Mist of Shadows
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Dawn and Reincarnation Part 12
🕑 Added 2019-04-30 07:25:28 +0000 UTCQueen Morgase did her best to avoid looking at the stranger’s clothes that twisted the light like a warder’s cloak and studied her face. “What makes you think that I’m going to turn on my advisor?”
Ethan kept her gaze focused on the queen sitting on her throne, doing his best to ignore the guards and his uncles who were giving him suspicious looks when they weren’t sneaking glances at the bound and shielded Aes Sedai he’d stuck in the corner of the room facing the wall like a naughty child. He was rather glad that he had a weave up to disguise his features, he didn’t need continual issues with the Red Ajah over Elaida as he was going to have enough issues with the fact that he was male and could channel saidar. “I can offer you several ter’angreal that create armor for the wearer, enough armor to turn an arrow or a sword which should help keep your children and yourself safe.”
Morgase shook her head. “Andor and the Tower have a long history of friendship, you’re asking me to risk our friendship over alleged crimes that you claim she committed over ten years ago.”
“She’s an Aes Sedai, flat out ask her to explain the situation and judge her actions. If you’re unwilling to do that, let me be blunt. Andor sends money to the Tower every year for services rendered, yes?”
Morgase gave a slight nod. “Most nations other than Amadicia give the Tower money.”
“I’m going to assume that the amount is far more than a personal tutor would cost for all of your children and then some, yes?”
“Yes,” Morgase admitted.
“Have you seen them actually do anything useful other than offer ‘suggestions’ that you could do without?” Ethan asked with a slight grin, knowing that Elaida was rather abrasive. “It seems that you’re not getting your money’s worth. Not only do they want money, they’re unwilling to give much if anything back. Would it kill them to post a couple Yellows in your city as a gesture of appreciation for the gold you send them every year?”
“From what I understand there aren’t enough Yellows to go around,” Morgase pointed out, despite having had the same thought many times.
“Surely there are more than twenty Aes Sedai that can heal, two per major country isn’t asking for much, is it?” Ethan asked ‘innocently’ as he carefully inverted a weave of compulsion so that Elayne and Morgase wouldn’t see it and touched Morgase with the weave. It wasn’t strong enough to get her to do anything she wouldn’t already do but it was strong enough to nudge people. “I’m offering Elayne the chance to learn to use the Power without signing away her life to the Tower.”
“Going to the Tower is an honor,” Elayne pointed out.
Ethan turned his attention to Elayne. “For your mother and previous Daughter-Heirs without enough potential to become Aes Sedai, you’re right. However, you have more than enough strength to become Aes Sedai which means you’ll have to deal with the three oaths while you’re queen. No more lies, not even the little ones where you tell your children that their art projects look good.”
Morgase snickered slightly, thinking of the times she’d done just that with Elayne and Gawyn.
Elayne gave her mother a suspicious look then focused on Ethan. “That just means you have to be honest.”
“No, it means you have to figure out ways to lie by omission. Your first and last duty should be toward your people, not the Tower but they’re always going to want their say. The oath that keeps you from using the Power as a weapon except in self defense is problematic when you’re a queen. Sure, it sounds nice in theory and something you certainly want the other person in a fight swearing but let’s be honest, queens need to have more freedom.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that you have to think of your country first, you can’t always afford to be nice or fair.”
Elayne shook her head, remembering what Elaida had told her about the Power. “You shouldn’t use the Power as a weapon.”
‘How the hell are you this naive,’ Ethan wondered as he tried to figure out how to frame things so that his mother’s alternate would understand. “Let me paint a picture of a possible future where you went to the Tower. Let’s say because of your power and dedication that it only takes eight years to become an Aes Sedai and that you avoid any major problems. That’s eight years you’re away from home, will you even remember your mother’s face by the time you get back?”
“Of course,” Elayne snapped, not actually sure she would.
Ethan shrugged. “Okay, sure, you remember her face, maybe you even come back and stay for a bit before the Tower sends you on a mission. You spend the next however many years running around as whatever Ajah you choose, going wherever the Tower sends you because that is what Aes Sedai do. We’ll say for the sake of argument your mother falls off a horse and dies, you’re now the queen.”
“Unlikely, but possible,” Morgase offered, curious where the woman was going with her scenario.
