That's what I said.
The mist spirit and the mists are not the same thing. Elmandr cannot make the claim that the mist spirit and the mist are the same thing, because he did not outright say that they were. He did not say that they were both of Preservation, either. Rather, he said that the mist spirit were all the spirits of the previous Heros of Ages, which is completely different from Preservation.
So, the kind judges here can take Elmandr's bet one of two ways: 1. In the literal manner or 2. In the original of the bet. If you look at the literal meaning, Elmandr clearly lost, because Vin did not merge with the mist spirit itself. If Elmandr makes the claim that the mist spirit and the mist were one in the same, that would also be incorrect. The mist spirit is the consciousness of Preservation (Leras), while the mist is the power itself. These are two different things entirely. And since the mist spirit died, Vin could not and never did merge with it, which is what the literal reading of the bet would entail.
If the judges interpret the bet in its original spirit, we can see that this hurts Elmandr's claim even more. Elmandr claimed that the mist spirit were the combined souls of previous HoAs. So, if you take this in mind, this doubly hurts Elmandr's claim that the mist and the mist spirit were the same, because if you look at the
spirit of the bet, then Elmandr believed at the time that the mist spirit and the mist were inherently separate.
Therefore, in my official opinion, there is no question that Elmandr lost the bet.
(This is my official stance
)