Chapter IV: The 'Visitation'
A matter of months passed on their way by. The 'Masters' eventually realized that Lady Moria was not prone to fighting with them, and so gradually almost forgot she even still existed. They continued to fight with Skeletor and his warriors, and each time, the evildoers came closer and closer to reaching their goal.
Teelina worried away in her Castle, lying on a settee, with her head propped up on one of the arms. She knew that sooner rather than later, the Masters would fall. Ever since Skeletor had been able to defeat He-man, even if his back had been turned, the Sorceress knew that danger was imminent, and that there was nothing she could do until Skeletor actually entered Grayskull, barring putting up force fields.
The fact that Lady Moria seemed to be altering all of her dreams and disrupting her waking thoughts did not help matters much. The Dereskian did not seem to mind entering the castle at her leisure. The Sorceress knew there was nothing she could personally do to cease these visits, but, as Moria never really did anything save talk, she was not overly worried. No one else among the Masters knew of these talks, of course, as she did not speak of them to anyone. She had to wonder if the Dereskian did, but she doubted it. Something within her said that Moria would consider that rude.
A small smile appeared on Teelina's face as she continued in her reverie. She closed her eyes, deep in thought. Lady Moria was indeed an odd woman. The Sorceress had known her for as long as she had been alive, and yet Moria was still able to surprise her. Idly, Teelina wondered if she was ever able to astonish the Dereskian. She doubted it.
Moria herself was extremely hard to predict. The older woman never lied if she could help it, obviously cared for her child, and seemed to enjoy molesting and taunting the keeper of Grayskull. That was about you could ever count on her to do.
But then, on the other hand, Teelina was forced to admit she almost enjoyed their conversations. As wicked as the moon-haired woman could be, she was always refined in speech, and she listened. That was probably what the Sorceress 'liked' most about the older woman. When you spoke to her, she actually listened. It was becoming increasingly difficult to find a good listener in Eternia these days.
*That would be because everyone on the planet is too concerned in his or her own affairs to worry about anyone else's,* sounded the familiar voice in her mind.
Teelina smiled. She had wondered how long it would take Moria to appear inside her head. *You're late,* she voiced back amusedly. *I was expecting you fifteen minutes ago.* She heard a small laugh reverberate from the elder woman's mind-voice.
*I do have other things to take care of besides visiting you, Teelina. I didn't know I was on a schedule. You should have told me. I hate being not on time.* Moria flashed the image of a single, winking amethyst eye into the younger woman's mind.
*I'll be sure to let you know next time,* replied the Sorceress. *Here I was almost about to cancel dinner.* She laughed, knowing she was being completely absurd, but not minding in the least.
Within her personal chambers, Lady Moria smiled. *Dinner? Do tell me: what's on the menu?* The Dereskian chuckled, both in reality and in her mind. This was becoming silly.
Teelina laughed. *What would you like?* she asked, making a mental image of herself with pen and paper, ready to copy down the order. She felt an elegant hand upon her shoulder in reality, and opened her eyes, jumping slightly when she saw Lady Moria standing there, leaning over her, the elder woman's head just above her own.
The older woman winked at the Sorceress in her eerily seductive manner. "That would depend on what you have. lying around." She wet her lips suggestively, causing the younger woman to inwardly cringe.
"Stop it," Teelina cried softly, averting her gaze from the elder woman's. "Why must you do that?"
Moria placed her finger beneath the younger woman's chin and looked into her eyes. "Because it makes you flinch. You, who are normally so stoic, so stolid in your emotions, you cringe and squirm beneath my gaze. I find it amusing."
"I'm flattered by your fascination with me," the Sorceress said sarcastically, rising from her near-supine position and sitting up. Lady Moria sat down beside her without being asked and stared into her blue eyes.
"You should be," the Dereskian said, smiling secretly. "I don't dote upon just anyone, you know."
The Sorceress made a sneer. "So what makes me so special?" she asked acridly.
Moria appeared amused. "Are you fishing for compliments, Teelina? You won't get them. I simply find you amusing."
The sneer on Teelina's lips turned into an icy growl. "You know what I find amusing? The fact that you call me stoic when you're the one who always acts so composed and impassive."
