Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson [451]
“I ignored them, Tindwyl. Powerful men, friends or not, never like being ignored.”
She nodded. “Though, perhaps we should pause to take note of your successes, rather than simply focusing on your failings. Vin tells me that your meeting with your father went well.”
Elend smiled. “We scared him into submission. It felt very good to do something like that to Straff. But, I think I might have offended Vin somehow.”
Tindwyl raised an eyebrow.
Elend set down his book, leaning forward with his arms on the desk. “She was in an odd mood on the way back. I could barely get her to talk to me. I’m not sure what it was.”
“Perhaps she was just tired.”
“I’m not convinced that Vin gets tired,” Elend said. “She’s always moving, always doing something. Sometimes, I worry that she thinks I’m lazy. Maybe that’s why…” He trailed off, then shook his head.
“She doesn’t think that you are lazy, Your Majesty,” Tindwyl said. “She refused to marry you because she doesn’t think that she is worthy of you.”
“Nonsense,” Elend said. “Vin’s Mistborn, Tindwyl. She knows she’s worth ten men like me.”
Tindwyl raised an eyebrow. “You understand very little about women, Elend Venture—especially young women. To them, their competence has a surprisingly small amount to do with how they feel about themselves. Vin is insecure. She doesn’t believe that she deserves to be with you—it is less that she doesn’t think she deserves you personally, and more that she isn’t convinced that she deserves to be happy at all. She has led a very confusing, difficult life.”
“How sure are you about this?”
“I’ve raised a number of daughters, Your Majesty,” Tindwyl said. “I understand the things of which I speak.”
“Daughters?” Elend asked. “You have children?”
“Of course.”
“I just…” The Terrismen he’d known were eunuchs, like Sazed. The same couldn’t be true for a woman like Tindwyl, of course, but he’d assumed that the Lord Ruler’s breeding programs would have affected her somehow.
“Regardless,” Tindwyl said curtly, “you must make some decisions, Your Majesty. Your relationship with Vin is going to be difficult. She has certain issues that will provide more problems than you would find in a more conventional woman.”
“We’ve already discussed this,” Elend said. “I’m not looking for a more ‘conventional’ woman. I love Vin.”
“I’m not implying that you shouldn’t,” Tindwyl said calmly. “I am simply giving you instruction, as I have been asked to do. You need to decide how much you’re going to let the girl, and your relationship with her, distract you.”
“What makes you think I’m distracted?”
Tindwyl raised an eyebrow. “I asked you about your success with Lord Venture this evening, and all you wanted to talk about was how Vin felt during the ride home.”
Elend hesitated.
“Which is more important to you, Your Majesty?” Tindwyl asked. “This girl’s love, or the good of your people?”
“I’m not going to answer a question like that,” Elend said.
“Eventually, you may not have a choice,” Tindwyl said. “It is a question most kings face eventually, I fear.”
“No,” Elend said. “There’s no reason that I can’t both love Vin and protect my people. I’ve studied too many hypothetical dilemmas to be caught in a trap like that.”
Tindwyl shrugged, standing. “Believe as you wish, Your Majesty. However, I already see a dilemma, and I find it not at all hypothetical.” She bowed her head slightly in deference, then withdrew from the room, leaving him with his books.
29
There were other proofs to connect Alendi to the Hero of Ages. Smaller things, things that only one trained in the lore of the Anticipation would have noticed. The birthmark on his arm. The way his hair turned gray when he was barely twenty and five years of age. The way he spoke, the way he treated people, the way he ruled.
He simply seemed to fit.
“Tell me, mistress,” Oreseur said, lying lazily, head on paws. “I have been around humans for a goodly number of years. I was under the impression that they needed regular sleep. I guess I was mistaken.”
Vin sat on a wall-top stone ledge, one leg up against her chest,