14

In a rainy night raid, Kelsier leads Vin to Kredik Shaw to reach a regularly visited inner chamber he once failed to breach. He explains the Lord Ruler’s oppressive emotional Soothing and warns that something important lies within. They assault the outer guardrooms, and Vin kills for the first time, rattled by the bloodshed.

They reach a domed chamber housing a carved inner room. When Kelsier opens the door, a Steel Inquisitor seizes him as two more enter. Kelsier wounds the first and, to save Vin, Allomantically hurls a coin pouch to fling her away, ordering her to run.

Vin flees down corridors but an Inquisitor pursues, effortlessly countering her coin Pushes. Cornered in a chapel-like room, she drinks atium and uses a leather-bound book to block a spray of metal, realizing the Inquisitor also burns atium. She darts through waiting soldiers, dodging with atium foresight, only to be ambushed by another Inquisitor who slashes her side with an obsidian-edged weapon.

Bleeding heavily, Vin flares pewter to stay mobile and escapes through a rain-swept archway. She launches into the spires, using Pulls and a decoy Push with the metal-studded book to mislead her pursuer. Despite hiding, the Inquisitor relocates her in the darkness, forcing her to flee again until she collapses on a rooftop, strength failing.

The Inquisitor closes in as her vision dims. At the last moment a figure arrives with a sharp, shattering impact, lifts Vin with gentle urgency, and carries her away. The rescuer’s face is unfamiliar yet kind, leaving Kelsier’s fate uncertain and revealing the peril of confronting the Lord Ruler’s sanctum.