Dawn and Reincarnation Part 2 (Patreon)

An: Advanced copy... :)

Dawn twitched as she felt something tapping on her nose while they watched the ferry sink beneath the water. She reached up and itched her nose then blinked as she woke up to Egwene tapping her nose with her finger. “I’m awake.”

“Good, the lady Moiraine wants to talk to you,” Egwene said excitedly.

“Now?” Dawn asked as she twisted her legs around and sat up, happy that she’d managed to snag some sleep before she’d ended up slipping into weird dreams about running from shadowspawn with her friends.

“Of course,” Egwene said surprised that Dawn wasn’t more excited.

“I guess I’d better see what she wants,” Dawn agreed, if only because she knew her friend wasn’t going to let her get back to sleep until she talked to the woman. She smiled as she made her way to the side of the inn that they used for customers and saw Lan casually leaning against the wall next to Moiraine’s door. 

Lan looked Dawn over as she walked over then opened the door after knocking on it once. “She’s here.”

Moiraine called out, “Come in.”

‘Said the spider to the fly,’ Dawn thought as she walked into the Aes Sedai’s room. “You called?”

Moiraine had to work to avoid shivering as she felt the girl’s strength wash over her almost like a physical presence. “You’re going to need training.”

“Are you offering?” Dawn asked as Lan partially closed the door behind her.

“I’m leaving tonight, you’re welcome to come with us,” Moirance offered.

Dawn frowned slightly as she considered the woman’s offer. On the one hand she knew better than to sign the novice book and get mixed up with the Tower but on the other, she could use a teacher if only to get her started. Besides, she was reasonably sure that Rand would end up leaving with her and someone had to keep an eye on him. “I’d have to tell my father and I can’t see him being happy about it but I’ve been thinking about going on another adventure.”

“Another?” Moiraine asked.

“I’ve been to the sand hills with my brother a couple times, I’ve been up the old quarry road a few times and up to Watch Hill a few times. I know that doesn’t sound like much to you but most people around here don’t travel much. I’ve never seen a proper city, I wouldn’t mind doing a bit of traveling if you’re willing to give me some magic lessons.”

“I’m sure we could work something out,” Moiraine agreed. “What can you tell me about your bracer?”

“It was my mother’s and my grandmother’s before her and so on, why?”

“Because it’s obviously made with the one power,” Moiraine replied as she studied the bracer.

“That would explain how it managed to survive getting hit by a sword without suffering a scratch.”

“What hit it?” Moiraine asked.

“The fade, I was having trouble getting a clean shot with its armor so I deflected his blade with my bracer and stabbed him in the neck.”

“Not many people are good enough to fight a myrddraal and escape, let alone kill it.”

Dawn grinned as she remembered several sparring matches she’d had with Mat over the years. “If you think that’s bad, you should try fighting Mat with a staff.”

“You’re saying your friend is more of a challenge than a myrddraal?’ Lan asked, wondering if she was exaggerating.

Dawn glanced back at the mostly closed door. “Sure, the only reason the fade was a problem was because I was using a shitty sword and he had decent armor.”

“We’re going to have to spar at some point,” Lan said, more than a little curious about how she’d gotten skilled enough to kill a myrddraal in single combat.

“Do you know what your bracer does?” Moiraine asked, curious about the power wrought item.

“No…” Dawn trailed off as she realized she was fairly sure that her bracelet boosted her magic and maybe purified it or refined it somehow now that she’d concentrated on it. She frowned slightly as she focused on her ring and realized that it could increase her strength, speed and ability to hide if she activated it. ‘Great, that would have been useful against the fade.’

“You realized something, what was it?” Moiraine asked, curious what the girl had remembered.

“I’m fairly sure my bracer increases the amount of magic I can use without getting tired.”

“It’s possible, why do you think that?” Moiraine asked, curious what made her think it was an angreal.

“Just a feeling when I concentrate on it,” Dawn replied, not wanting to spill all of her secrets to the stranger but curious what she could tell her about her new talent.

