Dragon King Part 29 (Patreon)

Egwene al'Vere smiled when a group of twelve whitecloaks dashed out of the woods along the path in front of her. "Excellent, test subjects!" she said cheerfully as she raised her glass rod and pointed it at the 'bandits'.

Evon stared in confusion at the young lady that was escorting their target, not sure why she was wearing goggles or a blacksmith's apron considering she was at least a couple of miles away from the forge nearest. "What?"

"We're in Andor, the queen has placed a bounty on every whitecloak in her country, you're worth twelve gold, do you know how many supplies twelve gold will buy?" Egwene asked excitedly, looking forward to replacing some of her tools from their coin purses.

"You're lying," one of the other young men blurted, shocked that the queen would dare attack the Children of the Light or put a bounty on them like criminals.

"Should we run?" Rhea asked in a whisper.

"No point," Egwene replied, answering the whitecloaks and the girl she was supposed to be escorting to Whitebridge where a pair of Aes Sedai would pick her up. "One of your patrols drew a blade on a noble and threatened him," she lied as she studied the group of whitecloaks. "On a scale of one to ten, how much does this hurt?"

"What?!" one of the other whitecloaks blurted then fell over screaming as waves of agony washed over his body, digging into his nerves like red hot pliers.

"That's at least a seven," Egwene mused as she spun and pointed her agony rod at the whitecloaks charging them from behind and channeled a thread of fire and spirit into her latest combat project, causing a wave of agony to wash over the rest of the whitecloaks.

"That's a seven?!" Rhea asked in horror as she watched some of the men trying to dig their own eyes out in an attempt to get the pain to stop.

"It might be an eight," Egwene admitted as she studied the thrashing people, not actually sure what a ten would be on her scale or even how to fairly measure the rest of the numbers. 'I need a less subjective scale,' she noted mentally as she reached out with threads of air and started securing the prisoners while she waited for the agony to wear off enough that she could ask some of the whitecloaks questions about the rest of their forces in the area.

Rhea shivered as she watched her escort tie the whitecloaks up with threads of air before tying the weaves off in a way she couldn't follow. "Do we have to turn around and report the whitecloaks to someone?"

"I doubt the mayor of the last town has a place to hold them and I doubt the queen actually wants to deal with arresting a bunch of bandits that were dressed up like whitecloaks, it's much easier if the bandits get eaten by the local wildlife," Egwene replied as she worked on tying up the rest of the whitecloaks, wishing she could run some more tests with her latest combat ter'angreal without the girl carrying tales to the Tower.

"Does that mean you're just going to leave them here?" Rhea asked in surprise.

Egwene turned her attention to the group that had been trying to cut off their escape and worked on making sure they wouldn't be able to escape without losing some limbs. "They were going to kill us or at least you since you just had to brag about going to the Tower to the 'cute' stablehand despite the fact that you were supposed to keep your head down."

"There is no way…" Rhae trailed off when she recognized one of the whitecloaks that had been in the inn where they'd stayed the night. "Fine, you might have a point."

"We're going to kill you," one of the whitecloaks managed to whisper despite the damage he'd done to his throat by screaming.

"Wouldn't be the first time," Egwene muttered as she thought back to the last group of whitecloaks that she'd run into with Perrin. She finished tying everyone up with threads of air then looked at the horse tracks on the game trail that led into the woods. She pulled a warder cloak out of her bag and tossed it to Rhea. "Put that on and hide against a tree, I'll be back in five to ten minutes."

"Why are you going into the woods?" Rhea asked warily as she put the weird cloak on that was trying to blend into the ground.

"I'm not leaving their horses to starve to death or get eaten because they staked them in the woods, do you know how much horses sell for?" Egwene asked as she followed the horse tracks into the woods.

