Lost Voice

Merlin returned much sooner than Douxie had expected, just as he was wiping his own cold blood off his hands. It did not tempt him in the least. Except for the fact that he needed it to live, at the moment he thought he'd had enough of drinking blood for... well, for the next fourteen years at least.

It felt funny, he thought, holding his hand, to have lived with something as part of his body for nine hundred and nineteen years, and not a day after it was severed, he was already viewing his own severed hand as just a thing.

Heh. Thing. He should tell Zoe and Archie about naming his own ex-hand that. They might not find it quite as amusing as he did, but the tendency toward black humor had always been strong for at least himself and Zoe. Archie put up with it, but he wasn't a vampire, and wasn't constantly looking mortality (their own, or others') in the face.

Behind Merlin was... well, Douxie wasn't quite sure what she was. Not human, that was for sure; she stood barely half Merlin's height, and was green-skinned to boot. Her braided hair was a deeper green, clearly not dyed, unlike Zoe's, and she smelled of...

Flowers.

"Merlin, who are these?" she asked, large golden eyes looking around the room. Merlin made introductions around the room. When it was his turn, the ...girl?... came over to Douxie and took his artificial hand, turning it this way and that, looking at it curiously, though there was absolutely no way she could have known it was false.

The instant she touched him, Douxie knew what she was, and fell to his knee. "My lady," he choked out.

She laughed; comparing it to a mere peal of bells was an insult. "Now, none of that," she said, patting his cheek. "We are old friends."

"We are?" he asked dumbly.

"Oh, yes! I often watched you and your lovely wife gathering herbs outside Camelot," she explained, with a glance at Zoe. "You have both grown a good deal since then. It is wonderful."

"Nari," Merlin said sternly.

The goddess waved a dismissive hand at the master wizard. "You may dislike their kind, Merlin, but not all vampires are alike. And these two have no harm in them."

Douxie felt weak with the judgment. "Thank you," he managed.

He received another cheek pat before she wandered off and clambered up onto the table that held Jim. "Oh!" she said, holding her hand above the crystal jutting from his chest. "Oh, this should not be here." She shook her head, stern. It was oddly cute. "Skrael and Bellroc should not plant seeds in such inappropriate soil," she said firmly. "It is not good for the seeds. Or the soil."

"Seeds?" Jim asked.

"So it is as I thought," Merlin said, coming up behind Nari.

She nodded. "Yes. It is an Antramonstrum."

Douxie, Archie, and Zoe all tensed.

"Bellroc and Skrael?" Jim asked.

"My siblings," Nari said darkly. "Pray you do not meet them."

Jim coughed. "Okay."

"Can you remove the Antramonstrum?" Merlin asked softly.

Nari shook her head. "It has rooted deeply. It will not be easy."

Despair spilled across Jim's face. But before anything further could be said, Zoe walked forward, the anti-magic bracelet in her gloved hand. "What if we touched it with this?"

Nari looked wide-eyed at the silver bracelet, reaching one hand out toward it, then looked back at the crystal. "It might shock the roots into releasing," she said dubiously. "But the removal would need to be quick, before they could resolidify their grasp."

"Wait," Douxie said, coming closer. "When I touched the crystal with it before, some flaked off, but Jim was knocked down."

Nari nodded. "That would have been the roots growing deeper into him."

Douxie's eyes went wide. "I am so sorry," he apologized to Jim, guilt gnawing through him. "I didn't know."

But Jim shook his head. "We know now," he said, making it seem like that was the important thing. He looked at Nari. "You think it can be done?"

The small green goddess nodded. "It can."

"Okay," Krel said. "So we have one shot. How do we want to do this?"

In the end, it came down to Douxie holding the bracelet in a pair of tongs, lowering it down over the crystal. "Steady," Merlin coached, eyes fast on the procedure. "Steady..."

Next to Douxie stood Krel, with a different, bigger pair of tongs, ready to haul the Antramonstrum out of Jim's chest the instant it released.

