The following is commentary, written by Brandon, about one of the chapters of MISTBORN: THE WELL OF ASCENSION. If you haven’t read this book, know that the following will contain major spoilers. We suggest reading the sample chapters from book one instead. You can also go to this book’s introduction or go to the main annotations page to access all annotations for all books. For those who have read some of MISTBORN 2, any spoilers for the ending of this book will be hidden, so as long as you’ve read up to this chapter, you should be all right.

Chapter Thirty Five

Vin and Elend dine with Cett

And, we have our second “ball” scene in this book. Some people really enjoyed those in the previous book; at least one reviewer hated them. However, I like them–particularly for the visuals they let me use when going into the gorgeous noble keeps. As you may recall, these are based loosely on gothic cathedrals, which I just think would be an awesome place to have a ball.

Cett was, perhaps, too fun a character to write. I needed someone the opposite of Straff, and it was very fulfilling to write in an enemy to this series who was completely straightforward and belligerent. He still stands out to me, quite different from any of the other antagonists in the series.

He knows Elend well–that should be enough to hint that he kept an eye on things in Luthadel, despite his attitude which implies that he didn’t care about the place. He’s watched Elend’s rule very carefully, debating whether to make an alliance or to make a play for Elend’s throne. If the truth be told, he would have probably gone for the alliance if Straff hadn’t moved against Luthadel.

He walks a careful line. He’s not a good man, but he IS an effective leader in some respects. I wanted him to offer a third viewpoint on leadership in this book, one that is actually accurate. Being a leader isn’t easy–not at all. There are a lot of ways to do it, and I don’t want to imply that any one of these people–Elend, Cett, or Tindwyl–are wrong. That’s what makes it so tough to be a leader.

Cett offers the perspective of open, honest tyranny. He doesn’t lie to you. He tells you just what he’s going to do, and he has a point that many of the things he does are safe.

But, what do you choose when you have to choose between safety and freedom? You can probably guess that I wrote a lot of this book during the heightening of security in America surrounding the September 11 attacks. The last couple of years, there has been a lot of talk on this topic, and it wormed its way into my writing. I didn’t put it there intentionally, but I did monopolize on it when I found it there.

I don’t have any answers. I just write what I see, and force my characters to make choices.

Cett’s lies

By the way, the three lies Cett told: First, that he didn’t care if Allrianne ran off,. Second, that he wasn’t annoyed to find that Breeze was having a relationship with her,. Third, that he had told three lies during the conversation. (He’d actually only told two, but that made it three, which makes this comment wonderfully self-referential. That’s why he said “Good Luck figuring out what they are.”)