Dawn and Reincarnation Part 17 (Patreon)

Xander screamed as a bolt of lightning ripped through the top of the bus and hit Dawn, causing her to explode into a wave of colors that he had no name for and shouldn’t exist mixed with a sparkling green that washed over everything. He blinked as he found himself sprawled on his back on a harden wooden board in an unfamiliar room that he could see perfectly despite the fact that there weren’t any windows and the only light source was a small candle sitting on a wooden table. He blamed his recent disorienting experience for the fact that it took him several seconds to realize that he could see out of both eyes and that he was naked save for some type of metal collar around his neck with two silver leashes that ended in bracelets. “What the hell?!”

He reached up and felt around the collar to see if he could unlock it then scowled as his hand cramped up rather painfully. “Great, magic collar. Where’s Willow when you need her?” He frowned as he realized he could feel a bundle of faint emotions in the back of his head that weren’t his or at least he was fairly sure they weren’t his as they felt strangely distant. ‘Great, maybe I’m going insane.’

Xander shivered as he saw the strange almost metallic dragons inked on his arms that glinted in the candle light. ‘How the hell?’ He turned to look as the door opened and two rather severe looking faintly glowing women wearing blue dresses walked into the room followed by a meek looking brown haired glowing girl dressed in a grey dress with a silver collar around her neck. His gaze followed the silver leash to the bracelet on the second woman’s wrist. ‘Great, glowing demon girls.’

“Ah good, you’re awake,” the woman without the bracelet said in a condescending voice as she set her lantern on the table.

“How long have I been here?” Xander asked, wanting to at least try to get some basic information before he tried to escape.

“You were found unconscious in the courtyard with the strange collar around your neck.”

“Ah, I don’t suppose you know how to remove it?” Xander asked, figuring it was worth a shot.

“I’m afraid the Empress has decreed that you shall be entertainment before you’re put to death if you can’t remove the collar yourself,” the woman replied with a smirk that proved she wasn’t at all sorry about his fate.

“I’m sure that would be easier if I knew how the collars worked,” Xander lied, fairly sure they were designed to make removing them difficult if not impossible for the person wearing them.

The woman reached down and grabbed the open bracelet that was connected to his collar and put it on her wrist. “Interesting, I can feel you there, just like a damane.”

“Damane-” Xander cut off as he screamed in pain as his eye suddenly felt like he’d just been stabbed by a hot poker.

“I was right, it works on male channelers,” the woman said cheerfully.

“What’s a channeler?” Xander managed to ask after the pain died down, not sure what the the hell the demon was talking about.

“Someone that can touch the Source and in your case is doomed to go insane,” the second woman explained. “Flower, make a ball of light so the idiot will understand.”

Xander blinked as a ball of light appeared in the middle of the room. “Wait, you think I have magic?” he asked in disbelief then started laughing. “I can assure you that I don’t have magic.”

“The collar wouldn’t work if you couldn’t channel,” the first woman snapped.

“Or the damned collar works on anyone,” Xander argued, knowing that he really needed the collar off if he was going to escape. “You could always test it on someone else to prove it.”

The second woman laughed. “He has a point, we are supposed to test the collar and he seems clueless enough that he won’t be able to channel at us.”

“Or he could be good at lying,” the first woman said not sure if he was lying or not considering the man’s anger washed everything else away.

“When you hand me over to the Empress’s guards, do you want to be accused of cutting corners?” Xander asked, knowing that anyone with the title of Empress or Emperor usually lacked a sense of humor when it came to incompetence.

The second woman shivered as she realized the man had a point. The Empress was known to make sul’dam that displeased her put an a’dam on men to see if they died screaming, handing her something untested sounded like an excellent way to die horribly. “He has a point, we should grab a slave and test the collar before presenting it to the Empress may she live forever.”

‘May she live forever implies that it isn’t certain so that means she’s probably not a god which is good as I don’t have the troll hammer or a Willow,’ Xander thought as he tried to keep his face blank and not reveal that he was happy they might take the collar off long enough to test it on someone else.

“Fine, have your pet bind him then we’ll find a slave to test the collar on,” the first replied as she took the bracelet off.

Xander resisted the urge to say anything as the women left the room, seeing no point in stopping them from making a mistake that might allow him to escape.

0o0o0

Dawn gazed at the clouds on the horizon and did her best to tune out Nynaeve’s ranting as she considered what to do about the eight trespassing Aes Sedai that had committed high crimes at some point in their possibly fictional past. ‘I can’t let them leave and tell the Tower tales or rather I could but I shouldn’t. Killing them is a waste, same with banishing them to some uninhabited world. That leaves making them swear oaths to be decent people and dropping them in another world to help, letting Ishara wipe their minds or imprisoning them for ten to twenty years as punishment for crimes that no one else remembers.’ She shook her head. “Enough!”

Nynaeve pulled her attention off Ishara and Pevara and focused on Dawn. “You can’t possibly be considering letting her wipe their minds or experiment on them.”

