Shadows of Self

Wax “flies” through Elendel, Steelpushing off of bits of metal in buildings and street items to do so. He comes across a group of picketers overwhelming a group of constables and blocking a main thoroughfare and stops. His appearance intimidates the protestors into leaving. A constable expresses sympathy with their cause; Wax agrees but reminds the constable that even if they have a right to protest, they do not have a right to block a main thoroughfare. Wax continues toward his goal, finding Wayne where he expected after Wayne’s task for the day. Wayne is despairing and feeling guilty, asking Wax why Wax did not kill him. Wax reminds Wayne that after Wayne killed the girl’s father, he felt remorse and hid, unarmed, until he was found. He did not fight Wax, so he got a second chance, unlike some other boys on the street. Wax recalls how scared Wayne had been, muttering about shots going off that only he could hear. Wax promises he would have shot Wayne if Wayne had been threatening him, and Wayne feels comforted by this admission.

Marasi arrives at the scene of the governor’s impending speech alongside the constables Aradel sent to help. They have to push through growing crowds, and the octant constables are grateful to see them, as protestors are arriving down one of the side streets. Marasi asks to be allowed a seat in the cordoned-off areas for viewers, but the captain refuses. To her dismay, he recognizes her as Lord Harms’s daughter born out of wedlock; although he is pleasant rather than insulting, she wishes to be known for her own accomplishments.

While questioning Elendel citizens, Wax thinks he sees Bloody Tan again, Steelpushing into the air for a better view. He finds nothing. On the ground, Wayne discovered the address of Idashwy’s apartment in the city. They find it in a high-class neighborhood, which is surprising for Idashwy, as most Terris people prefer more spartan accommodation. No one answers the door, and when they search the place, Wayne finds Idashwy in the kitchen with a hole through the heart.

Marasi pushes into an opening in the crowd of press, where she cannot see the stage but can hear the governor’s speech. The governor addresses and belabors the point about his brother, emphasizing his brother was not the corrupt man people are now claiming. Marasi thinks he should address the real problems of the city—jobs, food, etc.—rather than his brother, because the city’s situation is growing worse. She shuffles, trying to get a better view, but the guardsman in front of her moves in the same direction. The same thing happens again. Suddenly, he turns with an odd expression, and Marasi notices he pulled out a gun and is pointing it at the governor.

Marasi realizes she would not be fast enough to grab her gun and shoot the guardsman before he shoots the governor. Instead, having prepared by ingesting metal, she burns it and slows time around herself and the guardsman, catching some of his companions as well. The bubble of slowed time causes his shot to go off course, missing the governor. One of his companions in the bubble tackles him more fully than Marasi was able to do, and she releases her bubble.

Wax’s inspection of the body reveals Idashwy was killed for the purposes of Hemalurgy, which allows someone to pull the Feruchemical or Allomantic powers of another into a piece of metal and give themselves or someone else that power by piercing themselves with the same piece of metal. It is the power that Wax discovered through the Lord Mistborn’s journal; he believed the world should not lose knowledge of the power, despite Harmony purposefully hiding its existence. The knowledge reveals to Wax that Idashwy was not the killer they are seeking; someone else took her power and committed the murders at Lord Winsting’s mansion. Wax realizes they are stepping into the arena of the gods of their world by dealing with Hemalurgy. He is even more shaken when Wayne finds a note on the woman’s body, addressed to Wax, with the same words that Bloody Tan said to Wax before moving Lessie’s body into the path of Wax’s bullet and forcing Wax to kill the woman he loved. The words are, “Someone else moves us, lawman” (126).

Wax and Wayne return to Wax’s mansion, with Wayne insisting that Bloody Tan is dead. He tries to convince Wax that whoever he saw in the crowds was not Tan. Even if Tan had Wayne’s healing powers, he could only have healed if he did so instantaneously; instead, he was dead when Wayne found them all and inspected the body.

