Among the princesses

She smiled as Wrong Hordak introduced her, although she knew that now she would never be Adora to them , but She- Ra'a , the heroine of the galaxy ... but when she looked at them, it turned out that they reacted completely differently than she expected. Itel summoned a spectral blade, and Rosie clenched her fists, which began to glow. Both took a fighting stance. Eti was nowhere to be seen. The lizard named Alatar sighed and spoke over the com

"Hey, they're fine. You don't have to hide."

"Now the only question is whether it's Alatar or maybe an ugly impostor." A voice came over the lizard's communicator. The red dot of the laser sight appeared on his chest, but the silver scales signaled that he had nothing to worry about.

"Is Eti always so… nervous." Perfuma asked cautiously .

"A bit, she hit me once, but after getting to know her, she turns out to be very nice." said Wrong Hordak in a gentle voice. He really has changed a lot. Not only did he look different, he was now so colorful Catra would say his eyes hurt from looking at him. He became calmer, much more quiet.

'You better not talk to me, treacherous Wormdrak! You hid the truth from us from the beginning. And I was already starting to like you." said the strange girl via communicator, and Wrongdak looked down, genuinely ashamed.

"She is right! You've been working with them from the beginning! You were an agent of cursed by devils and demons Etheria, a spy who was to learn our weaknesses and secrets for your dark overlords to enable them to conquer the galaxy and put us under the yoke of your wicked tyranny!" Itel screamed furiously. There was silence… Even the guards stared at her in surprise. She blinked a few times, trying to follow the girl's reasoning. She, Scorpia , and Perfume stared at Wrong Hordak asking him to explain what is going on with the green-haired Saihe. Even her White-Haired companion looked at Itel skeptically .

"You know, I think you're exaggerating a bit…" Rosie said.

"Nobody asked your opinion! You don't understand anything, you're stupid and naive." Saihe yelled at her companion.

"Don't pick on Sparkling Hand. She's kind of right. The Blondie is definitely not the Lady of Chaos, she's too stupid for that. She is such idiot that wants to talk with Stinka! Who in their right mind would want to hang out with someone like that?"

She smiled sadly to herself because the girl reminded her of Catra, though she couldn't say why. Probably because of that cat's tail sticking out from under her coat, which she nervously waved all the time. But then she frowned, understanding what the girl was talking about.

"You're talking about the crap the Horde Ultimate says… She didn't know that someone who lived in his Empire wouldn't take that crap seriously." she said smiling sadly. "But I assure you, I'm no Chaos Lady... Rather, everyone tells me I'm too decent. My fiancée says my clothes are made to cut potatoes." She laughed amiably. Perfuma and Wrong Hordak were about to say something, but Eti cut in

"Listen me Blondie. We don't know what it was like under Crookface's rule, but we from outside the Zone, when we see that there may be something terrible somewhere, there will definitely be something even worse. That's how the real world works... And besides, Itel is paranoid and doesn't like anyone." Her voice was strangely colorless and dull.

"So you're from outside the empire?" She looked at Wrong Hordak . He nodded his head and said.

"Yes... Entrapta asked me to help her prove that Horde Prime was a liar and did not conquer the entire universe. And that's true. My Skittermander friends took me to Vesk III and I had a few happy years there with Emily." he said, and Emily chirped yes and added looking at his young friends. "My brother has forbidden me to mention Etheri to anyone, because you know." He looked at her significantly.

"What is this Hordak up to?" she thought, frowning.

"That's what we wanted to tell you". Perfuma said and pointed to the lizard and the red-haired girl with long ponytails and a flower in her hair. This Itel looked as if she'd seen something terrifying . "These kids are from a planet outside the Empire." Their home world… I'll explain later…" Perfuma said and suddenly jumped in fright as Eti suddenly appeared behind her.

"What have you done to Lilka? she exclaimed strangely calmly, but gesticulated indignantly.

"She didn't do anything to me. Mrs. Perfuma gave me a flower and Mrs. Scorpia hugged me." The redhead said with delight, and Eti jumped back violently.

"You're not Lilka. You are the imposter!" There was a note of indignation in the masked voice.

"I'm no imp ! Mrs. Perfuma simply gave me a flower because I apologized nicely for atack her with an axe. Lila explained.

"And yet no, you are very Lilka. Eti said and looked at the others. "As soon as you give us a lift, we will find Odora without any problems ... I will always find her after the smell, even in the darkest valley, where she probably comes from.

Scorpia and Perfume looked at the girl in bewilderment, but Rosie explained.

"This is Lady Cala Grayskull . She is great and brave, only Eti has some prejudices... And her ancestor, Mara, was from you, from Etheria!"

"It's amazing." Perfuma whispered, and Scorpia nodded.

"Really, there's absolutely nothing good about it. But at least Bina will be happy." Eti explained.

"Are you sure?" Rosie asked cautiously.

"Of course!" She sure missed us!" Eth assured.

Adora and the two princesses turned out to be quite nice. They didn't look like princesses at all. They didn't have a tiara and white dresses... Though what could she know? She's never met one. Maybe it was local style? For example, if the Vesk had a princess, she'd probably wear a military helmet and armor... and be armed to the teeth... Actually, she'd look like a regular Vesk only more so.

