Dawn and Reincarnation Part 13

Gareth Bryne winced slightly as Dawn started mixing in kicks, grabs and even leg sweeps as she took the guards apart despite the fact that it was six on one. “Work together!” he ordered, knowing that it wasn’t going to help considering she’d handed him his ass during their duel and he could still beat six of the royal guard at once on a good day. 

Dawn laughed as she grabbed one of the guards by the arm and pulled him into a knee to the stomach then pushed him into one of the other guards moving toward her so that she had enough time to deal with the rest of the guard before worrying about Gawyn and Galad.

Gawyn winced slightly as Dawn twisted and kicked backwards, hitting the guard that had been trying to sneak up on her in the gut which sent him sprawling. “I thought we agreed to a nice friendly spar.”

Gareth snorted, thinking about how hard she’d been hitting during his duel with her. “She’s playing nice.”

Dawn smirked as she twisted around and lightly tapped her sword on the guard’s head calling out, “Dead!” before sprinting toward the group of three guards with blunted sticks moving toward her. She knocked one of the ‘spears’ out of the way with her practice sword then grabbed a second ‘spear’ and tugged, pulling the smaller man toward her so she could spoil the third’s aim while she kicked the first man in the chest, sending him to the ground gasping for breath.

Gawyn winced slightly as the rest of the grounds were quickly dispatched. “Any suggestions other than giving up?”

“Hit her hands or feet if she tries to hit us?” Galad asked, not quite sure how to deal with Dawn’s speed, skill and apparent stamina. He’d been hoping that her intense duel against Gareth would have left her at least a little winded but seemed just as fresh as when she started which was a bit disconcerting.

“Do your best Gawyn!” Elayne encouraged. 

Morgase turned to look at the guard running into the training area holding a message from a messenger pigeon. “What is it?”

“There’s been an attack!” the guard the called out, sounding more than a little unnerved.

“Match!” Gareth called out.

Dawn immediately took a step back and put her sword away as Gawyn and Galad did the same as the queen demanded, “What happened?”

The guard handed the message to the queen as he explained, “Trollocs burned Taren Ferry to the ground.”

“Mostly,” Dawn grumbled, happy that she’d managed to save some of the buildings.

“Mostly?” Morgase asked as she quickly scanned the message, recognizing the handwriting of the captain of the guard in Baerlon. She wouldn’t have believed the message if she hadn’t known the man was dependable and not given to flights of fancy.

Dawn sighed. “By the time I got there, half the town was already on fire. I managed to kill the two fists of trollocs by killing the fades which meant I could concentrate on putting out the fires but the town was mostly lost despite my efforts.”

“You killed two Myrddraal by yourself?” Gawyn asked in disbelief. “With a sword?”

“No, one I hit with a fireball, the other I blasted with several bolts of lightning though I have killed fades with a sword before.”

“Why?” Elayne asked warily. “If you can use the Power, why learn to use a sword?”

“I learned the sword before I knew I could channel and it’s a useful skill to have. I love magic but there are places where you can’t channel not to mention times when you shouldn’t.”

Gareth spoke up, “Besides, most thugs will think twice about attacking someone wearing a sword.”

“The message said a tall red haired lady bought most of the village, why bother?” Morgase asked, wanting to understand Tigraine’s daughter.

“I grew up in the Two Rivers, not far from Emond’s Field. The folk in Taren Ferry,” Dawn paused slightly as she tried to find a decent description for the con artists, “weren’t the most honest but they didn’t deserve what happened and we look after our own.”

“And yet, you bought them out rather than help them rebuild?” Galad asked, curious what type of person his other half sister was.

“They wanted to go somewhere with walls and soldiers, I wasn’t going to stop them, they weren’t the most honest of people unlike the rest of the Two Rivers. I bought them out because I want the region secured and safe so we don’t have to worry about an army of shadowspawn crossing the river into the Two Rivers.”

“Not the most honest?” Elayne asked warily.

Dawn turned to look at Elayne. “At least three quarters of the villagers tried to lie about what they owned so they could get more gold, I had to cross check everything with the neighbors and a woman from Watch Hill that was actually trustworthy.”

Gareth nodded slightly, her story matching what he’d heard from some of the tobacco and wool merchants over the years. “That matches with what I’ve heard about the town over the years.”

