Disclaimer: I do not own She-Ra or its related characters. All is the property of Noelle Stevenson, Dream Works Animation, Netflix, NBCUniversal Television Distribution, Filmation, Larry DiTillo, and J. Michael Straczynski.

Inconvenient Arrangements

Chapter Twenty-Three: Weapon's Choice

"Can you carry this for me?" Bow asked. "And say it's yours."

He was holding out his bow and quiver of arrows to Adora. They were still covered in a light dusting of potting soil from where he had stashed them the previous day.

Adora just stared at him.

"Please?" Bow pleaded with her. "My dads don't know I've been teaching myself archery. But you're Eternian, right? You come from, like, a warrior culture. They won't think anything about you carrying a bow and arrows."

Bow seemed so earnest. Holding the weapons out to her. Eyes silently begging her to just hold onto his weapons for him while they traveled through the Whispering Woods. And it wasn't like it would be particularly inconvenient for her. The arrows weren't heavy, and it was such a light and compact bow.

"Fine." Adora groaned. "Give 'em to me."

"Thanks, Despara." Bow smiled, passing the bow and quiver to her. "Now, just a heads up, my dad might talk your ear off while we're walking. We actually moved here to the Whispering Woods because of his research. He's determined to find the site of Mara's final battle with the Horde. He's convinced the secrets of the universe are buried there."

Adora only scoffed. Everyone in her family knew about Mara's final battle with the Horde. She the hero, He-Ra, one of the chosen wielders of the Swords. The Sword of Protection was hers. She was killed by a nameless Horde soldier, probably a clone. Her body was later found and retried, laid to rest in the crypts below Castle Grayskull. But the Sword of Protection was not found with her, and it was widely believed that the Horde soldier that killed her took the weapon with them back to Horde World.

That was the whole reason Eternia even submitted to Imperial rule in the first place. They knew that one planet, without both its champions, did not stand a chance against the near-endless and unrelenting forces of the Horde.

To Bow she said, "As long as I can get a ship from Dryl and get off this planet, your dad can talk about whatever he wants."

Bow offered an awkward laugh at that, not sure what the appropriate reaction to that was. He offered her a friendly smile.

Catra and both of Bow's fathers were waiting for them by the garden gate. Ready to start their journey, and Lance was already well into a lecture.

"…but, you see, the interesting thing is, that was actually the only battle between Eternia and the Horde that wasn't fought on Eternia." He was saying. "No one knows what Mara was doing on Etheria. We are sister planets and have always been close, even since before Eternia's King Grayskull settled on the planet. But, usually, Eternia kept their wars contained to their own soil. The defeat of Mara is unique in this regard. Now, my theory is-"

"Dad," Bow come up to rescue Catra from his enthusiastic father, "Despara got all her weapons and is ready to go."

"Yup." Adora smiled at him, snapping the quiver strap against her chest. "You know us Eternians, we're a warrior culture. Can't go anywhere without our weapons."

"Interesting you should mention that!" Lance smiled, the full force of his enthusiasm now focused on Adora. "There's actually a lot of mysticism surrounding Eternian weapons. Of course, I don't need to tell you that, you're Eternian. But I have read quite a number of works –all from different sources- that describe weapons as having spirits of their own and weapons with very powerful spirits can only be wielded by the hand of a compatible user. In a way, the weapon chooses its wielder." His eyes fell on the recurve end of Bow's bow that was slung over Adora's shoulder. "Did you feel a special connection when you got your bow?"

"Uh…" Adora had no idea how to answer that. It wasn't her bow.

George placed an affectionate, but pacifying hand on his husband's shoulder. "Sweetheart, I'm sure the young lady would prefer we get underway. There should be ample time to discuss Eternia, and weapons, and Mara on the way. It's all up hill to Dryl."

…

It was all Angella and Micah could do to just stare at all the clones neatly lined up in perfect rows, awaiting orders. There were so many of them!

There was a reason the Imperial Horde was called 'the Horde'.

When Princess Adora vanished after Princess Prom, and King Randor said he was going to ask his (former) brother-in-law about it, they were not expecting the Prince Imperial to respond by putting so many of the Empire's resources at their disposal.

