A man drawn in pale, faintly glowing lines runs down a city avenue made of grey mist toward a palace of needle-thin spires. — Newly dead, Kelsier runs through a Luthadel made of mist toward the one place that might let him stay.

The Mistborn Saga · a novella · 2016 · read after VI

Mistborn: Secret History

Kelsier dies on the square in Luthadel, and he doesn’t go quietly.

Mistborn: Secret History is the story underneath the first trilogy. Kelsier, killed on the square in The Final Empire, refuses to stay dead and moves through the hidden side of all three books as a ghost the living cannot see. It is told from his point of view in six short parts (Empire, Well, Spirit, Journey, Ire and Hero), and the epilogue belongs to Spook. At 44,981 words it is the one novella in this walk.

Sanderson’s own Dragonsteel Entertainment published it as a digital-only ebook on 26 January 2016 (Amazon’s Kindle date slipped to 30 January). That was the same week as The Bands of Mourning, whose postscript called the novella “intended to be read after” that book, even though it takes place during the original trilogy. This walk follows that order. Be warned that it spoils both eras: it gives away the whole first trilogy and carries a very minor spoiler for The Bands of Mourning.

Four of its parts run underneath scenes the trilogy showed only from the outside, from the mist spirit’s knife to the warning that freed Vin. The other two strike out west, off the trilogy’s map. It is also Mistborn’s first open meeting with the wider cosmere.

Part 1

Empire

Kelsier stands on Luthadel’s fountain square with an Inquisitor dead behind him and the Lord Ruler in front of him. This is The Final Empire, chapter 34, told from inside his head. He burns the Eleventh Metal and sees the Lord Ruler’s past as Rashek, but cannot work out how to use it; flaring it again, he glimpses Rashek taking the power at the Well of Ascension. Then he dies, and dying hurts.

He wakes in a world gone to mist, where only metal shines. Around him the dead of the Lord Ruler’s purge are pulled away, one by one, into the Beyond. A short man in a long wool coat arrives. Kelsier asks whether there is actually a God, hears yes, and punches him. The man is Leras, the dying Vessel of Preservation, one of sixteen Shards of a shattered god. Kelsier soon calls him Fuzz, for the way he is unravelling. Leras says that Mare has already gone Beyond, as Kelsier will. When he insists that the Well of Ascension is far, far away, too far for Kelsier to go, the narration is unconvinced:

“God, it turned out, was a terrible liar.”

Kelsier tricks him into giving the Well away, races there and begs to stay. Leras “preserves” him by binding him into the Well’s power. Kelsier is now a Cognitive Shadow, a mind without a body, and a prisoner there just as Ruin is.

From the rim of the Well he watches and waits. Two beads of lerasium, Preservation’s metal, glow at the far end of the cavern. When Vin kills the Lord Ruler (chapter 38), his shade walks in, calls Kelsier a pawn in Ruin’s game, touches the power and goes into the Beyond without a fight.

A blond man draws back his fist to punch a short man in a long coat, while pale figures behind them stretch away into white mist. — **SH · 1 Kelsier Punches God** Newly dead, Kelsier wakes among the victims of the Lord Ruler’s purge as they are pulled away, one by one, into the Beyond. A short man in a long wool coat turns out to be a god. He is Leras, the dying Vessel of Preservation, and Kelsier decks him. It is a strange start for the friendship at the centre of the book, and Kelsier’s next move is stranger: he tricks the god into revealing that the Well is close.

A man sits on the stone rim of a glowing pool in a dark cavern while a tall figure beside the pool stretches away into white mist. — **SH · 2 The Prisoner of the Well** Kelsier has begged to stay, and Leras has “preserved” him by binding him into the Well’s power, so now he is a prisoner there just as Ruin is. Two beads of lerasium still glow at the far end of the cavern. When Vin kills the Lord Ruler (*The Final Empire*, chapter 38), his shade walks in, calls Kelsier a pawn, touches the power briefly and goes on into the Beyond without a fight. Kelsier sits down to wait.

