Mistborn: In the Kredik Shaw

Here is my entry into the Brickscalibur Rogues and Outlaws category.

A couple of years ago I got acquainted with the work of Brandon Sanderson, and since then he is one of my favorite authors. I have long wanted to build something inspired by his books, and so the category of Rogues and Outlaws gave me the idea to collect an episode from the book "Mistborn: The Final Empire".

 

 

Kredik Shaw lay before them. The peaked spires and sheer towers rose like dark talons in the night. They varied greatly in thickness—some were wide enough to house stairwells and large rooms, but others were simply thin rods of steel jutting up into the sky. The variety gave the mass a twisted, off-center symmetry—an almost-balance.

 

The spikes and towers had a foreboding cast in the damp, misty night—like the ash-blackened bones of a long-weathered carcass. Looking at them, Vin thought she felt something…a depression, as if simply being close to the building was enough to suck away her hope.

 

“Our target is a tunnel complex at the base of one of the far right spires,” Kelsier said, his voice barely carrying over the quiet hush of the falling rain. “We’re heading for a room at the very center of that complex. ”

 

“What’s inside?”

 

“I don’t know,” Kelsier said. “That’s what we’re going to ?nd out. Once every three days—and today isn’t one of them— the Lord Ruler visits this chamber. He stays for three hours, then leaves. I tried to get in once before. Three years ago. ”

 

“The job,” Vin whispered. “The one that…”

 

“Got me captured,” Kelsier said with a nod. “Yes. At the time, we thought that the Lord Ruler stored riches in the room. I don’t think that’s true, now, but I’m still curious. The way he visits is so regular, so… odd. Something’s in that room, Vin. Something important. Maybe it holds the secret to his power and immortality. ”

 

<...>

 

 

Vin shrugged. However, as she moved on the rooftop, she felt it again—the sense of depression coming from Kredik Shaw.

 

“There is something, Kelsier,” she said. “The palace feels…wrong, somehow. ”

 

“That’s the Lord Ruler,” Kelsier said. “He radiates like an incredibly powerful Soother, smothering the emotions of everyone who gets close to him. Turn on your copper; that will make you immune. ”

 

Vin nodded, burning copper. Immediately, the sensation went away.

 

“Good?” Kelsier asked.

 

She nodded again.

 

“All right, then,” he said, giving her a handful of coins. “Stay close to me, and keep your atium handy—just in case. ”

 

With that, he threw himself off the roof. Vin followed, her cloak tassels spraying rainwater. She burned pewter as she fell, and hit the ground with Allomantically strengthened legs.

 

Kelsier took off at a dash, and she followed. Her speed on the wet cobblestones would have been reckless, but her pewter-fueled muscles reacted with precision, strength, and balance. She ran in the wet, misty night, burning tin and copper—one to let h

er see, the other to let her hide.

 

Kelsier rounded the palace complex. Oddly, the grounds had no outer wall. Of course they don’t. Who would dare attack the Lord Ruler?

 

Flat space, covered in cobblestones, was all that surrounded the Hill of a Thousand Spires. No tree, foliage, or structure stood to distract one’s eye from the disturbing, asymmetric collection of wings, towers, and spires that was Kredik Shaw.

 

“Here we go,” Kelsier whispered, his voice carrying to her tin-enhanced ears. He turned, dashing directly toward a squat, bunkerlike section of the palace. As they approached, Vin saw a pair of guards standing by an ornate, gatelike door.

 

Kelsier was on the men in a dash, cutting one down with slashing knives. The second man tried to cry out, but Kelsier jumped, slamming both feet into the man’s chest. Thrown to the side by the inhumanly strong kick, the guard crashed into the wall, then slumped to the ground. Kelsier was on his feet a second later, slamming his weight against the door and pushing it open.

Done