Copy Protection Void Part 10 (Patreon)

"How much sleep did you actually get?" Mat asked when Mist finished his bowl of stew, figuring he might get a response now that he wasn't practically shoveling food in his mouth.

"Not enough," Mist admitted as he glanced around the mostly empty common room, wishing he'd managed to sleep a couple more hours but too excited about getting started on various projects to actually go back to sleep. "Did Bode manage to badger the blacksmith into letting her use his forge?"

Mat laughed as his youngest sister walked in. "She didn't have to, she just had to start talking about different techniques and he practically tossed her into the forge to show him what she could do. You'll probably have Eldrin bothering you for crystals as soon as she figures out what she can bribe you with."

"I haven't figured that out yet," Eldrin complained as she walked over. "Do you have anything interesting?"

"In theory," Mist replied as Egwene's clone walked down the stairs. "I'm saving most of the combat crystals for the guard we're going to have to build and I'm trying to decide if I want to give someone the glassblowing crystal or use it myself."

"You're going to want to give it to someone that can channel and has a good affinity for fire," the clone said as she walked over.

"Dream?" Mist asked as he turned and looked at Egwene, fairly sure it was the clone since she was wearing the loincloth and sheer shirt he'd given her and she didn't look dead on her feet. 'I should probably give her a couple of copies so she can swap them.'

"I had a few," she replied. "It's your crystal but we'll lose out on a few interesting tricks if you use it yourself and you're going to want to be able to copy the person that uses it, we're going to need to make a lot of glass. The skill should let them make everything from durable glasses to windows for the school and the underground train that Bode can build."

"Underground train?" Mist asked, wondering if she was thinking about an actual train.

"It's like a group of horseless carriages that use magic to move and run on rails," the clone explained, thinking of the dream she'd had where Bodewhin tried to explain the train and how it worked.

"That would certainly make it easier to transport metal from the mountains and it would tie the area together," Mist mused, wondering how long it would take to build if they used magic.

Mat glanced between Egwene and his sister then focused on Mist. "How many times are you going to copy my sister?"

"At least a couple," Mist replied with a grin as he glanced at the teenager that would probably be breaking hearts in a couple of years. "She's adorable and she can make ter'angreal and giving her the magical glassblowing skill would probably help her get started with making ter'angreal and channeling."

"It's either that or Calle or my sisters and they don't have the right personality or work ethic," the clone complained, knowing her eldest sister wouldn't enjoy being copied.

"Point," Mat admitted, knowing that Eldrin actually grew up to be responsible while still knowing how to have fun.

"Copy, as in what happened with you and Egwene?" Eldrin asked the clone.

"Exactly," the clone replied. "It's like having a sister that you actually like."

"There's nothing wrong with Bode, she's great," Eldrin replied, defending her older sister.

"If you ignore the fact that she's always trying to get me in trouble," Mat complained.

Eldrin snickered. "That's a perk."

"To be fair, you sort of deserved it," the clone pointed out, thinking about his various pranks over the years.

"Not the point," Mat argued, finding it hard to disagree now that he had a bit more perspective. "You should probably toss in one of the blademaster crystals, she can craft ter'angreal, she's going to need it."

"Do you want to be a blademaster?" Mist asked Eldrin as he sorted through the crystals in his belt pouch, trying to find the one he was looking for.

"Yes!" Eldrin squealed without hesitation, excited about having the skills she'd need to go on an adventure.

Mist paused in his sorting when he saw the crystal that would let someone conjure a mount. 'If I'm going to give her a bunch of combat skills, I might as well stack the deck,' he mused as he pulled the crystal out of his pouch and set it on the table in front of Eldrin. He added the best blademaster and archery crystals to the collection then grabbed the glassblowing crystal and handed it to Eldrin. "You should probably start with that one."

Eldrin quickly licked the crystal before anyone could change their mind and blinked a couple of times as she realized that she knew how to create and manipulate glass, with and without magic as well as how to build most of the tools she'd need or at least how to acquire them. "I'm going to need a workshop and I'm going to need to talk to Bode about making some tools."

