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Was she huddled in an alleyway, crying, back hurting fros?

She felt about her, trying to s didn't seem to work In fact, she couldn't even really focus on theer she floated, however, the clearer her vision beca the Inquisitors

Why couldn't she feel anything? She tried to reach down, to push herself to her knees, but the ground seeely far away And, she saw no arms in front of her She just continued to float

I'ht

Even as that occurred to her, she woke up a bit h a very blurry, distorting pane of glass She felta power buzzing within her A strength unlike that of lied to turn, getting a sweeping view of the city And, halfway through her turn, she ca dark

She couldn't tell how far away it was It seemed close and distant at the same time She could vieith detail--far more detail than she could see in the actual world--but she couldn't touch it She knew, instinctively, what it was

Ruin no longer looked like Reen Instead, hewithout a body, but with a consciousness greater than that of a simple human

Thatis what I've beco clearer

Vin, Ruin spoke His voice was not that of Reen, but instead souttural It was a vibration that washed across her, like an Alloodhood

Vin re to get a sense of what she could do Understanding seemed to open to her It was like before, when she'd taken the power at the Well of Ascension She is Only this tireat--that it seemed to have shocked her rowing

Awakening

She rose above the city, knowing that the power spinning through her--the core of her existence--was simply a hub A focus for power that stretched across the entire world She could be anywhere she wished Indeed, a part of her was in all places at once She could see the world as a whole

And it was dying She felt its tre Already, o quickly--the ones who survived were those who could find a way to chew on dead foliage now covered by ash Hu to note that a surprising percentage of thee caverns

Not storage cavernsVin thought, finally understanding the Lord Ruler's purpose Shelters That's why they're so vast They're like fortresses for people to hide in To wait, to survive a little longer

Well, she would fix that She felt electrified with power She reached out and plugged the ashmounts She soothed them, deadened them, smothered their ability to spray ash and lava Then, she reached into the sky and wiped the s soot from a dirtyShe did all of this in a matter of instants; not more than five minutes would have passed on the world below

Ian to burn

The sun was aly powerful--she hadn't realized how much the ash and s the world quickly so that the sun moved to its other side Darkness fell And, as soon as she did that, tean to swoop across the landscape Weather patterns were disrupted by the e It rolled toward the coast, threatening to wipe away several cities

Vin cried out again, reaching to stop the wave And sohter She turned in the air, looking to where Ruin sat like a shifting, undulating thundercloud

Vin, Vinhe said Do you realize how like the Lord Ruler you are? When he first took the power, he tried to solve everything All of man's ills

She saw it She wasn't omniscient--she couldn't see the entirety of the past However, she could see the history of the power she held She could see when Rashek had taken it, and she could see hi to pull the planet into a proper orbit Yet, he pulled it too far, leaving the world cold and freezing He pushed it back again, but his poas too vast--too terrible--for hiain left the world too hot All life would have perished

He opened the ash the sun red And, in doing so, he saved the planet--but dooht I have held this power for a period of tiine It takes care and precision to use it correctly

Unless, of course, you just want to destroy

He reached out with a power Vin could feel I hohy, she blocked hiainst his, and he halted, unable to act

Below, the tsunami crashed into the coast There were still people down there People who had hidden from the koloss, who had survived on fish from the sea when their crops failed Vin felt their pain, their terror, and she cried out as she reached to protect theain, was stopped

Now you know the frustration, Ruin said as the tsunaes What was it your Elend said? For every Push, there is a Pull Throw1 so up, and it will come back down Opposition

For Ruin, there is Preservation Time immemorial! Eternity! And each time I push, YOU push back Even when dead, you stopped ! And you can do nothing! Balance! The curse of our existence

Vin suffered as the people beloere crushed, washed away, and drowned Please, she said Please just let me save them