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[Elle]

Elle's parents were dead because of her.

The rebels told her it was the nobleman's fault, that he had been the reason her parents were killed, but they had not made the faulty chair. They had not failed to warn their mother. They had not asked for someone, anyone to go back and find her before the Inquisition did. They had not had to hear that their mother was dead before the rebels could reach and rescue her.

Two parents dead in the same day, and it was her fault.

The only thing that kept her from complete despair was the knowledge that they would not blame her in the slightest. They would be happy that she survived. They would want her to live.

So Elle would live, for them.

She had power, they told her. Power to fight back against the noblemen and the Inquistition. Power to help right the wrongs of their society. If only she had the power to live in peace with her parents. She would give up this- this allomancy in a heartbeat for that. But no one could change the past, and now that Elle had been given power she knew her parents would want her to use it well.

Was trying to avenge them using it well?

She wasn't sure, and she wasn't sure she ever would be.

She was brooding, she realized. It was not a pastime she was familiar with. Pondering, thinking, imagining, those were all things she was imminently familiar with, but not brooding. Hers had been a happy life. She had never realized how privledged she'd been. A roof over her head, regular meals, only the minor threat of a beating. Her father had been a skaa craftsman of the highest caliber.

Too bad she had not followed in his footsteps.

Ah, she thought, and there is the self pity.

She did not have time for self pity. She had power now, she had to do something with it. Something, anything, to make her parents' sacrifice not be in vain. But the rebels were leaving her to her own devices, letting her 'recover'. Didn't they understand that doing nothing just meant she was stuck in her thoughts even more then usual? Thinking and thinking and thinking about all the things she'd done wrong? All the ways she could have saved her parents, all the if only's and could have been's that her powerful imagination could come up with running through her head, it was enough to make her want to scream.

Elle, for once, did not want to be in her head. She wanted to do. To talk to someone, anyone, about anything, if it meant she did not have to be alone with her thoughts for an instant longer.

So she wandered the back alleys of the shop, looking for someone to talk to. Perhaps they would just brush her off, but still that would be a few seconds where she was not utterly, terribly, alone.

Edited by Noelle, 28 December 2013 - 10:01 PM.

[Nessa]

Pewter burned within her, hot and bright. Her warm, soft bed cradled her sore and battered body far better than the hospital bed ever could. It still amazed her that she had a bed of her own, and part of her wanted to stay here and sleep in it all day.

The thought reminded her of the last time she'd tried to sleep all day, and Perrin had woken her in the most unceremonious way possible. But Perrin wasn't here, she remembered with a pang. He was in a safehouse somewhere, laying low until he could emerge without an Inquisitor appearing to tear him apart. She shivered, and forced herself to banish that train of thought. This was Perrin, after all. He would come back.

He had to.

But the thought had soured the idea of laying about in bed, at least for now. So for all she had been instructed to rest and recover, she pushed herself out of bed with a groan and padded across the floor. Even with her pewter burning as high as it was, she was still sore from head to toe. Though, to be fair, she had taken quite a beating the other day, and then fallen through someone's roof. As she fished out another vial from her bedside table drawer and downed it, she found herself idly hoping that the smith would be able to get it fixed soon.

Down the stairs she went, ignoring the stares of the shop workers as she passed. She must look quite the sight: absolutely filthy, her clothes torn in places, her long dark hair tangled and filled with ash. She moved with all the grace and fluidity that pewter could give her, but also with the awkward stiffness of someone who'd, well, fallen through a roof last night. Someone had left clean clothes in her bedroom, but she hadn't felt like changing yet.

Her destination was, of course, the kitchen. It didn't take her long to find the ever-present stash of baywraps, and she grabbed a couple before heading out into the alley behind the shop. It was quiet back here; people rarely ventured into the tiny space, and it had just enough fresh air. This was also where she'd had that wonderful evening with Perrin - or, at least, where they'd started out. Maybe remembering that night would help her feel better, and maybe keep the nightmares at bay.

But she soon realized she wasn't alone. There was someone out there, looking completely and utterly miserable. Nessa paused, uncertain what to do. She knew exactly how the girl felt, but she also knew exactly how good she was with words. She didn't exactly feel like talking, to say the least, but she couldn't just leave the girl, not with her looking like that. But would she even want to talk? Maybe she wanted to be left alone. That train of thought was interrupted by a loud growling sound, and Nessa glanced hungrily at the baywraps in her hands. She needed to make a decision soon, so she could sit down and eat.

Wait a minute. Maybe that would work.

Without another thought, Nessa approached the girl, stopping just near enough to hold one of the baywraps out where she could reach it.

