Page 217 of The Well of Ascension

“What is this place?” Elend asked with a frown.

OreSeur shrugged a pair of dog’s shoulders.

“Then how did you know she was here?”

“I followed her last night, Your Majesty,” OreSeur said. “I saw the general direction she went. After that, it was simply a process of careful searching.”

Elend frowned. “That still must have taken some pretty mean tracking abilities, kandra.”

“These bones have unusually keen senses.”

Elend nodded. The stairwell led up into a long hallway with several rooms at the ends. Elend began to walk down the hallway, then paused. To one side, a panel on the wall had been slid back, revealing a small cubby. He could hear movement within.

“Vin?” he asked, poking his head into the cubby.

There was a small room hidden behind the wall, and Vin sat on the far side. The room—more of a nook—was only a few feet across, and even Vin wouldn’t have been able to stand up in it. She didn’t respond to him. She simply sat, leaning against the far wall, head turned away from him.

Elend crawled inside the small chamber, getting ash on his knees. It was barely large enough for him to enter without bumping into her. “Vin? Are you all right?”

She sat, twisting something between her fingers. And she was looking at the wall—looking through a narrow hole. Elend could see sunlight shining through.

It’s a peephole,he realized.To watch the street below. This isn’t a shop—it’s a thieving hideout. Or, it was.

“I used to think Camon was a terrible man,” Vin said quietly.

Elend paused, on hands and knees. Finally, he settled back into a cramped seated position. At least Vin didn’t look hurt. “Camon?” he asked. “Your old crewleader, before Kelsier?”

Vin nodded. She turned away from the slit, sitting with her arms around her knees. “He beat people, he killed those who disagreed with him. Even among street thugs, he was brutal.”

Elend frowned.

“But,” Vin said quietly, “I doubt he killed as many people during his entire life as I killed last night.”

Elend closed his eyes. Then he opened them and shuffled a little closer, laying a hand on Vin’s shoulder. “Those were enemy soldiers, Vin.”

“I was like a child in a room full of bugs,” Vin whispered. He could finally see what was in her fingers. It was her earring, the simple bronze stud that she always wore. She looked down at it, twisting it between her fingers.

“Did I ever tell you how I got this?” she asked. He shook his head. “My mother gave it to me,” she said. “I don’t remember it happening—Reen told me about it. My mother…she heard voices sometimes. She killed my baby sister, slaughtered her. And that same day she gave me this, one of her own earrings. As if…as if choosing me over my sister. A punishment for one, a twisted present for another.”

Vin shook her head. “My entire life has been death, Elend. Death of my sister, the death of Reen. Crewmembers dead around me, Kelsier falling to the Lord Ruler, then my own spear in the Lord Ruler’s chest. I try to protect, and tell myself that I’m escaping it all. And then…I do something like I did last night.”

Not certain what else to do, Elend pulled her close. She was stiff, however. “You had a good reason for what you did,” he said.

“No I didn’t,” Vin said. “I just wanted to hurt them. I wanted to scare them and make them leave you alone. It sounds childish, but that’s how I felt.”

“It’s not childish, Vin,” Elend said. “It was good strategy. You gave our enemies a show of force. You frightened away one of our major opponents, and now my father will be even more afraid to attack. You’ve bought us more time!”

“Bought it with the lives of hundreds of men.”

“Enemy soldiers who marched into our city,” Elend said. “Men who were protecting a tyrant who oppresses his people.”

“That’s the same rationale Kelsier used,” Vin said quietly, “when he killed noblemen and their guards. He said they were upholding the Final Empire, so they deserved to die. He frightened me.”

Elend didn’t know what to say to that.

“It was like he thought himself a god,” Vin whispered. “Taking life, giving life, where he saw fit. I don’t want to be like him, Elend. But, everything seems to be pushing me in that direction.”

“I…”You’re not like him,he wanted to say. It was true, but the words wouldn’t come out. They rang hollow to him.

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