Mist of Shadows
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Dragon King Part 28
🕑 Added 2022-11-12 06:40:42 +0000 UTCRadhanan Paendrag glared down at the strange woman with dark green skin and pointed ears that had dared to walk into her throne room with her head held high, looking directly at her with a look of disdain.
"Who dares raise their eyes above their station?!" the woman standing near the empress demanded, not used to people looking at her mistress with anything but awe and or fear, especially in the throne room while she was sitting on the crystal throne.
"I am Laurena, Shadows of Death, destroyer of countless demons and a hero of the Horde," Laurena replied with a smirk she knew would annoy the empress and all of the high lords in the court. 'At least Mat's medallion seems to be working, I don't feel anything I could even charitably call awe,' she sent to Myst via telepathy.
'Good to know,' Myst replied as he looked through the 'junk' the girls had recovered from the Kin's stash. 'Let me know if you need help grabbing the throne.'
"Horde?" the voice asked with disdain.
"I wouldn't worry about it, I'm here to ask the empress a question on behalf of the Frozen King of the Endless Night," Laurena replied, not seeing a point in directing them towards anyone or anything she actually cared about. 'Worst case, I'll open a portal and drop it in the ocean.'
'Dawn will be disappointed but at least it should keep it out of the hands of the Seanchan,' Myst replied, knowing Dawn wanted to study the throne to see if they could make something that boosted honesty.
"Frozen King of the Endless Night?" the voice asked, having never heard of such a kingdom.
"Exactly," Laurena replied with a smile, not seeing a reason to give them clues so they could track anyone down so they could murder civilians. "By what right does she plan to send thousands of people across the ocean to reclaim an empire that fell apart the second Hawkwing died?"
Radhanan moved her index finger slightly, indicating that her voice should respond, if only because the strange woman with green skin and a crimson dress that moved like there was wind interested her and she was bored.
"She is Arthur Hawkwing's direct descendant, everything he owned belongs to her," the empress's voice announced.
Laurena ignored the guards with lacquered red and green armor that were moving around the edges of the room, in an attempt to get behind her. "I'd like to contest that."
"Which part?" the voice asked, wondering how long the Empress was planning on letting the fool remain amongst the living.
Laurena smiled at the crowd of nobles that were staring at her in horror then looked directly at the Empress, knowing it would infuriate her. "Even if I believed her claims about an unbroken bloodline spanning a thousand years, her family lost all claims on his empire when it fell apart with his death."
"You're lying," the empress's voice snapped.
Laurena laughed as the entire court area went silent. "I'm not, but even if I were lying and some fragment of an empire survived, it would be run by the people that had put in the work to keep it running."
"They'd join us," the voice said.
"Do you honestly think they'd appreciate her claims that she's descended from Hawkwing's oldest brother, especially if they believe you?" Laurena asked with amusement. "Maybe they'd bend the knee when her army shows up with their pet magic users because they're worried about getting slaughtered but that has more to do with force of arms and not any inherent right of blood."
"The empire is hers by right," the voice snapped, looking forward to hearing the woman scream when the Seekers of Truth got her.
"Which empire? The Seanchan Empire? I'll admit that the Empress has a claim on this blighted land because of the sheer number of people her ancestors tortured and killed and because the people are stupid enough to believe it," Laurena taunted as she pulled her magic detection goggles out of her pocket, rather amused at the emotions she could feel from the nobles.
"The Sharan Empire? Not so much, they sunk the fleets that Hawkwing sent before they even reached the shore. The empire that fell apart in his homeland the second Hawkwing died?" she asked as she put the goggles on. "Not really, they've been on their own for over a thousand years. So again, I ask, by what right does she claim to own the world?"
"Take her to the Tower of Ravens," the voice told the guards when the empress moved her index finger, showing that she'd grown annoyed.
Laurena wasn't surprised when she scanned the empress's thoughts and realized the sadistic woman didn't care about right or wrong or even her own people, she just wanted more power. "It always boils down to force of arms." She reached out with telekinesis and tore the charging guards apart, splattering more than a couple of the nobles with blood and pieces of armor.
"Kill her!" Radhanan ordered her sul'dam, shocked that her sul'dam hadn't felt the woman's presence.
Laurena smirked as the various weaves the five women used fell part once they touched her thanks to her copy of the fox head medallion. She smiled coldly as she pinned the empress to her throne, tossed two ogier Deathwatch Guards into the hallway and slammed the doors shut with telekinesis. "Your return was never about helping people, it was always about your ego."
