"And you already have some of these spikes accessible, they transfer just fine, you don't have to kill anyone for them," she clarifies, "just take them from people who will be fine without."
"Correct. The spikes do gradually lose their power if left outside of a body, which means that you and some Inquisitors ought to be in the same place at the same time. Alerting them to your existence is the closest thing I can think of to a downside from your perspective."
"Nothing I don't tell them to, unless they have some way of guessing that you're a danger to me. I can prevent this by burning copper so that they can't read my emotions. They will be curious about a person whose body contains no metal, but will not become hostile without reason."
"The wings, I assume, would also be noticeable. What happens if they do find out that you find me a threat?"
The biggest reason the Inquisitors are a downside for you at all is that right now, you have the advantage that nobody knows there's an unknown quantity. And you'd have to give that up."
"Yes. But I doubt I can accurately impale myself in a specific spot on a chunk of copper without help and you're incapable, so if I'm going to take that, someone will have to know about me anyway."
In that case we're up to four people. Three Inquisitors to lend the spikes, and one person who can see your arm to insert them. I can call in an obligator to do it; their entire job description is to be trustworthy.
And many of them are fanatically loyal to me. No Inquisitor is going to act against my orders in front of an obligator no matter how much of a threat they think you are. And it'll make swearing everyone to secrecy more official-looking.
I'd strongly recommend that you take it."
"Do obligators have trustworthiness-related magic of some kind or is that just how you pick them?"
If enforced secrecy is necessary I could give you the names of the people involved afterward."
The secrecy problems all seem solvable, not to mention unimportant next to the ability to ignore orders."
"I'm weighing various options," she says. "Letting someone know I am a threat is not a dealbreaker, it's a drawback I'm weighing against other possibilities. I will want time alone to think and I am not yet sure I want to leave you alone, considering that left to your own devices you kill people and instantiate emotion bubbles and so on."
I'd be happy to fly off and collect the objects if you want to be alone for a bit. I am planning no significant actions other than things we've discussed and expect that you would have no cause for complaint when I return."
"All right. Go ahead and do just exactly that, navigating in such a way as to retain the expectation that I will have no cause for complaint."
He exits through the secret door, closes it behind him, and launches himself out the nearest window. Retrieving some memories about exactly which Inquisitors have the spikes he needs, he forms some educated guesses about where in Luthadel they'll be. Soon he's floating above one such place, flaring iron to sense metal strongly enough to pick out human shapes.
Few people wear metal. Most show up only as thin outlines where there's iron in their blood. A few, soldiers or guards or suchlike, wear breastplates (easily removable in case they have to fight an Allomancer). Inquisitors look unique to this sense: They have the trace metals in the bloodstream, but there are spikes all around the outline of their bodies and most are carrying metalminds.
When he spots an Inquisitor, the Lord Ruler of the Final Empire dramatically drops from the sky. Surrounded by awed and more often than not terrified onlookers, he states, "You're not Yelbon, are you," and launches back up. The next Inquisitor he spots is the right one.
After collecting four relevant spikes from three Inquisitors, he returns to Kredik Shaw. He directs the first obligator he sees at the palace to wait outside the large domed room because she may be called on. It's intentionally not a high-ranking one whose name Promise might accidentally hear mentioned if she decides she doesn't want to know. Then he unlocks the secret door mechanism, and knocks before opening. The entire process has taken slightly over an hour.
She opens the door.
"I'll take it," she says. She's pretty sure she can turn invisible again in here if she needs to unless someone does something to affect light sources or draftiness or temperature, and they don't know enough about how sorcery works to try it. She turns visible.
"Okay. I have someone who can do it on call, but I'd rather not show this place to anyone else. At least not the secret part of it."
"No. And the outside of the secret door is behind an ordinary one, so it's not like we'll be in the open."
Alendi stops himself from introducing them, and instead just tells Promise "I've made sure to emphasize that everything here is the highest level of secret and that she should not mention her name unless you ask for it afterward."