Mist of Shadows
patreon
Dawn and Reincarnation Part 24
🕑 Added 2019-06-25 06:34:23 +0000 UTCEthan shivered as Dawn pulled the heat out of the large glass doors that she’d created and directed the heat into a patch of sand, turning it into a mess of molten glass. “That much heat should burn you to a crisp.”
“I’m assuming it has something to do with my resistance to magic,” Dawn mused as she used threads of air to float the doors over to the glass frame that she’d partially sunk into the sand.
“Probably,” Ethan grumbled as Dawn hung the large doors on the hooks she’d built into the ogier sized door frame. “Either that or a rare talent.”
“We really should do some research into talents,” Dawn mused as she walked over and inserted her key into the simple bar lock she’d built into the door.
“I’ll add it to the list,” Ethan muttered sarcastically.
“Moment of truth.” She turned the key then grabbed the glass handle and pulled the large doors open, revealing a long white beach with trees in the distance and a small stream that cut across the beach about twenty feet from the portal. “Nice, we’re going to have to explore the island once we have time.”
“I’ll see about recruiting some volunteers,” Ethan paused as he heard a faint jingle of metal and turned to look at the large group of Wise Ones and clan and sept chiefs heading their way. “Best of luck, I’m going to head to Tremalking and make sure the sa’angreal is covered so we don’t spark off the Amayar’s stupid prophecy.”
“Probably for the best,” Dawn agreed, seeing no reason to start the chain of events that caused the Amayar to self destruct if they could avoid it. “Best of luck, let me know when I can use the access key.”
“Not a problem,” Ethan replied as he opened an inverted gate to Tremalking and stepped through.
‘I wish I had a globe, it would make things easier,’ Dawn thought as she studied the moonlit grass covered area she could see through the gate and the statue of a giant hand holding an orb that called to her. She watched the gateway close then turned to look at Sorilea and Amys as the group walked over. “I’ll need someone to help me with the correct response, I’d hate to accidentally offend someone.”
“As opposed to intentionally offending them?” Sorilea asked with a touch of dry amusement.
“Exactly,” Dawn agreed. “From what Amys explained, the various chiefs will ask leave to enter my lands on behalf of their sept or clan, the correct response is that they have permission and there is water, yes?”
“Unless they intentionally insult you then you can tell them that water will be found for them but that shouldn’t happen,” Sorilea explained as she looked at the gathered chiefs.
Rhuarc stepped forward, knowing some of the other chiefs weren’t all that sure about treating Dawn’s lands as a hold but knowing that it was the best way to keep the violence to a minimum. “I ask leave to enter your hold, roofmistress.”
“You have leave to enter my lands, there will always be water for the Taardad,” Dawn replied hoping she’d gotten the response right or at least tolerable enough as she wasn’t an expert when it came to the Aiel. She relaxed slightly as no one reacted angrily or anything and Rhuarc stepped through the portal onto the beach. She relaxed slightly as the next clan chief stepped forward and asked the same question in the same general tone as Rhuarc. “You have leave to enter my lands, there is water.”
The names, clans and faces blurred together as the various leaders asked leave for their people to enter her lands then headed back to their camps to collect their followers. She was just glad that she didn’t have to personally grant every Aiel leave to enter or it would have taken weeks rather than the candle mark it had taken.
Dawn turned her attention toward the Wise Ones as the last of the men walked through and she saw Ethan’s inverted gate twenty feet behind the portal to her island. “Welcome to the island, there is water.”
“Thank you,” Sorilea said as she walked through the doorway, wanting to make sure none of the clan chiefs started fighting over the stream or did anything stupid like head into the forest or drink from the ocean.
“Is there anything we can help with?” Aviendha asked as several Wise Ones followed Sorilea through the door.
Dawn shook her head. “I’m fairly sure you’ll have your hands full keeping a bunch of warriors from getting bored.” She turned to look at Ethan as he walked over. “Any luck?”
“We should be good for a couple hours,” Ethan replied, fairly sure the tarps and illusion would contain the light when Dawn used the statue. ‘If it doesn’t we should have a couple days while the adults discuss things to rescue the channelers and children and to make sure their stupidity is contained to Tremalking.’
Dawn smiled coldly as she thought about the various ways she was going to destroy the Seanchan empire. “Good, it’s time the Seanchan Empire understands that actions have consequences.”
“Be careful,” Amys warned, knowing the damane were dangerous.
“I’ll do my best.” Dawn turned to look at Ethan. “Open a gateway to the Seanchan capital. I’ve waited long enough.”
