Previously: Jim doesn't quite get why his human friends are so disturbed he made a contingency plan to save their lives at the cost of the lives of hypothetical others.
Bold italics are trollish.
"The Ghost Council is pleased Bular's dead, and they said it's a good time to strike against Gunmar, but supposedly, conventional methods won't work, so I've been advised to ask my mentors. Blinky, AAARRRGGHH, thoughts?"
"No poison," said AAARRRGGHH immediately. "Built up resist-dances."
"Much of Gunmar's personal history is shrouded in legend," said Blinky. "Supposedly, even the Sword of Daylight was unable to wound him when he battled Trollhunters in ages past."
"Well, he can't be immune to actual sunlight, right?" said Toby. "Or else he'd've been able to go after humans in the daytime. You said he couldn't do that, right?"
And he wouldn't care one way or the other about the Eternal Night …
"We're not letting him out of the Darklands to test that," said Jim.
"No, but you can get UV and full-spectrum lightbulbs at the hardware store," said Mary. "My stepmom's got a bunch set up in spotlights for her indoor plants. Put one in a flashlight, I bet you could at least hurt a troll."
"And once he's gone, we can get Enrique back?"
Jim managed not to roll his eyes at Claire's one-track mind.
Be nice, he reminded himself. Wanting the Familiar back could just as easily have been how Mom reacted. It could still be how Mom reacts.
"I might have some reference books in my library which could be of help," said Blinky. "Along with something of yours, Jim, which I'd prefer you take with you when you leave."
"This is Bular, huh?" said Toby. "I can't believe you brought his head back with you."
"How else was I supposed to prove I'd killed him? After Vendel found out about me, I couldn't know how far or fast he'd spread the word, and if he hadn't kept my secret nobody would've trusted me not to just … lie."
"So what are you gonna do with it? Seems a bit heavy to hang on the wall."
"Aha! Here we are." Blinky drew their attention to the study table. "Gunmar's origins. At the beginning of our histories, trolls lived below ground, unaware of the world above, while humans lived on the surface, oblivious to the world below. Eventually the two species discovered each other and … clashed, each wanting to claim the full world as their own. Blood was shed. Wars broke out."
He flipped through a series of pages, showing a crystal growing dark veins, crumbling to pieces, and a shadowy troll climbing from the remains.
"Our first Heartstone rotted from within. And from it, Gunmar was born."
"… Well, that's obviously propaganda," said Jim. "Rewriting his backstory to make him look like some kind of magically-created 'Chosen One', so he's more impressive to his allies and unnerving to his enemies." He frowned, conceding, "Unless budding off the Heartstone is how trolls are normally born. In which case it might just be exaggerated to make the timing more symbolic and make it look like he was born full-grown."
"You don't know where baby trolls come from?" asked Mary. "But … you are a troll."
"I've also never needed to know that stuff."
Blinky had all six eyes on Jim and his mouth slightly open.
"We'll … come back to that later," the librarian said after a moment. "The point is that a fragment of that Heartstone supposedly still exists, known as Gunmar's Birthstone." He pulled another open book over the illustration of Gunmar. "There is a legend of three stones, the Triumbric Stones, which are tied to Gunmar's life force."
"That still sounds made up," said Darci, putting her hand on Toby's shoulder as she leaned over him for a better view. "I mean, I know magic is real and all, but, 'three stones magically connected to the bad guy'?"
"Classic quest set up." Toby might've been agreeing or disagreeing with Darci's point; Jim couldn't tell.
"What are the other two?" said Claire. She squinted at the runes. She was on the other side of the table, so from her perspective they were upside down. "The Birthstone … the Killstone … and the … I don't know that last one. I mean, I see the 'stone' suffix but I can't –"
"Eyestone," read Mary. "Ew. Is that literally an eye?"
"Gunmar lost his right eye in the challenge fight when he took over the Gumm-Gumms," said Jim. "It's probably that."
"Indeed." Blinky tapped the paper. "An indication that Gunmar can be wounded, a symbol of his origins, and a remnant of his first kill."
"And Merlin found these?" When everyone just stared at him, Jim remembered he hadn't actually told them that part. "Deya – I think it was Deya – when I was in the Void, she said Merlin supposedly found a way to kill Gunmar but hadn't told the Trollhunters what it was."
