The Hero of Ages

Spook nodded. The heat didn't bother him anymore. "Thank you."



The figure stepped forward, becoming more than just a silhouette. Flames played against the man's firm face, and Spook's suspicions were confirmed. There was a reason he'd trusted that voice, a reason why he'd done what it had said.



He'd do whatever this man commanded.



"I didn't give you pewter just so you could live, Spook," Kelsier said, pointing. "I gave it to you so you could get revenge. Now, go!"



More than one person reported feeling a sentient hatred in the mists. This is not necessarily related to the mists killing people, however. For most—even those it struck down—the mists seemed merely a weather phenomenon, no more sentient or vengeful than a terrible disease.



For some few, however, there was more. Those it favored, it swirled around. Those it was hostile to, it pulled away from. Some felt peace within it, others felt hatred. It all came down to Ruin's subtle touch, and how much one responded to his promptings.



20



TENSOON SAT IN HIS CAGE.



The cage's very existence was an insult. Kandra were not like men—even if he were not imprisoned, TenSoon would not have run or tried to escape. He had come willingly to his fate.



And yet, they locked him up. He wasn't certain where they had gotten the cage—it certainly wasn't something kandra normally would need. Still, the Seconds had found it and erected it in one of the main caverns of the Homeland. It was made of iron plates and hard steel bars with a strong wire mesh stretched ac1ross all four faces to keep him from reducing his body to base muscles and wriggling through. It was another insult.



TenSoon sat inside, naked on the cold iron floor. Had he accomplished anything other than his own condemnation? Had his words in the Trustwarren been of any value at all?



Outside his cage, the caverns glowed with the light of cultivated mosses, and kandra went about their duties. Many stopped, studying him. This was the purpose of the long delay between his judgment and sentencing. The Second Generationers didn't need weeks to ponder what they were going to do to him. However, TenSoon had forced them to let him speak his mind, and the Seconds wanted to make certain he was properly punished. They put him on display, like some human in the stocks. In all the history of the kandra people, no other had ever been treated in such a way. His name would be a byword of shame for centuries.



But we won't last centuries, he thought angrily. That was what my speech was all about.



But, he hadn't given it very well. How could he explain to the people what he felt? That their traditions were coming to a focus, that their lives—which had been stable for so long—were in drastic need of change?



What happened above? Did Vin go to the Well of Ascension? What of Ruin, and Preservation? The gods of the kandra people were at war again, and the only ones who knew of them were pretending that nothing was happening.



Outside his cage, the other kandra lived their lives. Some trained the members of the newer generations—he could see Elevenths moving along, little more than blobs with some glistening bones. The transformation from mistwraith to kandra was a difficult one. Once given a Blessing, the mistwraith would lose most of its instincts as it gained sentience, and would have to relearn how to form muscles and bodies. It was a process that took many, many years.



Other adult kandra went about food preparation. They would stew a mixture of algae and fungi inside stone pits, not unlike the one in which TenSoon would spend eternity. Despite his former hatred of mankind, TenSoon had always found the opportunity to enjoy outside food—particularly aged meat—a very tempting consolation for going out on a Contract.



Now, he barely had enough to drink, let alone enough to eat. He sighed, looking through the bars at the vast cavern. The caves of the Homeland were enormous, far too large for the kandra to fill. But, that was what many of his people liked about them. After spending years in a Contract—serving a master's whims, often for decades at a time—a place that offered the option of solitude was quite precious.



Solitude, TenSoon thought. I'll have plenty of that, soon enough. Contemplating an eternity in prison made him a little less annoyed with the people who came to gawk at him. They would be the last of his people he ever saw. He recognized many of them. The Fourths and Fifths came to spit at the ground before him, showing their devotion to the Seconds. The Sixths and the Sevenths—who made up the bulk of the Contract fillers—came to pity him and shake their heads for a friend fallen. The Eighths and Ninths came out of curiosity, amazed that one so aged could have fallen so far.



And then he saw a particularly familiar face amidst the watching groups. TenSoon turned aside, ashamed, as MeLaan approached, pain showing in those overly large eyes of hers.



"TenSoon?" a whisper soon came.



"Go away, MeLaan," he said quietly, his back to th1e bars, which only let him look out at another group of kandra, watching him from the other side.



"TenSoon . . ." she repeated.



"You need not see me like this, MeLaan. Please go."



"They shouldn't be able to do this to you," she said, and he could hear the anger in her voice. "You're nearly as old as they, and far more wise."



"They are the Second Generation," TenSoon said. "They are chosen by those of the First. They lead us."



"They don't have to lead us."



"MeLaan!" he said, finally turning toward her. Most of the gawkers stayed back, as if TenSoon's crime were a disease they could catch. MeLaan crouched alone beside his cage, her True Body of spindly wooden bones making her look unnaturally slim.



