Dawn and Reincarnation Part 25 (Patreon)

Dawn ignored the people she’d tied to the walls with threads of air as she ran her fingers over the armrest of the intricately carved dark red crystal throne. ‘Awe, wonder and an unnatural amount of loyalty, yeah, that’s compulsion. There is no way the Empress wouldn’t have noticed the effect, hypocritical fuckers. Then again, am I any better? A hero would shatter the throne to make sure it was never used again, I’m going to use it to help save the next generation and build an island of channelers.’

She gestured at the throne for dramatic effect as she wrapped it in threads of air then made a show of twisting her palm toward the ceiling as she lifted the throne into the air. For a brief second she considered smashing it against the ground as a grand statement then turned and walked out of the room with the throne following her, unwilling to waste a tool for dealing with criminals when she had a war to win against a dark god.

Dawn did her best to ignore the screams of the people she’d pinned to the walls with threads of air as she headed back to the imperial chambers. She absently pinned four of the five guards that rushed around the corner to the wall with threads of air then wrapped the glowing fifth guard in threads of air and lifted him off the ground. “Nice resolve, no common sense.”

“Why are you doing this?!” the guard floating above the ground demanded.

“Because your Empress ordered her soldiers to reclaim land that was never hers,” Dawn explained as she tied off the thread pinning the men to the wall so she didn’t have to maintain it.

“The lands beyond the ocean belong to the Empress,” the guard argued.

Dawn snorted as she continued walking, the throne and channeler floating behind her. “Hawkwing’s so called Empire didn’t survive his death.”

“They swore oaths,” the man complained.

“At the point of a sword,” Dawn replied scathingly as she walked back into the royal quarters. She glanced around the room, relieved that it hadn’t turned into a bloodbath or anything though it looked like Ethan or Semirhage had layered a weave over the nobles’ cage that muffled sound. “Progress?”

Ethan shrugged. “More or less, Semirhage has expressed interest in torturing any Black Ajah members that prove reluctant to swear oaths of loyalty.”

“He was most persuasive,” Semirhage replied with a disturbing smirk.

“I’d ask but honestly, I’m not sure I want to know about my nephew’s perversions,” Dawn replied as she floated the guard and throne into the room.

“Everyone needs a hobby,” Ethan replied with a smirk. “What’s next on the plan?”

“I was thinking about having the girls loot the palace to the ground while I head up to the Blight to do some recruiting.”

“Recruiting, in the Blight?” Semirhage asked in disbelief.

“From what I understand there is a town filled with corrupted male channelers in the Blight, I’m curious what it would take to twist them to my service,” Dawn replied as she pulled two silver coins out of her belt pouch and created a key mold out of threads of air.

“What makes you think there are channelers up there?” Semirhage asked as she watched Dawn touch the coins with threads of fire, causing them to start heating up.

“I know people with some interesting talents. What can you tell me about the shadow forgers that create the blades the Myrddraal use?”

“I know they fall apart if you take them any distance from Shayol Ghul and that they aren’t really alive, beyond that, not a great deal. Let me guess, you think you can sneak up there and destroy them?”

“Sneaking implies that I’m not just going to obliterate the place from a distance,” Dawn replied as she watched the molten silver flow into the mold. 

“It could work if you have enough power,” Semirhage lied, knowing the Great Lord could block access to the source in Shayol Ghul which would leave a channeler powerless. “Of course, if you had that type of power the Great Lord would reward your service.”

Dawn laughed as she realized that Semirhage was actually serious. “Sorry, you’d have to be a special type of stupid to trust the Father of Lies. The second he wins, is the second he betrays everyone. There are better ways to get power, wealth and immortality than to work for the Dark One.”

“You have a method of immortality?” Semirhage asked, fairly sure she was lying.

“Of a sort,” Dawn replied as she twisted the weave of fire to pull the heat out of the silver key.

“That should have killed you,” Semirhage blurted, trying to figure out why Dawn hadn’t caught fire or at least gotten seriously burned.

“It’s a gift,” Dawn replied as she dropped the weave for the mold and let the key drop into her hand. “Maybe you’re right and the God of Lies, Unpleasant Things and Betrayal won’t turn on you the second he’s won but riddle me this, what if you could kill him?”