'She'll be fine with the cloak and defensive bracelet,' Egwene told herself as she followed the trail deeper into the woods, fairly sure they wouldn't have gone too far. She ignored the arrow that bounced off the force armor her bracelet created and blasted the wool headed moron that shot her with her agony rod, keeping the waves of agony on the man for five seconds until his nose and ears started leaking blood. "Good to know that you're not supposed to hold the effect on someone."

Egwene tied the man up with threads of air then tied them off so she didn't have to maintain them on the off chance that her agony rod hadn't fried his brain. 'At least the trip is proving useful,' she mused as she continued down the trail.

"I surrender!" a young whitecloak shouted as he hid behind one of the horses he was supposed to be watching, hoping that not being a threat would keep the Aes Sedai from killing him as he'd heard Jac's screaming in agony.

"We surrender!" the other trainee shouted, wanting nothing to do with an Aes Sedai that didn't seem to care about hurting people.

Egwene glanced at the two young men that were dressed more like farmers than soldiers then looked at the white tents the whitecloaks were using, wondering how they kept anything clean. "How many whitecloaks are there in the group?"

"Twenty nine," the first young man to surrender offered quickly, not seeing a problem with spilling his guts if it kept his guts on the inside.

'Twelve in the front, thirteen in the back, one here, that leaves,' Egwene mused as two arrows hit her force armor, bouncing off, 'three more fools,' she thought as she pulled a stone out of her belt pouch. She licked her thumb and pressed it to the stone then quickly tossed it towards the area where one of the arrows had come from, smiling when the stone exploded and covered a twenty foot area with frost.

The trainee stared in horror as Alvin stumbled out of the patch of unnatural cold and crumbled into broken fragments. 'Fuck!'

"That's better than the last version," Egwene mused as the last two actual whitecloaks charged at her once they realized their arrows weren't working. She drew the sword that she'd helped Perrin make as they closed the distance, looking forward to testing it besides a chicken. She used a thread of air to trip the second whitecloak, not seeing a point in fighting two people at the same time when she didn't have to. She stepped forward and cut the whitecloak's sword in half when he swung at her then brought her blade back around and ran him through when he was looking at his severed sword with disbelief.

She hacked his head off to make sure he wasn't going to survive to cause trouble then stepped forward and hacked the other man's hand off at the wrist as he tried to get to his feet, happy with how well her power enhanced blade was going through bone and the rush of energy she'd received when she killed the first man. She cut the second man's head off then looked at the trainee's that were staring at her in horror. "Where are they keeping the group's strong box?"

"Largest tent," the second trainee blurted as he pointed, not wanting to die.

"Thank you," Egwene told him as she headed into the large tent in the middle of camp. She blinked in surprise as she found herself stepping out of a mirror into a nice bathroom where a teenager was standing. "Where am I?"

"Nice goggles," Myst offered as he studied Egwene's counterpart, fairly sure she was some type of blacksmith judging by her arms and the apron she was wearing. "You're in a stedding in the Mountains of Mist in a mirror world."

"Did you bring me here?" Egwene asked as she put her agony rod back in its leather sheath on her back, knowing it wouldn't work since she couldn't feel the source.

"Not exactly," Myst replied as he floated the mirror up in the air so she wouldn't be able to step through it and get lost. "The mirror is magic, if you step through, you travel to an alternate mirror world and your counterpart steps out. Don't worry, Egwene has a way to get back which means we can send you back."

"Good, I was in the middle of a job…" Egwene trailed off as a strange glowing oval appeared against the wall that showed the inside of a tent. 'Great, I'm stuck in a weird bathroom with a male channeler that can channel in a stedding, I should have brought my well.'

Egwene stepped through the portal and stared at her counterpart, surprised by how much muscle her counterpart had and how little strength in the power, especially since her counterpart was supposed to be stronger than her. "Are you a whitecloak?"

"Have you lost your bloody mind?!" the Egwene wearing the blacksmith apron demanded, a touch surprised by how little upper body strength her counterpart had. "Even if I was willing to work for a bunch of monsters, they only recruit men."

