Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson [679]
She stood for a moment, looking at Elend, breathing deeply. He stared back, apparently undaunted by her outburst.
What am I doing? Vin thought. I was just thinking about how much I admired Elend’s hope. Why argue with him now?
They were stretched so thin. Both of them.
“I don’t have answers for you, Vin,” Elend said in the dark cavern. “I can’t even begin to understand how to fight something like the mist. Armies, however, I can deal with. Or, at least, I’m learning how.”
“I’m sorry,” Vin said, turning away. “I didn’t mean to argue again. It’s just so frustrating.”
“We’re making progress,” Elend said. “We’ll find a way, Vin. We’ll survive.”
“Do you really think we can do it?” Vin asked, turning to look him in the eyes.
“Yes,” Elend said.
And she believed him. He had hope, and always would. That was a big part of why she loved him so much.
“Come on,” Elend said, laying a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s find what we came for.”
Vin joined him, leaving her koloss behind, walking into the depths of the cavern as they heard footsteps outside. There was more than one reason they had come to this place. The food and the supplies—of which they passed seemingly endless shelves—were important. However, there was more.
A large metal plate was set into the back wall of the rough-hewn cavern. Vin read the words inscribed on it out loud.
“ ‘This is the last metal I will tell you about,’ ” she read. “ ‘I have trouble deciding the purpose of it. It allows you to see the past, in a way. What a person could have been, and who they might have become, had they made different choices. Much like gold, but for others.
“ ‘By now, the mists have likely come again. Such a foul, hateful thing. Scorn it. Don’t go out in it. It seeks to destroy us all. If there is trouble, know that you can control the koloss and the kandra by use of several people Pushing on their emotions at once. I built this weakness into them. Keep the secret wisely.’ ”
Beneath that was listed an Allomantic compound of metals, one with which Vin was already familiar. It was the alloy of atium they called malatium—Kelsier’s Eleventh Metal. So the Lord Ruler had known about it. He’d simply been as baffled as the rest of them as to its purpose.
The plate had been written by the Lord Ruler, of course. Or, at least, he’d ordered it written as it was. Each previous cache had also contained information, written in steel. In Urteau, for instance, she had learned about electrum. In the one to the east, they’d found a description of aluminum—though they’d already known about that metal.
“Not much new there,” Elend said, sounding disappointed. “We already knew about malatium and about controlling koloss. Though, I’d never thought to have several Soothers Push at the same time. That might be helpful.” Before, they’d thought it took a Mistborn burning duralumin to get control of koloss.
“It doesn’t matter,” Vin said, pointing at the other side of the plate. “We have that.”
The other half of the plate contained a map, carved into steel, just like the maps they had found in the other three storage caverns. It depicted the Final Empire, divided into dominances. Luthadel was a square at the center. An “X” to the east marked the main thing they’d come looking for: the location of the final cavern.
There were five, they thought. They’d found the first one beneath Luthadel, near the Well of Ascension. It had given the location of the second, to the east. The third had been in Urteau—Vin had been able to sneak into that one, but they hadn’t managed to recover the food yet. That one had led them here, to the south.
Each map had two numbers on it—a five and a lower number. Luthadel had been number one. This one was number four.
“That’s it,” Vin said, running her fingers along the carved inscriptions on the plate. “In the Western Dominance, as you guessed. Somewhere near Chardees?”
“Fadrex City,” Elend said.
“Cett’s home?”
Elend nodded. He knew far more about geography than she.
“That’s the place, then,” Vin said. “The one where it is.”
Elend met