Mist of Shadows
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Dawn and Reincarnation Part 19
🕑 Added 2019-06-01 03:53:29 +0000 UTCRand twitched and almost dropped his bowl of stew as a wave of memories washed over him, one second he was chasing after Apple and the new girl and the next he was sitting with Mat and Perrin eating some type of garlic flavored pork stew. One second he was hearing about women going crazy and the next it was men burning the world down. He vividly recalled the Bel Tine day that a group of men in black silk had walked into town with six naked women and started testing everyone for the ability to channel much to the wisdom council’s protest about the naked women walking around Emond’s Field.
He recalled nothing strange happening that Bel Tine, just another dance and reason to celebrate, he recalled flirting with Egwene, he recalled her being stripped and chained, he recalled finding out that he could channel and that he’d be one of the world’s shields if he worked hard enough, he recalled eating a piece of Mrs. al’Vere’s pies and nothing strange happening. He fell to the ground as memories danced through his head, alternating between working on the farm, exploring dark passages in an ancient tower, wishing his friends had come with him to wishing he could ride into town to spend time with his friends.
Rand didn’t see his friends jump up or Perrin go running to find Moiraine, he was lost in a sea of memories that weren’t his own, the first time he’d met Apple in the palace in Caemlyn wearing a blue silk gown that had made his heart beat faster, swearing to be her shield against the world, working a farm that he hadn’t seen in almost two years despite the fact that he knew he’d never been back to The Two Rivers, Apple dragging him to bed the first time, flirting with Egwene in Emond’s field after they both should have been in the Tower training and a storm of conflicting memories.
Rand gasped as he felt cold wash over him bringing him back to reality or at least something that passed for reality. “Moiraine?”
“What happened?” Moiraine asked as she studied Rand’s face, desperately hoping that he wasn’t already showing signs of madness.
Rand pushed himself to his knees then twisted around so that he was sitting on the sand. “Have you ever wondered what it would have been like if you’d never went to the Tower?”
“Now and then,” Moiraine admitted as she stood up and dusted off her dress.
“I just got an entire life stuffed in my head where…” Rand trailed off as his mind cleared enough to realize that admitting to being able to channel in front of an Aes Sedai was probably a terrible idea.
“What did you see?” Mat asked, curious how many extra memories his friend had picked up.
“It was strange, in that world Saidar had been tainted at the end of the Age of Legends rather than Saidin. It was different in some ways and disturbingly the same in others.”
“Let me guess, you could channel?” Moiraine asked, curious if he’d admit it.
“What?” Perrin asked in horrified disbelief as he stared at Rand.
Rand reached out and embraced the source then let it go as he stood up. ‘So much for it being a weird nightmare.’ He turned to look at Perrin. “Don’t worry, Saidin was clean and the island is safe enough.”
“So you’re going to stay here for the rest of your life?” Perrin asked warily, not sure how to process the fact that his friend could channel.
“As long as I have to,” Rand agreed, seeing no reason to risk getting tainted considering Dawn had mentioned a way to cleanse the source.
“How far in your training did you get?” Moiraine asked, hoping he at least had the basics as it would make things easier.
“Is there a rank between accepted and Aes Sedai in the Tower?” Rand asked, wishing he’d paid a little more attention when Moiraine was explaining things to Egwene.
“Not officially but girls toward the end of their studies are generally trusted with more responsibility.”
“I’m technically an accepted but I’ve passed the various tests so I’m cleared for recruiting runs and have been for six months. I’ve passed the channeling portion of the test for getting my sash but I haven’t finished the mundane side of things.”
Mat finished his last bite of stew. “Sash?”
“They went with sashes rather than shawls, less of a hassle if you get into a fight.”
“Did the other world have a Red Ajah?” Mat asked as he set his bowl on the ground next to him.
“They were responsible for hunting criminal channelers and hauling them back to the Tower for punishment. They’re also responsible for taking care of the women in the Tower’s charge.”
“Taking care of?” Moiraine asked, wondering if they severed the female channelers or did something worse.
“They are or were three parts counselor, two parts bounty hunter, two parts matchmaker and three parts father or big brother to the girls as needed. Picture my father able to toss lightning then picture some idiot harassing Dawn.”
Mat snorted. “In other words, if he hurried he might get there in enough time to save the idiot?”
Rand laughed as he realized his friend had a point. “Alright, Dawn was probably a bad example, your father and your sisters might be a better example.”
“So you’re saying they’re actually useful?” Mat asked in surprise.
