“They agreed to the plan, Vin,” Elend said, still looking up at the window. “They even seemed excited, like you said they’d be. It’s just … I can’t help thinking that their suggestion was far more rational than mine. They wanted to side with one of the armies, giving it our support in exchange for leaving me as a subjugated ruler in Luthadel.”
“That would be giving up,” Vin said.
“Sometimes, giving up is better than failing. I just committed my city to an extended siege. That will mean hunger, perhaps starvation, before this is over with.”
Vin put a hand on his shoulder, watching him uncertainly. Usually, he was the one who reassured her. “It’s still a better way,” she said. “The others probably just suggested a weaker plan because they thought you wouldn’t go along with something more daring.”
“No,” Elend said. “They weren’t pandering to me, Vin. They really thought that making a strategic alliance was a good, safe plan.” He paused, then looked at her. “Since when did that group represent the reasonable side of my government?”
“They’ve had to grow,” Vin said. “They can’t be the men they once were, not with this much responsibility.”
Elend turned back toward the window. “I’ll tell you what worries me, Vin. I’m worried that their plan wasn’t reasonable—perhaps it itself was a bit foolhardy. Perhaps making an alliance would have been a difficult enough task. If that’s the case, then what I’m proposing is just downright ludicrous.”
Vin squeezed his shoulder. “We fought the Lord Ruler.”
“You had Kelsier then.”
“Not that again.”
“I’m sorry,” Elend said. “But, really, Vin. Maybe my plan to try and hold on to the government is just arrogance. What was it you told me about your childhood? When you were in the thieving crews, and everyone was bigger, stronger, and meaner than you, what did you do? Did you stand up to the leaders?”
Memories flashed in her mind. Memories of hiding, of keeping her eyes down, of weakness.
“That was then,” she said. “You can’t let others beat on you forever. That’s what Kelsier taught me—that’s why we fought the Lord Ruler. That’s why the skaa rebellion fought the Final Empire all those years, even when there was no chance of winning. Reen taught me that the rebels were fools. But Reen is dead now—and so is the Final Empire. And …”
She leaned down, catching Elend’s eyes. “You can’t give up the city, Elend,” she said quietly. “I don’t think I’d like what that would do to you.”
Elend paused, then smiled slowly. “You can be very wise sometimes, Vin.”
“You think that?”
He nodded.
“Well,” she said, “then obviously you’re as poor a judge of character as I am.”
Elend laughed, putting his arm around her, hugging her against his side. “So, I assume the patrol tonight was uneventful?”
The mist spirit. Her fall. The chill she could still feel—if only faintly remembered—in her forearm. “It was,” she said. The last time she’d told him of the mist spirit, he’d immediately thought she’d been seeing things.
“See,” Elend said, “you should have come to the meeting; I would have liked to have had you here.”
She said nothing.
They sat for a few minutes, looking up at the dark window. There was an odd beauty to it; the colors weren’t visible because of the lack of back light, and she could instead focus on the patterns of glass. Chips, slivers, slices, and plates woven together within a framework of metal.
“Elend?” she finally said. “I’m worried.”
“I’d be concerned if you weren’t,” he said. “Those armies have me so worried that I can barely think straight.”
“No,” Vin said. “Not about that. I’m worried about other things.”
“Like what?”
“Well … I’ve been thinking about what the Lord Ruler said, right before I killed him. Do you remember?”
Elend nodded. He hadn’t been there, but she’d told him.
“He talked about what he’d done for mankind,” Vin said. “He saved us, the stories say. From the Deepness.”
Elend nodded.
“But,” Vin said, “what was the Deepness? You were a nobleman—religion wasn’t forbidden to you. What did the Ministry teach about the Deepness and the Lord Ruler?”
Elend shrugged. “Not much, really. Religion wasn’t forbidden, but it wasn’t encouraged either. There was something proprietary about the Ministry, an air that implied they would take care of religious things—that we didn’t need to worry ourselves.”
“But they did teach you about some things, right?”
Elend nodded. “Mostly, they talked about why the nobility were privileged and the skaa cursed. I guess they wanted us to understand how fortunate we were—though honestly, I always found the teachings a little disturbing. See, they claimed that we were noble because our ancestors supported the Lord Ruler before the Ascension. But, that means that we were privileged because of what other people had done. Not really fair, eh?”
Vin shrugged. “Fair as anything else, I guess.”
“But, didn’t you get angry?” Elend said. “Didn’t it frustrate you that the nobility had so much while you had so little?”
“I didn’t think about it,” Vin said. “The nobility had a lot, so we could take it from them. Why should I care how they got it? Sometimes, when I had food, other thieves beat me and took it. What did it matter how I got my food? It was still taken from me.”
Elend paused. “You know, sometimes I wonder what the political theorists I’ve read would say if they met you. I have a feeling they’d throw up their hands in frustration.”
She poked him in the side. “Enough politics. Tell me about the Deepness.”
“Well, I think it was a creature of some sort—a dark and evil thing that nearly destroyed the world. The Lord Ruler traveled to the Well of Ascension, where he was given the power to defeat the Deepness and unite mankind. There are several statues in the city depicting the event.”
Vin frowned. “Yes, but they never really show what the Deepness looked like. It’s depicted as a twisted lump at the Lord Ruler’s feet.”
“Well, the last person who actually saw the Deepness died a year ago, so I guess we’ll have to make do with the statues.”
“Unless it comes back,” Vin said quietly.
Elend frowned, looking at her again. “Is that what this is about, Vin?” His face softened slightly. “Two armies aren’t enough? You have to worry about the fate of the world as well?”
Vin glanced down sheepishly, and Elend laughed, pulling her close. “Ah, Vin. I know you’re a bit paranoid—honestly, considering our situation, I’m starting to feel the same—but I think this is one problem you don’t have to worry about. I haven’t heard any reports of monstrous incarnations of evil rampaging across the land.”
Vin nodded, and Elend leaned back a bit, obviously assuming that he’d answered her question.