“Interesting, do you mind if test something?” Moiraine asked, curious if the bracer was actually an angreal.

Dawn held her hand with the bracer out. “As long as you’re not planning on damaging it or stealing it.”

“A number of Aes Sedai consider anything created by Aes Sedai the property of the Tower but I have no plans to try to steal your possessions.”

“That would be considered stealing in the Two Rivers so I’d have to take it back.” Dawn wasn’t sure how she’d get it back from the Aes Sedai but she knew from the stories that Aes Sedai weren’t immortal just long lived.

Moiraine reached out and touched the bracer with her finger and embraced the source through the bracer and blinked at the torrent of power available, it was certainly sa’angreal quality rather than angreal. She let the source go then pulled her hand back. “It appears that you’re correct about your bracer.”

“That’s useful,” Dawn agreed as she pulled her hand back.

‘More than you know,’ Moiraine thought to herself as she carefully opened her belt pouch, retrieved her small dark ivory figurine of a robed woman and handed it to Dawn. “Tell me what you feel.”

Dawn ran her fingers over the figurine. Despite the obvious difference in form, she could ‘feel’ the similarities between her bracer and the statue though she could also feel the difference as the statue was weaker and didn’t have the same filter as the bracer. “If feels weaker but similar.”

Moiraine smiled slightly as she realized Dawn had figured out what the figurine was without embracing the source. “It should.”

“The craftsmanship is impressive...” she trailed off as she saw threads appear over the figurine. “Huh, that’s interesting.”

“What do you feel?” Moiraine asked, curious what else Dawn could feel.

“It’s not feel so much as see,” Dawn replied as she let the threads weave together into a complicated mess. “Yeah, that’s complicated as hell.”

“Threads?” Moiraine asked curious what Dawn could see about the angreal.

“Yeah, threads,” Dawn complained as she rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“Can you follow them?” Moiraine asked, hoping that she could but not really expecting her to be able to.

“In theory, in practice, I’d probably just make a mess of things,” Dawn explained as she watched the threads weave themselves together a second time.

“But it’s possible?” Moiraine asked intently.

“Eventually?” Dawn handed the figurine back to Moiraine. “Why the interest?”

“The Tower lost the knowledge of how to create ter’angreal, angreal and sa’angreal during or soon after the Breaking.”

“How does that even work?” Dawn asked in disbelief. “You’re talking about the ability to create magical items, that seems like something you’d teach every apprentice.”

Moiraine said, “If it were only that simple. For example, despite the stories, not every Aes Sedai can heal. Every channeler has a collection of talents that govern what they can use the power for and the ability to create ter’angreal was rare even in the Age of Legends.”

“Rare as in dozens or hundreds in the world?”

“I don’t know, the records of that time period are fragmented at best. If I had to guess, dozens rather than hundreds. Not to mention that with everything falling apart, training apprentices probably wasn’t a priority for most of them.”

“In other words, you’d need a large group of Aes Sedai to train people because your talents are unlikely to match with your student.”

“There are a number of things you don’t need talents for but having a sizeable collection of teachers helps.”

“Of course, nothing says that I actually have the talent to create ter’angreal or angreal or that the weaves I can see do anything of the sort.”

“True enough,” Moiraine agreed.

“Either way, I need to talk to my father about going with you unless you have something else that you’d like to discuss?” Dawn asked.

Moiraine considered the question for a couple seconds. “Nothing that can’t wait.”

“In that case, I have to figure out how to avoid breaking my father’s heart when I leave,” Dawn complained, not looking forward to the discussion with her father. “Hopefully he’ll understand I need training and that I’ll be back as soon as it’s safe.”

“That often works,” Moiraine agreed, knowing that very few Aes Sedai ever returned home. By the time most girls had made it through training they’d spent ten to fifteen years with the Tower and generally considered it home.

“Thanks for the suggestion,” Dawn said as she left to find her father.

