Dawn and Reincarnation part 8 (Patreon)

Dawn shivered slightly as she looked over the glowing crowd of channelers Willow and William had collected in the area outside Mat’s house. She knew the Tower would be screaming for her blood if she took even one of the thirty eight young men with her let alone all thirty eight of the brightly glowing young men in the courtyard. She was equally certain that the forty seven girls standing at attention in mismatched dresses would cause the Tower to drool as every single one of them glowed as brightly or more brightly than Moiraine with some of them reaching Nynaeve’s brightness and six almost too bright to look at for any length of time. ‘Mat’s insane if he thinks this is going to work.’

Mat couldn’t help the slight smile that curled the edges of his lips as he looked at the crowd of channelers that had gathered to listen to his crazy idea. “I’ve gathered everyone here to offer you a chance at a better life. No more putting up with sul’dam looking at you like animals they’re just trying to fatten up, no more worries about the Tower forcing you to sign up or get severed for some invented crime and most important of all, a chance for immortality in legends by breaking the Dark One’s back!”

Dawn blinked as every single person in the yard cheered, like he’d just given them a chest of gold. She wasn’t sure if the crowd was insane or if they just had enough faith in Mat that they believed him when he said they could break a god’s back, either way it was a bit terrifying seeing Mat as a leader and general and people willing to follow him.

Mat waited until the cheering died down. “I know what you’re thinking, the Last Battle is over and done with, how can he offer us immortality in legend?”

“Exactly!” Darla Trakand shouted playfully.

Mat gestured at Dawn. “The trick is that Dawn is from a world twenty years in the past and she has a way back. You’ll have a chance to shatter the Seanchan empire before they can set foot on the Westlands, to break the Whitecloaks body and soul for their crimes and to destroy the armies of shadowspawn the Forsaken are going to toss at you. What say you?!”

Almost as one the group started singing, “We'll drink the wine till the cup is dry,

And kiss the girls so they'll not cry,

And toss the dice until we fly,

To dance with Jak o' the Shadows!”

“I’ll take that for a yes,” Mat replied with amusement, having long since come to appreciate the twisted song about dancing with death. No man lived forever, not even in legends but you could certainly try to be remembered well. “You’ll get supplied with gear when you get where you’re going. Follow me, for glory!” he shouted as he walked back into his house, feeling guilty that he wouldn’t be there to lead them and trying to ignore the dice rolling around in the back of his head.

Dawn was fairly sure the group of singing lunatics were crazy as they started following Mat into the house while singing about dancing with death but at this point she’d take any help she could get. ‘First order of business is going to be food, worst case, we head into the woods outside of Taren Ferry and shoot something.’

“Do we have a plan?” Darla Trakand asked as she walked over to talk with Dawn.

“I’ve got the start of a plan. There are a number of worlds that are pale reflections of the real world which means no one should complain when we loot them to the bedrock for gold, jewels, ter’angreal and angreal.”

“I wouldn’t mind being able to loot the Tower in a world where people died off a thousand years ago and all of the ter’angreal are just sitting there,” Darla agreed, having heard some stories about the mirror worlds from her parents over the years.

“That’s the spirit,” Dawn said with a grin. “If nothing else, I want to duplicate some basic defensive items for everyone before we start getting attacked or going on missions.”

“I wouldn’t mind having decent access to ter’angreal,’ Darla admitted. “Mom likes to keep everything locked up in the palace which means studying it is a pain in the ass unless she’s helping and that’s worse, mostly because I use saidin rather than saidar and things don’t always translate well. That and she’s always dealing with some idiotic noble so she rarely has the time. I mean seriously, she’s one of the few people around that are any good at making ter’angreal, she could delegate a bit more.”

“What about Mat’s foxhead and spear?” Dawn asked.

“I’ve looked at his spear, it’s not terribly impressive in the grand scheme of things, Perrin’s hammer is a lot more interesting and powerful. As for the foxhead, yeah, no, we’re forbidden by treaties to recreate anything that blocks channeling, on account of the Tower not wanting more amulets out there and Mom not having enough of a spine to tell them to piss off. I’m so looking forward to being done with all of the stupid rules, traditions and agreements we had to put up with at the school.”

