Below is a chapter summary of The Well of Ascension, the second book in Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series.
Chapter 1
Elend is now the King of Luthadel. His father, Straff Venture, brings an army to the walls of the city, intending to attack. He is preparing to meet with his council on what to do next. Vin roams the streets, watching for assassins as she attempts to protect Elend from any attacks. Someone she calls the Watcher has been following her.
Chapter 2
Vin fights off a group of assassins and kills all eight of them. She has chased the Watckher over a half-dozen times and has never been able to catch him so far. She wastes the last of her Atium in wakrding off the assassination attempt and returns with OreSeur to Keep Venture and to Elend.
Chapter 3
Elend is working on a proposal for the members of the Assembly he has created that will buy him more time in the fight against his father’s attacking army. It would forbid the assembly from doing anything rash before he meets with his father.
A strange figure approaches Vin in the mists. It’s revealed that Vin has refused a marriage proposal from Elend. They discuss their lack of Atium, because apparently they had been unable to find the stockpile Kelsier had hinted at in the previous novel. Ham informs Vin that the assassins who tried to kill her were not Straff Venture’s men, but Westerners.
Chapter 4
Sazed buries a farmer in the Eastern Dominance who apparently dies from the mists swirling around him; he had apparently jerked then twisted, as if something really strong were holding and shaking him.
Chapter 5
It’s revealed that Elend has been paying the skaa population. Vin finds a dog breeder and asks for a wolfhound, making OreSeur take on its skin rather than a human body. Vin and Elend talk about how he compares to Kelsier in terms of the ruler the people want, and they talk about Vin’s past relationship with him.
Vin is also getting packs of Aluminum delivered from a man named Terion to test out how burning it works. She claims that the ministry worked very hard to keep it a secret, and therefore, it was worth investigating. Ham invites Vin to spar with him.
Chapter 6
After Vin and Ham’s sparring, Spook arrives, saying rumors are circulating around Luthadel that the Lord Ruler’s atium is hidden there, despite the crew’s best efforts to spread rumors that they are hidden in another city. Vin and OreSeur leave.
Chapter 7
Sazed is teaching students in the far reaches of the empire how to read and write when Marsh pays him a visit. He says that the Conventical of Seran is empty, that there is trouble afoot, that the mists are coming during the day, and that the Lord Ruler was merely a delay, a cog. Now that he is gone, Sazed says they have little time remaining, and they must search the Conventical while they still can.
Chapter 8
Vin has been chasing the Watcher every night. She gets close to him, but he gets away when she tries to burn her duralumin. He eventually approaches her and asks why she plays the political games of the nobility. She says they aren’t games, that the people she loves are in danger. The Watcher disapproves of this and leaves her.
Chapter 9
Sazed decides to follow Marsh back to Luthadel.
Chapter 10
Elend holds his weekly assembly for the people of Luthadel. He calls for a vote of solidarity in which the people will not surrender the city, and that they will take time to gather more info, seek other avenues, and even fight if necessary. The Assembly only agrees to this when Penrod, a merchant, advocates for it. A second army arrives outside the city.
Chapter 11
The second army outside the city is Ashweather Cett’s army, the one who had sent the eight allomancer assassins to kill Elend. His archers chase Breeze down on horseback. Vin burns her duralumin to help him fend off his pursuers, escorting him into the city.
As it turns out, Breeze had been spending the past three months to get Cett and his army to march on Luthadel. He did this by spreading rumors that the Lord Ruler’s Atium was still in Luthadel. By bringing Cett into the fray, he has ensured that there are three participants in the negotiation, rather than two. He reasons that if either side attacks Luthadel, that army will be weaker, and therefore vulnerable to the other army besieging the city. So, he has bought them some time.
Later, another skeleton is found in Vin’s room, apart from the one OreSeur had used to take over a human body. There is another kandra among them—an imposter.
Chapter 12
Sazed and Marsh explore the Conventical of Seran, and they find several dead bodies of servants there, apparently killed by the Steel Inquisitors. Sazed finds a steel carving from a man named Kwaan, who claims he is the one who discovered “Alendi,” the Hero of Ages, and that he betrayed him. He copies down the inscription before they leave.
