And we're back to where we left off. Buckle your safety belts because this is where it gets...well, you'll see.
What The Open Court Witnessed - part 2
The first thing that alerted Adam that something was different this time was how there was a dull yet throbbing bluish glow somewhere to his immediate right. It certainly hadn't been visible when he'd called forth Greyskull's power. Throwing a glance that way, he was shocked to see it was emanating from…himself. Specifically from his lame arm, the entire limb being now gently aglow with St Elmo's Fire of luminous blue. An experimental flexing of the muscles up and down the limb left him faintly tingling with an infusion of strength such as he couldn't recall possessing before.
The next shock came from a glance at the sword still in his hand, shocked to behold a face – half-hidden beneath a trimmed beard and slightly shaggy, shoulder-length hair, both white as fresh snow – that was pitted and scarred by a hundred battles and nearly as many seasons of life. The last time he'd seen this familiar visage was the night before their return to Eternia, when they'd braved Nyssa's displeasure and greeted their newborn great-great-grandchild with the rest of their descendants. Nyssa had heartily protested their exerting themselves so, ordering them to their bed after but a hands-count of moments marveling over the small wonder who gazed upon them all so boldly; even Teela gifting their great-granddaughter with her nool'il'paa pendant had failed to give their third-born pause, and so they'd complied and retired to bed, only to wake up back in Eternia.
Adam gave himself a hard shake, again surprised when he realized that – contra to his external appearance – his joints and muscles gave not the slightest protest to this. Recalling their final days in Aetheria, Adam keenly recalled how his bones had ached with even the slightest exertion. Teela of course hadn't complained in the slightest of any such discomfort…
Teela! Adam tore his gaze from his reflection and glanced to where Teela had been when she'd backed away, nearly dropping the sword and losing his footing entirely at the sight of the slender figure standing there now, one wrapped in a hooded cloak made of what looked to be the skin of a giant serpent. The delta-shaped upper jaw of the beast formed a hood that dipped low and virtually obscured the face beneath, with only the familiar chin visible. Were he to look beneath the cloak folds, Adam imagined he would see…well, better he not think of such things just then. His loin-cloth and battle harness didn't offer anywhere near enough concealment.
"So…you finally appear fully, Hooded One," Adam quipped, improvising desperately as he turned his eyes from her, showing her his back so to better conceal the shakes her appearance brought. "Have you grown tired of hurling insults through the Captain?"
There was a flash of movement behind him as a familiar cobra-headed staff emerged, collapsed to half its length and held by a hand and arm covered in elaborate tattoos. The staff extending its full-length as the emergent arm swung it in a perfect arch to impact with the back of his head. The blow resounded in the otherwise silent hall – the darkness surrounding them having gone momentarily still and quiet – and both staff and arm disappeared as quickly beneath the cloak. The rest of the figure, from hood to toes, didn't shift so much as a hair.
"Have a care, hero," sneered-snarled the soft, commanding voice that spoke from within the hood, her lips only barely moving to form the words. "Demean the Captain again at your peril."
"Oh?" Adam rejoined, fighting hard not to grin at the invitation. "And you never once whispered into her ear 'gainst his farce?" He'd sometimes wondered just what Teela had made of his long act of idiocy, and now seemed the ideal time to broach the subject. He could die happy with her at his side there as anywhere, but curiosity choose the oddest moments to peak.
"The Captain needed no prompting to speak her fear for he who completed her heart and soul," was her response, every syllable dripping with faux-contempt at the suggestion. "Only his swift legs kept her from knocking him away or over a cliff afore danger."
Steady as her stance and voice were, in truth Teela struggled every bit as desperately as her husband to keep her voice even and emotionless. There was much that needed to be communicated here, as much to Adam as their assembled audience, and the more…direct…ways were proscribed by simple propriety. Better to play the otherworldly entity, unmoved and unmoving, than shock the collected prudes possibly to death; even they did clear the Court a bit that way, the King and her father were unlikely to thank either of them for it.
Adam snickered, but let it go as the surrounding danger did not appear moved by their appearance. "Battle Cat," he barked out. "Are you with us, old friend?"
"I…am…here…old friend," came a guttural growl from across the room, and a towering shape rose amid the gathered shadows there. Adam observed carefully through the corner of his eye the slow, deliberate moves the figure made: first rising to stand fully erect - Adam estimated he was perhaps just shy of three meters - then reaching behind him to pry a pair of antique axes off the wall, both relics from the ironically-named War of the Sons. The weapons had been maintained in the ages since that chaotic time following the passing of old Grayskull himself, when his children quarreled (with armies) over their inheritance; the irony there was that it was Grayskull's only daughter who overcame them all and established the peace. Their display was a caution for those who would seek to rule by arms alone, and Adam had never dared touch them, even as He-Man, out of some superstition whose origin he couldn't consciously recall.
