Mist of Shadows
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Dragon King Part 20
🕑 Added 2022-10-15 03:01:54 +0000 UTC"This would be easier if I had a shrink ray and a time turner," Myst complained as he pulled yet another pair of magic sight goggles out of the coffin, looked at them with his upgrade ability and boosted them back up to where he'd boosted the original goggles.
Dawn shook her head. "That sounds like a good way to get lazy and leave a copy of the duplication coffin in a lab where the Forsaken can reach it."
"I'm not Andrew," Myst assured her as he tossed the upgraded goggles on the bed with the pile of upgraded goggles and grabbed another set of goggles from the coffin.
"Speaking of unethical experiments, have you considered copying the cursed necklace to make something that makes half vampire abominations?" Dawn asked cheerfully, thinking about some of Andrew's campaigns.
"Would you believe me if I said no?" Myst asked with amusement as he upgraded the goggles and tossed them on the bed with the rest.
"Not anymore," Dawn replied with amusement as she picked up a set of goggles. "Joking aside, do you want me to sneak in and grab the ter'angreal that lets the Tower make fancloth so we can copy it?" she asked as she put the goggles on.
"Pretty sure the crafters would appreciate it," Myst replied as he grabbed another set of goggles and upgraded them. "We're…" he trailed off as he felt magic pour into the world from somewhere to the southwest and the world shook as if something struck the ground like the fist of an angry god. "What the hell was that?"
"No clue," Dawn admitted as she ran towards the window to look, ignoring the earthquake as best she could.
A deep and disturbing voice echoed across the world, "I claim this world for the glory of Narbadrados the Undefeated!"
Dawn froze as she looked out the window and almost regretted having a 'perfect' view of Dragonmount because it gave her the perfect view of the massive portal obscuring half of the mountain that was pouring rivers of tainted magic into the world and the naked squid headed titan that was half as tall as the mountain he was standing in front of. She stared in horror at the massive White Tower sized erect slime and barb covered penis the monster was sporting for a couple of seconds before her brain rebooted. "We need to leave!" she blurted as she dashed over to the bed, rolled the blankets up and shoved them in her inventory along with all of the upgraded goggles.
Myst shoved the coffin into his inventory then tossed a telepathic message to the rest of the crew, 'Get everyone out! We have a mountain sized demon lord or a dark god claiming the world, we need to leave!'
"Shit!" Vanessa cursed as she realized that the world was probably going to get pulled into hell or worse. 'I need an extraction team! I'm in Emond's Field, we have a couple of hundred channelers, send help!'
'On it!' Laurena told Vanessa as she opened a portal to the local version of Emond's Field and gestured for the blue girls to jump through, glad that they'd already finished kidnapping most of the damane and sul'dam they could easily reach. "Double time it!"
Zara opened a portal back to near Myst's tower. "Let's go!"
Moiraine didn't even hesitate as she shoved this world's version of Alanna through the portal then followed, having sensed the fear in Myst's mental message and wanting nothing to do with something the size of a mountain.
Zara followed Lan and the other warders through the portal then closed it, not remotely interested or geared enough to fight a greater demon or a dark god.
Myst shifted to his female form and looked out the window, trying to judge the speed the tainted mana was moving and the speed of the eldritch abominations that were pouring out of the portal. 'Less than three minutes.' She looked away from the window so she didn't have to look at the blurry creatures that seemed to change shape at a whim and reached out to various people in the Tower with telepathy and started opening portals between various rooms and the area near her tower, happy that her mana pool was basically yes at this point.
Dawn focused and opened a portal near the floor of the Tower's ter'angreal storage room then increased the width and dropped most of the room through the portal to the ruins near Myst's tower.
"Two minutes," Myst warned her as she started tossing novices and accepted through portals when they hesitated, doing her best to grab as many people as possible and wishing she had a power for infinite multitasking because it would have made things a lot easier.
"Do you want me to start killing demons?" Dawn asked as she dropped most of the library through a portal, trying not to think about the damage the fall would cause the books or the couple of Brown Ajah that hadn't left through one of the portals.