Chapter 13
Vin pries with OreSeur, trying to find out what his loves and hatreds are. She senses something strange in the mists—some spirit or ghost is using allomancy— and ventures out into the night to explore it. This spirit grabs her by the arm and throws her off a building.
Meanwhile, Elend meets with the crew to discuss their plans. Breeze suggests that they bargain with Cett, and surrender the city to him while letting Elend become the provisional leader. Elend suggests instead that they cut off the armie’s supplies through the canals. Meanwhile, they can play both sides: they can make both armies think they’re allied with them, but hold back their support. They can pit them against one another, wearing away their supplies and morale, and push them into a conflict. Then, when the dust settles, the surviving army might just be weak enough for them to fight. The crew agrees to this plan. A Terris woman is caught eavesdropping on their plans.
Chapter 14
Tindwyl, a Terriswoman, arrives to help Elend become a better king. She is an acquaintance of Sazed, who had sent her a letter explaining Elend’s predicament, but he did not ask her to come train him; that was her own decision. Vin and Elend discuss Tindwyl, the insanity of his plan, and the Deepness that the Lord Ruler had supposedly defeated. Vin vows to find out what is going on with the secret mists, promising herself that she will not fear it.
Chapter 15
Sazed has been at the Conventical of Seran for 8 days, and awakens to find himself alone; Marsh is no longer with him. He leaves, wandering to a skaa village called Urbene, where most of its inhabitants are herdsmen. He discovers tons of dead bodies, looking as if they had died of starvation and dehydration. He finds only one man there alive, a cannibal, who says that he can’t go outside because the mists now show up during the day. Apparently, the mists had been killing people here. Sazed drags the man outside, and the man asks him how the Lord Ruler could’ve abandoned them, and then leaves. Sazed continues on to Luthadel.
Chapter 16
The siege of Luthadel begins. Elend meets Tindwyl for another round of lessons. She teaches him how to dress properly, gives him a haircut, gives him a crown, and tells him he needs to learn better posture, to walk properly, to speak properly, and to learn how to handle weapons. She says he will be trained discreetly by a dueling master, which should help him become competent with a cane and sword.
Chapter 17
A messenger comes from Straff’s army—it is the Watcher. His name is Zane. Vin spars with him, and he tells her that they don’t belong with the others, that they belong in the mists, and that the people around her are just using her. She decides that maybe she can turn him against Straff.
Chapter 18
Zane meets with his father, Lord Straff Venture. Straff wants him to get Vin to tell him where the stash of Atium is hidden in Luthadel. Zane tries to poison Straff but is unsuccessful. Straff uses one of his concubines, Amaranta, to cook hip up an antidote.
Chapter 19
Sazed uses his steelmind to travel quickly back to Luthadel, which is only a week away for him now. He runs into a koloss army, and is forced to travel with them. He finds out they are being led by Jastes Lekal, Elend’s old friend. He is not actually in control of the Koloss, but is rather in danger and intent on sharing that danger with others, according to Sazed. Lekal says he is coming to Luthadel to make an alliance with him, and clearly desires the Atium rumored to be in the city. He tells Sazed to tell Elend that if he gives over the atium, he’ll let him keep Luthadel, and that they can be neighbors and allies.
Chapter 20
Elend and the crew discuss him meeting with his father at his camp. He needs to make his father believe that he supports them, while also believing he can betray them at his leisure, and he will have to do so without his father learning that he is playing both sides.
Elend also continues his lessons with Tindwyl, as she teaches him what it means to be a king. She asks him why he hasn’t married Vin. She warns him that love is dangerous for a king, but acceptable. Lord Cett’s daughter arrives, interrupting their lesson. She is looking for Breeze.
Chapter 21
Cett’s daughter, Allrianne, comes seeking asylum. She apparently has a history with Breeze. Elend allows her to stay for the moment, saying it will make a useful distraction for Cett’s army.
Chapter 22
Vin tells Ham that she is out of Atium. Later, she finally connects with OreSeur and builds a rapport with the kandra. Sazed returns, saying they have “problems and troubles” to discuss.
Chapter 23
Sazed brings news of the koloss army to Elend. The group discusses it, and they agree to continue with their plan as intended, and that with any luck, the imminent koloss presence would make Straff more willing to deal with Elend. Sazed then brings up the mysteriously behaving mists. Elend notes that they are moving inward, toward the center of the empire.
