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"OreSeur," she said, "as your life like before you were recruited by Kelsier?"
"I don't see what that has to do with finding the impostor, Mistress," OreSeur said
"It doesn't have anything to do with that," Vin said "I just thought ies, Mistress, but I don't want you to know hed So much for that
Butwell, Kelsier and the others hadn't turned ahen she'd been blunt with the in thenized
"Anonymity," Vin said quietly
"Mistress?"
"Anony quiet, unobtrusive Forcing yourself to stay apart--emotionally, at least It's a way of life A protection"
OreSeur didn't answer
"You serve beneath masters," Vin said "Harsh men who fear your co you is to make certain they don't pay attention to you So, you make yourself look s thing, or you let your rebelliousness show"
She turned toward hi to look back over the city
"They hate you," Vin said quietly "They hate you because of your powers, because they can't make you break your word, or because they worry that you are too strong to control"
"They becorow paranoid--terrified, even as they use you, that you will take their place Despite the Contract, despite knowing that no kandra would break his sacred vow, they fear you And men hate what they fear"
"And so," Vin said, "they find excuses to beat you Sometimes, even your efforts to remain harmless seem to provoke them They hate your skill, they hate the fact that they don't have more reasons to beat you, so they beat you"
OreSeur turned back to her "How do you know these things?" he deed "That's not only how they treat kandra, OreSeur That's the sairl--an anoround filled with s happen--to influence people, to hear what she shouldn't, to move more quietly and quickly than others A tool, yet a threat at the same time"
"Ididn't realize, Mistress"
Vin frowned How could he not have known about my past? He kneas a street urchin Excepthad he? For the first time, Vin realized how OreSeur must have seen her two years before, when she'd first met him He had arrived in the area after her recruitment; he probably assumed that she'd been part of Kelsier's team for years, like the others
"Kelsier recruited me for the first time just a few days before I met you," Vin said "Well, actually, he didn't soin one thieving crew after another, alorking for the least reputable and erous men, for those were the only ones ould take in a couple of transients like my brother and ood tool I'ured out that I was an Alloht I was 'lucky' Either way, they needed me And that made them hate me"
"So they beat you?"
Vin nodded "The last one especially That hen I was really beginning to figure out how to use Alloh I didn't knohat it was Cah And he hated ure out how to use my powers fully And on that day, he worried that I would kill hi at OreSeur "Kill him and take his place as crewleader"
OreSeur sat quietly, up on his haunches now, regarding her
"Kandra aren't the only ones that huood at abusing each other, too"
OreSeur snorted "With you, at least, they had to hold back for fear they'd kill you Have you ever been beaten by a master who knows that no et you a new set of bones, and you'll be ready to serve again the next day We are the ulti, then have us serve you dinner that night All the sadism, none of the cost"
Vin closed her eyes "I understand I wasn't a kandra, but I did have pewter I think Camon knew he could beat me far harder than he should have been able to"
"Why didn't you run?" OreSeur asked "You didn't have a Contract bonding you to him"
"Idon't know," Vin said "People are strange, OreSeur, and loyalty is so often twisted I stayed with CaThat creas all I had My brother was gone, and I was terrified of being alone It see back"
"Sometimes a bad situation is still better than the alternative You did what you needed to do to survive"
"Perhaps," Vin said "But there's a better way, OreSeur I didn't know it until Kelsier found me, but life doesn't have to be like that You don't have to spend your yearsyourself apart"
"Perhaps if you are human I am kandra"
"You can still trust," Vin said "You don't have to hate your masters"
"I don't hate them all, Mistress"