The Well Of Ascension Chapters 47-48
Entry posted by Child Bahkbar
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I have, at long last, reached the conclusion to the fourth Part, and I have even more questions than when I started it.
Part Four
Chapter 47
Vin stands on her balcony, disturbed by how un-bothered she sometimes is by all the lives she's taken. Bemoaning how complicated everything has become. She's stretched herself too thin, so she's had trouble succeeding in anything she's set out to accomplish recently. She doesn't even know what's right any more, and the Well is still out there, pulsing ever more intensely. Waiting for someone to come and free it's power. Her thoughts are a real mess.
Oreseur pads out to check up in her. When he inquires what she's thinking about, she replies "The end." No matter what decision she makes it'll be an end. Oreseur doesn't have any sage like wisdom for her. All he tells her that she's being excessively dramatic, and to just get on with it and make the decision. Excessively dramatic? How about the fact that if Vin isn't able to get her head on straight, the entire world may be doomed. That's excessively dramatic.
When she mentions that Sazed would have had more to say, Oreseur reveals that he doesn't much like Terrismen; They are pretentious, and their muscles are far too stringy. Its a testament to how far their relationship has come that Vin doesn't even flinch at his comment. I suppose she's finally come to accept her place in the food chain.
Vin returns to her room, and Zane arrives on her balcony shortly after, echoing Zod's words at the end of the previous chapter, he tells her that it's "Time to go."
He proceeds to bombard her with all his arguments from the past several weeks, but she's unwilling to abandon the city in its time of need. So Zane tries something new. He he tells her that she'll actually doing the city b favour by getting rid of Straff's one and only Mistborn. As if that weren't enough, He lies that Straff will think she's still in the city.
Vin seems to be convinced at first, and she reluctantly allows him to draw her away. When she draws her metals, though, Zane spins in alarm. This act if distrust alerts her to the fact that she's making a terrible mistake.
She changes her mind at the last minute, and telling Zane that she can't go. Zane for the very first time shows some emotion, demanding to know why. She replies with Trust.. Zane does not―and probably never will―trust her, but Elend loves and trusts her wholly and completely. Indeed, she'd have to be a cruel piece of work to betray that trust, and a complete and total moron to give up a relationship like that in exchange for this.
Zane confesses his love for her, but still she rejects him. He becomes desperately enraged. Zane has apparently never been rejected before, and seeing his failure―seeing that all his work on her was wasted―causes him to snap. He attacks her, complaining about how she was supposed to save him, and moaning that she has now forced him to continue on as Straff's tool. It's not all that bad, right? I thought he said he loved his father!
Vin has no way of fighting back against an atium burner, so she tries to get to Oreseur. When she reaches him, he, in seeming infraction of his contract, refuses to open his shoulder. That's when Zane reveals the big mystery. Oreseur is actually his kandra. Oreseur has been the impostor al along! His real name is Tensoon, and he's been with her ever since she fetched that dog's body. In other
Tensoon walks over to stand by his true master, his expression exuding shame. A kandra, kandra. Brilliant. Not once did that thought even occur to me. How did they kill the real Oreseur, though? I'm guessing that either Zane knows how to do it, or Kandra aren't forbidden from killing one another, so he just ordered Tensoon to do it.
Anyway, Vin tries everything, duralumin included, but Tensoon knew too much. He told Zane about the eleventh metal, and Zane managed to make some for himself.
Since he's going to kill her anyway, Zane spills everything he's done, all his lies and manipulations. All this time he's been telling her that Elend was using her when he's been trying to use her to save himself. She never should have trusted him. Then again, I've been saying that for pretty much the entire book.
Zane proceeds to give Vin a fairly well earned beating. He then throws her to the ground, kisses her, and stabs her in the side. damnation, the bastard's really gone off the deep end...oh wait.
Tensoon takes action, betraying his master and saving Vin's life by alerting Zane to Vin's knowledge of the kandra's secret. The warning functions as an extremely thinly veiled hint to Vin.
Vin reaches out, soothing tensoon with duralumin. She doesnt let up when he howls this time, and somehow takes control of him, using him to knock over Zane and get to the atium in his shoulder. She appears to have finally evened the odds, but it turns out that Zane's gift was mostly lead. He wasn't taking any chances.
It looks like this is the end for Vin, but then she sees it. The atium burner's weakness. Using atium, Zane is able to accurately predict the future, and moves in advance to intercept attacks that have yet to strike. Through Zane's premature movements, Vin is able to see what she is about to do and alter her attack at the last moment, taking Zane by surprise and stabbing him in the throat.
It switches to Zanes perspective as he lies dying at Vin's feet. He thought she could save him. She was the only person who Zod never gave him the urge to kill. To that thought, Zod replies that he wouldn't tell him to kill her. What does that mean? Why the hell not?
As Zane his last breath, Zod tells him something that's apparently funny. The "Mad Bastard" isn't actually mad at all, and he never was. The spike. The voice. His inquisitor esque blood thirst. It all must have it's roots in this entity. What are Zod's plans? Why does he want Vin to make it to the Well? What's he planning on doing with the power if he gets his hands on it? So many questions.
