In this chapter’s epigraph, the Hero of Ages recounts how the Deepness killed large areas of crops and caused illness among the people of Scadrial.

Kelsier instructs the entire crew to read Sazed’s translation of the Hero of Ages’s logbook. Vin reads in Lord Renoux’s garden, noting that the Hero’s description of green plants and arable land matches Kelsier’s dream. Spook arrives and gives her a handkerchief, which she accepts in confusion. She finds Sazed in the mansion’s library and asks him more questions about Feruchemy. Physical attributes such as strength, perfect vision, weight, and age can be stored in the metal a Feruchemist wears. Sazed does not know why the Lord Ruler persecutes the Terris people, or why he did not kill them all, instead using them as stewards and slaves. Sazed has no knowledge of the Terris religion despite religious studies being his specialty. He warns Vin that receiving a handkerchief from a young man means the young man intends to pursue her romantically.

Dockson is at Mansion Renoux checking the rebellion’s weapon supplies. Vin asks him about his life as a plantation skaa and learns that he ran away after the woman he loved was taken by their lord for sex and then executed.