KELSIER
THREE WEEKS AFTER DETONATION
Kelsier, the Survivor, liked high places. Fortunately, the city as it had become contained plenty of them.
He was one of the few who could remember a time when the grand keeps of Luthadel had been considered lofty, stretching up sixteens of feet into the air. Today they would be quaint compared to the city’s dominating skyscrapers. The monoliths of modernity.
Kelsier didn’t see quite as he once had. One eye saw as a mortal, the other as an immortal. His spiked eye not only pinned his soul to his bones, but gave him a constant overlay of blue, letting him see the world as a being like Sazed did. Outlining not only sources of metal, but all things. The very axi that made up matter had their own polarity, influenceable with Steelpushing under the right circumstances.
One eye of the gods. One eye of the common men. As he had always tried to see the world.
He had a spectacular view from the top of the skyscraper today. He could remember the joy, thefreedomhe’dfelt all those years ago when he’dfirst crested the top of the mists and seen the stars. Now, those stars were naked and bare most nights. Even if the mists were out, it wasn’t too hard to find a building that reached up beyond them, presenting them to full view. Stars. Suns. Planets.
Each one a potential threat.
A figure walked along the edge of the skyscraper’s top toward Kelsier. Harmony wasn’t accompanied by his dark double, the shadowy version that sometimes appeared these days. A representation of his other self.
“Marsh is going to live,” Sazed said, settling down beside Kelsier. If you didn’t look directly at him, you couldalmostignore the fact that his essence extended into eternity.
Sazed spoke like he always had, though he was literally a god now. Kelsier wasn’t certain if that was because Harmony presented a personality that was familiar to Kelsier, to put him at ease. Or if the man who had once been Kelsier’s friend was actually the same person somehow.
“Marsh will live,” Kelsier said, musing. “Does that mean we have atium again? Or did you find another way?”
“The kandra found atium dust in Waxillium’s destroyed laboratory,” Sazed said. “It appears that if you detonate harmonium against trellium—or, I suppose bavadinium would be its true name—it creates some small amount of atium as a by-product.”
“Lerasium?” Kelsier asked.
“I’m sorry. That is all annihilated in the explosion. We’ve tested it several times now.”
Damn. Another dead end.
“It wouldn’t work on you anyway,” Sazed said. “Not in your current state.”
“Doesn’t matter, Saze,” Kelsier said. “We need Allomancers—realAllomancers, like in the old days—to face what is coming. This problem with Trell never would have happened if we’dhad proper Metalborn.”
“So you agree with the Set?” Sazed said. “And their monstrous undertakings in the name of creating Metalborn?”
Did he? It was difficult to say. Sometimes to make an omelet, you had to break a few skulls. He didn’t like what the Set had done to innocent people, and would never condone such actions. But if Hemalurgy was demanded, there was always someone around who was the strictoppositeof innocent.
“You don’t know where the Set’s experiments could have led,” Sazed said. “Even the simple act of trying to breed Allomancers… it leads to darkness, Kell. Trying to create perfect people through forced breeding? You don’t have to be Terris to find that idea nauseating.”
“Perhaps Ruin and Preservation should have thought about that beforegiving genetically derived powers to only part of the population. My goal is to democratize this. Take the power away from the few, give it to the many.”
Lerasium would have been the easiest way, but it seemed he would have to keep hunting. That gave him hope for himself though. Lerasium wouldn’t have worked on him, and Hemalurgy had proven ineffective on what he’dbecome. It held his soul and body together, but no more.
There had to be another way. He had hope. Ever, he had hope. Hope he could control the metals again. Hope he would be able to soar again. Hope he’dbe able to touch the metals he could see in the world all around him.
The two sat in silence for a time. They did that more and more, during their infrequent meetings. Perhaps because both knew it was better than arguing.
“I’m fond of heights,” Kelsier eventually said. “More so than when I was fully mortal. Perhaps a part of me holds a grudge against the ground, and what she did to me in those caves. Maybe I just try to get as far from her as possible.” He paused. “Explosions to make atium. I wonder if there will ever be a way to get it thatisn’ttraumatic.”
Sazed didn’t reply.
“How could you let it get this far, Saze?” Kelsier eventually asked. “This was almost the end.”
“I had it in hand.”
“Like hell you did. You’re lucky that lawman could function after what you put him through six years ago. Lucky that the other one was a Slider. I still can’t figure out how he managed that partial detonation in the ship’s hold.”