Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

there are no lyrics but Cornfield Chase is the ideal song to listen to for this chapter. Skip to 0:32 if you want the best effect.

“There’s always another secret.”

Vin heard his voice again.

Not echoing in the hall.

Not spoken aloud.

Just… remembered. Lodged in her ribs like an old wound reopened.

She knelt in the ruins of the throne room, surrounded by ash and colored glass. The world was quiet now. Too quiet. As if the very mists were holding their breath.

Her hand trembled as she lifted the silver locket to her face.

The chain was warm—blood-warm. It had been ever since that final moment. Since the scream. Since everything fell silent.

She clutched it harder, knuckles white. “There’s always another secret,” she whispered.

Then—she coughed.

Her chest seized. Blood slipped from the corner of her mouth, dark and vivid against her skin.

A single drop landed on the locket.

And it clicked open.

Vin froze.

Inside was a photograph.

A man and a woman, arm in arm, laughing. Their faces glowed with light and youth, surrounded by swirling mist. The man had hair like sunlight and a grin that could slice through steel. The woman—her eyes. Vin had seen them before.

In the mirror.

She couldn’t breathe.

She couldn’t move.

Her fingers slipped, and the locket swung down on its chain.

Her vision blurred.

And then—

Vin broke.

She didn’t scream. She folded, silently, like paper on fire. Her chest heaved with sobs that made no sound at first, then came ragged and gasping. She curled around herself on the cold marble floor, fists pressed to her mouth as if to stop the sound from escaping.

Tears streamed down her cheeks and vanished into ash.

She had not cried like this since she was a child.

Since she had hope.

She didn’t know why she said it aloud. Maybe to the air. Maybe to the ghosts.

“He didn’t know…”

The locket swung once more.

Then stilled.

Chapter Text

I used to be a little boy

so old in my shoes

what I choose is my choice

what’s a boy supposed to do

a killer in me is a killer in you

The Steel Inquisitor on the side stared straight at Vin, black spikes glittering through the punctures in its eyes.

Kelsier was shouting something unintelligible, but as he was being held by the neck, Vin couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying. However, the message was crystal clear. Run.

She scrambled out of the room, trying to seem small and unthreatening to the beasts as Reen’s voice echoed in her head.

Two ways to survive. Seem small or seem intimidating.

Vin almost Soothed the Inquisitor, before remembering the Canton of Inquisition and how the Inquisitor followed her.

She could tell that at least one was tailing her, so she dove into a side wing, sliding on the black marble floor and flaring her pewter to dim the pain.

Scrambling onto her feet, she ran down the hallway and took turns at random in the winding hallways until she could be sure she lost it.

Flaring tin, she listened for footsteps, but heard only her heavy breathing. She put her hands on her knees, panting, and flared pewter again to catch her breath.

She was about to go back the way she came and search for Kelsier when she heard a voice behind her.

“In all my years, never have I ever had the intruder come right to me.”

She whipped around, the glass windows blurring as she spun, her mistcloak floating lazily despite the sudden movement.

There was a pale man behind her, sitting on a jagged black throne that shone with an eerie echo. He had jet-black hair, and he looked to be in his late thirties, with a smart black uniform and a velvet cloak that hung around him in thick folds.

“A Mistborn. How interesting, as I’ve never seen you before. Yet, you still look familiar..”

As he spoke, she could feel what felt like a damp, cool cloth on her emotions, pressing down ever so slightly, until there was nothing slight about it. He was Pushing on her emotions.

 “Who are you?” She asked defensively.

The man’s lip twitched as he replied. “Straight to the point. Interesting. However, my identity hardly matters if you don’t already know me. Yours however,” he smiled grimly.

“You are a mystery. What is your name, child?”

Child. So he underestimated her. Good.

Against her better judgement, she answered. “My name is Vin.”

“Vin.. of course. You act just like your mother, but with much less naïveté.” He said.