Part 2

Well

A stranger crosses the mist using a corpse as a boat. This is Hoid, whom Kelsier does not recognize and whom Leras later calls Cephandrius. He scolds Kelsier for destroying the Pits of Hathsin, the one easy door between worlds. When Kelsier punches him, Hoid beats him easily. Then he steps through the pool into the Physical Realm and leaves with one of the two beads. Leras’s lecture on the three Realms, Physical, Cognitive and Spiritual, mostly passes Kelsier by, but now he has a reason to fight.

Riding the power’s pulses out into the world, he sulks for days on learning that Elend is king. He sees his brother Marsh and decides that, though he isn’t fond of him, he loves him. Leras, with half his face gone, carries a plan he can no longer remember. He warns that Vin, whom Ruin has taught to distrust him, will probably release the power, believing it right, as Alendi would have. Kelsier offers to take the power himself, but Leras says it would not work: Kelsier lacks the Connection.

Then Vin and Elend come down into the cavern (The Well of Ascension, chapter 58), and the novella plays its first great secret. Kelsier tells Leras to stab Elend, to give Vin a reason to use the power. When Leras cannot, Kelsier grabs his arm and does it through him. The “mist spirit” that knifed Elend was Preservation, moved by Kelsier’s hand. Deceived by Ruin, Vin releases the power anyway. The release rips a hole into Ruin’s prison, and Ruin rushes out to freedom. Kelsier is left sitting on the lip of the empty Well while Leras guides Vin to the last bead. Elend swallows it, burns pewter and lives (chapter 59). Kelsier compliments the little god, and leaves.

A white-haired man kneels on a floating body like a raft, pushing across a sea of mist with a short glowing oar toward a man on the rim of a glowing pool. — **SH · 3 The Drifter and His Boat** A stranger crosses the mist riding a corpse as if it were a boat. This is Hoid, whom Kelsier fails to recognize and whom Leras will call Cephandrius. He offers an insult battle and scolds Kelsier for wrecking the Pits of Hathsin. When Kelsier swings at him, Hoid wins without effort: “Apparently you already being dead means I can hurt you.” Then he steps through the pool into the Physical Realm with one of the two beads.

A man in a frayed outline grips a smaller man’s wrist, steering a knife toward a young man in white who stands by a glowing pool with a young woman. — **SH · 4 The Mist Spirit’s Knife** This is the secret behind the climax of *The Well of Ascension* (chapter 58). Kelsier wants Vin to have a reason to take the power, so he tells Leras to stab Elend. When Leras cannot do it, Kelsier grabs his arm and does it through him. The “mist spirit” that wounded Elend was Preservation, moved by Kelsier’s hand. It is the book’s first great reveal, and the first sign of how far Kelsier will go.

A young woman stands radiant in a blazing pool as black smoke pours out of a tear in the air and a man staggers back. — **SH · 5 Ruin Breaks Free** Vin takes the Well’s power and, deceived by Ruin, releases it anyway (*The Well of Ascension*, chapter 58). The release tears a hole through reality into Ruin’s prison, and Ruin rushes out to freedom. Kelsier is left on the lip of the empty Well as Leras guides Vin to the last bead of lerasium. Elend swallows it, burns pewter and survives the wound (chapter 59). Kelsier compliments the little god and leaves the Well for good.

Part 3

Spirit

He finds the crew at Keep Venture the day after, holding a funeral, and learns that Dockson and Clubs died in the koloss battle. Preservation says Ruin cannot be stopped, because Ruin is entropy, a universal constant. Enraged by the god’s apathy, Kelsier grabs him. He sees into Leras’s pain and his love for his people, and ends up hugging him. Leras says he can find someone to help.

A tendril of Preservation leads Kelsier to Lake Luthadel, which in this Realm rises like an island from the sea of mists. At a campfire sit two people who know who he is: Khriss of Taldain, a scholar, and Nazh, a man in her employ. Khriss lectures him on Adonalsium and its sixteen Shards; she came to help, but with the Pits destroyed she cannot reach the Physical Realm, and the Ire (“Eyree”) will not talk to her. Nazh gives Kelsier his knife, which is nearly long enough to be a sword, and tells him where the Ire are.

