Chapter 73

An epigraph explains another case of piercing copperclouds: a Mistborn who inherited a Seeker’s bronze via a Hemalurgic spike taken from her slain sister, doubling her bronze strength.

Across the empire, the mists begin flowing purposefully toward Luthadel. TenSoon notices the unnatural current and races back. In Urteau, Allrianne and Breeze see the accelerating mists as Spook—bandaged but authoritative—orders an immediate evacuation to the storage cavern. At Fadrex, Elend and Ham hold against koloss until the creatures abruptly retreat, fleeing toward Luthadel.

In Luthadel’s rain-drenched night, Vin—awash in an ever-deepening surge of power from the mists—battles a host of Inquisitors. Her Pushes and Pulls act with duralumin-like magnitude that doesn’t deplete her metals. She rips out eye-spikes, hurls spires, and slaughters Inquisitors midair, then unleashes a colossal Push that obliterates Kredik Shaw.

Vin methodically hunts the survivors, driving stolen spikes through skulls, crushing three beneath a fallen spire, and tearing out spikes despite their Feruchemical healing. As she fights, the mists swirl into a vast whirlpool centered on her, then pour into her body until the sky clears and the mists are gone.

Only Marsh remains, broken and missing a side spike. Vin moves to finish him. Marsh, sensing Ruin’s fury, accepts death and exults that his earlier act mattered. Vin removes one of Marsh’s eye-spikes, then falters. Reaching for the second, she suddenly vanishes, leaving only a fading misty outline and Marsh alive amid the ruins.