Mistborn: The Final Empire

Vin spends a month recovering at Mansion Renoux, forbidden from using Allomancy until she heals. Sazed lives there as well, translating the Hero of Ages’s logbook for the crew to read. One day, they are visited by Kelsier, Breeze, Yeden, and Dockson. Kelsier seems different to Vin, more thoughtful and less impulsive. Vin is eager to prove her worth to the group; they plan for her to attend the next ball.

Vin debates what dress to wear to the next ball. The narrator says that the dresses “were beautiful, and they would make her beautiful. They were the face she would show to the court, and she wanted to choose the right one” (282). Her eagerness to attend the ball surprises her, and Vin contemplates how quickly her sense of identity is changing. She joins Kelsier on the balcony. The pair look at Renoux’s garden as Kelsier speaks of the flowers and green plants that existed on Scadrial before the Lord Ruler’s Ascension. Kelsier shows Vin a picture of a flower that used to belong to Mare, who was interested in pre-Ascension history. Despite Mare’s betrayal, Kelsier continues to love her. When they were both at the Pits of Hathsin, seeing Mare beaten to death by the overseers caused Kelsier to Snap into his Allomantic powers. Mare’s dream, to restore nature to his pre-Ascension fertility, is now Kelsier’s dream. 

Vin attends a ball at Keep Elariel. She becomes envious of the graceful noblewomen and is nervous to begin dancing with potential young suitors. However, when she sits at a solitary dining table, Elend Venture arrives with several books. He joins her and begins reading, pausing only to comment that she looks beautiful. His presence prevents other men from asking Vin to dance, though Vin continues to be interested in the genuineness that Elend shows her.

Elend questions her about the skaa on the plantation that Valette supposedly grew up on; Vin answers that the skaa are no less intelligent than the nobility and are treated awfully, surprising Elend. Eventually, a young nobleman asks Vin to dance despite Elend’s presence. When Vin returns to the table, she learns that Elend was engaged to Shan Elariel over a year ago, but they broke it off.

Vin continues to dance with noblemen. Between dances, when Elend briefly leaves the table, Vin looks through his books. He is reading analytical discussions of the Lord Ruler’s government that criticize the Lord Ruler’s authoritarianism. Lady Shan Elariel sends for Vin to attend her table. Shan instructs Vin to report to her on Elend’s behavior. Vin notices Elend meeting with two other young noblemen, both heirs to their houses and supposed political rivals.

While leaving the ball, Vin witnesses the death of a skaa kitchen boy on the front lawn of Keep Elariel. The boy was caught stealing from the kitchens and murdered within sight of the nobility. The nobility pretend not to notice.

This chapter’s epigraph reveals that Kwaan, the Terris philosopher, was the one to interpret the Hero of Ages’s role in defeating the Deepness. He is considered by the Hero “as unlikely a prophet as I am a hero” (310).

While Vin is at the Elariel ball, Kelsier continues to instigate a House War by leaving the corpse of a minor nobleman on the lawn of Keep Tekiel. Kelsier is focused on this part of the crew’s plan but maintains a secret plan to inspire the skaa into rebellion by sacrificing himself as a religious martyr. The narrator says, “Kelsier didn’t speak of it; he barely dared consider it. He probably wouldn’t even have an opportunity to implement it” (313). Kelsier meets with a street informant, Hoid, in a skaa slum and learns that the nobility are already talking about the relationship between Valette and Elend. Afterward, Kelsier changes into skaa clothing and acts as a (false) informant to Straff Venture, Eland’s father, who meets him in a public square. Venture asks about the rumors surrounding the Survivor of Hathsin and the Eleventh Metal, believing that a kandra must be playing the part of the Survivor.

Kelsier meets with Sazed and Vin at Mansion Renoux, where Vin tells him of Elend and the potentially treasonous books he reads. Kelsier is worried by Vin’s obvious attachment to Elend and tells her to stop spending time with him. 

In this chapter’s epigraph, a threatening darkness, like the mist, follows the Hero of Ages and his companions are they travel through Terris.

It is three months since Vin was attacked at Kredik Shaw. She has not fully recovered and is still prohibited by Kelsier from using Allomancy; however, she has socialized more frequently with the nobility and enjoys her role among them. Elend has not been present at several of the most recent balls, causing Vin to pine after him: “None of the others had his droll wit, or his honest, earnest eyes. The others didn’t feel real” (327). Shan Elariel insults her with increasing frequency. Despite this, Vin begins to consider that the nobility cannot be the monsters she has always believed them to be.

The crew meets at mansion Renoux. Kelsier and Yeden plan to travel two weeks by barge to inspect the soldiers Ham has been training. Marsh arrives to instruct Vin in burning bronze, which allows her to sense the use of Allomancy nearby. The crew is worried about Kelsier’s growing reputation among the skaa.

Though Vin continues to hear Reen’s voice in her mind, she has come to trust the crew. After Marsh instructs her in burning bronze, they speak about their respective sibling relationships. Marsh disapproves of Kelsier’s frequent killings; Vin suspects that he also loved Mare, prior to her betrayal in Kredik Shaw. Marsh leaves to prepare for his induction into the Steel Ministry, where he hopes to gather enough information about the obligators and Inquisitors to help the skaa rebels.

In this chapter’s epigraph, the Hero of Ages is required to sacrifice their anonymity and sense of self to the cause of defeating the Deepness and leading a unified Scadrial.

On his way to inspect the rebellion’s soldiers, Kelsier reads the translated portions of the Hero of Ages’s logbook. Kelsier and Yeden arrive at a series of underground caves that Ham and the rebel soldiers have been living and training in. Captain Demoux welcomes them. Kelsier is impressed with the skaa soldiers, though worries that some are not fully committed to the cause. At dinner, he uses emotional Allomancy on a skaa that Ham worries will cause dissension; the man challenges Kelsier’s authority. Kelsier says that if he defeats his champion, Captain Demoux, then the man is free to leave. Kelsier helps Demoux win the battle through Allomancy, then makes a speech to the skaa that they fight with a Survivor who knows how to use the nobility’s magic arts. The skaa, and especially Yeden, are deeply impressed. Kelsier and Ham leave the caves with Yeden in charge.