21st year of the reign of King Randor I
Season of Chill
307th day, 18th bell
"…
far too delicate for you to perform."
"Yes, I-. I see that. I'm sorry."
I continue hurrying towards Adora's
current location, feeling like a dunce. Eternian magicians need a fetish in order to use virtually all of their magic. When Teela Na made me Sorcerer, she
lost hers. Which means that right now all she can do is turn into a bird. She literally
can't restore Adora's memories herself without an unclaimed fetish, which Eternos doesn't
have.
And she can't use
mine, because I've futzed around with it so that it will power the ring.
And while she
could fly back to Castle Grayskull and get Evelyn to tag her in, as of right now Evelyn has the power and if she's found a way around her geas… We'd swiftly found ourselves down one Sorceress.
Why is Adora in the Masters' sparring arena? Since Teela Na warded the castle I've lost the ability to scan inside it. I only know that she's there because Sir Duncan's an anal retentive who couldn't
quite stop working and got an automatic notification when someone accessed it.
I jog into-.
"Oh. Orange Lantern." Orko spots me from the observation platform. "I was just watching Prince Adam and the new girl." He rises up slightly to float over to me.
"Prince Adam and the new girl? New blonde girl about Adam's height, same hair colour, same eye colour?"
"That's her."
Oh…
Dear.
I start moving again. "And are they doing the sensible thing and using blunted training weapons, or is Adam just using his normal sword?"
"Ah… Is that bad?" Orko floats after me, his right hand on his hat. "I mean, it's the sword he always uses..?"
Filaments erupt from the ring and try to latch onto the access panel, only to evaporate because Sir Duncan implemented my defence review suggestions
really thoroughly. Which is
nice, but-. Damn it! I physically reach it a few seconds later and start typing in my code.
"Orko, how good are you with memory spells?"
"Uh, I've got a spell for mixing different people's memories around? That's great fun at parties."
"No, I mean-"
Come on, come on, open already! "-do you have a spell-" The entryway begins scanning me to confirm my identity. "-for
restoring memories?"
"Restoring, restoring..?" Orko starts nervously rubbing his hands together as he tries to remember. "Uh,
oh! I've got a spell that makes memories play outside your head. Is
that any good?"
"Actually? Yes." The door slides back and I see-.
"Lantern. Orko."
A slightly bored-sounded Teela standing next to the exit with her staff in hand. A little way ahead, Adam and Adora are using the floating platforms mode of the arena. Adora is
very much on the offensive, swinging her swords one after the other at any weak point she sees in Adam's defence. He's being forced to use his sword more like a shield than a bladed weapon; he's probably stronger than her but it doesn't take a
lot of force to cut human flesh with a bladed weapon and he isn't getting the
time to attack.
"I thought you were spending the festival at the Castle? Which is why my
father is spending it with the Sorceress."
Okay, they're fighting, but it
looks like a spar. Adam doesn't look worried, and Teela clearly isn't worried. Actually-
"Hey, nice try!"
-he doesn't look worried at
ohnononono.
"
She turned up and I had to deal with her."
Teela raises her left eyebrow. "What, was she supposed to be
your date?"
"Ah,
no."
"Adam's been trying to hit on her since they ran into each other. How did we get a Prince so pathetic that he can't find his own date on the one day a year when even my
father has a date?"
Air
hisses between my teeth as I inhale. "Okay, Orko, I need you to make her relive a
really early memory. Her kidnapping as a small child."
"Relive a
kidnapping? Um. I
can do-"
The head of Teela's staff leaps past Orko's face and ends up under my nose.
"-that?"
"Lantern, what's going on?"
Before us, Adam jumps backwards, catches his foot against the side of a platform and kicks off. Adora is taken by surprise by his change of direction and just manages to swing at him while he's upside down.
Adam lands a short distance away and finally manages to get the Sword of Power into an offensive position. "Hah! Good one! I think you gave me a haircut! A few more and it'll be as short as
yours!"
"That's Princess Adora, Adam's sister."
Teela frowns. "Adam doesn't have-."
"She was kidnapped when she was an infant by Hordak's soldiers, and was raised by her abductor. I'm
hoping that Orko can trigger some memory of Eternos, otherwise-."
"Oh, that's
easy! I've got a spell for recreating past events that's
almost completely reliable! I
love having a stabiliser again!"
Teela lowers her staff, staring at Adora and Adam as she redirects his strike into the arena wall with her swords. "He's hitting on his sister. Somehow, I'm not surprised."
I raise my eyebrows. "You couldn't find a date either?"
"
Someone had to keep an eye on Adam."
"Ac-tually, no." I shake my head. "No one has to look after Adam. Protocol allows for him to be left on his own inside Eternos."
Adam goes for the double jump again, but this time he misjudges it and slams into a wall. Adora strikes
down and he's-
"Yah!"
-forced to roll aside to avoid being struck.
"Okay!" Teela and I look at the glowing purple orb in Orko's hands. "Spell's ready!"
Teela blinks. "I still can't quite get used to you being able to use useful magic. What exactly does this do?"
"Oh, it's really clever! It recreates what happened in the minds of everyone affected using a sort of transtemporal arcanometry!" He makes a pushing motion and the spell orb flies towards Adora. "She'll see the whole thing, and-"
As the spell reaches her she turns, slamming both swords into the spell and rending red and purple light in all directions! I blink and the mist sinks into me and Teela, staring at my arms-.
Adora watches it do the same to her, then stalks in our direction.
"What did you just do?!"
Orko's eyes widen. "Ahhh…"
The wall at the far side of the arena explodes, heavily armoured soldiers led by
some guy with a jetpack storming in!
"Into the castle! Hordak will tolerate no failure!"