Angella looked over at the pair of them. Randor –holding a bottle of wine from the cellars in one hand- standing next to Hec-Tor who looked so out of place with his stiff, straight, military posture. It was hard to believe that this was a man who was not only married to, but supposedly in love with Randor's brother. Angella never met Prince Keldor, but if he was anything like Randor, she did not think he would have had much in common with Hec-Tor.

"I'm sure we'll be able to find Adora." Angella announced diplomatically. She did not want to call the sheer number of clones the Prince was contributing 'overkill'. It was considered bad manners on Etheria to insult a gift. That, and Randor was very distraught, it was his child that was missing. Not only that, but Randor and Hec-Tor both had experienced the disappearance of a loved one once already. For the two of them, there was no such thing as 'overkill'.

"This was all I was able to bring down from Monstron, which is in orbit among the moons." Hec-Tor informed her. "Should the search require more, I can pull units from other sources, but it will take time."

"Just let Adora go!" Glimmer stood between her parents. Arms crossed over her chest, feet planted. She was about the only one not concerned for the Eternian Princess. "She didn't want this arrangement and neither do I. She's doing me a favor by leaving."

"Glimmer!" Angella admonished her daughter. "You cannot say things like that in front of Adora's father!"

Randor was taking a long –loud- gulp from the wine bottle he held. He lowered the bottle and wiped his mouth, a drop of wine sinking into his thick beard.

"It's fine." He waved off Angella's concerns. "Right now, I just wanna find my daughter. Besides, nobody goes into an arranged marriage happy about it. I remember when my brothers were married. Stephan threatened to dive into the sea and never return, and Keldor must have tried to run away half a dozen times."

Hec-Tor looked at Randor. He never heard about that. The most Keldor ever told him was that he wasn't given a say in who he married and he resented decisions being made for him. …and that he wanted Eternia. He wanted to be King of Eternia and he hated his father for removing him from the line of succession in order to maintain strong ties with the Empire.

There was a moment –at the Kings' moot, right before Randor's coronation- that Hec-Tor thought Keldor was going to leave him to claim the throne of Eternia. A warrior from the Beastmen race stood from the back pews and nominated Keldor as King, preferring him over Randor. Citing his victories in the battles over the Snake Men, and the fact that he was the late King Miro's first born, and that –unlike Miro and Randor- Keldor was not what they called a 'mainland Eternian' (Keldor was mixed race, Eternia was a world of many races, yet they had never had a ruler of mixed race before). Hec-Tor remembered his heart sinking when Keldor stood up after that nomination to speak before the moot.

He needn't have worried. All Keldor stood up to do was refuse the nomination. He lived off world now and was married into a different royal house. He was no longer suited to rule Eternia. The Empire was his home now. Then he sat back down next to Hec-Tor.

But Keldor never told him anything about trying to run away.

That seemed like something Keldor would have shared.

Out loud, Hec-Tor told Glimmer the same thing he told Adora at Princess Prom. "You might feel differently after you are married. But first, Adora must be found."

Glimmer opened her mouth to argue some more.

But at that exact moment, Entrapta dropped down from somewhere above. No one was really sure from where. The high ceilings and wide walls of Brightmoon did not have many air ducts or ventilation shafts. Air flowed pretty freely on its own in Brightmoon.

Reacting without thinking, Hec-Tor put his arms out at if to catch her, but he needn't have bothered. Entrapta knew what she was doing. She caught herself on her prehensile hair, did a little bounce on the strands and then stood before the group, holding a datapad victoriously in one hand.

"I've been working on an algorithm for some time!" She announced happily. "To track the movements and shifts of the landscape in the Whispering Woods. It won't help locate the lost Princess since I don't have any of her personal data, but it should prevent any of the search party from getting lost too."

"That will be helpful." Hec-Tor nodded.

"I thought so." She smiled at him. Entrapta passed the datapad to Hec-Tor, using the strands of her hair. Her hair stroked his wrist when he took it from her. "I want to be helpful."

Looking over the bottle of wine, Randor watched the brief interaction between Hec-Tor and his new spouse. If he weren't preoccupied with finding his daughter, he might have noted how strikingly different they were from how Hec-Tor and Keldor interacted with each other.

