The Final Empire m-1

by Brandon Sanderson

  Vin stood, dusting off her clothing. She wore mistcloak, shirt, and trousers; it had been days since she’d worn a dress. She only put in token appearances at Mansion Renoux. Kelsier was too worried about assassins to let her stay there for long.

  At least we bought Kliss’s silence, Vin thought, annoyed at the expense. “It’s time?” she asked.

  Kelsier nodded. “Nearly so, at least. I want to stop somewhere on the way.”

  Vin nodded. For their second meeting, Marsh had chosen a location that he was supposedly scouting for the Ministry. It was a perfect opportunity to meet, since Marsh had an excuse to be in the building all night, ostensibly Seeking for any Allomantic activity nearby. He would have a Soother with him for a good deal of the time, but there would be an opening near the middle of the night when Marsh figured he would have a good hour alone. Not much time if he had to sneak out and back, but plenty of time for a pair of stealthy Mistborn to pay him a quick visit.

  They bid farewell to Spook and Pushed off into the night. However, they didn’t travel the rooftops for long before Kelsier led them down onto the street, landing and walking to conserve strength and metals.

  It’s kind of odd, Vin thought, remembering her first night practicing Allomancy with Kelsier. I don’t even think of the empty streets as creepy anymore.

  The cobblestones were slick from mistwater, and the deserted street eventually disappeared into the distant haze. It was dark, silent, and lonely; even the war hadn’t changed very much. Soldier groups, when they attacked, went in clumps, striking quickly and trying to overrun the defenses of an enemy house.

  Yet, despite the emptiness of the nighttime city, Vin felt comfortable in it. The mists were with her.

  “Vin,” Kelsier said as they walked. “I want to thank you.”

  She turned to him, a tall, proud figure in a majestic mistcloak. “Thank me? Why?”

  “For the things you said about Mare. I’ve been thinking a lot about that day… about her. I don’t know if your ability to see through copperclouds explains everything, but… well, given the choice, I’d rather believe that Mare didn’t betray me.”

  Vin nodded, smiling.

  He shook his head ruefully. “It sounds foolish, doesn’t it? As if… all these years, I’ve just been waiting for a reason to give in to self-delusion.”

  “I don’t know,” Vin said. “Once, maybe I would have thought you a fool, but… well, that’s kind of what trust is, isn’t it? A willful self-delusion? You have to shut out that voice that whispers about betrayal, and just hope that your friends aren’t going to hurt you.”

  Kelsier chuckled. “I don’t think you’re helping the argument any, Vin.”

  She shrugged. “Makes sense to me. Distrust is really the same thing – only on the other side. I can see how a person, given the choice between two assumptions, would choose to trust.”

  “But not you?” Kelsier asked.

  Vin shrugged again. “I don’t know anymore.”

  Kelsier hesitated. “This… Elend of yours. There’s a chance that he was just trying to scare you into leaving the city, right? Perhaps he said those things for your own good.”

  “Maybe,” Vin said. “But, there was something different about him… about the way he looked at me. He knew I was lying to him, but I don’t think he realized that I was skaa. He probably thought I was a spy from one of the other houses. Either way, he seemed honest in his desire to be rid of me.”

  “Maybe you thought that because you were already convinced that he was going to leave you.”

  “I…” Vin trailed off, glancing down at the slick, ashen street as they walked. “I don’t know – and it’s your fault, you know. I used to understand everything. Now it’s all confused.”

  “Yes, we’ve messed you up right properly,” Kelsier said with a smile.

  “You don’t seem bothered by the fact.”

  “Nope,” Kelsier said. “Not a bit. Ah, here we are.”

  He stopped beside a large, wide building – probably another skaa tenement. It was dark inside; skaa couldn’t afford lamp oil, and they would have put out the building’s central hearth after preparing the evening meal.

  “This?” Vin asked uncertainly.

  Kelsier nodded, walking up to tap lightly on the door. To Vin’s surprise, it opened hesitantly, a wiry skaa face peeking out into the mists.

  “Lord Kelsier!” the man said quietly.

