fourteen: on top of the world
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Etherians were nice and straightforward with their naming. The moon? Bright. The Woods? Whispering. Giggleberry powder? Made you laugh.
No surprise that Skydancer Mountain disappeared into the clouds.
Queen Angella, who was much stronger than she looked, had carried both Teela and Adora from the Woods to the mountain. As Adora had predicted, there'd been no sign of Horde activity. Now the two girls were deposited on the mountainside, just above the treeline.
"Thank you, Your Majesty," Teela said. She adjusted her pack and gave the queen the same salute the Rebels had given her earlier. "I'll send aid from Eternia if I can."
"That is more than anyone expects, Captain," the queen said. She fluffed out her feathers, then lay her wings flat against her back. "Stopping Hordak's plan will be enough to earn our gratitude forever."
"While we're gone, Your Majesty," Adora said, "you should make as many raids as possible. Catra is our weakest lieutenant. And the Troopers - I suspect Weaver placed a talisman in their armor. Break that, and you may be able to free them."
The queen smiled. She lifted one hand, which glowed pink, and touched her fingers - softly, lightly - to Teela's forehead and then Adora's.
"May the First Ones bless and keep you," Queen Angella intoned.
Both Teela and Adora bowed.
The queen spread her wings and was gone. One pink feather drifted in the wind; it blew away, out over the mountainside.
Teela looked up, where the peak vanished into clouds, and then at Adora, who had already begun hiking.
What a jerk.
Teela puffed out a heavy breath and followed.
The first part of the climb was easy enough. The mountain rose at a steep but doable angle, with nothing trickier than some fallen boulders or patches of scree for them to skirt around. The view was outstanding; they were already higher than the plateau of the Crimson Wastes, and the day was so clear that they could see to the curve of the horizon.
Teela wasn't feeling chatty, and neither was Adora. They climbed in silence, focused on the job ahead of them.
Then they reached the clouds.
Teela had seen that they were getting closer and closer to the clouds, of course. The things were hanging there, unnaturally permanent, billowing and wisping and flowing but never really going anywhere. Based on what Queen Angella and Adora had said, Teela had been expecting magic to show up once they entered the lowest cloud layer.
And boy, Skydancer Mountain did not disappoint. Abruptly, the sunny day was gone, replaced by endless gray fog that dimmed the light so much it might've been dusk.
"This isn't good," Teela said.
Adora nodded, looking around. "The Troopers reported blizzards. Get ready for that."
They kept climbing. Gradually, the rocks beneath their feet began to show signs of recent snowfall. Then a few fat, lazy flurries began falling, prompting both girls to pull up the hoods of their parkas and tie them firmly in place. Just in time, too, as the wind increased with every step further up the mountainside.
They reached a section where the trail became a narrow switchback. Unease suddenly rippled down Teela's spine. Without questioning why, she halted and started to swing her pack down from her shoulder, intent on finding the rope.
And she would have been successful, if the rocks under her feet hadn't suddenly decided they would much rather be at the base of the mountain. The entire section of trail collapsed beneath her.
She plummeted before she could do more than gasp -
- and caught herself, somehow, impossibly, on the raw, gaping edge of the collapse.
One hand. Her shoulder screamed; her forearm burned. Her pack tumbled down into the gray clouds and was gone.
Teela scrambled to find another handhold, a foothold, anything that would be more secure, but so much earth had fallen away that she was more or less dangling in open air. She looked up.
Adora looked down at her. There was no expression on her face.
One second. Two.
Adora stepped back from the edge. Teela couldn't see her anymore.
This was bad.
How easy, after that long ridiculous fight, to just let Teela fall. Maybe Adora hadn't even thought of it until right now. Maybe the Woods had been right, and she hadn't had any ill intentions before this perfect opportunity came along. Maybe she was rethinking the plan. She could let Teela fall, find the Crystal Castle that Queen Angella had confirmed existed, go to Eternia. "Pure of heart" didn't have to mean "good of heart." She could get into the Castle.
Reunite with Shadow Weaver.
Help the witch.