Steris waits at the mansion for Wax, informing him of the party they were to attend that night. Wax wants to refuse, but Steris points out the governor will be there, allowing Wax to talk to the man. She informs Wax of the attempt on the governor’s life, and Wax and Wayne leave immediately to find out what happened from the constables. The driver is Hoid, a recurring character in Sanderson’s Cosmere and the narrator of Tress of the Emerald Sea. On the ride, Wax puts his earring in to pray; Harmony shocks him by speaking to him immediately and as if he were in the carriage with Wax. Harmony tells Wax Bloody Tan is dead; the person who looked like him was instead a kandra, or what the most recent generations call Faceless Immortals. A female kandra has removed one of her cognition spikes, allowing her to avoid Harmony’s control but causing her to behave erratically. She is one of the oldest kandra, older than Harmony himself (when he was a mortal), and Harmony warns Wax she has spent decades observing and understanding humans. He asks Wax to stop her, since Harmony can no longer do so, due to the limitations of his power as both Preservation and Ruin in one being. He promises to send help. When Wax removes his earring, Wayne pops his head inside to inform Wax they are nearing the precinct.

Marasi, Aradel, Reddi, and a corporal observe the governor’s attacker, tied to his chair and a large rock in a room made to hold Allomancers. Reddi and the corporal want to use torture or threats to the man’s daughter to interrogate him, but Marasi reminds them of the laws against such tactics and of the increasing strategic power of attorneys. Reddi claims Marasi is more on the attorneys’ side than theirs, but Aradel indicates her background in law is one of the reasons he hired her. Wax arrives, and a quick Steelpushing on the bracers they found on the man tells him the man is not an Allomancer but instead a decoy planted by Bleeder, the kandra Harmony told him about. He asks Marasi to join him in the interrogation, filling her in on the way. The man cannot tell them much, only that “God,” Bleeder, spoke to him. He also tells Wax she left a gift for him, holding up his arm, where there is a bulge in the skin. Wax cuts the item free, finding a coin of some kind and telling Marasi that it is a message for him. He asks Marasi to go to the party Steris reminded him of, saying they needed to speak to the governor.

The chapter opens on a 12-year-old Waxillium with his Uncle Edwarn. Edwarn is giving Waxillium a lesson in value, using a misprinted coin—now worth far more money as a collectible—to illustrate how value can be created where none once existed. He dismisses Waxillium’s desire to be a hero, instructing him that heroes are a thing of the past; men in suits will change the world from now on. They secretly observe two meetings at the bank. In one, a poor man asks for a loan to build a business with his sons; in the other, a rich aristocrat asks for a loan to buy another boat. When Edwarn says they will lend to both men, rather than the rich one, as most banks do, Waxillium assumes they will use the money from the rich man to underwrite the other loan and avoid loss. Edwarn informs Waxillium that instead, they will give the poor man a higher interest rate, playing on his desperation, and when he cannot make the payments, they will take his salary from his employer. Angry, Waxillium runs into the room with the poor man and gives him the coin Edwarn just entrusted to Waxillium, telling the man to sell it for no less than 2,000 boxings and not to sign the loan contract.

Wax finishes telling Steris this story from his childhood. She asks what his uncle did, and he shares the poor man did not think Wax would really hand over something so valuable, so Edwarn was able to weave a tale and get the man to sign still. Wax admits to Steris the man killed himself eight years later, and his sons are still in debt to the bank. Considering his actions, he admits he may have done that—and become a law enforcement officer—for selfish reasons, wishing to be a hero with great acclaim. Steris reminds him that to people like her, people whom he has saved, his intentions do not matter. They arrive at the evening’s party, but the line of carriages is long. Steris reveals she planned for this and for Wax to act inappropriately and use Steelpushing to get them to the top of the skyscraper for the party. He does so, testing one of Ranette’s new inventions to get them so high up. He is surprised when Steris reveals she likes when he carries her in flight, rather than being terrified. They land on the party balcony, shocking attendants, and then make their grand entrance via the balcony doors.

