Mist of Shadows
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Dawn and Reincarnation Part 3
🕑 Added 2019-02-02 03:49:35 +0000 UTC
Dawn frowned slightly as the gate closed behind them. She knew she should be impressed with the twenty foot tall wooden walls but she’d seen larger or at least she could remember looking down at a city filled with lights that stretched as far as she could see. She shook her head as the memory turned into smoke as she tried to focus on it. ‘Great, more stuff from dreams.’
She ignored the strange looks her group were getting as she took in the sights such as they were. Most of the people looked normal enough, brown hair with brown eyes though there were the occasional lighter haired people mixed in. It was a bit disconcerting to see so many people walking around when it wasn’t a holiday. She blinked as she realized they’d stopped at a stable. She dismounted then scratched Giles between his ears. “Can you be a good dog?”
Giles stuck out his tongue at her then licked her face.
“That’s what I thought,” Dawn muttered as she wiped the slobber off her face.
Rand shook his head. “I swear your dog is more intelligent than he should be.”
“Certainly smarter than some of the idiots in town,” Dawn agreed as she stretched her arms over her head. “I’m looking forward to a decent night’s sleep.”
“In a bed without rocks,” Mat agreed. He was used to riding and camping but this was certainly the most he’d ridden in one stretch.
Dawn followed Moiraine into the inn with Egwene and the boys while Lan talked to the stable hand about the horses and her dog. It was a bit crowded but thankfully not so crowded you were worried about it being standing room only. She watched the people for a couple minutes as Moiraine talked to the owner. They seemed normal enough if slightly rougher around the edges than she was used to.
Min blinked as she walked out of the reading room and saw the group of strangers and the bright visions of the future that surrounded them, they were worse than Aes Sedai. Seeing the young red haired man’s visions and knowing she’d be mixed up in his life was disconcerting, seeing the visions swirling around the girl with red hair was worse as there were dozens of visions flickering in and out of focus. “What are you?”
Dawn looked at the rather attractive girl in men’s clothing. “What do you mean?”
Moiraine shook her head. “Not here. Backroom.” She looked at Mat, Perrin and Rand. “Don’t wander off.”
Min led the way to the back room, a bit uneasy about the visions surrounding Dawn.
Dawn glanced around the room then followed Min and Moiraine to the small backroom. “Make with the explainy…” she paused not sure why she’d said that except that it felt right for some reason and yet wrong as if it was familiar and yet not something she’d ever said. “I mean explanations.”
Moiraine asked, “What did you see?”
“I’m connected to the young man with red hair as are two other women that aren’t here.” Min pointed at Dawn. “This one, is bound to one hundred and eight others that will shake the heavens. I also see her pulling a sword from a stone and a crown on her head.”
“One hundred and eight?” Dawn asked warily.
“There are other images I don’t understand, trees, a glowing crystal sword and a burning white cloak on the ground.”
“Visions, always less than helpful,” Dawn agreed, thinking of her less than clear dreams.
“Trouble with the Children of the Light?” Moiraine asked warily.
“Yes though I’m not sure what form the trouble will take or what the rest of it means, she can channel can’t she?”
“What makes you say that?” Dawn asked, not sure who the stranger was other than someone Moiraine knew.
“You have too many images to be anything else. The boys have far more imagines than they should as well.”
Dawn twitched as she heard a familiar howl. “Shit, got to go.”
Min blinked as Dawn seemed to step into the shadows and vanish. “Where did you find her?”
“With the rest of them in the Two Rivers,” Moiraine replied, more than a little disturbed by Dawn’s vanishing trick as she hadn’t felt her channel. “Is she going to be a problem?”
“Only for the other side,” Min replied thinking about some of the symbols she’d seen.
Dawn stepped out of the shadows and forced herself not to scream or twitch as she found herself in a side street with a dozen men in white cloaks and white uniforms facing Giles and a glowing red haired girl in a faded yellow dress holding an intricately carved wooden staff that was cowering behind Giles. “Stop threatening my dog!”