…

Adora still did not like the Whispering Woods, but she had to admit, that it wasn't as bad trudging through them when she was being led by someone who knew where they were going. George and Lance were the perfect guides.

Well, George was the perfect guide.

Lance was a walking lecture hall.

Talking non-stop about how the Whispering woods was one of the oldest woods on the planet. With still-living trees that had roots dated to be over 2000 years PCE (pre-common era). Mentioning that the magic of the Whispering Woods was so deep and so concentrated, that the woods sometimes functioned as a single organism. A whole and complete magical being. Listing some notable figures from Ethrian history that had walked into the woods and never come out again.

At some point, Adora started to just tune him out.

'Adora…' But she agreed, the woods were definitely magical. She kept hearing that same whispering voice. Then again, they were called the 'Whispering Woods'. It was not absurd to hear whispering voices in a magical forest that literally had the word 'whispering' in the name. 'Adora…'

And hearing voices in places of power wasn't unheard of anyway. Adam told her that he heard a voice calling him once when their dad took them to Castle Grayskull to introduce them to the Sorceress. Sometimes, places with a lot of magic were just… chatty.

'Adora…'

It was just really persistent and annoying here in the Whispering Woods.

'Adora…'

More annoyed than anything else, Adora veered off the path, following the whispers calling her name.

"Hey!" Catra called after her.

"Despara?" Bow echoed.

Hearing the others call after her, George and Lance stopped walking, turning back just in time to see Adora's back disappear between the trees, and Catra and Bow dashing after her.

"Not again!" Catra snarled at the trees around them. This was the same shit she was pulling all they yesterday. Catra would try and lead her one way, the Princess would wander off another way. Trying to lead Adora through the Whispering Woods was like- well, it was like trying to herd a cat.

"Careful!" Lance shouted after them. "There more powerful magics that way!"

…

White-clad clone units swarmed the woods. Divided into groups of four, combing between the trees. Each individual unit equipped with a tracker very similar to the ones Entrapta employed to keep her own staff from getting lost in the Crypto Castle.

The trackers and the new add on her datapad making sure they didn't waste time searching the same area of the woods twice while other areas in the shifting landscape went ignored.

There was just one area of the woods that Entrapta couldn't get a clear read on.

Her algorithm couldn't seem to calculate its movements within the rest of the woods' landscape, and –thus far- none of the clones were able to get inside the area with one of their trackers. It was an anomaly. A black void. A mystery. That made it fascinating. More than just wanting to be helpful and find the missing Princess, Entrapta wanted to get to that black hole in the woods.

Not only that, but given that they had already searched the vast majority of the woods and had turned up no lost Princess, only a library-private home, a couple different natural well springs of magic, some herds of hibernating beasts, and countless new allergens, that blank space was probably where Adora would be.

Hanging from a tree above Randor, Entrapta dangled herself upside-down and shoved the datapad in his face. "We should check here!"

Blinking at the screen, Randor stared at what looked like a topographical map of the area with a large blank space in the landscape. It took him a moment to realize what the Princess was trying to tell him. The Whispering Woods were a place of old magics, and ancient magic and modern technology were not very compatible. Magic could easily fool, or sometimes outright destroy, modern digital tech. Randor was no sorcerer, but his brother was, and he did pick up a few things.

"How do we get there?" Randor nodded, agreeing with Entrapta. If they hadn't found Adora in the rest of the woods, then she was in that blank space.

"I donno." Entrapta admitted. "But that's what makes it so exciting!"

Taken aback by her sheer enthusiasm for the unknown and a possibly dangerous situation, Randor looked to Hec-Tor for help. Princess Entrapta was his spouse now, he would know how to talk to her. "Hec-Tor…?"

Confused for half a moment, seeing Randor looking startled and Entrapta looking enthusiastic, hanging upside-down holding her datapad, Hec-Tor marched over to them to see what was what. "You found something?"

"No." Entrapta announced happily, using her hair to drift closer to him so he could see the screen of her pad and the data that was projected on it. "And that's what's so great! There's a gap in the woods that my algorithm can't predict and none of the search party has been able to get to. Isn't that amazing!"

