Contents
Chapter 63
Overview
Vin bargains with Yomen, revealing how Elend controls koloss and mapping the storage caches to metal-rich sites. She realizes metal thwarts Ruin’s sight and that Ruin seeks the empire’s atium. Marsh arrives to seize it, but Yomen denies having a trove. As ashstorms thicken and Elend’s army looms, Vin asserts Elend will not attack.
Summary
An opening commentary notes Ruin’s difficulty in spiking people, citing failed attempts on Elend and a brief, removed spike in Yomen. Logical, self-controlled minds resist his hold longer than impulsive ones.
In her cell, Vin confronts Ruin (appearing as Reen) about why he chose her to free him. He gloats over worsening ashfalls and quakes and claims the Lord Ruler only delayed destruction. Determined to act, Vin demands an audience with Yomen.
Before Yomen, Vin trades information: she explains Elend’s control of koloss via duralumin-boosted emotional Allomancy. Suspecting Yomen is an atium-only Misting, she shifts to the storage caches. Using maps, she marks all five sites and notices they cluster near rich mineral deposits. Vin realizes metal may shield sites from Ruin’s perception; by following the caches, she has likely led Ruin where he could not see.
Pursuing the logic, Vin concludes Ruin ultimately wants the empire’s atium. Marsh bursts in, warning of an imminent koloss assault and demanding Yomen’s “cache” of atium. Yomen admits there was no atium trove—only seven beads he already possessed—provoking Ruin’s furious outburst. Outside, ashstorms blot out the landscape as Elend’s forces form up.
Marsh spurns aiding Yomen and declares the city doomed to forty thousand koloss. Vin counters that Elend will not unleash a slaughter, urging Yomen to join her against Ruin’s servants. Rejecting Marsh’s taunts about inevitable submission to Ruin, Vin concludes Elend won’t attack because he is better than she was at her darkest, and because he fears koloss frenzy’s costs.
Who Appears
- VinImprisoned Mistborn; bargains with Yomen, reveals koloss-control method, deduces metal-shielded caches and Ruin’s hunt for atium, asserts Elend won’t attack.
- YomenCanton of Resource obligator; haggard, likely atium Misting; debates with Vin, provides maps, denies any atium trove to Marsh.
- RuinShaping events while appearing as Reen; gloating, angered when no atium revealed; seeks control via spikes and wants the atium.
- MarshInquisitor bound to Ruin; warns of koloss assault, demands atium from Yomen, scorns aiding the city, taunts Vin.
- Elend VentureOutside Fadrex with forty thousand koloss; his looming “attack” prompts Vin to insist he will not unleash them.