Mistborn #03 The Hero of Ages

Ruin's actions feel like to me. Consequences. Perhaps it was a remnant of touching the power, or perhaps just some rationalization her unconscious mind was giving her. Yet, she felt a logic to Ruin. She didn't understand that logic, but she could recognize it.
    Elend turned back toward her. "That's why I like Allomancy, actually. Or, at least, the theory of it. The skaa whisper about it, call it mystical, but it's really quite rational. You can tell what an Allomantic Push is going to do as certainly as you can tell what will happen when you drop a rock off the side of the boat. For every Push, there is a Pull. There are no exceptions. It makes simple, logical sense—unlike the ways of men, which are filled with flaws, irregularities, and double meanings. Allomancy is a thing of nature."
    A thing of nature.
    For every Push, there is a Pull. A consequence.
    "That's important," Vin whispered.
    "What?"
    A consequence.
    The thing she had felt at the Well of Ascension had been a thing of destruction, like Alendi described in his logbook. But, it hadn't been a creature, not like a person. It had been a force—a thinking force, but a force nonetheless. And forces had rules. Allomancy, weather, even the pull of the ground. The world was a place that made sense. A place of logic. Every Push had a Pull. Every force had a consequence.
    She had to discover, then, the laws relating to the thing she was fighting. That would tell her how to beat it.
    "Vin?" Elend asked, studying her face.
    Vin looked away. "It's nothing, Elend. Nothing I can speak of, at least."
    He watched her for a moment. He thinks that you're plotting against him , Reen whispered from the back of her mind. Fortunately, the days when she had listened to Reen's words were long past. Indeed, as she watched Elend, she saw him nod slowly, and accept her explanation. He turned back to his own contemplations.
    Vin rose, walking forward, laying a hand on his arm. He sighed, raising the arm and wrapping it around her shoulders, pulling her close. That arm, once the weak arm of a scholar, was now muscular and firm.
    "What are you thinking about?" Vin asked.
    "You know," Elend said.
    "It was necessary, Elend. The soldiers had to get exposed to the mists eventually."
    "Yes," Elend said. "But there's something more, Vin. I fear I'm becoming like him ."
    "Who?"
    "The Lord Ruler."
    Vin snorted quietly, pulling closer to him.
    "This is something he would have done," Elend said. "Sacrificing his own men for a tactical advantage."
    "You explained this to Ham," Vin said. "We can't afford to waste time."
    "It's still ruthless," Elend said. "The problem isn't that those men died, it's that I was so willing to make it happen. I feel . . . brutal , Vin. How far will I go to see my goals achieved? I'm marching on another man's kingdom to take it from him."
    "For the greater good."
    "That has been the excuse of tyrants throughout all time. I know it. Yet, I press on. This is why I didn't want to be emperor. This is why I let Penrod take my throne from me back during the siege. I didn't want to be the kind of leader who had to do things like this. I want to protect, not besiege and kill! But, is there any other way? Everything I do seems like it must be done. Like exposing my own men in the mists. Like marching on Fadrex City. We have to get to that storehouse—it's the only lead we have that could even possibly give us some clue as to what we're supposed to do! It all makes such sense. Ruthless, brutal sense."
    Ruthlessness is the very most practical of emotions, Reen's voice whispered. She ignored it. "You've been listening to Cett too much."
    "Perhaps," Elend said. "Yet, his is a logic I find difficult to ignore. I grew up as an idealist, Vin—we both know that's true. Cett provides a kind of balance. The things he says are much like what Tindwyl used to say."
    He paused, shaking his head. "Just a short time ago, I was talking with Cett about Allomantic Snapping. Do you know what the noble houses did to ensure that they found the Allomancers among their children?"
    "They had them beaten," Vin whispered. A person's Allomantic powers were always latent until something traumatic brought them out. A person had to be brought to the brink of death and survive—only then would their powers be awakened. It was called Snapping.
    Elend nodded. "It was one of the great, dirty secrets of so-called noble life. Families often lost children to the beatings—those beatings had to be brutal for