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a foot into an Inquisitor chest, then Pulled herself off to spin away from another one. She rolled across the slick cobblestones, an obsidian axe nearly taking off her head as she came up and kicked two pewter-enhanced feet at the knees of an opponent. Bones crunched. The Inquisitor screamed and fell. Vin pushed hersel... |
Vin kicked at one, but it moved with Feruchemical speed, catching her foot. Another grabbed her by the arm and wrenched her to the side. She cried out, kicking her way free, but a third one grabbed her, his grip enhanced by both Allomantic and Feruchemical strength. The other three followed, holding her with claw-like ... |
to him, then reached for her arm. She heard her bone snap before she felt the pain. It came, however, and she screamed. It had been a long time since she'd known torture. The streets had not been kind, but during the last few years, she'd been able to repress most of those experiences. She'd become a Mistborn. Powerful... |
the Steel Priesthood. Vin had spoken of her insane mother. Reen said that he came home one day and found my mother covered in blood, Vin had said. She'd killed my baby sister. Me, however, she hadn't touched—except to give me an earring . . . Don't trust anyone pierced by metal. Spook's letter. Even the smallest bit ca... |
the field of lava that barred his path eastward. His muscles felt lethargic—signs that he had been pushing too hard. Even the Blessing of Potency could only do so much. He stood, forcing his horse's body to rise, looking at his nighttime surroundings. Endless fields of ash extended behind him; even the track he had wor... |
"Take them to the storage cavern. Pack them in! Quickly! We don't have much time!" "What do you make of it?" Ham asked, wiping his brow. Blood immediately oozed from the cut again, running down the side of his face. Elend shook his head, breathing deeply—almost in gasps—as he leaned back against the side of a jagged ro... |
Inquisitor to the side, then ducking a pair of axes. She crouched, then jumped, leaping in an arc through the rain, coming down beside Marsh, who still lay stunned from where she had thrown him after her rebirth. He looked up, finally seeming to focus on her, then cursed and rolled away as Vin punched downward. Her fis... |
them downward, as if they'd been swatted. In fact, her Push also hit the metal spire directly beneath her. The stone architecture holding the spire in place exploded, spraying chips and dust outward as the spire itself crushed the building beneath it. And Vin was thrown upward. Very quickly. She blasted through the sky... |
obviously contained residual traces of metal ore—was thrown violently back. She gasped, stopping her Push. She drew in breath, feeling the rain splatter against her. The building that had been the Lord Ruler's palace was gone, flattened to rubble which spread out and away from her like an impact crater. An Inquisitor b... |
feeling rainwater trail down her arms and drip off her fingers. She still burned within, and she looked up, staring into the vortex of mists. It was spinning so powerfully, twisting down. She was having trouble thinking for all the energy that coursed through her. She looked down again. This isn't Marsh, she thought. K... |
was in a position to gain the right Hemalurgic spike—one that would grant her heightened power with bronze, which would then let her sense the location of the Well of Ascension. She had an insane mother, a sister who was a Seeker, and was—herself—Mistborn. That was precisely the combination Ruin needed. There were othe... |
he trusted her. Perhaps she had intended to distract Ruin with lies. Elend suspected that somehow, the people of Fadrex owed her their lives. She'd drawn the koloss away—she'd figured something out, something that he couldn't even guess at. She always complains that she's not a scholar, he thought, smiling to himself. ... |
spike driven through a person's body gave Ruin some small ability to influence them. This was mitigated, however, by the mental fortitude of the one being controlled. In most cases—depending on the size of the spike and the length of time it had been worn—a single spike gave Ruin only minimal powers over a person. He c... |
to discover? This was what he'd expected to save them? These were just more words. Pleasant ones, like most in his portfolio, but hardly compelling. Was he supposed to believe just because it was the religion his people had followed? There were no promises here that Tindwyl still lived. Why was it that people had follo... |
