Time Loops, Wheel of Time Part 8

"There is something seriously wrong with this place," Cat a'Meara muttered as she glanced around the crowded school cafeteria trying to find a place to sit, still not used to the 'dress code' despite the fact that she'd already had two weeks to get used to it.

"The fact that everyone is stuck wearing stretchy shorts that don't leave much to the imagination or the fact that half the people are related to us?" Dalresin al'Thor asked his roommate as he enjoyed the view and looked for a spot.

"Both," Kariana al'Thor offered, slightly annoyed that most of the boys with red hair were probably related to her since most of them were attractive.

"I thought you were interested in Sarafina?" Cat asked as gestured toward a mostly open table where their other roommate was sitting.

"She's also a girl, so the fact that she's sort of my half sister doesn't really matter," Kariana replied as the group headed toward the table.

"Her folks are Loise al'Vere and Rand, right?" Cat asked as she glanced at the familiar and unfamiliar faces in the crowd, recognizing a lot of the people or at least fairly sure she could make a decent guess as to which family they belonged to.

"Yeah, why?" Kariana asked.

"She's cute, I was just making sure she wasn't related," Cat replied with a smile.

"No stealing all of the cute girls," Kariana teased as she sat down across from Elanna Cauthon.

Elanna glanced up from her tray of food. "Which girl are you talking about?"

"Sarafina," Kariana replied with a grin as she worked on cutting her steak.

"She'd probably share," Elanna replied with a smile. "She's in my sex education class and she was willing to have sex with Bella in front of the class for extra credit."

"Damn, I shouldn't have taken art," Dal complained half heartedly, knowing the teacher would probably arrange the same thing for his class after lunch.

Cat shook her head. "Don't start, some of the girls were giggling about the naked girls they were drawing in that class."

"That's fair," Dal admitted. "How did your math class go?" he asked Elanna, doing his best not to stare at her chest, something that wasn't all that easy since she had nice breasts.

Elanna finished her bite of salad. "It was good. We've got a test at the end of the week and the teacher is offering prizes for the highest three grades."

Kariana swallowed her bite of steak. "What type of prizes?"

"She said she didn't want to ruin the surprise but she also said we'd get points, so it could be anything from candy to something more useful," Elanna replied, not sure what to expect. "How did your channeling class go?"

"Better than I was expecting," Dal admitted. "We mostly worked on weaving multiple threads and cutting weaves, we're supposed to have a group project next week with one of the female classes for a lesson on linking and shielding."

Kariana finished another bite. "Ms. Hex mentioned that, she said we'd get prizes if we beat your class."

"What type of prizes?" Dal asked.

Kariana snickered. "She's offering to teach every girl that wins the familiar spell and unlock an extra familiar form."

Dal winced as he realized the prize would push the girls to be more vicious in their attempts to win, something that they certainly didn't need. "Is she trying to get us killed? Just the basic spell is five hundred points in the store."

"Quit being so dramatic," Cat told him. "I doubt most of the girls are going to be able to beat you, unless they have an angreal."

"Or if they let us link," Tali suggested from the nearest table, having overheard their conversation.

"That sounds like something Mr Z would do," Dal admitted, thinking about his channeling instructor that made up for a below average amount of magical strength with grit, determination and an abundance of skill.

"I wonder how many points I could make by renting my angreal out," Kariana mused as she glanced down at her silver bracelet.

"Probably half as much as if you ask the boys how much they'd pay to keep you from renting it to their opponents," Cat suggested, then went back to eating, wanting to make sure she wasn't late to her writing class.

"Not a bad idea," Kariana mused, wanting the points so she could buy the spell that let her summon different colored underwear that would let her levitate.

"Do I get a discount because I'm your brother?" Dal asked hopefully.

Kariana laughed. "Half brother and that's only if you assume the mirror world versions of our fathers are related. I've got dozens of half siblings that I haven't even met yet."

"What about a discount because I'm your roommate?" Dal asked hopefully.

"That depends entirely on who you're up against," Kariana teased.

"That's fair," Dal admitted and went back to eating.