“Very,” Rand agreed thinking about the parties and gatherings the Reds had arranged to make sure everyone was happy.
“Which were you looking at joining?” Moiraine asked curious which Ajah he would have picked.
“Probably Red or Green…” Rand trailed off as he saw Apple walking toward them with Lemon, Nynaeve and Katrina. “Apple.”
“Don’t you Apple me, where are we?” Apple demanded with a pout as they walked over to where the group was sitting in front of a neat color changing tent.
“Elayne?” Moiraine asked, faintly surprised to see Elayne running around without her clothes.
Apple frowned as she saw Moiraine. “That’s my birth name, you can call me Apple. You look familiar, do I know you? Why isn’t anyone wearing a collar?” she asked, more than a little concerned about the number of female channelers running around without collars.
“Because we don’t collar people,” Nynaeve snapped as she glared at Rand. “Maybe she’ll believe you.”
“They don’t collar people because Saidar isn’t tainted here,” Rand explained as he studied the girl he knew and didn’t know.
“See, no reason to have to wear a collar,” Nynaeve said smugly.
Apple turned to look at Nynaeve. “If I don’t have my collar how am I going to keep track of my guardian?”
“There is always the warder bond,” Moiraine mused, taking some amusement in the entire situation as she could see that Elayne’s alternate plainly loved him.
“Wait, if Saidar isn’t tainted, that means I can get proper training, right?” Apple asked gleefully.
“I don’t see why not.” Rand took a step back and braced himself as Apple jumped into his arms with a squeal of delight.
Mat started laughing as Egwene and Elayne walked down the stairs and spotted Rand with Apple in his arms. “This should be fun.”
“You’re evil,” Perrin muttered under his breath.
“Rand?” Egwene sputtered as she saw Rand holding a naked girl that looked like Elayne. “What is going on?”
Elayne stared at the girl that looked identical to the face she saw in the mirror. “Why do I have a double?”
Rand blinked slightly as he noticed Egwene’s color changing silk dress that barely managed to pass for decent with the silk shift she was wearing under it. ‘I probably shouldn’t mention that I like her dress at least not in front of everyone.’ He pulled his attention off Egwene’s clothes and focused on Apple’s duplicate. “Dawn has been playing with the giant ring, Apple is your alternate.”
“Your name is Apple?” Elayne asked in disbelief.
Apple snickered at the look on her alternate’s face. “My name is actually Elayne Trakand but it’s traditional to take a new name when we join the Tower. It could be worse, I knew a girl that got named Peach, she was a bit a bitch.”
“Rand!” Darla shouted from the top of the stairs. “Get to the gate, your friends would like an explanation.”
Rand set Apple down as he glanced at Lemon then looked at Egwene. “Can you get Lemon something to eat, she’s had a frustrating morning.”
“Of course.” Egwene turned to look at the other girl as Rand and Apple quickly headed up the stairs. “Lemon?”
Lemon hunched in on herself as she thought about her father. “My family disowned me, Lemon works as well as anything else.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll get you something to wear and something to eat,” Nynaeve assured the girl as she led her toward the cook fires some of the girls were working on.
Egwene turned to look at Moiraine. “What is going on?”
Mat spoke up, “If I had to guess, Rand’s alternate went through the gate and our Rand woke up with a bunch of memories stuffed in his head.”
“What makes you say that?” Egwene asked as she walked over.
“Because that’s what happened to me,” Mat admitted as he stood up. “I’ve seen a version of the Last Battle, I’m not going to let it end that way.”
“What happened?” Lan asked from where he was standing against the tent in the shadows.
Mat turned to look at Lan. “You managed to kill Demandred in single combat which is bloody impressive considering he took out another blademaster while the blademaster was using something that boosted his strength and reaction speed to the point that he was stronger than Perrin and faster than a snake. I really wish he’d been as stupid as the rest of the Forsaken, it would have made things easier.”
“The Forsaken are bound,” Elayne said with a shiver.
“Aginor and Balthamel are probably already out, Ishamael has been out for close to twenty years or at least he was in the other world.”
Egwene glared at Mat. “This is a bad joke, right?”
Mat shook his head. “I wish it were, Rahvin managed to nearly take over Andor with compulsion, Be'lal was hiding in Tear pretending to be one of the high lords, Samuel was in Illian pretending to be Lord Brend. Aginor was killed at the Eye of the World along with Balthamel then got reborn and caused a lot of hassle. Asmodean was pretending to be a gleeman we met later, he was mildly useful.”
“Useful?” Elayne asked in disbelief.
