Copy Protection Void Part 30

An: I'll do another edit in the morning... high winds, so I want this posted.

Mist pulled his attention away from the closing portal to the Blight and cast his enchanting spell, causing a floating translucent blue window to appear in front of him, showing him several options. "I'm not sure where to start, spell creation or enchanting?"

Egwene's clone smiled at Mist. "Spell creation, I'm going to want a copy."

"I figured," Mist replied with a smile as he tapped the button and brought up the spell creation page he'd designed. He selected the option to create a spell crystal and selected his enchanting spell from the list of spells he knew. 'Here goes nothing.' He pushed the button and paid the fifty mana to create a spell crystal that would let anyone with enough mana learn his enchanting spell, causing a marble sized sphere to appear in the box in his interface. "Can you see the enchanting interface?"

"Yes," Egwene's clone replied as she lifted her glasses up to make sure it wasn't just her glasses that let her see the strange window.

"That makes explaining things easier and means we'll have to be more careful about using the spell in public," Mist mused as he pulled the crystal marble out of the interface. He examined the crystal with his glasses. "This crystal allows the creature holding it to cast [Enchanting Spell] if they can pay the mana cost. You'll need to cast it twenty times before you learn it."

Egwene walked over and stood next to Mist so that she could examine the enchanting window from the right direction. "That's slower than copying a weave but it's still pretty reasonable."

"Especially if we can get rid of some of the gestures that the Aes Sedai have added over the years," Egwene's clone mused as she walked over to the other side of Mist so she could read the text on his floating window.

Mist handed the spell crystal to Egwene's clone then pushed the button to analyze spells, bringing up his list of spells. He skimmed over the completely insane spells and selected the Ceremony of Summon Imperial Wolves and hit the button. He smiled as half a dozen stones with glowing runes carved into them appeared in the window of his interface. "I should be able to combine the runes and get new spells, which means the twisted spells just got a bit more useful."

"Can you duplicate ter'angreal or angreal?" Egwene asked hopefully as she handed him her ring angreal.

"It's worth a shot," Mist replied as he exited out of the spell menu and selected the enchanting page. He dropped the Egwene's ring into the box and tapped the analyze button, giving him three rune stones and the ability to make a copy since it was the last thing he'd analyzed.

"Saidar, buffer and magnification, makes sense," Egwene mused as she read the text over the runes in the box in the interface.

"Give me a minute." Mist pulled the ring out of the box and tossed it back to Egwene then grabbed the jewelry box he'd stuck in one of his belt slots so he could try to clean up his gift menu a bit. He opened the box and grabbed a gold ring with a small ruby set into the face then handed the box to Egwene's clone. "Hold that a minute."

"Sure," Egwene's clone replied with a smile.

Mist dropped the ring into the box in the interface then hit the button to copy it, burning through a decent amount of his remaining mana. He checked the ring with his glasses then handed it to Egwene's clone. "One perfectly copied angreal."

Egwene's clone reached through the newly created angreal and embraced the source. She wove an illusion of a flower then dropped the source, unable to tell the difference between the new angreal and the original ring. "That's going to change everything."

"Just wait until I can scan a sa'angreal," Mist replied with amusement as he grabbed another ring out of the jewelry box and tossed it in his enchanting box. He selected the three runes from his list and smiled when he checked the mana cost and found that it was the same as when he'd copied the ring. He pushed the button and enchanted the ring, spending most of his remaining mana. He pulled the ring out of his interface and checked it with his glasses. "Looks the same, can I borrow the staff?"

Egwene quickly pulled the sa'angreal out of her belt's inventory and handed it to him.

Mist put the staff in his interface box and hit the analyze button, giving him a notice, "Magnification rune upgraded." He selected the magnification rune from his list and grinned when he realized he had the option to scale the rune from almost nothing all the way up to the amount the staff could handle. "Scanning both of them unlocked the ability to scale the quality of the angreal or sa'angreal that I can make."

"Is there a reason to reduce the quality?" Egwene asked.

"Mana cost and security, there are probably times when you'll want to be able to give people angreal but won't want to admit that you can make sa'angreal," Mist replied as he pulled the staff out of the box and handed it back to Egwene.

"Can you enchant something that has already been enchanted?" Egwene's clone asked.

"Good question," Mist replied as he tossed the spirit beast ring in the box and pushed the button to analyze it, giving him a decent collection of runes. He swapped the ring with an unenchanted silver ring from the jewelry box and enchanted it, creating a duplicate of the spirit beast ring. "I'm going to need to find a way to boost the mutt's intelligence."