0o0o0

"This isn't going to end well," Adrian al'Thor admitted as he watched Elanna Cauthon stalk across the training yard with her staff in both hands.

"Relax, we've got this, we just need to work together," Maric Mandragoran said as he tried to circle around to make it harder on his opponent.

"She's going to cheat," Adrian warned him.

"She's a Cauthon," Maric replied, doing his best to keep track of Elanna's movements and not get distracted by the fact that she was only wearing a pair of shorts.

"That's slander," Elanna complained good naturedly.

"It's only slander if it's not true," Adrian argued as he took a swing with his practice blade, causing Elanna to block it with her staff as she stepped to the side, trying to keep from being surrounded.

"What makes you think that my sneakiness comes from my father?" Elanna asked as she jabbed at Adrian a couple of times to get him to back up, wanting him closer to the edge of the ring.

"I've heard stories," Maric replied as he moved to flank Elanna.

"Now!" Elanna shouted as she lunged for Adrian and jabbed him in the shoulder, causing him to trip backwards over the concealed cable of hardened air that she'd set up before the fight and stumble out of the ring.

Maric jumped back as Elanna's staff vanished then winced as something hit his hand hard enough to get through the weak armor ter'angreal they used for training, forcing him to drop his practice sword. "Shit!"

"Hold!" the combat professor called out. "What was that shit?!" he demanded as he stalked over to where Elanna and Maric were standing. "The rules clearly state that the participants can't channel or cast during the fight or use any non sanctioned ter'angreal."

"I'm aware," Elanna replied as Adrian got to his feet. "I didn't break the rules. Nothing in the rules said that we can't prepare the battlefield ahead of time."

"Bullshit," several of the students complained from the edge of the ring.

"Explain what you did," the professor ordered, wondering if she'd broken any rules or just the spirit of the rules.

"I wanted to win and I'm not my father so I had to get creative," Elanna admitted. "Before the fight I hid a couple weaves of hardened air near the edge of the arena which I pushed Adrian into, causing him to stumble out of the ring and disqualify himself. Also before the fight, I wove an illusion over my staff to turn it invisible. I tied the weave off then wove another weave over it to make it visible as long as I didn't take my thumb off of the staff. I tied it off and dropped the source before the fight which means that I never channeled during the fight or even embraced the source."

"In that case, do you want to continue?" the professor asked Maric.

"Of course," Maric replied with a grin, not seeing a reason to let her win just because he'd been disarmed.

The professor backed up several steps. "Go!"

Adrian watched as Maric used his foot to toss his sword up to his hand and resume the fight, putting up a valiant defense against Elanna and her invisible staff now but not surprised when she tossed flour at his face and managed to send his blade out of the ring.

"Match!" the professor called out.

"That's annoying," Maric complained as he wiped the flour off his face.

"I'm aware," Elanna admitted as she embraced the source and cut the weave that hid her staff. "No hard feelings?" she asked as she cut the weaves that created the cables of hardened air.

"I'm good," Maric replied with a grin. "I'm just glad that you used flour rather than sand."

Elanna shook her head. "This is just a sparring match, there are limits. Besides, our armor would have blocked the sand, the flour works better."

"So much for honorable combat," one of the guys complained.

The professor clapped his hands to get everyone's attention. "There's a time and place for so-called honorable combat but you should generally leave it for the sparring ring. It was two against one, I would have been disappointed if she hadn't tried to find an advantage. Now, before you get excited about all of the nasty traps you're going to set up in your next fight, I'll be changing the rules to avoid this sort of behavior now and then."

"Now and then?" one of the students asked.

"Exactly, it should keep you on your toes," the professor replied with a smirk then turned his attention back to Elanna. "Congratulations, your reward is the Bound Weapon spell," the professor told Elanna as he used his magic to 'teach' her a spell to summon a magical weapon, writing it on her soul so that she'd never forget.

"Thank you," Elanna replied, rather happy with her new spell and looking forward to using it to practice her magic so she could take some of the mana based classes rather than just the channeling classes.

"Hit the showers and get to your next class," the combat professor announced.

