PoV Vin

Vin followed Kelsier into the meeting room, pushing aside her general unease at the comfortable bed, spacious room, fragrant bathwater, abundant food and easy respect for her and her wishes, her residence in Clubs's workshop brought.

As soon as Kelsier entered the room he exclaimed happily, "Saze!"

Vin, only a step behind Kelsier, entered the room and casually leaned against the wall beside the door-frame, observed as a tall, long limbed man with the build of a scholar and a shaved head, dressed in colourful robes stood up and gave Kelsier a bow and said smilingly in a soft voice, "Master Kelsier, I have come to inform you that Lord Renoux has settled himself and his retinue in Fellise, as per your instructions."

Vin took in this 'Saze's' multiple rings, bracelets and earrings, elongated earlobes, his too long limbs, his colourful, patterned robes and finally grasped, he is a Terrisman Steward.

Kelsier strode towards the Terrisman, clasped his shoulder companionably for a moment, then turned to face the room beside the blackboard at the end of the room. He gave out a round of nods to everyone present, his eyes rested a moment on Vin, he titled head minutely towards one of the empty chairs in the room, but Vin shook her head in answer and he shrugged, and went on with his greetings.

Just as Kelsier was about to open his mouth, Dockson drily cut in, "A head on a spike, Kell, really?"

Kelsier grinned broadly, and said, "The news already got out? I thought it would take until the afternoon, this is barely two hours after dawn. Excellent!"

Vin and she saw, most of the others in the room looked in confusion, except for Marsh and the Terrisman, as Dockson sighed with exasperation and said, "I thought you were going to rob him, not behead him and put his head on a spike upon the gates of his own Keep."

"I did steal from him, and since I was there anyway..", Kelsier trailed off.

As Ham broke in and demanded with half-hearted anger, "Will someone tell me what is going on?"

Kelsier shrugged and said nonchalantly, "Last night, I sneaked into the Venture Keep, emptied Straff Venture's secret vault, killed him in his sleep, sawed off his head and put it upon the spike above his Keep's gate."

Now, everyone stared, Marsh, Dockson and the Terrisman impassively, others with disturbed expressions, Vin did not know how she looked, but she felt a cold shiver crawl down her spine, she knew Kelsier is a dangerous man, after all the very first thing she saw him do is kill Camon, but then Kelsier had been furious, wrathful and even hateful. Now, Kelsier is dispassionate and indifferent to the fact that he killed a man in his sleep, and then took the time to saw off the dead man's head.

Breeze jumped from his chair to his feet, and nearly shouted, "Lord Ruler! Kelsier, why?"

Kelsier calmly rolled up his sleeves, and held up his arms. In the harsh morning light, Kelsier's scars from Pits of Hathsin are hard to look at, long, short, thin and wide, multitudes upon multitudes, criss crossing each other and some almost overlapping each other. Looking at them made something squirm uncomfortably in her stomach.

Once every one got a good look, Kelsier lowered his hands but did not unroll his sleeves, and said in to the quiet room, "House Venture is the one who administers the Pits of Hathsin, everyone there, except for the prisoners are Venture men. That is how House Venture became and remains the most powerful noble family, they are so wealthy because the Lord Ruler pays them handsomely for operating the Pits on his behalf. And I did not just kill Straff for revenge, his death is part of the plan, and it would have been a lot more tougher to kill him later on."

The tension in the room eased noticeably, Vin could see others absorb what Kelsier said, and she could see the moment they individually came to terms with it.

One more shiver crawled down her spine, these are hard men, willing to do hard things, brutal things to fulfil their goals. What in the Lord Ruler's name am I doing here?!

A part of Vin insisted that she bolt from here the first chance she got, but another voice a thought, yes, these are hard men, but they are Strong too. Don't we want that strength for us?

As her internal debate raged, Marsh ground out, grimly, "Elaborate on this plan then?"

Kelsier grinned at his brother and picked up a piece of chalk and started writing on the blackboard.

The Destruction of the Final Empire, the header read.

Kelsier wrote Problems, at one end of the board

and Assets, at the other end.

Below the Assets, he simply wrote the Crew, the Rebellion and the Case. Everyone there knew what the Case meant.

Below the Problems he wrote Lord Ruler, but struck it out and said, "I promised I would take care of this and I will. So what are our other problems?"

Breeze settled more comfortably in his high backed chair and said lazily, "Are you sure about the Rebellion being an Asset?"

