Disclaimer: I don't own Mistborn the amazing Brandon Sanderson does.
An Alloy of Time
Chapter 1: The Warrior Descends
Vin's eyes snapped open, though opening them didn't do her much good as wherever she was, she couldn't see a thing. She tried moving but her surroundings seemed to be a very confined space. The air was stale, old, unused, and stank of rotting flesh. It took all of Vin's willpower not to gag from the stench. How had she gotten to this place? The last thing she remembered she had just talked to Sazed in the afterlife; she was supposed to be dead or maybe that had been some sort of dream.
Vin figured there would be time for questions like that later. She reached her hand up and found something solid above her. A roof of some kind? It felt like glass. Vin checked to see if she had any metals, no such luck. She could break the glass but would be rather cut up in the process.
It's better to get a few cuts then to stay in here. Vin pounded on the glass as hard she could, it was more difficult than she had imagined, her arms felt stiff and weak. After a minute of furious banging on the glass roof her confinement Vin managed to make a crack.
With a little more work the glass shattered with a loud crashing sound and Vin was finally able to move somewhat more freely. She sat up and pushed her way out of the small box that had held her.
Vin glanced around her surroundings, it looked to be some sort of tomb. Her eyes were adjusting to the darkness now, she saw another glass grave containing Elend's body. For the most fleeting of moments she held out hope that if she had been brought back that Elend would be back too, but she saw no movement. He was gone it was just her now.
She still had her vials and weapons o her. She downed a vial and did her best to find her way out of this place. She stepped into a room painted with murals of crowds of people exiting a cave into green fields. She recognized some of them. Pictures of Breeze, Ham, Spook, and the Cett family stood out. Vin kept moving ignoring the miscellaneous items that lined the walls. As she exited that room and entered another area of this... tomb for lack of a better word an older woman came out of a smaller room, maybe a groundskeeper of some sort. No doubt disturbed by the noise of her breaking out of her grave.
The woman went as white as a sheet when she saw Vin, understandable when you see someone walking around who was supposed to be dead. Vin readied her brass so she could stop the woman from panicking. She didn't get a chance though as the woman rushed out a pair of large doors, mists spilling into the room, It seemed that was the way out. Vin burned tin so she could see in the mists and folowed hoping to end this quietly and peacefully.
Waxillium Ladrian patrolled the area around the Field of Rebirth. He didn't know why he bothered with this particular part of the city, no one, not even the most hardened of criminals dared disturb the graves of the Ascendant Warrior and the Last Emperor, but he had a city-wide deputized forbearance so he figured he might as well put it to good use and patrol the city.
"So how are things with you and Steris?" Wayne asked.
"They're going fine Wayne," he answered, "All according to Steris' schedule. His partner snorted at that.
"I still think you should've gone with Marasi Wax, Steris is too uptight for you." Wayne said.
"We've been through this, I'm too old for her and I have to think about the stability of House Ladrian." Waxillium said. Even as he said the words a twinge of guilt hit him as he was still torn on the decision he'd made. Thankfully he hadn't had a chance to see much of Marasi as of late as that was just too painful. She was too busy helping put Miles on trial after their recent adventure up until very recently.
"Yeah right. I believe that." Wayne's sarcasm was evident. Thankfully the conversation was cut short as the pair noticed some activity in the Field of Rebirth. An older woman was approaching them in panic. She seemed to recognize Wax as she approached. It wasn't surprising, his recent stopping of the Vanishers had raised his profile in Elendel, a profile that had already been quite large since he was head of a noble house and had a reputation for breeches in decorum.
"Can we help you ma'am?" He asked, trying his best to use a soothing tone in order to calm the poor woman and get answers out of her. It was something he'd often had to do with distraught victims in the Roughs and it applied just as much here in Elendel.
"I'm the groundskeeper of the Field of Rebirth. I know you'll probably think I'm crazy, but the Ascendant Warrior is back from the dead!" She said.
"I'm sure it was just a dream ma'am." Wax said. People didn't just come back from the dead. There were stories in the Words of Founding about the Survivor pulling off such a feat, but Harmony had attributed that to the Faceless Immortals.
"I wasn't dreaming! I heard glass shattering from the tomb and went to see what had happened and that was when I saw her, the Ascendant Warrior herself standing in front of me." The woman snapped.
Wax sighed, she was rather insistent, and as a lawman he'd have to to do his due diligence and check this out in case something was going on. "Looks like we'll see some action tonight." He could just make out a figure in the mist as he approached the Field of Rebirth proper. Wax crept silently toward the target from behind, drawing his Sterrion 36s as he did so. He didn't actually plan on shooting whoever this was unless he absolutely had to, but a little intimidation wouldn't hurt. He motioned for Wayne to go around the other way; he wanted to make escape more difficult for whoever they were facing.
Wax finally got a good look at the person who had possibly desecrated sacred ground. It was woman with short black hair. Wax thought there was something oddly familiar about her but he couldn't quite place it. What really confused him was that she was wearing a garment somewhat like his own mistcoat but the separation into individual pieces of cloth started at the shoulders instead of the waist.
"Freeze and come with us quietly and no one has to get hurt." Wax said pointing his guns at the woman's back. She turned Pushed his guns out of his hands.