“I’ll drop us in a guest room in the palace,” Ethan opened a gateway to the guest room he’d stayed in the one time he’d went to the palace with Mat. “Just be quiet.”
Dawn stepped through the gateway and looked around the guest room, not terribly surprised that the quality of the furnishings was excessive.
Ethan stepped through then let the gateway close behind him. “You get used to it eventually.”
Dawn shook her head. “I understand impressing your guests but you could feed a family for a year off some of this shit.”
“They’ve been stockpiling wealth for a thousand years, you should see their collection of cuendillar, it’s rather impressive and not considering how easy it is to make. How do you want to do this, loud or quiet?”
“They locked this world’s version of my father in his house and burned it to the ground to send a message,” Dawn snapped.
“I’m good with loud,” Ethan replied cheerfully as he held his hand out. “Can I borrow your angreal? You shouldn’t need it with the access key.”
“Sure,” Dawn said as she slipped the bracelet and rings angreal off and handed it to Ethan. “Do you remember where the Empress sleeps?”
“Unless they changed it,” Ethan said as he slipped the bracelet on then stalked out of the room.
“Halt!” one of the four guards walking down the hallway shouted as he saw Ethan and Dawn walk out of a room that should have been empty.
Dawn slipped her hand into her shoulder bag and touched the female access key and pulled in a trickle of power, ready to pull in more power if she needed to. She used cable thick threads of air to pin the guards spreadeagled to the wall then tied them off so they’d fade in a day. “Where is the Empress?”
“We won’t tell you anything!” one of the braver guards shouted.
“Marath'damane!” one of the other guards shouted as loudly as he could.
“I’m guessing that’s an insult?” Dawn asked as she studied the guard that was screaming the strange word over and over again.
“It means she who must be leashed,” Ethan explained as he headed down the hallway.
“Ah,” Dawn replied absently as she walked over and savagely kicked the screaming guard in the nuts. “I am not a pet.” She tied the threads off so they’d fade in a day then followed Ethan down the hallway.
Ethan grinned when he saw a decently attractive pair of damane and sul’dam rush around the corner about twenty feet further down the hallway. He smirked as the threads of air the damane used against him faded because of his fox ring. “Sorry, no dice,” he said as he reached out and shielded the damane and sul’dam then tied the shields off in a complicated series of knots that would take several hours or possibly months of work to unravel depending on how much practice they had at unraveling shields.
Dawn used threads of air to wrap up the screaming women and drag them closer. She pinned the next group of guards to the wall. “We should probably hurry if we don’t want the Empress to flee-” she cut off as someone stabbed her in the back, causing the knife to skitter off her armor but sending her to the ground with the force of it. “Seriously?” she asked as she looked at the man covered in shadows then down at the ter’angreal ring on his finger. “Mine!” She lashed out with a blade of air and cut the man’s hand off, causing the shadows to immediately fade as the severed hand fell to the ground with the ter’angreal ring.
The man glanced down at his missing hand then grabbed his other dagger and jumped at Dawn as she flipped back up to her feet.
Dawn stepped to the side then kicked the man in the throat, sending him crashing to the ground gurgling as he tried to get enough air through his crushed windpipe. She reached down and grabbed the ring off the man’s finger with her free hand. “What the fuck?”
Ethan turned to look at Dawn. “What’s the matter?”
“Why the fuck would anyone wear this?” Dawn asked in disbelief as she studied the cursed ring that would wrap shadows around you and give you a minor physical boost at the cost of your life, it was a worse version than her ring.
“They’re handed out to elite suicide troops for important missions,” Ethan explained as he pinned another group of guards to the wall as they charged down the hallway, leaving the man with both sides of his head shaved free to charge them. “Can you actually fight with your painted fingernails?” he asked sarcastically referring to his long painted fingernails that had to be annoying in a sword fight.
“I’m a blademaster,” the man sneered as he studied the intruders.
“Excellent!” Dawn replied enthusiastically as she put the cursed ring in her belt pouch then drew her crystal sword with her left hand. “Let’s dance.”
Ethan briefly considered warning Dawn to actually take the man seriously but decided there was no point as he couldn’t actually hurt her. He grinned slightly as another group of guards and several servants came around the corner, revealing that two of the servants had the potential to channel, a middle aged man that looked like a scribe and an attractive fourteen or fifteen year old in a sheer dress. “Is the servant girl for sale?”
“Ethan!” Dawn snapped as she swung at the noble’s head.
“I’m going to kill you!” the noble declared as he blocked Dawn’s swing then frantically blocked a jab as she proved faster and stronger than he’d expected.
