Well of Ascension

by Brandon Sanderson

  Problems for another night, she thought as another source of Allomancy appeared to her bronze senses. A stronger, more familiar source.

  Zane.

  Vin hopped up onto the battlements, nodded farewell to OreSeur, then jumped out into the night.

  Mist twisted in the sky, different breezes forming silent streams of white, like rivers in the air. Vin skimmed them, burst through them, and rode them like a bouncing stone cast upon the waters. She quickly reached the place where she and Zane had last parted, the lonely abandoned street.

  He waited in the center, still wearing black. Vin dropped to the cobbles before him in a flurry of mistcloak tassels. She stood up straight.

  He never wears a cloak. Why is that?

  The two stood opposite one another for a few silent moments. Zane had to know of her questions, but he offered no introduction, greeting, or explanation. Eventually, he reached into a pocket and pulled out a coin. He tossed it to the street between them, and it bounced-metal ringing against stone-and came to a stop.

  He jumped into the air. Vin did likewise, both Pushing against the coin. Their separate weights nearly canceled each other out, and they shot up and back, like the two arms of a "V."

  Zane spun, throwing a coin behind him. It slammed against the side of a building and he Pushed, throwing himself toward Vin. Suddenly, she felt a force slam against her coin pouch, threatening to toss her back down to the ground.

  What is the game tonight, Zane? she thought even as she yanked the tie on her pouch, dropping it free from her belt. She Pushed against it, and it shot downward, forced by her weight. When it hit the ground, Vin had the better upward force: she was Pushing against the pouch from directly above, while Zane was only pushing from the side. Vin lurched upward, streaking past Zane in the cool night air, then threw her weight against the coins in his own pocket.

  Zane began to drop. However, he grabbed the coins- keeping them from ripping free-and Pushed down on her pouch. He froze in the air-Vin Pushing him from above, his own Push forcing him upward. And, because he stopped, Vin's Push suddenly threw her backward.

  Vin let go of Zane and allowed herself to drop. Zane, however, didn't let himself fall. He Pushed himself back up into the air, then began to bound away, never letting his feet touch rooftops or cobblestones.

  He tried to force me to the ground, Vin thought. First one to fall loses, is that it? Still tumbling, Vin spun herself in the air. She retrieved her coin pouch with a careful Pull, then threw it down toward the ground and Pushed herself upward.

  She Pulled the pouch back into her hand even as she flew, then jumped after Zane, Pushing recklessly through the night, trying to catch up. In the darkness, Luthadel seemed cleaner than it did during the day. She couldn't see the ash-stained buildings, the dark refineries, the haze of smoke from the forges. Around her, the empty keeps of the old high nobility watched like silent monoliths. Some of the majestic buildings had been given to lesser nobles, and others had become government buildings. The rest- after being plundered at Elend's command-lay unused, their stained-glass windows dark, their vaultings, statues, and murals ignored.

  Vin wasn't certain if Zane purposely headed to Keep Hasting, or if she simply caught up to him there. Either way, the enormous structure loomed as Zane noticed her proximity and turned, throwing a handful of coins at her.

  Vin Pushed against them tentatively. Sure enough, as soon as she touched them, Zane flared steel and Pushed harder. If she'd been Pushing hard, the force of his attack would have thrown her backward. As it was, she was able to deflect the coins to her sides.

  Zane immediately Pushed against her coin pouch again, throwing himself upward along one of Keep HastingV walls. Vin was ready for this move as well. Raring pewter, she grabbed the pouch in a two-handed grip and ripped it in half.

  Coins sprayed beneath her, shooting toward the ground under the force of Zane's Push. She selected one and Pushed herself, gaining lift as soon as it hit the ground. She spun, facing upward, her tin-enhanced ears hearing a shower of metal hit the stones far below. She'd still have access to the coins, but she didn't have to carry them on her body.

  She shot up toward Zane, one of the keep's outer towers looming in the mists to her left. Keep Hasting was one of the finest in the city. It had a large tower at the center-tall, imposing, wide-with a ballroom at the very top. It also had six smaller towers rising equidistant around the central structure, each one connected to it by a thick wall. It was an elegant, majestic building. Somehow, she suspected that Zane had sought it out for that reason.

