The Hero of Ages m-3

by Brandon Sanderson

  "I wouldn't say that," Vin said. "Cett had been pushing Elend to move into this dominance for some time."

  The obligators conferred quietly at this comment, though Yomen stood aloof, arms folded as he regarded her. Vin found the experience unnerving. It had been years-from her days in Camon's crew-since she had felt so much in another's power. Even when she'd faced the Lord Ruler, she'd felt differently. Yomen seemed to see her as a tool.

  But a tool to do what? And, how could she manipulate his needs so that he kept her alive long enough for her to escape?

  Make yourself indispensable, Reen had always taught. Then a crewleader can't get rid of you without losing power himself. Even now, the voice of her brother still seemed to whisper the words in her mind. Were they memories, interpretations of his wisdom, or effects of Ruin's influence? Regardless, it seemed like good advice at the moment.

  "So, you came with the express purpose of invasion?" Yomen asked.

  "Elend intended to try diplomacy first," Vin said carefully. "However, we both knew that it's a bit hard to play the diplomat when you camp an army outside of someone's city."

  "You admit to being conquerors, then," Yomen said. "You are more honest than your husband."

  "Elend is more sincere than either of us, Yomen," Vin snapped. "Just because he interprets things differently from you or me does not mean he's being dishonest when he expresses his view."

  Yomen raised an eyebrow, perhaps at the quickness of her response. "A valid point."

  Vin sat back on the bench, wrapping her cut hands with a bit of clean cloth from her shirt. Yomen stood beside the windows of the large, stark room. It felt very odd to be speaking to him. On one hand, she and he seemed very different. He was a bureaucrat obligator whose lack of muscle or warrior's grace proved that he'd spent his life concerned with forms and records. She was a child of the streets and an adult practiced in war and assassination.

  Yet, his mannerisms, his way of speaking, seemed to resemble her own. Is this what I might have been more like, she wondered, had I not been born a skaa? A blunt bureaucrat rather than a terse warrior?

  As Yomen contemplated her, Ruin walked in a slow circle around the obligator king. "This one is a disappointment," Ruin said quietly.

  Vin glanced at Ruin just briefly. He shook his head. "Such destruction this one could have caused, had he struck out, rather than staying huddled in his little city, praying to his dead god. Men would have followed him. I could never get through to him on the long term, unfortunately. Not every ploy can be successful, particularly when the will of fools like him must be accounted for."

  "So," Yomen said, drawing her attention back to him, "you came to take my city because you heard of my stockpile, and because you feared a return of the Lord Ruler's power."

  "I didn't say that," Vin said, frowning.

  "You said that you feared me."

  "As a foreign power," Vin said, "with a proven ability to undermine a government and take it over."

  "I didn't take over," Yomen said. "I returned this city, and the dominance, to its rightful rule. But that is beside the point. I want you to tell me of this religion your people preach."

  "The Church of the Survivor?"

  "Yes," Yomen said. "You are one of its heads, correct?"

  "No," Vin said. "They revere me. But I've never felt that I properly fit as part of the religion. Mostly, it's focused around Kelsier."

  "The Survivor of Hathsin," Yomen said. "He died. How is it that people worship him?"

  Vin shrugged. "It used to be common to worship gods that one couldn't see."

  "Perhaps," Yomen said. "I have. . read of such things, though I find them difficult to understand. Faith in an unseen god-what sense does that make? Why reject the god that they lived with for so long-the one that they could see, and feel-in favor of one that died? One that the Lord Ruler himself struck down?"

  "You do it," Vin said. "You're still worshipping the Lord Ruler."

  "He's not gone," Yomen said.

  Vin paused.

  "No," Yomen said, apparently noting her confusion. "I haven't seen or heard of him since his disappearance. However, neither do I put any credence in reports of his death."

  "He was rather dead," Vin said. "Trust me."

  "I don't trust you, I'm afraid," Yomen said. "Tell me of that evening. Tell me precisely what happened."

