We Have the Power!
Copyright© 2026 by Carlos Santiago
Chapter 20: New Horizons
“ ... If you do one good deed your reward usually is to be set to do another and harder and better one.”
— C. S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy (The Chronicles of Narnia, Book Five in the original publication order). First published by Geoffrey Bles, London, on September 6, 1954. Copyright © 1954 by C. S. Lewis. Copyright © The Estate of C. S. Lewis. All rights reserved.
The Orb of Power floated silently in its ancient pedestal. A protective layer existed to keep thieves away.
Golden light drifted lazily through the chamber beneath Castle Grayskull. The damage done during Skeletor’s assault had largely been repaired, yet the atmosphere remained unusually heavy. After all, there was still work to do.
Sorceress stood before the artifact. In her hands were the Ram Stone and Marzo’s amulet. Across from her, Count Marzo slowly walked around the great Orb, his raft pole tapping softly against the ancient floor. He made no motion to try and regain his amulet.
Through such contact, he would be restored to a mage of great power. Instead, he had one hand on his long, thin raft pole, and the other held the stone that had allowed him to temporally interfere with past events.
He understood a fundamental truth. If he was to move beyond the constraints of fate, as he understood them, he would have to help this guardian of Grayskull.
“With Adam’s survival, I do believe you had me brought here to deal with the larger issues that you have been experiencing?”
Sorceress nodded.
“I did not believe you would be so helpful,” she said.
“Yes. After all, the last time you knew of me, I was trying to kill Miro; was I not?”
“That would be a correct summary of events,” Sorceress replied with an inclination of her head.
While she never took her eyes off the Orb, it was clear there was much she wanted to say, so Marzo allowed the silence to grow between them in the hopes she would see it as an invitation to speak more.
“With all that turned out well, from Adam’s survival to you being an ally, I should feel relieved.”
“But you don’t?” Marzo wondered.
“No,” she said with a shake of her head.
“I rather suspected you wouldn’t,” he said. “After all, there are greater dangers you are more concerned with since my little romp through time.”
The old wizard lifted the time crystal that allowed him to jump forward and backwards in time.
“I think ... perhaps ... now that our young prince has earned a few days of uninterrupted sleep ... we might discuss exactly what sort of disasters my travels had caused?”
“That was, in part, what was concerning me,” Sorceress confessed.
The crystal glowed, and its light spread across the chamber.
There were other versions of Eternia opening as windows in the sky, and Sorceress was witness to the other possibilities of the futures and histories.
She saw the Trollan called Orko in the first viewing window.
He was not the court jester and bumbling magician that she had been accustomed to. In this, he was floating confidently in Trolla as magic obeyed his every whim without a single cause for concern. She almost admired the ease by which he commanded the foundational essence of reality.
Entire constellations of blue magic obeyed his every gesture and would make whatever he imagined in his mind or his heart’s desire come to pass.
Sorceress watched with surprise.
“ ... Marvelous,” she breathed.
“Oh ... Absolutely,” Marzo replied. “In this time, you returned Orko back to his dimension, and he stopped believing he was incapable. He becomes quite the useful mage.”
He waved his hand, and the image shifted. The little Trollan carried his wand. The magic he made was even greater. Mountain vanished before him as they were in his way. Another spell was able to restore the Mystic Wall.
Sorceress watched in quiet amazement.
“Here, he did not lose his wand. I believe in this timeline, he lost it helping Prince Adam. Because of this, he is seen as a release of comedy given his spells fail so often,” Marzo went on. “Little do his friends know how much power really is at his disposal.”
The vision faded, and another timeline appeared.
Instead of Orko, it was Teela who was the center of attention. She was no longer a warrior of the body with weapons made of seal.
In this version, a falcon hovered above her shoulder while the Staff of Zoar was in her hand. It was a variation of the very same artifact in Sorceress’s hands. Golden wings of magical light unfurled behind her rather than the ones of feathers on the current guardian of Castle Grayskull.
The vision showed Teela in that station. She stood where Sorceress was currently occupying.
“ ... Is she my successor?”
“She is your daughter; is she not?” Marzo asked. “I believe even you considered this possibility.”