Awake

Zayde woke up in a pile of dismembered corpses, somewhere outside the city walls… the huge ripped face of a Koloss staring right at him. As he flinched backwards, two things became clear.

First, the Koloss was dead, peppered with an almost comical number of arrows. Second, Zayde was more grievously wounded than he had ever been, with several broken ribs, an arm with what felt like multiple fractures and a number of dangerously deep gashes all over. And that was just the more obvious of his injuries.

As he looked around at the other bodies, he recognized several House Angelus guards, as well as at least two faces he remembered as part of the group of enemy soldiers that had invaded the keep. Zayde fought to stay conscious as he tried to piece together what had happened…

Whatever their plan had been, something had clearly gone wrong. Either Zayne should be dead or else someone else should be alive. So what had their plan been? Perhaps he was being taken somewhere captive, or being set up as the fall guy, "killed while fleeing the city." Why else why would they have kept him alive even this long? Was the Koloss part of the plan? That would have been an utterly unnecessary risk to have taken…

Koloss were… Zayde shuddered.

The only answer he could find to explain events was that they had intended to set up Zayde and a small group of men to look like the perpetrators fleeing the city, only to have been killed by bandits. Before they could finish their plan to frame Zayde and the guards however, the conspirators had been attacked by a rogue Koloss and killed to the last man.

Zayde looked at the surrounding carnage, it was… inhuman. The Koloss must have spent some time toying with the bodies, ripping off arms and legs for fun until soldiers—from who knows where—had found it and shot it full of arrows… then just rode off to leave both it and its victims to rot.

So probably not soldiers who had anything to do with the conspirators then, else they would have checked the bodies. Were they imperial guards? Another house?

And speaking of questions, who was behind the attack on House Angelus? How had they managed to turn so many of the guards? What had they stolen? If theft was their aim, why kill Lord Angelus and the others? If murder was their goal, why so much effort to spare the servants… Why keep Zayde alive?

For that matter, HOW was he still alive? What was a Koloss even doing here? Was there such a thing as a rogue Koloss? The beast had been no more gentle with him than the others… Zayde could only imagine he had been whipped around like a flail to have suffered such injuries.

But he alone had survived? Had anyone else back at the keep been spared? Was Reela yet alive somewhere?

All these questions would find no answers out here on the plains, buried in blood and ash. There was only one important question right now… how was he going to survive long enough to have his chance for revenge?

Hauling himself to his feet with gritted teeth, Zayde examined the other corpses for any supplies that might help, or clues. He could find nothing to identify his attackers, and while two of them were definitely part of the attackers' group, they weren't the leaders.

Zayde fashioned himself a sling for his broken arm, patched up the rest of his wounds as best he could and then, with one last look back over the grisly scene, set off for the city.

*****

Two months later Zayde sat on a rooftop considering the future.

He still didn't know what to make of the new powers he possessed. When he had found a doctor willing to treat him discreetly, on the second day of his recovery, the man had asked if he were a Thug based on how quickly he was healing. The thought had crossed Zayde's mind as perhaps the only explanation of how he was able to survive the Koloss attack…

The doctor pulled out some allomantic pewter and urged Zayde to give it a try. He considered refusing; if he was a pewterarm, better that he keep it a secret. With such severe injuries though, he couldn't afford to turn down anything that would accelerate his recovery. Zayde accepted the pewter, planning on denying any effect it might have.

He wasn't prepared for the surge of power that coursed through his battered body, making him convulse and gasp aloud. There was no use trying to pretend nothing had happened.

The doctor grinned smugly and gave Zayde a wink. "I knew it! Your body was burning trace amounts of pewter instinctively. We'll give you a steady supply of the stuff, and you'll be in better shape than ever." The doctor began to measure out a larger dose of pewter.

"They'll never know it, but those brigands who mugged you actually did you a real favor with that beating." The doctor said; that was the explanation Zayde had given for his injuries. "They would never have guessed it would snap you into a misting!"