Sazed then talks with Tindwyl, who tells him that he should still be teaching the people out in the borderlands and that he was going against the directions that the Terris leadership, the Synod, had given him.
Chapter 24
Zane finds Vin and they talk. He asks her why she is subservient to Elend when she has these awesome powers now. He asks her what she would do if she had no repercussions to her actions. She responds that she’d kill the besieging armies’ leaders. He asks her why she doesn’t do this, but Vin knows there are complications in doing that.
Chapter 25
Tindwyl takes Vin dress shopping since she is to meet Elend’s father. Allrianne and Spook come along with. When people catch wind that it is Vin who is trying on the dresses, a crowd gathers outside the dress shop. Tindwyl forces Vin to speak to them. She tells the people that she and Elend will protect them, that they can stop the besieging armies of Luthadel because they were able to stop the Lord Ruler.
As they are leaving the shop, they find that Straff’s men are attacking the walls of Luthadel. Vin rushes in to save Elend’s poorly defending army, but Clubs calls her off; it is only a test from Elend’s father. He is trying to send Elend a message before they meet: that he can take the city whenever he wants.
Chapter 26
The assault on the city unsettles the Assembly. The city is strained near the point of breaking; food is getting expensive, and Elend has been forced to open the city stockpiles. The people of Luthadel are on edge. Elend and Vin go to a parley with Elend’s father. They note that Straff has been using obligators to administrate.
When they meet, Straff quickly dismisses Vin as a threat. Elend pretends to look weak, asking him to ally with him to defeat Cett, saying they need to attack him. Straff declines the offer, much to Elend’s surprise. He is more concerned with the Atium in the city. Vin tells him there is none, and so it is therefore riskier for Straff to attack the city. Straff asks Vin to leave so he can speak with Elend alone.
Chapter 27
Straff doesn’t take Elend’s offer for an alliance. Elend is able to gain the upper hand, however, by pointing out that Vin can kill him or his officers at any time, and he demonstrates her intense allomantic powers by having her Soothe his emotions to various states. We also learn that the reason Straff doesn’t bite on Elend’s offer was because he has been getting information on them from a spy and he knew their plan all along.
Straff tells Zane to kill Vin. Zane asks for help from a strike team, from Allomancers that can’t be traced. They are apparently some special resource that Straff has access to. Straff obliges the request. Elend returns triumphant, but he notices Vin is upset; she thinks that maybe he is using her. Elend hopes the Assembly will pass a resolution and wait for him to meet with Cett like he did with Straff. However, he finds out he has been deposed upon his return.
Chapter 28
Tindwyl and the crew want Elend to take dictatorial power to hold onto his Kingship. However, Elend stands up to them and refuses. He can wait out being deposed because the Assembly will have one month to choose a new king, and if they can’t come up with a new king by the deadline, then the throne would revert to Elend for a year minimum anyways. It’s likely Elend’s father had something to do with him being deposed. He and Tindwyll discuss his love for Vin, and she asks him whether he will choose her or the throne.
Chapter 29
Vin and OreSeur talk of Zane and Elend. Vin suddenly realizes that she thinks she knows what the Deepness is.
Chapter 30
Vin asks Sazed about what the deepness is, and they theorize about what it could be. They talk about Tindwyl, and Vin learns that she was a breeder, one who was forced to have several children under the Lord Ruler’s breeding program, which was meant to breed Feruchemy out of the general population.
Chapter 31
The Assembly meets to discuss Elend’s deposition as King and who is to rule Luthadel now. Elend nominates Lord Penrod as chancellor of the Assembly. He also tries to link himself more closely withTthe Survivor (Kelsier) since he has little of his own authority to rely upon. By implying that the government was founded by the Survivor, Elend would make the people think twice about meddling with it. He maneuvers brilliantly by nominating Penrod as chancellor, who, in turn, nominates him as king. However, Philen nominates Lord Ashweather Cett to be the king, who is secretly hiding among the audience in the Assembly.
Chapter 32
Lord Cett propositions himself as king, saying that if they allied, his forty thousand men plus their twenty, they could hold the walls against Straff and even stop the army of koloss fast approaching. It is agreed that Cett will be allowed to take up residence in one of the abandoned keeps and await the Assembly’s decision in the next week. He says that during that time, he’ll meet with each of the assemblymen and explain the benefits that would come from choosing him as their king. Cett also wants to discuss his daughter Allrianne’s “kidnapping,” and requests for Elend to meet with him inside of Luthdael.
