Child Bahkbar

Part 3 Chapter 28 After that little shocker at the end of the previous chapter, Elend and the Crew--Tindwyl included--have decided to have a meting. Tindwyl seems to be having a bit of trouble grasping how they've gotten themselves into the position they're in right now. Yes, I know. It's hilarious. The assembly deposed him with the power HE vested in them. Is that ironic, or is there another, more fitting, word for this situation? Despite Elend's excellent reasoning behind giving the Assembly such authority, Tindwyl still thinks his laws are exceptionally dim-witted. Eh, she can suit herself. Elend created the first free government since the Lord Ruler's time--if not ever. It is one of the few accomplishments in this world that he can call his own. If she can't see the sense in this governmental system that's her problem, not his. Did I mention that this is actually showing from Vin's perspective? No? Well, it is, and Zane's words from the previous night continue to dominate her thoughts. In fact, she's so wonked up in the head that she actually isn't even all that disappointed about Elend's removal from office. She's even entertaining some very un-Vin-like fantasies. Thinking that now that Elend isn't king they can just run off somewhere, leaving all this behind. Ha! Anyway, the Crew begins crafting a plan to take the city back by force, but Elend won't stand for it. He says that, even as (former)king, he is still subject to the laws he created. The law states that if they don't chose a new king within a month they'll have to reinstate him, so, instead of making use of his military prowess, he apparently plans on guilt tripping the Assembly into electing someone else. What're the chances that they haven't chosen Penrod already? I mean, it's pretty clear that everyone digs that guy. Regardless of how pointless his plan is, Vin seems to be impressed by Elend's willingness to stand by his own law, finally accepting in her mind that Elend makes better king than Kelsier ever could have. Funny that it took him being deposed to get her to see that. Seriously, how was there ever even a question? How could anyone honestly think that Kelsier, a man with no experience or study in ruling a nation, could ever make a better king than Elend? Anyway, Elend suspects that one of the enemy kings might have been behind his deposition. Really? How the hell did he come to that conclusion? I suspect that his own negligence is what led the Assembly to this--or at least that was the biggest reason. Perhaps one of the kings gave them a little nudge, but that's probably all. Elend says he could use Sazed's help now, but Lestibournes apparently wasn't able wake him, and Tindwyl says that keepers like Sazed aren't supposed to take sides in political affairs anyway. She also tells them that if they were really his friends they wouldn't ask him to break his vows. Fair enough. We're back in Vin's head,where she is forcibly reminding herself that Elend continued to love her even back when he was convinced she was a thief. Huh. I was beginning to think she'd forgotten about that whole incident. She'd better be careful with this doubting business; this whole thing is starting to feel tragically familiar. Elend and Tyndwyl remain in the room after everyone else leaves. After apologizing for her earlier rude criticism, Tindwyl once again questions how this could have happened. It turns out Elend does see what he did wrong. He knows that ignoring the Parliament the way he did was moronic. He also knows that he offended Vin somehow. Somehow? He, knowing how insecure she already is, referred to her a "valuable resource", not a "respected and valued member of the team", but a resource. How much more thick can he get? Erm, anyway, during their discourse, Tyndwyl reveals to Elend exactly why Vin rejected his marriage proposal. She also warns him that his relationship with her may pose a serious problem for him in the future, and that he needs to decide which he values more, his love for Vin, or his love for his country. Oh, and Tindwyl apparently has children as well. Why she is playing with Elend and the crew instead of parenting them I can not tell, but I'm sure her reasons for being here are completely logical and acceptable. End of Chapter 28 Kwaam wrote that Alendi "just seemed to fit" the role of the Hero. Oh really? Well, there's no use crying over spilled milk--which, now that I think about it, is exactly what he's been doing this entire time. Chapter 29 This chapter opens with Vin sitting in the mists with Oreseur like she does every single night, and, thankfully, she hasn't met with Zane the Insane since their dinner with his pig father a week ago. Oreseur has taken note of the fact that Vin sleeps under four hours a night, which obviously isn't enough for anyone, not even a Mistborn. Vin has too much on her mind to sleep, though. Yeah. There's that mysterious thumping that she hasn't told anyone about, there's also the Misty Death, about which she hasn't breathed a word, and let's not forget her risky and unhealthy relationship with the maniacally insane bastard Zane, which she also hasn't told a soul about. Speaking of Zane, Oreseur's not nearly as taken in by him as Vin is. He tells her that her fixation with the man is "disconcerting", and he warns her not to allow herself to be influenced by his lies. Vin considers this, but decides that Oreseur isn't Mistborn, so he just doesn't understand. Good God! She can jump really high and see stars! Big frakking deal! How exactly does that make her so different from everyone else? It's like saying an athlete isn't human because they're in great physical shape! Vin is touched by Oreseur's concern, though, and offers to allow him to return to being a man if he wishes. Unsurprisingly, he declines, claiming that it's unpleasant to have to change bodies often. Sure. Oreseur brings up the fact that it's about time for him to hit the can, so Vin prepare to leave the roof and get some down time. Before she goes, though, she gazes out into the mists, and suddenly comes to a revelation about what the deepness was! I hope she isn't going to say it was simply the mists. Perhaps it had something to do with them, sure, but plain mists, or even malevolent, homicidal mists, would be kind of a letdown. I suppose I'm about to find out, though. End of Chapter 29 Kwaam had apparently already begun to doubt his claims by the time the other Worldbringers came to accept his declaration, but his pride kept him from admitting it. Shame on him! Chapter 30 This one's a Sazed PoV(Yes!!), and He's finally gotten the chance to study the rubbing he made all those chapters back. Unfortunately most of what he reads here has already been stated in Kwaam's post-chapter notes. It is nice to read it all uninterrupted, though, and there is some new stuff. Sazed reads that the discovery of Alendi was what elevated Kwaam to the position of World Bringer. He apparently already knew that the World Bringers back then were basically what the Keepers are today. Kwaam admitted in his writings that Alendi was not the hero, and that he himself was a fraud. Also, even though he betrayed the man, he still hoped that Alendi , the false hero, would succeed in his quest. Ah, but if he had actually succeeded, would that not have made him a true hero after all? Perhaps not the prophesied Hero of Ages, but I doubt anyone would care at that point. Kwaam even went so far as to say he was going to denounce Alendi, but was too much of a craven to do it. Why!? Tell us why, gorram it! Sazed abruptly leaves his work and opens his window to find Vin sitting outside. She enters the room without his express invitation, snoops around, touches his work, makes a general nuisance of herself. She eventually gets to the point of her visit and asks him what the deepness was. He he replies with a bunch of speculation by scholars, and other people who've studied these things. They had apparently considered everything, so when Vin tells him it was the mists, Sazed isn't at all taken by surprise. The speculators had considered that as well, and they found plenty of holes in the theory. Despite Sazed's perfectly reasonable doubts, Vin still says she thinks the "deepness" was actually the Mist come permanently, and she still forcibly claims that her idea isn't just a theory, but a fact. What's with the cocky attitude? What makes her so sure that she knows better that those who have studied this over the past several hundred years? Sure they didn't have the logbook and it's few mentions of the deepness like she does, but that's not reason enough for her to be going on the way she is. Anyway, Sazed is still doubtful of her assumptions, so she whips out her notes and finally brings up the Misty Death. She tells Sazed that she sees it too, just like the man in the logbook. Would you look at that! She's finally told someone! She's been seeing the damned thing for months, but she's just now finally flapped those lips and spilled the beans. Too bad the only reason she did it was to win an argument... She thinks that because Rashek killed Alendi before he could fulfill his destiny, the Hero of Ages must have to come again. Sazed sees where she's going with this, and he thinks she's getting a little ahead of herself.(As do I!) With that, Vin drops the matter. She starts to regret even bringing it up, but Sazed says her theories have "great merit". I, for one, hope her theories are incorrect, and she isn't some magical hero come and save the world. The whole "main character, driven by thousand year old prophecies, vanquishes evil and saves the day" thing has been done to death already. I'm hoping for something fresh. Something exciting! Once that discussion is over, they somehow find themselves on the subject of Tindwyl, and her general disapproval of Sazed's lifestyle. Apparently Tindwyl is a member of a group of Keeper elders who guide the Terris called the Synod. Despite this, Vin, in her youthful ignorance, says he doesn't have to listen to her, and that she's the type of person who acts like she knows more than she does. Kind of like, oh, I dunno, Vin in this whole chapter! Sazed replies that Tindwyl is "wise", but Vin just shoots back that she is hard on Elend. As if that somehow proves her point. Everyone and his blind grandpa could see that Tindwyl's harsh lessons have improved Elend's character immensely. She knew exactly which buttons to push to make him excel as a king. How is that not in itself evidence of her genius? Sazed tells Vin not to be so judgmental, because Tindwyl lived a very hard life. Harder, even, than Vin herself. Tyndwyl was a "breeder" as they call them. She spent twenty long years as little more than a baby machine, giving birth to twenty children. Twenty potential Feruchemists. A hellish life, but apparently she chose it-- or at least the other keepers chose it for her. The way they saw it, she was privileged to be able to serve the keepers in such way. Hearing this, Vin whines that's it's just "another reason for you to feel guilty". She's either saying it's another reason for Sazed to feel guilty for breaking the rules, or that it's another reason for her to feel guilty about judging Tindwyl without knowing anything about her. I hope she meant the latter. Now, I know I'm being a little harsh Vin, but...what can I say? I just can't help but jump at the opportunity to hate on a character other than Elend for once. It's in my nature to trash the protagonists in every series I read! I can't help it! End of Chapter 30 Kwaam wrote that his pride may have doomed them all. So, what did Alendi do? I'd say that this "Alendi" he speaks of was actually Rashek, but that would make this book's twist exactly the same as the last one's, and there isn't enough evidence to support that theory anyway. So...

Part 2 Chapter 27 Elend decides not to make a strike, and Straff's having trouble finding any reason not to put him to death right now. The ruler that takes his place will probably be much more accommodating, and he claims that he and Cett have already made a treaty anyway. Elend thinks he's bluffing, but, try as he may, he still cannot get Straff to budge. Why is the being so stubborn? Straff says he won't let Elend have the city because home is where the heart is, and his home is in Luthadel. Oh, and he's an evil bastard who simply cannot stand the idea of his only true born son ruling the city in his stead. Elend tries to plead with his father, but Straff has become firm in his resolve. Elend will die, and if the assembly doesn't hand the city over then, he'll just have to take it by force. With that, Elend comes to the realization that his father just sees him as a corpse waiting to happen. I do too. Straff says he never intended for Elend to leave this meeting alive, regardless of how it went, but he's grateful to Elend for bringing Vin. He intends to take her for his own shortly after Elend has been done away with... Is he mad? Well, I mean, of course he is, but has he forgotten that she's Mistborn? He'd have a better chance forcing himself upon a Koloss. The very thought of Straff trying to have his way with Vin causes Elend to snap, bursting into a fit of laughter as Straff calls for the guards. Elend takes this final opportunity to tell his father what he really thinks of him. It's then that he sees he sees what he's been doing wrong all this time, and begins threatening his father. Yes, the very man who is about to have him executed. Vin is still standing just outside the tent, listening in on the conversation. To be honest, I'm surprised she didn't rush in the moment Straff called for the guards I guess she does possess a bit of self restraint after all. Vin hears Elend tell Straff that the actual reason he came here was to get her close to him. To kill him. Straff doesn't buy this, as Vin is just a "wisp of a girl", so that automatically makes her less of a threat. He really is a moron if he thinks size matters when it comes to Mistborn. Elend reveals that he and Vin have been manipulating Straff from the very beginning, and he has Vin tamper with his emotions to prove it. Vin, using Duralumin, clears Straff's head of all feeling, leaving him dead inside for just an instant. Elend, once again, claims that she's the most powerful Mistborn ever. He's making her out to seem like some kind of goddess of destruction, and Straff's completely falling for it. Elend says that if he dies, Vin will murder every single person in Straff's command. Zane chooses this moment to join Vin outside the tent, recycling his same old talking points. Elend has pretty much proven him right with what he's doing now. Vin told Zane before that Elend would never order her to slaughter anyone, yet here he is, doing exactly that. Vin says he's just bluffing, but if Elend dies tonight, what will she do? Will she do nothing based on the assumption that he didn't man what he said, or will she follow the command and lay waste to Straff's men? Quite the dilemma, isn't it? During their conversation--the same one they have every single time they get together--Vin notices that Zane has scars running up his arms, and assumes he earned them in the Pits of Hathsin. I seriously doubt that; not even Straff is wicked enough to put his own !son through something so horrible. No, insane creep that he is, those scars are most definitely self inflicted. Probably from all the times he's cut himself to quell his homicidal urges. Zan doesn't deny her claims; he just tells her he "understands her", then runs off. At that same time, inside the dining room, Straff tells Elend that he's free to go. I...do...not...believe it! Straff stands watching Elend's carriage pull away. The meeting this night has vexed him deeply. He cant help thinking about Vin's awesome power. Heh. If only he knew it was just duralumin. Zane shows up, making some snarky remark, and Straff says that he doesn't believe Elend was telling the getting when said he doesn't have the atium, he's not gonng to take his chances attacking the city while Vin still breathes. When Zane says he may require some assistance in defeating her, Straff tells him to use some of his bastard siblings. Apparently Straff has other misting offspring, and he doesn't mind if a few of them die in achieving his goal. What a messed up family. Elend is ecstatic, to say the least. He's acting like he's won the freaking war, or something. How pathetic can one man be? If it weren't for his exploitation(and exaggeration) of Vin's prowess he'd be rotting in some ditch right now, so why is he so proud of himself? Vin doesn't share any of his excitement, and her doubts and worries continue to stack up. It's only a matter of time before she breaks under to pressure and does something regrettably stupid. Elend notices how down she's feeling. He tries to cheer her up, but most of what he says just makes her feel even worse. When arrive back in the city and are greeted by Ham and the rest. They ask him how it went, and he, gesturing towards Vin, tells them they've overlooked one of their "greatest resources". He just choose the worst possible word combination he possibly could at this moment. Sure, he doesn't know any better, but still... Everyone complements him on his brilliance, even though it was Vin and her use of duralumin that actually saved the day. When Spooks jokes that he was looking forward to becoming king with Elend gone, Elend replies that he isn't planing on vacating his seat for a good long time, Which is funny because Dockson is right here, and he has brought an...interesting letter from the Assembly for Elend. It reads: Dear Former King, You sir, are an chull. Sincerely, The Assembly That Just Deposed You. Nah, I kid. The letter was actually worded in a quite polite manner. The gist of it is the same, thougB.C. Elend is no longer king. End of Chapter 27 End of Part 2 I knew he shouldn't have kept brushing the Assembly off the way he did. Nothing good ever comes of disrespecting important people. They can only hope his deposition isn't final. Maybe this is just a warning, and they're willing to talk this out? It's doubtful, but...maybe? Looks like exciting times added coming up. Hopefully I'll be able to read more often during the next couple of weeks, because I'm really looking forward to seeing what new twists this book has in store.