Lady Moria winked at her knowingly and sighed. "Oh, come now. You must realize that there is a large difference between being impassive and having an unshakeable sangfroid, dear. I am not without emotions, Teelina. You know that well enough. I simply choose a more detached way of looking at things."
"Then why do you find tormenting me so enjoyable?" the Sorceress inquired scornfully.
A small smile appeared on the Dereskian's face. "Even a philosopher needs to have some sort of fun every now and then, Teelina." She smoothed a loose feather on the younger woman's headdress.
The Sorceress moved her head out of Moria's reach. "That still doesn't explain why you find me so interesting."
"I find you deserving of attention, Sorceress of Grayskull, because you are the only Eternian I have ever found who is actually worth talking to. Much in the same way you find me the only one who actually listens to you," the Dereskian said, smiling almost warmly.
The younger woman shook her head confusedly. "There you go again, being almost nice. You could really be a good person, Moria. If you weren't so." she searched for the right word.
"Evil?" the moon-haired woman suggested helpfully.
Teelina looked into the older woman's eyes. "You're not evil, Lady Moria," she said honestly.
"Are you so sure of that?" the Dereskian asked, her tone shifting and becoming low and almost guttural. Her eyes began to whirl darkly. She leaned in towards the younger woman. Teelina backed away until she reached the other end of the settee. Moria leaned over her and slid a pale hand up the younger woman's thigh. The Sorceress gasped audibly and trembled. "After all, there are many people on this planet who would disagree with you," the elder woman finished.
Her lower lip quivering slightly, the Sorceress swallowed and said bravely, "You're not evil, Moria. You have a heart. You love your child."
"And that automatically makes me a 'good guy?'" Moria said, grabbing Teelina's chin with her other hand and leaning in even closer.
The Sorceress shook her head, closing her eyes as some minor protection against the piercing gaze of the elder woman. "No," she whispered softly. "But it does make you human."
Moria's eyes darkened considerably and the pressure at Teelina's cheek increased even more. Then, laughing, her eyes returned to their normal state and she backed away. "I suppose that was meant as a compliment. Well, thank you, dear. But I'm not exactly human, now am I?"
The Sorceress looked at her confusedly as she sat up again. "Yes, you are. .Aren't you?"
The older woman shook her head, a small grin on her face. "Dereskians are not humans, dear. We may look similar, but we are two completely different species. Our chemical makeup is very different, as are our internal bodily functions. That is why I am able to see in the dark, hear from great distances, and am able to live quite comfortably without sleeping."
"Oh," Teelina said softly. "I wasn't aware of that. But I suppose it makes sense." She was silent for a moment. "Does that mean that a Dereskian and an Eternian can't breed?" she asked, genuinely curious.
Moria appeared thoughtful. "I honestly don't know, Teelina. I don't think that such a pairing has ever occurred. Or, if it has, nothing springs to mind." A wicked smile spread across her face and she winked seductively. "We could find out," she chuckled darkly.
The Sorceress' eyes grew wide. Had Lady Moria, the Dereskian Queen, just propositioned her?
*Yes,* came Moria's voice inside her head. Her smile widened at Teelina's shock, and she continued out loud, "Among Dereskian women, it was perfectly possible for one to become with another's child. Shall we discover whether that remains true with Eternians?" She replaced her hand upon the Sorceress' thigh, and slid her fingernails along the inside of the younger woman's leg.
Teelina's mouth dropped and her face flushed, though she was not entirely sure it was from anger. Suddenly, a thought struck her. "You're altering my dreams again," she more stated than questioned.
"This is not a dream, Teelina," Moria answered, her tone wonderfully seductive, a wicked twinkle in her eye. "Though I can easily make it one if you so desire."
The Sorceress shook her head and backed away from the elder woman slowly, displacing the hand on her leg. "No. I have no control over what you make me see in those dreams," she said, her voice shaking, though again, she was unsure whether it was from anger or fear.
The Dereskian noted her retreat and slyly brought herself closer to the younger woman. "What makes you so sure you have any control over what is reality?" she whispered huskily, once more bringing her hand to rest on the Eternian's thigh, while her other hand reached slowly for the younger woman's neck.