“It could be poison or any number of things.” Ethan turned his attention back to Elayne. “So of course the Tower jumps on the chance to put you on the throne, a queen they control, they haven’t had that power in a long time.”
“I’d be queen, not a puppet,” Elayne argued.
“Really? You’ve been away from your people for at least ten years by this point and the ‘wise’ Aes Sedai advisor they assign to help you only makes things worse because why would the Tower give you an Andorian advisor when they didn’t with your mother, after all, she’s still an Aes Sedai, why should where you’re from matter?”
“Not to mention you’d have to spend months trying to figure out how to balance all of your nobles,” Morgase added.
Ethan nodded. “Even ignoring the Tower having the ‘legal’ right to call you back to the Tower any time they want, you’re still going to spend most of your time assuring the nobles that you have their best interests at heart. Don’t forget because of the three oaths you can’t lie which means you’ll need to get really good at misdirection.”
“But they’ll know I can’t lie so when I tell them that I’m doing something in their best interest, they’ll know it’s true,” Elayne argued.
“No, they’ll know you believe it or that you’re spinning the truth on its head. There are over a hundred saying about truth and Aes Sedai for a reason, that oath is worthless and short sighted. Not to mention that being an Aes Sedai has risks.”
“What do you mean?” Elayne asked warily.
“Let’s ignore the nobles that are suddenly angry that you’ll outlive their grandchildren unless you die by misfortune, the Whitecloaks would love to kill an Aes Sedai queen,” Ethan pointed out, not seeing a point in mentioning they were already dealing with the Whitecloaks.
Gawyn spoke up, “That would start a war.”
Ethan snorted. “Do you honestly think they care? It took several nations banding together to drive them out of Altara the last time they started shit and they weren’t disbanded, merely forced to abandon Altara. None of the leaders were hung or punished in any meaningful way. Even if Gawyn managed to kill their leaders, it is still a win in their book, they prevented an Aes Sedai from being queen.”
“That’s insane,” Elayne complained.
“Never underestimate the insanity of fanatics,” Gareth Bryne spoke up.
Morgase sighed as she glanced at the captain of her guard and friend. “Gareth has a point, the Whitecloaks are dangerous.” She turned back to look at Elayne. “They consider anyone trained in the Tower to be a criminal and would happily kill me or any Aes Sedai given a chance.” She turned to look at Ethan. “I trust that you have a point?”
Ethan nodded. “Eventually they’re going to cause trouble in Andor with an Aes Sedai queen. Picture a thousand Whitecloaks running around accusing your people of being darkfriends because they want to destabilize the country.”
Elayne glanced between Gareth and her mother who had a slight scowl on her face then looked back at Ethan. “That’s why we have the guard.”
Gareth shook his head. “You send twenty people, they die to ‘bandits’, you send two hundred, they merely vanish because the Whitecloaks take time to bury the bodies before they move onto start torching villages to distract you. If you send more than a thousand, they fade into the background because you can’t move that many people without someone noticing.”
Ethan nodded. “Going yourself isn’t an option either because unless you’re in the thick of things, you aren’t afraid for your life which means you can’t use the Power as a weapon.”
“There are other options, talking with them,” Elayne complained.
“Why would they talk to a criminal they consider a darkfriend? At that point they’d consider it their sacred duty to kill you and cleanse your land by fire and blood. Now, if you’d been trained by us, your options are a lot different. Even without asking us for help, you could set up a meeting with the Whitecloaks and walk in with twenty elite royal guards protected by ter’angreal armor and tell them to leave your country on pain of death.”
“How do you expect to deal with a thousand soldiers?” Elayne asked in disbelief.
“With style, magic and skill. They’d attack you which would give you every justification to burn them to ash and send a polite letter to the leader of the Whitecloaks informing him you’ve dealt with over 1,000 traitors and deserters that were giving his people a bad name.”
“Traitors and deserters?” Elayne asked in confusion. “You said they were Whitecloaks.”
Morgase snorted. “Of course they are but that doesn’t mean the Captain Commander can afford to admit it, that would draw the attention of every country from Tear to the Blight.”
Elayne shook her head. “You’re talking about casually killing a thousand people.”
