Mistborn #03 The Hero of Ages

down?"
    "You do it," Vin said. "You're still worshipping the Lord Ruler."
    "He's not gone," Yomen said.
    Vin paused.
    "No," Yomen said, apparently noting her confusion. "I haven't seen or heard of him since his disappearance. However, neither do I put any credence in reports of his death."
    "He was rather dead," Vin said. "Trust me."
    "I don't trust you, I'm afraid," Yomen said. "Tell me of that evening. Tell me precisely what happened."
    So Vin did. She told him of her imprisonment, and of her escape with Sazed. She told him of her decision to fight the Lord Ruler, and of her reliance on the Eleventh Metal. She left out her strange ability to draw upon the power of the mists, but she explained pretty much everything else—including Sazed's theory that the Lord Ruler had been immortal through the clever manipulation of his Feruchemy and Allomancy in combination.
    And Yomen actually listened. Her respect for the man increased as she spoke, and as he didn't interrupt her. He wanted to hear her story, even if he didn't believe it. He was a man who accepted information for what it was—another tool to be used, yet to be trusted no more than any other tool.
    "And so," Vin finished, "he is dead. I stabbed him through the heart myself. Your faith in him is admirable, but it can't change what happened."
    Yomen stood silently. The older obligators—who still sat on their benches—had grown white in the face. She knew that her testimony might have damned her, but for some reason she felt that honesty—plain, blunt honesty—would serve her better than guile. That's how she usually felt.
    An odd conviction for one who grew up in thieving crews, she thought. Ruin had apparently grown bored during her account, and had walked over to look out the window.
    "What I need to find out," Yomen finally said, "is why the Lord Ruler thought it necessary for you to think that you had killed him."
    "Didn't you listen to what just I said?" Vin demanded.
    "I did," Yomen said calmly. "And do not forget that you are a prisoner here—one who is very close to death."
    Vin forced herself to be quiet.
    "You find my words ridiculous?" Yomen said. "More ridiculous than your own? Think of how I see you, claiming to have slain a man I know to be God. Is it not plausible that he wanted this to happen? That he's out there, still, watching us, waiting . . ."
    That's what this is all about, she realized. Why he captured me, why he's so eager to speak with me. He's convinced that the Lord Ruler is still alive. He just wants to figure out where I fit into all of this. He wants me to give him the proof that he's so desperately wishing for.
    "Why don't you think you should be part of the skaa religion, Vin?" Ruin whispered.
    She turned, trying not to look directly at him, lest Yomen see her staring into empty space.
    "Why?" Ruin asked. "Why don't you want them worshipping you? All of those happy skaa? Looking toward you for hope?"
    "The Lord Ruler must be behind all of this," Yomen mused out loud. "That means that he wanted the world to see you as his killer. He wanted the skaa to worship you."
    "Why?" Ruin repeated. "Why be so uncomfortable? Is it because you know you can't offer them hope? What is it they call him, the one you are supposed to have replaced? The Survivor? A word of Preservation, I think. . . ."
    "Perhaps he intends to return dramatically," Yomen said. "To depose you and topple you, to prove that faith in him is the only true faith."
    Why don't you fit? Ruin whispered in her head.
    "Why else would he want them to worship you?" Yomen asked.
    " They're wrong! " Vin snapped, raising hands to her head, trying to stop the thoughts. Trying to stop the guilt.
    Yomen paused.
    "They're wrong about me," Vin said. "They don't worship me, they worship what they think I should be. But I'm not the Heir of the Survivor. I didn't do what Kelsier did. He freed them."
    You conquered them, Ruin whispered.
    "Yes," Vin said, looking up. "You're looking in the wrong direction, Yomen. The Lord Ruler won't return."
    "I told you that—"
    "No," Vin said, standing. "No, he's not coming back. He doesn't need to. I took his place."
    Elend had worried that he was becoming another Lord Ruler, but his concern had always seemed flawed to Vin. He hadn't been the one to conquer and reforge an empire, she had. She'd been the one who made the other kings submit.
    She'd done exactly as the Lord Ruler had. A Hero had risen up, and the Lord Ruler had killed him, then taken the