Copy Protection Void Part 28

Egwene's clone glanced up from the book she was reading when Mist shifted in his cot, letting her know that he was awake. "How much do you remember?"

Mist took a few seconds to gather his thoughts as he glanced around the familiar white tent, trying to figure out where he was and why someone had created a magical cage around his side of the tent. "Bits and pieces. I remember visiting a bunch of obelisks and getting crap and drinking a couple of ciders, everything else is sort of a blur."

"This is why you shouldn't drink," Egwene's clone replied with a smirk.

Mist yawned as he sat up in the cot, wondering where his shirt had disappeared to. "I'm pretty sure a couple of ciders shouldn't have gotten me drunk enough to black out, what happened?"

"Halfway through the celebration you decided that it was a good idea to talk to the cultists that Frank and Apple captured rather than taking a swing at some of the idiots for bragging about how many obelisks they'd managed to activate. You'd just finished making sure that the prisoners were corrupted when someone said something that set you off."

"Considering the last couple of days, I'm not surprised that I snapped," Mist admitted, making a mental note to take a couple of days to rest and relax when he had a chance. "What happened?"

"I don't know, I was checking the wards," she admitted. "One minute you were asking the sarcastic darkfriend questions and everything was fine and the next you used the wendigo stamp and were torturing the man with lightning. Your eyes were pits of darkness and you were screaming at him that you'd skull fuck his god and devour his minions."

Mist stared at the clone for a few seconds, wondering what the darkfriend had said that had driven him into a blind rage. "What the hell did he say?"

"I don't know," the clone admitted. "Everything was fine and then you were ranting like a lunatic or trying to gnaw his arm off."

"I don't remember any of that. What else happened?" Mist asked, trying to figure out what was going on because there was no way he was that drunk or angry.

Egwene scowled as she remembered the events of the previous night. "You licked the blood off your lips and said you'd fuck me like a redheaded step child and used the shadow stamp. You barely made a sound when the stamp ripped your skin off."

"There's no way I used that stamp and didn't scream bloody murder," Mist admitted.

"You merely tossed your gear over the ward line, put the cursed belt on and transformed into a twisted monster, like there was nothing wrong with walking around without your skin. Then you ripped the cultists apart while screaming about dedicating their souls to someone named Mal'vannee the Death Bringer," Egwene explained.

Mist glanced down at his arms, which looked perfectly normal or at least as normal as he remembered them looking since he'd gotten dropped into a younger body. "It sounds like someone or something was controlling me," he mused as he opened his gift menu and pulled out the Crystal of Broken Chains, noticing that he had a decent collection of new gifts from the cultists. "I'm going to need the stamp that lets people magically shape wood."

"I thought you liked bacon…" Egwene's clone trailed off as she Mist's sunglasses to check the crystal and realized why he didn't care about that particular side effect. "Never mind, here." She tossed the stamp to Mist.

"Thanks." Mist stamped his hand with the stamp, picking up the ability to magically shape wood and an allergy to bacon. 'This is pointless, I'm fine,' he mused then immediately used the crystal before he could talk himself out of it or something 'magically' came up that would distract him from using the crystal.

Egwene's clone scowled when she saw half a dozen mismatched ethereal chains and an ethereal scroll get ripped out of Mist's flesh and shatter, turning into modes of light before vanishing. "Did you know about the ethereal chains or the scroll?"

"No but I started feeling like I was fine and that I shouldn't waste the crystal so I used it before I could change my mind," Mist explained. "I like bacon and I love garlic so even if I wasn't cursed, using the crystal made sense."

"I know the collar works on clones because it's just locking our minds away and the healing stamp dropped my modesty but shouldn't we be immune to mental influence?" Egwene's clone asked.

"I have a theory but let me ask a question, was losing your modesty a bad thing?" Mist asked.

"Not really," the clone admitted.

"Which probably means that you allowed the magic to work or at least that's my theory on why the stamp could get through your defenses and drop your modesty," Mist offered.

"Are you saying you wanted to be driven into a rage or get cursed?" Egwene's clone asked.

"No, I'm just saying our defenses aren't perfect," Mist replied, wishing he'd figured out a way to copy the crystal before using it so he could hand them out like candy.

"What made you realize that you weren't just insane or drunk?" the clone asked as she took wards down that she'd created in case he woke up insane.

"I can buy that I tortured a cultist with lightning because he said something terminally stupid about you or the rest of the girls, it's unlikely but I could see it," Mist admitted, "The fact that I actually used the wendigo stamp means there was something seriously wrong with my head or I wasn't in control."

"Where do you think you picked up the curses?" Egwene's clone asked as Nynaeve walked in.

"Do you remember what the warlock obelisk said when I touched it?" Mist asked.

Egwene's clone glanced at Nynaeve then focused on Mist. "It called you the Warlock Lord of the Wildlands, you blew the title off when I asked."