Chapter 33
Elend learns that someone has been poisoning the drinking wells in the city and discusses the matter with Ham. Vin tracks down Dockson in an attempt to find out if he is the imposter. As they speak, however, she doesn’t think he is likely to be the kandra spy that infiltrated their crew. Instead, she begins to suspect one of the officers outside the crew, Demoux, might be the imposter.
Chapter 34
Elend discusses his new laws with Noorden, a former obligator and scholar. They agree that Cett will likely not respect his new laws. Vin worries that Elend will no longer need her now that he has a newfound confidence in himself.
Later, Zane attacks Vin, but he can’t kill her. He asks her to leave with him, and she says no. He warns her that the koloss army is getting closer, and he tells her that Straff had sent the refugees into Luthadel; it’s a ploy to make people in the city more afraid and drain their resources.
Chapter 35
Cett and Elend have their dinner. Cett learns that there truly is no atium in Luthadel. He supposes he will have to let Elend go.
Chapter 36
Sazed moves among the weak, sickly, and wounded in the city, the ones that Straff had let go from his forces, offering what little help he can. Tindwyl finds him and asks him to show her the discovery he had found that had prompted him to return to Luthadel.
Meanwhile, we learn that Breeze had been soothing Sazed and Tindwyl all along. We follow him as he Soothes random people throughout the city. He eventually meets up with Clubs for a drink and to chat.
At the same tome, Vin and OreSeur are spying on Breeze and Clubs, and Vin figures that Allrianne is an allomancer who has been rioting Breeze’s emotions to make him more attracted to her.
When they return to Keep Venture, Vin learns that one of the servants who was supposed to be tailing Demoux has lost him. She is able to find him, and she learns that Demoux is a member of the Church of the Survivor, a sect that believes in Kelsier as a religious figure. As he speaks to the skaa, Vin decides it’s likely not him that is the imposter.
Chapter 37
Sazed and Tindwyl study the Deepness all night. Tindwyl tells him that she is going to leave, and that she needs to offer the same aid she’s offered him up to his opponents. When Sazed agrees, she begs him to give her a reason to stay. Sazed tells her he wants her to stay, and she does.
Meanwhile, Elend and Ham are talking when a soldier mentions that another skirmish has broken out between Cett’s men and Straff’s men. This gives Elend an idea for what he is going to do at the Assembly’s vote for king.
Chapter 38
The Assembly gathers to hold their vote on the next king. Elend has joined the Church of the Survivor to secure more skaa votes. At the assembly, Straff’s assassins attempt to kill Elend. Vin is able to kill several of them and Elend survives the attack, but not before witnessing her violently bash the skull in of one of the assassins with her forehea and killing him. The Assembly clears out, and they later decide to hold the vote in Lord Penrod’s mansion.
As they vote in Penrod’s mansion, at first, the votes push, meaning Elend would remain King. However, one of the assemblymen asks to change his vote, after seeing that his candidate, Cett, was going to lose. Elend could’ve lied to them and said that voting was done, but he tells him the truth; he can vote since they haven’t adjourned yet. He and another assemblyman change their votes from Cett to Penrod, crowning Penrod as the new king of Luthadel and officially deposing Elend.
Chapter 39
We learn that Penrod was working with Straff the whole time to deliver him the city. Straff fears Vin now, and refuses to move troops into the city until Zane kills her. Zane poisons Straff again, and Straff barely survives it. After this, he comes to the conclusion that Zane must die.
Chapter 40
Elend sits by Vin’s bed and they talk. Zane pays Vin a visit, and he tells her that it was Cett who sent the assassins. They were apparently supposed to attack all three candidates, killing Penrod and Elend, but leave Cett alive. He gives Vin a big ball of Atium.
Afterwards, Vin talks to OreSeur, and she tries to affect him through allomancy by burning duralumin with a hard push. This stuns OreSeur for a moment, and Vin learns that she, like the Lord Ruler, can affect the kandra through Allomancy.