Dawn shook her head as she remembered Nynaeve’s rants about ‘proper’ decorum and the fact that she didn’t like braiding her hair. It wasn’t that she didn’t see a use for braids, it was just that she didn’t appreciate people telling her how to look or what to wear. “That sounds like a perfectly good reason to leave.”

“That and she wants me to study at the Tower because it’s tradition despite the fact that I can channel saidin rather than saidar,” Darla complained as they followed the last two young men inside. “I’d rather not sign my life away thank you very much.”

“I can’t say I blame you,” Dawn admitted. “How useful was the Tower in the Last Battle?”

“Less than I’d like,” Mat grumbled. “The Green Ajah were useful to a certain degree but nothing compared to the combat trained damane. Honestly, just tying lines of hardened air at various heights in front of a trolloc charge would have caused them to tangle their lines while the archers shot the shit out of them.”

“In other words, recruit the best and ignore the rest?” Dawn asked as the watched the last two men walk through the exit.

“That’s my advice,” Mat agreed, thinking of some of the less than useful Aes Sedai he’d ran into over the years. Even the best of them probably needed their heads dunked in a lake a couple times before they got off their high horse and remembered that they were people.

“See you on the other side.” Darla stepped through the wall where she’d seen the guys vanish.

Mat sighed as he watched Darla vanish. “If only her mother had as much common sense, we wouldn’t have lost as many people.”

“Are you sure I can’t talk you into coming with us?” Dawn asked hopefully.

Mat shook his head. “One last thing before you go, the damane that create the a’dams should have the talent to create other types of ter’angreal.”

Dawn smirked. “Which means we can cripple their empire if we can buy or steal the crafters before the empire realizes what is happening.”

“That and you’ll have enough crafters to outfit your entire army with bracelets that create armor and protect them from lightning and fire if nothing else.”

“You should come with me, forty six hot naked women, not counting your daughter,” Dawn teased as she picked up Drusilla and flopped her over her right shoulder. “Well, forty seven.” She blew Mat a kiss then stepped through the portal when he shook his head.

“Shit!” Mat grumbled as he felt the dice rolling around in his head increase in volume and intensity until he could barely concentrate. “Burn me!” he complained as he jumped through the exit.

Dawn stepped out of the portal and grinned as she saw the group of naked channelers looking around the courtyard and sneaking glances at everyone. She stepped to the side then turned to look at the ring as the glowing field across the ring flickered and vanished. ‘Damn it, I thought for sure that would convince him.’ She turned her attention toward the group of channelers, trying not to feel overwhelmed at the task ahead of her. ‘One thing at a time Dawn.’ She carefully set Drusilla on the ground, noting the strange golden dragons on her arms. ‘Weird, they’re almost metallic looking.’ She blinked as she glanced around and noticed that some of the others had the same tattoos, Darla, Ethan, William, Willow and six teenage girls she didn’t recognize. ‘Focus, you can ask about the tattoos later.’ She clapped her hands loudly to get everyone’s attention. “Welcome to my island!”

Willow pouted as she looked at her mother’s alternate. “Why are you still wearing clothes?”

“Because I walked through the ring with them,” Dawn replied with amusement then frowned as she noticed the dragon fang on Willow’s shoulder. ‘Yeah, we’ll have to cover that or turn it into the ancient symbol for Aes Sedai.’

“Where is Lord Mat?” one of the girls asked warily.

“He-” Dawn started to explain about him being Ta'veren only to get cut off by Darla.

“He had to take care of some stuff, don’t worry he hasn’t abandoned us,” Darla assured everyone, hoping that he’d just gotten misplaced or delayed. “He is trusting us to get the job done.”

“Where do we start?” one of the young men asked warily as he glanced away from the massive wall of mist on the horizon. “And where are we?”

“Clothes?” several of the girls asked hopefully.

“I don’t know, I like the view,” one of the other girls said as she eyed Willow’s naked behind.