“Why are we just finding out about this?” Elayne asked disturbed about the trolloc attack and about the town filled with con artists.

“We only have so many soldiers and guards,” Morgase replied reluctantly.

“So we’re just going to ignore a threat?” Elayne asked in disbelief.

Dawn shrugged. “We’ve dealt with the trollocs and have teams rebuilding the town, I wouldn’t worry about the region, we’ll survive.”

“Where is the gold coming from?” Gareth asked, knowing the Two Rivers region wasn’t that prosperous in the grand scheme of things.

“From the Emerald Isle vaults.”

“Shouldn’t we help?” Elayne asked as she glanced between her mother and Gareth.

Dawn shook her head. “Thank you for the offer but there is no need, we take care of our own.”

“But the Two Rivers is part of Andor,” Elayne argued.

“On some very old maps,” Dawn agreed with a shrug. “If you ask anyone in the Two Rivers they’ll tell you that they’re part of the Two Rivers.”

“What?” Elayne sputtered. “They’re part of Andor, tell them.”

“Only technically,” Morgase admitted reluctantly. “We haven’t sent guards or a tax collector to the Two Rivers Region in generations.”

“Why?” Elayne asked, shocked that her mother wasn’t more upset about some of her subjects basically telling her that they weren’t her subjects.

“The Two Rivers region has always managed their own affairs to one degree or another and we collected taxes on the merchants that brought the goods to the capital and trusted them to contact us if there was a problem. Why send tax collectors to an area when the taxes are already coming to you. Besides, the eastern border has always been more problematic and keeping the mines near Baerlon under control required far more attention.”

Gareth shook his head. “There is also the fact that the Two Rivers region has always had a tradition of archery, we’d lose a lot of soldiers trying to enforce anything on them which would be pretty damned pointless when they sell us wool and tobacco at reasonable prices anyways.”

“That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t help,” Elayne complained.

“She has a point,” Gawyn mused as he looked at Dawn. “Have you managed to burn all of the trollocs yet?”

Dawn shook her head. “Not yet, probably by tomorrow.”

“In that case, I suggest we take some of the reserves through a gate and help burn the trollocs. Half of the soldiers don’t believe in trollocs and the rest think they’re contained to the Blight. If the trollocs are coming south, I want the men ready for it, unless you have an objection?” Gawyn looked between his mother and Gareth.

“No objections here, it would let us focus on digging graves,” Dawn admitted.

“He’s right, it would help,” Gareth said, knowing that seeing the trollocs would give the men a reason to train harder.

Morgase nodded. “Take Elayne, Gawyn and Galad, they can leave from there for their training if that is acceptable?”

“Of course your majesty,” Dawn agreed, seeing no reason not to play nice considering the queen was doing her a favor. 

“In that case, let’s get something to eat while the men collect the soldiers,” Morgase suggested, wanting to learn more about the young noble and go over the details for Elayne’s training.

0o0o0

Pevara glanced away from the group of girls she was ‘supervising’ as she caught a flash of white out of the corner of her eye. She raised an eyebrow as she watched Willow float a bound and gagged man with a white cloak out of the door that led to Taren Ferry. “Is there a reason you’re bringing the Whitecloak here?”

“He’s healthy and Nora was complaining about her warder getting old and injured, a little bit of magic and he’s got a new body.” Willow smirked slightly as she ‘slowly’ spun the Whitecloak so that she could see Pevara’s ageless face as she slowly walked toward the giant ring.

Pevara tilted her head slightly as she noticed how badly the Whitecloak started struggling when he saw her face. “That would be useful.” She didn’t see any reason to tell the idiot that Aes Sedai couldn’t jump bodies, no matter how useful, if questionable that ability would be.

“Don’t worry, once they’ve stolen your body, we’ll let the Witch Doctors experiment to see what they can turn you into before we send you to the Blight to kill Shadowspawn,” Willow ‘assured’ him, knowing her words had the exact opposite effect as his thoughts were racing, conjuring all sorts of horrible dark rituals that they were going to do to him.

“Don’t worry, your death will have meaning, we’re not heartless monsters,” WIllow said ‘solemnly’ as she walked toward the giant metal ring, floating him in front of her.

