She rubbed her chin for a moment considering her options. The king's son was a huge wannabe playboy who flirted with every eligible young woman he came across, but he was also hopelessly craven. What was needed here was a threat convincing enough to scare yet not actually deadly enough to succeed. A thought occured to her and Siren/Evil-Lyn turned to her double, who was still standing there with a stupid expression on her haughty face. Despite being changed for all purposes into an Evil-Lyn copy, the creature was fully subservient around the real thing.
"You! I order you to return to Snake Mountain where you will find Beast Man and Clawful. Gather those two buffoons and set up an ambush tomorrow at noon near the edge of the Evergreen Forest. The prince likes to joy ride there with a light bodyguard. Use force to overwhelm them, but do not kill the prince! I need him for my plans. Do you understand?"
The double nodded, the Ring having ensured that whenever she was ordered to or the real Lyn was not present she would be as smart as her original.
"Yes mistress. We shall wait under a spell of concealment and ambush them, but not actually harm then prince."
"Good. Now go." Siren/Evil-Lyn smirked.
The double bowed and turned to depart, wrapping her cloak around her and vanishing with a soft fwoomp, leaving the disguised Evil-Lyn alone in the ruins. She held up the Ring, regarding it with a satisfied smile. There was a chance that she could simply wish for herself to be queen of Eternia right now and it would happen, but she knew that wishing magic was notoriously and dangerously fickle. She might end up dooming herself by altering reality in such a huge way. She was sure, however, that with the right nudges she could now have everything. She turned to depart, her laughter ringing through the ruins as she left.
***
The following day, the teenage prince Adam of Eternia (secretly He-Man, most powerful man in the universe) was indeed out riding near the imperial capital, followed by two dutiful guardsmen who had been specially trained by Teela. The young captain of the guard was busy with other things this morning, and nothing would ever happen this close to the Palace anyway, as patrols and scrying constantly scouted the border to the Dark Hemisphere for large incursions from Skeletor or his followers. And so the prince and his followers rode on, with Adam laughing as he went.
"Come on you slouches, let's make this interesting!" he said, spurring his mount on.
"But your highness..." one of his guards said, but was cut off as he had to speed up to keep up.
Adam dashed away with a ringining laughter, making his horse clear a fallen log as he sped down the forest road. Today was beautiful, with a clear sky and birds singing, and for once he wasn't forced to be He-Man. Perhaps being a foppish, useless prince was a charade, but that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy it. He looked over his shoulder to see if his bodyguard was keeping up, and froze, pulling the reins to skid to a halt. Both guards and their steeds were frozen in place, a dark magical shimmer around their bodies.
"It's a trap!" Adam shouted and was just going back for his men when his horse bucked.
A pair of giant shapes suddenly shimmered into view next to him, as Beast Man and Clawful appeared seemingly out of thin air. Adam tried to dash out from between them, but Clawful's massive claw darted out and cut the strap on his saddle, making Adam tumble to the ground and the horse run off, terrified of the smell of the two evil warriors.
"Well well well, if it isn't Randor's useless son" said a mocking female voice, and Evil-Lyn materialized in front of Adam who was still on his back and seeing stars. "I was right then, you have grown overconfident. Skeletor will enjoy having his nephew in his claws, don't you think?"
She laughed and Adam felt Beast Man tear him to his feet. He could get free of the oaf, he was fairly sure, but how could he get to cover and change to He-Man without them noticing or making the connection?
"Not today, witch!" said a new voice.
Adam, Evil-Lyn and her henchmen all looked over to see a new figure emerge from the forest. She was young and beautiful, with long white hair that fluttered gently in the warm breeze. Her skin was a very pale blue, and she was dressed only in a green loincloth which fluttered in the breeze and a top leaving her midriff, arms, legs and feet bare. Golden rings adorned her ankles and wrists, and a pair of long green earrings dangled from her ears. Adam found himself entranced by her appearance, forgetting his plan to escape. She carried a slender, elegantly twisted staff of some pale blue material in one hand.
"Who are you, foolish girl?" Evil-Lyn snarled
"I am Siren, and I think I'm lucky I came here to look for the prince today. You won't take him!"
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