it. Was it chance? Was it providence? In the end, apparently, it was up to him to decide. He slowly returned the letters and journals to his metalminds, leaving his specific memory of them empty—yet retaining the feelings they had prompted in him. Which would he be? Believer or skeptic? At that moment, neither seemed a... |
. does it mean, KanPaar?" one lesser kandra was asking. "Please, we are confused. Ask the First Generation." "We have spoken of this thing already," said KanPaar, leader of the Seconds. "There is no need for alarm. Look at you, crowding together, murmuring and rumormongering as if you were humans!" Sazed moved up to on... |
his desk as the members of the First Generation hobbled out of their hidden stairwells and joined him on the floor of the Trustwarren. "Tell me, Keeper," Haddek said as his brothers seated themselves, "what do you make of this event?" "The departure of the mists?" Sazed asked. "It does seem portentous—though, admittedl... |
use the power. Only Rashek! The Father." "Where, then, are the mists?" another asked. The room fell silent again. Sazed sat, pen held in his hand, yet not writing anything. He leaned forward. "The mists are the body of Preservation?" The others nodded. "And . . . it has disappeared?" Again, a nod. "Does this not mean, ... |
He struggled, but his kandra captors were inhumanly strong. "KanPaar!" Haddek yelled. The First's voice was surprisingly strong. "You are of the Second Generation—you owe obedience to me. We created you!" KanPaar ignored him, directing his kandra to bind the members of the First Generation. The other Seconds stood in a... |
even really focus on them. The longer she floated, however, the clearer her vision became. She was . . . in Luthadel. After killing the Inquisitors. Why couldn't she feel anything? She tried to reach down, to push herself to her knees, but the ground seemed strangely far away. And, she saw no arms in front of her. She ... |
reached out and plugged the ashmounts. She soothed them, deadened them, smothered their ability to spray ash and lava. Then, she reached into the sky and wiped the smoke and darkness from the atmosphere—like a maid wiping soot from a dirty window. She did all of this in a matter of instants; not more than five minutes ... |
And you can do nothing! Balance! The curse of our existence. Vin suffered as the people below were crushed, washed away, and drowned. Please, she said. Please just let me save them. Why? Ruin asked. What is it I told you before? Everything you do serves me. It is out of kindness that I stop you. For, even if you were t... |
it. Vin frowned—or, at least, she felt as if she were frowning, though she no longer had a body. His words . . . He says he's stronger, Vin thought. Yet, we are equally matched. Is he lying again? No . . . he didn't lie. Looking back with her ever-expanding mind, she saw that everything Ruin said, he believed. He truly... |
could have leveled such an enormous, majestic building? What could have caused such destruction, breaking apart buildings and flinging rubble several streets away? And, all of the destruction was focused here, at what had once been the center of the Lord Ruler's power. Elend skidded down some rubble, approaching the ce... |
of the ash, he found a corpse in a fine gentlemen's suit lying on the cobbles. Elend rolled it over, noting the sword thrust through its stomach and the posture of a suicide. The corpse's fingers still held the weapon. Penrod, he thought, recognizing the face. Dead, presumably, by his own hand. Something lay scrawled i... |
get through to some part of Elend. Perhaps in the same way Ruin was able to communicate with his Inquisitors and followers? Still, her near-impotence was infuriating. Balance, Ruin spat. Balance imprisoned me. Preservation's sacrifice—that was to siphon off the part of me that was stronger, to lock it away, to leave me... |
to eat, though a member of the Third Generation had poured some water on him. Sazed was still wet with it, and he had taken to sucking on the cloth of his robes to assuage his thirst. This is silly, he thought, not for the first time. The world is ending, and I'm in prison? He was the final Keeper, the Announcer. He sh... |
More time passed. Then, he heard sounds. Sazed huddled down again, then waited expectantly for the shower of water. "When I sent you back to save my people," a voice growled, "this wasn't exactly what I had in mind." Sazed popped his eyes open, glancing upward, and was surprised to see a canine face looking through the... |
a kandra who fits in with his people as poorly as I do with my own, Sazed thought, smiling. He stepped backward, moving up onto the top of the prison grate, touching its metals with his bare feet. The Fifths had trouble fighting TenSoon—he had trained with Vin, and was apparently quite confident in his dog's body. He k... |