Destroy the world.
Teela tried to grab for a new handhold again, desperate… but then the end of a rope smacked her in the face, and Adora called, "It's anchored! Climb!" and for some dumb reason Teela trusted her enough to let go and grab the rope instead. She climbed upwards and Adora pulled backwards, and together they got her over a still-crumbling lip and onto solid ground.
She wanted to stand up and start round two (or was it three?), but that had been one brush with death too many for the morning, so she just sat down and glared while she tried to make sure her shoulder and arm were intact.
"I thought you were going to let me fall," she said, not bothering to be anything other than accusatory.
Adora also sat down. "I thought so too," she said, looking at Teela. For once her expression wasn't disdainful, or scornful, or calculating. She was scared. Eyes wide, skin pale, mouth tight scared. Her hands trembled as she coiled the rope again.
As unsettling as the episode had been, it was nice to see actual human emotion in Adora. And Teela knew a thing or two about being mind-controlled by a spell; she could sympathize.
A little. Not a lot.
Adora wiped at her face with one hand, summoning a half-hearted grin. "Then again, I've only been not-evil for a day. Even I need practice."
Teela huffed a laugh and stuck out a hand, which Adora accepted, and they hauled each other upright again. "Is that why you wanted to fight me? For practice?"
"Of course. It's been years since I had an equal opponent," Adora said as they started hiking again. Her grin grew, then faded. "And I knew you were good. Shadow Weaver has files on all of the Masters."
"Let me guess," Teela said, dry. "Information courtesy of Evil-Lyn."
"Most of it," Adora agreed. "Some things Hordak knew himself. He's still very powerful, and he keeps a close eye on Eternia." She paused while they scrambled over an ice-crusted boulder blocking the trail, then asked, "How did you know that trick would work on Scorpia?"
Translation: How did you know Scorpia would be stupid enough to hit a full pouch thrown at her face? Teela began her answer with another question: "There are files on Skeletor's crew?"
Adora wrinkled her nose, apparently in distaste for Evil-Lyn's perfidy. Rich, coming from someone who was in the middle of her own very comprehensive betrayal. "She was thorough."
Teela flashed a grin of her own. "In that case: Clawful."
Adora thought about that for a moment, then snorted. "Must be the pincers."
"How do you even get dressed with -?" Teela finished by miming a snapping pincer with one gloved hand, then wondered if that was a stupid question.
But Adora was nodding before she was through. "I've been trying to figure that out for years."
They exchanged grins, and Teela said, impulsively, "I got possessed once, by an evil snake-spirit thing."
Adora's expression went immediately blank.
"I - my body, at least, attacked a few villages. There was a fight with some of my friends. I don't remember it."
Nothing from Adora. She could've been one of Father's machines.
"They forgave me," Teela said. "Or - they didn't think they needed to forgive me, because it wasn't me."
And also because He-Man could've punched her halfway through the planet if he'd had to, so she hadn't really posed much of a danger to him.
Adora still didn't say anything. She kept climbing, the snow falling more thickly now, mirroring her attitude. Finally she said, "I don't have friends. I don't have anyone."
Teela had been mentally joking about it, but it was less funny now, with those blue eyes staring bleakly ahead. "No one?"
More silence. More snow. And then Adora grimaced and said, "Shadow Weaver raised me."
With that, the true scope of what Adora was doing opened up before Teela. She wasn't merely betraying an oath, as hard as that would be for a dedicated warrior; she was betraying a mother.
And if their positions were reversed - if Teela woke up one day and realized she had to go to war against Father - Elders, would she even be able to do that?
She had fallen behind Adora, stunned, and now she hurried to catch up, putting a hand on the other girl's shoulder as she reached her.
Adora removed her hand with an deft, instinctive roll of the shoulder, but she came to a halt anyway.
"I'm sorry," Teela said, and she meant it. "I can't imagine just… waking up and knowing that you have to betray your mother."
"She isn't my mother. I'm an orphan." Adora took a deep breath and made a face that somewhere between a smile and a grimace. "And I didn't just wake up. There was a dream first."