"Here," was all she said.

[Elle]

Elle was startled from her brooding by another girl appearing the the alley, her first instinct was to hide, but where? Among the trash? Her dress, which she still had yet to change out of, was of too fine make to blend in with the detritus of the alleyway. And hadn't she been looking for someone to talk to anyway? Why would she run just as she had reached her goal.

But what to say? Elle had never been much for actually talking to people. She'd always been in the background, letting her parents handle the customers. People thought she was shy, but it wasn't shyness exactly, it was just she never knew what to say or how to say it. Talking to people was just so difficult, she never had a handle on it. She had no idea how to even start the conversation, should she introduce herself? Or did the other girl already know who she was? Was Elle important enough to know of? She didn't think so. But she also hadn't thought magic existed, and here she was.

The girl, thankfully, talked for her. Not much, but it was enough, and her kindness was welcome. Elle had not eaten in quite awhile and had no idea where the kitchens were, a baywrap right now would not go amiss.

"Thank you," her voice was soft, and she could not meet the girl's eyes, she stared instead at the baywrap and took it, it was still warm. "I do not know your name," she said apologetically, "I am Elle, and you are?" Each word was carefully pronounced, as if she did not know quite what she was saying.

Edited by Noelle, 29 December 2013 - 10:14 PM.

[Nessa]

The other girl - Elle, she called herself - seemed just as hesitant as conversing as Nessa, at least right now. She supposed she should be relieved at that; she wasn't sure she could handle large volumes of conversation right now, even though she'd been the one start it up. And now Elle was asking her name.

"Nessa," she said by way of answer, then leaned up against the wall and slid down until she was seated in a very unladylike sprawl on the ground. Once settled, she helped herself to a large bite of baywrap, and it was only then - with her mouth still full - that she spoke again.

"Ignas grab you off the street too?"

[Elle]

The girl acted more like a man then a girl, not that Elle minded, it was just something that she had to keep in mind. Should she copy Nessa's movements? She almost did, she knew that copying someone's movements was the way people had conversations, she'd watched enough of them to know that, but this dress was the only thing she had left of her home, she did not want to ruin it. Still it would be rude to stand while Nessa sat, wouldn't it?

Finally, she decided to sit, although she did her best to keep the skirt of her dress from being ruined by the alley's dirty surface. She started to eat the baywrap, but froze at Nessa's words, "Ignas grab you off the street too?"

Running, running, running from the only world she'd ever known. She had to escape, but to where? She had blood on her hands now. She'd killed a noble. She was dead but she would at least fight till her last. Her parents would want her to--wait. Her parents! Her mother, she hadn't stayed to warn her mother.

Elle turned so sharply she skidded and started to run back home, until an arm darted out of an alleyway and dragged her into it. She kicked and fought but they were stronger than her by a mile. She didn't scream, that would only bring attention to herself and the last thing Elle needed was attention. "Please let me go," she begged, "I have not done anything." it was a poor lie but it was all she had.

The man who held her was gentle though, "Don't worry, we're not going to hurt you, we're on your side."

Elle snorted, "I doubt that." Who would want to side with a noble killer?

"Come with us, we'll keep you safe, we kill nobles too," he said, and she froze. He knew, but how?

"I cannot- you do not understand, my mother... I need to warn her." she said helplessly.

The man nodded at some people she hadn't even noticed and said, "Try to find her mother," they left and he turned back to her, "Now will you come with me? I'm sure you have a lot of questions."

What did Elle care of questions? But his grip on her was firm, she wasn't escaping, "I do not know if I have a choice, but if you help my mother I will do anything you ask."

He looked at her, askance, "Be careful with promises like that, they'll get you in trouble."

Elle blinked, and she was back in the alleyway behind the shop with Nessa, baywrap in hand, "I do not know who Ignas is," she said finally, "But I was grabbed off the street after I-" she paused, what was the word they had used? "After I Snapped. I'm a- something to do with coins." She had been too numb to really listen to what the rebels had told her.

Edited by Noelle, 19 February 2016 - 09:07 PM.

[Nessa]

"A coinshot," Nessa said absently between bites. "You can shoot coins. Perrin told me about them. You can Push on metal, but you can't Pull it. You can fly too, once you learn how. Like Perrin." Would Perrin teach her how to fly? The thought upset her more than it should, so she stuffed the baywrap into her mouth and took another bite before she could make any unpleasant faces. The mists belonged to her and Perrin, and no one else. But this girl needed to learn her powers too, didn't she? And Perrin wouldn't betray her like that. He might have to teach other people, but he wouldn't go around kissing them. She knew other men did, but Perrin was different. She was just being stupid. Stupid Buckets, making her think stupid things. He would probably laugh if he knew she was thinking like this. And then he would tease her for it, and she would shut him up by kissing him.

