Chapter XXXIV: Angels Fall First Part three of four
Teela stood, alone and unarmed, outside of the Dereskian Queen's prison cell. The conversation between Randor and the Sorceress had unnerved her on more than one level, and she felt she had to talk to someone who might know why. She had been concerned as to why the Sorceress had acted so strangely, and, even though the oracle had eventually agreed to be Moria's executioner, the way she had looked at Teela throughout the whole meeting had been… uncomfortable to say the least. She had continued to openly stare at her, almost looking directly through her, until Teela had nearly squirmed under her gaze, not knowing how to react. It was feeling such discomfort towards one who had before only brought wisdom that had finally driven her to where she now stood. "Your Highness…" she called softly, her voice not holding any of her usual haughtiness. "May I talk to you?"
Perhaps it was the way her tone was pleading, the way her eyes almost craved information, or maybe only the fact that she looked so like her mother that made Moria leave her state of slightly pained meditation and rise slowly from the corner. She stopped a few feet away from the magic-restraining bars, as if she chose the distance and the walls that held her did not factor into the decision. "Yes?" she replied calmly, her voice a little thick from hours of disuse.
Teela began slowly in the same way she had at the royal gathering so many months before, not wanting to jump directly into why she had come. Instead, she asked other questions that were burning in her mind. Questions she knew only Moria would answer truthfully without sparing her feelings. "You told me before that you knew my mother…. Did you?"
"Yes," Moria again stated, regarding the young girl before her slowly.
The young redhead hesitated. "How well did you know her?" she questioned after a moment, uncertainly.
The Dereskian Queen chuckled gently and moved to the sidewall. She leaned against it slowly, trying not to show her weakness. Her mental conversation with the Sorceress had taken far more out of her than she was comfortable with. "Far better than Man-at-Arms, it seems." She could not repress a small grin at that statement.
Green eyes flashed wide open at the implications, and Teela's mouth dropped. She waited a long moment before swallowing visibly. "Did you… lay with her?" The idea seemed to almost make her ill.
The answer was in the same tone as the previous had been, with a hint of amusement contained within the elder woman's eyes. "Many times."
There was an audible pause as the Captain of the Guardadjusted to this news, repressing a shudder at the idea before closing her eyes and asking softly, "Before or after I was born?"
"After," came the elder woman's voice, and Teela had to turn away, trying not to gag and exhaling raggedly.
She decided she did not really want to know more about that, and so waited a moment, before turning back to the elder woman. Moria idly crossed her arms over her chest and awaited the next question.
The young redhead decided to lay off of that particular subject for a while, and instead asked a question different from the ones that burned most in her mind. "….Why …why are you answering my questions?" came the next quandary.
Moria actually felt a tiny smile sneak upon her lips. "Because I see no reason not to." Teela looked hesitant, and so the older woman's voice took on a slightly sadder note as she elaborated. "Your 'father'" she said, and Teela could almost taste Moria's disdain for the word, "and your fellow Eternians have ordained my death, Teela. Why should I bother being difficult? It's obvious you have questions you truly want me to answer; I see no point in wasting what little time remains to me."
The redhead looked around, avoiding the eyes of the woman before her. A long moment passed before she finally gave voice to her next question. "Why don't you just escape? Everyone is this kingdom knows you have the power. Why bother with this pretense of being behind bars? Anyone who has ever seen you cast a spell knows that it would take far more than Eternium walls and guards to keep you caged."
"'Caged,'" came the reply. "A fitting word considering the circumstances." Moria looked upward at the ceiling of her prison, where artificial lights hung, blinding the amethyst eyes with their imitation of light. "I cannot even see the stars or Moons from this little section of Tartura. This is a prison specifically designed to hold me here against my will. And yet…" she nearly whispered, stepping so close to the Eternium bars that strands of her hair fell through. "These bars are far from what keeps me here." Rather than stopping as she neared the bars, Moria continued walking, passing directly through the heavy poles of Eternium as if they were not even there. Teela stepped back in surprise, her jaw falling open in shock as the Dereskian Queen extended her hand. The barest whisper of pale fingertips caressed the cheek of the young girl, and then with a sad, tender smile, Moria stepped back into what was now very obviously her self-induced prison.