“I’m looking forward to your progress report when you’re done tormenting him,” Pevara added, fairly sure that the Whitecloak was only a step or two short of wetting himself.

“Don’t worry, I think you’ll like the results,” Willow said as she sent him through the ring first. “I’ll explain when I get back.”

“Should be an interesting report,” Pevara mused to herself as Willow stepped through the giant ring.

Willow blinked slightly as she found herself in a poorly lit stone chamber with three exceptionally attractive young glowing dark haired women in long purple silk dresses, a crippled man in worn threadbare shorts leaning on a crutch and the terrified Whitecloak in a heap at her feet. She studied the man that was probably in his early to late forties, he looked in decent shape other than a couple of scars and his missing foot.

“What crimes is the condemned guilty of?” the woman on the left asked solemnly.

Willow pulled her attention back to the three women. “He is a thief and he accused people of being darkfriends so that he could take their possessions after his friends murdered them,” she stated firmly. Even if the man hadn’t actually killed them himself, he’d known damn well what would happen and hadn’t cared. He would have been tossed over the wall of the Fortress of Light with the rest of the thieves and murderers if he wasn’t insane when it came to Aes Sedai.

“Is his face known?” the middle woman asked in the same calm and practiced tone of voice as the first which made Willow think there was an element of ritual to the question.

“No one will miss him,” Willow replied, having picked up the acceptable responses from their thoughts.

“You have been judged and found unworthy of your body,” the third woman said solemnly.

Willow frowned slightly as the man stepped forward and she noticed the tarnished silver ring on his left hand that had been hidden from view by the way his hand had been resting against his leg. She ignored the rest of the people in the room as she studied the ancient Aes Sedai symbol worked into the top of it in onyx and some white stone she didn’t recognize. 

“Can you please remove his left boot?” the man asked in a gravelly sounding voice.

Willow blinked as read the man’s mind and realized the ring created a tattoo and that he’d rather not have the tattoo overly visible on his new body. “Of course.” She reached down and quickly removed the Whitecloak’s left boot and his sock. 

“Thank you,” the man said as he knelt down and grabbed the struggling man’s foot.

Willow wasn’t terribly surprised when the third woman used flows of air to hold the man’s foot in place. She was half expecting the Whitecloak to scream in pain or thrash around on the floor or something when the warder pressed his ring into the underside of the man’s foot. While none of that happened there was a rather impressive ‘lightshow’ of dozens of threads of spirit dancing between the two men in a complicated mess of Saidar and Saidin before the threads stopped and the cripple stumbled backwards.

The third woman dropped her thread of air holding the Whitecloak’s body and bound the cripple with threads of air while the first woman sliced the rope Willow had used to tie up the Whitecloak which let the man reach up and pull the gag off.

“I could get used to having two feet again,” the man dressed like a Whitecloak said as he got to his feet. “What are you going to do with the idiot?”

“The Purple is always looking for test subjects,” the woman in the middle mused.

“You’re going to burn for this Witch Doctor!” the Whitecloak shouted, more than a little horrified to have lost his body.

She looked down her nose at the man on the ground. “We prefer Shapers, Witch Doctors are generally members of the Yellow Ajah,” she explained as she used a thread of air to pull the ring off the man’s finger.

Willow focused on the ring as it floated over to the woman’s hand. ‘This would be easier if I could just look at the ring and figure out how to duplicate it like Mom.’ She was fairly sure that the ring required both Saidar and Saidin to create judging by the fact that the threads of spirit had been formed of both halves of the source which meant she’d need help reproducing it. “How much would it cost for a couple Shapers to come teach some friends of mine?”

The woman studied Willow. “I could teach them to channel but they’d have to enroll with the Tower and swear the oaths of the Purple Ajah if they wanted to learn our secrets. They’d also have to have the right talents which means the Yellow Ajah would most likely be interested in recruiting them as well.”

Willow grinned slightly as she caught hints of a couple of the secret techniques as the woman thought about the things she couldn’t teach unless the person she was teaching had also taken the oaths to the Ajah. ‘I’m going to need to make something that can unbind people that doesn’t look like an oath rod.’ She wasn’t terribly surprised that the woman’s Ajah had made sure to order their members not to remove their oaths or let anyone else do it, she was planning on doing the same to the Black Ajah after they forced them to take new oaths of loyalty. “I’m willing to trade a couple of ter’angreal for basic instruction for my friends.”

