Copy Protection Void Part 6 (Patreon)

'They shouldn't be able to see you and you have the bracelet,' Mist told himself as he quietly 'snuck' closer to the group of goat headed trollocs that were standing around a campfire arguing over a charred deer. 'Five trollocs, no fades or dark hounds, you've got this,' he told himself as he drew an arrow from his quiver.

His first shot hit one of the trollocs in the back, causing the monster to spin around and look right past him thanks to the dagger. 'At least I know the dagger works,' he mused as he drew another arrow from his quiver and shot the arrow in the monster's chest, dropping it.

Mist took several steps to the right just in case the trollocs could track his location by following the arrow then started shooting when he realized that they had no idea where he was. He made a mental note to work on his aim when his next couple of shots didn't hit anything vital. 'I'm out of practice.'

'At least you're too stupid to run,' Mist thought as he managed to put enough arrows into the group of panicked trollocs to finish them off. He rested the end of his bow against his boot and focused on his clothing conjuration ability, pulling up the menu as he waited for the trollocs to bleed out on the off chance that they weren't actually dead.

'Halter Top of Bouncing? This sheer silk halter top generates a S.E.P. field, meaning that everyone will view it as perfectly acceptable clothing. In addition, killing cultists or shadowspawn while wearing it permanently increases your ability to jump by one inch up to a total of one hundred feet and reduces any falling damage you take by one percent.'

'I know what the school uniform is going to be,' Mist mused as he checked the next item of clothing that he could conjure. 'Cosplay Bracers of Blood. These comfortable shapeshifting rune covered bracers don't impact your range of motion. Any hit that strikes the bracers is absorbed by the metal, unfortunately they start with the material strength of aluminum and only increase slightly with every cultist or shadowspawn the wearer kills meaning they're easy to damage. They also have a small chance of picking up additional abilities depending on what the wearer kills while wearing them. Small chance, is that five percent or one percent? Or less? It probably doesn't matter if we're killing armies.'

Mist checked his gift page and stared at the first gift on the page. 'Glowing Buttplug of Power? There's no way I'm using that.' He sighed when he realized that the R.O.B. might actually drop something in the loot table that was actually worth using. 'No point in worrying about it until I get the glasses back.' He checked the next item in his gift box. 'Crystal of Darksight? That's either useful or cursed,' he mused as he checked the next item. 'Dragon Leather Quiver of the Duck Avenger?'

"Weird," Mist muttered as he glanced at the last item in his gift page. 'Rump Stamp of Healing? At least my ability isn't boring,' he thought as he headed back the way he'd come to tell the group that the trollocs guarding the waygate were dead.

"How many trollocs were guarding the waygate?" Egwene asked when Mist got close enough that she wouldn't have to shout.

"Five," Mist replied as he walked over to where the group were waiting.

Lan glanced at Mist's quiver, noticing that he'd shot a lot more than five arrows. "You shot more than fifteen arrows, is there a reason you didn't recover them?"

"I didn't want to get close in case they were faking being dead and I can always make more arrows," Mist replied as he unclipped the sheath that he'd grabbed for the ter'angreal dagger and handed it to Lan. "I doubt you'll need it but there's no point in having something if you're not going to use it."

"True," Lan agreed as he took the dagger and secured it to his belt, curious how well it worked.

Mist conjured a halter top and handed it to Egwene's clone. "Can you check this?"

"Of course," Egwene's clone replied as she used Mist's glasses to check the strip of blue silk cloth that was barely wider than both of her hands together.

Nynaeve pulled her attention away from Lan as he headed in the general direction of the waygate and focused on the strip of cloth Mist had conjured. "Can you make anything that wouldn't make a Domini blush?"

"The boots are pretty reasonable," Mist replied with a grin.

"Is that some type of undergarment?" Perrin asked, staring at the sheer fabric.

"It's a shirt," Mist told him.

"It's also indecent," Nynaeve grumbled, knowing that she'd worn outfits that were just as bad or worse for Lan but that was in the bedroom and not in public, thank you very much.