Warily and with wide eyes, Teela swallowed slowly, staring at the older woman. "You really are here because you want to be."
Moria turned away, facing the wall across from the door, her back to the daughter of the Sorceress. "…Yes," she whispered quietly.
"…Why?"
The white haired woman's reply was long in coming, and a ragged sigh preceded it when she finally spoke. "…Because I have to be."
Teela looked at her confusedly, her eyes searching for an answer she knew she would not get. "I don't understand, your highness," she replied softly, and this the title did not sound like the curse as it had when her 'father' had said it.
The Ancient woman turned again towards the young girl as she voiced her reply. "I don't expect you to, Teela," Moria stated softly, her eyes sad but honest. "This is something that must be played out until its end, and I will not find peace until it is finally over."
"Even if that means your death?" the young redhead questioned, finding the words to be difficult in escaping from her mouth.
Amethyst eyes met light green once more, and Moria paused only a moment before giving her answer. "Especially then."
This time it was Teela who looked away, crossing her arms in front of her chest and letting out a quiet sigh. "I wonder if my mother went as willingly to her death…." She mused, almost to herself.
Once again, Moria carefully thought out her reply, not wanting to reveal too much information, and yet not wanting to lie to the girl. "…Your mother always took great care to ensure that what she was doing was the right thing to do. I know for a fact, however, that given the choice, she would have wanted to stay by your side… the way any mother should feel toward her child."
The young girl let out a scathing bark of a laugh, looking down at the ground and muttering angrily. "Instead she left me with my father and just died… but not before making sure you wouldn't try to kill me first. What kind of mother does that to her only child?"
"A wise one," Moria countered firmly, and her tone made Teela's head snap up to look at her. "And one who has few other options. She knew that of all the people who could do you harm, I was the only one who would keep my promises to her. Your mother did love you, Teela. Otherwise she wouldn't have asked me to make such a promise."
Sighing wearily, the young girl nodded slowly as if she understood, and then asked hesitantly, "…Did… did my mother ask anything else of you?"
The Ancient woman's brows rose slightly, and she neared the bars to her cell, leaning her hands against them slowly, her eyes looking tired and a little pained. She could not tell the girl of the Unwritten Law she and the Sorceress had made, and so with a heavy heart, she told her first lie to the young girl. "Regarding you? …No, Teela. She asked only that I did not harm you."
Teela nodded, and looked downwards, her eyes idly glancing over the elder woman's hands. Moria swooned of a sudden, clutching the bars as the fatigue she had been trying to hide came straight to the surface.
"Your highness!" Teela cried out, more alarmed at the sudden weakness than worrying about the Ancient Queen. "What's wrong?"
Moria let out a pained sigh and slowly regained her balance. "Nothing to concern yourself with…." She looked back up at the young girl, noting that Teela did not look convinced. "This prison," she continued slowly, "was designed to keep me from doing Majick while I am within it. You may have noticed that it does not quite do so," she chuckled weakly. "It does, nevertheless, have a slight weakening effect. Because I cannot see the Moons, my power does not replenish itself as quickly as it usually does…." Her words faded, and she groaned a little, a slight tremor going down her form. Teela looked on, slightly worrying, and Moria smiled softly. "Do not worry about me. I will undergo worse tomorrow."
Teela nodded slowly, not really understanding but pretending to anyway. Something more puzzling was on her mind. As the elder woman had swooned, Teela saw with amazement that a mark on Moria's left hand had suddenly burned into existence. Even now that the spasms had seemed to pass, the young girl stared at the mark as it smoldered to a deep black color, and then quickly faded to a dark red. She noticed that it was the outline of a crescent moon, facing to the left. Teela struggled to remember why the symbol looked familiar to her as Moria slowly shook off her sudden weakness and seemed to collect herself into her sangfroid once more. "…The Sorceress has a mark like that…" Teela recalled after a long moment.
