Mistborn #01 The Final Empire

gown—an outfit she would never have been able to even imagine during her life as a skaa. Ash and soot had been too much a part of her life, and she didn’t think she’d even had a concept of what a pristine white looked like. That knowledge made the dress even more wondrous to her. She hoped she would never lose that—the sense within herself of how life had been before. It made her appreciate what she had so much more than the real nobility seemed to.
    She continued along the balcony, seeking her prey. Glittering colors shone from backlit windows, sparkling light across the floor. Most of the windows glowed inside small viewing alcoves along the balcony, and so the balcony before her was interspersed with pockets of dark and color. Vin didn’t stop to study any more of the windows; she’d done quite a bit of that during her first balls at Keep Lekal. This night she had business to attend to.
    She found her quarry halfway down the east balcony walkway. Lady Kliss was speaking with a group of people, so Vin paused, pretending to study a window. Kliss’s group soon broke up—one could generally only take so much of Kliss at a time. The short woman began to walk along the balcony toward Vin.
    When she drew close, Vin turned, as if in surprise. “Why, Lady Kliss! I haven’t seen you all evening.”
    Kliss turned eagerly, obviously excited by the prospect of another person with whom to gossip. “Lady Valette!” she said, waddling forward. “You missed Lord Cabe’s ball last week! Not due to a relapse of your earlier malady, I hope?”
    “No,” Vin said. “I spent that evening dining with my uncle.”
    “Oh,” Kliss said, disappointed. A relapse would have made a better story. “Well, that’s good.”
    “I hear you have some interesting news about Lady Tren-Pedri Delouse,” Vin said carefully. “I myself have heard some interesting things lately.” She eyed Kliss, implying that she’d be willing to trade tidbits.
    “Oh, that!” Kliss said eagerly. “Well, I heard that Tren-Pedri isn’t at all interested in a union with House Aime, though her father is implying that there will be a wedding soon. You know how the Aime sons are, though. Why, Fedren is an absolute buffoon.”
    Inwardly, Vin rolled her eyes. Kliss just kept on talking, not even noticing that Vin had something she herself wanted to share. Using subtlety on this woman is about as effective as trying to sell bathwater perfumes to a plantation skaa .
    “That is interesting,” Vin said, interrupting Kliss. “Perhaps Tren-Pedri’s hesitance comes because of House Aime’s connection to House Hasting.”
    Kliss paused. “Why would that be?”
    “Well, we all know what House Hasting is planning.”
    “We do?” Kliss asked.
    Vin pretended to look embarrassed. “Oh. Perhaps that isn’t known yet. Please, Lady Kliss, forget that I said anything.”
    “Forget?” Kliss said. “Why, it’s already forgotten. But, come now, you can’t just stop. What do you mean?”
    “I shouldn’t say,” Vin said. “It’s just something I overheard my uncle talking about.”
    “Your uncle?” Kliss asked, growing more eager. “What did he say? You know that you can trust me.”
    “Well . . .” Vin said. “He said that House Hasting was relocating a lot of resources back to its plantations in the Southern Dominance. My uncle was quite happy—Hasting has withdrawn from some of its contracts, and my uncle was hoping to get them instead.”
    “Relocating . . .” Kliss said. “Why, they wouldn’t do that unless they were planning to withdraw from the city. . . .”
    “Could you blame them?” Vin asked quietly. “I mean, who wants to risk what happened to House Tekiel?”
    “Who indeed . . .” Kliss said. She was practically shaking with eagerness to go share the news.
    “Anyway, please, this is obviously only hearsay,” Vin said. “You probably shouldn’t tell anyone about it.”
    “Of course,” Kliss said. “Um . . . excuse me. I need to go refresh myself.”
    “Of course,” Vin said, watching the woman zip away toward the balcony stairs.
    Vin smiled. House Hasting was making no such preparations, of course; Hasting was one of the strongest families in the city, and wouldn’t likely withdraw. However, Dockson was back at the shop forging documents which, when delivered to the right places, would imply that Hasting was planning to do what Vin had said.
    If all went well, the entire city would soon expect a Hasting