  “I told you I’d visit,” Kelsier said, smiling. “Tonight seemed like a good time.”

  “Come in, come in,” the man said, pulling the door open. He stepped back, careful not to let any of the mist touch him as Kelsier and Vin entered.

  Vin had been in skaa tenements before, but never before had they seemed so… depressing. The smell of smoke and unwashed bodies was almost overpowering, and she had to extinguish her tin to keep from gagging. The wan light of a small coal stove showed a crowd of people packed together, sleeping on the floor. They kept the room swept of ash, but there was only so much they could do – black stains still covered clothing, walls, and faces. There were few furnishings, not to mention far too few blankets to go around.

  I used to live like this, Vin thought with horror. The crew lairs were just as packed – sometimes more so. This… was my life.

  People roused as they saw that they had a visitor. Kelsier had his sleeves rolled up, Vin noticed, and the scars on his arms were visible even by emberlight. They stood out starkly, running lengthwise up from his wrist past his elbows, crisscrossing and overlapping.

  The whispers began immediately.

  “The Survivor…”

  “He’s here!”

  “Kelsier, the Lord of the Mists…”

  That’s a new one, Vin thought with a raised eyebrow. She stayed back as Kelsier smiled, stepping forward to meet the skaa. The people gathered around him with quiet excitement, reaching out to touch his arms and cloak. Others just stood and stared, watching him with reverence.

  “I come to spread hope,” Kelsier said to them quietly. “House Hasting fell tonight.”

  There were murmurs of surprise and awe.

  “I know many of you worked in the Hasting smithies and steel mills,” Kelsier said. “And, honestly, I cannot say what this means for you. But it is a victory for all of us. For a time, at least, your men won’t die before the forges or beneath the whips of Hasting taskmasters.”

  There were murmurs through the small crowd, and one voice finally spoke the concern loud enough for Vin to hear. “House Hasting is gone? Who will feed us?”

  So frightened, Vin thought. I was never like that… was I?

  “I’ll send you another shipment of food,” Kelsier promised. “Enough to last you for a while, at least.”

  “You’ve done so much for us,” another man said.

  “Nonsense,” Kelsier said. “If you wish to repay me, then stand up just a little straighter. Be a little less afraid. They can be beaten.”

  “By men like you, Lord Kelsier,” a woman whispered. “But not by us.”

  “You’d be surprised,” Kelsier said as the crowd began to make way for parents bringing their children forward. It seemed like everyone in the room wanted their sons to meet Kelsier personally. Vin watched with mixed feelings. The crew still had reservations regarding Kelsier’s rising fame with the skaa, though they kept their word and remained silent.

  He really does seem to care for them, Vin thought, watching Kelsier pick up a small child. I don’t think it’s just a show. This is how he is – he loves people, loves the skaa. But… it’s more like the love of a parent for a child than it is like the love of a man for his equals.

  Was that so wrong? He was, after all, a kind of father to the skaa. He was the noble lord they always should have had. Still, Vin couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable as she watched the faintly illuminated, dirty faces of those skaa families, their eyes worshipful and reverent.

  Kelsier eventually bid the group farewell, telling them he had an app
ointment. Vin and he left the cramped room, stepping out into blessedly fresh air. Kelsier remained quiet as they traveled toward Marsh’s new Soothing station, though he did walk with a bit more of a spring in his step.

  Eventually, Vin had to say something. “You visit them often?”

  Kelsier nodded. “At least a couple of houses a night. It breaks up the monotony of my other work.”

  Killing noblemen and spreading false rumors, Vin thought. Yes, visiting the skaa would be a nice break.

  The meeting place was only a few streets away. Kelsier paused in a doorway as they approached, squinting in the dark night. Finally, he pointed at a window, just faintly lit. “Marsh said he’d leave a light burning if the other obligators were gone.”

  “Window or stairs?” Vin asked.

  “Stairs,” Kelsier said. “The door should be unlocked, and the Ministry owns the entire building. It will be empty.”

  Kelsier was right on both counts. The building didn’t smell musty enough to be abandoned, but the bottom few floors were obviously unused. Vin and he quickly climbed up the stairwell.

