Mistborn: The Hero of Ages (53 page)

She'd searched the entire room, trying to find a way out, but had come up with nothing. Even worse, she'd located no hidden stock of atium. It was hard to tell with all the cans of food and other sources of metal, but her initial search hadn't been promising.

"Of course it won't be in here," she muttered to herself. "Yomen wouldn't have had time to pull out all of these cans, but if he were planning to trap me, he certainly would have removed the atium. I'm such an idiot!"

She leaned back, annoyed, f rustrated, exhausted.

I hope Elend did what I said,
Vin thought. If he had gotten captured too . . . Vin knocked her head back against the obstinate stones, frustrated.

Something sounded in the darkness.

Vin froze, then quickly scrambled up into a crouch. She checked her metal reserves she had plenty, for the moment.

I'm probabl y just

It came again. A soft footfall. Vin shivered, realizing that she had only cursorily checked the chamber, and then she'd been searching for atium and other ways out. Could someone have been hiding inside the entire time?

She burned bronze, and felt him. An Allomancer. Mistborn. The one she had felt before; the man she had chased.

So that's it!
she thought.
Yomen
did
want his Mistborn to f ight us but he knew he had to separate us f
irst!
She smiled, standing. It wasn't a perfect situation, but it was better than thinking about the immobile door. A Mistborn she could beat, then hold hostage until they released her. She waited until the man was close she could tell by the beating of the Allomantic pulses that she hoped he didn't know she could feel then spun, kicking her lantern toward him. She j umped forward, guiding herself toward her enemy, who stood outlined by the lantern's last f lickers. He looked up at her as she soared through the air, her daggers out.

And she recognized his face.

Reen.

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PART FOUR BEAUTIFUL DESTROYER
. 110 201

A man with a given power such as an A llomantic ability who then gained a Hemalurgic spike
granting that same power would be nearly twice as strong as a natural unenhanced A llomancer.
An Inquisitor who was a Seeker be f ore his transformation would there f ore have an enhanced abilit
y to use bronze. This simple f act explains how many Inquisitors were able to pierce coppercloud s.
45

VIN LANDED, ABORTING HER ATTACK,
but still tense, eyes narrow with suspicion. Reen was backlit by the fitful lantern-light, looking much as she remembered. The four years had changed him, of course he was taller, broader of build but he had the same hard face, unrelieved by humor. His posture was familiar to her; during her childhood, he had of ten stood as he did now, arms folded in disapproval.

It all returned to her. Things she thought she'd banished into the dark, quarantined parts of her mind: blows from Reen's hand, harsh criticism from his tongue, furtive moves from city to city. And yet, tempering these memories was an insight. She was no longer the young girl who had borne her beatings in confused silence. Looking back, she could see the fear Reen had shown in the things he had done . He'd been terrif ied that his half -breed Allomancer of a sister would be discovered and slaughtered by the Steel Inquisitors. He'd beaten her when she made herself stand out. He'd yelled at her when she was too competent. He'd moved her when he'd f eared that the Canton of Inquisition had caught their trail .

Reen had died protecting her. He had taught her paranoia and distrust out of a twisted sense of duty, f or he'd believed that was the only way she would survive on the streets of the Final Empire. And, she'd stayed with him, enduring the treatment. Inside not even buried all that deeply she'd known something very important. Reen had loved her.

She looked up and met the eyes of the man standing in the cavern. Then, she slowly shook her head.
No,
she thought.
It looks like him, but those eyes are
not
his.
"Who are you?" she demanded.

"I'm your brother," the creature said, frowning. "It's only been a few years, Vin. You've grown brash I thought I'd taught you better than that." He certainly has the mannerisms down, Vin thought, walking forward warily. How did he learn them? Nobody thought that Reen was of any
importance during his
li fe. They wouldn't have known to study him.

"Where did you get his bones?" Vin asked, circling the creature. The cavern floor was rough and lined with burgeoning shelves. Darkness extended in all directions. "And how did you get the face so perfect? I thought kandra had to digest a body to make a good copy ."

He had to be a kandra, af ter all. How else would someone manage such a perfect imitation? The creature turned, regarding her with a confused expression. "What is this nonsense ? Vin, I realize that we're not exactly the type to reunite with a fond embrace, but I
did
at least expect you to recognize me."

Vin ignored the complaints. Reen, then Breeze, had taught her too well. She'd know Reen if she saw him. "I need information," she s aid. "About one of your kind. He is called TenSoon, and he returned to your Homeland a year ago. He said he was going to be put on trial. Do you know what happened to him? I would like to contact him, if possible."