Egwene relaxed when she realized her counterpart wasn't completely insane. "I apologize, I had to ask considering I appeared in a whitecloak tent."

"I was in the middle of securing their gold and horses," Egwene admitted, willing to forgive her for the unpleasant assumption given the situation. "Is there anything pressing we need to cover? I need to get back and make sure the prospective novice I'm escorting to the Tower hasn't wandered off and that the whitecloak trainees that I didn't kill don't wander off with the horses."

"Nothing pressing," Myst replied as he worked on looking through the other Egwene's memories, trying to figure out where things had diverged and how insane Egwene's counterpart was.

"What happened to the whitecloaks?" Egwene asked her counterpart.

"They attacked me," Egwene replied, not wanting to share more information until she had a better idea what was going on. "How did you make the strange weave in a stedding?" she asked, wondering if he was using a well or if he'd learned a trick.

"Steddings only stop people from touching the source, there are other types of magic," Myst told her as he floated the mirror over and stuck it in his inventory. "I can't actually channel, you don't have to worry about me going insane."

Egwene glanced at the young woman that looked a lot like she probably would have if she hadn't started spending time at the forge, surprised that she hadn't been able to see his weaves because she doubted most people knew how to hide them as they were making them. "Is he sane?"

Egwene glanced at Myst then looked at her counterpart. "He's a bit of a flirt and he claims to be a reincarnated writer from another world but we've shielded him and it doesn't stop his abilities which means I'm reasonably sure he can't touch the source."

"Good enough, how do we get back?" she asked, wanting to check on Rhea and fairly sure most people were reincarnated, it was just rare for people to actually remember their past lives.

"Just walk through the portal," Myst told her and walked through the portal, wanting to get a chance to scan the rest of the whitecloaks before she executed them or left them to die.

Egwene walked through the portal that wasn't a gateway and looked around the whitecloaks' tent, looking at the large lockboxes that were probably filled with gold or something important then looked at the broken mirror. "Makes me wish I could get the stasis boxes down to a reasonable size."

Myst pulled a spatial ring out of his inventory. "Here, if you put the ring on and think about the interface, you should get a floating window with the contents." He tossed her the ring and used telepathy to give her the instructions for using it. "Consider it an apology gift for the inconvenience of summoning you to another world."

Egwene frowned slightly when her talent only gave her vague details about the ring's function. "Are you sure it works?"

"It's not actually a ter'angreal, just a magic ring," Myst replied with a grin.

"Right…" Egwene trailed off as she put the ring on and thought about the interface, causing it to appear in front of her. "If this actually works and Rhea didn't run into trouble, consider yourself forgiven."

"Are you an Aes Sedai?" Egwene asked, curious how she'd gotten involved with the Tower.

"No, I just do the occasional bit of freelance work for them, mostly escorting prospective novices to Whitebridge," Egwene replied. "How did you end up working with someone that can use magic in a stedding and where did you learn to make a portal that isn't a gateway?"

Egwene glanced at Myst. "He saved Emond's Field from trollocs."

"Winternight?" the local Egwene asked as she stuck one of the strong boxes into the ring, a touch surprised how easy the ring was to use.

"You had trollocs?" Egwene asked.

"For about five minutes, we burned them to ash," the local Egwene replied smugly.

"How?" Egwene asked, fairly sure her counterpart wouldn't be able to stop a trolloc, let alone an entire fist of them.

"I have a couple of interesting tricks," the local Egwene replied with a grin as she moved the second lockbox to her new ring, not seeing a point in mentioning the ring that concealed her strength in the power, mostly because she didn't trust them yet.

"I'm surprised the Tower didn't push the issue," Egwene admitted, thinking about some of the Aes Sedai she'd met that kept insisting she'd do well in the Tower.

"No one cares about the girl that isn't strong enough to become an Aes Sedai, even if she can make the occasional weird trinket. Especially if none of the trinkets actually work for anyone else," she replied with a grin.

