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The Well Of Ascension Chapters 20-21


Child Bahkbar

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Y'know, I just now realized I've been spelling the Terris woman's name wrong all this time. It's "Tindwyl," not "Tyndwyl." My eyes have been lowered by this shameful error.

Part 2

Chapter 20

Elend is having another gathering with the Crew(and Tindwyl). He has decided on a course of action that is mindbogglingly moronic. In spite of the Crew's opposition to the idea, he's actually planning on accepting Straff's terms for the meet. I know Elend wants Straff to think he's desperate, but this is just pure, unadulterated madness! Didn't Vin tell him about his father's previous attempt on his life? What makes him think Straff isn't just itching to finish the job now?

Elend isn't going to the meeting alone, though. No, he has to take this madness just one step further. He's going to be bring Vin along with him. Why? So she can die too? Has he forgotten the fact that Vin is out of atium? She'd be all but completely useless in a battle against another Mistborn, and they all know for a fact that Straff has a Mistborn with him! I can already tell this will all end in disaster.

Upon hearing this, Breeze seems to actually relax a bit, and remarks that Vin is the most dangerous Mistborn in the central dominance. If only that were true. Then this whole plan wouldn't seem quite so retarded. Unfortunately for them, I'm afraid the Mad Bastard holds title now. He at least has atium.

Dockson brings up the fact that meeting with Straff will remove has hold over the Parliament. Yes, an excellent point! A perfect excuse to forget the foolishness. Does Elend listen? Of course not. He just brushes it off, saying that it isn't an official parlay, so it doesn't count. Wow. I can't wait to see how that goes down with the assembly.[/i] Dockson seems thinks what he's doing is unwise also--at least he's got some sense. I can smell the disaster in the air now, and the stench is growing stronger with every page.

Vin chooses this moment to start thinking. I'd almost forgotten this was her PoV. She's noticed the changes in Elend, and seeing those changes has once again sparked the insecurities she continues to harbor inside, and an envy of Tyndwyl as well.

She begins to think about how the Impostor could be almost any one of the people in this room. She has apparently put off testing, her friends all this time because she's afraid of what she might find. I'm not sure the Kandra spy is a member of the Crew any more. If Straff was just having the kandra search for hints on the location of the Atium, it could very well simply be one of the serving women.

In the end Vin decides to stop being a pansy and begins to burn bronze. She immediately notices Breeze burning metal, but he was never a suspect in the first place. He's using his allomancy on Elend. That in itself is suspicious, so Vin burns tries to use duralumin to figure out exactly what he's doing to the king. Surprisingly, it works, and she discovers that he's the one who's been making Elend more confident. Vin thinks this somehow makes him a good man. I think this makes him a traitor! He's intentionally encouraging Elend to stick with his suicidal decision to go to this meeting. If he dies, Breeze will harbor much of the blame... I still like him, though.

Their discussion moves on to other matters, and Breeze informs Elend that the Assembly wants to speak with him about some counterfeit coins in the city. Elend decides to ignore them, and asks breeze to apologize to them for him. I think it stinks that Elend's Crew seems to have more say in what goes on in the city than the Assembly does. I'm sure it burns them, to have so much authority yet be spurned this way.

With that last dumb decision, this little meeting is brought to an end. Everyone starts to walk out, Vin leering at Tindwyl before she leaves. Why exactly does she dislike her again? I'd have thought she'd be Tindwyl's biggest fan, considering that everything Tindwyl done has been for Elend's own good. I don't even see any reason for her to distrust the Terris woman, She owes her freedom to Vin and the crew. It is quite doubtful that she'd turn on them after all they've done for her people.

Anyway, once everyone is out of the room, Elend asks Tindwyl how he did today. That's all it takes to get her started. She grills him on everything wrong about his mannerisms in the meeting, and from the way she puts it he didn't to very well at all. She tells him to stop letting his friends call him "El". She says they should call him "Your Majesty" instead, even in private. I don't know about that. I mean, what's the harm in letting them call him simply "Elend" in private? I do agree with the "El" thing, though. I can't believe he didn't stop them from using that name a long time ago. It's demeaning.

As soon as she's done putting the king in his place(ironic, innit?), Tindwyl moves on to the subject of Vin. She goes a bit far this time, suggesting that perhaps Vin isn't the right woman for him at all. Elend gets a little pissed at her, but she backs off rather quickly. Actually, she's surprisingly accommodating in his area. Does she have a spouse back at home, perhaps? When she remarks that Elend indeed does love Vin, he replies, in direct contradiction to what Zane told Vin, that he does love her even though he doesn't understand her all the time. Tyndwyl warns Elend that his relationship with Vin will be troublesome for him, and drops to subject. She probably shouldn't have brought it up at all in the first place.