They looked no more formidable than child's toys in the massive paws of the newcomer, who next extended one arm to point towards the Royals' table. "Protect them," he growled, followed by something massive and indefinable moving/flowing behind him to take up position behind the King and Queen of Eternos. Adam could spare that no further attention as his old companion strode fully into sight. He had to literally crook his head straight up so to gaze upwards and meet the shinning green eyes that beheld him, those eyes being the only thing that was familiar to him then.
Whereas before Battle Cat would remain on all fours, the only changes to him being the addition of needed muscle and the appearance of both helmet and saddle whose design mirrored those worn by old Grayskull's famous mount Oo'Klai, now he stood perfectly balanced upon his hind legs. That alone gave him the appearance of greater height, those same legs and his forelegs now noticeably thicker, as was the rope-like tail which flicked about behind him and slapped the bare floor.
The most unnerving change was his fine pelt, still colored a deep green, now sporting a complex tattoo of dots, lines, and geometric sigils that appeared to cover him from neck to ankles. For a second time, Adam very nearly lost his footing – mental as well as physical – at the sight of many familiar sigils and designs his old friend and companion now displayed. Teela would surely recognize them as well, having spent the balance of their long life together seeing his Rangars intermix with her Scaled Horde. Even so, there was no way for her to fully understand or appreciated what they represented in total, especially when none of his brothers or her retainers had achieved so many honors from both camps. What puzzled him most was that, from all he could see, he could not argue with placement or content of any of them, as if the two camps had convened a rare Congress and agreed to bestow shared honors upon his name, something even Adam had never merited.
Before Adam could say anything, those familiar eyes slewed to look upon Teela, crossing arms easily as massive as his own over this chest as if in salute, and gave her a small bow. "Forgive…for not….kneeling…before you…as is proper…Hooding One," he rumbled, evidentially ready and willing to continue Adam's hastily-conceived fiction. "I…fear I…would not….be able to rise again…so long as you…stand here." Each word seemed to require genuine effort on the Cat's part, his chest visibly heaving in time.
Teela, likewise warming to this fiction, reached out to trace part of whirling pattern of dots and shapes that covered the giant's crossed arms. "Oh, loyal kitten," she sighed with amused affection. "Surely it is I who should kneel before one who bears such…trophies."
Battle Cat abruptly uncrossed his arms, knocking her hand away and leaned close enough where his snout nearly brushed her hood. All decorum vanished as he bared his teeth and snarled "A Queen does not kneel! Least of all before those who kneel before her!" Teela and Adam both went still as statues, those words echoing both off the walls and across the ages as they shared the memory of how the exact same words had been said to her long ago, in a desert far away, bringing an end to a battle that was foolishness and deception incarnate.
To hear them again, regardless of context, and in a place so far removed from there and then? It was no small miracle that neither of them fainted, especially given all the shocks they'd endured thus far.
Teela managed to recover first. She crooked her head slightly, as if regarding some new species of inconsequential pest, then waved a dismissive hand towards Adam. "Return to your proper place, 'Cat. And make ready," she ordered. Giving no sign of taking offense at the dismissal, Battle Cat straightened and swung himself about, stalking/lumbering the few steps to stand beside his long-time charge and companion in arms.
"What…do we…face?" he ground out, teeth bared once more, hefting the axes in his hand and assuming a classic defensive pose.
"Are you unwell, old friend?" Adam asked instead, frowning at how the Cat's massive chest visibly bellowed and heaved.
"Speaking…in your tongue…it is…difficult…" 'Cat growled with a small shake of his head. "I…need to…think…in…your words…so you…hear them."
"I meant your breathing," Adam amended.
"That…is normal…for my age." Adam rolled his eyes, but let it go and hefted the Sword of Power to match 'Cat's battle stance.
"Do you see it?" he asked his partner.
"I see…and smell…nothing amiss," was 'Cat's clearly honest response, causing both Adam and Teela to glance first towards him, then at the billowing darkness once again creeping towards them.
Teela asked "You see…nothing at all?"
"Nothing!" affirmed 'Cat.
"We are surrounded by a darkness," Adam informed him, backing up an extra step so 'Cat's reassuring bulk was pressed directly behind him. "It billows and expands in all directions."