“That’s impossible,” Semirhage replied, her mind exploring the question despite her best efforts.

Ethan laughed. “Just think of the bragging rights if you could tell Elan Morin Tedronai that you tortured the Dark One to death and that he’d never truly die.”

“How would you kill him?” Semirhage asked curious what Dawn thought could harm the Great Lord.

“With style, trickey and a knife in the back,” Dawn replied as she carefully started turning the silver key into a limited copy of her island key.

Semirhage narrowed her eyes as she watched the threads flow into the key. “You can make ter’angreal.”

Ethan smirked. “It’s a rather useful talent. Speaking of useful talents, did the Empress keep a list of the damane that could make a’dam?”

“You’re planning on enslaving the world, aren’t you?” Semirhage asked, amused at the girl’s hubris.

Ethan shook his head. “You’re thinking too small Nemene, we’re going to walk from world to world, enslaving every member of the Black Ajah we can find and build an empire.” Sure, they weren’t actually planning on building an empire but it was a believable lie to someone like Semirhage.

“If that’s true, why tell me?” Semirhage asked, curious where she fit into their plans.

“Because magical oaths and compulsion only go so far, you can cause them to want to join us to avoid the pain, with you at our side, they won’t even think about running, knowing that you’d chase them down and make them regret it for a hundred years.”

“It would be interesting breaking the upstarts,” Semirhage mused, knowing the Great Lord would forgive her crushing the spirits of the week if she could recruit an army of channelers for him.

Dawn carefully tied the weaves on the key then smiled as her talent let her know that the new key would actually open doors to her island. “I’ll leave you in charge of looting the palace to the ground and buying everything we need in the city.” She handed the key to Ethan with a grin, knowing that he’d take care of things and put the throne somewhere safe.

“You’re heading up to the Blight?” Ethan asked, not all that comfortable with Dawn’s plan to go into the heart of the Dark One’s territory to steal a bunch of corrupt channelers that were probably better off dead but not sure how to talk her out of it either.

“I’m the only one that can get what we need and make it back alive.” Dawn slipped into the dream world. She absently touched the dull dagger ter’angreal she had strapped to her belt as she focused on the wall, creating a scrying mirror. “Thakan’dar.” She shivered slightly as the mirror revealed an image of a nightmarish valley with a river of black sludge flowing from a mountain. She focused on what she wanted to find and watched as the image changed, showing several rooms filled with anvils, hammers and strange forges. 

“Now or never,” Dawn muttered then jumped to the smithy. She took a few seconds to memorize the threads floating over the forge so that she could duplicate them then walked over and touched the edge of the forge, trying to get an idea what the ter’angreal actually did. ‘Huh, that’s actually useable.’

She glanced at the hammer resting on the anvil then blinked as the hammer vanished. ‘Right, it’s probably used a lot.’ She turned her attention toward the flickering stacks of white ingots piled off to the side that most likely went into making the swords the fades used. She shook her head then walked out of forge and slipped back into the real world. The first thing she noticed was the people in the cages then a rough hewn humanoid made out of rock walking out of the forge with a blade as white as the driven snow held in a pair of dark tongs.

“Help!” one of the women in the cage shouted.

Dawn relaxed slightly as the shadow forger didn’t seem to notice her as it carefully walked toward her or rather toward the edge of the stone walkway so that it could dip the sword in the black sludge that flowed in the river. ‘At least the dagger works against shadowspawn, now for the real test.’

Dawn took a few seconds to memorize the threads floating over the creature’s head then reached out through the access key and pulled in a trickle of the Power, testing to see if something prevented her from channeling or if something went wrong. She let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding when nothing horrible or weird happened. ‘Looks like you lose asshole.’ She reached out with a cable of air and fire and cut the forger’s hands off, causing its hands to crumble to dust and the blade and the tongs to fall to the ground. She twisted the thread of air back around and pulled the forger into the river of sludge, which instantly snuffed out whatever animating force passed for life.

“Please save us!” several people in the cage demanded.