ago. Now, I believe we should deal with these . . ." He waved toward the fallen Fifths, who seemed to have quite a bit of trouble moving with their bones broken. TenSoon nodded. He motioned for some of his friends to help him with the one he was sitting on. They held the captive tentatively, but there were enough of th... |
nodded. MeLaan returned a short time later with a large sack full of bones, and TenSoon—having re-created FhorKood's body with incredible speed—moved out of the chamber on his mission. Then, Sazed sat down, removing the lock and holding it to use as a metalmind, using an iron hammer in the other hand to store weight. I... |
their goods freely, helping those who had fled Luthadel. The Lord Ruler had worked to breed the Terris so they were docile. However, had he expected that in making his perfect servants, he would also create a thoughtful, kindly people who would give of their last flocks to help those who were starving? The thing that s... |
the voice said. And you are mine. All of you are mine. Elend landed outside the Pits of Hathsin, throwing up a puff of ash. Oddly, some of his own soldiers were there, guarding the perimeter. They rushed forward, spears held anxiously, then froze when they recognized him. "Lord Venture?" one of the men asked with shock... |
barely noticed as one of the other Firsts began to shake. People were crying out but the blood thumping in Sazed's ears kept him from hearing what they were saying. Haddek turned away from the gasping Sazed. And then, in a loud voice, yelled something. "The Resolution has come!" Above him, TenSoon jerked. Something wit... |
and order in these times. "I shouldn't have left Luthadel," Elend said quietly. Demoux didn't respond immediately. The two of them finished their tea, then continued on, walking with an honor guard of about ten soldiers, all from Demoux's group. The general had sent several messengers back to Elend. They had never arri... |
Thugs, and Lurchers we can get." Sazed's eyes fluttered open, and he shook his head, groaning. How long had he been out? Probably not long, he realized, as his vision cleared. He'd passed out from lack of air. That kind of thing usually only left one unconscious for a short time. Assuming one woke up at all. Which I di... |
quick feet, snatching his sack from the ground as kandra began to cry out. Sazed snapped open the sack, and found a collection of bracelets, rings, and bracers inside. He dumped them out, spilling the precious metalminds to the floor and grabbed two particular ones. Then, still moving at blurring speed, he dashed to th... |
. could be here before the night is over." Elend cursed quietly. Elend. . . . He frowned. Why did he keep hearing his name on the wind? He turned, looking into the darkness. Something was pulling him, guiding him, whispering to him. He tried to ignore it, turning back to Demoux. And yet, it was there, in his heart. Com... |
A familiar figure stood against a pair of large metal doors, grunting, apparently trying to hold them closed. "Sazed?" Elend asked, standing up straighter. Sazed looked up, saw Elend, and was apparently so surprised that he lost control of the doors. They burst open, throwing the Terrisman aside, revealing a group of a... |
out by a simple beating. The mists of that day created Mistings only, of course—there were no Mistborn until the Lord Ruler made use of the nuggets. The people misinterpreted the mists' intent, as the process of Snapping Allomancers caused some—particularly the young and the old—to die. This hadn't been Preservation's ... |
you, Vin? You can't win. You could never win. I've just been playing with you. Vin pulled back, ignoring his lies. He hadn't been playing with them—he'd been trying to discover the secrets that Preservation had left, the secret that the Lord Ruler had kept. Still, the numbers Ruin had finally managed to marshal were aw... |
the doorways to the Homeland, but his hope—that the koloss wouldn't know where to find his people—was a slim one, considering what Sazed had told him about Ruin. "Ruin can't help but come for it," Sazed explained. They stood in the metal-lined cavern called the Trustwarren, the place where the kandra had spent the last... |
my lord." "None here," Elend said. Demoux grew grim. "Then we die." "What about faith, Demoux?" Elend asked. "I believe in the Survivor, my lord. But . . . well, this looks pretty bad. I've felt like a man waiting his turn before the headsman ever since we spotted those koloss. Maybe the Survivor doesn't want us to suc... |