"Rejoice, for you shall have eternal life!" the same voice as before washed over the city, bringing with it a tide of tainted magic.
"No." Myst finished grabbing the last of the novices and accepted that hadn't already fled as she sent a message to the group, 'We're leaving! You have five minutes!' She closed the portals she'd opened then opened a portal back to her tower.
Dawn closed all of her portals then jumped through the portal and flew off to find the Aes Sedai that she'd dropped with the library, glad that it wasn't her job to calm people down as most of the people seemed lost, confused, scared and or angry.
Myst ignored the screams she could hear in the distance and jumped through the portal, feeling sick at the thought of running but she wasn't prepared to fight a demon lord or a dark god that was half the size of a mountain. She spun in the air and slammed the portal shut, wanting to make sure the demon lord wouldn't be able to find them or infect her world or whatever the strange mana was supposed to do.
She looked at the frightened collection of warders, trainees, accepted, novices and Aes Sedai that were staring up at her, at least a third of which were glowing with magic. "If you're injured, please make your way to the tent we're setting up by the tower. If it hurts to move, ask for help!" she announced as she flew towards the tower to set up a tent, using a touch of magic to make sure her voice cut through the confused conversations.
Siuan Sanche glanced at the yellow sisters that were already heading for the mist-covered tower they could see then walked over to where Moiraine was talking to someone that looked like her and an unfamiliar woman. "What is going on?"
"You were attacked by a dark god or a demon lord," Zara offered, not sure if the creature was a god and talking in the third person or if what they'd seen was just a servant of something worse.
"Demon lord?" Siuan asked warily, thinking about some of the reports she'd received from the sisters that had investigated the strange moving tower when it had first appeared.
"They're generally twisted creatures of magic and hate that have enough power to make the Forsaken look like novices, your world is basically gone," Zara told her bluntly.
"We could…" Siuan trailed off as her oath against lying prevented her from saying they could have done something about the mountain sized creature she'd seen out of her window.
"Even if you'd had a full circle with men, you probably couldn't have done more than annoy the creature," Zara told her, not seeing a reason to sugar coat things.
"Why do you look like Moiraine?" Siuan asked the woman that looked like her friend other than the fact that her hair was in a slightly different style.
"I'm the version from this world, you're from a mirror world," Moiraine explained.
"How did they manage to bring us to a mirror world without using the portal stones?" Siuan asked warily.
Zara turned to look towards the ruins as she felt several portals open. "Channeling and tree singing aren't the only types of magic in existence. If you'll excuse me, we have more people coming."
"I want…" Siuan trailed off as the strange woman vanished. "That's annoying."
Zara smirked then flew up into the air and headed for the ruins. 'Invisibility for the win.'
"Their sense of humor is an acquired taste," Moiraine admitted, making a mental note to ask them about acquiring the trick that let them vanish.
'That's one way of putting it,' Lan thought as he scanned the crowd, wondering if Myst and his friends had brought any cultists by mistake.
"Have you noticed any differences between the worlds?" Siuan asked.
Moiraine glanced at her older counterpart. "I'm sure there are a number of small changes but the main difference is that it's only been twenty years since the Aiel war and Amadicia hasn't been destroyed."
"We're going to need supplies, do you know where we are?" Siuan asked, filing away the historical details for later and hoping they could reach a city before they starved.
"You're in the Mountains of Mist, I wouldn't worry about supplies. Once things get settled, it shouldn't be hard to get someone to open a portal to Tar Valon," Moiraine assured them, fairly sure Myst wouldn't want the Aes Sedai traveling through the Two Rivers.
Siuan opened her mouth then closed it when Teslyn stalked over. "Yes?"
"Some of the accepted and novices have left," Teslyn complained.
"Left?" Siuan asked, wondering why they'd wander off.
Teslyn gestured towards the mist-covered tower. "They walked into the tower with some blue skinned women."