"Vin," the false Reen said f irmly, "I am
not
a kandra."
We'll see about that,
Vin thought, reaching out with zinc and hitting the impostor with a duraluminfueled blast of emotional Allomancy. He didn't even stumble. Such an attack would have put a kandra under Vin's control, just as it did with koloss. Vin wavered. It was growing difficult to see the impostor in the waning lantern-light, even with tin enhancing her eyes.

The failed emotional Allomancy meant that he wasn't a kandra. But he wasn't Reen either. There seemed only one logical course to fol low.

She attacked.

Whoever the impostor was, he knew her well enough to anticipate this move. Though he exclaimed in mock surprise, he immediately jumped back, getting out of her reach. He moved on light f eet light enough that Vin was reasonably certain he was burning pewter. In fact, she could still feel the Allomantic pulses coming from him, though f or some reason it was hard for her to pin down exactly which metals he was burning.

Either way, the Allomancy was an additional confirmation of her suspicions. Reen had not been an Allomancer. True, he could ha ve Snapped during their time apart, but she didn't think he had any noble blood to impart him an Allomantic heritage. Vin had gotten her powers f rom her father, the parent she and Reen had not shared. She attacked experimentally, testing this impostor's skill. He stayed out of her reach, watching carefully as she alternately prowled and attacked. She tried to corner him against the shelves, but he was too careful to be caught.

"This is pointless," the impostor said, jumping away from her again. No coins, Vin thought. He doesn't use coins to jump.

"You'd have to expose yourself too much to actually hit me, Vin," the impostor said, " and I'm obviously good enough to stay out of your reach. Can't we stop this and get on to more important matters? Aren't you even a bit curious as to what I've been doing these last four years?" Vin backed into a crouch, like a cat preparing to pounce, and smiled.

"What?" the impostor asked.

At that moment, her stalling paid off. Behind them, the overturned lantern finally f lickered out, plunging the cavern into darkness. But Vin, with her ability to pierce copperclouds, could still sense her enemy. She'd dropped her coin pouch back when she'd first sensed someone in the room she bore no metal to give him warning of her approach.

She launched herself forward, intending to grab her enemy around the neck and pull him into a pin. The Allomantic pulses didn't let her see him, but they did tell her exactly where he was. That would be enough of an edge.

She was wrong. He dodged her just as easily as he had before.

Vin fell still. Tin, she thought. He can hear me coming.

So, she kicked
over
a storage shelf,
then attacked again
as the crash of the falling shelf echoed loudly in the chamber, spilling cans across the floor. The impostor evaded her again. Vin f roze. Something was very wrong. Somehow, he always sensed her. The cavern fell silent. Neither sound nor light bounced off its walls. Vin crouched, the fingers of one hand resting lightly on the cool stone before her. She could feel the thumping, his Allomantic power washing across her in waves. She focused on it, trying to differentiate the metals that had produced it. Yet, the pulses felt opaque. Muddled. There's something familiar about them, she realized. When I f irst sensed this impostor, I thought . . . I thought he was
the mist spirit.

There was a reason the pulses felt familiar. Without the light to distract her, making her connect the figure with Reen, she could see what she'd been missing. Her heart began to beat quickly, and for the first time this evening imprisonment included she began to feel afraid. The pulses felt just like the ones she'd felt a year ago. The pulses that had led her to the Well of Ascension.

"Why have you come here ? " she whispered to the blackness.

Laughter. It rang in the empty cavern, loud, free. The thumpings approached, though no footsteps marked the thing's movement. The pulses suddenly grew enormous and overpowering. They washed across Vin, unbounded by the cavern's echoes, an unreal sound that passed through things both living and dead. She stepped backward in the darkness, and nearly tripped over the shelves she'd knocked down.

I should have known you wouldn't be f ooled, a kindly voice said in her head. The thing's voice. She'd heard it only once before, a year ago, when she'd released it from its imprisonment in the Well of Ascension.

"What do you want? " she whispered.

You know what I want. You've always known.

And she did. She had sensed it in the moment when she had touched the thing. Ruin, she called it. It had very simple desires. To see the world come to its end. "I will stop you," she said. Yet, it was hard to not feel foolish speaking the words to a force she did not understand, a thing that existed beyond men and beyond worlds.

