Mist of Shadows
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Dragon King Part 13
🕑 Added 2022-09-20 07:11:59 +0000 UTC"Spit it out, you look like you're sucking lemons," Dawn told the dark haired woman that was glaring at her while she worked on making bandages.
Nynaeve pulled her attention off the girl's green skirt that didn't even come down to her knees and was thin enough that she could see her legs. "Do you always travel in your night clothes?"
Dawn glanced down at her green silk shirt that clung to her body in a way the locals weren't used to. "It's comfortable and I'm used to the cold."
Nynaeve glanced at Moiraine who was checking on Tam al'Thor then focused on Dawn. "Are you an Aes Sedai?"
"Last I checked you had to be able to channel," Dawn replied with amusement.
"I saw you conjure bread out of thin air, even a gleeman would have had trouble hiding an entire loaf," Nynaeve argued. "Not to mention your bread healed people."
"Magic isn't limited to channelers," Dawn pointed out as she finished pushing magic into the bandages she was making. "I know of at least four types of magic in your lands that have nothing to do with the power."
Moiraine stood up and looked at Dawn. "Four?"
Dawn shrugged. "Ogier tree singers can manipulate plants with their voices, sniffers can sense violence, dream walkers can walk the world of dreams, some people can listen to the weather, the ability to sing and have plants grow is an interesting and mostly forgotten type of magic and talking to wolves, you have four of the six abilities in town."
"Smelling violence, up until today, that would have been a useless ability, we don't have much violence," Nynaeve said proudly.
"I never said that was one of the four," Dawn replied with amusement.
Nynaeve glanced at Moiraine then focused on Dawn. "I've never heard of anyone that could talk to wolves, sniff out violence or sing and have plants grow and I've never seen an ogier."
Dawn held her hand out and conjured a ball of fire in the palm of her hand. "Just because you've never heard of it doesn't mean it's not possible."
"Have you lost your mind?!" Nynaeve demanded.
Dawn picked up a scrap of wool off the table and dropped it into the ball of fire to show them that it was actually hot then closed her hands around the flames and let them die. "I'm immune to fire."
Nynaeve stared at Dawn for a couple of seconds then glanced at Moiraine. "Is that something most Aes Sedai can do?"
Moiraine looked at Dawn's unmarked hand. "No, most Aes Sedai aren't particularly skilled with fire or earth."
"Which one of the villagers can talk to wolves?" Nynaeve asked, fairly sure the stranger was lying.
Dawn gave Nynaeve a look that said she was less than impressed. "With respect, you're a decently trained wisdom but you're not in charge of the village's magic."
"I'm responsible for the village's health," Nynaeve snapped.
"It's not something you can cure, which means it's none of your business," Dawn replied bluntly. "I might feel differently if you were willing to train your magic."
"What makes you think I have magic?" Nynaeve demanded.
"I have a talent," Dawn replied as she turned to look at Moiraine. "I'll see you back at the inn, I have a couple of things to discuss before you vanish into the night."
"Just a…" Nynaeve trailed off when Dawn vanished, not used to having people just walk away. "Is that an Aes Sedai trick?"
"She's not an Aes Sedai," Moiraine told her as she left, wanting the chance to talk to her alone.
Nynaeve glared at Moiraine as she left, knowing she'd be trouble and worried when the other shoe was going to drop.
0o0o0
Dawn paused when she walked into the reading room and realized that Myst was staring at a gold ring engraved with elvish script. "Please tell me that we don't have to toss it in a volcano?"
Myst pulled his attention away from the ring and dropped it back in his inventory. "Nah, it just stretches your lifespan, bleaches your skin, risks your sanity and morality and sends you to a nightmare maze every night you fall asleep wearing the ring. You'll basically get chased by fey, if they catch you, you'll end up birthing a half fey child the next morning that will cause chaos, steal left shoes, clog drains and try to seduce you when they grow up and they grow up fast."
"Could be worse," Dawn said thoughtfully. "How much does it increase your lifespan?"
"You get a year and a day younger every night you spend in the dream maze," Myst explained as Moiraine walked into the room.
"Dream maze?" Moiraine asked as she stepped into the reading room.
Myst smiled when his angreal wheel started slowing down. "One of my talents lets me identify ter'angreal or magical items, I have a ring with some interesting effects."
Moiraine looked at the blue eyed child dressed in a blue silk shirt and durable looking breeches, wondering where he fit into things considering the clothes and the fact that most people in the village had dark eyes. "Some people would argue that ter'angreal belong to the Tower."
