The Final Empire

by Brandon Sanderson

  “And…if you burn the wrong percentage?” Vin asked.

  “If the mixture is only off by a bit, you’ll still get some power out of it,” Kelsier said. “However, if it’s too far off, burning it will make you sick.”

  Vin nodded slowly. “I…think I’ve burned this metal before. Once in a while, in very small amounts.”

  “Trace metals,” Kelsier said. “From drinking water contaminated by metals, or by eating with pewter utensils.”

  Vin nodded. Some of the mugs in Camon’s lair had been pewter.

  “All right,” Kelsier said. “Extinguish the pewter and let’s move on to another metal.”

  Vin did as asked. The withdrawal of power left her feeling weak, tired, and exposed.

  “Now,” Kelsier said, “you should be able to notice a kind of pairing between your reserves of metal.”

  “Like the two emotion metals,” Vin said.

  “Exactly. Find the metal linked to pewter.”

  “I see it,” Vin said.

  “There are two metals for every power,” Kelsier said. “One Pushes, one Pulls—the second is usually an alloy of the first. For emotions—the external mental powers—you Pull with zinc and Push with brass. You just used pewter to Push your body. That’s one of the internal physical powers.”

  “Like Ham,” Vin said. “He burns pewter.”

  Kelsier nodded. “Mistings who can burn pewter are called Thugs. A crude term, I suppose—but they tend to be rather crude people. Our dear Hammond is something of an exception to that rule.”

  “So, what does the other internal physical metal do?”

  “Try it and see.”

  Vin did so eagerly, and the world suddenly became brighter around her. Or…well, that wasn’t quite right. She could see better, and she could see farther, but the mists were still there. They were just…more translucent. The ambient light around her seemed brighter, somehow.

  There were other changes. She could feel her clothing. She realized that she had always been able to feel it, but she usually ignored it. Now, however, it felt closer. She could sense the textures, and was acutely aware of the places where the cloth was tight on her.

  She was hungry. That, too, she had been ignoring—yet now her hunger seemed far more pressing. Her skin felt wetter, and she could smell the crisp air mixed with scents of dirt, soot, and refuse.

  “Tin enhances your senses,” Kelsier said, his voice suddenly seeming quite loud. “And it’s one of the slowest-burning metals—the tin in that vial is enough to keep you going for hours. Most Mistborn leave their tin on whenever they’re out in the mists—I’ve had mine on since we left the shop.”

  Vin nodded. The wealth of sensations was nearly overwhelming. She could hear creaks and scuffles in the darkness, and they made her want to jump in alarm, certain that someone was sneaking up behind her.

  This is going to take some getting used to.

  “Leave it burning,” Kelsier said, waving for her to walk beside him as he continued down the street. “You’ll want to accustom yourself to the enhanced senses. Just don’t flare it all the time. Not only would you run out of it very quickly, but perpetually flaring metals does…strange things to people.”

  “Strange?” Vin asked.

  “Metals—especially tin and pewter—stretch your body. Flaring the metals only pushes this stretching further. Stretch it too far for too long, and things start to break.”

  Vin nodded uncomfortably. Kelsier fell quiet, and they continued to walk, letting Vin explore her new sensations and the detailed world that tin revealed. Before, her vision had been restricted to a tiny pocket within the night. Now, however, she saw an entire city enveloped by a blanket of shifting, swirling mist. She could make out keeps like small, dark mountains in the distance, and could see specks of light from windows, like pin-pricked holes in the night. And above…she saw lights in the sky.

  She stopped, gazing up with wonder. They were faint, blurred to even her tin-enhanced eyes, but she could just barely make them out. Hundreds of them. Thousands of them. So small, like the dying embers of candles recently extinguished.

  “Stars,” Kelsier said, strolling up beside her. “You can’t see them very often, even with tin. It must be a particularly clear night. People used to be able to look up and see them every night—that was before the mists came, before the Ashmounts erupted ash and smoke into the sky.”

  Vin glanced at him. “How do you know?”