The Ire, Leras explains, are people from another land who died without quite dying and built a city in a place between worlds. Then he shows Kelsier the possible futures. Kelsier’s Connection to Ruin is far stronger than his Connection to Preservation. In no future does Kelsier defeat Ruin, but if he goes west, Vin has some chance of winning. Leras insists that the Ire won’t help. Kelsier isn’t planning to ask them.

A young woman sits slumped on the steps of a keep drawn in grey mist, and beside her sits a faintly glowing man she cannot see. — **SH · 6 “So . . . That Went Well”** The day after the Well, Kelsier walks the ghost-version of Luthadel and finds the crew at Keep Venture, holding a funeral. He sits unseen beside Vin, huddled on the steps, and manages only “So . . . that went well.” She does not reply. Then Preservation tells him who has died: Dockson and Clubs, in the koloss battle. His survivor’s grin has always been his armour, and now no one can see it.

A tall man grips a smaller, half-dissolving man by the shoulders and begins to embrace him. — **SH · 7 The Little God** Preservation says Ruin cannot be stopped: he is entropy, a constant of the universe. Furious at the god’s apathy, Kelsier grabs him and sees into his depths, his pain and his love for his people, and the grip becomes an embrace. From this point Kelsier is fighting for Leras as well as against Ruin. Leras says he can find someone who might help Kelsier do the impossible.

A woman with braided hair and a scowling lanky man sit at a campfire on a stony island in a sea of mist while a grinning man balances a long knife on one finger. — **SH · 8 A Campfire on the Lake** On Lake Luthadel, which rises from the sea of mists like an island, Kelsier walks into a camp where two strangers know his name. Khriss of Taldain lectures him on Adonalsium and its sixteen Shards. Nazh is the man in her employ; he later gives Kelsier a knife nearly long enough to be a sword. Her lecture is the first full map of the wider cosmere that Mistborn has ever given.

Part 4

Journey

He runs west along a canal toward the ocean. At Longsfollow, where he and Mare once lived, exhaustion catches up with him. He remembers killing noblemen there to avenge a murdered skaa girl. That revenge only drove him and Mare out of town and brought the Inquisitors and more deaths, just as the Lord Ruler’s death, the one thing holding Ruin back, will now bring more. In their old home a madman hears him ask aloud where Mare is, but cannot answer. Further on, Kelsier lights a long-dead log by willing it, and he sees the ash lying deeper and skaa fleeing west.

After weeks he reaches the ocean and calls for Preservation, but Ati, Ruin himself, answers instead. The end is natural, inevitable and near, Ruin says, and Kelsier can do no good out here. Kelsier concludes that the opposite is true, and goes on while Ruin taunts him.

A cloaked man crouches by a ring of stones as a long-dead log bursts into flame, with dim figures trudging along a canal behind him. — **SH · 9 Fire by Will** Leras’s vision gave Vin a chance only if Kelsier goes west, so he runs west. He passes Longsfollow, where he and Mare once lived and where his revenge on a few noblemen once brought the Inquisitors. At a cold fire pit he finds he can light a long-dead log by willing it. He sees more ash on the ground and skaa fleeing west. He is beginning to learn the rules of the Realm he is trapped in.

A weary cloaked man faces a smiling red-haired man in robes at the edge of a vast, dark, flat plain where the ocean should be. — **SH · 10 Ruin at the Sea** After weeks of running, Kelsier reaches the western ocean and calls for Preservation. Ati, Ruin himself, answers instead, to explain that the end is natural and near: “Death is not evil, Kelsier. Death is necessary.” Kelsier decides that the visit proves he is onto something, and he walks out across the sea with Ruin taunting him.

Part 5

Ire

He crosses the ocean in lightless dark by the light of his burning logs, feeling a tug at his soul as he leaves his world. Past a jungle whose trees thin into stone-like sculptures stands an enormous fortress of glowing stone. Unable to walk through this wall as he walks through plants, he climbs it with his hands sunk into the stone and slips in at a window.