Myst flipped his hands palm up and out a bit then dropped them back to his side. "Even if you ignore the fact that any particular item might have been created by a wilder or given away, it's been over two thousand years since anything of significance was crafted by the Tower. I'm not going to tell a family that the necklace they've been handing down from mother to daughter for the last two thousand years belongs to the Tower just because it's an object of the power and an Aes Sedai might have crafted it over three thousand years ago."
Dawn snorted. "We have a word for people like that, thieves."
"I doubt most Aes Sedai would appreciate the comparison," Moiraine warned her.
Myst reached up and caught the ruby necklace that dropped when his angreal gacha wheel stopped. "Truth hurts."
Moiraine stared at the ruby necklace that had appeared out of thin air. "Can you channel?"
"Thankfully, that's not one of my talents…" he trailed off as Moiraine wove a shield over him. He glanced at the ter'angreal wheel that was still happily spinning then looked at the angreal with his upgrade ability. "That's useless."
"The necklace?" Dawn asked.
"No, the numbers, I don't have anything to compare them to," Myst replied as he held the angreal out to Moiraine. "Can you sense the quality by touching it?"
"I'd have to use it," Moiraine admitted as she accepted the angreal that would have been worth a fortune even if it wasn't an angreal. "It certainly feels like an angreal for saidar."
"Better than saidin, that would be next to useless," Myst mused as he reached up and caught a bracelet when his ter'angreal wheel stopped spinning.
"How are you still doing that when you're shielded?" Moiraine asked, wishing she had another sister with her for backup.
"Shields block your connection to the source, my magic is internal," Myst explained as he examined the crystal bracelet that was a chain of naked women holding each other's legs. 'Decent defensive gear or indecent considering the appearance.'
"Do you mind if I shield you?" Moiraine asked Dawn, wanting to make sure Dawn wasn't helping the child pull off a trick.
"If it makes you feel better," Dawn replied with a grin, fairly sure it wouldn't do anything.
Moiraine split the flows and shielded Dawn. "Can you still create a ball of fire?"
Dawn held her hand out and conjured a ball of fire. "Like Myst said, our magic is different."
Myst looked at Moiraine with his upgrade ability, curious what the oaths actually did. 'Shortens lifespan, warps her features and forces her to follow the letter of the oaths.' He gestured and cast remove curse on Moiraine. He smiled when the oaths unraveled and vanished, proving that the oaths counted as curses. "You might as well drop the shields, they're obviously not working."
Moiraine studied Myst's face for a couple of seconds and dropped the shields, fairly sure that anyone with a decent amount of strength could rip them apart with her attention split. "Where did you learn about ter'angreal?"
"Books," Myst replied with amusement as he glanced between the remaining wheels on his gacha menu. 'Two minion wheels and a potion wheel.'
"Books?" Moiraine asked as she pulled power through the necklace, curious how strong it was.
"I like to read," Myst replied as he bought the potion wheel and the more expensive minion wheel, curious what he'd end up with.
Dawn smiled as she studied the magic swirling around Moiraine. "How strong is the necklace?"
"It's one of the stronger angreal I've used," Moiraine admitted as she let the power drain away, not seeing a point in wearing herself out. "Are you interested in selling it?"
"Not particularly," Myst replied as he reached up and caught the potion vial that dropped. "I'd rather give it to Egwene or the wisdom once they finish their training."
Dawn glanced at the vial Myst was holding and stared when she realized the fluid inside the crystal bottle was metallic and currently bubbling. 'Please tell me we don't have to drink that.'
Myst checked the potion with his upgrade ability. 'It's actually safe and permanently gives you the ability to regenerate by hitting things.'
'It's also bubbling and looks like mercury,' Dawn complained. 'Have someone else drink it then copy the ability.'
'Where's your spirit of adventure?' Myst teased as his minion wheel started slowing down, having already planned to go with Dawn's suggestion before she made it. "Incoming minion, hopefully this doesn't blow up in my face."
"Hopefully," Dawn teased as she pulled her wand out of her inventory, in case she had to kill them.
"Minion?" Moiraine asked as she turned to look at the door. "What type of minion?"
"No idea," Myst admitted, hoping he got someone that could help train the local girls.
"They should be helpful…" Dawn trailed off as a red haired young woman wearing an ankle length dark blue dress with panels of red and silver forks of lightning bolts and a silver bracelet appeared in front of Myst. "Shit…"
Krisa reached for the collar hooked to her belt then froze when she saw Myst. "Boss, is there a reason you haven't chained the marath'damane?"
