Taylor and the Twisted Game Part 37 (Patreon)

Ishamael's clone watched several of the villagers pick through the remains of a burned out home while another group helped cart away the bodies of the small raiding party that had tried and failed to burn the village to the ground in the middle of the night. "How many dead?" he asked as Skitter walked over.

"Nine, most of the Coplins and a couple of the Congars," Taylor replied, a bit annoyed that her precog hadn't warned her about the attack until their house was already on fire and one of her puppets had already spotted the trollocs coming out of the woods.

"At least you managed to save everyone else," he pointed out then yawned.

"Thankfully," Taylor replied, glad that she'd stationed puppets with frost wands at the smithy and Bodewhin's house otherwise putting the fires out would have required drenching everything. "Did you get any actual sleep?"

"I grabbed a couple of hours," he admitted. "I'll have plenty of time to sleep when I'm dead."

Taylor checked the area with her extra puppets to make sure no one was close enough to overhear. "Speaking of the dead, how many rats did you kill last night?" she asked, thinking of the darkfriends he'd been hunting.

"I lost count around a hundred and seventy, maybe one ninety?" he offered, not sure of the exact number. "I'll give you the list of additional," he changed what he'd been about to see when he saw Egwene and Bodewhin walk out of the inn with a girl with gold hair and start heading their way, "problems once I've finished writing it."

"Thanks," Taylor replied as she turned to look at Elayne and the local magic users. "Any idea how we're supposed to ward the Ways?"

"I have a couple of ideas," the clone replied, fairly sure they could make the Ways a death trap for the shadowspawn that tried using it.

"Did you know there were shadowspawn in the area!" Elayne demanded as she stalked over with Egwene and Bodewhin following her.

"I had a feeling I'd missed some trollocs but I didn't know they had a fade," Taylor replied, slightly annoyed that her tracking skill didn't consider them humanoids, beasts or demons which made things a bit annoying.

"And you let me stay in the village!" Elayne demanded.

Taylor gestured towards the inn. "I had puppets on guard and the inn has a tile roof and stone walls, it wasn't going anywhere. I told the village council, they had some young men with bows stationed around the village. Everything would have been fine if the Coplins and Congars hadn't decided to prove there was nothing out there by heading into the woods and if thatch wasn't so damned flammable."

"It could have been worse," Bodewhin pointed out, glad that her family and friends survived the attack.

"Why didn't you stop them?" Elayne asked, knowing it was a noble's responsibility to look out for her people.

Taylor sighed. "I tried to warn them, they threatened to shoot my puppets. You can lead a mule to water but getting the bastard to drink is occasionally problematic."

"We can be a stubborn lot," Egwene admitted, well aware that people considered The Two Rivers folk stubborn.

Bodewhin glanced over at where Lan was helping Master Luhhan haul the trollocs to a clear area so they could burn them. "Can you teach us to fight?"

"You'll have to find someone else to teach you tactics for working with a group but I can teach you how to use swords, axes, bows or staffs and my friends can teach you how to fight with magic once you awaken it," Taylor explained as Moiraine walked over.

Elayne glanced at Moiraine then focused on Skitter. "What makes you think we'll need to learn to fight with weapons?"

"There are places where channeling is dangerous or impossible and places where having a weapon on your hip will convince people to look for safer targets," Taylor pointed out. "At the very least, I suggest learning to use a dagger."

"She has a point," Moiraine said as she stopped in front of the group, giving the dark haired stranger a glance. "I've been known to carry a knife now and then."

"I'm already decent at using a staff and a bow, would your training help?" Bodewhin asked.

"It wouldn't hurt," Taylor assured her.

"What do I need to trade for training in all of the weapons?" Bodewhin asked, curious how much Skitter was charging for the skills.

"Considering your talents, can I talk you out of twenty hours of community service helping with roads?" Taylor asked Bodewhin.

Bodewhen grinned as she thought about finally beating her brother in a match. "I'll have to ask my parents but I think I can swing that."

Elayne glanced at Bodewhin then looked at Skitter. "What are her talents?"

Taylor glanced at Bodewhin. "That's up to you."

Bodewhin shrugged. "It's not like she won't figure it out if she joins us. I have a talent for working with stone and the affinities to make it worth it."

