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What does it ht I know the Lord Ruler’s secret, but what does it tell me? That he was a packman? A servant? A Terrish dazed eyes, and again saw the pair of bracelets glittering on the Lord Ruler’s upper arms Bracelets made of metal, bracelets that pierced his skin in places So…so that they couldn’t be affected by Allon of bravado He wasn’t worried about people Pulling or Pushing against his metals

Or, that hat he clais, the bracelets, the fashion that had made its way to the nobility--were simply a distraction?

A distraction to keep people fro around the upper arht as the Lord Ruler’s weight threatened to crush her

Her peas nearly gone She could barely think Yet, she burned iron The Lord Ruler could pierce copperclouds She could too They were the same, somehow If he could affect metals inside of a person’s body, then she could as well

She flared the iron Blue lines appeared pointing to the Lord Ruler’s rings and bracelets--all of the his skin

Vin stoked her iron, concentrating, Pushing it as hard as she could She kept her pewter flared, struggling to keep froer breathing The force pushing against her was too strong She couldn’t get her chest to go up and down

Mist spun around her, dancing because of her Allo She knew it She could barely even feel the pain any crushed Suffocated

She drew upon the mists

T lines appeared She screath she had never known before She flared her iron higher and higher, the Lord Ruler’s own Push giving her the leverage she needed to Pull against his bracelets Anger, desperation, and agony mixed within her, and the Pull became her only focus

Her pewter ran out

He killed Kelsier!

The bracelets ripped free The Lord Ruler cried out in pain, a faint, distant sound to Vin’s ears The weight suddenly released her, and she dropped to the floor, gasping, her vision swiround, released fro across thetin to clear her vision

The Lord Ruler stood where he had been before, his eyes widening with terror, his ar toward her and the th--pewter gone--Vin Pushed on the bracelets, shooting the the bracelets fly out the broken

In the distance, the sun broke the horizon The bracelets dropped in front of its red light, sparkling for adown into the city

"No!" the Lord Ruler screarew liry, but his face was no longer that of a young ed, his youthful features rayed, and wrinkles formed around his eyes like tiny webs

His next step was feeble He began to shake with the burden of old age, his back stooping, his skin sagging, his hair growing limp

Then, he collapsed to the floor

Vin leaned back, herfrom the pain She lay there for…a time She couldn’t think

"Mistress!" a voice said And then, Sazed was at her side, his broith sweat He reached over and poured so down her throat, and she sed

Her body knehat to do She reflexively flared pewter, strengthening her body She flared tin, and the sudden increase of sensitivity shocked her awake She gasped, looking up at Sazed’s concerned face

"Careful, Mistress," he said, inspecting her leg "The bone is fractured, though it appears only in one place"

"Marsh," she said, exhausted "See to Marsh"

"Marsh?" Sazed asked Then he saw the Inquisitor stirring slightly on the floor a distance away

"By the Forgotten Gods!" Sazed said,up He cradled his stolanced at the withered forround a short distance away "It’s him The Lord Ruler He’s dead"

Sazed frowned curiously, standing He wore a brown robe, and had brought a siht of such a pitiful weapon facing the creature that had nearly killed her and Marsh

Of course In a ere all just as useless We should be dead, not the Lord Ruler

I pulled his bracelets off Why? Why can I do things like he can?

Why am I different?

"Mistress…" Sazed said slowly "He is not dead, I think He’s…still alive"

"What?" Vin asked, frowning She could barely think at the moment There would be tied figure wasn’t dead Actually, it wastoward the broken ard where his bracelets had gone

Marsh stu away Sazed’s irl"

"Help me up," Vin said