“Fuzz?” Kelsier asked, uncertain.
“I must stop her. Someone…” His eyes unfocused.
“What are you doing?”
“Hush,” Fuzz said, voice suddenly more commanding. “I’m trying to stop this.”
Kelsier looked around, but there was nobody else here. “Who?”
“Do not assume that the me you see here is the only me,” Fuzz said. “I am everywhere.”
“But—”
“Hush!”
Kelsier hushed, in part because he was happy to see such strength from the god after so long motionless. After some time, however, he slumped down. “No use,” Fuzz mumbled. “His tools are stronger.”
“So…” Kelsier said, testing to see if he’d be hushed again. “Last time. Rashek used the power, instead of … what? Giving it up?”
Fuzz nodded. “Alendi would have done the right thing, as he perceived it. Given the power up—but that would have freed Ruin. ‘Giving the power up’ is a stand-in for giving the power to him. The powers would interpret that as me releasing him. My power, accepting his touch back into the world, directly.”
“Great,” Kelsier said. “We need a sacrifice then. Someone to take up the powers of eternity, then use them for whatever he wants instead of giving them away. Well, that is a sacrifice I’m perfect to make. How do I do it?”
Preservation regarded him. The creature’s earlier strength was no more. He was fading, losing his human attributes. He didn’t blink anymore, for example, and didn’t make a pretense of breathing in before speaking. He could be utterly motionless, lifeless as an iron rod.
“You,” Preservation finally said. “Using my power. You.”
“You let the Lord Ruler do it.”
“He tried to save the world.”
“As did I.”
“You tried to rescue a boatful of people from a fire by sinking the boat, then claiming, ‘At least they didn’t burn to death.’” God hesitated. “You’re going to punch me again, aren’t you?”
“Can’t reach you, Fuzz,” Kelsier said. “The power. How do I use it?”
“You can’t,” Preservation said. “That power is part of the prison. This is what you did by merging your soul to the Well, Kelsier. You wouldn’t be able to hold it anyway. You’re not Connected enough to me.”
Kelsier settled down to think on this, but before he had time to do much, he noticed an oddity. Were those figures in the chamber outside? Yes, they were. Living people, marked by their glowing souls. More Inquisitors come to drop off a dead body? He hadn’t seen any of them for ages.
Two people stole into the corridor and approached the Well, passing rows of pillars that showed as illusory mist to Kelsier.
“They’re here,” Preservation said.
“Who?” Kelsier said, squinting. It was difficult to make out details of faces, with those souls glowing. “Is that…”
It was Vin.
“What?” Preservation said, looking toward Kelsier, noting his shock. “You thought I was waiting here for nothing? It happens today. The Well of Ascension is full. The time has arrived.”
The other figure was the boy, Elend Venture. Kelsier was surprised to find he wasn’t angry at the sight. Yes, the crew should have known better than to put a nobleman in charge, but that wasn’t really Elend’s fault. He’d always been too oblivious to be dangerous.
Besides, whatever the faults of his parentage, this Venture boy had stayed with Vin.
Kelsier folded his arms, watching Venture kneel beside the pool. “If he touches it, I’m going to slap him.”
“He will not,” Preservation said. “It’s for her. He knows it. I’ve been preparing her. I tried, at least.”
Vin turned, and seemed to be looking at God. Yes, she could see him. Was there a way Kelsier could use that?
“You tried?” Kelsier said. “Did you explain what she needs to do? Your opposite has been watching her, interacting with her. I’ve seen him doing it. He tried to kill Elend.”
“No,” Fuzz said, haunted. “He was imitating me. He looked as I do, to them, and tried to kill the boy. Not because he cares about one death, but because he wanted her to distrust me. To think I am her enemy. But can’t she tell the difference? Between his hate and destruction, and my peace. I cannot kill. I’ve never been able to kill.…”
“Talk to her!” Kelsier said. “Tell her what she needs to do, Fuzz!”