That got Teela's attention. If Adora was part of the weird dream club… "What about?"
Adora shrugged. "There was a woman, and a castle. I didn't catch any details. Everything was blurry."
Teela opened her mouth to ask, Did that woman have wings and did that castle have a big skull face?
But she never got the chance, because the magic clouds abruptly got tired of having them on the mountain. In the space of seconds, the snow went from no real concern to raging blizzard.
Teela caught Adora's arm and held on tightly as the wind whipped up ever higher and faster. The snow it was blowing felt more like tiny ice daggers, and it did a really, truly fantastic job of making the rest of the world disappear.
"We have to find shelter!" Adora shouted over the roar of the wind. She was gripping Teela's arm just as hard as Teela was gripping hers.
Teela shook her head. "If we stop, we'll die!" she yelled back. "Besides, where's shelter?"
Adora said something, but it was lost beneath the noise. Maybe it was agreement, because she took a step forward, and Teela stepped forward too, and they both trudged onwards, into the icy dragon's teeth of a storm that seemed very intent on blowing them off the face of Skydancer Mountain.
Keep moving, Teela told herself. One foot. Then the other. High knees. Get a sure grip before shifting weight. Keep going up.
The winds howled. The snow burned. The mountain rose in front of them. It went on and on.
Adora shouted suddenly, tugging on Teela's arm. For a heartbeat, Teela thought the other girl was falling, and that they'd both be tumbling to their deaths imminently, but then Adora leaned in closer and yelled in her ear, "I see something up there!" She pointed.
Teela squinted. Through a small break in the raging snow, she saw something, too. It looked a lot like a set of double doors, standing free on the mountainside.
"Better than nothing!" she told Adora, who nodded once, sharply. With renewed purpose, they changed course and struggled upwards towards the doors. The blizzard didn't seem to like their decision and roared more fiercely.
I'm not dying here, Teela thought. I have to save Eternia. There's no time for dying.
Then somehow they were standing at the doors. They ought to have served as a windbreak, if nothing else, but the winds changed direction and kept driving snow and ice right at Teela and Adora.
Adora laid a hand on one of the doors. "It's warm!"
Teela felt the door, too, and found that Adora was right. It was so warm, in fact, that she felt its heat through her gloves, and she had to lift her hand away.
So. Magic doors. Fun.
The doors were twice as tall as they were, made of gleaming metal, the color of old, burnished gold, with intricate designs of braids and loops carved into them. In the center, spanning the join of the two doors, was a single large symbol. It might have been a flower, or it might have been a flame - it was hard to tell through the snow. Set in the middle of the flame-flower was a faceted jewel bigger than Teela's head.
There were no knobs or handles.
"Okay," Teela shouted. "How do we open magic doors?"
Adora tilted her head, considering. "Push really hard?"
It was as good as anything Teela could think of. She took one door and Adora took the other, and they both braced their feet in the snow and shoved as hard as they could. Hands. Shoulders. Backs. Didn't matter; the doors never budged.
They fell back a few steps, breath coming in short, heavy pants. Adora was looking grim, but Teela was well on her way to anger. Okay, rage. She had a planet to save. She didn't have time for some stupid magic doors that probably needed a stupid magic secret password chanted over them.
She went up to the big dumb jewel in the middle of the doors. No doubt it was a trick of the storm, but the jewel seemed to change colors as she glared at it - palest pink to heart's-blood red and every color in between. Her reflection glared back at her.
Fury welled up inside her. She banged the side of her fist on the center of the jewel, which didn't do anything except hurt her.
"Open!" she yelled. She hit the jewel again, putting all her anger into it. "Open!"
The doors opened.
The jewel vanished and the golden doors swung inward on silent hinges, revealing a large, shadowy, empty chamber beyond.
"Good work," Adora shouted, clapping her on the shoulder. Teela jumped a little. She'd been so busy gaping at the open doors that she'd lost track of everything else.
"Thanks," she called back. She rubbed the side of her fist. Elders. What a coincidence - because no way was the magic secret password two thumps while screaming.
