PoV Vin
The whip struck her already bloody back and fiery pain raced through her, Vin sobbed, with snot dribbling down her nose and tears streaming down her eyes. She had stopped pleading with Camon five minutes back.
What did I teach you?, said a sneering voice in Vin's head, her brother, Reen's voice, Keep your head down and your mouth shut, fade into the background, and what did you do? You opened your stupid mouth. You deserve this.
Vin could not stop her mind from complaining, If I hadn't said something we might have been caught.
And this is your reward, Vin could see Reen's sneer deepening in her mind, sob harder, you stupid girl, lean into the pain, make yourself seem more pathetic, when you are not strong, you best make sure everyone knows you are not a threat.
Even though her brother left her six months ago, she could not stop following his lessons. Vin sobbed harder.
And she cursed herself for using up all her Luck on the Obligator, I should have held some back, and Reen's voice echoed her thought with, Always, leave yourself a way out.
Another whip crack and before the last wave of pain ran it's course a new one started, flaring up the throbbing agony of lacerations on her back to new heights, Vin's vision started to go black at the corners, and she started to panic, she did not want to lose consciousness, not now, not with her 'crew' around, Camon might decide to sell her to a whorehouse or one of the others might rape her, Oh Lord Ruler, please, please, I don't want to..
Before Vin could finish her thought, she heard an alarmingly creaking sound and risked looking up towards the door to her crew's hideout, it is bulging slightly, then with a sound like thunder the door pulled itself out of the frame and flew five feet forward in an instant before stopping with a jerk and crashed down.
A tall man with light blonde hair stood where the door had been, the light from behind him and weak light from the hideout, wreathed his form in shadows, but Vin could see hard planes of his hawkish face and a fierce scowl that seemed wrong on his lips. Vin heard a metallic ting of a flipped coin, saw a flash of gold as the coin reached the peak of its arc, as the coin half descended, Vin heard a whoosh of displaced air, the squelch of metal entering squishy meat and thud of felled body, with hope and disbelief mixed slight horror, Vin turned around and looked back.
She saw Camon laid out, the whip still in his hand, still in his nobleman attire from his meeting with the Obligator, there is a look of confusion on his face, between his eyes, there is a small dimpling, leaking a thin trickle of blood, width and height of a coin, her eyes almost unwillingly looked up to see a spatter of grey something, bits of bloody off-white bone and blood, behind Camon, up and up her eyes went and at the height of a man she could see it, a gold something, misshapen, half embedded in the rooms wooden wall.
That is a coin, it is bent out of shape because if went through a skull, Vin looked down at Camon's body, she has seen death before, hard not to have as a Skaa, especially as a part of Underworld. She hated Camon, she had wished him to escape his clutches for so long, the only reason she did not, is because she had nowhere else to go. But she did not hate him so much that she wished Camon dead, Vin did not think she hated anyone that much, ever. Now, Camon is dead and she is does not know what she is feeling, numbness, but a something like relief too, but there is something more she could not name.
The suffocating silence in the wake of Camon's death broke with the sound of the man's hard boots on the stone steps and the metallic tings of the new coin the man continues to flip, once he reached the floor proper, he looked around the room, pausing for an instant at the every pale face of Camon's crew members, finally his eyes rested on Camon's corpse, the man's scowl deepened and his hazel eyes hardened to stone.
Finally, the man spoke in an iron tone, "All of you have five minutes to gather what's yours and clear the building. After that you have exactly eleven hours and fifty five minutes to get out of Luthadel, if any of you are in city after that, you are dead men walking. I am Kelsier and you have my word on it."
The other crew members scrambled, running every which way, as Vin tried to push through her pain to stand, suddenly the man was there, his hands on her shoulders steadying her, as Vin tried to shy away from his touch, the man's, Kelsier's hands tightened on her shoulders, not enough hurt, but tight enough that she needs to use strength she did not have at the moment, if she wants to dislodge them.
"Not you, child, not you, I should have worded that better", Kelsier said in a far softer tone, she looked into his eyes and there is a warmth there that she did not understand.
Kelsier guided her to a stool near the bar with obvious care, a part of her wanted to panic and flail, to get away from the man who so casually killed Camon, but there is something smothering all her emotions, after far too long, Vin made the connection. Kelsier is using Luck on her, far more strongly than she had ever been able to.
Kelsier walked around her and got behind the bar, after a few moments of rummaging he found what he is looking for, he deposited a dusty bottle of wine on the bar, looked around, found a clean mug, poured mug half full of wine, then drew out a small silvery metal case from a cleverly hidden pocket between his belt and the waistband, poured some sort of metal dust from the case in the half-full mug, stirred it thoroughly, and pushed the mug in-front of Vin and said softly, "Drink this, all of it. It will help with the pain and the injuries."