“I…” Preservation shook his head. “I can’t get through to her, can’t speak to her. I can hear her mind, Kelsier. His lies are there. She doesn’t trust me. She thinks she needs to give it up. I’ve tried to stop this. I left her clues, and then I tried to make someone else stop her. But … I’ve … I’ve failed…”
Oh, hell, Kelsier thought. Need a plan. Quick.
Vin was going to give up the power. Release the thing. Even without Preservation’s assertions, Kelsier would have known what Vin would do. She was a better person than he had ever been, and she never had thought she deserved the rewards she was given. She’d take this power, and she’d assume she had to give it up for the greater good.
But how to change that? If Preservation couldn’t speak to her, then what?
Elend stood up and approached Preservation. Yes, the boy could see Preservation too.
“She needs motivation,” Kelsier said, an idea clicking in his mind. Ruin had tried to stab Elend, to frighten her.
It was the right idea. He just hadn’t gone far enough.
“Stab him,” Kelsier said.
“What?” Preservation said, aghast.
Kelsier pushed out of his prison bonds a few steps, approaching Fuzz, who stood just outside. He strained to the absolute limits of his fetters.
“Stab him,” Kelsier said. “Use that knife at your belt, Fuzz. They can see you, and you can affect their world. Stab Elend Venture. Give her a reason to use the power. She’ll want to save him.”
“I’m Preservation,” he said. “The knife … I haven’t actually drawn it in millennia. You speak of acting like him, as he pretended I would act! It’s horrible!”
“You have to!” Kelsier said.
“I can’t … I…” Fuzz reached to his belt, and his hand shimmered. The knife appeared there. He looked down at it, the blade glistening. “Old friend…” he whispered at it.
He looked toward Elend, who nodded. Preservation raised his arm, weapon in hand.
Then stopped.
His half face was a mask of pain. “No…” he whispered. “I Preserve…”
He’s not going to do it, Kelsier thought, watching Elend talk to Vin, his posture reassuring. He can’t do it.
Only one option.
“Sorry, kid,” Kelsier said.
Kelsier grabbed Preservation’s shimmering arm and slashed it across the Venture boy’s stomach.
He felt as if he were stabbing his own flesh. Not because of Venture, but because he knew what it would do to Vin. His heart lurched as she rushed to Venture’s side, weeping.
Well, he’d saved this boy’s life once, so this would make them even. Besides, she would rescue him. She’d have to save Elend. She loved him.
Kelsier stepped back, returning to his prison proper, leaving an aghast Preservation to stare at his own hand as he stumbled away from the fallen man.
“Gut wound,” Kelsier whispered. “He’ll take time to die, Vin. Grab the power. It’s right here. Use it.”
She cradled Venture. Kelsier waited, anxious. If she entered the pool, she’d be able to see Kelsier, wouldn’t she? She’d become transcendent, like Preservation. Or would she have to use the power first?
Would that free Kelsier? He had no answers, only an assurance that whatever happened, he could not let that thing Beyond escape. He turned.
And was shocked to find it there. He could sense it, pressed against the reality of this world, an infinite darkness. Not just the flimsy imitation of Preservation he’d made before, but the entire vast power. It wasn’t in any specific space, but a
t the same time it was pressed up against reality and watching with a keen interest.
To his horror, Kelsier saw it change, sending forward spines like the spindly legs of a spider. On their end, dangling like a puppet, was a humanoid figure.
Vin … it whispered. Vin …
She looked toward the pool, her posture grieved. Then she left Venture and entered the Well, passing Kelsier without seeing him and reaching the deepest point. She sank slowly into the light. At the last moment, she ripped something glowing from her ear and tossed it out—a bit of metal. Her earring?
Once she sank completely, she did not appear on this side. Instead, a storm began. A rising column of light surrounded Kelsier, blocking him from seeing anything but the raw energy. Like a sudden tide, an explosion, an instant sunrise. It was all around him, active, excited.
You mustn’t do it, child, Ruin said through his humanlike puppet. How could it speak with such a soothing voice? He could see the force behind it, the destruction, but the face it put on was so kindly. You know what you must do.