“How many friends do you have that can channel?” asked the woman that had been the first to speak.

“Twenty two,” Willow replied, fairly sure the woman wouldn’t believe her if she said hundreds.

‘How does she have that many friends the Tower hasn’t picked up?’ the second woman wondered, more than a little surprised that their search teams hadn’t located them. “What type of ter’angreal?” she asked fairly sure the woman was lying or mistaken but willing to at least hear her out if only so she could recruit her friends.

“A set of communication rings, a ring that stops bad dreams and a vase that collects water. I know, it’s not much but Darla is working on creating more communication rings,” Willow explained as she sorted through their surface thoughts, trying to figure out how badly they were planning on screwing her ‘friends’ over.

‘Someone that can make ter’angreal? We’re going to have to recruit her.’ She smiled as she thought about the prestige she’d get for bringing in someone that could make ter’angreal. “I’m sure we can come to an arrangement, my name is Nora.”

Willow shivered slightly as she had yet another piece of confirmation that the giant ring probably just created the worlds from whole cloth rather than linking with a mirror world, unless there were enough strange worlds to choose from that the ring could pick one where one of the first people she met was named Nora. “Glad to hear it. Do you have some friends that would like to teach? We can pay them in gold or ter’angreal.”

“Of course,” Nora agreed. “I know at least ten people in our Ajah that wouldn’t mind making some coin. Just remember we can only teach the basics, they’ll have to come to the Tower for the rest of their education.”

The ex-cripple looked at Nora. “Should I haul the prisoner to the cells?”

“You might as well leave him here, Helena can show our guest some of the things we can do while I’m rounding up people,” Nora replied, knowing that Helena liked showing off. She wanted Willow impressed so they’d have an easier time recruiting her friends.

“I’d be delighted to show off my skills,” the first woman that had spoken said as she looked at the crippled man on the ground. “We’re going to have so much fun together.”

Willow shivered slightly as she ‘saw’ what Helena was planning for the cripple, she wasn’t sure turning a Whitecloak into a combat monster by splicing in some animal traits was a great idea but the compulsion weaves that burned away most of a person’s mind Helena was planning on using would probably fix the loyalty issue. She wove an illusion of a glowing blue portal just in front of the exit portal, wanting to hurry them up before they decided that they could put things off. “That’s our ride.”

“Your friends can open gateways?” the third woman blurted in disbelief as the three Aes Sedai stared at the blue ‘portal’ in shock.

Willow had to resist laughing as she picked up the woman’s thoughts about trying to learn their tricks and recruit them for the glory of the Tower. “My friends have a couple tricks but are missing most of the basics which is why they need someone to teach them how everything fits together,” she explained as twisted a thread of air into a ‘duplicate’ ring over Nora’s hand then covered it with an illusion of the ter’angreal ring and tied the weaves off. She quickly used a thread of air to move the ter’angreal ring over to the shadows at the base of the poorly lit wall so that no one would know she swapped the ring at the same time she dropped the fake ring into her hand.

“In that case, how long will the gateway stay open?” Nora asked, looking forward to rediscovering some old secrets.

‘Translation, you’ll farm out the work and the girls will owe you favors and be more loyal when they finally become Aes Sedai,’ Willow thought as she carefully floated the ter’angreal ring along the wall, keeping it in the shadows so she could grab it without any of the Aes Sedai noticing. “Maybe twenty minutes.”

“In that case, we’d best hurry,” Nora said as she walked toward other door in the room, not even noticing that the Tower’s most valuable ter’angreal had just been misplaced.

Willow felt like cursing slightly as the ex-cripple stayed to watch Helena turn the Whitecloak into a monster while the other two Aes Sedai left the room through the door in the far wall. She carefully floated the ter’angreal ring over to her hand while Helena was distracted pulling bits of bone and fur out of her belt pouch, making sure not to touch the face of the ring just in case it did something nasty. She shifted her hand enough to conceal the ring from the rest of the people in the room then worked on trying to figure out how to duplicate it. 

0o0o0