She didn't question her place any longer. She was either mad or she was the Hero of Ages. It was her task to defeat the mists. Yet. . .she thought, frowning. Shouldn't the thumpings be getting louder, not softer? The longer they traveled, the weaker the thumpings seemed. Was she too late? Was something happening at the Well to dampen its power? Had someone else already taken it?
We have to keep moving.
Another person in her place might have asked why he had been chosen. Vin had known several men—both in Camon's crew and in Elend's government—who would complain every time they were given an assignment. "Why me?" they would ask. The insecure ones didn't think they were up to the task. The lazy ones wanted out of the work.
Vin didn't consider herself to be either self-assured or self-motivated. Still, she saw no point in asking why. Life had taught her that sometimes things simply happened. Often, there hadn't been any specific reason for Reen to beat her. And, reasons were weak comforts, anyway. The reasons that Kelsier had needed to die were clear to her, but that didn't make her miss him any less.
She had a job to do. The fact that she didn't understand it didn't stop her from acknowledging that she had to try to accomplish it. She simply hoped that she'd know what to do when the time came. Though the thumpings were weaker, they were still there. They drew her forward. To the Well of Ascension.
Behind her, she could feel the lesser vibration of the mist spirit. It never disappeared until the mists themselves did. It had been there all morning, standing just behind her.
"Do you know the secret to this all?" she asked quietly, turning toward the spirit in the reddish mists. "Do you have—"
The Allomantic pulse of the mist spirit was coming from directly inside the tent she shared with Elend.
Vin jumped off the rock, landing on the frosted ground and scrambling to the tent. She threw open the flaps. Elend slept inside, head just barely visible as it poked out of the blankets. Mist filled the small tent, swirling, twisting—and that was odd enough. Mist didn't usually enter tents.
And there, in the middle of the mists, was the spirit. Standing directly above Elend.
It wasn't even really there. It was just an outline in the mists, a repeating pattern caused by chaotic movements. And yet it was real. She could feel it, and she could see it—see it as it looked up, meeting her gaze with invisible eyes.
Hateful eyes.
It raised an insubstantial arm, and Vin saw something flash. She reacted immediately, whipping out a dagger, bursting into the tent and swinging. Her blow met something tangible in the mist spirit's hand. A metallic sound rang in the calm air, and Vin felt a powerful, numbing chill in her arm. The hairs across her entire body prickled.
And then it disappeared. Fading away, like the ringing of its somehow substantial blade. Vin blinked, then turned to look through the blowing tent flap. The mists outside were gone; day had finally won.
It didn't seem to have many victories remaining.
"Vin?" Elend asked, yawning and stirring.
Vin calmed her breathing. The spirit had gone. The daylight meant safety, for now. Once, it was the nights that I found safe, she thought. Kelsier gave them to me.
"What's wrong?" Elend asked. How could someone, even a nobleman, be so slow to rise, so unconcerned about the vulnerability he displayed while sleeping?
She sheathed her dagger. What can I tell him? How can I protect him from something I can barely see? She needed to think. "It was nothing," she said quietly. "Just me. . .being jumpy again."
Elend rolled over, sighing contentedly. "Is Spook doing his morning scout?"
"Yes."
"Wake me when he gets back."
Vin nodded, but he probably couldn't see her. She knelt, looking at him as the sun rose behind her. She'd given herself to him—not just her body, and not just her heart. She'd abandoned her rationalizations, given away her reservations, all for him. She could no longer afford to think that she wasn't worthy of him, no longer give herself the false comfort of believing they couldn't ever be together.
She'd never trusted anyone this much. Not Kelsier, not Sazed, not Reen. Elend had everything. That knowledge made her tremble inside. If she lost him, she would lose herself.
I mustn't think about that! she told herself, rising. She left the tent, quietly closing the flaps behind her. In the distance, shadows moved. Spook appeared a moment later.
"Someone's definitely back there," he said quietly. "Not spirits, Vin. Five men, with a camp."
Vin frowned. "Following us?"
"They must be."
Straff's scouts, she thought. "We'll let Elend decide what to do about them."
Spook shrugged, walking over to sit on her rock. "You going to wake him?"
Vin turned back. "Let him sleep a little longer."
Spook shrugged again. He watched as she walked over to the firepit and unwrapped the wood they'd covered the night before, then began to build a fire.
"You've changed, Vin," Spook said.
She continued to work. "Everyone changes," she said. "I'm not a thief anymore, and I have friends to support me."
"I don't mean that," Spook said. "I mean recently. This last week. You're different than you were."
"Different how?"
"I don't know. You don't seem as frightened all the time."
Vin paused. "I've made some decisions. About who I am, and who I will be. About what I want."
She worked quietly for a moment, and finally got a spark to catch. "I'm tired of putting up with foolishness," she finally said. "Other people's foolishness, and my own. I've decided to act, rather than second-guess. Perhaps it's a more immature way of looking at things. But it feels right, for now."
"It's not immature," Spook said.