Copy Protection Void Part 12

Mist stared at the description next to the crown. 'Dragon Crown of Incest? Having sex with blood related relatives while wearing the crown has a ten percent chance of permanently giving the channeler wearing the crown a copy of one of their partner's magical talents if they don't have it or increasing their own talent if they do? The chance increases to twenty percent if I'm watching? Great, they're trying to get me killed. If I'd forgotten that a bunch of demons were watching my life like a reality television show, this would have reminded me.'

"What's wrong?" Egwene asked.

"I got a crown that's a bit questionable," Mist replied. 'Warning, there is a five percent chance that having sex with a family member will get you or your partner pregnant which will result in a perfectly healthy magical child being born nine hours later, who will quickly grow up until they reach thirteen years of effective age and skill. Warning, two males having sex is not recommended for reasons that should be obvious. Yeah, that sounds like a problem and a horrible way to die.'

"How questionable?" Egwene asked once it became apparent that Mist wasn't going to explain.

"More annoying and gross than evil and not something that every channeler could use, give me a minute and I'll let you borrow the glasses," Mist told her as he checked the next gift. 'Magical Spellbook: Open the book to learn new spells: 'Conjure Bread and Butter, Conjure Voyeur's Beds of Carnal Delights, Magical Hands, Regeneration, Transform Classroom.'

Mist pulled the spellbook out of his gift menu and checked the book with his glasses, hoping the glasses could give him a description of the spells before he used the book. 'The book safely and permanently engraves the spells into your soul so that you can never forget them, yeah, because that's not terrifying. No description of the spells but the magical hands and regeneration should be useful.'

'Screw it, having a healing spell is worth the risk.' He opened the book before he could change his mind, causing the book to turn to ash and the knowledge of how to cast the spells to etch themselves on his soul. He shivered as it felt like someone had just ran their fingers down his spine without actually touching him. "That's unpleasant."

"What was that?" Verin asked.

"That was a magical spell book burning a couple of spells into my memory," Mist replied as he pulled the Dragon Crown out of his gift menu and checked the details with the glasses. 'The creation process avoids giving the child negative genetic traits if at all possible. Conjures a halo over anyone with a close enough connection to benefit. That makes the crown a bit more useful.'

"Why would you need weaves if you can't channel?" Verin asked.

"Spells, not weaves and the loincloths let people build up a pool of neutral magic by killing shadowspawn. Channelers can use the energy as an alternative to using saidar or saidin and I can basically use it to fuel magic that I learn from my talent, it's just less flexible," Mist explained as he used his glasses to check his bracers. 'Nice, 13% less effects from toxins and 5% less damage from fire, better than nothing and they're getting better.'

Verin glanced at Moiraine then focused on Mist when she nodded slightly. "What do the spells do?"

"The Conjure Bread and Butter spell allows me to conjure various types of bread and along with several types of butter," Mist replied as he cast the spell, conjuring a loaf of warm french bread with garlic butter. "I'd rather have a spell that just conjures different types of food but it's a start."

"Is it safe to eat?" Egwene asked.

"It should be," Mist replied as he tore a large piece off the warm bread and handed it to Egwene.

Egwene took a bite and smiled when the taste hit her tongue.

"My conjure beds spell lets me conjure permanent beds, the magic hands spell let's me conjure a pair of floating hands that I can use to manipulate things at range and the regeneration spell lets me give someone regeneration for five minutes that will basically heal creatures and regrow body parts," Mist offered, not seeing a point in mentioning that he could basically scry on the beds any time he wanted or that it had also taught him a spell to transform a classroom into a naughty version of the classroom that increased the quality of the education.

"If you're not mistaken, your healing spell might be better than anything the Tower can provide," Verin mused, fairly sure the yellow ajah would love to get their hands on the 'spell' to see if they could copy it.

"I doubt my spell would deal with certain types of diseases and you can delve injuries which means you'd have a better idea what you're dealing with," Mist pointed out as Egwene finished eating her piece of bread. He handed the circlet to Egwene along with his glasses. "You can't blame me for the gifts my talent creates, I think it's trying to get me killed."

