Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson [224]
She reached the mansion and went searching for Sazed. She was back to wearing dresses—it felt odd to be seen in trousers by anyone but the crewmembers. She smiled at Lord Renoux’s interior steward as she passed, eagerly climbing the main entryway stairs and seeking out the library.
Sazed wasn’t inside. His small desk sat empty, the lamp extinguished, the inkwell empty. Vin frowned in annoyance.
Wherever he is, he’d better be working on the translation!
She went back down the stairs, asking after Sazed, and a maid directed her to the main kitchen. Vin frowned, making her way down the back hallway. Getting himself a snack, perhaps?
She found Sazed standing amongst a small group of servants, pointing toward a list on the table and speaking in a low voice. He didn’t notice Vin as she entered.
“Sazed?” Vin asked, interrupting him.
He turned. “Yes, Mistress Valette?” he asked, bowing slightly.
“What are you doing?”
“I am seeing to Lord Renoux’s food stores, Mistress. Though I have been assigned to assist you, I am still his steward, and have duties to attend to when I am not otherwise occupied.”
“Are you going to get back to the translation soon?”
Sazed cocked his head. “Translation, Mistress? It is finished.”
“Where’s the last part, then?”
“I gave it to you,” Sazed said.
“No, you didn’t,” she said. “This part ends the night before they go into the cavern.”
“That is the end, Mistress. That is as far as the logbook went.”
“What?” she said. “But…”
Sazed glanced at the other servants. “We should speak of these things in private, I think.” He gave them a few more instructions, pointing at the list, then nodded for Vin to join him as he made his way out the back kitchen exit and into the side gardens.
Vin stood dumbfounded for a moment, then hurried out to join him. “It can’t end like that, Saze. We don’t know what happened!”
“We can surmise, I think,” Sazed said, walking down the garden path. The eastern gardens weren’t as lavish as the ones Vin frequented, and were instead made up of smooth brown grass and the occasional shrub.
“Surmise what?” Vin asked.
“Well, the Lord Ruler must have done what was necessary to save the world, for we are still here.”
“I suppose,” Vin said. “But then he took the power for himself. That must have been what happened—he couldn’t resist the temptation to use the power selfishly. But, why isn’t there another entry? Why wouldn’t he speak further of his accomplishments?”
“Perhaps the power changed him too much,” Sazed said. “Or, maybe he simply didn’t feel a need to record any more. He had accomplished his goal, and had become immortal as a side benefit. Keeping a journal for one’s posterity becomes somewhat redundant when one is going to live forever, I think.”
“That’s just…” Vin ground her teeth in frustration. “It’s a very unsatisfying end to a story, Sazed.”
He smiled in amusement. “Be careful, Mistress—become too fond of reading, and you may just turn into a scholar.”
Vin shook her head. “Not if all the books I read are going to end like this one!”
“If it is of any comfort,” Sazed said, “you are not the only one who is disappointed by the logbook’s contents. It didn’t contain much that Master Kelsier could use—certainly, there was nothing about the Eleventh Metal. I feel somewhat guilty, since I am the one who benefited most from the book.”
“But, there wasn’t very much about the Terris religion either.”
“Not much,” Sazed agreed. “But, truly and regretfully, ‘not much’ is far more than we knew previously. I am only worried that I will not have an opportunity to pass this information on. I have sent a translated copy of the logbook to a location where my brethren and sister Keepers will know to check—it would be a pity if this new knowledge were to die with me.”
“It won’t,” Vin said.
“Oh? Has my lady suddenly become an optimist?”
“Has my Terrisman suddenly become a smart-mouth?” Vin retorted.
“He always has been, I think,” Sazed said with a slight smile. “It is one of the things that