The Final Empire m-1

by Brandon Sanderson

  Vin landed on a rooftop and paused, watching Kelsier shoot off into the night. He’s moving fast again. I–

  A hand fell on her shoulder.

  Vin yelped, jumping back, flaring pewter.

  Kelsier regarded her with a cocked eyebrow. “You’re supposed to be in bed, young lady.”

  Vin glanced to the side, toward the line of metal. “But–”

  “My coin pouch,” Kelsier said, smiling. “A good thief can steal clever tricks as easily as he steals boxings. I’ve started being more careful since you tailed me last week – at first, I assumed you were a Venture Mistborn.”

  “They have some?”

  “I’m sure they do,” Kelsier said. “Most of the Great Houses do – but your friend Elend isn’t one of them. He’s not even a Misting.”

  “How do you know? He could be hiding it.”

  Kelsier shook his head. “He nearly died in a raid a couple of years ago – if there were ever a time to show your powers, it would have been then.”

  Vin nodded, still looking down, not meeting Kelsier’s eyes.

  He sighed, sitting down on the slanted rooftop, one leg hanging over the side. “Have a seat.”

  Vin settled herself on the tile roof across from him. Above, the cool mists continued to churn, and it had begun to drizzle slightly – but that wasn’t much different from the regular nightly humidity.

  “I can’t have you tailing me like this, Vin,” Kelsier said. “Do you remember our discussion about trust?”

  “If you trusted me, you’d tell me where you were going.”

  “Not necessarily,” Kelsier said. “Maybe I just don’t want you and the others to worry about me.”

  “Everything you do is dangerous,” Vin said. “Why would we worry any more if you told us specifics?”

  “Some tasks are even more dangerous than others,” Kelsier said quietly.

  Vin paused, then glanced to the side, in the direction Kelsier had been going. Toward the center of the city.

  Toward Kredik Shaw, the Hill of a Thousand Spires. The Lord Ruler’s palace.

  “You’re going to confront the Lord Ruler!” Vin said quietly. “You said last week that you were going to pay him a visit.”

  “ ‘Visit’ is, perhaps, too strong a word,” Kelsier said. “I am going to the palace, but I sincerely hope I don’t run into the Lord Ruler himself. I’m not ready for him yet. Regardless, you are going straight to Clubs’s shop.”

  Vin nodded.

  Kelsier frowned. “You’re just going to try and follow me again, aren’t you?”

  Vin paused, then she nodded again.

  “Why?”

  “Because I want to help,” Vin said quietly. “So far, my part in this all has essentially boiled down to going to a party. But, I’m Mistborn – you’ve trained me yourself. I’m not going to sit back and let everyone else do dangerous work while I sit, eat dinner, and watch people dance.”

  “What you’re doing at those balls is important,” Kelsier said.

  Vin nodded, glancing down. She’d just let him go, then she’d follow him. Part of her reasoning was what she’d said before: She was beginning to feel a camaraderie for this crew, and it was like nothing she had ever known. She wanted to be part of what it was doing; she wanted to help.

  However, another part of her whispered that Kelsier wasn’t telling her everything. He might trust her; he might not. However, he certainly had secrets. The Eleventh Metal, and therefore the Lord Ruler, were involved in those secrets.

  Kelsier caught her eyes, and he must have seen her intention to follow in them. He sighed, leaning back. “I’m serious, Vin! You can’t go with me.”

  “Why not?” she asked, abandoning pretense. “If what you’re doing is so dangerous, wouldn’t it be safer if you had another Mistborn watching your back?”

  “You still don’t know all of the metals,” Kelsier said.

  “Only because you haven’t taught me.”

  “You need more practice.”

  “The best practice is doing,” Vin said. “My brother trained me to steal by taking me on burglaries.”

  Kelsier shook his head. “It’s too dangerous.”

  “Kelsier,” she said in a serious tone. “We’re planning to overthrow the Final Empire. I don’t really expect to live until the end of the year anyway.

  “You keep telling the others what an advantage it is to have two Mistborn on the team. Well, it’s not going to be much of an advantage unless you actually let me be a Mistborn. How long are you going to wait? Until I’m ‘ready’? I don’t think that will ever happen.”