"You could always let Allora or Eldrin try to duplicate it while they're wearing the crafting coats," Egwene's clone suggested.

"It's worth a try," Mist replied as he selected the runes for an angreal and frowned when he noticed the increased mana cost and the warning that enchanting already enchanted items could cause them to warp or disintegrate. "It looks like it's possible to stack enchantments, just expensive."

"What happens if you put the runes together to start with?" Egwene's eidolon asked as she walked over.

"I don't know," Mist admitted as he swapped the spirit ring for an unenchanted ring. He played with the runes a bit, quickly discovering that it was cheaper to chain the runes together to start with than to try to add a second enchantment. "It looks like it's cheaper if I add the runes to start with but you have to be careful of the order so there are probably times when it's easier to make the ter'angreal and enchant them."

"Probably," Egwene agreed. "You should probably copy your glasses when you get a chance."

"It's on the list," Mist replied as he put the duplicated spirit ring on and conjured the creepy chihuahua. He pulled the strength boosting chalice out of his bag and gave the dog a drink, causing it to change into a smaller and meaner looking dog with a hunchback. "Can you blast that?"

Egwene's eidolon wasted no time in blasting the mutt with her wand.

Mist resummoned the dog and stared at the beast that looked the same as it had before the eidolon had splattered it. "Huh, I was sort of expecting it to change back," he mused as he pulled the ring off his finger and tossed it in the enchanting menu, causing the dog to vanish as soon as the ring left his finger. He analyzed the ring, getting a couple new runes. "Better strength and agility runes, a twisted body rune, a dancing rune, a juggling rune and a rune for singing."

"You're going to make monsters, aren't you?" the eidolon asked.

"Probably," Mist admitted. "I'm curious if we can use the poison pit spell to boost the eldritch abominations to the point where they could kill shadowspawn."

"It's worth a try," Egwene's clone agreed.

"Just don't mention the fact that you're planning on tossing a bunch of dogs into the arena, they won't understand," Egwene warned him, not particularly happy with his plan even if she agreed that having better pets might save someone's life.

"They're barely intelligent enough to follow commands and I wasn't planning on telling anyone," Mist replied, knowing he'd probably feel worse about his plan if the spirit beasts weren't barely sentient and shaped like chihuahuas. "We should probably get back and start working on making defensive gear."

"Works for me," Egwene's clone agreed as she opened a gateway to the cavern under the town where they'd stashed the ter'angreal they'd borrowed from the kin.

"Mission accomplished?" Allora al'Vere asked as Mist followed the girls through the gateway.

"More or less, we killed the forsaken that showed up to destroy the village and killed enough shadowspawn to use my enchanting spell," Mist explained as he walked over to the table filled with ter'angreal. "Unfortunately, I don't think the mana we use for the spell regenerates while we're using the spell so I'll probably have to destroy a couple more armies if I want to make anything exceptionally neat."

Allora shook her head. "How long do you think it will take before the Dark One sends an army of shadowspawn to kill us?"

"I don't know," Mist admitted as the gateway closed. "In theory, he should be able to recruit countless dreadlords from mirror worlds and obliterate humanity. In practice, I don't think he actually understands the portal stone network well enough to give people marching orders without having one of the forsaken check a portal stone. Besides, the more he tries to influence the world directly, the more the pattern pushes back, giving people visions or twisting things to put the right people in the right place to counter his plans. If I had to guess, we're probably looking at anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days before one of the remaining forsaken checks in with a contact in the Blight or heads to the bore and realizes that there's a problem. Once that happens, they'll probably just open a gateway and obliterate the village from range."

"Lovely, do you have any good news?" Allora asked hopefully.

"That depends, how do you feel about burning half the Blight and kidnapping a bunch of tainted channelers?" Mist asked with a smile as he picked up a white vase, stuck it in his enchanting box and pushed the button to analyze it, getting several runes for manipulating and purifying water.

Allora shook her head. "I don't think you understand how large the Blight is."

Mist laughed. "I think you're underestimating what a couple of dozen channelers can do with a circle and a box of sa'angreal."

Allora glanced at Egwene then focused on Mist. "When do we start?"

"As soon as I get the dull dagger from Egwene's eidolon," Mist replied as he held his hand out towards Egwene's eidolon.

The eidolon quickly untied the dagger from her belt and handed it to Mist. "Here."