  So Vin did. She told him of her imprisonment, and of her escape with Sazed. She told him of her decision to fight the Lord Ruler, and of her reliance on the Eleventh Metal. She left out her strange ability to draw upon the power of the mists, but she explained pretty much everything else-including Sazed's theory that the Lord Ruler had been immortal through the clever manipulation of his Feruchemy and Allomancy in combination.

  And Yomen actually listened. Her respect for the man increased as she spoke, and as he didn't interrupt her. He wanted to hear her story, even if he didn't believe it. He was a man who accepted information for what it was-another tool to be used, yet to be trusted no more than any other tool.

  "And so," Vin finished, "he is dead. I stabbed him through the heart myself. Your faith in him is admirable, but it can't change what happened."

  Yomen stood silently. The older obligators-who still sat on their benches-had grown white in the face. She knew that her testimony might have damned her, but for some reason she felt that honesty-plain, blunt honesty-would serve her better than guile. That's how she usually felt.

  An odd conviction for one who grew up in thieving crews, she thought. Ruin had apparently grown bored during her account, and had walked over to look out the window.

  "What I need to find out," Yomen finally said, "is why the Lord Ruler thought it necessary for you to think that you had killed him."

  "Didn't you listen to what just I said?" Vin demanded.

  "I did," Yomen said calmly. "And do not forget that you are a prisoner here-one who is very close to death."

  Vin forced herself to be quiet.

  "You find my words ridiculous?" Yomen said. "More ridiculous than your own? Think of how I see you, claiming to have slain a man I know to be God. Is it not plausible that he wanted this to happen? That he's out there, still, watching us, waiting. ."

  That's what this is all about, she realized. Why he captured me, why he's so eager to speak with me. He's convinced that the Lord Ruler is still alive. He just wants to figure out where I fit into all of this. He wants me to give him the proof that he's so desperately wishing for.

  "Why don't you think you should be part of the skaa religion, Vin?" Ruin whispered.

  She turned, trying not to look directly at him, lest Yomen see her staring into empty space.

  "Why?" Ruin asked. "Why don't you want them worshipping you? All of those happy skaa? Looking toward you for hope?"

  "The Lord Ruler must be behind all of this," Yomen mused out loud. "That means that he wanted the world to see you as his killer. He wanted the skaa to worship you."

  "Why?" Ruin repeated. "Why be so uncomfortable? Is it because you know you can't offer them hope? What is it they call him, the one you are supposed to have replaced? The Survivor? A word of Preservation, I think. . "

  "Perhaps he intends to return dramatically," Yomen said. "To depose you and topple you, to prove that faith in him is the only true faith."

  Why don't you fit? Ruin whispered in her head.

  "Why else would he want them to worship you?" Yomen asked.

  "They're wrong!" Vin snapped, raising hands to her head, trying to stop the thoughts. Trying to stop the guilt.

  Yomen paused.

  "They're wrong about me," Vin said. "They don't worship me, they worship what they think I should be. But I'm not the Heir of the Survivor. I didn't do what Kelsier did. He freed them."

  You conquered them, Ruin whispered.

  "Yes," Vin said, looking up. "You're looking in the wrong direction, Yomen. The Lord Ruler won't return."

  "I told you that-"

  "No," Vin said
, standing. "No, he's not coming back. He doesn't need to. I took his place."

  Elend had worried that he was becoming another Lord Ruler, but his concern had always seemed flawed to Vin. He hadn't been the one to conquer and reforge an empire, she had. She'd been the one who made the other kings submit.

  She'd done exactly as the Lord Ruler had. A Hero had risen up, and the Lord Ruler had killed him, then taken the power of the Well of Ascension. Vin had killed the Lord Ruler, then taken that same power. She'd given up the power, true, but she'd filled the same role.

  It all came to a head. The reason why the skaa worshipping her, calling her their savior, felt so wrong. Suddenly, her real role in it all seemed to snap into place.

  "I'm not the Survivor's Heir, Yomen," she said sickly. "I'm the Lord Ruler's."

  He shook his head dismissively.