"I'm going to have to remember the flour trick," Adrian mused as they headed for the showers with the rest of the class that had been working up a sweat for the last two hours.

"Leave the tricks for the rogues," Maric suggested, rather amused by the fight and taking it as a lesson on paying attention to his surroundings.

"I wouldn't have to cheat if you didn't have arms as long as my legs," Elanna teased as she stuck the staff back on the weapon rack near the door to the showers.

"And really nice muscles," one of the other girls piped up.

"It's not our fault that you're short," Adrian teased as they walked into the shower room.

"I'm not short, you're just giants," Elanna argued as she followed him into the showers, knowing that she wasn't particularly short since she was a few inches taller than her mother.

"That's fair," Adrian admitted as he walked over to the bench and pulled his shorts off, ignoring the grins some of the girls were giving him, mostly because at least a couple of them were related to him.

"Nice," Valina said as she studied Adrian, enjoying the eye candy.

"Aren't we related?" Adrian asked as he tossed his shorts in the hamper, trying not to stare at the attractive naked girl with dark red hair that came down to her butt.

"We're sort of cousins, my father Luc stayed in Andor and fell in love with my mother when she got assigned to Andor by the Amyrlin," Valina replied with a shrug. "Which basically means I can look but I shouldn't let you knock me up."

"Got it," Adrian replied as he headed for a shower, doing his best to ignore the people that were showering together. "It's probably just as well we don't have to worry about the women's circle at school."

"What happens in the school, stays in school," one of the girls said cheerfully, rather happy that no one could get pregnant while in school so she didn't have to worry about being a good girl.

"Are you saying you're related to Elaida sedai?" one of the girls asked Valina warily.

"What?" Valina sputtered. "No, that's disgusting," she complained, having met the insane bitch when she'd gone to the Tower for training.

"Sorry," the girl offered.

"Do I look like the bitch?" Valina asked with annoyance.

"No clue," the girl admitted. "I've just heard stories and most of them have Elaida as the aes sedai advisor in Andor."

"Sounds like something to fix," Valina muttered as she headed for a shower, thinking about the sheer number of unfair punishments the bitch had given her while she'd been in the tower, all because her mother had gotten the assignment that she'd wanted.

Elanna tossed her shorts in the hamper and headed for the showers, still not sure how to feel about the fact that the showers weren't separated by sex. 'At least the teachers are amazing and we're learning magic.'

0o0o0

"How many people are you planning on taking to see the Green…" Bode trailed off as two balls of light flew out of the model of the tower on Egwene's desk and turned into a naked red haired teenager and a tall dark haired young man wearing a long white shirt and black pants. "Hello?"

"Hello," Kariana replied as she glanced at Bode then focused on Egwene. "You might want to move the school, we've got less than a minute before the first class of students comes out. We left early to warn you."

"Thanks," Egwene replied as she embraced the source and opened a gateway next to her bedroom wall that connected to the area near the waygate in the mountains. "Grab it and head through."

Lan glanced at Moiraine then hustled through the gateway, wanting to make sure the other side of the gateway was safe.

Mist grabbed the tower and followed Lan through the gateway. He stepped out of the way and started scanning the waygate, curious what type of schematics he'd get.

Dal glanced at Moiraine then followed his 'uncle' Lan and the stranger through the portal, hoping he didn't have to channel since he knew the source was tainted but willing to take the chance if he had to.

"I need to get more clothes," Egwene said as she walked over to her dresser, trying to find something that would work for the taller girl.

"Don't worry about it," Kariana replied as she used the spell she'd bought from the student store to conjure a pair of purple spandex bike shorts.

Egwene stared at the shorts for a couple of seconds. "I don't think that's going to help."

"It has a minor comfort enchantment which stacks with the enchantment on my jacket," Kariana replied as she stepped into the shorts and pulled them up her legs, giving Bode a grin when she noticed the girl was staring.

"And where's your jacket?" Egwene asked, wondering if she'd left it in the school.

"Right here," Kariana replied with a smirk as she snapped her fingers and summoned the leather jacket she'd bought from the student store, causing it to appear on her. She embraced the source and wove an illusion around her of a purple knee length skirt then inverted the weave and tied it off. "That should cover the important bits, at least until I can find a tailor."