"Thanks," Mist replied as he swapped the vase for the dagger and hit the button to analyze the dagger, picking up several runes for stealth and a rune for the Dark One. "The enchantment should work for anything you can wear, which means we'll be able to screw up the Dark One's day without him being able to find us."

"What happens if he figures out a work-around and Rand can't use the dagger for the Last Battle?" Egwene asked warily.

Mist put the vase back on the table then grabbed the dull dagger and handed it to Egwene's clone. "Then we're dead or he'll figure something else out. According to the stories, the Dark One has been around forever or close enough. If he had a way to avoid the dagger's effect, he would have figured it out before."

"You're risking the fate of the world," Egwene complained.

"If we keep playing the same game, we're going to lose or we're going to seal the bastard away and he'll come back in another three thousand years. We need to cheat and flip the table. Taking out the forges in Thakan'dar would cripple the trollocs and the fades' ability to get new weapons. Taking out the town that is filled with corrupted channelers would make things a lot easier."

"We don't have enough people," Allora warned him.

"I've got it covered," Mist replied with a smile as he opened his gift menu and flipped back to the first page of gifts. He grabbed the chicken bone that combined creatures, tossed it in his enchanting box and pressed the button, picking up several runes. "I'm going to need more chicken bones or sticks that we can break."

"I can grab some from the kitchen, my mother was making soup earlier," Egwene said as she opened a gateway to her room, placing the other end against the wall. "Do you want me to grab Twist and Apple?"

"That would help," Mist replied as Egwene walked through the gateway.

Egwene let the gateway close then headed downstairs to grab some chicken bones and lunch since it had been awhile since they'd eaten breakfast.

Egwene's clone glanced at the marble that she was still holding onto and pushed mana into the marble, casting the enchanting spell. "You're going to have to walk me through this."

"Sure," Mist replied as he moved over a bit so that Allora would be able to see Egwene's screen when she turned around. "You should probably start by checking to see if the spell counts weaves as spells."

Egwene's clone smiled when she checked and she found a rather long list of weaves that she could turn into spell crystals. She picked a simple glowing ball of light and paid the mana to create a spell crystal then pulled it out of the box and held it up. "Did it work?"

Mist sighed when he read the description of the spell gem. "That's annoying, it requires channeling."

"At least it should help teach the girls," Egwene's clone replied as she stuck the marble in her belt pouch. "Speaking of teaching, can you duplicate the crystal that gives a channeler two years of experience?"

"No clue, let me grab one of the expendable skill crystals," Mist replied as he looked through his bag for the crystal that he wouldn't mind losing if something went wrong. He tossed the sword skill crystal in the box and hit the button to analyze it. "Huh, that actually…" he trailed off as he realized that the runes had nothing to do with the skill and everything to do with creating a crystal that could hold a skill. "Yeah, never mind. It gave me the runes to create a crystal that can hold skills, it didn't actually give me a way to create the skill."

"It was worth a shot," Allora offered with a smile.

"Yeah," Mist agreed as he handed Egwene's clone the spirit beast ring. "You might as well see if you can duplicate the ring."

Egwene's clone tossed the ring into her box and pressed the button, eager to start experimenting with the runes. "Have you figured out how you're going to deal with the fact that the spirit breasts are ugly?"

Mist conjured a naked chef apron and tossed it in his enchanting box and pushed the button, picking up a decent collection of runes. "I was sort of hoping that I could use the wolf rune from the spell creation tab but they're on different lists so I'll probably just use the cat token on the beast once I'm done building it up to a reasonable level."

"Spirit beast?" Allora asked, not sure what they were talking about.

"My talent gave me a ring that conjures an ugly rat dog that you can sort of train and modify, I'm curious if I can turn the beast into something useful," Mist explained.

"Like an eidolon?" Allora asked thoughtfully.

"Basically," Egwene's clone agreed as she swapped the spirit ring for an unenchanted ring from the jewelry box.

Mist replied with a grin as he pulled the apron out of his box and set it on the table, figuring Allora might want to study it. "You should probably check to see if your runes reset since you don't actually know the spell."

"Let me try something first," the clone replied with a smile as she selected the runes for the spirit beast ring and hit the button, creating a new spirit beast ring. She pulled the ring out of her box and held it up for Mist to look at. "Did it work?"

Mist checked the new ring with his glasses. "It looks the same as the other one."

"I wanted something to compare the next ring to," the clone replied as she swapped the enchanted ring for another unenchanted ring. "Can I get a crafting jacket? I want to see if it helps."