"Merlin dead," said AAARRRGGHH. "Lost."
Blinky sighed. "AAARRRGGHH is correct. If Merlin truly did possess the Triumbric Stones, they may well be found in his tomb; whither no written record, nor anyone living, knows the way."
"So we're going on a quest to find the lost tomb of the wizard who made Jimbo's amulet?" said Toby eagerly. "Find the tomb, find the stones, beat Gunmar, get Enrique back."
"Uh, no." Jim scowled. "Switching the Enriques back has nothing to do with whether Gunmar's still alive … Okay, it does a little, but that's not the sole factor. I'm not ousting another Changeling just because Claire's mad at me."
"Also we don't actually know Merlin has these stones, or if they're real," Mary cut in before Claire and Jim could start fighting again. "But speaking of other Changelings, what if you asked Mr Strickler about these magic rocks? If you guys have been working for Gunmar, I'm guessing some Changeling at some point looked into the guy's weakness … you know, to 'protect' him."
Jim would have interrupted her right away, and probably proven her theory, if it hadn't taken a moment for his brain to reboot.
"What makes you think Mr Strickler's a Changeling?"
"He accepts any lame excuse you try on him, he or someone who looks exactly like him has been teaching History at our school for at least as long as we've had yearbooks, and one time I eavesdropped on you guys and you mentioned the Heartstone. Plus the way you froze up just now, and how nervous you got the first time I asked if he knew you were the Trollhunter."
"Is 'Strickler' not the name of the Changeling who came here with you last week?" asked Blinky. Mary shot finger-guns in Blinky's direction.
"I didn't know that part till just now but I'm counting it anyway."
"Boss?"
Jim's voice, on the other end of the phone line, was very small. Walt had a vision of the boy in his troll form, crouching with his ears pinned down and tail curling under him.
"I messed up."
Walt's hand tightened around the phone. Was Jim hurt? Dying? Had Otto set a Stalkling on him?
"Your cover's been compromised. It's contained!" the boy added hastily. "I – They're not dead but nobody's left, and I – Is anyone with you right now?"
"I can speak freely."
There was a rush of static, perhaps a sigh.
"It's the four humans I told you about before. Plus the, ah, old acquaintance of yours and the fellow historian we met with last week."
There was a less-clear background voice, telling Jim he could just use their names, to which Jim countered that cell phones could be tapped and recorded and now the speaker's voice would be on that recording if there was one.
"Perhaps it's best if I come to you and we speak in person," Walt suggested.
"… You remember where the door is."
Despite, or perhaps because, he was being escorted by AAARRRGGHH instead of the Trollhunter, Walt made it to the library without any gnomes being thrown at him this time.
"Mr Domzalski. Ms Nuñez. Ms Scott. Ms Wang." He nodded politely to each of his student. "I imagine this comes as something of a shock."
"Not really," said Claire.
"Once we knew about Jimbo, you were kind of obvious," said Tobias.
"Even before we knew the Changeling part," added Darci.
"Were we also right that you know about the Triumbric Stones?" Mary shocked Walter to the point of having to sit down.
"The term is … familiar."
Walt had been in charge of destroying any works referencing their power and locations, after all.
Up next: Walt doesn't have Gunmar's Eye on his person, but he can give that to Jim as a starting point for the quest.
This isn't as long as I'd hoped to make it. I'd wanted to include the poem/prophecy here, but I'll get to that in the next update. Basically what happened was, I'm starting a new job, which is good but meant I've been pretty busy, and I got the weeks mixed up and didn't realize until mid-afternoon on Friday, "wait, this is the week I was planning to update," and the chapter wasn't done yet. I got it coherent and to a good stopping point and I'm calling it done now.
In canon, Blinky's knowledge of the Triumbric Stones is separate from the discovery of the poem about where they were hidden. After reading the poem, he analyses that the "three forces unhallowed […] must mean the Triumbric Stones!" and digs out another book describing them. (Also, I think in trollish, 'unhallowed' and 'elemental' are the same words, because the poem is translated all other times as saying "three forces elemental".) Vendel has also heard of the Triumbric Stones despite, to the audience's awareness, never hearing the poem.