thirteen. voice. your blood, your bones, your voice, & your ghost.

[indispensible]

[This worked last time. Vin isn't even sure if she liked it, but the temptation is too great to pass up a second time.]

If you're not dead or on the Barge already, I want to hear you. I'm here. I'm not dead.

[For the moment.]

Comments

[wasing]

Vin?

[indispensible]

. . . Hi.

[Look at him, look how not dead he is, this is great.]

[wasing]

Vin! What-- how--

I knew it. I did. I knew you had to be alive, somehow.

[indispensible]

I wasn't. I just am now.

Is everything green? Is it true?

[wasing]

It is! By the Survivor, it's beautiful.

[He seems to realize what he's said only belatedly; he blushes a bit.] You know what I meant.

[surfaceshine]

[Hey look, someone who knows how to smile.]

Hey, sweetheart. You should raise your standards a bit, you never know what the asshole'll drag in.

[manshutthehellup]

"I'm not dead", in my experience, is always a positive start.

Far as I know, I'm not either. And last I checked I'm pretty certain I'm not on this "barge". So where does that leave me, in your opinion?

[indispensible]

[She considers this.]

Somewhere else.

Somewhere better, probably.

[indispensible]

Oh. It's you.

[She knows how to smile, too. See? Just like this.]

You don't look dead, either. That's good.

[indispensible]

[Her voice goes flat.]

I don't know what you meant.

[wasing]

I... just meant... It's wonderful here now, Vin. Thanks to you. All of you.

[indispensible]

Good.

[She is fiercely satisfied. At least it was worth something, all of it.]

Are people safe? Are you taking care of them?

[wasing]

I'm trying to. We're really starting to make something. We're building a new city.

[He brightens suddenly, a broad smile overtaking his face.]

Do you want to see?

[indispensible]

I want to see!

[Sudden, almost childish eagerness. Yes yes show her now yes right this minute yes.]

[wasing]

Yes, my Lady. [And his smile becomes a bit playful -- he's almost as giddy as she is. The idea of actually getting to show Elendel to Vin... He laughs and gets up from the table in his room, going to open the window. Now that he's on his feet, she can see that he's got a Mistborn cloak draped around his shoulders.]

Of the waiting the hope would be pleasing, but of the looking most so.

[indispensible]

Shut up! Just show me.

[She leans forward, trying to peer out the window through the screen. It isn't going well.]

[wasing]

I am. Still so impatient, Lady Heir. [And he jumps lightly out the window, just as she and Elend and Zane might, Pushing and Pulling his way to the top of his Keep. He perches atop the highest tower and turns the scroll -- for that's what she appeared in -- outward.

From there, the Eight Octants of Elendel are spread out before them. Or, at least, what will one day be the Eight Octants. It's a work in progress as yet, but Vin can see the foundations: broad, clean streets, new buildings of stone and wood... and all intersected by eight crystalline rivers and dotted with lush green grass and thick brown earth, trees, flowers.]

[manshutthehellup]

Well admittedly, I've got no complaints. But that's to be expected.

I'm Sam, Sam Wilson. What's your name?

[utopiasdaughter]

I'm not dead either. Or on a barge.

[indispensible]

Good.

Who are you?

[indispensible]

Vin Venture. Do you know where I am?

[indispensible]

[It's beautiful. It's impossible. She presses her hand to her mouth and watches with wide eyes as the city spreads out beneath him. Beneath them.]

[It's so neat. Clean. Not perfect, but green, and she trembles with the possibilities. Maybe - one day - she can go back. But it's enough for now to know it exists.]

Where do you live? Where's your home?

[manshutthehellup]

I've been talking with a friend of mine and some other folks. You're on a prison spaceship, of sorts?

[wasing]

Here. In the city.

[He keeps the scroll turned so she can see it, moving it carefully back and forth to give her a panoramic view. He's silent for a moment, then:]

We wanted to call it Elendel.

[indispensible]

That's right.

Who's your friend?