“Lanfear partially shielded him and left him to teach the Dragon how to channel.”
“Why would she do that?” Egwene demanded.
“Because she was obsessed with the original Lews Therin, I won’t call it love because she didn’t know how to walk away but she often acted to make sure he stayed alive at least until it became painfully obvious that he’d never love her.”
“That certainly fits the information we can find about Lanfear,” Moiraine agreed, making a note to ask Matrim what else he remembered later.
“How are you this calm?” Elayne asked warily.
Mat pointed at Moiraine. “Moiraine managed to kill Be’lal permanently and Lanfear the first time around.” He glanced at Perrin. “You snapped her neck the second time. Lan killed Demandred by cutting his head off in a sword fight during the last battle. The Dragon Reborn killed a decent number of the rest at various times and Egwene killed Mazrim Taim after he’d been promoted to a member of the Forsaken. They’re not unstoppable nightmares, they’re just extremely powerful.”
“Mazrim is a darkfriend?” Moiraine asked warily.
“I’m not sure if he’s currently a darkfriend but he joined the shadow at some point before the last battle. He managed to cripple the school for male channelers the Dragon Reborn had set up and forcibly recruited a third of them and a decent number of the Aes Sedai that had been sent to deal with the Black Tower.” Mat was looking forward to stuffing a knife in Taim’s guts for the trouble he’d caused the last time around.
“Where was the White Tower in all of this?” Elayne asked, knowing they should have been in the middle of everything.
“Trying to avoid getting slaughtered like children when they ran into people with practice fighting channelers. I’m not saying that they were completely useless but they were a lot less useful than the rest of the channelers we had on our side.”
“When did the battle take place?” Moiraine asked, wondering how much time they had.
“A bit less than two years, we could have dragged things out but the pattern was already getting more than a little frayed.”
Egwene shifted uncomfortably. “What do you mean frayed?”
Mat turned to look at Elayne. “Imagine walking out of your room in the palace and finding the hallway doesn’t take you where you know it should or having an entire library shift a couple floors or houses changing colors or roads eating an entire section of your army.”
“That’s impossible,” Elayne stated as she glanced at Moiraine.
“Currently, sure,” Mat replied as he glanced around the group. “Once the seals start breaking and the pattern starts fraying, things will start unraveling on a grand scale. The weather will change from unnatural cold to unnatural heat, food will rot that should be perfectly fine and other strange effects will occasionally ripple along the pattern. I don’t blame the Dragon for starting the Last Battle when he did, society was coming apart at the seams.”
“Caemlyn?” Elayne asked warily, not sure she wanted to know.
“Betrayed and overrun by a massive army of shadowspawn that came out of the Ways. It took years to repair all of the damage.”
Egwene glanced at Perrin. “What about Perrin?”
Mat shivered slightly as he remembered the army of wolves that Perrin had called. “Dealing with shit the rest of us couldn’t.”
“What were you doing?” Egwene asked curious how Mat was mixed up in everything.
“Leading the army and dealing with the abomination that Padan Fain had turned into in Shadar Logoth,” Mat complained.
“Someone let you command the army?” Egwene asked in disbelief, wondering how desperate they were in the world his memories had came from.
Mat smiled at Egwene. “I’d spent a decent amount of time running a mercenary company/army, dealing with problems. Speaking of being useful, I could use both of your help making a decent power-wrought spear blade if you’re willing to give it a try.”
Egwene glanced at Moiraine then looked at Perrin. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to help but I’ll try if you want to?”
Perrin considered how to phrase his response for a couple seconds then said, “I can’t channel but I’m a good smith, if I can help make weapons that will keep some of the girls safe, I’ll help.”
“It should be a learning experience,” Moiraine agreed as she headed for the stairs. While the Oaths might prevent her from making weapons the last battle was coming and they’d need any edge they could get.
0o0o0
Xander felt his hope of escaping die a little bit as the leashed demon girl wove glowing yellow ropes around him as they walked into the room. ‘So much for trying to overpower the demons and escaping, where’s Buffy when you need her?’ He kept his face as neutral as he could as he looked at the two glowing demon women that followed the leashed demons into the room with a slightly nervous looking male servant. “I’m glad you found a volunteer. This should prove that I can’t use magic.”
“Perhaps,” the sul’dam replied as she studied Xander. “Shield him.”
Xander wasn’t sure what the complicated web of white yarn was supposed to do but he doubted it was anything good from the way the way the demon woman was smirking. He forced himself to relax despite his misgivings as one of the demons wearing a bracelet walked over and grabbed his collar.
