Mist of Shadows
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Dragon King Part 19
🕑 Added 2022-10-11 07:12:13 +0000 UTCMyst glanced up from his cider as he felt someone with an abundance of hatred, he quickly scanned the crowded inn and paused when he saw a black haired man in his thirties walking across the room with a dagger in his hand and a focused look on his face. "Weird." His confusion changed to understanding when a couple in the middle of an argument about the girl's mother stepped out of the man's way without hesitation or apparent concern or attention as the man walked between them.
Dawn pulled her attention off the attractive guy playing darts and looked where Myst was looking, seeing a number of people ignoring the unkempt man with a knife. "Gray man?"
Myst quickly checked the man with his upgrade ability. 'Out of phase: the process of removing a gray man's soul leaves them out of phase with anyone connected to the pattern, causing people to completely ignore them. Mental shields? No connection to the pattern?' he mused as he reached out with telekinesis and grabbed the idiot's dagger and his throat, not having the slightest bit of difficulty focusing on the gray man. "Apparently."
"Any idea who the target was?" Dawn asked thoughtfully, fairly sure the man hadn't been after them as he'd been heading in the wrong direction.
Myst glanced between the pair of Aes Sedai drinking at a table in the corner of the room and the pair of giggling accepted that were having a drink. "We're in the middle of Tar Valon, it's not like they're short of targets."
'Any idea how to figure out his target short of reading his mind?' Dawn asked via telepathy.
'Sure,' Myst replied as he dropped the gray man. He snatched the dagger out of the air with telekinesis when the man tossed it at the blonde accepted then snapped the man's neck, causing several people to panic when the man 'appeared' out of thin air with his head twisted at an unnatural angle. He let the body and dagger drop to the ground. 'They're not particularly bright.'
'No shit,' Dawn agreed, 'they sold their souls to a dark god. Any idea why the idiot was after the girls?'
Myst took another drink of his cider. 'Not really, they're on a date and they're trying to get up the nerve to ask each other about leaving the tower because they're tired of putting up with insane or stupid requests from some of the Aes Sedai. If I had to guess, I'd go with the blonde girl's talent for weather manipulation, considering the Dark One is trying to mess with the weather and the fact that the Tower knows about her talent. Of course, Ishamael is a dreamer so he might have seen something about Maive's talent for making ter'angreal.'
Dawn turned to look at the attractive young women that were staring at the dead man. 'Is there a reason you haven't already tried to recruit them?'
'I was letting them finish their date, they had to trade shifts and sell some knitting to have the time off and the extra coin to actually go on their date,' Myst explained.
'If they're that poor, how were they expecting to leave?' Dawn asked.
Myst skimmed through their memories. 'Maive has a small stash of coins for emergencies and Ishara has a necklace she got from her uncle that she's planning on selling when they find somewhere to sell it that should set them up for a couple of months until they find work. Considering they can both heal, I doubt they'll have a problem making enough to live on though they'll probably get caught eventually, or they would if the Tower wasn't a dysfunctional mess.'
Dawn glanced over at the Aes Sedai that were ordering people to stay calm. 'Do they have anything keeping them in the world?'
'No, Maive was facing a bad marriage contract before she found out she could channel and left for the Tower and Ishara's parents were killed by bandits a couple of years ago,' Myst replied as he finished his cider.
'Looks like their date is already ruined, I'll make the pitch,' Dawn said as she made her way towards the girls.
'Feel free to offer them gold and gems, they're smart and they're as strong as Moiraine.
'I doubt I'll have to resort to bribery but I'll keep that in mind,' Dawn replied with amusement, fairly sure the chance to learn to channel in weeks rather than years and escape the Tower's grasp would be enough.
