Mist of Shadows
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Dawn and Reincarnation Part 39
🕑 Added 2020-12-22 08:16:22 +0000 UTCDennis pulled his attention from the naked young ladies that were sparing in the ring some of the girls had drawn on the beach as Amy walked over, looking uncharacteristically happy. "Having fun?"
"More than Vicky and Dean," Amy replied, a touch of smugness creeping into her voice despite her best efforts.
"Trouble in paradise?" Dennis asked, enjoying the show and a chance to unwind even if he was a bit worried about his parents and how they were going to get home.
"She was complaining because he's not blind and he pointed out that she was eyeing the half dressed men like a dog eyeing a steak," Amy replied with amusement, her gaze jumping to one of the naked girls watching the 'fight' that looked a bit like Vicky.
Dennis winced. "Hopefully he wasn't quite that blunt."
"Probably not, I just heard them arguing," Amy said as the fight ended with one of the girls on her butt on the sand.
"Any idea how we're supposed to get home?" Dennis asked, glad that none of the girls seemed to mind him staring.
"You actually want to go back to the Bay? Permission to check your head for damage," Amy asked, only half joking about checking for brain damage.
"Unlike some people, I actually like my family," Dennis reminded her as Missy stepped into the ring as the previous combatants mingled with the crowd of people watching. "Speaking of friends and family, five silver on Missy," he called out, fairly sure his fellow ward would win.
"I'll take that," one of the girls watching said cheerfully.
"Just five?" Missy asked, wondering if she should be offended.
Dennis laughed, thinking about the coins he'd won playing cards. "That's all I have."
"In that case, carry on," Missy replied with a grin when a girl a year or two older than her stepped into the ring. "So, what are we betting?"
"Training time? Sexual favors?" Neysa Cauthon offered.
"What type of training?" Missy asked, ignoring the second part of the girl's offer as she didn't need Dennis teasing her, even if she wouldn't mind someone giving her a massage.
Neysa glanced at Dawn and Egwene as they walked over. "Training in using the Power if you can get Faith and Dawn to give you the ability."
"I don't have any objection to helping if you can talk Faith into it," Dawn offered with a smile.
"You should probably avoid using the Power or powers if you want a fair fight," Egwene suggested, fairly sure Neysa would 'cheat' if the rules weren't spelled out.
"I'm good with that," Missy agreed quickly, figuring she had a better chance to win if the other girl couldn't use magic.
"Agreed," Neysa replied as she brought her hands up. "Ready?"
"Ready," Missy agreed.
Dawn smiled as she watched Neysa and Vista spar, Neysa's longer arms doing a halfway decent job of making up for Missy's superior skill. 'I'm going to have to start teaching classes when things settle down or suggest wrestling matches, with oil.'
"Not bad," Dennis mused, noticing the other girl's coordination and spatial awareness were remarkably good.
"Care to place a wager?" Dawn asked Egwene. "Say ten on Missy?"
Egwene shook her head. "Not a chance, it would be different if they were using staffs but I can't see Neysa winning."
"Hey, I just need one good," Neysa sighed as her opponent stepped forward, did something to trip her up and shoved her backwards with a hand between her breasts, causing her to land on her butt. "Rematch with staffs?" she asked, looking up at the other girl with a grin on her face.
"Maybe later," Missy replied with a grin as she helped Neysa up.
"Thanks and sure." Neysa turned to look at Dawn. "What am I going to have to bribe Faith with?"
"Probably something naughty involving your sisters," Dawn replied with a grin then turned to look at Amy. "Speaking of slightly evil ideas, Fred mentioned we might be able to acquire some interesting recruits if we can talk Deckard or Gillian into walking into the ter'angreal ring, can I talk you into healing her grandmother?"
"Ter'angreal ring?" Amy asked, not sure what she was talking about.
"Ter'angreal are basically magical items, the giant ring creates pocket dimensions that reflect possible futures or fears which means we might be able to snag a cute witch from the future that has a lot of power and knowledge of various ancient ruins," Dawn explained.
"As long as you can talk Faith into helping me pick up magic," Amy said, looking forward to learning magic.
Dawn glanced at the naked young lady giving Dennis a small stack of silver coins then looked back at Amy. "I doubt she's going to have a problem giving you magic, the shapers are already bugging her about it."
