Five
Castle Grayskull
Eternia
14 September 2017
A quaint little lake lay within half a mile of Castle Grayskull. The Sorceress had commented that Prince Adam occasionally fished here, though he did more sleeping than actual fishing. The wooded area cut the lake off from the paths through the absurdly twisted trees of this planet. Many grew straight up, but others that twisted and curled in their growth would give arborists fits trying to figure them out. Sunlight reflected off the crystal blue waters of the lake, casting a shimmering effect everywhere the rays touched. Add a blue cloudless sky, temperatures somewhere in the eighties, and a nice quiet atmosphere; the lake was an idea place to get away for a while. Not to mention getting bragging rights for catching the first fish on another world.
Colonel Markson and Adrian Cobretti descended upon the lake with all the equipment necessary to spend a few days camping out in the shadow of the trees. They found an ideal spot along the northwest shore. The trees offered shade and a wind break complete with an ideal patch, just inland from the sandy beach, for building a firepit.
A gentle breeze blew across the lake, enough to keep the air from stagnating. After setting up tents, next was a folding table with the rest of the supplies arrayed around it. If the fishing was bad, the pair had brought along supplies for making stew, beans and other personal preferences. No meals-ready-to-eat on this trip.
Colonel Markson caught the first fish on day one. He was too insufferable about it. Then the Sorceress arrived and caught herself a nice one, larger than the colonel's. Naturally, he accused her of using magic to draw in the larger fish, which was totally untrue. Adrian stayed out of it, happy with his own modest catches. The Sorceress did not stay at night; she preferred to retire to the castle and whatever activities she wound down the day with.
On the fourth day, she came to a decision she grappled with for several days. It had been months since the Sorceress had seen her estranged daughter, Teela. It had not been the idea reunion, but the Sorceress sought to make amends.
Sorceress removed the headdress and donned the short-skirted, purple outfit with a thin black belt about the waist, matching fur-trimmed, soft-soled purple boots and gold bands around wrists and upper arms. She even tied her vibrant red hair up in a ponytail. Admiring herself in a full-length mirror, Sorceress could help but think she was the spitting image of the young girl who had left her besieged village of Nowella so long ago to get help. The resemblance ended when one looked at her face and into her eyes. Though she aged very slowly, Teela Na was not the young adult she had once been. So much had happened over the years that the young girl had grown up in ways no one could have dreamed. Satisfied that no one would recognize her, and muting her magical energy so as not to alert King Hiss to her presence once she entered Palace Eternia, the Sorceress left her chambers for the throne room, to use the gigantic magic screen and create a magic portal to the palace.
Teela Na stepped out of the shimmering oval into a part of Palace Eternia that seldom saw traffic. Having memorized the layout, Teela Na knew she was not far away from the chambers of the person she came to visit. Stealing her way through the empty corridors, she quickly made her way up to the more heavily traveled sections. Here, the walls were cleaner and better lighted. Teela Na took a few moments to allow her eyes to adjust to the higher light levels before pressing on. No one she passed along the way took even a first glance at her. Teela Na's demeaner spoke of someone who belonged there without raising suspicions that she was anything more than she appeared to be. Just another villager transplanted to the palace.
Teela Na made her way up into the wing housing the members of the Royal Guard, though they did not exist in such a manner as before the Snake Men claimed the palace for their own. The Guard basically kept the peace between snakes and the humans. Each side kept to themselves. However, when the snakes prowled the corridors, people ducked their heads and hurried on their way as quickly as possible, lest the snakes take notice.
A few minutes more walking brought her to the specific room she sought. A wave of her hand and a slight burst of magic overrode the lock. The door slide aside and Teela Na quickly darted inside, closing and locking the door behind her. After the brightness of the corridor, she had to let her eyes adjust to the gloom before moving about. Gradually, shapes began to form in the gloom. At least she would not bump into things while moving around. Using magic was out as King Hiss, or some other magic user, might sense it. Teela Na would also run the risk of a leak of her suppressed magical power seeping through the barrier she had put into place to hide her presence. Such a leak would be like firing off a flare.
Spying an armchair in the far-right corner of the living room next to a floor lamp, Teela Na wove her way around the other furniture and sat down to wait.
Teela was not having a good day. As infuriating as King Hiss and his minions could be, keeping certain rebel elements of the subjugate people from doing something stupid to anger the Snakemen was even more so. How many acts of violence had she headed off this month? How many more will she have to head off to keep the peace and save lives? She did not know. Seemed that was all she did lately.