Dawn reached out and opened a gateway just inside of the cage that led to the woods along the Caemlyn road. “Just go straight, you’ll get out of the woods then take a left and keep walking, you’ll get to an inn. I’d avoid telling the Seanchan about this, they’d likely torture you for answers.” She pulled out one of the smaller bags of coin from her belt pouch and tossed it to a woman. “Make sure everyone gets enough for a couple meals.”

“Thank you!” one of the men said before running through the gate, figuring anywhere was better than dying in the Blight.

“You’re welcome,” Dawn replied as she turned her attention toward the rest of the forgers she could see coming her way or rather heading toward the prisoners to get people to sacrifice to finish their cursed blades. She reached out with threads of air and tossed the three she could see into the black sludge then walked over and studied the tongs while she waited for the rest of the forgers to come out so she could toss them into the black sludge. ‘Hmm, cuendillar tongs, Perrin would love them or at least a version that wasn’t soaked in corruption.’

She picked up the tongs then looked at the blade. “No threads or anything, just a strange white metal.” She picked up the blade then turned to look at the cage, unsurprised that everyone had already fled the cage. She stumbled forward in surprise as something hit her in the back of the head. She spun around and looked at the tall man with dark red hair with wings of grey at his temples.

“That should have killed you,” Slayer complained, knowing that most people had the decency to die when they were shot in the back of the head with an arrow.

“You’re Luc Mantear, aren’t you?” Dawn asked as she studied the man’s face, he looked far too much like her brother for comfort.

“Who are you?” Slayer asked, rather surprised that she recognized him.

“Your niece,” Dawn replied with a smirk as she let the gateway close. “So, can I talk you into helping rescue the prisoners?”

“Why would I want to do that?” Slayer asked, amused that she thought there was anything good left inside of him.

“Because deep down you’re still a decent person, there is light in you, I know it,” Dawn lied as she gestured toward the second cage filled with people behind the man. “Look at their faces,” she pleaded, “see their pain.” She quickly hit him with a pencil thin stream of balefire when he turned his head to look.

Dawn snickered as she walked over and picked up the bow he’d dropped when he’d been burned out of the pattern. “Fucking idiot.” She shivered slightly as she felt the world twitch slightly, ‘Right, using balefire here is a horrible idea.’ She pushed her worries to the side as she watched the last two forgers rush out of two of the buildings with their hammers looking around for whatever was causing the other forgers to die.

‘Sorry, they should have given you some common sense.’ She smirked as she tossed the forgers into the black sludge with cables of air. ‘That should put a dent in the number of tainted blades the fades have.’ She opened a gateway in the other cage just past the bars so the prisoners could flee to a further point on the Caemlyn road. Maybe some of them were dark friends but she doubted it.

Dawn walked in the closest smithy and looked at the forge ter’angreal then at the hammer and anvil which also looked to be cuendillar. ‘Only thing that would stand up to the tainted shit they use on the blades.’ She glanced at the crank driven grinding wheel that was also made out of cuendillar. ‘So many neat toys.’

A quick look back outside proved that the prisoners had already escaped through the gateway which let her drop the weave and open a new gateway to the sand hills, a place she knew no one went if they could help it. She used threads of air to quickly move the smithing equipment and stacks of ingots through the gateway then let the gateway collapse and moved to the next smithy to do the same.

0o0o0

Willow glanced away from where Kari and Neysa Cauthron were sparring with Mat, doing their best to tag team their older brother with staves while he used a wooden practice sword and looked over at Dawn as she walked down the stairs. “How are you doing? Ethan said you went to the Blight.”

Dawn pulled her attention off the girls in color changing shorts that were sparring with Mat and glanced between Willow, Moiraine and Lan. “I wanted to destroy the forges in Thakan’dar that make the fade’s tainted weapons and see if destroying the town they built in the Blight was viable.”

“Anything useful?” Mat asked as he blocked a strike by his twelve year old sister then had to quickly step to the side to avoid her jabbing him with the other end of her staff. 

“Maybe, I decided that I wanted my bracer before I cut loose considering how tainted the area was but I managed to destroy the forgers and steal their ter’angreal forges and cuendillar tools which should be hard to replace.”

“Practically impossible considering none of the Forsaken can create cuendillar,” Willow said gleefully as she pulled Dawn into a hug.

Dawn returned Willow’s hug. “Nice to see you too.”