"Because here I can tell you to stop," Teelina retorted, halting the Dereskian's hands with her own.
Instead of getting angry, Moria smiled at the younger woman, letting go of her thigh and laughing softly. "Well done, Teelina. I was wondering how long it would take before you stood up for yourself."
The Sorceress looked at her, open mouthed, as Lady Moria rose from her seat and smiled. "As always, dear, that was a most enjoyable visit, but I am afraid I must leave. I know you'll be desperate without me," Moria concluded, winking an amethyst eye. She half-turned and looked back over her shoulder. "Unless, of course, you were serious about having dinner?"
The Sorceress did not answer, the barest hint of a smile on her face. "What do you think, Moria?" she questioned after a moment, her eyebrows raised.
The Dereskian smiled, a twinkle beginning to show in her eyes. "I suppose we shall simply have to wait and see, now won't we?" She winked and began to fade into the stone floor. "Lamentinatio, Teelina," she called as she slid from view. ***********
Moria appeared in the throne room of Snake Mountain, standing in her usual place above the others in her niche. She scanned the room for her daughter, and saw her beside Skeletor's throne, as usual. The younger woman was sitting on one of the steps leading up to the throne, looking into the ball on the end of her staff.
Once her child had been located, Lady Moria relaxed a bit and looked to see who else was in the room. Skeletor was noticeably absent, as was his large, purple, feline friend. Tri-klops, Two-bad and Trap-jaw seemed to be the only other occupants in the room. The boys were over in a corner, laughing at Eläni knows what. From the volume of their voices and the rather graphic nature of what bits of conversation that Moria cared to overhear, Two-bad and Trap-jaw appeared to be drunk. Tri-klops was tinkering with what seemed to be a broken Doomseeker, oblivious to what the others were saying in their drunken stupor.
The Dereskian Queen turned her attention back to her daughter. Evil- Lyn seemed very bored, looking into the ball upon her staff with a faraway sort of look in her eyes. Inwardly, Moria smiled and slowly passed through the floor, resurfacing just behind her child.
\\Bored?\\ she asked in her native tongue, putting a hand on the younger woman's shoulder.
The spellcaster cast a glance in her mother's direction and covered the hand at her shoulder with her own. After over a year of having the older Dereskian suddenly pop out of nowhere, she had unconsciously come to expect her mother's appearances. \\A little,\\ she answered in kind, sighing softly.
A small smile slid across the elder woman's face. Her daughter's mastery of the Dereskian pronoun had improved greatly. True, the language had been hidden in her mind since her birth, but she had still needed a bit of tweaking to get the accent into an acceptable form. \\Whatever shall we do to correct that?\\ Lady Moria asked, taking her daughter's chin gently in her hand and looking into her eyes.
\\I'm all out of ideas,\\ the younger Dereskian said, softly, looking into her mother's eyes. She had to admit it; the Dereskian Queen did look good for her age, her outward appearance looking no more than in her mid to late thirties. There were almost no wrinkles on her face at all. In fact, if one wasn't looking hard enough, one could almost mistake the two of them for being only a decade or so apart in age. The only major age difference between Lyn's face and her mother's were the eyes. Her own eyes were hard and angry, full of a lust for power and a love for Dark Majicks. Moria's eyes were soft and appeared almost sad, elegant, with a sort of quiet anger to them. Like the rest of her, they seemed to look isolated, as if nothing in the real world affected her. Which, the younger woman supposed, was true enough. She smiled softly. There wasn't much that could faze her mother.
The older woman smiled softly and caressed her daughter's face lovingly. \\I have one,\\ Moria said, her smile morphing slowly into wickedness.
Her daughter looked intrigued. \\Oh?\\ she questioned amusedly. \\Do tell, mother dearest.\\
A chuckle that was both dark and soft escaped from the Dereskian Queen. She winked an amethyst eye at her daughter, and took her by the hands, gently pulling her into a standing position. She smiled fully, and her teeth gleamed in the amethyst light of her child's staff. \\We'll have dinner.\\ Moria's eyes glittered and began to pinwheel wildly as she looked at her daughter's slightly puzzled look. She winked mischievously and they began to slowly fade into the floor of the mountain.
