The Well of Ascension

When Vin finally wakes from the coma she fell into after burning using too much pewter in the battle with Straff’s assassins, Elend tells her about the vote. When he unconsciously flinches at her touch, Vin believes that he sees her as a monster. Reen’s voice tells her that everyone will abandon her. She refocuses on Elend, who continues to update her on what has happened since she lost consciousness.

On waking again, Vin finds Zane, who claims that the assassins were from Cett. He tells her about Penrod’s deal with Straff and gives her a bead of atium in case she needs it.

OreSeur has a new dog body after the previous one died protecting Vin during the fight. He reluctantly continues to open up to her, although he limits the information he shares. He shares that the kandra are not immortal and were created by the Lord Ruler, with a built-in means of control that Vin realizes is connected to his reticence to talk about other Allomantic metals. She experiments by burning duralumin and brass, the metal to manipulate emotions, and OreSeur falls down in pain. Upset that he has revealed too much, he pulls away from Vin again, despite her promises not to use the power on him again. He claims that modern Allomancers should not be powerful enough to do it.

Sazed and Tindwyl continue to research the words that Sazed found in the Conventical, comparing them to Alendi’s logbook. Tindwyl feels that something is wrong with the rubbing, but she cannot identify what it is. Their studies become more frantic as they realize that the conquest of Luthadel will lead to many deaths. They hope to learn more about Alendi’s motives and Kwaan’s assertion that he had to stop Alendi from taking the power at the Well of Ascension. Elend, dressed in his old, sloppy clothing, arrives and asks for advice, and although Tindwyl is angry that he let himself be deposed, Sazed applauds Elend’s willingness to uphold his moral convictions. Tindwyl reluctantly agrees. As Elend leaves, he is determined not to return to his old self; he returns to his rooms to put back on the clothing of a king, determined to be the leader the people need, crown or no crown.

Elend focuses on providing aid to city residents and refugees, including by providing warm shelters and investigating the poisoned water. They determine that a spy must be sneaking in, so Ham reluctantly shows Elend an illegal passwall that Ham used to use to sneak in and out during the Lord Ruler’s reign. It is still active, so Elend uses it to leave and find Jastes. Jastes threatens to take Elend hostage, but Elend’s lack of a title makes him a useless hostage. Elend demands that Jastes take the koloss away before he loses control and they attack people in the city. Jastes refuses, so Elend grabs his former friend and holds him at knife point so that he can get away from the camp. On his way out, Elend wants to discover how Jastes controls the koloss, so he attacks one, killing it and taking its pouch of fake coins.

When Vin learns from OreSeur about Elend’s trip to the koloss camp, she feels even more that Elend no longer needs her. Zane finds her again and claims that Demoux is the kandra spy working for Cett; he uses this claim to manipulate Vin into attacking Cett, forcing him to withdraw. Vin takes her atium bead from OreSeur and joins Zane. The two Mistborn slaughter the soldiers they find at Cett’s temporary home, but when they find Cett, despite Vin’s belief that he or his son is an Allomancer, she finds that they are helpless against her and Zane—the Allomancers that attacked Vin months prior were Cett’s last. Vin chooses mercy even as Zane urges her to kill Cett; Zane is angered by the fact that she is, in his opinion, still controlled by Elend.

Breeze and Clubs watch Cett’s army retreat, speculating that Straff will now withdraw so that the koloss will attack the city and make it easy for him to step in afterward. Elend asks Ham and Spook why Vin would attack Cett’s keep, but none of them feel like they understand her. Ham worries about why Vin keeps secrets and works with another Mistborn. OreSeur helps Elend find Vin, who is ashamed of what she did. Nonetheless, she has decided that she might be the Hero of Ages and needs to seek Terris, where legend holds that the Well of Ascension can be found.

Sazed and Tindwyl debate the legends about the Deepness and the Hero of Ages. Touching on religion more broadly, Tindwyl does not understand Sazed’s desire to study religions so deeply. However, they agree that the Hero of Ages would not be of Terris descent. They discuss the type of hope that religion can provide and whether it is valuable. When Tindwyl discovers the same sentence ripped out of multiple copies of the manuscript, they think that a mysterious force is trying to keep them from discovering something important about the Hero of Ages.

Vin arrives and asks to speak with Sazed alone; she asks him what it feels like to truly love someone, hoping that Sazed can help her understand her relationship with Elend. She worries that Elend needs someone more like a traditional noblewoman. When Elend appears, asking similar questions and wondering if he is worthy of Vin, Sazed and Tindwyl decide that the two are meant to be together. They must prevent the young couple from falling in the invasion of Luthadel.

Breeze is amused at how bad Sazed is at being covert when Sazed asks the old crew to meet in secret. They admit that they believe the city will fall and that they expect to die; Sazed, however, wants them to help send away Elend and Vin. Despite their own imminent deaths, they want to hold out hope that the young couple will survive. Clubs asks that they include Spook, his nephew, in the group. Sazed tries to convince Tindwyl to join them as a guide to Terris, but she refuses to leave him.

Zane survives Straff’s assassination attempt and confronts Straff, who attempts to bribe him with a formal inheritance or atium, which he thinks Mistborns covet. Zane finally leaves his father, but not before suggesting that Straff withdraw and then take over the city after the koloss destroy it. Zane does this in the hope of destroying the city after convincing Vin to leave with him. Zane’s thoughts turn to the metal spike in his head, hinting at future revelations about the nature of metal.

Vin observes the odd behavior of the mists while reflecting on what she thinks are her failures to serve Elend. She has been hearing distant thumps coming from the direction of the Terris mountains, like those described in Alendi’s logbook. Lately, the thumps have grown louder, which she believes indicates that the Well of Ascension is regaining power. When Zane tries to get her to leave the city with him, Vin nearly joins him. Instead, she realizes that her love and respect for Elend are enough to keep her on his side. When Zane attacks and OreSeur refuses to give Vin her bead of atium, Vin discovers that OreSeur was the kandra spy the entire time. He is actually TenSoon, a spy who is under contract with Straff and Zane. TenSoon, however, sees that Zane is untrustworthy, so while the Mistborn fight, he yells a veiled reminder to Vin about her ability to control kandra. She uses that power to force TenSoon to attack Zane, breaking his contract. She gets the atium, but it runs out quickly; instead, Vin relies on her ability to feint to defeat Zane, watching his body for hints of what the atium says she will do. She kills Zane. As he dies, he says something about the voice in his head not wanting him to kill Vin, and in his own mind, he hears the voice telling him that he is not “insane.”

TenSoon must leave; having broken his contract by attacking his master and helping to kill a human, he must return to his homeland. He apologizes for his betrayal and expresses regret for betraying his own people as well by revealing their vulnerability to Allomancy. Vin seeks Elend.

Vin finds Elend and attempts to tell him about his brother Zane, but her words confuse Elend. Sazed tends Vin’s wounds while Vin explains. Finally choosing love over self-doubt, Vin proposes to Elend. Sazed chooses a brief, efficient marriage ceremony from among his stored religions and marries the two.

Hearing Vin talk of the Well of Ascension again, Sazed sees his chance to get the two out. He tells them a slightly altered version of what he and Tindwyl have been discovering, and he advises them to seek the Well in Terris to help save their people. He suggests that even if Straff takes the city, Elend could more effectively rebel from outside the city, especially if the Synod agrees to help. Sazed helps them set their escape plan in motion. Sazed thinks about his actions in that moment and ever since he joined the rebellion against the Lord Ruler, wondering what the world would think about his frequent interventions in major events.