Yeden bristled in his chair and made as to get up, red faced and seemingly angry enough to throttle Breeze, Kelsier settled down Yeden with a softly voiced, "Yeden, you are working with thieves and scoundrels if you cannot take a jab, I wonder at your usefulness as a diplomat."

Yeden grew pale faced, but Marsh's face grew more stony. Kelsier gave Yeden an encouraging, almost paternal smile and said, "Yeden, you are part of this crew, while we may tease each other, we will never ever work at cross purposes or betray each other", and he turned to Breeze and said with surprising sternness from him, "Breeze, while I understand your scepticism, the Rebellion is vital for our plans and the members of Rebellion humbles us all with their bravery and sacrifice."

Breeze almost seemed to pout, but he nodded his head, if not in agreement with Kelsier's words, then in acknowledgement that Kelsier is the crewleader and he had the right to chastise Breeze when his comments got out of hand.

Kelsier once again focused on the group as a whole and asked, "What is our second biggest problem?"

This time it is Ham who answered, "The Luthadel Garrison, if you really do expect Rebellion to gain control of all of the Final Empire, then, every Garrison stationed outside of every city in the Empire."

Kelsier wrote Garrison below the struck out Lord Ruler and said, "Our main focus will be Luthadel Garrison, but we will workshop something for other garrisons too. Luthadel Garrison is twenty thousand strong, from what Ham tells me they are very well trained and armed. So how are we going to deal with them?"

Once again Ham answered, "Even if we recruit enough for the Rebellion to match the Garrison's numbers, it would not be an even fight. Just teaching raw recruits to march in formation will take months, then there is weapons training, my men won't be enough to serve as officers for the whole army, so we need to choose officers from the recruits and teach them strategy and tactics. The best method to deal with Garrison is to distract it, draw it away."

Kelsier hummed, considering what was said, and asked Ham, "Can you teach the recruits to march with speed and hold a fortified position, engage only defensively, in say, six months?"

Ham thought it over before answering, "That is doable, that is very doable."

Kelsier nodded and said, "We will have a portion of our army seize the Pits of Hathsin, that will force Lord Ruler to send the entirety of the Garrison, the rest can take the city walls, especially if they had inside help and hold them. What is our next biggest problem?"

This time it was Breeze who answered, "The nobility. Even if you kill Lord Ruler and draw away the Garrison, there will be thousands of soldiers inside Luthadel, serving as house guards, many noblemen Mistings and perhaps even a few Mistborn."

Kelsier nodded in agreement, "This is where I explain the other reason why I killed Straff Venture, there is a way to weaken and then force the nobility from the city. A House War."

Everyone except for Vin, started a little in their chairs, Kelsier apparently saw confusion in her face, because he started to explain, "The Noble politics are difficult to easily explain, Vin", at Kelsier saying her name, the other occupants of the room gave another little start, apparently they forgot she was present, "but they are constantly making moves, making and betraying alliances, to keep what they have and to grasp for more. Every century or so, all this politicking boils over and so breaks out a House War, where nobility send Mistborn and Mistings as assassins against each other, House Wars is how Mistborn got most of their fearful reputation. There is even an unspoken rule, not to send their Mistborn against each other even when two noble houses are feuding. But a House War is different from a regular feud. Every noble house in the city will get drawn in, the only way to escape a House War is to withdraw from the city entirely. And Straff Venture's death is the first spark that will ignite a House War."

Except for Yeden and Vin, everyone else nodded with thoughtful looks at Kelsier's words.

After a few moments, Breeze spoke, "We will need someone on the inside, to keep up-to date on how the nobility are feeling, reacting and thinking in the prelude to the House War."

Kelsier nodded in agreement and said, "I had hoped you would take that role Breeze, after you grew confident enough to pass on your recruiting duties to your apprentices."

Breeze shook his head, and sounding genuinely apologetic said, "Not possible, I am afraid, I have several identities, it would be rather unfortunate if one recognized me by one name and another recognized by another."

Kelsier thought for a moment, "No need to attend balls or parties Breeze, make some house calls, be discreet. And get me the names of a few reliable informants, a relative newcomer who wants to be neutral can be seen asking questions to keep himself informed, without it being too suspicious, 'Lord Renoux' and his Terrisman Steward can handle it."

Kelsier put a weird emphasis on 'Lord Renoux', as he looked to the Terrisman when he spoke those last words.

The Terrisman nodded and said, "I will pass on your instructions, Master Kelsier."