"That shouldn't be too hard, we can toss up a couple of tents near the sand hills while we figure out what you're going to need," Egwene's clone suggested, knowing they had a bunch of tents that they'd looted from the whitecloaks.

"Do you know how to make any ter'angreal?" Mist asked, curious how much other information she'd picked up.

"No…" Eldrin trailed off as she realized that she actually knew how to make a couple of ter'angreal that would help with making glass. "Okay, I actually know how to create a couple of ter'angreal that make creating or working with glass easier and safer. I can't tell you how or why the weaves work, just that they do."

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure we can figure it out," Mist assured her. "You might as well use the rest of the crystals on the table."

Eldrin quickly picked up and licked the rest of the crystals, giving her the ability to summon a mount, shoring up her archery skills and giving her enough skill to be a blademaster. "I'm going to need a sword."

Mat shook his head. "You should probably talk to Tam about showing off your skills because the folks aren't going to be happy about you walking around with a sword if they think you're going to hurt yourself."

"I'll take care of it when I get a chance," Eldrin promised as Egwene walked down the stairs wearing her loincloth, top hat and halter top, looking a bit better now that she'd had a decent amount of sleep. "We're going to need to put a ribbon on your hat or something so we can tell you apart."

"Where's the fun in that?" Egwene's clone asked with a grin. She turned to look at her twin, a touch surprised that she'd decided to skip wearing a dress. "Did you have any useful dreams?"

Egwene glanced at Mist then focused on her clone. "I dreamed of a couple of places that have fades that should help increase our potential with saidar if we're willing to hang our dignity."

"Nice to know that fades count as having magic," Mist mused.

"Speaking of things that I wish I didn't remember, don't use the chicken bone on an ogier and a channeler, it drives them completely insane," Egwene warned him. "If you're going to use it on a copy of the house elf, you're going to want to create her without her knowledge of her last two masters and hand her the chalice before you give her the chicken bone."

"Less trauma?" Mist asked as he reached out and poked Eldrin's hand, updating her template now that she'd used the crystals. 'So much for my idea of having tree singing house elves.'

"She'll run off if she remembers her friend and master and remembering her previous master isn't going to do her any favors, especially if she doesn't have memories of her current master to balance things out."

"House elf?" Mat asked, trying to figure out what they were talking about.

"They're basically magic using family servants with long ears…" Mist trailed off as a vaguely familiar, attractive, busty and tall teenager with bright green hair walked into the inn holding the bunny ears and wearing a pair of poorly fitting boots and a dress that was at least a foot too short.

"Nice hair," Eldrin offered.

"Thanks, my soon to be dead brother stuck the bunny ears on my head when I was taking a nap," Calle complained as she walked over, getting close enough to reveal the fact that she had indigo eyes rather than her normal brown.

"Calle?" Mat asked in surprise, finally recognizing her now that he'd heard her voice.

"Mostly," Calle replied as she tugged at the front of her too small dress that didn't quite fit right because her breasts were larger and she was a good eight inches taller thanks to the bunny ears.

"Sorry?" Mist offered.

"The changes are great, I'm just annoyed that I'm going to have to replace all of my clothes," Calle complained as she glanced between Egwene and her clone then focused on Mist. "Actually, can I talk you into conjuring some replacements?"

"Not a problem," Mist replied as he conjured an indigo loincloth and a halter top for her. He handed her the clothes and accepted the bunny ears, making sure to touch her hand so that he could upgrade her template. He conjured a pair of goat hide boots for her. "Here."

"Thank you!" Calle exclaimed as she took the boots and promptly sat down on a chair and started working on taking her brother's extra boots off. "I suck at making boots and most of the people that are good at it have wives that don't like me or dislike my family."

"To be fair, your family's a bit annoying," Mat pointed out.

"No shit," Calle agreed. "Try living with them."

Mist conjured another three loincloths and sheer halter tops for Calle and set them on the table, not seeing a problem with encouraging her to wander around nearly naked since the loincloths were enchanted to keep people warm and to make people ignore the fact that they shouldn't count as proper clothes. "That should help."

Calle sighed in relief. "Thank you, I wasn't looking forward to trying to replace everything, I'm a bit short on funds right now."

"Why?" Eldrin asked.

