

"No," Yo"

Elend nodded He'd assumed that was impossible, but it was hard to rely on assu anymore "The Lord Ruler knew about your power?"

Youard"

Atiuht That s, electruht about it, sos--would be impossible to find because they couldn't use theirable to burn otherpeople for Allo away "I never really found the power all that useful How often does one have both atium and the desire to use it up in a few heartbeats? Take that bit and go find your wife"

Elend stood for a ive Ha across the landscape, doing his best to fly with the horseshoes as Vin had taught hih a person's body gave Ruin soated, however, by thecontrolled

In th of tiave Ruin only minimal powers over a person He could appear to the them overlook certain oddities--for instance, their co

75

SAZED GATHERED HIS NOTES, carefully stacking the thin sheets of h theRuin fro--their contents, Sazed found the The plates were easily scratched, and they couldn't1 be folded or bound

The kandra elders had given hily lush for a cave Kandra apparently enjoyed human comforts--blankets, cushions, h those who didn't declined to create genitals for their True Bodies That left hi about scholarly sorts of questions They reproduced by transforenitals would be redundant Yet, the kandra identified theender--each was definitely a "he" or a "she" So, how did they know? Did they choose arbitrarily, or did they actually knohat they would have been, had they been born human rather than as a mistwraith?

He wished he hadhe'd done in the Hoes and the Terris religion He'd made a sheet of notes about what he'd discovered, and it sat at the top of his ly, similar to any nuion, as one e and scholarship The Worldbringers--their word for Keepers--were holy e, but also wrote of their god, Terr It was the ancient Terris word for "to preserve" A central focus of the religion had been the histories of how Preservation--or Terr--and Ruin had interacted, and these included various prophecies about the Hero of Ages, as seen as a successor to Preservation

Aside froht te to their people They had taught that it was better to build than to destroy, a principle at the core of their teachings Of course there had been rituals, rites, initiations, and traditions There were also lesser religious leaders, required offerings, and codes of conduct It all seeinal Even the focus on scholarship was soions Sazed had studied

That, for soion

What had he expected? So doctrine that would prove to hiod? He felt like a fool Yet, he also felt betrayed This hat he'd ridden across the e elated and anticipatory, to discover? This hat he'd expected to save them? These were just more words Pleasant ones, likeWas he supposed to believe just because it was the religion his people had followed?

There were no promises here that Tindwyl still lived Why was it that people had followed this, or any, of the religions? Frustrated, Sazed dipped into his s the Keepers had discovered--journals, letters, other sources froether what had once been believed He looked through theht of them, read the to accept their religions? Were they si because it was tradition? He read of their lives, and tried to persuade himself that the people were simpletons, that they hadn't ever truly questioned their beliefs Surely they would have seen the flaws and inconsistencies if they'd just taken the ti

Sazed sat with closed eyes, a wealth of infor for what he expected to find However, as the tiht The people did not seean to occur to his, of the people who had believed