Myst turned his attention back to using his telepathy to check on the accepted and novices in the tower that felt trapped, it wasn't a perfect system but it was a good place to start and it gave him something to do while Zara and Moiraine dealt with the cultists. 'What the fuck?' he asked himself when he realized one of the Aes Sedai was trying to pressure some of the accepted into helping her castrate a bunch of guys and eat the remains for power. 'Were they this insane before or did the rituals cause it?'
'Half a dozen one way, six the other,' he mused as he opened a portal between one of the novice's rooms and the tower in Manetheren, making a mental note to scan the Aes Sedai that had benefited from the demon's rituals on the off chance there was something he could dispel. 'If you step through the portal, you'll be safe on another world where the Tower has no claim on you,' he told the girl telepathically, causing her to jump in fright, both from the voice in her head and the portal.
"What?!" Amanda blurted as she stared at the strange oval shape distortion in front of her.
'You wanted a way to escape the tower, grab your stuff and step through the portal. We have a school where you can learn to use your power without having people treat you like servants,' Myst assured the teenager.
"What about my friends?" Amanda asked, not sure where the voice was coming from but fairly sure it wasn't hers.
'Don't worry, we have plenty of space,' Myst assured her as he made notes of her friends' names on his HUD's notepad. 'This is probably why Xavier tries so hard to be a decent person, it's like reading a script or a cheat sheet,' he mused as Amanda quickly grabbed her bag and packed her keepsakes and the books she'd borrowed from the library.
'Thank you,' Amanda said and jumped through the portal before she could change her mind.
Myst closed the portal and went in search of the next recruit, knowing that a couple of weeks of training in the magic tower would give them a chance to make a difference if they decided to come back and burn the corruption out of the Tower.
'Still here?' Vanessa asked Myst via telepathy.
'Yeah, how was your date?' Myst asked as he watched Dawn leave with the girls.
'Productive, they're basically selling empowerment rituals and encouraging everyone to get rid of the Dark One's followers and the whitecloaks,' Vanessa replied, rather amused by the whole situation.
'I noticed, they've basically turned the Tower into a fractured mess,' Myst replied as he went to work making popsicle shaped skill books of the Aes Sedai's talents.
'They're power hungry magic users and the Power is addictive, they're going to want more if they can get it,' Vanessa replied as she studied the glass bridge that stretched across the river, wondering if it was possible to duplicate. 'I had a chance to study the ritual the cultists are planning on using to sacrifice a bunch of people, it should kill the cultists without killing any innocents.'
'And give their power to the demons?' Myst asked, fairly sure there was a catch.
'Yep,' Vanessa replied. 'All of the details were in the ritual if they'd bothered to look.'
'How annoyed are they going to get when we screw things up?' Myst asked, not particularly interested in helping some random demons get a decent amount of power.
'Disappointed and annoyed but they're just here to clean things up, kill a bunch of cultists and make a profit off the bastards if they can,' Vanessa replied, fairly sure they'd already picked up the ability to channel.
'Competition?' Myst asked.
'They're lust demons, no people, no food,' Vanessa replied.
'Do they have a plan for when the Tower collapses because most of the Aes Sedai have lost their fucking minds,' Myst complained, thinking about the Aes Sedai that was running around castrating people for power.
Vanessa pulled her attention away from the bridge and looked at a tall dark haired teenage girl with the potential to channel that was walking across the square with a pack slung over her shoulder. 'They've been helping some of the more reasonable Aes Sedai, they'll probably eventually take over and build a perverted empire if they can figure out how to stop the shadow from destroying the world.'
'No dragon reborn?' Myst asked.
'I checked, he's currently in his mid thirties and he's already lost three fingers and his left ear to a rotting disease that the wisdom hasn't been able to cure,' Vanessa replied as she walked over to talk to the young lady with potential.
'Mid thirties? When was the Aiel war?' Myst asked, wondering how he'd missed that.
'Thirty five years ago. This is one of the countless mirror worlds that doesn't make it or at least shouldn't have made it, Viara is trying to change things and stop the destruction,' Vanessa explained as she walked up behind the girl. "Excuse me, can I interest you in the power…" she trailed off as the teenage girl turned and she saw the burn scars that covered half her face.
