The Hero of Ages (Mistborn, #3)

by Brandon Sanderson

I don’t know why Preservation decided to use his last bit of life appearing to Elend during his trek back to Fadrex. From what I understand, Elend didn’t learn much from the meeting. By then, Preservation was but a shadow of himself—and that shadow was under immense destructive pressure from Ruin. Perhaps Preservation—or the remnants of what he had been—wanted to get Elend alone. Or perhaps he saw Elend kneeling in that field, and knew that the emperor of men was very close to lying down in the ash, never to rise again. Either way, Preservation did appear, and in so doing exposed himself to Ruin’s attacks. Gone were the days when Preservation could turn away an Inquisitor with a bare gesture; gone were the days when he could strike a man down to bleed and die. By the time Elend saw the “mist spirit,” Preservation must have been barely coherent. I wonder what Elend would have done, had he known that he was in the presence of a dying god—that on that night, he had been the last witness of Preservation’s passing. If Elend had waited a few more minutes on that ashen field, he would have seen a body—short of stature, black hair, prominent nose—fall from the mists and slump dead onto the ground. As it was, the corpse was left alone to be buried in ash. The world was dying. Its gods had to die with it.