Copy Protection Void Part 21

Lan absently used his legs to stop his horse as they rode out of the forest and saw thousands of trolloc corpses being tossed into huge piles by an unseen force. "How large of a circle would it take to do that?"

"I don't know," Moiraine admitted as she focused on the people she could see in the distance, wondering if they were Domani because they seemed to be showing a lot of skin from what she could tell. "I can't feel anyone channeling saidar."

"False dragon?" Lan asked warily, having some idea how much power it took to move a corpse with the power.

"Or the Dragon," Moiraine paused as one of the girls turned to look at them and embraced the source for a second, "Reborn. At least one of the girls can channel so they're probably part of the group I sensed earlier."

"How do you want to handle this?" Lan asked, wondering what they were dealing with.

"Nice and calm…" Moiraine trailed off in surprise as a wooden sign appeared out of thin air in front of them without any warning. "We're not using saidin, Moiraine. You should probably ride over so we don't have to shout."

"I think they know we're here," Lan offered dryly.

Moiraine gave Lan a glance, fairly sure she'd have been fooled by his lack of expression if she couldn't feel the surprise and concern through the bond. She nudged her horse forward with her knees, doing her best to hide her concern about fighting someone that could throw thousands of trolloc corpses around with the power.

Lan followed Moiraine toward the strange group of women, doing his best not to make any sudden movements or do anything that would startle them.

Moiraine felt like something crawled down her spine when she got close enough to sense the young women's ability to channel and realized that the weakest was still head and shoulders above anyone in the Tower and the strongest was strong enough that she wasn't sure she could overpower her with the angreal she was carrying. "You seem to have us at a disadvantage."

"Mist and I are from a mirror world, we know a version of you and Lan," Egwene offered, figuring she'd try to clear some things up.

Moiraine glanced at Mist, fairly sure he was a touch too young to be the Dragon Reborn unless he'd started channeling early and had already started slowing. "If you're from a mirror world, what are you doing here?" she asked Egwene.

"Exploring, we were checking on this version of Emond's Field and a strange man in the woods told us about the army so we opened a gateway and checked. Once we saw the army we decided to destroy it," Egwene explained.

"Just like that?" Moiraine asked.

"I've dealt with worse," Egwene replied as she used mana to set the piles of trollocs on fire.

Moiraine turned and focused on Mist. "Are you channeling?"

"I can't channel, go ahead and toss a shield on me if it makes you feel better," Mist replied, figuring it would help. He smiled when Moiraine channeled and a shield appeared over him. "As you can see the trollocs are still burning."

Moiraine glanced at the fires, noticing that if anything they'd gotten more intense then focused on Egwene. "How are you channeling without me sensing it?"

"How much do you want to tell her?" Egwene asked Mist.

"Most of it," Mist replied as he conjured a blue loincloth, causing Moiraine to stare at him. "I can't channel but I have the ability to conjure certain types of magical clothing. If you're wearing the loincloth while you kill shadowspawn, you get a small pool of magic or your pool of magic grows stronger. A channeler can use their pool of magic as if they were using the power. The primary advantage of using your pool of magic or mana over the power is that using it doesn't cause fatigue the same way as using the power."

"Does it have any disadvantages?" Moiraine asked, curious about the magic's limitations and if it was something they could use to partially replace saidin so the Dragon Reborn wouldn't go insane before the Last Battle.

"It's a pool and it regenerates over time," Mist replied as he conjured a pair of sunglasses. "You can refill the pool using the power if you're in a hurry but drawing in the power would have the same cost in fatigue as using it so it's not really worth it unless you're planning on channeling in a stedding and you can't wait for your mana to regenerate. The other disadvantage is also an advantage, just being a channeler doesn't let you sense mana which means that teaching people using mana is problematic without a ter'angreal to let you see the mana."

"Can people that aren't channelers use the loincloth?" Moiraine asked thoughtfully.

"You don't have to be a channeler to use it, that's just the easiest way to take advantage of having a pool of magic. If you want to see what Egwene is doing, you should put the glasses on or let Lan put the glasses on," Mist suggested as he held the glasses out for her to grab.

Moiraine used a thread of air to float the glasses over to her hand then put them on, figuring that if they wanted her dead, there wasn't much she could do about it. She stared at the nine wrist thick glowing cables of red magic that were flowing out of Egwene into the bonfires and the five yellow threads that seemed to be blowing the smoke away from them. "Do you know why we're here?"