The Royal Guard had been decimated in the battle for Palace Eternia. Teela lost her adoptive father, Duncan, Eternia's Man-at-Arms, in that battle. He did not fall quickly, however, and he took a good number of the vile Snakemen with him.
Small comfort to the daughter he left behind.
And then there was the estranged mother to consider. She had disappeared when He-man went into the future briefly to assist planet Primus in their fight with the Mutants. Everything went to hell when the starship Eternia failed to return to the past moments after departing to the future. Instead, He-man returned five years after he had left, along with Skeletor. No starship. No Sorceress.
King Hiss took the opportunity to launch his campaign to conquer Eternia once more and reestablish the empire he lost long ago. The campaign stalled after his forces took the palace and chased off King Randor and his wife, Marlena. Chasing them out was his only option as killing them would have turned them into martyrs, which would have enraged the humans. They would have fought to the last man and woman. Hiss would have been ruler of a dead kingdom.
Now, rumor had it that He-man and She-ra had been freed from their exile on the prison planet Hel. Her mother was in fact alive. And the humans of the planet Earth were now in possession of the starship Eternia.
And now her mother's new friends were stirring up trouble with the Horde that would likely blow up into an all-out war!
Teela stalked through the corridors in the direction of her quarters. She had had her fill of Snakemen and people for one day. Time to relax in a hot bubble bath. It was about the only thing that helped her to unwind these days.
Punching in her access code, the door slide aside and closed automatically behind her. Teela did not turn on any lights. The only window was in the bedroom, but the drapes were closed. Even so, she knew the way by memory: it was a straight walk from the door, across the living room to the bedroom and the waiting bathtub sunk into the floor.
Teela pulled open the closet doors. Inside was a clothes rack right where more copies of her bronze and white outfit, a satin gown based on her normal outfit but with a bronze belt and an ankle-length skirt, and various other clothes. On the left was a bank of drawers containing jewelry, arm and wrist bands and a small mirror on a stand sitting on top. She removed the tiara and laid it next to the mirror. She frowned at her reflection. Something was not right.
Cautiously, Teela returned to the living room and poked her head around the door jam. She blinked several times and focused on the shadowed corner were an armchair and floor lamp rested. It was her place to sit quietly and read. Near them was a small hearth she would light in the winter months, moving the chair and lamp in front of it to read.
Teela could just make out the shape of someone sitting in the chair with one leg crossed over the other. A feminine shape. The mystery woman reached up and flicked to switch on the lamp. Bright white light lit the area, causing Teela to blink, eyes watering. When she could see again, the visitor was definitely not whom she would have expected.
"Who are y-" she started to demand. Then it dawned on her who the older woman was. "Mother?"
"Teela. You are looking well." At her daughter's continued staring, she added, "Like it? This is how I looked before I took up the mantle of the Sorceress. Admittedly, I was younger then."
Teela took in the purple costume and armbands. The hair was as red as her own and pulled back into a ponytail. "What are you doing here?"
Teela Na smiled. "I can't visit my own daughter on occasion?"
"If King Hiss finds out you are here…"
"Do you think I am incapable of protecting myself? Or in hiding my magical aura from him?" Teela Na chastised mildly. "This is a nice chair. Amazingly comfortable."
"Uh, yes," Teela said, letting her mother change the subject. "It's my favorite reading chair. I move it in front of the hearth during the winter months."
"No doubt you have many questions. As much as I would like to answer them, I do not have all the answers myself. I just wanted to see you since our last encounter was, well, awkward."
"I'm fine," Teela answered, relaxing a little. Their last meeting had been tense; Teela had been bitter at finding out from the Spirit of Grayskull who her mother was. A mother who had seemingly abandoned Eternia. The castle. Everything. She was beginning to wonder if any of it was true. "It – hasn't been easy these past seven years. It's like a nightmare I can't wake up from." She stepped into the room but kept her distance. While this was her biological mother, the woman she had known from her many past visits to Castle Grayskull was gone. Teela did not know just quite who was sitting before her now.
"Nightmares eventually come to an end. This one will, too."
"How?" Teela demanded more forcefully than intended.
"By lighting a candle in the night."
Teela thought about that. It meant nothing in the literal sense, but figuratively… "He-man. Adam."
