Mistborn #02 The Well of Ascension

an assassin. . .."
    Vin shuffled uncomfortably. "He's bluffing, Zane," she said. "He'd never actually do anything like that."
    "She is an Allomancer like you've never seen, Father," Elend said, voice muffled by the tent. "I've seen her fight other Allomancers—none of them can even touch her."
    "Is that true?" Zane asked.
    Vin paused. Elend hadn't actually ever seen her attack other Allomancers. "He saw me attack some soldiers once, and I've told him about my fights with other Allomancers."
    "Ah," Zane said softly. "So it's only a small lie, then. Those are fine when one is king. Many things are. Exploiting one person to save an entire kingdom? What leader wouldn't pay such a cheap price? Your freedom in exchange for his victory."
    "He's not using me," Vin said.
    Zane stood. Vin turned slightly, watching carefully as he walked into the mists, away from tents, torches, and soldiers. He paused, standing a short distance away, looking up. Even with the light of tent and fires, this camp was claimed by the mists. It spun all around them. From within it, the torchlight and campfires seemed insignificant. Like dying coals.
    "What is this to him ," Zane said quietly, sweeping a hand around him. "Can he ever understand the mists? Can he ever understand you?"
    "He loves me," Vin said, glancing back at the shadowed forms. They had fallen quiet for a moment, Straff obviously considering Elend's threats.
    "He loves you ?" Zane asked. "Or he loves having you ?"
    "Elend isn't like that," Vin said. "He's a good man."
    "Good or not, you aren't like him," Zane said, voice echoing in the night to her tin-enhanced ears. "Can he understand what it is like to be one of us? Can he know the things we know, care about the things we love? Has he ever seen those?" Zane gestured upward, toward the sky. Far beyond the mists, lights shone in the sky, like tiny freckles. Stars, invisible to the normal eye. Only a person burning tin could penetrate the mists and see them shining.
    She remembered the first time Kelsier had shown them to her. She remembered how stunned she had been that the stars had been there all along, invisible beyond the mists. . ..
    Zane continued to point upward. "Lord Ruler!" Vin whispered, taking a small step away from the tent. Through the swirling mists, in the reflected light of the tent, she could see something on Zane's arm.
    The skin was covered with thin white streaks. Scars.
    Zane immediately lowered his arm, hiding the scarred flesh with his sleeve.
    "You were in the Pits of Hathsin," Vin said quietly. "Like Kelsier."
    Zane looked away.
    "I'm sorry," Vin said.
    Zane turned back, smiling in the night. It was a firm, confident smile. He stepped forward. "I understand you, Vin."
    Then he bowed slightly to her and jumped away, disappearing into the mists. Inside the room, Straff spoke to Elend.
    "Go. Leave here."

    The carriage rolled away. Straff stood outside his tent, heedless of the mists, still feeling a bit stunned.
    I let him go. Why did I let him go ?
    Yet—even now—he could feel her touch slamming against him. One emotion after another, like a treasonous maelstrom within him, and then. . .nothing. Like a massive hand, grabbing his soul and squeezing it into painful submission. It had felt the way he thought death might.
    No Allomancer could be that powerful.
    Zane respects her , Straff thought. And everyone says she killed the Lord Ruler. That little thing. It couldn't be .
    It seemed impossible. And apparently, that was just the way she wanted it to seem.
    Everything had been going so well. The information provided by Zane's kandra spy had been accurate: Elend did try to make an alliance. The frightening thing about it was that Straff might have gone along with it, assuming Elend to be of no consequence, if the spy hadn't sent warning.
    Even so, Elend had bested him. Straff had even been prepared for their feint of weakness, and he had still fallen.
    She's so powerful . . ..
    A figure in black stepped out of the mists and walked up to Straff. "You look like you've seen a ghost, Father," Zane said with a smile. "Your own, perhaps?"
    "Was there anyone else out there, Zane?" Straff asked, too shaken for repartee at the moment. "Another couple of Mistborn, perhaps, helping her?"
    Zane shook his head. "No. She really is that strong." He turned to walk back out into the mists.
    "Zane!" Straff snapped, making the man pause. "We're going to change plans. I want you to kill her."
    Zane turned. "But—"
    "She's too