Lunch started.
Mrs. Nunez and Miss Newberry chatted about anything except what happened to the town. Every time the reporter tried to steer the conversation back to the "earthquake," Mrs. Nunez took control.
Noon came, and Jim's mother still hadn't come back.
Jim returned to Claire's hiding place behind the stacked chairs at the back of the warehouse. "We've got to get that charm into Newberry's purse before she gets out of making small talk with your mom."
"Speaking of, where'd your mom go? I saw you tell her." Claire clasped his hand. "That took guts."
"I wanted to hide under the bridge. Even telling her about my being the Trollhunter wasn't that petrifying. She's gonna get hurt, and that scares me a whole lot more than us failing." He squeezed Claire's hand. "I already regret telling her."
Claire leaned a still-wrapped Excalibur against the stack of chairs and wrapped an arm around Jim. "Your mom's not made of glass. Mr. Strickler never treated her like she was, and neither did you until last week. She loved both of you, but she could kick some serious butt—yours and his included. She knows the Chronosphere's unpredictable, and the second you told her what was going on, she knew the risks. You can't make her choices for her."
"That doesn't make it any easier."
"Never said it would." Claire let go of Jim's hand and stretched open a shadow portal to Camelot. "Let's get that charm."
Jim grabbed Excalibur, and they stepped through the portal.
An ear-piercing screech made Jim drop Excalibur and cover his ears the instant he stepped foot aboard Camelot. "What on Earth?" Jim shouted over the noise.
Claire clapped both hands over her ears too. "Douxie?" She called. "You okay?"
They waded through the wall of noise until they reached the workshop and had to leap out of the way as Douxie rounded the room, hounded by a tangle of vines.
"It won't stop chasing me!" Douxie tried to put a bookshelf between him and the vines, but they crawled over the furniture and kept reaching for him. "It tripped one of Merlin's alarms, and I can't stop long enough to turn it off!" Douxie waved toward a corner full of upended boxes and crates. If he reached for his bracelet to cast a spell, the vines swatted his hand.
Jim and Claire scrambled out of the way as Douxie made another round of the room. The space available was getting smaller every second as more vines closed around Douxie. In a moment, he'd be cornered.
"I'll get the alarm," Claire shouted and ran for the crates.
Jim dashed back to grab Excalibur and threw off the blanket wrapping the blade. Sword raised, ready to strike, he burst into the workshop just as the alarm stopped.
He was too late to save Douxie from the vines.
Tendrils of green wrapped around the wizard, pinning his arms to his sides as his shoes dangled two feet above the floor.
"I was almost done making that repellent charm when Nari's plant went crackers. I don't know what's wrong. It's acted strangely ever since the battle with the Titans. I don't—"
A smooth leaf plastered itself across Douxie's mouth, silencing him.
"Jim…" Claire pointed to the potted plant sitting on the table beside an open book, but instead of only having one loose petal, three had popped open, and it was from that little plant that all the vines in the room grew.
From the soil sprouted another mess of vines. The moment it touched the floor, the tangle took shape, beginning with two bare feet that were small enough to be a child's, but when a familiar leafy apron and breastplate formed, Jim almost dropped Excalibur. Two arms, hands tipped with delicate claws, grew from the breastplate, and by the time the vines sculpted the being's face, braided hair, and antlered head, there was no doubt who it was, though instead of crouching, the likeness of Nari stood upright.
"Hisirdoux Casperan… Douxie," said Nari's likeness, "if you are hearing this, it means I am gone. This little flower has been my companion and helper since we reached New York, and now, it will do one more thing for me in delivering this message—which I have instructed it to give you no matter what, so, you must forgive it if it has caused you distress. You have been such a good friend to me, Douxie. I cannot say how much that has meant to me since I broke with my sisters, and since Merlin's passing. It's been you and me for some months. We've had to run, to hide, to fight almost every moment, but there were a few bright spots."
Douxie's attention fixed on Nari's likeness. The vines lowered him to the floor and released him. He approached the likeness, pausing for a three count between each step.
"I remember when you bought me that hat." A facsimile of Nari's beanie formed in the likeness' hand. "I loved it because it was warm and smelled of the sun." The beanie vanished. "And I remember when you took me to Central Park in the middle of the night when I couldn't stand the concrete walls anymore." The likeness smiled. "You are a good friend, Douxie." Nari's likeness tucked both hands behind its back. "My sisters and I, in all our centuries, never knew friendship. Now that I do, I see how precious it is, and because of you, I have loved someone other than myself."
Douxie kneeled to be eye-level with Nari's likeness, and he embraced it.
"Thank you, Douxie." It returned his hug.
Though this wasn't really Nari, Jim couldn't help feeling he'd invaded Douxie's privacy, but something kept his feet rooted to the ground. Literally. Vines wrapped his legs from ankle to knee. The same with Claire, though she didn't seem to notice.
Nari's likeness let go of Douxie and seemed to meet his gaze. "There is something I want you to have. My little friend has kept it safe until now."
The rest of the flower's petals sprang open, and the likeness scooped something from inside the bud. In its cupped hands, it presented Douxie with a green orb resembling a large marble. "It is a piece of my heart. I give it to you freely. May it bloom anew under your care."
Douxie cradled the orb in both hands as Nari's likeness retreated, and the vines that covered the workshop withdrew into the little plant, leaving the room disheveled, but otherwise unharmed.
Neither Jim, Claire, nor Douxie said anything.