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The Well Of Ascension Chapters 18-19


Child Bahkbar

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Part 2

Chapter 18

This chapter starts with a...Zane PoV? Well. Didn't see that coming. I get to see into the soul of the Creepiest of Creepies? I'm not sure I know how to feel about this...

At the very start of the chapter it's revealed that Zane is in fact Elend's bastard brother! He's is hanging in the mists, watching Elend through opened balcony doors. God is speaking to him; commanding him to put an end to his half brother once and for all. Yes, he hears the voice of god. Does this make him, some sort of prophet? This is quite fascinating. Quite fascinating indeed.

He's using some metal bars to keep himself in the air. In The Final Empire, Kelsier and Vin used a "Mistborn Road" someone had made between Luthadel and that other city. Could it have been Zane who put all those bars up? I wonder what he'd been up to back then...

Zane leaves his study of his brother receives a message from the Kandra informant in the Venture keep. He then returns to Straff's camp to present it to him. So it WAS Straff who sent that Kandra. Zane must have done the killing himself. I'd be willing to bet that it was Zane who left those bones in Vin's closet as well.

He walks through his father's camp, the god in his mind telling him to kill every single person he sees. I must say, the diety of this world is a lot more...blood thirsty than expected him to be. As a matter of fact, all he seems to talk about is killing. I'm starting to think this "god" Zane's hearing is just a figment of his troubled and oh-so-violent mind. In other words: He's mad...and arogant too, from the looks of things.

Zane's life has apparently been a difficult one. So difficult, in fact, that's it has literally driven him insane. I'd actually feel sorry for the poor bastard if it weren't for the fact that he's a total prick...and arrogant, too. He has the nerve to order one of the guards to SUMMON his father, the king. Straff doesn't come to him, of course, so he has no choice but to go to the command tent himself. Which is what he should've done from the start.

The moment Zane enters Straff's tent and lays eyes on his father, god starts urging him to KILL. His own father!? Now I know for certain that this isn't the voice of god! A real god would never tell Zane to murder his own father, because everyone knows the kinslayer is cursed in the eyes of gods and men!

Anyway, now that the sarcasm and not-so-vague references are out of the way, I'll move on. Straff asks Zane about the Atium. Apparently Straff sent Zane into the city to befriend Vin and find out if she has any. Sneaky bastard! Vin should have stayed away from him--or better yet, she should've killed him when she had the chance.

The voice in Zane's head continues to prod him. So much so that he has to cut a gash in his arm to keep from climbing over the table and wasting Lord Venture right here and now. He even burns tin, the crazy bastard! Apparently the only person he doesn't feel the URGE around is Vin. He thinks she might be able to "save him", whatever that means. Pity he's gonna be asked to kill her eventually and he'll probably die that day. Maybe that's what he means.

Zane has a serving woman bring them tea. It only takes one sniff of the drink for Straff to tell that it's poisoned, and exactly what kind of poison it is. Straff immediately has the guards slaughter the serving woman, but he knows Zane was behind it.

Straff tells Zane that he's mad, and that he doesn't know jack. He then proceeds to drink his poisoned tea. Wait, what? Am I missing something? Because it looks to me like Lord Venture just committed suicide!

After finishing his tea--must've been really tasty--he asks Zane about their spy in the Venture keep. Zane's still a bit rattled, of course, but he delivers the message to Straff. Apparently the Kandra believes himself to be suspected. Really? He left a freshly shat skeleton in a lady's closet. What the hell does he expect?

After Zane is dismissed from the tent, it switches to Straff's viewpoint, and we learn about some of his, um, interesting personality traits. You see, Straff is a very respectable man, with quite...refined tastes. So of course it just makes sense that he keeps at least fifteen mistresses with him at all times, and of course those mistresses must all be under 27 years old, because of course that's when all women begin to grow old and unattractive. How old is this guy again? I could've sworn he was at least in his forties!

Anyway, Straff calls for a woman named Amaranta shortly after Zane leaves the tent. Apparently he hasn't built up an immunity to that poison, but he does have a mistress who is quite skilled in the art of making antidotes. Amaranta arrives and fixes an antidote for him. The moment he drinks the concoction he starts to feel more healthy. He went through all this just to stay one step ahead of a man who doesn't even actually want to get ahead of him. I take back what I said about not feeling pity for Zane. With a father like him, it's no wonder he is the way he is.

What a messed up family.

Chapter 19

Sazed, thanks to excessive use of his steelmind, manages to traverse in three days what should have taken him 7 weeks. It took him five long, hellish, months to store all that speed, and now it's all gone. Not to mention he'll still have to travel another week at normal speeds to reach Luthadel. Was it worth it?