The Ancient Queen glanced down at her hand, tracing the red mark idly with one of her fingers. "Yes, she does," Moria stated softly, her patented smirk on her lips, killing any traces left by the weariness once and for all.
Teela continued on as if she hadn't heard the other woman, reviewing the earlier scene at Grayskull in her mind. "I saw it when King Randor and I spoke to her this afternoon. She kept covering it with her other hand…"
The Ancient Queen's head tilted slowly to the side, regarding the redhead thoughtfully. "Very observant of you," she chuckled, not unkindly.
…Maybe it's that mark that's affecting the Sorceress, Teela thought to herself as she looked at the one on Moria's hand. Could that be why she was acting so strangely? Father did say he thought that the Dereskian Queen had put a spell on her… What if that spell is somehow activated through that symbol… The memory of how peculiarly the Sorceress had been acting flashed once more through her mind, and the girl suddenly whirled, turning toward the caged woman a little forcefully, anger burning in her eyes. "What does the mark do!" she exclaimed wildly "What have you done to the Sorceress!" She grasped the bars to Moria's cell furiously, determined to rip them clear out of the wall at the mere thought that this white-haired witch was trying to control the oracle.
"I have done nothing that I was not asked to do," the elder woman responded quietly, calmly. She had not backed away from the bars at Teela's approach, and so the young redhead was now so close that she could feel her breath against her cheek. Moria's eyes began to pinwheel, the flecks of amethyst swirling in growing speed around her ebony pupils. "You are correct in thinking that the mark is not purely cosmetic, but the spell attached to it is not a malevolent one. If it were, why would I have one myself?"
Teela growled angrily, refusing to listen to the slightly nagging voice in the back of her mind that said Moria had a point. "So you say," she hissed out, the look in her eyes as friendly as a rabid wolf's. "What. Does. It. Do?" she more demanded than asked, pure threat entering her voice.
Rather than pointing out that it was extremely unwise for anyone to threaten her, even caged as she was, Moria chose instead to answer the question. The mark on her hand slowly fused with her skin and disappeared entirely from view. "Not that it is really your concern, but it will protect her," she stated simply.
The fire in the young girl's eyes dulled only a little, and she hesitated a moment before asking the same question she had earlier. "…From what?"
Moria's reply came quickly, delivered as calmly as it was simple. "The future."
Gradually, almost as if she were moving in slow motion, the young redhead released the bars, taking a few steps back, suddenly remembering that is was not wise to get so close to this woman. "…So the Sorceress was right," she said softly, almost to herself. "You're an Oracle, too. You can see the future."
"I see a future," the Ancient corrected, approaching the bars as Teela had left them, her arms resting lazily against her sides. "I see the future that is most certain to happen."
Teela nodded as if she understood, and then asked hesitantly, "So… if you see it in time… you can change it?"
The elder woman looked slowly away, her gaze dropping down to the floor. "…Yes," she answered quietly, "though such an act does not come without a price."
"What kind of price?" Teelina's daughter asked, a little annoyed that she seemed to once again be the pupil and Moria the teacher.
"…That …varies… depending on by how much you alter the future you have Seen," came the answer, slowly. Lady Moria had turned away, steeping further into her cell and looking at the back wall.
Teela noticed the Ancient woman's partial retreat, in her movements as well as in her answer, and so pressed the matter. "And what is the highest price you can pay, your highness?" she questioned, her use of Moria's title bringing the elder woman back from whatever reverie she had been in.
The Dereskian Queen turned around, facing her young interrogator and fixing her with a gaze so cold and empty that it sent shivers down the redhead's spine, countering her question with one of her own. "Considering the fact that I seem so determined to face my sentencing, even though I do nothing to repent my actions against the Eternian people, what do you think it is?"