Ah, right. I can't believe I missed that.

Three more chapters into my leisurely read through of the book. Part 2 Chapter 24 The chapter opens with Vin sitting atop keep venture, pondering the relationship between the Misty Doom and the deaths Sazed spoke of. Pondering alone what they all should have pondered together. If any lives are lost thanks to her bloody secrecy... Was there any good reason not to bring it up back then? Goodness, man! She can still hear can also hear that thumping coming from the mountains. I'm guessing this is supposed to that Vin may be the "Hero reborn", but it seems too obvious. There's got to be more to this. At least, I hope there is. Didn't Kwaam imply that there may be more than one Hero? Hopefully he wasn't simply referring to Vin being the second one. It switches to the mad bastard's point of view here. He and Vin have apparently been having these nightly sparring sessions for months now! After all the time they've spent sparring together, Zane isn't sure if he'll be able to dispose of her when he's ordered to. I'm sure he father wouldn't be pleased to hear him say that... Hey! I've got an idea! What if Zane is the second Hero? What if he and Vin are destined to hook up and, hand in hand, vanquish the forces of darkness! Whooping chull and chewing this century's version of Winterfresh! Anyway, Vin apparently hasn't met up with him in a while, so Zane sets out to find her. It doesn't take him long, as she's still sitting on keep Venture doing absolutely nothing. He's unable to successfully sneak up on her, but he shouldn't feel too bad about that. Vin probably has better tin-ears than your average allomancer. Now that Vin's back on the page, the book immediately returns to her perspective. Zane wants to "spar" some more, but Vin just isn't in the mood for it right now. Or ever again, I hope. Can't she see that he's bad news? It seems like Oreseur's the only one who can see this guy for what he truly is. Vin and Zane proceed to have some friendly discourse, mere meters away from where Elend sits, completely oblivious to the danger lurking out his window. Zane could assassinate him right now if he wanted to, but fortunately for Vin(and Elend), all he ever wants to do his blather on and on about his usual talking points, this time using a rather clever analogy about Mistborn, coins, and devaluation. It looks like his constant repetition is finally starting to pay off; Vin seems to be becoming quite taken by him. She even begins to take notice of how manly and confident Zane is compared to Elend. Indeed he is, of course. There are many manly traits, but madness is the most manly of them all. The chapter ends when, despite her steadily growing desire to keep him around, Vin let's Zane leap off into the night. This is getting out of hand. She claimed she wanted to turn him to her side, but it seems to me like he's the one turning her. Chapter 25 Vin is awakened from her peaceful slumber by a redneck house alarm. Moments later Tindwyl struts in, announcing that they need find a gown to adorn her in for the meeting with Straff. Yes, Vin's wardrobe is dreadfully dull. It would be a crime to have an informal meeting with her future father in law in those shabby trousers that she so unfashionably refers to as clothes. Vin is defiant at first, but, of course, in the end she agrees to get dressed and go shopping with Tindwyl for some proper clothing. We all know that deep down inside she adores those fancy dresses. Haunted by Zane's cogent words from the previous night, Vin walks down the hallways in search of Tindwyl. She finds her with Alrianne and Lestibournes, who are apparently coming along for the ride. Lestibournes gets to be the poor, underfed packman, while Allriane is the mentally handicapped noblewoman from the West. Vin confirms that Spooks isn't the impostor, they enter the carriage, and off they go. Oreseur gets to come along too, and Vin actually treats him like a human being for once. Yes, the first time anyone treats him with any true respect is when he's in the body of a dog. I sense the irony, and it's as sharp as the stench of fresh dung... That's disgusting. I shouldn't have used that analogy. I apologies. During their short and wonderfully interesting carriage ride, Allriane asks beautifully awkward questions and makes outrageously uncomfortable statements. They chat, they laugh, and just have an altogether delightful time. In fact, Vin has so much fun that she decides she has to go shopping with Allriane on a weekly basis from now on... As soon as they arrive at the Market district, Allriane excitedly flutters away, taking Spooks with her. Vin makes a disparaging remark about her once she's out of hearing range, but Tindwyl tells her not to be so mean, as the silly little noblewoman is simply a byproduct of her pampered upbringing. Aren't we all? Especially Vin, with her inbred insecurities and malignant secrecy. Not to mention the nosiness. That said, Allriane is a little on the stupid side. They proceed to enter the dress shop, where Mamma Tindwyl educates Vin on the concept of self acceptance, and teaches her to Dig A Little Deeper, 'cause her views on life are a bit...shallow, to be honest. We also find out why Vin refused Elend's hand in marriage. It all comes down to low self esteem. Although, if she truly believes she's not right for Elend, she should just dump him. Leading him on like this when she doesn't see a future together seems just a wee bit selfish to me. Kind of cruel, too. Anyway, once their little chat is through, Tindwyl gives the dressmaker some specifications for a dress suitable for a Mistborn, and Vin tries on one of the dresses already available. She's apparently "the most graceful thing" the dressmaker has ever seen, and Tindwyl thinks so too. Vin then questions Tindwyl's "niceness facade". Yes, she's mean to Elend, so that means she must be a nasty old hag on the inside. Tindwyl replies that she's just giving the pampered little bastard what he deserves, but Vin's in need of...softer treatment. Sounds perfectly fair to me. Progressive views or not, Elend is still a noble. Lestibournes alerts the group of a crowd gathering outside. The Suvivorists must've somehow found out she was here. God and Brandon Sanderson know how they pulled that off. What, do they have people watching each and every carriage in the city to see if she's in it? Vin takes cover initially, but Tindwyl―and Allriane, shockingly, point out that hiding is not only silly, but counterproductive as well. So she―and Allriane, shockingly, go out to confront the crowd. Vin exits the building, and seeing the people's helpless uncertainty, she can't help but speak words of comfort to the restless crowd. She claims that everything is under control, and that she and Elend will protect them. Please. Elend's hardly capable of protecting the hairs on his own head, and Vin isn't much better off without Atium. The crowd knows this, and they get a bit rowdy, but Vin shuts everyone up with an epic display of Metal Bending, then rushes back inside before she can be pressured into blessing any more babies. That's when she hears the warning bells. One of the other armies has chosen this exact moment to strike! Oh, the irony! Here it switches to Elend's viewpoint. Straff's army has attacked, and the Luthadel garrison is pathetically unprepared. Clubs must have been seriously stretching the truth when he made the claim that this army would be capable of fending off a horde of rabid old women, because it's pretty clear now that they wouldn't be able to handle even that much. The "battle", if you can call it that, is so embarrassingly one sided that I actually feel kind of bad for reading it. Straff's allomancers are easily able to bring a battering ram to the gate, get hooks up onto the wall, and kill several of Elend's men; all with very few casualties of their own. If it weren't for Vin's timely arrival, they probably could've taken the whole wall. Luckily for the Luthadelans(Can I call them that?), this was just a test. The purpose of this attack was only to feel out the cities defenses, and the army retreats just as all hope seems lost. I'm sure Lord Venture will be quite pleased to hear how this little experiment went down. The message is pretty damnation clear. Straff can take the city whenever he wants, and with how pathetic Elend's army is, he could most likely do it and still have enough men to fend off Cett's army as well. Yup, looks like they're royally screwed... get it? Chapter 26 The day of the meet has finally arrived, and Vin is busy preparing for their dinner with the pervert of perverts. Oreseur thinks this whole thing is terribly unwise, and I agree wholeheartedly. I know they want Straff to think they're desperate, but this is not the way to go about it. If there's such a thing as an evil man, Straff is it. They must know this. They must know that he'll have them executed without batting an eye if it pleases him. Once Vin adorns her specially tailored Mistborn dress, she chats with Oreseur for a little while. During their banter, he makes the claim that he's a kandra, not a man. That's funny; I distinctly recall him saying that he was a man back when Vin commanded him to take on his current form. What changed? Is he only a "man" when he feels like it? Over to Elend's perspective now. Yay! He's in the process of denying Ham's request to tag along when Dox arrives with news from the Assembly. They are apparently pretty pissed at him for missing their meeting tonight. Um, couldn't he request that they, perhaps, postpone the meeting until he gets back? Does he just not care about what goes on at those gatherings? I mean, can't they do things to him if he annoys them too much? Shortly after this, Vin arrives in her brand new dress and they head off. Elend's finally going to meet his maker. I didn't think the day would come so soon, but he's going to die now. I can just... I know it! The next couple pages during their trip show what will most likely be Elend and Vin's last pleasant words with each other, and what'd'ya know? Vin seems to have learned absolutely nothing from her time with Tindwyl. She still sees the dress―and all the mannerisms that come with it―as a facade. Elend is completely supportive of her regardless, though. She should be wallowing in guilt for ever doubting him. Once they enter Straff's camp, it becomes apparent that he's been using Obligators to administer his army. Of course! No matter how much Elend builds him up in his mind, in the end, the father is just as inexperienced as the son is. Except that he's less stupid. The carriage stops in front in a huge tent, and there he is. The object of Elends hatred. the great and magnificent Lord Straff Venture! Manliest of manly-men, and winner of the "Worst Father of the Year" award thirteen consecutive times. He's more than a little surprised that his son actually showed up. To be honest, I'm more than a little surprised that Elend is still breathing. After a brief and heated exchange, Straff leads them into the dining hall. He knows Vin's an allomancer, he knows she's soothing his emotions, and he knows she tickles his fancy too. She's acting really strange, pretending to be fazed by the sight of Straffs shabby skaa servants, and acting like she's actually bothered by Straff's belittling racist remarks. The feast is prepared shortly after they arrive, and Straff gets right down to business. He allows Elend to give his reason for this little visit. Elend seems to have thought this part out quite well. He makes himself seem like a pathetic poser, desperate for power, fame, and, most importantly, a way out. He tells Straff that they need to join forces to vanquish Cett. That together they could pulverize the Western dog! Straff refuses the offer, of course. Atium. Its all about the atium, and Elend hasn't even mentioned it, yet. Elend says he hasn't spent he atium because he doesn't want to "attract sharks". A lame excuse, if I've ever heard one. The sharks are here and he still hasn't pulled out his stash. Its around this this time that Straff has a small teenage girl join him at the dinner table. Once again, the message is quite clear, and I can't help but cringe. Straff tells Elend that if he gives him the atium―all of it―he'll agree to the alliance. Elend obviously can't do that, so Vin speaks up and admits that they don't have any, and they never did. She apparently spilled the beans to give Straff less of a reason to attack the city. Makes sense, I guess. There's no way Elend could have convinced Straff that he was going to hand over that atium. Elend tries to explain to Straff that he's be very secretive about the location of the stash. So secretive, in fact, that not even Vin knows about it. It's a pathetic ruse, but that's probably what he's going for. Straff doesn't buy it, of course, and he orders everyone besides Elend out of the room, seeming quite amused as he does it. The chapter ends when the flap is closed and Elend and Straff are left alone at the dining table. Ah well. That's it, I suppose. They tried, but this obviously isn't working. Elend might as well just make a desperate attempt on Straff's life right now, because, let's face it, he's Pretty Much Dead Already. At least that way he might be able to deny his father the pleasure of outliving him. End of Chapter 26 Alendi was married to a princess, but fathered no children. He went into war, but not of his choosing. Oh, and he was apparently Ta'veren as well. I never would've guessed he was such a great man based on his attitude in that journal he wrote. Honestly, it's hard to believe he was the one who wrote it.