'Can we trust her?' Myst asked, fairly sure the answer was no but figuring he'd ask.
'You can trust that she's interested in keeping humanity alive and that she doesn't want a dark god to win,' Vanessa replied as she studied the unburned half of the girl's face. 'I found someone I want to recruit, let me know when you're done with the Tower.'
'Sure,' Myst replied, then dropped the connection and went back to work.
Joiya stared at the woman she'd been dreaming about for the last couple of weeks, the one she 'knew' she had to find if she wanted her face healed. "Are you an Aes Sedai?"
"No but I can heal, do you want me to give it a try?" Vanessa asked, not wanting to assume.
"Please," Joiya replied, hoping she could get rid of the scars on her face from when the lantern had exploded.
Vanessa reached out and poked the girl's hand, lending Joiya her regeneration. She watched the scars shift for a couple of seconds before they flaked and fell off, leaving undamaged skin. "Take a look."
Joiya felt a shiver go down her back when the woman conjured a mirror from thin air and handed it to her, just like she'd seen in her dream for the last week. "How did you conjure a mirror?" she asked, taking a chance to finally ask as she hadn't been able to while she was dreaming.
"Magic," Vanessa replied with a grin as she snuck a peek at the girl's life. 'Huh, small world or maybe some of the people aren't willing to go quietly into the night.'
"I don't have much but can I buy you lunch as a thank you?" Joiya asked, not sure what she was supposed to do next as the dreams usually skipped the small talk and ended up in the bedroom with the strange woman.
"I could eat," Vanessa replied with a smile, looking forward to getting to know the cheerful and attractive girl that was the daughter of parents that could have been legends in a different world.
0o0o0
Laurena smiled at the slave trader as she set the conjured jewelry box filled with conjured rubies and sapphires on the table in front of her. "High Lord Turak appreciates your discretion."
"Of course," the der'sul'dam lied, planning on selling the information to various sources that High Lord Turak was buying a large number of damane, including people in the imperial palace once she figured out a convenient scapegoat in case he traced it back to her. She gestured for the high lord's sul'dams to collect the damane that were waiting, rather happy that she'd managed to sell all of the girls for a decent price, including some that were crippled.
Laurena kept her smile plastered on her face as twenty blue girls collected the twenty damane the bitch was selling and tried not to lose her temper when she glanced at the cart that one of the damane needed because of a sadistic sul'dam. 'Missing feet, no hands because she talked back and wouldn't break under the pain, you're all going to wish you were dead.'
"Is there anything else I can do for you?" the der'sul'dam asked, wondering if she could talk the high lord's messenger into hiring some of the sul'dam that weren't already spoken for with the upcoming invasion.
"Perhaps," Laurena, trying to sound like she was hesitating. "Wait outside," she told the girls.
One of the blue girls pretending to be a sul'dam nodded then led the way outside with the rest of the girls following with their damane, fairly sure Laurena didn't want the damane to see her start a fight.
Laurena waited until the last damane had left then focused on the old woman. "I've been told to acquire more a'dams for the return, but my lord didn't bother to inform me of where I was supposed to acquire them as our usual contact was unavailable."
"I have extra I can sell, but they're expensive," the der'sul'dam offered, hoping to make a profit.
"I have gold," Laurena replied as she lifted everything the old and very well connected woman knew about the empire's infrastructure out of her head. 'Send the rest of the girls around to the back entrance. Grab everyone you can, damane or sul'dam and drop them in your spatial rings,' she told the squad leader of the blue girls via telepathy.
'Thank you,' the squad leader replied, happy they could start dealing with the slavers.
Laurena hit the old woman with a stunner when she opened her mouth to quote a price that would have had most nobles cry. "Fucking bitch," she muttered as she reached down and stole the woman's keys, looking forward to seeing the look of horror on her face when she realized she could channel.