Dain Bornhald turned to look at the tall red haired girl that was threatening him. “Your dog?”
“Yes, now what the hell is going on?!” Dawn demanded, suddenly wishing she had a decent weapon.
“Your ‘dog’ is preventing us from dealing with a darkfriend and a murderer.”
The girl shouted, “I didn’t murder anyone, I stopped some fucking bandits trying to lynch a girl, this is Andor not that shit hole you call home so piss off and die bastard!”
“Borders don’t stop the Children of the Light,” one of the other Children of the Light members called out as he waved his sword at her.
“Kill the shadowspawn hound!” one of the other soldiers called out.
Giles dodged to the side of the man’s slash then lunged forward and bit the man’s wrist, crushing it in his jaws as he pulled the idiot off his feet and tossed him into the wall.
The girl slammed her staff into the man’s helmet hard enough to drop him unconscious. “You have no legal authority to do shit here White Cloak.”
“Kill them!” one of the other White Cloaks shouted.
Dain scowled as he looked at the girl hiding behind the dog. “Kill the dog then grab the woman, we’ll take them back to the Dome of Truth and hang them after giving them a fair trial.”
“You have no legal authority to take me anywhere or arrest me!” the girl snapped as she gripped her staff tightly.
Giles whined as one of the men managed to hit him with a knife in the shoulder.
Dawn screamed as she saw her dog get hit then jumped at the closest White Cloak, whatever the man had been expecting from the tall girl in men’s clothing it wasn’t a solid punch to the throat that lifted him off his feet and sent him to the ground with a crushed windpipe. She dove for the sword Giles had caused the first guy to drop, picked it up then rolled to her feet as shadows wrapped themselves around her and everything slowed down.
The girl with red hair stared in disbelief as the other girl cut her way through the ten remaining men in less than five seconds. “Shit… they’re going to hunt us down and kill us for this. Not that they weren’t already going to kill me.”
Dawn glanced down the narrow alley to make sure that no one had seen the confrontation then hurried over to check on her dog’s shoulder. She quickly wove the threads needed to heal Giles’s shoulder. “There you go.”
Giles licked her hand, happy that his shoulder felt better.
The girl shivered as she looked at the dead men scattered around the alley. “We should get out of here before someone sees us, I don’t want to have explain a dozen dead White Cloaks to the city guard.”
“That’s why we’re going to get rid of the bodies, I’ll be right back,” Dawn said as she grabbed two of the White Cloaks then shifted to the dream realm with the dead bodies.
The girl blinked as the red haired girl vanished. “Great, I’m seeing things.”
Giles sat down and stuck out his tongue at the girl.
The girl jumped as Dawn reappeared. “How are you doing that?”
“Magic? I’m Dawn by the way,” Dawn replied as she walked over and grabbed the next two bodies.
“Tara Pond,” Tara replied as she walked over and started collecting coin purses and useable weapons from the dead.
“That’s a nice name,” Dawn said, feeling like she should know the girl, yet knowing she’d never seen the red haired girl before which was a shame as she was certainly attractive.
“I was found next to a pond as a child and I could only remember my given name,” Tara admitted, a touch sad that she only had vague memories of her mother.
“There are worst last names,” Dawn said good naturedly. “Back in a blink.”
Giles tilted his head and whined softly as Dawn vanished again.
“It’s not like they need it anymore,” Tara replied absently as she tried to place why Dawn was strangely familiar. ‘Maybe she just has one of those faces,’ she thought as Dawn reappeared and grabbed the next two people then vanished without a trace. “That’s disconcerting.” She worked on collecting the loot while Dawn removed the rest of the White Cloaks.
Dawn finished looting the first couple White Cloaks then slipped back into the normal world. She’d have to go back for their armor later but she doubted anything would disturb it in the dream world, at least until she grabbed it. “That should keep the city guard from closing the gates or getting overly worried until after we’re long gone.”
“Where did you learn to fight?” Tara asked, more than a little impressed by Dawn’s skill with a blade.
