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Vin slipped forward quietly, senses alert Inside herself, as always, she burned tin and pewter Tin enhanced her senses, ht Pewter hter on her feet These, along with copper—which had the power to hide her use of Allo bronze—were metals that she left on almost all the time
Soht herself prepared Either way, the habit had saved her life on numerous occasions
She approached a quiet street corner and paused, peeking out She'd never really understood how she burnedas she'd been alive, using Allomancy instinctively even before she was formally trained by Kelsier It didn't really ical explanation for everything For Vin, it was enough that when she sed bits of metal, she was able to draw upon their power
Power she appreciated, for she well knehat it was like to lack it Even now, she was not what one would likely envision as a warrior Slight of frame and barely five feet tall, with dark hair and pale skin, she knew she had an aler displayed the underfed look she had during her childhood on the streets, but she certainly wasn't so
She liked that It gave her an edge—and she needed every edge she could get
She also liked the night During the day, Luthadel was craht the mists fell like a deep cloud They dampened, softened, shaded Massive keeps becaether like a chandler's rejected wares
Vin crouched beside her building, still watching the intersection Carefully, she reached within herself and burned steel—one of the other roup of translucent blue lines sprang up around her Visible only to her eyes, the lines pointed from her chest to nearby sources of metal—all metals, no matter what type The thickness of the lines was proportionate to the size of the metal pieces they met Some pointed to bronze door latches, others to crude iron nails holding boards together
She waited silently None of the linessteel was an easy way to tell if so bits oflines of blue Of course, that wasn't the main purpose of steel Vin reached her hand carefully into her belt pouch and pulled out one of theLike all other bits offrom its center to Vin's chest
She flipped the coin into the air, thensteel—Pushed on the coin The bit of h the round in the middle of the street
The mists continued to spin They were thick andand more constant than any nor rivulets around her Her eyes could pierce thehter to her, the mists less thick Yet, they were still there
A shadowto her coin—which she had Pushed out into the square as a signal Vin crept forward, and recognized OreSeur the kandra He wore a different body than he had a year ago, during the days when he had acted the part of Lord Renoux Yet, this balding, nondescript body had now become just as familiar to Vin
OreSeurfor, Mistress?" he asked, tone respectful—yet somehow still a little hostile As always
Vin shook her head, glancing around in the darkness "Maybe I rong," she said "Maybe I wasn't being followed" The acknowledg forward to sparring with the Watcher again tonight She still didn't even knoho he was; the first night, she'd mistaken him for an assassin And maybe he was Yet, he seemed to display very little interest in Elend—and a whole lot of interest in Vin
"We should go back to the wall," Vin decided, standing up "Elend will be wondering where I went"
OreSeur nodded At thattoward Vin
I have begun to wonder if I am the only saneso long for their hero to come—the one spoken of in Terris prophecies—that they quickly juend applies to this one man
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VIN REACTED IMMEDIATELY, SPRINGING AWAY Sheas she skidded across the wet cobblestones The coins hit the ground behind her, throwing up chips of stone, then leaving trails in the mist as they ricocheted away
"OreSeur, go!" she snapped, though he was already fleeing toward a nearby alleyway
Vin spun into a low crouch, hands and feet on the cool stones, Allo in her sto the translucent blue lines appear around her She waited, tense, watching for
Another group of coins shot fro a blue line Vin iainst the coins, deflecting them out into the darkness
The night fell still again
The street around her ide—for Luthadel—though tene the ends of the street disappear into a haze
A group of eight men appeared froht: So her These men weren't, however, the Watcher They didn't have his solid grace, his sense of power Thesefar more blunt Assassins
It made sense If she had just arrived with an ar she'd have done was send in a group of Allomancers to kill Elend
She felt a sudden pressure at her side, and she cursed as she was thrown off balance, her coin pouch jerking away fro the enemy Allomancer Push the coins away fro who had the power to burn steel and Push on metals In fact, two of the assassins trailed blue lines pointing to coin pouches of their own Vin considered returning the favor and Pushing their pouches away, but hesitated No need to play her hand yet She ht need those coins
Without coins of her own, she couldn't attack fro from a distance would be pointless—their Coinshots and Lurchers would be ready to deal with shot coins Fleeing wasn't an option either These men hadn't come for her alone; if she fled, they'd continue on to their real goal
Nobody sent assassins to kill bodyguards Assassins killed i of the Central Dominance The man she loved
Vin flared pewter—body growing tense, alert, dangerous Four Thugs at the front, she thought, eyeing the advancing , capable of surviving a great deal of physical punish the wooden shield is a Lurcher