Duncan told the king and queen of Eternos the sorceress's bizarre theory. Since it involved Marlena's secret and very controversial origin they gathered in a private meeting on the king and queen's bedroom, not even the masters knew of this new development.
-"We must go then"- Randor said –"Do you think the Sorceress might be able to open a gate into Terra?"-
-"Yes, perhaps we could gather a few masters for that mission"- Duncan was worried, ever since Adam's disappearance Randor had become reckless, if not for his great skill in battle and luck he would have been dead already. Now Duncan knew the king wanted to search for his son himself regardless of what might happen to the kingdom
-"Most masters would not be able to survive on Earth, first of all the only sentinent species is the human one. When I left there were many civil rights movements and ideas of equality but to be honest I've seen a lot of violence between men for something as trivial as the color of their skin I could not imagine what they would do to a man with wings, metallic neck prosthetics or the ability to change his face at will."- Marlena said wryly –"I have to go Man at arms, it is my planet I'm the only one who knows what to expect in there"-
-"And under no circumstance I will let my wife go to a different universe without me, which means Duncan that I will have to leave Eternos to your care until our return"- Randor said with all the possessiveness he could impose.
-"Randor that is not logical! Eternos is on the verge of collapse already if you both leave all our enemies will strike and by your return there will be nothing left, I must go"- Duncan said vehemently
-"For almost twenty years I wore this crown over my head and accepted the weight of an entire nation over my shoulders, even when I never asked for it and didn't have the training to do it properly. I had to give up my dreams and my piece of mind in order to fulfill the whims of the elders and what did I get in return? A war with more enemies every day! State intrigues! A missing son whose last words I told him was how disappointed I was of him"- At the last sentence his voice faltered, the great king of Eternia was reaching his breaking point due to guilt, stress and exhaustion –"I will not lose my wife as well"- He added as a mere whisper.
-"You must trust me Randor, and your best friend. Man at arms is a powerful warrior he will keep me safe and I will bring Adam back, you have my word"- Marlena said cupping his face gently, she knew how to calm him when his emotions took the most out of him.
He held her tight, his face buried on the crook of her neck. Hot tears tickled her shoulders and she felt him sob a little –"I can't live without you my love; you are all I have left"-
-"I will protect her with my life Randor you know that"- Duncan vowed.
The exhausted king let go of his wife, stood straight an saw his friend right in the eyes –"You have three days, if by that time you don't come back I will fetch you two from Terra myself"-
Marlena knew it was better not to contradict her husband when he was on such a precarious mood but he asked something impossible, earth was twice the size of Eternia, overcrowded and much more treacherous than Man at arms could imagine. Nonetheless she would find the way out of this mess and most important of all she would find her son.
-"Now my love I need you to tell me what you might need in your journey, I could give you a large supply of weapons and everything you might need"- Randor told her softly.
She was about to respond when a soft whimper interrupted them, it came from outside the private royal chamber. Horrified that someone might have heard their conversation she busted out of the room slamming the wide wooden doors open.
Outside all of the masters were gathered into a tight group, the whimper came from Teela who did a bad job trying to hide her tears.
-"What is going on here? What are you doing outside our chamber?"- Randor said exasperated
Duncan understood the situation when he noticed the grief in the masters' faces
-"I came with urgent news and met you in an emergency meeting, I don't think they were eavesdropping but they might have heard Adam's name being shouted a few times and probably assumed the worse."-
-"He's dead isn't he?"- Teela said between sobs. Marlena loved that girl like she were her own daughter and knew how much she cared for her son, it wasn't fair to keep this situation a secret just because of her pride, the masters needed to know the truth.
…
It was difficult enough for the masters to believe that the prince was trapped in a different planet let alone a different universe but when they heard that their beloved queen had been an alien all this time they were inclined to believe this was a joke.
-"How is this possible? How could someone from that world come to this planet and marry our king?"- Stratos said in utter shock.
Marlena felt a warm hand on her shoulder, rejection form the eternians was a fear she dreamed of never facing but she found comfort on the fact that her husband was there to lend her support.
-"I was an assistant for the army in the weapons development department; they were experimenting with rays of different kinds. They were working on a gamma ray weapon that would be small, safe to use and would leave no evidence behind until an explosion occurred and before I know it I was in here"- Marlena said shyly
-"It seems that Terra is a world connected with ours by very unpredictable portals that we cannot begin to comprehend, the same force that brought our queen in here seems to have captured Adam"- Man at arms interjected, he put emphasis on her title coaxing the stricken warriors to treat their monarch with respect.