Lan frowned slightly as he watched the young woman walk down the hall. He wasn’t sure what to make of the town, at first glance it was nothing more than a backwater village that grew wood and tobacco but he’d seen several villagers practicing shots on the green that would have astounded borderland archers with bows he wasn’t sure they would have been able to draw more than two or three times if that. He pulled his attention off the empty hallway and walked into Moiraine’s room.

“A most curious young lady,” Moiraine mused.

“Do you think she’ll come with us?” Lan asked, curious about the girl that had managed to kill a fade in single combat.

“I think she was planning on leaving eventually,” Moiraine admitted.

“How strong is she?” Lan asked curious how much trouble she was going to cause.

“Stronger than I thought possible,” Moiraine admitted. “Nynaeve is stronger than the Tower has seen since at least the Trolloc wars if not the breaking, Egwene for at least a thousand years if not longer. Dawn makes Nynaeve look like a torch next to a bonfire. I can’t see the Tower letting her go if she decides not to join.”

“I can’t see that ending well for the Tower,” Lan said with a touch of amusement seeping through the bond.

“I doubt she’ll sign her name in the novice book but I’ve been wrong before. Either way, I should get some sleep, we’ll be riding hard as soon as night falls.”

“I’ll make sure everything is ready,” Lan said as he left.

0o0o0

Moiraine glanced warily at the pony sized dog that had managed to keep up with the horses without any strain or even apparent discomfort despite barely stopping on their mad dash to Taren Ferry.

Dawn scowled as she heard the draghkar’s faint song trying to lure them away from the town and the fog that Moiraine had used to cover their escape. “Any reason we can’t shoot it out of the sky?”

“It’s too high and I can’t see shit with the fog,” Mat complained as he listened to the eerily familiar song. 

Dawn frowned slightly as she saw the threads of fire and air appear in her field of vision over where she could feel the nasty oily feeling coming from. “Yeah, screw it.” She reached out and wove the threads then blinked as the sky lit up with lightning and thunder shook the heavens.

Moiraine twitched then glared at Dawn. “Was that really necessary?”

‘Holy shit, I can make lightning, fuck yeah!’ Dawn mentally squealed. “Goddess of Thunder and Lightning has a good ring to it.”

“Not to crush your dreams but lightning is something most Aes Sedai can do,” Thom cut in.

Moiraine sighed. “Most of us just just have the common sense not to use it when there are Myrddraal in the area that could sense it.”

“It’s not like they didn’t know you’re here,” Dawn pointed out as she heard raised voices coming from the ferry master’s house.

“I don’t care how much you’re offering, I don’t cross during a storm!” the ferry master shouted then slammed the door in Lan’s face.

“That’s the other reason we don’t toss lightning around without proper consideration,” Moiraine explained as she tried to figure out another way to get across the swift moving river short of stealing the man’s ferry.

“What about making a bridge out of air?” Dawn asked, not seeing the point of paying the ferry master to haul them across when they could just walk.

Moiraine shook her head. “That would draw even more attention but at this point the damage might already be done and you have your sa’angreal.”

Mat shivered. “How sure are you that it won’t toss us in the river?”

“No clue, I’ve never actually done it before but it beats swimming across,” Dawn pointed out as she started walking toward the water’s edge.

“I’m willing to try,” Perrin said, not feeling terribly comfortable with the idea of walking on air to get across the river. 

Thom shook his head. “You’d wear yourself to the bone girl.”

“I won’t know until I try,” Dawn called out as she looked into the fog and wove two cable thick bars of air then formed a walkway of air with a touch of fire to make it show up. She twisted the weave then let go and smiled as it stayed without further effort. “That should do it.”

Moiraine shivered as she studied the bridge that stretched across the water. “You tied it off…”

“You didn’t expect me to hold it did, you?” Dawn asked then frowned slightly as she realized what she’d done. “I have no idea how I knew to do that.”

“How long will it last?” Lan asked warily.

“Twenty minutes?” Dawn guessed.