“She’s right, nice ass,” Ethan teased Willow.

William reached over and smacked his older cousin on the back of his head. “Ignore him.”

“I’m not actually sure where the island is, I can get to the island with a key.” Dawn gestured toward the door in the wall. “I’m going to start by heading back to Taren Ferry and salvaging some clothes from the buildings the trollocs burned so that you can help clear the damaged buildings without freaking out the townsfolk that are left. Normally I wouldn’t bother trying to rebuild but we need to secure the borders unless we want to get wiped out.”

“Fuck the whitecloaks!” one of the guys shouted, thinking about the last time they’d come to the region.

“Which is one of the reasons I bought most of the town. I want to build fortifications to keep the area safe but I don’t know how.”

One of the older men in the group spoke up, “Don’t worry, this isn’t the first town we’ve rebuilt nor will it be the last. Earth is a particularly strong affinity in the Two Rivers on both sides. If you’d like I can take a look at the area and come up with some designs for a fort that should keep the trollocs and Whitecloaks out. How secure do you want the region?”

“How secure can you make it?” Dawn asked, hoping that they had some decent ideas.

“We can do anything from building a rough stone wall around the area and letting people rebuild with wood to sinking massive stone blocks into the earth and building the town’s skeleton out of heartstone.”

“That would certainly keep people from burning the town to the ground. Which would you suggest?” Dawn asked curious.

The man considered the problem. “I’d probably go with heartstone plates in a fused stone wall. They’re extremely hard to damage but a team of channelers can take them apart if they really need to. If you have the gold to spare and want things to look nice, I suggest hiring some ogier stonemasons to help with the design but some of the girls are almost as good if you don’t want to waste the time.”

Dawn shook her head. “As interesting as that sounds, I’d rather have the defenses set up in a reasonable timeframe.”

“I can’t say I blame you,” the man replied with a grin. “They’re loyal and steadfast but they’re generally not what anyone would consider hasty.”

“On that note, feel free to explore the island and see if you can catch any fish or find anything edible while I see what type of clothes I can round up.”

“Beach party!” one of the other girls said enthusiastically as she ran toward the path that led down to the beach.

0o0o0

Mat blinked as he went from stepping through the portal to riding a horse down the road with his friends. ‘At least I’m not dead.’ He smirked as he realized he could see out of both eyes and the dice had stopped rattling in his head. He laughed as he realized he’d won, he could still remember everything the foxes had stuffed in his head and he still had his eye.

“Are you alright?” Rand asked in concern, wondering if the stress had finally gotten to his friend.

“I’m fine, I just realized that we haven’t seen any sign of trouble since we left the woods,” Mat lied, not wanting to have to explain the real reason he was ecstatic. “With any luck Dawn managed to destroy everything they managed to bring through the waygate.”

“Do you believe her about the forsaken?” Rand asked in a whisper.

“Without a doubt,” Mat replied. He couldn’t remember the exact time they’d heard about the plan to blind the Eye of the World the last time around but he doubted they’d woken up then went right to planting rumors to lure them to the Eye so they could steal it which meant they’d been freed for at least a couple weeks before they’d heard about the Eye.

“How can you be that calm?” Perrin asked warily.

Mat absently directed his horse with his knees as he explained, “I trust that they have more pressing concerns right now than a handful of people from a small village in an all but forgotten region of the world.”

“Right now?” Moiraine asked curious about Mat’s choice of words.

Mat turned to look at Moiraine. “They sent minions to deal with us, that implies they don’t care enough to come themselves or that they’re busy doing something else more important like hunting angreal or ter’angreal.”

“Why would they need to?” Nynaeve asked sarcastically. “They’re from the Age of Legends.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that every channeler has different talents. You can heal while Egwene can’t, her weaves simply won’t do more than heal a bruise at best. Do you remember even one story about the Forsaken personally making ter’angreal or angreal?”

Thom frowned as he realized the young man was correct. “He’s right, there aren’t any or at least none that are remotely credible.”

