Copy Protection Void Part 22

Edelle Gaelin glanced between Samara, the strange chalice sitting on the table and the strangers in the meeting room. "Let me get this straight, you want us to drink water from a chalice that will turn us into dwarves so we can haul a magical mirror through another mirror so we'll have a better connection to another version of The Two Rivers?"

Egwene smiled at Watch Hill's wisdom. "At which point we'll let you use a ter'angreal that turns you into a sixteen year old girl."

Jerinvar glanced at Samara who nodded. "Give me the chalice."

Mist slid the chalice over to Jerinvar. "Bottoms up."

"Did you miss the part where you'd be a girl?" Edelle asked the mayor, surprised that he was actually considering it.

"They have a belt that can fix that part," the mayor argued as he picked up the chalice. "You can channel, you'll probably live another couple of hundred years in reasonable health, I've got less than twenty years left."

"Or thirty," she argued.

"Even more reason to use it," he muttered and took a drink before he could change his mind. He quickly set the chalice back on the table when he suddenly felt pressure all over his body.

Egwene watched the white haired man shrink, changing from a tall man into a shrunken hunchback before her eyes. "Don't worry the rabbit ears can fix it."

"Good," Jerinvar replied, ignoring the urge to break out into song as he readjusted his belt so his pants wouldn't fall off.

Mist covered his mouth as he yawned. "If you don't want to help, we can always find someone else."

"I have a list," Samara assured them, knowing most of the old ladies in town would love to be young again.

"Fine," Edelle grumbled and drank from the chalice, not wanting to lose her chance to pick up enhanced strength and agility. She set the chalice back on the table.

Mist watched the woman that looked to be in her late twenties or early thirties change into a hunchbacked dwarf that looked like she was playing dress up. He grabbed the chalice and put it in his bag of holding then opened his gift menu and went back to sorting through the junk.

"I'm going to have to borrow a dress," Edelle admitted, hoping she didn't look as ugly as Jerinvar.

"I've got you covered," Vanessa told her as she focused on the woman's dress and transmogrified it into a dress that actually fit.

Edelle stared at her dress that actually fit better than it had before then focused on Vanessa. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Vanessa replied with a smile, happy to help.

"Don't touch the edges, they're sharp." Egwene used mana to open a gateway against the wall that led to the clearing with the mirrors. "Let's go."

Samara walked through the gateway, curious about the mirrors that she'd seen in her vision.

Mist grinned when he saw the glass pitcher that purified water in his gift menu. 'That sounds useful, especially if they can scale it up.' He followed the rest of the group through the gateway and over to the mirror that was floating a foot off the ground. "Okay, it's two by three which means we should be able to get a three and a half foot wide mirror through without a lot of trouble."

"How tall do you want it?" Egwene asked as she walked through the gateway, implying that she was the one that would be creating the mirrors. She checked to make sure nothing was in the gateway then let it close so she didn't have to spend the mana to keep it open.

"Three by eight." Mist focused on the size of mirror that he wanted and pushed mana into his spell, creating a pair of three foot by eight foot silver mirrors that hovered in front of him. 'No point in admitting that I can use magic until we have everything set up.'

Egwene grabbed one of the mirrors and tilted it diagonally so that it would fit through the mirror that connected to her world. "Grab an end."

Jerinvar ducked into the small mirror then stuck his hand out and grabbed the other mirror when Egwene handed it to him.

Egwene helped Edelle feed the large mirror into the smaller mirror then turned to look at Samara once Edelle stepped into the smaller mirror. "Have you had any visions or prophecies that involve the rest of the forsaken?"

"Aginor is currently in the Stone of Tear, trying to find an angreal so he can deal with the rest of the forsaken if he has to fight them," Samara offered.

"And you didn't mention that earlier?" Egwene asked.

Samara sighed. "I had to wait until you asked, otherwise it would have caused problems."

Egwene used mana to open a small gateway to the ceiling of the chamber where Callandor was floating above the ground then reached through and shielded the man that was covered in weaves of illusion, causing the man's illusion to vanish and leaving him looking like a withered corpse. "Bind him."

