Copy Protection Void Part 11 (Patreon)

"Are you decent?" Bodewhin asked from just outside the tent.

"Yeah," Mist replied as he tucked a blanket around Twist, wanting to make sure she didn't freeze to death while they waited for the bunny ears to transform her. "What's up?"

Bodewhin slipped inside the tent and paused when she saw Twist, the blanket doing a poor job of hiding the shape of her limbs. 'So much for using the chalice.'

Mist smiled when he realized Bode was wearing a loincloth and the halter top he'd conjured for her. "Do you need something?"

Bode focused on Mist, trying not to stare at the tiny girl that looked more than a bit broken. "No, I'm just taking a break from working before I end up with blisters."

"Probably a good idea," Mist agreed.

"Can I talk you into giving me a shoulder massage?" Bode asked hopefully.

"Sure, take a seat…" Mist trailed off as Bode quickly pulled her halter top off and sat down in his chair. It took a couple of seconds for him to remember that the loincloth counted as appropriate clothing and he'd stamped her butt meaning that her modesty had taken a hit. He walked around the chair and started massaging her shoulders. "Did you manage to craft everything you need to create your forge?"

"I don't have the gems I need or the crystal for the mana battery or enough mana to make it worth it but Egwene is planning on going hunting once she finishes the basic class," Bode replied as she enjoyed the attention.

"Speaking of hunting, can you make anything with lightning resistance?" Mist asked as he continued working on her shoulders.

"Not without sapphires and tools that I don't have," Bode replied after a couple of seconds of thinking about the various items she could make.

"How long would it take to make the tools that you'd need to make the gear?" Mist asked, fairly sure he'd be able to get the gemstones in one of the major cities.

"I don't know," Bodewhin admitted. "Some of the tools require metals that Master Luhhan has never heard of. I'm going to have to do some experimenting to see if I can use different metals or replace the magical materials I need to add to get some of the more interesting effects."

"Let me know if you figure something out," Mist replied as he worked on her shoulder muscles.

"I'll have a better idea once I get the forge working and have a chance to run some tests," Bode assured him as Egwene's clone walked into the tent. "How did the class go?"

"I have a lot more respect for Moiraine's patience than I used to," Egwene's clone admitted as her gaze jumped to Bode's nipples, rather amused that they looked hard enough to cut glass.

"Trouble?" Bode asked, glad that she didn't have to teach the beginning lessons because she wasn't sure where to start.

"It's like herding cats," the clone complained. "Most of the girls want to run before they can walk and the rest are terrified that they'll make a mistake."

"To be fair, she only had one student, you have lots," Mist teased as he worked on Bode's shoulders. "She was also an authority figure by default, you have to earn it with all of your friends and family. Be patient and everything should work out."

"And if it doesn't?" the clone asked.

"Then you can let Nynaeve glare everyone into submission or beat their asses with the paddle until they behave," Mist replied with a grin.

Bode snickered. "I'm glad that I already know the basics."

"If you're not careful, she'll make you teach a class," Mist teased.

"I don't have a problem teaching them how to use a couple of tricks or weaves once they have the basics but I don't have any experience teaching," Bode argued, wanting nothing to do with trying to teach a couple of dozen people at once.

"The only way to get the experience is to try," Mist told her.

"I'll leave that for the experts," Bode replied as Nynaeve walked into the tent with Moiraine and an older woman that she didn't know. "Mission accomplished?"

Nynaeve glanced at Bode then frowned when she saw the twisted form on the cot curled up like she was in pain or like her spine didn't work right. "What happened to the girl?"

"The chalice has side effects. Twist will be right as rain when the hour is up and the bunny ears fix everything," Mist assured her.

"Have you tried healing her?" Nynaeve demanded, forgetting for a second that she was the only real healer they had.

"My talents don't include healing people or channeling and you're the expert," Mist replied as he stepped out of the way so that Nynaeve could walk over to check on Twist. "As long as you don't take the bunny ears off, she'll be fine."

"This is Verin, she's a friend of mine," Moiraine offered, relieved that Verin wasn't actually a darkfriend. "Verin, the girl in the chair is Bodewhin, the other girl is Egwene and the young man is Mist."

"Nice to meet you," Mist told the stout woman that had gray at her temples. 'She really does look like someone's grandmother, at least she's on our side,' he mused, thinking about her description in the books.

"I've heard good things about you," the clone offered with a smile.