trembling as she thought about the impending deaths below. It would be like the tsunami deaths on the coast, only worse. For these were people she knew. People she loved. She turned back toward the entrance. She didn't want to watch, but she wouldn't be able to do anything else. Her self was everywhere. Even if she pul... |
another in a single, fluid stroke. Elend moved with a grace she had never seen from him—she had always been the better warrior, yet at this moment, he put her to shame. He wove between koloss blades as if he were taking part in a prerehearsed stage fight, body after body falling before his gliding blade. A group of sol... |
Life, Vin said. You said that the only reason to create something was so that you could destroy it. She hovered beside Elend, watching him fight. The deaths of the koloss should have pained her. Yet, she did not think of the death. Perhaps it was the influence of Preservation's power, but she saw only a man, struggling... |
the swing that followed, then took off the creature's arm. He beheaded the one that followed, then cut another's legs out from beneath it. For most of the battle, he hadn't used fancy Allomantic jumps or attacks, just straightforward swordplay. His arms were growing tired, however, and he was forced to begin Pushing ko... |
Elend's sword. The weapon was ripped from his fingers, flying away. "Atium. A kandra was carrying it, looking to sell it. Foolish creature." Elend cursed, ducking out of the way of a koloss swing, pulling his obsidian dagger from the sheath at his leg. Marsh stalked forward. Men screamed—cursing, falling—as their atium... |
A shifting, brilliant personage of pure white. Her hands held to his shoulders with her head thrown back, white hair streaming, mist flaring behind her like wings that stretched across the sky. Vin, he thought with a smile. Elend looked back down as Marsh screamed and leaped forward, attacking with his axe in one hand,... |
phantom, still hovered above them both. "Lost?" Elend whispered. "We've won, Marsh." "Oh, and how is that?" Marsh asked, dismissive. Human stood at the side of the pit in the center of the cavern room. The pit where Ruin's body had been. The place of victory. Human stood, dumbfounded, a group of other koloss stepping u... |
left of the original crew, she thought. Kelsier dead so long ago. Dockson and Clubs slaughtered at the Battle of Luthadel. Yeden dead with his soldiers. OreSeur taken at Zane's command. Marsh, fallen to become an Inquisitor. And the others who joined us, now gone as well. Tindwyl, TenSoon, Elend . . . Did Ruin think sh... |
sun rose into the sky. The heat was incredible, like an oven. Cries of pain echoed from deep within the cavern behind Sazed. Koloss were inside. "She'll come," Sazed whispered. He could see Elend's body. It had fallen back down the pile of koloss corpses. It was stark, bright white and red against the black and blue of... |
corpse—the one he didn't recognize—was also leaking something. A deep black smoke. Sazed reached out with his other hand, touching the smoke, and felt a different power—more violent. The power of change. He knelt, stunned, between the bodies. And, only then, did it start to make sense. The prophecies always used the ge... |
to annihilate each other. And yet, because he was of one mind on how to use them, he could keep them separate. They could touch without destroying each other, if he willed it. For these two powers had been used to create all things. If they fought, they destroyed. If they were used together, they created. Understanding... |
Dozens of secrets. One religion worshipped animals, and from it Sazed drew forth pictures, explanations, and references regarding the life that should have lived on the earth. He restored it. From another—Dadradah, the religion he had preached to Clubs before the man died—Sazed learned about colors and hues. It was the... |
a child, in those brief times when she wasn't wearing the earring. Preservation had mostly gotten her to stop wearing it by the time Kelsier recruited her, though she put it back in for a moment before joining the crew. Then, she'd left it there at his suggestion. Nobody else could draw upon the mists. I have determine... |
shining between the cracks of the trapdoor. He smiled, then pushed it open. There was no city outside. Just a field of grass. Green grass. Spook blinked at the strange sight, then crawled out onto the soft earth, making room for Breeze. The Soother's head popped out, then cocked to the side. "Now, there's a sight," he ... |