"I don't remember that…" Mist trailed off as he realized that touching the warlock obelisk was the last thing he remembered before waking up and that he hadn't remembered that particular detail until he'd broken the curses. "Touching the obelisk is the last thing I remember. What did I get from the obelisk or what did I say I got?"

"More resistance to physical damage, a severe allergy to iron, the ability to charge your rune sword with eldritch power and the ability to give people warlock powers," she offered.

Mist smiled as he thought about his ability and realized that he knew how to give people warlock powers, with or without the deal that would let him influence them or even take over their bodies in certain situations which probably explained his problems.

"You're going to need to be careful about iron…." Nynaeve trailed off as Mist reached over and touched the knife on the table and his hand didn't blister. "How? You barely touched the pot last night and you had a burn mark."

"I broke a curse and got rid of a couple allergies in the process," Mist replied with a smile, glad that he wouldn't have to worry about touching anything with iron in it for the rest of his life. "Speaking of curses, we should probably avoid using the warlock obelisk since there's a chance that you get a malicious patron."

"Is that what happened to…" Egwene's clone trailed off as a busty pink and red haired girl a couple of inches taller than her appeared out of thin air in the middle of the tent wearing a green minidress made out of leaves that clung to her generous figure. "Hello?"

"Hey!" the girl complained as she put her hands on her hips, glaring at Mist. "You can't just break a contract after less than twenty four hours."

"How many curses did you cast on me?" Mist asked as he studied the girl that was surrounded by magic, easily able to see the magic that concealed her pixie wings.

"None, contracts aren't curses," the giant pixie argued.

"You're saying you didn't curse me?" Mist asked, not sure he believed her.

"No, do I look like a fucking hag?" the pixie demanded then nibbled on her bottom lip a second when she realized what she'd asked. "If you value your life, you probably shouldn't say yes."

"I wasn't going to," Mist assured the attractive girl.

The pixie smiled then tried to look stern. "Look, I make deals, you took the deal and I gave you power. Sure, I get to occasionally puppet your body and play pranks, but that's no reason to screw me over, they're completely fucking harmless."

"Completely harmless? You told my friend that you'd like to fuck her like a red headed stepchild," Mist complained.

The pixie turned and looked at Egwene's clone. "What's your point? She's hot."

"You licked your lips right before you said it…" Egwene's clone complained.

"Sorry, the blood was really tasty," Pixie replied sheepishly then scowled when she realized they were distracting her. "Hey, I'm still pissed, your friend broke a deal."

"What deal?" Nynaeve asked.

"I used an obelisk, I didn't realize it involved making a deal," Mist argued, trying to come up with a way to get out of the trouble he was in.

"It's a fucking warlock deal, what were you expecting?" the pixie demanded as her purple eyes started glowing with magic.

"I was sort of expecting a basic magic package or a face to face meeting, none of the locals mentioned a deal or a cost," Mist argued.

The pixie put her hand over her head. "Did you miss the giant sign next to the bloody obelisk that explained everything in detail?"

"I didn't see a sign," Mist assured her. "Did one of your friends turn it invisible?"

"Not that I know of," the pixie replied as she pulled a softball sized crystal ball out of her inventory and checked the obelisk that her group of mischief experts used to make deals. "Huh."

"Huh?" Mist asked.

The pixie scried on the sign and found it in a dusty storeroom with a layer of dust on it. "Okay, I'm willing to admit that the sign might have vanished through no fault of your own."

"Meaning?" Nynaeve asked.

"Meaning, the legal status of the contract is in a gray area," the pixie admitted reluctantly. "Tell you what, I'll call things even if you destroy the headquarters of the Children of the Light."

"Why do you hate the Whitecloaks?" Mist asked, trying to figure out what her angle was.

"Some fucking demon lord that will remain nameless created an obelisk that gave them an annoying amount of magic resistance and an aura that makes it hard for fey to deal with them," she complained. "They've been running around killing everyone they can find that has magic, including children. I'd kill them if I could but they've warded their fortress and their patron has sworn to get involved if anyone of note deals with them directly."

"Moiraine warned me about the local Whitecloaks, they've burned entire villages because someone wouldn't turn over young children that used an obelisk that gives a magical ability," Nynaeve offered, annoyed that the entire order hadn't been wiped out.

"Hypocrites." Mist glanced at Egwene. "What do you think?"

"I'm not going to lose any sleep over killing whitecloaks," the clone admitted.

"In that case, you have a deal," Mist replied, perfectly willing to sell the whitecloaks under the bus if it meant being free and clear of the fey.

Egwene's clone opened a gateway over Amadicia then used magic to rip a large section of the wall of the city apart and toss it at the whitecloak fortress. She wasn't sure if she should feel cheated or tricked when the large section of stone ripped through the walls and wards like tissue paper and the entire fortress collapsed.

"Yes! Suck it bitch!" the pixie shouted enthusiastically as she did a victory dance. "That's for Jamie!"

"Jamie?" Mist asked as Egwene grabbed another section of wall from the city.