“Dad was a soldier,” Dawn replied as she started transferring coin purses and supplies to the bags on Giles’ harness. “We can split the gold back at the inn unless you want me to just guess based on the weight of the coin purses and give you half now.”
“I could use a drink and I certainly wouldn’t object to having something to eat and discussing the loot somewhere safer,” Tara admitted.
“In that case, let’s get out of here,” Dawn said as she finished loading Giles up with the loot. ‘At least I should have enough coin to get back from Tar Valon without going hungry.’
0o0o0
Tara twitched slightly as the woman with the Aes Sedai face entered the reading room. “You didn’t tell me you knew an Aes Sedai Dawn.”
Dawn glanced between Moiraine and Tara, happy that they’d already split the coin from the White Cloaks. “Is that a problem?”
“Not particularly,” Tara answered after a moment’s hesitation. “The last one I ran into was hell in the bedroom but way too insistent about me going to the Tower to sign their book.”
Moiraine studied the strange red haired girl, she could sense that she could channel but she wasn’t getting a feeling for how strong she’d become which was strange. “The Tower might be the best place for you.”
Tara shook her head. “No thanks, I’ve picked up enough tricks that I’m not going to die from lack of control. Besides, I had enough of people bossing me around growing up, I’m not going to sign my life away so that a bunch of stuffy old ladies can tell me what to do for the rest of my life.”
“I can’t say I blame you,” Dawn agreed. “I’m just picking up what I can until they get to the Tower.” She looked at Moiraine. “Was there something you needed or were you interested in one of the books?”
“I was curious about your hasty departure earlier,” Moiraine said as she glanced between the two red haired girls.
“I wasn’t paying attention, I just sort of jumped to the alley where Giles and Tara were being attacked by thugs.”
Tara nodded. “I would have been done for if Giles hadn’t jumped down into the middle of the alley and growled at the thugs. He distracted them long enough for Dawn to show up and save me.”
“Nothing wrong with being a hero,” Dawn replied, happy that they’d managed to make it back to the inn without running into trouble.
“Try not to stay up too late, we’re leaving in the morning,” Moiraine said, not sure how the new girl fit into things but curious why she couldn’t sense her potential. “Where did you spend time with an Aes Sedai?”
“When I was traveling, I ran into an attractive women that wore way too much green, we shared more than a couple drinks and one thing lead to another.” Tara didn’t see a reason to mention that she’d ended up bonded to the crazy green or about the tattoo on her shoulder of a dragon’s fang or the dragons on her arms that weren’t remotely normal or at least she’d never heard of metallic tattoos before she’d woken up next to the red head with a headache.
Dawn glanced between Tara and Moiraine. “You should come with us, maybe you can pick up a couple more tricks.”
“Not the worst idea,” Moiraine agreed, curious about the strange young woman.
Tara opened her mouth to tell Moiraine no then stopped when she noticed the hopeful expression on Dawn’s face. “I guess it was time to move on anyways.”
“Good, I’ll see you bright and early in the morning.”
“If we must,” Tara said, not wanting to stick around in case someone remembered seeing the White Cloaks follow a red haired woman into the alley. She loved her hair but it was certainly memorable in these parts.
“On that note, I should probably practice my weaves a bit before I get some sleep,” Dawn replied as she pulled four decent sized chunks of agate out of her bag.
“Juggling?” Tara asked with a touch of amusement then frowned when Dawn created a sword mold out of hardened air. “Or not.”
Moiraine frowned slightly as Dawn used earth and fire to melt the stone so that it flowed into the mold. “You’re making a weapon.”
“I’m not an Aes Sedai and I need a sword,” Dawn replied absently as she focused on making sure the liquid rock completely filled the mold. “So yes, I’m making a weapon.”
“How are you going to keep the edge from shattering?” Tara asked as she studied the threads.
“Magic.” Dawn pressed the sides of her mold together to thin the main part of the blade and get more material for the tang and cross guards.