'Cat's eyes slew this way and that, seeking the smallest sign of what his partner saw. It was well known amongst the nations of the waves and wilderness that their two-legged neighbors were unobservant fools – although he wondered if Teela, and by extension Adam, could be included in that category now given just how much he could see that she saw – often if not always missing what was directly before their noses. This was the first time, however, that 'Cat felt he was missing the obvious. He asked "A beast…or…concealment?"
Adam remained still and ready to start swinging. "Both, at a guess. I see a multitude of eyes and snarling maws within it."
"Strange…" drawled the 'Cat in a thoughtful tone. "If…their numbers…are so…why do they…hesitate?"
"Good question," Adam allowed, frowning but not relaxing a hair. "Mayhap they're waiting for an order?"
"Mayhap…but…from who?" the 'Cat growled. "The skinless one….would never…hesitate so…and the snake…king…he would have…struck…the moment…all went still…" The felinoid's nose began to visibly twitch as if it were being swatted. His obvious discomfort was clearly broadcast.
"What is it?" asked Adam, suddenly discomforted himself and all the testier for it.
The 'Cat shook his head. "I…scent…something…"
"What?" was Teela's urgent query.
"Grrrr!" was the 'Cat's only immediate answer. They recognized the soft growl as one of frustration, not pain or anger.
"What is it?" Teela all but demanded, voice cutting through the ether like a knife. Adam would literally feel the vibrations it sent through and down his spine. It was a not unfamiliar feeling, one that brought to mind the many clashes he'd witnessed and mediated between mother and second-born daughter, each of them every bit as unnerving as any battle he'd fought.
"It is…honey," the 'Cat ultimately ground out. "I…smell…honey…"
The complaint was so unexpected, it caused Adam to lower his sword and turn to face his old comrade fully. "You smell…honey? Here?"
"Yes!" The 'Cat huffed and sneezed. "And…it smells…terrible!"
"How so?"
"It smells…overripe…so sweet…it…becomes sour…"
Now both Adam and Teela were staring at him, suddenly heedless to the encroaching shadow. "Sour…?" Adam murmured, his own nose now twitching as if the unpleasant odor were upon him as well. He opened his mouth, a snarl of declared rage about to erupt.
Teela beat him to it. "Deception!" she cried out, her cobra staff emerging from her robe and held aloft by two heavily-tattooed arms. Indecipherable words were muttered as the staff was twirled once, twice, thrice…then driving the cobra-shaped head into the stone floor with a whispered "Shen'kin'haa'kaa'yin'yah!"
Adam unconsciously winced, though it looked more in embarrassment than pain, as glittering light poured from where the staff struck the floor. It was less a wave of light than a veritable blanket of glittering and fluttering things that only passably resembled butterflies, whose delicate appearance belied their destructive interaction with the roiling darkness about them.
Forces and demi-forms of their other home each carried highly particular signs whereby they might be identified. No corner of Aetheria was absent, and it was to Adam's private embarrassment to realize he'd become nose-blind to them. Teela likewise was probably furious with herself at having missed it as well, hence the melodrama of her chosen spell.
The darkness shroud did disintegrate to nothing before the fluttering light she'd summoned, for which Adam was greatful as he could see the Great Hall once more. His eyes roamed from one end to the other, floor to ceiling, wall to wall to wall, taking in nothing and seeing all. He even took a quick glance behind him towards the Royal Table, unsurprised but still relieved to see his parents were untouched. He likewise caught momentary sight of...something...moving about immediately behind them; something with many tails – or were those tentacles? - that apparently sensed his gaze and squirmed to hide behind the King and Queen's chairs.
Putting that from his mind, Adam turned both his attention and focus to honing in upon the one responsible for this whole foolishness. It had interrupted a most important moment betwix himself and Teela, and such a trespass deserved the sternest of sanctions. He would have normally left that to Teela, but he suspected she was of little mind to interrogate the interloper properly, and was mostly likely prepared to simply blast them to atoms (or their nearest equivalent). Cathartic as that might be, some instinct warned him that they needed to know the reason behind this foolishness, and that meant getting his hands upon the architect of it before Teela could.
"Do you still smell the honey?" he asked of the 'Cat, who readily nodded.
"Aye, and I become sick of it!"
"Calmly, old friend. Calmly," Adam soothed, eyes roaming the distant ceiling and arches above. "Hooded One, my old friend here smells sweet nectar in the air and it makes him ill. Does this sound...familiar?"
Teela took this in, her knuckles turning white for the death-grip she started applying to her staff. Adam would have sworn he heard the unbreakable ur-wood of the shaft start to buckle from the pressure. This lasted only a few heartbeats – more than enough time for fearful sweat to break out upon his brow – and it passed as she collapsed the staff and withdrew both staff and arms back beneath her robe.