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.

To more chapters into the book. Thanks to my laptop's treachery and my own incompetence, I was forced to write this blog twice, so I'm sorry if this one's even more poorly written that usual. Heh. Part 2 Chapter 22 It is a dark and misty night. Ham finds himself leaving the the Venture keep. Walking out into the darkness without so much as a torch to light his way. His duty this evening is to check up on the guard towers surrounding the keep. Mere moments after he leaves the protective illumination of the lamps surrounding the building, a blood curdling, inhuman howling resounds in his ears. He spins, gasping in terror and alarm as Oreseur and Vin leap howling from the mists, Teeth bared. Daggers gleaming. Ham burns pewter, but is no match for their mad intensity. Inescapable ferocious canine teeth sink deep into flesh. Glittering glass knives cleave flesh from bone. Death comes swirling down. Well, that's what might've happened had this not all been an elaborate scheme by Vin to figure out if Ham is the Kandra spy. In actuality, Oreseur lands harmlessly in the mists near Ham, and Vin waits to reveal herself until after she feels the allomactic pulsing reverberating from him. I guess I was wrong; Ham isn't the impostor after all. I'm not complaining, though. I like ham. When he sees Vin, Ham asks her if she's seen unusual activity this night. She tells him she hasn't, and claims she'd let him know if there was. Really? Kind of like she informed him about the mist spirit that nearly killed her a while back? Or perhaps the mad bastard she's been sparring with every damnation night? Now that she knows he's himself, Vin lets Ham know she's out of atium, and asks him if there's any way survive against a Mistborn who's burning atium. He tells her the only way he knows is to either kill them before hey get the chance to start burning, or to get them into an inescapable trap. She could also, y'know, use duralumin to rip the metals straight from their stomachs. Or is that too dishonorable? After that enlightening exchange, Vin runs off with Oreseur. Once they're out of hearing range, She explains to Oreseur what the point of that ambush was. You mean she didn't tell him beforehand? Why the hell not? Once they're safely on the rooftop, she asks Oreseur if her scheme to uncover the impostor will even work. He replies that if she senses allomancy coming from someone, that person is not a kandra. That doesn't necessarily mean kandra can't use allomancy, though, only that she wouldn't be able sense them if they did. Oreseur then brings up the question I've been asking for a while, "why do you hate me?". It turns out his consumption of Kelsier isn't her true reason. No, the actual reason she hates him is because he knew all along what Kelsier had been planning, yet told no one. Does she honestly think he'd break his precious Contract for a bunch of rebellious skaa who see him as a "thing" and treat him like trash? Vin asks Oreseur if he ever even cared for kelsier at all--why should he have? Kelsier was just another master to him, and Oreseur resented all of his masters. Vin tries to defend Kelsier's honor, but she soon realizes how unfair she, and all of the crew, have been to Oreseur since the moment they met him. Oreseur played what was possibly the most vital role in the rebellion, yet he got absolutely nothing for it. Instead he was given to Vin, who despised him and placed him in this ridiculous dog body. Vin now begins to see how much the two of them have in common. Like Vin, all of Oreseurs previous masters feared, loathed, and abused him. He actually had it even worse than she did, though, because his masters didn't have to worry about killing him if they got a little carried away with the beatings. Sounds like he had it really rough. I can understand why he's so cynical after all he's been through. Vin tries to tell Oreseur he doesn't have to hide any more; that he doesn't have to hate all humans for what his evil masters did to him, but she's not doing as good of a job as Kelsier would have. He tells her that she was able to fit in because she's human, but kandra are different. He goes on to explain that Kandra used to secretly dwell with humanity, but the Mistborn back then somehow found a way to uncover them. Once the humans learned of their existence, they began the extermination process. That's why the Kandra devised the Contract. By becoming completely subservient, they were able to convince the humans to cease hunting them. I was quite is quite disturbed upon hearing this, and so was Vin. She offers to free Oreseur of his contract, but unfortunately that wouldn't do him much good, as according to kandra law he would just have to go find another master. So Vin just apologizes for her resentful attitude towards him. Good riddance. Maybe now he'll finally get the respect he deserves. Now that the nastiness between them has finally been put to rest, Vin's mind begins to wander onto different matters. She thinks she could solve this whole siege problem by simply assassinating the two enemy kings.. Of course, there's no knowing what kind of chaos that might cause. Some even worse tyrants would probably rise in their places. Not to mention that without atium there's no way she'd ever get to Straff. Not while his crazy son is still breathing, anyway. After a good deal of pondering, Vin begins to burn bronze. She hears a pulsing in the distance similar to that of the Misty Death, except more powerful and much farther away. It's actually kind of like the thumping Alendi heard... Oreseur interrupts her thoughts to alert her to the sound of footsteps coming down the street. When Vin goes down to investigate, she finds a tall dark stranger. When she sneaks up behind the man, she finds that he actually isn't a stranger at all. Sazed has finally returned, and he bears dark tidings. size="4"]Chapter 23[/size] Elend had been up working on a proposal to present to the parliament explaining his "informal" meeting with Straff when they brought Sazed to him. So he's seriously going through with that? The Assembly won't take kindly to this at all. Sazed is having a late dinner with the Crew, telling them all about his travels. When he alerts them to the approach of the Mad King and his formidable koloss army, he also mentions that twenty thousand koloss is apparently worth more than 50,000 ordinary men. Sounds about right to me; those things are freaking huge! Unfortunately, no one has any idea how Jastes is controlling them. The Lord Ruler's hold over the creatures was probably somewhat supernatural, as Ham says that shortly after his death the koloss in the south went berserk, slaughtering without mercy or discrimination. Breeze backs this up, telling them about how Cett's koloss garrison went mad as well, and managed to kill four times their number before they were subdued. Oddly enough, Sazed doesn't even mention the inquisitors who are traveling in this direction. Did he forget? Did the fact that several of the most dangerous beings on the planet are headed this way slip his mind? Breeze thinks they should just wait for him to arrive, as the koloss might lose control and attack one of the other armies. If Jastes does come and they end up fighting each other, the battle would be brutal. Who knows, it might even weaken their armies enough for the Luthadel garrison to stand a chance. Dockson says they should worry About what's happening now, and continue with the plan. Who knows, maybe the imminent threat of Jastes's koloss army will make them more willing to accept an alliance. Sazed moves on to his darker premonitions. When he informs the group of his investigation into the mist-related deaths, Elend notices Vin listening intently. While the others are skeptical of Sazed's claims, she doesn't say anything at all. Wouldn't this be a pretty good time to tell them about her encounters with the Misty Death? Allriane chooses this time to show up. She claims she heard voices, although she shouldn't have been ably to hear anything from where she was sleeping. Plus they're having a pretty small dinner so they probably made even less noise preparing it than usual. When she asks what's going on, Breeze just tells her to go to bed and not to disturb the king. Elend notices that she was obviously eavesdropping. Here's a crackpot theory. What if she's actually a tin eye, or worse, Mistborn. Wouldn't it be something if this whole thing with Breeze, and her running off to be with him, was all just some elaborate scheme by Cett to get her into the cty? Doubtful, I know. But still... After those rather discomforting words, Sazed proceeds to eat his meal, and most of the group separates. Elend notes that Vin brought Oreseur to the meeting this time. I notice that even he refers to the kandra as "it". Pity. Elend then asks Vin what she thought of Sazed's stories. She simply replies with, "I'll tell you later", which means "I'll tell you when I feel like it", which actually means "You'll never get a word out of me!" Vin basically tells him the night is dark, and full of terrors, and returns to her night vigil. As Elend watches her go, he wonders why Vin was so interested in Sazed's stories. Wonders what she's hiding from him. If only he knew. If she would only tell him. If only he didn't brush off everything says him when she does talk to him of these things! What a mess. Here it switches to Sazed's PoV as he's led to his rooms. He's starting to regret mentioning the mists, as he may have troubled Elend over a mere delusion. Of course, he wouldn't be doubting himself if Vin had just told him about the bloody mistwraith she's been seeing! When he enters his rooms, he finds Tyndwyl waiting for him inside. She mentions that he ignored her request. Others consider her hard, When he sees her, he wonders how she can be so confident after all she's been through. What does this mean? Is he implying that she's suffered even more that the other Terris people have? She asks him why he came back here instead of obeying the Synod and teaching the peasants. What's the Synod? Are they like, the rulers of the Terris people? She makes it sound like they've been around for a while, though. She knows about his study of the mists. too, so he must have been doing this for a while. Did he get any real teaching done in the past year? She thinks he can't be content with mundane work after all he's done, and Sazed doesn't deny it. Is it possible? Could Sazed be developing an...ego? Impossible! He tells her he thinks there is something up with the mists, and he will investigate it until he is convinced it isn't a threat. He reminds her that his last disobedient phase resulted in the collapse of the Final Empire. He apparently worked ten years on that. Ten years of disobedience, and they couldn't even punish him for it! Brilliant! After telling Sazed how he could be so much more than he is, Tyndwyl rises to take her leave. Before she walks out the door, though, she takes his hand and gazes into his eyes. What was that? Was there something between these two? I mean, of course there wasn't! What with him being...because he's...you know. Agh! End of Chapter 23

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.

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

The very thought sends shivers down my spine.