Dennis stuck the coins in the pocket of his shorts then turned to look at Dawn. "I don't suppose you know how to get back to the Bay?"
"I wish," Dawn grumbled, wishing she knew how to get back to the Two Rivers or her version of Earth. "I asked Tara to open a door but it's out of range. I'm hoping the next world we jump to will be closer."
"How long will that take?" Dennis asked, trying not to worry about his parents and what the Director was going to say when they eventually made it back or think about what they'd do if he couldn't get home.
Dawn shrugged. "Anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days."
'That's one way to avoid dealing with the hospital,' Amy thought, not particularly unhappy to have a break from being Panacea.
"Days?" Dennis asked, knowing he probably had two or three days before his parents would start worrying as they'd expected him to be gone for most of the weekend.
"That's probably being optimistic," Dawn admitted. "The first time I jumped worlds was right after killing a dark god, the next time, an alien abomination. With any luck, destroying the greater demon under the monastery will cause us to skip to a new world. With a great deal of luck, it will be close enough that Tara can open a door so you can get home."
"What's stopping you from having her open a door and sniping the demon?" Dennis asked.
"Beyond the fact that I'm not sure I can kill it with one shot, I'm fairly sure he's the only thing keeping all of the demons from overrunning the town which is why I'd like to thin their numbers out before I try to kill him," Dawn explained, wanting to avoid the demons slaughtering everyone once they left.
"Not to mention we need to study the various magical items to see if we can recreate them," Egwene added, knowing that was part of the reason Dawn hadn't just collapsed the entire area or done something else equally as drastic.
"I guess I can understand that," Dennis admitted, knowing that he'd want to stick around if he could learn to create magic items anyone could use. "Speaking of magical items, is there any chance that I can learn to use magic or make them?"
"That would be nice," one of the naked girls piped up.
Dawn glanced between the hopeful looking naked girls and Dennis, Neysa and Vista. "Actually, that's not a bad idea. If we use the cow dimension we wouldn't even have to clean up the dead goblins."
"Cow demons?" Missy asked, wondering if Elizabeth's sister that she'd never heard of before getting invited for a vacation was actually crazy.
"Dead goblins?" Dennis asked warily.
"It's part of the process," Dawn replied, already thinking about ways to streamline the process of upgrading everyone or at least everyone moderately loyal to her. 'If I give Xander the ability to link people to Faith and someone else the ability to create goblin copies of people, I wouldn't have to wait around while they cycle through everyone. It's probably a good time to have Willow make sure no one is planning on causing trouble.'
"What do I need to do?" Neysa asked, more than happy to help if it meant she could unlock the ability to create ter'angreal.
"Take the girls and round up Darla, Drusilla, Apple and Elayne, that should give us a nice collection of crafters to copy. I'll grab Faith and Willow." Dawn turned to look at Egwene. "Can I talk you into grabbing your sisters?"
"Which ones?" Egwene asked, still not sure how to feel about the fact that she had an extra set of siblings.
"All of them, they're dependable," Dawn replied with a grin, fairly sure it was just a matter of time before Egwene would get used to having extra siblings. She turned to look at Amy. "Ready?"
"Sure," Amy agreed.
"In that case, let's get the party started then we can recruit some magic users," Dawn said as she headed for the stairs to collect Willow and Faith.
0o0o0
"Huh, I thought your sister was joking," Dennis admitted, staring at the group of bipedal cows with halberds walking towards the group.
"Nope," Elizabeth replied with amusement as she unleashed a stream of blue energy that ripped through the first wave of demonic cows without any trouble. "This feels like cheating."
"It's only cheating if the other side does it," Missy argued as she raised her hands and unleashed a second beam of the same blue energy into the next group of demonic cows. "Is it wrong that I want a hamburger now?"
"Or a nice steak," Elizabeth mused.
"Yes," Xander replied, not looking away from the disk shaped ter'angreal Willow was working on setting up.
Giles pulled his attention off the device that Willow was setting up. "Let's wait until I've had a chance to run some tests before we start eating demonically tainted meat."
"I don't know, it might be a-moo-sing," Dennis offered.
"That was horrible," Apple complained as she blasted a group with the energy beam that Dawn had loaned the group, wanting to at least pick up a decent amount of strength from the monsters.