The Ire are wizened, bald ancients whose silvery skin glows. Their leader, Alonoe, has guards switch on a yellow-gemmed device that detects anyone from Threnody. It finds nothing. In council the Ire plan to take the Shard of Preservation when Leras dies, and the intruder spooks them into moving the timetable up. Kelsier finds a book describing an orb that would let someone Ascend when Preservation dies, and for Fuzz’s sake he resolves to steal it.

What follows is a classic Kelsier job. After about a week, five of the Ire ride out with fifteen guards. Four of them carry decoy orbs, and he bets that Alonoe has the real one. He whispers to her as if he were Ruin, then makes the threat feel real: no sleep, infighting, a horse lamed with Nazh’s knife, a flaming cloak raised like a puppet of Ruin. Near a jungle he scatters the horses and cuts Alonoe off. Wearing a robe stolen from the fortress, he fakes her death by “melting” into the ground, and the rest flee home behind Elrao. He knocks out her guard and tells her from the shadows to leave the orb. She obeys, offers to serve Ruin, and is sent walking home.

A small cloaked figure climbs the sheer wall of an enormous fortress of pale, faintly glowing stone above a jungle of stone-like trees. — **SH · 11 The Fortress Between Worlds** Past a jungle whose trees thin into stone-like sculptures stands the fortress of the Ire (“Eyree”), ancients from another land who live on, past death, in a place between worlds. Kelsier can walk through plants but not through this wall, so he climbs it with his hands sunk into the stone. Inside he overhears their plan to take the Shard of Preservation when Leras dies.

An ancient bald woman holding a lantern beside her horse sets a glowing glass sphere on the ground while a faint figure watches from the dark trees. — **SH · 12 The Ghost of Ruin** Here is Kelsier’s heist. Posing as Ruin, he whispers to the Ire’s leader, Alonoe, lames a horse, raises a flaming cloak like a puppet, and fakes her death until the rest of the party flees home. Alone at last, she hears a voice from the shadows tell her to leave the orb, a device made to let one of them Ascend when Preservation dies. She obeys and offers to serve Ruin, and the voice sends her walking back to the castle.

Part 6

Hero — and the Epilogue

Kelsier runs back with the orb through worse devastation until Leras’s weakened voice calls him to Fadrex. The orb won’t help, Leras says: Vin must take his power, but she can’t, because Ruin has her. In a square of beggars Kelsier meets Hoid again (The Hero of Ages, chapter 27), finds Vin, and is shocked by how far she has come. Ruin strikes him down and claims that the Eleventh Metal was a ruse to trick him. Whenever Kelsier nears Vin, Ruin blocks him; once Ruin takes the form of a spy for her to chase. Leras shows him everyone Ruin controls: the Inquisitors, Marsh, Penrod on the throne of Luthadel, Spook, and Vin. He asks Kelsier to get Vin one message: trust no one pierced with metal. A half-mad soldier, Midge, can hear Kelsier, but he garbles the message and only starts a brawl (chapter 47).

Feeling Leras dying, Kelsier smashes the orb with Nazh’s knife. As he dies, Leras gives Kelsier the book’s sharpest rebuke, for letting the skaa call him their god:

“The hearts of men are NOT YOUR TOYS.”

His last instruction is the one he gave in the Pits: survive. Kelsier takes up Preservation, but the power doesn’t fit him, and Ruin laughs that he is only the memory of a man. He sees black lines tying him to Ruin, and he sees with horror that Vin is spiked through her earring. In Urteau he finds Spook, also spiked, being urged to kill by Ruin speaking in Kelsier’s voice. The real Kelsier says hope to him over and over until Spook cuts the spike out of his own body. Then Kelsier shouts survive, and Spook goes into the burning building (chapter 58). In a half dream Kelsier gives Spook the warning. Spook sends it written in metal and Goradel carries it, but Marsh kills him and reads it aloud to Ruin (chapters 64 and 69).

While Marsh tortures Vin, Kelsier throws himself at Ruin as a distraction, and Marsh, who has read the message, rips out her earring (chapter 72). The warning was meant for Marsh all along. As his soul tears, Kelsier yields the power to Vin. He refuses death a second time, a choice open to him only because he Ascended.

