Time Loops, Wheel of Time Part 9

Mist had just enough time to realize that the withered strangers that had just stepped out from behind a building were a problem before the entire village green burst into black fire and everyone started screaming and dying. He did his best to ignore the flames that made his skin crawl as he reached into his inventory and grabbed the enchanted pistol he'd 'borrowed' from the company's supply room. He flipped the safety off, lined up the red dot on the leather mask the man on the left was wearing and pulled the trigger, causing Balthamel's head to explode without a sound.

Aginor tossed up a barrier of hardened air as fast as he could when he saw the man adjust his aim, wondering where the hell he'd found the strange weapon or why the tainted fire that Balthamel had used hadn't done shit against the man. He lashed out with blades of air, trying to cut the stranger's arms off so he'd drop the gun. He stared in disbelief when the weaves dissolved as soon as they touched the stranger. “If you give me your ter’angreal and weapons, I’ll give you a quick death.”

"I'd have to be insane to trust your word Ishar," Mist replied as he lined up his shot, placing the red dot on Aginor’s knee.

"Where did you hear that name?" Aginor asked, surprised that anyone still knew his birth name.

Mist mentally adjusted his translation necklace so that he could speak a version of the 'Old Tongue' that Aginor would recognize. "One of my instructors used to rant about your questionable ethics and about how you didn't deserve your third name."

"That's an interesting accent but you can't be that old," Aginor argued, ignoring the town that was burning around them and the screaming of the dying.

"I'm not, I cheated," Mist admitted. "One of my friends had a foretelling about the Breaking so I crafted and filled a bunch of wells with as much saidar and saidin as I could and stole a modified stasis box that was set up to open every one hundred years. Every time it opened, I'd walk around for a couple of months or years then lock myself away again, waiting for the day the Dragon was reborn."

"What makes you think his reincarnation will be able to cleanse the source?" Aginor asked, fairly sure that someone from the current age wouldn't even know what a stasis box was.

"Because he's the creator's champion and ringer," Mist replied as a linked group of women severed Aginor from the source, causing the forsaken to scream in rage and horror.

Mist took advantage of Aginor's distraction and pulled the trigger, obliterating his knee and causing the broken man to fall to the ground and clutch his leg in an attempt to stop the bleeding or at least slow it down. "I'll make you deal, Ishar, if you release my friend from her bottle, I'll save your life and restore your ability to channel."

"What do I have to do and why can't you release her?" Aginor demanded, trying to ignore the pain.

Mist scowled. "The only people that can release the prisoners trapped in the bottles are former channelers. If you don't help, you'll be dead in less than a minute and you can toss yourself on the Dark One's mercy. I think we both know how much of that he has. All you have to do is say, "I release you" while touching the bottle."

"Whatever," Aginor muttered as he reached out and touched the bottle, unwilling to trust the Great Lord unless he didn't have a choice. "I release you…" he trailed off as a purple cloud flowed out of the top of the bottle and turned into a blonde teenage girl wearing a brightly colored patchwork cloak over her traveling clothes. "That's-" whatever else he was going to say was lost as he turned into a purple cloud and flowed into the bottle.

"What's going on?" Thea asked warily as she glanced around the burned out town, trying to figure out where to even start fixing things since she could feel dozens of people channeling in town as they tried and mostly failed to get the black flames under control.

Mist mentally swapped back to speaking what passed for the common language. "Two of the forsaken decided to destroy the town," he explained as he walked over and picked up the bottle that contained Aginor.

"Shit!" Thea cursed. "Are they coming back?"

"No, they're gone," Mist replied as he worked on scanning the bottle so he could duplicate Aginor on the off chance that he ever needed a deranged mad scientist.

"Do you know how to put the black fire out?" Egwene asked as she ran over with Elayne, wishing she'd worn something other than her best dress as it wasn't made for running.

"Use the weave Rand showed you for moving gateways and toss the shit in the Blight," Mist replied as he finished his scan.

"Why are you so calm?!" Elayne demanded, wondering if there was something wrong with Mist's head.

"Because in about five minutes, none of this is going to matter," Mist explained as he opened the bottle, causing purple mist to flow back out of the bottle and turn into Aginor sitting on the ground. "Don't attack anyone, don't scream or run."

"What? What did you do?" Aginor demanded in an even tone when he realized that he couldn't shout.

"I gave you exactly what you wanted, immortality," Mist replied. "It just comes with a couple of side effects, like the fact that the owner of the bottle can give you orders."

Aginor scowled when he realized that he'd been tricked. "What do you want to know?" he asked, knowing he'd have to give them something if he wanted to stay alive and that he'd need to avoid certain subjects if he wanted to avoid the Great Lord torturing him for eternity.

Mist pulled the tower model out of his inventory. "Touch the model and say "Library of Learning" then leave the school."

Aginor reached out and touched the strange model that was probably some sort of ter'angreal when the stranger held it out so he could reach it. "Library of Learning…" he trailed off as he found himself in the entrance hall of what looked like some type of school from his own age. He couldn't help the feeling of disappointment as he hopped back through the archway and found himself back in the burned out town. "Now what?"

