Mistborn #02 The Well of Ascension

take care of him later , Straff thought. He'll rise against me if he finds that Zane is gone .
    That didn't matter at the moment. The city had rejected him, and so it would die. He'd build a better one in its place.
    One dedicated to Straff, not the Lord Ruler.

    "Father!" Allrianne said urgently.
    Cett shook his head. He sat on his horse, beside his daughter's horse, on a hill to the west of Luthadel. He could see Straff's army, gathered to the north, watching—as he watched—the death throes of a doomed city.
    "We have to help!" Allrianne insisted.
    "No," Cett said quietly, shrugging off the effects of her Raging his emotions. He'd grown used to her manipulations long ago. "Our help wouldn't matter now."
    "We have to do something!" Allrianne said, pulling his arm.
    "No," Cett said more forcefully.
    "But you came back!" she said. "Why did we return, if not to help?"
    "We will help," Cett said quietly. "We'll help Straff take the city when he wishes, then we'll submit to him and hope he doesn't kill us."
    Allrianne paled. "That's it?" she hissed. "That's why we returned, so that you can give our kingdom to that monster?"
    "What else did you expect?" Cett demanded. "You know me, Allrianne. You know that this is the choice I have to make."
    "I thought I knew you," she snapped. "I thought you were a good man, down deep."
    Cett shook his head. "The good men are all dead, Allrianne. They died inside that city."

    Sazed fought on. He was no warrior; he didn't have honed instincts or training. He calculated that he should have died hours before. And yet, somehow, he managed to stay alive.
    Perhaps it was because the koloss didn't fight with skill, either. They were blunt—like their giant, wedgelike swords—and they simply threw themselves at their opponents with little thought of tactics.
    That should have been enough. Yet, Sazed held—and where he held, his few men held with him. The koloss had rage on their side, but Sazed's men could see the weak and elderly standing, waiting, just at the edge of the square. The soldiers knew why they fought. This reminder seemed enough to keep them going, even when they began to be surrounded, the koloss working their way into the edges of the square.
    Sazed knew, by now, that no relief was going to come. He'd hoped, perhaps, that Straff would decide to take the city, as Clubs had suggested. But it was too late for that; night was approaching, the sun inching toward the horizon.
    The end is finally here , Sazed thought as the man next to him was struck down. Sazed slipped on blood, and the move saved him as the koloss swung over his head.
    Perhaps Tindwyl had found a way to safety. Hopefully, Elend would deliver the things he and she had studied. They were important , Sazed thought, even if he didn't know why.
    Sazed attacked, swinging the sword he'd taken from a koloss. He enhanced his muscles in a final burst as he swung, giving them strength right as the sword met koloss flesh.
    He hit. The resistance, the wet sound of impact, the shock up his arm—these were familiar to him now. Bright koloss blood sprayed across him, and another of the monsters fell.
    And Sazed's strength was gone.
    Pewter tapped clean, the koloss sword was now heavy in his hands. He tried to swing it at the next koloss in line, but the weapon slipped from his weak, numb, tired fingers.
    This koloss was a big one. Nearing twelve feet tall, it was the largest of the monsters Sazed had seen. Sazed tried to step away, but he stumbled over the body of a recently killed soldier. As he fell, his men finally broke, the last dozen scattering. They'd held well. Too well. Perhaps if he'd let them retreat. . .
    No , Sazed thought, looking up at his death. I did well, I think. Better than any mere scholar should have been able to .
    He thought about the rings on his fingers. They could, perhaps, give him a little bit of an edge, let him run. Flee. Yet, he couldn't summon the motivation. Why resist? Why had he resisted in the first place? He'd known that they were doomed.
    You're wrong about me, Tindwyl , he thought. I do give up, sometimes. I gave up on this city long ago .
    The koloss loomed over Sazed, who still lay half sprawled in the bloody slush, and raised its sword. Over the creature's shoulder, Sazed could see the red sun hanging just above the top of the wall. He focused on that, rather than on the falling sword. He could see rays of sunlight, like. . .shards of glass in the sky.
    The sunlight seemed to