He watches Elend blaze on atium and duralumin, and he watches Vin give her life to destroy Ruin (chapter 81). He holds out a hand to the dead Elend, and together they watch Sazed take up both powers (chapter 82). Vin embraces Kelsier. When Ati comes, Kelsier punches him. Then Vin thanks Kelsier and follows Elend into the Beyond. Sazed, now Harmony, cannot reach into the Beyond to bring anyone back. Kelsier asks him to heal Spook and make him Mistborn, and asks whether he himself can return to the Physical Realm. Sazed says there is no way. Kelsier’s verdict: “a god among gods. And he’s still a terrible liar.”

The epilogue is Spook’s. Uneasy in the two-storey log house the others insisted on, he is learning kingship from Breeze. Whispers in his dreams tell him to have an earring forged from an old Inquisitor spike. When he puts it in, he can see Kelsier. Their ignorance of the cosmere nearly destroyed Scadrial, Kelsier argues, so they must learn its principles together. He hints that Spook could have Feruchemy and admits what he wants for himself: a way back into the Physical Realm. Spook agrees to experiment with Hemalurgy.

A man brings a long knife down on a shattering glass sphere as threads of light burst from his body, while a thin wisp of white smoke fades into the dark above him. — **SH · 13 The Borrowed God** Feeling Leras dying, Kelsier smashes the Ire’s orb with Nazh’s knife. The god’s last instruction is the one he gave in the Pits: survive. Kelsier takes up Preservation, and it doesn’t fit. Ruin laughs that he is only the memory of a man, and Kelsier sees the black lines that tie him to Ruin. Then he finds what is worse: Vin is spiked, by her earring.

A man lounges on green grass, smiling up at a tall young man who has wandered over to him. — **SH · 14 The Half Dream** In Urteau, Ruin has been urging Spook to kill in Kelsier’s own voice (*The Hero of Ages*, chapter 58). The real Kelsier says *hope* to him over and over until Spook cuts the spike out of himself, then shouts *survive*. Later, in a half dream on green grass, Kelsier tells him he is a hero and gives him the warning for Vin: trust no one pierced by metal.

A faint glowing man bows his head to a soldier whose pale figure is stretching away into white mist on a road deep in ash. — **SH · 15 The Message in Steel** Spook writes the warning in metal, which Ruin cannot alter, and Goradel carries it (*The Hero of Ages*, chapter 64). Marsh kills him and reads it to Ruin (chapter 69), and Kelsier thanks Goradel as he passes. Later, as Marsh tortures Vin, Kelsier throws himself at Ruin to distract him, asking if he knows “why I always won at card tricks.” Marsh rips out Vin’s earring (chapter 72): the message was meant for him all along.

Two men stand on a ridge looking up as a vast figure rises into the sky, drawing in a stream of white mist and a stream of black smoke. — **SH · 16 A God Among Gods** Vin destroys Ruin and dies doing it; Elend has already fallen (*The Hero of Ages*, chapter 81). Kelsier holds out a hand to the dead Elend, and together they watch Sazed take up both powers (chapter 82). Vin comes next and embraces Kelsier. When Ati comes, Kelsier punches him, just as he punched Leras at the start of the book. Vin thanks Kelsier and follows Elend into the Beyond.

A tall young man with a hand at his ear stares in astonishment at a faintly glowing man leaning against the log wall of a sunlit room. — **SH · 17 The Earring** In the epilogue, Spook is now Mistborn and learning to be a king, and he is uneasy in the log house the others insisted he have. Whispers in his dreams tell him to have an earring forged from an old Inquisitor spike. When he puts it in, he can see Kelsier. Kelsier proposes that they study the cosmere together, and he admits what he wants: a way back.