"Hello," Bode offered, not sure what else to say to the woman that looked more like someone's grandmother than a figure out of legend.

"Greetings." Verin glanced at the ornate silver chalice that was tipped over on the floor. "What does the chalice do?"

"It permanently and dramatically increases your strength, agility and ability to sing at the cost of turning you into a twisted hunchback if you drink from it," Mist explained as Nynaeve used the power to check Twist's health.

"Which is fixed by wearing the bunny ears?" Verin asked, surprised that he'd managed to find a ter'angreal to fix the negative effects of the chalice.

"In theory," Mist admitted. "One of my ter'angreal gives me a summary of what other ter'angreal do and how to activate them. The bunny ears should transform anyone that wears them for an hour at a time into a healthy, tall and attractive sixteen year old girl."

"But there's always the chance of similar ter'angreal interfering with each other," Verin mused, making a mental note to ask about the ter'angreal that helped identify other ter'angreal once she'd built up some good will.

Mist nodded. "I doubt it's going to be a problem because of Egwene's dream and the fact that they're not being used at the same time but there's always a chance."

"She seems healthy other than being a hunchback and having mismatched limbs," Nynaeve admitted, wanting to hit everyone with her switch for risking the girl's life even if she understood the attraction to being stronger and more agile.

"Thank you for checking," Mist told Nynaeve then turned his head and focused on Moiraine. "Did you need something?"

"We managed to capture four members of the black ajah. Nynaeve wanted you to take a look to see if any of them were salvageable," Moiraine explained.

"Sure," Mist replied as he turned to look at Nynaeve. "Can you make sure Twist doesn't freeze and check on her in an hour?"

"Twist is not going to freeze," Twist said, speaking up. "Twist used a warming charm on the blanket."

Mist smiled at the house elf. "Good. I'll be back in a bit."

"Understood," Twist replied, closed her eyes and tried to relax while she waited for the bunny ears to work.

"Can you make sure no one uses the chalice?" Mist asked Bode.

"I'll take it with me to the forge," Bode replied as she put her halter top back on, not wanting to give some of the idiots in town a show.

"Thanks, I don't need someone doing something stupid," Mist grumbled, thinking about the Coplins and the Congars. "Where did you put the traitors?"

"In the other small tent, they're shielded and Egwene and Lan are watching them," Moiraine explained as she left the tent.

"I'll never understand why people would work for an evil god that can't be trusted. Even if he could give everyone immortality, you'd have to trust that he would and that the world would be worth living in," Mist complained as he followed Moiraine and Verin.

Nynaeve glanced at Twist then focused on Egwene. "Let me know if she takes a turn for the worse."

"Of course," Egwene's clone replied, wanting a chance to ask the house elf some questions about house elves and her world. She waited for Nynaeve to leave then turned to look at Twist. "What can you tell me about house elves?"

"What do you want to know?" Twist asked, figuring talking would distract her from worrying about her current condition.

"Everything," Egwene's clone replied with a smile. "You mentioned using magic but I didn't feel anything which means your magic is different."

"House elves are magical servants, we're bound to magical families," Twist explained.

"Why?" Bodewhin asked.

"Because we like working, being part of a family is important," Twist replied. "If we can't work, we get depressed."

"What's your world like?" Egwene's clone asked.

"The wizarding world uses magic for a lot of things," Twist replied then started explaining the wizarding world which caused the girls to have a lot of questions.

0o0o0

Mist wasn't sure how to feel when he stepped into the other small tent that they'd set up and saw the clouds of fog surrounding the heads of the four members of the black ajah that they'd managed to capture. 'One solid black cloud with a black tongue, one black cloud that swirls around the old woman, that's probably Joiya given her age. One white cloud with black tendrils running through it that surrounds the woman with red hair and one girl that looks like she has chains of black wrapped around her eyes and ears and dark wires covering their mouth, lovely.'

Liandrin glared at the young man with dark hair and blue eyes that was staring at her with disgust, as if she was shit on a priceless rug. "What are you looking at boy?"

"Trash," Mist told her, not particularly impressed by her lack of intelligence or sanity.

"You're from a backwater village, what do you know?" Liandrin demanded as Moiraine and Verin walked into the tent.

"I know that if I was bound by oaths to follow any street rat with the proper hand symbols that I'd find a way to use the Oath Rod to break my oaths and replace them with an oath to do whatever I wanted. Of course, that would require finding someone that you could trust that wouldn't stab you in the back for some shred of political power."

