Time for Answers

It was the second night after the failed... surgeries. The mists seemed especially oppressive tonight, sand their usual air of playfulness.

Lena watched the bridge carefully for some hours before the object of her attention arrived. Broulliar dropped down from some unseen height, taking position on the bridge and scanning the night with a hawks predatory glare. If he noticed lena or Sind hidden in their lookout he made no reaction. He stood, waiting.

Lena inhaled deeply and held her breath. In the five days since her run-in with the blonde Venture Mistborn, she had played this conversation out a dozen different ways in her mind, but now that the time had come, words completely failed her.

She slowly and quietly approached, head hung low in embarrassment. She leaned against the opposite railing of the bridge.

"Hello, master. I must admit that I have failed you a student. I encountered my first enemy Mistborn since we last talked, but it was the guards and not the Mistborn who injured me past the point of death. Had it not been for Pewter we would not be having this conversation."

His fists are clenched tight.

"It seems everyone was a special kind of idiot that night. You cost me more than you can know, and almost lost me even more. I should have known to take more precautions when I learned of your break in. Now he's furious..."

Broulliar clutches faintly at his side, scratching at his ribs.

"What have you done with the... cargo?"

Lena's eyes narrowed in frustration and her voice was little more than a low growl.

"If you weren't so damn secretive, I might be able to keep my employers out of your way."

She stood up and her volume raised slightly.

"I don't know who you are or who you work for, so how am I supposed to know when their plans will foul up your own?"

Her muscles tensed at his last question, knowing full well exactly what happened to his precious cargo. She quietly grabbed a single coin from her pouch in case she needed a quick escape. Her voice was matter of fact as she relayed the information.

"The prisoners were delivered to my employers, who then disposed of them."

He stiffens for a moment, obviously not pleased at the news. Then he lets out a slow breath, clenching his fists.

"Your employers don't know what they're getting involved in. But maybe you're right. Maybe it's time to bring you into my trust. Maybe it's time you repay me for your lessons..."

He regards Lena from beneath his hood, shadow and mist as obscuring as ever.

"I work for House Venture. As you may now surmise, we have one other Mistborn at our disposal. The cargo you stole is our way of... evening the odds. Even with two Mistborn, it is difficult to dominate an entire dominance. We have a means of making us stronger though. Those Skaa you took are key to that."

When Broulliar mentions Lena repaying him for her lessons, she cringes slightly, hoping Sind could not hear what was being said. She intentionally raises her voice and laughs.

"I'm so glad you weren't the Mistborn we ran into the other night at the docks. That would have made things really awkward between us going forward. Now that that's cleared up, how about we spar a little?"

She then lowers her voice to a level only one with Tin could hear from Sind's distance. "I'm not alone tonight. We should discuss my repaying you elsewhere."

Dropping the coin, Lena shoots up into the air and across the canal.