Zoe was behind Krel, a few steps away, holding a basin of smoking alchemical concoction. According to Nari, it was the proper mixture for the baby crystal monster to root in.

And, finally, Nari herself knelt on Jim's chest, hands glowing green, ready to ameliorate what damage she could.

There was a very good chance he could die here, Jim knew. But better death than letting himself turn into a monster.

Finally, Merlin nodded and Douxie stilled.

Douxie looked at Jim. "Are you ready?"

Jim closed his eyes. Drew one breath, then another. The fear didn't go away.

Fear is but the precursor of valor, he repeated to himself. To strive and triumph in the face of fear is what it means to be a hero.

Don't think.

Become.

It didn't help. The terror didn't abate. But he felt better for running through Blinky's mantra nonetheless.

He opened his eyes and looked into Douxie's. He nodded. "I'm ready." Anticipating pain, his hands curled into fists.

"Do it," Merlin said.

Douxie gritted his teeth and yanked so that the inner teeth of the bracelet bit into the crystal.

Pain whited out the world.

Jim screamed.

Claire bolted upright, awoken by the bellow echoing through the stone walls of the castle. "Jim," she whispered, wide-eyed in the darkness, then scrambled out of bed.

Someone was banging on her door. "Claire!" Toby's voice yelled.

"In here!" Focus, she needed to focus. Focus on Jim.

She raised her hands to make a shadow portal as Toby came into the room, as pajama-clad and sleep-mussed as herself.

The portal fizzled.

The portal failed.

"Again?!" Toby complained.

Claire stared, uncomprehending for a moment. Then she whirled, running for her door. "Come on!"

"Right behind you, Shadowdancer!"

They ran down stairs and across courtyards, turning right, turning left, trying to follow the fading roars across the twisty maze of Camelot.

Finally, she knew they'd come to the right place when they found Sir Galahad guarding a door.

"Open the door," Toby demanded, his warhammer flicking out to full size.

"Nay," the ancient knight said, shaking his head. "I was bid to allow no disturbance."

"Open it," Claire demanded, shadowlight wreathing her hands. "Or I'll get Blinky and Aaarrrgghh back from Jersey, and you'll be paste."

To his credit, Galahad paused, as if considering it, but then shook his head again. "No," he said. "I have sworn; I shall not be forsworn."

And Claire was about to do it, she really was-

But then the door opened behind Galahad.

"It's all right, Galahad," said Merlin. He looked exhausted. "It is done."

"What have you done to Jim?!" Claire demanded, and pushed her way past both men.

What she saw brought both hands to her mouth in horror.

Jim was bound to a great stone table. Emerald light dripped from the hole in his chest, pulsing through his body like veins of luminous green crystal beneath the stone skin. His chest moved up and down, but nothing but broken wheezes came out of his mouth. His eyes were empty.

On the floor, a few metal shards and circles were all that was left of the Trollhunter amulet.

"Jimbo!" Toby cried. They both rushed to his side.

"No no no," Claire pleaded desperately, cradling Jim's face. "No, I can't lose you..."

"What did you do?" Toby demanded, glaring at Douxie, who was closest.

Douxie, like Merlin, like all of them, looked exhausted. "Poisoned the shard and pulled it out."

"He may yet live," a small green lady said, glancing up at Jim from where she crouched on a table. Before her was a bowl holding the crystal. She reached out and sprinkled green light down over it. It glowed soft green. "This little one was never meant to grow in living stone. Separating them gave both a chance."

"I can't lose him," Claire repeated brokenly. "I can't..."

Douxie exchanged a look with his girlfriend. Another with his familiar. "Then call him home, Fair Lady Claire," he said quietly, stepping forward to lay a hand on her shoulder. She looked up into his eyes. "For those we love, we can do wondrous things. Even find our way through the greatest darkness."

"You can do it, Claire," Toby said instantly. "I know you can."

She shook her head. "No. We can do it," she told Toby. He blinked at her, then smiled. "We'll call him home together."

Toby fist-pumped. "All right! Team Trollhunters! Uh." He looked at Douxie. "How do we call him home?"