"Fain's guards aren't the sort of people that you want to flirt with and my brother has a nasty habit of 'borrowing' money without asking and 'forgetting' about it," Calle complained as she finished taking the boots off.

"Do you want a job?" Egwene offered, thinking about her dream where Calle had been wearing the ter'angreal gloves and playing with her breasts while people watched.

"Doing what?" Calle asked as she slipped her feet into the comfortable new boots.

Mat stared at Egwene, surprised that she'd offer Calle a job considering how much the older woman annoyed her because she was a flirt.

"Playing with breasts," Egwene replied, ignoring the fact that her ears were getting a bit red.

Calle glanced at the other Egwene then focused on the one that had offered her a job. "You're going to have to explain that."

"One of the magical items Mist picked up from his weird ability is a set of gloves that lets the person wearing them give females enough durability that they could ignore a knife in the back unless someone like Perrin stabbed them but you have to play with their breasts while people are watching," Egwene explained. "I'd do it myself but I really don't want to touch my family like that and I want the increased durability because I'm planning on fighting monsters."

"While I'm not," Calle mused. "How much are you paying and does it come with an official position in the school and a place to stay?"

"Two silver per person or a gold per week and you'd have a place to stay," Egwene assured her, wondering if she needed to have Nynaeve have a chat with her family about their behavior.

"Deal," Calle replied cheerfully. "When do I start?"

"Today, as long as you promise to stick with it. The gloves only work for the first person that puts them on," Egwene explained.

"You'll be paying me to flirt and tease people, I'm going to stick with it," Calle assured her.

"Try to keep the verbal teasing and stories down to a minimum," Mist told Calle as he pulled a gold coin out of his belt pouch and handed it to her. "Consider yourself employed."

"Thank you, you're not going to regret this," Calle assured them as she dropped the coin into her belt pouch and picked the extra clothes he'd conjured.

"Good," Egwene told Calle, not sure how to feel as the town flirt headed for the bathroom to get changed. "Let's get the tent set up and get everyone started on the basics."

"You're the boss," Mist teased as one of Egwene's sisters walked down the stairs.

"If you're giving away clothes, can I get a couple of outfits?" Edrin asked hopefully. "I don't want to catch my dresses on fire when I'm making glass."

"I could use a few extra," Egwene's clone piped up.

"Clothes?" Loise al'Vere asked as she walked over, curious about her sister's new outfit as it looked easy to move in.

"Sure," Mist replied as he started conjuring clothes for the girls, not seeing a problem with having more attractive girls walking around nearly naked.

"When are we going to start classes?" Loise asked her sister, looking forward to learning to channel.

"As soon as we get the tent set up and Mist conjures a pile of hats," Egwene told her, looking forward to getting everyone to a point where they could actually help with construction projects.

"Why do we need hats?" Loise asked as Mist conjured a hat out of thin air and tossed it to her.

"The hats are ter'angreal, they keep people from drawing too much power and hurting themselves and they increase the rate that you recover from channeling which makes it easier and safer to learn," Egwene explained.

"Useful and stylish," Loise mused as she put the hat on. "Are you planning on checking Deven Ride and Watch Hill for channelers?"

"I'll probably head to Deven Ride after lunch and my twin can take Watch Hill," Egwene told her.

Loise shook her head. "That's still weird."

"It could be worse, we could have an extra Elisa, then we'd have two people giving out suggestions about everything," the clone teased.

"Light save us," Loise muttered, glad that she only had one version of her older sister as she could be annoying, even if she meant well. "You're probably my least annoying sister, other than Alene, you can just hand her a book and she'll vanish."

Mist smiled when Calle walked back in the room wearing her new loincloth and the sheer halter top. "Better?"

"The silk feels amazing," Calle replied as she walked over. "You should try the boots," she told Loise. "They're fantastic and they let you move faster."

'That would be so much easier to swim in,' Loise mused as she glanced down at Calle's new boots. "They look comfortable."

"Like you wouldn't believe," Calle replied with a grin.

"Can I have some boots?" Eldrin asked with a grin as Alene walked down the stairs.