"The Great Lord would punish us if we broke our oaths," Joiya argued, wondering how he'd learned of the oaths that they had to swear.

"And we'll probably execute you if you don't," Mist replied with a shrug. "The only reason you're currently alive is that you might have useful information."

"I'd rather die than betray the Great Lord," Joiya argued, figuring they'd just execute her after she spilled her secrets.

"You're assuming that he won't see failure as a betrayal," Mist replied with a shrug.

"Actually betraying him would be worse," Liandrin argued.

Mist glanced at Lan who was standing off to the side of the tent with his hand on the hilt of his sword ready to draw it then focused on the woman that had black wires covering her mouth. "I don't know, I bet that Amico would happily beat you to death if it meant that she'd get to avoid being executed for her crimes."

"She wouldn't dare!" Liandrin snapped.

"I don't want to die, the only reason I joined was I saw something I shouldn't and they were going to kill me," Amico admitted, not seeing a problem with beating the rest of the group to death if it meant that she got to survive.

"I'll kill you!" Liandrin snarled at Amico, her voice losing the polished tone she'd been using.

"You're currently shielded and chained with the power, you're not going anywhere so do yourself a favor and shut up," Mist told Liandrin.

"I will not be treated-" whatever else she'd been about to say was cut off as Verin channeled and grabbed her tongue with a thread of air.

"If you're not going to be polite, you can at least be quiet," Verin told Liandrin.

"I can understand being angry that you grew up poor, that your daddy couldn't buy you things and that you barely had enough to eat growing up. None of that excuses selling your soul to a dark god you can't trust," Mist argued.

"What makes you think we can't trust him?" Joiya asked.

"Never once has he brought anyone, save his chosen back from the dead," Mist told her.

"When the seals are broken and he's free, he'll be able to give us immortality," Joiya argued.

Mist shook his head. "If that was true, he would have given his loyal minions in the Age of Legends immortality and they'd still be running around. There are obviously limits to his power or he just doesn't care about his minions."

"Lews Therin sealed the bore, they would have died if they were cut off," Joiya argued.

"Okay, let's assume that he can actually give people a version of immortality that works while he's active, you'd have to trust a creature that doesn't understand the concept of trust. He doesn't understand loyalty or compassion or kittens or anything good in the world. He wants to turn the world into an unending nightmare. I'm honestly confused why you'd want immortality in that type of world."

"We could do anything we wanted," Joiya replied.

"You have magic, that basically gives you the ability to do whatever you bloody want as long as you stay away from people with magic and don't do anything completely stupid," Mist argued. "Why would you want to share the world with a bunch of people that would kill you because they think it's funny?"

"I want to live forever, if that means getting my hands dirty, I don't care," Joiya said smugly.

"I can understand killing people for immortality or because you think their skin would make a nice purse or because you're bored but I'll never understand working for a dark god that you can't actually trust, that's just asking for trouble."

"The power can't make you immortal, he's the only option," Sheriam argued, wishing she hadn't joined the black ajah for connections.

Mist laughed. "Bullshit. I've seen some ter'angreal that do some amazing things that you can't do with weaves or that no one has managed to duplicate with weaves, someone with the talent could probably figure out how to live forever."

"No one has made any ter'angreal since at least the trolloc wars," Joiya stated.

"Maybe if you stopped killing everyone that investigated the Tower's stash of ter'angreal, you might actually get someone with the talent in the Tower and you wouldn't have to make a deal with an unstable demon with delusions of godhood but that would actually take having a working brain," Mist argued.

Sheriam coughed. "I'll break the oaths if you can get access to the Oath Rod."

"Same," Amico agreed, not seeing a reason to die if she could survive.

"Traitor!" Joiya snapped, wishing she wasn't bound in threads of air and shielded so that she could kill the traitors.

"If we don't give them something, they're going to kill us," Sheriam told her.

"The worst they can do is kill us, the Great Lord can do worse," Joiya argued.

Mist shook his head. "That's not strictly true, the Black Wind eats souls and it would probably find you before you starve to death if we left you chained up in the Ways."

"How do you know about that?" Sheriam asked warily.

"I've talked to ogier and I've read a couple of books on the subject." Mist turned to look at Moiraine. "I suggest giving Amico and Sheriam a chance to unswear their oaths, if they don't, toss them into the Ways and let the Black Wind eat them."