Rust and Ruin! Focus! He chided himself. At the very least he knew what they were up against now. By Pushing away his guns this woman had tipped her hand. You could only have one Allomantic power, and she'd used steel. That made her a Coinshot like him. A particularly dangerous breed of Misting to be sure but she was up against a pair of Twinborn and Wax alone negated her powers by virtue of being a Coinshot and if that weren't enough he was a Skimmer, a Feruchemist who could use iron to store and then later draw upon weight. Since the strength of one's Push was largely dependant on the weight of the Allomancer, with some variation based on sheer Allomantic strength, that made him particularly dangerous. She didn't look to be a Twinborn herself, she didn't look to have any metalminds on her and couldn't exactly hide them in the skin tight outfit she was wearing, plus from what little he could see in the mist she didn't appear to have any Terris in her features.
His own combination of powers came in handy very quickly as Wax burned steel and Pushed against what seemed to be a coin pouch tied to the woman's waist. That was odd. She didn't seem to be carrying guns. Whoever she was she took the Coinshot thing seriously apparently. The Push was meant to put her off balance but somehow she managed to remain standing.
She then untied the pouch and Pushed a handful of coins at Wax. He instinctively Pushed back against them but found himself unable to do more than stall the coins. This woman couldn't weigh more than a hundred pounds, for her to match his Push meant she had to have Allomantic power that was off the charts. Wax tapped his ironmind and doubled his normal weight, and considering he usually went around at three fourths his normal weight that was quite the increase. The coins were deflected away into the misty night.
The woman seemed shocked but didn't have time to do much in reaction as while she'd been in a Pushing match with Wax Wayne had managed to get close enough to her to trap her in a speed bubble with his bendalloy. Time passed faster outside a bendalloy bubble than inside so Wax couldn't really make out what was going on.
Wayne was a competent fighter was his dueling canes so Wax wasn't too worried about him not being able to subdue this criminal especially with him being a Bloodmaker, a Ferring who could store health in a goldmind for quick healing later. Still, he quickly switched from tapping his ironmind to storing again he ran over and picked up his guns just to be safe. He loaded each gun with aluminum bullets, he wanted to bring this woman in, not kill her but if it came to that these bullets would be a nasty surprise for her. Aluminum and certain alloys of it couldn't be Pushed or Pulled by Allomancers. Wax didn't dare shoot into the speed bubble for fear of hitting Wayne, his friend could only heal so much after all and everything inside the bubble was moving in a blur so he couldn't get a clear shot and even if he could the properties of the bubble itself would send the bullet off course.
That soon ceased to be a concern went Wayne came flying out of the speed bubble and landed several feet behind Wax. Wax turned to his old friend and noticed several bones mending themselves as well as a bleeding gash on his cheek that was quickly healing.
"That woman is a feisty one Wax, she moves and hits like a Thug. My dueling canes even broke on her arms." Wayne said showing him the splintered remains of his dueling canes.
"That doesn't make any sense, she a Coinshot, she can't be a Thug too, that would make her a Mistborn and we both know those don't exist. They're just stories in centuries' old mythologies of the Final Empire." Wax whispered so the woman wouldn't hear.
"But I am a Mistborn." the woman said suddenly, her accent was strange, it sounded odd and old-fashioned. How had she heard him? She'd have to be a Tineye or a Windwhisper to have heard from that far away and since Wax couldn't see any way she could have any metalminds large enough to be of any use that only left one option…
"She is a Mistborn, but Mistborn aren't supposed to exist, they haven't existed for hundreds of years… What in Harmony's name is going on here?"
Wax was drug out of his thoughts by Wayne tapping on his shoulder. "Wax you might want to take a good look at our criminal and then take a look at this statue here." Wayne was pointing at the statue of Vin, the legendary Ascendant Warrior. Wax looked at the woman they'd been trying arrest and then back at the statue.
"Rust and Ruin…" They were nearly identical, that in combination with this woman seeming to a be a Mistborn… "You're her, you're Vin the Ascendant Warrior, but but that's impossible…"
"It would explain a lot though." Wayne piped in.
"Yeah, I'm Vin but what's this Ascendant Warrior stuff you're talking about? Oh Lord Ruler, you two aren't member of the Church of the Survivor are you?"
"Believe me, ah, Vin, we're just as confused as you are. We're going to ask you to come with us. We have a lot of questions that need to be answered, like if you really are who who you say you are." The woman claiming to be Vin looked incredulous.
"Who else would I be?" She asked.
"You know she's got a point, it's not exactly easy to fake Allomantic powers, let alone fake them and look like the Ascendant Warrior." Wayne sad.
Wax had to admit that Wayne had a point. After all Faceless Immortals didn't have Alllomantic powers, and from what he'd seen this woman had demonstrated three, which was supposed to be impossible."I know that but her being Vin doesn't make any sense. We need to question her further and keep it quiet just in case she is who she says she is. Go get Constable Brettin, he can help us decide how to deal with this."
"You got it Wax." Wayne said running off.
"Can I get some answers about what in the Lord Ruler's name is going on?" "Vin" asked.
"Well first we have to do our best to confirm if you are who who say you are, and if you are… well that'll take a lot of explaining." Wax kneaded his forehead, he already had a migraine and he could tell it was only going to get worse.
"Why should I go with you, you have both Allomancy and Feruchemy, that says to me that you've been spike, I shouldn't trust you." "Vin" said.
"We're not using Hemalurgy, there's a lot to catch you up on if you are Vin, but if you want answers you'll have to come with us." The woman nodded reluctantly, picking up her coin pouch.