"Doesn't change the fact that you can't wear anything under it or cover it or the magic won't work," the clone replied.

"What does it do?" Nynaeve asked, fairly sure it wouldn't be worth wearing.

"Killing cultists or shadowspawn while wearing it permanently increases the maximum distance you can jump by one inch and reduces any falling damage you take by one percent per creature killed. It stops increasing your ability to jump once you reach an extra one hundred feet but it's a permanent boost which means you'd only have to wear it while hunting shadowspawn."

"How many of those can you make?" Mat asked, already thinking about ways he could use a group of soldiers that could jump a hundred feet and fall from any distance without getting hurt.

Nynaeve gave Mat an annoyed look. "Seriously?"

"I'll give you a box of them," Mist replied as he conjured a pair of the bracers, creating a pair of shiny bracers that looked like they were made out of aluminum cans that had been glued together and etched with runes.

"Having a strike force that can jump walls or jump out of gateways in the air and land safely would be useful," Mat explained.

"That's useful," Nynaeve admitted, slightly annoyed that she was going to have to wear it long enough to kill a hundred shadowspawn.

The clone checked the bracers that Mist was holding. "The bracers can change shape to take different forms and they'll absorb the impact of any strike that hits them but they're soft enough that one or two good hits will destroy them unless you've killed a lot of shadowspawn or cultists because they get stronger the more shadowspawn you kill while wearing them. There's a two percent chance that they'll pick up additional useful abilities when you kill cultists or shadowspawn which means they might end up exceptionally useful if you can kill enough shadowspawn."

"They're useful even if we never pick up anything extra," Mist mused as he pulled the crystal out of his gift page, wondering how many shadowspawn he'd have to kill before the bracers were durable enough to block a power wrought sword or a fade's cursed sword.

"Have you ever heard of ter'angreal that improve by killing trollocs?" Thom asked Moiraine.

"I've heard some legends of weapons that improve by killing but I wouldn't have put much stock in them before I heard about the bracers," Moiraine admitted, wondering what Siuan would make of his strange ability.

The clone smiled when she checked the crystal. "Can I have the crystal? It gives you the ability to see in the dark as if it were twilight."

"You can have the second one," Mist told her. "If I'm going to be running around and killing monsters in the dark, I want to be able to see."

"That's fair," the clone agreed with a smile, not seeing a problem with waiting to get the next one.

Mist licked the crystal, causing it to vanish. He pulled the quiver out of his gift box. "And the quiver?"

"I'm not sure why it has a weird name but the leather is extremely durable and it conjures razor sharp duck feathered arrows."

"That's it?" Mist asked in surprise.

"Never having to worry about running out of arrows is nice," Egwene's clone pointed out.

"How long do the arrows last?" Mat asked thoughtfully.

"About two minutes, long enough to shoot someone, not long enough to supply an entire army," the clone replied.

"So much for cutting out one of the largest hassles of fielding archers," Mat muttered.

"I'll let you know if we can figure out how to duplicate it but I wouldn't hold my breath," Mist offered as he pulled the buttplug out of his gift box. "And this?"

Egwene's clone stared at the description of the strange egg shaped device with a glowing crystal disc on the end of it that was alternating colors. "Is this from your gift power?"

"Yeah," Mist replied, doing his best to keep a straight face as the group stared at the strange device, trying to figure out what it was.

"Using it gives someone that can channel a ten percent chance of permanently increasing their maximum potential if they kill magic using monsters or cultists that can channel. You can increase your maximum power by up to twenty percent more than you started with," the clone explained, trying not to blush as she thought about running around with something stuffed up her ass. She took the glasses off and handed them to Mist, not wanting to explain the rest of the details as that would mean explaining how it was used. "Take a look."