It laughed again, though this time the sound was only inside her head. She could still feel Ruin pulsing though not from any one specific place. It surrounded her. She forced herself to stand up straight.

Ah, V in, Ruin said, its voice almost fatherly in tone.
You act as i f I were your enemy.

"You are my enemy . You seek to end the things I love."

And is an ending always bad? it asked. Must not all things,
even worlds, someday end?

"There is no need to hasten that end," Vin said. "No reason to force it."
A ll things are sub ject to their own nature, Vin,
Ruin said, seeming to flow around her. She could feel its touch upon her wet and delicate, like mist.
You cannot blame me f or being what I am. Without me,
nothing
would end. Nothing could end. A nd there f ore, nothing could grow. I am li fe. Would you f ight li f
e
itsel f ?
Vin fell silent.

Do not mourn because the day of this world's end has arrived,
Ruin said.
That end was ordained the
very day of the world's conception. There is a beauty in death the beauty of f inality, the beaut y of
completion.

For nothing is truly complete until the day it is f inally destroyed.

"Enough," Vin snapped, feeling alone and smothered in the chill darkness. "Stop taunting me. Why have you come here ?"

Come here?
it asked.
Why do you ask that?

"What is your purpose in appearing now ? " Vin said. "Have you simply come to gloat over my imprisonment?"

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I have not " just appeared," Vin,
Ruin said.
Why, I have never lef t. I 've alwa ys been with you. A part
of you.

"Nonsense," Vin said. "You only j ust revealed yourself." I revealed myself to your e yes, yes, Ruin said. But , I see that
you do not understand. I 've alwa ys
been with you, even when you could not see me.
It paused, and there was silence, both outside and inside of her head.

When you're alone, no one can betray you, a voice whispered in the back of her mind. Reen's voice. The voice she heard sometimes, almost real, like a conscience . She'd taken it for granted that the voice was just part of her psyche a leftover from Reen's teachings. An instinct.
An yone will betray you, Vin,
the voice said, repeating a bit of advice it commonly gave. As it spoke, it slowly slid from Reen's voice into that of Ruin.
An yone. I've always been with you. You've
heard me in your mind since your first years of li f e.

. 112 201

Ruin 's escape deserves some explanation. This is a thing that even I had a problem understanding.
Ruin could not have used the power at the Well of Ascension. It was of Preservation, Ruin 's f
undamental opposite. Indeed, a direct confrontation of these two forces would have caused the
destruction of both.

Ruin 's prison, however, was f abricated of that power. There fore, it was attuned to the power of
Preservation the ver y power of the Well. When that power was released and dispersed, rather than
utilized, it acted as a key. The subsequent "unlocking" is what finally f reed Ruin.
46

"ALL RIGHT," BREEZE SAID,
"so does somebody want to speculate on how our team's spy ended up becoming a pseudo-religious vigilante freedom fighter?" Sazed shook his head. They sat in the ir cavern lair beneath the Canton of Inquisition. Breeze, declaring that he was tired of travel rations, had ordered several of the soldiers to break open some of the cavern's supplies to prepare a more suitable meal. Sazed might have complained, but the truth w as that the cavern was so well stocked that even a determinedly eating Breeze wouldn't be able to make a dent in it. They had waited all day for Spook to return to the lair. Tensions in the city were high, and most of their contacts had gone to ground, weathering the Citizen's paranoia regarding a rebellion. Soldiers walked the streets, and a sizable contingent had set up camp j ust outside the Ministry building. S azed was worried that the Citizen had associated Breeze and Sazed with Spook's appearance at the executions. It appeared that their days of moving about freely in the city were at an end. "Why hasn't he come back?" Al lrianne asked. She and Breeze sat at a f ine table, pilf ered from an empty nobleman's mansion. They had, of course, changed back to their fine clothing a suit on Breeze, a peach dress on Allrianne. They always changed as soon as possible, as if eager to reaf firm to themselves who they really were. Sazed did not dine with them; he didn't have much of an appetite. Captain Goradel leaned against a bookcase a short distance away, determined to keep a close eye on his charges. Though the good-natured man wore his usual smile, Sazed could tell from the orders he'd given to his soldiers that he was worried about the possibility of an assault. He made very certain that Breeze, Allrianne, and Sazed stayed within the protective conf ines of the cavern. Better to be trapped than dead. "I'm sure the boy is fine, my dear," Breeze said, finally answering Allrianne's question. "It's likely he hasn't come back because he fe ars implicating us in what he did today."