  Vin watched him now, his Push losing power as he got too far from the coin anchor below. He spun directly above her, a dark figure against a shifting sky of mist, still well below the top of the wall. Vin yanked sharply on several coins below. Pulling them into the air in case she needed them.

  Zane plummeted toward her. Vin reflexively Pushed against the coins in his pocket, then realized that was probably what he'd wanted: it gave him lift while forcing her down. She let go as she fell, and she soon passed the group of coins she'd Pulled into the air. She Pulled on one, bringing it into her hand, then Pushed on another, sending it sideways into the wall.

  Vin shot to the side. Zane whooshed by her in the air, his passing churning the mists. He soon bobbed back up- probably using a coin from below-and flung a double handful of coins straight at her.

  Vin spun, again deflecting the coins. They shot around her, and she heard several pling against something in the mists behind her. Another wall. She and Zane were sparring between a pair of the keep's outer towers; there was an angled wall to either side of them, with the central tower just a short distance in front of them. They were fighting near the tip of an open-bottomed triangle of stone walls.

  Zane shot toward her. Vin reached out to throw her weight against him, but realized with a start that he was no longer carrying any coins. He was Pushing on something behind him, though-the same coin Vin had slammed against the wall with her weight. She Pushed herself upward, trying to get out of the way, but he angled upward as well.

  Zane crashed into her, and they.began to fall. As they spun together, Zane grabbed her by the upper arms, holding his face close to hers. He didn't seem angry, or even very forceful.

  He just seemed calm.

  "This is what we are, Vin," he said quietly. Wind and mist whipped around them as they fell, the tassels of Vin's mistcloak writhing in the air around Zane. "Why do you play their games? Why do you let them control you?"

  Vin placed her hand lightly against Zane's chest, then Pushed on the coin that had been in her palm. The force of the Push lurched her free of his grip, flipping him up and backward. She caught herself just a few feet from the ground, Pushing against fallen coins, throwing herself upward again.

  She passed Zane in the night, and saw a smile on his face as he fell. Vin reached downward. locking on to the blue lines extending toward the ground far below, then flared iron and Pulled against all of them at once. Blue lines zipped around her, the coins rising and rising shooting past the surprised Zane.

  She Pulled a few choice coins into her hands. Let's see if you can stay in the air now, Vin thought with a smile. Pushing outward, spraying the other coins away into the night. Zane continued to fall.

  Vin began to fall as well. She threw a coin to each side, then Pushed. The coins shot into the mists, flying toward the stone walls to either side. Coins slapped against stone, and Vin lurched to a halt in the air.

  She Pushed hard, holding herself in place, anticipating a Pull from below. If he pulls, I Pull, too, she thought. We both fall, and I keep the coins between us in the air. He'll hit the ground first.

  A coin shot past her in the air.

  What! Where did he get that! She'd been sure that she'd Pushed away every coin below.

  The coin arced upward, through the mists, trailing a blue line visible to her Allomancer's eyes. It crested the top of the wall to her right. Vin glanced down just in time to see Zane slow, then l
urch upward-Pulling on the coin that was now held in place atop the wall by the stone railing.

  He passed her with a self-satisfied look on his face.

  Show-off.

  Vin let go of the coin to her left while still Pushing to her right. She lurched to the left, nearly colliding with the wall before she threw another coin at it. She Pushed on this one, throwing herself upward and to the right. Another coin sent her back upward to the left, and she continued to bounce between the walls, back and forth, until she crested the top.

  She smiled as she twisted in the air. Zane-hovering in the air above the wall's top-nodded appreciatively as she passed. She noticed that he'd grabbed a few of her discarded coins.

  Time for a little attack myself, Vin thought.

  She slammed a Pushagainst the coins in Zane's hand, and they shot her upward. However, Zane was still Pushing against the coin on the wall top below, and so he didn't fall. Instead he hung in the air between the two forces- his own Push forcing him upward, Vin's Push forcing him downward.

