Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson [933]
“But you don’t know,” Sazed said. “You are offered proof only once you believe, but if you believe, you can find proof in anything. It is a logical conundrum.”
“Faith isn’t about logic, son,” Haddek said. “Perhaps that’s your problem. You cannot ‘disprove’ the things you study, any more than we can prove to you that the Hero will save us. We simply must believe it, and accept the things Preservation has taught us.”
It wasn’t enough for Sazed. However, for the moment, he decided to move on. He didn’t have all the facts about the Terris religion yet. Perhaps once he had them, he would be able to sort this all out.
“You spoke of the prison of Ruin,” Sazed said. “Tell me how this relates to the power that Lady Vin used.”
“Gods don’t have bodies like those of men,” Haddek said. “They are . . . forces. Powers. Preservation’s mind passed, but he left his power behind.”
“In the form of a pool of liquid?” Sazed said.
The members of the First Generation nodded.
“And the dark black smoke outside?” Sazed asked.
“Ruin,” Haddek said. “Waiting, watching, during his imprisonment.”
Sazed frowned. “The cavern of smoke was very much larger than the Well of Ascension. Why the disparity? Was Ruin that much more powerful?”
Haddek snorted quietly. “They were equally powerful, young one. They were forces, not men. Two aspects of a single power. Is one side of a coin more ‘powerful’ than the other? They pushed equally upon the world around them.”
“Though,” one of the others added, “there is a story that Preservation gave too much of himself to make mankind, to create something that had more of Preservation in them than they had of Ruin. Yet, it would be only a small amount in each individual. Tiny . . . easy to miss, except over a long, long time . . .”
“So, why the difference in size?” Sazed asked.
“You aren’t seeing, young one,” Haddek said. “The power in that pool, that wasn’t Preservation.”
“But, you just said—”
“It was part of Preservation, to be sure,” Haddek continued. “But, he was a force—his influence is everywhere. Some of it, perhaps, concentrated into that pool. The rest is . . . elsewhere and everywhere.”
“But Ruin, his mind was focused there,” another kandra said. “And so, his power tended to coalesce there. Much more of it, at least, than that of Preservation.”
“But not all of it,” another one said, laughing.
Sazed cocked his head. “Not all of it? It, too, was spread out across the world, I assume?”
“In a way,” Haddek said.
“We now speak of things in the First Contract,” one of the other kandra warned.
Haddek paused, then turned, studying Sazed’s eyes. “If what this man says is true, then Ruin has escaped. That means he will be coming for his body. His . . . power.”
Sazed felt a chill. “It’s here?” he asked quietly.
Haddek nodded. “We were to gather it. The First Contract, the Lord Ruler named it—our charge in this world.”
“The other Children had a purpose,” another kandra added. “The koloss, they were created to fight. The Inquisitors, they were created to be priests. Our task was different.”
“Gather the power,” Haddek said. “And protect it. Hide it. Keep it. For the Father knew Ruin would escape one day. And on that day, he would begin searching for his body.”
The group of aged kandra looked past Sazed. He frowned, turning to follow their eyes. They were looking toward the metal dais.
Slowly, Sazed stood, walking across the stone floor. The dais was large—perhaps twenty feet across—but not very high. He stepped onto it, causing one of the kandra behind him to gasp. Yet, none of them called out to stop him.
There was a seam down the middle of the circular platform, and a hole—perhaps the size of a large coin—at the center. Sazed peered through the hole, but it was too dark to see anything.
He stepped back.
I should have a little left, he thought, glancing toward his table, with its metalminds. I refilled that