Hec-Tor opened his mouth to say something. Thought better of whatever he was initially going to say, and closed it again. He paused a moment to consider what Entrapta had just told him. She was so much smarter than him and made intuitive leaps so advanced that he was sometimes hard-pressed to play mental catch up. Like when she almost single-handedly handed them their victory at Nordor.

"Adora is there." He finally concluded.

"Well, obviously, I can't say for sure." She reminded him. "But since the search parties haven't found her yet anywhere else, that's my hypothesis."

"Hec-Tor?" Randor asked, needed the other man to translate for him.

"Entrapta's hypotheses usually turn out correct." He announced. "We should find a way to get into this… deadzone in the woods."

Entrapta was suddenly so excited she practically vibrated with anticipation. Slithering down from the tree on her hair, she put both feet on the ground and looked up at Hec-Tor. For a breath of a moment, it looked like she was about to hug him, and he braced himself to be jumped on.

But she didn't.

Instead, Entrapta spread her arms –and her hair- wide but kept her feet where they were. "It's so great having a spouse who gets me!" She beamed up at him. Then, over her shoulder, "C'mon, Randor, let's find your daughter!"

…

"Where is she going?" Bow asked Catra.

They were both hard pressed to keep up with the Eternian Princess. She was moving so quickly, following some kind of guide that only she was aware of, and it seemed like the woods themselves were trying to separate her from her pursuers. George and Lance both had already been left behind, separated from the rest of them by an impassable wall of trees. Catra and Bow only managed to stick as close to Adora as they had thus far by grace of their youth, agility and quick reflexes.

But every time Adora's blond ponytail disappeared behind a tree, they thought that was it. They had lost her.

Finally, they came to a clearing in the woods.

Nearly running smack into Adora's back when they did.

Adora stood still, staring up at an ancient ruin in the center of the clearing. Not particularly large, it was just as tall as the trees. Overgrown with vines, covered in a layer of leaves fallen from the natural changing of the seasons every year. It's outer wall showing small cracks and fractures. It was clearly very, very old. But the most interesting thing about it was not that it was a previously undiscovered ruin. It was that-

"This is an Eternian ruin." Adora muttered to no one in particular.

"Cool, we can send Bow's dads back here to study it." Catra growled, trying to catch her breath. "Can we please go now? I'm sick of these woods."

Adora shrugged Bow's arrows and quiver off her shoulders and took a step closer to the ruin.

The place had a similar energy to Castle Grayskull back on Eternia, but it did not look like Castle Grayskull. While Grayskull had a skull-like façade, with the drawbridge coming out of the mouth –the design which earned the structure its name- this castle looked almost more like a pyramid. A pyramid paneled in an exterior façade that sparkled almost like crystal. A Crystal Castle instead.

"This is what's been calling me." Adora announced, again, not speaking to anyone in particular.

"What?" Catra blinked at the Princess' back. 'Calling her'? what kind of insane crap was that?

Running up to the main entrance, Adora tore vines off the gate. Seeing the ancient script written across the door. A password to unlock it since the entrance had no lock or key. She uttered the word written on the door and it inexplicably slid open for her.

"What the-!?" Both Catra and Bow stopped short in shock. That old ruin still worked? Wow. They really did build things to last back then.

Adora slipped inside.

"Wait, don't-!" Catra tried to grab the Princess before she could disappear to deep inside the ruin.

But she was just a little too slow, the door slamming shut behind Adora before Catra could get to her.

"You idiot!" Catra shouted at the closed door. "You don't know what's in there!"

…

Randor hacked at the foliage of the woods. It felt like the trees got denser, the closer they got to… whatever it was they were trying to get to.

"Ah, turn around, we're heading away from it again." Entrapta stopped the next swing by wrapping her hair around his wrist.

Randor turned to look at her. Did no one each royals about sword safety on Etheria? You do not grab a warrior's wrist mid sword swing. Not unless you knew what you wanted to get cut. Swords were big, and heavy. They took control. Randor looked back at Hec-Tor for a que as to how to deal with his new spouse. If it were Keldor, he and Randor would just slug each other a little bit and then settle down and everything would be cool between them. But Entrapta was not Keldor.