of color moved through the air, and the ground trembled, the land spinning and moving. He came. Just like Sazed said he would." "Sazed?" Spook spoke up, Demoux noticing him for the first time. "Where is he?" Demoux shook his head. "I don't know, Lord Spook." Then he paused. "Where did you come from, anyway?" Spook igno... |
the past not be forgotten. Rebuilding will be difficult, I think—but likely far easier than living beneath the Lord Ruler or surviving Ruin's attempt to destroy the world. I think you'll be surprised at the number of people who fled to the storage caverns. Rashek planned very well for this day. He suffered much beneath... |
was known for his daring schemes. Those eventually ended with his capture, however, and he was sent to the Lord Ruler's death camp at the Pits of Hathsin, the secret source of atium. It was said that nobody ever escaped the Pits of Hathsin alive—but Kelsier did just that. He gained the powers of a Mistborn during that ... |
who actually killed the Lord Ruler. She discovered that he wasn't actually a god, or even immortal—he had simply found a way to extend his life and his power by using Allomancy and Feruchemy at the same time. He wasn't the hero from the logbook—but, instead, was that man's servant, a Feruchemist of some great power. St... |
began to hear strange thumpings when she burned bronze. Vin's emotions regarding Elend and her own worth to him went through a great deal of turmoil. She loved him, but didn't think that the two of them were right for each other. She worried that she was too brutal, and not enough of a politician, to make him a good wi... |
themselves in combat. Many of the crewmembers realized that this was what would happen. Sazed convinced them that they should lie to Vin and Elend, telling them that the city would be safe and sending them north to search for the Well of Ascension. This ploy succeeded. Vin and Elend left, taking Spook with them, and in... |
now killed people who went into them. Elend, however, was determined to consolidate their new empire and find a way to fight the thing that Vin had released. When she asked him what they were going to do now, he had only one answer for her: They were going to survive. No matter what. One year has passed. ABOUT THE AUTH... |
become a short-fiction writer. He deserves some extra praise for this. And, as always, the Inciting Peter Ahlstrom was head of my in-house editorial efforts. (Literally in house. He works out of my home.) Peter is responsible for collecting all the comments from various people doing reads, adding his own detailed conti... |
to determine for certain now, however, as at some point in the distant past, both Devotion and Dominion were destroyed. Their Investiture—their power—was Splintered, their minds ripped away, their souls sent into the Beyond. I am uncertain whether their power was left to ravage the world untamed for a time, or was imme... |
room next door wasn’t being used,” Shai mumbled, turning back to her book. “And the division between these two rooms was recent, constructed only a few years back. I rewrote the construction so that this room was made the larger of the two, and so that a hearth was installed.” Frava seemed stunned. “I wouldn’t have tho... |
the image as well. Perhaps after a few years of being stamped, he won’t need the treatment any longer.” “I still name it egregious.” “Worse than being dead?” Shai asked. Frava rested her hand on Shai’s book of notes and half-finished sketches. Then she picked it up. “I will have our scribes copy this.” Shai stood up. “... |
hard parts, because the work required to do it yourself would be enormous. And … if you fail … it will be your head on the line. That book was one of the most subtle forgeries she’d ever created. Each word in it was true and yet a lie at the same time. Only a master Forger might see through it, might notice how hard sh... |
that branching point in his life where he had stepped down the wrong path. He hadn’t understood. There was rarely an obvious branching point in a person’s life. People changed slowly, over time. You didn’t take one step, then find yourself in a completely new location. You first took a little step off a path to avoid s... |
pass on her pocket watch. “I remember encouraging myself to become emperor. And … and I resent myself. For … mother of light, is that really how he regarded me?” The seal remained in place for fifty-seven seconds. Good enough. “Yes,” she said as the seal faded away. “I believe that is exactly how he regarded you.” She ... |
in himself.” Gaotona looked away, looking decidedly uncomfortable. “It won’t be him,” Shai said. “Even if I succeed, it won’t truly be him. You realize this, of course.” He nodded. “But then … sometimes a clever Forgery is as good as the real thing,” Shai said. “You are of the Heritage Faction. You surround yourself wi... |