“No, I’m talking about executing a thousand murderers and thieves for their crimes, there is a difference,” Ethan stated firmly. “If you leave them alive, they’d kill far more of your people than a thousand, either by convincing some noble to rebel who you’d have to put down or in the deaths of innocents because they were allowed to keep killing people and stealing their possessions.”
“You’d also lose soldiers putting them down,” Gareth added, not seeing any real fault with the woman’s senario. While he doubted Niall would give such an order considering the fallout, he wouldn’t put it past the next Lord Captain Commander.
“Everything might work out if you become an Aes Sedai and beg the Tower for help but I wouldn’t count on it. All I’m asking is that you give us a year to show you that there are better options than being an Aes Sedai.”
“Nothing says that Elayne can’t go to the Tower in a year,” Morgase mused, seeing the benefits of Elayne having private training before showing up at the Tower, something that Elaida had been unwilling to give Elayne beyond the bare minimum of touching the source.
“Not to mention spending a year with us would drastically shorten the time you have to spend as a novice, with any luck, you’d be able to avoid it entirely,” Ethan added, knowing that advanced classes would appeal to Elayne.
“What about Galad and I?” Gawyn asked in concern, unwilling to leave his sister alone with strangers.
“You’re welcome to come with her, we have some excellent blademasters that would love to have a couple new students,” Ethan offered, knowing they’d both made excellent officers the last time around.
“I’d like to meet one of your blademasters,” Gareth spoke up.
“That can certainly be arranged,” Ethan replied, seeing no issue with talking Dawn into sparring with Gareth as he had a feeling she’d enjoy it.
“Where would you be training Elayne?” Morgase asked, wanting to make sure it was safe or at least safer than sending Elayne to the Tower when she was planning on charging Elaida with murder.
“On an island, far from prying eyes,” Ethan replied as he carefully used a touch more compulsion to keep the queen from freaking out over sending her children to some hidden location. He doubted the suggestion would last more than a week considering her natural resistance but that should be plenty of time to arrange everything.
“How long will it take to arrange for one of your blademasters to come here?” Gareth asked, half expecting her to stall or lie.
“Less than an hour, I’d just open a gate, walk through and talk to some people. Permission to open a gate?”
“Permission granted,” Morgase agreed, fairly sure she couldn’t actually create a gate as the Tower had lost that ability at some point after the Breaking.
“Don’t touch the edges, they’re insanely sharp.” Ethan carefully inverted the weave for the gate so that no one would be able to figure out how to recreate gates and opened a gate between the throne room and the house where Dawn had her door to the island.
Gareth stared at the hole in the world in disbelief for a couple seconds then asked, “Is it safe to walk through?”
“As long as you don’t touch the edges, it’s safer than riding a horse.”
Elayne stared at the gateway in fascination. “How, I didn’t see anything.”
“I’m particularly good at hiding my weaves,” Ethan replied with a slight smirk.
Gareth reached into his pocket and grabbed a copper coin then tossed it through the gate, underhanded. He was a touch surprised when the coin went through the portal and landed at a young lady’s feet.
The girl picked up the coin then looked through the gate at Gareth. “Do you need your coin back?”
“Might as well,” Ethan replied. “They wanted proof that I knew a blademaster, can you tell Dawn that I need some help convincing the Queen?” he asked, hoping the girl wouldn’t ask too many questions.
“Sure, no worries,” the girl tossed the coin back through the gate then headed for the door to the island at a jog to tell Dawn that someone needed her help and to bring a sword.
“How familiar with the destination do you have to be?” Gareth asked, already seeing how gateways would be a game changer in a war, especially if she could open larger gateways to move armies. Being able to reach any part of the country in hours rather than days would go a long ways toward keeping everyone safe.
“I just need a reasonable idea where my target is,” Ethan admitted, seeing no reason to explain the exact details or the problems with having to be familiar with your starting location as he didn’t want people knowing he couldn’t just drop in and kill them if he felt like it.
“That’s terrifying,” Gawyn blurted,
Ethan barely managed to avoid smirking. “Everyone has their talents.”
Elayne turned her attention toward Elaida. “If gates are so useful how did the Tower forget how to make them?”
“No idea, I’m guessing the breaking made using them unsafe and so the secret wasn’t passed on or something weird happened during the Trolloc wars.” Ethan glanced at Elaida. “Either way, I’m glad the Tower doesn’t have the ability to open gateways and drop soldiers wherever they like.”