  “Marsh should be able to tell us the Ministry reaction to the House War,” Kelsier said as they reached the top floor. Lanternlight flickered through the door at the top, and he pushed it open, still speaking. “Hopefully, that Garrison won’t get back too quickly. The damage is mostly done, but I’d like the war to go on for–”

  He froze in the doorway, blocking Vin’s view.

  She flared pewter and tin immediately, falling to a crouch, listening for attackers. There was nothing. Just silence.

  “No…” Kelsier whispered.

  Then Vin saw the trickle of dark red liquid seeping around the side of Kelsier’s foot. It pooled slightly, then began to drip down the first step.

  Oh, Lord Ruler…

  Kelsier stumbled into the room. Vin followed, but she knew what she’d see. The corpse lay near the center of the chamber, flayed and dismembered, the head completely crushed. It was barely recognizable as human. The walls were sprayed red.

  Could one body really produce this much blood? It was just like before, in the basement of Camon’s lair – only with a single victim.

  “Inquisitor,” Vin whispered.

  Kelsier, heedless of the gore, stumbled to his knees beside Marsh’s corpse. He raised a hand as if to touch the skinless body, but remained frozen there, stunned.

  “Kelsier,” Vin said urgently. “This was recent – the Inquisitor could still be near.”

  He didn’t move.

  “Kelsier!” Vin snapped.

  Kelsier shook, looking around. His eyes met hers, and lucidity returned. He stumbled to his feet.

  “Window,” Vin said, rushing across the room. She paused, however, when she saw something sitting on a small desk beside the wall. A wooden table leg, tucked half-hidden beneath a blank sheet of paper. Vin snatched it as Kelsier reached the window.

  He turned back, looking over the room one last time, then jumped out into the night.

  Farewell, Marsh, Vin thought regretfully, following.

  “ ‘I think that the Inquisitors suspect me,’ ” Dockson read. The paper – a single sheet recovered from inside the table leg – was clean and white, free from the blood that stained Kelsier’s knees and the bottom of Vin’s cloak.

  Dockson continued, reading as he sat at Clubs’s kitchen table. “ ‘I’ve been asking too many questions, and I know they sent at least one message to the corrupt obligator who supposedly trained me as an acolyte. I thought to seek out the secrets that the rebellion has always needed to know. How does the Ministry recruit Mistborn to be Inquisitors? Why are Inquisitors more powerful than regular Allomancers? What, if any, are their weaknesses?

  “ ‘Unfortunately, I’ve learned next to nothing about the Inquisitors – though the politicking within the regular Ministry ranks continues to amaze me. It’s like the regular obligators don’t even care about the world outside, except for the prestige they earn by being the most clever or successful in applying the Lord Ruler’s dictates.

  “ ‘The Inquisitors, however, are different. They are far more loyal to the Lord Ruler than the regular obligators – and this is, perhaps, part of the dissension between the two groups.

  “ ‘Regardless, I feel that I am close. They do have a secret, Kelsier. A weakness. I’m sure of it. The other obligators whisper of it, though none of them know it.

  “ ‘I fear that I’ve prodded too much. The Inquisitors tail me, watch me, ask after me. So, I prepare this note. Perhaps my caution is unnecessary.

  “ ‘Perhaps not.’ ”

  Dockson looked up. “That’s… all it says.”

  Kelsier stood at the far side of the kitchen, back to the cupboard, reclining in his usual position. But… there was no levity in his posture this time. He stood with arms folded, head slightly bowed. His disbelieving grief appeared to have vanished, replaced with another emotion – one Vin had sometimes seen smoldering darkly behind his eyes. Usually when he spoke of the nobility.

  She shivered despite herself. Standing as he was, she was suddenly aware of his clothing – dark gray mistcloak, long-sleeved black shirt, charcoal trousers. In the night, the clothing was simply camouflage. In the lit room, however, the black colors made him look menacing.

  He stood up straight, and the room grew tense.