“This should be easy enough,” the sul’dam muttered as she fiddled with his collar, trying to open it so she could stick it on the slave to test it.
Xander wasn’t sure who was more shocked as the collar clicked open and the web of glowing yellow ropes that covered him vanished, him or the demons but he certainly reacted faster. He jerked his neck backwards then reached out and grabbed the collar with his left hand. He yanked the collar out of the demon’s hands at the same time he made a fist with his right hand and struck the demon as hard as he could on her jaw, hoping that she wasn’t one of the nearly impossible to kill demons.
He blinked in surprise as the demon collapsed taking the leashed demon with her. ‘Glass jaw, that didn’t even hurt.’ He jumped for the other two demonic women knowing that he had to act fast if wanted to escape. He ignored the slightly worrying way the demon’s yellow ropes vanished the second they touched his skin as he proceeded to punch the demon with the bracelet until she went unconscious. He turned his attention toward the man that was staring at him in horror. “You look like the right size, where can I find clothes?”
“There is no escape,” the man stated firmly as he moved to block the exit, knowing that he’d be killed and dishonored if he let the man escape.
“Ah, you’re a cultist,” Xander replied then lunged forward and kicked the man in the nuts as hard as he could. He ignored the man’s agonized shriek and kicked him in the head a couple of times, wanting to make sure he didn’t get up and stab him in the back. “At least you’re close to the right size,” he muttered under his breath as he quickly stripped the man down to his small clothes.
He pulled the man’s pants and vest on then quickly searched the belt pouches tied to the demon woman’s belts on the off chance they had a set of keys or anything that would help him escape. He smirked as he found a coin purse on each demon with the bracelets and a set of skeleton keys on the belt of the first demon he’d dropped. He happily stole her belt and put it on, happy that she’d been on the plump side. ‘Okay, I’d really like a sword or a club right now.’
Xander glanced down at the metal collar that had kept him prisoner. ‘I probably shouldn’t leave this for the demons.’ He quickly stuffed the black metal collar with two leashes into his largest belt pouch then walked over to check the silver leash that connected the plump demon’s wrist with the throat of the admittedly attractive demon girl. ‘If anyone asks, I grabbed her because I needed information, not because she’s a hot blonde with D cups.’
He ignored the slightly annoying tingle as he played with the bracelet until he got it to unlock. ‘Let’s hope this works.’ He walked over and picked up the blonde demon and slung her over his shoulder then left the room.
0o0o0
Dawn walked over to stand next to where Mat, Elayne and Moiraine were watching Egwene, Ethan and Perrin use the salvaged forge to create the power-wrought sword blade that would attach to the end of a staff. “How are they doing?”
“Her weaves are steady and she isn’t breathing hard which is a good sign,” Moiraine replied, not taking her eyes off the process. “Her affinity for Earth and Fire are remarkable.”
Mat looked away from the glowing Ashandarei blade that was taking shape on the anvil under Perrin’s hammer and looked at Moiraine. “Most of the channelers from The Two Rivers have excellent strength in Earth and at least reasonable strength in the rest of the affinities.”
Elayne glanced at Mat then went back to studying the weave of earth and fire that Egwene was using to keep the metal hot and change the steel into something that wouldn’t rust, break or need sharpening. “You know a lot about channelers for someone that can’t channel.”
“What part of general leading the armies against the Dark One did you miss?” Mat asked a touch sarcastically.
“There’s also the fact that his sisters can channel,” Dawn pointed out.
“As in more than one?” Moiraine asked, more than a little surprised.
“All of my sisters have the potential to channel, I have four of them,” Mat admitted with a fake shudder. ‘At least they’re not going to have to put up with the Tower this time around.’
Moiraine had a feeling she’d have to go back hundreds or maybe thousands of years before she’d find a record of four siblings going to the Tower with enough strength to become Aes Sedai.
“Do any of them have the potential to create ter’angreal?” Elayne asked curious how unique the ability was.
Mat shook his head. “Other than Dawn and her family, not that we’ve seen. It’s an annoyingly rare ability for channelers on this side of the ocean and a rare ability in Seanchan. With any luck we’ll be able to recruit some of their crafters.”
“That would be nice,” Dawn agreed. “I’d rather not get stuck making ten thousand belt buckles when I can just hand them off to someone else to duplicate.”
“Let me guess, you’re using it as an excuse to be lazy?” Rand asked as he walked over with the captain and Apple.