Chapter 41
Sazed and Tindwyl study Kwaan’s writings about Alendi. Elend worries about the skaa freezing in Luthadel. It isn’t looking likely that the koloss will attack Cett or Straff. Elend walks in on Sazed and Tindwyl studying. They talk about why Elend lost the kingship. Elend leaves them.
Chapter 42
Elend tells Demoux that they have to remove the skaa out of the noblemen’s homes they are occupying and into tenements where they can get better heating and not freeze for the winter.
Meanwhile, Lord Penrod is trying to get a bill through the Assembly that will hand over the city to Elend’s father. Elend speaks with Demoux about the poisonings in the city; at first, they think that men might be sneaking through the river gates to do it, but another theory is brought to Elend: an inquisitor may be in the city.
At this point in the story, the siege of Luthadel has essentially reached a three-way standoff: Cett is waiting, hoping Straff will attack, worrying that Elend and company will give in to him. But neither can happen as long as Straff is afraid of Vin. Plus, there is the fourth element of the koloss that no one can predict. It’s also clear that Cett intends to take the city or be destroyed.
Later, Ham helps Elend sneak out of the city through one of the underground tunnels. Elend walks into the koloss camp and confronts (and stabs) his old friend Jastes, telling him to march his army out of his dominance and to attack Straff’s homeland or maybe Cett’s. On his way out of the camp, he attacks and kills the smallest koloss he can find, taking his pouch on his way out. He learns that Jastes has won the allegiance of the koloss simply by paying them.
Chapter 43
Zane pays Vin a visit, telling her that Demoux is the traitor in their camp. He says that the assassins were Cett’s and that Elend and Penrod were supposed to die, and with the Assembly in chaos, Cett could have taken charge and led his forces (along with their own) against Straff’s attacking army. And, Cett would have become the savior who protected Luthadel against the tyranny of an invader in the process.
He convinces Vin to come with her to attack Cett and show him why they should fear them. They destroy most of Cett’s men, but spare Cett and his son’s lives. Vin learns that it wasn’t Cett’s assassins that had attacked the Assembly, but it was Straff’s. Zane tells her that he thought if Vin could fight and see how powerful she truly was, then she could shake herself free of Elend’s grip. However, he claims that he was wrong on that front.
Chapter 44
Cett’s army withdraws. No one has seen Vin since the night she and Zane attacked Cett’s army. The crew has learned that Jastes is paying the koloss with fake boxings. Elend finds Vin hiding in the city, and they talk briefly. She is feeling guilty for killing all of Cett’s men, saying she’s just like Kelsier, and she doesn’t want to be. Elend tries to reassure her. She tells him that she thinks she needs to leave Luthadel.
Chapter 45
Tindwyl and Sazed are studying the Deepness again. Twindwyl tells him that the Hero of Ages won’t be Terris. They argue the merits of religion, unable to come to an agreement. They find that one sentence has been removed from all of the texts they’ve been studying. The missing sentence says “Alendi must not reach the Well of Ascension, for he must not be allowed to take the power for himself.” Both Vin and Elend seek advice from Sazed about what to do about each other and their relationship. Sazed thinks that neither of them should be in Luthadel when it falls.
Chapter 46
Sazed arranges a secret conference for all the crew members except for Vin and Elend. They discuss making a last stand in Luthadel. They also agree that it is important to send their most important people away for safety—Vin and Elend—along with Tindwyl, and Spook for support. Breeze wants to send Allrianne off with them as well.
Meanwhile, Vin wanders into Kredik Shaw. She realizes that the Lord Ruler’s palace holds no clues or answers for her problems, however, and she promptly leaves. She realizes she must make a decision between Elend and Zane.
Later, Zane evades all of Straff’s assassination attempts, and has him in a position where he can kill him. He tells his father to pull their men back, to not return to the Northern Dominance, but wait for the koloss to invade the city first, and to then sweep in and rescue Luthadel. Straff asks why Zane won’t kill him, to which Zane responds that he is his father.
Chapter 47
Vin hears the powerful thumping again, growing louder. She believes it’s the Well of Ascension. She meets up with Zane, ready to leave with him, but something stops her. She realizes that where Zane doesn’t trust her, Elend does. She tells Zane she is going to stay with Elend, and Zane attacks her.