  Vin heard him grunt in exertion, and she Pushed harder. She was so focused, however, that she barely saw him open his other hand and Push a coin up toward her. She reached out to Push against it, but fortunately his aim was off, and the coin missed her by a few inches.

  Or perhaps it didn't. Immediately, the coin zipped back downward and hit her in the back. Zane Pulled on it forcefully, and the bit of metal dug into Vin's skin. She gasped, flaring pewter to keep the coin from cutting through her.

  Zane didn't relent. Vin gritted her teeth, but he weighed much more than she did. She inched down toward him in the night, her Push straining to keep the two of them apart, the coin digging painfully into her back.

  Never get into a raw Pushing match, Vin, Kelsier had warned her. You don't weigh enough-you'll lose every time.

  She stopped Pushing on the coin in Zane's hand. Immediately, she fell. Pulled by the coin on her back. She Pushed on it slightly, giving herself a little leverage, then threw her final coin to the side. It hit at the last moment, and Vin's Push scooted her out from between Zane and his coin.

  Zane's coin snapped him in the chest, and he grunted: he had obviously been trying to get Vin to collide with him again. Vin smiled, then Pulled against the coin in Zane's hand.

  Give him what he wants, I guess.

  He turned just in time to see her slam feet-first into him. Vin spun, feeling him crumple beneath her. She exulted in the victory, spinning in the air above the wall walk. Then she noticed something: several faint lines of blue disappearing into the distance. Zane had pushed all of their coins away.

  Desperately, Vin grabbed one of the coins and Pulled it back. Too late, however. She searched frantically for a closer source of metal, but all was stone or wood. Disoriented, she hit the stone wall walk, tumbling amid her mistcloak until she came to a halt beside the wall's stone railing.

  She shook her head and flared tin, clearing her vision with a flash of pain and other senses. Surely Zane hadn't fared better. He must have fallen as-

  Zane hung a few feet away. He'd found a coin-Vin couldn't fathom how-and was Pushing against it below him. However, he didn't shoot away. He hovered above the wall top, just a few feet in the air, still in a half tumble from Vin's kick.

  As Vin watched, Zane rotated slowly in the air, hand outstretched beneath him, twisting like a skilled acrobat on a pole. There was a look of intense concentration on his face, and his muscles-all of them, arms, face, chest- were taut. He turned in the air until he was facing her.

  Vin watched with awe. It was possible to Push just slightly against a coin, regulating the amount of force with which one was thrown backward. It was incredibly difficult, however-so difficult that even Kelsier had struggled with it. Most of the time, Mistbom simply used short bursts. When Vin fell, for instance, she slowed herself by throwing a coin and Pushing against it briefly-but powerfully-to counteract her momentum.

  She'd never seen an Allomancer with as much control as Zane. His ability to push slightly against that coin would be of little use in a fight; it obviously took too much concentration. Yet. there was a grace to it, a beauty to his movements that implied something Vin herself had felt.

  Allomancy wasn't just about fighting and killing. It was about skill and grace. It was something beautiful.

  Zane rotated until he was upright, standing in a gentleman's posture. Then he dropped to the wall walk, his feet slapping quietly against the stones. He regarded Vin-who still lay on the stones-with a look that lacked contempt.

  "You are very skilled," he said. "And quite powerful."

  He was tall, impressive. Like... Kelsier. "Why did you come to the palace today?" she asked, climbing to her feet.

  "To see how they treated you. Tell me, Vin. What is it about Mistbom that makes us-despite our powers-so willing to act as slaves to others?"

  "Slaves?" Vin said. "I'm no slave."

  Zane shook his head. "They use you. Vin."

  "Sometimes it's good to be useful."

  "Those words are spoken of insecurity."

  Vin paused; then she eyed him. "Where did you get that coin, at the end? There were none nearby."

  Zane smiled, then opened his mouth and pulled out a coin. He dropped it to the stones with a pling. Vin opened her eyes wide. Metal inside a person's body can't be affected by another Allomancer.... That's such an easy trick! Why didn't I think of it?