Vin took the mug in hand and lifted it half-way to her mouth before stopping herself, there is still a blanket smothering her emotions, and she almost drank something not prepared by her own hands, as she was about to throw the wine and whatever he mixed in it, at Kelsier's eyes before running, Kelsier closed his hand around her own, looked Vin in the eyes, and said softly, "Hurting you is last thing I will ever do, Vin. Trust me, please drink it."
The thing smothering her emotions receded, she could feel again, the fear, the panic, the anger, and even a strange sorrow, she looked into Kelsier's eyes and saw something there, something she caught rare glimpses of in Reen's eyes, she did not know what it was, the sounds of panicked running around of her 'fellow' crew members faded from her mind, all of her focus remained on Kelsier's hazel eyes.
Reen's imagined voice, shouted at her to not be stupid, to run, but something in her responded to what she saw in Kelsier's eyes and without knowing why she was doing it, Vin downed the cup. Nothing happened, her disappointment must have shown on her face, because Kelsier chuckled softly and said, "Look inside yourself."
It took Vin a moment to figure out what that meant, she 'looked' as she does to check on her Luck. And gasped as felt something in her gut, something like her Luck, but different and many times stronger.
Kelsier gave a nod and smiled, drawing closer to her, as though to tell her a secret and said, smiling wide, "Burn it."
She did not know what exactly Kelsier said, but she understood what he meant, and used the shining thing in her gut like she used her Luck. And gasped again, power rushed through her body, it doused her pain, stamped it down to bare flicker, the lacerations on her back hurt barely more than a slap. Vin felt amazing, like she could run a hundred miles and punch through steel.
Kelsier nodded, turned his back to her, looked for something. Seemingly finding it, he grabbed a jug of water, deposited it in front of Vin, took the mug from Vin's hands and started mixing the powder from the before with water in her mug.
Vin took a quick look around around Camon's lair and saw that its empty but for one stout man, dressed as a nobleman, much like Kelsier, sitting at the table in the middle of the room, there is a silvery metal case on the table, the case had the same shine as smaller metal case Kelsier took out from his hidden pocket. The man had dark hair and neatly trimmed half-beard. The man saw Vin looking, smiled and gave a little wave.
Vin uncertainly gave a wave in return and turned her eyes back to Kelsier, who pushed the mug towards her, and still smiling said, "Drink again, Pewter Burns fast, fastest among the eight basic allomantic metals."
Vin started a little as she checked and found out a third of the power in her gut is already gone. Vin returned her attention to Kelsier and said questioningly, "You are an Allomancer, a Misting."
Kelsier smiled and said cheerfully, "Close, I am what is called a Mistborn, a Misting is someone who can burn a single Allomantic metal and produce a single effect. A Mistborn is someone who can burn all Allomantic metals. You are Mistborn too."
Vin heard of Mistborn, stories, legends, she does not know how much of them is true but every story agreed, Mistborn are incredibly powerful. A part of Vin surged at hearing that she is Mistborn. Hearing that title applied to herself felt right.
Telling someone good news is the oldest and simplest con in the book, Reen's sneering voice cut into her thoughts, it is effective though.
Vin gathered herself, she has let down her guard far too much. Vin looked at Kelsier, asked flatly, "What do you want?"
"Blunt, aren't you", Kelsier chuckled with obvious amusement and continued, "I am a crewleader, Vin. Not the type of crewleader Camon is. I am of different kind, I would like to believe of better kind. I want you to become my apprentice and join the crew I am gathering for a job. Even if you don't join the crew, offer of the apprenticeship remains open."
Vin nodded slowly, she wanted to say yes, she longed to say yes, legendary power is hard to say no to, but she mastered herself, Reen's words echoed in her mind, Everything is a con, nothing is ever free, asked, "Why? Why did you kill Camon? Why did you help me? Why are you willing to share your secrets with me?"
Kelsier threw back his head and laughed, it was a rich sound, an honest sound, it sounded free, it sounded beautiful, it had a pull to it, a part of her wanted to join in on Kelsier's mirth, to laugh with him. Vin firmly shut that part down, Kelsier's laughter trailed off and he said smiling, "Because I can, Vin. What Camon did to you, beating you, terrorizing you, what your crew did, standing around, either enjoying the show or ignoring it, it is a common enough thing. On any other day, I might have given Camon a solid beating for it and thought of an appropriate punishment. But today, with you, I didn't, I couldn't. He had that whip raised in his hand, a look of glee on his face, there you were, cowering. It reminded me of something, another whipping, and I did today, what I couldn't do that day", Kelsier paused there, his eyes far off, seeing something long past, he shook his head and continued with a small smile, "I helped because I can, as for the offer of apprenticeship and joining my crew, well, I have a good feeling about you."
So he lost someone, apparently to a whipping, Vin nodded to herself, that made some sense, and Vin asked one more question, "What is the job?"
Kelsier's smile widened, as though she already said yes and said, "For that answer you would have to wait a few hours", then Kelsier turned to the other man in the room, "Docks, put out the call, we will use this place for the meeting."
The other man, Docks, gave a smile and a nod and left the hideout.