Copy Protection Void Part 2 (Patreon)

Moiraine followed Lan into her room and focused on the strange villagers. "Where did you find the crystals?"

"In a box," Mist replied, not seeing a reason to explain that he'd pulled them out of his gift menu or that he could probably get more by killing shadowspawn at the moment. "I have three left, two of them grant skills related to blacksmithing and the other is for the Unbroken Queen."

"The Unbroken Queen?" Lan asked, not familiar with the title.

"I don't know, I have a theory but I could be wrong," Mist replied, not really wanting to explain how everything fit and possibly ruin Nyneave's chances at romance.

"What's your theory?" Egwene asked Mist.

"Nynaeve, she's the only one that really fits," Mist offered, wondering if they'd come up with someone else that fit.

Moiraine glanced between Egwene and Mist, wondering what she was missing. "The wisdom?"

"It could also be Elayne," Egwene pointed out. "Which crystal did you give me?"

"The Dreamweaver," Mist admitted after finishing another drink of his cider.

"That fits," Egwene admitted, glad that she hadn't ended up with Moghedien's memories.

"Dreamweaver?" Moiraine asked.

"I'm a dreamer or I was or I will be. How much was real?" Egwene asked, finding it strange to be back in the village despite the fact that she'd never left.

"I don't know," Mist admitted. "The description of the crystal just said that it would give the right person memories of a life they could have lived and the skills to go with it."

"And if the wrong person used it?" Egwene asked, wondering how much he'd risked.

Mist shrugged. "Then you would have just received the skills and we'd have to convince you to walk before you ran."

"What did you give Rand?" Egwene asked, wondering how much he knew.

"Before I answer that, can I get confirmation that you remember our guests?" Mist asked Egwene, wanting to make sure that they were who he thought they should be.

"You don't?" Egwene asked in surprise.

Mist glanced at the gem on Moiraine's forehead. "The crystal gave me information about a possible future, it didn't include images and I certainly didn't live the next couple of years like you, so I'm reasonably sure that her name is Moiraine and that he's Lan but reasonably sure isn't the same as being sure."

"They look and sound right. Give me a second, I need to channel," Egwene said as she embraced the source and carefully wove a tiny thread of spirit, using it to create a rose in front of her. She relaxed slightly when she was suddenly able to judge Moiraine's strength and realized it matched what it should be which reduced the chances of someone impersonating her. "Moiraine Sedai of House Damodred and Lan al'Mandragoran, warder and uncrowned king of Malkier."

Moiraine stared at the rose woven out of spirit then stared at Mist when she realized he was looking directly at the rose. "Can you see that?"

"Would you believe me if I said no?" Mist asked, a touch annoyed that she'd noticed him looking at the ethereal rose.

"Probably not," Moiraine replied. "Can you channel?"

"Not that I know of," Mist assured her. "One of the crystals I used gave me the ability to see magic and conjure certain types of clothes."

"Certain types of clothes?" Egwene asked as she let the source go, causing the rose to vanish.

Mist swapped to his costume page and conjured a red loincloth.

"Did you use an illusion?" Egwene asked, finding that more plausible than him actually conjuring the undergarments out of thin air.

"Like I said, I can't channel or at least I don't think it's channeling," Mist told her as he took his sunglasses off and handed them to Egwene. "Put the glasses on and look at the loincloth."

Egwene carefully put the glasses on, expecting things to be blurry and pleasantly surprised when they weren't. She stared at the information that was floating next to the loincloth. "This is a ter'angreal, did you pull it out of your sleeve?"

"I'm not a gleeman," Mist replied with amusement as he rolled his sleeves up then conjured another loincloth.

Egwene compared the red loincloth and the purple one he'd just conjured, finding the description the same. "What does it mean when it says mana pool?"

"I'm guessing it's like a well that someone can't steal," Mist replied, not actually sure if the pool refilled or if they'd have to refill it.

"Well?" Moiraine asked, realizing that Egwene recognized the name.

"It's basically a way to store a small amount of power so that you can walk into a stedding or somewhere like Far Madding and use the power," Mist explained.

"More knowledge from the crystal?" Moiraine asked.

"Yes, which means we'll have to test it," Mist told her.

"Are you saying you don't trust the knowledge?" Lan asked, trying to get a feel for the young man's thought process.

"The glasses told me that the knowledge was from a possible future. I'm expecting events to change, especially since we'll be making changes." Mist glanced at Egwene. "The biggest change is going to be Egwene, especially if I can talk her into staying in Emond's Field and training people."

