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The Keepers spent a thousand years gathering and memorizing the dying religions of the world, Sazed thought. Who would have thought that now—with the Lord Ruler gone—people wouldn’t care enough to want what they’d lost?
“Manipulation works so well on a personal level, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be an equally viable national policy.” “That’s the way of most rulership,” Ham mused. “What is a government but an institutionalized method of making sure somebody else does all the work?”
“Trust,” Tindwyl said, looking him in the eyes. “A good king is one who is trusted by his people—and one who deserves that trust.”
It’s easy to forget the value of something when you use it so often. When it becomes commonplace and convenient to you. When it becomes … just a tool.”
Don’t worry that you aren’t giving people what they want. Give them who you are, and let that be enough.”
It seems that the rebels found the chaos of transition more difficult to accept than the tyranny they had known before. They joyfully welcomed back authority—even oppressive authority—for it was less painful for them than uncertainty.
“Do not dismiss someone’s beliefs because you do not understand them, mistress.”
Regardless, I still do not believe that your duty is to do as the people wish. Your duty is to lead as best you can, following the dictates of your conscience. You must be true, Your Majesty, to the man you wish to become. If that man is not whom the people wish to have lead them, then they will choose someone else.”
“Trying to guess what people wish of you will only lead to chaos, I think,” Sazed said. “You cannot please them all, Elend Venture.”
“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.”
“It was his ability to trust,” she said. “It was the way that he made good people into better people, the way that he inspired them. His crew worked because he had confidence in them—because he respected them. And in return, they respected each other. Men like Breeze and Clubs became heroes because Kelsier had faith in them.”
“Do not deride someone’s faith simply because you do not share it, Lord Cladent,” Sazed said quietly. Clubs snorted again. “It’s all very easy for you, isn’t it?” he asked. “Believing everything, never having to choose?” “I would say,” Sazed replied, “that it is more difficult to believe as I do, for one must learn to be inclusionary and accepting.”
“You must live as a soldier,” Sazed said, pulling something from his sash with a weak hand. “But you can still dream like an artist. Here. I had this made for you. It is a symbol of the Dadradah faith. To its people, being an artist was an even higher calling than being a priest.”
“Other men are strong like bricks—firm, unyielding, but if you pound on them long enough, they crack. You … you’re strong like the wind. Always there, so willing to bend, but never apologetic for the times when you must be firm.
He read to remember. To think of days when he hadn’t worried about why they were studying. He had simply been content to do what he enjoyed best, with the person he had come to love most.
You must love him enough to trust his wishes, he had told her. It isn’t love unless you learn to respect his choices—to support not only what you believe is best for him, but what he truly wants.…