  "When you first captured me," she said, "I wondered why you kept me alive. An enemy Mistborn? Why not just kill me and be done with it? You claimed that you wanted to give me a trial, but I saw through that. I knew you had another motive. And now I know what it is." She looked him in the eyes. "You said earlier that you planned to execute me for the Lord Ruler's murder, but you just admitted that you think he's still alive. You say that he'll return to topple me from my place, so you can't kill me, lest you interfere with your god's plans."

  Yomen turned away from her.

  "You can't kill me," she said. "Not until you're certain of my place in your theology. That's why you kept me alive, and that's why you risk bringing me in here to talk. You need information only I can give-you have to get testimony from me in a trial of sorts because you want to know what happened that night. So you can try to convince yourself that your god still lives."

  Yomen didn't respond.

  "Admit it. I'm in no danger here." She stepped forward.

  And Yomen moved. His steps suddenly became more fluid-he didn't have the grace of pewter or the knowledge of a warrior, but he moved just right. She dodged instinctively, but his atium let him anticipate her, and before she could so much as think, he'd thrown her to the floor, holding her pinned with a knee against her back.

  "I may not kill you yet," he said calmly, "but that hardly means that you're in 'no danger,' Lady Venture."

  Vin grunted.

  "I want something from you," he said. "Something more than what we've discussed. I want you to tell your husband to send his army away."

  "Why would I do that?" Vin said, face pressed against the cold stone of the floor.

  "Because," Yomen said, "you claim to want my storage cache, yet you claim to be good people. You now know that I will use the food in it wisely, to feed my people. If your Elend really is as altruistic as you claim, he certainly won't be so selfish as to throw away lives to war, just so you can steal away our food and use it to feed your own."

  "We can grow crops," Vin said. "We get enough light in the Central Dominance, while you don't. The seed stock you have will be useless to you!"

  "Then trade me for it."

  "You won't talk to us!"

  Yomen stepped back, releasing the pressure on her back. She rubbed her neck, sitting up, feeling frustrated. "It's about more than the food in that cache, Yomen," she said. "We control the other four of them. The Lord Ruler, he left clues in them. There is something to the whole group that can save us."

  Yomen snorted. "You were down there all that time, and you didn't read the plaque that the Lord Ruler left?"

  "Of course I did."

  "Then you know that there is nothing more in those caches," Yomen said. "They're all part of his plan, true. And for some reason that plan requires that men think he is dead. Regardless, you know now what he said. So, why take the city from me?"

  Why take the city from me? The real reason itched inside of Vin. Elend had always found it an unimportant one, but to her, it held powerful appeal. "You know full well why we have to take the city," Vin said. "As long as you have it, we have reason to conquer you."

  "It?" Yomen asked.

  Ruin stepped forward, curious.

  "You know what I mean. The atium. The Lord Ruler's supply."

  "That?" Yomen asked, laughing. "This is all about the atium? Atium is worthless!"

  Vin frowned. "Worthless? It's the single most valuable commodity in the Final Empire!"

  "Oh?" Yomen asked. "And how many people are there around to burn it? How many noble houses remain to play petty politics and vie for power by showing how much atium they can leach from the Lord Ruler? The value of atium was based in the economy of an empire, Lady Venture. Without the trappings of a reserve system and an upper class giving the metal implied worth, atium has no real value." Yomen shook his head. "To a starving man, what is more important-a loaf of bread, or an entire jar of atium he can't use, eat, or sell?"

  He waved for the guards to take her. They pulled her to her feet, and she struggled, holding Yomen's eyes.

  Yomen turned away from her again. "Those lumps of metal do me no good, save-perhaps-to keep you in check. No, the food was the real resource. The Lord Ruler left me the riches I required to establish his power again. I just need to figure out what he wants me to do next."

  The soldiers finally succeeded in pulling her away.

  I don't wonder that we focused far too much on the mists during those days. But from what I now know of sunlight and plant development, I realize that our crops weren't in as much danger from misty days as we feared. We might very well have been able to find plants to eat that did not need as much light to survive.