  Kelsier smiled. “The Lord Ruler has tried very hard to crush memories of those days, but still some remain.” He turned, not really having answered her question, and continued to walk. Vin joined him. Suddenly, with tin, the mists around her didn’t seem so ominous. She was beginning to see how Kelsier could walk about at night with such confidence.

  “All right,” Kelsier eventually said. “Let’s try another metal.”

  Vin nodded, leaving her tin on but picking another metal to burn as well. When she did so, a very strange thing happened—a multitude of faint blue lines sprung from her chest, streaking out into the spinning mists. She froze, gasping slightly and looking down at her chest. Most of the lines were thin, like translucent pieces of twine, though a couple were as thick as yarn.

  Kelsier chuckled. “Leave that metal and its partner alone for the moment. They’re a bit more complicated than the others.”

  “What…?” Vin asked, tracing the lines of blue light with her eyes. They pointed at random objects. Doors, windows—a couple even pointed at Kelsier.

  “We’ll get to it,” he promised. “Extinguish that one and try one of the last two.”

  Vin extinguished the strange metal and ignored its companion, picking one of the last metals. Immediately, she felt a strange vibration. Vin paused. The pulses didn’t make a sound that she could hear, yet she could feel them washing across her. They seemed to be coming from Kelsier. She looked at him, frowning.

  “That’s probably bronze,” Kelsier said. “The internal mental Pushing metal. It lets you sense when someone is using Allomancy nearby. Seekers, like my brother, use it. Generally it’s not that useful—unless you happen to be a Steel Inquisitor searching for skaa Mistings.”

  Vin paled. “Inquisitors can use Allomancy?”

  Kelsier nodded. “They’re all Seekers—I’m not sure if that’s because Seekers are chosen to become Inquisitors, or if the process of becoming an Inquisitor grants the power. Either way, since their main duties are to find half-breed children and noblemen who use Allomancy improperly, it’s a useful skill for them to have. Unfortunately, ‘useful’ for them means ‘rather annoying’ for us.”

  Vin began to nod, then froze. The pulsing had stopped.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “I started burning copper,” Kelsier said, “the companion to bronze. When you burn copper, it hides your use of powers from other Allomancers. You can try burning it now, if you want, though you won’t sense much.”

  Vin did so. The only change was a feeling of slight vibration within her.

  “Copper is a vital metal to learn,” Kelsier said. “It will hide you from Inquisitors. We probably don’t have anything to worry about tonight—the Inquisitors would assume us to be regular noble Mistborn, out for training. However, if you’re ever in a skaa guise and need to burn metals, make sure you turn on your copper first.”

  Vin nodded appreciatively.

  “In fact,” Kelsier said, “many Mistborn keep their copper on all the time. It burns slowly, and it makes you invisible to other Allomancers. It hides you from bronze, and it also prevents others from manipulating your emotions.”

  Vin perked up.

  “I thought that might interest you,” Kelsier said. “Anyone burning copper is immune to emotional Allomancy. In addition, copper’s influence occurs in a bubble around you. This cloud—called a coppercloud—hides anyone inside of it from the senses of a Seeker, though it won’t make them immune to emotional Allomancy, like it will you.”

  “Clubs
,” Vin said. “That’s what a Smoker does.”

  Kelsier nodded. “If one of our people is noticed by a Seeker, they can run back to the lair and disappear. They can also practice their abilities without fear of being discovered. Allomantic pulses coming from a shop in a skaa sector of town would be a quick giveaway to a passing Inquisitor.”

  “But, you can burn copper,” Vin said. “Why were you so worried about finding a Smoker for the crew?”

  “I can burn copper, true,” Kelsier said. “And so can you. We can use all of the powers, but we can’t be everywhere. A successful crewleader needs to know how to divide labor, especially on a job as big as this one. Standard practice has a coppercloud going at all times in the lair. Clubs doesn’t do it all himself—several of those apprentices are Smokers too. When you hire a man like Clubs, it’s understood that he’ll provide you with a base of operations and a team of Smokers competent enough to keep you hidden at all times.”