Moiraine frowned slightly as she did her best to follow the complicate weave that pulled the heat from the blade and sunk it into the stone floor while another tapestry of light wove through the blade in a complicated dance that turned the material into a purple crystal.
Tara waited for Dawn to finish then blurted, “Where did you learn that?”
“I figured out how to turn the rock into crystal by studying my bracer, the rest just came to me while I was working on it.” Dawn smiled as she examined the razor sharp edges of the blade.
“Weird.” Tara was fairly sure that wasn’t supposed to happen but she wasn’t exactly an expert when it came to the more esoteric uses for the Power, just combat. “I can’t see the Tower being happy about this.”
“They won’t be,” Moiraine agreed.
“Yet another reason not to join the Tower.” Dawn grinned as she looked down the perfectly straight crystal blade. “Either way, I’m going to need a sheath and a hilt before I can use it.”
Moiraine sighed. “Stay here, I’ll see what Lan can come up with, I’d rather not draw more attention to ourselves than we have to.”
“Probably for the best,” Dawn admitted as Moiraine headed for the door. “I’ll try to stay out of trouble.”
“Good,” Moiraine said under her breath as she left.
Dawn carefully set her sword on the floor, being very careful not to hit anything with it. “That’s going to take some getting used to.”
“I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it,” Tara said with amusement as she grabbed a book off the shelf. “Any clue where we’re heading?”
“Caemlyn then the Tower unless we get swept up in adventure.”
“In that case, let’s hope for some adventure.”
“Works for me,” Dawn replied as she started carefully poking at her ring, trying to figure out how to duplicate it.
0o0o0
“One of these days, your luck will run out Gambler,” Ishamael said as he looked at the man with a blurred face sitting in a nondescript inn room that could have been anywhere in a hundred lands or none which didn’t help all that much with narrowing down his location.
“You’d be surprised, he’s a hero,” Dawn said with amusement as she kept her gun trained on the man with flames for eyes.
Ishamael turned to stare at the pretty brown haired girl with emerald eyes that was sitting on the table far too calm to have any understanding of who he was. “How are you in my dream shard?”
“Magic,” Dawn replied as she shot the man in the chest several times, much to his shock. “I’ll be seeing you.” She yawned as she woke up to Egwene shaking her awake. “What’s up?”
Egwene said, “It’s time to get up, we’re leaving.”
“Sorry, I was having the weirdest dream,” Dawn muttered as she glanced around the inn room, trying to shake off the weird, far too detailed dream that made little sense other than someone being after Mat for some reason. The frustrating thing was she’d known who she was shooting in the dream but she couldn’t remember now that she was awake other than the vague sense that he wasn’t dead and that his showing up was important.
“We’re leaving as soon as we finish eating, Moiraine wants an early start.”
“Thanks,” Dawn replied as she rolled out of bed, wishing the inn had a shower. She pulled her trousers on then pulled her jacket on over her shirt. “Did you get anymore practice in?” she asked as she ran her fingers through her long red hair, getting the worst of the snarls out while Egwene checked to sure they hadn’t forgotten anything.
Egwene shook her head. “Not really, I think Moiraine is still trying to take it easy after the last couple days.”
“I can’t really blame her, we’re going to be riding hard until we reach Caemlyn. Not exactly what you were expecting when you decided to tag along, was it?” Dawn asked as she hooked her new sword sheath to her belt and picked up her bags.
“Not really,” Egwene admitted as she lead the way into the hall.
Dawn closed the door behind her then followed her friend down the stairs and into the mostly deserted common room. She gave her brother a grin then walked over and sat down next to Mat. “How are you doing?”
“Weird dreams,” Mat muttered between bites of his stew.
“Same, probably just homesickness,” Dawn lied as Lan set a bowl of stew in front of her. “Thanks.”
“Two minutes.” Lan said as he headed for the door to check the horses.
“Sure,” Dawn replied as she dug into her bowl, hoping the next couple days were less hectic.
0o0o0
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Mist of Shadows
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Robert Buniff
I like where this is going.