"Let me guess, you figured out how to lock your ter'angreal?" Myst asked with amusement as they headed outside.

Egwene followed the young man out of the tent and looked at the trainees that were busy tying the horses reins together so they could lead them. "It keeps the Tower from trying to steal my trinkets."

Egwene frowned when she saw the patch of frozen ground and the broken remains of the whitecloak. "What happened?"

"I was testing my cold stones, I managed to get the radius of the blast down to twenty feet," she replied excitedly. "I'd use a sling but I'm not particularly good at hitting what I'm aiming at."

Egwene shivered as she thought about dropping something with a twenty foot blast radius that could freeze a person solid. "That sounds like a good way to kill yourself."

"They're safer than the fire stones," Egwene argued, glad that she'd decided to work on that particular project from range.

Myst shivered as he skimmed Egwene's memories and saw the glassed section of the sand hills that probably covered a seventy foot patch of glass where she'd tested one of her prototypes. 'At least she tested it from range.'

"What are you planning on doing with the horses?" Egwene asked as she studied the lines of horses, wondering about the terrified looking young men.

"I know a couple of people that could use an extra horse or two," Egwene replied, fairly sure Abell could help her sell them to a couple of villages and Baerlon.

"I'd be willing to purchase some if you're looking to get rid of them," Myst offered, knowing the knights were always looking for decent horses.

"Can we leave?" one of the trainees asked hopefully.

Myst did a quick telepathic scan on the young men. "They're fine, they're not fanatics, they just signed up because they needed the gold and they thought the whitecloaks were hunting bandits and darkfriends."

"Just a second." Egwene walked over to one of the dead whitecloaks and took his coin purse. She quickly counted the silver and gold coins in his purse, took four of the gold coins out and tossed the purse to the young man. "Best of luck, try not to accidently sign up with bandits in the future."

"No ma'am," the trainee replied as the trainees quickly ran for the trail, happy to escape with their lives.

The local Egwene watched the trainees until they vanished into the woods. "Do you think they're smart enough to keep their mouths shut?" she asked as she put her sword back in its sheath.

"Do you actually care?" Myst asked.

"Not really," Egwene admitted as she opened a small gateway in front of her looking down at the extra pen at the Cauthon ranch, wanting to make sure she didn't kill someone with her gateway. "Can you help me get the horses settled? We probably have five minutes before Rhea starts panicking."

"Where did you learn to make a gateway…" Egwene trailed off as she realized the girl was holding more saidar than she should be able to. "Angreal?"

"No, I have a ter'angreal that hides my strength, the Tower would never leave me alone if they knew how strong I was," Egwene complained as she opened a gateway large enough to ride two horses through and let the other gateway close. "Let's get the horses through then we can loot the camp for feed and anything else valuable."

"Egwene?" Abell called out as he walked over, having seen the gateway while he was working with one of the horses in the other pen.

"Abell, how do you feel about helping me sell a couple of horses?" Egwene asked with a smile when her friend's father walked over.

Abell glanced between Egwene and the girl that looked like a less fit version of his occasional trading partner. "That depends, where did you find them?"

"Whitecloaks decided to jump me and my current charge," Egwene admitted.

"How much time do we have to get the horses through?" Abell asked, wondering if they had to hurry.

"The whitecloaks aren't going anywhere," Egwene assured him.

Abell glanced at the tents. "I'll grab Mat and the girls to grab their supplies, go ahead and start leading them through, if you can do it without getting kicked."

"I appreciate it," Egwene told him as she held her hand out towards the nearest horse, wanting to give it a chance to get used to her before she tried leading it through a gateway.

"I'll deal with the horses if you want to deal with your charge," Myst offered as he reached out with telepathy and gave the horse a gentle nudge to get him to walk through the gateway.

Egwene watched as the next horse followed the other horse through the gateway. "That's a nice trick."