She ignored the arrows and daggers that bounced off her magical force field as she walked towards the throne, her crimson dress soaking in the blood thanks to the enchantment on it and causing a certain amount of fear in everyone that watched the blood flow across the floor and into her dress. She 'absently' gestured at the sul'dam and the damane that were still trying to stop her and knocked them unconscious with telepathy, figuring it was better to deal with them before they started thinking rather than reacting and tried more indirect methods of stopping her.
Laurena smiled as twelve of the high lords drew their swords and stepped in her way. "Let me guess, you're challenging me to a duel?"
"Kill her!" High Lord Turak ordered as he charged the strange woman, hoping his power wrought blade would cut through her defenses because someone needed to stop her.
Laurena briefly considered letting the man bounce his sword off her shield to make him realize how hopeless his fight truly was before deciding that an actual fight would be more useful to show how badly a hero from Azeroth outclassed the locals. She drew her sword and danced, moving with a supernatural grace and speed that none of the men could match.
Radhanan watched in shock as five of her high lords were cut down in less time than it would take to name the five, even if she stuck to first names. It quickly became apparent when the stranger kicked one of the Deathwatch Guards that tried to stab her in the back hard enough that his skull shattered that she was holding back and still cutting the best the empire had apart with contemptuous ease.
Laurena smirked as she caught a dagger out of the air, spun and tossed it, pinning the hand of a noble that was trying to pull one of the side doors open. "None of that," she said as she kicked one of the nobles that had attacked her, shattering most of his ribs and putting him out of the fight as he flew towards the wall. She blocked Turak's sword strike on her left bracer then kicked him between the legs, dropping him to the ground. She laughed as she killed the rest of the high lords that had attacked her then turned to look at the empress.
"What do you want?" Radhanan asked more calmly than she felt.
"I want your empire to wither and rot, to fall apart and never trouble the rest of the world with your hypocrisy and insanity but I'll settle for an oath that your bloodline will never send people across the ocean." Laurena wasn't particularly surprised to find that Radhanan had no intention of keeping any deals, calling off the return or developing any understanding of actual honor and just wanted to save her skin.
"There has to be a limit to your ter'angreals," Radhanan said thoughtfully. "I could make you a member of the high blood in exchange for your service."
"Even if I believed you wouldn't turn on me like your ancestors turned on the idiot that made the first a'dam, my king would keep me alive for a thousand years screaming in agony for such a betrayal," Laurena lied as she looked around at the cowering nobles and focused on the three young ladies with shaved heads sitting on the royal section of the court that her goggles showed had magical potential. "I'm curious, did you know that sul'dams have the ability to channel?"
"You're lying," Tuon Paendrag snapped, not happy with anyone implying that she could channel.
"Why lie when the truth is more amusing?" Laurena asked with amusement as she opened a portal near the unconscious sul'dam. "The a'dam works as a link, forcing the woman with the collar into the service of the one holding a leash, the sul'dam have the ability to learn to channel, the damane have the spark or accidently channel and get picked up by the sul'dam," she explained as she floated the channelers through the portal.
"There's a difference between having the ability to learn to channel and actually using it," Tuon argued, more than a bit unnerved by the woman's claims.
"You're celebrating one group while condemning another group of magic users, all because your twisted empire wants control and your ancestors hated Aes Sedai. The men that die screaming when your mother forces them to put an a'dam on are men that have the potential to channel."
"That means Tuon can't be the next empress," Ravashi Paendrag said smugly, not seeing a problem with declaring all of the sul'dam property.
Laurena grabbed a dagger one of the Deathwatch Guard tossed at her out of the air with telekinesis and tossed it back, hitting him in the crotch with it and dropping him to the ground screaming. "Considering you've tried to kill your younger sisters at least a couple of times, you're not walking out of here alive unless we end up making a deal so it really doesn't matter if she's the next empress or if I stick a dog on the throne, you're not going to be around to see it."
"Blame the empress, she encourages it," Ravashi blurted when she realized the woman was serious about killing her.
Laurena scanned Ravashi's mind, not surprised to find that unlike the rest of the royal family, she actually wanted her siblings dead. "There's a difference between going through the motions and honestly wanting your siblings dead." She grabbed Turak with telekinesis when he tried lunging at her with his sword.
"Perfect timing," Laurena replied with a smile as she flipped the man upside down and held him in place. "One of the King's seers had a vision about the return, Turak here had a man killed for the crime of not properly watching for the return because someone in the last thousand years forgot what they were supposed to be watching for. I can sort of understand his frustration, examples had to be made and all of that, except he then ordered the town to name someone else to the position and put them in a cage on display until they starved to death then repeated the process until your piece of shit high lord was eventually killed by a farm boy with a sword."