“Wouldn’t that let them help people?” Elayne asked, not sure why Ethana seemed to dislike the Tower as much as she did.
“No,” Gareth stated flatly, thinking about all of the bad advice Elaida had given over the years and the cryptic orders other Aes Sedai had tried to give him at various points.
Morgase opened her mouth to comment then stopped and stared in surprise as a stunningly beautiful red haired young woman stepped out of the gate. She glanced between the girl and Galad, the resemblance unmistakeable for someone that knew Tigraine. “Who are you?”
Ethan cut in before Dawn could introduce herself, “Let me introduce, Dawn Mantear al’Thor, Queen of the Emerald Isle, daughter of Tigraine Mantear.”
Dawn turned to look at Ethan. ‘Emerald Isle? Why does that sound familiar, ah well, there are worse names for the island.’ She sighed. “Dawn would have been fine.”
Elayne stared at Dawn in shock. “What?”
“You’re my sister?” Galad asked in disbelief.
“Half sister,” Ethan said ‘helpfully’, enjoying shaking up people’s world view.
Gareth ignored the fact that the young woman was head and shoulders taller than him and studied her face, while he could certainly see the resemblance, Tigraine had vanished more than twenty years ago so it was hard to be sure. “You’re claiming she’s the previous Daughter-Heir’s daughter?”
“She wasn’t the Daughter-Heir by that point but yes, she’s the daughter of Tigraine Mantear,” Ethan replied as he let the gateway close so that no one would be tempted to go through the gate.
“Technically, I think that makes me minor nobility,” Dawn replied with a shrug, not really sure how that part of things actually worked.
“You’re not going to claim any of your mother’s titles?” Elayne asked more than a little surprised that no one else had raised the question yet.
“Why would I?” Dawn asked as she pointed toward Morgase. “You have a great queen already. Besides, even ignoring the fact that it would be hard to prove my claim without dragging certain Aes Sedai here to testify, I’m the Queen of the Emerald Isle, that is more than enough responsibility for anyone.”
Morgase relaxed slightly as she realized the young woman had no interest in the crown, even twenty years out she might have been able to cause trouble depending on who her father was. “Why are you here?”
“I’m just here because one of the girls said you needed a blademaster for a demonstration of skill. Do you have a practice ring we can use?”
“You’re a blademaster?” Galad asked in disbelief.
“I’ve defeated a blademaster which gives me the right to the title,” Dawn replied thinking of the various duels against her father she’d won the last of couple years. Sure, it had taken Mat to inform her that her father was actually a blademaster but it should still count. “Are you interested in sparring?”
Gareth glanced at Morgase. “I think that can be arranged unless the Queen has an objection.”
“By all means though I think we should deal with Elaida first,” Morgase said looking at Elaida.
Dawn nodded, not sure what else to say considering they were in Morgase’s throne room and she’d rather not offend the Queen.
Ethan cut the threads of air blocking Elaida’s ears and the bindings so the witch could hear them and turn around.
“How dare you!” Elaida snapped then stared as she turned and saw Dawn. “How are you that strong?”
“Practice,” Dawn replied a touch sarcastically.
Morgase Trakand knew there would be hell to pay with the Tower for declaring Elaida a murderer and basically giving her to the stranger that had offered her daughter training but she wasn’t sure she cared considering the chance that Elayne could learn how to create gateways and ter’angreal without the three oaths to complicate her daughter’s life. “I find you guilty of multiple counts of murder by proxy Elaida do Avriny a'Roihan, you’re henceforth banished from Andor.”
“You’re making a mistake!” Elaida snarled, glaring at the queen. “The Tower won’t forgive this!”
“I think you’re overestimating your importance to the Tower,” Morgase replied, more than ready to have Elaida gone from her lands considering the trouble the other woman had caused her over the years and how much Ethan was paying her in the form of ter’angreal and training for Elayne.
“The Tower will come for your stash of trinkets,” Elaida said as she glared at Ethan. “I’ll see you severed for sticking a collar on me!”
Ethan shook his head. “The Tower has no claim to anything I make.”
Elaida glared at the guards that were studying her like a dangerous dog or stray cat then turned back to glare at Ethan. “You can channel and you obviously copied something an Aes Sedai created.”