“Can we have her if you lose?” Ethan asked as he wove a weave compulsion and touched the man’s temple.
“In the unlikely event that I lose, you can have the girl,” the noble agreed as he stepped up his efforts against Dawn.
“Excellent,” Ethan said cheerfully as he pinned several guards to the wall that were trying to sneak up on him then tied the threads off and turned his attention back to the duel.
Dawn spent another thirty seconds trading blows with the blademaster before she managed to score a lucky hit on his wrist. She swung her sword around and cut off the man’s head while he was distracted. “One less noble.”
Ethan used threads of air to wrap the two channelers in a cocoon then pull them across the floor to get them away from the guards and other servants as the rest of the servants started wailing about their master dying. “Bloody idiots.”
“For our next...” she trailed off as she saw two massive humanoids with giant axes run around the corner in red and green armor, each of the giants were easily half again her height which put them over ten feet tall. She focused on the ogier on the right that was glowing with a soft greenish light. “Since when could ogier use magic?”
“They can’t,” Ethan replied as he studied the ogier as they closed the distance at a ground eating ‘walk’, the rest of the guards quickly moving out of their way. “I’m guessing he’s a treesinger.”
The ogier treesinger frowned as he studied Dawn. “Surrender and your death will be painless.”
“Has that line ever actually worked?” Ethan asked curiously.
“Not yet,” the ogier replied.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint as well,” Dawn replied a touch sarcastically. “The Empress sent her army across the ocean to claim land that was never hers, her people burned my father alive because he refused to turn over friends that could channel, I hold her responsible.”
“Channelers are dangerous,” the other ogier replied, unconcerned about her claims. “Hawkwing conquered the lands beyond the ocean, just because your countries rebelled doesn’t change anything. Your father was a traitor-” whatever else he was going to say was lost when Dawn used air and fire to detonate his skull, causing the rest of the guards to scream and charge her.
Ethan sighed as he quickly bound the treesinger in threads of air and gagged him before Dawn decided to kill him for insulting this world’s version of her father. “Don’t kill the treesinger, they’re rare.”
Dawn wove threads of air and slammed the guards into the wall then bound them in place and tied off the threads. “Because that worked so well for the rest of the fools that tried it?” She glanced at the noble’s heron marked sword then stalked toward the end of the hallway where she could feel channelers. “Don’t forget his sword.”
Ethan picked up the power-wrought sword then dragged the channelers and treesinger behind him as he followed Dawn. “Do you have a plan other than killing the Empress?”
“I was thinking about,” she blinked as guard stepped out from around the corner and shot her with an arrow.
Ethan winced slightly as the guard at the end of the hall with the bow exploded as Dawn did something nasty that caused his head to explode like a dropped melon. “That was nasty.”
“He tried to kill me, I’m done playing nice,” Dawn said as she pulled more Power through the access key so she could deal with the damane waiting for her around the corner.
“Probably for the best,” Ethan agreed, knowing they’d have to kill or at least incapacitate a lot of people if they didn’t hurry.
Dawn ignored the fire and various other weaves that washed over her as she stepped around the corner and studied the two dozen damane and sul’dam trying to kill her. She giggled in pleasure as she enjoyed the magic flowing into her skin for a couple of seconds before she reminded herself that she had a job to do. She pulled her attention back to the women trying to kill her then started weaving shields over the damane as she walked toward the four ogier at the end of the hall that she was going to have to deal with to get to the Empress.
She ignored the uneasy feeling of picking on children as she stalked down the hallway toward the ogier. She was a little disappointed that none of the ogiers had any song magic but she hadn’t really expected them to. She finished shielding the last damane as Ethan stepped around the corner and started binding them with threads of air. She gestured at the ogier charging her and pinned them to the walls with flows of air. “You’re lucky, I only want the Empress dead.”
Dawn ignored the struggling and screaming ogier as she gestured toward the solid metal door at the end of the hall and ripped it off its hinges with cables of air. She stepped to the side as a sul’dam tried stabbing her with a knife and hit her in the temple with her fist, dropping her unconscious along with the damane she was connected to. She took a step to the side as Ethan’s cable of hardened air dragged a damane and sul’dam past her kicking and screaming.
Dawn smiled grimly as she walked through the door and glanced around at the lavish reception room where a dozen deathwatch guards were standing with weapons barred facing her while ten high lords with mohawks glared at her with bared swords. She looked at the crippled version of Tuon that was on a cushion off to the side then glanced at the attractive servant girl that had the potential to channel that was standing with the other servants against the wall.