"Everyone has a couple," Myst replied with a grin.

"Thanks." The local Egwene turned to look at her counterpart. "Can you fetch Rhea? She should be hiding near a tree with a warder cloak, just bring her back, I need to stay here to keep the gateway open."

Egwene pulled her attention off the gateway she was looking forward to learning the weave for then headed for the trail with a brisk walk. She shivered when she noticed the headless corpses, wondering about her counterpart's skill with a blade or why she'd learned to use a blade in the first place.

Myst opened his upgrade menu and looked at the local version of Egwene, curious about her talents. 'She has a stronger talent for crafting than Elayne, a talent for sensing how ter'angreal work and talents for crafting angreal seeds, ripping ore out of the ground and heartstone, you hit the jackpot. No appreciable talent for healing but you can't have everything.' He stared when he saw something that should be impossible. 'How the hell did you pick up the ability to channel saidin?'

"Is something the matter?" Egwene asked when she noticed the teen staring at her.

"Sorry, I'm just trying to figure out how you picked up the ability to channel saidin," Myst replied as he went back to directing the horses through the gateway, making sure they didn't touch the edges with telekinesis.

Egwene focused on the stranger. "What makes you think I can touch saidin?"

"One of my abilities lets me see talents and supernatural abilities like your talent for dreaming and dream walking or the fact that you can channel saidin, if weakly," Myst explained, keeping an 'eye' on Egwene's thoughts in case he had to dodge.

"I've had strange dreams for years," Egwene said, wishing her mentor had been able to help with that part of her talents but she wasn't a dreamer so her help on the dreaming half of her dream related talents had been limited. She sighed when she realized he wasn't going to drop it. "Don't worry, I only touched it a couple of times before I figured out how to avoid it."

"I'm not going to pry," Myst assured her as he checked the amount of taint she'd built up. 'Almost nothing, which means she's probably got it under control.'

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone," Egwene warned him.

"Don't worry about it, I have friends working on cleansing saidin, it shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks to finish getting everything we need to cleanse it," Myst assured her as he checked her sword with his upgrade ability. 'Life stealing blade? Steals a small fraction of a creature's life force and powers when it kills something, increasing the user's lifespan and giving them a fraction of the stolen power after cleansing it.'

"How?" Egwene asked in surprise. "They couldn't figure out how to cleanse the source in the Age of Legends, what makes you think you can?"

"I know it can be done because of a vision that I heard about, the Dragon Reborn in one of the mirror worlds eventually cleanses it and I know the general theory. We've also had three thousand years of people drawing the taint out of the source by using it, the taint in the source is a limited resource."

"Which means the taint will eventually run out," Egwene mused. "Assuming your theory is correct."

Myst watched the last horse go through the gateway. "I'm hoping we can solve the issue without having to wait another three thousand years. Either way, this isn't my world, if you say you have it under control, I'll believe you. Though I'm curious what made you craft a life draining sword."

Egwene stared at Myst. "You weren't lying about having tricks, were you?"

"If anything I was underselling them," Myst replied with a grin.

"Not much of a story for the sword, I was helping around the forge to increase my proficiency with fire, Perrin wanted to make a blade and it ended up more interesting than I was expecting," Egwene admitted, not seeing a reason to lie about that part of things as he already knew about the sword. "Is it safe?"

"I wouldn't want to slaughter my way through the Blight without taking breaks to let it purge the corruption that's going to build up but you should be fine, just avoid killing anything in Shadar Logoth to be on the safe side," Myst warned her.

"Once was enough," Egwene complained as Mat, Bodewhin, Eldrin and Abell walked out of the back door of their house, thinking about the cursed city that Moiraine had taken them through.

"Speaking of trades and magic, do you want a decent amount of resistance to damage that doesn't come from a silver weapon?" Myst asked, figuring she could use it.