“You don’t know?” Egwene asked warily as she turned to look at her friend.

“I’m not exactly an expert,” Dawn muttered.

Lan walked over and tapped the bridge with his foot. “It seems solid.”

“Great, you can go first,” Mat complained as he glared at the bridge warily.

Lan looked at Moiraine. “I should be able to swim back if I fall through.”

“You shouldn’t fall through,” Moiraine said as she studied the flows of air.

“Great, let’s go,” Dawn said as she mounted Giles then charged onto the bridge.

“Dawn!” Rand snapped, a bit annoyed at his sister for not carefully testing the bridge.

Thom shook his head. “That should have been impossible without a group.”

“Or just a lot of talent with air,” Moiraine replied softly as she led her horse onto the bridge.

Lan spoke up, “You’ll probably want to lead your horses just in case they spook.”

“You’re so teaching me that,” Egwene muttered as she led Bela onto the bridge.

Mat absently rubbed his horse’s shoulder to calm it down as he watched Egwene and Bela vanish into the fog. “Great, they’re all crazy.”

“Heroes often are,” Thom agreed as he followed Egwene, leading his horse who had more trouble with the strange bridge than Egwene’s horse.

Rand sighed as he followed the gleeman. “We’re just going to have to get used to it.”

Mat twitched as the bridge collapsed after they’d made it across. “Twenty minutes?”

“More or less,” Dawn replied with a grin, knowing Moiraine had cut the flows and caused it to collapse early. “Relax, we survived.”

Mat sighed as he noticed Dawn’s smirk, the same smirk she always had when she was causing trouble. “You’re mad, you know that right?”

“Of course,” Dawn agreed as she scanned the night for signs of trouble. “Hopefully we lost them.”

Moiraine frowned as she looked across the river, hoping they’d have enough time for a couple hours of sleep before they had to press on to Baerlon. “I doubt we’ll be that lucky, we should find a place and make camp, Baerlon will take most of the day to get to.”

“At least we’ll be able to see the city,” Mat muttered as they made their way toward the forest.

Thom shook his head. “Baerlon is a town, not a city.”

“It’s larger than Emond's Field, that’s good enough for me,” Mat said as he glanced around.

0o0o0

Thom stared in disbelief as the fight between Dawn and Lan ended with his practice ‘sword’ broken on the ground and her grinning. “Where did you learn to fight? I’ve seen blademasters worse than you.”

“Certainly a surprise,” Lan admitted, wondering just how good she was with an actual blade.

“Dreams mostly. I’ve just practiced what I learned in my dreams and it seems to work,” Dawn replied. “I’m a little irked that Dad gave Rand his sword as I’m better at it.”

“I’ll get there,” Rand promised.

Lan glanced over at where Moiraine was working with Egwene on lessons while their breakfast finished cooking. “In that case, we’d better get started.”

Dawn blinked as Lan drew his sword and she saw threads hovering over it. “Oh, your sword is magic.”

“It was forged with the one power,” Lan replied. “What do you see?”

“Earth and fire which isn’t terribly surprising considering it hardens metal while allowing it to keep it’s flexibility. I’m going to have to test that when I get a chance.”

“There is more to making a blade than just pouring magic into it,” Perrin reminded her.

“I’m well aware, I’ve seen you work before,” Dawn replied, thinking about the times she’d watched him make knives or various other tools. “Maybe you can teach me or at least help make the blade while I work on the magic side of things.”

Thom shook his head. “If you manage you’ll be the first to create such a blade in two thousand years.”

“It’s worth a try,” Perrin said after a few moments of thought.

“Thanks,” Dawn replied, looking forward to having her own magic sword.

Rand stepped forward. “What do I do?”

“Let me show you the proper forms then we’ll make sure you know how to hold your sword correctly,” Lan said as he shifted stances.

