Mist of Shadows
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Dawn and Reincarnation Part 23
🕑 Added 2019-06-18 05:30:38 +0000 UTCWillow stopped at the edge of the tent as she was hit with a cascade of memories as she saw her oldest friend, him giving her a yellow crayon because she’d broken hers and was too afraid to admit it, memories of growing up with him in Sunnydale, never mind she’d never actually been to Sunnydale as far as she knew. “Xander?”
Xander broke the piece of chalk he was using to sketch the plans for the sewer system as he looked up and saw a taller version of Willow standing in the entrance, in a stunning sheer silk dress that was ‘slowly’ changing color. “Willow?” he asked in disbelief, trying to mesh the mental image he had of his friend with the glowing girl standing in the entrance.
“When did you get here?” Willow asked excitedly as she hurried over and pulled him out of his chair and into a bear hug.
“Maybe twenty minutes,” Xander replied, not sure how much she remembered or why she was almost as tall as he was. “How much do you remember about Sunnydale?”
“Bits and pieces, mostly things we did together.” Willow gave him another squeeze then stepped back to look at him. “You’re shorter than I remember or maybe I’m taller.”
“I noticed. You’re also glowing,” Xander teased, just happy that his oldest friend remembered him.
“You can see magic?” Willow asked in surprise.
“Apparently. How common is the ability?” Xander asked, still trying to figure out what was going on as no one had seen fit to leave him a manual or even a brief note.
Willow shrugged. ”Other than Tara and Drusilla, the only people I know of with the ability are family. I doubt it’s all that common or the Tower wouldn’t have trouble finding people that can channel.”
“Speaking of things no one has explained, what exactly is the Tower?”
“Do you want the official or unofficial yet amusing explanation?” Willow asked.
Xander shook his head. “Whichever is closer to the truth.”
“Roughly three thousand years ago, the old world’s mages fucked up and poked a hole in the dark god’s prison and badness happened.”
“That is never a good thing,” Xander agreed.
“It gets worse.”
“Shocking, that,” Xander replied dryly. “What happened?”
“The male half of magic got screwed up and tainted which pretty much drove all of the male magic users insane and they broke the world. Either way, the females formed the Tower to train the next generation of female magic users while they hunted down the males. They’ve basically been doing the same thing for the last three thousand years.”
“Great, let me guess, they’re going to come after me eventually, right?” Xander asked warily.
Willow sighed. “Hopefully it won’t come to that because we have a couple hundred people that would object violently and then it just turns into a mess. Either way, we should probably teach you the basics of magic then you can defend yourself.”
“I can defend myself already,” Xander assured her.
Willowed reached out with magic and tried to pick him up then frowned as the threads of air vanished as soon as they touched him. “Damnit, you’re like Mom,” she complained.
“Are you saying Dawn is immune to magic?” Xander asked with amusement.
“Yeah, the flows just unravel, it’s annoying.”
“How many people have that talent?” Xander asked, wondering how many magic resistant creatures they’d run into.
“Other than you and Mom, the only creatures I know of that are basically immune to magic are gholams and we only ever ran into one of them. They’re basically humanoid golems that drink blood and can squeeze through small openings.”
”Fun, what insane bastard came up with that?” Xander asked.
“Aginor, he came up with most of the various monsters that are running around the Blight.”
“Who do I talk to about getting magical gear?”
“Perrin for weapons, Dawn or myself for magical items.”
“What type of magical items are we talking about and how hard are they to make? Are we talking epic quests or are we talking finger wiggling here?”
“Assuming you have the magical talent, you just weave magic into it so mostly the second, just without the finger wiggling.”
Xander grinned as he pictured swinging around a flaming sword. “So, how do we test for this talent?”
“I put you through a couple of hours of lessons until you can use magic then you try to copy one of the magic items, it’s not that common of a talent.”
“It’s worth a try. Wait, what about the taint?” Xander asked warily.
“Not a problem on the island, just don’t use magic elsewhere until we get the source cleansed.”
“No worries,” Xander replied, wanting nothing to do with tainted magic. “I have a feeling you’ll have the source cleansed before I have a pressing need to leave the island.”
“That’s the plan,” Willow agreed, wanting the source cleansed so that she could take care of some issues without worrying about getting tainted.
“Speaking of magical items, do you have a list of what you can make?” Xander asked curious how organized they were.
“Ethan was working on a list and Dawn should have stuff to add once she gets back from looking through the stash of ter’angreal in the Aiel city.”
“Give me the highlights,” Xander said, wanting to know what he had to work with.
“Bracelets that create invisible armor, a ring that increases your physical abilities and makes it harder to see the user and a belt buckle that makes it harder to hear someone moving around.”