Swallowing visibly, the young wanted to look away but discovered that she could not. Moria seemed to have glued her gaze to her own, and Teela was forced to meet it as she found herself quietly answering, not knowing how the answer had come to her. "Your life…."
"Precisely," came the soft reply, and whatever hold Moria had made broke. The young redhead looked around the room a little wildly, wondering what had just happened, before almost reluctantly looking once more at the other woman. "Or the equivalent of it, anyway," the elder woman sighed, and then turned to sit down upon the barely-used bed in her chamber.
Silence filled the chamber for a time, and Teela looked down at the floor, replaying the conversation with the Sorceress in her mind. Though it seemed that the Sorceress had resolved to be Moria's executioner even before she and Randor had arrived, it had nevertheless taken some coaxing to get her to agree. "…Is that why the Sorceress seemed so adamant about not destroying you?" she questioned quietly, staring at the elder woman's hand.
Moria chuckled softly, remembering her conversation with the Sorceress that had taken place mere seconds before Teela and Randor had arrived. "No," she replied, almost amusedly. "No… her reluctance was for a… different… reason… and that is really all you need to know about that," she concluded, and the tone of her voice did not make Teela inclined to press the matter.
…There was another matter that did still need addressing, though. She knew that soon her father would come to take his shift watching the Ancient woman, and she did not want to waste these last few moments of answers she knew no one else would give her. "My mother…" the young girl began uncertainly, changing the subject far less than she actually knew. "Could you… tell me more about her?"
Moria was hesitant, again wary of revealing too much of the truth, but after a moment she asked in return, "What do you want to know?"
"…What …what was she like? As a person, I mean," Teela queried after a long pause.
The elder woman did not answer for a moment, knowing, as she had throughout this entire lengthy conversation, that she could not say too much, as even now when she was nearing her end, she would not break her vow to Teelina. "What has Man-at-Arms told you about her?" she asked carefully.
Teela lowered her eyes at the mention of her father. "Not much," she admitted softly. "He has told me she was a wonderful person, that she never got into any disputes with anyone and never said bad things about anybody, even people like Skeletor or…" she trailed off, unable to look at the white-haired woman.
"Me," the Dereskian Queen supplied for her. She smiled gently as Teela blushed a little. "No, she wouldn't have. Your mother was always a very understanding person…. And she, unlike so many Eternians, neverjudged me, which is why we spent so much of our time together. …What else does your 'father' say?"
The redhead looked at her slowly, wondering why Moria has said the word 'father' so strangely. She decided not to ask, and instead recalled what else she had been told. "He said that… she was like an angel, in more respects than one…. I've never understood what that meant…."
Moria smiled, not unkindly, at the young girl. "And you never will, probably. In many ways,your mother was always very elusive and… mysterious, even to Man-at-Arms."
"But not to you?"
The elder woman faltered, looking away at the floor for a long while before finally deciding to evade the question. "Everything you have just said is true, Teela. What more do you want to know?"
Looking down slowly, the redhead thought for a moment, her lips pursing in a way that was all too reminiscent of the Sorceress. Teela looked up after a time, unsure of which question she wanted to ask most, but determined to ask something, anything. She locked eyes with the imprisoned woman, and held the gaze even as Moria's eyes began to pinwheel. "Tell me…. Tell me…. how she died."
The Ancient Dereskian froze. She knew she would have to answer this question, and knew it would be very delicate if she were to create a lie. She highly doubted Man-at-Arms had never fabricated some story about her mother's death, but Moria had no way of knowing what that would be. Before she could decide on an answer, her head quirked quickly to the side. Someone was coming near. Judging by the spacing and heaviness of the footsteps as they fell, it could only be…Man-at-Arms. The barest hint of a smile fell over her lips, and, looking always into the young girl's eyes, she finally elected the truth. In two words, she told the girl more information about her mother than everything anyone, including herself, had previously said combined.
"She didn't."
Duncan burst upon the scene the very minute Teela's jaw dropped.