-"As for the way she became my wife it is a rather simple story, several villagers saw her appear in a large ball of light near the evergreen forest. As the newly appointed king it was my duty to investigate, Man at arms came with me. Since she claimed to be from a distant world I feared and invasion so I decided to take her to the palace and keep proper guard over her until we could be sure she was no threat, two months later we were in love and married"- Randor said with simplicity.
Duncan knew he had left a lot of the real facts aside, the way they met and fell in love was anything but simple and the intrigues and sacrifices it took from both of them to be able to marry was a subject that might occupy a large romantic novel if anyone were allowed to write it. How hard to believe that all that drama had taken place in the short time of two months.
-"I had to hide my true identity if I wanted to be with Randor, most advisors and nobles wanted him to marry a woman from the royalty. It was hard enough for them to accept me when they thought I was a country woman he met before he became king I could not imagine what would have happened if they knew I was an Alien"-
Duncan knew what would have happened, every single person of high rank on the kingdom would have objected and Randor would have gladly give up his crown in order to elope with the woman he loved, keeping the secret was the only thing that allowed the newly formed and fragile monarchy to survive.
-"But you look just like us". Teela said baffled
-"On the outside yes but there are a few differences between terrans and eternians, you see Earth is a planet much larger than this therefore the gravity pull is greater, in order to withstand it terrans have a more robust structure and tissue density. You must keep this in mind Man at arms for when you go there you will fell weaker and much heavier, in here your strength is great but in there you will be lucky if you are above average."-
-"I will keep that in mind"- Duncan answered, no wonder her physical strength was so uncanny, it was one of the features that the king found so irresistible.
-"So it would be possible to say that you are from a different species?"- Sy klone asked the queen.
-"Yes, I am"-
That comment seemed to shake the ground where most of Eternia's morals stood from. There had been cases of inter racial love on their planet, the most notorious one was between a male adrenid named Prosineth and a female avion named Aerilea. They had been rejected by both kingdoms and forced to exile, luckily for them king Randor took compassion on the couple and allowed them to live on the city of Eternos were they began a new life and even managed to adopt children, since it was biologically impossible for members of different races to conceive. They understood Randor's actions now, yet back in the day such a matter brought huge controversies and for a short time Eternos was seen by the most conservatives as a realm of "moral depravation".
There were a thousand questions on his mind but Stratos tact for diplomacy warned him that if this enquiry kept going any further they would deviate from the matter at hand and insult their king and queen.
-"Regardless of our opinion over inter racial pairing our main concern must be the well fare of our prince, I volunteer for the rescue"- He said in his most dignified voice.
-"Yeah, besides it's pointless if the king and queen were from such different species Adam would have not been born. Oh and I coming too"- Buzz off interjected
Marlena explained why only humans could be part of the rescue party, which left Teela and Ram man as possible options. Mekaneck was crossed out because of his neck prosthetics and Ram man's larger weight might be damaging for him on the heavier gravity.
Teela said triumphant:-"I will go then, I'm human and not that heavy, besides I know how to battle with people stronger than me"-
"And as soon as I find Adam I'll make him pay for all the anguished nights he made me go through" She thought to herself.
-"You may come only if your father allows it"- Marlena said looking at Man at arms
-"No Teela, it is too dangerous I need you to stay here and lead the army against the snake men"-
-"It's only three days father! The army can go on without me"- She said angry.
-"Enough young lady, I have given you orders and you must respect them"- Duncan used his commanding tone, implying that Teela was forced to obey not only as a daughter but as a soldier too.
-"No! Not this time! I can be of help in this mission and you fail to see that you are endangering not only Adam's rescue but Marlena's life as well!"- She screamed and then forced some composure over herself –"I am going whether you like it or not"-
The tension between father and daughter was incredibly thick and the room fell silent, Marlena found the way to ease some of it
-"The greatest and most useful asset on Earth is money; I need as much gold as I can carry. Also we need blades, possibly daggers for our defense. Swords hadn't been used on my planet for ages they would draw too much attention and the laser weapons might not be reliable on the different atmosphere"-
At once all masters scattered searching for the needed riches, the king sent for the royal treasure. If money was so meaningful for terreans money they would have. If only the national treasure hadn't been so depleted by the war.