Chapter Text
"Hey?"
Adora gasps when Glimmer touches her shoulder and Catra skips sideways at the sound, fur raised.
"Sorry. Too early to teleport," Glimmer says.
Bow gives them a weird look. He makes a show of looking out, then asks, "So...what are we looking at?"
"I don't know," Adora says at the same time as Catra says, "Nothing."
Glimmer and Bow look at them.
Adora looks to Catra, who sighs. "You know how you said the Horde had a princess on their side?" Catra starts. "Well. They do have one, and she's mad Adora left, and maybe that I blew up her boat. I hope she is. And she might be coming for us."
"I heard her say my name last night!" Adora blurts out.
"Did you get any sleep at all?" Glimmer asks.
"And let her get the drop on us?" Catra retorts.
"It was dark," Adora agrees.
"Okay," Glimmer says, holding up her hands. "Okay. I know you're on edge, and what happened with Entrapta's infected robots didn't help. But we're not in any danger."
Adora and Catra glance at each other. They're part of the rebellion.
"You need a vacation," Glimmer continues. "Which is why I decided that we're going to Mystacor."
And that's good, apparently, going by Bow's excited gasp.
"Is that another princess?" Catra asks cautiously.
"No, it's a secret, floating kingdom that's home to all of Etheria's sorcerers." Glimmer sighs happily. "It's got tranquil gardens, and beautiful beaches, and healing springs, and my aunt Castaspella just happens to be head sorceress there!"
"You'll love it!" Bow agrees.
"What's a sorcerer, an aunt, and a sorceress?"
They both look at Catra weirdly.
"She's kidding!" Adora says. "Haha. We know all those things."
"I'm not dying over pride, Adora," Catra tells her, as if that's what this is about as opposed to not looking weak and useless in front of people they need to impress, then turns back to Bow and Glimmer. "We have no idea what any of those are. Are they powerful?"
"An aunt - " Bow starts.
"A sorceress - " Glimmer starts.
A person who's related but isn't a parent and a person who's magic but isn't a princess. Adora hadn't known about things like that.
"It's super nice there," Bow insists. "You'll love it! Plus, you won't have to worry about anybody scary coming after you. Mystacor is protected by an invisibility spell, so evil can't find it!'
Glimmer nods and puts her arm around Adora's shoulder. "It's the safest and most peaceful place in all of Etheria."
"Are they really all that tough?" Catra asks. "The Horde never mentioned them."
"Like Bow said, the Horde can't find them! That's why it's the best place to go. We'll have you guys relaxing in no time."
"How would relaxing help?" Adora demands in horror. Relaxing was what happened before you died of something because you weren't paying attention.
"Yeah, we need to take this to the Horde. Show we're not afraid of anyone," Catra hisses. "I'm sick of hiding."
"It's not hiding, it's just a vacation," Bow says. "Haven't you ever-"
"Do I look dead to you!" Catra snaps and Adora has to get her to stop, they don't like Catra talking like that.
"Is this a Horde thing?" Glimmer asks and oh no that's even worse. "You don't have to do what they told you anymore!"
"I uh…" Adora replies. "I. Mean we could. Give it a try?"
Catra opens her mouth to object but glances at Adora's face and stops. "Yeah. New things. Because...the Horde wasn't right about lots of stuff."
That seems to satisfy them. Bow starts talking about how they'll love it once they give it a chance and Adora nods and says, "Uh-huh," and, "Yeah," a bunch, watching Catra's ears move about like radar dishes and staring at random patches of shadows in case they twitch.
Glimmer leads them up stone stairs and to the edge of a sheer cliff. Adora looks down to see clouds. It's got to be at least a thousand foot drop.
After an awkward moment, Catra asks, "When you said it's protected by invisibility, did you mean evil can't find it because it's invisible or that it's invisible to evil people?"
Glimmer and Bow nod to each other and jump off the cliff shouting, "Wooo-hooo!" They disappear into the clouds.
There is a moment when Catra and Adora share a glance. No. No way. No leap of faith, no finding out if there's a city beyond that's invisible to Horde soldiers, no finding out if the city's also intangible to Horde soldiers.
But then Glimmer and Bow appear again, rising up on some floating stone. "Come on guys, jump!" Bow calls. A prank! It's perhaps the most at home Adora's felt since leaving her actual home. Maybe visiting Mystacor really will be okay. She jumps.
And there's something black amid the clouds, moving like an eel. Adora stiffens up, then flails when she realizes she's off-balance, then hits the rock badly and rolls.
"Oooh, ouch," Bow observes. "Are you okay?"
"Haha she's terrible at jumping!" Catra says, giving her a worried look.
"Fine, I'm fine," Adora says, brushing herself off and jerking her head toward the edge of the giant rock.
"Wow clouds are really interesting!" Catra shouts, lying down on the edge and staring out. "Really cool and, uh, roll-y. Real roll-y and bright, Adora."
Too much light and movement for Catra to make out any one detail. So it's just Adora and whatever she thinks she sees.