"One of my warlocks, she was twelve and one of the nicest girls you could find. She made the best cookies, they burned her alive because she could walk on water and conjure lights," the pixie explained bitterly.

Egwene's clone used the section chunk of stone wall to rip through the rest of the fortress, killing thousands of whitecloaks. She reached out with flows of fire and earth and started detonating every large section of their fortress that remained, wanting to make sure a message was sent to the rest of them.

Mist reached out and started tossing balls of eternal dark flame into the wreckage, wanting to make sure they'd never be able to rebuild on that location. 'Live by the sword, die by the sword or fire in this case.'

The pixie smiled as she watched the lunatics that had been hunting her friends die by the thousands. 'Just because I can't hurt you directly, doesn't mean I can't get revenge.'

0o0o0

"Are you going to buy something?" the shopkeeper demanded, giving Frank and Vivian a glare since they didn't look like they had enough money and were wearing strange white coats that looked too thin to be useful except in the summer.

Frank set the glass figurine back on the shelf then turned to look at the balding and slightly overweight shopkeeper. "That depends, did you know that the fellow you send pigeons to is a whitecloak sympathizer?"

"Who I send pigeons to is none of your business," the man snapped, not looking the least bit surprised by the accusation.

"It's my business if I need people for a job," Frank replied with a smile. "One of your fellow shopkeepers works for a witch, I'm trying to find some people that wouldn't mind burning her shop down. Do you know anyone that might be interested in making some extra coins?"

"Don't use fire, it might spread, just stab her and make it look like a mugging," the shopkeeper suggested, not interested in having half the city burn, especially while he was in it.

"Great idea," Frank replied as he used a thin thread of magic to cut the man's head off, not seeing a reason to leave him alive as he'd been perfectly fine with one of his fellow shopkeepers getting murdered for no good reason.

"You know, we could have rolled him for information," Vivian pointed out as she placed a couple of glass figurines that had caught her attention in a box with several wool rags to keep them from getting damaged.

"His assistant already gave us all of the details, they're meeting at the Black Badger," Frank reminded her.

"That doesn't change the fact that we could have checked," Vivian teased as she closed her box, not particularly concerned either way.

"The sooner we're done, the sooner we can get back and fuck some of the girls," Frank pointed out as he walked around the counter so he could grab the key to the safe from the man's pocket.

Vivian slipped a silver figurine into the pocket of her lab coat as she walked over to look at the shopkeeper's head that was looking up at her from the floor. "How long do you think it will take to deal with the whitecloaks?"

"Anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months or years if they scatter," Frank replied as he used the shopkeeper's key to open the lockbox below the counter. "If they try to stay together it makes killing them easier, if they scatter, it makes it easier for the individual countries to pick them off."

"Makes sense," Vivian frowned slightly when a man with dark purple skin appeared in the middle of the shop wearing a black suit that wouldn't have looked out of place in the nineteen twenties. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, you can stop fucking killing my minions," the demon lord replied with annoyance as he raised his hand and lifted Vivian by the neck with telekinesis.

Vivian's eyes went wide when she realized that she couldn't touch the source or use mana to deal with the asshole.

Frank used mana to create a beam of balefire that instantly burned through the counter, the demon's chest and the wall of the shop, taking advantage of the man's arrogance, lack of supernatural hearing and basic perception since he would have been visible if he'd just glanced in his general direction.

Vivian sighed in relief as the demon's colors reversed and he vanished as if he'd never been there, causing her neck to feel perfectly fine despite the pain she remembered feeling and a certain obelisk a thousand miles away to crumble to dust. "Thanks, I couldn't touch the source."

"That's annoying," Frank offered as he glanced around, making sure there weren't more of them. "Do you think it was one of the Dark One's minions?"

Vivian considered the question for a couple of seconds then shook her head. "That would require a decent amount of creativity, something that he's not particularly good at. He probably found an obelisk or some type of ter'angreal."

"That almost makes me sorry that I hit him with balefire," Frank mused as he started looting the lockbox, not seeing a point in leaving the gold when the man's assistant was almost as suspicious as the dead shopkeeper. "It's strange that he found us this quickly, do you think Robin sold us out?"

"Mister G? I doubt it, he'd want things to go smoothly," Vivian replied, still not sure why the young man had insisted on being called Mr G, but figuring it didn't really matter all that much since they'd probably never see him again. "On the other hand, we should probably hurry on the off chance that he warned the whitecloaks."

"I'm working on it," Frank replied, fairly sure they had enough time before the meeting that they didn't have to rush.

Unfortunately for their chances to gather information from the whitecloaks, the only thing they found at the meeting was a bunch of dead whitecloaks. Of course, that turned out to be a rather common problem for whitecloaks and anyone over the age of eighteen that had used the obelisk near the Fortress of the Light, which included over thirty thousand people in the capital of Amadicia and the surrounding area and every single previously living whitecloak, which made tracking them down to kill them a bit of a moot point.

0o0o0