"Can you teach me how to do that?" Bode asked hopefully.

"Not really, the jacket is actually an item that you can bind to people and the spell to conjure the shorts costs mana rather than saidar and a lot of it because I've upgraded it a few times," Kariana explained as she walked through the gateway and stepped out of the way. "You'd need a source of mana and it's a lot easier to just let the teachers at the school imprint the spell on your soul than trying to learn it from someone else."

"Did you learn any interesting new weaves?" Aviendha asked as she followed Moiraine, Bode and Egwene through the gateway.

"Just a couple," Kariana replied as Egwene let the gateway vanish. "I've had a decent amount of training with the power so I was mostly just there to take classes on everything else. My ter'angreal crafting class was a lot of fun and I learned some new tricks which is neat."

Mist smiled when his scan of the waygate finished and he got a decent collection of new schematics for various gates and portals, including a generic portal schematic that would create a portal to another world.

"I don't suppose you have a large tent in your bag of tricks?" Egwene asked hopefully.

"Sure," Mist replied as he pulled a wizarding tent out of his inventory and tossed it on the ground, causing the brightly colored circus tent to quickly set itself up.

"That's not going to be enough…" Dal trailed off as he pulled open the entrance flap to the twenty foot wide circular tent and realized that it had enough space for the entire school and a couple of elephants. "Okay, why do you have a magical tent that's larger on the inside?"

"I borrowed it from the supply room," Mist replied with a grin as he headed into the tent. He glanced at the metal and plastic bleachers that lined the walls then headed toward the middle of the performance area when a stream of lights started pouring out of the tower model.

"Neat," Bode said as she headed into the tent with Egwene.

Kariana relaxed a touch as she stepped into the tent and a wave of heat hit her, dispelling the unnatural winter chill that clung to the air. "Much better."

Aviendha followed her friend into the tent and watched as the lights pouring out of the model turned into people dressed in several different styles and holding a collection of different weapons and bags.

"Do you want me to stay out here?" Lan asked Moiraine.

Moiraine glanced at the short trees that had managed to grow in the patches of dirt that hadn't been scoured away by Manetheren's destruction or that collected in the area over the last two thousand years. "I'd rather have your help keeping everyone calm, we'll feel any shadowspawn before we see them."

Lan nodded then ducked into the tent.

"Take a seat!" Mist called out as Moiraine slipped into the tent, his voice cutting through the conversations with ease. "Once everyone is seated, we'll start trying to make sense of the chaos."

Kariana smiled as she headed over to sit with her friends, looking forward to meeting this world's version of her family.

"How much do you think they learned?" Egwene asked Mist as Dal followed Kariana.

"They were gone for about three hours which means they spent half a year training with some of the best teachers around. Considering their general strength with the power and the Tower's obsession with physical labor and distractions, they're probably up to accepted levels in channeling or at least a few years as a novice," Mist assured her. "We can always send them back once we've taken the time to explain everything."

"Is it weird that I'm sort of jealous?" Egwene asked, thinking about how much time she'd wasted in the White Tower doing chores.

"Not really, the school doesn't worry about politics or ajahs and they don't have three thousand years of stupid traditions bogging things down. On the other hand, there's something to be said for having at least a basic understanding of politics so I'll probably try to talk Thom into teaching a couple of classes once we get things rolling."

"He certainly has some surprising talents," Moiraine offered. "Have you considered how you're going to keep Elayne's mother from sending an army when she realizes that you're claiming territory and rebuilding Manetheren?"

"I wasn't worried about it," Mist admitted. "I talked to Egwene's father about claiming land west of the town since he's the mayor. No one really owns the land past the last farm until you get over the mountain or at least the world recognized my magical claim on the region when I claimed the land which lets me build on it."

"Your magic has some strange restrictions," Egwene said as she watched the last of the students sit down.

"Absolutely," Mist replied as he pulled a magical microphone out of his inventory that he'd borrowed from the supply cabinet at the office. He turned the mic on. "Testing," he said softly into the microphone, causing his voice to seem to come from everywhere in the room and nowhere. "Can everyone hear me?"