"You could challenge them," MeLaan said quietly.



"What do you think we are?" TenSoon asked. "Humans, with their rebellions and upheavals? We are kandra. We are of Preservation. We follow order."



"You still bow before them?" MeLaan hissed, pressing her thin face up against the bars. "After what you said—with what is happening above?"



TenSoon paused. "Above?"



"You were right, TenSoon," she said. "Ash cloaks the land in a mantle of black. The mists come during the day, killing both crops and people. Men march to war. Ruin has returned."



TenSoon closed his eyes. "They will do something," he finally said. "The First Generation."



"They are old," MeLaan said. "Old, forgetful, impotent."



TenSoon opened his eyes. "You have changed much."



She smiled. "They should never have given children of a new generation to be raised by a Third. There are many of us, the younger ones, who would fight. The Seconds can't rule forever. What can we do, TenSoon? How can we help you?"



Oh, child, he thought. You don't think that they know about you?



Those of the Second Generation were not fools. They might be lazy, but they were old and crafty—TenSoon understood this, for he knew each of them quite well. They would have kandra listening, waiting to see what was said at his cage. A kandra of the Fourth or Fifth Generation who had the Blessing of Awareness could stand a distance away, and still hear every word being spoken at his cage.



TenSoon was kandra. He had returned to receive his punishment because that was right. It was more than honor, more than Contract. It was who he was.



And yet, if the things MeLaan had said were true . . .



Ruin has returned.



"How can you just sit here?" MeLaan said. "You're stronger than they are, TenSoon."



TenSoon shook his head. "I broke Contract, MeLaan."



"For a higher good."



At least I convinced her.



"Is it true, TenSoon?" she asked very quietly.



"What?"



"OreSeur. He had the Blessing of Potency. You must have inherited it, when you killed him. Yet, they didn't find it on your body when they took you. So, what did you do with it? Can I fetch it 1for you? Bring it, so that you can fight?"



"I will not fight my own people, MeLaan," TenSoon said. "I am kandra."



"Someone must lead us!" she hissed.



That statement, at least, was true. But, it wasn't TenSoon's right. Nor, really, was it the right of the Second Generation—or even the First Generation. It was the right of the one who had created them. That one was dead. But, another had taken his place.



MeLaan was silent for a time, still kneeling beside his cage. Perhaps she waited for him to offer encouragement, or perhaps to become the leader she sought. He didn't speak.



"So, you just came to die," she finally said.



"To explain what I've discovered. What I've felt."



"And then what? You come, proclaim dread news, then leave us to solve the problems on our own?"



"That's not fair, MeLaan," he said. "I came to be the best kandra I know how."



"Then fight!"



He shook his head.



"It's true then," she said. "The others of my generation, they said that you were broken by that last master of yours. The man Zane."



"He did not break me," TenSoon said.



"Oh?" MeLaan said. "And why did you return to the Homeland in that . . . body you were using?"



"The dog's bones?" TenSoon said. "Those weren't given to me by Zane, but by Vin."



"So she broke you."



TenSoon exhaled quietly. How could he explain? On one hand, it seemed ironic to him that MeLaan—who intentionally wore a True Body that was inhuman—would find his use of a dog's body so distasteful. Yet, he could understand. It had taken him quite some time to appreciate the advantages of those bones.



He paused.



But, no. He had not come to bring revolution. He had come to explain, to serve the interests of his people. He would do that by accepting his punishment, as a kandra should.



And yet . . .



There was a chance. A slim one. He wasn't even certain he wanted to escape, but if there was an opportunity . . . "Those bones I wore," TenSoon found himself saying. "You know where they are?"



MeLaan frowned. "No. Why would you want them?"



TenSoon shook his head. "I don't," he said, choosing his words carefully. "They were disgraceful! I was made to wear them for over a year, forced into the humiliating role of a dog. I would have discarded them, but I had no corpse to ingest and take, so I had to return here wearing that horrid body."



"You're avoiding the real issue, TenSoon."



"There is no real issue, MeLaan," he said, turning away from her. Whether or not his plan worked, he didn't want the Seconds punishing her for associating with him. "I will not rebel against my people. Please, if you truly wish to help me, just let me be."



MeLaan hissed quietly, and he heard her stand. "You were once the greatest of us."



TenSoon sighed as she left. No, MeLaan. I was never great. Up until recently, I was the most orthodox of my generation, a conservative distinguished only by his hatred of humans.1 Now, I've become the greatest criminal in the history of our people, but I did it mostly by accident.



That isn't greatness. That's just foolishness.



It should be no surprise that Elend became such a powerful Allomancer. It is a well-documented fact—though that documentation wasn't available to most—that Allomancers were much stronger during the early days of the Final Empire.