Adora took something out of her pack, then shook it with one crisp snap. A light flickered to life, some kind of crystal, casting a pale yellow glow. She threw the light into the dark chamber, where it illuminated the floor around it and not much else. Still, every little bit helped, Teela supposed.
"Let's go!" Adora ordered. Back in Force Captain mode. She drew a blaster from her pack that she definitely was not supposed to have, and that Teela hadn't seen her slip into the pack earlier. Maybe she'd done it while Teela had been getting farewelled.
Teela expanded her staff. Just in case.
They entered the chamber cautiously. It was pleasantly warm and blessedly quiet after the gale outside - and really, really dark. No walls visible. A half-dozen steps took them to the edge of the light cast by Adora's crystal.
The doors shut.
Teela had been expecting it - it was the obvious magical-door thing to do - but it still made both of them start and move into a defensive position, back to back, weapons out.
"Now what?" Teela said.
"Maybe you could punch something else," Adora said dryly.
Teela had nice, sharp retort for that, but before she could deliver it, someone turned the lights on, and they got their first real look at their new surroundings.
Gold walls, curving in a circle. Gold floor, with a pool of still water in the middle. Gold ceiling, high above. The light was coming from ancient-looking clusters of white crystals, hanging - or floating - in midair. Everything sparkled, everything shone. And what at first glance looked like floor-to-ceiling windows lining the walls were, Teela realized with a double take, all faceted, color-changing jewels. Absolutely enormous ones - taller than an adult human. They shifted gently from hue to hue as she watched.
Beyond the jewel-windows were nothing but sun, sky, and clouds.
"I think we found the Crystal Castle," Teela said. Surprise! Another spot-on Etherian name. She relaxed out of her stance and put her staff away. The only magical castle she knew had a full-time keeper, so she called out, "Hello? Is anyone there?"
No response.
Beside her, Adora made a noise. Teela looked at the other girl, frowning, wondering why she had such a weird expression on her face.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm fine." Adora holstered her blaster and began stripping off her pack and Madame's cold-weather clothes. "For a moment, it felt like I'd been here before. But hypothermia plays tricks on you."
Teela's eyebrow went up. She was cold, definitely, but she didn't have hypothermia. Doubtful that the tough-as-nails Force Captain would. "Sure," she said, letting it slide. She removed her own gear while she surveyed the chamber again. "Where do you think they keep the portal to Eternia?"
Adora got another weird look on her face. She turned and stared at the circular pool in the middle of the floor. "Over there."
They walked closer to the pool, which remained still and non-threatening. In fact, nothing about the Crystal Castle was threatening. It was… calm. Serene.
The water in the pool wasn't normal, of course: it had a rainbow shimmer. But it didn't look like a portal. It looked like water. Calm. Serene.
"Is anyone around?" Teela asked the room again. "Anybody? We could use some help…?"
Adora knelt down at the edge of the pool, and, before Teela could stop her, reached out and touched the water with one hand.
Teela flinched away, expecting some kind of explosion or other catastrophe. The only thing that happened was the water began to glow, and the rainbow shimmer got more shimmery.
"Hello?" Adora asked.
WHAT DO YOU SEEK?
The voice was everywhere and nowhere, booming and whispering, neither masculine nor feminine. It had the feel of telepathy. Great.
"We need a portal to Eternia, please," Teela said, looking around the chamber.
A long pause.
Adora rose and stood next to Teela. Teela never would've admitted it in a hundred years - a million years - an eon - but it was reassuring to have Adora on her side.
"Please," Adora said. "We have to stop Hordak."
The pool glowed brighter and the shimmer intensified.
YOU MAY HAVE IT.
One of the window-jewels was suddenly replaced by a portal: there one second, and poof! Swirly, glowy rainbow magic the next.
Teela automatically moved closer to the portal, hardly daring to believe it was really happening. Right there. Two feet in front of her. That was her way home. She was going home.
And what a souvenir she was bringing with her.
"Are you scared?" Adora said beside her.
"No," Teela said, scowling.