your door, deliver a letter…” And that wakes you up, she added in her mind. That’s why you come on time those days. “You must miss her a lot if you can’t bear to leave her letter behind in your room.” The man lowered his arm and grabbed Shai by the front of her shirt. “Leave her alone, witch,” he hissed. “You … you lea... |
He had been more complex than that. Every person was. She could understand him, she could see— “Nights!” she said, standing up and putting the book aside. She needed to clear her mind. When Gaotona came to the room six hours later, Shai was just pressing a seal against the far wall. The elderly man opened the door and ... |
work. “The JinDo and my people are not the same, by the way,” Shai said testily. “We may have been related long ago, but we are completely different from them now.” Grands. Just because people had similar features, Grands assumed they were practically identical. Gaotona looked across her chamber and its fine furniture ... |
twitching. Those soulstamps represented over eight years of her life’s work. She’d started the first on the day she ended her apprenticeship. “Hm, yes,” Gaotona said. Inside the small box lay sheets of metal inscribed with the separate smaller stamps that made up the blueprints of the revisions to her soul. “This one, ... |
Mark rewrote her past to give her years of experience as a contortionist—and climb the five stories down to freedom. “I should have realized,” Gaotona said. He lifted the final plate. “That just leaves this one, most baffling of all.” Shai said nothing. “Cooking,” he said. “Farm work, sewing. Another alias, I assume. F... |
twenty years, back to when she was eight and had first begun inquiring about becoming a Forger. She’d become someone else entirely. None of the other Essence Marks did that; they rewrote some of her past, but left her with a knowledge of who she truly was. Not so with the last one. That one was to be final. It terrifie... |
she would not live to see the end of, unless she escaped. They worked through the last group of new stamps. Each one took for at least a minute, as she’d been almost certain they would. She had the vision now, the idea of the final soul as it would be. Once she finished the sixth stamp for the day, Gaotona waited for t... |
few extra days before Frava struck. As Shai searched for a specific note, she ran across one of her lists for escape plans. She hesitated. First, deal with the seal on the door, the note read in cipher. Second, silence the guards. Third, recover your Essence Marks, if possible. Fourth, escape the palace. Fifth, escape ... |
talk about the palace, including things that others would assume that Shai didn’t know but that the Bloodsealer would. Shai worried that the letter was too overt. Would the guards find it to be an obvious forgery? “That KuNuKam,” Yil whispered, using a native word of theirs. It roughly translated as a man who had an an... |
That stamp seemed the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. Her ancestors had worshipped rocks that fell from the sky at night. The souls of broken gods, those chunks had been called. Master craftsmen would carve them to bring out the shape. Once, Shai had found that foolish. Why worship something you yourself create... |
conclusions. The door opened all the way, and someone did enter, but it was not the Bloodsealer. It was Captain Zu. “Out,” he barked at the two guards. They jumped into motion. “In fact,” Zu said, “you’re relieved for the day. I’ll watch until the shift changes.” The two saluted and left. Shai felt like a wounded elk b... |
rushed to the table and gathered her things. The box of stamps, the emperor’s soul, some extra soulstone and ink. And the two books explaining the stamps she had created in deep complexity—the official one, and the true one. She tossed the official one into the hearth as she passed. Then she stopped in front of the doo... |
the emperor’s quarters, then nodded to the guards, chamber pot under her arm. “I don’t recognize you,” one guard said. She didn’t recognize him either, with that scarred face and squinty look. As she’d expected. The guards set to watching her had been kept separate from the others so they couldn’t talk about their duti... |
it back. The bright red seal glowed faintly. Ashravan blinked. Shai rose and stepped back as he sat up and looked around. Silently, she counted. “My rooms,” Ashravan said. “What happened? There was an attack. I was … I was wounded. Oh, mother of lights. Kurshina. She’s dead.” His face became a mask of grief, but he cov... |