“That is certainly one option.” Dawn pressed on before Nynaeve could start ranting at her, “We could also keep them leashed for ten to twenty years as punishment or we could use the Oath Rod to make sure they can’t hurt anyone else then banish them to a mirror world to help people.”

“Or we could use a combination,” Willow cut in before they could go back to arguing. “I suggest we ask the Aes Sedai what they want, death of personality, banishment after swearing on the Oath Rod or imprisonment for ten years.”

Nynaeve tightened her fingers on her braid. “No one would choose to have their mind wiped.”

“I’m fine with banishing them or sending them through the ring to see if we can recruit anyone useful.”

“Useful?” Nynaeve snapped.

“They’re Reds,” Willow replied sarcastically. “It shouldn’t be that hard to convince them that we can send them to a world where Saidar was tainted rather than Saidin and let them come up with all sorts of horrible possibilities.”

Pevara stared at Willow. “Are you insane? It’s bad enough knowing that the men we raised with a sense of duty and responsibility have the potential to channel, you’re talking about recruiting people out of a nightmare that are already trained.”

Willow met the other woman’s gaze and held it as she explained her thoughts, “We can cleanse the source, we can scour the land in a hundred mirror worlds and recruit everyone we can but that doesn’t change the fact that none of them will be trained or at least not to any reasonable level. Even if we push things, we only have two or three years before the Last Battle. Would you rather have a hundred accepted or a hundred battle trained Green Ajah behind you when you have to fight hundreds of thousands of trollocs?”

Nynaeve scowled as she realized the girl had a point even if she didn’t like it.

“You’re not talking about one hundred Aes Sedai, you’re talking about men that can channel that you’re going to pull out of a nightmare world,” Pevara argued.

“From a world where men never went insane which means they’ll be Aes Sedai,” Ishara mused, interested to see who they could recruit and what type of talents they had.

Willow glanced at Ishara. “Exactly. The Tower lost the ability to create gateways, ter’angreal, angreal and sa’angreal as well as countless other weaves lost to legend. That is nothing compared to what the male Aes Sedai lost because of the Dark One’s counter strike. My world managed to cobbled together enough weaves and techniques to teach men the basics and some battle magic but that is a tiny fragment of a fragment of what the Aes Sedai could do in the Age of Legends. This is a chance to steal most of it back and spit in the Dark One’s eye.”

“If this gives us a chance to steal an entire tradition back from the Dark One then we need to try,” Dawn agreed, knowing that the fox bracelet and the fact that Willow could channel Saidin should keep her safe enough. “That settles matters, talk to the eight Aes Sedai and make them the offer, death of personalty, imprisonment or banishment through the ring. I have a feeling most of them will choose banishment over the other two. If they survive going through the ring then we can bind them with the Oath Rod and send them to another mirror world where they can actually be useful.”

“At once my Queen,” Willow teased as she turned and headed toward the stairs.

“What about the other Aes Sedai?” Pevara asked warily as she watched the teenager leave.

Dawn turned to look at Pevara. “Tell the ten that were planning on kidnapping people that they’ll be our prisoners for two months. They can either teach and be useful or they can sit in the forest all day, every day quietly ‘enjoying’ nature for their two months while eating nuts, berries and the occasional slice of bread. At the end of two months, we’ll send them on their way to a mirror world and wash our hands of them.”

“That seems a suitable punishment,” Ishara agreed.

Dawn turned to look at Moiraine. “Any suggestion for dealing with the Greens and other Reds other than taking the leashes off and offering to relocate them if they don’t want to head to the Tower or teach?”

Moiraine relaxed slightly as she realized that Dawn was perfectly willing to be reasonable. “I’d like the chance to talk to the Amyrlin before you cut them loose in our world but I don’t see a problem with offering them jobs.”

“I forgot to ask, who is the Amyrlin in this world?” Ishara asked, hoping it wasn’t a Red.

“Siuan Sanche,” Moiraine replied curious if her friend had a counterpart in Ishara’s world. 

Ishara blinked in surprise then started laughing. “Yeah, I can’t see any of the Reds rushing to join the Tower if you tell them she’s in charge.”

“Why is that?” Pevara asked not sure what was wrong with Siuan other than her being a bit intense at times.

“She was Purple in our world and had more than a couple issues with the Reds, let me guess, she was Green here?” Ishara asked, fairly sure her friend would have joined the Green or possibly the Blue if the Purple wasn’t available.

“Blue though she considered Green,” Moiraine replied as she glanced toward where Katrina Sedai was walking down the stairs toward them. “Problem?”

“Are you done with Nynaeve?” Katrina asked with amusement as she walked over. “I want to show her a couple things while she’s still mad enough to spit nails.”

“Show me what?” Nynaeve asked, barely keeping her temper under control as she studied the mostly naked woman with the yellow scarf draped over her shoulders.

“A couple weaves that I’ve found useful over the years, unless you’d rather I find some idiotic accepted that can’t heal a cut to teach you the basics of channeling. Let’s go child,” Katrina said as she turned and walked back up the stairs, knowing that calling her a child would keep her simmering for hours which meant that she’d actually be able to learn something useful.