Just before Elend gets the chance to tell Tyndwyl how his training sessions have been going, one of Clubs' soldiers arrives. He informs Elend that a "sort-of" messenger has arrived, claiming to be Cett's daughter. Is he sure it isn't just a beggar pretending to be Cett's daughter? I hope Clubs properly taught his men how to spot the differences between beggars and messengers! If Elend goes into that room to find a beggar there, he'll have no choice but to do something drastic to this guard.

Something drastic indeed.

End of Chapter 20

Kwaam drops a bomb in the post-chapter notes this time around. Apparently Alendi married a princess. Strange that he did not make even one mention of her in his logbook...

Chapter 21

Luckily for that strapping young soldier. the "messenger" really turned out to be Cett's daughter, Allriane! Breeze is in the meeting room with the rest of the crewmembers(minus Vin), and the moment she lays eyes on him she runs over and embraces him. So Ham was actually spot on when he jested that Straff threw Breeze out for getting his freak on with his daughter? Ha!

When Elend gets a good look at her he supposes that she may possibly be eighteen years old.I get the feeling that's just hopeful optimism on his part though, as she seems a bit younger than that... Elend introduces himself, then asks her if her father sent her---more optimism. She replies with a "not really", which roughly translates to, "I ran away from home to be with Breeze. We love each other, and there's nothing you can do to tear us apart!!". This definitely explains why Cett wants to see Breeze dead so badly. If I was in his position, I'd tear down the whole bloody western dominance to avenge my daughter's honor! ...and purity...

Elend has Allriane take a seat and elucidate. Sure enough, her story confirms my earlier translation. You see, prissy little noblewoman she is, she could not stand living in her father's war camp. The way she puts it, life was a living hell for her during those weeks of traveling. Not to mention dreadfully boring. That is, until Breeze came along. Yeah, I bet they did all sorts of fun things together then... So, yes, when Breeze was chased off, she, naturally followed him. She has now betrayed her own father and gone over to the enemy asking for asylum. I'm going to assume that when she says "asylum", what she actually means is mental asylum, and she needs to go to one because she's FREAKING INSANE!

Anyway, after their little chat, Elend decides to allow her to abide in the city. At least until they can figure out what to do with her. (A terrible decision, if I might add) She then hugs "Breezy" again, and allows the servants to lead her away to her chambers.

They sit in silence for a moment. then, starting with Ham, they all finally realize the horrific hilarity of the situation. Sure, there's no way in hell Cett's gonna agree to an alliance after this fiasco, but hey! At least they got a good laugh out of it. This may have just completely ruined Elends plan and doomed them all to slavery and death, and they're sitting here laughing about it.

M-maybe it isn't so bad? I mean, maybe Cett will be grateful that they didn't simply execute the girl. Who knows, might he actually even see this as a good thing? At the very least they could use her as a bargaining(read:bribing) tool. Elend could go up to Cett and be all like, "Look here. See how we didn't torture and execute your lovely daughter? See how she's still breathing? If you want her to stay that way you'll do everything I say." Yeah, that'll definitely work.

Anyway, Vin finally shows up, asking what the hell is going on. When they bring Vin up to speed on Breeze's association with the young lass, she is quite disturbed. Her exact words are, "That's disgusting, Breeze, you're old, she's young." Poetry. I couldn't have put it better myself.

Breeze continues to deny that there was anything between them, but I think it's a little late for denials. He and Vin begin to squabble, but Elend swiftly puts an end to that using his newly accuired kingship skills. The time has come to decide what to do about this...situation. Surprisingly enough, everyone looks to HIM for instruction. Looks like Tindwyl's training is already starting to pay off.

Breeze wants to let her stay. Not at all surprising considering that she's probably the only woman in the whole world who's willing to give him the time of day. The others, Elend included, think it might be best to give her back to Cett eventually, but Elend decides he's going to do what he thinks is right, which apparently means letting her stay.

End of chapter 21

Kwaam is starting to make Alendi sound like a mixture of Rand al'Thor and Anasurimbor Kellus--if that's even possible.

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I must admit to being kind of confused as to what Tindwyl's problem with Vin is.

I mean, Vin's side is pretty easy; Tindwyl's method of training Elend involves acting like a jerk towards him and Vin is violently overprotective of her boyfriend. Plus, introducing yourself to an overly-paranoid bodyguard by deliberately isolating their ward is such a spectacularly poor idea Tindwyl is lucky she avoided obsidian-induced heart failure within ten seconds of meeting Vin.

But I can't figure out Tindwyl's side.

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Well, to be fair, Tindwyl didn't meet with Elend until after Vin left, so she must have been at least a bit wary. Plus, she did leave right after Vin showed up.

Also, I don't think Tyndwyl necessarily has any problems with Vin as a person. As a potential queen on the other hand...

Your explanation for Vin's attitude makes sense, I guess, but she must be able to see that Tindwyl's harsh training methods have been doing Elend heaps of good so far.

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