“Don’t listen to it, Vin!” Kelsier screamed, but his voice was lost in the roar of the power. He shouted and railed as the voice conned Vin, warning her that if she took the power she’d destroy the world. Kelsier fought through the light, trying to find her, to seize her and explain.
He failed. He failed horribly. He couldn’t make himself heard, couldn’t touch Vin. Couldn’t do anything. Even his impromptu plan of stabbing Elend proved foolish, for she released the power. Weeping, flayed, ripped open, she did the most selfless thing he had ever seen.
And in so doing, she doomed them.
The power became a weapon as she released it. It made a spear in the air and ripped a hole through reality and into the place where Ruin waited.
Ruin rushed through that hole to freedom.
4
KELSIER sat on the lip of the now empty Well of Ascension. The light was gone, and with it his prison. He could leave.
He didn’t seem to be stretching away and fading. Apparently being part of Preservation’s power for a time had expanded Kelsier’s soul, letting him linger. Though honestly, he wished he could vanish at this moment.
Vin—glowing and radiant to his eyes—lay beside Elend Venture, clutching him and weeping as his soul pulsed, growing weaker. Kelsier stood up, turning his back toward the sight. For all his cleverness, he’d gone and broken the poor girl’s heart.
I must be the smartest idiot around, Kelsier thought.
“It was going to happen,” Preservation said. “I thought … Maybe…” From the corner of his eye, Kelsier saw Fuzz approach Vin, then look down at the fallen Venture.
“I can Preserve him,” Preservation whispered.
Kelsier spun. Preservation started waving at Vin, and she stumbled to her feet. She followed the god a few feet to something Elend had dropped, a fallen nugget of metal. Where had that come from?
The Venture boy was carrying it when he entered, Kelsier thought. That was the last bit of metal from the other side of the room, the twin of the one the Drifter had stolen. Kelsier approached as Vin took the nugget of metal, so tiny, and approached Elend, then put it into his mouth. She washed it down with a vial of metal.
Soul and metal became one. Elend’s light strengthened, glowing vibrantly. Kelsier closed his eyes, feeling a thrumming sense of peace.
“That was good work, Fuzz,” Kelsier said, opening his eyes and smiling at Preservation as the god stepped over to him. Vin’s posture manifested incredible joy. “I’m almost ready to think you’re a benevolent god.”
“Stabbing him was dangerous, painful,” Preservation said. “I cannot condone such recklessness. But perhaps it was right, regardless of how I feel.”
“Ruin’s free,” Kelsier said, looking upward. “That thing has escaped.”
“Yes. Fortunately, before I died, I put a plan into motion. I can’t remember it, but I’m certain that it was brilliant.”
“You know, I’ve said something similar myself on occasion, after a night of drinking.” Kelsier rubbed his chin. “I’m free too.”
“Yes.”
“This is where you joke that you aren’t certain which was more dangerous to release. Me or the other one.”
“No,” Fuzz said. “I know which is more dangerous.”
“Failing marks for effort there, I’m afraid.”
“But perhaps…” Preservation said. “Perhaps I cannot say which is more annoying.” He smiled. With his face half melted off and his neck starting to go, it was unnerving. Like a happy bark from a crippled puppy.
Kelsier slapped him on the shoulder. “We’ll make a solid crewmember out of you yet, Fuzz. For now, I want to get the hell out of this room.”
PART THREE
SPIRIT
1
KELSIER really wanted something to drink. Wasn’t that what you did when you got out of prison? Went drinking, enjoyed your freedom by giving it up to a little booze and a terrible headache?
When alive, he’d usually avoided such levity. He liked to control a situation, not let it control him—but he couldn’t deny that he thirsted for something to drink, to numb the experience he’d just been through.
That seemed terribly unfair. No body, but he could still be thirsty?
He climbed from the caverns surrounding the Well of Ascension, passing through misty chambers and tunnels. As before, when he touched something he was able to see what it looked like in the real world.