Samara embraced the source and bound the man's arms and legs with threads of air, wanting to make sure he couldn't escape. "Can you hold him?"

"Yes," Egwene replied as she weathered his attempt at throwing his strength against her.

'Interesting, she must have an angreal,' Aginor mused when he noticed the small gateway that he couldn't sense and saw the people watching him. "Curious, I was told that Aes Sedai had lost the ability to hide their webs."

"Everyone lies," Mist told him as he pulled the cursed collar out of his bag and handed it to Samara. "Can you float this over and put it on his neck?"

"Easily," Samara replied as she used threads of air to float the collar through the gateway.

"If you let me go, I'm sure we can work out some type of deal," Aginor offered, trying to avoid having a collar put around his neck since they obviously knew enough to shield him.

"Let's ignore the fact that you're a monster and have been marked by a demon lord with delusions of grandeur, I'd never be able to trust you," Mist told him, finishing as the collar snapped around Aginor's neck and his mind was pulled into the gem set on the collar.

"Does anyone want to fuck?" Jack asked hopefully. "I know I'm old and don't have any teeth left but that just means I can't bite you when I'm showing you a good time."

"At least we have a teacher for saidin," Egwene muttered as she opened another gateway behind Aginor, hoping that he was a better teacher than Asmodean.

Mist reached out and touched a patch of the forsaken's skin that didn't look like it was rotting, picking up the ability to copy Aginor or at least the ability to copy the personality the collar had created. "Sorry, you're not my type."

Jack laughed which turned into a coughing fit that took a few seconds to get under control. "You never know until you try. It's just like fucking a corpse, you never know what you'll get."

"So much for getting someone sane," Mist muttered as he started pulling the stamps out of his belt pouch, deciding that he didn't really care which version of Aginor had to deal with the wendigo transformation. He stamped Aginor's mostly bald head three times with the healing stamp then stamped his neck with the stamp that would let him shape wood.

"What are you doing?" Jack asked.

"Giving you magic abilities," Mist replied as he cast his regeneration spell on Aginor, causing the worst damage to start regenerating.

"Kinky," Jack replied with a smirk.

'Screw it,' Mist thought as he stamped him with the wendigo stamp.

"If you want to stamp my ass, I'll bend over for three silver," Jack offered.

"No thanks," Mist replied as he put the stamps back in his belt pouch. "Goodbye." He took the collar off Aginor, wondering what it said about him that he was more creeped out by the withered hooker than the mass murdering sociopath that had murdered tens of thousands of people in his quest to create monsters.

"What was that?!" Aginor demanded when he found himself back in his body, having felt like he'd been pulled out of it.

"My ter'angreal pulled your soul out of your body and stored it," Mist lied.

"How?!" Aginor demanded.

"I'd explain but you don't have the talent. Speaking of useful trinkets, did you actually find any angreal?" Mist asked, wondering if he'd found the jade figurine of a fat man.

"A few, if you let me go, I'll give you one," Aginor lied.

"For a mass murdering lunatic, you're a horrible liar," Mist told him as he glanced over the various trinkets scattered around the room, hoping that he could find the angreal.

"I'm out of practice," Aginor replied as Jerinvar and Candy walked out of the larger mirror.

"That's fair," Mist replied as he poked Aginor, picking up the ability to clone him. 'You never know when you need someone to fill in background details.' He put the collar back around Aginor's neck, causing his mind to be pulled back into the gem. "Are you hungry?"

"Five gold and I'll suck your cock, ten and I'll do anything you want and I do mean anything," Ralph offered, wiggling what was left of his eyebrows despite the fact that no one could see them.

"Not what I meant," Mist replied, starting to wonder if there was something wrong with Aginor's brain beyond the fact that he was a sociopath or if using the collar on old people caused problems.

