The Well of Ascension

Vin and OreSeur patrol the city once more. Vin, like Sazed and Marsh, has noticed that the mists have been coming earlier in the day, before nightfall. She notices that OreSeur is resistant to nearly anything she says or does, passive-aggressively emphasizing that he will do or believe things if she orders him to. Curious about his behavior and about how to find the kandra spy, she questions him about kandra society. She wonders if a kandra could be acting of their own volition, but OreSeur insists that kandra only ever follow their contracts, including the “Contract” with the Lord Ruler, whom they call Father. He does reveal that kandra cannot be affected by mental Allomancy and cannot use Allomancy themselves, but his reticence about other powers makes Vin wonder if there is another Allomantic power that can affect kandra. When OreSeur stops answering questions unless commanded, Vin respects his privacy and stops questioning.

The pulsing that Vin felt from the mists earlier in the novel returns when she burns bronze to detect other Allomancers. She pursues the mist spirit, but when she confronts it, it steps forward and disappears. Vin feels as if something grabs her arm, and pain radiates from her pierced ear as she collapses. The encounter leads Vin to wonder if the mists may be an enemy rather than the friend she thought.

Vin meets with the old crew to discuss how they should approach the problem of the two armies camped outside their gates. Most of Kelsier’s old crew suggests that they turn the city over to one of the two men, with most of the crew leaning toward Cett. They claim that he would treat the city better than Straff, but Elend stops them by asking how Cett treats skaa. He makes the point that although the crew sees turning the city over as their only choice, he is the one who would have to live with the guilt of returning the skaa to their previous oppression. He proposes cutting off the armies from their food supply lines instead and using political maneuvers to pit them against one another. The crew reluctantly agrees to the plan, pointing out that the burden of it will be on Elend, as he will play a major role in manipulating both Straff and Cett. Elend insists that he can do it. A guard interrupts the meeting to inform Elend that they found a Terriswoman—the same one Vin saw watching Elend at the Assembly—eavesdropping from the next room.

Elend sends away the crew and his guards so that he can speak to the Terriswoman, Tindwyl, privately. Tindwyl reveals that she is a Feruchemist like Sazed by breaking the bonds on her wrists. She tells Elend that Sazed sent her to help him, and she accuses Elend of being a bad leader, telling him that his people do not have faith in him. She offers to help, and he decides that he trusts her even though Vin does not.

Vin and Elend discuss Tindwyl and the kandra spy in private. Elend shares his fears about being a bad leader, but Vin maintains her faith in him. She asks him about the Deepness—the power that the Hero of Ages was to protect the world against—and shares her concerns about the mist. Elend reassures her, not believing that the Deepness might be returning. Vin shares her plans to test some of the crew members to see if they are spies, and she insists that she will not question Elend—she refuses to believe that he may be an imposter.

After eight days of traveling away from the Conventical, Sazed wakes up to find that Marsh abandoned him in the night. He moves on, finding a village called Urbene littered with the dead bodies of skaa. Sazed determines that they died of starvation and dehydration and finds one survivor inside a building, close to death. He is frightened to go outside, where he says the mist has been coming in the daytime. Many people who went outside, he says, died from fits like the man Sazed examined in another village, though others survived. The man walks over to a corpse and tries to eat it, and Sazed realizes that he survived via cannibalism. Sazed forces the man outside with his Feruchemical strength, and the man runs away. Sazed realizes that he truly must go to Luthadel to tell his friends about what is happening; he uses his stored speed to reach the city as quickly as possible.

Vin searches for references to the mist and the Deepness in her copy of Alendi’s logbook, which she found in The Final Empire. She sees connections between the mist spirit she sees and the one Alendi describes, but she finds very little information to help her determine what is happening. She misses Kelsier, who she believes could help them figure out what is going on and how to fight it.