Did I really just think that!?

"Coinshots burn... iron, I think," she continued once she'd stopped herself from choking on the baywrap, trying to put that train thought out of her mind. "Or wait, was it steel? Yeah, it's steel. You swallow steel, and it gives you powers.

Edited by KChan, 29 December 2013 - 11:50 PM.

[Elle]

Fly? Elle thought, I can fly? That was... that was amazing. To be able to defy gravity just by swallowing some metal. She wondered how it would work, exactly, what was this talk of Pushing and Pulling? She thought back to when she'd snapped, to when she'd first Pushed. She hadn't really known what she was doing, still didn't in all honesty, but if she thought about it...

No she still wasn't quite sure what she had done, but perhaps this Perrin would teach her. "Perrin is a Coinshot like me, then? Are there many Coinshots in the rebellion? Or other... Mistings?" Yes that was the word. This girl seemed to know far more than Elle about Allomancy, she wasn't a Coinshot from what she said, but maybe she could help Elle all the same. She had done a good job so far.

Edited by Noelle, 29 December 2013 - 11:54 PM.

[Nessa]

"I guess there are," Nessa said with a shrug. The rest of the baywrap vanished, and she found herself wishing she'd grabbed the whole plate. She was starving. The hospital food had been terrible, and it seemed like the more she burned pewter, thehungrier she got for some reason. She'd have to get it on her way back upstairs. "I'm pretty new, so I don't know a lot about who all is part of this except for the ones who come here. I know they're always looking for more, though. Can never have too many Mistings."

She paused suddenly, considering. Should she really be talking about Perrin to someone she didn't know? She knew about the rebellion, though, and Allomancy. Could she be a spy, though? But wait... hadn't Trev mentioned something about a new girl? She hadn't been paying much attention by that point. But if Trev was okay with her, then she would be too.

"Perrin's special," she said at last. "He's Mistborn. He has all of the Allomantic powers, so he's way more important than the rest of us."

[Elle]

All of the Allomantic powers? That was a thing? What were all the Allomantic powers? "What exactly... does that mean?" she asked, taking another small bite of her baywrap, Nessa had already finished hers and Elle felt rather bad that she was eating her other one, the girl had gotten two because she wanted two after all, "I do not even know what all the powers are." She sighed, maybe she should have taken that man up on his offer of answers.

"I do not even know what I can do." she said, more to herself then Nessa, "Pushing on metal, how does it work? Do I just wave my hands and 'poof' metal is pushed away from me? That seems to be how it worked before..." she was muttering to herself now.

Edited by Noelle, 30 December 2013 - 12:24 AM.

[Nessa]

Nessa shrugged. "You'd have to ask someone else how that part works," she said simply. How should she know how Coinshots worked? But she couldn't blame Elle for being curious. She had been too. Still was, really. "All I know is that when you burn your metal, stuff happens. As for the other powers, well, to start with you should probably know about Seekers and Smokers." She shifted a little, brushing the crumbs off her shirt, then continued.

"Seekers can sense Allomancy. If you're burning your metal at the same time they're burning theirs, they'll be able to find you and know what metal you're burning. And Smokers make it so Seekers can't find you. We're not allowed to burn metals without a Smoker nearby, so the Inquisitors don't find us. There are Smokers all over in here, but when we go somewhere else, we're on our own unless one comes with us."

[Elle]

"So that is how they found me," Elle said, "They must have sensed my Allomancy when I killed the nobleman."

She started, she had not meant to say that. The part of her that had not caught up, the part that remembered before today, when she was still blissfully unaware of her powers, recoiled from that thought. She had killed a noble. The highest crime possible for a skaa, outside merely existing. "I did not mean to," she said, too quickly, "It was an accident. He-" she stopped herself, she could not speak of her father's death yet, it was too fresh in her mind, the loss too great, "He made me Snap."

Edited by Noelle, 19 February 2016 - 09:10 PM.

[Nessa]

"You're not the only one," Nessa said softly. She shivered at the recollection, drawing her knees up to her chest and hugging them tightly to herself. "It's our job, you know. Killing them. But I didn't want to. I didn't want to, but he made me." Images bombarded her mind: the fire, the smoke, Ignas's urgent commands, the threats, the fear in the noble man's eyes, his screams as he died...

She shuddered again. "Can we talk about something else?" she asked, barely above a whisper.

