Mistborn: Secret History (2016)

Mistborn: Secret History is a fantasy novella by American author Brandon Sanderson, written as a companion story to the original trilogy of the Mistborn series. It was published as an ebook-only novella by Dragonsteel Entertainment LLC, a company owned by the author, on 30 January 2016.

The novella follows the story of Kelsier from the time of his death in Mistborn: The Final Empire and concludes with the events of the last book in the original trilogy, The Hero of Ages.

Summary
Following his death at the hands of the Lord Ruler, Kelsier meets Preservation before he "passes on" to the Beyond. Kelsier refuses, and he remains on Scadrial as a cognitive aspect. Despite refusing to pass on, as Preservation wishes, Kelsier befriends Preservation, giving him the nickname of Fuzz (a crewmember name).

When he returns to Scadrial, Kelsier is trapped in the Well of Ascension. During his time there, he unknowingly discovers Ruin trapped beneath the Well. Since Preservation is unable to help him in his investigations, Kelsier sets out to discover Ruin's motives for himself. When he uncovers Ruin's plans to destroy the world, Kelsier does everything he can to stop him and finds that the only way that he can prevent Ruin's escape is to ensure that Vin takes the power at the Well.

Vin's arrival at the Well gives Kelsier hope that he will be able to get through to her, but as a cognitive aspect, with no connection to the Physical Realm, he can't, and Vin releases Ruin and Kelsier from the Well. When he asks Preservation to help him stop Ruin, Preservation tells him to head across the ocean for help. Although he doesn't know this at the time, Kelsier has been sent to the southern side of Scadrial, where the people have advanced without much interference from either Shard.

Along the way, Kelsier discovers many odd things about not being "alive" anymore. He finds that his Allomancy is useless and that he can create fire out of a log long since burned out simply by willing it to ignite.

During his journey, Kelsier meets Khriss from Taldain, and Nazh from Threnody. The pair enlighten Kelsier a little bit on how the events on Scadrial affect the Cosmere but remain quite vague as to why they are there, or about events in the Cosmere that are unrelated to the current conflict.

Along the way, Ruin visits Kelsier and tries to persuade the Survivor to give up on his quest. Kelsier doesn't give in and journeys on to find the Ire. He infiltrates their fortress and steals a device they have invented which renders the holder capable of holding a Shard.

Kelsier returns to Luthadel to find it in chaos. Upon arrival, however, he is told to go to Fadrex by Preservation. Here, Kelsier finds Vin, but he is unable to get close enough to tell her anything about Ruin's plan, as he is using his power to keep Kelsier away. While trying to get to Vin, Kelsier learns a little about Hemalurgy and how the spikes give Ruin power over those with spikes.

Soon after, Kelsier finds out that Leras (Preservation) is dying, so he smashes the device and takes up the power of Preservation. Before he dies, Leras gives Kelsier one final instruction: survive. Kelsier then tries to fight Ruin, but is unsuccessful. Instead, he tries to find a place where Ruin's influence is weaker. He finds it in Urteau, where Spook is spiked and is being induced to murder by Ruin. Kelsier intervenes, and Spook is freed from Ruin's influence.

Goradel, a messenger with Kelsier's warning about spikes, travels from Urteau to Fadrex, while Kelsier watches, but Ruin sends for Marsh, who kills Goradel and reads the message aloud to Ruin. Kelsier gives up hope until he realizes that Ruin is incomplete without atium, and therefore hasn't won yet.

Kelsier follows Ruin to Vin, where she is being tortured by Marsh to get the location of the atium. Ruin thinks he has won, until Marsh rips out Vin's earring, allowing her to be free of Ruin, and take the power of Preservation from Kelsier. The transfer of power almost kills him, but Kelsier again refuses to die, and watches as Vin sacrifices herself to stop Ruin. Upon Vin's and Elend's deaths, the pair meet Kelsier in the Cognitive Realm, where they all watch as Sazed takes up the powers of both shards to form Harmony.

Following the reorganization of the world, Kelsier recruits Spook, who by virtue of Sazed's new power is now able to see him, to help him regain a Connection to the Physical Realm by playing with Hemalurgy.

Major Characters

 * Kelsier:  The famed Survivor of Hathsin, a half-skaa mistborn who led a revolution against the Lord Ruler. At the beginning of the novella, Kelsier is killed by the Lord Ruler, but refuses to pass on to the afterlife, and instead becomes trapped in the Cognitive Realm, between life and death.
 * Lord Ruler:  A seemingly immortal being who rules the Final Empire, and has oppressed the people for a thousand years.
 * Preservation:  A god force on Scadrial with powers that can preserve what already exists, but cannot destroy or create. Preservation is at constant war with his opposite Ruin, and has been slowly weakening and dying for centuries.

Minor Characters

 * Vin:  A young, fierce mistborn who trained under Kelsier, and has an important role to play in deciding the fate of the world.
 * Sazed:  A Terrisman friend of Kelsier, a Keeper who specializes in preserving religions.
 * Spook:  A young tineye member of Kelsier's crew, who idolized Kelsier.
 * Ruin:  Preservation's opposite, a god force with powers of pure destruction. He is currently trapped at the Well of Ascension, but seeks to escape and bring an end to the world.
 * Harmony:  Sazed after he ascends, taking both Preservation and Harmony into himself.
 * Marsh:  Kelsier's brother, who joined the Lord Ruler's Ministry of Inquisition, in order to help spy on them. He was eventually turned into an Inquisitor.

Trivia

 * With no connection to the Physical Realm, the Metallic Arts on Scadrial are useless.
 * At least some of the Ire are Worldhoppers from Sel, as they use the exclamation of "Merciful Domi!" and have names associated with Aons (Ire, Elrao, etc.)
 * While at the Well, Kelsier meets Hoid (who he calls Drifter) when he arrives to take a lerasium bead.
 * Kelsier has an appearance in The Bands of Mourning in a memory Wax taps from a coppermind medallion, given to him by Hoid.
 * When referring to "Drifter", Preservation calls him Cephandrius.

Postscript
Note: the Postscript is found in Arcanum Unbounded, a collection of Cosmere stories.

This story was planned while writing the original trilogy and was worked on here and there for years. Once The Bands of Mourning was written, Brandon realized that readers needed more information on what Kelsier was doing behind the scenes, so he finished it up.

Resurrecting characters is a "dangerous trope" because Brandon wants death to be a real danger for his characters. So he made sure that Kelsier's survival was hinted at and foreshadowed sufficiently.

There may be more installments to the Secret History story, showing more of what Kelsier is up to behind the scenes with Spook and during the Wax and Wayne books.

Release
Mistborn: Secret History was originally published 30 January 2016 by Dragonsteel Entertainment as an ebook. In November 2016, it was republished as part of Arcanum Unbounded by Tor Books.

Critical Reception
Tor noted that the novella was an unusual one for Sanderson since it contained "less action, and a lot more time-killing while waiting for action".