Elayne glanced at Moiraine. "I thought earth was rare for women."

"Just because it's rare doesn't mean it doesn't happen," Moiraine pointed out.

Taylor cast her teaching spell and taught Bodewhin how to use a staff then worked her way through the rest of her combat skills. "You're going to need to practice."

"Don't worry, I will," Bodewhin replied with a grin as she thought about the various moves she could use on her brother.

Egwene shook her head. "I almost feel sorry for Mat."

Moiraine glanced at Elayne, wondering if there was a reason they risked starting a war to bring her to the village. "Does Elayne have any interesting talents?"

Elayne nodded when Skitter looked at her. "Go ahead."

"You have a number of talents, the most interesting are your ability to create ter'angreal and your cloud dancing talent, basically weather manipulation," Taylor offered.

"How do you make ter'angreal?" Elayne asked excitedly.

"That's the hard part, you're the first person I've seen with the ability which means I only have a vague idea how to train the ability, generally you start with something small and decently simple and go from there," Taylor explained. "My crafting abilities are different."

"Doesn't that mean I'd be better off with the Tower?" Elayne asked.

Taylor shook her head. "They wouldn't let you 'risk' yourself until you're an Aes Sedai and even then, they'd want you to move at a snail's pace because people have been killed for looking at ter'angreal."

"What do you mean?" Elayne asked.

"The Black Ajah don't want anyone looking into certain ter'angreal or surviving if they're too strong or have talents that are problematic like the ability to create ter'angreal or power-wrought weapons that can hurt shadowspawn," Taylor explained.

"I thought you were dealing with them?" Elayne asked warily.

"Just because I've dealt with the current batch of rats, doesn't mean they haven't infected the grain. The Aes Sedai have an oath against making weapons, I find that more than a little suspect since power-wrought blades are no more dangerous to people than a regular blade, technically less since they don't rust. Guess what they're extremely effective at killing?" Taylor asked sarcastically.

"Shadowspawn?" Egwene asked, seeing where she was going with that particular idea.

"Exactly," Taylor agreed. "Maybe the ancient Aes Sedai had actual reasons or maybe it was a scheme by various factions to limit their ability to channel. Either way, I doubt you'll manage to convince the Tower to change anything and honestly, I don't see a reason to bother. If they want to handicap themselves and cut their lifespans in half, I'm perfectly willing to let them. I'm also perfectly willing to do some recruiting and teach people that seem to have their head on straight."

Elayne glanced at Moiraine. "She makes a good point."

"They have the best library in the world and being an Aes Sedai opens doors that would otherwise remain closed," Moiraine pointed out.

"I can't really argue the part about the library," Taylor admitted. "Doesn't mean I'm willing to sell my soul."

"Let's assume for a second that my mother decides to break a thousand year old tradition and not to send me to the Tower, where would I find enough ter'angreal to study?" Elayne asked.

Taylor shivered as she got a precog flash of a rune carved pillar with one of the runes glowing with an eldritch light then a vision of an abandoned Tower in the middle of a ruined and overgrown city on an island in a river. "I don't think that's going to be a problem."

"What did you see?" Moiraine asked, recognizing the far off look.

"An abandoned version of The White Tower and a glowing rune on a pillar," Taylor replied as she had the puppet that was walking around the forest looking for more trollocs open a portal to the abandoned Tower and step through. "You can't blame a girl for looking for salvage in a mirror world."

Moiraine shook her head. "I doubt the Amyrlin would see it that way and the portal stones are dangerous."

Taylor scowled as she pictured a bunch of old women whining that she'd have to turn her treasures over because they said so. "Considering the Tower doesn't have records of every ter'angreal or angreal created, they can't prove that any particular item wasn't sold or given away in the Age of Legends."

Ishamael's clone snorted. "There are countless power-wrought swords that the Tower would have to steal back from some powerful nobles if they wanted to make the argument that every power-wrought item belonged to the Tower. Not to mention cuendillar items were sold in the Age of Legends which means the Tower doesn't have a claim on them."

Taylor nodded. "I find their claims to any ter'angreal or angreal in this world suspect at best and their claims to all ter'angreal everywhere, blatant greed. If they're going to send people to steal things I create or find in another world, I'm going to object violently and they don't have enough people to stop me."