Missy nodded. "Agreed!"
Dennis grinned. "Someone had to."
Willow smiled as she activated the ter'angreal and a faint blue field of energy spread over a twenty foot area around the crystal disk sitting on the ground. "And I'm done, that should prevent everyone in the glowing field from channeling the Power."
"This still seems like a horrible idea," Darla muttered, knowing it would be nearly impossible to kill her clone without magic. "One mistake and my goblin is going to kill someone."
"Don't worry, I'll make the goblins far enough away from the disk and the edge that we can just bind them with threads then blast them," Xander assured her, creating a goblin duplicate of Apple with the ability Dawn loaned him inside of the field and binding it with threads of air so that it couldn't escape. "We'll start with Apple goblins and move up to Darla goblins once everyone picks up enough magic to kill her goblin."
"Makes sense," Apple agreed, hoping she could pick up some of Darla's insane durability.
"Will that give us her durability?" Missy asked, doing her best not to think about the method they were using to give people magic and talents.
"With any luck," Xander said. "Neysa can start us off."
Neysa raised her hand and blasted the goblin and grinned when she felt the amount of magic she could draw increase by a decent amount. "Next."
Xander created a goblin version of Drusilla and bound her in threads of air. "One Drusilla goblin."
Missy glanced at the various naked or half naked young ladies waiting for their turn to acquire magic or more magical talents. 'Yeah, I'm leaving this part out of the report when I get back.'
'At least we'll have enough crafters,' Egwene mused as she blasted a group of demonic cows, idly wondering how many talents they could pick up with a bit of work and if their talents would pass down to the next generation. 'Something to keep track of.'
0o0o0
Gillian did her best to ignore her headache as she tried to focus on the strangers in strange clothes. "Something I can help you with?" she asked, glancing between the tall red haired girl and the much shorter brown haired girl.
"Deckard mentioned that you were having headaches, I might have something that helps," Dawn offered, fairly sure they could find a solution one way or another.
"What's that?" Gillian asked, eager for something that would help with her nightmares and headaches as Pepin's elixirs didn't always work and were expensive even if the kindly priest gave her as much of a discount as he could.
Dawn gestured towards the door to the blacksmith's that she'd opened to the island. "My island is shielded from dark magic, if nothing else it should help take the edge off and I have a magical ring that should reveal the cause of your maladies."
Gillian looked at Deckard Cain when he walked over. "Do you really think they can help?"
"A change of scenery can't hurt," Deckard offered, fairly sure something in the old monastery was causing her nightmares and headaches.
"What about my grandmother?" Gillian asked warily.
"She'll be fine for a couple of hours," Dawn assured her, knowing that Amy would have her up and walking around in a couple of minutes.
'Or five minutes when I heal her,' Amy thought, reasonably sure that she could heal the old woman. She headed into the inn, figuring she'd fix the old lady's health so she could leave with Gillian as sticking around wouldn't do the girl any favors from what she remembered of the game.
Gillian sighed. "Fine, show me this magical ring."
"It's a bit large, just walk through the door and you'll see it," Dawn said, gesturing at the door, hoping sending her through the ring didn't cause more trouble than it was worth. "You're welcome to come Deckard."
Deckard smiled at Dawn. "I don't mind if I do."
Dawn glanced over at where the peg legged young man was lurking around the corner of the building looking at the smithy or more likely the open door that two of legion girls were guarding. 'I should probably give him regeneration at some point, maybe he'll let me copy some of his magical items,' she mused as she headed through the door to her island.
Gillian nervously followed the tall redhead through the door and gasped when the tension she'd felt for the last couple of weeks vanished. She glanced around the empty courtyard then focused on the giant ring embedded in the ground. "I think my headache is fading."
"I wouldn't be surprised," Dawn replied as she led them towards the ring.
"How does it work?" Deckard asked, looking at the giant ring.
"You walk through and it takes you somewhere you can get answers," Dawn explained. 'More or less.'
"What do I need to do?" Gillian asked warily.
"Just walk through the ring, we'll be right behind you," Dawn assured her, hoping things weren't going to go tragically wrong for the young lady.
Gillian took a breath then let it out and walked through the ring and found herself in a strange house, sitting at the table across from an unfamiliar child that looked between seven and nine years of age and an older Deckard. "What is going on?"