  True, the mists did also cause some deaths in those who went out in them, but the number killed was not a large enough percentage of the population to be a threat to our survival as a species. The ash, that was our real problem. The smoke filling the atmosphere, the black flakes covering up everything beneath, the eruptions of the volcanic ashmounts. . Those were what would kill the world.

  61

  "Elend!" Ham called, rushing up to him. "You're back!"

  "Surprised?" Elend asked, reading his friend's expression.

  "Of course not," Ham said, a little too quickly. "The scouts reported your approach."

  My arrival may not surprise you, Elend thought tiredly, but the fact that I'm still alive does. Did you think I'd run off to get myself killed, or did you simply think that I'd wander away and abandon you?

  It wasn't a line of reasoning he wanted to pursue. So, he simply smiled, resting a hand on Ham's shoulder and looking toward the camp. It looked strange, bunkered down as it was, ash piled up outside of it. It looked a little like it was dug into the ground several feet. There was so much ash. .

  I can't worry about everything at once, Elend thought with determination. I just have to trust. Trust in myself and keep going.

  He had pondered the mist spirit the rest of his trip. Had it really told him not to attack Fadrex, or was Elend simply misinterpreting its gestures? What had it wanted him to learn by pointing at his vial of metals?

  Beside him, Ham was regarding the mass of new koloss. To the side of the army, his other koloss sat-still under his control. Though he had grown increasingly adept at keeping a hold on the creatures, it was still nice to be back close to them. It made him feel more comfortable.

  Ham whistled quietly. "Twenty-eight thousand?" he asked. "Or, at least, that's what the scouts say."

  Elend nodded.

  "I hadn't realized how large the group was," Ham said. "With that many. ."

  Thirty-seven thousand total, Elend thought. More than enough to storm Fadrex.

  He began to walk down the incline, toward the camp. Though he hadn't needed much pewter to help him through the hike, he was still tired. "Any news of Vin?" he said hopefully, though he knew that if she'd managed to escape, she would have already found him.

  "We sent a messenger into the city while you were gone," Ham said as they began to walk. "Yomen said a soldier could come and confirm that Vin was still alive, and so we complied in your name, thinking it best if Yom
en thought you were here."

  "You did well," Elend said.

  "It's been a while since then," Ham said. "We haven't heard anything of her since."

  "She's still alive," Elend said.

  Ham nodded. "I believe so too."

  Elend smiled. "It's not just faith, Ham," he said, nodding toward the koloss that had remained behind. "Before she was captured, I gave some of those to her. If she'd died, then they would have gone out of control. As long as she lives-whether or not she has metals-she will remain bonded to them."

  Ham paused. "That. . would have been something good to tell us earlier, El."

  "I know," Elend said. "It's too easy to forget how many I'm controlling-I didn't even think that not all of those are mine. Post scouts, keep an eye on them. I'll take them back if they go wild."

  Ham nodded. "Could you contact her through them?"

  Elend shook his head. How did he explain? Controlling the koloss wasn't a subtle thing-their minds were too dull for much beyond simple commands. He could order them to attack, or to freeze, or to follow and carry things. But he couldn't direct them precisely, couldn't instruct them to speak a message or even how to accomplish a goal. He could only say "Do this" and watch them go.

  "We've had scout reports from the Central Dominance, El," Ham said, voice troubled.

  Elend looked at him.

  "Most of our scouts didn't return. Nobody knows what happened to Demoux and the men you sent-we hope they reached Luthadel, but the capital is in bad shape. The scouts who have returned bear some pretty frustrating news. We've lost many of the cities you conquered during this last year. The people are starving, and a lot of villages are empty save for the dead. Those who can flee to Luthadel, leaving trails of corpses on the road, buried in ash."

  Elend closed his eyes. But Ham wasn't done.

  "There are tales of cities swallowed by the rumbling earth," Ham said, voice almost a whisper. "King Lekal and his city fell to lava from one of the ashmounts. We haven't heard from Janarle in weeks; his entire retinue seems to have vanished, and the Northern Dominance is in chaos. The entire Southern Dominance is said to be burning. . Elend, what do we do?"