Vin learns that OreSeur was the imposter all along, that he was a different kandra than the one she had started with. He is Zane’s servant, but he is now loyal to Vin, and allows her to control him with her allomancy to attack Zane and save herself for a moment.
Vin then tries to use the ball of atium Zane gave her against him, but it’s a fake, with only a thin layer of atium surrounding it. Despite Zane using atium, she is able to defeat him by waiting for him to respond to what Vin is going to do next. Inadvertently, he shows her the future in this way, and she reacts against this instead, and is able to defeat Zane in combat in this way, killing him.
Vin and OreSeur, or “Tensoon,” part ways. TenSoon decides that he is going to use the old dog bones he had left in the closet when he had tricked her into thinking it was another kandra imposter in their midst.
Chapter 48
Elend has penned a letter to Jastes, asking him to pull his forces. With Clubs’ help, they have replicated the fake money Jastes was paying the loloss with. Vin barges in, returning from her fight and into Elend’s arms. Sazed stitches her up, and she asks him to marry them, and so, Vin and Elend get married. Vin and Elend, under Sazed’s guidance, decide to go seek out the Well of Ascension. Sazed has told them he knows where it is, however, he has no idea where it is or what it would do. He gives them a fabricated map.
Chapter 49
Vin, Elend, and Spook depart for the Well of Ascension. Allrianne later meets up with them. They are attacked by Straff’s soldiers on the way out, and Vin is able to defeat them. After the attack, Allrianne leaves them.
We also learn that Tindwyl has decided to stay behind, despite Sazed’s wish for her to go with Elend and Vin. Clubs pushes Sazed on his belief in multiple religions.
Meanwhile, Straff is having health issues, getting the chills, sweats, and shakes. He notices that Amaranta was preparing the wrong ingredients for his antidote, “the concoction,” as he calls it. He has actually been going through withdrawals because Amaranta has been drugging him. He kills Amaranta, making “the concoction” himself, then passes out.
Chapter 50
Allrianne tries to convince her father, Cett, to ally with Elend’s forces to no avail. Straff awakes from his deep slumber, and learns that the men haven’t deposed of him because they think Zane is his second in command, not realizing he is gone. Straff decides to pull back for a while to see if Zane’s plan would work. He doesn’t realize Zane is dead, however.
Meanwhile, Sazed is storing up all of his metalminds for the upcoming battle. He has also sent a letter to Lord Penrod, urging him to inform Straff that Vin was gone from the city, hoping Straff would then be willing to make a deal, but he was unsuccessful.
Dockson proposes battle plans to protect the city from an attack, asking that skaa commanders be placed alongside noble commanders at the city’s gates. Tindwyl and Sazed argue about Elend and Vin being sent away, but Tindwyl tells him that she loves him, despite their disagreements. The battle of Luthadel looms.
Chapter 51
After traveling for the Well of Ascension, Vin and Elend have set up a tent. Inside this tent, the mist spirit stands directly above Elend and it seemingly tries to attack him. Vin attacks the invisible mist, which disappears.
Back at Luthadel, the Koloss charge the city.
At the same time, Jastes Lekal shows up at Vin and Elend’s tent, and Elend kills him. Vin and Elend then learn from Spook that Sazed had sent them away to save them while the city would surely perish when the koloss inevitably attacked. Apparently, he was told to let Elend and Vin know the truth once they got to Tathingdwen so they wouldn’t kill themselves climbing the mountains in winter for nothing.
Vin then plans to return to the city, running on pewter, and Spook and Elend are to follow behind, only a couple of days back with some hard riding. Vin asks Elend to travel during the night and watch out for the mist spirit, as she believes it means him harm.
Chapter 52
Back in Luthadel, Breeze works to Soothe the soldiers, section by section, as they are manning the city’s walls. At the same time, Vin runs on pewter to get back to the city. The koloss breach one of the gates, and Sazed taps into his metal minds and wreaks havoc on the attacking koloss.
Meanwhile, Vin stumbles across a village. She is able to get a bunch of horseshoes from them and use them to create a spikeway like what she and Kelsier had once used to travel at high speeds. She uses them to Push against, and leaps her way back to Luthadel.
Chapter 53
Straff begins to make the drug himself that Amaranta had been giving him—Black Frayn—and take it, weaning himself off of it slowly. He tells his men to wait to attack, once the koloss lose their bloodlust and are all tired out from the fighting.