"I know!" Bow gushes. "We're riding a flying mountain, through clouds! It never gets old!"
"It's great," Adora manages. She heads over to Catra and lies down as well. "Thought I saw a shadow," she whispers. "But maybe it was just some dark rock."
"Next stop, Mystacor!" Glimmer declares. "Look up, guys, we've reached the shield!"
Shield. Adora looks just as they reach a shimmer in the air. The knot in her back comes undone. So Shadow Weaver really can't get into this place. And, maybe being up here will confuse her and she'll lose track of them. Maybe Glimmer's right, maybe this is exactly what they should be doing.
And this...vacation thing. The Horde lied about lots of stuff, right? This could be really nice.
But she keeps looking around. Because. If she doesn't see anything now, then she'll know it's fine.
The floating rock bumps gently against the floating island and they step off. "Just so you know," Glimmer starts, "My Aunt Casta can be…a lot. But don't worry! I know how to handle her."
"Is that my Glimmer?" a woman calls. She runs over to them, hands outstretched.
"Hi, Aunt Casta," Glimmer says, waving.
Adora flinches back as the woman grabs onto Glimmer and pins her. Sort of like a hug but from an adult. Catra makes an anxious squeak beside her.
It's fine. Glimmer just said she can handle this person.
"It's been so long since you've come to visit," Casta says, then releases Glimmer and turns. Maybe she's not that much older. Maybe they were kids together? Can someone related to parents be a different age than the parents? "And Bow." She grabs him as well and he lets out a little grunt.
"And who's this?"
Oh no now she's looking at them.
"These are Adora and Catra," Glimmer says and then suddenly Adora's being shoved forward, or maybe Glimmer's trying to get behind her. "Adora's also sometimes an eight-foot tall warrior named She-Ra. So, don't get freaked out when it happens."
"Hi," Adora says.
"Adora and Catra," Casta repeats, and Adora just holds still while the woman grabs onto her shoulder and starts leaning closer and closer. She can do this. "How nice Glimmer has finally started making some new friends. We were all so pleased when she started bringing Bow around." She releases Adora and starts to reach toward Catra, whose tail has begun to lash. "I was sure she had made him up at - "
Catra jumps backward and growls.
"Were you were raised by wild animals?" Glimmer's aunt says to Catra, with an odd little laugh.
"She was raised with me," Adora says, throwing an arm over Catra's shoulder.
Casta looks them up and down. "Really. Well, I'm amazed you managed to turn out so well."
It's nothing she hasn't heard a million times before but hearing it now, unexpectedly, feels like scalding water pouring over her head.
Catra pulls away. "Oh, Adora's just special like that. Everybody says so."
Casta begins to chatter at Glimmer about hair and clothing and she...makes clothing? With magic? And Bow is wearing some. And they're going to get food.
She hears laughter. Adora looks over and sees various people making the air glow. It looks a little like Glimmer's sparkles but more focused. One person has lit up the point of a staff brightly like a flame, another holds a wobbling ball, and others have drawn lines and circles in the air.
Is that magic? Can everyone here do magic, like a whole city worth of princesses? And what's the difference between them and princesses anyway, Glimmer and Bow said it's not the same thing but they didn't get into what that meant.
" - Adora and Catra haven't seen it," Bow says, yanking Adora's attention back. "It'll be fun!"
Glimmer glowers at Bow who gives her an irritated look back and gestures like she's making a big deal about nothing, so it seems Adora's now in the middle of an argument.
"Oh!" chirps Glimmer's aunt. "Well then. I - I guess it's up to you two then. What do you say my dears?"
Glimmer is frantically gesturing no but the head sorceress wants them to say yes. "Uh...sure."
"Oh, I like her," Casta says, putting an arm over Adora's shoulder and leading her forward.
And it's actually really nice. She's led into yet another place of beautiful things and this one isn't a little overwhelming like Bright Moon because the glittering crystals aren't paired with white walls and strong lights. It's almost like...what had Razz called them, stars? Sparkles in the dark. "Wow." She glances over to Catra, who seems similarly impressed.
"The lunar lenses," Casta says in a tone that suggests she should know what that is already. "We use them in the monthly ceremony to renew Mystacor's magical defenses and keep us shielded from the outside world." Casta turns to her abruptly. "You will be coming to the eclipse ceremony tonight, won't you?"
Glimmer attempts to wiggle out of this, but she was also desperate not to see this cool place, so, Adora's starting to think Glimmer doesn't have the best judgment. About this, or about her claim she knows how to handle her 'aunt', because the argument makes Casta hug Adora to her side again, saying, "Nonsense, your friends haven't seen it." Then she lets go and taps Adora on the nose instead which is a lot better.
"Why doesn't everywhere do eclipse ceremonies?" Catra interrupts.
"Well, because they're not sorceresses. Only those like myself, trained in controlling magical spells, can manage such a feat."
"And it's really amazing," Glimmer says, in a tone that says it's decidedly not, "but we really wanted to show Adora and Catra the beach…" and the argument is back again.
