Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson [780]
“So . . .” Telden said. “This is where we end up, is it?”
Elend nodded.
“You’re not . . . really going to attack the city, are you?” Telden asked. “You’re just here to intimidate Yomen, right?”
“No,” Elend said softly. “I will conquer the city if I have to, Telden.”
Telden flushed. “What happened to you, Elend? Where is the man who talked about rights and legality?”
“The world caught up with me, Telden,” Elend said. “I can’t be the man I was.”
“So you become the Lord Ruler instead?”
Elend hesitated. It felt odd to have another confront him with his own questions and arguments. Part of him felt a stab of fear—if Telden asked these things, then Elend had been right to worry about them. Perhaps they were true.
Yet, a stronger impulse flared within him. An impulse nurtured by Tindwyl, then refined by a year of struggling to bring order to the shattered remains of the Final Empire.
An impulse to trust himself.
“No, Telden,” Elend said firmly. “I’m not the Lord Ruler. A parliamentary council rules in Luthadel, and there are others like it in every city I’ve brought into my empire. This is the first time that I’ve marched on a city with my armies out of a need to conquer, rather than protect—and that is only because Yomen himself took this city from an ally of mine.”
Telden snorted. “You set yourself up as emperor.”
“Because that’s what the people need, Telden,” Elend said. “They don’t want to return to the days of the Lord Ruler—but they would rather do that than live in chaos. Yomen’s success here proves that much. The people want to know that someone is watching over them. They had a god-emperor for a thousand years—now is not the time to leave them without a leader.”
“You mean to tell me that you’re just a figurehead?” Telden asked, folding his arms.
“Hardly,” Elend said. “But, eventually, I hope to be. We both know I’m a scholar and not a king.”
Telden frowned. He didn’t believe Elend. And yet, Elend found that fact didn’t bother him. Something about saying those words, about confronting the skepticism, made him recognize the validity of his own confidence. Telden didn’t understand—he hadn’t lived through what Elend had. The young Elend himself wouldn’t have agreed with what he was now doing. A part of that youth still had a voice inside of Elend’s soul—and he would never quiet it. However, it was time to stop letting it undermine him.
Elend put a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “It’s all right, Tell. It took me years to convince you that the Lord Ruler was a terrible emperor. I fully expect it to take the same amount of time to convince you that I’ll be a good one.”
Telden smiled wanly.
“Going to tell me that I’ve changed?” Elend asked. “Seems all the rage lately.”
Telden laughed. “I thought that was obvious. No need to point it out.”
“What, then?” Elend asked.
“Well . . .” Telden said. “I was actually going to chide you for not inviting me to your wedding! I’m hurt, El. Truly. I spent the better part of my youth giving you relationship advice, then when you finally pick a girl, you don’t even let me know about the marriage!”
Elend laughed, turning to follow Telden’s gaze toward Vin. Confident and powerful, yet somehow delicate and graceful. Elend smiled with pride. Even during the glory days of the Luthadel ball scene, he couldn’t remember a woman commanding as much attention as Vin now did. And, unlike Elend, she’d stepped into this ball without knowing a single person.
“I feel a little like a proud parent,” Telden said, laying a hand on Elend’s shoulder. “There were days I was convinced that you were hopeless, El! I figured you’d someday wander into a library and just disappear completely. We’d find you twenty years later covered with dust, picking through some philosophy text for the seven