I'm back with three more chapters of my Well of Ascension readthrough. Yay! Part 2 Chapter 15 This one's another Sazed chapter, which basically means it's gonna be either really short or really awesome. It begins with Sazed awakening from slumber to find himself completely alone. He and Marsh have apparently been traveling for eight days so far. I wonder what would cause Marsh to just up and leave after more than a week of traveling. I mean, if he had a different destination from Sazed, why not just split up the first day instead? He left his blankets behind too. It's almost as if he just got up in the middle of the night and walked off. Sazed follows his tracks for a little while, then returns to the camp to wait for him. He washes his robes, eats a measly breakfast, walks the dog, shaves his head...wait. Shaves his head? Sazed is bald!? The way it's written here makes it seem like shaving is something he does regularly. How in the world did I miss that. I suppose descriptions of the characters aren't given very often, but still... Anyway, Marsh doesn't return, so Sazed decides to continue on his way to Luthadel, thinking Marsh will be able to catch up. Oh, come on, Sazed. Don't be stupid. It's pretty obvious that he's abandoned you and moved on to something more important. Now you need to do the same. After walking for a while, Sazed finds a city. He draws some information from his coppermind to figure out where exactly he is. Apparently when he puts information into a coppermind, he is literally putting it in the coppermind, so he immediately forgets it. Also, the more he draws from a coppermind, the more muddled the information becomes, so he has re-memorize certain portions occasionally to keep the information fresh. Makes sense, I guess. Seems like kind of a pain, though. The index from his metalmind describes the city as "picturesque", which we all know actually means "horribly precipitous", or simply "troublesome". As he nears the city, he notices that there are goats and other cattle roaming around freely. Sazed tries to be optimistic, considering that perhaps the skaa here are so prosperous that they can allow their animals to roam around like this. Of course, I know by now that he's almost always wrong about these things. The reason the animals are all out here is because the people in the city are all dead. That's just the way these things work. As he draws closer and closer to the city, he smells something...odd. He uses his tinmind to enhance his sense of smell, and, sure enough, it is the stench of rotting corpses. The skaa here are all, in fact, dead. My first guess is that the Inquisitors came here and slaughtered everyone, but it turns out that wasn't the case. Upon studying the bodies, Sazed is unable to find any specific cause of death on any of the bodies. These people have been dead for a while as well. Several days, at least. I guess the mists must have done them in/ Kind of like Jed. Sazed enters one of the hovels to find it filled with dead bodies. He observes that these people died from starvation and dehydration. How could they have starved to death with so much cattle just outside the city? There definitely is something seriously wrong here. Or was, anyway. After studying the bodies, Sazed leaves the hovel and, using his tinmind to weaken his sense of smell, checks out the other buildings as well. They're all the same as the first one, littered with corpses. In some he found gnawed human remains. These people had even begun to eat themselves before the end? What could have driven them to something so extreme? While inspecting one of the hovels, Sazed finds a single survivor. The man is still strong enough to speak, but he is obviously not in his right mind any more. He has apparently been feeding on the rotted corpses of the other skaa to survive, though he denies this fervently. Sazed questions the man, and he explains what happened here. The mists appeared in the city one day, and remained for several weeks, day and night. Apparently some of the skaa found the courage to step out into the mists after a while. The mists took some of them--shook them like Jed, but others it allowed to go free. I'll bet that all of the survivors were mistings. It never has been explained what allomancy has to do with the mists, but the names imply that there is some sort of connection. Anyway, the man rises from his resting place and prepares to...feed. Sazed offers him some of his own food, but it seems the man would rather eat rotting bodies. Sazed doesn't allow him to, though, and uses his pewtermind to forcibly draw the man outside. The moment he sees the sun, the mad man just runs off, and Sazed lets him go. there's not much he could have dome for the poor guy anyway. The chapter ends when, realizing that there is definitely something horribly wrong happening to the world, Sazed draws speed from his steel mind and hurries to Luthadel. Well, that was a pretty awesome chapter, just as I expected. Now on to the next one! Chapter 16 This chapter starts with Vin, and what'd'ya know, she's actually doing some research for once. She's studying Alendi's logbook. Or, well, I'm pretty sure it's his, anyway. Oreseur is with her, although he's not providing much help--most likely because she didn't ask. Vin is just too secretive sometimes...all the time. She's searching the logbook for mentions of the Mistwraith, or, as I like to call it, "The Terrifying Misty Death"(TMD for short), in the journal. She has actually found a few occurrences. The Alendi wrote about a dark mist creature that followed him the same way it follows her. He was also the only one who could see it--possibly the same as her. Eh, I see the connection, and I'm not sure I like it. Anyway, Vin still actually thinks this might be an illusion, but she reads in the logbook that Alendi was also beginning to doubt his sanity. The Mist-spirit stabbed a man named Fedik, though, so he decided it had to be real, because if it wasn't, that would mean it was he who attacked his companion, and he didn't want to believe that he'd do such a thing. Following his example, Vin decides to believe in the monster as well. Indeed, she'd have to be quite mad indeed to have completely fabricated her encounters with the creature. It's written that Fedik was stabbed in the chest. Uh.. am I... missing something? I was under the impression that chest wounds were generally, y'know... fatal. Especially when you're traveling up a mountain at the chull-end of no where with no doctors or magical beings capable of healing such things. Although, Rashek was a keeper, so perhaps he was able to mend Fedik's chest wound. Doubtful, though. Anyway, Alendi wrote that the TMD could not harm him, for some reason. Well, it could definitely harm Vin, I think. Rashek, of course, believed that Alendi tried to kill Fedik. Yeah, an invisible creature that can harm everyone but yourself sounds like a pretty flimsy defense. Somehow I don't think that excuse would hold up in court. Yet another reason for Rashek to want to make a corpse of Alendi, I guess. Here it switches to Elend's PoV. He's standing atop the Luthadel walls, watching to two armies lead by the two kings who have come to remove him as head of the city, and remove his actual head as well. They're doing exactly what he expected them to; trying to use the canals to resupply their armies. What he didn't expect, though, was for Cett to be serving his armies canned goods. I didn't even know they had invented the cannery in this world yet. I guess this means Cett probably wont be having much trouble keeping his men fed, now, will he? Clubs walks up onto the roof with Elend, and remarks that they've got a real siege on their hands now. Yeah, thanks for the input, Einstein. That totally isn't something your average retard could tell at this point. He states the obvious again, telling Elend that he's the "focal point", and that if he's not up to the task they're all dead. Really? I had no idea! This somehow brings the Terris woman to Elends mind, so he asks Clubs if he thinks he's a good king. Clubs just replies that he's "Not the worst". Seriously? Elend is just getting crapped on by everyone these days. Next thing you know, Vin's gonna show up and tell him she's tired of him, and she's leaving him to be with Spooks. Then this cycle of shame will have finally completed itself. Clubs tells Elend that the Pits of Hathsin were what made Kelsier into the man he was. "Will this be your pits of Hatsin?", he asks. What does he mean by that? Is he asking if Elend will be put through twelve months of hell, lose everything dear to him, and watch his own wife beaten to death in front of his very eyes? I certainly hope not. Anyway, Clubs tells him that the REAL reason he came up here was to inform Elend that it's time for his lessons with Tyndwyl. Yay, more humiliating degradation. Sounds like so much fun. When Elend meets up with Tyndwyl, she immediately begins grilling him on pretty much the same things she corrected him about before--I'd have thought he'd have at least learned to stand up straight by now. She tells him his clothes are slovenly. She seems to quite enjoy using that word, "Slovenly". I can understand why; it has quite a nice ring to it. Yes. Tyndwyl proceeds to force him to change from his clothing into a brand new uniform she's had prepared for him. A kingly uniform, complete with a cape and crown. She claims she also intends to have him taught how to fight and command armies. Both very kingly, and, more importantly, manly skills. It is indeed very important that he become a manly-man that all the other manly-men in the kingdom can look up to. That's, like, the first and most important rule of being a king. Tyndwyl has his hair cut as well. Elend checks himself in the mirror afterward and, instead of the weakling he saw before, he sees a king. He thanks Tyndwyl for her help, thinking this is the end of his training, but she assures him that his transformation from slovenly pig to dignified king has only just begun. Sweet. Tyndwyl is starting to give me some small measure of hope for Elend. Thanks to her teaching, he might not end up dying after all. Either that, or her training will directly result on him finding to bravery to die an honorable death on the battlefield! Once the king's transformation is complete, captain Demoux arrives--I just now remembered who he is! He's the young captain from the first book! The one who stoop up to that dissident in The Final Empire. Golly, I have no idea how I could have forgotten him so entirely. Anyway, Demoux says a messenger has arrived from Elend's father, so Elend says he'll go find Vin. Why does he need her with him? It's not like he'll be in any real danger. He's just going to meet with a messenger, and he'll have plenty of other guards around anyway. Before he leaves, he asks Tyndwyl what she believes makes a good king. Her answer is "trust". She says a kign that is deserving of the trust of his people is a good king indeed. Elend thinks this is the proper answer--not that his opinion means much. The chapter ends as Elend rushes out to find Vin and meet with Straff's messenger. Chapter 17 We're back to Vin now, and she's still studying that logbook. She has progressed from simply reading to taking notes as well. Elend arrives shortly after she begins painstakingly writing her notes on a sheet of paper...on the floor. She doesn't recognize him when she first sees him, and the change in his appearance shocks her so much that, before she can stop herself, she flares pewter and throws her pen straight through his eye, killing him instantly. Once she realizes what she's done she rushes over and cries out for help as she holds his lifeless body in her arms... Yeah, that's not what happened. She's surprised, but she, once again, does not harm him. It seems that Elend will live to see another day. His time is coming, though. I can smell it. Anyway, she studies his new appearance, and is quite impressed. The outfit is practically perfect. It doesn't have any metal on it, and the cape comes off easily. Yes, Tyndwyl did an admirable job fixing up his outward appearance. Too bad he's the same little bi--uh, wuss on the inside. Elend tells Vin about the messenger, so she abandons her notes and goes with him, taking Oreseur with her. Vin enters the meeting room and--what the devil?! It's him! The messenger is the bloody Watcher! He wasn't lying when he told her he was the enemy. He's been working for Straff Venture all along! Vin warns Elend that the messenger is Mistborn, but she doesn't mention that she knows him. For once, Elend takes her warning seriously and keeps his distance. The Watcher introduces himself. Assuming he's not lying, his name is Zane. He says Straff has replied to Elend's offer for an alliance, and that he would very much like to meet with him. There's a catch, though. He claims Straff fears assassination attempts if they meet in a neutral tent, so Elend will have to meet him in his own camp. Is he serious? This is almost as ridiculous as the message he sent to Elend when he first arrived. Elend tells the messenger that he'll "think about it". Which, I hope, actually means "no way in hell, you ugly, ugly man.". Elend, the king of a besieged city, wouldn't honestly consider going straight into the midst of an enemy camp, would he? Even with guards it would just be be too risky. Also, what's up with this Zane guy? Why would Straff use a Mistborn to deliver a simple message? He's acting kind of weird, too. I mean, he was constantly shooting glances at Vin during the conversation. And he comments that he's heard reports of the "Beautiful Mistborn who accompanies the Venture heir." What does that have to do with the matter at hand? She's taken, by the way, so he should keep his nasty opinions to himself. Creepy bastard. Anyways, once the message has been delivered, Zane bows, meeting Vin's eyes one more time, and walks away. The book skips forward a few hours to Vin's nightly vigil. She's sitting on the Venture rooftop with Oreseur like she does every night--it's got to be getting old by now, right? She's thinking about Zane, of course; wondering if he'll show up again now that she knows who he is. The way her thoughts are going it almost seems like she's been sparring with him regularly. Say it isn't so! Oreseur asks her why she's just sitting around, and she replies that she's just watching for assassins and spies like she always does. This obvious lie doesn't fool him, though, and he asks her why she hasn't told Elend about her meetings with the Watcher. Why hasn't she told her boyfriend that she's been having "sparring sessions" with a strange man in the dead of night? It is indeed a mystery. She says she hasn't told Elend because she just doesn't want to worry him. Another blatantly obvious lie. Vin burns her bronze--feeling for the watcher, I bet. She feels the pulsing coming from the Misty Death, but she doesn't even go near it. Heh, I guess she learned her lesson last time. She also feels the Watcher burning metals out there. He must not care much that she now knows his identity. She leaves Oreseur and runs out to find the man. This can only end in disaster. Telling lies...meeting with strange men in the night. She finds Zane on an abandoned street, and they begin there sparring match right away. They have a relatively lengthy(and epic) fight. It's really close, but the Watcher manages to best her thanks to his brilliant ingenuity. Could he be even better than Vin? That's a troubling thought. After Vin's loss, they speak to each other. He asks her why she allows herself to be used. He says Elend has made her a slave. He tells her that she doesn't belong with her friends, but out here with the mists....with him? Yeah, I see his game--sleazy bastard. She's all denial, of course, saying she belongs with those who love her. Indeed, she does. But how does she know they even love her in the first place? He asks if they understand her--how can they love what they don't understand. Wow. He knows a lot about her and her buddies for a complete stranger. How in the hell could he know how they feel towards her? He's coming off as kind of a cocky bastard, I think. She should tell him to piss off. She doesn't, though. In fact, she seems to even be taking his words into consideration. Come on, Vin, don't you already have enough trust issues to begin with? Zane leaves her with those words, and Vin starts wondering if she can maybe turn him against Straff. Either way, she says she'll definitely have to continue sparring with him. Yup. This can only end in disaster. End of Chapter 17 In the post-chapter note entries from these chapters, Kwaam says Alendi convinced the whole word that he was the hero, despite any doubts he himself may have had. Why did he find the need to do this? The deepness wasn't around at this point, was it? Because he doesn't mention the deepness until the chapter 17 notes, saying it was what truly drove the people to rally behind Alendi. hmm, fascinating, truly. Kwaam also wishes that the belief in Terris prophecies hadn't spread beyond their people. Why not? Unless he was also convinced that the whole Terris religion was a lie. I still have no idea what the revelation from the notes in this book will be, but I'm sure it'll be huge. Out of curiosity, I just put this post through a word counter and found that it's over 3000 words! Woah! If anyone had told me just 2 months ago that I'd ever be writing that much simply for fun I'd have said they were crazy, but here we are. I do think I should probably try to cut the length a bit, though.