"She's already trained," Myst replied as he reached out with telepathy to look through his new minion's mind, trying to get an idea of her personality, orders and loyalty.
"Chained?" Moiraine asked warily, not sure what to make of the strangely dressed woman.
"The Seanchan chain channelers with ter'angreal designed to control them," Dawn explained.
"They're dangerous," Krisa argued, not taking her eyes off Moiraine.
"We're not in the Seanchan Empire and slavery is illegal," Myst pointed out as he used his telepathy to give the sul'dam a bit of a nudge so she'd accept his reasoning and not get herself killed.
Krisa scowled as she glanced between Moiraine and Myst, fairly sure leaving the woman free was going to bite her in the ass but the Boss had a point, they weren't in the Empire and she didn't have any backup. "Fine. Is there anyone I need to train?"
"I'm sure we can find people that want to learn to channel," Myst assured her as he bought the other minion wheel. 'Hopefully we can get her to train teachers that aren't brainwashed by the insane empire.'
'That's what telepathy is for,' Dawn agreed telepathically, fairly sure she was going to have to take a grinder to the woman's mind to rip out some of the programming.
"Seanchan Empire?" Moiraine asked warily.
Myst pulled his globe out of inventory, set it on the table and pointed at the Seanchan Empire. "They're basically an empire that uses leashed channelers in war and for various construction tasks."
Moiraine stared at the overly detailed map that Myst had conjured from somewhere, fairly sure it was a better map of the Westland than most people had, including the Tower. "Where did you get the map?"
"I stashed it in my inventory which is basically a pocket of folded space that I can use to store things. The Seanchan should be launching an invasion fleet in a couple of months which is annoying because they're going to hit my country."
Dawn pointed at Westeros on the map. "The Seven Kingdoms, otherwise known as Westeros."
Krisa frowned as she studied the globe. "None of the maps I've seen have your country on it."
"Not my fault that your maps aren't as good as they should be," Myst replied with amusement, not particularly happy with the upcoming invasion as he didn't have a decent way to counter their channelers without sniping them at range.
"Not mine either," Krisa replied with a shrug.
Moiraine glanced between Myst and the strangely dressed woman with the silver leash. "Why are they invading?"
"Because the lands west of the Aiel Waste belong to the Empire," Krisa stated firmly.
Dawn shook her head. "Any 'right' Hawkwing's descendants might have had his empire vanished a thousand years ago when it fell apart the second he died."
"The empress and the high blood aren't going to see it that way," Krisa warned them, even if she could sort of see their point.
"That reminds me, can you show our new friend the trollocs before they're burned?" Myst asked Dawn, wanting a chance to discuss things with Moiraine without Krisa there.
"Sure, let's go," Dawn ordered as she headed for the door.
"Trollocs, right," Krisa muttered sarcastically as she followed Dawn out of the room.
"How did you get to the Two Rivers?" Moiraine asked once the girls had left.
Myst gestured at the wall and opened a portal to the balcony outside his room so they could look down at the city. "It's basically a gateway."
Moiraine stared at the city filled with lights. "Where does the gateway lead?"
"King's Landing, it's the capital of the Seven Kingdoms, which is basically an empire depending on how you want to look at it," Myst offered as his minion wheel started slowing down.
"Could you open a portal to the White Tower?" Moiraine asked thoughtfully.
"Just because I can doesn't mean I should. The Tower is filled with black vipers and arrogant idiots. I refuse…" Myst trailed off as Egwene walked in with a plate of food a second before his minion wheel stopped and a foot tall naked red haired teenage girl with green eyes appeared floating in the air.
"Light!" Egwene sputtered, almost dropping the tray in surprise when she saw the portal and the tiny floating girl.
"Light!" the fairy said cheerfully as she gestured at the ceiling and conjured miniature and mostly silent fireworks that exploded in bright colors as Lan walked into the room.
Egwene stared at the area where the fireworks had just exploded. "What are you?"
"My name is Moondrop, I'm a fairy!" the fairy replied cheerfully as she darted and danced around the room, looking at things.
Lan glanced at the fairy then focused on the portal. "Trouble?"
"I'm not sure," Moiraine admitted as Egwene set the tray on the table next to the globe.
Egwene gestured towards the portal. "What is that?"
"That's a portal to King's Landing," Myst replied as he closed the portal before the fairy decided to dart through it.