Mist put the glasses on and looked at the description of the buttplug. 'This magical self-cleaning buttplug eats waste.' He skimmed over the part that she'd already explained about increasing a channeler's power, not sure if he should be annoyed or relieved that it wouldn't help him since it meant he didn't have a pressing reason to use it. 'This device won't stretch or permanently damage the user and generates a magical field that causes people to view the wearer as cute rather than deranged or degenerate. That's getting annoyingly close to mind control but power is power.'

"I'm going to want to borrow that later," the clone told Mist, trying to ignore her blush at the idea of anyone seeing her wearing the questionable clothing and the buttplug.

"No problem," Mist replied as he put the buttplug in his belt pouch and handed the clone the bracers and the halter top.

"Is anyone going to ask about the metal egg?" Mat asked with a grin, having noticed the other Egwene's blush.

"No," the clone replied firmly, giving Mat a look that said promised retribution if he didn't drop it. "Do you want to try warding the gate or should we just remove the access key and let the gate die?"

"I'd rather ward the gate," Nynaeve said. "It's possible to kill the Black Wind which means that the ways will eventually be reasonably safe to travel. I know a ward that will cause any shadowspawn that walks through it to die after a couple of hours."

"If there's a ward to kill shadowspawn, why are they still a problem?" Perrin asked, figuring there had to be a catch.

"The White Tower doesn't like experimenting, especially in ways to use the power as a weapon and fades can sense residues and active channeling. The shadow also has channelers that can cut wards and the Blight is dangerous enough that you'd never manage to kill them all," Nynaeve explained, not seeing a point into getting Tower politics which complicated everything.

"Won't they just sense the ward on the waygate?" Perrin asked.

Nynaeve shook her head. "It's like holding a candle in front of a bonfire at night, it's hard to see the candle flame because of the bonfire."

"Do we have a plan since we're not going to the Tower?" Mat asked Moiraine, unwilling to set foot in the Tower without an extremely good reason.

Moiraine glanced at Thom then focused on Mat. "I was planning on heading to Baerlon and talking to Ms. Farshaw, that part hasn't changed unless you can think of a reason we shouldn't talk to her."

"No, she's got a good head on her shoulders and her viewings might be useful. She's also one of the only reasons the world didn't end in flames in the other world. We should probably send someone to recruit her before the dancing starts," Mat suggested, knowing she liked dancing even if she hated wearing dresses.

"I'll take care of it," Egwene's clone offered as she held her hand out towards Nynaeve. "I'm going to need the angreal."

"I'll help," Mist offered, wanting a chance to check to see if the Whitecloaks counted as cultists.

"Tell her that starlight makes the best roses," Moiraine offered, having set up a password in case she needed to send someone to collect her.

Nynaeve glanced between the other Egwene and Mist then pulled the ring angreal that Egwene had handed her and handed it to the other Egwene. "Stay out of trouble."

"That's the plan," Egwene's clone replied as she slipped the ring on. She reached through the angreal and wove an inverted gateway to the alley behind the inn where she'd first met Min, placing the gateway along the wall so that she'd be less likely to injure someone.

Mist stepped through the gateway and into Baerlon.

"Light!" a man sputtered when he turned to figure out what was making noise deeper in the empty alley and saw a man step out of thin air.

Mist sighed when he turned and saw a man with a white cloak staring at him in shock, having just finished relieving himself on the wall of the alley. "Shit."

"Witch!" he shouted when Egwene's clone stepped out of the gateway.

"I'm blaming Mat," Egwene's clone said as she let the weave for the gateway vanish after making sure no one was in the way. She gagged the man with a bundle of hardened air then split her attention and looped threads of air around his neck and arms so that he couldn't flee or grab a weapon. "This complicates things."

"Not really, he's a cultist," Mist replied as he studied the thick gray cloud that swirled around the man's head, getting the sense that he was just as bad as Fain's bodyguards in his own way. "He willingly joined an organization that kills people just because they trained in the Tower to use the gifts the creator gave them."

She let the gag of hardened air vanish. "Do you have any justification for joining the Whitecloaks?"

"Let me go bitch, I've broken no laws," the man snapped.

"So you never stuck a noose around anyone's neck and hung them from a tree?" the clone asked, curious how he'd respond.