I'm back again, with a couple more of my increasingly infrequent chapters of of Mistborn book Two! I haven't been reading very much recently because I've been, uh, busy. Yeah, busy. That's it... On to the book! Part 2 Chapter 13 This one starts with a Vin PoV. She's having a "conversation" with Oreseur. Pfah! More like an interrogation! Vin's trying to find a way to discover who the Kandra impostor may be, so she's asking Oreseur a few quite personal questions. His answers prove pretty intriguing. Apparently the Kandra are not allowed to enter human society without a contract, and not a single one of them breaks this rule. Kandra also aren't allowed to kill humans. I thought that was just a limitation Kelsier placed on Oreseur himself, but apparently it's in their holy contract. This means that this mystery Kandra couldn't have killed that person in Vin's chambers himself. Someone else had to have sneaked into the keep to do the deed... Perhaps he left some evidence behind, then? Vin should hire someone to look into that if she can. Upon further questioning, Oreseur reveals that Kandra cannot be affected by mental allomancy. So Vin could just try to sooth someone to see their reaction, right? If they're unaffected, that means they can at least be suspected. Sure, it's not foolproof, but it should narrow down the list of possible candidates quite a bit. Apparently Kandra can't use allomancy either, so if she catches Ham burning pewter my fears will be put to rest. She should go and demand that he burn his metals right now! Vin also remembers what Kelsier said about keeping the Kandra away from the Lord Ruler and the Inquisitors. (I think it has something to do with the way Inquisitors perceive the world. Maybe they can see straight through a Kandra's disguise) When she questions him about this--actually orders him to tell her--, he says "no". He just flat out refuses. Apparently the contract states that Kandra cannot be forced to reveal secrets about their nature. Okay, now I'm curious. What is the contract, and why do they take it so seriously? He says they're nothing without the contract. What does this mean? Does it have something to do with how they become the way they are, instead of remaining like all the other Mistwraiths? Could it be that someone turned them into Kandra in exchange for them accepting the contract, or is it something more simple than that? I wanna know, but I get the feeling I'll have to wait several hundred pages to find out, if ever. Anyway, Vin begins to feel for any allomancers who may be sneaking about in the city. While searching with bronze, she asks Oreseur what he cares about; his hates, his loves. He doesn't want to answer, and she realizes that he resents her(with good reason, by the way), so she doesn't force him. At this point, she feels a familiar allomantic pulse. It's that mist creature she saw the other night. She tells Oreseur what she hates; she hates being afraid. She then leaves him behind and runs off to confront the creature. I can already tell this won't end well. Why doesn't she bring him with her? He might be able to help. She traces the pulsing to the 3rd story of a building on an abandoned street. She launches herself up into the window and looks inside, and there it is. It's standing right in the middle of the room. The creature seems to be formed entirely from the mists. The name "Mistwraith" seems to fit this thing a whole lot better than it does the Kandra's cousins. As a matter of fact, the writer of journal in the first book claimed that one of his companions was attacked by a Mistwraith. Could he have actually been talking about one of these things? It makes more sense, especially considering what Kelsier said about the other mistwraiths being fairly docile. When Vin lays eyes on this Mistwraith, she feels something she apparently hasn't felt in a long. She feels the mind-killer. The little death. Even though she stated earlier that she was done with it, she feels fear. She swallows her terror, though, and demands that the creature tell her why it's been following her. It doesn't answer, of course. It just takes a step towards her and disappears, just like last time. Something suddenly grabs her arm, something cold; cold as hell. A pain shoots through her head and when she tries to scream her voice fails her. She falls backwards out of the window, but fortunately she's still lucid enough to burn her metals, so she manages to save herself from what might have been a fatal fall. What exactly was that? It seems like it's probably the same thing that killed that poor farmer, Jed, when he danced his last. Why didn't it kill Vin, though? Was it even trying to? One thing I'm relatively sure about is that this is not the deepness. I doubt it even has anything to do with the deepness. Wasn't the deepness supposed to have an oppressive feel kinda like what the Lord Ruler was always giving off when he was around? This is different. And...cold... Creepy. Cool, but creepy. Anyway, as Vin walks away from the building, Oreseur shows up--a little late, don't you think? She almost freaking died! Although, I suppose she should've known better than to confront it alone. He asks her if she's in need of any assistance, but Vin just tells him she's alright. Interestingly enough, she doesn't even mention her encounter with the creature. Why not? Shouldn't she be warning everyone she knows about this very dangerous; very real threat? Don't tell me she still believes she's only seeing things. It switches to Elend's PoV at this point. I guess this confirms that he isn't the Kandra--not that I suspected him anyway. Elend is in a room with the remaining members of Kelsier's crew. They're having a meeting to figure out what exactly to do with the time Breeze has bought them. Most of them seem to think that surrendering is their only choice, and handing the city over to Cett is better idea than giving it to Straff, because Cett will at least (possibly)allow Elend to remain as the provisional ruler. Of course, that would mean screwing over pretty much all of the skaa living in the city, as Cett is not kind to the Skaa in his kingdom. Yeeaah. That's not much of an option for them, is it? Elend suggests not bending over for Straff or Cett, but choosing a third, more risky, option. They can't survive an extended siege, as the city's already in pretty bad shape when it comes to supplies, so he wants to see if they can even the odds a little bit. First, they'll need to hire some bandit guilds to keep the two kings from using the canals to resupply their armies. Then, he intends to--using his formidable skills at deception--pit the two armies against each other by convincing both of them that he's on their side... Umm, it's a pretty decent plan, I suppose, but this is Elend we're talking about. He couldn't manipulate a 5 year old into eating his vegetables!. How in the name of all that is good and holy is he supposed to pull this off? Even though they know this, the others agree to follow this plan anyway, but they do have doubts. It's better than just curling up in a ball and waiting to be invaded, I guess. The Parliament can't really stop them, thanks to that proposal Elend so brilliantly convinced them to sign. Perhaps there's hope, if Elend can find himself a tutor, or something. Once Elend and the rest have agreed on their next course of action, someone knocks on their door. It's captain Demoux, and he has a captive with him. He says she was listening in on their conversation. It's that Terris woman who was watching Elend during the Assembly meeting. She announces to everyone that she is a keeper, and she knows that Vin is apparently hiding just outside of their window. So this stuff is happening before she even went out and had her encounter with the Mist-ghost? Why wasn't Elend's PoV before hers, then? Anyway, the woman basically demands that everyone else leave the room; she wants to speak to Elend alone. Truth be told, if she actually wanted to kill him, she probably could have overpowered them all using her feruchemy--or maybe not, since Ham's here. Either way, Elend, doesn't think she's going to hurt him, so he tells everyone to do as she commanded. End of Chapter 13 Kwaam's notes at the end of the chapter seem to be of very little consequence, so...on to the next chapter! Chapter 14 This chapter starts from right where the last one left off. Has that ever happened before so far in this series? I can't remember. Anyway, As soon as the door is shut, the Terris woman breaks her bonds. Elend, manly-man that he is chooses to stand his ground and face her. Ha, no, what am I saying? He calls for his girlfriend to come save him the moment he feels he may be in some danger. Unfortunately for him, the woman was lying when she said Vin was outside the window. No, in fact, she waited to reveal herself until Vin left. Elend, brave warrior he is, says he's going to call the guards, but the Terris woman tells him not to be a moron--too late for that. She claims that if she wanted to kill him, he'd be dead before the guards ever got through the door. Indeed. The woman then begins to --quite rudely-- lecture Elend on his posture and attitude. When I say "lecture", that's kind of an understatement. I mean, she puts him down. She informs him that his behavior is not befit a king, that he's a slovenly pig, and that no one respects him. It's true, every word. We all saw what happened at that assembly meeting. They showed that Penrod guy more deference than they did Elend. He doesn't know how to assert himself. I mentioned that he needed to do something drastic about that. Perhaps this lady can show him how. Elend finally gets over his shock and asks her what the hell is going on. She tells him that her name is Tyndwyl, and that, unlike Sazed who specializes in religions, she specializes in the study of biographies. Speaking of Sazed, he's the one who told her about Elend, and he's apparently the one who inspired her to come here in the first place. She tells him that she has come to transform him from the walking joke he is today into a proper king. Amazing. She's exactly what he needs. It's at this moment that Vin finally returns, all hostility. So, she's just now had the encounter with that Mist spirit, right? I guess Sanderson placed the PoVs the way he did to avoid interrupting the flow of the story. Anyway, Vin places herself between Elend and the Terris woman. Tyndwyl is completely unperturbed, though, and just mentions how forceful Vin is compared to Elend, therefore shaming him once more before taking her leave. Ham enters the room after she exits, and Elend, apparently happy to have someone to humiliate him on a regular basis, tells the thug to prepare rooms for her in the palace. I like Tyndwyl already! She kind of reminds me of Cadsuane. Perhaps with her guidance, Elend won't end up getting himself killed after all. Either that, or her teaching will give him the confidence to at least die an honorable death in battle, or some such. Of course, either way, once she's done training him, he's going to have to do something about the disrespect she showed him this night. Something...drastic. Here it switches to Vin's PoV. It seems like whenever Vin and Elend are together it always shows from Vin's PoV. Probably just because she's the main character, but still... eh, whatever. Vin doesn't trust Tyndwyl, and seems to have taken an instant dislike to the Terriswoman. This must be hate at first sight. I've heard of it, but I didn't believe it truly existed until now. When she mentions her dislike to Elend, he just, once again, brushes off her warning, remarking that she doesn't like anyone when she first meets them. That attitude is going to get him killed some day, I just know it. Elend talks to Vin about how he's starting to doubt himself. That's understandable. I would too, if I were in his position. If his plan doesn't work out, the entire city is screwed--not to mention he's a dead man. Although, that would have happened regardless. Vin, of course, like any good partner, comforts him. Once Elend is done talking about himself, he asks Vin how her patrol went. She tells him it was uneventful...uneventful? Yeah, that sounds about right. I'd describe running into The Terrifying Misty Doom and nearly falling to my death as "uneventful" as well. Seriously, I know she thinks he'd just brush it off like he did the last time, but who cares? This thing is too big of a deal for her to be keeping it to herself. She should not only tell Elend, but ALL of the crew members...AND the guards. Come on, Vin! I thought you were sensible. Vin goes on to talk to Elend about how she's worried. She says the Lord Ruler's last words are still bothering her, and she asks him what he knows about the deepness. She's apparently afraid that it might actually come back, but she doesn't actually know anything about it because it's considered part of the Lord Ruler's religion, and apparently religion was reserved for the noblemen; skaa were prohibited from even thinking about it. Wow. Y'know, it still surprises me how poorly the Skaa were treated under the Lord Ruler. We never did get a proper explanation for that, did we? Anyway, Elend basically says she's a worry wart, and just chalks her fears up to paranoia...again! Why the heck does she put up with this guy? Of course, perhaps if she'd told him about the freaking encounter she had with that thing tonight, he'd take her questions more f-fu-flipping seriously! Jeez, Vin. Just...darn it. Darn it all to heck! ANYhow, Vin shares with Elend the little bit of information she was able to get out of Oreseur. He it's great, but he obviously doesn't think any of the other crew members could possibly be the Kandra. As well he should! True friends trust each other. That said, I still think it's Ham. Ha! The chapter ends when Elend tells Vin he needs to go "check on a few things", and walks away, leaving Vin alone with the mist churning in through the open window. Vin gazes at it and whispers, "I will not fear you". Suuure. In the end-chapter notes, Kwaam is still busy regretting not listening to the other Worldbringers, and following Alendi on his journeys. With how regretful this guy is, you'd think Alendi turned out to be some kind of monster, or something. Wait... Didn't he write that Alendi towered over others? Kwaam was a Terrisman, and, assuming that they were still tall back then, Alendi would have to be pretty darn tall to be looking down on most of them. Which is strange, because I could've sworn that in the journal from "The Final Empire" he wrote that he wasn't a pure Terrisman. What're the chances he'd be THAT tall if he wasn't Terris born? Am I over thinking things? Yep, only one chapter today as well. Sucks, cause I was hoping to finish the book in a little over a month, but that's probably not gonna happen now. I've just been too busy. Ah, well. You guys don't mind do you? Yeah, I didn't think so. heh Oh, and no, I've never read Dune.