“What about the hundreds of corrupted Aiel channelers in the town?” Lan asked, not wanting to assume that destroying the forges would actually fix the problem.

Willow gave Dawn another squeeze then let her go. “If I had to guess, I’d say no. Talents run through bloodlines and we never found any Aiel with the ability to create cuendillar or create ter’angreal. Of course, they might have introduced the talent from a Black sister or something but considering the rarity of both talents, it’s unlikely.”

“How unlikely?” Moiraine asked, wondering how many Aes Sedai had either ability without realizing it.

“Just about everyone we ever found with the ability to create cuendillar can track their blood to Manetheren in some form or another. The ability to create ter’angreal is even rarer, outside of my family or people from Seanchan, we only ever found five people with the ability to create ter’angreal which makes it extremely unlikely that they have someone that can replace the forges and cuendillar tools even before you consider problems with training.”

“How tainted are the ter’angreal forges and can we use them to create weapons?” Mat asked as he parried Neysa’s staff strike then stepped to the side so that Kari was in the way of any follow up strike.

Moiraine glanced out at the cloud filled horizon as she considered Mat’s question.

Kari smirked as she dove to the left while Neysa stepped to the right, giving her sister a clean shot which caused Mat to curse as she used her staff to sweep his legs. “We win!”

“Next time, I’m using a staff,” Mat grumbled good naturedly as he got back to his feet. 

Neysa stuck her tongue out at her older brother. “Nope, not a chance.”

Dawn snickered as Mat’s sisters ran off toward the stairs that went down to the ocean giggling like mad. “As for the forges, no clue. I don’t have a weave for detecting taint.”

Moiraine turned back to look at Mat. “I’ve never heard of a ter’angreal being corrupted but that isn’t to say it’s impossible considering the Ways. How hard would recreating the forges be?”

“I’m going to need to poke at the forges and play around a bit to make sure but I should be able to copy everything or at least use what I learn to make a forge that isn’t tainted.”

“That sounds more sensible,” Lan suggested, knowing that most people would be justifiably leery of using anything that came from Thakan'dar.

Mat winced as he remembered something he’d forgotten. “Shit, Nynaeve. We need to toss the tainted forges into a skimming portal before she touches them and feels two thousand years of agony.”

“I’d forgotten about that,” Willow admitted with a grimace.

“Talent?” Moiraine asked as she glanced between Mat and Willow.

“It’s probably something related to her ability to listen to the wind. Either way, he’s right, we should toss everything through a skimming gateway once we’ve figured out how to duplicate it.”

“You need handrails to slide down,” Xander said as he walked down the stairs.

Dawn smiled as she turned to look at Xander. “Feel free to put it on the list but I’m a bit more worried about actual buildings and a sewer system.”

“Fred and I had some ideas on the sewer system that she wanted to show you,” Xander said as he walked over. “Do you have time?”

“Sure, I wanted to pick your brains anyways about the magical forge I found.”

Xander glanced over at Willow. “Should I be worried?”

“Probably,” Willow admitted. “She found them in Than’k’dar.”

“I’m guessing that’s bad?” Xander asked warily, noticing how tense Willow was.

“She basically walked into a god’s backyard and stole their stuff,” Mat said helpfully.

“He’s currently bound and I’m planning on killing him anyways,” Dawn defended herself.

Xander stared at Dawn for a couple of seconds. “Yeah, okay, I think we’re going to need to go over this insane plan of yours but first you should probably eat something, you’re always a little bit crazy when you’re hungry.”

“Fine, let’s get something to eat,” Dawn agreed as she held her hands out for Willow and Xander to take.

Moiraine turned to look at Mat as Dawn left with Willow and her new friend. “We need to talk.”

“If you’re going to ask about the future, I need a drink,” Mat grumbled as he started walking toward his tent where he’d stashed the hard apple cider. He figured that would take the edge off enough to get started then he’d switch to Brandy when the questions got worse.

“I’m guessing things didn’t go well?” Lan asked as they headed toward his tent.

“Beyond not losing the ‘Last Battle? Not really. Thankfully, we should be able to prevent the Seanchan from invading and deal with a number of problems before they spiral out of control if we’re lucky.”