"How long do we have to wait?" Deckard asked as he studied the glowing blue film over the ring.
"That should do it." Dawn walked through the ring and glanced around the small room, focusing on Deckard and the older looking Gillian that was sitting at the table.
The older Deckard Cain glanced at Dawn then focused on the younger version of himself that had just stepped out of the wall. "What's going on?"
"That's what I want to know, you said the ring would give me answers about my headaches," Gillian complained, not sure what was going on.
Dawn glanced at Leah. 'She looks seven or eight so this is probably when Deckard originally picked her up which makes sense as that's the last time Gillian's story really mattered, unless Fred was remembering things wrong.' She focused on Gillian. "This is a peek at your life in nine years."
Leah glanced between the two versions of her mother's 'uncle'. "What's going on?"
"Complicated," Dawn replied as she studied the young girl that was practically oozing magic. 'Yeah, I can see why Diablo wanted you for a vessel.'
Deckard looked at the man that looked like the face he saw in the mirror with a bit more wear and tear. "What happened to Tristram?"
"The demons destroyed the town a year after Diablo was defeated, thankfully Leah and her mother escaped," the older Deckard explained after giving Leah a concerned look.
"I have a daughter?" Gillian blurted, not sure how she felt about that considering she could barely support her grandmother and herself.
Leah glanced between her mother who didn't even seem to recognize her and the stranger, wanting to know what was going on. "Who are you?"
"I'm Dawn, pleased to meet you," Dawn replied, smiling at the young witch.
"Is my mother going to be alright?" Leah asked warily, not sure why she didn't recognize her or why she wasn't ranting at her which usually happened in her less lucid moments.
"We're going to get her some help, don't worry," Dawn assured her. "Do you want to see a magic trick?"
Leah glanced at Gillian then looked back at Dawn. "Yes?"
"Don't scream, you're safe." Dawn used threads of air to float the girl out of her seat and into the air. "What do you think?"
Leah stared at the floor that was at least a foot below her wiggling feet. "I'm floating like my dreams." She shivered as she thought about how some of her dreams had turned into nightmares recently and shivered.
"Do you have any special keepsakes?" Dawn asked, not sure if duplicating things in the ring world would let her take the duplicates out but figuring it was worth trying.
Leah shook her head after glancing at Gillian. "Just things I've found exploring."
"Not to worry, I'm sure we'll have plenty of chances to pick up interesting trinkets when we go on adventures." Dawn smiled as she started floating Leah around the room.
"Go on adventures?" the older Deckard asked. "Who are you?"
"Dawn Marie al'Thor, Queen of the Emerald Isle," Dawn explained then gently tossed Leah through the portal when she got close.
"Where did she go?!" the older Deckard snapped, shocked that Leah had vanished.
"Somewhere safe, I didn't want her to hear the next part of the conversation. She isn't Gillian's child, she's Adria's child and raising her won't do you any favors," Dawn warned Gillian.
"The witch? If she's not mine, why did she call me mother?" Gillian asked, confused about the whole experience.
"Because Adria ditched her when she was a baby and a version of you raised her," Dawn said, going with what Fred had told her about the game. "None of that has actually happened, none of that actually matters."
"Then why show me any of this?" Gillian asked.
"Because some things shouldn't be changed and other things should be." Dawn gestured towards the portal, weaving an illusion over it of a portal for the older Deckard. "This house, this world, none of it is real, it's merely one version of how your life could have gone."
"Does that mean I can leave?" Gillian asked hopefully, not sure what she was supposed to have learned.
"Sure," Dawn replied as she loaned Gillian a mental stability power that should help ease her traumatic memories. She pulled a silver ring out of her pocket and handed it to Gillian. "This should help with your dreams."
Gillian accepted the ring. "If it was this easy, why bring me here?"
"Because Leah is important," Dawn replied with a shrug. "Amy should have your grandmother right as rain and have enough gold so you can set up somewhere else and have a decent life far from Tristram."
Gillian stared at Dawn for a couple of seconds. "Thank you!"
"You're welcome," Dawn replied as Gillian rushed back through the portal. 'At least she'll be safer elsewhere than sticking around.'
"Are you saying I'm not real?" the older Deckard asked warily.
