Mistborn #03 The Hero of Ages

another kandra said. "And so, his power tended to coalesce there. Much more of it, at least, than that of Preservation."
    "But not all of it," another one said, laughing.
    Sazed cocked his head. "Not all of it? It, too, was spread out across the world, I assume?"
    "In a way," Haddek said.
    "We now speak of things in the First Contract," one of the other kandra warned.
    Haddek paused, then turned, studying Sazed's eyes. "If what this man says is true, then Ruin has escaped. That means he will be coming for his body. His . . . power."
    Sazed felt a chill. "It's here?" he asked quietly.
    Haddek nodded. "We were to gather it. The First Contract, the Lord Ruler named it—our charge in this world."
    "The other Children had a purpose," another kandra added. "The koloss, they were created to fight. The Inquisitors, they were created to be priests. Our task was different."
    "Gather the power," Haddek said. "And protect it. Hide it. Keep it. For the Father knew Ruin would escape one day. And on that day, he would begin searching for his body."
    The group of aged kandra looked past Sazed. He frowned, turning to follow their eyes. They were looking toward the metal dais.
    Slowly, Sazed stood, walking across the stone floor. The dais was large—perhaps twenty feet across—but not very high. He stepped onto it, causing one of the kandra behind him to gasp. Yet, none of them called out to stop him.
    There was a seam down the middle of the circular platform, and a hole—perhaps the size of a large coin—at the center. Sazed peered through the hole, but it was too dark to see anything.
    He stepped back.
    I should have a little left, he thought, glancing toward his table, with its metal-minds. I refilled that ring for a few months before I gave up on my metalminds.
    He walked over quickly, selecting a small pewter ring off of the table. He slipped it on, then looked up at the members of the First Generation. They turned from his querying look.
    "Do what you must, child," Haddek said, his aged voice echoing in the room. "We could not stop you if we wished."
    Sazed walked back to the dais, then tapped his pewtermind for the strength he had stored in it over a year ago. His body immediately grew several times stronger than normal, and his robes suddenly felt tight. With hands now thick with muscles, he reached down and—bracing himself against the rough floor—shoved against one side of the disk on the floor.
    It ground against stone as it moved, uncovering a large pit. Something glittered beneath.
    Sazed froze, his strength—and body—deflating as he released his pewtermind. His robes became loose again. The room was silent. Sazed stared at the half-covered pit, and at the enormous pile of nuggets hidden in the floor.
    "The Trust, we call it," Haddek said with a soft voice. "Given for our safekeeping by the Father."
    Atium. Thousands upon thousands of beads of it. Sazed gasped. "The Lord Ruler's atium stockpile . . . It was here all along."
    "Most of that atium never left the Pits of Hathsin," Haddek said. "There were obligators on staff at all times—but never Inquisitors, for the Father knew that they could be corrupted. The obligators broke the geodes in secret, inside of a metal room constructed for the purpose, then took out the atium. The noble family then transported the empty geodes to Luthadel, never knowing that they didn't have any atium in their possession at all. What atium the Lord Ruler did get, and distribute, to the nobility was brought in by the obligators. They disguised the atium as Ministry funds and hid the beads in piles of coins so that Ruin wouldn't see them as they were transported in convoys full of new acolytes to Luthadel."
    Sazed stood, dumbstruck. Here . . . all along. Just a short distance from the very caves where Kelsier raised his army. A short journey from Luthadel, completely unprotected all these years.
    Yet hidden so well.
    "You worked for atium," Sazed said, looking up. "The kandra Contracts, they were paid in atium."
    Haddek nodded. "We were to gather all of it we could. What didn't end up in our hands, the Mistborn burned away. Some of the houses kept small stockpiles, but the Father's taxes and fees kept most of the atium flowing back to him as payments. And, eventually, almost all of it ended up here."
    Sazed looked down. Such a fortune, he thought. Such . . . power. Atium never had fit in with the other metals. Every one of them, even aluminum and duralumin, could be mined or