Mist glanced at Lan then focused on Moiraine. "No but I can guess, you're probably looking for the Dragon Reborn. To answer your next question, I haven't had a chance to meet him in this version of the world so I'll keep my guesses about his identity to myself. If you want to keep the glasses, I'm going to need a promise."

"What promise?" Moiraine asked, curious what he'd ask for.

"I'll let you keep them as long as you promise to never give them to the red ajah or to anyone that would give them to the red ajah, most of them are obsessed or deranged in our world and I doubt they're all that different in this one," Mist complained, thinking about Elaida and some of the red sisters in the book that were almost rabid when it came to men.

"You have my word that I'll never willingly give the glasses to the red ajah or anyone I think would give them to the red ajah," Moiraine promised.

"Do you want a pair?" he asked Lan.

"Yes," Lan replied, knowing that being able to see weaves would make his job easier.

Mist conjured another pair of glasses and tossed them up to Lan. "I'm going to need the same promise."

"I promise to never willingly give them to the red ajah or give them to someone that will," Lan swore then put the glasses on, curious what the weaves looked like. He glanced at the red cables coming out of one of the girls then glanced at the shimmering field over Mist that was probably Moiraine's shield then turned his attention to look at Moiraine, more than a little disturbed by the magical chains that covered her mouth and hands.

"That works," Mist replied with a smile.

"Warders can lie," Allora pointed out as all of the fires died.

Mist turned to look at Allora. "I trust al'Lan Mandragoran to keep his promise unless the fate of the world is at stake, at which point, I don't really care what happens to the glasses."

"Alright," Allora replied with a yawn. "We should probably head back before I fall asleep on my feet, it's been a long day."

"I'm going to need you to take the glasses off for a minute or give me a promise that you won't share the next weave with anyone you don't trust," Egwene told Moiraine.

"I promise that I won't share anything I learn from you with anyone I don't trust unless you give me permission," Moiraine offered.

"Good enough," Egwene replied as she used mana to open a gateway back to the other side of the river. "Let's grab Allora's stuff then head to Watch Hill, there are a couple of people I want to talk to then I'll give you a lift to Emond's Field."

Moiraine opened her mouth to ask about the gateway and paused when the dwarf wearing a strange headband with fluffy bunny-like ears started glowing and transformed into a six foot tall athletic looking teenage girl with pointed ears and thick green hair that came down to her butt. "What just happened?"

Mist smiled as he studied Apple's new form, happy that she was back to looking attractive rather than sort of twisted and off. "The rabbit ears have the ability to transform anyone that wears them for an hour into an attractive teenage girl with hair that matches one of the colors of the rainbow."

"That's an improvement, I need a drink and something to eat," Apple stated then headed through the gateway, eager to get something to eat as she was feeling hungry.

"Let's go, we'll explain once we get to Watch Hill," Egwene's clone said as she headed through the gateway.

Moiraine let the shield on the young man drop, since it obviously wasn't doing anything and rode through the gateway. She turned around so that she could study the weave, doing her best to commit the weave to memory so that she could duplicate it.

Lan followed Moiraine through the gateway, already thinking about ways to use gateways in battle.

Mist turned his attention toward the giant crystal snowflakes while he waited for the girls to head through the gateway. 'This would be a hell of a lot easier if I had a spell to shape the crystal.'

"Let's go," Egwene told Mist as she walked through the gateway.

"Sorry," Mist replied as he followed Egwene through the gateway, making sure he got clear.

Egwene let the gateway close then glanced at the wagon that was parked near the lightning turrets. "Let's get the lightning turrets loaded in the wagon then we can take a gateway to Watch Hill."

"Works for me," Allora agreed, more than happy to leave before the Taren Ferry folk could annoy her with a bunch of questions that she didn't have answers for.

Mist opened his gift menu and went back to sorting through the loot he'd picked up while he waited for the girls to finish. He smiled slightly when he found a drone and promptly lost his smile when he read the tag about how the batteries weren't included. 'I'll have to ask Vanessa if she can get batteries,' he mused as he checked the next gift. 'Knock off Red Lantern Ring, this cracker jack box prize scans any future user and destroys their heart as part of the attunement process, unfortunately the ring can't actually function as a replacement heart, leaving the victim to die. It can conjure a temporary costume and the user can create more rings that also have a faulty attunement process by feeding it mana. Disclaimer, the ring also lacks the abilities of an actual lantern ring. Yeah, that tracks, it was probably made as someone's idea of a sick joke.'