"What are you…" Egwene trailed off as she put the sunglasses on and saw the name of the crown and the description. "Have you lost your bloody mind?!"

Mist held his hands up defensively. "It's not like it gave me a choice in prizes."

"That's revolting and useful," Egwene admitted reluctantly, rather annoyed with herself for wondering what she'd have to bribe Elisa with so that she had a chance to acquire a copy of her sister's talent for making ter'angreal.

"What does it do?" Moiraine asked, curious about their reactions to the circlet.

"Take a look." Egwene pulled the glasses off and handed them to Moiraine. "It basically lets a channeler have sex with a blood relative that is a channeler for a chance to permanently acquire a copy of one of their talents or improve your own talent if you already have the talent that is randomly selected."

"Permanently?" Verin asked, finding herself wishing that she had family that could channel.

Moiraine carefully put tinted glasses on and looked at the crown that Egwene was holding, a touch surprised that the words of the description were in the Common Tongue. "It also has a five percent chance of causing the user or their partner to become pregnant with a magical child."

"Does it say how far back the connections have to be?" Verin asked.

"No, but I suspect the connections would have to be close enough that you could find them on your family tree if you weren't a noble," Mist offered as he tore a piece of the garlic bread off for himself.

"What makes you say that?" Moiraine asked as she studied the descriptions of his various ter'angreal.

"The twisted nature of the item and the fact that the chance of successfully increasing or picking up a talent increases if I'm watching, it's obviously designed to embarrass people," Mist replied, sort of glad that he wasn't a channeler.

"I'm not sure that would stop most Aes Sedai if they could pick up a couple more talents," Verin mused.

"Most Aes Sedai don't have family members that can channel," Moiraine said, trying to ignore the images her mind was conjuring of her niece naked on a bed.

"You're assuming that their partner has to be a channeler, it just said magical talent which could include things like Min's visions or various other unusual abilities like Egwene's dreaming." Mist took a bite of the delicious garlic bread. 'I'd rather have a spell for conjuring sandwiches but this is almost as good and should keep me from starving to death or at least help when everything starts rotting.'

"So much for ignoring it," Egwene muttered. "At least we have some evidence that his power is actually creating the ter'angreal."

"I doubt that will stop some of the members of the Hall from demanding that he turn the ter'angreal over to the Tower," Verin pointed out as she saw Min walking over with a rather tall young man.

Mist swallowed the bite he'd been chewing. "I wasn't planning on telling them. Do you want a piece of garlic bread?" he asked Min and Rand.

"Sounds good," Min replied.

Mist ripped the bread into thirds and gave Rand, Min and Egwene a piece, figuring he could always conjure more later. "How's the village treating you?"

"Like I'm a friend they haven't seen in years, it's a bit strange," Min admitted. "I think they think I'm from Watch Hill or something."

Mist laughed. "Better than thinking you're from Taren Ferry."

"I've seen worse, some of the miners in Baerlon are downright hostile if you look at them wrong," Min offered, then took a bite of the bread, savoring the taste.

"Can I have my glasses back?" Mist asked Moiraine. "I need to check something."

"Of course," Moiraine replied as she took the sunglasses off and handed them to him.

Mist put the glasses on then conjured a copy of the Ghoulish Crafting Jacket and examined the tan leather jacket with carved bone buttons. "It boosts the quality of anything you craft while wearing it and reduces any flaws or drawbacks of the crafted items by half which should help the crafters," he offered, relieved that the glasses didn't say anything about it being made out of human skin.

"I know a couple of crafters that would pay decent money for something like that," Min offered.

"We should probably hold off on selling anything until we have the school set up," Mist replied, wanting everyone to be a bit more combat trained before the Tower found out they were selling ter'angreal.

Min glanced at the two Aes Sedai. "Probably a good idea."

"What's with the circlet?" Rand asked Egwene.

"It basically causes a ring of light to appear over the heads of people that are related to you by blood," Egwene replied as she put the circlet on her head, causing a few of the girls over by the tent to acquire a glowing red ring over their heads. "I'm going to have to look at the family tree."