Egwene glanced between the child and Moiraine. "Where is King's Landing?"
Myst pointed at the general location of King's Landing on the globe. "It's a city in Westeros."
"Westeros?" Lan asked, having never heard the name before.
"It's about a thousand miles to the west," Myst replied, not sure of the exact numbers. "Dawn wanted me to ask you if you wanted to learn to use magic."
"Are you saying I can channel?" Egwene asked in surprise.
"It runs in your bloodline," Myst replied as he created a popsicle stick skill item.
Egwene stared at the strange flat and thin piece of wood the child had conjured. "Did you pull that out of your sleeves?"
"Maybe," Myst replied with amusement as he handed her the popsicle stick. "Do you want to see a magic trick?"
"Yes," Egwene replied, figuring it was like a gleeman's trick or at least harmless.
"Break the stick," Myst replied with a grin.
Egwene broke the stick and stared at her empty hands when it vanished and she 'remembered' how to fly. "How?"
"Magic," Myst replied with amusement as Egwene floated off the ground. "Fantastic, you're a natural."
"Yes!" Moondrop squealed and danced in place. "We should go flying."
Egwene stared at the ground under her feet, surprised that her new ability actually worked. "What did you do?"
"I gave you the ability to fly," Myst replied smugly as he created another popsicle stick skillbook.
"How long does it last?" she asked, looking forward to testing her flight ability outside.
"The rest of your days," Myst replied, not sure if she'd keep the ability when she reincarnated but figuring he'd be long gone by that point. "Do you want to give it a try?" he asked as he held the stick out towards Lan.
Lan glanced at Moiraine. "Is it safe?"
"I tried shielding him, I don't think he's channeling," Moiraine admitted.
Lan briefly considered politely refusing before he realized that there were times the ability to fly through the air would have come in useful and it was probably worth the risk. He took the stick and broke it before he could change his mind. "It's like remembering a skill you haven't used for years."
"That's what practice is for," Myst replied as he created another popsicle stick. He broke the stick then created another one for Moiraine and held it out towards her.
"How much is this going to cost?" Moiraine asked as she accepted the stick.
"I'm going to need a favor eventually," Myst admitted.
"What type of favor?" Moiraine asked, wanting things spelled out before she used one of the strange sticks that somehow gave people the ability to fly.
"The type that will gut a certain nest of black vipers." Myst closed his empty gacha menu and opened it, curious what else he'd get. 'Angreal, two ter'angreal wheels, stupidly cheep chair wheel that probably isn't anything special, kitchen knives wheel? Electrical toys.' He bought the angreal wheel along with the two ter'angreal wheels and the electrical toys wheel.
"How does that count as a favor?" Moiraine asked, fairly sure he was talking about the Black Ajah.
Myst laughed. "Because you're the one that has to deal with explaining things to the Amyrlin."
The edges of Lan's lips curled up into a smile.
"I'll certainly consider it, is that good enough?" Moiraine asked, unwilling to agree without more details but not seeing a problem with considering such a request.
"Good enough," Myst agreed as he made a skill book of Moiraine's channeling skill and stuck it in his inventory. "Back to the original question, how do you feel about sneaking away for a couple of hours to learn to channel?" he asked Egwene.
"It's going to take more than a couple of hours," Moiraine warned her as she broke the stick that felt perfectly normal, at least until she broke it.
"We have some magical items that drastically increase the rate people learn and the a'dam works as a limit on the amount of power you can draw so you can't burn yourself out," Myst assured her.
Egwene glanced at the door, figuring it was better to ask forgiveness than permission. "I can spare a couple of hours."
Moiraine studied Myst's expression. "Is there a reason you don't want her in the Tower?"
"Elaida Sedai, the bitch in red hates you and the princess has the same general potential with the power, when you show up with someone with more potential, she's going to take it personal and cause trouble. There's also the fact that I don't consider a couple of years of tuition worth her life."
"What?!" Egwene blurted.
"You're never free once the Tower gets their claws into you, you'll always be dancing to their tune," Myst warned her as one of the ter'angreal wheels started slowing down. "Even if you have the strength in the power to ignore most of them, the head of your ajah will always assume they can order you around."
"That sounds bad," Moondrop complained as she floated over and landed on the table so she could look at the map.
"Not to mention you have talents the Aes Sedai can't teach and talents they've lost. If you want to survive, you're going to need to find someone that can teach you how to walk in the dream world without getting killed," Myst warned her.
"Can you teach me?" Egwene asked hopefully.