  Vin nodded. However, she was more interested in copper’s ability to protect her emotions. She would need to locate enough of it to keep it burning all the time.

  They started walking again, and Kelsier gave her more time to get used to burning tin. Vin’s mind, however, began to wander. Something didn’t feel…right to her. Why was Kelsier telling her all of these things? It seemed like he was giving away his secrets too easily.

  Except one, she thought suspiciously. The metal with the blue lines. He hasn’t gone back to it yet. Perhaps that was the thing he was going to keep from her, the power he would hold in reserve to maintain control over her.

  It must be strong. The most powerful of the eight.

  As they walked through the quiet streets, Vin reached tentatively inside. She eyed Kelsier, then carefully burned that unknown metal. Again, the lines sprang up around her, pointing in seemingly random directions.

  The lines moved with her. One end of each thread stayed stuck to her chest, while the other end remained attached to a given place along the street. New lines appeared as she walked, and old ones faded, disappearing behind. The lines came in various widths, and some of them were brighter than others.

  Curious, Vin tested the lines with her mind, trying to discover their secret. She focused on a particularly small and innocent-looking one, and found that she could feel it individually if she concentrated. She almost felt like she could touch it. She reached out with her mind and gave it a slight tug.

  The line shook, and something immediately flew out of the darkness toward her. Vin yelped, trying to jump away, but the object—a rusty nail—shot directly toward her.

  Suddenly, something grabbed the nail, ripping it away and throwing it back out into the darkness.

  Vin came up from her roll in a tense crouch, mistcloak fluttering around her. She scanned the darkness, then glanced at Kelsier, who was chuckling softly.

  “I should have known you’d try that,” he said.

  Vin flushed in embarrassment.

  “Come on,” he said, waving her over. “No harm done.”

  “The nail attacked me!” Did that metal bring objects to life? That would be an incredible power indeed.

  “Actually, you kind of attacked yourself,” Kelsier said.

  Vin stood carefully, then joined him as he began to walk down the street again.

  “I’ll explain what you did in a moment,” he promised. “First, there’s something you have to understand about Allomancy.”

  “Another rule?”

  “More a philosophy,” Kelsier said. “It has to do with consequences.”

  Vin frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “Every action we take has consequences, Vin,” Kelsier said. “I’ve found that in both Allomancy and life, the person who can best judge the consequences of their actions will be the most successful. Take burning pewter, for instance. What are its consequences?”

  Vin shrugged. “You get stronger.”

  “What happens if you’re carrying something heavy when your pewter runs out?”

  Vin paused. “I suppose you’d drop it.”

  “And, if it’s too heavy, you could hurt yourself seriously. Many a Misting Thug has shrugged off a dire wound while fighting, only to die from that same wound once their pewter ran out.”

  “I see,” Vin said quietly.

  “Ha!”

  Vin jumped in shock, throwing her hands up over her enhanced ears. “Ow!” she complained, glaring at Kelsier.

  He smiled. “Burning tin has consequences too. If someone produces a sudden light or sound, you can be blinded or stunned.”

  “But, what does that have to do with those last two metals?”

  “Iron and steel give you the ability to manipulate other metals around you,” Kelsier explained. “With iron, you can Pull a metal source toward yourself. With steel, you can Push one away. Ah, here we are.”

  Kelsier stopped, looking up ahead.

  Through the mist, Vin could see the massive city wall looming above them. “What are we doing here?”

  “We’re going to practice Ironpulling and Steelpushing,” Kelsier said. “But first, some basics.” He pulled something out of his belt—a clip, the smallest denomination of coin. He held it up before her, standing to the side. “Burn steel, the opposite of the metal you burned a few moments ago.”

  Vin nodded. Again, the blue lines sprang up around her. One of them pointed directly at the coin in Kelsier’s hand.

  “All right,” Kelsier said. “Push on it.”

