Mistborn #02 The Well of Ascension

Helenntion didn't make his thoughts on the matter known to me. The Rabzeen is said to be "He who is not of his people, yet fulfills all of their wishes." If this is the case, then perhaps the Conqueror is the one. He is said to have been of Khlennium .
    She stopped there. Sazed frowned, reading the words again. Kwaan's last testimony—the rubbing Sazed had taken at the Conventical of Seran—had proven useful in more than one way. It had provided a key.
    It wasn't until years later that I became convinced that he was the Hero of Ages , Kwaan had written. Hero of Ages: the one called Rabzeen in Khlennium, the Anamnesor. . ..
    The rubbing was a means of translation—not between languages, but between synonyms. It made sense that there would be other names for the Hero of Ages; a figure so important, so surrounded by lore, would have many titles. Yet, so much had been lost from those days. The Rabzeen and the Anamnesor were both mythological figures vaguely familiar to Sazed—but they were only two among hosts. Until the discovery of the rubbing, there had been no way to connect their names to the Hero of Ages.
    Now Tindwyl and he could search their metalminds with open eyes. Perhaps, in the past, Sazed had read this very passage from Helenntion's biography; he had at least skimmed many of the older records, searching for religious references. Yet, he would never have been able to realize that the passage was referring to the Hero of Ages, a figure from Terris lore that the Khlenni people had renamed into their own tongue.
    "Yes. . ." he said slowly. "This is good, Tindwyl. Very good." He reached over, laying his hand on hers.
    "Perhaps," she said, "though it tells us nothing new."
    "Ah, but the wording might be important, I think," Sazed said. "Religions are often very careful with their writings."
    "Especially prophecies," Tindwyl said, frowning just a bit. She was not fond of anything that smacked of superstition or soothsaying.
    "I would have thought," Sazed noted, "that you would no longer have this prejudice, considering our current enterprise."
    "I gather information, Sazed," she said. "Because of what it says of people, and because of what the past can teach us. However, there is a reason I took to studying history as opposed to theology. I don't approve of perpetuating lies."
    "Is that what you think I do when I teach of religions?" he asked in amusement.
    Tindwyl looked toward him. "A bit," she admitted. "How can you teach the people to look toward the gods of the dead, Sazed? Those religions did their people little good, and their prophecies are now dust."
    "Religions are an expression of hope," Sazed said. "That hope gives people strength."
    "Then you don't believe?" Tindwyl asked. "You just give the people something to trust, something to delude themselves?"
    "I would not call it so."
    "Then you think the gods you teach of do exist?"
    "I. . .think that they deserved to be remembered."
    "And their prophecies?" Tindwyl said. "I see scholarly value in what we do—the bringing to light of facts from the past could give us information about our current problems. Yet, this soothsaying for the future is, at its core, foolishness."
    "I would not say that," Sazed said. "Religions are promises—promises that there is something watching over us, guiding us. Prophecies, therefore, are natural extensions of the hopes and desires of the people. Not foolishness at all."
    "So, your interest is purely academic?" Tindwyl said.
    "I wouldn't say that."
    Tindwyl studied him, watching his eyes. She frowned slowly. "You believe it, don't you?" she asked. "You believe that this girl is the Hero of Ages."
    "I have not yet decided," Sazed said.
    "How can you even consider such a thing, Sazed?" Tindwyl asked. "Don't you see? Hope is a good thing—a wonderful thing—but you must have hope in something appropriate. If you perpetuate the dreams of the past, then you stifle your own dreams of the future."
    "What if the past dreams are worthy of being remembered?"
    Tindwyl shook her head. "Look at the odds, Sazed. What are the chances we would end up where we are, studying this rubbing, in the very same household as the Hero of Ages?"
    "Odds are irrelevant when a foretelling is involved."
    Tindwyl closed her eyes. "Sazed. . .I think religion is a good thing, and belief is a good thing, but it is foolishness to look for guidance in a few vague phrases. Look at what happened last time someone assumed they had found this Hero. The