Vin grew confused, why would any lord take instructions from Kelsier. When Vin caught his eyes Kelsier saw the question, he gave a nod, indicating him noticing her question, but did not explain further.

"What else?", Kelsier asked the room in general.

This time it is Marsh who answered, "The Steel Ministry."

Kelsier nodded seriously and wrote down Steel Ministry beneath nobility.

"Getting Marsh in, is the problem, Obligator training usually takes years and only final part is done in Luthadel. Once he got in, I am confident he will do what he needs to. So any ideas?" Kelsier asked the room in general.

The silence lasted for what felt a long time, finally, surprising even herself, it is Vin who broke it.

"I have an idea", Vin said.

All other occupants turned to her, looked at her intently, that made Vin uncomfortable, but Kelsier nodded at Vin encouragingly, so she took a breath and said, looking straight at Kelsier, "Camon, my previous crewleader, the one you killed. He was working with another crewleader, Theron, he discovered that alongside their Acolytes, the Ministry also secretly moves large amounts of funds through the canal boats with the Acolytes. Theron pulled an elaborate scheme to steal those funds, costing thousands of boxings and six years, the plan is to get a contract from Steel Ministry to ship their Acolytes, and rob those canal boats. But he needed someone to play a nobleman, he reluctantly came to Camon. With Camon's death that plan probably fell through. But Theron has a corrupt Obligator in his pocket. If you can get Theron to put you contact with that Obligator, you can probably forge records for Marsh to get in."

Kelsier smiled widely, Vin almost thought she can see pride in his eyes, but Reen's scoff in the back of her mind killed that thought.

Kelsier turned to Marsh, and asked, "How about it brother?"

Marsh gave Vin a long look before nodding, and said, "It will do."

"What else? What are our other problems?", Kelsier asked, once again giving the whole room an urging look.

Ham answered, "Less problems, more details Kell. Weapons, how are we going to source them."

" 'Lord Renoux' will buy them in bulk, our efforts to arm the Rebellion in other Dominances will probably sell the lie that he is doing brisk business, as his cover story says", Kelsier answered promptly, once again putting an odd emphasis on the name.

"My men, who I will have to use to train the army we recruit, will be men who worked for nobility and Lord Ruler in the past. They made bargains they regretted, now they want to do better. Will that be a problem?", Ham asked.

Kelsier pinned Yeden down with his eyes and said, more to Yeden than to Ham, "It will not be. Veterans are the key to any successful army, they bring tradition, experience and give men they fight alongside much needed confidence."

Yeden deflated.

Breeze was next to voice a problem, "Luthadel is too well monitored, recruitment here would be a risky affair."

"Start with Luthadel, after a few weeks of training send off your best to start recruiting in surrounding cities and towns. And start looking for more Skaa Mistings to recruit to our cause too. This is for all of you, keep an eye out for any Misting. I know, what crews you have gathered are done after going through a thorough vetting process, but we are going to need more manpower. If we cannot get it here, then reach out to your contacts in other Dominances through the Underground. I know doing so is a security concern. But only Soothers and Rioters need to have some idea of the fraction of the whole plan. The remainder can be just gathered nearby and cool their heels for a bit. I doubt there is a Skaa out there who says no to free food with pay and no work", Kelsier said seriously.

The crew gave unhappy nods.

"What else?", Kelsier asked.

Nobody answered.

Kelsier sighed, folded his hands and leaned against the back wall, between two closed clear glass windows, light and shadows played strangely across his figure.

After a long moment of silence, Kelsier said solemnly, "Gentlemen, Mistress Vin, I have to apologise, I have run roughshod over this meeting. I have been impatient and too demanding. Dockson, Ham, Breeze, Sazed and even Marsh, I believe will agree, this is not how I regularly do things," the five people Kelsier named gave nods, and Kelsier continued, with an intensity in his voice and passion in his eyes, "but I have a reason for my imaptience. Those who gathered here, are the best hope Skaa have. The best hope of salvation, of justice and even Vengeance. I see you, I see your doubts, it is understandable. When you are in a nightmare, it does not feel like it will ever end, and this nightmare of an empire lasted for a thousand years, so of course you can not believe it can end. But even the worst of nightmares end, when we wake", Kelsier walked around the room, looked every person in the room in the eyes for the moment, even the gangly teenage boy who sat besides Clubs, silent until this moment, and said softly, "my friends, you are the dawn that will wake this world from this nightmare of ash. If you can not believe yourself capable, believe in my belief of you."

And Kelsier left the room.