"It is yours," she hissed with the kind of calm fury that would strike down minions with fright and send gods fleeing to obscurity. Both Adam and the 'Cat risked glancing her way, both half-expecting some indescribably horror to be standing there in her stead. But no, there was only the slender, unbendable and unmovable figure wrapped in serpents skin, holding herself still by a force of will that should have broken the world. Instead it simply put her Friend to hiding itself in a fright, and sent her husband and old battlemate to finding their tormentor sooner rather than later.
The 'Cat risked slewing his eyes this was and that, unwilling to move away from his charge just yet. His nose and the touch of skin told him many tales of both Adam's age and the subtle state of his being. Oh, he was as full of vigor and ready for the fight as ever, but there was no missing his scars nor the unconscious shake of his arms as he held onto the Sword. Unhappy as it might make his charge, the 'Cat was not yet willing to trust his ability to defend himself against this new adversary.
For his part, Adam simply straightened and put his mind to work upon other things. Many other things, in fact, including calculating how much bread had been baked for this evening's feast to the number of casks of Wintro's ale would be consumed over the course of the Open Court to mapping out in his head where he could find the correct type of onyx for Master Arnaud so he could carve the Niich-ac-Paach that Teela was sure to want so she could properly bequeath the Queen to mentally reviewing every event scheduled throughout the days of the Open Court so to tally up and compare how many hours he was expected to participate versus Teela and coming to the very unhappy conclusion that his wife was going to be engaging in several more hours of activity to even mentally ticking off names for their next offspring that would be acceptable to both Teela's avowed (insubstantial and uninterested as they might be) and – more importantly – all four of their parents given they would be spoiling the poor child…
Adam's right arm shot out in mid-thought, his hand open and fingers curled so to grasp what he expected to be there. There was no magical moment or sign or signal or anything really to prompt him to such a move, yet it worked all the same as his hand closed around something. That something squealed and twisted in his grip, the touch of it unpleasant and the noise it was issuing even worse. Adam visibly winced at the sonic torture, but held firm all the same. He could see the 'Cat press both paws to his ears, lips curling in shared grimace of pain, while Teela simply turned and glared at the thing in his hand and hissed…
"SILENCE."
…and the noise instantly ended. Adam still felt its echo in his bones – a most unpleasant sensation in and of itself – and turned his own glare upon his captive.
The creature that squirmed and twisted in his hand was not more desirable in appearance than in touch or voice. It superficially resembled an ordinary eel, albeit one covered with coarse hairs more akin to the common rat, and the four spindly limbs along its trunk twisted in odd ways and made the creature appear all the more grotesque.
However, the raw hate that burned through its beady eyes was almost human, even if the language it cursed its captor in – at once as high-pitched as a choral tenor, and as guttural as the most degenerate drunkard – was as inhuman as was indecipherable. Adam and the 'Cat both winced at the din it generated, while Teela merely glided forward with all the serenity and calm of a cloud crossing the clear sky.
That serenity was broken by the sibilant command of "I said be silent!" The cobra-head of her staff shot forward, its size and reach appearing to have grown somehow, its fanged jaws looking more than adequate to close around the creature's head, and swallow it whole.
"Or be silenced," was added, and not merely for effect.
The creature ceased its caterwauling and turned its two beady eyes upon Teela, meeting her stare forthright. Adjusting itself slightly, it cleared its throat noisily and began sputtering "I, ah, of course am the humble, er, and obedient servant of Your...Your Gracious and Beneficent Eminence, oh Great Queen of The Nih...Nine Serpents Whose Coils Rule All Paths." One could literally hear the capital letters in each word. "I mean, er, meant no disrespect toward Your Majesty's person. Nor, I hasten to add, towards your, urm, many offspring," it continued, and it was all Adam could do to hold himself from crushing its neck outright at such yammering nonsense.
"The why have you come and made such...mischief...in my family's home?" Teela questioned quietly, voice cool and patience clearly as drained as Adam's, her nerves all the more volatile for it.
The creature clearly sensed this and quickly explained "I am, ah, charged by one whose, urk, authority over me and mine is greater than even Your Gracious Majesty's..."
"Charged with what?" Adam ground out between clenched teeth, Teela being too shocked to demand the same. This one was well known to them both, and its obsequious nature matched only by its uniquely oily manner. It was at best a functionary that could be trusted with only the most basic of tasks, provided those tasks didn't involve actual work that would be looked at later. To call it a worm would be an insult to hardworking annelids everywhere.