Siuan turned to look at Moiraine. "Friends of yours?"
Moiraine glanced at the mist-covered tower. "They're part of the staff for the school."
"I demanded to talk to the girls that were abandoning the Tower, they told me to 'fuck off," Teslyn complained, not sure what they meant but fairly sure it wasn't anything good from the tone or the context.
"If you'd walked into the White Tower and demanded to talk to anyone, the result would have been worse," Moiraine pointed out.
Teslyn stared when she realized there were two Moiraines. "What is going on?"
Moiraine studied the woman wearing a red dress, fairly sure she was in the same ajah as the version she knew as most Aes Sedai avoided red dresses if they weren't Reds. "You're in a mirror world, the mist-covered tower is a magic school, they're obviously recruiting."
"Why haven't you stopped them?" Teslyn demanded.
"How? They're well aware that I'm bound by the three oaths and there's nothing illegal about running a school," Moiraine reminded them.
"They signed the novice book," Teslyn argued.
"Prove it," Myst said as she walked over.
Teslyn turned to look at the girl that couldn't channel. "What do you mean prove it?"
"Let's ignore the fact that you don't have the book and can't get back to your world to collect the book for a second, even if the girls admit to signing the novice book, is the contract in the front of the book? Can you prove they read it? Can you prove they understood it? Can you prove that an Aes Sedai actually took the time to explain the details?" Myst continued before any of the Aes Sedai could get a word in, "You tell a girl that if she doesn't get training she'll probably die in a horrible way then you hand them a book and say sign this or we won't train you. Not to mention, at least half of the girls don't have enough coins or even knowledge to get home safely in the first place."
"Wilders are dangerous and the training we provide is valuable," Teslyn argued, unable to argue against the fact that most of the time the full details of the various laws were rarely mentioned or explained before they'd signed their names.
"I'm not saying the training isn't valuable but honestly, if you had any honor you'd offer them a couple of weeks of training to make sure they're not going to die then send them home with a group of trainees if they didn't want to stay." Myst skimmed Teslyn's memories to pick up her Ajah, as he didn't want to assume based on her red dress since she wasn't wearing a shawl. "Of course, you're a member of the Red Ajah so your honor is deeply suspect."
"How dare you," Teslyn snapped as she embraced the source.
Myst reached out and slammed a shield between Teslyn and the source. "Don't start shit you can't finish."
"How!" Teslyn sputtered in disbelief, not having felt anything before she'd lost the source.
"Magic," Myst replied sarcastically. "If the girls want out of a suspect contract, they're free to leave, if you try to stop them, I'll sever your connection to the source and leave you in Amadicia after telling people you can channel, I doubt they'll care about proof."
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't threaten my people," Siuan stated, wishing Teslyn would shut up.
"That's not a threat, that's a promise. The Red Ajah has been murdering men for years or sticking them in cages and parading them through the streets like circus animals, doing the same to her is just and fair, is it not?" Myst asked sarcastically.
"The girls signed their names knowing they'd be bound to the Tower," Siuan argued. "You have no right to keep them."
"No right? I'm not talking about kidnapping anyone." Myst gestured towards her tower. "I'm talking about giving them a place to learn magic, you're the one that wants to own slaves. You have no moral right to enforce a suspect contract, which means we're going to default to what you think you can get away with."
"You think you can stop us?" Teslyn demanded.
Myst glanced towards the ruins when he felt a dozen small portals open then focused on Teslyn. "You have the unfortunate disadvantage of the oaths, you can't use the power as a weapon unless you're convinced I'm going to kill you, a fellow sister or a warder. Congratulations on swearing a twisted and stupid oath, if I wanted to kill every warder trainee and cart off all of the girls, you couldn't use the power as a weapon because they're not warders and the girls aren't Aes Sedai. Using air to tie me up, that's using it as a weapon because then your friends can stab me. Distracting me? Technically using it as a weapon, of course, all of that depends on your belief, just like the oath against making weapons would let someone make a weapon for a girl that wanted to stab shadowspawn, as long as you believed they weren't men."