“As far as I know, they can’t,” Moiraine admitted. The information that had survived about the Forsaken was fragmented at best but none of it had mentioned them being able to create ter’angreal.

“Which means, they’re going to go looking for anything they can to get an edge against the other Forsaken and against the Tower.”

“You think they’re concerned about the Tower?” Perrin asked in disbelief.

Mat glanced at the armor bracelet he was wearing then looked at Perrin. “Even the best swordmaster in the world can get unlucky and lose to a child with a knife, especially while drunk or distracted.”

“How would you kill one of them if you had to?” Moiraine asked curious what Mat could come up with.

“If I had to?” Mat mused. “I’d lure them toward a steading, then shoot them in the eye or the heart with an arrow right as they stepped into it and they lost access to their power or I’d poison them with something fast acting and nasty.” Honestly if he had to kill a channeler, he’d just slip forkroot into their tea then stab them to death while they couldn’t channel but that wasn’t something his alternate should know so he was keeping his mouth shut. Besides, killing them without using balefire was pointless, the Dark One would just bring them back in a different body.

“Far better than fighting them directly,” Thom agreed, making a mental note to keep an eye on Mat given his pragmatic answer.

“I’m hoping Dawn figures out how to perfectly copy the necklace ter’angreal before the Forsaken decide to show up personally.” He was really hoping the copy Dawn had made of his foxhead medallion survived leaving the ring because he really didn’t want to have to use the doors again.

“Why are you assuming that you’re important enough for them to show up?” Thom asked.

“Because we’re important enough to march a small army of trollocs through the ways to deal with. Eventually, they’re going to get tired of waiting and show up themselves.” He was just hoping that they had enough time to put all of the pieces in place before the Forsaken got overly interested in what they were doing. He made a mental note to figure out a way to warn Lan about Slayer or at least get Dawn a decent sketch of the man so that she’d recognize him if he showed up.

“Stop trying to scare everyone,” Nynaeve snapped.

“Sorry,” Mat muttered, content to let the conversation die as he started planning the Band’s first strike against the Seanchan Empire. He’d put up with the empire the last time around because he hadn’t really had a lot of choices. This time, things would be different. 

0o0o0

Dawn grinned as Sally set another box of clothes down in the courtyard next to the crate of stuff that Ethan had pulled out of the partially burned smithy. “Remind me to make the smithy we’re going to build out of stone.”

Ethan laughed. “Don’t worry, we generally build everything out of stone, metal or power-wrought glass. Any luck with the box?”

“Hopefully,” Dawn muttered as she channeled into the box then opened it, revealing a shimmering barely visible bolt of cloth. “I’m calling that a win.”

“Seriously, first try?” Ethan asked in disbelief. “It normally takes my mother awhile to duplicate things.”

“I guess I’m just awesome,” Dawn replied with a shrug, knowing it had a lot to do with her ability to sense magic and read ter’angreal. “I would have been happy with any type of fabric but this should help us against the Seanchan.”

“That shouldn’t be all that difficult, we simply disguise our ability to channel then walk in as wealthy merchants or lords and buy the damane we want. We’d probably need one of the girls to dress like a sul’dam but that’s easy enough to fake.”

“Wait, we can do that?” Dawn asked in surprise a touch annoyed that Moiraine hadn’t mentioned it.

“It’s pretty useful and something we found out because of the Forsaken. So yeah, don’t tell the Aes Sedai, we’d rather not hand that particular secret out. It’s also decently easy to make yourself look weaker by altering the weave which is how Mesaana was able to pretend to be a modern Aes Sedai.” Ethan embraced the source and wove a thread of spirit around himself, cloaking his ability to channel.

Dawn frowned slightly as she couldn’t sense his strength anymore though he still glowed. “You’re still glowing but I can’t sense your strength anymore, sort of like the other men.”

“Makes sense, I’m fairly sure our ability to sense magic came from your side of the family. Either way, it should let us steal a bunch of damane from under their noses. Especially if we use an illusion on glass to make them look like gems.”

Dawn smirked as she realized she had the perfect person to help her screw over the Seanchan Empire.