Mistborn, #1
Mistborn: The Final Empire
by Brandon Sanderson
Contents
30
Overview
At Venture’s final, tense ball, the nobility cement alliances as open war looms. Elend, bowing to House duty, pointedly ends things with Vin. Kliss reveals Shan Elariel’s plot to assassinate Elend with Straff’s tacit aid. Vin sprints across the keep, disrupts the hit, duels two Mistborn, kills Shan, and escapes.
Summary
Vin returns to Keep Venture and senses something off: the hall is too perfect, the guests too solemn, and groups avoid mingling. From the stewards’ gossip, Sazed learns multiple houses have canceled their balls; this will likely be the last one for a long time, as alliances solidify before open war. Vin stays to maintain appearances and sends Sazed to warn Kelsier.
Seeking Elend, Vin finds him seated with his father, Straff, and privately confronts him. Elend, adopting a dutiful, formal stance, ends their relationship, calling her a liability as House Venture braces for war, and implies he knows she has lied about her identity. Vin reels, haunted by Reen’s voice of betrayal.
Kliss approaches, revealing herself as a seasoned informant and attempts to extort House Renoux. Pressed by Vin’s Soothing and Rioting, Kliss divulges that Shan Elariel has arranged for Allomancers to assassinate Elend during his salon, with Straff quietly easing security to allow it and hoping to remove other rivals at once. Kliss also hints Elend’s contraband books will draw obligator scrutiny afterward.
Driven by love, Vin sprints into the keep’s back corridors but, unable to navigate, smashes through a stained-glass window and ascends to the roof via Steelpushes. She discovers assassins at a skylight: several Thugs and Coinshots, plus two Mistborn—one is Shan. Vin scatters coins, fells some attackers, ejects a Coinshot, and crashes a Thug through the skylight to warn those below, then flees as the two Mistborn give chase.
On the walls and gatehouse, Vin evades pursuit with quick Steel and Iron work, using a guard’s armor as an anchor to tangle her pursuers. Shan confronts her in a lethal duel. Outmatched in blades, Vin burns her lone bead of atium; Shan burns atium too, turning it into a stalemate under arrow fire. Feigning that her atium is exhausted, Vin times a final heartbeat of atium to seize an opening, rams a fallen arrow into Shan’s chest twice, and kills her despite pewter’s sustain.
With soldiers readying more arrows and the keep in chaos, Vin wipes her bloodied face, silently bids Elend farewell, and launches herself into the night mists, having averted the assassination and slain Shan Elariel, while the house war effectively ignites.
Who Appears
- VinMistborn infiltrator; senses looming war at the ball, is spurned by Elend, coerces Kliss for intel, thwarts the hit, kills Shan, escapes.
- Shan ElarielMistborn noblewoman orchestrating Elend’s assassination; duels Vin on the walls and is killed by twin arrow shafts.
- Elend VentureVenture heir; conforms to family duty, ends relationship with Vin, unknowingly targeted for assassination.
- KlissCourt gossip and informant; reveals Shan’s plot and Straff’s complicity under emotional Allomancy, then seeks payment.
- SazedTerrisman steward; confirms this is the final ball as houses withdraw, goes to warn Kelsier.
- Straff VentureLord Venture; insists on protocol, quietly relaxes Elend’s security to enable the assassination plot.
- Unnamed Elariel MistbornShan’s accomplice; pursues Vin across the rooftops before being outmaneuvered amid the chaos.