A matter of months passed on their way by. The 'Masters' eventually realized that Lady Moria was not prone to fighting with them, and so gradually almost forgot she even still existed. They continued to fight with Skeletor and his warriors, and each time, the evildoers came closer and closer to reaching their goal.
Teelina worried away in her Castle, lying on a settee, with her head propped up on one of the arms. She knew that sooner rather than later, the Masters would fall. Ever since Skeletor had been able to defeat He-man, even if his back had been turned, the Sorceress knew that danger was imminent, and that there was nothing she could do until Skeletor actually entered Grayskull, barring putting up force fields.
The fact that Lady Moria seemed to be altering all of her dreams and disrupting her waking thoughts did not help matters much. The Dereskian did not seem to mind entering the castle at her leisure. The Sorceress knew there was nothing she could personally do to cease these visits, but, as Moria never really did anything save talk, she was not overly worried. No one else among the Masters knew of these talks, of course, as she did not speak of them to anyone. She had to wonder if the Dereskian did, but she doubted it. Something within her said that Moria would consider that rude.
A small smile appeared on Teelina's face as she continued in her reverie. She closed her eyes, deep in thought. Lady Moria was indeed an odd woman. The Sorceress had known her for as long as she had been alive, and yet Moria was still able to surprise her. Idly, Teelina wondered if she was ever able to astonish the Dereskian. She doubted it.
Moria herself was extremely hard to predict. The older woman never lied if she could help it, obviously cared for her child, and seemed to enjoy molesting and taunting the keeper of Grayskull. That was about you could ever count on her to do.
But then, on the other hand, Teelina was forced to admit she almost enjoyed their conversations. As wicked as the moon-haired woman could be, she was always refined in speech, and she listened. That was probably what the Sorceress 'liked' most about the older woman. When you spoke to her, she actually listened. It was becoming increasingly difficult to find a good listener in Eternia these days.
*That would be because everyone on the planet is too concerned in his or her own affairs to worry about anyone else's,* sounded the familiar voice in her mind.
Teelina smiled. She had wondered how long it would take Moria to appear inside her head. *You're late,* she voiced back amusedly. *I was expecting you fifteen minutes ago.* She heard a small laugh reverberate from the elder woman's mind-voice.
*I do have other things to take care of besides visiting you, Teelina. I didn't know I was on a schedule. You should have told me. I hate being not on time.* Moria flashed the image of a single, winking amethyst eye into the younger woman's mind.
*I'll be sure to let you know next time,* replied the Sorceress. *Here I was almost about to cancel dinner.* She laughed, knowing she was being completely absurd, but not minding in the least.
Within her personal chambers, Lady Moria smiled. *Dinner? Do tell me: what's on the menu?* The Dereskian chuckled, both in reality and in her mind. This was becoming silly.
Teelina laughed. *What would you like?* she asked, making a mental image of herself with pen and paper, ready to copy down the order. She felt an elegant hand upon her shoulder in reality, and opened her eyes, jumping slightly when she saw Lady Moria standing there, leaning over her, the elder woman's head just above her own.
The older woman winked at the Sorceress in her eerily seductive manner. "That would depend on what you have. lying around." She wet her lips suggestively, causing the younger woman to inwardly cringe.
"Stop it," Teelina cried softly, averting her gaze from the elder woman's. "Why must you do that?"
Moria placed her finger beneath the younger woman's chin and looked into her eyes. "Because it makes you flinch. You, who are normally so stoic, so stolid in your emotions, you cringe and squirm beneath my gaze. I find it amusing."
"I'm flattered by your fascination with me," the Sorceress said sarcastically, rising from her near-supine position and sitting up. Lady Moria sat down beside her without being asked and stared into her blue eyes.
"You should be," the Dereskian said, smiling secretly. "I don't dote upon just anyone, you know."
The Sorceress made a sneer. "So what makes me so special?" she asked acridly.
Moria appeared amused. "Are you fishing for compliments, Teelina? You won't get them. I simply find you amusing."
The sneer on Teelina's lips turned into an icy growl. "You know what I find amusing? The fact that you call me stoic when you're the one who always acts so composed and impassive."