She used her disguise spell and took the woman's appearance then stuffed the woman in her spatial ring. She picked up the conjured box and headed through the back door into the hallway, wanting to make sure people saw the old woman heading to the vault before everything vanished. 'Do you want us to steal the crystal throne while we're looting the imperial palace?' she asked Myst via telepathy.
'It would certainly help considering it's a ter'angreal that causes people to view the person sitting on it with awe,' Myst replied as he opened a portal into one of the novice rooms so the group of seven novices and one accepted could jump worlds. 'Have you figured out where the a'dam crafters are located?'
'I found the location of at least one of their workshops, the sul'dam in charge should have some idea where to find the rest of the workshops or at least where they're supposed to send the girls with the talent to make a'dams which should give me a start. If that doesn't work, I'll rip it out of the empress' mind before I kill her in front of witnesses while looking like one of her high lords,' Laurena replied as she walked past the guards without looking at them.
'Make sure you burn the ships. That reminds me, I found some goggles that highlight magic users and people with magic potential, you should probably send someone to grab a couple of pairs for the girls,' Myst told her as he headed for the room he'd rented so he could pull the coffin out of his inventory and get to work making copies of the goggles.
'How hard is it to make them?' Laurena asked, hoping she could get at least five so she could have the blue girls scour the city.
'I found a coffin that lets me duplicate things, it takes a bit of mana but I should be able to give you a dozen in five minutes, just don't lose them,' Myst warned her, not wanting the Seanchan empire or even the Tower to have something that could let them see men that could channel as they'd be tempted to just start killing them.
'Does that mean we're going to get better gear?' Laurena asked hopefully, looking forward to picking up copies of Mat's medallion and something that would let them absorb or at least ignore lightning and fire for all of the blue girls so they wouldn't have to sneak around as much.
'It's slightly more complicated than just tossing the items I want duplicated into the coffin and closing the lid but we'll figure something out,' Myst assured her, looking forward to having the time to sit down and tinker with everything he'd picked up. 'If you have an extra a'dam, I wouldn't mind running some tests.'
'Not a problem,' Laurena replied as she reached the vault. 'Do you want a bloodknife? The sul'dam was hiding one.'
'I wouldn't mind seeing if I can fix it,' Myst replied, fairly sure the death trap was a lost cause but he was curious how the coffin would change it.
Laurena smiled at the sul'dam that walked around the corner. 'I'll let you know what I find, I need to do some house cleaning.'
'Have fun,' Myst replied as he walked into his room.
Laurena let the sul'dam get closer then hit her with a stunner and stuffed her in her spatial ring to deal with later. She put the key in the lock and twisted, then pulled the door open and smiled at the boxes filled with gold. 'At least they'll have issues getting everything started, especially if we cripple the nobles and the larger merchants,' she mused as she walked over and started moving everything to her spatial ring.
0o0o0
"How are you feeling?" Vanessa teased as she enjoyed the sight of the naked teenager sprawled on the bed in the room she'd rented once she realized the girl was flirting with her.
"I can't move my legs," Joiya admitted, wishing she could just lay there for a couple of hours.
"Good," Vanessa teased as she reached out and lightly caressed Joiya's left nipple, rather happy with how the mission had turned out so far. "You get to stay here with me."
"Unfortunately Uncle Mat is going to find…" she trailed off as the door opened, revealing her uncle holding a set of lockpicks and her sister. "Ashes!"
"Busted!" Kari al'Thor said cheerfully as she checked out her sister's attractive purple skinned date, wondering if she'd jumped into a vat of purple dye considering she didn't look sick.
Vanessa smiled at the attractive looking dark haired man in his late twenties to mid thirties and the girl that looked to be in her mid teens, if only because of her height.
Mat held his hand up so that he wasn't looking at his niece, trying not to laugh at the stories he was going to have when they got back. "You have some explaining to do."