"You're from a small village, I'd be surprised if you're not related to most of the village to one degree or another," Moiraine said as Bode and the other Egwene stepped out of the other small tent.

"Are you related to Rand?" Min asked, mostly teasing.

"Thankfully, no," Egwene replied as she turned to look at Mist, a bit disappointed but not surprised that he didn't have a ring above his head since his family was from Watch Hill. 'Having his talents would have been fantastic.' She glanced at Bode and her clone, a touch surprised that Bode didn't have a ring over her head since they were distantly related on her mother's side and annoyed because she'd rather have sex with Eldrin to pick up the ter'angreal crafting talent than Elisa or Berowyn. "I'm also not related to Mist or Bode, even though I should be related to Bode."

Bode shrugged. "Grandpa's uncle or something on Mom's side, I'd have to check the family records."

"That just means there's a limit," Egwene mused.

Mist handed Bode the crafting jacket, helping Egwene change the subject since he doubted she wanted the villagers to find out what the crown did. "This should help with crafting, it boosts the results by twenty percent and decreases flaws and drawbacks of everything you craft."

"You're the best!" Bodewhin squealed as she quickly pulled the jacket on. "Is this a one of a kind ter'angreal or something you can conjure?"

"Something I can conjure so don't worry about wearing it, I'll give Eldrin a copy when I see her," Mist assured her.

"Thank you!" Bode said as she hugged Mist, looking forward to testing her new jacket out when she set up her forge.

"You're welcome," Mist replied as he returned the hug.

Egwene's clone reluctantly pulled her attention off Bode's bare butt and focused on Min. "Do you know if Baerlon sells sapphires?"

Min finished her bite of bread. "They sell a number of gemstones including sapphires and rubies, most of them aren't particularly large but every now and then someone finds something more impressive and retires, why?"

"Crafting," Egwene's clone replied with a grin. "We need lightning resistance to take advantage of one of Mist's ter'angreal."

Bode let Mist go and turned to look at Min. "I need to use magic to basically 'melt' a teaspoon worth of sapphires so I can make some gear that protects us from lightning."

Min glanced at Moiraine then focused on Bode. "If the size of the stones doesn't matter, you could probably get enough to make several protection devices for a gold coin, the smaller stones are common enough that they don't sell for much."

"Do you happen to know the right people to talk to?" Egwene's clone asked.

"I'm not sure I'd call them the right people but I know people that wouldn't cheat you too much and it shouldn't take more than twenty minutes once we get to town," Min replied.

"Perfect, we'll be back in a bit, are you coming?" Egwene asked Rand.

"Might as well," Rand agreed. "We should grab Mat, he's been wanting to find a dice game."

"Those poor bastards," Mist muttered, not seeing a point in gambling if Mat was playing since his luck was just short of impossible at times.

"I need to check in with my dad," Bode admitted and took off at a run toward her house.

"Let's go," Egwene's clone said as she started following Bode at a run, knowing she needed to get in shape if she was going to be running around fighting.

"I'm going to deal with the snakes," Egwene muttered as she walked back into the tent, wanting to make sure the Aes Sedai were bound to follow orders before something went wrong.

"Race you," Rand told Min then took off running, his long legs easily letting him catch up with Bode.

Min sighed then ran after the group, fairly sure she was crazy for getting involved with Rand and the rest of the group.

"If I can get permission from the Amyrlin, would you be willing to look through the Tower's collection of ter'angreal and write down everything your glasses tell you or let someone borrow the glasses so they can check it?" Moiraine asked.

"I don't have a problem with helping to document the Tower's collection provided we can have access to it for the purpose of copying everything or at least everything that's useful and not insanely dangerous," Mist replied, not taking his eyes off the girls, rather enjoying the view.

"I'll ask Siuan the next time I see her," Moiraine replied, fairly sure they could come up with some sort of deal that would make everyone happy.

"What type of ter'angreal are you looking for?" Verin asked, trying to understand the young man with the strange talent that created ter'angreal.