Teela Na was not surprised that Teela finally knew Adam's secret. She knew her daughter might figure it out on her own, but the Spirit of Grayskull had revealed the secret of Adam and Adora to Teela at the same time he informed her of her true heritage.
Teela Na nodded. "They are currently on Etheria, but I suspect they will not stay there for long. I informed them that their parents still live and are presently in Snake Mountain."
"But how will they get here?"
"Light Hope has the same abilities to open portals to other worlds as I do."
Teela nodded. Of course, the guardian of the Crystal Castle on Etheria would be able to do such things. It and the castle were Etheria's equivalent of the Sorceress and Castle Grayskull on Eternia. Except that castle's guardian was currently on some form of detached duty as one of the mythical Guardians said to have the collective capabilities of ending the reign of Horde Prime.
Teela Na continued, "He-man and She-ra are the keepers of the peace." She rose from the chair; -her time here was almost up. She had to leave soon before the spell cast to hide her presence failed.
Teela backed up when the woman made a move toward her for the purpose of motherly embrace. Her action was involuntary, but the meaning was clear. Teela was not yet ready to let go of the past.
Teela Na respected Teela's space and walked toward the door. A wave of her hand disabled the door lock and the door slide open.
"So, what does that make you?" Teela finally asked.
"They – we – fight to create the peace."
Teela's next statement stopped her halfway out the door. "Your friend in the black and silver armor tried to kill me."
Teela Na paused, stared at the floor, frowning in thought. Black and silver armor. War Wing. Adrian Cobretti. Turning her head to regard her daughter, she replied with a slight grin, "Trust me, Teela. Had that been his intention, you would be dead." She paused, considering something more. "Despite what you may think of me, I have been, and always will be, proud of you."
Without another word, Teela Na was gone. The door closed and locked, leaving Teela alone, in quarters that suddenly felt a little emptier than before. Alone, and very confused as to what her purpose was and what she should really be doing.
Adrian and Jon sat in folding chairs, lounging just back from the shoreline, lines cast far into the lake, bobs gently rolling with the waves from a gentle breeze blowing in from the west. The sun poked through partly cloudy skies, warning the men, while they enjoyed the quiet serenity of lake and the surrounding forest.
"Nice place," Jon commented, gazing about. Like Adrian, he wore a plain ballcap and sunglasses to keep the sun at bay and guard against the glare from the water surface.
"If you overlook the weird trees," Adrian said, referring to the very unTerran twisted, corkscrew and other oddly growing trees that made up the Evergreen Forest south of Castle Grayskull.
Fishing had been good the past three days. Good eating just as the Sorceress promised. The pair always caught a few extra, since she always showed up in the afternoon and stayed through dinner. Today, however, the fish did not seem to be biting. That was the way it went. That, or something was up.
"About time you showed up," Adrian said without looking.
Frowning, Jon looked about. He found the Sorceress standing a short distance behind them, still wearing the purple costume.
How the hell does he do that? Jon wondered. He sometimes suspected that they communicated using her telepathy. He could not prove it, of course. "That's a new look for you."
Adrian turned his head, looking the woman up and down appreciatively. He was among a select few of her new friends who did not leer at her, especially when she wore the falcon costume.
"Old look, actually," she stated. "This is how I looked when I first came to the castle. I was young, then, of course." A rush of magical energy started at the top of her head and cascaded down around her in a wave of sparkles. As the wave passed over her body, the costume changed to the two-piece blue outfit she had initially worn on the mission to the penal planet Hel.
"Showoff," the colonel grunted, turning his attention back to the lake.
Teela Na lowered herself to the sand, sitting cross-legged, and stared out across the lake. A stiff breeze picked up and the sky started to darken on the horizon.
"Was that lightning? Or am I having a stroke?" Jon asked.
"If it was a stroke, how would we tell the difference?" Teela Na countered.
Thunder washed faintly across the sky from the west, answering the question.
"Looks like we're going to get rained on," Adrian said.
Teela Na closed her eyes and stretched out with her senses to the approaching storm. After a few moments of probing it, she opened her eyes, saying, "No. You don't want to be out in it even protected by the trees."
"Bad?" Jon asked.
A particularly bright flash followed seconds later by a sharp crack and roll of thunder.
Jon and Adrian immediately reeled in their lines.
"Time to go," Jon declared.