  Kelsier eyed her for a moment, then he smiled. “When we first met, half the time I couldn’t get you to say a word. Now you’re lecturing me.”

  Vin blushed. Finally, Kelsier sighed, reaching beneath his cloak to pull something out. “I can’t believe I’m considering this,” he muttered, handing her the bit of metal.

  Vin studied the tiny, silvery ball of metal. It was so reflective and bright that it almost seemed to be a drop of liquid, yet it was solid to the touch.

  “Atium,” Kelsier said. “Tenth, and most powerful, of the known Allomantic metals. That bead is worth more than the entire bag of boxings I gave you before.”

  “This little bit?” she asked with surprise.

  Kelsier nodded. “Atium only comes from one place – the Pits of Hathsin – where the Lord Ruler controls its production and distribution. The Great Houses get to buy a monthly stipend of atium, which is one of the main ways the Lord Ruler controls them. Go ahead and swallow it.”

  Vin eyed the bit of metal, uncertain she wanted to waste something so valuable.

  “You can’t sell it,” Kelsier said. “Thieving crews try, but they get tracked down and executed. The Lord Ruler is very protective of his atium supply.”

  Vin nodded, then swallowed the metal. Immediately, she felt a new well of power appear within her, waiting to be burned.

  “All right,” Kelsier said, standing. “Burn it as soon as I start walking.”

  Vin nodded. As he began to walk forward, she drew upon her new well of strength and burned atium.

  Kelsier seemed to fuzz slightly to her eyes; then a translucent, wraithlike image shot out into the mists in front of him. The image looked just like Kelsier, and it walked just a few steps in front of him. A very faint, trailing after-image extended from the duplicate back to Kelsier himself.

  It was like… a reverse shadow. The duplicate did everything Kelsier did – except, the image moved first. It turned, and then Kelsier followed its same path.

  The image’s mouth began moving. A second later, Kelsier spoke. “Atium lets you see just a bit into the future. Or, at least, it lets you see what people are going to do a little bit in the future. In addition, it enhances your mind, allowing you to deal with the new information, allowing you to react more quickly and collectedly.”

  The shadow stopped, then Kelsier walked up to it, stopping as well. Suddenly, the shadow reached out and slapped her, and Vin moved reflexively, putting her hand up just as Kelsier’s real hand began to move. She caught his arm midswing.

  “While you’re burning atium,” he said, “nothing can surprise you. You can swing a dagger, knowing confidently that your enemies will run right into it. You can dodge attacks with ease because you’ll be able to see where every blow will fall. Atium makes you quite nearly invincible. It enhances your mind, making you able to make use of all the new information.”

  Suddenly, dozens of other images shot from Kelsier’s body. Each one sprang in a different direction, some striding across the roof, others jumping into the air. Vin released his arm, rising and backing away in confusion.

  “I just burned atium too,” Kelsier said. “I can see what you’re going to do, and that changes what I’m going to do – which in turn changes what you’re going to do. The images reflect each of the possible actions we might take.”

  “It’s confusing,” Vin said, watching the insane j
umble of images, old ones constantly fading, new ones constantly appearing.

  Kelsier nodded. “The only way to defeat someone who is burning atium is to burn it yourself – that way, neither of you has an advantage.”

  The images vanished.

  “What did you do?” Vin asked with a start.

  “Nothing,” Kelsier said. “Your atium probably ran out.”

  Vin realized with surprise that he was right – the atium was gone. “It burns so quickly!”

  Kelsier nodded, sitting down again. “That’s probably the fastest fortune you’ve ever blown, eh?”

  Vin nodded, stunned. “It seems like such a waste.”

  Kelsier shrugged. “Atium is only valuable because of Allomancy. So, if we didn’t burn it, it wouldn’t be worth the fortune that it is. Of course, if we do burn it, we make it even more rare. It’s kind of an interesting relationship – ask Ham about it sometimes. He loves talking about atium economics.

  “Anyway, any Mistborn you face will probably have atium. However, they’ll be reluctant to use it. In addition, they won’t have swallowed it yet – atium is fragile, and your digestive juices will ruin it in a matter of hours. So, you have to walk a line between conservation and effectiveness. If it looks like your opponent is using atium, then you’d better use yours too – however, make sure he doesn’t lure you into using up your reserve before he does.”