Hec-Tor seemed more concerned with where they were, and where they were going rather than Entrapta's lack of sword safety. He was leaning over her, peering at the datapad in her hands. "How can that be? We were just heading towards it and we traveled in a straight line. How have we passed it?"

"The forest moves, remember." Entrapta reminded him. She pointed. "It's this way now."

Hec-Tor hated these woods. There was nothing in the dossier about how absolutely infuriating Etheria was. He would have appreciated at least a brief warning. A footnote, at least! Hec-Tor sighed to himself. At least he managed to get off the first shipment of weapons before this whole debacle began. That should keep Brother satisfied for some time, and this episode need not slow down production.

Randor began hacking at the branches in the new direction Entrapta pointed.

After all this time, anxiety, and headache, they better find Adora. Randor could not lose another family member without trace or explanation. He couldn't go through that again. And losing his daughter would be so much worse than losing his brother…

The sword sliced through one branch, and Randor raised the blade to deal the same treatment to the next branch. But when the sword came down, it wasn't the wood of a tree he hit.

There was a loud resounding CLANG of steel against steel as Randor's swing was parried by another blade.

"What the-!?" Both swordsmen took a step back, assuming defensive stances. "What the hell are you?"

Entrapta and Hec-Tor were just a half a step behind him, looking equally as confused. Somehow, their trio had come across another pair of travelers in the Whispering Woods. Both of them middle aged with graying hairs. The swordsman was short, just a few centimeters under Randor's height. So, not short, but the shorter side of average. He had dark tanned skin and even darker hair, combed out of his face. The taller one did not look much like a warrior –unless he could be a sorcerer, they tended not to look much like warriors. He was similarly dark skinned and dark haired, his hair braided into tight, neat dreadlocks that trailed down his back.

"Oh my gosh!" Exclaimed the taller one, looking up at Hec-Tor. "You're the Prince Imperial! Hec-Tor Kur. I heard you were coming to Etheria!"

The swordsman looked at his companion, then back at Randor and the others. He lowered his sword but did not put it away. He didn't want to casually threaten a Prince of the Horde Empire. But he also didn't entirely trust a Prince of the Horde Empire. "What's a Prince Imperial doing in the Whispering Woods?"

"We're looking for my daughter!" Randor announced. He had lowered his sword too, but likewise did not put it away.

"And you are…" The swordsman pressed.

Without his crown, at first glance, Randor did not look much like I king. He was gruff and scruffy, with wild auburn hair and a thick beard. His tunic and cape were of good material and quality workmanship, tailored to fit him perfectly. But below them he wore only a loincloth of brown fur, as was the style on Eternia. His legs were bare and exposed, and his boots were trimmed in the same fur of his loincloth. Randor did not fit the conventional image of royalty.

"You are addressing King Randor, first of his name, of the House of Miro. The ruler of Eternia." Hec-Tor announced.

Both men blinked in surprise. One did not expect to find a ruler of a planet traipsing around the woods on a planet that was no his own.

Now the swordsman put his sword away. "I'm Georgie, and this is my husband Lance."

"What are you doing in these woods?" Demanded Randor.

"We were escorting some travelers through the woods when one of them ran off." Lance began. "Her companion and our son ran after her and now they're lost. We were looking for them."

For the first time since entering the woods, Randor began to relax. He re-sheathed his sword. "My daughter is lost." He announced. "We are searching these woods for her."

"An Eternian…" began Lance.

"…Princess?" Finished George. "She wouldn't happen to be blond, would she? And I'm guessing 'Despara' isn't her real name."

Randor groaned, putting a hand to his head and massaging his temple. 'Despara' was the fake name Adora used when she snuck out of the castle and ran rampant around Eternos. She was a little bit like her uncle in that regard and Randor sometimes lamented the fact that Keldor disappeared before she got the chance to know him. Randor sometimes felt Keldor could have helped bridge the gap between himself and his daughter. To Lance, he said, "No, that's not her name."

Pushing her way between the men, Entrapta lifted herself up on her hair and got almost right in both George and Lance's faces. "Are you looking for the void in the woods too? How do you navigate the Whispering Woods? Are you using tech? Or magic? Or just your intuition?"

"Entrapta," Hec-Tor began gently, "perhaps that is something you might discuss with them later. It seems there now are two children missing when before there was only one."