"You think you can fight the Tower?" Elayne asked in surprise.

"I can summon people from thousands of miles away, can you think of a reason that I couldn't just summon the Amyrlin and all of the heads of the Ajahs and toss them through a portal to somewhere else if it came down to it?" Taylor asked.

"What about the army?" Elayne asked.

"That depends, am I trying to get them to leave peacefully or am I past the point of caring about their lives?" Taylor asked.

"Both," Moiraine said, curious how she'd deal with an army.

"Either way, I'd send someone to learn the name of the person in charge of the army. If I was being nice, I'd summon the general then use a spell to figure out who his quartermaster was then I'd use a spell to see through their eyes so I could find out where they keep their gold."

"Let me guess, you'd steal it?" Bodewhin asked.

"If you can't pay your soldiers, it decreases morale, even if you can promise them the full sum later, they run out of drinking money and that will decrease morale. But yes, I'd open a portal under the wagon and confiscate it for the trouble they've caused or planned to cause. I'd probably do the same with their supply wagons to be honest, leaving them just enough to get back to Tar Valon or a friendly city."

"If that didn't work?" Elayne asked, knowing the soldiers could always agree to get paid at the end of the job or when they got back and that some of them would have enough loyalty to finish the job.

Taylor shrugged. "I'd probably go through and summon everyone in the command structure and drop them in Tear or the borderlands then I'd send some invisible puppets in with knives to cut holes in tents, cut the ties on horse lines and all sorts of unpleasant yet ultimately harmless things until they gave up. If I was willing to kill people over it, I'd fly a thousand feet over the army on a flying carpet then I'd summon their general and tell him to leave after getting the names of his captains. If he refused, I'd kick him off the flying carpet and let him fall to his death to send a message."

"That would certainly send a message," Egwene said.

"I'd wait half an hour for the captains to meet and discuss things, then I'd summon the captains and explain things. With any luck, they'd turn around and leave."

"And if they don't?" Elayne asked, fairly sure that wouldn't be enough to convince them.

"Then I'd kick them off my flying carpet and start with the next highest rank. I doubt I'd have to kill more than ten people and the army would be marching back home," Taylor explained.

Elayne stared at Skitter. "That's dishonorable."

Taylor snorted. "The entire reason for them coming after me in this scenario was dishonorable, sparked by greed and arrogance. I'm not a general or a noble or an Aes Sedai that hides behind soldiers or the political power of the Tower, I'm a magic user and I've killed worse things than shadowspawn. I'd rather kill the people responsible for the problem than a couple of thousand soldiers in a pissing match."

"Makes sense, we manage perfectly fine without nobles," Bodewhin stated.

Elayne stared at Bodewhin. "You realize this is part of Andor, right?"

Egwene shook her head. "Not on any map I've seen and I've seen the old maps in my father's study."

Moiraine sighed when Elayne opened her mouth to argue. "The crown hasn't sent a patrol this way in centuries or tax collectors in generations. The only reason they didn't lose the claim earlier was the people in The Two Rivers didn't care, they sold their tabac and wool and minded their own business, same as they have since Manetheren fell two thousand years ago."

"That doesn't mean it's not part of Andor," Elayne argued as Nynaeve walked over.

Ishamael's clone laughed. "Best of luck with that, if the blood of Manetheren don't want to follow your queen, they won't. Do you know what it took to break the nation? It took an army of a million shadowspawn, fifteen dreadlords, any one of which would make the Tower tremble in fear at their strength, countless ravens serving as spies and the petty jealousy of an Amyrlin that loathed the queen because she was stronger, more talented and more beloved than the cold hearted bitch in the Tower."

"You're claiming the Tower betrayed them?" Elayne asked warily, glancing at Moiraine.

Moiraine pulled her attention off the historian that knew things the Tower would rather forget and looked at the locals. "That's part of the reason there has only been one Amyrlin from the Red Ajah since the Tower disposed Tetsuan two thousand years ago, the other is that the next Amyrlin from the Red started a war with Hawkwing."

"Yet another reason to have nothing to do with the Tower," Nynaeve argued.