Her eyes narrowed. No one had spoken about her mother since Reen told her what she did. It was a sensitive topic, as gruesome as her last act had been.

“How?” Vin asked. “How would you know who my mother was if I don’t know who she was?”

She realized too late that she shouldn’t have said anything incriminating to this strange man, but she was now curious.

She had no idea who her mother was, only that she had been cursed to insanity when Vin was born.

The man smiled. “It’s ironic, actually. She did the same thing as you. Trying to come into the same room with the same man you accompanied, sixteen years ago. And both were caught.”

Sixteen years. She was sixteen years old. Something about this statement felt wrong.

“Explain”. Vin demanded.

“That’s the first time someone has demanded something of me in a while,” the man said.

“She came in with your ‘Survivor’ sixteen years ago, flaring tin so hard I could almost hear it. She was caught, of course. As well as your little friend. You know of the Pits of Hasthin, don’t you?”

A sickening feeling lodged deep in her stomach. Kelsier was known for having escaped the Pits. And Marsh had told her about a betrayal when he was training her. A betrayal by Kelsier’s wife.

“What… was her name?” Vin asked. If what she thought was true, then this would be a given.

The man raised an eyebrow, pausing before answering. “It is.. a bit surprising that you do not know her name. But no matter. Her name is- was- Mare Barrow.”

The world spun.

Vin’s mind latched onto a memory from after her first time meeting Kelsier.

Her ex-crewmates had asked what Kelsier wanted with her, and she had inquired about who he was.

• • •

“He was the best crew leader down south,” Ulef explained. “A legend, even among the Mistings. He robbed some of the wealthiest Great Houses in the city.” “And?” Vin asked. “The Lord Ruler himself caught Kelsier.” Ulef said. “Sent him and his wife to the Pits of Hasthin. But he escaped. He escaped from the Pits, Vin! He’s the only one who ever has.”

• • •

Vin gaped. “Do you- do you mean to tell me that my mother is supposedly Kelsier’s wife!”
The man smiled, his mouth twisting unnaturally. “Quick. You are just like her. But yes, I do.”

Vin felt like the world had just tilted on its axis. Her mother had been insane, and Kelsier had said that the Pits inspired insanity. And if her math was right, she would have been in the Pits for over fourteen years.

“That means.. Reen wasn’t my brother at all, was he?” The pale man nodded in response.

“He must have taken me as a child and run. So Kelsier wasn’t the only Survivor after all.”

Her brain felt like it was running at hundreds of miles per hour as she went over all the possibilities.

The man sat still, watching her think while mist curled in through a shattered pane in the coloured glass walls.

“Wait a minute.. you would only know how she was captured if you’re-“

Crap. She was having a crisis in front of the Lord Ruler.

The Lord Ruler smiled. He did that a lot, but they somehow didn’t seem all that sincere.

“I am the one who you are fighting, yes. I daresay I have helped you, now, no reason to resent me.”

She knew that he had committed evil, but he seemed so.. humane when she talked to him, albeit manipulative. She could almost feel her emotions agreeing with—

Her eyes narrowed. “Stop.”

“Stop what?” His eyebrows drew together.

“Soothing me,” she said defiantly.

They raised even higher at this. “I.. did not think an Allomancer of your age would be able to sense that. Never the mind,” he held out a silver locket, one that looked suspiciously like atium, with that opalescent sheen.

“This belonged to Mare. I have not been able to open it, as I suspect it has some sort of blood protection. She dropped it when she was captured, used it to sever an Inquisitor in two.”

Vin snatched the locket, tucking it in her shirt and around her neck. Just as she was about to say something else, Sazed burst through the window.

“Mistress!” He grabbed her, sending a furtive look at the Lord Ruler lazily sitting on his unsettling throne. “We are leaving, now!”

Vin didn’t have the energy to protest, shock still coursing through her veins, and she was too sluggish to explain that the man had only spoken, albeit dizzying, truths.