"Children?" Entrapta looked back up at her husband confused. "I thought Adora was an adult. Was I misinformed? If she's a child she shouldn't be getting married yet."

"She'll always be my child even though she's an adult." Randor reminded her. "And her marriage to the Brightmoon Princess is the last thing on my mind right now!"

"Oh. Right!" Entrapta smiled, relived now that she understood. Hec-Tor didn't mean that Adora was a literal child, but that she was someone's child. Refocusing on what they were trying to do, she held up her datapad for Lance and George to see. She pointed to the blank space in her map that her algorithm couldn't predict and none of the clones had managed to get inside. "We think Adora might be in this area. How do we get there?"

"That's where we've been trying to get to." George told her.

"This is one of the places where the forest shifts the most." Lance explained. "I have gotten turned around so many times while conducting my research. I'm starting to believe this part of the woods is impenetrable."

"Nonsense." Hec-Tor insisted. "It's just a wood. If we cannot access it from the ground, I'll have a squad of units fly overhead in wing suits. We'll drop in from above."

Randor didn't know a lot about magic, but he did know enough to inform his brother-in-law, "Hec-Tor, that's not gonna work. If this place is enchanted, the only people who can get in are the ones the enchantment wants to allow in."

Which was, apparently, none of them.

But it was Adora…?

…

Inside the Crystal Castle it was… dark.

At first.

Adora didn't know where she was apparat from just 'inside'. She placed a hand to the wall to follow it in the dark. She appeared to be in a long corridor. But that eventually changed. The wall she was fallowing suddenly disappearing from her touch. Adora waved her arms out in front of her. Flailing in the dark. Trying to feel where she was.

She should not have come in here. This was so stupid. She was smarter than this. Now she was lost in the dark and had no idea how to get out.

And she used to make fun of Adam for following voices in Castle Grayskull. She was no better!

"Hello!?" Adora called to the dark. She heard a whispering calling her to this place. Maybe the whispering could help her get out again. "I'm here! I'm the one you called. Adora. I'm from Eternia!"

At the mention of Eternia, the lights flicked on. The whole room –which turned out to be a wide chamber with crystal walls- filling with a soft rosy light.

In the center of the room, was a Sword.

"No way!"

Adora recognized it from her history lessons. But, it was supposed to have been taken by the Horde generations ago. The Sword was one of two. Twin blades meant to be wielded by twin heroes. Mara and her brother, Gray. Gray's Sword was returned to Castle Grayskull upon his death. It rested in the vaults below the castle. But the second Sword, Mara's Sword was never found. Everyone believed that it was taken by the Horde after her defeat.

But, if she were fighting with it in the battle when she died, how did it get here?

Even if the Horde soldiers that killed her didn't take it from her body, shouldn't it be outside someone. Stuck in the dirt. A tangle of vines growing over it, maybe. Not here, very deliberately placed in the center of a castle.

'Adora…' It felt almost like it was the Sword that was whispering to her.

Crossing the space between them, Adora reached out one hand, about to take the Sword. Her fingers were just a hair's breadth away from the hilt.

But then something else caught her eyes.

Against the far wall. An old and outdated control panel. Defunct technology. No longer used in mainstream Eternia anymore. But Adam did go through a phase where he liked all things retro, and so Adora had a vague idea of how to work it.

She lowered her hand and walked right past the Sword to examine the control panel.

Her hand ghosted over the keys, trying to get one to respond to her commands, but also not wanting to try too hard for fear of breaking the old tech.

A crystal screen flared to life.

"-Mara, don't-!"

Adora looked up at the face projected on the screen. A young man, maybe a little bit older than she was now. Still in his prime. He had coppery, reddish-brown skin, and even darker brown hair. His face was clean shaven, most Eternian men preferred to grow beards. But the set of his jawline and the shape of his lips looked so familiar. It took Adora a moment or two longer to realize the featured looked familiar because she'd seen them before on the men in her family. That was Adam's jaw. Those were her uncle Stephan's lips. This man projected on the screen had to be a relative of the family Grayskull.

She pressed the controls again to try and see more. The recording was very old. Parts of the image were pixilated and every now and again the image flickered. The sound would fuzz out too. But the majority of it was intact enough to be understood.

