Page 133 of The Well of Ascension

OreSeur yawned again. “He’s not coming, Mistress.”

Vin turned, frowning. “What do you mean?”

“This is the last place you sparred with Zane,” OreSeur said. “You’re waiting for him to come.”

Vin paused. “I could use a spar,” she finally said.

Light continued to grow in the east, slowly brightening the mists. The mists persisted, however, reticent to give way before the sun.

“You shouldn’t let that man influence you so, Mistress,” OreSeur said. “I do not think he is the person you believe him to be.”

Vin frowned. “He’s my enemy. What else would I believe?”

“You do not treat him like an enemy, Mistress.”

“Well, he hasn’t attacked Elend,” Vin said. “Maybe Zane isn’t fully under Straff’s control.”

OreSeur sat quietly, head on paws. Then he turned away.

“What?” Vin asked.

“Nothing, Mistress. I will believe as I’m told.”

“Oh, no,” Vin said, turning on the ledge to look at him. “You’re not going back to that excuse. What were you thinking?”

OreSeur sighed. “I was thinking, Mistress, that your fixation with Zane is disconcerting.”

“Fixation?” Vin said. “I’m just keeping an eye on him. I don’t like having another Mistborn—enemy or not—running around in my city. Who knows what he could be up to?”

OreSeur frowned, but said nothing.

“OreSeur,” Vin said, “if you have things to say, speak!”

“I apologize, Mistress,” OreSeur said. “I’m not accustomed to chatting with my masters—especially not candidly.”

“It’s all right. Just speak your mind.”

“Well, Mistress,” OreSeur said, raising his head off his paws, “I do not like this Zane.”

“What do you know of him?”

“Nothing more than you,” OreSeur admitted. “However, most kandra are very good judges of character. When you practice imitation for as long as I have, you learn to see to the hearts of men. I do not like what I have seen of Zane. He seems too pleased with himself. He seems too deliberate in the way he has befriended you. He makes me uncomfortable.”

Vin sat on the ledge, legs parted, hands before her with palms down, resting on the cool stone.He might be right.

But, OreSeur hadn’t flown with Zane, hadn’t sparred in the mists. Through no fault of his own, OreSeur was like Elend. Not an Allomancer. Neither of them could understand what it was to soar on a Push of steel, to flare tin and experience the sudden shock of five heightened senses. They couldn’t know. They couldn’t understand.

Vin leaned back. Then, she regarded the wolfhound in the growing light. There was something she’d been meaning to mention, and now seemed as good a time as any. “OreSeur, you can switch bodies, if you want.”

The wolfhound raised an eyebrow.

“We have those bones that we found in the palace,” Vin said. “You can use those, if you’re tired of being a dog.”

“I couldn’t use them,” OreSeur said. “I haven’t digested their body—I wouldn’t know the proper arrangement of muscles and organs to make the person look correct.”

“Well, then,” Vin said. “We could get you a criminal.”

“I thought you liked these bones on me,” OreSeur said.

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