Dawn shrugged. "That depends on how to want to look at it. Right this moment, you're real enough, you can think and make choices, once Deckard and I leave? Probably not or maybe you'll find yourself in a world where everything you remember happening happened but currently you're also nothing more than a possible path Deckard's life could have taken."
"What happened after Diablo was defeated?" Deckard asked, figuring he might as well take advantage of the chance to learn about a possible future.
"How much time do we have?" the older Deckard asked, glancing at the portal.
"A few hours, maybe a day, I wouldn't want to sleep in here or stay overly long," Dawn replied as she headed through the door into what looked like a bedroom, glancing around for keepsakes or anything Leah would want a copy of.
"What happens if I walk through the portal like Leah?" Deckard asked.
"Then you'll find yourself in Tristram before Diablo was defeated, nine years in the past from your point of view," Dawn said as she moved the bed and looked for any hiding places that Leah might have stashed a keepsake. "Whatever life you might have had here, won't exist or maybe another version of you will experience it and won't remember this conversation. Either way, you'll have the rest of your life to look for secrets or to teach the next generation."
The old Deckard sighed as he realized he was going to have to trust the young lady, if only until he got his friend's daughter back. "It would take more than a couple of hours to explain the last nine years, I'll come with you. It's not like I have any reason to stay."
"In that case, feel free," Dawn replied as she found a tooth on a string under the girl's pillow. 'Good luck charm?' she mused as she pulled a pebble out of her pocket and duplicated the trinket on the off chance it worked. She quickly duplicated a change of clothes for the girl then followed the sages out of the ring. She wasn't particularly surprised to find the necklace and clothes gone though she was a bit annoyed that her idea to sidestep the issue hadn't worked. 'At least we'll have plenty of gear for Leah with how much we're going to be farming the cows.'
The older Deckard scowled and covered his crotch with his hands when he realized his clothes had vanished. "You could have said something."
"And give you a reason not to leave?" Dawn asked as she loaned him the ability to create clothes out of thin air, rather amused by the girl wearing a color changing dress facing away from the ring. "Just picture what you want and tap into your new power."
The older Deckard pictured his favorite robes and tapped into the strange ability he could feel in the back of his mind. He smiled as he felt the familiar weight settle on his shoulders. "Thank you, I'd rather not cause anyone trauma if I can help it."
"I appreciate it," the girl facing away from them said.
"Speaking of trauma, do you want to be younger?" Dawn offered, figuring most people didn't want to be old if they could help it.
"How much younger and at what price?" Deckard asked, studying the stranger's face, wondering where she'd learned such magic.
"Consider it an apology for upsetting your view of the world. How young do you want to be?" Dawn asked with a grin.
"I don't…" Deckard trailed off when he spotted an attractive woman that looked in her twenties or maybe thirties in a sheer blue silk dress walk up a set of stairs. "On second thought, if there isn't a price, being an old man is tiring."
Dawn changed the power she was loaning him to one that would improve his physical health and restore his youth and improve his memory, figuring it would help him recreate his notes. "Feel free to stick around and compare notes, I'm sure some of the Aes Sedai would love to discuss your world's history."
"Is it safe to turn around?" the girl asked.
"Safe enough," Dawn replied with amusement. "Did you see where the girl went?"
The girl turned and sighed in relief when she realized the old people had clothes. "Nynaeve found her and decided she needed a sandwich and clothes."
"Good, try to avoid letting the girl head to the town, she's empathic and there's a nasty demon/shadowspawn under the local keep that can give her nightmares," Dawn warned the young lady.
"It shouldn't be a problem, we're not letting any of the children wander off but I'll let the girls know in case she tries to pretend she has permission," the girl said as she headed for the portal to the strange town that Dawn had opened to tell the guards to keep an eye out for her.
"Thanks," Dawn replied as she turned and gestured at the ring. "So, I don't suppose you'd like to know what would have happened if you'd raised her?"
Deckard frowned slightly as his older alternate was already looking younger. "Maybe if you explain what the ring actually does."
"I guess that's fair," Dawn replied, launching into a brief explanation of how it showed possible futures, leaving off the greatest fears bit and the fact that things could be influenced by preconceptions, mostly because she didn't want to influence things until they picked up an adult Leah.