“What about your dress?” Xander asked as he glanced down at Willow’s mostly see through dress that was currently pale yellow.
Willow smirked as she noticed where Xander was looking. “Ethan figured out how to create boxes that make color changing silk that is nearly waterproof and decently soft. Here, touch it,” she said as she grabbed Xander’s hand and moved it to her arm so he could feel the fabric.
“It feels like silk,” Xander mused as he trailed his fingers down her arm. “Speaking of magical material, what do we have when it comes to building supplies?”
Willow grinned as she remembered some of the discussions she’d had with Xander and Jesse about magical kingdoms. “We can twist metal and glass to be more durable or fuse stone to add a great deal of strength to a structure, we can also turn iron into cuendillar which is nearly indestructible.”
“How indestructible are we talking about?”
“The only thing I know of that can even scratch it is the essence of a Dark God which he only lets his most devoted magic users channel.”
Xander shrugged. “Probably still worth using. How many castles did the ancient mages build out of cuendillar?”
Willow sighed in frustration. “As far as I know, none.”
“Why not?” Xander asked, wondering if they had an actual reason or if they were just idiots.
“I doubt they saw a point before the Dark One was free and after, they probably didn’t want indestructible bases lying around that the enemy could steal. Of course, I’d have wanted to at least make the skeleton of my base out of cuendillar.”
“Not a bad idea, you could bolt cuendillar plates to a frame as long as you left holes, right?” Xander asked, mind already whirling with possibilities.
“Yep, especially if you covered them with stone when you were done to keep people from walking off with them,” Willow agreed already thinking about ways to take advantage of Xander’s idea.
“What do we have for durable windows?” Xander asked, unwilling to completely sacrifice comfort for durability, especially when he could probably set up cuendillar storm shutters if they ever came under attack by a group of magic users.
“There’s a bridge in Andor that looks like glass but you can’t even scratch it with a hammer and chisel, we’ll take a trip once the source is cleansed.”
“That sounds like an excellent way to make bridges or windows if we can duplicate it,” Xander agreed.
“We have Dawn, she’s annoyingly competent when it comes to figuring out ter’angreal and magic in general.”
“Everyone needs a hobby, speaking of hobbies, what is there to do for fun around here?”
“You mean other than looking at the attractive naked girls?” Willow asked with amusement.
“Considering I’d rather not get set on fire, probably,” Xander replied with amusement as he walked out of the tent and looked around at the various half naked or naked young women running around on one errand or another.
“In that case, we should probably start teaching you magic.” Willow blinked as Mat walked over. “Since when could you channel?”
Mat gave his daughter a frosty look. “Since Egwene sent my alternate through the ring.”
“In that case, you can learn magic with Xander, it should be fun,” Willow said enthusiastically.
“Why do I think she’s being sarcastic?” Xander asked Mat.
“No idea,” Mat lied as he headed toward the practice area they’d set up. “Fine, let’s get this over with so I can get back to working on setting up the army.”
“Sounds more useful than losing an eye,” Xander agreed, still not quite sure about learning to use magic considering their trouble with magic in Sunnydale.
0o0o0
Dawn stepped out of the wall of fog and glanced around the ancient city, taking in the wide streets and the partially finished towers and palaces. “Seems like a waste of effort,” she muttered as she started running toward the massive tree she could see in the distance. She wasn’t sure how to untangle the Aiel culture and wasn’t sure if she wanted to, she didn’t have a problem with honor but when you tied it up with rules you could end up acting in a way that wasn’t honorable in the least.
“At least they don’t bind themselves with oaths that cut their lives in half,” she grumbled to herself as she lengthened her stride, quickly losing herself in the rhythm of her feet hitting the paved stones.
She slowed to a stop when she entered a large plaza and saw the large collection of ter’angreal scattered around the ground like unimportant trash. “Did you look at this moment and decide that the pain was worth it or did you just pick a direction and start walking?” She sighed as she realized she’d probably never know if the ancient Aes Sedai were stupid or just looking to the future. She smiled slightly as she noticed the twisted redstone door that Mat had mentioned.
“Let’s see if I can learn something interesting,” Dawn mused as she walked over and touched the door. She smirked as she realized the ter’angreal had nothing to do with deals or anything of that nature and everything to do with transportation to a parallel world. “Huh, it’s actually more complicated to make them only work once per person, that’s handy.”
Dawn memorized the weaves she could see floating over the ter’angreal then turned her attention toward the massive tree, a wordless song coming to mind as she walked toward the tree. She hummed the song as she walked over to touch the tree then blinked as she realized that she was holding a handful of chora seeds, something she wasn’t sure should exist. “That’s new.”