"I'd miss the chance to get to know Elayne," Egwene mused, trying to think of anything positive that came from her brief time in the Tower other than information and her friendship with the princess and coming up short.

"You could always kidnap her and stuff Elaida in a box," Mist suggested, only half joking about kidnapping the princess.

Egwene smiled at the thought of stuffing the bitch in a box and forgetting about her for a couple of days. "Don't tempt me."

"What do you have against Elaida Sedai?" Moiraine asked.

"She led a coup that stilled Siuan and she ordered the Dragon Reborn tossed in a box and beaten to soften him up and to teach him to fear the Tower," Egwene explained.

Moiraine winced. "I wish I could say that I can't imagine her doing something that stupid but I can't."

Mist finished his cider. "She's lucky the Dragon didn't obliterate the Tower when he escaped, it wouldn't have taken more than a minute with the sa'angreal he had access to. Without the sa'angreal, it might have taken three."

"He's that powerful?" Moiraine asked warily.

Mist shook his head. "It's not about power, it's about knowing how to destroy a tower. You smash the base and push the top and everyone dies, the only reason the Forsaken didn't just wipe the Tower out in an afternoon was that they wanted recruits. Why bother scouring the country for recruits when you can let the Tower do it."

"When do the Forsaken escape?" Moiraine asked, curious how long they had before things got far more complicated.

"I don't know exactly. I know that Ishamael has been free for about twenty years because he got upset at the Black Ajah for torturing the old Amyrlin to death and almost exposing the Black Ajah. He's been tossed out and pulled back into the prison three times since the Breaking."

"Three times?" Moiraine asked, wondering if his information was correct.

"The first time was during the During the Trolloc Wars and the second was during Hawkwing's life, he was Hawkwing's adviser and he was at least partially responsible for the oath against making weapons, mostly because shadowspawn are hard to kill without power wrought weapons and what better way to hide a bunch of cultists if everyone 'knows' that they can't lie."

"And the rest?" Moiraine asked, not sure if she trusted the information but the records were clear that his advisor had vanished without a trace.

"Aginor and Balthamel might be free now or they might escape in a couple of weeks. In the other world they followed you to the Eye of the World, I'm not actually sure how. I know how they claimed to have followed you but that doesn't make it true."

"What other talents did you get from the crystal?" Egwene asked, knowing they'd have plenty of time to cover the forsaken later.

"I have immunity to compulsion and dreamers pulling me into the world of dreams and one of my talents has a small chance to give me more crystals if I kill darkfriends or monsters, which would be a lot more useful if I had any combat skills to speak of," Mist explained, figuring he might as well tell Egwene.

Moiraine wove a shield around Mist. "Can you create another loincloth?"

"Hopefully," Mist replied as he conjured a green loincloth. "Thank you for shielding me, it's nice to know that my talent doesn't have anything to do with the power."

Moiraine glanced at the glasses that Egwene was wearing then focused on Mist. "I'm surprised you can see the weave without the glasses."

"The glasses give me details about magical items, my Soulsight ability lets me see magic and the darkness in people," Mist explained, relieved to have a bit more confirmation that the ability wasn't actually connected to saidin.

Moiraine let go of the source. "Most Aes Sedai would assume that any ter'angreals are the property of the White Tower."

"By that logic, they're claiming that heartstone plates and ter'angreal were never sold or given away in the Age of Legends, something I find difficult to believe. There were probably countless events or treaties when Aes Sedai gave people gifts or traded items for services. If they can't prove that a particular object was never sold then I'll call a spade a spade and call the Aes Sedai thieves when they try to steal it," Mist stated.

"I doubt the Tower would agree with you," Moiraine warned him.

"They lost any moral high ground they might have had when they stabbed Manetheren in the back and made damned sure they wouldn't get help in the fight against the Shadow that resulted in the nation dying. All because the Amyrlin at the time was a bitch that couldn't put her duty above her personal feelings for the queen."

"You should be careful with that story, the Tower doesn't appreciate their failures being bandied about," Moiraine warned him, knowing that a lot of Aes Sedai would take it poorly.

Mist sighed as he thought about the infighting in the series. "Most Aes Sedai need a dose of humility." He turned to look at Egwene. "How useful do you think you'll be when the shadowspawn attack tonight?"

"I should be able to kill a few of them but don't expect me to kill all of them," Egwene warned him, wanting a couple of weeks to get back up to something approaching a workable amount of strength before she got into a real fight.