"Darkfriends aren't people," he replied. "Let me go, you can't use the power as a weapon. If you don't, my friends will kill you."

"Fuck it," Mist muttered when he realized that they wouldn't be able to convince the guy of much of anything and that he was too far gone to save short of drastic measures that he wasn't willing to take. He leaned his bow up against the wall then reached down and pulled his shirt over his head. "Do you mind silencing him?"

"Help!" the man shouted as he realized he wasn't getting out of things without help.

The clone gagged the man again, cutting off any further attempts to scream for help. "With pleasure."

Mist conjured a skimpy purple halter top then pulled it on and adjusted the ties. "Not really my style."

"Not sure it's mine either," the clone replied, wondering if she could make Rand's brain freeze if she wore the shirt and the loincloth together. 'Just because Egwene didn't end up with him last time doesn't mean I can't have some fun.'

"I don't know, I bet you'd look amazing," Mist replied as he conjured a pair of the cosplay bracers.

"Thanks," the clone replied as she pulled the whitecloak that came to investigate the scream for help into the alley with threads of air. She gagged him with a bundle of air. "We should probably figure out what we're going to do with the fools."

Mist put the bracers on as he studied the second cultist, noticing that the cloud was a mix of black and gray fog, letting him know that the man was probably a darkfriend in addition to being a fanatic. "Live by the sword, die by the sword." He tossed the clone his shirt, drew his dagger, walked over to where the first cultist was standing and cut his throat on his way to the second cultist, avoiding the blood splatter.

The clone watched as Mist cut the second whitecloak's throat, wondering if the information he'd picked up from the crystal had broken something in his head because he hadn't hesitated. "Do you have a plan?"

"I have a couple of ideas," Mist replied as he reached over and stole the second man's coin purse, wondering if the R.O.B's mental defense package kept him from caring that he'd just killed a couple of cultists or if he just didn't care because they were cultists. "If we rob them, people will just figure they were mugged."

"It's not going to help, the rest of the whitecloaks would take it as darkfriends killing them to hide and burn half the town in retribution," the clone warned him, knowing they'd cause trouble for the townsfolk once they realized that a couple of whitecloaks had been murdered.

"What about shoving them through a gate over the ocean?" Mist asked thoughtfully. "That should give us enough time to deal with the camp outside the town."

"That might buy us enough time but we'd have to be careful dealing with the camp, I don't have as much power as I remember having," the clone warned him as she studied their clothes, wanting to make sure she could duplicate them with the mirror of mists.

"We should be able to ambush a couple at a time," Mist suggested as he took the man's sword and sheath, fairly sure most thugs wouldn't leave them as they looked pretty nice. 'I need an inventory or a bag of holding, it would make looting people a lot easier.'

"Did you get anything from your power?" she asked as she looted the first man's coin purse and his sword then let the threads of air that were holding them up vanish as she dropped the source, letting the bodies hit the ground.

Mist checked and realized that he'd unlocked another piece of clothing. "It gave me the option to conjure a temperature controlled and waterproof cloak that you can change the color of."

"I'm going to want one of those," she said as she dropped the rather full coin purse in her belt pouch. "How much do you think they pay whitecloaks?"

"Less than the assholes make from looting the dead after they call them darkfriends and hang them," Mist replied as he tied the sheath to his belt, fairly sure the only darkfriends the whitecloaks had managed to catch were terminally stupid or unlucky. He summoned his coin purse and dropped the whitecloak's coin purse into it then let his coin purse vanish.

"I know Galad managed to redeem or at least salvage some of them but the organization has a twisted enough history that it needs to die," Egwene argued.

"No arguments here," Mist replied as he held his hand out for his shirt. "Can I have my shirt back? I don't want people linking the silk shirts with dead whitecloaks in case someone remembers them walking into the alley and not coming out."

The clone tossed the shirt back to Mist. "Good idea."

