Chapter 8

Adora stood within the strange vastness of stars again, lost in a dream. This time was different, this time as she walked among the many moons, suns and stars that filled this dream, she saw something different. There were no visions or voices, just the plain emptiness. The silence was beautiful.

She smiled up at the stars, never had she seen stars before at night except from within her dreams. Often she'd have visions of stars and galaxies, or she'd be here, walking amidst the dark.

In this dream, she did not walk aimlessly like she had done before. Instead she followed a woman, so much taller than her, and wider. It was a golden silhouette, long hair floating as if in space, her skirt billowing. Her arms looked strong and buff but it was hard to tell as it was just the shape of a woman, an outline in glittering gold. Adora stopped walking and the golden woman looked at her over her shoulder. It was the first time she had seen her, normally she sees a woman dressed like a hawk who mutters absolute nonsense half the time.

The golden woman turned to Adora fully and held out her hand, her gold fingers reaching out to her, inviting her to follow.

"Who are you?" Adora asked, she was almost tired of that question. The golden woman didn't answer her. Adora went to take her hand, her own hand shaking, when a flash of blinding white light took her off guard.

Adora woke, groggy and confused, in a room she was unfamiliar with. It was a plain boxed room, one tiny window quite high up letting in shreds of light. Everyone was grey and cold. She lay on a bed with a thin blanket and a nearly flat pillow, not unlike living in the Horde so she was used to it. What she wasn't used to was the heavy weight of shackles upon her wrists.

She groaned when she sat up, inspecting her skin for wounds but found none. Her skin was as it was before she was tortured. Still full of scars like, but no new wounds. The chains went under the bed, connecting to something under there and they were long enough to allow her to move about the small room.

There was nothing to do, nothing she could do, so instead she swung her legs out of the bed to cool down her hot skin and just sat there, contemplating. She hadn't been changed out of her Horde clothes, they were still torn and bloodied and dirty. No doubt she also stunk of sweat.

Since no one else was there, she took a quick look under the bed to find the anchor for the chains, hoping to maybe break it somehow. But the chains were literally bolted to the ground with thick rivets. It would be impossible for her. So instead she sat and waited in the dark for who knows how long, until finally the thick metal door creaked open and light flooded the room. Several people walked in.

There was a boy, light brown skin with tousled dark hair. He was in usual clothes, some golden armour on his torso and white trousers, but he left his arms and midriff exposed. Next to him was Sparkles who had two balls of bright light in her hands, using them to scare away the dark. The angelic woman and the other princess came in one by one and in that cramped room, there was hardly any room.

Entrapa was the last in but the first to speak. She had rushed over to Adora as if her life depended on it. "Hi, good morning, glad you're awake, I need to ask you something really important." Entrapta's eyes were bright and hopeful, her hair pulled out a notebook and pen from her back pocket and she searched through those notes. Adora resisted the urge to reach out and touch the hair, to see if it was truly sentient or if she controlled each strand with her mind. "Aha, here it is!" she exclaimed and then shoved the notebook into her face. On the page was a symbol, one she recognised and knew what it said. "What does this say?" she asked.

"Uh…" Adora glanced sideways at the other princesses who remained silent, the scorpion princess held onto the sword, seeing as she was strong enough to do so with that wine coloured hardened shell.

"Entrapa, what did we say about personal space?" the water princess said, hands on hips with a disapproving look on her scaled skin, shimmering with pinks and blue and greens. The geek backs up a little, laughing nervously.

"Sorry, I'm working on it," she said. "Can you read this?" she asked again, a little shy. Entrapta held up the notebook for her to study the symbol. Adora could read it yet, the moment her eyes resting upon the scribble on the notebook a word came to her head. She had no idea how she knew what it meant but she did. "You can read this!" She jumped up all excited. "What does it say? Tell me, please?" she had said 'please' in such a way, such a soft and kind way, that it almost made her speak.

"How can you read that?" Frosta asked. "That's an ancient language no one has been able to speak for a thousand years. Unless you're faking it."

"Please, please, please, tell me? I've been trying to research this language and learn it to better understand Etheria but because the language is so old, there are no texts on this. If there ever were any to begin with. I know a couple of letters, although it's as far as I got. Your help could really boost my research, I've been dying to learn this! The language of Eternia." Eternia, Adora knew the word. It had been whispered to her many times, and it's the last thing she saw before conking out. "I heard you say Eternia before you fainted."