"Shadowspawn? How would they get here?" Lan asked, finding it unlikely that they'd managed to sneak across several countries without being seen.

Mist focused on Lan. "Waygates are difficult to destroy and Manetheren had a grove. The projections against shadowspawn have fallen apart over the years and shadowspawn souls aren't particularly appealing to the Black Wind. It will devour them if given a chance but they don't call it the same way as human souls which means that with enough work, shadowspawn can navigate the Ways. Assuming you have enough fades to force the issue."

"What did you give Rand?" Egwene asked, trying to get the discussion back on track.

"The glasses said the crystal would give him five years of magic training. I'm not sure if that means he'll get five years of training with saidin or saidar or five years of training with generic magic that isn't tainted as hell."

"That's a relief," Egwene admitted, glad that she wouldn't have to rescue Logain so he could teach Rand. "Can I talk you out of one of the loincloths?" she asked, willing to wear something that Nynaeve would explode over if it meant she'd get permanent access to a well of power.

Mist tossed her the purple loincloth. "I'd make a joke about modeling the clothes I'm giving away but we don't really have the time and I don't want to get hit with a switch."

"I'm not Nynaeve," Egwene replied with amusement as she headed for the door. "I'll be back in a few, don't kill him."

"I'm not going to kill him," Moiraine assured her.

"I was talking to Lan," Egwene replied then left to put the loincloth on and kill Fain before he slipped away if she could do it in a way that wouldn't be noticed.

"Do you know how many trollocs are coming?" Lan asked, not sure if their information was accurate but figuring it would be better than nothing.

"No," Mist replied with a sigh. "There are limits to how many they can bring through the ways, the more they bring, the more chance that the Black Wind shows up and consumes them. I'd guess less than a hundred but I don't know. There's also a chance that the numbers won't be the same as I only saw a possible version of the future."

Lan glanced over at Moiraine then focused on Mist. "Would giving the crystal to the wisdom help with the fight?"

"That depends entirely on if she's the Unbroken Queen," Mist admitted. "If she's the Unbroken Queen, they could send an army and she'd destroy them, if she's not, it would be a waste of the crystal because of her block and lack of training. I'm hoping Egwene can figure something out before we have to use it because it might apply to Elayne and she can make ter'angreal."

"How did she learn?" Moiraine asked.

"She picked up a simple ter'angreal and got curious about how it worked," Mist explained. "She's one of the only people on this side of the ocean that I know of that has the talent."

"This side of the ocean, implying that you know of people across the ocean?" Moiraine asked.

"Artur Hawkwing sent an army across the ocean, unfortunately at least half of the bastards survived and founded an empire that hates channelers. They spent a thousand years consolidating everything and they'll be launching an invasion in a couple of months to take over and to kidnap every channeler they can find so they can chain them and use them in battle."

"Do they have a copy of the oath rod?" Moiraine asked, not sure how you'd keep prisoners that could channel under control without it or a large number of channelers.

"No, they use ter'angreal leashes that force a twisted link on the person wearing the collar," Mist explained.

Moiraine studied Mist for a few seconds. "That shouldn't work unless the person holding the leash can channel."

"Correct," Mist replied. "The people wearing the bracelets can learn to channel, the people they enslave have the spark or learned to channel for one reason or another. They've built up a culture around treating the people with the spark as slaves and the people that can learn as valuable members of the empire, as long as they never channel."

"That doesn't make any sense, you'd have to channel eventually," Moiraine argued.

"Not if you never start," Mist replied. "The leashes don't actually care if you've channeled, just that you have the ability. Thankfully, the Seanchan don't understand that the same talent that lets them create the leashes would let them create other ter'angreal or maybe they don't have enough people with the talent to risk experimenting or the leaders don't want them getting creative so they avoid letting them experiment."

"How were they defeated in your vision?" Lan asked.

"Someone blew the Horn of Valere the first time they showed up and The Dragon Reborn showed up with an army of channelers the second time and they decided to behave for the moment as the last battle was approaching. Of course, their promises are worth less than shit in the future so you might want to look into the best way to fight a bunch of combat trained channelers that don't have any objection to killing people or armies."

"Where was the horn found?" Moiraine asked, curious if he knew where it was.

"In the Eye of the World with one of the seals on the Dark One's prison under a pool of liquid saidin," Mist replied with a grin. "I don't think the Aes Sedai wanted people using it during the Breaking or until they needed it for the Last Battle."

Lan glanced at Moiraine. "That would explain why no one ever found it."