  “Tell Renoux to pull out,” Kelsier said softly, his voice like iron. “He can use the planned exit story – that of a ‘retreat’ back to his family lands because of the house war – but I want him gone by tomorrow. Send a Thug and a Tineye with him as protection, but tell him to abandon his canal boats one day out of the city, then return to us.”

  Dockson paused, then glanced at Vin and the others. “Okay…”

  “Marsh knew everything, Dox,” Kelsier said. “They broke him before they killed him – that’s how Inquisitors work.”

  He let the words hang. Vin felt a chill. The lair was compromised.

  “To the backup lair, then?” Dockson asked. “Only you and I knew its location.”

  Kelsier nodded firmly. “I want everyone out of this shop, apprentices included, in fifteen minutes. I’ll meet you at the backup lair in two days.”

  Dockson looked up at Kelsier, frowning. “Two days? Kell, what are you planning?”

  Kelsier strode over to the door. He threw it open, letting in the mist, then glanced back at the crew with eyes as hard as any Inquisitor’s spikes.

  “They hit me where it couldn’t have hurt worse. I’m going to do likewise.”

  Walin pushed himself in the darkness, feeling his way through the cramped caverns, forcing his body through cracks nearly too small. He continued downward, searching with his fingers, ignoring his numerous scrapes and cuts.

  Must keep going, must keep going… His remaining sanity told him that this was his last day. It had been six days since his last success. If he failed a seventh time, he would die.

  Must keep going.

  He couldn’t see; he was too far beneath the surface to catch even a reflected glimpse of sunlight. But, even without light, he could find his way. There were only two directions: up and down. Movements to the side were unimportant, easily disregarded. He couldn’t get lost as long as he kept moving down.

  All the while, he quested with his fingers, seeking the telltale roughness of budding crystal. He couldn’t return this time, not until he’d been successful, not until…

  Must keep going.

  His hands brushed something soft and cold as he moved. A corpse, stuck rotting between two rocks. Walin moved on. Bodies weren’t uncommon in the tight caverns; some of the corpses were fresh, most were simply bones. Often, Walin wondered if the dead ones weren’t really the lucky ones.

  Must keep going.

  There wasn’t really “time” in the caverns. Usually, he returned above to sleep – though the surface held taskmasters with whips, they also had food. It was meager, barely enough to keep him alive, but it was better than t
he starvation that would come from staying below too long.

  Must keep–

  He froze. He lay with his torso pinched in a tight rift in the rock, and had been in the process of wiggling his way through. However, his fingers – always searching, even when he was barely conscious – had been feeling the walls. And they’d found something.

  His hand quivered with anticipation as he felt the crystal buds. Yes, yes, that was them. They grew in a wide, circular pattern on the wall; they were small at the edges, but got gradually bigger near the center. At the direct middle of the circular pattern, the crystals curved inward, following a pocketlike hollow in the wall. Here, the crystals grew long, each one having a jagged, sharp edge. Like teeth lining the maw of a stone beast.

  Taking a breath, praying to the Lord Ruler, Walin rammed his hand into the fist-sized, circular opening. The crystals ripped his arm, tearing long, shallow gashes in his skin. He ignored the pain, forcing his arm in further, up to his elbow, searching with his fingers for…

  There! His fingers found a small rock at the center of the pocket – a rock formed by the mysterious drippings of the crystals. A Hathsin geode.

  He grasped it eagerly, pulling it out, ripping his arm again as he withdrew it from the crystal-lined hole. He cradled the small rock sphere, breathing heavily with joy.

  Another seven days. He would live another seven days.

  Before hunger and fatigue could weaken him further, Walin began the laborious climb back upward. He squeezed through crevasses, climbed up juttings in walls. Sometimes he had to move to the right or left until the ceiling opened up, but it always did. There were really only two directions: up and down.

  He kept a wary ear out for others. He had seen climbers killed before, slain by younger, stronger men who hoped to steal a geode. Fortunately, he met nobody. It was good. He was an older man – old enough to know that he never should have tried to steal food from his plantation lord.

  Perhaps he had earned his punishment. Perhaps he deserved to die in the Pits of Hathsin.