She glanced at the massive tree suspiciously then looked down at the seeds in her hand that would likely shake the world if people found out about them. She glanced at her empty hand and started humming the wordless song and smiled as seeds started filling her empty hand. “Yeah, I’m awesome.”
Dawn snickered as she carefully put the seeds in her belt pouch, happy that she’d be able to spread the trees around the island. “Now I just need to find the statues,” she muttered as she started searching for the small statues. She sighed in relief as she spotted the pair of foot tall robed statues near the glass columns that were holding a glass orb, one male and one female.
She walked over and picked up both of the access keys and had to clamp down on her desire to reach through the female access key and draw in a torrent of Power. “Yeah, that’s seductive as hell.” She studied the complex weaves that floated over the two statues and allowed the ter’angreal to link to the massive sa’angreal statues from anywhere in the world.
“This should be enough power to move the city…” Dawn trailed off as she realized what she’d just said and that she could probably steal the entire city and move it to her island. She shook her head, fairly sure she was letting her imagination run wild.
“There’s no way I could keep the city from falling apart when I move it.” She sighed as weaves of earth and air appeared in front of her that would if she wasn’t mistaken do exactly that. “On second thought if I moved the city, I’d have a place to put all of the channelers I’m recruiting while I survey the rest of the island.”
Dawn knew the idea was crazy but she couldn’t shake the feeling that letting the Seanchan have the city would be spitting on the graves of every Jenn Aiel that had died trying to get the ter’angreal somewhere safe. That and she was fairly sure that no one had ever actually walked off with a city before. “Fine, if I’m going to steal a city, I’m going to do it right.”
Dawn focused on the ground and reached out with her senses like Ethan had shown her. It took her a couple minutes before she could make sense of everything she was feeling but once she knew what she was looking at she realized it wouldn’t be impossible to steal the city assuming she found somewhere to put it on her island. She put the statues in her shoulder bag then carefully walked over to look at the mindnumbling complex weaves floating over the field of glass columns. ‘Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be duplicating this any time soon.’
Dawn spend a few minutes memorizing bits and pieces of the complicated tapestry then pulled her attention away from the glass columns she had no interest in using or even touching as Mat had given her the cliff notes version of Rand’s trip through the past. She shivered slightly despite the heat as she glanced over the sea of weaves floating in the air over the various ter’angreal. “Might as well get started.”
Dawn walked over and touched an empty stone plinth with threads floating over it. “Inspires a sense of awe and wonder in anything placed on the stand… why the fuck was this worth moving?” She knew you could control how much awe or wonder the object generated by how much Power you channeled into the plinth but it was stone and probably took at least two rather strong men or maybe a Perrin to move which meant it wasn’t something she would have tried moving across the country during the breaking.
She reached over and touched a large metal bell lying on its side that she’d probably have left behind as well. “Yeah, that’s moderately useful but not worth carrying halfway across the world,” she grumbled as she studied the weaves so that she could create a bell that only certain people could hear, namely anyone that had touched the bell since the last time someone reset it. “This should help with class schedules and defense.”
Dawn spent the next twenty minutes walking around touching various ter’angreal, fairly sure the Aes Sedai were nuts until she reached down and touched a crystal bracelet and realized that it was a male angreal of decent strength. She reluctantly set the bracelet back on the ground then walked over to a crystal chair and touched the back of it. “That’s useful but not exactly dangerous,” she muttered as she studied the weaves over the chair, wanting to be able to duplicate it as a chair that kept anyone sitting on it from lying would drastically simplify her country’s future legal system.
The next couple minutes of looking through random ter’angreal had her wondering if the Aes Sedai at the time had possessed any clue what the shit actually did because while some of it was dangerous, most of it would have been nearly worthless to a male Aes Sedai. Of course, some of the ter’angreal were useful like the tapering crystal plinth that kept anything on it protected from theft provided the channeler that put the object there was still alive. “If nothing else, it would look nice in a museum.”
Dawn glanced over the rest of the ter’angreal. “I’ll sort the rest of the stuff after I finish my end of the deal.” She turned and headed for the edge of the city at a decent pace.
0o0o0
Apple stuck out her tongue at Elayne as her alternate’s weave collapsed, causing the glowing ball of light to vanish. “Next!”
Elayne glared at her alternate who was sprawled across Rand’s lap. “Would it kill you to wear clothes?”
Apple smirked as Elayne passed control of the bracer’s circle to Rand and he started working on creating a glowing ball of light using saidar. “Of course not but Rand can’t finger fuck me if I’m wearing clothes,” she smirked as Rand’s glowing ball of light flickered. “So close.”