  Vin nodded. “Does this mean you’re taking me tonight?”

  “I’ll probably regret it,” Kelsier said, sighing. “But I don’t see any way to make you stay behind – short of tying you up, perhaps. But, I warn you Vin. This could be dangerous. Very dangerous. I don’t intend to meet the Lord Ruler, but I do intend to sneak into his stronghold. I think I know where we might find a clue on how to defeat him.”

  Vin smiled, stepping forward as Kelsier waved her toward him. He reached into his pouch and pulled out a vial, which he handed to her. It was like regular Allomantic vials, except the liquid inside held only a single drop of metal. The atium bead was several times larger than the one he had given her to practice on.

  “Don’t use it unless you have to,” Kelsier warned. “You need any other metals?”

  Vin nodded. “I burned up most of my steel getting here.”

  Kelsier handed her another vial. “First, let’s go retrieve my coin pouch.”

  14

  Sometimes I wonder if I’m going mad.

  Perhaps it is due to the pressure of knowing that I must somehow bear the burden of an entire world. Perhaps it is caused by the death I have seen, the friends I have lost. The friends I have been forced to kill.

  Either way, I sometimes see shadows following me. Dark creatures that I don’t understand, nor wish to understand. Are they, perhaps, some figment of my overtaxed mind?

  IT STARTED RAINING JUST AFTER they located the coin pouch. It wasn’t a hard rain, but it seemed to clear the mist slightly. Vin shivered, pulling up her hood, crouching beside Kelsier on a rooftop. He didn’t pay the weather much heed, so neither did she. A little dampness wouldn’t hurt – in fact, it would probably help, as the rainfall would cover the sounds of their approach.

  Kredik Shaw lay before them. The peaked spires and sheer towers rose like dark talons in the night. They varied greatly in thickness – some were wide enough to house stairwells and large rooms, but others were simply thin rods of steel jutting up into the sky. The variety gave the mass a twisted, off-center symmetry – an almost-balance.

  The spikes and towers had a foreboding cast in the damp, misty night – like the ash-blackened bones of a long-weathered carcass. Looking at them, Vin thought she felt something… a depression, as if simply being close to the building was enough to suck away her hope.

  “Our target is a tunnel complex at the base of one of the far right spires,” Kelsier said, his voice barely carrying over the quiet hush of the falling rain. “We’re heading for a room at the very center of that complex.”

  “What’s inside?”

  “I don’t know,” Kelsier said. “That’s what we’re going to find out. Once every three days – and today isn’t one of them – the Lord Ruler visits this chamber. He stays for three hours, then leaves. I tried to get in once before. Three years ago.”

  “The job,” Vin whispered. “The one that…”

  “Got me captured,” Kelsier said with a nod. “Yes. At the time, we thought that the Lord Ruler stored riches in the room. I don’t think that’s true, now, but I’m still curious. The way he visits is so regular, so… odd. Something’s in that room, Vin. Something important. Maybe it holds the secret to his power and immortality.”

  “Why do we need to worry about that?” Vin asked. “You have the Eleventh Metal to defeat him, right?”

  Kelsier frowned slightly. Vin waited for an answer, but he didn’t ever give one. “I failed to get in last time, Vin,” he said instead. “We got close, but we got there too easily. When we arrived, there were Inquisitors outside the room. Waiting for us.”

  “Someone told them you were coming?”

  Kelsier nodded. “We planned that job for months. We were overconfident, but we had reason to be. Mare and I were the best – the job should have gone flawlessly.” Kelsier paused, then he turned to Vin. “Tonight, I didn’t plan at all. We’re just going in – we’ll quiet anyone who tries to stop us, then break into that room.”

  Vin sat quietly, feeling the chill rainwater on her wet hands and damp arms. Then she nodded.

  Kelsier smiled slightly. “No objections?”

  Vin shook her head. “I made you take me with you. It’s not my place to object now.”

  Kelsier chuckled. “Guess I’ve been hanging out with Breeze too long. I just don’t feel right unless someone tells me I’m crazy.”