"They should have watched for our return and knelt," Turak argued.
Laurena shook her head. "It was a thousand years and Hawkwing's empire was a note in history for most people. The fact that they still had the title at all was a quirk of fate. If you'd stopped after killing the first man with the title, I might have blown it off as a cultural quirk and frustration but no, you had to make an example." She turned her attention to the Empress. "If that's the type of example the empire understands then I'll make an example of you if you don't agree to my generous terms."
"Which are?" Radhanan asked, deciding to humor the woman as her assassins collected their bloodknives and snuck in through the secret passages.
"You will renounce all claims on Hawkwing's old empire, you will free every slave in your empire and you'll renounce your claim on channelers," Laurena told her, knowing she wouldn't accept, that she couldn't because ordering her nobles to release their slaves would tear the empire apart.
"No, you haven't killed me yet, which means you need me to make this work, probably because you only have one set of the ter'angreal," Radhanan said, calling the woman's bluff.
Laurena took a couple of seconds to scan the woman's mind, trying to figure out how she thought she was getting out of the throne room without dying and wanting to grab everything she could about the palace's vaults and any secrets the empress possessed. She took a couple of seconds to make sure she'd collected everything about the vaults, secret passages and blackmail she had on the high lords then levitated her off the throne and ripped her apart, not seeing a reason to cover the throne with blood.
"You killed her," Ravishi blurted, shocked that her mother was dead.
"I'm in Seanchan, I figured I'd go with the local culture, when you don't like the answer, you kill people," Laurena explained as the woman's idiot slaves started wailing, drawing knives and killing themselves because their empress was dead. 'Fucking idiots,' she mused as she walked over and set her hand on the base of the massive crystal throne and shoved it into her storage ring, causing everyone to stare at her in disbelief.
"Light," several of the nobles blurted, shocked that the woman had caused the throne to vanish.
Laurena turned to look at the crowd. "The Frozen King offers his condolences for the tragic death of the previous empress but I need a response to my question, are you willing to give up on your claims to Hawkwing's empire?"
"We'll raise your country to the ground for this," Turak snarled.
"Maybe but you won't be alive to see it," Laurena replied as she tossed the man into the air and ripped him apart. "Long live Empress Ravishi, do you have an answer for me?"
"I renounce all claims to the former empire, I'll order all of the slaves freed and you can take the channelers if you'll leave," Ravishi quickly told the insane channeler, knowing dying in her own throne room like her mother and everyone else that had attacked her wouldn't help.
"Excellent," Laurena turned to look at the Deathwatch Guard sitting by Tuon that hadn't attacked with the rest of them, not particularly surprised since he wasn't an idiot and was supposed to keep Tuon safe. "Can I trust you to escort Tuon, Chimal and Aurana Paendrag to their quarters to acquire their treasured possessions, they won't be returning."
"Do you mean to harm them?" Furyk Karede asked, not seeing a point in tossing his life away when it wouldn't help but willing to try if it would save Tuon.
"They can channel and one of the first things Ravishi will do is try to kill them, you're welcome to come with them to keep Tuon safe but we're leaving," Laurena replied as she let the portal close that led back to Myst's tower.
"Yes," Furyk agreed, well aware of Ravishi's issues.
Laurena smiled at Ravishi. "I'll be back in a month, I expect significant progress."
"Of course," Ravishi replied, planning on launching the return with orders to find the woman's homeland and burn it to the ground.
Laurena smiled as she left the throne room with Furyk and the princesses, rather amused that things were falling into place for her to steal a large chunk of the Seanchan's army.
0o0o0
"Is this what you're looking for?" Harry asked as he pulled a wide dagger with a deer horn handle with gold wires around it out of one of the wooden boxes of 'junk' that Zara had recovered from one of the coastal cities.
Myst pulled his attention off where a naked Kari and Bodewhin were kissing on the couch, mostly because he'd offered the girls a couple of channeling talents if they were willing to show off and have some fun, mostly because Kari had asked him. He looked at the dagger with his upgrade ability and smiled when he realized it was one of the ter'angreal he was looking for. "Yeah, that's the one we want, toss it in the coffin!"
"What does the dagger do?" Ginny asked as she snapped another picture of Bodewhin and Kari with her camera.
"It basically hides us from shadowspawn," Myst explained as Harry carefully set the dagger in the coffin, "up to and including getting stabbed from what I recall."