As Sazed carried her away, the Lord Ruler gave one last look at her. His eyes held an unfamiliar intensity, nothing she had ever seen a human eye embody.

“Farewell, Lady Vin.”

 send this smile over to you

Chapter Text

I’m a g-g-g-g-g-g-genius, a

g-g-g-g-g-g-genius, a

g-g-g-g-g-g-genius,

‘She’s a genius,’

’cause I love a woman like you

Kelsier paced around the small room under Clubs’ shop, while Dockson sat in a wooden chair, covering his face in his hands in frustration. 

“You brought her to Kredik Shaw? And you just left her there?” he cried, the words muffled through his hands. “Are you insane?” 

Kelsier pounded the table in frustration. “Maybe I am insane! Maybe the Pits turned me into the lunatic you all make me out for!” He flared pewter, distracting him from the ache of his side, and the table splintered from the blow.

Dox sighed, uncovering his face, disappointment clear in the heavy creases on his forehead. “Did you at least see where she went? If she’s still alive, we need to know where she could be and if she’s been captured.” 

Kelsier winced. “I saw her duck into one of the main wings of Kredik Shaw, away from the 

Thousand Spires.” 

Dox clapped a hand over his forehead and dragged it down his face. “Are you meaning to tell me that Vin went straight to the Lord Ruler? And you let her?” 

He winced again. “Well, when you put it like that..”

 Dox stood up and went over to the map. “We need to figure out how to get her out. If she’s still alive after all this.” 

Kelsier flinched, the word hitting him like a physical blow. If. He was about to protest, say that she had to be alive, that she was smart, when Spook came running down the stairs. 

“Someone’s ebbing the looking for you!” he cried. Dox started, then turned to face him.

 “Vin?” He asked, hope lining his face. Spook shook his head, still panting weakly.

 “Wasing the long robes on big man!” He said, his western accent making it hard to decipher what he was saying. 

Fuck. Kelsier had led the Inquisitors right to them, now the plan was— He was ripped out of his thoughts by a large figure lumbering down the stairs, carrying a smaller, albeit squirming, one. 

“Sazed!” Kelsier exclaimed. “Vin!” 

The girl in question wriggled out of Sazed’s grip, landing with a soft thump on the cobblestones of the workshop. She looked dazed, as if having heard one of Ham’s questions and now reconsidering the universe. She winced when she saw him. 

“I need some sleep.” 

Breeze snorted, having come in from the other room. “Girl, you look like death itself. Go rest.” 

She smiled weakly, pewter drag weighing her down, and climbed up the stairs again.

 Kelsier turned back to Sazed, who had sat down in another wooden chair, strength gone from his body and stored in his metalminds. 

“What happened, Saze?” He asked. 

Sazed sighed. “A lot. I only caught the end of their conversation, but I think Mistress Vin may be having a life crisis right now,” 

“What?!” Kelsier exclaimed. “Wait, who’s conversation?” “The poor girl had a conversation with the Lord Ruler.” Sazed replied. 

The men’s jaws dropped.

 “What?” Dox cried. “And she’s still alive?” 

Sazed spent the next hour recounting what he had seen, stressing the fact that the Lord Ruler had given Vin a locket of some sort before he strode in. 

There were similar expressions of horrified confusion on the crew’s faces by the time he was done.

 “What could they possibly have been talking about?” Breeze asked.

 “It’s not like they were having a chat about the weather!” Dockson snapped back. Sazed grimaced. 

“I didn't hear much, but he was talking about the girl’s mother, I recall.” 

Dox spit out his drink. “The insane one? Or am I missing something?”

 “I don’t know,” Sazed said plainly.. “It sounded like he was reminiscing- over what, I have no idea. Maybe he knew the woman.”

Kelsier gaped. Even the thought of the Lord Ruler reminiscing was beyond his comprehension at the moment, especially as his pewter was running low and his wounds were severe. 