Mist pulled his shirt over the silk halter top and his bracers then did a more careful search of the whitecloaks, picking up three decent daggers and a bag of jewelry that was probably looted from the dead as it had come off the more corrupt whitecloak. "Toss them?"

"The faster we can toss them through, the more power I'll have for dealing with the camp." She reached through the angreal and opened an inverted gateway to a thousand feet over the ocean near Falme.

"I know how it worked," Mist replied as he grabbed the smaller of the two men and dragged him to the gateway then sort of shoved him until his unsupported weight pulled him though the gateway.

She helped Mist with the other body then kicked the worst of the bloody dirt through the gateway and let it vanish. She used a thread of earth to pull the blood into the dirt and smooth everything out, making it look like there wasn't a confrontation then dropped the source. "That should confuse things."

Mist walked back over and grabbed his bow from where he'd rested it against the wall. "Where are we going?" he asked as he put his sunglasses in his belt pouch, figuring they were rare enough and strange enough to stand out on the off chance that someone connected the dots between the missing whitecloaks and them leaving the alley.

She pointed toward the mouth of the alley. "Take a left, first door."

"Thanks." Mist walked out of the alley and glanced around the street filled with old fashioned houses and warehouses. 'Not sure this counts as a city but I can see why the villagers thought it counted.' He sighed in relief when he realized that the street was mostly deserted thanks to the time of day and because of the cold.

The clone wove an inverted illusion of a walking stick over the sword she'd stolen and tied it off to last a couple of hours then followed Mist, figuring a girl in a dress walking around with a sword would be noticeable and she wanted to avoid being noticeable right now.

Mist turned left and headed for the door to the inn, glad that the couple of people on the street seemed to be hurrying to their destination and not paying them any attention. 'I'd rather be a touch paranoid than dead.'

The clone followed Mist into the Stag and Lion and smiled when she saw Min playing darts with a group of men in an otherwise empty tavern. She glanced at the large man behind the bar, wishing she could remember the familiar man's name. "Over by the dart board."

Mist smiled when he noticed the attractive girl in her early twenties with curly brown hair that was wearing breeches, a long sleeved shirt and a vest. 'Rand has nice taste,' he mused as he walked over to where the group was playing darts.

"Maybe you should just quit while you're ahead," Min teased the drunk merchant guard that she was fleecing, trying to ruffle his feathers enough that he'd keep betting.

"Your luck is going to run out," the man replied as he lined up his shot, wishing Trevor hadn't invited her to play as she'd made a couple of lucky shots that had cost him his drinking money for the week if he couldn't make the next shot.

"Can we bet on the drunk guy losing?" Mist asked the group. "He looks a bit shaky."

"I've got three silver on Beni," one of the guys said. "He's got one more throw and he'll win the match with a good hit."

Min stared at the image of a burning white cloak that was floating over the new girl's head, fairly sure she knew what the image meant but also sure one person shouldn't be able to destroy the whitecloaks.

Mist reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out three silver coins. "Three silver on the girl, I'm pretty sure he's too drunk to toss the darts in the right direction."

"I'll match that," one of the man's fellow guards offered. "If he hits the board, I get the silver."

"Am I allowed to shove the drunk when he's about to throw?" Mist asked with amusement as he checked his gift page. 'Bunny Ears of Beach Volleyball? Is the R.O.B's assistant cleaning out her closet or just screwing with me?'

"No," the guard replied with a laugh.

"I'll give you the silver if he wins if you give me a matching amount if he loses," Mist offered, fairly sure Min was good enough to win.

"Deal," the guy agreed. "You better make the shot," he told his fellow guard, suddenly feeling less sure about his friend's chances of winning.

The clone embraced the source and flicked the man's ear with a weave of air right as he started to toss the dart, causing him to miss the board completely and curse, "Bloody ashes!"

Mist laughed, having noticed the clone's antics. "I should have taken the bet."

Min pulled her attention off the images floating around the girl's head then tossed her dart at the board, having made the throw countless times over the last couple of months.

"Seriously?" the other guard complained when Min sank her last dart in the bullseye, making it look easy.