'Bode might be able to create a better version using the ghoulish jacket,' Mist mused as he skimmed over the next couple of gifts because they were mundane weapons that he wasn't particularly interested in. He smiled when he saw a pocket mirror that could transform into a full length mirror and back. 'That would be perfect for the scrying mirror enchant, assuming I can actually enchant the mirror without screwing something up. I should probably run some tests before I wreck it.'

'I'm getting sidetracked,' Mist admitted as he headed toward the Star Wars like gun turret that Egwene was loading onto the wagon using cables of hardened air. 'What do I need to do before I can head back or jump to another world without feeling like I wasted my time?' he asked himself as he watched Egwene's clone lift the other turret into the wagon. 'Bare minimum? Give Rand his new sword, tell Moiraine about Verin's list, shake hands with all of the channelers in the Two Rivers so I can copy them and move the mirror to a safer location so I don't have to worry about trollocs coming through the Ways.'

'And if you're going the extra mile?' Mist asked himself, knowing that he wouldn't be happy if he didn't at least try to help since the Dark One wasn't playing with kid gloves in this version for some reason. 'Giving this version of Rand one of the skill crystals would probably give everyone a much better chance of surviving,' he smiled as he realized he had a better idea, 'or I could give the crystal to Logain and make a bunch of copies without worrying about trying to copy a ta'veren or a god's chosen. He was a good teacher in the series and reasonably sane. That would let me leave a clone in every world we jump to.'

'Is he sane enough? Nynaeve should be able to heal his madness and the lab coat would prevent any taint from sinking in,' Mist mused. 'Of course, I'd probably need to wait until he gets to Caemlyn and he sees Rand to realize that he's not the Dragon Reborn which requires Rand going on an adventure.'

Mist's attention was yanked away from his musing when he saw a man with a black cloud around his head walking toward the group with a knife and a smirk on his face. He glanced at Lan and noticed that he'd looked right past the man as he scanned the crowd of people, looking for threats. He pulled the soul stealing blade out of his bag of holding then lunged at the gray man before he realized that there was something wrong and stabbed him in the chest, causing the gray man to scream in agony as his soul was ripped out of the Dark One's grasp and consumed.

Lan twitched when the gray man became visible as he caught fire and turned to ash. "How did you notice him?" he asked as he scanned the crowd, looking for any accomplices.

"One of my talents includes protection from mental influence," Mist replied as he glanced over the crowd, not particularly surprised when he saw a familiar figure in the crowd. "Can you grab Fain?" he asked Egwene, wanting to make sure he didn't escape.

Egwene pulled her attention off the pile of ash and glanced over the crowd, easily recognizing the man in the crowd that visited the village every year. She wrapped Fain in chains of hardened air and gagged him, wanting to make sure he wasn't able to talk his way out of a quick death. She wrapped him in an illusion, causing him to vanish to everyone that couldn't see magic, then hauled him over and tied him to the wagon with bands of hardened air. "Allora, can you handle the crowd?"

"Yeah," Allora replied as she headed toward the red faced mayor that was walking toward them, not looking forward to listening to his ranting.

"How do you know the man's name?" Lan asked, having seen the girl's magic cover the man.

"He's a peddler, a darkfriend and a monster that basically sold his soul to the Dark One. He's also the piece of shit that brought the trollocs in our world," Mist explained. "Don't kill him, he needs to die a certain way or we're going to have problems."

Moiraine glanced between the strangers and realized that most of them agreed with him while one of them looked surprised. "A certain way?"

"It's a long story, I'll explain once we're out of town," Egwene told them, wanting to make sure he didn't have a chance to escape.

Mist scanned the crowd again then checked his clothing options, a touch surprised to find two new options from the gray man. 'Conjure tinfoil hats? Wearing the tinfoil hat on your head grants a moderate amount of protection against mind altering effects. These hats can be used to line the inside of other hats, increasing the hat's protection against mental effects by a modest amount without compromising the magical abilities of the upgraded hat with an appropriate craft check. That's a bit on the nose but I'll take it.'

Mist almost laughed when saw the description of his new mask. 'A domino mask that changes the user's voice and appearance with an illusion, allowing the wearer to maintain a secret identity despite how little the mask actually covers. That should make talking people into using the Dragon Crown a lot easier.'

