Prologue
In future years others may not understand any of this so I will explain. Long ago our lands in the mountains were happy. Back then many of the Terris people could store and eventually use attributes, which included strength, in metal. That was known as feruchemy. We found the hero our prophecies foretold but he betrayed us and inexplicably turned into a man so powerful that he believed he was a god. For a thousand years he ruled as a tyrant. In the central dominance there were nobles and slaves but we were less than that. My people were bred like horses to get rid of feruchemy because the "Lord Ruler", which he was called. After years, feruchemy had almost been bred out of the population.
After the Lord Ruler came to power another magic manifested itself in the general population, which excluded the terrismen of course. With this new power an average nobleman could dampen emotions making people easier to manipulate or another could make himself more dexterous and inhumanly strong. As this exclusive power came to light in the noble population it was known as allomancy and the people who got these powers could use only one by swallowing the metal and "burning" it. There are an immensely powerful few who could burn all sixteen metals and they are called mistborn.
The Lord Ruler was killed by a young mistborn named Vin, and then Terrismen were free. Under the Lord Ruler the remaining feruchemists started to collect things that people were forgetting. Copper was able to store our memories without fading so we have the knowledge of a millenium contained in necklaces and bracers. The only problem is that now the skaa, who were the slave race of the Central Dominance, aren't interested in learning the things that we try to teach.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T CARE?!" I raged at the ignorant farming skaa.
"Iz nawt like yew could eat yer percious tacktics now coujyew?" he calmly replied. I would say the speech was because of the gaps in his teeth but that implies that he had some.
"Would you rather have your entire village obliterated because some soldiers felt like it or be able to defend yourself against such threats?" I said trying to put things in perspective but it was useless and turning around I finally heard the distressed calls from a boy who fell into the dry well.
"Help me!" the little boy cried while his voice echoed in the depths of the of his accidental trap. "To whom do I speak?" I asked the farmer. His brow furrowed in confusion. "Who's the kid?" I said simplifying my language. Understanding flooded his expression like a flash of lightning. "Daz me coosen's lil todder Timmy." He informed me emotion bleeding onto his face. I couldn't exactly leave the kid down there, could I? So I started siphoning my weight into an iron pendant I was wearing so I was light enough that the impact of the fall wouldn't hurt me. Stagnant air rushed past my face as the only thing pulling down were the pieces of jewelry that I wear.
Once I reached the arid bottom of the well I found that the child had at least enough sense to grab the rope despite the burns it gave his hands. "Is you here to save me?" While shuddering at his grammar I nodded. After twelve minutes of clawing my way out of the well. "TIMMY!" came a squeal from the general vicinity of the huts. Three days later, during which it became glaringly obvious that the skaa wouldn't accept my advice on anything, one of my kinsmen arrived. . . bloodied.
As he ran at an incredible speed under the power of steel, he threw up a cloud of dust but he was already slowing. As I rushed to meet him the true extent of his injuries met my eyes; he was bleeding profusely from spike stabbed through his shoulder. He opened his mouth and said "We thought they had been disban..." These words which were barely more than a drawn out gasp ending with death. It didn't matter that he died before identifying his attacker because the spike was enough. It also helped that a form was steadily pounding away in the distance obviously flaring pewter.
I knew that the skaa were a lost cause because of their blatant ignorance and the Steel Inquisitor was here for me not them. None but the inquisitors themselves understood their powers. They're mistborn of impossible caliber with an obvious deformity. . . A spike sticking out of each eye with the tips sticking out of the backs their heads. As I said they are entirely impossible. Steel Inquisitors had been prosecuting my people since the beginning of the rule of the Lord Ruler and based on the dead keeper at my feet it wasn't hard to tell why he was here.
In the past I would've run but these last few weeks had made me hopeless for the skaa's ability to learn and in that moment I decided to destroy the Lord Ruler's legacy. For years I had been filling my metalminds leaving myself weak and sickly. The other keepers had ridiculed me for training in the aspects feruchemy used for fighting. After all why would a teacher need to fight?
I started running at the inquisitor head-on tapping my steelminds. I knew I was being foolish but I felt a hurricane of emotions that drowned the logic that keepers hold dear. As converged I was able to see in better detail the tattoos that flared out from his spikes wrinkle with amusement. One moment prior to the collision I made myself immensely strong and heavy with all the weight and strength in my pewter and iron minds. We collided and I crushed his body with the speed and size of an iron carriage. The damage done to him was more than any a human body could withstand but he wasn't human he was an Inquisitor which was why I ripped the spikes out of his head.
After my encounter the mists came early. I completely lost stumbling this way and that like a mistwraith. After many hours I realized something startling the spikes hung loosely from my hands. A shiver ran down my spine. The grisly trophies were stuck to my hands which were stained with blood. I had killed. I felt empty. Any way I had justified the murder evaporated letting guilt flood me. Not so much guilt as emptiness like realizing there was nothing left in a metal mind to fuel strength, health, or any other attribute. Dual sounds of clanging were made as the spikes fell to the ground. Mist rushed to the spot where the spikes had been curling and dancing. A silhouette loomed in the mists and I almost immediately reacted, internally reaching for power. There was nothing left because I had used the energy crushing the Inquisitor.
The shape was a rock and I was safe but I began to think which the people involved in the breeding programs often discouraged. None of the skaa would accept my help nor could I return to my people considering the Inquisition new foothold in Terris. I felt like the slick blood of another person had forever branded me as a murderer. Thusly as beams of the brilliantly red sunrise penetrated the mists I steeled my resolve and the anomaly of Terris began his exile.
I now hear of a village of the vestiges of my decimated culture lodging in the pits of Hathsin. They do not need me but they could make use of my story. So I write my hands heavy with blood hoping desperately that someone might find this along with the transcription of my copperminds.