Starwalker | The Alura Trilogy, Book 2 [She-Ra 2018] ✔️

18 | Mathilde

Art by ShadowReader29

I don't doubt your kindness, my queen. But certain others are looking for a reason to cast me out. If I am to continue advising you, both of us must remain above reproach.

❂❂❂

Nell rushed through Joël Hospital in the heart of Bel Delvala, nerves high as he checked the ledgers. Delvala was no rural village on the border of Bright Moon's domain. Rather, it was the intellectual center of philosophy on Etheria, full of medical wisdom and intelligent doctors to care for their patients.

Unfortunately, more than a few of the nurses wouldn't accept Nell's aid without the doctor himself criticizing them for sounding like Amand, son of Lavigne the Third – a Delvalian expression for foolishness.

We need more bandages from our caravan. "Magnus!" he called; his satyr apprentice walked over. "Get bandages and antiseptic, and tell the nurses to change them now."

As Magnus left, Nell sighed and strode into one of the hospital rooms. A woman with soft black curls lay in the bed, half her face burned by a bomb set in one of the Seraphite churches. The bandage shielded the wound – soon to be a horrific scar.

She opened her eyes – crystal blue, like Nell's own. Sniffing, a tear trickled down her face. "You must be...glad to see me like this...Del scum."

Nell clenched the ledgers, and his gaze grew cold. How could he respond to that? The woman had no way of knowing that such a terrible thing would happen to her. He decided to ignore her statement, handing her painkillers, which she chewed instantly. Why did Nell care so much about the people who'd turned his father into a monster?

I wish I could be strong enough to hate them. "Do you require anything else?" he asked her softly.

She closed her eyes, then abruptly started crying. Taking tissues, Nell dabbed her tears away as she let out hiccupping gasps. "Don't...dry...my tears," she sobbed. "Please, Del, do not do this to me..."

Her Meyan was accented, just like Alura's. Nell hushed her, but she kept crying, trying to smack the tissues out of his hands.

"Why would you turn down my help?" Nell asked.

"Because..." she sniffed, clenching her fist. "You're a Del."

"And?"

"Your kind are snakes!" she exclaimed. "You took off the veil, our pride and joy, and forsook the holy faith. You abuse your children and then claim we are the restrictive ones."

At the mention of abuse, Nell looked at his hands; his knuckles were white now. Patience. He checked the records. "Mathilde, daughter of Rousselot?"

She sniffed, turning aside. "What do you care?"

Nell turned toward the door. "I wish to send you another nurse. I'll leave you alone."

Mathilde was silent for a moment; Nell was ready to reconvene with Doctor Viviane. However, she said something else as he turned to leave.

"My mother. Is she alive?"

Nell nodded, then left. He understood why Mathilde wanted him out. In a world where nothing made sense – where a man could silently scream for help and find no mercy – it was easier to believe simple things about people. Especially people whose ancestors had grudges.

Nell had once believed he could bridge that divide. That the feud was petty, that there was one good Delvalian in the world. But in the end, she'd failed him too – just as he had once done the same to her.

✧✧✧

Hordak sat in his lab, quietly undoing the power source to the portal. Another failed experiment to log for today. After eight years, even he – a brilliant mechanic and prized general, someone who could perform math equations with imaginary and sostenary numbers in his head – still struggled.

He checked the records; Shadow Weaver had succeeded. With the assassination of Miles, son of Arlon, the largest company producing iridulium now belonged to the Horde.

Shadow Weaver was an enigma, but there was an air about her that reminded him of Prime. Terror, freedom, and power. But she lacked the majesty of Horde Prime – she was a mere copy. A crude one.

Shadow Weaver would be useful to Hordak, however. All he had to do was reign her in. Reward for strength, punishment for weakness. He pressed the intercom, ordering her to his sanctum. He needed soldiers delivered near the Kingdom of Snows.

Discreetly, efficiently. Two things his second-in-command was good at.

❂❂❂

Did you know...

- I tried to strike some sort of middle ground between Hordak simply hating Shadow Weaver and him being friends with her in this story. I see him as abusive to her in the show, but I also think he might have had some complicated feelings regarding her rebelliousness.

- Mathilde shares a name with one of my illustrators, Spacepapaya_19. However, this is a coincidence, as I wrote the story before meeting her.

Tell me what you think...

- How might the stigma between Dels and Delvalians be relevant to Light Spinner and Nell's story?