“I’ll make sure breakfast doesn’t burn,” Dawn said as she walked over to the small campfire to check the food. She turned the bird that was roasting over the fire then sat down and watched the lesson. There was an odd sense of Déjà vu as if she should recognize the scene from somewhere but she was fairly sure she would have remembered if she’d dreamed about it. She turned her attention toward a rock that was about as large as her head that made up part of the firepit. She could feel a large amount of iron in the rock. “Huh, can you feel the iron in the rock?”

Moiraine shook her head. “Sorry, I’m better with Spirit, Air and Water than I am with Earth or Fire.”

“Feel the iron?” Egwene asked curious what her friend could feel.

“I’m not sure how to describe it, it’s just a feeling. You sort of reach out and do it?” Dawn offered, not sure why the phrase ‘There is no try, only do.’ came to mind as she focused on the stone in question.

Moiraine glanced at Egwene then looked at Dawn. “Do you feel anything Egwene?”

Egwene focused on the rocks, trying to see if anything jumped out at her. After a minute she pointed to the large rock that felt sort of strange and reminded her of rust for some reason. “That one?”

“Yes,” Dawn said happy that Egwene had been able to duplicate the trick. She grinned as threads appeared over the rock. “More threads.”

Moiraine glanced between the firepit and Dawn. “Let me grab the roast bird first.”

“Sure,” Dawn said, not in a hurry to ruin what might be their only meal until they reached Baerlon. She waited until Moiraine moved the roast off the fire then wove threads of Earth and pulled the iron out of the rock.

Egwene grinned as she watched the iron ooze out of the rock. “Is that pure?”

“Near enough,” Dawn replied as she used a flow of fire to pull the heat out of the rock then blinked as she felt a wave of heat run over her arms.

“Don’t!” Moiraine snapped. “Do that!”

“Do what?” Dawn asked, “Pull metal out of the rock?”

Moiraine stared in disbelief at Dawn, she should have been screaming or dead pulling that much heat into her body. “How?”

“How what?” Dawn asked warily, noticing the look on Moiraine’s face.

“Absorbing fire like that should have burned you,” Moiraine said.

“My arms felt a little warm but that’s it,” Dawn admitted.

“That’s not…” Moiraine changed what she was going to say when her tongue refused to say impossible, “the way it’s supposed to work.”

“Is that because of her talent with fire?” Egwene asked as she glanced between Dawn’s arms and Moiraine’s face.

“I’m not sure,” Moiraine admitted as she put the roast back on the fire. “I’ve never heard of a female having a talent that let them draw in fire without getting burned, at least not outside of a gleeman’s tale.”

“Live and learn I guess,” Dawn replied as she picked up the decent sized chunk of iron. “I’m keeping this for my sword.”

“Why do you need a sword?” Egwene asked, thinking about some of the stories of Aes Sedai she’d heard.

“Because I’m still a long way from being able to use magic to defend myself and I’m good with a blade.”

Moiraine glanced at where Lan was showing the boys a number of stances. “Fades can sense the Power being used so it’s good to have other options.”

“Besides, sometimes having a blade on your hip will discourage thieves,” Thom said as he walked over. “Of course, without the skill to back it up it can also get you in trouble. I suggest a decent pair of knives considering your size and strength.”

Egwene glanced between Thom and Dawn. “Can you teach me?”

“I can show you a couple things before we leave,” Thom said.

“Which should be soon,” Moiraine said as she glanced back at the roast.

“I’d feel a lot better about this quest if I knew you could defend yourself,” Dawn agreed, having the strangest sense that it would be important. She reached into her bag and pulled out her hand carved flute. “Do you mind?”

Thom laughed. “Let’s see how you play before I answer that.”

Moiraine smiled as Dawn started to play a well known dancing melody with more skill than most gleeman she’d ran into over the years. ‘She fights like a legend, plays like a bard and has more power than the Tower has seen in at least two thousand years, old blood indeed.’

Thom let the music take him away to better times as he helped Moiraine portion out the food, more than a little shocked to find someone with that much talent in the middle of nowhere.