Mistborn: secret history

2

Sneaking was a great deal easier when you didn’t technically have a body.

Kelsier moved in silence, having dismissed his cloak and staff. He’d left his pack behind, and though there

were a few plants out here, he could pass through them, not even rustling their leaves.

The lights ahead pulsed from a fortress crafted of white stone. It wasn’t a city, but close enough for him.

That light had an odd quality; it didn’t burn or flicker like a flame. Some kind of limelight? He drew near

and pulled up beside one of the odd rock formations that were common out here. It had hooked spikes

drooping from it almost like branches.

The very walls of this fortress glowed faintly. Was that mist? It didn’t seem to have the same hue to it; it

was too blue. Keeping to the shadows of rock formations, Kelsier rounded the building toward a brighter

light source at the back.

This turned out to be an enormous glowing cord as thick as a large tree trunk. It pulsed with a slow,

rhythmic power, and the light it gave off was the same shade as the walls – only far more brilliant. It

seemed to be some kind of energy conduit, and ran off into the far distance, visible in the darkness for

miles.

The cord passed into the fortress through a large gate in the back. As Kelsier crept closer, he found that

little lines of energy were running across the stone of the wall. They branched smaller and smaller, like a

glowing web of veins.

The fortress was tall, imposing, like a keep – but without the ornamentation. It didn’t have a separate

fortification around it, but its walls were steep and sheer. Guards moved atop the roof, and as one passed,

Kelsier pushed himself down into the ground. He was able to sink into it completely, becoming nearly

invisible, though that required grabbing hold of the ground and pulling himself downward until only the

top of his head was visible.

The guards didn’t notice him. He climbed back out of the ground and inched up to the base of the fortress

wall. He pressed his hand against the glowing stone and was given the impression of a rocky wall far from

here, in another place. An unfamiliar land with striking green plants. He gasped, pulling his hand away.

These weren’t stones, but the spirits of stones – like his spirit of a fire. They had been brought here and

constructed into a building. Suddenly he didn’t feel quite so clever at having found himself a staff and a

sack.

He touched the stone again, looking at that green landscape. That was what Mare had talked about, a

land with an open blue sky. Another planet, he decided. One that didn’t suffer our fate.

For the moment he ignored the image of that place, pushing his fingers through the spirit of the stone.

Strangely, the stone resisted. Kelsier gritted his teeth and pushed harder. He managed to get his fingers

to sink in about two inches, but couldn’t make them go any farther.

It’s that light, he thought. It pushed back on him. Looks a little like the light of souls.

Well, he couldn’t slip through the wall. What now? He retreated into the shadows to consider. Should he

try to sneak in one of the gates? He rounded the building, contemplating this for a short time, before

suddenly feeling foolish. He hurried forward to the wall again and pressed his hand against the stones,

sinking his fingers in a few inches. Then he reached up and did the same with the other hand.

Then he proceeded to scale the wall.

Though he missed Steelpushing, this method proved quite effective. He could grip the wall basically

anywhere he wanted, and his form didn’t have much weight. Climbing was easy, as long as he maintained

his concentration. Those images of a land with green plants were very distracting. Not a speck of ash in

sight.

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A piece of him had always considered Mare’s flower a fanciful story. And while the place looked strange,

it also attracted him with its alien beauty. There was something about it that was incredibly inviting.

Unfortunately, the wall kept trying to spit his fingers back out, and maintaining his grip took a great deal

of attention. He continued moving; he could revel in that luxurious scene of green grass and pleasant hills

another time.

One of the upper levels had a window big enough to get through, which was good. The guards on the

keep’s top would have been difficult to dodge. Kelsier slipped in the window, entering a long stone

corridor lit by the spiderwebs of power coursing across the walls, floor, and ceiling.