Back in Luthadel, Sazed is able to heroically hold off the Koloss by using his ironmind to become so heavy that he is able to hold the gate. Later, he learns that Tindwy;’s gate has fallen. Clubs and Dockson are both killed as well. The koloss have taken most of the city, now killing indiscriminately, without many soldiers left to oppose them.
Vin then returns to Luthadel and starts massacring the koloss. Meanwhile, Sazed is organizing an escape party. He meets up with Ham, saying they can have the soldiers carry the wounded, and they will make their way to Keep Hasting, where they can find sanctuary, or maybe they can slip out of the city.
Chapter 54
The koloss in the city have finished killing the soldiers, so now it becomes time for them to start slaughtering the civilians. Sazed pleads with Penrod to organize an escape, but Penrod denies this, electing to stay at Keep Hasting—which is one of the tallest structures in the city—so he can keep his eye on the koloss.
Vin realizes that the koloss are cousins to the kandra, and were therefore built with the same weakness. Like she did with OreSeur, she uses her allomancy to take control of them and end the battle. She then approaches Penrod and asks him to open the gates of the city. She requests that he gather the remaining soldiers and send them out to find any groups of koloss that are pillaging or killing so that she can take control of them, too. Meanwhile, Sazed finds Tindwyl’s body and weeps over it.
Chapter 55
Together, the koloss (that Vin now controls) and the soldiers of Luthadel charge and attack Straff’s army. Vin kills Straff. Allrianne successfully convinces Cett to join the fray. Together, Vin’s forces, the koloss, and Cett’s forces defeat Straff’s army, their troops surrendering in large groups. Vin spares just one of the leaders of Straff’s army, Lord Janarle, and makes him swear fealty to Elend. She makes Cett do the same. Vin asks Sazed to secure Luthadel, and tells the leaders that he is her second, and they are to obey him while she gets some rest.
Chapter 56
Elend and Spook travel back to Luthadel at night. The mist spirit stops Elend and points him to the North, away from Luthadel. He and Spook come across a refugee camp. They learn that Steel Inquisitors and some koloss had attacked them, the inquisitors killing several keepers that were with them.
Chapter 57
Cett argues with the other leaders, wanting them to turn their armies away from Luthadel so he can get his kingdom back. The leaders say no, they need to keep Luthadel secure, and they should wait for the emperor (Elend) to get back. Sazed worries about Vin, who has gone into a coma-like sleep after burning pewter for so long. Despite her sleep, she still is somehow retaining her control over the koloss.
Vin awakes from her deep slumber. She realizes the Well of Ascension is somewhere in Kredik Shaw. She, Ham, Spook, and Elend go into Kredik Shaw to look for it. They find a false section in the wall and go through it. The mist spirit pays Sazed a visit and beckons him to follow Vin to the Well of Ascension. He realizes the spirit, by tearing those pages out of the texts, was trying to warn him about the Well, and that Vin should not seek it out. Sazed follows Vin and the rest to Kredik Shaw, but Marsh stops him, saying he has to kill him.
Chapter 58
Sazed is badly wounded fighting Marsh, but he is able to use his gold mind to heal quickly and survive in time for Ham to save him, bashing Marsh’s head with his cane. Vin and Elend find the Well of Ascension. It’s a glowing white pool in a cave-like cavern beneath Kredik Shaw. The Mist spirit attacks Elend, slashing his gut open.
To save Elend’s life, Vin steps into the Well of Ascension. She is tempted to take the power for herself so that she can save Elend, but she realizes she must give it up in order to defeat the Deepness instead, because that’s what Elend would want. She gives up the power, knowing that Elend will likely die.
Chapter 59
The mist spirit points out the metal nuggets on the floor of the cavern where the Well of Ascension is. She holds the nugget up to Elend and makes him swallow it. It saves Elend’s life. What’s more, Elend is burning pewter—he has become an Allomancer.
Epilogue
The mists are still killing. Vin has released something terrible at the Well of Ascension. Sazed realizes that a dark spirit had modified the prophecies in order to get Alendi to free it at the Well of Ascension, and Vin realizes the same; that she has set something free that shouldn’t have been released, the same something that had led her to the well in the first place.