Wayne watches as Wax carries Steris up the side of the building. When he and Marasi finally reach the front of the line, they are denied entry with a vague excuse, so Wayne creates a speed bubble that catches only the lectern with the guest list and not the guard. He finds he and Marasi are on a list of people that are not to be permitted under any circumstances, and he guesses the governor’s guards are embarrassed that Marasi beat them to seeing that one of their own went bad. He finds a name on the list of those to be allowed access, one with a note the man said he might not attend. Marasi admits the man is a bit reclusive and not a city-center dweller, so Wayne decides they will disguise themselves, taking the man’s name.

Wax and Steris enter the party, and Steris tells Wax that instead of following her usual list of people with whom they should speak, she is giving Wax the lead. She indicates she is expressing interest in his interests, as she believes a good wife should. They wander, Steris taking over the task of getting people to leave them alone when Wax does so in a less than pleasant manner. They enter the line of people waiting to speak with the governor. A woman, Milan, approaches them; she is tall and beautiful, and her dress is revealing compared to the other women. She flirts with Wax in front of Steris, but Wax stares at her until she excuses herself.

Wayne and Marasi gained access to the party through a disguise for Wayne. He strategizes about where and when all the food is served and is approached by a scholar—the disguise worked. The man asks about the work they discussed via letter, so Wayne sets up a speed bubble to ask Marasi about it; she consults a book she purchased to help with the disguise, and Wayne uses it to make the scholar feel as if he is far behind in the field. The man leaves in a panic.

Finally reaching the governor, Wax and Steris engage in polite conversation before Wax indicates the man from the attack earlier in the day is not the one who killed Governor Innate’s brother. Innate agrees to meet with Wax the following day to discuss the issue. As Steris chats with Innate, Wax hears a voice in his head, like he did when Harmony spoke with him. This time, however, it is a brutal voice, and it whispers about how everyone there is an actor on Harmony’s stage. Wax realizes he is still wearing his earring and that Bleeder must have found a way to speak to others through Hemalurgy, just as Harmony does.

A teenage girl slaps Wayne’s hand as he reaches for one of the food trays. She recognizes him as the man whom he is imitating, and she accuses him of killing her father by stealing his inventions and making him destitute. Wayne is shaken as she walks away, reminded of his own sin of killing a girl’s father.

Wax excuses himself from the governor and Steris and prowls the room as Bleeder speaks to him. After a few tests, Wax realizes Bleeder cannot hear his thoughts, only speak into his mind, using the power of Ruin rather than Preservation. Bleeder criticizes Harmony, accusing Harmony of claiming not to control humans but manipulating them nonetheless. As Bleeder speaks, Wax notices the woman from before, Milan, is surreptitiously following him and that a waiter is doing the same, moving in a different direction than his fellow waiters. Wax finally turns on him, and the man tries to run. Wayne tackles him, but before Wax can shoot the man he presumes is Bleeder, the governor’s guards attack the waiter and Wayne. As the pile comes apart, Wax sees that a man was stabbed and the waiter escaped. He tries to shoot the waiter across the room, but he hears Bleeder say in his head she was sorry his lover, Lessie, had to die. Wax freezes and the waiter takes that moment to throw a chair at the window and jump outside, down more than 20 stories. Wax instructs Wayne to stay and protect the governor in case it was a decoy and then goes after the waiter.

Wax lands in the street and questions those waiting to get into the party, but no one saw anything but the chair fall to the ground. A car speeds away, and after a moment of assessing where else Bleeder could be, Wax chases after the car. When he finally pins it down, it is occupied only by a frightened cabbie, who claims Bleeder got in but then left the car, at full speed, a few streets back. Wax decides to believe the cabbie. He goes to the street indicated and finds himself in a trap. He is saved by the woman from the party, who says her name differently now: “MeLaan.” She helps him survive the trap, and then Wax asks her to meet him at a specific bar after he finds Lord Harms, Steris’s father, because he believes Bleeder is after Harms next.

