Author's Note: This is only part one of Chapter 34. I decided to break this chapter into sections because it's at a delightful little cliffhanger right now and I've decided I want to be evil and make you all wait. …That and it's been too long since I've updated. I thank all of you for staying with this story for so long, and appreciate all those who have given feedback.

-Lady Moria

Chapter XXXIV: Angels Fall First Part one

It was cold.

A very strange thing for Moria Vadorian to observe, that. Temperature, like so many things, rarely had any impact at all upon the Ancient woman. Still, at times such as this, when her mind and body were numbed by circumstances she had really forced upon herself, idle thoughts began to slink into the conscious parts of her mind. The parts further back, however, were engaged in rapt contemplation of things probably better off left unknown. Still, it was cold.

After a time, the absorbed consciousness that made up Moria's mind gradually became aware of footsteps, still a long way off. With almost languished longevity, the Ancient woman unhurriedly drew her thoughts in from the far off places they had been, collecting them to her as one pieces together a puzzle. Only when she was ready, the Queen stood from where she had been sitting, almost absently moving her fingers through her long hair, pulling it from its loose braid. When at last the mass that was her hair came under control beneath her fingers, she extended her wings, letting the sounds of ripping cloth and flesh fill the otherwise silent room. Moria then turned to the door to her cell, watching with empty eyes as Man-at-Arms, Teela, and He-Man arrived with ten guards.

From behind the bars, the Ancient Queen managed a sad smile. "You bring half a score of guardsmen to escort an old woman to her death sentencing, Man-at-Arms? Isn't that a little excessive?" she asked, her voice raspy and metallic from the hours of disuse.

Duncan glanced over the white-haired woman, his eyes locking on the massive wings that extended from her shoulder blades. "We will take no chances with you, your highness," he answered, and even now the title still sounded like a curse. He nodded to a guard, who took his place at the mechanisms that operated the door to Moria's cell, opening it.

"Please," Moria replied almost sardonically as the door was removed. "If I truly desired escape, or wanted to do harm to you Eternians, do you not think I would have made a move by now?" Her eyes flashed with a bit of their old fire, and without another word she disappeared into the floor.

The three Masters gaped openly, and then Duncan shouted to the guards. "Raise the alert! The prisoner has escaped!"

"I think they can see that well enough for themselves, Duncan," the Ancient Queen replied calmly, reappearing from the floor in front of He-Man. "You may cancel the alert, gentlemen," she added to the guards, moving with her wrists crossed in front of her to receive the shackles that Adam was holding. "It is something more than these walls which keeps me here, so-called 'Masters'," she said demurely as the blonde hero uncertainly clasped the shackles around her wrists. "I was merely demonstrating the fact."

She nodded almost respectfully at He-Man, smirking slightly at him. "I see you seem to have recovered from the wounds given to you by my daughter, He-Man."

The protector of Eternia did not answer, finishing shackling the woman and then quietly clearing his throat. He whispered hurriedly at her out of the corner of his mouth. "That wasn't necessary, your highness."

Teela took her place on the other side of the Queen, and glared at her with green eyes that Moria knew very well indeed. The white haired woman smiled slowly at the girl in response.

"Perhaps not, He-Man," she said quietly, locking eyes with the redheaded girl beside her. "But it did have a purpose," she finished, her tone barely above a whisper as Teela fought to break the hold Moria had in her gaze, failing miserably. Teelina's daughter could not manage to look away, feeling the amethyst pools of the elder woman staring into the very depths of her core, as if trying to consume her.

A rough jostle from Man-at-Arms broke whatever hold Moria had on the girl, and the Queen looked ahead at the door as the guards surrounded them. Once more, they were on their way to the hall of justice.

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"Your Majestic Highness, Lady Moria Vadorian," thundered out King Randor, once more seated upon his dais and more than a little perturbed that he had to say Moria's list of Titles again. As always, there was a pause after the name, as there is even now in any decent society. "Queen of the Dereskígía, Fourteenth Monarch of the Children of the Moons, Last Queen of the Third Age, and Living Avatar of Eläni the Light-Bearer… after intense debate and much deliberation, the Council of the Eternian Nations have decided upon the sentencing for your confessed premeditated, cold-blooded murder of two thousand, five hundred and eighty-seven members of the Eternian people. For your case, and your case alone, the law banning the practice of the Death Sentence has been removed."