His footing was firm on the inconstant ground; though it was somewhat springy, like cloth, it held his weight unless he stamped hard—which would cause his foot to sink in like it was pushing through thick mud. He could even pass through the walls if he tried, but it was harder than it had been during his initial run, when he’d been dying.
He emerged from the caverns into the basement of Kredik Shaw, the Lord Ruler’s palace. It was even easier than usual to get turned about in this place, as everything was misty to his eyes. He touched the things of mist that he passed, so he could picture his surroundings better. A vase, a carpet, a door.
Kelsier eventually stepped out onto the streets of Luthadel a free—if dead—man. For a time he just walked the city, so relieved to be out of that hole that he was able to ignore the sense of dread he felt at Ruin’s escape.
He must have wandered an entire day that way, sitting on rooftops, strolling past fountains. Looking over this city dotted with glowing pieces of metal, like lights hovering in the mists at night. He ended up on top of the city wall, observing the koloss who had set up camp outside the town but—somehow—didn’t seem to be killing anyone.
He needed to see if there was a way to contact his friends. Unfortunately, without the pulses—those had stopped when Ruin escaped—to guide him, he didn’t know where to start looking. He’d lost track of Vin and Elend in his excitement at leaving the caverns, but he remembered some of what he’d seen through the pulses. That gave him a few places to search.
He ultimately found his crew at Keep Venture. It was the day after the disaster at the Well of Ascension, and they appeared to be holding a funeral. Kelsier strolled through the courtyard, passing among the glowing souls of men, each burning like a limelight. Those he brushed gave him an impression of their appearance. Many he recognized: skaa he’d interacted with, encouraged, uplifted during his final months of life. Others were unfamiliar. A disturbing number of soldiers who had once served the Lord Ruler.
He found Vin at the front, sitting on the steps of Keep Venture, huddled and slumped over. Elend was nowhere to be seen, though Ham stood nearby, arms folded. In the courtyard, somebody waved their hands before the group, giving a speech. Was that Demoux? Leading the people in the funeral service? Those were certainly corpses laid out in the courtyard, their souls no longer shining. He couldn’t hear what Demoux was saying, but the presentation seemed clear.
Kelsier settled down on the steps beside Vin. He clasped his hands before himself. “So … that went well.”
Vin, of course, didn’t reply.
“I mean,” Kelsier continued, “yes, we ended up releasing a world-ending force of destruction and chaos, but at least the Lord Ruler is dead. Mission accomplished. Plus you still have your nobleman boyfriend, so there’s that. Don’t worry about the scar on his stomach. It’ll make him look more rugged. Mists know, the little bookworker could use some toughening up.”
She didn’t move, but maintained her slumped posture. He rested his arm across her shoulders and was given a glimpse of her as she looked in the real world. Full of color and life, yet somehow … weathered. She seemed so much older now, no longer the child he’d found scamming obligators on the streets.
He leaned down beside her. “I’m going to beat this thing, Vin. I am going take care of this.”
“And how,” Preservation said from the courtyard below the steps, “are you going to accomplish that?”
Kelsier looked up. Though he was prepared for the sight of Preservation, he still winced to see him as he was—barely even in human shape any longer, more a dissolved bunch of weaving threads of frayed smoke, giving the vague impression of a head, arms, legs.
“He’s free,” Preservation said. “That’s it. Time up. Contract due. He will take what was promised.”
“We’ll stop him.”
“Stop him? He’s the force of entropy, a universal constant. You can’t stop that any more than you can stop time.”
Kelsier stood up, leaving Vin and walking down the steps toward Preservation. He wished he could hear what Demoux was saying to this small crowd of glowing souls.
“If he can’t be stopped,” Kelsier said, “then we’ll slow him. You did it before, right? Your grand plan?”
“I…” Preservation said. “Yes … There was a plan.…”
“I’m free now. I can help you put it into motion.”
“Free?” Preservation laughed. “No, you’ve just entered a larger prison. Tied to this Realm, bound to it. There’s nothing you can do. Nothing I can do.”