Wayne finishes questioning the servers, ending by asking a woman where she got her shoes, as he needs better shoes for his disguise box. Reviewing his notes as she walks away, he decides the waiter was not Bleeder. The man was a new employee and widely considered a screw-up, and Wayne believes that type of person would not be a good choice for Bleeder. He walks over to check in with Dims, the head of the governor’s guards, and discovers they secreted the governor away a while back. Wayne, angry, since he was supposed to protect the governor, punches the guard nearest him.

Wax bursts into Lord Harms’s home through a lit window, using a Steelpush to throw open the windows. The man fumbles for his own guns in his desk drawer, but Wax finds he beat Bleeder to the home. No one is there. He tells Harms he will take him somewhere safe, although he knows he cannot outwit someone as old and experienced as Bleeder.

Steris joins Wayne outside, unsure how to speak with him, as he consistently makes his dislike known. She confronts him about it, and he bluntly tells her she could give Wax money to save his house without making him marry her. Before she can continue the conversation, he gets up to sit by the guards who were glaring at him, making a clear statement of who he would rather be around. Marasi arrives with the constables and tells Steris to get into the vehicle; she is going to take Steris someplace safe.

Wax determines which of three carriages actually holds the governor and which are decoys. He joins the governor inside the carriage and tells him about the kandra trying to kill him, something the governor and his head of security find difficult to believe. Wax agrees to bring MeLaan to them as proof, and he makes them agree to use passphrases between one another and with him. When they arrive at the governor’s mansion, a servant rushes outside to tell them Father Bins was murdered.

Marasi observes the body of the murdered Survivorist priest, Father Bin. Wax thought Bleeder meant to kill Steris and Marasi’s father, but she meant Father Bin. Aradel asks Marasi to interview the congregation remaining in the church, rather than Reddi, angering Reddi. Marasi, however, is able to soothe the people; unfortunately, they cannot tell her much. They assert that it was the Parthian Priest, Larkspur, who killed Father Bin. He entered the church and made a speech about the Survivor not being a real god and not actually helping humans before revealing Father Bin hanging on the wall, already pierced with spikes. When Wax arrives, he determines they are not Hemalurgic spikes, but he asks Marasi to send him pieces of them so he can be sure. Aradel admits to Marasi in private that Wax, although helpful, is also troublesome for him, because the constables usually end up having to clean up after him. Wax asks if Marasi wants to join him in speaking to MeLaan, hinting that speaking with her might be “theologically difficult” (211).

The chapter starts from Wayne’s perspective; he approaches a pub, but, inspired by their time in the church, he calls it a temple of the common person. Every action and everything he observes in the pub is described as if it is a religious action, from the “invocation” he gives the bouncer to the “prayers” he hears, which are actually the conversations of discontented workers. He mixes drinks for everyone, using what he learned from the rich to make delicious drinks for all the pub’s patrons. The last one for whom he does this changes her skin colors to imitate the drink he makes, revealing her as MeLaan, the kandra he knew he was to meet there.

Wax and Marasi join Wayne and MeLaan as they complete a belching contest, befuddling Wax and Marasi, who expected a more dignified servant of Harmony. They transition into discussing the problem with Bleeder, or Paalm, as MeLaan knows her. MeLaan is not able to provide much information about the rogue kandra, telling Wax the kandra are still trying to figure out why Paalm removed her second spike. Paalm is one of the oldest kandra, one who devotedly served the Lord Ruler and then Harmony. MeLaan agrees with Wax that identifying kandra is a problem, even for other kandra; she gives him something that can be injected into someone to identify them, but if the person is not a kandra, it will kill them. MeLaan insists that if they are able to capture Paalm somehow, they must remove her spike. With little to go off of, Wax sends Wayne to watch the governor, asking Marasi and MeLaan to join Wayne once they report to Aradel.