The metals in this book

The Eleventh Metal. Kelsier flares it as he dies and sees the Lord Ruler’s past, Rashek taking the power at the Well. Leras explains that it let him see into the Spiritual Realm, where a person’s Connection and past are kept. Ruin later claims the metal was his own ruse.
No Allomancy after death. As a Cognitive Shadow, Kelsier finds his Allomancy useless, and nothing in this book gives it back. Instead he learns the Cognitive Realm’s rules: dead logs light by will, objects with a strong Identity last longer, and he can sink into the ground and walk through plants, though not through every wall.
Lerasium. This is Preservation’s God Metal. Two beads wait at the Well. Hoid takes one. Elend eats the last and survives Kelsier’s knife by burning pewter.
Sixteen. Leras’s sign to his followers is the true number of Allomantic metals.
Hemalurgy. Koloss are ordinary people made over by spikes. Anyone pierced by metal can be heard and steered by Ruin, including Vin through her earring, Spook through his splinter, the Inquisitors, Marsh and Penrod. Ruin can alter any text not written in metal, so Spook’s warning goes onto a metal plate. Afterwards an earring forged from an Inquisitor spike lets Spook see Kelsier.
Atium and duralumin. Ruin is incomplete without the atium. Elend, burning atium and duralumin together, blazes in Kelsier’s sight.
Connection. Kelsier’s Connection to Ruin is stronger than his Connection to Preservation, and the borrowed Shard never fits him. His strong Connection to Spook is how he gets through to him. The Ire’s orb was built to grant Connection to a Shard.
Feruchemy, hinted. In the epilogue Kelsier floats the idea of giving Spook Feruchemy as well.

Continuity notes

Kelsier: He dies on the square (The Final Empire, chapter 34) and becomes a Cognitive Shadow bound to the Well. He is loosed with Ruin at the end of The Well of Ascension and holds Preservation briefly before giving it to Vin. He refuses death twice. He ends without a body but is plotting to get one with Spook’s help. The Bands of Mourning has already shown where that leads: the Sovereign of the Southern Scadrians.
Leras (Preservation): He is dying from the first page and dies in Part 6. His power passes from Kelsier to Vin to Sazed.
Ati (Ruin): He is imprisoned at the Well until the end of The Well of Ascension and is destroyed by Vin. His shade gets punched on its way to the Beyond.
Vin and Elend: Both are dead. They go into the Beyond together, where Leras says Mare has already gone.
Sazed: He becomes Harmony, holding both Shards. He cannot reach the Beyond to bring anyone back. At Kelsier’s request he heals Spook and makes him Mistborn, as The Hero of Ages’ epilogue reports.
Spook: He is alive and Mistborn, learning to be a king, and wears a spike earring that lets him see Kelsier. His Hemalurgic experiments with Kelsier begin here.
Marsh: Freed of Ruin, he lives on into Era Two.
Hoid has gone off with one of the Well’s two lerasium beads. The Ire flee home, and their orb is lost.
The Lost Metal builds on this book, so read it first.

Reading order

Sanderson asks readers to read it after The Bands of Mourning. He has said it also works straight after The Hero of Ages, but never before it. Coppermind adds that it must be read before The Lost Metal.
It was published as a digital-only ebook from Dragonsteel Entertainment (ISBN 978-1-938570-12-4) and then collected in Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection (Tor, 22 November 2016), with a postscript by Sanderson. Gollancz’s audiobook is read by Michael Kramer, the Era One narrator, and runs 5 hours 29 minutes.
It runs to six parts and an epilogue: 25 chapters plus the epilogue, Kelsier’s point of view throughout and Spook’s in the epilogue. Part 6 alone is nearly a third of the book.

Notes

Why it exists. Sanderson planned it while writing the first trilogy; by his own counts it was ten to twelve years in the making. In the Arcanum Unbounded postscript he explains that he foreshadowed Kelsier’s survival because he sees resurrection as a dangerous trope.
How it landed. Alice Arneson, one of Sanderson’s beta readers, wrote for Tor.com that the first third is slow for Sanderson, because readers already know its climaxes, but that once Kelsier meets the worldhoppers it moves fast. She singled out the Elend-stabbing reveal, Vin and Elend’s proper farewell, and the Marsh misdirection, and found Hoid unusually cruel here, as if he enjoyed hurting Kelsier.
Saying it. The Ire is “Eyree”: two syllables, a long I and a long E.

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