Also, how did Zane become this way? Could the lord ruler have put a part of himself in every inquisitor. Could he still live on in them, influencing their actions? Maybe he needs the power of the Well to fully revive himself? That would be pretty awesome. Although, it smacks of crackpot theorism to me. The Lord Ruler said that by killing him, they doomed the world. Could Zod be the "doom" that he spoke of? If that's the case, though, what about the deepness?
Anyway, that's enough theorising for now. Back to Vin. She watches Zane as he dies. That's it, then. No miraculous recovery, no dramatic last words. One minute he has the absolute advantage; the next he's mud. It sucks too. I kind of liked Zane in a disdainful way. I still wanted him dead, of course. I can hardly believe I'm actually sorry to see him go now.
Vin checks up on Tensoon. He's going to be fine. He'll use the old canine bones to repair himself, then return to his people―possibly for execution.
Vin, on the other hand, is bleeding heavily, and she's losing consciousness. Instead of going to Sazed for treatment, though, she runs to Elend.
With Vin's bloody choice out of the way, she can finally put this nasty business behind her and get back to what's truly important. Like finding a way to save Luthadel. Humph!
End of Chapter 47
Kwaan says Alendi was a good man, despite all the heinous crimes he apparently committed. His deeds apparently hurt him deeply, but he did what he had to. He followed the golden path. Sounds kinda like a certain other hero from a certain other series. His good heartedness did not save him from my all encompassing hatred, though.
Chapter 48
Elend is, working on duplicating Jastes's fake wooden coins. If he can manage to fetch more wood than Jastes, he hopes to be able to bribe the Koloss out of their bloodlust. Not bloody likely, but at least he's still trying.
By the way, Can koloss be soothed? It seems like Elend should be looking into that. Maybe he could have Vin capture one of the koloss from Jastes camp and set her and Breeze to work on figuring out what makes them tick. Then again. being creations of the Lord Ruler, they probably work the same way as the kandra.
Vin suddenly bursts in, sobbing, and bleeding everywhere, rambling about how she killed his brother. Elend is understandably alarmed, more so by her messed up condition than by what uses saying. Before asking any questions, he takes her to Sazed. He's probably never seen her this way. Nor will he ever again, most likely; the next time she's like this will probably be over his dead or dying body.
Sazed is sleeping when they come to him, but he's quick to awaken(possibly another awesome perk of being a feruchemist?) and get to work the dying Mistborn ― well, actually as Sazed points out. she's not dying. She isn't even hurt that badly, just a little scratched up, is all.
As Sazed works on her, Vin tells Elend something about Kelsier. She says that she's been focusing too much on his less admirable traits, but what was truly special about him was his ability to trust―to make good people into better people. That may be so, but he still had that dark hatred inside of him, and I couldn't help but despise a character who killed with such apparent pleasure. It was actually saving Elends life―thereby seemingly turning his back on his "inner Zod"―that redeemed him. In my eyes, anyway.
Vin goes on to say that Elend is a better man than Kelsier ever was, and that Kelsier could have learned a great deal from him. It's bloody well about time that she realised that.
She then surprises him by requesting that Sazed perform the shortest marriage ritual he knows, right here, right now. Sazed obliges, and they're wed right in Sazed's bedchamber, using the Larsta love oath, which apparently allows for no possibility of divorce. Not that they'll need one anyway. I must say that I didn't expect them to get married until at least the end of the book. The fact that it's happening now makes me even more sure that Elend isn't gonna make it.
After the incredibly short and actually-not-quite-so-impulsive-as-it-appears wedding, Sazed finishes treating Vin's wounds, and after an apology and a few kind words are shared, Sazed initiates plan "Save the Hero―I Mean King".
He claims to have figured out where the Well is, and he tells them that he can craft a map from his metal minds. He's obviously full of it, but Vin has no reason to believe that Sazed would lie, so she promptly announces that she :has. to go, despite the fact that she just got married not five minutes ago.
Sazed tells Elend that he should go with Vin, and lays out the plan he and the crew made up. Elend will flee, helping Vin to free the power of the Well, which Sazed claims will destroy the koloss, somehow change Vin, and save the entire world. It'll be the best honeymoon ever!
Meanwhile, back in Luthadel, Straff will take the city peacefully, and, after releasing the power at the Well, Vin and Elend will organise resistance from the outside. Sazed says that if Elend can convince the Synod that an alliance would be mutually beneficiary, they may be willing to offer military aid. I'd be surprised if the Terris even have an army.
With all the planning out of the way, Elend takes Vin and they leave to get their rest, fully intent on leaving the very next day. Sazed's plan seems to have been a smashing success.
The book now switches to Sazed's PoV, where it is revealed that―surprise!―everything he told them was a bunch of equine feces. Sazed returns to his room to begin work on the fake map that he promised to have ready for Vin and Elend.
Maybe this will turn out to be a positive thing? I mean, its pretty obvious that something, or someone, wants Vin to get to the Well. Perhaps leading her astray will give Sazed time to figure out who, what, and why before rushing to this so called Well of Ascension.
End Of Chapter 48
Most likely, now that the Zane problem has been dealt with, the book can begin to shift more of it's focus to the great mystery and the siege, which I imagine will be concluded in the next Part. I don't want to believe that Sanderson would simply kill off all of his characters like this, so there's got to be some short if salvation around the bend, right? I can't really see what it is now, though.
End of Part Four
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