We Have the Power!
Copyright© 2026 by Carlos Santiago
Chapter 10: Explanation
“ ... ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.”
— Thomas Gray, Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, line 99. Composed c. 1742 and first published in Odes (1747). Originally published by R. Dodsley, London. Public domain.
Marzo planted the end of his raft guiding pole into the damp earth.
Without another word, he raised one hand.
The air above the swamp was steamy and carried the aroma of animal waste mixed with mud.
A silver light rippled outward in widening circles until several translucent windows floated before the three of them much like Adam and Lyn had seen with Sorceress. Unlike the Sorceress’s magic, these visions carried faint threads of gold, emerald, and turquoise that flowed between them. Those strings almost seemed alive.
Lyn frowned in confusion.
“I thought you were stripped of your magic.”
Marzo did not even look at her.
“Hush now, young lady,” he said with surprising gentleness. “It will be explained in time.”
The old wizard waved his fingers once.
The windows shifted.
Within one appeared Castle Grayskull.
He-Man stood before its gates, sword raised toward the heavens while Battle Cat roared beside him. Across the drawbridge stood Skeletor and an army of Evil Warriors pressing toward the ancient fortress.
“But this didn’t happen,” Adam said in confusion.
“It both has and has not happened,” Marzo replied.
Magic exploded across the battlefield as the Defenders of Eternia battled with the Evil Warrior. In this incarnation, an empowered Marzo stood with the Overlord of Evil. The walls of Grayskull trembled beneath Skeletor’s assault. He was merely moments from entering the fortress.
“This never happened,” Lyn said, just as bewildered as Adam.
“Patience, witch,” Marzo answered.
The vision continued until Skeletor’s invasion failed because He-Man persevered.
Sorceress fired a blast at the count, and Marzo was engulfed in light. His magnificent robes hung loosely from a body that shrank smaller and older with every passing second until the proud mage had become the frail old man that was a mirror to the being talking to them both.
The vision faded.
Marzo sighed.
“In another timeline, I aligned myself with Skeletor because the Evil Warriors, including a version of you Evil-Lyn, were captured, so Skeletor brought together a Council of Evil to be under his command.”
There was no pride in the admission.
“I believed we would succeed where your lot had failed.”
He laughed softly.
“We didn’t. He-Man repelled us with his friends. Sorceress stripped me of my form and cast my amulet into the sea. After which, I returned back to my miserable swamp.”
His smile became thinner in the recollection of his defeat.
“I spent quite some time cursing your former master for his failure, Lyn.”
Lyn let out a scoff of derision, but she said nothing. Despite being a better person with Adam did not erase a lifetime’s condescension.
Marzo reached slowly into the folds of his robe.
When his hand emerged, a peculiar stone rested in his palm.
It resembled polished jade and turquoise fused together; tiny golden grains drifted within its crystal depths like suspended sand caught in an eternal hourglass.
Despite his lack of magical prowess, Adam could feel a strange pulse radiating from the rock.
Marzo held it carefully between thumb and forefinger.
“Then,” he said quietly, “when I felt all hope was lost, I found this.”
The old wizard lifted the artifact for a long moment, so that the newcomers could look upon it properly.
“I discovered it possessed an extraordinary property.”
He closed his fingers around the stone.
“It allowed me to travel backward through time...”
A moment of realization came to Lyn then to Adam.
“I thought I could use it to rectify the mistakes that destiny had forced upon me.”
He shook his head in disbelief at his own stupidity. While Adam was amazed and skeptical, he could see how annoyed Marzo was with himself.
“That sounds amazing.”
“You would think so,” the count remarked.
Marzo turned the strange stone over in his palm. The golden grains suspended within it drifted without settling, as though neither gravity nor time held dominion over them or the object as a whole.
“I was trapped between thinking it was both impossible and amazing, and it should have been. Turns out, fate is a fickle mistress.”
His expression darkened.
Lyn was looking at the object with scrutiny before speaking.
“Where did it come from?”
“This artifact does not belong to Eternia. Nor Etheria. Nor Subternia. Nor Despondos.” He paused before adding quietly, “Not even Preternia.”
Adam did not recognize all of the names, but Lyn did, and for that recognition, she narrowed her eyes at the mage.
“Then where did it come from?” Lyn repeated.
She was frustrated by the fact that this wise little toad of a man was not telling them what he knew they wanted to know.
Marzo shrugged.
“I could be verbose and wax and wane about how it likely came from the fabric of reality to bless me with the power of a second chance, but if I am entirely honest, I have no earthly idea.”
He closed his hand around the stone.
“At first, and for a while, I believed just that. Maybe reality was trying to show me benevolence for being mistreated by Skeletor and the Council of Elders. I don’t know fully, but it was somewhere in that vein of thinking.”
He let out a derisive laugh, judgmental of his past-self for being so ridiculous.
“I thought I could simply travel into the past and correct Skeletor’s failures.”
Another silver window blossomed overhead, taking precedence over the others. Skeletor stood triumphant within Castle Grayskull. The throne room was destroyed and gave way to the crystal cavern beneath and a beautiful lush greenery blossomed.
The ancient throne room trembled beneath torrents of dark magic.
“I altered events such that Skeletor breached the walls of Gryskull,” Marzo continued.
Adam’s eyes widened in horrified disgust. Everything he was going was in the service of preventing Skeletor from obtaining victory. To be told that he failed, regardless of the mechanism of that defeat, cut him to his core.
“Then, he won?”
“Oh, yes,” Marzo answered with a bitter smile. “And then, of course, as was his nature, he refused to share in the spoils of victory.”
The image dissolved.
“I had helped him reach the greatest source of power in Eternia, potentially the universe ... and discovered this man craved power so absolutely that he would not divide such a prize.”
Another gesture.
Another vision.
“I tried again, and again, and again, and again, and again,” Marzo said, exhausted.
The windows shifted each time he said again because he was waving his hand to show them.
Battles flashed before them. He-Man and Skeletor fought. Years passed. Neither prevailed. Cities changed and seasons passed.
The conflict, however, seemed to endure no matter what elements were altered.
“I attempted to undo the choices that led to that outcome,” Marzo explained. “Instead, I created an endless stalemate where you and Skeletor battled endlessly like two toys in the hands of children, and for what? The prize of Grayskull.”
He shook his head in irritation of the preposterous nature of reality.
“Neither lasts. It is just a stalemate between that of good and evil,” Marzo said irritably. “So I decided to think more creatively. I thought outside of the conflict between you two and removed Skeletor from the equation by trapping him in another realm.”
For a brief instant in the main window, Eternia appeared peaceful before another image painted over it.
Skeletor returned. The war resumed almost immediately.
Marzo sighed.
“It was all pointless. It was as if existence itself only breathed for the privilege of making you two fight,” Marzo proclaimed in defeated, resentful vexation. “After which, I became even less reasonable.”
Another motion, and the vision showed a blue-skinned infant.
“I killed Skeletor as a baby, removing him and the possibility of him being involved in any interaction with you at all.”
“Hold it! Why did you kill Skeletor and not Adam?”
“It would be too easy for Sorceress to find another champion,” Marzo pointed out. “I needed Skeletor gone, and besides, what fun would it be to best those lesser warriors. Once you cross weapons with a formidable opponent, you want to win after that.”