"How much?" Egwene asked thoughtfully, figuring she had a couple of trinkets she could trade.

"Enough that you wouldn't be hurt if an Ogier hit you with an axe and I'd like permission to copy your talents and skill with crafting ter'angreal and heartstone," Myst replied, fairly sure he had enough to trade that he could talk her into giving him a copy of her skills and talent.

Egwene studied Myst's expression. "If you can copy talents, I want a copy of Nynaeve's healing and weather manipulation talents at the very least."

Myst scanned her memories and stared when he realized she'd found a holocron like ter'angreal in the ruins in the hills west and south of towns when she'd gone hiking with the boys a couple of years ago, mostly because the spirit inside of it had used the referred to the crystal sphere as a copy of a holocron. "I'd argue that supernatural durability was worth a lot but you worked hard for your skills, where did you find a book to translate old tongue?"

"I had to go to Baerlon, it was a bit annoying," Egwene admitted, glad that she'd found a rotten pouch of gold with the holocron or she'd never have been able to afford the book that had let her translate what the spirit was saying.

"How about I toss in a height boost along with supernatural regeneration and the ability to change into a blue skinned girl and a boy with innate magic for those times you want to look like someone else?" Myst asked, curious what she'd make of having a mana pool.

"Innate magic?" Egwene asked.

"Think of it like a well that refills over time," Myst replied with a grin.

"Which would let me use magic in a stedding," Egwene mused as her counterpart walked back into the clearing with Rhea. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to share your ability to perfectly read ter'angreal?"

"How do you feel about running through the forest naked?" Myst asked in a whisper.

"She wasn't joking about you being a flirt was she?" Egwene asked, more amused than offended.

"Guilty as charged," Myst replied as he started making popsicle stick skill books, starting with his werewolf durability then quickly moving onto his immunity to fire, figuring he'd give her a copy of all of their elemental resistances before moving onto talents and supernatural strength. "How did you get involved with the Tower?" he asked as Mat and his family walked over.

"I ran into an annoying girl with the spark in Whitebridge when I was studying the bridge. I wasn't willing to train her like the previous girls so I walked her across town to an inn where I'd seen a pair of Aes Sedai and they gave me a finder's fee. They gave me contact information, I figured I'd never see them again considering they weren't interested in training me, but I found another girl that was dead set on becoming an Aes Sedai and we got to talking when I dropped her off. I've spent the last six months traveling around to different villages in the region and recruiting."

"Where did Rand and Perrin run off to?" Myst asked when Mat reached the gateway.

Mat glanced at Egwene then shrugged. "Rand is in Tear dealing with nobles, Perrin and I took the chance to visit home, pretty sure he just doesn't want to deal with a certain lady that won't leave him alone."

Myst laughed as he thought about the First of Mayene Berelain, "You can't blame a girl for trying if he won't actually tell her that he's not interested."

"True," Mat agreed.

"What do we have to move?" Eldrin asked as she glanced around the empty camp.

"What is that?" Rhea asked as she looked at the gateway as she arrived with the other Egwene.

The local Egwene turned to look at Rhea. "It's a gateway, it connects two points in space."

"Can you teach me?" Rhea asked hopefully.

"Sorry, I haven't been able to duplicate the trinket," Egwene lied, not willing to share the secret with someone she didn't trust.

Rhea sighed in disappointment. "Okay."

"They should have grain and supplies for the horses," Egwene told Eldrin as she gestured toward the tents.

Myst scanned the prospective novice with his upgrade ability and noticed that she had a decent talent for healing and a decent amount of strength in the power. "I'm sure you'll find your talent."

"Let's go," Abell said as he headed towards the tents, wanting to finish up quickly.

Myst took a couple of steps back away from the gateway so he wasn't in the way and continued working on making skill books, mostly because he didn't really want to get the coffin out in front of the novice and complicate things for Egwene. 'At least it was a profitable trip, I wonder if the cookie tin would work on holocrons?'