Most of the people in the bleachers replied, "Yes!"

"Perfect. Let me start by congratulating everyone on surviving your first two quarters of school without going crazy or giving up."

"It was fun!" Kariana called out, getting most of the students to cheer.

Mist gave them a few seconds to calm down. "Excellent. I'm sure everyone has a lot of questions about why you're here or when you can see your family so let me start with the easier of the two. You're here because you died in your world or you would have died, either when time reset for this world or when something killed you or was about to kill you. And yes, we're going to be dealing with the Whitecloaks and the Seanchan in the next couple of days."

"What about our family?" one of the girls asked.

"That's more complicated," Mist admitted. "Most of you are related to someone in Emond's Field or you're related to someone that knows someone from Emond's Field. Nynaeve is talking to the women's council about ways to explain things to the town and Bel Tine is tomorrow which means they're going to have a lot of dancing and it's a really good time to interact with people and interact with family and friends. Just remember that just because people got together in your mirror world doesn't mean they got together in this one."

"We know, we traded stories at lunch," Cat called out.

"Good," Mist replied. "It's a good day to show up and have some fun and try to connect, just think of the people as uncles or aunts or the people you knew or maybe cousins? It might make things easier. Every family is going to be different and I can't wave a magic wand and make things work out, I can just assure you that you'll have a place in the city once I build it."

"How long is that going to take?" Dal asked.

"At least a couple of days," Mist warned them. "I only have a limited amount of mana and some of the buildings cost a lot of mana to create. The more help with landscaping and moving rock that I can get, the faster everything will go."

"We can help," Elanna offered. "Most of us have high earth affinity."

"I'd love the help," Mist assured them as he pulled up his building interface and selected the map of the city that he'd been working on then hit the button to project it as an image to his right so that he could point things out on the map. "I'm planning on having a decent collection of towers and glass bridges between them along with parks, shops and workshops. If we're using heartstone for the frames of the towers, we could make them a thousand feet high or in otherwise impossible shapes, I want to show the world that we dare to dream."

"What about the White Tower?" one of the girls asked.

"Do you want to take this one?" Mist asked as he handed Moiraine the microphone.

"There's nothing illegal about using the power to build structures," Moiraine explained, copying the way Mist was using the microphone. "Having a defensible city also means that we'll have a place to protect people when the Dark One unleashes armies of trollocs like what happened in the Trolloc Wars." She handed the microphone back to Mist.

"It's going to take some work and patience but with your help, we can build a jewel of a city. I want to make theaters and waterparks and everything amazing that this world hasn't seen for over three thousand years and fuck the Dark One!" Mist declared. "Manetheren was a thorn in his hand, we're going to be the knife in his throat, we're going to be here when he's dead and gone. I'm going to build more schools and we're going to be a center of learning because to hell with sliding into the dark ages."

"Where do we start?" Egwene asked as Nynaeve, Elayne, Rand and Loise and Elisa al'Vere walked into the tent carrying large baskets filled with cloth.

"I think the first step is to make sure everyone has decent clothes and shoes or at least sandals if they're not fully grown yet. They're going to need them for dancing tomorrow and I don't want anyone getting frostbite."

"We can help with that," Nynaeve offered, her voice easily carrying even without the microphone. "A lot of the women in town donated their old clothes."

"I can conjure boots, they'll last a week," Maric offered, having bought the spell so that he'd have something other than saidin to work with and become the conjured boots let him walk on water which was pretty neat.

"I can conjure socks!" Sara al'Thor offered excitedly.

"That's a good start," Mist said as he gestured for the two of them to come to the performance area. "If you need boots, talk to Sara and Maric. If you need clothes because you don't have any, talk to Nynaeve. If you need clothes because you only have one pair, we'll figure that out in the next couple of days once I have the tailor's shop built."

"I hate being dirt poor," Kariana muttered as she headed over to talk to Maric and Sara about getting a pair of boots and some socks, not used to worrying about gold or even having enough to eat since her mother was a queen.