She turned to look at the tall dark skinned glowing woman standing next to the older woman with a shaved head that was probably the Empress judging by the nasty look on her face and her expensive looking silks and jewelry.
Semirhage tapped the Great Lord’s power and tried to stop the woman’s heart at range only to stare in shock as the woman absorbed the weave and turned her emerald green eyes on her, something that should have been impossible as the women shouldn’t have felt anything or at least shouldn’t have known she’d been the one to channel.
Dawn’s glared at the woman that was using magic that sure as hell wasn’t saidar as it felt slimy and nasty with a side of nails on a chalkboard. ‘Shit!’ She inverted the weave for a shield then pulled a great deal of power through the access key and slammed the shield in place between the woman and the source.
Semirhage stared at Dawn, shocked that she’d managed to sense her weave and knew enough to shield her, something that should have been impossible. “Kill her!”
Dawn snorted as she used two threads of air to sweep half of the guards to the left wall and half to the right then tied the threads to fall apart in a day so that she didn’t have to maintain them. She created a foggy cage of air around the nobles with swords then tied it off so that it would fade in a day. “Like I said, I’d like a word.”
“What do you want?” Semirhage asked as calmly as she could, knowing the Empress would want the answer and being curious herself.
“The Empress ordered her soldiers across the ocean to enslave everything they could. One of your soldiers ordered my father burned alive for refusing to turn on his fellow townsfolk just because they could channel.”
“Marath'damane must be chained,” one of the high blood said with a sneer.
“And yet, every sul’dam in the empire can learn to channel.” Dawn wasn’t all that surprised that the Empress didn’t show any sign of surprise, merely anger at a secret being spilled.
“Liar!” the Tuon snapped.
“She’s not lying Toun,” Ethan said as he stepped into the room. “Your entire empire is built on a lie. Just look at your mother, she knows I’m not lying.”
Tuon turned to look at her mother, shocked to see the look in her mother’s eyes. “You knew?”
The Empress glared at Dawn, angry that she’d have to have a number of high blood killed before they spread the secret. “Kill her!”
Dawn sighed as the various servants charged her, never mind that everyone else had already failed to do anything. “Ethan.”
Ethan tied the servants up with flows of air then tied them off. “Done.”
“You won’t make it out alive,” the Empress snapped.
Dawn dashed forward and cut the Empress’s head off. “Maybe, but you’ll be dead.”
“You killed her!” Tuon screamed at Dawn, shocked that anyone would dare kill her mother.
Ethan smiled coldly at Semirhage as he wrapped her in threads of air before she could escape into the back room. “You’re not going anywhere Nemene.”
Semirhage glared at Ethan. “Where did you hear that name?”
“Lews Therin sends his regards,” Ethan lied with a grin, knowing it would mess with the Forsaken.
“I’ll see your lands burned for this,” Tuon snarled at Dawn.
Ethan frowned as he realized that without Mat and their adventures together this version of Tuon had grown bitter and twisted. “Do we have a plan?”
“Of course, I’m going to steal the Crystal Throne, loot the vault and take every damane and sul’dam we can find with us. Tuon should know where all of the damane kennels are as well as every damane that can create a’dam.”
“I’m not going to tell you,” Tuon snapped, fairly sure they were going to kill her even if she helped.
“We should probably burn all of their exotic combat monsters while we’re at it,” Ethan suggested as he pulled an a’dam out of his belt pouch and walked over to Semirhage. “Do you want to be dragged on the floor or leashed?”
“Leashed,” Semirhage replied with a twisted smile, looking forward to escaping and breaking the man that knew her real name.
Ethan put the collar around the Forsaken’s throat then put the leash on his wrist and dropped her bindings. “Excellent, we’ll ask the high lords about their vaults and treasuries while you steal the throne.”
“Sounds good,” Dawn said as she headed back into the hallway to find the throne room and the ter’angreal throne she wanted to study.
“Why are you doing this?” one of the high blood demanded.
Ethan turned to look at the noble in the cage. “I could claim that I’m crippling your empire because it’s a blight or because you killed the wrong person but mostly I’m destroying it because I can.” He snorted slightly as he saw the glowing man creeping toward him through the shadows. “And there is not a damned thing you can do about it,” he said as he turned and caught the assassin with threads of air. He walked over and stole the bloodknife from his finger. “Sorry, you’ll have to try harder than that.”
“How did you know he was there?” Tuon demanded, shocked that the man had seen the assassin.
“I’m a god!” Ethan lied as he wrapped the assassin up in threads of air.
Semirhage snorted, fairly sure he had a ter’angreal or something that let him sense danger. ‘At least it shouldn’t be boring.’
