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« on: August 04, 2008, 07:53:58 PM »
Well, we don't know what Ruin can sense and influence and what he can't, beyond some basic guidelines like "He can't affect memories."
For instance, can he sense regular patterns of motion in air and decipher their meaning? E.g. can he hear, even from a distance? If so, then there is no need for him to read the memories out of Sazed's metalmind. With this theory, if Vin says something, Ruin could know about it if he's paying attention. This is nothing like reading minds and everything like eavesdropping. He certainly has powers along these lines. He can modify text on a page, after all, and the simplest way for him to do that would be for him to "read" (sense) the pages directly rather than fiddling with metalminds etc.
In addition, we don't know how he maintains control over the Inquisitors (or his more limited control over Zane). We do see that he knows what is going on around Zane, so it's possible the Hemalurgy created a link into Zane's mind that actually was readable (or that he can read minds but not change them.) However, he could also simply be "looking" at the area around Zane via his other "senses." Similarly, he can control the inquisitors (but not quite completely) but we don't know if that is mind-reading or more like soothing. For instance, he seems to make Marsh become more like himself, perverting Marsh's values into his own, but this does not necessarily indicate that he can see into Marsh's head, simply that he can "sooth"* away everything except what he wants Marsh to feel and "riot"* those emotions that he wants Marsh to feel; if the "soothing" and "rioting" are strong enough, then he effectively controls Marsh with or without mind reading.
*Quotation marks because I am not at all certain that the power being exerted is literally soothing or rioting. It's an analogy.