a hasty revision of Ashravan’s soul to protect her would not have worked. Near the last door out, Shai picked up her fake chamber pot. She hefted it, then stumbled through the doors. She gasped audibly at the distant cries. “Is that about me?” Shai cried. “Nights! I didn’t mean it! I know I wasn’t supposed to see him. ... |
first. The others would search for Shai, but Gaotona would come for the emperor, to be certain he was safe. Shai stepped up to him, anxious. This, she thought, is probably my worst idea ever for a backup plan. “It worked,” she said softly. “You tried the stamp?” Gaotona said, taking her arm and glancing at the guards, ... |
tear in his eye. If she hadn’t been on the very edge of panic, she’d have felt proud of that. And ashamed of her pride. That was how she was. “Ashravan lives,” she said. “When you think of me, remember that. It worked. Nights, it worked!” She left him, dashing down the corridor. * * * Gaotona listened to the girl go, b... |
well over a decade. She kicked off her shoes. Her hair shortened; a scar stretched from her nose down around her right cheek. She walked like a warrior, prowling instead of striding. She reached the servants’ section of the palace just before the stables, the Imperial Gallery to her left. A door opened in front of her.... |
and reached in just below the thing’s rib cage. She grabbed the spine and yanked, pulling free a handful of vertebrae, the tip of the sternum cutting her forearm. All of the bones of each skeletal seemed to be sharpened. It collapsed, bones clattering. She was right. With the pivotal bones removed, the thing could no l... |
loss was bad. Even a woman with her training would not be meeting any further challenges today. Not if they required strength. She managed to rise and retrieve Zu’s cloak—still immobilized by pain, he watched her with amazed eyes. She gathered all five skulls of the Bloodsealer’s pets and tied them in the cloak. That d... |
The way he cocks his head when not answered immediately. The way he stands, the way he waves his fingers when he’s saying something he thinks is particularly important … “A MaiPon Forger,” the emperor said, pulling on his golden coat. “I hardly think that was necessary.” “Your wounds were beyond the skill of our reseal... |
of the empress is not something that will go ignored.” He looked over the arbiters. “Nor will it go unanswered.” Frava folded her arms, watching the copy with satisfaction, but also displeasure. What back doors did you put into his mind, little thief? Frava wondered. We will find them. Nyen was already inspecting copie... |
… by mentioning them, he weakens their faction. They gambled on him not returning, and now that he has, they seem foolish.” “True,” Frava said. “Did you put him up to that?” “No,” Gaotona said. “He refused to let me counsel him on his speech. This move, though, it feels like something the old Ashravan would have done, ... |
right now, Shai thought. I would like to have heard that. Her gem, her crowning work, wore the mantle of imperial power. That thrilled her, but the thrill had driven her onward. Even making him live again had not been the cause of her frantic work. No, in the end, she’d pushed herself so hard because she’d wanted to le... |
depth to even suspect what had happened. With the notes, Gaotona could see it. Ashravan’s near death would send him into a period of deep introspection. He would seek his journal, reading again and again the accounts of his youthful self. He would see what he had been, and would finally, truly seek to recover it. Shai ... |
much about observation as it is imagination. I try to let new experiences inspire me. I’ve been lucky enough in this field that I am able to travel frequently. When I visit a new country, I try to let the culture, people, and experiences there shape themselves into a story. Once when I visited Taiwan, I was fortunate e... |
just a bizarre coincidence. This report she did was incredible. Instead of a simple write-up, she created a worldbook about Sel; it had sketches and bios of the characters, strips of Elantrian cloth stapled in as examples, and little pouches filled with materials from the book. Emily showed it to me, and it completely ... |
had a sharp, nasal voice. “She is a valuable tool. This woman can save us. We must use her.” Why? Gaotona thought again. Why would someone capable of this artistry, this majesty, turn to forgery? Why not create original paintings? Why not be a true artist? I must understand. “Yes,” Frava continued, “the woman is a thie... |
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