She waved to one of the guards, who looked at her in dismay. She had the impression that all the guards were eyeing them suspiciously. She was not surprised by them, because first Lilka threw herself with an ax at Scorpia , and Eti was herself. She didn't understand how they and Itel could suspect Adora and her friends of being gangsters. And they offered them a ride. Everyone here respected them greatly, especially Adora . She was that She- Ra'a , though she wasn't sure what that meant... But she was definitely a good person since she defeated that monster Horde Prime ... She must have been a greata general with a mighty army, or a mighty wizard with unparalleled power. She just didn't look like that. She seemed perfectly ordinary, and compared to Lady Cala, she was almost a gray mouse. She wasn't as beautiful or tall or smart…especially as smart as a Carurystal aristocrat.

They were just getting into an army truck covered with a tarpaulin. It was not the vehicle she had expected from princesses and heroes. Several other military vehicles surrounded them, only one that looked… decent. It was probably an old Horde vehicle, because its shape resembled those droids with which it fought in the underground. The rest looked like someone took normal vehicles and just repainted them. She felt as if they had been patched and repaired over and over again to make them usable. Though to be honest, she didn't know much about vehicles. On Absalom, she used public transport, and what happened before that, she couldn't remember. Adora walked over to her and, seeing that she was watching their convoy, said.

"Does the look weird? Everyone here keeps apologizing to me for such wretched machines "Unworthy of the Princess of the Power and savior of the universe", but I don't know what they mean. Where me, my fiancée, and Scorpia grew up, it was all shaking so much you were rattled for two hours, and I didn't know about seat belts until Darla… it's such a ship."

"So where were you born?" Rosie asked in surprise.

"I don't know, but I grew up in the Fright Zone..." When she saw Rosie recoil at the name, she added. "Ya, this place was as terrible as it was called… But now I live in Brightmoon with my fiancée Catra." Adora said.

"Yes, Wrongdak mentioned her. He said Eti looked like her". She looked at the feline girl who was with Alatar and Wrongdak at the engine of one of the cars.

"Ah, we have many catpeople on Etheria, but Catra is different from them." the blond woman explained to her, and Rosie nodded.

"Yes, in the Galaxy they are called Pahtra and live on Vesk V, but Eti is not like them either. She was explaining to Adora, but then Lilka came up to them with a large package of bacon crisps.

"Please try. These are delicious crisps, bacon ones. I wanted to give Perfuma, but she says she doesn't eat meat, so I said it wasn't there, only, as Alatar says, the whole table of chemical elements, but she didn't want to eat them anyway." the "orc" girl explained. Adora tasted one carefully, smiled contentedly, then devoured half the packet at a time. Lady Cala had better manners, too.

Immediately after, one of the guards called them over and they jumped together into the back of the truck. She motioned for Eti to look at her, then turned off the reader and began speaking to her in sign language.

"Eti, but why are you always wearing a mask?"

A long moment passed before Eti replied.

"I don't like people staring at me, any more and they'll start asking me if they can pet me. And besides, I don't want my enemies to know where I am."

She looked at it skeptically.

"Your enemies aren't here"

"Their claws reach so far, you can't even imagine how. Who knows, maybe they're already here..."

They drove for two hours. But she couldn't take a nap, even though she was terribly tired, even exhausted. She tried to sleep on her wife's shoulder, but it was shaking so much she couldn't, so she put her head on the pillow in Scorpai's lap and let her stroke her. Then Lilka came up to her and asked.

"Is something wrong with you, Miss Perfuma?"

She smiled sadly at her.

"Nothing, just my power bring nature back to life, but it's… exhausting me." she replied, trying to be gentle.

"You know, thanks to you everything is green and alive anew You make everything beautiful again, not dirty and gray. You are the best my flower." Scorpia kissed her tenderly on the forehead. Lilka thought for a moment and spoke in a calm voice, her eyes becoming misty.

"Once upon a time there was a girl named Lilka who lived on a farm. They cultivated cucurbits, melans, and pearples trees grew in orchards. And there were lots of flowers everywhere, especially in Lilka's mum's garden, and when it was spring, everything was so colorful... and they were all happy, they loved each other very much, and then... then… do you want a snack? This one's not bacon flavor, it's onion ones." She handed her a packet of crisps, but she barely noticed. The tragedy hidden in the girl's words broken her heart.

"Who looks after you?" Scorpia asked with concern in her voice.

"Well, we're adults now, so no one has to, but I guess that's Bina." said the girl. They looked questioningly at Alatar, who was staring at the datapad with concentration, on whose screen some colorful blocks appeared, which then disappeared. The lizard looked away from her and said.

"Bina is the captain of our ship. And then there's the sorceress Ireanis and Mr. Ilemshaw, our science officer. Now there's Miss Daisy, but she's one of the passengers we're carrying. She is a tutor of Lady Cala and a powerful shadow sorceress."

" What a coincidence, because me, Adora, and her fiancée were raised by a shadow sorcerer." What an amazing coincidence!." her wife.