"At this point, we're basically trying to figure out how to recreate an entire discipline so anything and everything," Mist grumbled, still a bit annoyed that the Tower hadn't kept better notes on creating ter'angreal.

"Why do you dislike the Tower?" Verin asked, having noticed the shift in his tone of voice when he said Tower.

"For the better part of three thousand years, they've managed to convince women that can channel that they shouldn't have children and that it is right and fair for the Tower to own everyone it teaches all because the Tower gave them six to fifteen years of education."

"It's not that simple. Would you want to have children if there was a good chance your sons would go insane?" Verin asked.

Mist turned and focused on Verin. "There's an easy solution. Far Madding as you're aware is protected by ter'angreal. The guardian is actually a couple of separate ter'angreal, meaning someone with the talent could have built a version that only blocked Saidin. If you built one on Tar Valon, you'd have an entire island where the men would never be able to channel and where they'd never awaken their power and thus wouldn't go insane."

"Unless they left," Verin argued.

"Make sure they get a trade and make sure that you make it a tradition where anyone that can channel gets to have sex with a lot of attractive girls while shielded or after they're severed. If they have a reason to live, they'd probably survive. Besides, there's actually a weave to get rid of the taint that accumulates on a male channeler which means the female Aes Sedai either didn't look that hard or the fucking pattern didn't want them to have it so it didn't work."

"It's actually a talent," Nynaeve offered as she stepped out of the tent, having been listening to his rant from inside the tent. "If they didn't have the talent, they wouldn't have been able to figure it out."

"That's fair," Mist admitted as he turned so he could keep everyone in view.

"There's a weave for dealing with the taint?" Verin asked in surprise.

"You basically delve the person and carefully remove all of the black thorns and hooks that you can find and the taint will basically flake off and vanish," Nynaeve explained.

"You've done this?" Verin asked.

Nynaeve glanced at Mist. "Not in this life but one of Mist's ter'angreal gave me memories of a possible life, so I remember using the weave countless times after the source was cleansed."

"How was the source cleansed?" Verin asked, not sure what to think about the girl's claim but well aware that certain ter'angreal could give visions of possible futures.

"The Dragon Reborn found a way to use a source of opposed corruption to draw the taint away from the source and destroy both," Nynaeve explained.

"Shadar Logoth," Moiraine mused.

Verin glanced between Moiraine and the children. "How did a half trained child manage to do something they couldn't in the Age of Legends?"

"A solid theory and blind luck," Nynaeve admitted.

"I'm going to check on Twist and grab a nap," Mist said as he turned and headed for the tent where he'd left the house elf, figuring Nynaeve would be able to fill them better than he could. He smiled at Twist. "How are you doing?"

"Twist has been better," Twist admitted reluctantly, feeling out of sorts and broken.

"Just hold on a bit longer and everything should be fine," Mist told her, hoping the bunny ears actually worked like they were supposed to since she wasn't human. He gestured at the empty spot in the middle of the tent and cast his spell to conjure a bed, creating a beautifully carved four poster bed with dragons carved on the posts, two fluffy pillows and a comfortable looking mattress covered by blue silk sheets.

"Nice spell," Twist offered, rather impressed by the quality of the bed that he'd conjured.

"Thanks," Mist replied as he twisted his head and crouched down enough to look at the mirrored ceiling over the bed. 'If saving the world doesn't work out, at least I'll always have nice beds,' he mused as he looked at the bed with his glasses. 'Voyeur's Bed of Carnal Delights: This bed allows Mist to scry on the bed any time he wishes, with or without a pair of glowing eyes in the ceiling to let the people know he's watching. He can also cast his magic hands through the scrying effect, allowing him to reach out and touch people. In addition to being warded against all sorts of pests and enchanted to stay clean, being on the bed is as restful as actual sleep which means you can read, relax or even have sex most of the night and get the benefit of a full night's sleep as long as you get at least two hours of actual sleep a night on the bed.'

'If you ignore the scrying effect and the mirror, that's a damned nice bed,' Mist mused as he walked over and sat down on the bed so he could take his boots off and get some sleep or at least chill out a bit while he waited for Twist to transform.