"By the way, on the off chance that you end up going to Shadar Logoth when you leave, explain to the fools that they shouldn't pick up anything, not rocks, not coins and especially not daggers with ruby hilts, be blunt and straightforward," Mist told her.

"What happened?" Moiraine asked.

"A bunch of pointless drama-" Mist stopped talking when he heard a scream from outside. "Shit, we should probably check on that."

"I'll check," Lan told Moiraine then dashed out of the room, brushing past Mist as he did so and giving Mist a pattern.

'That makes finding a weapons trainer easier,' Mist mused as he followed Lan back to the common room where an old man was ranting. He set his empty mug on a table then turned his attention to the old people that were arguing.

"He just lost his mind and ran into the forest," Cenn Buie complained.

"What did you say to him?" Abell Cauthon asked, knowing that Cenn could be a pain in the ass.

"Nothing, I was just trying to buy a needle and he lost it and screamed something about monsters with black cloaks then ran into the forest," Cenn complained.

"Black cloaks?" Tam asked, having heard Rand mention the strange man with a black cloak that he'd seen on the way to the village.

"That's what he said," Cenn replied. "He's lost his mind."

Tam glanced at Abell who gave him a nod. "It wouldn't hurt to take a look around the area."

"He probably just spooked himself," Haral suggested. "It's the weather, it should be getting warmer but it's not."

"I'm not responsible for the weather," Nynaeve snapped, tired of people blaming her for the unseasonably cold weather.

"I wasn't saying it was your fault, I'm just saying it has people spooked," the blacksmith replied defensively.

"He'll turn up," Cenn argued. "I need a drink."

"Coming up," Bran said as he walked over with a mug of brandy.

Lan put his hand on his sword when he heard a trolloc hunting horn in the distance or at least a good approximation of one. 'Why would they signal the attack early?'

Eld burst into the inn, looking like he'd been running. "Monsters in the forest!" he shouted then promptly fell down with a large arrow in his back.

"Dad!" Mist shouted, doing his best to sound concerned or at least in shock as he rushed toward the 'person' that had been pretending to be his father, glad that he hadn't done anything overly dramatic like a long drawn out death scene.

Tam grabbed Mist, wanting to make sure Nynaeve had enough space to work.

Eld hid his smirk as the village wisdom rushed over to check on his temporary clone, knowing that she wouldn't be able to save him since they weren't really alive to start with. He smiled when one of the trollocs stupidly answered his other clone's fake horn with a real one which caused several other group's of trollocs to blow their horn and rush toward the village.

"He's dead," Nynaeve said, angry that he'd stopped breathing already.

"Monsters?" Cenn Buie sputtered. "It's probably just shadows."

"He's dead and he has a trolloc sized arrow in his back," Lan snapped. "If you have weapons, grab them, you're going to need them."

The next few minutes were a bit of a blur as people gathered a surprising amount of weapons for a peaceful village, mostly in the form of bows and staves but with the occasional axe or hammer thrown in the mix.

0o0o0

'This would be easier if I had my full strength,' Egwene grumbled as she worked on weaving and tying off threads of fire and air to create glowing balls of light around the town, trying to make sure the trollocs wouldn't have enough shadows to hide since the lights didn't take a lot of power, just skill.

"What are you doing out here?" Nynaeve demanded when she saw Egwene weaving threads of light that turned into glowing spheres.

"Helping," Egwene replied. "We're going to get attacked by trollocs, the more light we have the better."

"Don't tell me you believe that crap," Nynaeve snapped, wondering if everyone had lost their mind.

"Mist's father is dead from a trolloc's arrow!" Egwene snapped.

"Fine," Nynaeve snapped as the sky erupted into light as shadowy figures burst out of the trees, unconsciously copying Egwene's weave and bathing the area with bright light as the trollocs burst out of the treeline and causing the trollocs to scream as they were blinded.

'That's completely unfair,' Egwene thought as she strung a line of razor thin air across the trollocs' path, cutting down twelve of them before they realized that they needed to avoid that particular area. She let the thread of air drop then created another one at neck height for the trollocs, tying it off so they'd hold for a minute then moved onto the next thread.

Mist for his part ignored aiming at the moving targets beyond making sure he was shooting his arrows in the general direction of the shadowspawn, knowing that he'd hit something with how packed together they were.

Egwene swapped to tossing up thin shields of hardened air in various places and quickly tying them off to save her energy, trying to limit the amount of people that died to arrows or spears. She didn't hesitate when she saw a fade charging toward Lan, knowing that killing the fade had a chance of ending the attack.