“That’s like walking up to a blacksmith with a sword and asking him to copy it then saying, ‘Oh yeah, because the sword is a copy of my sword, I own it.” Ethan snorted. “It doesn’t work like that.”
“We’ll see,” Elaida said nastily then turned to look at the queen. “I’ll need my stuff.”
Morgase looked down her nose at Elaida. “You’re a condemned murderer, you’re not getting your possessions back.”
“Some of my possessions belong to the Tower, they’ll want them back,” Elaida said smugly.
“The Tower is more than welcome to send someone that isn’t Red to collect your possessions and help my guards look through them to make sure you didn’t steal anything. You’ve proven yourself quite untrustworthy.”
“You’re breaking a thousand year old tradition if you don’t send Elayne to the Tower,” Elaida snarled, trying to browbeat Morgase into seeing sense.
“My daughter’s training is none of your concern.” Morgase shook her head. “I should have done this years ago. Your fate is no longer my concern, you will be given over to the Emerald Isle for punishment as Andor doesn’t have the means to keep a channeler contained and the Tower is unwilling to punish you effectively.”
“I won’t forget this insult,” Elaida stated firmly, trusting her Ajah to find her and punish the people responsible.
“You had your chance to state flat out that you weren’t guilty of the crimes you were accused of, you couldn’t or wouldn’t so I’m washing my hands of you Elaida. Perhaps the next advisor the Tower sends will be more reasonable and understand that they are in fact just an advisor. Get her out of my throne room.”
“With pleasure,” Ethan said enthusiastically as he used threads of air to lift Elaida up into the air then carefully wove the threads for a gateway and twisted them so that none of the channelers could see them.
Elaida stared in shock at the hole in the air that led to a forest. “What did you do!”
“It’s a gateway, the Tower will never find you,” Ethan said smugly as he sent Elaida through the gateway first. “I’ll be back once I’ve dropped her in prison.”
“Best of luck, I’m going to have fun sparring,” Dawn said, looking forward to her matches.
“Thanks,” Ethan replied as he walked through the gateway and let it close behind him.
“How did you make the gateway?” Elaida demanded as she glared at Ethan.
Ethan frowned as he looked at Elaida, a touch surprised that she hadn’t realized just how much trouble she was in yet. “Magic.”
“The Tower could teach you if you let me free,” Elaida offered, planning on killing her as soon as she could.
“Let’s get one thing straight, you will never be free until you die.” Ethan smirked as he imagined Elaida’s flesh burning and being ripped off by a thousand frozen fish hooks then ‘pushed’ the mental image into his bracelet. While he hated the use the Seanchan put the a’dam, he had to admit that it was rather useful for dealing with twisted channelers. He smiled as Elaida thrashed against the threads holding her up and screamed her throat raw for half a minute before he let the sensations vanish.
He waited twenty seconds until he was fairly sure Elaida was conscious enough to understand him. “You’re probably asking yourself how I’m causing you pain without leaving a mark? Magic, that’s actually going to be the answer for everything for a while. Well, maybe not why I’m going to break your mind and leave you a broken shell of your former self.”
“Why,” Elaida managed to gasp out after a couple tries.
“I believe in family, you ordered my father stuffed in a box and broken.” He ignored her trying to tell him that she’d never ordered anyone put in a box as she could barely speak above a whisper thanks to screaming her throat raw as he continued talking, “By the time I’m done with you, you won’t even know your name.”
“My name is Elaida Sedai,” Elaida managed to cough out.
“No, I believe that your name is Puppy, what is your name?” Ethan asked sarcastically.
“Elaida-” Elaida screamed as it felt like her fingers had just been broken all at once.
“I’m sorry, the correct answer is Puppy. Say it with me, Puppy.” He smirked as he sent the feeling of being lashed across the shoulders with a whip when she said her name was Elaida Sedai. “I love a challenge. Don’t worry, no one will hear you scream.”
“I’m going to kill you,” Elaida snarled as she glared at Ethan.
He smirked as he sent the sensation of being punched in the stomach over the link between them. He knew it wasn’t exactly fair to blame this version of Elaida for things the other version did before he was even born but she was already a murderer even if she didn’t see it, that meant she was on the same path and likely would have taken the same actions given half the chance. “Don’t worry Puppy, we’ll get you trained up.”