  Vin reached toward the proper thread and Pushed slightly. The coin flipped out of Kelsier’s fingers, traveling directly away from Vin. She continued to focus on it, Pushing the coin through the air until it snapped against the wall of a nearby house.

  Vin was thrown violently backward in a sudden, jerking motion. Kelsier caught her and kept her from falling to the ground.

  Vin stumbled and righted herself. Across the street, the coin—now released from her control—plinked to the ground.

  “What happened?” Kelsier asked her.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know. I Pushed on the coin, and it flew away. But when it hit the wall, I was pushed away.”

  “Why?”

  Vin frowned thoughtfully. “I guess…I guess the coin couldn’t go anywhere, so I had to be the one that moved.”

  Kelsier nodded approvingly. “Consequences, Vin. You use your own weight when you Steelpush. If you’re a lot heavier than your anchor, it will fly away from you like that coin did. However, if the object is heavier than you are—or if it runs into something that is—you’ll be Pushed away. Ironpulling is similar—either you’ll be Pulled toward the object or it will be Pulled toward you. If your weights are similar, then you’ll both move.

  “This is the great art of Allomancy, Vin. Knowing how much, or how little, you will move when you burn steel or iron will give you a major advantage over your opponents. You’ll find that these two are the most versatile and useful of your abilities.”

  Vin nodded.

  “Now, remember,” he continued. “In both cases, the force of your Push or Pull is directly away from or toward you. You can’t flip things around with your mind, controlling them to go wherever you want. That’s not the way that Allomancy works, because that’s not the way the physical world works. When you push against something—whether with Allomancy or with your hands—it goes directly in the opposite direction. Force, reactions, consequences. Understand?”

  Vin nodded again.

  “Good,” Kelsier said happily. “Now, let’s go jump over that wall.”

  “What?”

  He left her standing dumbfounded in the street. She watched him approach the base of the wall, then scurried over to him.

  “You’re insane!” she said quietly.

  Kelsier smiled. “I think that’s the second time today you’ve said that to me. You need to pay better attention—if you’d been listening to everyone else, you’d know that my sanity departed long ago.”

  “Kelsier,” sh
e said, looking up at the wall. “I can’t…. I mean, I’ve never really even used Allomancy before this evening!”

  “Yes, but you’re such a quick learner,” Kelsier said, pulling something out from beneath his cloak. It appeared to be a belt. “Here, put this on. It’s got metal weights strapped to it. If something goes wrong, I’ll probably be able to catch you.”

  “Probably?” Vin asked nervously, strapping on the belt.

  Kelsier smiled, then dropped a large metal ingot at his feet. “Put the ingot directly below you, and remember to Steelpush, not Ironpull. Don’t stop Pushing until you reach the top of the wall.”

  Then he bent down and jumped.

  Kelsier shot into the air, his dark form vanishing into the curling mists. Vin waited for a moment, but he didn’t plummet back down to his doom.

  All was still, even to her enhanced ears. The mists whirled playfully around her. Taunting her. Daring her.

  She glanced down at the ingot, burning steel. The blue line glowed with a faint, ghostly light. She stepped over to the ingot, standing with one foot on either side of it. She glanced up at the mists, then down one last time.

  Finally, she took a deep breath and Pushed against the ingot with all of her strength.

  “He shall defend their ways, yet shall violate them. He will be their savior, yet they shall call him heretic. His name shall be Discord, yet they shall love him for it.”

  8

  VIN SHOT INTO THE AIR. She suppressed a scream, remembering to continue Pushing despite her fear. The stone wall was a blur of motion just a few feet away from her. The ground disappeared below, and the line of blue pointing toward the ingot grew fainter and fainter.

  What happens if it disappears?

  She began to slow. The fainter the line grew, the more her speed decreased. After just a few moments of flight, she crept to a halt—and was left hanging in the air above a nearly invisible blue line.

  “I’ve always liked the view from up here.”

  Vin glanced to the side. Kelsier stood a short distance away; she had been so focused that she hadn’t noticed that she was hovering just a few feet from the top of the wall.