"The oath against making weapons doesn't work like that," Teslyn argued.
"The oaths work on the belief of the person that swears them, just look at the oath against lying, you can't use the oath to check if something is true, it works off your belief. Just because you believe that the oaths are absolute doesn't mean they are for someone else," Myst replied with a shrug. "Either way, the girls are in the process of setting up tables with food and we'll be opening a portal to this world's Tar Valon in an hour for anyone that wants to leave."
"How much is this going to cost us?" Teslyn asked, expecting some type of extortion.
Myst sighed as he dropped the shield on the Red. "Nothing, consider it an apology for not leaving you to die or get corrupted, complicating your lives and robbing you of the chance to make a last stand."
"That…" Siuan trailed off as the blue skinned woman vanished. "That's annoying."
"You get used to it," Moiraine offered, not sure if she'd teleported or turned invisible.
The older Moiraine glanced at Lan then at her counterpart. "We should compare notes."
Moiraine glanced towards the waygate then started walking, knowing her counterpart would follow her.
Siuan watched one of her only remaining friends walk off with her younger counterpart, not surprised that Lan followed them without a word. "If the accepted and the novices want to leave, let them. We have enough people to worry about and we can always send someone to collect them once we get everyone settled."
"I'll spread the word," Teslyn assured her as she left to talk to some people and to figure out which light blinded fool or group of them had summoned a greater demon.
'Good enough,' Myst mused as she headed towards the portals she could feel, trying not to think about the countless people they weren't able to rescue. She stopped flying and stared when a team of four pitch black horses with purple flames for manes flew out a portal pulling a large brightly colored wagon. She glanced between Vanessa and the pale skinned red haired woman driving the wagon, curious if the horses were nightmares or if they just had a glamour on them.
Laurena glanced at the group of Congars and Coplins that had refused to leave then stepped through the portal, knowing they'd probably die but finding it hard to care as they were annoying and stubborn to the point of stupidity and she'd already rescued Calle and her girls, mostly because they'd jumped at the chance to leave. She closed the portal behind her and flew over to the wagon.
Myst dropped her invisibility as she flew over to the wagon. "Nice wagon."
"Thanks," Viaria replied with a smile, trying not to stare at the young woman that was glowing like the sun with mana.
"So, demon lord?" Myst asked as she looked at the outsider with her upgrade ability, wanting to make sure she didn't have any mind influencing abilities. 'Decent physical attributes for a professional gymnast, better than average intelligence and magic, eternal youth, an ability that lets her feed off of lust without actually hurting anyone and an ability to conjure magical contracts, nice.'
"Myst, Viaria, Viaria, Myst, King of the Seven Kingdoms," Vanessa said as she gestured between Myst and Viaria.
"I don't suppose you know anything about the demon lord that decided to claim the other world?" Myst asked, hoping she could shed some light on the situation.
Viaria scowled as she thought about the demon in question. "Unfortunately. Narb works for a dark god that has ties to the blood wars and basically mass produces demons by turning worlds into demonic hells. Basically anything that touches his aura gets twisted."
"How long does it take?" Myst asked, wondering if there was a way to save the world.
"A couple of seconds to a few minutes, it depends on the creature. His normal aura is about twenty miles wide. If he's using a portal to a high magic world or dimension, he can push the area to a hundred miles fairly easily. After that, he needs time to let the demonic vegetation start creating miasma before he can increase the area. Depending on conditions, a mile or two of growth a day in each direction isn't uncommon, five to ten for jungles or old forests."
"Less than ten miles a day, on average," Myst mused as she pulled his globe out of her inventory and looked at the area around Tar Valon. "If we assume the forests count as old, we're looking at a couple of weeks before the aura reaches Cairhien, that gives us a chance to stop things from spreading, assuming we can figure out how to kill the demon lord."
"We're going to need a way to protect ourselves from the aura," Laurena said, speaking up.
Viaria smiled as she summoned her contact book. "I might know a guy."