At the thought, a servant rushed into the room and started bandaging his side. Kelsier flared what was left of his pewter, gritting his teeth against the pressure. 

But it was nothing compared to the revelations of the girl upstairs.

Vin sat in front of a mirror, trying to open the locket.  She had looked all over, and there were no clasps, no locks, nothing.  It was practically seamless, but she could see the tiny slip of paper sticking out the side. 

Yellowed from age, all she could see was an emerald green shawl.

 Sighing, she set the locket down and looked up at her reflection. She really did need some sleep, but giving up wasn’t on her bucket list at the moment.

 So she went back at the locket, pondering her ‘conversation’ in the meanwhile. Vin still wasn’t sure how she hadn’t been killed. That was literally their enemy. She probably wouldve been trying to kill him if she hadn’t been trying to make sense of what he told her. 

Vin pulled out the logbook again. It was a worn copy, one she had read many times at balls and similar. 

But this time, she didn’t start at the beginning. Instead, she went to the end. It detailed the last of the journey to the Well of Ascension, which was said to grant immeasurable power. Which the Lord Ruler possessed, or had done so previously. But.. if Alendi was the one that had taken it, then would he really have stopped writing? 

She thought back to when Sazed told her that all Terrismen were eunuches. It was obviously to do with the ‘breeding program.’ But why.. 

And then it clicked.

Alendi had nothing to do with the Terrispeople. 

But Rashek, his packman, did.

What if he didn’t stop writing? 

What if he stopped breathing?

But then.. Rashek was the Lord Ruler. He killed Alendi and took the power for himself. But then, if he were Terris, why would he..?

Oh.

Oh.

It must be something else that makes him immortal.

So he breeds the Terris to make sure no half-breeds occur.

Vin thought of everything she knew about the man.

And then she remembered how Sazed had told her he wore jewelry as a symbol, mainly the armbands pierced into his skin.

Kelsier had told her that metal even a bit into your body cannot be moved by an Allomancer.

So if he was Rashek, the Terrisman, and Tge Lord Ruler, the Allomancer..

He was an Allomancer and a Feruchemist.

Vin physically jumped back, clapping her hands over her mouth. She considered herself no scholar, and yet she had just solved the thousand-year secret. 

Her mouth dropped.

And then she realized..

How was she supposed to broach the subject to the crew..

Vin stood, and swiftly strode over to her mistcloak. It was still damp from her previous escapade, yet she knew she had to go. She opened her window, and jumped out, swallowing a vial of metals. 

Vin followed the hidden spike way like she had seen Kelsier do before. She strapped a round of daggers to her thigh, just in case, and sped along the misty path left in the sky. 

She landed in a deserted, ashy field, at the end of which was an innocent-looking building. Heading toward it, she could feel a strange, ominous aura coming from the building. The feeling only built over time, as she crossed the small field and peered inside the ash-covered window. And what she saw made her heart drop. Marsh. And three inquisitors. They were each holding a spike, and Vin could tell what the wanted to do.

Marsh stood in the ‘cottage’, unrepentant in his excuses as to why he could serve better as a man. 

One of them inched closer, and then there was a ding. 

They all jerked towards the window, where a single coin had broken through the glass. “Shit,” one of the inquisitors muttered.

 Kelsier, Marsh thought. Thank God.

But the figure that sprang through the cracked glass was definitely not Kelsier.

 A thin, lithe figure in a mistcloak and hood sprinted through the glass, toward an Inquisitor. Who..? Marsh thought. But she was smarter than them, because she flipped a coin, downed a vial, and slammed into the wall, jerking the spike out of the Inquisitor’s back.

 Oh.

 The other two paled, and while one ran, she tackled the other one and stabbed it though the head with it’s brethren’s spike. 

“So long, Kar.” A familiar voice said. 

She turned around and flipped her hood, revealing- “Vin?!” He shouted. She smiled. 

“I have a lot to tell you, Marsh.”