Salutations. I've completed Part 1, it's time to move on to Part 2! It looks like this is the longest Part in the book, so hopefully that means it's the best too...wait! Actually, scratch that. I hope Part 6 is the best part. Part 2 : Ghosts in the Mists Chapter 12 This one's another Sazed chapter, and I'll just say right now that it is definitely my favorite chapter so far. Sazed and Marsh have finally made it to the Conventical of Sarand. Now that I think about it, the book doesn't really mention how long they had to travel to get here. For all I know it might have been three days, or 3 months. The Conventical is a fairly large fortress, and it rests inside of a giant crater. Using his epic feruchemy vision, Sazed takes a closer look at the fort, and he discovers that, as Inquisitor Marsh stated, it is indeed empty. He tells Sazed that they're headed North. It seems like Marsh can sense where the other Inquisitors are. Don't tell me they're going to Luthadel. Could that be what he was talking about when he said something huge is going to happen down there? If so, they should probably, like, warn someone about this, right? Although, I suppose they probably wouldn't be able to make it to Luthadel before the Inquisitors, anyway. That means there's no point in even trying, eh? Anyway, Marsh and Sazed approach the fort. They have to enter from the top using a pulley, but since there's no one down there to operate it, Marsh just cuts it down, and climbs down the rope. Sazed, on the other hand, takes out an Iron metalmind. Iron contains weight. He doesn't take weight out of the metalmind, though, as that would just make him heavier. Instead, he reverses the metalmind, thereby dramatically decreasing his weight, so much so that he's able to just practically float to the bottom of the shaft. Now, I'm just gonna pause right here and gush about how FREAKING cool that is! I mean, come on! I hadn't even considered that something like this was possible. Technically, he should also be able to jump super high while he's like this, right? It doesn't decrease his physical strength, does it? I wonder what other awesome abilities Feruchemy allows him access to. Feruchemy totally blows Allomancy out of the water, in my opinion. Even if it's not quite as useful for combat, it completely makes up for it by it's usefulness for everyday activities. Did I ever say that I'd want to be a Thug if I was in this world? Well, I changed my mind. Feruchemy all the way! Well, now that that's out of the way, let's get back to the story. Once Marsh and Sazed reach the bottom of the chamber, they notice that there are shackles discarded around the fort. The Inquisitors must have had slaves, and Sazed wonders if they ran from the place or something. Come on, Sazed, don't be naive. I think we all know what actually happened to those servants--these are Inquisitors we're talking about here. They approach a dark hallway. Sazed can't use feruchemy to see in the dark, so Marsh fetches a lantern for him. They then enter the darkness together. Sazed begins audibly describing everything he lays his eyes on. When Marsh asks him what in God's name he's doing, Sazed explains that he has to store this into his copper mind, and speaking helps him to record the information more accurately. Well, that explains why he has to do it, but it doesn't change the fact that it creeps me the heck out. From the hallway, they enter a room filled with corpses. Well, I guess this explains what happened to all the slaves. They were massacred every one of them. They were completely helpless, but the Insuisitors killed them all anyway. I just don't get it. Why is it that all of these sick bastards seem to take so much pleasure in causing pain and suffering? Does the transformation process do this to them? If that's the case, does that mean Marsh has the same...desires as the rest of them, and he just holds it in? That would explain the changes in his personality. There are two stairways in the room, one leading up, and the other down. Marsh tells Sazed not to follow him, and goes up the stairs, which apparently lead to the Inquisitor's chambers. He says he doesn't mind Sazed seeing the Inquisitor atrocities, but he just doesn't want to be with him when he does...what does this mean? Does this mean there's even worse crap going on up those steps? Sazed complies, and goes on to describe the slaughter that took place in the room. Once hes done recording all the minute details about the room, Sazed notices the second stairway. This one leading lower into the fortress. I'm sure he's heard the saying, "curiosity killed the cat", but he's a Terrisman, so that saying apparently doesn't apply to him. He walks down the steps. Once down the steps, he finds several rooms, including a room covered in blood. All of the descriptions here are spoken aloud by Sazed, giving the whole thing an eerie sort of "first person" feel. He enters the room, describing everything he sees, and finds several silver spikes lying around--all bloody. Could this be where new inquisitors were made? My God, what in the name of all that is holy does the process of becoming an Inquisitor entail? I'm actually a little bit curious. Can they even make new ones without the Lord Ruler, though? After inspecting one of the--less bloodied--spikes, Sazed notices another doorway at the end of the room. This one, like all the others, has no door. His curiosity hasn't gotten him in any trouble so far, so he just walks right in. Inside the doorway, he finds a wall containing a slab of metal with some text written on it. It's not just any text, though, this is written in the Terris language. Sazed immediately begins to read it. The writing is by Kwaam, he was apparently a Terris Philosopher(Sazed describes him as a holy man). This must be what those excerpts at the end of every chapter are from. It is engraved in steel because, "anything not written in metal cannot be trusted",--a belief of the Terris religion, perhaps? Kwaam felt that he was the only person in the world who was still sane, he said that, even though he was the one who proclaimed the man in the first place, Alendi had to be stopped from completing his quest. Hmm, he keeps talking about this betrayal. Is it possible that Rashek was not working alone when he murdered Alendi? What if it was actually Kwaam who told him to do it? That would explain his previously inexplicable hatred of Alendi, and why he would risk dooming the world by slaying the Hero of Ages prematurely. He must have been truly positive that Alendi was NOT the hero, and that him gaining access to the power at the well would be even worse than allowing the deepness to continue ravaging the land. Who would be able to convince him of such a thing other than a holy Terris Philosopher? What if Kwaam was behind everything? Sazed is super excited about this new discovery, but he hardly even gets the chance to read the introduction before Marsh shows up. Marsh says the Inquisitor quarters were completely empty, that this whole trip was a complete waste, and that they need to get out ASAP. Sazed disagrees, and tells Marsh about the inscriptions he just found. Marsh says they have no time for him to write it all down--why is he in such a hurry to get out if he didn't find anything?--, so Sazed quickly takes a rubbing of the text. This new discovery gives Sazed a perfect excuse to leave his work with the Skaa and go back to Luthadel. End of Chapter 12 At the end of the Chapter, Kwaam states that he wishes he had listened to the "Worldbringers" when they didn't accept Alendi as the Hero. What could Alendi do that was so terrible, and what suddenly made Kwaam so positive that he wasn't the Hero of Ages? Did a savage from the grassy steppe tell him that the man was actually a being bred for the art of deception from birth, and that everything he says--even if it seems true-- is a lie used to ensnare and enslave? I guess I'll just have to RAFO.

I'd have to agree with there. Well, except for the self-reflection part. She seems to do quite a bit of that—at least at this point.

Hey everyone! Thanks for coming to read my blog. Here we are, at the end of Part 1, but it feels like the book is just beginning. I'm really looking forward to what comes next, so, let's get going. Part 1 Chapter 10 This chapter starts from Vin's point-of-view. Elend is having a meeting with the assembly. He's finally going to present his proposal to them. Vin is sitting with Ham at the back of the stage. The two of them are in charge of security for this event. Vin doesn't seem to like the idea of having an Assembly, and she tells Ham just that. She basically says they're just a bunch of whingers, and she complains that they're always taking power away from Elend. She also shares her concern that Elend might actually want to make everyone into a nobleman, which isn't possible. Ham, intelligent thug that he is, replies that Elend has a "civic duty to uphold justice", and that pretty much ends their conversation. Ha! I doubt Vin even knows what "civic duty" means. Once everyone has settled in, Elend begins the meeting. While he's giving his riveting opening speech, Vin notices that there are a few Obligators is sitting in the back. -I thought all the Obligators had gone to the Conventical of Sarand? Or did Marsh say that only the High Obligators went there. Hmm, I'll have to go back to check. Anyway, Vin doesn't understand why Elend hasn't kicked them all to the curb, yet. If she was in charge, she says she probably would have had them executed long ago. I can't really disagree with that. They could end up causing some serious problems for Elend if the Lord Rulers Inquisitors come back. At long last, Elend finishes his speech and presents his proposal to the Assembly. It pretty much requests that they don't do anything until he gets the chance to parley with his father. They clearly don't like the idea very much, and Straff apparently already rejected all of their previous messages. One of the noblemen even thinks they should beg Straff not to annihilate them all--makes sense to me. Honestly, what chance do they have? If Straff wants the city, he'll take it. One way or another. The Assembly quickly degenerates into mindless squabbling, and Elend has serious difficulty calming the room. Seriously? He's the king, and he lets them treat him this way? What's wrong with him!? He needs do something about this blatant display of disrespect. Something drastic. Once things have calmed down a bit, Elend asks them to make a decision on the proposal. Philen, one of the merchants, says they should just invite Straff to take the city, because they're finished anyway. --Isn't this what I just said? Elend says that Straff may listen to him because he's his son. Of course, he doesn't actually believe this...right? Right? Some skaa, going completely off topic, brings up the food problem, and the squabbling begins anew. Elend just slumps in his chair, making no effort to stop the arguing this time. By all the... Vin was right! They are just a bunch of whingers. If all Assembly meetings are like this, I don't see how they ever get anything done. Eventually the room cools down, and Elend, rather unenthusiastically, prepares to take the vote. It looks like the proposal is doomed, but a nobleman named Penrod speaks up. Just like everyone else, he believes the city is doomed, but he says that instead of just handing the city over, they should at least try to gain as much from Straff as possible. Thanks to his support of the proposal, Elend gets enough votes for it to pass. The Assemblymen actually seem to respect this Penrod more than their own king. Something needs to be done about this. Something... drastic. Now that the proposal is out of the way, the Assemblymen are free to argue about other matters, and argue they do; all the way up to the lunch break. Guess how much they actually accomplished during this time. That's right, nothing. Bloody politicians. Anyway, everyone's up and about, and Vin notices that this would be the perfect time for someone to make an attempt on their unassertive ruler's life, so she rises from her seat and takes a look around. Elend is busy kissing Penrod's shiny noble buttox when Vin approaches. She tells him she saw a suspicious Terris woman in the crowd watching him. She's suspicious of the woman because she's never met her before, and all Terris people apparently come to her--to thank her for killing the Lord Ruler--the moment they enter the city. Elend, once again chalks her suspicions up to paranoia--I just know that's gonna get him killed one day. The chapter ends when a messenger from clubs arrives. Elend is afraid that Straff has mounted an attack on the city walls, but it turns out to be something possibly even worse. A second army as arrived outside the city. An extremely optimistic person would say that they've come to fight off Straff and rescue the city, but I seriously, seriously, doubt it. Chapter 11 This chapter starts with an Elend PoV. It's the last chapter of Part 1, so I'm gonna assume that it's going to provide some sort of climax or turning point to this whole ordeal. Elend is standing atop the city wall with clubs, Vin, and a few others, looking out at this new army. It's about the same size as Lord Venture's, and is lead by none other than Ashweather Cett. Remember him? The guy who sent those misting assassin's after Elend all those chapters ago? Yeah, I think it's safe to assume that he hasn't come rescue them. Fortunately, he hasn't come to assist Straff either. They could make some use of that, right? Elend is starting to panic--I would too, in his position. His death is all but guaranteed now. Maybe he could pay one of them off if he finds the atium, but, seeing as he hasn't had any luck finding any before, I doubt he'll just miraculously run into some now. Yup, things are looking pretty bleak. As Elend dwells on thoughts about how pathetically doomed they all are, Vin, using tin, spots a rider breaking off from the army. Wait a second...it's Breeze! So he's been with Cett all this time, that explains why no one was able to figure out where he was. Breeze is being chased by nearly two-dozen archers, and Vin notices that, without some assistance, he's never going to make it to the city walls alive, so, using duralumin's awesome power, she launches herself all the way from the wall over to where Breeze and his assailants are riding. She's forced to use two of her vials, but, thanks to the epically powerful duralumin, she and Breeze are able to make it back into the city without any injuries. Once inside the walls, Breeze reveals that it was actually he who brought Cett to Luthadel, and he was also the one who re-started the rumors about the Lord Ruler's atium. Just as I'm thinking "What treachery is this?!", he shows them that it was all part of his ingenious plan to save the city. You see, with Cett's army here, Straff will have to think twice before attacking the city. Assuming that they don't agree to take the city together and split the spoils, Straff and Cett are both pretty much stuck. Breeze has, practically singe-handidly, caused a standoff between the three kings, thereby buying Elend some valuable time to plan, and showing once again just how much smarter than everyone else he is. After the rest of them catch up with breeze, Elend and Vin return to the Venture keep to be greeted by Demoux, the captain of the guard. He's giving Vin some strange looks, and has some interesting information for them. Apparently one of the cleaning women found a corpse in Vin's quarters. Golly, why would there be a dead body in Vin's chambers!? They follow the captain to her chambers and, sure enough, there's a corpse lying of the floor--picked completely clean of flesh. It's not a murder, though. The skeleton is actually Oreseur's doing. Apparently, when a Kandra changes forms, it....excretes the remains of the last creature it imitated. Vin knew about the skeleton, but, instead of disposing of it, she just tossed it in a basket. Now everyone probably thinks she's some sort of cannibal--serves her right, she should've known better than to leave a dead body in her room. The mystery hasn't been totally solved yet, though. The captain mentions that they found a second skeleton in her closet, identical to the first. They take a look at it, and Oreseur says it has just recently been excreted by another Kandra, which means it must have eaten someone not so long ago. Someone in the palace has been consumed and replaced by an impostor, and it could be anyone--even someone from Kelsier's crew. End Of Chapter 11 End of Part 1 Well, I was expecting something big, and I was certainly not disappointed. Who could the Kandra be posing as? The corpse was found in Vin's chambers, so I'm assuming the person was murdered there, which means whoever it was must have had some reason to be in Vin's rooms at the time. I can only think of a few people who would have any reason to go there at all. There's the cleaning crew, of course, but it seems like kind of a waste to replace one of them when you have so many more influential people to transform into. Could it be Ham? He and Vin seem to work together pretty often. Perhaps Lestibournes snuck into her chambers to try to get her to leave Elend, and got a nasty surprise. Or, just maybe, Oreseur was lying, and he's acquired an appetite for human flesh. Whatever it is, I cannot wait to find out.

