Contents
Chapter 65
Overview
Elend rejects a koloss assault on Fadrex, but Marsh manipulates Yomen into a suicidal attack while Ruin seizes Elend’s koloss. Vin reveals their atium ruse, steals metals from Marsh, and escapes. Drawing on the mists, Vin briefly breaks Ruin’s hold on Marsh, then forces Yomen to shelter both armies inside Fadrex.
Summary
An epigraph recalls the Lord Ruler’s choice to favor Allomancy over Feruchemy, fearing Terris independence and valuing Allomancy’s political utility.
Outside Fadrex, Elend debates attacking with koloss. After Ham concludes an assault is wrong, Elend orders a withdrawal rather than unleash a massacre. Inside Fadrex, Vin—watched by Ruin, Marsh, and Yomen—reveals she and Elend deceived Ruin about the atium’s location. Marsh, under Ruin, commands Yomen to attack.
Seeing Yomen’s sortie, Elend orders a retreat. Ruin suddenly rips control of the koloss from Elend; the creatures turn on his men. Vin steals Marsh’s metals, powers up, and blasts her earring through Marsh’s head to escape. She then commands a hidden thousand koloss to strike Yomen’s troops, forcing Yomen to order a retreat and grant Elend’s soldiers refuge in the city.
Marsh regenerates, seizes Vin, and swells with Feruchemical strength. Vin draws upon the mists, overwhelms the mental wall within Marsh, and momentarily breaks Ruin’s hold, driving Marsh away. With the koloss rampaging, Vin instructs Yomen to continue fortifying and leaps out to aid Elend.
Amid desperate fighting, Vin lands in Elend’s camp and tells him to fall back into Fadrex, promising to distract the koloss as night and mists deepen.
Who Appears
- VinPrisoner in Fadrex; reveals atium ruse, steals Marsh’s metals, escapes, draws on mists to disrupt Ruin’s hold, secures refuge for Elend’s army.
- Elend VentureRefuses to assault Fadrex; orders retreat; loses koloss to Ruin and fights defensively until Vin arranges entry into the city.
- MarshRuin’s pawn; orders Yomen’s attack, seizes koloss for Ruin, battles and nearly kills Vin before she breaks his control and he flees.
- YomenObligator ruler; wavers between faith and pragmatism, orders attack, then retreats and admits Elend’s army after koloss turn.
- RuinManipulates events, seizes koloss from Elend, presses for atium’s location; briefly stymied when Vin draws on the mists.
- Hammond (Ham)Counsels Elend; concludes attacking with koloss is wrong, prompting Elend’s withdrawal.
- King CettDirects battlefield tactics from camp, grimly supports Elend during the koloss onslaught.
- HumanLeads Vin’s hidden thousand koloss, whose brief assault on Yomen’s troops forces a strategic retreat.