"Now you answer a couple of questions," Mist replied. "Did the Dark One say why he wanted the village destroyed?"

"He was furious about losing Ishamael so he decided to punish the Dragon by destroying his hometown," Aginor explained.

"Great," Mist muttered, wishing he was surprised that the Dark One was trying to cheat by giving the forsaken access to his power. "Do the corrupted channelers in the Blight know how to travel?"

"Not yet," Aginor admitted. "Turned channelers aren't stable and they were supposed to be a surprise. How did you learn about them?"

"I ran into them a thousand years ago," Mist lied, figuring it helped sell his story on the off chance that the Dark One remembered events despite the fact that he was going to reset the loop. "It wasn't hard to put the pieces together but I didn't want to get into a fight with Ishamael without backup. Is there anything stopping the Dark One from ordering his minions in other mirror worlds to bring armies of shadowspawn here?"

Aginor laughed. "No, the deck is rigged, he could win any time he wanted by flooding the world with shadowspawn."

"Lovely," Mist replied sarcastically. "Were you in the town in the Blight last night?"

"Yes," Aginor admitted.

"What were you doing?" Mist asked.

"I was reading reports, catching up on sleep and teaching his channelers," Aginor explained, trying to be as vague as possible while answering the question.

Mist returned Aginor to the bottle, not seeing a point in wasting more time as the flames were spreading.

"What are you going to do with him?" Thea asked, trying to figure out what was going on since the last thing she remembered was appearing in a strange room and getting stuck in a bottle.

"Nothing," Mist replied as he pulled his lighter out of his inventory and reset the time loop, spinning back time to the point in time when he'd updated the time loop in Egwene's bedroom.

"What happened?" Moiraine asked, having gone from dancing in the village green to standing in Egwene's room with no memory of getting there.

Mist glanced between Egwene, Bode, Aviendha and Moiraine. "Aginor and Balthamel burned most of the town to ash on Bel Tine using the Dark One's power. I reset the timeline because they managed to kill several hundred people."

"How many people are going to remember the fire?" Bode asked warily, wishing she could forget.

Mist sighed in frustration. "Everyone that came back with us which means that we're going to need to explain things to a bunch of frightened people. I was hoping we'd have more time before I had to reset the loop or that we'd have a less traumatic reason to reset things so they could get used to it."

"Do you still have Aginor?" Egwene asked.

"I shouldn't," Mist replied as he pulled Thea's bottle out of his inventory and released her, causing her to appear in the room. "We're good."

"What's going…" Thea trailed off as she realized that her mother was a lot stronger than she should be. "Mom, why are you stronger than Cadsuane?" she asked Moiraine.

"Long story," Mist offered. "I grabbed this version of your mother from before the finn stole most of her ability to channel."

Thea winced when she realized that mother wouldn't remember her. "Great."

"You still have friends," Bodewhin assured her.

"Thanks," Thea replied, glad that some people still remembered her.

"You'll just have to tell me about yourself," Moiraine suggested, not sure what else to say.

Egwene pulled her attention off the bottle that Mist was holding and focused on his face. "Why did you have her bottle in your inventory?"

"I didn't want her running off and telling Thom about her adventures until I had a chance to explain things and then I got distracted," Mist admitted, feeling like an ass despite the fact that his mistake had proven useful.

"Why can't I tell my father?" Thea sighed when she realized that her father hadn't come back with them. "He doesn't remember either, does he?"

Mist shook his head. "He didn't have enough magic, otherwise I would have grabbed him."

"Bloody fantastic," Thea complained.

"You have a lot of family or potential family members, you'll just have to share your story and learn about your siblings," Aviendha suggested.

"At least we'll have plenty of stories to share," Thea admitted.

Mist handed Egwene the bottle. "You might as well stick the bottle in your inventory."

Egwene stuck the bottle in her spatial ring with the rest of them. "Why did you send Aginor into the school?"

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't spread this around but everyone that enters the school adds to the pool of knowledge that the teachers can draw from. It's one of the reasons I'd love to get Mat and Rand in the school."

"I can see Rand but why Mat?" Egwene asked. "He's not a magic user."

"Just because he can't channel doesn't mean he doesn't have magic and he's a fantastic general, probably the best you'll ever find," Mist explained.

"Are you talking about his luck?" Egwene asked.

"His luck, his 'old blood' that lets him remember fragments of the past and the fact that he has channeling in his bloodline are certainly part of it but the dice in his head is probably some type of divination ability rather than him being ta'veren," Mist offered, not sure where his ta'veren nature started and stopped.

Moiraine pulled her attention off her daughter that she'd never met outside of the fragments she remembered from the arches of possible futures. "We can discuss Mat's abilities later, we should focus on preventing the attack."

"Now that we're expecting trouble, we should be able to attack them the second they arrive," Bodewhin suggested.

"Or we try to lure them somewhere else," Egwene suggested, wanting to keep the collateral damage to a minimum.