Samara hauled Aginor through the gateway and relaxed a touch when Egwene let the gateways close which meant they didn't have to worry about someone seeing something they shouldn't in the stone. "We should probably head back and make sure girls haven't gotten carried away."

"Probably a good idea," Egwene agreed as she walked over and 'stole' the Dragon Crown from Candy's head, causing her to pout.

Jerinvar glanced between Samara and Egwene. "What is going on?"

"Do you want to fuck?" Ralph asked Jerinvar and Candy hopefully.

"No," Jerinvar replied, not remotely interested because he was male and looked like he was rotting.

"You don't have enough gold," Candy told him, not remotely interested in fucking someone that looked like a corpse.

"Long story," Mist replied as Edelle walked out of the large mirror.

"He's basically lost his mind and we need the bunny ears to fix it," Egwene explained as she pulled a gold coin out of her pocket. She tossed the coin to Jerinvar and opened a gateway to the local version of her family's inn. "Get a drink and relax, we'll have everything sorted out in a couple of hours and you'll be back home and laughing about the fact that you're in perfect health."

"Sounds good," Jerinvar agreed as he walked through the gateway and into Emond's Field, wondering if he'd ever get used to the ability to walk through a door in the air and step into another town.

Edelle glanced at Samara then followed Jerinvar, not seeing a problem with having a drink and leaving the rude and crazy person to someone else to deal with.

Egwene let the gateway close once Jerinvar and Edelle were through. "Do we have an actual plan?"

"Yeah," Mist replied with a smile. "We're going to make sure Ralph has enough to eat, then we're going to put the bunny ears on him and see if we can use the sa'angreal to sever his connection to the Dark One."

"What happens if we can't?" Vanessa asked.

"Then we'll get creative," Mist replied as he cast his Conjure Mystery Meat Skewer spell, conjuring a wooden skewer of vegetables and something his sunglasses were telling him was cooked rat meat. 'At least my glasses can identify it.'

Samara adjusted the bindings so that he had one arm free. "That should let him eat."

"Good." Mist cast the spell again, getting a skewer of something his glasses told him was venison. 'That actually smells decent.' He cast the spell again, getting a skewer filled with human meat. "Third time's the charm. Are you hungry?" he asked the person using Aginor's body.

"That smells delicious," Ralph replied, his eyes glued to the third skewer.

"Here," Mist replied as he handed the man the skewer with human meat, fairly sure he should feel worse about his plan to boost Aginor so that his clones were more useful.

Egwene tied the man in place with cables of mana in case he managed to break Samara's threads of air when he transformed. She waited for the man to flip out and start snarling and throwing his magic at her shield then reached out with a thread and unlocked the collar, causing Aginor to blink when his mind was dropped back in his body.

"What was-" Aginor cut off as Egwene latched the collar, causing his mind to get pulled back into the gem.

"Hello bitches!" Frank said cheerfully. "I'm Frank, let's fuck!"

Mist pulled the bunny ears out of his bag and stuck it on Aginor's head. "Keep your mouth shut for an hour and I'll give you ten gold."

"Deal," Frank replied, not seeing a problem with getting paid for standing around, especially when the eye candy was nice.

Samara shook her head, still trying to wrap her head around the fact that Egwene's group had casually caught one of the Forsaken.

"We should probably check on Bode and Eldrin," Egwene suggested as she put the Dragon Crown on, wanting to see if the circlet considered people in the mirror worlds family. 'If the circlet works with people from the mirror worlds, every world we visit is another chance to improve our talents, assuming the worlds are close enough.'

"Stay quiet and follow us Frank," Mist ordered, wondering if the third time was the charm for the collar or if Frank was just as screwed up as the previous two.

Egwene opened a gateway, placing the exit against the wall of the building on the edge of town that Allora used as a workshop. She smiled when she saw Nara al'Thor talking to a group of people, three of which had glowing red rings floating over their heads if you didn't count her clone, proving that the circlet worked with alternate versions of family. "Did you have any luck duplicating the pen?"

Allora al'Vere turned and smiled at her sort of niece. "We can't get the color right but we managed to duplicate it. Get in here and take a look."

