Whispered Vows (Mistborn x Reader)

Chapter 8

I shot into the air.

I suppressed a scream, remembering to continue Pushing despite my fear. The stone wall was a blur of motion just a few feet away from me. The ground disappeared below, and the line of blue pointing toward the ingot grew fainter and fainter.

What happens if it disappears?

I began to slow. The fainter the line grew, the more my speed decreased. After just a few moments of flight, I crept to a halt—and was left hanging in the air above a nearly invisible blue line.

"I've always liked the view from up here."

I glanced to the side.

Kelsier stood a short distance away; I had been so focused that I hadn't noticed that I was hovering just a few feet from the top of the wall.

"Help!" I said, continuing to Push desperately, lest I fall. The mists below me shifted and spun, like some dark ocean of damned souls.

"You don't have to worry too much," Kelsier said. "It's easier to balance in the air if you have a tripod of anchors, but you can do fine with a single anchor. Your body is used to balancing itself. Part of what you've been doing since you learned to walk transfers to Allomancy. As long as you stay still, hanging at the very edge of your Pushing ability, you'll be pretty stable—your mind and body will correct any slight deviations from the base center of your anchor below, keeping you from falling to the sides.

"If you were to Push on something else, or move too much to one side, though...well, you'd lose your anchor below, and wouldn't be pushing directly up anymore. Then you'd have problems—you'd tip over like a lead weight on the top of a very tall pole."

My brow creased. "Kelsier..."

"I hope you aren't afraid of heights, Y/n," Kelsier said. "That's quite a disadvantage for a Mistborn."

"I'm—I'm not afraid of heights!," I said through gritted teeth. "But I'm also not accustomed to hanging in the air a hundred feet above the street!"

Kelsier chuckled, but I felt a force tug against my belt, pulling me through the air toward him. He grabbed me and pulled me up over the stone railing, then set me down beside him.

He reached an arm over the side of the wall. A second later, the ingot shot up through the air, scraping along the side of the wall, until it flipped into his waiting hand.

"Good job," he said. "Now we go back down." He tossed the ingot over his shoulder, casting it into the dark mists on the other side of the wall.

"We're really going outside?" I asked. "Outside the city walls? At night?"

Kelsier smiled in that inviting way of his. He walked over and climbed onto the battlements. "Varying the strength with which you Push or Pull is difficult, but possible. It's better to just fall a bit, then Push to slow yourself. Let go and fall some more, then Push again. If you get the rhythm right, you'll reach the ground just fine."

"Kelsier," I said nervously, approaching the wall. "I don't..."

"You're at the top of the city wall now, Y/n," he said, stepping out into the air. He hung, hovering, balanced as he'd explained to me before. "There are only two ways down. Either you jump off, or you try and explain to that guard patrol why a Mistborn needs to use their stairwell."

I turned with concern, noting an approaching bob of lanternlight in the dark mists. I turned back to Kelsier, but he was gone.

I whimpered, bending over the side of the wall and looking down into the mists. I could hear the guards behind me, speaking softly to one another as they walked along the wall.