There was a communal gasp from the members of the 'audience' present. Rumors had circulated that such a thing would happen, but no one had really known whether these had been true or not. Several of the people there had not believed that even the Council would dare do such a thing. If the Death Sentence were reinstated, even for just this one occurrence, then new circumstances could arise that it would then merit as well. Soon enough, it could well be back in everyday use, and that would be disastrous for everyone. The people of this mind turned and glared at Moria, blaming this one more thing upon her. What better way for her to get her final revenge?

Many others in the room were uncertain about the decision, but trusted that their illustrious leaders knew what they were doing. The majority of those present believed that the Ancient Queen was getting exactly what she deserved, and Moria knew it.

After the hubbub had died down, Randor took a deep breath and continued. Before him and the dais he stood upon, Moria offered him a faint smile. He would need it if he was going to face the people after this final segment. "Since her Highness cannot be killed by any conventional means, it has been decided that the means of execution will be a very gradual draining of her life source. The method in question is known as the 'Death of Ten Thousand Cuts.'"

This time, the noise that erupted was not so much a gasp as it was a cry of outrage. In all of Eternian History, there had never been any death sentence devised that was as agonizing or took as long as the Death of Ten Thousand Cuts. The name itself described the process involved. A very thin knife was used to slice the victim's skin very slowly in shallow cuts. Ideally, ten thousand of these cuts would be administered over certain areas on the entire body. Since the cuts were shallow, it took little time for the first wounds to clot and cease bleeding. But after several thousand of these wounds had been administered, the body's blood platelets would begin to get so drastically depleted that, after a period of at least twenty-four hours, the body would finally bleed to death. This form of execution had been enacted on so few people in Eternia's history that they could be counted on one hand. No one who had ever been sentenced to it had ever lived beyond the nine thousandth cut. Thus, it was understandable that the people who had evolved so much from the Eternians that Moria had once battled against were appalled to learn that such a barbaric method of death was to be carried out.

"My people!" Randor cried, trying to restore some semblance of order to the room. But the uproar was too great, the shouts and outrage too much for him to overpower, and so it was that eventually he gave up and turned to Man-at-Arms.

Duncan raised his voice, almost bellowing to allow his words to resound throughout the halls. "People of Eternia!" Slowly, the voices quieted only a little to hear what he would say. "Please understand that King Randor and the Council have very few options. A woman as potentially dangerous as this one, who has killed as many people as she openly admits to have killing, cannot live! She must not be allowed to live! The Council has researched and given the matter a great deal of thought, and this is the only way! We do not like the idea of bringing this most horrid ordeal back into practice again any more than you do. But it must be done."

In the silence that followed, the only sound audible was the subtle clearing of a feminine, distinctly recognizable throat. All eyes in the room slowly but surely turned towards the source of the sound; the woman of their discussion. Moria has said nothing throughout this announcement; she had simply stood there, her face locked in the unreadable expression that she was so well known for. Knowing very well that all eyes were upon her, the Ancient Queen almost idly stretched her wings out to their fullest, causing everyone in the room to grow more than a little nervous. She stared always ahead, her eyes locked on something far off, something only she could see. Without moving her gaze, her lips parted, and slowly, deliberately, she spoke. "Was there anything else you wished to announce, Randor?" she questioned calmly, her voice as emotionless as her face. "Perhaps the identity of my executioner?"

Randor faltered as the attention of the room became once more centered on him. His eyes swept down to the floor, and in that moment, he wished with all of his heart that the task of this announcement could have fallen to someone else. "…Yes," he said softly, his voice very faint for a king. "There are very few Eternians who know of the finer details of the Death of Ten Thousand Cuts, much less know how to actually perform it." The silence in the room became deafening, and Randor slowly cleared his throat. "…Since that is the case… the Council has no choice but to force the role of executioner upon the only person still living who knows how to enact this form of death." His eyes lifted and locked with Moria's as his words echoed around the hall.

"…The Sorceress of Castle Grayskull."

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Far off in a castle of stone, a scream suddenly resounded from a chamber that contained a red-haired woman staring at a crystal-viewing screen.

"WHAT?.!"