Iron Twins (And their best friends)

[Kaj]

Kal felt the familiar warmth as he burned iron. Allomantic blue lines sprang from his chest. He sprang off of the top of the building. Selecting one of the more pronounced lines that pointed up and out in front of him, he Pulled. Swooping like a pendulum, Kal felt the freedom of the mists, the tassels of his mistcloak fluttering behind him. It wasn't as graceful as a coinshot, but being a lurcher, as everyone labeled him, did have its advantages. He landed in a run, footsteps echoing in the silent streets. The lamppost ahead will work. He thought. He Pulled firmly on the lamppost as the same time he dumped nearly all of his weight into his bracers. He was flung into the air. He maintained just enough weight that he wasn’t a cloth in the wind, but little enough to travel much farther than his Pull would have carried him normally. He continued tugging on higher and higher objects, effectively climbing, air whistling past. As he came to the tallest building, he used several different anchors in order to not crash into the side of the building. Nearing the top, he adjusted his weight again, his body creating an arc over the side and onto the roof. The mist tugged playfully at his legs. This mist was different from the normal grey mist that usually came, this one had a purple hue to it. This one seemed to be alive, swirling and twisting in the air.

A faint blue ’s metalminds as well as his own. That meant the person who had thrown the coin was Vin. allomantic line suddenly appeared behind him. Kal spun, tassels whirling, and pulled on the coin before jumping out of the way. It resisted the pull at first, taking much more effort than should have been needed. The coin shot out over the side the the building. Kal pulled it back, now under his control, into his hand. He experimentally tapped the metalmind already suspecting that it was Corin’s. It was.  The sensation of Corin’s full weight hit him for a mere second, the roof creaking with the change in weight. For some reason he was able to tap Corin

“You’re late.” Her voice confirmed, landing softly next to him.

Kal filled the coin completely, pulling against the metal plate inlaid into the roof as to not blow away, and tossed it back to her. “And Corin?”

“You know he can’t join this one. He has to be ready for the Teris Exams tomorrow. He has to store everything in order hide our secret.”

From what Corin had learned, none of them should exist. They were a rarity. Twinborns always were. Corin was a Slider and a Skimmer. Vin was a Coinshot and a Skimmer. And Kal was special. He was an Iron Compounder. Special didn’t mean useful. That wasn’t the concerning part though. The fact that they could all share a metalmind was a bit concerning. Unless it was unkeyed, that wasn’t supposed to be possible. Yet, they could. It was like there was a weak barrier between their metalminds. If felt like reaching out and grasping something just within reach, at least at first. The more they all shared a specific metalmind, transferring weight between them, the less that barrier resisted them. Corin’s coin, not this one but the one that the beggar had given him, they had shared for years. In that one the barrier was merely just to identify who’s was who’s. But the other aspects of that coin made it especially personal to Corin.

“You’re thinking about that beggar again aren’t you?” Vin asked.

Kal shrugged. “Specifically the coin he gave Corin.”

“I was thinking about the task he gave us.” She said.

“The ball?”

“Yeah.”

The ball. They were supposed to locate several sealed metalminds made of an unfamiliar metal and melt them down into a sphere. In exchange, he would make them something worthwhile. In the meantime, he had asked that they exchange their weight constantly.

Kal breathed in. The moisture of the mist tasted good. It also helped him feel grounded when he got too lost in thought. A thought crossed his mind. How had the beggar know that we could do that? He breathed again, dismissing the thought.

“To be honest, I think I am the most useless compounder out there.” Kal said.

“And why is that?” Vis asked. “I think you have a great compounding effect.”

(To be continued.)

“I have a nearly infinite storage of weight. How is that supposed to be helpful? I mean adjusting my weight while pulling can be helpful, but I don’t need to compound to have enough weight stored.”

“You can never have enough weight to throw around.” She replied, smiling.

“When would I ever need to more than triple my weight for a time?”

“I’m sure there might be an occasion.”

The clock tower nearby struck midnight. “Time to go.” Kal and Vin said in unison.

They leaped off the building, filling their metalminds in order to fall slowly.  Kal stopped filling his metalmind and Pulled. Vin launched back upward over the bridge that Kal swooped under. Crossing arcs, Kal wrapped his arms around her torso and dumped all of his weight into his bracers. Compensating for the change, Vin launched forward and up again, pushing off of the skybridge and something obscured in the mists below. Finally landing a couple streets down from the O'Donnell Manor. The pair quietly stole over the manor wall. In the yard, they crept to one of the rear doors that lead into the sitting room. There, on the mantle, was the last metalmind. It was inlaid into an intricate wood carving as the centerpiece. The centerpiece had a diameter of about four feet.

“How in Preservation’s name are we supposed to get that out of here?” Vin whispered.

“We could carry it out,” Kal replied.

“Without being seen?” she asked incredulously.

“It kind of looks like a bracer what if we swapped it?”

Vin, trying to be careful, strapped on a weighted belt and set three coins in a tripod around her on the ground and pushed herself into the air. Kal, anticipating what’s going to happen maneuvers behind her. Vin slowly pulled on the mounts holding the decorative piece. Kal pulled on her belt in order to keep her from pulling herself into the wall above the mantle. The piece jolted loose. Having lost their balance, Vin fell into Kal and the piece dropped to the ground with a loud thud.

“So much for that,” Vin said.

Scooping up the piece, they scramble out of the manor and run out the front gate. As Kal glanced behind he saw candles lit and light in the house. Launching into the air, Vin took the piece and disappeared. Kal split the other way to tail just in case there were Allomancers on their tail.

 

 

---

Once safely out of Elendel, Vin headed into the woods. Skirting the road, she extinguished her metals to walk the rest of the way. She noticed the mists had started to disperse. That’s not good. She thought. It will be harder to cover our tracks.

Several minutes passed before she came to the edge of the woods. Making her way through the woods, she came to the Teris village.  Avoiding the lit areas, she crept into Corin’s hut. He was still awake studying.

“You get it?” He asked, not looking up.

Vin, annoyed by his distracted tone, slammed the piece onto the table. Corin, finally looking up, noticed the pattern on the wood and jumped out of his chair.

“That’s the last one?” He asked. Vin nodded. “Vin, we have to get rid of this. Now.”

“No. Wait for Kal.” She responded.

“Where’d he get off too?”

“Somewhere out distracting the constables.”

“Are you kidding me? You didn’t just take the bracer?”

“Look at it. When you yank a twenty-kilo hunk of wood out of a manor on the other side of Elendel and throw it across the city, let me know. Because I’ll have you know it wasn’t easy. There wasn’t time to pull it out after it crashed on the floor.”

Corin walked over, picked up the piece and threw it into the fire. “Now, hopefully, we won’t get caught.”

Vin just silently nodded, lips pulled into a thin line, spun around and left. (To be continued)

 

Edited May 22, 2018 by Kaj