Adora sidles up to Catra while they're distracted. "It's beautiful," she says, walking out toward the center of the room and spinning slowly.
"Yeah, it…"
Adora sees it. A mass of shadows and red reflected in the mirrored surface of the crystal before them. She spins to see the real shadow in the doorway for an instant.
Beyond is just a hall. "Did you see where…"
"No," Catra mutters. "But that doesn't mean anything, this place is all crevices."
Yeah. It's all giant statues in recesses in the walls. The subdued lighting that felt so gentle before casts shadows in every corner.
"Ah, yes, the Hall of Sorcerers," says Glimmer's aunt behind them. She marches past as if supremely confident, unconcerned about any danger. "These are the great ones, who have led Mystacor through the ages." She stops before a statue of a man. "This is Micah, my brother." It does resemble the picture Adora saw. "We trained in these very halls together. Glimmer looks just like him."
Yet another argument starts, now about having beards, and then Catra weighs in with, "Yeah, your mom's all stretched out, you're more round like the statue," and the woman titters, and okay, Glimmer's glaring yet again but it's more important the head sorceress doesn't hate Catra.
Adora gravitates toward the nearby statue that's darkened. For a moment she thought she might've found the shadow thing, but no, it seems to have been blackened, like by a fire, and there are chunks gouged from it. "What happened to her?" she asks.
"Light Spinner. A scar on Mystacor. She sought power and control above all else, and she was cast out. Though some say she never really left. That she's only biding her time, waiting to exact her revenge. But those are only children's tales, of course." And Casta laughs again.
"Why didn't you just kill her?"
Yeah, Adora had thought that's what cast out meant when you lived on a floating island but then they'd be sure she was dead.
"Kill?" Casta repeats, sounding horrified. "We're not barbarians."
"I don't know what that is," Catra says. "Does it mean smart?"
"Certainly not!"
"Because it sounds really stupid to lose track of someone who's terrible and wants to get revenge on you."
"We do not," the head sorceress grinds out, "kill our own people. Glimmer, really, where did you find this one?"
But Catra doesn't stop. "So how exactly is it supposed to work? And aren't you guys hiding up here? So you told somebody who knows where you live to get out, and then you don't know where they are now but they still know where this place is."
"It doesn't matter! Do you think our magics are so weak anyone could get here who wasn't supposed to?"
"Uh, yeah. You had no idea who we were and we got here fine."
"I'm sorry!" Adora says quickly. "We're just a little, uh, tense, about some stuff, that happened completely before we got here, so, so it's startling to hear there was an evil sorcerer here too."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have joked," Casta says with a frown. "You're helping Glimmer with her mother's rebellion thing, that must be very stressful. No, Light Spinner is long gone. It's just fun to have some spooky stories to talk about when you're up here. I suppose we can forget how dangerous the world outside can be." She looks back to the statue of Micah. There's a moment of silence, then, "Anyway, on with the tour…"
The others follow Casta as she walks away. Adora and Catra remain by the statue. Why do they keep it around? It's not like it'd even tell you what Light Spinner looks like since the face is mostly covered by another drape of cloth, leaving only the eyes exposed.
Then darkness starts to spill out from behind it, shooting across the floor and then up the opposite wall and.
And Adora doesn't need a face to recognize that silhouette and her writhing hair.
Something appears to her left and Adora jumps away, fists raising, and Catra swipes.
Bow and Glimmer squeal.
Luckily, this time Catra didn't connect, probably because she was flinching back at the same time.
"You guys…"
"It's worse than we thought. You need warm sand and calming waves, stat."
"No, we need to deal with this!" Catra waves her hand at the now ordinary wall. "Shadow Weaver's here!"
"Catra…" Glimmer says.
"We saw a shadow in the doorway, then shadows came out of that statue and they went on the wall and it was Shadow Weaver," Adora insists.
"You're both really stressed, and you didn't get any sleep," Bow tells her. "You're seeing things."
"I am not!" Catra shouts. "It hasn't even been a whole day, plus Adora's good for three days! There's no way we'd both start hallucinating at the same time! She's here!"
Bow and Glimmer look at each other. Bow gestures at the statue. "You were really scared by what Casta said about an evil sorceress, and talking about how she was still dangerous. Then you think you see a scary princess coming out of it. And it does look, well, creepy."
"Super creepy," Glimmer agrees.
"And...you guys kind of, panic each other sometimes."
"No, we don't," Adora says.
"You do…" Bow sighs. "I know you guys took getting separated and the thing with She-Ra badly. But even if there really was some bad thing that just happened to start stalking us right after you got a bad scare, Mystacor is the one place it can't find you."
"You're completely safe here," Glimmer says. "I promise. Now, let's go to the beach, okay?"
And to Adora's surprise, Catra abruptly says, "Okay."
"Why are we…" Adora whispers as they follow Glimmer and Bow.
"They don't believe us. If we stick with them, maybe they'll see it."
Adora really doesn't want to wait for that to happen again but she has no better plan, so she nods. "Alright."