“Sounds like a good chance to pick up some new skills,” Dawn pointed out when she thought Nynaeve was going to argue. “We have a lot of pregnant girls and we’re going to need a decent healer.”

Moiraine hid her slight smile by turning to look out at the horizon. ‘She’ll make an extraordinary healer once she breaks her block and gets a bit more training.’ 

“Fine,” Nynaeve grumbled as she followed Katrina.

“On that note, I should go make sure the novices are behaving themselves,” Pevara said as she followed Katrina and Nynaeve up the stairs.

“I should probably go with her, I want to see if any of the novices have any talent for shaping,” Ishara said as she followed Pevara.

“Best of luck,” Dawn offered as she turned and started walking toward the raised flower bed that served as the ledge. “Thank you for the help with the Aes Sedai.”

Moiraine turned to study the young woman that was a barrel of mysteries. “It was interesting if nothing else. Did you learn anything useful in Ishara’s version of the Tower?”

“Most of it was the same but I found a couple interesting ter’angreal. A bronze box with holes in the sides that filters the air in a room which should make building underground safe and less dusty, a belt buckle that reduces the amount of noise the wearer makes which should help with sneaking around and a mask you can use to change your appearance that hides the weave so even channelers won’t notice.”

“Those all sound useful in the right situation, especially the mask.” Moiraine couldn’t even begin to guess how often she would have loved to be able to create an entirely new persona and face over the last twenty years while hunting for the Dragon Reborn. 

“I’ll make extra if I can figure out how to duplicate the mask. Is there anything else before I start working on crafting?”

“Is there a reason you went out of your way to recruit my cousin Elayne?”

Dawn briefly considered making something up then shrugged. “There’s a decent chance that she can make ter’angreal.”

Moiraine studied Dawn’s face. “What makes you say that?”

“The first time I used the ring it took me to a world where we’d won the Last Battle, they shared some stories.”

“I thought the ring took you to a world based on your fears. Why would you fear winning the Last Battle?”

“I don’t or at least I’m fairly sure I don’t. The ring builds a world out of your fears or possible adventures,” Dawn explained as she turned to look at the ocean. “In the world it created, I’d stayed at home rather than running off with my brother and friends. The fact that the Last Battle had come and gone without me wasn’t a good feeling. I’d also married Mat and had children which is still a bit strange to think about so I’m guessing it was created from my fears of being left behind.”

“Do you regret leaving?” Moiraine asked.

Dawn shook her head. “I’ve touched the ring, the world it creates isn’t real, merely fantasy brought to life for a time. Besides, I took everyone that mattered with me.”

“So your children?” Moiraine asked, interested in the strange ter’angreal and the possible uses it had.

“William and Willow, I’m still not sure if I should count as their mother or aunt considering I’m not the woman they grew up with but we’ll figure it out.”

“Do you know who the Dragon Reborn is?” Moiraine asked more calmly than she felt.

Dawn paused as she tried to figure out a good way to frame her answer that wouldn’t get her brother in trouble. “Maybe yes, maybe no. I know who the Dragon Reborn was in the ring world but that doesn’t mean he is our world’s Dragon Reborn. The locals knew about several ter’angreal in the stash that I hadn’t touched which implies that there are truths mixed in with the lies but how much truth, I couldn’t tell you. As for your cousin, the locals claimed she could create ter’angreal, her children certainly can. Maybe our world’s version has the talent and maybe she doesn’t. Either way, it’s worth checking considering how rare the talent is.”

“Who did I end up marrying?” Moiraine asked, curious how accurate the ring’s version of the future was.

“No idea, you’d have to ask Willow or Darla, they probably kept track considering they mentioned you in their stories. I didn’t have enough time to get everyone’s life story and I’ve been busy trying to reverse engineer all of the ter’angreal and set everything up so we can start recruiting.”

“You should take some time to run through the basics.”

“It’s on my list of things to work on, right after getting some sleep and figuring out a way to avoid picking up a bunch of stupid gestures mixed in with the actual weaves. I was thinking about hiding people behind sheets but I’m not sure if you’d just pick up something related to sheets which means we’ll probably have to do some testing.”

“I’m not sure the Tower ever considered trying a sheet,” Moiraine admitted. “There are some Aes Sedai that have made studies of the various gestures and claim to be able to track where someone learned certain weaves.”

“That seems counterproductive when you should be able to just skip the gestures and let the students study the threads.”

“I know a couple Aes Sedai that think it boils down to pettiness, the instructors learned the weaves with gestures which means they wouldn’t want the students to be better than them.”

Dawn snorted. “That just seems twisted and insane. We should be able to fix that bit of stupidity if we start early enough.”

“We’ll see,” Moiraine replied, fairly sure that Dawn wouldn’t be able to completely change things considering the number of accepted and novices she’d recruited.

“On that note, I’m going to find a bed and get some sleep,” Dawn said as she headed toward the stairs to see about requisitioning a bed.