"And you're all from Kesler?" she changed topic.

"Rosie is also a passenger, and Eti ... it's a complicated story." answered the lizard.

"Eti looks like someone who was not hugged in childhood, and not enough love was shown." Said her wife.

The lizard looked at her surprised.

"This is the most accurate and at the same time the most euphemistic description of Eti's childhood that you can imagine."

Calamity found the trip to the city much less boring than she had expected. From the information she possessed, it appeared that an efficient network of cultists was operating on Dedalus , and as she watched Clytaimestra , the capital of the country where they found themselves, she understood why. The inhabitants were more religious than most of the inhabitants of this planet and put up a fierce resistance to Horde Prime, for which he punished them in his typical brutal and crude manner. The feeling of disappointment towards traditional religions combined with high spirituality and a sense of loss has always been a good breeding ground for the formation of cults of the Great Old Ones and the Outer Gods. They were willing to offer power at a price, but power always had a price. It is and always will be.

The sight of an armored personnel carrier did not cause as much surprise here as in other, quieter places. A little more interest was aroused by the sight of visitors from other planets, but only for a short time. After all, this world had once been a center of interplanetary commerce, so the sight of aliens didn't shock anyone here. She was pleased to see that she attracted the most interested looks. After all, it was her duty to evoking admiration, her destiny. That's what she was made for! The joy, unfortunately, passed when she discovered the reason for such reactions of the inhabitants of Dedalus . "See? She looks like her! He looks just like She-Ra!" To hell with them! It was hard for her to keep from extending her claws and tearing their throats open. Instead, she gave them the kindest Lady Cala's smile she could muster on her perfect face.

Bina did her shopping, haggling fiercely, which was greatly facilitated by the presence of Dilayla, who, clad in power armor, kept pickpockets and more dangerous thugs away. Arkan tar looked at several stalls selling souvenirs or antiques, where he bought a few trinkets. Rechiza spoke to a couple of priests who, judging by their robes, were members of some local branch of the Temple of Desna or the Star Butterfly. The three of them exuded a sense of guilt that they hid poorly. The most half-elf. She was the closest to the crew and even slept with Bina a few times, though they were hardly a couple. In truth, she herself wasn't sure what to make of their ally's true nature. Surely it was another variable in the already complicated plan of Creeping Chaos. She didn't share Shadow Weaver's preposterous terror, of course, but it would have been far better if the Lord Admiral hadn't reached Etheria, at least until their mission was complete. After that, Antares can make sausages from Etheria's inhabitants, he will even give him the Grayskull family recipe. Especially since there was a Star Stone there. The power of the most powerful artifact in the galaxy completely changed the course of their mission and explained so much. But why had Nyarlathotep kept it from her?

Bina was finalizing the purchase of smoked fish and canned anchovies, though the locals wanted a lot for their wares, but the captain had money, so she didn't skimp. She should have been curious as to where this woman was getting such funds, but she figured it didn't matter. She was almost certainly not a player in the great game that was being played out of sight of mere mortals. Only that nasty and twisted feline girl, but she, like with Catry and Adora, had to come to terms with their existence, however painful it was.

And then she saw a crowd, the people of Clytemnestra gathering around a caravan full of vehicles of all kinds. Most of the vehicles were escorts. Numerous guards in richly inlaid relatively modern armour, stylized as ancient, protected a group of people. But she heard the whispers of those gathered around her and knew that the passengers definitely did not need protection. First, a muscular woman came out, supporting a tall blonde girl with flowers in her hair. Through the stories, Shadow Weaver recognized Scorpia and Perfume in them . Bina turned to them and regarded them with bored curiosity. But as more people began to come out, Bina's eyes widened first, and then she turned red. Wrongdak and Entrapta's idiotic invention came out of it first . The clone waved happily at Bina, not really noticing how furious the woman was. Dragonkin and a stupid girl who thought she was an orc followed right behind them, followed by an elf and Rosie. The nasty feline creature was nowhere to be seen. They all looked embarrassed that they hadn't stayed in the ship, or maybe just because they had been caught? She didn't really care. At the end she came out. When she saw her, she was disappointed. She was so… ordinary. Fairly pretty by mortal standards, reasonably fit, but really nothing special. "How could such a pity thing steal my destiny from me. What cruel twist of fate caused such a mediocrity to become She- Ra ?" she thought with hatred and contempt boiling in her heart.

"Oh, I think someone will die here soon ..." Bina drawled and moved with fury painted on her face, she went towards her charges. No one noticed the venomous smile on Calamita's face .

"Unfortunately not," she whispered under her breath with a hint of sadness in her voice. She walked slowly towards Adora. The sky was covered with blue clouds, a storm was slowly approaching. With her inhuman senses, she sensed its violence approaching over the entire city. She walked among the Icarians. The guards paid no attention to her, they were focused on Bina yelling at the kids. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Captain Moonshadow staring at Adora. She saw wrath in the pirate's eyes, pure rage. It was very interesting.

"Or maybe someone will die ... - she whispered and came closer and extended her hand towards Adora.

"Hi, I'm Lady Cala Grayskull of Caryrustal.".