He halted in his preparations as a thought struck him. "Although... I suppose we should check…"

Thoughtfully, the doctor pulled a vial of allomantic steel out of his collection of metals and had Zayde try it, asking him what he saw. This time Zayde was better prepared. He knew what the doctor suspected, and though he was astonished as he saw blue threads burst to life in his vision, each connecting to a metal object in the vicinity, he kept his face carefully blank and denied he saw anything.

"Ah well," the doctor replied, "it would have been a thousand-to-one shot anyway. Still, being a Thug is nothing to be sneezed at, eh? Lots of opportunities for a man who knows how to use it… and I expect those brigands will rue the day if you ever see them again!" he laughed.

"About that…" Zayde muttered. "I hope I can trust you to keep this discovery confidential…?" Even though the doctor didn't know the full truth, he'd rather not give his enemies any reason to suspect he was still alive.

The doctor gave Zayde a patronizing look. "Why do you think I keep metals on hand? Thugs like you can use pewter, but the rest? I supply metals to mistings under the cover of medical checkups. If I didn't know how to be discrete, I'd lose all my business… and probably my head, too! So don't worry, so long as you pay your bills, I'll forget you were ever here."

Zayde laid back as the doctor examined his accelerated healing. He still couldn't believe it… a Mistborn, the very enemy he feared the most, the culmination of all he had trained to fight against… and he was one.

He made sure the doctor was paid in full. He considered paying a little extra to have the doctor notify him if anyone came asking questions… in the end he decided it more prudent to never see the doctor again. Even with the cover story, the timing would be suspicious for anyone looking for Zayde. Better to make as clean a break with his past as he could.

He stealthily lifted a few misting vials on his way out, not so many as would be noticed missing. He'd need to find his own supplier, and someone to train him to use his new powers, but he might have a need of some more metals before then.

As soon as he was healthy enough to do so, Zayde had gone back to House Angelus keep. Though he hadn't dared get too close lest he be recognized, he did learn that the upper floors had been gutted by a fire set by the attackers as they left, and many charred corpses had been found in the ruins, burned beyond the possibility of identification. Many were dead or missing, and no one seemed to know how or why.

After a couple of weeks, he began to hear rumors that it had been an inside job, and that the Captain of the Guard had been seen riding out of the city. Since none of the stories correctly said that the Captain had been unconscious and bundled into the back of a cart, Zayde thought it safe to presume that these rumors were being started deliberately. Was this their plan all along, or did they know he yet lived, and were trying to hamper him? And who were they?

House Venture had swooped in to seize much of House Angelus assets, in the name of "supporting a fellow house in its time of need." A distant Angelus relative was found to claim the house title, one who was firmly under the thumb of the Ventures. While the Angelus name continued, in truth the house had been completely absorbed into the Venture empire.

Zayde couldn't know if those remaining members of House Angelus were conspirators, or just making the most of a bad situation. Were Venture scheming masterminds or had just seen an opportunity to pounce on a weakened rival? Even his old House Mountcastle were suspect, as they now enjoyed a close relationship with a far more powerful and affluent house, raising their status accordingly. Was that the plan all along? And even if it wasn't, could he trust anyone to support him if it meant risking their profitable new friendship?

Scrimshaw had been right. Zayde couldn't trust anyone.

Speaking of Scrimshaw, he and his cronies seemed to have disappeared. Zayde's discreet enquiries had turned up no word of them. Either they were laying low, had fled the city or else their backers had decided to dispose of them rather than reward their betrayal.

As for the other attacker, the pewterarm that had killed Lord Angelus and knocked Zayde out… his face was burned into Zayde's memory. But he had failed to find any leads on who he might be or who he was working for. And the coinshot who seemed to have lead the attack? Zayde hadn't even seen his face clearly, only heard his voice. He was sure he would recognize it if he heard it again, but how could you ask informants about something like that. And finally, even the coinshot had said they were working under instruction. Who was behind it all, who was giving the orders?

One thing was for sure. Zayde wasn't going to find any answers sitting on this rooftop. He stood and threw out a coin ahead of him, then lightly stepped off and fell into the mists.

*****