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September 4 - December 21, 2025
“You ask why I smile, Goodman Mennis? Well, the Lord Ruler thinks he has claimed laughter and joy for himself. I’m disinclined to let him do so. This is one battle that doesn’t take much effort to fight.”
Down in those pits where he sent me, I Snapped and awakened my Allomantic powers. Now I intend to use them to kill him.”
“the entire point of life is to find ways to get others to do your work for you. Don’t you know anything about basic economics?”
“He shall defend their ways, yet shall violate them. He will be their savior, yet they shall call him heretic. His name shall be Discord, yet they shall love him for it.”
“Of course they’re brown. What else would they be?” “Green,” Kelsier said. “Everything should be green.” Green? Vin thought. What a strange thought. She tried to imagine trees with green leaves, but the image seemed silly.
The right belief is like a good cloak, I think. If it fits you well, it keeps you warm and safe. The wrong fit, however, can suffocate.”
is this the religion you believe in, then?” “I believe in them all.” Vin frowned. “None of them contradict each other?” Sazed smiled. “Oh, often and frequently they do. But I respect the truths behind them all—and I believe in the need for each one to be remembered.”
It is too much, I suppose, to even hope for. A single, unified empire of man? It could never happen.
But it wasn’t Kelsier’s face that looked back at her, streaked with concern. It was a different, kinder face.
Now, sometimes I wish that I had a piece of her with me. A child. A daughter perhaps, with Mare’s same dark hair and resilient stubbornness.” He looked down at Vin. “I don’t want to be responsible for something happening to you, Vin. Not again.”
“Women are like … thunderstorms. They’re beautiful to look at, and sometimes they’re nice to listen to—but most of the time they’re downright inconvenient.”
“The Hero of Ages shall be not a man, but a force. No nation may claim him, no woman shall keep him, and no king may slay him. He shall belong to none, not even himself.”
I can still see the tears in a young child’s eyes and feel pain at his suffering. If I ever lose this, then I will know that I’ve passed beyond hope of redemption.
“But what is money? A physical representation of the abstract concept of effort.
“If you’re always on time, it implies that you never have anything better you should be doing. Saze,
They claimed that each person was born with a certain finite amount of ill luck. And so, when an unfortunate event happened, they thought themselves blessed—thereafter, their lives could only get better.”
Our belief is often strongest when it should be weakest. That is the nature of hope.”
“You don’t stop loving someone just because they hurt you,” he said. “It would certainly make things easier if you did.”
“Belief isn’t simply a thing for fair times and bright days, I think. What is belief—what is faith—if you don’t continue in it after failure?” Vin frowned. “Anyone can believe in someone, or something, that always succeeds, mistress. But failure … now, that is hard to believe in, certainly and truly. Difficult enough to have value, I think.”