"Out," Joiya complained, knowing her uncle wasn't going to let her live this down.
"What would your mother…" Mat trailed off as Joiya moved and he caught sight of her face. "What happened to your scars?" he demanded, all of his previous amusement vanishing as he tried to figure out what she'd promised the strange woman.
"I healed her," Vanessa replied as she poked Joiya on her arm and loaned her regeneration.
"Either get out so I can get dressed or come in and shut the door," Joiya told them, not particularly interested in giving a bunch of strangers a free show at the moment.
Kari darted into the room. "I'll make sure she's safe."
"Scream if you need anything," Mat told Joiya then closed the door most of the way, so he could at least hear what they were saying. 'Egwene is going to kill me.'
"Why are you purple?" Kari asked excitedly.
"I've always been purple," Vanessa replied with amusement, wishing she'd remembered to renew her disguise after it had failed in the middle of tongue fucking her new friend.
Kari smiled as she snuck a peek at her sister's behind as she turned to grab her dress off the chair she'd draped it over. "Are you an Aes Sedai?" she asked, looking forward to getting her sister alone so she could get the details.
"No, I have more self respect," Vanessa replied, causing Mat to snort and relax a touch. "I can't channel, I just have a couple of magic tricks, including the ability to heal people." She gestured and used a cleaning spell on Joiya and her dress. "Can I get a name?"
Kari pulled her attention off the girl's breasts. "Oh, right. I'm Kari al'Thor."
"Pleased to meet you, I'm Vanessa," Vanessa replied with amusement as she pulled a blue silk dress out of her inventory and dropped it on her equipment doll, causing it to appear on her body.
Kari stared at the translucent dress that hid just enough to make her more interested in looking. "Where did you learn that?"
"At magic school, you should come," Vanessa teased, looking forward to getting the sisters in the school as they both seemed interested in her and possibly each other if the looks Kari was giving her sister were any indication.
Joiya made a mental note to ask Vanessa how to duplicate that particular trick as it would save time in the morning. "Sounds fun."
"Are you saying I can learn magic?" Kari asked excitedly.
"Sure," Vanessa replied as she skimmed Kari's memories, trying to figure out how much experience she had with flirting and blinked when she saw a memory of a human looking Viaria encouraging her to flirt with one of the other girls in town and her sister. 'Huh.' She checked Mat's memories and realized that Viaria was a merchant that made a circuit of the Two Rivers twice a year and had been making the same circuit for the last seventeen years since Fain had retired and she'd bought his wagon. 'Hopefully that means Fain is dead and gone,' she mused, fairly sure he wouldn't have willingly retired.'
"Nice," Joiya encouraged her sister as she finished pulling her dress on, surprised that Nynaeve hadn't mentioned Kari's potential.
She wasn't terribly surprised as she skimmed over Mat's history that the birthrate had jumped shortly after Viaria had made her first appearance and things had gotten a lot less stuffy over the years as new traditions were brought in. 'How much magic would you need to get the Two Rivers folk to celebrate the Feast of Lights with topless dancing?' she asked herself, fairly sure the answer was a lot given what she'd picked up about the world from Myst.
"Are you done?" Mat asked Joiya.
"Yes," Joiya agreed as she opened the door.
"Can you heal sickness or missing fingers?" Mat asked, thinking about his friend and some of the villagers that seemed sick with things that Nynaeve couldn't cure.
"I can certainly try," Vanessa replied, not seeing a problem with helping Joiya out and doing some recruiting. 'I should check the town for a fertility totem or something, there's no way the number of channelers is normal.'
"You're willing to come with us? Just like that?" Mat asked.
"I'm willing to open a portal, we'll be in the Emond's Field by dinner," she assured them.
Mat turned to look at Kari. "Tell Wil we're leaving."
Kari nodded then left to grab her cousin, looking forward to getting home so they could explain everything to their folks so she could get started learning to channel.