Sazed notices smoke rising in the distance somewhere between the hill he's standing on and Luthadel, so he climbs a nearby tree to get a view of whatever's causing it. The sight he sees when he reaches the top would be enough to make any ordinary man soil himself. It's an army; a large blue army made up entirely of koloss. And from the looks of things it's headed straight for Luthadel. Great.

I'm not entirely sure what the koloss are, but they're supposed to be really dangerous. They apparently aren't human, either. This must be where the inquisitors went, then. I'm guessing they're with this army right now. Who else would be able to keep these creatures under control.

Sazed draws on the information about the koloss from his copper mind. There isn't very much, but that's probably because the few people who did study them most likely died horrific deaths. He's able to gather from the coppermind that the koloss are very similar to humans in appearance... except that they aren't. The koloss, for one, never stop growing, and simply grow until their growth kills them. Which apparently doesn't take long, as the maximum life span for a koloss is barely more twenty years. Of course, savage creatures they are, the average koloss life span is considerably less than that.

Wow, these things sound pretty bad chull! Even Sazed seems to think so. As he uses his tinmind to get a closer look, we're presented a detailed description of these magnificently majestic creatures, and--they're...hideous. When I say "hideous", I don't mean slightly discomforting to think about, like trollocs, or Orcs. I mean these are the most repulsive appearing creatures I've ever read described on the written page. So disgusting, in fact, that I'm not even going to bother writing anything more about their appearance in this blog.

Once Sazed has had his fill of studying these atrociously hideous beings, he disables his tinmind and finds a koloss patrol standing around his tree. The koloss order him to come down from the tree--they can talk? Surprisingly, they don't make a corpse of him when he complies. Instead their leader just takes his bag and commands him to follow. I still can't believe they can actually talk!

While following the koloss back to their camp, Sazed flares is optimism. He starts wondering if maybe, just maybe, all the stories he heard about koloss brutality were just propaganda. Practically the moment he completes this thought, one of the koloss randomly and brutally murders one of its fellow soldiers. As I said, Sazed is always wrong about these things. When he asks the beast why it did this, it tells him it hated the creature, and then proceeds to take the dead koloss's sword, plus a little pouch it wore with it. How's that for propaganda?

Once they reach the camp, it gives it's free sword to a few of the smaller koloss and points back the way they came. Sazed, naive optimist that he is, wonders if they're on burial duty. Burial duty!? You have got to be kidding me! It's more likely that they're going to bring that body back to feed on!

Anyway, as they walk through the camp, Sazed notices just how violent the koloss are. They'll go from mellow to enraged and back again in the blink of an eye--It's almost as if they hear the voice of Zane's god. There are several unburied flayed corpses lining the camp. Perhaps those little ones weren't going back to eat that body, but to flay it. Maybe the koloss hand that skin on to their descendants or something. That would explain why their skin fits so poorly for the majority of their lives.

The koloss lead Sazed to a command tent. Luckily for him, it seems like the inquisitors aren't here after all. There are actually humans here! Sazed politely requests that they return his bags, but they say he'll have to ask the king. Ask the king? I wonder who this is? Who could have the power to command the KOLOSS! The most feared of all creatures. It must be some great and powerful lord, right?

No, it's Jastes bloody Lekal, Elend's old friend. This took me entirely by surprise. How in the hell did he get the koloss to follow him? Does it have something to do with those pouches they carry? Whatever it is he did, his hold over them apparently isn't strong enough to give him any peace of mind. He's obviously very uncomfortable with his current position. As he keeps pacing while he speaks with Sazed, and he's really fidgety.

Through this conversation, Sazed discovers that Luthadel is under siege. At first I thought Jastes was coming to rescue Elend, But no, he's actually planning on taking the city for himself! He claims Elend wouldn't make a good ruler. Wow, and he would? Elend's a pretty weak ruler, but he's definitely better than this buffoon. He's planing on bringing twenty thousand koloss to a crowded city for Pete's sake! Not even the Lord Ruler dared to do something like that!

The chapter ends when Sazed agrees to take a message to Elend in exchange for the return of his belongings, and leaves in one piece. The message probably goes something like this:

Dearest Elend,

I have somehow managed to gain control of an army of the most ferocious warriors in all the world. Unfortunately, I have also managed to lose most of my hair and my wits, so I am bringing them to Luthadel at once. This action will most likely result in the DEATH OF US ALL, but you need not fear, for I will be merciful, and if you surrender peacefully you will be treated with kindness.

Your friend,

King Jastes Lekal

End of Chapter 19

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