Were this some absurdist play in one of the merchant cities along the Sandy Wastes, it would be sporting a pencil-thin mustachio to twirl with one hand...while it sought out the nearest rib-analogs between which it might slip a concealed blade or convenient shard of glass when no-one was looking with the other. As such, it would never dare voice so ridiculous a claim 'lest it was the unvarnished truth.
And that, that was probably the most terrifying thing of all this madness.
"Charged...with...what!" Adam repeated, giving the oily little bugger another shake.
"Ah...urk...chaaa..." the thing gurgled, his grip distressing its voicebox to where it couldn't speak clearly. Only Teela's hand clapping down on his massive shoulder kept Adam from applying sufficient pressure to crush what he held to powder. Still, it took a few moments – and many heaving breaths – for him to calm his grip and allow it to answer.
"I have...a message..." it slurred/gurgled around his fingers.
"Speak it," ordered Teela, but the thing shook its sleek head, its slit of a mouth curling into something like a sour grin.
"Oh, the message is not to you, O Luminous Queen of the Spheres." It slew its pebble-sized eyes at the one who held it aloft. "It is for the ears of your Captain and strong left arm there."
Again, both Teela and Adam were left poleaxed. This one, like the overwhelming majority of its ilk in Aetheria, rarely acknowledged his existence as anything other than a mere extension of Teela herself (and a rather irrelevant one at that). To speak to him directly, never mind voice him as the focus of its work, was so counter to past experience neither could fully believe what they'd just heard.
The oily one looked perversely pleased to have disturbed them so, although it wisely attempted to cover this. It was unsuccessful in said attempt, and that was all that was needed for them to shake off the shock. Teela's arms tensed as she prepared to bring her staff down directly on its head, only for Adam to raise his glowing arm to block that very move. He didn't need to turn to see how her jaw clenched, a decidedly inhuman snarl about to issue forth that would surely shatter the eardrums of all present. Adam risked a glance over his shoulder to look into the shadowed maw of her hood, praying to deities unknown in Eternity that it would be enough to bring Teela down from the precipice.
Her jaw and shoulders visibly relaxed, leading Adam to release a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Turning his eyes back to the oily one, he was shocked to discover it had already slipped from his grasp and was scampering up his arm. Before he could blink it was all but perched on his shoulder and brought its snout within a hair of his ear.
It whispered into his ear, voice serious and word...unmistakable.
This was all done in but moments, the oily-furred thing drawing itself up and giving him a unsavory grin. It shot off his shoulder and into the shadows behind them, its departure so swift it was little more than a blur, but none present – paralyzed or otherwise – were of a mind to pay attention to it.
Adam dominated all attention, as he mechanically unsheathed his sword and raised it over his head. "Let the power...return," was intoned as if it were a funeral dirge, a distracted one at that, and the three of them were consumed once more by a cascade of light and thunder. It dissipated almost immediately, taking with not merely the Champion of Greyskull and his boon companions, but the paralysis that held all others in the hall and beyond, as testified by the sounds of dishes and trays being dropped or upturned outside competing with the hushed cries and gasping breaths amongst those at the tables around them.
Fully 200 pairs of eyes gazed upon the trio who stood but steps away, none of whom paid the resultant commotion any mind. Even their parents rushing forward and all but colliding with them only barely registered past their distraction. It took the King giving his son a hard shake to pull him back to himself, the Prince promptly finding himself embraced tightly by his parents to the point he felt his ribs literally creak from the pressure. Adam recognizing immediately that his parents were in fact offering shelter against what would likely be a tidal wave of shock and confusion from the assembled nobles and notables for what they'd just witnessed; not wishing to add to the coming cacophony, he carefully maneuvered his arms so neither parent were in danger of being unintentionally skewered by his still-drawn sword. Teela was likewise being held/sheltered by her father, which was a small relief all in itself.
This gave them the space needed to bring one vital issue to the fore.
"Are you alright, son?" Randor asked, his urgency in no way forced or false.
Adam nodded readily. "Father?" he asked, pausing for a moment as he tried to recall what had been whispered to him. Seeing he had his parent's undivided attention, he continued.
"Who is...Adora?"
tbc...
De Author Seez: Well, that's it for the moment...and I'm afraid for the foreseeable future as I'm going to be switching gears to finish a long-standing "Battlestar Galactica" story that's been sitting idle since 2010. I may also have a "Kim Possible" story (or two) coming in soon as well. But never fear, I have the next part of this one planned out; its just a matter of priorities right now that this one has go on temporary hiatus.
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