"You're going to have problems when the rest of the black ajah realize we're gone," Joiya argued.

"I'll take my chances," Mist replied as he stepped forward and flicked the annoying old woman on her forehead with his finger, not really expecting to be able to pick up a pattern from a cultist but figuring he'd try. 'Huh, okay, I guess being a minion of a dark god doesn't protect you from being copied.'

Egwene used weaves of air to gag the prisoners and plug their ears then tied the weaves off so she wouldn't have to maintain them. She turned her head enough to make reading her lips nearly impossible but not enough that she couldn't keep an eye on them. "What do you think?"

Mist turned away from the darkfriends so they couldn't see his lips on the off chance that they were able to read lips. "I think Liandrin is delusional, she hates wilders despite being one and she's let envy and greed consume her life. Joiya doesn't see a problem with letting the world burn if it means she gets immortality, I don't think they're worth trying to save. Maybe they'll be better in their next life but I doubt it. Amico is bound by black chains, she's probably worth keeping around as long as we're careful with the oaths."

"And Sheriam?" Egwene asked.

"She's let being an Aes Sedai consume her life to the point where joining the black ajah to make political connections seemed like a good idea." Mist glanced at the woman that looked like a red haired Asian woman. "I don't know what she was expecting or what they promised her but she had to know that she'd have to hurt someone and she was selfish enough that she didn't care. If we give her half a chance she'll spill her guts and help us create angreal, if only because she doesn't want to die. We should probably execute Liandrin and Joiya somewhere else unless you have a reason to keep them alive?"

"No, I want Liandrin and Joiya dead," Egwene admitted, knowing that watching the woman that sold her out to the Seanchan die would give her a certain amount of satisfaction.

Verin glanced at Amico. "I'd like a chance to learn what they were working on before we kill them but Amico should be able to tell us most of it."

"No point letting them realize we have the Oath Rod," Egwene mused as she used two thick threads of air to knock Liandrin and Joiya unconscious, causing them to slump against their bindings.

"That's a good way to cause brain damage," Verin warned her.

"They're not going to be alive long enough to care," Egwene replied. "Go ahead and kill them."

'Fuck it,' Mist thought then stepped forward and slammed the palm of his hand into Liandrin's nose as hard as he could, driving the cartilage into her brain and finishing the job that Egwene started by giving her a massive concussion. He did the same to Joiya, knowing she'd happily let the world burn if it meant she got her immortality.

Sheriam stared at Mist in horror, shocked that Moiraine hadn't said anything to stop the young man from beating Liandrin and Joiya to death with his bare hands.

Egwene cut the threads that were binding Amico and Sheriam's ears. "I'm going to give you a couple of minutes to think about your options and why swearing to follow my orders is your best choice if you want to survive the month. If you refuse, your death will take weeks and it will be death by inches," she lied, trying to convince them to use the Oath Rod so she didn't have to do something nasty like torture them.

Mist opened his clothing menu and checked to see if he could conjure anything new. 'Ghoulish Jacket of Crafting: This stylish jacket was made from the skin and bones of a failed apprentice when he ruined five months of an archmage's work because of gross stupidity. Not sure if that's harsh and fair or the archmage's fault for having an idiot for an apprentice? Wearing the jacket while crafting increases the abilities of the crafted goods by twenty percent and reduces any flaws or drawbacks by fifty percent while improving your skill with your craft. Killing people while wearing the jacket also has a chance to spontaneously generate magical leather products or recipes. Join the dark side, we have cookies and magical jackets of dubious origin. At least I'm just conjuring copies.'

"We should give them time to come to a decision," Moiraine suggested, then turned and walked out of the tent.

Egwene followed Moiraine out of the tent, trusting her tied off shields to hold them and Lan to kill them if they managed to break the shields. 'At least he has Mat's medallion.'

Verin followed Moiraine and Egwene out of the tent, fairly sure she wouldn't even have to use compulsion on them to get them to agree to reswear their oaths.

Mist followed the group through the sound ward on the tent. "Death by inches?"

"It sounded better in my head," Egwene admitted in a whisper, not wanting one of the townsfolk that were wandering around to overhear her threatening someone with torture. "Did you get anything useful?"

"I picked up a crafting jacket that I can summon and…" Mist trailed off as he checked his gift page and saw the description of the first new item.