"Nice," Egwene replied as she walked through the gateway, curious what everyone was working on and looking forward to being able to acquire the talent to make ter'angreal.

"I'm Eldrene," Eldrene offered with a smile as Egwene and her friends walked into the workshop, trying to make a good first impression.

"Egwene," Egwene replied as she glanced at her clone. "But you probably already knew that."

"Egwene has been filling me in on the details," Eldrene replied with a grin as she gestured to her best friends. "Let me introduce Morgana and Fiona Cauthon, our local troublemakers and my best friends."

"Hey, we don't cause trouble, we just find it," Morgana complained.

"Or it finds us," Fiona admitted with a shrug.

"They're almost as bad as Mat," Bode teased, looking forward to getting to know her new sisters.

'Morgana and Fiona? Someone is meddling,' Mist mused, wondering if the names were Samara's fault or if they were a result of something strange.

Egwene checked to make sure no one was blocking the gateway then let it close. She

glanced between Loise and Alene then focused on the identical girls that looked a year or two older than Bodewhin, wishing that the circlet considered them close enough to get talents from because they were gorgeous. "Nice to meet you."

"I'm Mist and this is Vanessa and Candy," Mist offered as he pointed at the girls in question. "Don't mind the creepy old man, Frank's mute."

Frank shrugged, not seeing a point in correcting him since he was being paid to stay quiet.

"Hi," Vanessa offered.

Egwene glanced at the collection of projects scattered on the benches. "How many of you have the talent for making ter'angreal?"

"Everyone in the room other than Samara," Allora replied with a grin.

"How many other people have the talent?" Egwene asked, surprised that they had so many crafters.

"Five people in Devon Ride, three of them are second or third cousins. Natti also has the talent but she's working on dinner and there are two people in Watch Hill."

"We should probably check to see if Elayne has the talent before we leave," Mist mused, wondering if Elayne had ended up with the ability or if she'd ended up with something else, like dreaming or an excessive amount of talent in cloud dancing.

"She does…" Samara trailed off as she got a vision of a red haired girl being stabbed by a scruffy man that none of her guards could see. "You're going to need to save her, take Mist, he can kill gray men."

"Where do we need to go?" Egwene asked, hoping she could narrow things down.

"Her room in the palace, hurry," Samara warned her.

Egwene's clone opened a gateway, placing the exit against the wall in Elayne's room and scaring the girl with golden red hair that was wearing an expensive looking dress.

"What?!" Elayne sputtered when she saw the strange door to a workshop where there should be a wall.

"Shit!" Mist cursed when he spotted a man walking into the princess's room holding a knife. He cast his spell to conjure a glass statue of the gray man, dropping it on the man's head and instantly killing him. 'That's starting to be a theme.'

Elayne jumped when the statue crashed to the floor and she realized there was a dead man on the floor holding a knife and a statue that she'd never seen before. "What is going on?"

"Our friend had a vision of your death unless we stepped in, so we stepped in and killed the gray man," Egwene explained, making a mental note to check on the girl that had been her friend in another life and make sure she wasn't having the same sort of trouble.

"Who are you?" Elayne asked as a group of guards burst into the room.

"We're part of the crafting guild," Samara replied cheerfully. "You should close the gateway before Elaida gets there."

"Halt!" one of the guards called out as he rushed toward them.

Egwene's clone let the gateway close, enjoying the look of confusion on her friend's face more than she probably should. "Elaida is going to be on a warpath."

"Good, maybe she'll actually ward Elayne's room," Egwene complained, half tempted to slip into the palace and kill the bitch for what she'd done in her memories. "Is there anything else we need to take care of?" she asked Samara.

"I wouldn't object to improving my talent with healing," Samara replied with a grin as she looked at Mist, having seen some interesting visions of possible futures.

"Sure, I can do that," Mist replied as he opened his belt pouch and grabbed the healing stamp, not seeing a reason to object to getting to stamp some cute girls on the butt.

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