Between the three of them, the campsite was broken down and packed up in record time. More flashes and rumbles of thunder spurred then on.
Jon stared critically at the piles of gear. "Gonna be a fun walk back."
"Foolish mortal," Teela Na chided, raising her left hand.
"Maybe you…could…make…" Jon trailed off as the portal he was in the process of requesting formed off to the right. "Never mind."
The trio worked with dispatch to move all the gear through the portal before the storm hit. Moving the gear while ignoring the wall of rain steadily moving across the lake took concentration repeatedly broken by cracks of lightning and rumbles of thunder that literally shook their bones. Fortunately, the wind did not travel through the portal, though some blowing leaves did pass through. Whatever the record time was for breaking down a camp and clearing out, Adrian figured, they broke it. Jon made one last survey of their camp site to make sure nothing had been left or neglected, then practically jumped through as the wall of rain crawled across the vacated campsite. The portal dissolved after the last trip through.
The gear was relocated to a spot out of the way, but close to the magic portal for return to earth.
Adrian and Jon listened to the storm breaking outside the castle's thick walls, both glad they had not argued with their host. There was one hell of a storm raging outside. Adrian guessed the castle had been soundproofed because he could barely hear the wind blowing, the rain blasting against the stone structure, and the crack and rumble of lightning and thunder.
There was another problem. With the fish not biting, there was nothing for dinner except the MREs Jon had brought along, just in case. Neither was wild about breaking them out, however. When the Sorceress returned dressed in the falcon costume, Jon informed her of the lack of a suitable diner menu.
"Too bad we don't have the Ladyhawke," she mused, absently.
"Oh?" Jon inquired. "Thinking of ordering out?"
Adrian answered, "We picked up a selection of foodstuffs on Boss Nash's station. Complete with cooking instructions if you can believe that."
Adrian and the Sorceress reminisced about the various foods they sampled, the smells, tastes, textures. They went on and on about the open market they strolled through enjoying the environment.
"Enough!" Jon exclaimed after a few minutes of this. "Please tell me this place has a kitchen before my stomach climbs up my throat and goes foraging on its own."
The Sorceress and Adrian shared a knowing smile. "Yes, the castle does have a kitchen, but it does not often get used these days. Besides, I have a better place to dine."
Sorceress walked past the left side of the giant magic screen where she opened a concealed door. They entered the castle's library. To describe it as enormous was a gross understatement: Sorceress explained that it had been tiny in the beginning but grew over the ages. The immediate area was dominated with carefully arranged tables and chairs. Light globes on sticks sat in the center of each table. As the three entered, they all brightened to a bright white level. More brightened along the walls and on each level of the massive bookcases. Each level was accessed on the left side by an iron spiral staircase. A normal staircase was on the far-right side.
Along the wall to their right was an ancient fireplace with a ten-foot opening. A large area rug lay between the fireplace and a comfortable-looking couch that seated three, flanked by leather recliners.
Sorceress raised her hands, channeling magic. On several of the tables behind the couch and recliners there materialized a veritable buffet of meat rolls, loaves of bread in various sizes, spices, sauces, fruit, vegetables, plus several beverages and glasses. Sorceress gestured the other two toward the tables. While the men loaded up plates, she walked over to the fireplace and got a magical fire going. She returned to the tables, selecting items and piling them on a plate.
Adrian and the colonel were sampling the various meats. Jon liked a spicy kick, while Adrian could not stand anything more than mildly spicey. And do not even mention sweet-n-sour anything.
"What animal is this?" Jon asked, holding up a piece a meat looking suspiciously like brisket.
Glancing at it, Sorceress replied, "You don't want to know."
Jon nibbled at it while Adrian tossed a biscuit up and down with his right hand.
"If you say it tastes like chicken…" Adrian warned, tossing the biscuit up and down for emphasis.
Jon eyed them, considering his next comment. "It's good. Nice tangy taste. Melts in the mouth."
Adrian and the Sorceress returned to selecting items. When they finished, the pair placed their plates on an end table between the left recliner and the couch, then returned for beverages. Sorceress recommended a Quaedian drink that closely resembled black raspberry. She chose an orange-colored bottle for herself.
When the pair took their seats, and were out of earshot, Jon muttered, "It does taste like chicken." He took the other recliner and selected a green bottle whose liquid tasted vaguely like kiwi. That the Sorceress sat at the end of the couch closest to Adrian did not go unnoticed. Jon tried not to read anything into that.
