The Well of Ascension (Mistborn, #2)

by Brandon Sanderson

When she held him—really held him—she clung with a desperation that bordered on terror. Despite her powerful skill as an Allomancer and her stubborn determination, Vin was frighteningly vulnerable. She seemed to need Elend. For that, he felt lucky.

“Good men don’t need to become legends.” She opened her eyes, looking up at him. “They simply do what’s right anyway.”

What did Spook say that Marsh’s nickname was? Sazed thought to himself as they walked. Before his transformation, they used to call him … Ironeyes.

The common people were encouraged to attend. Elend thought that everyone should be interested in the workings of their government; it pained him that the Assembly’s weekly meetings usually had only a small audience.

Real

“What is a government but an institutionalized method of making sure somebody else does all the work?”

A man can only lead when others accept him as their leader, and he has only as much authority as his subjects give to him. All of the brilliant ideas in the world cannot save your kingdom if no one will listen to them.”

Every scholar knew that one of the greatest dangers in research was the desire to find a specific answer.

“Personally I think you’re embarrassed that he disobeyed you all, then actually ended up freeing your people.”

“Do not dismiss someone’s beliefs because you do not understand them, mistress.”

You’re of Ruin, after all, while the kandra are of Preservation.

yo!?!??

She had one finger out, and she had impeccable aim. The Thug’s eye popped as she rammed her finger into the socket.

In short, Elend Venture, you lost the throne because you are a good man.”

Elend turned to Ham. “I have a question for you, Ham.” Ham raised an eyebrow. “How insane are you feeling at the moment?”

“Lady Vin is more stable than you think,” Sazed said. “Sazed, I’ve raised some fifteen daughters,” Tindwyl said, entering the room. “No teenage girl is stable. Some are merely better at hiding it than others.”

“At first glance, the key and the lock it fits may seem very different,” Sazed said. “Different in shape, different in function, different in design. The man who looks at them without knowledge of their true nature might think them opposites, for one is meant to open, and the other to keep closed. Yet upon closer examination, he might see that without one, the other becomes useless. The wise man then knows that both lock and key were created for the same purpose.”

She had been about to attack left, as Zane’s atium had anticipated. But by reacting, Zane had shown her what she was going to do. Let her see the future. And if she could see it, she could change it.

Those who take lightly promises they make to those they love are people who find little lasting satisfaction in life.

Ham shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe Kell is out there somewhere, watching over us.”

Womp womp

“Forgive me,” Jastes said. Elend looked the man in the eyes. “I forgive you,” he said quietly. Then, in one fluid stroke, he drew his sword and sheared Jastes’s head from his shoulders. “But my kingdom cannot.”

Vin screamed from the sky in her duralumin-fueled Steeljump, massive koloss sword light in her hands. She hit Straff directly in the head with the sword, then continued on downward, slamming into the ground, tossing up snow and frozen dirt with the power of her impact.