The clone nodded. "The army rode like the wind, they fought like legends and they held longer than they had any right to hold, hours stretched into days. They held the river until they realized they weren't going to get help on the eleventh day. They started fighting a withdrawal, hoping they could get more supplies and hoping that someone would come. It might have worked, if the king hadn't fallen in combat. When the Aes Sedai queen lost her king and warder, she called down the wrath of a nation that had been betrayed and destroyed the army of shadowspawn with as much of the power as she could hold, destroying her city in the process. They called the area where he died Aemon's Field in honor of their fallen king which eventually became Emond's Field."

"What does that have to do with the current situation?" Elayne asked.

Ishamael's clone laughed. "I told you what it took to break the nation, I'm not sure what it would take to break the people. Having their nation shattered didn't do it, getting 'absorbed' by Hawkwing's empire then forgotten about didn't manage it, having twenty trollocs appear in the middle of the night to burn the town to the ground after generations of peace didn't manage it, I don't think Andor will manage it."

"Is that why Aes Sedai generally avoid The Two Rivers?" Nynaeve asked Moiraine.

Moiraine considered the question for a few seconds. "I'm sure it played a part in why the Tower left them alone in the early years. Eventually, the Tower stopped recruiting as much and started letting people come to them."

Taylor glanced between Moiraine and Elayne. "I'm curious, have you ever heard the name Luc Mantear?"

Moiraine turned to look at Skitter. "He was the son of the previous queen of Andor, where did you hear his name?"

'Yeah, I probably shouldn't mention killing him or that he was a cultist,' Taylor thought. "One of the cultists mentioned killing him like it was important."

Moiraine studied Skitter's face, fairly sure the question wasn't random. "He vanished over twenty years ago, same with the previous daughter-heir."

"I'm going to listen to some music," the clone said as he headed towards the inn to listen to the gleeman.

"Have fun." Taylor glanced between Egwene and Nynaeve. "Do you want to help burn the trollocs?"

"Probably should," Egwene agreed.

"I don't know how," Nynaeve admitted.

"Let's talk to Admin, she can teach you the basics," Taylor assured her as she headed towards the piles of trollocs. {Are you busy? Nynaeve and Egwene need the basics so they can help burn the trollocs.}

[No, I was just looking for more channelers], Admin replied as she turned and headed towards the piles of dead monsters.

{Did you find any?} Taylor asked as she watched one of the townsfolk walk away from the piled up monster corpses after spitting on them. 'I guess that's one way to deal with everything.'

[Seventeen, none of them weaker than Moiraine], Admin replied smugly.

Taylor grinned when she realized they might actually get enough people to make a school viable. {Do you think we'll have this much luck with the other villages?}

[It's certainly possible], Admin replied thoughtfully, not sure how many channelers they'd find but figuring it was worth a look, if only because it would give Shaper a better idea how to modify their genetics and Taylor was sending puppets to warn them about the trollocs anyways. [With luck, we'll find more channelers in the people that haven't arrived yet, it's still early.]

{It would certainly help.} Taylor shifted one of her other puppets to work on hitting a snail with her duplication spell, trying to get enough practice that she could duplicate a person without having something go horribly wrong.

Admin held her nose as she walked over to where Taylor was standing with the rest of her group. "The stench is unpleasant."

"It's worse when they're alive or burning," Moiraine offered.

"Don't worry, we'll start by weaving a dome of air around them so we won't have to deal with the stench then we'll burn them to ash. Give me a minute and I'll teach everyone enough of the basics to help." Admin cast her teaching spell and taught Egwene the 'basics' of channeling, controlling her weaves, linking with other channelers, tying weaves off and the specific weaves she'd need to burn the corpses to ash and create the dome.

Egwene blinked a couple of times when she realized that she knew how to channel. She carefully embraced the source and drew in a trickle of power then started weaving the dome of air over the corpses, leaving some openings near the bottom and the top to let air in and smoke out then tied the weave off loosely so it would fade after an hour. "That should do it."

Nynaeve stared at the weaves of air that she could see over the corpses then looked at Egwene. "How did you do that?"

"You just coil the threads then you stretch and tie them," Egwene replied as she studied the weave she'd created and tied off, fairly sure she needed more practice before she won any awards.