“That was dirty,” Egwene said, not sure if she was talking about Apple’s joke or about her attempt to distract Rand.
Elayne glared at Apple. “You don’t have any shame do you?”
“Nope, why would I want that?” Apple asked with amusement as Rand created another three glowing balls of light and started ‘juggling’ them. “It sounds contagious, not to mention boring.”
“Because you nearly gave my brother a heart attack!” Elayne complained, trying not to smirk at the memory of Gawyn sputtering when he’d first seen Apple.
Rand let the balls of light vanish then handed control of the bracelet’s link to Egwene. “Your turn.”
“Thanks,” Egwene said as she adjusted the cushion she was sitting on then straightened her back and focused on remaining calm, knowing Apple would try to distract her.
Apple waited until Egwene had formed her ball of light then said, “You should have seen his face when I asked him if he wanted to spank me, pure gold.” She smirked as Egwene’s ball of light vanished as she lost concentration.
“You did that on purpose,” Egwene complained as she glared at Apple.
“Of course,” Apple replied with amusement. “It’s my job to try to distract everyone so they’ll get used to ignoring distractions. It’s a good life skill.”
Egwene scowled then went back to making a glowing ball of light. “How long do you think it will take to get the basics down?”
“That depends on what you consider the basics? If you mean knowing enough so that your magic won’t kill you, probably less than a day with the bracelets. So that you’re able to channel when you want and recognize the threads, maybe a couple of days. Beyond that, you’d have to ask your sisters, they seem decently trained.”
“I’m trying to avoid them,” Egwene admitted as she lost the glowing ball. “That’s annoying.”
“Why are you trying to avoid your siblings?” Apple asked, curious if there was something wrong with them.
Egwene sighed as she passed control to Elayne. “They make everything look easy.”
Apple snickered. “You should have seen the glares Rand got, he’s completely unbelievable when it comes to fighting with a sword and channeling, you could practically see some of the other guys steam with jealousy.”
“So you’re saying I’m jealous?” Egwene asked, not sure if she was jealous or just a little depressed that every single one of her sisters from the ring was stronger than her and already trained.
“I think you’re just nervous that you won’t measure up. You can whine and cry like an idiot or you can hit the grindstone and work your ass off to get better. We can’t control how strong we are but we can control how much effort we put into getting better.” Apple grinned slightly at the ball of light that Elayne was playing with. “I’m planning on beating Elayne because I think she’s being a stick in the mud.”
“I’m not a stick in the mud!” Elayne complained, her globe of light flickering as she lost her composure.
“You’re on a tropical island without any real oversight and you haven’t gotten drunk or molested any of the cute girls, you’re a stick in the mud,” Apple complained. “If you’re not, prove me wrong.”
“By getting drunk?” Elayne asked, knowing her mother wouldn’t approve of any of Apple’s suggestions.
“Or by kissing Egwene or playing with my breasts,” Apple teased then smirked as Elayne’s glowing orb vanished. “Next!”
“Now you’re just being cruel,” Rand pointed out as he ran his fingers over Apple’s back.
“You can spank me later,” Apple teased as she rolled off of Rand’s lap and got to her feet. “I need something to drink, does anyone else want some hard apple cider?” she asked, daring Elayne to refuse.
“I could use a drink,” Egwene said, knowing a glass would probably make dealing with Apple easier and might let her relax which would help with practice.
“Fine, I’ll have a glass if you stop complaining about me being a stick in the mud,” Elayne grumbled.
“Excellent,” Apple said as she left the tent with a smile on her face and a spring in her steps.
“Look on the bright side, if you decide to run around naked, everyone will just assume you’re her,” Egwene teased.
Elayne scowled as she handed control of the link to Egwene. “Just wait until you get a twisted alternate.”
“It could be worse, Apple is nice and helpful,” Egwene pointed out as created a ball of glowing light then started juggling it between her hands.
“You call running around naked helpful?” Elayne asked.
“It’s a tropical island, can you really blame her?” Egwene asked, having long since gotten used to Dawn going swimming without anything on.
Elayne snorted. “I don’t see you running around without clothes.”
Egwene glanced at Rand. “No.”
Rand grinned slightly as he thought about some of Dawn’s stories more amusing stories. “I didn’t say anything.”
“You didn’t have to,” Egwene added another glowing ball of light, juggling the two glowing balls of light between her hands.
“I’m sensing a story there,” Elayne teased as she glanced between Egwene and Rand.
“I’m not that crazy,” Rand said with a grin as he watched Egwene play with the lights. ‘At least she’s having fun.’
