He laughed, standing up. “You can’t possibly be that idealistic.”
She blushed.
Was she?
Yes, she was. And proud of it.
I have to find a way to close that portal,she thought, looking through the bubble of slowed time toward the room with the light. Again she thought it seemed familiar. White, with a mother-of-pearl sheen. Yes. It was like the pure Investiture from Moonlight’s jars. The floor had been dug out, then filled up with the stuff, making a kind of pool in a recessed portion of the ground.
“A great deal of power in one place…” she said. Allik always said that you weren’t supposed to store too much harmonium in one place, or “strange things happen, yah?” He didn’t know what those things were. But Marasi swore she could make out a warping of the air in that room. That liquid was somehow powering the portal.
Entrone had stepped up to the faintly visible barrier of the slowness bubble. It was smaller than the ones Marasi made, closer to the size of Wayne’s bubbles. Entrone shook his head at the trapped guard.
“You’re like him, if I recall,” Entrone said, walking to the side. “A Pulser—capable of making bubbles of slowed time.”
Marasi didn’t respond. Entrone strolled sideways, near the wall separating the radio room from the kitchen, where she couldn’t see him through the doorway anymore. The bubble filled most of the radio room, but there were some portions at the edges that weren’t touched by it. His voice continued a moment later.
“Do you ever feel,” he said, “embarrassed by your useless power, constable? I know your sister is an embarrassment to your father. But at least heacknowledgedher.”
He had done his research; a few years back, that barb might have bothered her. Now Marasi recognized it for what it was—an attempt to put her off balance. She focused on the glowing pool. The surface was beginning to ripple. Was there another way into the—
At that moment, Entrone ripped through the wall itself, circumventing the slowness bubble. Rusts! He’dsounded so worn out that Marasi had nearly discounted him. Now he crashed through the wood, shattering beams like they were twigs.
Marasi shot him in the chest, but the woundshealedimmediately. Faster than Wayne’s did. He gave her a grim smile.
Marasi unloaded the entire magazine into him, and did little more than poke a few holes in his suit. He grabbed her by the front of her shirt and lifted her. Dust from the drywall streamed from his clothing as he pulled her right up to his face. Still in his grip, Marasi hit him on the side of the head with the butt of her pistol. He just grinned. She did manage to knock his hat off though.
“I’m a god now, little bastard,” he said to her. “What strength do you have to stand against me? Your Allomancy? Pathetic. Your weapons? Laughable. You have no power to threaten me.”
He turned and threw her out the window with a crash, back into the main cavern.
Ithurt.A sharp blinding pain all across her body. Cuts and slices, followed by a dizzying hit to her head and shoulder as she slowed and stopped in a heap. Through teary eyes, through the pain, she saw his shape—shadowy to her vision—climbing out the window after her.
“The army is coming,” he said, his voice growing softer as he stalked forward, his nice coat disheveled. “I imagined I’dbe some grand lord, ruling in a new world. But I guess… I guess… we all have to do what we must to survive.”
He reached for her. She tried to pull back, noting another group of shapes stepping out from the shadows outside the building. Had Armal and the others followed her up to the mansion?
She had hoped they would overhear Entrone admitting the truth via the radio. But perhaps… perhaps they’dbeen close enough, in their curiosity, to hear him speak now…
Please,pleasehave heard him.
Gave Entrone loomed over her.
“You’re right about my powers,” Marasi said with a cough. “I’ve found uses for them. But they aren’t where my strength comes from. Not really.”
He grabbed her.
“My strength,” she whispered, “never came from Allomancy. Rusts… I learned that lesson as a child. It doesn’t come from weapons, or even the credentials I carry.”
Please…
Entrone raised her into the air as a distinctclinksounded. He froze, then turned to see Armal. The source of the sound was a jar she’ddropped to the ground. Once full of light. Now empty.
A replacement for metal, Moonlight had said. But supercharged.
“I’m a constable, Entrone,” Marasi whispered. “My strength isn’t in myself. It comes from the people.”
A Rioting, with the power of a thousand Allomancers, hit their emotions like a physical wave of force.