Admin quickly repeated the process for Bodewhin, Elayne and Nynaeve. "That should let you help burn the trollocs to ash and give you more than enough things to practice without giving you anything particularly dangerous."

"You don't consider burning people to ash dangerous?" Elayne asked warily.

"Not really, it's fire, you already know the dangers or at least most of the dangers of playing with fire. Creating a gateway the wrong way can cause you to rip a hole in the world and suck everything around you into a void, compulsion can cause your test subject to be reduced to the intelligence of a toddler or child if you screw up and several other weaves can cause permanent damage if applied incorrectly," Admin warned them.

"You should avoid trying to pull the heat out of something, you'll set yourself on fire or do something worse," Moiraine warned them as she watched the girls embrace the source and help torch the trollocs.

"Is that your way of saying channeling is dangerous?" Egwene asked as she concentrated on making sure the fire went exactly where she wanted it.

"Basically," Admin agreed. "Once you practice enough and prove that you can handle the basics, I'll teach you more weaves and we can go from there."

"Is there a reason you didn't just teach the rest of the girls?" Moiraine asked, thinking of the 'girls' they'd stuck Verin with, some of which were too old to go to the Tower.

Admin glanced towards the inn where Verin was showing the rest of the girls how to channel. "I wanted them to have some idea what it was like learning things the proper way so they'd appreciate learning things quickly and I wanted to give them something to do so they wouldn't worry about the shadowspawn until they get sucked into events."

"Shouldn't we be sending a messenger to…" Elayne trailed off as she realized they were unlikely to send a messenger to the capital, mostly because they wouldn't be believed.

"Someone?" Bodewhin offered.

Taylor glanced towards the south. "I already sent a couple of puppets to Deven Ride and Watch Hill with a pair of dead trollocs to prove their sincerity on the off chance I missed any of them."

Nynaeve scowled as she thought about the dead townsfolk, annoyed at herself for being relieved that it hadn't been someone reasonable or more likable. "Like last night?"

Taylor shook her head. "I knew they were coming last night and I warned them not to go into the forest. It's not my fault they didn't believe me."

Nynaeve finished burning the bodies to ash then let go of the source. "Sorry, I'm just a bit tense, we're having a dance despite the fact that we just got attacked by monsters out of legends."

"If it makes you feel better, they're not particularly impressive monsters," Taylor offered.

"What do you consider impressive monsters?" Bodewhin asked as Lan walked over with Master Luhhan.

"Creatures that are immune to magic and nearly invulnerable to axes aren't particularly fun to deal with," Taylor said, thinking of some of the demons she'd fought. "Picture something larger than a trolloc that tosses fire and can rip through steel like a hot knife through butter, now make him faster than a horse."

Bodewhin sighed when Egwene let go of the source and forced herself to drop it. "That sounds horrifying."

"I survived and I learned some interesting spells and picked up useful crafting skills so it could have been worse," Taylor replied as she turned to look at Admin. "I also met my best friend."

"Same," Admin replied with a smile, quite happy with how her trip to the simulation had turned out so far.

"What type of crafting skills?" Haral Luhhan asked.

"A bit of everything, blacksmithing, gemcutting, tailoring and leatherworking," Taylor replied, not seeing a point in mentioning engineering or jewelcrafting, mostly because she was already stretching things claiming even basic skill in a bunch of areas.

Haral studied Taylor's arms for a couple of seconds then nodded. "You'll have to stop by the forge later and show me what you've learned."

"I'd be happy to," Taylor assured him as she used her inspection skill on the smith, not terribly surprised that he had a weak version of the voices of the past ability that a lot of the people in The Two Rivers seemed to have.

Elayne sighed and released the source when she noticed Moiraine's look. "Now what?"

Haral grinned when he turned and spotted Tam al'Thor setting things up for the children's archery contest. "We usually have various contests before the unwed ladies in the village tie ribbons on the spring pole and dance while the unmarried men sing. After that the girls grab the people they want to dance with and we listen to music and have a good time."

Egwene grinned as she thought about finally getting to dance around the pole with the adults. "It's basically a party and a way to catch up with our neighbors, since we don't see most of them outside of special occasions or when they make a trip into the village."

