#vin struggles to fill her metalminds because vulnerability

[painted-fanbird]

Vin hated filling her metalminds, which was a damn shame.

Truly, it was. Because Fruchemy and Allomancy had only existed together in one other person before Vin, and he hadn’t exactly left behind detailed records of what he was capable of before getting speared through the heart. Vin had looked. She’d asked Kelsier when he poured over documents written by The Lord Ruler, by the Obligators, and the odd Inquisitor. She’d skimmed over the manuscripts herself, as best she could anyway, she hated reading almost as much as filling her metalminds. It made her head hurt.

Which was its own damn shame! Not the reading making her head hurt part, that was fine, she didn’t have the patience for it anyway. It was the lack of information that was driving Vin crazy. What happened if you burned a metal and tapped a comparable metalmind? What would happen if you burned a metalmind? What if you did both at the same time?

Vin wanted to know.

She needed to know.

———

“Why not fill a metalmind and take your own notes?” Kelsier asked, looking up from yet another stack of documents as Vin peered not so subtly over his shoulder. He was hunting for his own answers, about the missing Atium and the parts of Allomancy The Lord Ruler had kept hidden.

Vin scowled. “My handwriting is terrible, I wouldn’t be able to read them. Besides, I’m too busy to fill any metalminds right now.”

“Too busy?” Kelsier laughed. “With what? We’re hardly doing anything strenuous right now.”

“I’m working on the puzzle Spook showed me.” Vin directed her scowl to the infernal tangle of string looped around her fingers. A cat’s cradle, Spook had called it. It had been a lot easier to solve when he was walking her through it. “So I’m busy.”

Kelsier raised his single eyebrow. “Then don’t fill anything that saps your mental strength. Fill pewter or steel or one of the other physical metalminds.”

Vin snorted a laugh. “That sounds like a good way to get myself killed. We’ve had so many assassins in the city lately.”

“It also sounds like a good way to find out how fast you could run between gates while burning pewter and tapping a steelmind,” Kelsier said with a smile. “Or to find out how much you can hear if you burned a tinmind.”

Vin paused. She wanted to know.

“One hour,” Kelsier said, catching Vin’s eye. “That’s really all you need to test something small tonight. I promise, nothing will happen to you while you fill your metalmind.”

One hour. That wasn’t so long, she could do that. Then she could find out what she could do.

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

———

Kelsier had taught Vin two very important rules of Allomancy when he’d first trained her.

For every Push, there’s a Pull. Every action has a consequence.

And

Don’t get into a Pushing match with someone who weighs more than you.

Vin was about to break the second rule, though if her plan worked it wouldn’t be for very long.

She dropped from the rooftop, down on Kelsier below, Pushing on a spray of coins. As they started to fly, she stopped Pushing on all but one.

The instant she felt Kelsier’s counteracting Push touch the coin she had in her control, she tapped the ironmind she’d filled that afternoon.

Her feet cracked the cobblestone where she was standing, mist coiling around her limbs. With her weight now more than doubled, Vin outweighed Kelsier by a significant margin, and the single coin snapped back in his direction.

Kelsier darted out of the way, watching as the coin slammed into, and cracked, the wall behind him.

“That,” he said, approaching the coin alongside Vin as she hurried forward to inspect the wall. “Is going to pose a problem for a lot of people.”

Vin smiled as she plucked the coin from the small crater is had created in the stone. “That’s the idea,” she said. “No one would think they’d lose a Pushing match to me. It’ll be easier to bait them into it.”

Kelsier ruffled her hair. “I’m proud of you, Vin.”

“What?”

“I’m proud of you,” Kelsier repeated. “I know filling metalminds is hard for you, but you did and look at what you can do.” He gestures to the wall.

Vin eyed the wall, turning the now slightly bent coin over in her hand. Filling metalminds was nerve wracking, but she’d felt better with Kelsier nearby. And now that she’d had a proper taste of what she could do…

“I think I’d like to fill another one tomorrow.”