The pair had been practically inseparable since the mission to free the twins of power from their exile on the now dead penal planet Hel. The Guardians did not fall into any kind of organized chain of command save the one they created for themselves, and that was only in the form of having chosen a leader from among the six of them. Adrian had been the logical choice as they saw it. Surprisingly, the one who raised the issue had not been the Sorceress as one might expect, but Jake Rockwell, as unbelievable as that sounded at the time. Even so, there was no rule against fraternization if Adrian and the Sorceress wanted to form a more serious relationship then simply friends and comrades-in-arms. Everyone else could see what was brewing between them just by how one looked at the other when the other was unaware. So why couldn't they see it for themselves? Or maybe they did and had decided to leave it be for now. That could be either a smart move or a mistake. Only time would tell.
Craning his head around to look at the vast number of bookshelves, Adrian asked, "How many books are in here?" He did not mention the complete Ancients archive stored away somewhere deep inside the castle. The archive – the only known complete one known to exist – had been rescued using an Ancients matter transporter. It had the power for a one-time transfer of the archive to any place in the galaxy. After a logical argument posed by the Sorceress, Adrian had agreed to try. They had been successful. Barely.
"Never took a count," Sorceress answered. "It is likely several times larger than your Library of Congress." That was saying something. "I spend a portion of my time reading volumes stored here. Sometimes in my private chambers, but I find sitting here before the fire to be my favorite place."
A disembodied head materialized nearby; the Spirit of Grayskull had appeared to add his observations. "Oh, that's true. She once spent five days here just sitting and reading."
Jon balked at that. "Five – days?! No time off for bathroom breaks? Sleeping? Eating?" That was the colonel; always being uncouth.
Frowning in annoyance, Sorceress said, "Time does not work the same way inside the castle. The flow of time is not always linear in here."
"Huh?"
"She means it doesn't travel in a straight line like theorists on Earth believe," Adrian explained.
"Like in Doctor Who."
Sorceress glanced sharply at the colonel. Sometimes he acted totally unlike an educated officer with a level head on his shoulders. Then there were times when his real intellect showed through, however briefly. "Yes," she answered, guardedly. "Anyway, the magic provides for almost everything. I don't really have to eat or sleep, but those things keep me grounded in the life I gave up serving here as the castle's guardian. Admittedly, I tend to lose myself in my work whether it be reading, researching or performing magical experiments."
"That's an understatement," Spirit interjected.
Everyone ignored him.
Jon frowned. "Isn't that dangerous? The experimenting?"
"Sometimes. I don't engage in truly dangerous experiments. If anything, I evaluate research that has been done into the extremely dangerous stuff and try to come up with counters to them."
"That sounds theoretical."
"It is. Like your Cold War, I hope such theories never have to be put to the test. Magic can be far more dangerous than even the most powerful atomic weapons your planet has ever conceived of."
"Actually, that would be the hydrogen bomb, but I get your meaning."
With everyone's hunger satiated, the Sorceress sent away the remaining platers of food and the dirty dishes. Only the preferred drinks remained on one table. Jon stretched, rose from his recliner and walked over to get another bottle of the green stuff.
"Time for bed, I think," Jon declared. He bid everyone goodnight and followed the bobbing head as the Spirit led him to the few remaining quarters maintained for the few and far-between guests who stayed overnight.
It wasn't long after the colonel's departure that Adrian, struggling to not fall asleep in the comfortable recliner, decided it best to retire also to the sleeping quarters. He remembered where the proper corridor was located; he and Jon had been shown where they were on the first day of their fishing trip.
"There goes a missed opportunity," Spirit pointed out.
Sorceress glared at him. She was getting tired of people trying to, as she perceived it, dictate her personal life. "Spirit, I am in no mood for this."
"All I'm saying is invite the man up for a nightcap or something."
"And you know where that could lead."
Spirit nodded. "As your Earth friends might say: smoking, kids, midnight refrigerator raids."
Sorceress chuckled despite trying to maintain annoyance with him. "No. Now is not the time," she said, leaving the library. All the magic globes and the fireplace immediately died when it became unoccupied.
"If not now, when?" Spirit asked, disappearing before she could come up with a suitable riposte.
Troubled by that thought, and numerous other issued she had to face -namely Falcon – it was a long time before the Sorceress finally dropped off into a troubled sleep in her private chambers.
46