"Are you going to stab people if they dance with Rand?" Bodewhin teased Egwene.

Egwene shook her head. "We're not promised, he can dance with anyone he wants to though I should probably mention I want the first dance." She turned to look at Elayne. "Let's go, I'll introduce you to the boys, maybe you can keep Mat out of trouble."

"Not likely," Haral muttered as Egwene and Elayne left to find the guys.

"Are you dancing?" Bodewhin asked Skitter.

Taylor shook her head. "Not for the first bit, I'm not part of the village and I'm not familiar with the local dances."

Haral glanced at Nynaeve. "I doubt anyone would mind but I don't think anyone would complain if you skipped it."

"If you want to dance, you're welcome," Nynaeve told Skitter.

"Thanks but I'd rather just watch the first couple of dances," Taylor admitted, wanting a chance to try to learn the dance before she tried and made a fool of herself.

"I'm going to see if I can win the children's archery contest," Bodewhin said cheerfully then headed towards the archery range, figuring she'd try the staff contest next.

"Are you planning on competing in the adult's archery contest?" Nynaeve asked Lan, fairly sure Bodewhin was setting herself up for failure.

"You should, no one has beat Tam for a couple of years, it would be good to give him a challenge," Haral suggested, curious to see if Tam would win.

"You might as well," Moiraine suggested, knowing he'd have fun and it would give her a better idea of their skill.

Nynaeve glanced between Admin and Skitter. "Are you going to try?"

Taylor laughed. "Not a chance, Bodewhin already warned me about Rand's father and I have a couple of things I need to talk to Moiraine about before we get busy."

"I'm going to wander around, there are people I haven't scanned," Admin said as she headed towards the group of young people that were gathered for a race.

"Scan?" Haral asked as he watched the strange woman leave.

"Most of the villagers have minor supernatural talents, we have the ability to check," Taylor explained.

"Like channeling?" Haral asked warily.

"We've actually found a lot more people with a minor ability to recall bits and pieces of a previous life or say words in the old tongue, it's not related to channeling so you don't have to worry about it," Taylor assured him.

"That's a relief," Haral admitted.

"How many channelers have you found?" Lan asked, knowing Moiraine would want to know even if she didn't want to ask.

Taylor focused on Lan. "We've found seven girls that are going to channel no matter what, twenty eight females that are fifteen or older that could learn and several dozen that have the genetics but can't learn to channel saidar. None of the male channelers that I've found today have the spark which means their names don't matter."

"Good," Nynaeve snapped, glad that she wasn't going to have to let the Tower haul someone away.

Haral sighed in relief. "Thank the Light. I should get going, I need to finish a couple of knives and have a drink."

"Best of luck," Taylor offered as the blacksmith turned and left.

Lan glanced at Moiraine then headed for the archery area when she gave him a nod.

"Stay out of trouble," Nynaeve warned Moiraine and Skitter then turned and left, knowing she had too many things to do to babysit the Aes Sedai or Skitter.

"What did you need to talk to me about?" Moiraine asked softly once Nynaeve had walked about ten feet away.

Taylor checked the surrounding area for spies and birds with her puppets while she waited for Nynaeve to take a couple more steps. "I'm curious what your plans are moving forward."

"I was planning on taking the boys to the Tower for safe keeping and training but that was before I realized how many sisters were secretly part of the Black Ajah," Moiraine admitted. "Do you have a better idea?"

Taylor grinned. "I have a couple of ideas. Shaper should be able to give the young men immunity to fire, cold and lightning and the ability to fly. I can teach them to conjure mounts, both flying and ground which should make moving around easier and I can probably come up with some decent armor that looks and feels like regular clothes but is strong enough to turn a blade."

"That's a good start, what about Elayne?" Moiraine asked.

"We probably only have the rest of the day unless we want her mother to do something drastic which means she needs to reappear. If you can 'honestly' tell her that you recovered her and escorted her back to the palace, the queen would probably appreciate it. It might be a good way for her to meet the guys. Either way, I'll probably need their help to loot Callandor and the rest of the Stone of Tear once I'm done looting the abandoned Tower."

"It's worth a try," Moiraine admitted, not sure how the wards on the sa'angreal worked or if they'd have to complete the prophecies first.

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