Lady Moria winked at her knowingly and sighed. "Oh, come now. You must realize that there is a large difference between being impassive and having an unshakeable sangfroid, dear. I am not without emotions, Teelina. You know that well enough. I simply choose a more detached way of looking at things."
"Then why do you find tormenting me so enjoyable?" the Sorceress inquired scornfully.
A small smile appeared on the Dereskian's face. "Even a philosopher needs to have some sort of fun every now and then, Teelina." She smoothed a loose feather on the younger woman's headdress.
The Sorceress moved her head out of Moria's reach. "That still doesn't explain why you find me so interesting."
"I find you deserving of attention, Sorceress of Grayskull, because you are the only Eternian I have ever found who is actually worth talking to. Much in the same way you find me the only one who actually listens to you," the Dereskian said, smiling almost warmly.
The younger woman shook her head confusedly. "There you go again, being almost nice. You could really be a good person, Moria. If you weren't so." she searched for the right word.
"Evil?" the moon-haired woman suggested helpfully.
Teelina looked into the older woman's eyes. "You're not evil, Lady Moria," she said honestly.
"Are you so sure of that?" the Dereskian asked, her tone shifting and becoming low and almost guttural. Her eyes began to whirl darkly. She leaned in towards the younger woman. Teelina backed away until she reached the other end of the settee. Moria leaned over her and slid a pale hand up the younger woman's thigh. The Sorceress gasped audibly and trembled. "After all, there are many people on this planet who would disagree with you," the elder woman finished.
Her lower lip quivering slightly, the Sorceress swallowed and said bravely, "You're not evil, Moria. You have a heart. You love your child."
"And that automatically makes me a 'good guy?'" Moria said, grabbing Teelina's chin with her other hand and leaning in even closer.
The Sorceress shook her head, closing her eyes as some minor protection against the piercing gaze of the elder woman. "No," she whispered softly. "But it does make you human."
Moria's eyes darkened considerably and the pressure at Teelina's cheek increased even more. Then, laughing, her eyes returned to their normal state and she backed away. "I suppose that was meant as a compliment. Well, thank you, dear. But I'm not exactly human, now am I?"
The Sorceress looked at her confusedly as she sat up again. "Yes, you are. .Aren't you?"
The older woman shook her head, a small grin on her face. "Dereskians are not humans, dear. We may look similar, but we are two completely different species. Our chemical makeup is very different, as are our internal bodily functions. That is why I am able to see in the dark, hear from great distances, and am able to live quite comfortably without sleeping."
"Oh," Teelina said softly. "I wasn't aware of that. But I suppose it makes sense." She was silent for a moment. "Does that mean that a Dereskian and an Eternian can't breed?" she asked, genuinely curious.
Moria appeared thoughtful. "I honestly don't know, Teelina. I don't think that such a pairing has ever occurred. Or, if it has, nothing springs to mind." A wicked smile spread across her face and she winked seductively. "We could find out," she chuckled darkly.
The Sorceress' eyes grew wide. Had Lady Moria, the Dereskian Queen, just propositioned her?
*Yes,* came Moria's voice inside her head. Her smile widened at Teelina's shock, and she continued out loud, "Among Dereskian women, it was perfectly possible for one to become with another's child. Shall we discover whether that remains true with Eternians?" She replaced her hand upon the Sorceress' thigh, and slid her fingernails along the inside of the younger woman's leg.
Teelina's mouth dropped and her face flushed, though she was not entirely sure it was from anger. Suddenly, a thought struck her. "You're altering my dreams again," she more stated than questioned.
"This is not a dream, Teelina," Moria answered, her tone wonderfully seductive, a wicked twinkle in her eye. "Though I can easily make it one if you so desire."
The Sorceress shook her head and backed away from the elder woman slowly, displacing the hand on her leg. "No. I have no control over what you make me see in those dreams," she said, her voice shaking, though again, she was unsure whether it was from anger or fear.
The Dereskian noted her retreat and slyly brought herself closer to the younger woman. "What makes you so sure you have any control over what is reality?" she whispered huskily, once more bringing her hand to rest on the Eternian's thigh, while her other hand reached slowly for the younger woman's neck.
