Mistborn #03 The Hero of Ages

this? He must have thought that fighting wasn't hopeless."
    "People struggle, Elend. Even a dying beast will still keep fighting, will do anything to stay alive."
    "You have to admit that these caverns are a good sign, though," Elend said.
    "A good sign?" Vin asked quietly, stepping closer. "Elend, I know you're just trying to find hope in all this, but I have trouble seeing 'good signs' anywhere lately. You have to admit now that the sun is getting darker. Redder. It's even worse down here, in the South."
    "Actually," Elend said, "I doubt that the sun has changed at all. It must be all the smoke and ash in the air."
    "Which is another problem," Vin said. "The ash falls almost perpetually now. People are having trouble keeping it out of their streets. It blots out the light, making everything darker. Even if the mists don't kill off next year's crops, the ash will. Two winters ago—when we fought the koloss at Luthadel—was the first I'd seen snow in the Central Dominance, and this last winter was even worse. These aren't things we can fight, Elend, no matter how big our army!"
    "What do you expect me to do, Vin?" Elend asked, slamming his can of stew down on the shelf. "The koloss are gathering in the Outer Dominances. If we don't build our defenses, our people won't last long enough to starve."
    Vin shook her head. "Armies are short-term. This," she said, sweeping her hand across the cavern. " This is short-term. What are we doing here?"
    "We're surviving. Kelsier said—"
    "Kelsier is dead, Elend!" Vin snapped. "Am I the only one who sees the irony in that? We call him the Survivor, but he is the one who didn't survive! He let himself become a martyr. He committed suicide. How is that surviving?"
    She stood for a moment, looking at Elend, breathing deeply. He stared back, apparently undaunted by her outburst.
    What am I doing? Vin thought. I was just thinking about how much I admired Elend's hope. Why argue with him now?
    They were stretched so thin. Both of them.
    "I don't have answers for you, Vin," Elend said in the dark cavern. "I can't even begin to understand how to fight something like the mist. Armies, however, I can deal with. Or, at least, I'm learning how."
    "I'm sorry," Vin said, turning away. "I didn't mean to argue again. It's just so frustrating."
    "We're making progress," Elend said. "We'll find a way, Vin. We'll survive."
    "Do you really think we can do it?" Vin asked, turning to look him in the eyes.
    "Yes," Elend said.
    And she believed him. He had hope, and always would. That was a big part of why she loved him so much.
    "Come on," Elend said, laying a hand on her shoulder. "Let's find what we came for."
    Vin joined him, leaving her koloss behind, walking into the depths of the cavern as they heard footsteps outside. There was more than one reason they had come to this place. The food and the supplies—of which they passed seemingly endless shelves—were important. However, there was more.
    A large metal plate was set into the back wall of the rough-hewn cavern. Vin read the words inscribed on it out loud.
    " 'This is the last metal I will tell you about,' " she read. " 'I have trouble deciding the purpose of it. It allows you to see the past, in a way. What a person could have been, and who they might have become, had they made different choices. Much like gold, but for others.
    " 'By now, the mists have likely come again. Such a foul, hateful thing. Scorn it. Don't go out in it. It seeks to destroy us all. If there is trouble, know that you can control the koloss and the kandra by use of several people Pushing on their emotions at once. I built this weakness into them. Keep the secret wisely.' "
    Beneath that was listed an Allomantic compound of metals, one with which Vin was already familiar. It was the alloy of atium they called malatium—Kelsier's Eleventh Metal. So the Lord Ruler had known about it. He'd simply been as baffled as the rest of them as to its purpose.
    The plate had been written by the Lord Ruler, of course. Or, at least, he'd ordered it written as it was. Each previous cache had also contained information, written in steel. In Urteau, for instance, she had learned about electrum. In the one to the east, they'd found a description of aluminum—though they'd already known about that metal.
    "Not much new there," Elend said, sounding disappointed. "We already knew about malatium and about controlling koloss. Though, I'd never thought to have several Soothers Push at the