  Vin shrugged. However, as she moved on the rooftop, she felt it again – the sense of depression coming from Kredik Shaw.

  “There is something, Kelsier,” she said. “The palace feels… wrong, somehow.”

  “That’s the Lord Ruler,” Kelsier said. “He radiates like an incredibly powerful Soother, smothering the emotions of everyone who gets close to him. Turn on your copper; that will make you immune.”

  Vin nodded, burning copper. Immediately, the sensation went away.

  “Good?” Kelsier asked.

  She nodded again.

  “All right, then,” he said, giving her a handful of coins. “Stay close to me, and keep your atium handy – just in case.”

  With that, he threw himself off the roof. Vin followed, her cloak tassels spraying rainwater. She burned pewter as she fell, and hit the ground with Allomantically strengthened legs.

  Kelsier took off at a dash, and she followed. Her speed on the wet cobblestones would have been reckless, but her pewter-fueled muscles reacted with precision, strength, and balance. She ran in the wet, misty night, burning tin and copper – one to let her see, the other to let her hide.

  Kelsier rounded the palace complex. Oddly, the grounds had no outer wall. Of course they don’t. Who would dare attack the Lord Ruler?

  Flat space, covered in cobblestones, was all that surrounded the Hill of a Thousand Spires. No tree, foliage, or structure stood to distract one’s eye from the disturbing, asymmetric collection of wings, towers, and spires that was Kredik Shaw.

  “Here we go,” Kelsier whispered, his voice carrying to her tin-enhanced ears. He turned, dashing directly toward a squat, bunkerlike section of the palace. As they approached, Vin saw a pair of guards standing by an ornate, gatelike door.

  Kelsier was on the men in a flash, cutting one down with slashing knives. The second man tried to cry out, but Kelsier jumped, slamming both feet into the man’s chest. Thrown to the side by the inhumanly strong kick, the guard crashed into the wall, then slumped to the ground. Kelsier was on his feet a second later, slamming his weight against the door and pushing it open.

  Weak lanternlight spilled out of a stone corridor within. Kelsier ducked through the door. Vin dimm
ed her tin, then followed in a crouching dash, her heart pounding. Never, in all her time as a thief, had she done something like this. Hers had been a life of sneaky burgling and scamming, not raids or muggings. As she followed Kelsier down the corridor – their feet and cloaks leaving a wet trail on the smooth stonework – she nervously pulled out a glass dagger, gripping the leather-wrapped handle in a sweaty palm.

  A man stepped into the hallway just ahead, exiting what appeared to be some sort of guard chamber. Kelsier jumped forward and elbowed the soldier in the stomach, then slammed him against the wall. Even as the guard collapsed, Kelsier ducked into the room.

  Vin followed, stepping into chaos. Kelsier Pulled a metal candelabrum from the corner up into his hands, then began to spin with it, striking down soldier after soldier. Guards cried out, scrambling and grabbing staves from the side of the room. A table covered in half-eaten meals was thrown to the side as men tried to make room.

  A soldier turned toward Vin, and she reacted without thinking. She burned steel and threw out a handful of coins. She Pushed, and the missiles shot forward, tearing through the guard’s flesh and dropping him.

  She burned iron, Pulling the coins back to her hand. She turned with a bloodied fist, spraying the room with metal, dropping three soldiers. Kelsier felled the last with his impromptu staff.

  I just killed four men, Vin thought, stunned. Before, Reen had always done the killing.

  There was rustling behind. Vin spun to see another squadron of soldiers enter through a door opposite her. To the side, Kelsier dropped his candelabrum and stepped forward. The room’s four lanterns suddenly ripped from their mountings, slamming directly toward him. He ducked to the side, letting the lanterns crash together.

  The room fell dark. Vin burned tin, her eyes adapting to light from the corridor outside. The guards, however, stumbled to a halt.

  Kelsier was amidst them a second later. Daggers flashing in the darkness. Men screaming. Then all was silent.

  Vin stood surrounded by death, bloodied coins dribbling from her stunned fingers. She kept a tight grip on her dagger, however – if only to steady her quivering arm.