Lan paused for a second when the fade's head exploded like a rotten fruit tossed at a wall, causing all of the shadowspawn in the area to drop dead and ending the rather short fight. He glanced back at where Moiraine was healing a villager that got hit with an arrow then looked over at the village girl that was calmly looking at the dead fade like it was a bug that she'd crushed. He glanced around then focused on Egwene. "Can you do that again?"

"Not right now," Egwene replied as she let the source vanish, unwilling to push things now that the fade was dead and the attack was over for the moment.

Mist did his best to ignore the feeling of being watched as he climbed down from the roof he'd been using and walked over to where Egwene was standing, trying to distract himself from the recent insanity and wanting to be off the roof when the adrenaline wore off. "The light made that easier than it should have been."

"It certainly made it easier to see what we were dealing with," Egwene agreed. "I'll have to remember to thank Nynaeve for creating the huge ball of light."

"It probably saved a few lives," Mist agreed as he mentally pulled up his heads up display and checked his clothing options on the off chance that he'd killed enough monsters to get something. "Huh, I picked up the ability to conjure comfortable goat hide boots that let you walk or run twenty percent faster and are always clean and dry."

"That's bullshit, you realize that, right?" Egwene asked as she started walking toward the wisdom's cabin, knowing that Nynaeve would want help dealing with the injuries.

"Does that mean you don't want a pair?" Mist asked with amusement as he followed her, trying to stay positive despite the attack and figuring an extra pair of hands to fetch bandages or something would probably help.

"I'd love a pair of boots that let me move faster," Egwene replied, knowing she'd be doing a lot of walking if she went with Moiraine and the boys.

"Are you still planning on going with them?" Mist asked as he checked his gifts page in case he'd gotten something. 'Huh, how the hell was that fight worth an angreal? Maybe it's just random and I won the lotto?'

"I don't know," Egwene admitted. "There's a part of me that wants to stay and train everyone with the potential and a part of me that wants to make sure Rand survives the trip."

"What if you could do both?" Mist asked as he pulled the angreal out of his gift tab.

"What do you mean…" Egwene trailed off as she read the description floating next to the gold ring with a large sapphire that the glasses were showing her. "Where did you get an angreal?"

"My gift talent," Mist replied as he handed her the ring. "If anyone asks, you found it, I don't need Rand to have a reason to kill me for giving his girl an angreal."

"I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to do about him," Egwene admitted as she slipped the ring on her finger, less worried about what people would say than about having the security of being able to channel a decent amount. "I love him but I'm not in love with him, if that makes sense."

"It makes sense," Mist assured her, thinking about some of his friends. "One of the abilities that I picked up from the crystal lets me create copies of people. If you want, we could leave a copy of you to train everyone."

Egwene stopped and looked at Mist. "And you didn't think to mention this before the attack?"

"I got distracted and I thought I had more time," Mist admitted. "So, do you want a sister that actually understands you?"

"Just do it before I change my mind, we could use the help," Egwene told him, not actually sure how his talent worked but willing to give it a chance since he had a point about training everyone.

Mist reached out and poked Egwene's hand to update her pattern then looked around to make sure no one was around to see them in the darkness. He mentally pulled up the cloning menu, tapped Egwene's portrait and activated his ability, creating a naked duplicate of Egwene.

"Bloody ashes," Egwene cursed, wishing he'd said something about her copy not having clothes.

"Clothes?" the copy asked, wanting to avoid getting a lecture or having to put up with some of the idiots in town gossiping.

Mist pulled the red loin cloth he'd conjured earlier out of his pocket and tossed it to the clone then conjured a pair of goathide boots for her.

The duplicate Egwene pulled the loincloth on and relaxed as she went from freezing her nipples off to perfectly warm. "Thanks."

Egwene pulled her attention off her copy and focused on Mist. "That should be illegal."

"Copying people?" Mist asked.

Egwene shook her head, not seeing a problem with having a copy since she already had countless reflections in the mirror worlds. "The outfit would make a Domani blush but it seems completely reasonable if I'm not focusing on the fact that I know the outfit twists people's perception," she complained, wishing she had something for her copy to wear since her breasts were on display.

"We should check in with Nynaeve," the clone suggested as she worked on slipping her feet into the goathide boots.

'Probably just as well that I'm going to be leaving,' Egwene thought as she wove an illusion of clothes over her copy then tied the threads off so the illusion would stick around. "That should keep people from getting distracted."

"Probably for the best," the clone agreed as they headed toward the infirmary.

0o0o0