Wait,Harmony said to them.This could work. I have a way. Wax, I gave you a vial with a red cork.
“I have it,” Wax said, fishing in his sheath of metal vials. He frowned, and came out with… a handkerchief.
“Barely used,” Wayne said.
“Wayne…”
Wayne grinned and handed Wax his rifle, then fished in his pocket. “I thought it needed to be somewhere safe. So I made a nice little trade.”
“Harmony,” Wax said, “if you can make this work, it will still detonate the ship, right?”
Yes.
“Wayne,” Wax said, “… setting off the smaller explosions would kill everyone in that room. An ettmetal blast like that isn’t something you survive, even if you had full metalminds.”
“Ah,” Wayne said as the ship hit a wave, water spraying up along theside. “I’dfigured out that part. I just needed to know if the idea worked. And I needed to confirm one other thing.”
“Which is?” Wax said.
“That the plan doesn’t need you, mate,” Wayne said, and he Pushed. Shoving Wax—via the barrel of the rifle he was holding—outward off the ship and through the mists. Wayne felt real proud of that Push. He did it like Wax did, crouching down first to give it a little lift.
His friend gave him a look of outrage… and maybe regret… as he vanished into the misty darkness over the waters.
“Land safely, mate,” Wayne whispered. “And survive.”
He tipped his hat, then pulled out the red-corked vial. “What the hell is this, anyway?”
Earlier in the week, you all conducted a test,Harmony said.Splitting harmonium.
“Same test our enemies have done a hunnerd or more times.”
Yes, but this one was different. I have no idea what happened, but Wax did somethingdifferentfrom everyone else trying this. Because he didn’t merely blow up the room. He created something. Something amazing.
Wayne held up the vial, staring at the metal dust settled at the bottom.
That,Harmony said,is the faintest bit of lerasium, Wayne. A metal from legend. A metal found by Vin at the Well of Ascension, and used to make Elend Venture a Mistborn. A metal that hasn’t existed for centuries, and as far as I know, hasn’t beenmadein millennia. Drink that vial and you’ll be a Mistborn, able to use all of the metals. There’s a little of each one in there.
“Why didn’t you have Wax drink it earlier?”
I don’t want to reveal this happened, as I don’t know why or how. I don’t know what he did. Besides… he might have already had a dose, inhaled during the explosion.
Huh. That explained a few things.
Wayne knocked back the vial. Then he waited. Nothing happened.
“That’s anticlimactic,” he muttered.
You have to burn the lerasium, Wayne.
Oh, right. He searched, and found a new metal reserve. Neat. He reached out and burned it.
A flash of light.
A fire in his veins.
A feeling like a kick to the face.
Damn.