Mistborn #01 The Final Empire

instance, should kill them. Nothing I’ve learned about Allomancy has ever provided an explanation for how those creatures keep living. If it were only a regular Misting Seeker on your trail, we wouldn’t need to worry. An Inquistor . . . well, you’ll want to keep your eyes open. Of course, you already seem pretty good at that.”
    Vin sat uncomfortably for a moment. Eventually, Kelsier nodded to her mug of ale. “You aren’t drinking.”
    “You might have slipped something in it,” Vin said.
    “Oh, there was no need for me to sneak something into your drink,” Kelsier said with a smile, pulling an object out of his suit coat pocket. “After all, you’re going to drink this vial of mysterious liquid quite willingly.”
    He set a small glass vial on the tabletop. Vin frowned, regarding the liquid within. There was a dark residue at its bottom. “What is it?” she asked.
    “If I told you, it wouldn’t be mysterious,” Kelsier said with a smile.
    Dockson rolled his eyes. “The vial is filled with an alcohol solution and some flakes of metal, Vin.”
    “Metal?” she asked with a frown.
    “Two of the eight basic Allomantic metals,” Kelsier said. “We need to do some tests.”
    Vin eyed the vial.
    Kelsier shrugged. “You’ll have to drink it if you want to know any more about this Luck of yours.”
    “You drink half first,” Vin said.
    Kelsier raised an eyebrow. “A bit on the paranoid side, I see.”
    Vin didn’t respond.
    Finally, he sighed, picking up the vial and pulling off the plug.
    “Shake it up first,” Vin said. “So you get some of the sediment.”
    Kelsier rolled his eyes, but did as requested, shaking the vial, then downing half of its contents. He set it back on the table with a click.
    Vin frowned. Then she eyed Kelsier, who smiled. He knew that he had her. He had shown off his power, had tempted her with it. The only reason to be subservient to those with power is so that you can learn to someday take what they have.
    Reen’s words.
    Vin reached out and took the vial, then she downed its contents. She sat, waiting for some magical transformation or surge of power—or even signs of poison. She felt nothing.
    How . . . anticlimactic. She frowned, leaning back in her chair. Out of curiosity, she felt at her Luck.
    And felt her eyes widen in shock.
    It was there, like a massive golden hoard. A storage of power so incredible that it stretched her understanding. Always before, she had needed to be a scrimp with her Luck, holding it in reserve, using up morsels sparingly. Now she felt like a starving woman invited to a high nobleman’s feast. She sat, stunned, regarding the enormous wealth within her.
    “So,” Kelsier said with a prodding voice. “Try it. Soothe me.”
    Vin reached out, tentatively touching her newfound mass of Luck. She took a bit, and directed it at Kelsier.
    “Good.” Kelsier leaned forward eagerly. “But we already knew you could do that. Now the real test, Vin. Can you go the other way? You can dampen my emotions, but can you enflame them too?”
    Vin frowned. She’d never used her Luck in such a way; she hadn’t even realized that she could. Why was he so eager?
    Suspicious, Vin reached for her source of Luck. As she did so, she noticed something interesting. What she had first interpreted as one massive source of power was actually two different sources of power. There were different types of Luck.
    Eight. He’d said there were eight of them. But . . . what do the others do?
    Kelsier was still waiting. Vin reached to the second, unfamiliar source of Luck, doing as she’d done before and directing it at him.
    Kelsier’s smile deepened, and he sat back, glancing at Dockson. “That’s it then. She did it.”
    Dockson shook his head. “To be honest, Kell, I’m not sure what to think. Having one of you around was unsettling enough. Two, though . . .”
    Vin regarded them with narrowed, dubious eyes. “Two what?”
    “Even among the nobility, Vin, Allomancy is modestly rare,” Kelsier said. “True, it’s a hereditary skill, with most of its powerful lines among the high nobility. However, breeding alone doesn’t guarantee Allomantic strength.
    “Many high noblemen only have access to a single Allomantic skill. People like that—those who can only perform Allomancy in one of its eight basic aspects—are called Mistings. Sometimes these abilities appear in skaa—but only if that skaa has noble blood in his or her near ancestry. You can