Mist conjured a crafting jacket for the clone and handed it to her. "I should have grabbed one earlier."

The clone set the jewelry box on the table then pulled the jacket on and pushed the button to enchant her ring. She smiled when she checked the description. "It says the dog has a slight hunchback."

"We should probably run some more tests to make sure," Allora mused as she walked over to grab an empty notebook to start taking notes.

Egwene's clone pulled the ring out and closed the window then recast the spell, wanting to make sure the runes didn't vanish between uses. She sighed in relief when she checked her collection of runes and found them exactly where they were supposed to be. "The runes stuck around."

"It makes sense, they're stored in your soul but it's good to have confirmation," Mist replied as he grabbed one of the random ter'angreal, tossed it in his enchanting box and pushed the button to analyze it. "We might as well grab all of the runes we can while we're waiting for Egwene to get back with the chicken bones."

"Sounds good," the clone agreed as she grabbed one of the random ter'angreal and tossed it in her box.

0o0o0

"Are you sure you want to risk your life?" Allora asked the girl with pointed ears that was leaning up against the cavern wall.

Apple finished stripping out of her clothes and dropped her shirt on her loincloth. "Eldrin is a blademaster and a powerful channeler, I'd be crazy to pass up the chance to acquire a copy of her channeling and combat skills."

"Just do it before I change my mind," Eldrin told Mist, not sure how to feel about getting cloned, especially when her clone would be getting merged with the elf. 'At least I'll have another sister.'

Mist focused on Eldrin and created a clone with all of her skills and a decent amount of her memories of the town but nothing overly personal, leaving the new clone sort of dazed looking.

"What's going on? Who am I?" Eldrin's clone asked, rather confused since she didn't remember her name or how she'd gotten to the cavern even though she could remember where the cavern was for some reason.

"You're a clone," Mist told the naked teenager, doing his best not to stare at her body.

"Oh, I'm supposed to merge with Apple, aren't I?" the clone asked, suddenly remembering her job.

"Only if you want to," Mist told her as he handed Apple the newly enchanted wishbone.

"Will everything make sense?" the clone asked hopefully.

"Yes," Apple assured her, looking forward to filling in some gaps in her memories.

'Special place in hell,' Mist thought as the clone reached out and grabbed one of the 'legs' of the wishbone and pulled, causing the bone to snap and merging her with Apple, resulting in a rather twisted girl with three arms and two and a half legs. 'Just as well that we have the rabbit ears.'

Egwene winced, trying and failing not to stare at the girl's deformities. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I need a drink," Apple admitted as wiggled her third arm, finding the entire experience more than a little weird.

Mist poked Apple's shoulder, picking up the ability to create a clone of her. "Can you channel?"

Apple gestured and shot an eldritch blast at the far wall then embraced the source and created a small ball of light over her hand. "Everything checks out."

"Perfect," Mist replied and created a clone of Apple with all of her skills and almost none of her memories then turned to look at Twist. "Your turn."

The clone of Apple reached out and grabbed the wishbone that Twist was holding and pulled, causing it to snap and merging her with Twist.

Twist blinked a couple of times then wiggled each of her four arms. "Twist could get used to this…" she trailed off when she looked down and realized that she only had one large leg because the others had fused together. "Never mind."

Mist handed Twist the bunny ears then tossed a hat that he'd enchanted with the bunny ears enchantment to Apple. "The hats should have everything right as rain in an hour."

"Good, this is annoying," Twist replied as she hopped over to an empty chair and flopped down.

"Sorry," Mist told her, glad that they'd survived the initial merge. 'That should let Bode and Eldrin copy Apple's magic resistance and Twist's house elf magic with the crown, not to mention the warlock abilities they picked up.'

"It was our choice and we'll be fine," Apple told him, not seeing a problem with having to spend an hour to fix everything when it meant she could pick up a new form of magic and get the ability to share talents and magical abilities because of the crown.

"Do you want me to grab Nynaeve to check their health?" Allora asked.

Mist spent a couple of seconds weighing his conscience against his desire to avoid a lecture. "Only if you confiscate her walking stick first."

"No promises," Allora told him as she headed around the corner of the wall they'd been using for a bit of privacy, knowing Nynaeve would be more upset if they didn't let her check.

"Thanks," Mist muttered sarcastically, glad that he had damage resistance. 'An hour should give me plenty of time to enchant their gear then we can do something about the town in the Blight.'

0o0o0