"Damn bug bit my ear as I was throwing it," the man grumbled.

"Double or nothing?" Min asked with a smile.

"Don't waste your money," the guard suggested as he grabbed his coin purse and started counting coins, a bit annoyed with himself for getting suckered considering how easily she'd made the last shot.

"Nice throw," the clone told Min.

"Purely luck," Min lied as she collected her winnings from the merchant guards. "Care to try your luck?"

"Not a chance, I haven't played in years and Alys said you were exceptionally good at darts," Mist replied with amusement as the merchant handed him three silver coins, not seeing a point in complaining that the coins were thinner than the Andorian crowns he'd put up as his wager.

The guard gave Mist and Min a sour look then turned to look at his friends. "Let's find another tavern."

"That's hardly fair," Min complained, "I never claimed that I didn't know how to play, you just assumed."

"It's fine," the older guard that hadn't bet assured her, rather amused by the entire situation. "It's a good life lesson."

"It should have been a sure bet," the guard that had bet Mist grumbled as he headed for the door.

Min watched the guards leave then focused on Mist. "I doubt Mistress Alys said anything about my dart skills."

"No but she mentioned your viewings and that starlight makes the best roses," the clone replied in a whisper. "If you're willing to help us out, I'll give you five gold coins for a couple of hours of work."

"Five?" Min asked in surprise, surprised that she was willing to pay enough to buy a couple of horses for a couple of hours of work and glad that Moiraine had set up a code so that she'd know to trust them because the whole deal seemed sketchy.

"And we'll have you back here by tonight if you aren't interested in sticking around and dancing once you've checked a couple of people," the clone assured her.

"Is there a reason Alys didn't come herself?" Min asked, wondering why Moiraine hadn't come herself.

"Moiraine is currently helping a friend seal a waygate," the clone explained in a whisper, making sure the barkeep couldn't read her lips in case he had the skill as she didn't want to spread Moiraine's name around.

"Let me see the gold," Min said, fairly sure she could talk her boss into giving her the day off and not really concerned if she had to quit if it meant she'd get paid five gold for a couple of hours of work.

Egwene's clone opened her belt pouch and dug five thick gold coins out of the whitecloak's purse and handed them to her. "Payment in advance."

Min stared at the gold coins for a couple of seconds then focused on the girl's face. "Where did you meet Alys?"

"She wandered into my village and saw a certain spark," the clone offered, figuring she'd assume that she'd recruited her for the Tower.

"Where do I need to go?" Min asked, figuring that she was already in trouble if the job wasn't legitimate since the girl had enough images to be a channeler.

"Are they bothering you Min?" Mister Fitch asked, not sure what the strangers were talking about with his employee.

"No, they just offered me a temporary job for the day, they're friends with Mistress Alys," Min replied.

"Lovely lady," Mister Fitch replied cheerfully. "Are they paying more than you'd get for tips?"

"A gold piece," Min replied, trusting the innkeeper not to screw her over or try to steal her money, especially if it was coming from Mistress Alys.

"What do you need her to do?" Mister Fitch asked, surprised that they were willing to pay her that much but not particularly suspicious as he knew Mistress Alys certainly had the coin and had discussed a number of things with Min the last time she was there.

Mist shook his head. "I didn't ask, if I was supposed to know, Mistress Alys would have explained."

Mister Fitch nodded. "Stay safe and I'll have Cinthea cover your shift."

"I never start trouble," Min argued.

"Take care of her," Mister Fitch told Mist, knowing she was a bit of a trouble magnet.

"On my honor," Mist assured him, knowing that the fate of the world rested on keeping Min safe, if only because she helped keep Rand sane.

"She'll be perfectly fine," Egwene's clone assured him. "Do you need to grab anything before we leave?"

"I'm good," Min said as she headed for the door.

"Great," Egwene's clone said as she headed for the door, figuring they'd duck down the alley and open a gate then come back for the whitecloaks after taking a break to recharge and come up with a plan.

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