"Where?" Bodewhin asked, curious what she was thinking.

"Shadar Logoth," Egwene offered. "If we start cleansing the source, they'd be able to feel it and they'll come to investigate."

"It's worth a try," Moiraine agreed.

"I'll talk to Nynaeve," Egwene said as she headed for the door.

"I'll talk to Rand," Aviendha said as she followed Egwene.

Bode glanced between Thea and Moiraine then focused on Mist. "Do you think you'll be able to recreate most of the designs for the city?"

"No clue," Mist admitted as he opened his interface and checked to see if he still had all of the schematics he'd spent most of the night scanning. He sighed in relief when he realized that he still had all of the schematics. "Never mind, I still have all of the schematics."

Bode sighed in relief, extremely glad they didn't have to try to recreate all of the work they'd put into designing the city since the design team she was part of had spent over a year working on it in their classes. "Thank the light."

"Shouldn't the schematics have vanished when you reset everything?" Moiraine asked, curious about his ability and how the time loop worked.

"I'm guessing the time loop considers the schematics part of my memory since they're stored by my power and they aren't physical objects," Mist offered. "I'm just happy that I don't have to keep redesigning everything, the students put a lot of work into the city."

"Lots of work," Bode agreed.

"If we're going to fight the forsaken, we should talk to someone that can make ter'angreal so we can get everyone some defensive ter'angreal. Did you bring Elayne back in time?" Thea asked hopefully as Lan walked into the room.

"Elayne and Moria and several dozen crafters from possible futures. You're in good hands," Mist assured her.

"Thea," Lan offered. "What happened? I don't recall seeing you in the tent."

"What tent? I found myself in a strange room and then a burned out town," Thea replied, still not completely sure what was going on. "They said something about rescuing me because they were changing things in the past but they weren't particularly clear."

"She got lost in my inventory," Mist admitted. "Feel free to catch her up when you have a chance."

"What caused the fire?" Lan asked Mist, knowing that Moiraine had been caught in the initial blast so she'd have less of an idea.

"The Dark One sent Aginor and Balthamel to destroy the village. The fire felt twisted and tainted which means Balthamel probably used the Dark One's power to create it. I wasn't sure hitting him with balefire would be enough to save everyone or to keep them from remembering watching everything burn so I reset the time loop," Mist explained.

"Which gives us time to find a solution," Moiraine said. "Egwene suggested cleansing the source if Rand can collect the access keys. We'd have to be careful but we need the source clean and safe."

"Worst case, we try again," Mist pointed out, not seeing a problem with resetting the loops until they pulled off a perfect victory or at least a victory where no one died.

"Are you going to talk to Siuan about having witnesses from each of the ajahs or are you going to ignore the Tower?" Lan asked, seeing advantages either way.

"I think telling Siuan has more advantages than disadvantages at this point, especially if we're careful to avoid mentioning the Two Rivers or how strong the girls are to the rest of the Tower," Moiraine suggested.

Bode shrugged when Mist looked at her. "Involving the Tower would make it easier to convince everyone that the source is clean and we're going to need their help to reform the red ajah unless we want a bunch of dead aes sedai when they come after the boys."

"Makes sense," Mist offered, not seeing a problem with using the Tower to convince people that the source is clean, especially since at least some of the Tower's stupidity was a direct result of the black ajah stirring up trouble. "Speaking of idiots and cleansing the source, we should probably figure out a way to keep the Amayar from noticing that the giant sa'angreal is glowing unless you want them to kill a bunch of innocent children."

"We can probably create an illusion or cover it with a tarp and an illusion," Bode suggested.

"Why would they kill a bunch of children?" Moiraine asked, rather confused since everything she'd read about them indicated that they were almost as against violence as the tinkers.

"Because they're insane and think that they're living in a dream or something and they wanted to take their children with them into the next life. I don't recall the exact details, I just remember reading about the aftermath," Mist complained, knowing the only reason he'd even mentioned it was because of the children and because part of him wanted to twist the pattern in knots and break every idiotic prophecy in the settling.

"You don't like them much, do you?" Thea asked.

"I think they're insane," Mist admitted. "If they'd just killed themselves after giving their children to the Sea Folk or the less insane people on the island, I wouldn't care but they killed everyone because of some insane rambling three thousand years ago. If it was an actual prophecy, fuck the pattern and fuck the idiot that recorded it."

"I can relate," Moiraine admitted, thinking about all of the frustration the Prophecies about the Dragon Reborn had given her over the years.

'This would be easier if I had a way to stun people,' Mist mused as he stood up. "I'm going to grab a drink and then I'm going to get back to work, I need to finish the tailor's shop so the girls will have dresses for tomorrow."

"What about the attack?" Bode asked.

"Some traditions are important and if we do our jobs, most of the village won't remember the fight or the fire, they'll just remember one last happy holiday before the dark times started," Mist replied as he headed for the door, wondering how many times he'd have to reset the time loop before they had some breathing room.

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