The Hero of Ages

Vin just rolled her eyes.

'I'm just glad I don't have any other close relatives,' Elend said. Then, he eyed her. 'Except for you, of course.'

'I'm not about to drown myself, if that's what you're getting at.'

'No,' Elend said. 'I'm sorry. I'm just. . well, you know. Anyway, I was explaining something. In the end, I stopped worrying about how strange you seemed. I realized that it didn't really matter if I understood you, because I trusted you. Does that make sense? Either way, I guess I'm saying that I agree. I don't really know what you're doing, and I don't have any clue how you're going to achieve it. But, well, I trust that you'll do it.'

Vin pulled close to him.

'I just wish there were something I could do to help,' Elend said.

'Then take the whole numbers part,' Vin said, frowning distastefully. Though she'd been the one to think something was odd about the percentages of those who fell to the mists, Elend knew that she found numbers troublesome. She didn't have the training, or the practice, to deal with them.

'You're sure that's even related?' Elend asked.

'You were the one who thought that the percentages were so strange.'

'Good point. All right, I'll work on it.'

'Just don't tell me what you discover,' Vin said.

'Well, how is that going to help anything?'

'Trust,' Vin said. 'You can tell me what to do, just don't tell me why. Maybe we can stay ahead of this thing.'

Stay ahead of it? Elend thought. It has the power to bury the entire empire in ash, and can apparently hear every single word we say. How do we 'stay ahead' of something like that? But, he had just promised to trust Vin, so he did so.

Vin pointed at the table. 'Is that your letter to Yomen?'

Elend nodded. 'I'm hoping that he'll talk to me, now that I'm actually here.'

'Slowswift does seem to think that Yomen is a good man. Maybe he'll listen.'

'Somehow, I doubt it,' Elend said. He sat softly for a moment, then made a fist, gritting his teeth in frustration. 'I told the others that I want to try diplomacy, but I know that Yomen is going to reject my message. That's why I brought my army in the first place-I could have just sent you to sneak in, like you did in Urteau. However, sneaking in didn't help us much there; we still have to secure the city if we want the supplies.

'We need this city. Even if you hadn't felt so driven to discover what was in the cache, I would have come here. The threat Yomen poses to our kingdom is too strong, and the possibility that the Lord Ruler left important information in that cache can't be ignored. Yomen has grain in that storage, but the land here won't get enough sunlight to grow it. So, he'll probably feed it to the people-a waste, when we don't have enough to plant and fill the Central Dominance. We have to take this city, or at least make an ally out of it.

'But, what do I do if Yomen won't talk? Send armies to attack nearby villages? Poison the city's supplies? If you're right, then he's found the cache, which means he'll have more food than we hoped. Unless we destroy that, he might outlast our siege. But, if I do destroy it, his people will starve. .' Elend shook his head. 'Do you remember when I executed Jastes?'

'That was well within your right,' Vin said quickly.

'I believe it was,' Elend said. 'But I killed him because he led a group of koloss to my city, then let them ravage my people. I've nearly done the same thing here. There are twenty thousand of the beasts outside.'

'You can control them.'

'Jastes thought he could control them too,' Elend said. 'I don't want to turn those creatures loose, Vin. But what if the siege fails, and I have to try and break Yomen's fortifications? I won't be able to do that without the koloss.' He shook his head. 'If only I could talk to Yomen. Perhaps I could make him see reason, or at least convince myself that he needs to fall.'

Vin paused. 'There. . might be a way.'

Elend glanced over, catching her eyes.

'They're still staging balls inside the city,' Vin said. 'And King Yomen attends every one.'

Elend blinked. At first, he assumed that he must have misunderstood her. However, the look in her eyes-that wild determination-persuaded him otherwise. Sometimes, he saw a touch of the Survivor in her; or, at least, of the man the stories claimed Kelsier had been. Bold to the point of recklessness. Brave and brash. He'd rubbed off on Vin more than she liked to admit.

'Vin,' he said flatly, 'did you just suggest that we attend a ball being held in the middle of a city we're besieging?'

Vin shrugged. 'Sure. Why not? We're both Mistborn-we can get into that city without much trouble at all.'

'Yes, but. .' He trailed off.

I'd have a room filled with the very nobility I'm hoping to intimidate- not to mention have access to the man who refuses to meet with me, in a situation where he'd have trouble running away without looking like a coward.

'You think it's a good idea,' Vin said, smiling impishly.

'It's a crazy idea,' Elend said. 'I'm emperor-I shouldn't be sneaking into the enemy city so I can go to a party.'

Vin narrowed her eyes, staring at him.

'I will admit, however,' Elend said, 'that the concept does have considerable charm.'

'Yomen won't come meet us,' Vin said, 'so we go in and crash his party.'

'It's been a while since I've been to a ball,' Elend said speculatively. 'I'll have to dig up some good reading material for old time's sake.'

Suddenly, Vin grew pale. Elend paused, glancing at her, sensing that something was wrong. Not with what he'd said, something else. What is it? Assassins? Mist spirits? Koloss?

'I just realized something,' Vin said, looking at him with those intense eyes of hers. 'I can't go to a ball-I didn't bring a gown!'

The Lord Ruler didn't just forbid certain technologies, he suppressed technological advancement completely. It seems odd now that during the entirety of his thousand-year reign, very little progress was made. Farming techniques, architectural methods-even fashion remained remarkably stable during the Lord Ruler's reign.

He constructed his perfect empire, then tried to make it stay that way. For the most part, he was successful. Pocket watches-another Khlenni appropriation- that were made in the tenth century of the empire were nearly identical to those made during the first. Everything stayed the same.

Until it all collapsed, of course.

29

Like most cities in the Final Empire, Urteau had been forbidden a city wall. In the early days of Sazed's life, before he'd rebelled, the fact that cities couldn't build fortifications had always seemed a subtle indication to him of the Lord Ruler's vulnerability. After all, if the Lord Ruler was worried about rebellions and cities that could stand against him, then perhaps he knew something that nobody else did: that he could be defeated.

Thoughts like those had led Sazed to Mare, and finally to Kelsier. And now, they led him to the city of Urteau-a city that finally had rebelled against noble leadership. Unfortunately, it lumped