"Please, Mara, don't so this!" He was pleading into the screen. "I can get to you. Just hold on!"

The image recording only showed the receiving transmission. There was no split screen for Adora to see who he was talking to. But the audio had recorded her answer. "You won't be able to get to me, Gray." A female voice –presumably Mara- answered back. "It's not just Horde forces, it's Pri-Am himself. I'm already losing a lot of blood, but I managed to get the Sword to the Crystal Castle where he can't get to it. I'll probably die here, on Etheria, but at least I've made sure Pri-Am won't get his talons on a Sword."

"We can beat Horde Prime!" Gray insisted. "Please, sister, I-"

The transmission was cut off there. Mara probably shutting it off before her brother could finish whatever it was he was going to say.

So, that was Gray, huh. That was what He-Ro looked like.

Adora turned back around to look at the Sword.

And this was Mara's Sword. This was the Sword of He-Ra. All this time they thought the Horde had her Sword. But they didn't. It was right here all along. Safe behind the magical walls of an ancient ruin, hidden in an enchanted forest that's landscape changed to protect it and keep out intruders. No wonder no one ever found the Sword. It wasn't meant to be found.

Except Adroa found it.

'Adora…' the Sword called to her.

Well, it was said that Eternian weapons had spirits of their own. That the weapon chose its wielder. Maybe Adora was only able to find it because the Sword wanted to be found by her.

Swallowing a lump of nerves that formed in her throat, Adora reached her hand out again. This time, closing it around the hilt of the Sword. It felt oddly light in her hands. No sword she ever trained with before ever felt so light. She gave it an experimental swing. The balance was so perfect, it was almost an extension of her own arm. She held it in her hands to more closely examine the blade.

Her reflection looked back at her from its unnaturally shiny surface. But it wasn't quite her reflection.

Her hair was just a shade blonder, more golden than flaxen. Her eyes were still blue, but looked brighter, as if lit from some internal light. And on her head she wore some kind of wings helmet or headdress, like the winged visor of a shield maiden.

"Huh." Adora shifted the angle of the blade and the odd reflection vanished.

'Speak the words…' the spirit of the Sword told her.

She wasn't sure what words it meant. What she was supposed to say. "I'm a relative of Mara."

Nothing happened.

Adora didn't know what she expected. Maybe she didn't expect anything. This whole adventure was just a little too fantastical, and it was becoming more fantastical by the moment. With a shrug, Adora slung the Sword over her back and moved the leave the Crystal Castle. Maybe if she presented the long-lost Sword to her father, Randor wouldn't be upset with her for trying to run out on her arranged marriage. Maybe, if he was really, really impressed she wouldn't have to get married at all!

Catra and Bow were waiting for her outside when she stepped back through the castle gate.

"What the hell happened to you!?" Catra demanded.

"I…" How did one explain that they heard a voice only they could hear, which lead them to a castle only they were supposed to find, to collect a legendary weapon only they could wield. "I had to pee."

"You- you had to-" Catra looked so frustrated. Her hair and her tail frizzing out, claws raking through her hair. "You are so infuriating! Seriously. You're worse than Entrapta! Are all Princesses like this!? Scorpia's not like this! Arg! I can't stand the lot of you!"

Stomping across the overgrown cobble stones surrounding the Crystal Castle, Catra grabbed Adora by the hand and practically dragged her back to the tree line.

"Hey! Ow!" Adora protested.

"Wait, you're a Princess?" Bow was confused. "Which one?" He'd never heard of any Princess named Despara, not even an Eternian one.

"We are getting out of this wood if it kills me!" Catra snarled at all of them.

She dragged Adora through the trees, Bow following after them.

It seemed like such a short time, like they had barely taken any steps at all. But when Bow looked back, he could not see the clearing or the Crystal Castle through the trees. It was almost as if it was never there.

Then the trio came to a sudden and abrupt halt.

"Wha-? Oh."

All three gazed at the stern and reprimanding faces of George, Lance, Prince Imperial Hec-Tor, and King Randor.

Then Princess Entrapta dropped down from a tree above them. A friendly smile on her face. "Ah, hey, we found you!"

…