Harry stared at Myst in disbelief. "They'll ignore getting stabbed?"
"Technically, they won't ignore the fact that they were stabbed, they'll just ignore you which means they might swing a weapon in your general direction at random or run but they won't see, hear or even sense you," Myst explained as he closed and opened the coffin a few times, creating a bunch of duplicate daggers.
"That should make it easier to hunt them down," Harry mused as Egwene walked into the room.
Egwene stopped walking when she saw her naked friend and her counterpart's daughter sprawled on the couch kissing with Kari's right hand on one of Bodewhin's breasts. "You're having too much fun."
"Probably," Myst admitted with amusement, glad that he was a telepath as it let him know how far to push or when to stop because someone was having a bad day.
Kari smiled at Egwene. "You're welcome to join us."
"Maybe later, I need to look for a project," Egwene replied, wanting to sort through some of the ter'angreal first in case she found something 'easy' that she could try to copy.
"Take a look, I'll copy anything you need that isn't dangerous," Myst told her as he picked up one of the dull daggers and stuck it in his inventory. "How are the children?"
"They've learned to walk," Egwene replied with amusement as she walked over to the couch across from Kari and Bodewhin so she could help look through the ter'angreal and enjoy the show. "It's strange, they're growing fast enough you can almost watch it happen. I left when my mother started comparing embarrassing stories with her counterpart."
"It could be worse, you didn't have Mat for an uncle. He used to encourage us to get up to mischief and laugh when we got caught," Kari complained, with a grin that showed that she wasn't too upset about it.
"That sounds like Mat," Egwene agreed as she pulled a large white shallow bowl that was a couple of feet across out of the box. "Any idea what this does?"
Myst checked the bowl with his upgrade ability. "It basically lets you spy on someone at range and communicate with them."
"Could we use it to spy on the forsaken?" Harry asked thoughtfully, figuring that would help them track down and eliminate the forsaken before they got set up.
"Or the missing cultists," Ginny suggested, figuring that would be safer than hunting insanely dangerous channelers with centuries of experience and power to burn.
Myst shook his head. "We'd need Moiraine or Verin's help, they should be at least reasonably familiar with the cultists."
"It's worth a try," Harry mused, wishing he'd had a decent scrying device back when he was hunting dark wizards. "Do you have to be able to channel or would magic work?"
"Thinking about hunting down some dark wizards?" Myst asked as he levitated all of the dull daggers in the coffin out and dropped them in an empty box.
"There are a couple of people that vanished right before the end of the war, I wouldn't mind tracking them down and passing the information along to a couple of people that are still in the business," Harry admitted.
"I doubt the ministry would bother giving them more than a slap on the wrist," Ginny grumbled, less than impressed with the ministry.
"If they don't, I think I'll take Myst up on his offer and jump worlds," Harry admitted, more than a little sick of the wizarding world's inability to actually fix their own messes.
"You're always welcome, I can also send you to another world through the mirror in case you want to do some exploring to see if you can find something better," Myst pointed out.
Harry laughed. "I'll keep that in mind if I get bored."
"Do you think I could find a counterpart that has different talents?" Egwene asked thoughtfully.
"Anything is possible, I know some of your counterparts had the ability to heal when a version of Rand used the portal stones," Myst mused. "We'd have to jump to the stedding on the off chance that your counterpart is completely twisted but it's worth a try."
"I'm willing to try if you'll give me the ability to create portals," Egwene said, not wanting to get stuck in case the sphere failed or she lost it.
"Deal," Myst replied as he started making a skill book for the portal ability, looking forward to talking to a slightly more evil version of Egwene while Hermione, Dawn and Mione worked on their flying city model.
Comments
Mist of Shadows
Jumpchain is interesting but it's a lot time for time skips... and some times you'd be insane in ten years... if you were doing anything, let alone the scale and you'd miss it because it's off screen.... I'd rather just chain a couple of cyoas together these days if I'm writing.
Michael Strickland
Jumpchain is fun to play around with and can get so ridiculous very quickly. Even when you try to limit it with different challenges the power creep is hard to avoid. I have attempted to put a Jump together once or twice, but generally relegate myself to modifying some that seem incomplete or awkward for appearance or personal preference on usability before inserting them into my Chains.
Mist of Shadows
It's from a jumpchain doc basically a cyoa that was designed to be chained with other docs... It's a fun concept.
Michael Strickland
I've been reading a bunch of your older works lately and noticed that you've used the Gacha Wheel and Upgrade abilities a few times. Is that from any particular CYOA or just something that you decided on and like?