"Go or get out of my way." Adora looked over her shoulder, called, "Thank you!" to the castle's guardian (whatever and wherever it was) and leapt into the portal.
The rainbow magic flared around Adora's passage. Teela got ready to make the jump, too, then checked herself.
"Thank you for, um, opening the doors," she said in the direction of the rainbow pool. "And for the portal. Hordak has to be stopped, or both our planets are toast. So, um… yeah. Thanks again."
She was stepping through the portal as she heard the voice once more.
IT WILL TAKE ALL THE CHILDREN OF GRAYSKULL.
And then Teela was gone.
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The world folded and unfolded.
Teela stumbled, then righted herself, her boots automatically finding purchase on the thin, rocky soil. Familiar soil. With a familiar drawbridge crossing a familiar abyss only a few yards away.
Castle Grayskull.
She let out a whoop of joy and victory and spun around to see Adora, suddenly so happy that grabbing the Force Captain in a bone-crushing hug sounded like a great idea. "We made it!" she exclaimed, letting go again, because really, what was she thinking, hugging Adora? – who looked like Teela might be trying to infect her with something. Instead, she turned back to face the castle, cupping her hands around her mouth as if it would do a bit of good. "Sorceress! Sorceress!"
Teela! came the answering call in her mind. The Sorceress sounded pretty delighted, too. Astonished and delighted.
Teela shaded her eyes with one hand, squinting up at the narrow castle windows. "Can you tell Father -?"
I have already. He will be joining you in a moment.
"My father's on his way," Teela relayed to Adora, unable to stop grinning like an idiot while she said it.
The other girl nodded, stiff and wary. The weird expression was back.
It is a great relief to have you home again, Teela, the Sorceress said warmly.
Teela suddenly remembered her not-a-dream – the Sorceress giving Adam counsel about searching for her. Apparently it was a relief.
Thank you, she thought, tentative. She wasn't really a fan of telepathy.
You are very welcome.
And then feet were pounding across the drawbridge, and her father yelled her name, and Teela somehow ran into him halfway, and he caught her up in the biggest hug she'd allowed since she was in pigtails.
"Teela," he kept saying. Stroking her hair. "You're safe. Thank the Elders."
She rested her head on the old battered green of his chestplate and, for the first time, wanted to cry.
Instead she pushed back and gave him a watery smile. "I'm okay, Father. We have more important things -"
"Hey!" Adam said, elbowing past Father. Teela started; she hadn't even seen him. "What about me? Don't I get a hello too? I mean, here I am, looking all over Eternia for you, and you can't even say -"
Teela cut him off with, "Hello, Your Highness."
He gave her a satisfied smile that only highlighted the marks of exhaustion on his face. "That's better."
And somewhat to Teela's surprise, Adam pulled her into a hug, too. A fierce one, that went on for kind of a long time. After a stunned second, she put her arms around his shoulders and hugged him back.
He smelled the same. Like home.
"It's about time," he said into her ear. "What took you so long, Captain?"
She grinned and opened her mouth to say something tart in return, but the words she heard herself saying were, "I don't hate you."
He let go and stepped back, startled. And confused, to judge by his expression. "What?"
"I just – you know." She shrugged, acutely aware that her father and Adora were watching them, though at least her father was pretending not to. "The party. I wasn't, um… at my best."
"Oh," Adam said. He scratched the back of his head, then grinned at her, wide and sharp. "In that case, I'd hate to see you at your worst!"
She rolled her eyes, unable to stifle her own grin. "Ugh! Just be glad I'm home, Adam."
"Oh, believe me, we all are," Father said. He came back to her side and put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing lightly. "Now. Who's your friend?"
Friend was overstating it, but Teela was feeling generous. "This is Adora."
"Horde Force Captain Adora," the girl said, voice flat, blue eyes sharp. "You're the king's Man-at-Arms? And the prince."
Father and Adam nodded.
"Hordak's witch is here," Adora said in that same flat voice. "She's going to open a portal to Despondos and summon him."
Well. Adora sure knew how to kill a mood.