  Why didn't Kelsier think of it?

  Zane shook his head. "We don't belong with them, Vin. We don't belong in their world. We belong here, in the mists."

  "I belong with those who love me," Vin said.

  "Love you?" Zane asked quietly. 'Tell me. Do they understand you, Vin?'Can they understand you? And, can a man love something he doesn't understand?"

  He watched her for a moment. When she didn't respond, he nodded to her slightly, then Pushed against the coin he had dropped moments before, throwing himself back into the mists. .

  Vin let him go. His words held more weight than he probably understood. We don't belong in their world.... He couldn't know that she'd been pondering her place, wondering whether she was noblewoman, assassin, or something else.

  Zane's words, then, meant something important. He felt himself to be an outsider. A little like herself. It was a weakness in him, certainly. Perhaps she could turn him against Straff-his willingness to spar with her, his willingness to reveal himself, hinted at that much.

  She breathed in deeply of the cool, mist air. her heart still beating quickly from the exchange. She felt tired, yet alive, from fighting someone who might actually be better than she was. Standing in the mists atop the wall of an abandoned keep, she decided something.

  She had to keep sparring with Zane.

  If only the Deepness hadn't come when it did, providing a threat that drove men to desperation both in action and belief.

  left there by his spy inside Elend's palace. Zane retrieved it, replaced the cobblestone, then dropped a coin and launched himself out into the night.

  18

  "KILL HIM," GOD WHISPERED.

  Zane hung quietly in the mists, looking through Elend Venture's open balcony doors. The mists swirled around him. obscuring him from the king's view.

  "You should kill him," God said again.

  In a way, Zane hated Elend. though he had never met the man before today. Elend was everything that Zane should have been. Favored. Privileged. Pampered. He was Zane's enemy, a block in the road to domination, the thing that was keeping Straff-and therefore Zane-from ruling the Central Dominance.

  But he was also Zane's brother.

  Zane let himself drop through the mists, falling silently to the ground outside Keep Venture. He Pulled his anchors up into his hand-three small bars he had been pushing on to hold himself in place. Vin would be returning soon, and he didn't want to be near the keep when she did. She had a strange ability to know where he was: her senses were far more keen than any Allomancer he had ever known or fought. Of co
urse, she had been trained by the Survivor himself.

  I would have liked to have known him. Zane thought as he moved quietly across the courtyard. He was a man who understood the power of being Mistborn. A man who didn 7 let others control him.

  A man who did what had to be done, no matter how ruthless it seemed. Or so the rumors said.

  Zane paused beside the outer keep wall, below a buttress. He stooped, removing a cobblestone, and found the message

  Zane did not slink. Nor did he creep, skulk, or cower. In fact, he didn't even like to hide.

  So, he approached the Venture army camp with a determined stride. It seemed to him that Mistbom spent too much of their existence hiding. True, anonymity offered some limited freedom. However, his experience had been that it bound them more than it freed them. It let them be controlled, and it let society pretend that they didn't exist.

  Zane strode toward a guard post, where two soldiers sat beside a large fire. He shook his head; they were virtually useless, blinded by the firelight. Normal men feared the mists, and that made them less valuable. That wasn't arrogance; it was a simple fact. Allomancers were more useful, and therefore more valuable, than normal men. That was why Zane had Tineyes watching in the darkness as well. These regular soldiers were more a formality than anything else.

  "Kill them," God commanded as Zane walked up to the guard post. Zane ignored the voice, though it was growing more and more difficult to do so.

  "Halt!" one of the guards said, lowering a spear. "Who is that?"

  Zane Pushed the spear offhandedly, flipping up the tip. "Who else would it be?" he snapped, walking into the firelight.

  "Lord Zane!" the other soldier said.

  "Summon the king," Zane said, passing the guard post. Tell him to meet me in the command tent."

  "But. my lord," the guard said. 'The hour is late. His Majesty is probably ..."

  Zane turned, giving the guard a flat stare. The mists swirled between them. Zane didn't even have to use emotional Allomancy on the soldier; the man simply saluted, then rushed off into the night to do as commanded.