[Elle]

"I am sorry," Elle said immediately. Of course she wasn't the only one with scars. Of course, this girl had bad memories too, to want to rebel. She should be more considerate, more understanding, more... more someone else. Someone who was good with words, someone who knew what to say. But she could no more change her nature then stop the ash from falling, so she did her best.

"Tell me... tell me about the metals." she said, "Surely there are more then just Coinshots, Seekers, and Smokers?"

Edited by Noelle, 19 February 2016 - 09:10 PM.

[Nessa]

Nessa nodded, glad for the chance to talk about, well, anything else. Talking might help banish those memories, at least for now. She would have to tell Perrin eventually, after all. "There's iron," she offered, "which is the opposite of what you can do. That's why I confused them just now. Instead of pushing metals away from themselves, Lurchers can pull them in. I'm not sure what good it is by itself, but that's not our problem I guess.

"And then you have my metal," she said with a slight grin. "Pewter. When I burn it, I get stronger and faster. I can balance better and things hurt less and I heal faster. It's really useful. I fell through someone's roof last night," she offered by way of example, "but here I am."

[Elle]

"You fell," Elle's voice was very careful, "through a roof? I-" Elle stared at the quickly cooling baywrap in her hands, trying to make sense of what had just been told to her, "How does one go about doing that?" She sighed to herself, that was a stupid question, "I mean, what were you doing that had you on a roof?"

[Nessa]

Nessa shrugged. "Walking on it, of course. What else?"

Remembering the look she'd just been given made her realize that she should probably explain a little better.

"I got tired of being in the hospital," she explained. "There were weird people and the food was awful and I couldn't burn my pewter enough to heal fast because the Ministry would notice. But nobody would let me go home, so I waited until everyone was asleep and I left. But wandering the alleys at night is stupid, so I climbed up and crossed roofs instead, but I guess one of them wasn't in very good repair because I fell through it. Then Trev found me and finally let me come back here."

[Elle]

"You were in the hospital?" Elle asked confused, if Nessa could fall through a roof and be fine the next day, what could make her have to be in a hospital? The thought made Elle shiver and stuff her face full of baywrap, better to be busy when Nessa told her so she didn't do anything weird.

Edited by Noelle, 30 December 2013 - 09:33 PM.

[Nessa]

Nessa nodded. "When Ignas and his grunts grabbed me," she explained, "I was part of a different crew. But obviously I couldn't just walk in and tell them, 'Hello, I'm quitting the crew because I joined the Rebellion!' So of course they thought I deserted, and earlier this week they caught up to me. And there's only one penalty for desertion. But I was by myself, so I couldn't use pewter. Ignas found me, though, and then I woke up in the hospital. With their disgusting medicines and awful foods and that noble doctor who kept staring into my soul. They sent Smokers to 'visit' me, but there's no way I could burn enough pewter to heal as fast as I could. Not with that... that woman watching me all the time. I finally got that through to Trev, and here I am."

[Elle]

"Oh, that must have been terrible. I am sorry." The words felt wooden on her tongue, she meant them, but she was just too numb to really fill them with sincerity. She tried to figure some other way to make Nessa know she sympathized with her, and after a moment she hit upon an idea, but balked at it. Did she really want to share her past when the wounds were so fresh? But Nessa had been forthright with her, it is only fair to be the same in return.

"My family are... were woodworkers. Skaa craftsmen. I was their only child," Elle stared at her hands, now that she had finally finished her baywrap, noted the scars and callouses all over them from a lifetime of carpentry, "It is strange, I do not think I have ever gone so long without wood in my hands. Not even when I was a child." She laced her fingers together to hide the callouses, hide the life she lost, but the scars are still there, tiny silvery things where she nicked herself with a carving knife, or a particularly nasty splinter was removed. They would never fade, she knew. She could never forget what she had lost. But could she move on?

Did she want to?

Edited by Noelle, 02 January 2014 - 03:01 AM.

[Nessa]

Nessa just kind of shrugged again, not sure what to say to that. "Lan and Maks are tailors, which I guess you probably noticed," she offered, "but there are always things that need doing around here. If you tell them you're a carpenter, they might have stuff for you to make or fix or something."

She fell silent then, not sure what else to say. It seemed like Nessa's own life had been as opposite from Elle's as it could possibly get between skaa. While one of them had grown up with a family and a future, the other huddled cold and starving in alleyways, smudging her face with ash and hoping any passing men wouldn't notice she was female. She had been more like a mistwraith than a person - still was, in some ways. Not that it mattered, really, but what was she supposed to say?

"Must have been nice," she tried at last. "Sorry. That, well, you know."