“Not particularly,” Dawn replied as she turned and looked at the new people. The captain had managed to scrounge up a pair of shorts but hadn’t bothered with a shirt or anything which left his well toned arms and chest on display.
Elayne turned to look at Rand then sighed when she saw her duplicate holding the handsome man’s hand, slightly annoyed that she was still naked as they were basically twins.
“I have the ability to look at a ter’angreal and see the weaves needed to duplicate it. If I touch a ter’angreal, my ability lets me know how to use it. It shouldn’t be that hard to teach someone else to create each ter’angreal then jump to the next one after showing someone how to create it a couple times.”
“Fair enough,” Rand agreed.
Dawn turned and looked directly at the captain. “Before I forget, welcome to the island.”
“Thank you,” the captain replied pleasantly then glanced over at where Perrin was working on the forge then looked at Egwene. “I’m going to have to start a list of weaves to see how everything compares.”
“That would be helpful,” Moiraine agreed. “How many Ajahs did your version of the Tower have?”
“Seven, Greens live for battle, Reds are the shields against corruption, Blues are the champions of causes, Yellows are the healers, Browns are historians, Greys deal with laws and Whites are obsessed with logic and math.”
“Which were you?” Elayne asked, curious about the male Aes Sedai.
“Green…” the captain stared in shock as he spotted Lan walking over. “al'Lan Mandragoran, Prince of Malkier?”
“You are?” Lan asked as he studied the tall man standing next to Apple and Rand.
“Nazar Sedai, I spent a number of years as your father’s advisor or at least my world’s version of him.”
“How old are you?” Elayne asked, knowing that Malkier had fallen to the Blight over forty years ago and the man looked in his late thirties.
Nazar shrugged. “Nearly three hundred.”
“Were you there when Malkier fell?” Mat asked, curious how things had played out in the other world.
Nazar turned to look at Mat, his smile slipping off his face as he realized the young man wasn’t joking. “What do you mean fell?”
“The Blight overran Malkier almost forty five years ago,” Lan explained.
“If that’s true, why haven’t you raised the banners, summoned aid from the Tower and taken it back?” Nazar asked as he studied Lan’s face.
Moiraine spoke up, “How many Aes Sedai does your version of the Tower have?”
“We were hovering around thirty thousand the last I checked, why?”
“Another three thousand Accepted and fourteen hundred and seventy novices,” Rand added, not sure of the exact tally as they’d been on the road a while. He was trying not to think about the friends he’d left behind or that hadn’t actually existed depending on how you looked at it.
“Thirty thousand?” Moiraine asked in disbelief. “We barely have a thousand Aes Sedai.”
“How the hell did that happen?” Nazar asked in disbelief. “You have the advantage, you just walk past a girl that can channel and you know.”
Apple frowned at Moiraine. “He’s right, it should be easy even without the collars.”
Moiraine sighed. “Aes Sedai rarely have children for various reasons and the Red Ajah have been severing men for three thousand years which can’t help the numbers. Not to mention we haven’t been recruiting nearly as much as we should.”
Lan said, “As much as I’d love to retake my homeland, it would mean pulling people away from defending their own countries and dealing with the Blight is problematic at best.”
“In that case, I can understand why you haven’t retaken Malkier, we’ll have to work on that,” Nazar muttered the last part as he turned to look at the tray of burning oil that the blacksmith had just dropped the red hot blade into. “How many Aes Sedai can make weapons here?”
“None, the Aes Sedai swore an Oath against making weapons,” Mat said ‘helpfully’.
Nazar sighed as he realized the local Aes Sedai were idiots. “Please tell me you have some decent instructors that aren’t connected to this world’s version of the Tower?”
Ethan spoke up, “We have a few dozen, we’ve also been recruiting anyone with common sense that we can find.”
“Good,” Nazar agreed then glanced between Lan and Dawn. “If you need help training people to use Saidin, I’m more than willing to help provided you have a way to keep them from going insane.”
“Thanks,” Dawn agreed, knowing they had at least eighty five men that needed training and more on the way once they started sending people to mirror worlds on recruiting runs. “We should be able to cleanse the source in a couple days provided you’re willing to help defend us while we make the attempt.”
“How are you planning on cleansing the source?” Nazar asked warily.
“The plan is to basically force the taint out of the source and into Shadar Logoth so the taint destroys the twisted city and the city destroys the taint.”
Nazar scowled as he thought about Shadar Logoth. “I’m going to need more information than that but provided that your idea isn’t completely insane, we’ll help.”
“In that case, let’s grab something to drink and go over the plan,” Dawn suggested, rather happy to have help.