"As soon as we get the tent set up," Mist said as he picked up the pile of clothes that he'd conjured, dropped them in the box the house elf came in and headed for the door.

"When are you planning on teaching a class?" Alene asked Egwene as she walked over, doing her best not to stare at the attractive green haired girl that was wearing something that didn't leave much to the imagination. 'She looks familiar, Deven Ride or Watch Hill? I would have noticed the green hair, unless it's new?'

"As soon as we get the tent set up," Egwene told her sister, wondering how she'd missed the fact that her sister liked girls or at least was looking at Calle like she'd seen some of the novices and accepted staring at the trainees in the yard at the Tower. She turned to look at Mat. "Can you help us set it up?"

"Might as well," Mat agreed as he followed Mist, wanting to make sure the tent was set up correctly so that it didn't fall on someone.

"Let's go," Egwene's clone ordered as she headed for the doors with a spring in her steps.

0o0o0

'Let's hope the clone isn't completely insane,' Mist mused as he focused on his cloning ability and brought up the menu. He focused on what he wanted Twist to remember, namely everything before her last two masters and activated his ability, creating a naked and heavily scarred house elf. 'So much for the clones getting perfect health, I'm going to need to find a decent healing spell.'

Twist blinked a couple of times when she found herself in a white tent that was lit by a glowing orb that was floating near the ceiling, wondering why she could only see out of one eye. "Hello?"

"Hello Twist," Mist told her.

Twist turned around and looked up at the young man with dark hair and blue eyes that was sitting on a chair watching her. "Are you Twist's new master?"

"If you'd like, unless you want to be free," Mist offered, not sure if she'd take it but wanting to make it for his peace of mind.

"No, Twist is a good house elf," Twist stated firmly, wanting a family.

"In that case, welcome to the family," Mist told her.

"Twist might need medical attention, Twist can't see out of both eyes," Twist admitted, wondering why she had dozens of rather nasty scars on her hands that she didn't remember.

"Sorry, one of your previous masters was horrible," Mist told her.

"They obliviated Twist, didn't they?" Twist asked in annoyance, giving the ornate chalice sitting on a folding table a glance.

"No, you're a clone and I was told by a seer that it would be better if you didn't remember your last two masters, mostly because one of your masters wasn't nice," Mist told her, wanting to be up front with her.

"You is saying that Twist isn't real?" Twist asked warily, thinking about the gaps in her memories and some of the things that she remembered that didn't make sense.

"Just because you're a copy doesn't mean you're not real," Mist told her.

"Why did you copy Twist?" Twist asked, trying to wrap her head around the idea of being a copy.

"Because we have a school that's going to need to be protected and cleaned and the other Twist had to get back to her master," Mist explained.

"A whole school?" Twist asked in excitement, forgetting her concerns for the moment.

"Filled with magic users," Mist replied.

"Twist is happy to serve!" Twist squealed, happy that she wouldn't run out of work.

"I have a magical chalice that might be able to fix your eye but there's a good chance that it will turn you into a dwarf. I can probably fix that with a pair of magical bunny ears but they'll change your hair color," Mist warned her.

"Twist likes being able to see with both eyes," Twist told him.

"In that case, feel free to take a drink," Mist told the house elf, hoping the chalice didn't push her over the edge.

Twist dashed over to the steaming chalice, picked it up with both hands and took a drink, finding the liquid curiously cool and refreshing with a faint mint taste. The chalice slipped out of her hands as her arms and legs shrank and her body twisted, moving and shifting in an uncomfortable yet oddly painless way.

Mist stared at the house elf or former house elf as her head swelled up and her body finished transforming into a deformed hunchback with one arm that was a foot longer than the other and legs that didn't match. "Do you need help getting to the cot?"

"Twist is broken," Twist admitted after a couple of seconds of trying to get her limbs to work and failing.

Mist stood up, reached down and carefully picked up the deformed house elf, acquiring a hunchback copy of Twist that he could copy. He set her on the cot behind him then placed the bunny ears on her head. "The headband's magic should fix everything, you just have to leave it on for an hour."

"Twist isn't going anywhere," Twist admitted, hoping the headband could fix her eye and her body since it wasn't working properly.

0o0o0