Mistborn #02 The Well of Ascension

looked like the spirit Elend had seen earlier.
    "Vin?" he asked in the eerie air.
    "Elend," she said, rushing forward, into his arms, and the air of mystery was gone. She shivered as she held him. "I'm sorry. I think I did something bad."
    "Oh?" he asked. "What is that?"
    "I made you emperor."
    Elend smiled. "I noticed, and I accept."
    "After all you did to make certain the people had a choice?"
    Elend shook his head. "I'm beginning to think my opinions were simplistic. Honorable, but. . .incomplete. We'll deal with this. I'm just glad to find that my city is still standing."
    Vin smiled. She looked tired.
    "Vin?" he asked. "Are you still pewter-dragging?"
    "No," she said. "This is something else." She glanced to the side, face thoughtful, as if deciding something.
    "Come," she said.

    Sazed watched out the window, a second tinmind enhancing his sight. It was indeed Elend below. Sazed smiled, one of the weights on his soul removed. He turned, intending to go and meet the king.
    And then he saw something blowing on the floor in front of him. A scrap of paper. He knelt down, picking it up, noticing his own handwriting on it. Its edges were jagged from having been ripped. He frowned, walking over to his table, opening the book to the page with Kwaan's narrative. A piece was missing. The same piece as before, the one that had been ripped free that time with Tindwyl. He'd almost forgotten the strange occurrence with the pages all missing the same sentence.
    He'd rewritten this page, from his metalmind, after they'd found the torn sheets. Now the same bit had been torn free, the last sentence. Just to make certain, he put it up next to his book. It fit perfectly. Alendi must not reach the Well of Ascension, it read, for he must not be allowed to take the power for himself . It was the exact wording Sazed had in his memory, the exact wording of the rubbing.
    Why would Kwaan have worried about this? he thought, sitting down. He says he knew Alendi better than anyone else. In fact, he called Alendi an honorable man on several occasions .
    Why would Kwaan be so worried about Alendi taking the power for himself?

    Vin walked through the mists. Elend, Ham, and Spook trailed behind her, the crowd dispersed by Elend's order—though some soldiers did stay close to protect Elend.
    Vin continued on, feeling the pulsings, the thumpings, the power that shook her very soul. Why couldn't the others feel it?
    "Vin?" Elend asked. "Where are we going?"
    "Kredik Shaw," she said softly.
    "But. . .why?"
    She just shook her head. She knew the truth, now. The Well was in the city. With how strong the pulsings were growing, she might have assumed that their direction would be harder to discern. But that wasn't the way it was at all. Now that they were loud and full, she found it easier.
    Elend glanced back at the others, and she could sense his concern. Up ahead, Kredik Shaw loomed in the night. Spires, like massive spikes, jutted from the ground in an off-balance pattern, reaching accusingly toward the stars above.
    "Vin," Elend said. "The mists are acting. . .strangely."
    "I know," she said. "They're guiding me."
    "No, actually," Elend said. "They kind of look like they're pulling away from you."
    Vin shook her head. This felt right . How could she explain? Together, they entered the remnants of the Lord Ruler's palace.
    The Well was here all along , Vin thought, amused. She could feel the pulses vibrating through the building. Why hadn't she noticed it before?
    The pulses were still too weak, then , she realized. The Well wasn't full yet. Now it is . And it called to her.
    She followed the same path as before. The path she'd followed with Kelsier, breaking into Kredik Shaw on a doomful night when she had nearly died. The path she'd followed on her own, the night she had come to kill the Lord Ruler. The tight stone corridors opened into the room shaped like an upside-down bowl. Elend's lantern glistened against the fine stonework and murals, mostly in black and gray. The stone shack stood in the center of the room, abandoned, enclosed.
    "I think we're finally going to find your atium, Elend," Vin said, smiling.
    "What?" Elend said, his voice echoing in the chamber. "Vin, we searched here. We tried everything."
    "Not enough, apparently," Vin said, eyeing the small building-within-a-building, but not moving toward it.
    This is where I'd put it , she thought. It makes sense. The Lord Ruler would have wanted to keep the Well close so that when the