0o0o0

"Samara?" Moiraine asked in surprise when she walked into The White Boar and saw a young woman that she hadn't seen in twenty years, looking like she'd barely aged a day.

"Moiraine!" Samara replied enthusiastically, happy to see her friend. "It's nice to see you."

"What are you doing in Andor?" Moiraine asked as she studied her raven haired friend that had left for Illian the last she'd heard.

"Teaching," Samara replied with a grin as Lan walked into the room.

Moiraine sighed. "The hall is going to throw a fit when they find out that you've been teaching people."

"I failed my test for the shawl, that means the Tower doesn't have a say in how I spend my time and teaching people isn't illegal, only claiming to be something I'm not, which I haven't," Samara pointed out.

"With the amount we practiced, you should have passed," Moiraine told her.

"Passing wouldn't have been a problem, failing with style without getting yourself killed, now that's the real trick," Samara replied cheerfully as she waved one of the waitresses over. "I'm going to need the back room for a bit and some food for my friends."

"I'll grab some stew," the girl offered as she headed toward the kitchen.

Mist pulled his attention away from the group of people that were glowing because of his magic sensing glasses and focused on the teenage waitress that was glowing as she headed toward the kitchen with a spring in her steps. "Thanks."

"Foretelling?" Moiraine asked once the pieces slid into place.

"Follow me," Samara said as she headed toward the backroom, not wanting to share the details of her foretelling with the villagers.

Mist 'accidently' bumped or brushed the hands of several channelers as he made his way through the slightly crowded tavern into the back room.

Samara waited for the group with Moiraine to walk into the back room then closed the door. "The night before my test, I had a foretelling. If I took the test I would have been dead within a year, if I failed while looking like a fool, I'd be able to slip away, save a decent number of people and avert the end of civilization. It wasn't a hard choice."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Moiraine asked.

Samara sighed. "I would have been dead in three weeks rather than a year."

"Which means we would have told someone or someone would have overheard us," Moiraine mused.

"Or someone would have acted differently or done something that caused a problem," Samara offered. "Don't worry about it, I've had twenty enjoyable years teaching girls to channel, most of which have a talent for learning weaves."

"And you never sent any of them to the Tower?" Moiraine asked.

Samara shook her head. "It would have resulted in problems and I knew that Egwene would show up and finish their education."

Allora frowned. "I thought you said your talent was weak and annoying, how do you know the name of a girl from another world?"

"I believe the word I used was erratic and annoying," Samara replied with a smile, knowing that she'd certainly undersold her visions over the years because things worked out better if people didn't expect her to know everything. "I can get five visions in a month or one vision in five years but they're always clear and I can always remember them which is better than most people with the talent. Did you manage to find Fain?"

"Yeah, dead and gone," Mist assured her.

"That makes things easier in some ways and worse in others," Samara mused.

"Worse?" Moiraine asked.

"Killing Fain means Mat can avoid getting cursed by Shadar Logoth, unfortunately that means he won't seek out the doors which means he won't have his medallion when he needs it," Samara explained.

"We'll just have to copy my brother's medallion," Eldrin suggested, unwilling to let her family get murdered if she could help it.

"We can't, his medallion was made with both sides of the power," Samara warned them.

Mist pulled the copy of Mat's medallion out of his gift menu that he'd received for killing Fain and tossed it to Samara. "Make sure he gets it."

Samara smiled as she slipped the medallion into her jacket pocket, relieved that she wouldn't have to get creative to save Mat. "I will."

"What else did you get for killing Fain?" Bodewhin asked Mist.

"Just a book that summons a magical traveling merchant, it's strangely appropriate," Mist admitted, fairly sure his ability was trolling him or the ROB just really hated Fain and wanted to make sure he hunted him down on every world they visited by giving him nice loot, something he could certainly get behind. "I also got a fishbowl that creates an illusion of a fish when you pour water into it and a fountain pen that never runs out of ink from the gray man."

"Can I study those?" Allora asked hopefully.

"As long as you give us a copy of your notes, I'll let you study just about everything we have access to," Mist promised as he pulled the gifts out of his gift menu and set them on the table.

"Excellent," Allora replied with a smile as the waitress walked in with a tray filled with bowls of delicious smelling stew.

0o0o0