"That's what it says," Adora said quietly. "Eternia." Entrapta looked again at the symbol, eyes wide with joy.

"Ohhh, this is a massive breakthrough! Thank you!" she lunged towards her, Adora turned away, having folded her arms over herself to prepare for whatever pain was going to happen. But it never came. She glanced over to see Perfuma holding Entrapta's hair, halting her before she reached Adora.

"Personal. Space," Perfuma had said. "You can't hug a prisoner." What on earth was a hug and was it painful?

"Sorry, thank you," Entrapta said to Adora. "I have more words in the language of Eternia for you, can you translate them for me?" she grinned from ear to ear. It was then that Adora realised she had some sort of bargaining chip, she may yet find a way out of this situation.

"I could. It depends, how much would it mean to you, to the rebellion, if I did?"

"Oh, to me it would mean the world. If I can translate the language I can understand First Ones tech better, I could repair the old robots to use them in battle and prepare new weapons. It could mean turning the tide on the war, with or without She-Ra." She nervously laughed… again. "I mean, we'd love She-Ra, because it would make this easier, but even if we can't get her, the language is second best." Translating the language would be direct treason against the Horde, but Adora won't let her team suffer here any longer.

She looked over at what she assumed was the authoritative figure. The angelic woman. "My other team mates, are they still here? Still alive?"

"You want them released in exchange for translations," she said. Adora nodded. She drew a deep breath, jaw clenched. "Fine. I'll release your friends. But first, translate some more words, so I can see you actually know the language."

"Mother, you can't, there's a Force Captain in that team!" Glimmer tensed up, so full of anger.

"Building weapons and understanding the technology is more important. The Force Captain has proven useless to us, unlike her." Entrapta turned a page and passed Adora the notebook. She then took a seat right in front of her, on the cold stone floor, staring up at Adora as if she was telling her a story, waiting for the exciting ending or plot twist or something.

Adora looked at the notebook, at the handful of symbols scrawled out on the page. She took a moment to figure out what each one said. "She-Ra," she said out loud once she worked out what a symbol said. "Protector. Destiny. The heart and the sword."

Entrapta gasps. "Oh my days. This is ground breaking. I can't thank you enough." Adora did it for a price of course, yet there was something so child-like and wonderful about Entrapta. Such a curious little creature. "Flip to the next page! I managed to extract a whole sentence from the sword." True enough, on the next page was a sentence.

"The blood of She-Ra will…" she trailed off, squinting at the last word. It was scribbled down in such a way Adora couldn't translate it. Two words kept flickering in her mind, destroy and save. "The blood of She-Ra will either destroy you or save you. I can't quite read that word there." Adora showed the geek the word.

"Ah, damn it. My handwriting sucks. I'll see if I can get the actual word from the sword. Brb!" And just like that, Entrapta went to the other side of the room, doing something with the sword. Her notebook rested in Adora's cold hands.

"You have a deal, Horde soldier," the angelic woman said. "I'll release the others. Keep translating, and if we find out you're wasting our time we'll execute you." Adora stuck her legs back under the blanket, bringing her knees to her chest. Catra wasn't there to sleep at the foot of her bed, Catra wasn't there to sing her to sleep with soft purrs, Catra wasn't there to help her think of a plan. She can't take on all these princesses herself and even someone as dumb and hot headed as she knew that. But at least she could help Catra get away. The angelic woman left.

"What else do you know?" Glimmer asked, getting closer.

"You're going to have to be more specific, sparkles." Oh it was fun to see her face contort in anger.

"It's Glimmer!" she shouted. "What else do you know about First Ones?"

Adora raised an eyebrow. "First Ones?" It sounded familiar but she wasn't a hundred percent sure as to where she'd heard it before.

"Seriously? You don't know about the First Ones? What did they teach you in the Horde?" she asked, her anger slipping for just a second.

"How to hit things," Adora answered, super deadpan.

"I don't have the energy to explain First Ones to you–"

"I'll do it!" Entrapta said, interrupting Glimmer.

Glimmer glared at her, she shrank away. "And I don't have the energy to deal with you right now. Come on, we've got Horde soldiers to defeat." She left, taking the other princesses with her, Entrapta and the sword. Her purple hair whipped out and took the notebook from Adora's hands. Before she could say anything, the door was slammed shut and locked up tight.