I've just now noticed that, unlike in the Wheel of Time, the chapters are unnamed. Part 1 Chapter 8 Vin is flying around in the mists like she does every night. The only difference is that Oreseur's with her this time, and she's deliberately trying to make it difficult for him to keep up time. Thanks in part to his new canine senses, the kandra able to follow her with very little difficulty. I'm still not entirely clear on what exactly Vin does when she's out here. Does she just run around the city looking for suspicious behavior? If that's the whole purpose of these nighttime adventures, then she definitely shouldn't be disappointed tonight. The most suspicious man in all of Luthadel, the Watcher, makes an appearance. When she notices him, Vin tosses off the belt containing her extra metals and runs off after him--I get the feeling this might come back to bite her. Vin chases the watcher to the fountain in the middle of the city, where they (almost) clash blades. He's good. Really good, actually. If he seriously wanted to kill her, I'm not sure if she'd be able to fend him off. The Watcher flees and hides in some abandoned building the first chance he gets, using copper to mask his allomancy--bloody craven. Vin can still tell where he is, of course, but she can't attack him now because she doesn't want to give away her copper-piercing ability. So, what does she do? Well, she burns duralumin, of course. Burning this almost completely untested and possibly dangerous metal will surely lure this sneaky bastard out of his hiding place. The duralumin does affect the burning of other metals after all. It drastically amplifies her allomantic abilities, but also burns her metals incredibly quickly. In just a few seconds, her Pewter, tin, and brass reserves are completely exhausted, and she's left stunned on the ground from the ultra sensitive senses her "duralumined" tin gave her. She's completely defenseless now! If the Watcher or Oreseur really wanted her dead, this would have been the perfect opportunity to take her out. Fortunately for her, though, neither of them do. When Oreseur catches up, he gives her the belt containing her allomantic potions instead of a knife in the back, but while Vin's attention is on Oreseur, the Watcher leaves his hiding place and manages to sneak up on her. I suppose Vin's brilliant plan worked after all, Burning the duralumin did lure him out. Instead of putting her in the ground, though, he just stands there watching her. Vin asks him who the hell he is, and he replies that he's "an enemy". He also claims that he assisted her against the assassins because he is quite mad. That makes sense to me. I imagine most stalkers aren't quite right in the head, anyway. After making sure she's perfectly alright, the Watcher drops a coin and leaps off into the night, and Vin just lets him go. She got really freaking lucky tonight. If she'd been up against another, more sane, allomancer, she would be dead right now. Vin tells Oreseur she's going to have to make a harness for him to store her metals in. He says that won't be necessary, and makes a flesh-compartment to keep the vials in his shoulder instead. That's...cool, I guess. Gross, but cool. Once again, he has proven himself to be a quite adept servant. He apparently lives only to serve, so why does Vin still disdain him so much? End of Chapter 8 It's revealed in the post-chapter journal entry that Alendi was just a wee lad when Kwaam first met him, so they must have known each other for a while before he came to the conclusion that Alendi was the Hero. They must have grown quite close during this time. I imagine it was no easy thing for him to betray the man after such a long friendship. Chapter 9 This one's another Sazed chapter, and he's still traveling with Marsh to the Inquisitor stronghold. Marsh tells him that he should go back to Luthadel once they're done with the conventical. That something very important is going to take place there. Something that will never, ever be forgotten... How the heck does he know this? Did the "inquisitorization" process somehow give him prophetic abilities, or is there something else going on here? Now that I think about it, we don't even know what Marsh has been up to for the past year. Who knows what discoveries he might've made during that time. Sazed reluctantly agrees to go to Luthadel, and the chapter ends. I'm starting to see a pattern with Sazed's chapters so far. They're all really short. Especially this one. Hopefully they'll arrive at the Conventical in the next chapter, and it'll be at least 5 times as long as this one. Kwaam's notes at the end of the chapter say that Alendi towered over everyone else, and that something about him demanded respect. Probably that Terrisman blood he had running through his veins.

I'm back with two more chapters of the second Mistborn book! Part 1 Chapter 6 Even though Elend said he was "too busy" to join them, he ends up watching Vin and Ham's pewter-enhanced sparring session anyway. I guess he really did just want to avoid getting his chull kicked by a little girl. Clubs shows up and bets on Vin winning the sparring match, thereby giving Elend no choice but to bet against her--not a good idea! What's Vin gonna think about this if she finds out? Has he forgotten that his girlfriend could cripple him with just her pinky finger? After Elend places his bet, he and Clubs move on to more pressing matters. Clubs has been working as Elend's general, so that puts him in charge of supervising the training of the troops. I thought that was Ham's job. Clubs tells Elend that the training of the army is going quite well. In fact, his says he would actually trust them to go up against a mob of old ladies with sticks! While Elend thinks about how great this is, Lestibournes arrives--well, actually, he's been in the city for a few days now, but this is the first Clubs and Elend have seen of him. He's grown about a foot in the past twelve months, and he's even learned to speak proper English. Looks like it's been a pretty good year for him. Sucks about the dialect, though. I'm gonna miss it. Anyways, Spooks has been doing some spy work off in the West. Someone's started a rumor there that the Lord Ruler's stash is actually concealed somewhere in Luthadel, thereby completely undoing all the work that Elend's put into convincing everyone that it's been hidden someplace else. Why would anyone do such a thing? Whoever planted this rumor must be planning something dastardly. Using some weird pewter-fu, Vin actually manages to best Ham in the sparring match, and, thanks to Lestibournes big mouth, she finds out that Elend placed his bet against her. She is absolutely heartbroken, and in a fit of rage kills Elend in cold blood. Oh, wait, that's not what happened. Actually, Vin is a little pissed off, but she act out violently against Elend. *sigh* I suppose this means he'll live to see another day. I still think he'll be dead before this book is over, though. Vin and Elend leave the rest of them to get something to eat, and, later that night, head on down to Vin's chambers together...alone. Once they enter her rooms they find Oreseur waiting there. He's completed his transformation into a wolfhound, but he still manages to somehow speak like a human. That's pretty cool, I guess. I mean, it still sucks that he has to run around as a dog, but at least he still gets to crack jokes when he wants to... Elend is quite impressed by the kandra's skilled replication of the wolfhound, and he wants to know what he thinks of his new canine body. That's a pretty dumb question, even for Elend. Needless to say, Oreseur finds the body "offensive and degrading". I completely understand. Even kandra have got to have some dignity. In the end, Vin tells him about her their new arrangement, and she takes him out with her when she leaves. If Oreseur's planning to betray her, tonight would be the perfect opportunity. I doubt he'll do anything, though. He's a loyal hound, after all. *snicker* End Of Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Yippie! Another Sazed PoV! This chapter begins with Sazed teaching a group of skaa how to write. Does this mean he's given up on sharing religion for a while? Who is Sazed to these people, anyway? They refer to him as "master Terrisman"-- do they call him that because they know he played a part in the collapse of the Final Empire, or do they show that kind of respect to all Terrismen? They listen to him as well, although they don't seem to be much interested much interest in what he has to say. Sazed had some pretty unrealistic ideas about what the world would be like once the Lord Ruler finally kicked the bucket. He actually thought that the skaa would just hungrily gobble up all the knowledge he had to share with them; that children and adults together would come running out of their villages to greet him wherever he went. For a super-intelligent feruchemist with a millennium-worth of knowledge, Sazed's got some pretty crazy ideas in his head. Anywho, some crazy woman interrupts Sazed's lecture screaming about how the Lord Ruler, of all people, has returned. We all know that's impossible. How would she even know what He looks like in the first place? I seriously doubt that any of these skaa have ever laid eyes on the real Lord Ruler. Sazed goes to the edge of the village to meet this stranger, and, lo and behold, it isn't the Lord Ruler after all, but Kelsier's brother Marsh. There's something strange about him, though. He's become even colder than before, and he refers to the other Inquisitors as "brothers". He tells Sazed that the Conventical of Seran, which is apparently where rest of the High Obligators and Inquisitors fled to after the Lord Rulers death, is empty. Marsh wants Sazed to abandon his work with the villagers and travel there with him. He's noticed that the mists have started appearing before dusk, and he believes they have very little time to waste before something terrible happens. The chapter ends as Sazed leaves to get his things. -I dunno about this: It all smells kinda fishy to me. Could it be some kind of trap? Is this even the real Marsh? Things are starting to get interesting. It looks like Sazed's next few chapters may end up being some of the most important in the book, and I'm really looking forward to reading them. End of Chapter 7 Kwaam is sorry for what Alendi has been forced to become. Does he say this because Alendi actually wasn't the true Hero?

No problem. I love writing my ideas about the characters while I read, so I guess that means it's win-win!

I'm two chapters further into my readthrough of Mistborn book 2. Moving along nicely, eh? Part 1 Chapter 4 Yay! Sazed gets to be a PoV character in this book! Now that the Lord Ruler has been removed, Sazed has traveled south to complete his solemn duty as a keeper. It seems like he's been sidetracked, though, because as the chapter begins he's busy investigating the death of some skaa farmer named Jed. Eyewitnesses testimonies claim that there was mist during the day, and when it enveloped Jed, he just flopped over and did a little dance in the dirt. Sazed is deeply troubled by the idea of the mists appearing before dark. I'm guessing this phenomenon and Vin's encounter with the mist-specter are related. This can't be the deepness, can it? These events don't seem to match the descriptions given of it in the first book. It has to be something else, and I'd be willing to bet that it's all tied to the Lord Ruler's... absence. Later that night, Sazed buries Jed. As the villagers watch him curiously, he even gives the man a proper ceremony. They must think he's completely insane. He tries to share some obscure religion with them, but these skaa don't seem very interested. Everything seems to have been thrown into chaos since the Lord ruler's death. Without the Lord Rulers men, lawlessness has taken over. During his travels, Sazed has witnessed death and destruction even worse than anything the Skaa's previous owners had caused. I guess Killing "god" didn't magically make the world a better place. In fact, some of these skaa seem to actually miss the Lord Ruler. Seeing what they're going through, I can't really blame them. End Of Chapter 4 The post-chapter journal entry has Kwaam confessing to his betrayal of Alendi. When and how...? I guess I'll just have to wait and read more. Chapter 5 This chapter begins with Vin walking through the market. She's been burning pewter to speed up the healing of the wounds she received in her bout with the assassins the other night. Wow, so pewter can quicken the healing of wounds too? Dang, Pewter is starting to seem like the most useful of all the metals. If I were in this world, I'd totally wanna be a Pewter-arm. Anyway, Vin is being followed by a tall, dark stranger. Could this be that Watcher creep? Has he finally decided to make his move during the day? Naw, it's just some skaa believer in Survivorism. Apparently, after Kelsier's death, the skaa in the city made him into some sort of god. They refer to Vin as the "lady-heir", whatever the heck that means. Do they see her as some kind of saint? They seem to believe she can somehow stop the massive army camped outside their walls all on her own. Haha! Some lady even asks Vin to bless her baby. Vin reluctantly obliges, and then quickly makes her way into some side alley. After fighting off a panic attack, Vin continues on to meet up with some Dog merchant. She buys a vicious wolfhound from the man, and abruptly kills it. Oh boy, I think I know where this is headed. Vin walks back to her chambers and brings the dog to Oreseur, who is still pretty messed up from all the wounds he took from those assassins. She tosses the dog in front of him and, despite his protests, she commands him to consume it. This, this is outrageous! First, she forces him to live in a maimed body for days, and now she wants him to turn into a DOG? I understand how she can be a bit disgusted with him after what he did with Kelsier's body, but come on! He was only following orders. What did she expect him to do? Break the contract? Feegh! As Vin prepares to leave the room, she finds a package on her desk. It's from some dude named Terion. He has apparently working on an alloy for Vin, and he's included the results of his work in the package. With this bit of news, Vin heads off to find Elend in his chambers. Vin enters the room to find him conversing with Dockson, of all people. The two of them don't seem to get along very well--not so surprising considering Dockson's hatred of noblemen. Once they finish talking, and Dockson leaves to room, Vin tells Elend about the wolfhound, and her plans for Oreseur. Elend actually likes the idea, and he also agrees that this will make the kandra a better spy. That may be so, but he doesn't seem to understand just how...degraded this must make Oreseur feel. I'm sure Vin gets it. Yeah, she knows what she's doing. Elend wants the kandra to go with Vin on all her nightly rounds from now on, he understands that she needs to be out there watching over him, but he also feels that she needs someone to have her back as well. Vin doesn't like the idea, of course, and Elend doesn't understand why she hates Oreseur so much. I don't get it either. Vin enlightens him, once again mentioning that it ate Kelsier, and how "the creature is unnatural". Wow, Vin! Racist much? In the end, she reluctantly agrees to take him with her, and they drop the subject. Sheesh. As they relax together, they start talking about the Survivor. I guess Vin must have forgotten about the package she received, which, if I recall correctly, was supposed to be the whole reason for this visit. Elend wants to know why Vin fell in love with him instead of Kelsier. ... Seriously, dude? That has got to be one of the stupidest... Kelsier was , like, 20 years older than her! More than old enough to be her father. Elend, however, isn't satisfied with this perfectly rational explanation, so Vin shares with him some of Kelsier's...less endearing traits. He killed without hesitation or remorse, and his hatred of the nobility was to the point where he didn't even seem to think of them as humans at all. In fact, he actually seemed to enjoy slaughtering nobles. It's a good thing he changed a little, because those are the exact reasons I hated him at first as well. Ham enters the room to find Vin sitting in Elends lap--I guess he doesn't understand the concept of knocking before you enter. Vin finally remembers why she came to this bloody room in the first place, and tells Elend about the package she received. This Terion guy has been working on creating/discovering the alloy of aluminum, which he calls duralumin. Vin burns the metal, and, unsurprisingly, nothing happens. She should probably try using some other metal at the same time. If Aluminum instantly burns up all the other metals you have in your stomach, perhaps duralumin will cause them to burn more slowly. Maybe burning it will give her the ability to squeeze even more power out of her metals when she flares them. I hope I don't have to wait too long to find out for sure what this new metal does. After the rather disappointing results on the duralumin test, Ham and Vin go out for a sparring session. End of Chapter 5 I must say, it kinda surprises me how Vin can seem so humble around her friends, and yet act so bossy around Oreseur. I guess it's because she doesn't think of him as a real person. I'm really looking forward to the day when Oreseur either gets his revenge, or somehow earns Vin's respect.