Myst reached up and caught a bracelet when his wheel slowed to a stop and the electrical toy wheel started slowing down. "I'm not a dreamer or a dreamwalker but I know where to start looking for instructors."
"Where would you start?" Moiraine asked.
"The Aiel have dreamers and dreamwalkers." Myst reached up, caught the hot pink battery powered vibrator that dropped and quickly stuck it in his inventory.
"They also dislike outsiders," Lan warned them.
"I'm aware," Myst admitted as he looked at the gold and ruby bracelet with his upgrade ability. "That looks like a nice graduation present."
"What is it?" Egwene asked.
"It's a well, it holds saidar so you can channel while you're shielded or while you're in a stedding," Myst explained as he put the bracelet in his inventory and his angreal wheel started slowing down along with the other ter'angreal wheel.
"Can you identify anything just by looking at it?" Moiraine asked, thinking about the Tower's collection of ter'angreal that weren't being used because no one knew what they did.
"Just about," Myst admitted as he reached up and grabbed a gold ring out of the air when his angreal wheel stopped. He examined the ring and scowled. "That's less than helpful until we cleanse the source."
"Saidin?" Moiraine asked.
"It was bound to happen," Myst replied as he stuck the ring in his inventory.
Moondrop pouted. "Are we going flying?"
"Moiraine needs to eat and I want to grab my prize wheel." Myst felt the world shiver a touch as the ter'angreal wheel lurched to a stop and a silver foxhead medallion dropped as Mattrim Cauldron walked into the room.
Moondrop flew down and caught the silver foxhead. "I've got it!"
Mat stared at the one foot tall naked girl that was holding a silver foxhead with one eye. "What's going on?"
"That's one way to make sure things stay on track," Myst muttered as Moondrop dropped the foxhead in his hand. He smiled when he checked the medallion and it turned out to be a perfect copy of the foxhead Mat should have ended up with. "My ability decided to make things easier."
"Easier?" Mat asked, not how the tiny naked girl was flying around or where she'd left her clothes.
Myst looked at Mat with his upgrade ability and spent the mana to push Mat's strange and mostly useless ability to recall things from his past lives from almost nothing other than a couple of words of the old tongue now and then to a level where he'd occasionally get entire scenes before he actually processed what he was doing. 'Fucking ta'veren.'
Mat shivered as he caught a flash of a massive battle. "What was that?"
Myst pulled a silver coin out of his inventory and tossed it to Egwene. "Can you ask your mother for a cord for the medallion? Mat is going to need something that won't break easily."
"You're giving that to Mat?" Egwene asked in surprise.
"He's going to need it, his sisters have the potential to channel," Myst replied with amusement.
"Bloody hell," Mat cursed, knowing they were already troublemakers.
"Language," Egwene warned him as she left to get a cord.
"What does the necklace do?" Moiraine asked.
Myst glanced at Moiraine. "It protects you from most types of channeling and protects your dreams while it's touching your skin." He focused on Mat. "Never take it off while you're sleeping."
"Why?" Mat asked suspiciously.
"Because Ishamael is a dreamwalker and he can pull people into the World of Dreams," Myst warned him.
"The Forsake are bound," Mat argued, shivering as he thought about the people that his mother used to scare him with.
"Ishamael slipped out a few years ago, the rest of the forsaken have a couple months before they're free to run around," Myst warned him.
Mat stared in horror at the kid when he realized he believed it. "How do you know that?"
"Think of it like a one time vision of a possible future. You're going to want to pick up a spear, it fits your fighting style and it's more lethal than a quarter staff," Myst told him as he created an inventory skill popsicle. He created a regeneration skill popsicle and another one for his durability power and handed the three skill sticks to Mat. "Break them, they'll give you a way to hide things that you can take with you, your coin, your valuables, food, some extra clothes, that sort of thing."
Mat glanced at Moiraine then broke the sticks one by one, figuring it wouldn't hurt. "Two types of healing and an inventory?"
"There's nothing wrong with stacking the deck in a fight," Myst replied with a grin.
"Fair," Mat agreed with a grin, knowing it was anything but fair.
"Do the learning ter'angreal work on anything or just channeling?" Lan asked thoughtfully.
"Anything, including weapons," Myst replied with a grin, fairly sure everyone could use some practice with weapons. 'Oberyn can probably show Mat a couple of tricks with the spear.'
"A slight detour might be for the best," Moiraine mused, curious what Myst could come up with to teach Egwene.
