Mistborn #02 The Well of Ascension

your opinion, my dear man."
    "Well, I don't have one."
    "Some philosopher you are."
    "I'm not a philosopher," Ham said. "I just like to think about things."
    "Well, think about this , then," Breeze said.
    Elend glanced at Sazed. "Have those two always been this way?"
    "Honestly, I am not certain, Your Majesty," Sazed said, smiling slightly. "I have known them for only slightly longer than yourself."
    "Yes, they've always been like this," Dockson said, sighing quietly. "If anything, they've gotten worse over the years."
    "Aren't you hungry?" Elend asked, nodding to Sazed's plate.
    "I can eat once our discussion is finished," Sazed said.
    "Sazed, you're not a servant anymore," Vin said. "You don't have to worry about things like that."
    "It is not a matter of serving or not, Lady Vin," Sazed said. "It is a matter of being polite."
    "Sazed," Elend said.
    "Yes, Your Majesty?"
    He pointed at the plate. "Eat. You can be polite another time. Right now, you look famished—and you're among friends."
    Sazed paused, giving Elend an odd look. "Yes, Your Majesty," he said, picking up a knife and spoon.
    "Now," Elend began, "why does it matter if you saw mist during the day? We know that the things the skaa say aren't true—there's no reason to fear the mist."
    "The skaa may be more wise than we credit them, Your Majesty," Sazed said, taking small, careful bites of food. "It appears that the mist has been killing people."
    "What?" Vin asked, leaning forward.
    "I have never seen it myself, Lady Vin," Sazed said. "But I have seen its effects, and have collected several separate reports. They all agree that the mist has been killing people."
    "That's preposterous," Breeze said. "Mist is harmless."
    "That is what I thought, Lord Ladrian," Sazed said. "However, several of the reports are quite detailed. The incidents always occurred during the day, and each one tells of the mist curling around some unfortunate individual, who then died—usually in a seizure. I gathered interviews with witnesses myself."
    Elend frowned. From another man, he'd dismiss the news. But Sazed. . .he was not a man that one dismissed. Vin, sitting beside Elend, watched the conversation with interest, chewing slightly on her bottom lip. Oddly, she didn't object to Sazed's words—though the others seemed to be reacting as Breeze had.
    "It doesn't make sense, Saze," Ham said. "Thieves, nobles, and Allomancers have gone out in the mists for centuries."
    "Indeed they have, Lord Hammond," Sazed said with a nod. "The only explanation I can think of involves the Lord Ruler. I heard no substantive reports of mist deaths before the Collapse, but I have had little trouble finding them since. The reports are concentrated in the Outer Dominances, but the incidents appear to be moving inward. I found one. . .very disturbing incident several weeks to the south, where an entire village seems to have been trapped in their hovels by the mists."
    "But, why would the Lord Ruler's death have anything to do with the mists?" Breeze asked.
    "I am not certain, Lord Ladrian," Sazed said. "But it is the only connection I have been able to hypothesize."
    Breeze frowned. "I wish you wouldn't call me that."
    "I apologize, Lord Breeze," Sazed said. "I am still accustomed to calling people by their full names."
    "Your name is Ladrian?" Vin asked.
    "Unfortunately," Breeze said. "I've never been fond of it, and with dear Sazed putting 'Lord' before it. . .well, the alliteration makes it even more atrocious."
    "Is it me," Elend said, "or are we going off on even more tangents than usual tonight?"
    "We get that way when we're tired," Breeze said with a yawn. "Either way, our good Terrisman must have his facts wrong. Mist doesn't kill."
    "I can only report what I have discovered," Sazed said. "I will need to do some more research."
    "So, you'll be staying?" Vin asked, obviously hopeful.
    Sazed nodded.
    "What about teaching?" Breeze asked, waving his hand. "When you left, I recall that you said something about spending the rest of your life traveling, or some nonsense like that."
    Sazed blushed slightly, glancing down again. "That duty will have to wait, I fear."
    "You're welcome to stay as long as you want, Sazed," Elend said, shooting a glare at Breeze. "If what you say is true, then you'll be doing a greater service through your studies than you would by traveling."
    "Perhaps," Sazed said.
    "Though," Ham noted with a chuckle, "you probably could have picked a safer place to set up shop—one