"Because here I can tell you to stop," Teelina retorted, halting the Dereskian's hands with her own.
Instead of getting angry, Moria smiled at the younger woman, letting go of her thigh and laughing softly. "Well done, Teelina. I was wondering how long it would take before you stood up for yourself."
The Sorceress looked at her, open mouthed, as Lady Moria rose from her seat and smiled. "As always, dear, that was a most enjoyable visit, but I am afraid I must leave. I know you'll be desperate without me," Moria concluded, winking an amethyst eye. She half-turned and looked back over her shoulder. "Unless, of course, you were serious about having dinner?"
The Sorceress did not answer, the barest hint of a smile on her face. "What do you think, Moria?" she questioned after a moment, her eyebrows raised.
The Dereskian smiled, a twinkle beginning to show in her eyes. "I suppose we shall simply have to wait and see, now won't we?" She winked and began to fade into the stone floor. "Lamentinatio, Teelina," she called as she slid from view. ***********
Moria appeared in the throne room of Snake Mountain, standing in her usual place above the others in her niche. She scanned the room for her daughter, and saw her beside Skeletor's throne, as usual. The younger woman was sitting on one of the steps leading up to the throne, looking into the ball on the end of her staff.
Once her child had been located, Lady Moria relaxed a bit and looked to see who else was in the room. Skeletor was noticeably absent, as was his large, purple, feline friend. Tri-klops, Two-bad and Trap-jaw seemed to be the only other occupants in the room. The boys were over in a corner, laughing at Eläni knows what. From the volume of their voices and the rather graphic nature of what bits of conversation that Moria cared to overhear, Two-bad and Trap-jaw appeared to be drunk. Tri-klops was tinkering with what seemed to be a broken Doomseeker, oblivious to what the others were saying in their drunken stupor.
The Dereskian Queen turned her attention back to her daughter. Evil- Lyn seemed very bored, looking into the ball upon her staff with a faraway sort of look in her eyes. Inwardly, Moria smiled and slowly passed through the floor, resurfacing just behind her child.
\\Bored?\\ she asked in her native tongue, putting a hand on the younger woman's shoulder.
The spellcaster cast a glance in her mother's direction and covered the hand at her shoulder with her own. After over a year of having the older Dereskian suddenly pop out of nowhere, she had unconsciously come to expect her mother's appearances. \\A little,\\ she answered in kind, sighing softly.
A small smile slid across the elder woman's face. Her daughter's mastery of the Dereskian pronoun had improved greatly. True, the language had been hidden in her mind since her birth, but she had still needed a bit of tweaking to get the accent into an acceptable form. \\Whatever shall we do to correct that?\\ Lady Moria asked, taking her daughter's chin gently in her hand and looking into her eyes.
\\I'm all out of ideas,\\ the younger Dereskian said, softly, looking into her mother's eyes. She had to admit it; the Dereskian Queen did look good for her age, her outward appearance looking no more than in her mid to late thirties. There were almost no wrinkles on her face at all. In fact, if one wasn't looking hard enough, one could almost mistake the two of them for being only a decade or so apart in age. The only major age difference between Lyn's face and her mother's were the eyes. Her own eyes were hard and angry, full of a lust for power and a love for Dark Majicks. Moria's eyes were soft and appeared almost sad, elegant, with a sort of quiet anger to them. Like the rest of her, they seemed to look isolated, as if nothing in the real world affected her. Which, the younger woman supposed, was true enough. She smiled softly. There wasn't much that could faze her mother.
The older woman smiled softly and caressed her daughter's face lovingly. \\I have one,\\ Moria said, her smile morphing slowly into wickedness.
Her daughter looked intrigued. \\Oh?\\ she questioned amusedly. \\Do tell, mother dearest.\\
A chuckle that was both dark and soft escaped from the Dereskian Queen. She winked an amethyst eye at her daughter, and took her by the hands, gently pulling her into a standing position. She smiled fully, and her teeth gleamed in the amethyst light of her child's staff. \\We'll have dinner.\\ Moria's eyes glittered and began to pinwheel wildly as she looked at her daughter's slightly puzzled look. She winked mischievously and they began to slowly fade into the floor of the mountain.