Page 178 of The Well of Ascension

“It is, Ham,” Elend said. “But it’s an understandable arrogance. I don’t think a man could lead without it. Actually, I think it’s what I’ve been missing through most of my reign. Arrogance.”

“Self-confidence.”

“A nicer word for the same concept,” Elend said. “I can do a better job for this people than another man could. I just have to find a way to prove that fact to them.”

“You will.”

“You’re an optimist, Ham,” Elend said.

“So are you,” Ham noted.

Elend smiled. “True. But this job is changing me.”

“Well, if you want to keep the job, we should probably get back to studying. We only have one day left.”

Elend shook his head. “I’ve read all I can, Ham. I will not take advantage of the law, so there’s no reason to search for loopholes, and studying other books looking for inspiration just isn’t working. I need time to think. Time to walk….”

They continued to do so. As they did, Elend noticed something out in the distance. A group of enemy soldiers doing something he couldn’t distinguish. He waved over one of his men.

“What is that?” he asked.

The soldier shaded his eyes, looking. “Looks like another skirmish between Cett’s men and Straff’s, Your Majesty.”

Elend raised an eyebrow. “That happens often?”

The soldier shrugged. “More and more often, lately. Usually the scouting patrols run afoul of each other and get into a conflict. Leave a few bodies behind when they retreat. Nothing big, Your Majesty.”

Elend nodded, dismissing the man.Big enough,he thought to himself.Those armies must be as tense as we are. The soldiers can’t enjoy remaining so long in a siege, particularly with the winter weather.

They were close. The arrival of the koloss would only cause more chaos. If he shoved right, Straff and Cett would be pushed into a head-on battle.I just need a little more time!he thought, continuing to walk, Ham at his side.

Yet, first he needed to get his throne back. Without that authority, he was nothing—and could do nothing.

The problem gnawed at his mind. As the walk continued, however, something distracted him—this time, something inside the walls rather than outside of them. Ham was right—the soldiersdidstand a little taller when Elend approached their posts. They saluted him, and he nodded to them, walking with hand on pommel, as Tindwyl had instructed.

If I do keep my throne, I owe it to that woman,he thought. Of course, she’d chastise him for that thought. She would tell him that he kept his throne because he deserved to—because he was king. In changing himself, he had simply used the resources at hand to overcome his challenges.

He wasn’t certain if he’d ever be able to see things that way. But, her final lesson to him the day before—he somehow knew that it was her last—had taught him only one new concept: that there was no one mold for kingship. He would not be like the kings of the past, any more than he would be like Kelsier.

He would be Elend Venture. His roots were in philosophy, so he would be remembered as a scholar. He’d best use that to his advantage, or he wouldn’t be remembered at all. No kings could admit their weaknesses, but they were certainly wise to admit their strengths.

And what are my strengths?he thought.Why should I be the one who rules this city, and those around it?

Yes, he was a scholar—and an optimist, as Ham had noted. He was no master duelist, though he was improving. He wasn’t an excellent diplomat, though his meetings with Straff and Cett proved that he could hold his own.

What was he?

A nobleman who loved the skaa. They’d always fascinated him, even before the Collapse—before he’d met Vin and the others. It had been one of his pet philosophical puzzles to try and prove them no different from men of noble birth. It sounded idealistic, even a little prim, when he thought about it—and, if he was truthful, much of his interest in the skaa before the Collapse had been academic. They had been unknown, and so they had seemed exotic and interesting.

He smiled.I wonder what the plantation workers would have thought, had anyone told them they were “exotic.”

But then the Collapse had come—the rebellion predicted in his books and theories coming to life. His beliefs hadn’t been able to continue as mere academic abstractions. And he’d come to know the skaa—not just Vin and the crew, but the workers and the servants. He’d seen the hope beginning to grow within them. He’d seen the awakening of self-respect, and of self-worth, in the people of the city, and it excited him.

He would not abandon them.

That’s what I am,Elend thought, pausing as he walked the wall.An idealist. A melodramatic idealist who, despite his books and learning, never did make a very good nobleman.

“What?” Ham asked, stopping next to him.

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