"How much is it going to cost?" Myst asked, wanting to make sure he wasn't selling his soul.
"Nothing, there's a reason I left hell," Viaria replied as she checked the notes under the man's name. "Shit, so much for that idea unless you have a pack of silk cut cigs with the royal seal?"
"Huh…" Myst muttered as she searched through her inventory, glad that she hadn't tossed the pack of cigarettes she'd picked up from the gacha. "What else do we need?" she asked as she pulled the pack of cigs with a royal crest out of her inventory.
"British beer, English porn and a trench coat," Viaria listed off the ingredients for the summoning circle. "Having a couple of magical trinkets to bribe him with would probably help."
"Would beer conjured by an English girl count?" Myst asked thoughtfully.
Viaria shook her head. "You can't use conjured ingredients."
"I don't suppose you have a way to get to England or know someone else that can do the job?" Laurena asked hopefully.
Viaria shook her head. "Not that I can summon and my usual transportation girl is on a month-long retreat, playing with crystals, drinking blackberry wine and cleansing negative energy from her aura, which means we're basically shit out of luck for getting back to Earth right now."
Myst glanced towards the waygate. "I might have a way to get to a version of England."
"What are you thinking?" Laurena asked.
Myst stuck the cigs back in his inventory, wanting to make sure they were safe until they were used. "I was thinking of asking Hermione to walk through the mirror with one of the crystal spheres, she's from England. There's a chance that she'll end up in a version of England."
"Or she'll end up in another mirror world. Either way, we're going to have to deal with an evil Hermione," Laurena argued.
"I can deal with an evil Hermione, you hand her books and magical trinkets and point her at a library she can sack," she assured her, only half joking. "If we don't stop the demon lord, he'll keep destroying worlds, which might include this one."
"I'm not saying we shouldn't do it, I just don't like it," Laurena grumbled, more than a bit worried about getting a version of Hermione that wouldn't hesitate to start tossing out death spells. "Assuming we can deal with his aura, do you have a way to kill him?"
"One way or another," Myst replied, thinking of the access keys in Rhuidean. "Before I start worrying about that, what happened to the Seanchan?"
"We grabbed about seven hundred damane and a hundred and fifty sul'dam and stuffed them in spatial rings before the demon lord showed up," Laurena explained, still a touch annoyed that she hadn't managed to track down all of the sul'dam.
Myst glanced at the waygate. "Head to the Ways and tell Hermione that we need her help, I'm going to set up some wizarding tents to make sure no one freezes to death."
"On it," Laurena replied as she headed for the waygate.
Viaria watched Laurena and Myst fly off then turned to look at Vanessa. "What's she like to work for?"
"I can't complain," Vanessa replied with a smile. "I'm in charge of combat training and she doesn't care if I wander around the city having fun as long as I'm not hurting innocents. How much mind control magic were you using on the townsfolk?"
"If you don't count magical contracts, I used a spell on one of the Coplins because he wouldn't stop flirting with me, it lasted about an hour. Sort of annoying considering the spell should have left him terrified for a month. The next time, I just told the wisdom, it was a lot more effective," Viaria said with a smile as she remembered the tongue lashing Nynaeve had given the young man.
"Were the contracts fair?" Vanessa asked.
"Of course," Viaria assured her. "Screwing over decent people with contracts tends to build up a lot of negative karma, which is a good way to get heroes showing up or troublemakers poking their noses in where you don't want them. On the other hand, when you're screwing over evil people you're the instrument of good karma and the universe tries to help make sure you're around to screw assholes over in the future. Thus, morals and ethics aside, it's just good business."
"Can't hurt," Vanessa agreed, not sure it actually worked like that but she'd watched a number of supposedly immortal and undefeatable demons die over the years thanks to heroes showing up after they did something particularly stupid so she wasn't willing to completely discard the notion.
Viaria snapped her fingers, dismissing her team of nightmares then jumped down from the bench. "We should probably make sure everyone is settling in."
"Might as well," Vanessa agreed.