Elend watches as the armies finish setting up their siege camps. Clubs finds him, and when Elend asks point-blank if he thinks Elend is a good leader, Clubs acknowledges that he has seen worse but that he has also seen a lot better. He meets Tindwyl again, and she works on how to improve his appearance to make him more kingly. He objects to cutting his hair at first, but Tindwyl impresses on him the power of a kingly appearance. They cut his hair, and she gives him a white, military-style uniform and simple crown so that he can stand out among others and reflect authority. One of his military leaders, Captain Demoux, informs him that Straff has sent a messenger.

Vin and OreSeur join Elend in his meeting with Straff’s messenger, the man whom Vin called the Watcher. The man, Zane, tells Elend that Straff wants to host a meeting in his own camp, which Elend says he will consider. Vin tells Elend that Zane is a Mistborn but does not reveal that she has sparred with him. With OreSeur, she confronts Zane in the mists that night. Zane argues that Mistborn like them belong to the mists and that they should not allow men like Elend and Straff to control them. He believes that they are both enslaved to their “masters,” despite Vin’s insistence to the contrary. They spar, and when Zane leaves, Vin wonders if she could convince him to join their side.

Having fled from Vin, Zane watches Elend from outside the keep. He hears voices in his head telling him to kill Elend (as they tell him to kill so many people). Zane reflects on the injustice of his status: As Straff’s “legitimate” heir, Elend is revered as a king, whereas Zane, Elend’s half-brother, lives as one of Straff’s many “illegitimate,” nearly enslaved Allomantic children. Reporting to Straff, Zane claims that he can gain Vin’s trust and informs Straff that he still isn’t sure whether Vin and Elend have the atium stash. A servant girl brings Straff tea, and after drinking it, Straff realizes that it contains poison that Zane must have given the girl. He has the girl killed, and once Zane is gone, he calls one of his older mistresses, whom he keeps in his retinue only for her skill in creating antidotes for poison. Straff never admits to the weakness of needing the woman’s help, wanting Zane to feel like Straff is powerful enough to control his Mistborn son.

Nearing Luthadel, Sazed climbs a tree to observe the enemies camped outside the walls. Some koloss, the blue-skinned, violent creatures created by the Lord Ruler, find him and take him to their camp. Sazed watches as they pass brutal koloss fights, and he is amazed to find Jastes Lekal, once a nobleman friend of Elend, leading the koloss with a small force of humans. He asks Sazed to become his steward, but Sazed declines; he tries to talk sense into Jastes since everyone believes the koloss cannot truly be controlled by anyone except the Lord Ruler. Jastes refuses and speaks irrationally, claiming that he wants Luthadel and its stash of atium. He tells Sazed to inform Elend that he has 20,000 koloss and that Elend should accept his protection and allow the koloss inside the city to defend against the other two armies.

The crew discusses Elend’s proposed parlay, not liking the idea of Elend going into the camp unprotected. Elend plans to appeal to his father’s belief in Elend’s weakness and play Straff and Cett against one another. Meanwhile, despite Dockson’s requests to discuss other Assembly and city matters, Elend continues to obsess over the armies, assuming that they are the most important threat to his people. Tindwyl provides more lessons on kingship, lecturing Elend on his posture, his tendency to apologize, and other un-kingly behaviors. The crew is shocked when Allrianne, the daughter of Cett, appears, seeking asylum.

When Breeze joins the group at Allrianne’s request, the crew is shocked to see her cling to Breeze like a lovestruck girl. Elend offers to host her, but he refuses to take Dockson’s suggestion to use her as a hostage.

As she does most nights, Vin patrols the city at night—pushing herself to exhaustion. She waits near the keep on this night, watching Ham, and she burns bronze while OreSeur startles Ham. When Ham burns his pewter in response, Vin knows that he is not the kandra spy. Then, she admits that she has no more atium, which sobers Ham, and she asks if he knows how to defeat a Mistborn burning atium. The only ideas he can think of are to surprise them or set a trap, both of which seem inadequate for Vin’s needs.