I didn't know there was a WoT re-read on Tor. I'll have check that out some time. Thanks for commenting, and I'm glad you're enjoying the blog so far.

Part 1 Chapter 2 Yeah, I've changed my mind about that whole bet thing. Y-You know I was joking, right? It turns out those coins weren't thrown by the watcher after all, but by a crew of eight misting assassins. I guess I'll have to wait a little longer to finally see this "Watcher" for myself, right? Wrong. In the middle of Vin's battle with the assassins, the Watcher shows up, gazing down on them from some rooftop...this guy kinda gives me the creeps. I can just picture his creepy little smile as he watches Vin struggle for her life. She's outnumbered 8:1, but of course he doesn't step in to help. He does, however, through a well placed coin toss, reveal that one of the assassins is actually a full blown Mistborn. Thanks to the Watchers half assed intervention, and a little bit of atium, she discovers the cowardly Mistborn and wastes him. This fight shows just how much Vin has improved. She slew seven mistings and a Mistborn, receiving only a few bruises and maybe some cracked ribs. Her pet kandra, however, wasn't quite so lucky. During the battle, Oreseur got pelted with coins. Vin walks over to him to find him lying in a pool of his own blood, and, apparently, in a significant amount of pain. She doesn't seem all that concerned though. As a matter of fact, she doesn't even let him consume one of the men she just killed. Why the heck not?! They're already dead, so she might as well make some use of them while they're still fresh. She doesn't, though, instead leaving Oreseur to drag himself back home in his current, grievously injured, state. Oh, and it turns out that the Atium bead Vin used against the assassin was her last. If they don't find the lord rulers atium stash soon, she's as good as dead. End of chapter 2 I dunno if it was a good idea to kill all of the assassins. She probably should have tried to take at least one of them alive for questioning. I mean, we don't even know they were actually sent by Straff Venture, and even if they were, she may have been able to extract some valuable information from one of them. I just realized that I forgot to write about the journal entry at the end of the last chapter. Well, it doesn't make much sense to me yet. Who is this Alendi? Is he the guy who wrote the journal in the last book? Chapter 3 This chapter begins with an Elend PoV. He's working on a proposal to present to the parliament of his new government. Many of the nobles are actually considering surrendering and handing the city over to Lord Venture. Elend can't let them do that, he's going to present this proposal to them to ensure they don't do anything...rash. After that rather short Elend PoV, we're back to Vin. Vin senses someone burning metal somewhere in the city, so she follows the pulsing and finds a nigh invisible...thing standing right in front of her. It takes a step towards her and she, naturally, responds with violence. It is completely unaffected by her attack, and eventually just dissipates into the mists. What could this thing possibly be? Is it some sort of kandra? It was burning metal, though, and Kandra can't use allomancy, can they? Is this creature somehow related to the doom the Lord Ruler spoke of before he bit the dust? The deepness? I guess I'll find out. Elend has pretty much finished up with his proposal, so he decides to read the letter he's received from his adoring father. The letter is too long for me to include the whole thing in this post, so I'll just paraphrase it for you. "That'll do pig, that'll do. King Straff Venture" .... He seems to expect Elend to simply hand over the city now that daddy's come home. Elend pays the letter no heed, but We all know he never really listened to his father anyway. Vin arrives through the window and tells Elend about the watcher's return, and the creature she saw in the mists. She does not, however, mention that the Watcher saved her life during her encounter with the assassins. I wonder why... Anyhow, Elend doesn't believe she could have actually seen an ethereal creature formed from the mists , so he chalks it up to sleep deprivation. Apparently, Elend had actually proposed to marry Vin at one point, and she refused him. Ha! Her rejection must not have affected their relationship much, though, because they still seem very close. It would be a shame if Elend were to somehow get himself killed... He's gonna die, isn't he? As Vin prepares to go to sleep on the floor next to Elend's chair, Ham walks in. His men have already identified the assassins that attacked Vin. They were actually westerners, and Ham thinks they were hired by some guy named Ashweather Cett. Haha! My suspicions were correct! Straff didn't send them after all. The chapter ends as Ham shares some of his invaluable optimism and leaves the room. End of Chapter 3 Now for the post-chapter journal. The guy who wrote this is named Kwaam, and he's apparently the one who proclaimed Alendi(the person from the 1st book?) to be the Hero Of Ages. I wonder what happened to him when Rashek came back from the Well of Ascension... Nothing good, probably. And thus concludes my second blog entry. This blog has already fallen a few chapters behind where I am in the actual book, so I should be able to get an entry out tomorrow as well. Until then, adiós.

Greetings! Welcome! I finished The Final Empire a few days ago, and I enjoyed it so much that I've decided to blog about books 2 and 3 when I read them. So, without further ado... Part 1 Chapter 1 Ash fell from.the sky... I wonder if all the books will start with these words. The book begins with an Elend Venture PoV. He's having a conversation with Ham. Apparently it's been a year since the Aspect Emperor---I mean Lord Ruler's demise. Over the past twelve months Elend has managed to recruit 20,000 men into the new Luthadel garrison, but he's having trouble keeping them all paid because, thus far, they have been unable to find the Lord Rulers atium stash. If it's in the city at all, they should have found it by now, right?. Is it possible the Lord Ruler used it all up? What could he have possibly been doing to use up all that metal, though? I suppose it's more likely that someone else stole the stash during the confusion, or it's just been hidden really well. Anyway, Straff Venture has returned, and he's brought friends! About 50,000 of them, all armed to the teeth. If Elend isn't able to dissuade his father from attacking the city, he can pretty much say goodbye to his brand new kingdom. The next PoV is everyone's favorite god-slayer. Vin's skulking about in the mists. She's taken upon herself the responsibility of protecting Elend from assassin's in the night. She now keeps her pewter and tin on almost all the time despite what Kelsier told her about relying on allomancy. I hope this doesn't somehow come back to bite her is the chull. Vin is meeting up with the Kandra, I guess she decided to be smart and keep the it after all, despite what it did with Kelsier's body. Its name is Oreseur. How's that pronounced, anyway? I read it as Ore-see-urr... Anyhow, it seems like Vin has a stalker. She refers to him as the Watcher, and he has apparently assaulted her on many occasions. The chapter ends when a flurry of coins are fired at Vin from the darkness. Who wants to bet it was this mysterious "Watcher" who shot them? End of Chapter 1 That was a pretty short chapter, even for Sanderson, but this is, unfortunately, all I had the chance to read today. Hopefully I'll get the chance to read more tomorrow. I have high expectations for this book, so I'm pretty anxious to really get started.

Sweet! Oh yeah, I noticed that on Dragonmount people seem to enjoy reading blogs about WoT, I know I do. So I'm thinking about blogging aboot my progress in the next three books, but I've already finished to first one, so I'm not sure if anyone would want to read my blog about the next few...but...um, would you?

I really enjoyed it. It had it's flaws, but over all I thought it was a fantastic book, and I'm really looking forward to starting the next one. If I was to rate the book, I would probably give it a 4/5. So, on to my sorta-kinda-notreally review. I won't bother with a SPOILERS!!! warning, because I'm sure everyone on this board has read the first book. The Wheel Of Time was what introduced me to Brandon Sanderson as an author. I thought he did a great job on books 12-13, and I actually enjoyed them even more than the last few Jordan books, so I decided to take a look at one of Sandersons original works. Mistborn had great reviews on Amazon, so I started with The Final Empire. What I liked about the book. It usually takes me 50-100 pages to really get into a book, but TFE captured my interest in the prologue. I usually find at least one protagonist to hate in a series, and, I must admit, I kinda disliked Kelsier in the beginning, but by the end of the book he was my favorite character. I also liked Vin, so this is probably the first series I've read where I didn't have one of the PoV characters. The storyline progressed smoothly, and there was never really a dull moment. A lot of events took me completely by surprise, like the destruction of the army they'd spent half the book building up. Marsh's "death", which does bring up a question; If the inquisitors didn't "question" Marsh, how did they find out about Renoux? Kelsier's subsequent self-sacrifice took me entirely by surprise, and his brilliant plan in the end is what makes him one of my favorite fantasy book characters of all time, of all time! What I didn't like. Surprisingly, I don't have much to complian about with the particular book. The characters were fun to read about, and I could sympathise with almost all of them. So the only true disappointment I had in the book was the ending. It felt kind of rushed to me, and a few things just didn't make sense. First, there's the fact that they just left Vin's bag lying around somewhere. A bag they took from a Mistborn... a bag which contains Atium. It smacks of villain stupidity to me. That's just a minor qualm, though. Most series use some form of Deus ex machina, so it didn't really surprse me to see it here. No, my main problem is the defeat of the Lord Ruler. He said he'd been sliced, diced, crushed, dismembered, flayed, and served up with onions. Earlier in the book, someone mentioned that he'd even been beheaded, so if his immortality REALLY came from the bracers around his arms, shouldn't he have died from having his arms or head cut off? Maybe this gets addressed later, but for now it doesn't seem to make sense. I'm sure there were other minor things I didn't like about the book, but I'm just too lazy to go through them all right now. Over all, the book was a great read, but I do have one fear going into the next books. I'm worried that Vin might become overpowered. That was a major problem for me in the later books of the Wheel of Time, everything started to become too easy for the protagonists, and there wasn't enough internal conflict. One of the reasons I like Vin as a character is that she isn't overly confident. She has doubts and fears which make her easy to relate to. I'm sure she'll become more self-confident as the series progresses, I'm just hoping she doesn't turn into an Egwene. *blegh* I hope, if there are any main villains in the next books, that they'll still be more powerful than the heroes. It's always more fun that way. I also hope The Well of Ascension won't be as self-contained as this one. Now I'm on to book 2!

.... I've never done one of these before...soooo...uh. Hey! I'm new here(obviously), I'm currently reading Branderson's Mistborn Series(just completed the first book), and when it comes to novels I stick to Fantasy exclusively. Although, I plan on taking a shot at a Sci-fi book once I complete Mistborn. I've read The Wheel Of Time, The Prince Of Nothing, and the first 2 books of The Aspect emperor. I'm also a big fan of A Song of Ice and Fire. I haven't read very many books, but, luckily, with the exception of some of the WoT books, I've yet read a bad one. Anyway, I'm gonna hop on over to the Mistborn Forums to write up a review/questioning-thingie for the 1st book. It'll be a pleasure to meet you all. Oh, and you might find me at the Dragonmount forums if any of you go there.