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Vin had a tendency to be paranoid and assume the worst. Of course, she also had a habit of being right.
Both her worry and her willingness to let him take risks were part of her love for him. And he sincerely appreciated both.
What am I doing? Vin thought. I was just thinking about how much I admired Elend’s hope. Why argue with him now? They were stretched so thin. Both of them.
Be careful what you speak. It can hear what you say. It can read what you write. Only your thoughts are safe. Vin shivered. Only your thoughts are safe. What had the Lord Ruler learned in his moments of transcendence? What things had he kept in his mind forever, never writing them down for fear of revealing his knowledge, always expecting that he would eventually be the one who took the power when it came again? Had he perhaps planned to use that power to destroy the thing that Vin had released? You have doomed yourselves.… The Lord Ruler’s last words, spoken right before Vin had thrust the
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He sometimes worried about his melancholy. Unfortunately, much of the time he had trouble summoning the effort even to care about his own pessimistic bent.
Divinity didn’t let its followers get slaughtered, and certainly didn’t allow the world to be destroyed by good men who were trying to save it.
But they’re not working because someone will beat them if they don’t—they’re working so that their families and their friends will live. There’s a difference in that, to a farmer.
“Ash cloaks the land in a mantle of black. The mists come during the day, killing both crops and humans. Men march to war. Ruin has returned.”
Regardless, if there had been any clues to be gained by reading the logbook, Ruin would have removed them long ago. Vin felt that she’d been led by the nose for the last three years, pulled by invisible strings. She had thought she was having revelations and making great discoveries, but all she’d really been doing was following Ruin’s bidding.
But she was also becoming more and more comfortable with the idea of doing what was necessary, no matter how distasteful. She was no longer solely her own person. She belonged to the New Empire.
There’s always another secret.
Allomancy is a thing of nature.”
“For the greater good.” “Which has been the excuse of tyrants throughout all time.
I don’t agree with most of the things the Lord Ruler did. I’m just coming to understand him—and that understanding worries me.”
“Seems like quite the destiny to live up to.” “It’s either that or give up.”
“So … you can’t go anywhere unless someone carries you, right?” the Thug asked. Cett grunted. “Well then,” Ham said, sounding very pleased, “I’ve got a good number of philosophical puzzles you might enjoy.”
“Using this art … this Hemalurgy … he made soldiers, the koloss. He made spies, the kandra. And he made priests, the Inquisitors. He built them all with weaknesses so that he could control them.”
Yet as he walked, he moved with more determination. If only because he knew there were things in the world he didn’t understand—and that meant that perhaps there were possibilities he didn’t see. Possibilities for survival.
“I do what needs to be done.” “Men say that so easily,” Beldre said. “Yet everybody seems to have a different opinion of what ‘needs’ to be done.”
The ruse felt flimsy to her. Yet she knew that was because she could see Elend’s confusion, could read his lies in his eyes. She understood him, as he understood her. It was an understanding that required love. And she suspected that was something that Ruin would never be able to comprehend.
“Useless?” Sazed asked. “No, not useless at all. Corrupt, yes. Changed by Ruin. My friend, I have a book here filled with Ruin’s lies. You have a mind filled with the original truths. Apart, we know little. However, if we were to compare—discovering precisely which items Ruin changed—would it not tell us exactly what his plan is? At the very least, it would tell us what he didn’t want us to focus on, I think.” The room fell silent.
if a Mistborn was killed with Hemalurgy, only one of their sixteen powers could be drawn out and the rest would be lost. Ruin deemed it much better to try to subvert them and gain access to all of their power.
For every Push, there is a Pull. Throw something upward, and it will come back down. Opposition. For Ruin, there is Preservation. From time immemorial! For eternity! And each time I push, YOU push back. Even when dead, you stopped me, for we are forces. I can do nothing! And you can do nothing! Balance! The curse of our existence.
They had done it. They had held to their oath, and had removed their spikes rather than be taken over by Ruin. Sazed gazed upon them with pity, amazement, and respect.
The powers were opposites. As he drew them in, they threatened to annihilate each other. Yet because he was of one mind on how to use them, he could keep them separate. They could touch without destroying each other, if he willed it. For these two powers had been used to create all things. If they fought, they destroyed. If they were used together, they created.
Yet from these star charts, and from the patterns and movements of the other planets in the solar system they outlined, Sazed could determine exactly where the world was supposed to sit in orbit. He put the planet back into its old place—not pushing too hard, as the Lord Ruler once had, for he had a frame of reference by which to measure.
Every religion had clues in it, for the faiths of men contained the hopes, loves, wishes, and lives of the people who had believed them.
Not one had the whole truth. But they all had truth.
Ruin and Preservation were dead, and their powers had been joined together. In fact, they belonged together. How had they been split? Perhaps someday he would discover the answer to that question.
Not a Hero that came once in the ages. But a Hero who would span the ages. A Hero who would preserve humankind throughout all times. Neither Preservation nor Ruin, but both. God.