Vin and OreSeur continue to watch the mists, and Vin finally admits her hatred for OreSeur, not just because he took Kelsier’s body but because he was the only one who knew of Kelsier’s plans. Vin realizes how poorly she has treated OreSeur for simply doing as he had been ordered. She asks about his life, and they connect over feeling powerless and hiding their true selves from others—they have both felt exploited. OreSeur admits that his masters have treated him poorly, and Vin tries to convince him that he can trust some humans, as she has learned to trust others. OreSeur shares how humans found the kandra a long time ago and persecuted them; the Contract, in which they act as spies, helped the kandra prevent further genocide by enslaving themselves to humans. While they talk, Vin hears footsteps and discovers that Sazed has returned. She runs to him, embracing him in relief, but Sazed admits that troubles bring him to Luthadel.

Sazed breaks the news of the koloss army, and the crew tries to come up with backup plans to deal with Jastes’s force. Vin’s suspicions about the mists are confirmed when Sazed tells them about the skaa deaths and daytime mist appearances. He insists on staying in Luthadel to discover what is happening. Tindwyl confronts him after the crew meeting and accuses him of abandoning his duties and consistently disobeying the Synod, but Sazed insists that he is needed in Luthadel and reminds Tindwyl that by disobeying the Synod once before, he helped bring down their oppressor. Tindwyl tells Sazed that he should be a ruler of his people and someone to look up to, and it puzzles her that he continues to rebel.

Outside Elend’s rooms, Vin watches the night and detects the mist spirit’s Allomantic pulses. She reflects on a passage from Alendi’s logbook in which he describes hearing distant thumps and pulses coming from the Terris mountains.

Zane searches for Vin in the night, believing that she might be the one person who can finally help him resist his father. Even though he burns bronze to evade Allomantic detection, Vin detects his presence. Zane wonders why Vin doesn’t seize whatever power she wants, but she says that she has learned not to take advantage of her abilities and of other people. When he asks what she would do if she could handle the invading armies in her own way, Vin admits that she would kill their leaders; instead, she respects Elend’s wishes and his desire to do things the “right” way. Zane reiterates that they are both pawns, but he suggests that they might free one another.

Tindwyl takes Vin to shop for a dress for the meeting with Straff; Allrianne insists on joining them, and Spook acts as their carriage driver. Tindwyl takes a gentler approach with Vin than with Elend, sensing that Vin needs nurturing and encouragement. She confronts her about Vin’s rejection of Elend’s marriage proposal and demonstrates her understanding of Vin’s lack of self-worth. When Church of Survivor followers gather outside and wish to speak to Vin, Tindwyl stops her from running away and encourages her to act as a symbol of hope for the people. After doing so, Vin hears war drums and helps the wall guards fight off Straff’s attack—a feint meant to test their defenses.

Elend and Vin dress up for the meeting with Straff, using Tindwyl’s recommendations to make themselves look more like leaders. They meet inside Straff’s camp and offer an alliance against Cett, but Straff refuses. Vin maintains her meek persona but uses subtle cues to hint to Elend that he should bluff about having the atium cache. Straff orders everyone out so that he can speak to Elend alone.

Elend claims that Straff can’t win without his help since Cett would attack the moment Straff weakens his army by invading. Straff claims that he already has a treaty with Cett; he will only agree to Elend’s demands if Elend goes to the city walls and surrenders to Straff directly. Elend realizes that his father is going to kill him if he does not agree, so he bluffs again, insinuating that Vin will kill Straff the moment he moves against Elend. Vin hears this from outside and uses Allomancy to manipulate Straff’s emotions according to Elend’s prompts. She finally uses duralumin to create a massive emotional deadening, which makes Straff question Vin and Elend’s strength and send them away out of fear. When they leave, Straff orders Zane to kill Vin; Zane claims that he will need a team of Allomancers, so Straff gives him permission to use some of Straff’s misting children/army, built secretly through his many skaa affairs.

Elend is ecstatic at their success with Straff, but Vin thinks of Zane’s words and feels more like a pawn than she has before. On their arrival, Elend is informed that the Assembly has held a vote of no confidence, deposing him.