Chapter 9: In which there is far too much talking
"Uh, hello?" Toby spoke up. "Still trapped in really, really cold ice over here. Just FYI!"
Vines carefully cracked their prisons and Merlin retrieved his staff in order to ignite the barrier around the castle and reinforce it enough to prevent Skrael's immediate return. Claire rushed to Jim as he collapsed with a groan. The onyx shard had sunk into his Amulet only a centimeter or so, but it was enough to drain every vestige of strength from his body.
"H-He a-almost killed us!" Zoe stammered as she weakly dropped to the dais steps.
"He cannot," Nari said with a headshake, waving to the vines to make them shrivel away. "That is one of the Great Rules of the primordial wizards. To deliberately kill a living being is punishable by slumber."
"Wow," Toby rolled his eyes as he removed his helmet. "Some punishment."
"A dire one," Nari agreed without detecting his sarcasm. "The murderer is not permitted to wake until the next cycle begins in one thousand years."
"Oh. Yeah, that's some punishment," the boy admitted.
"But there are ways around the Rule. As long as we do not inflict the death-blow, we will not be forced into slumber, hence my brother enjoys tormenting creatures. It entertains him."
"Nari," Merlin interrupted, "I need your assistance. We must imbue the Heart with enough strength to leave Skrael far behind."
Behind him, Aaarrrgghh reached out to touch Claire's cheek where blood still dripped from the scratches Skrael had inflicted. His wide face twisted with stormy concern. But she waved the gentle giant away, assuring him it was fine and that Jim was in far more pain than herself.
The group filtered down to the main hall, watching the two wizards use magic on the electrifying shaft of jade light. It swirled with new energy, vibrating the entire castle as power penetrated every stone.
"That should give him a friendly backlash if he so much as tries to approach us again," Merlin nodded with satisfaction. He turned around, the waiting, expectant faces there making him grunt in annoyance. "Hoping to hear a bedtime story, eh?"
"A few answers would be nice," Jim responded. "All we knew about was that knight who attacked me and the niffins. You never said anything about ice wizards."
"Or plant-ladies," Toby threw in.
When Merlin didn't answer immediately, Blinky stepped toward Nari, inclining his head and gesturing with all four hands in great respect. "May I be so forward, now that we have achieved relative safety… who are you? Though there are tales of three primordial wizards, never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined there was any truth to their existence. Enlighten us, I beg you."
Seeing as it was her choice to share anything about herself, Blinky's question was directed to the right person and with proper deference. Glimmering sage green light and periwinkle petals formed around her hands. Faint outlines of three figures took shape in the air before her. Two of the images were herself and Skrael, but the third was an imposing figure that glowed with crimson menace.
"Until recently I was a member of the Arcane Order, and the reason you know nothing of us is because we have tried to keep our presence in history as secret as possible. Our original purpose was to cultivate this world for all living things the One wished to create. We did so, and our following task was to maintain the balance between magic and non-magic beings."
The glittering image had been replaced by a new one of a landscape filled with vibrant colors. As the Dweller of the Eternal Forest continued to speak, its colors drained away.
"This my siblings and I did well at first… but during the last ten millennia the world has drifted closer and closer to imbalance. Though we have sought repeatedly to turn it back and restore the magic being lost, I fear it is nearly too late to repair the damage."
A handful of half-formed questions immediately followed this, but Merlin strode between them. His hard, disapproving glare silenced everyone.
"Another of the Great Rules the Arcane Order must follow," Nari said in her soft, meek voice, "is that out of a thousand years we may only be free of sleep for a year and a day. In that time it is our duty to assess the balance of the world and do what we can to right it. Much of our time this past year was spent influencing events in Arcadia Oaks. Now there is only one month left before the three of us are sealed away once more."
Everyone traded glances, some in relief, others in worry. One month didn't feel like much, but at the same time it felt like an eternity against enemies of that caliber.
"A thousand years ago during our year and a day, we gave Merlin an ultimatum," the leaf-garbed witch continued. "We commanded him to cease attacking and banishing magic-kind or we would remake all with the Genesis Seals. A century later is when Gunmar's forces and Morgana were imprisoned."
Once again her magic whirled into new patterns, creating a likeness of Killahead Bridge and trolls being trapped in its portal, as well as Morgana herself bound with magical chains. At the back of the group Zoe watched with attentive curiosity, knowing only the very bare-bones of this history.
"On learning of this after our newest awakening, my brother and sister grew determined to seek out the Seals, but I convinced them to follow the path we have always walked. As long as Merlin slept, we knew we would be freer to do as we always wished with him no longer obstructing us. We did not foresee that a human Trollhunter would be formidable enough to thwart our plan."
Like a magnet, everyone's eyes were drawn to Jim. He shrugged and returned a half-smile.
"Jim sure threw you for a loop, didn't he?" Toby bragged.
"Quite an effective one," Nari conceded, a few pink flowers blooming in her braided hair as her mood grew lighter. "I finally left Bellroc and Skrael three months ago when I realized their methods would never usher in the change that is needed."
"Change?" Aaarrrgghh asked, growing alarmed and protective at once. The hulking troll had already seen and undergone more changes in the past year than in all his centuries of life, so the prospect of yet another made him naturally suspicious.
Nari opened her hands, causing the illusion of the world's sphere to appear. The natural blues, greens and browns grew mottled with blemishes, like ink blots bleeding out across clean paper.
"As I said, the world is made up of two parts—magic and non-magic—but as time goes on, eventually even the dregs of magic that are left will be too little to sustain the world and it will die."
Everyone stared at the earth as the disease spread, bit by bit, until there was nothing but dead blackness.
"Wait just a sec. I don't get it," Toby spoke up, brow creased. "What did humans do to cheese these guys off anyway? It's not like we've been using up all the magic in the world and making it all dark and nasty. I mean, that is important to find out, isn't it?"
She sighed unhappily. "Bellroc and Skrael felt that by culling humankind, the void left behind would be filled by magic. But no matter how many wars or plagues we devised, magic faded more and more. We blamed Merlin since it appeared to be his goal to rid the world of all magic-kind he deemed unsuitable for men to flourish, but now I see that this was only the symptom of a greater problem."
"You mean humans aren't primarily responsible for magic draining away, don't you?" Jim confirmed. She nodded. "So what's happening to it?"
"I have never been able to determine this. If my siblings would listen, perhaps we would be able to work together to find the answer, but they are weary of the endless battle and have forsworn all belief in this world's redemption."
"Which means," Merlin summed up, "we must keep Nari safe for the next month if we stand any chance against the Order. I don't know what I would have done if they didn't have such limitations. While I was asleep in the Geode Caverns they could have razed the entire world, unchecked."
"But Master," Douxie said, "why didn't you ever tell me about any of this before? What if you hadn't been wakened by Jim in time?"
"That was a chance I had to take," came his unsatisfactory answer. "Besides, I knew he would."
Everyone trickled away to their separate rooms. Nari had finished her narrative by describing the Genesis Seals and how they would potentially remake the world, but Merlin said he'd thankfully hidden them away and they could only be opened in the presence of all three primordial wizards.
Toby hadn't been impressed, saying, "Why can't they wait until the world is ruined to remake it?! Just leave the rest of us alone for once!"
"They wish to punish humanity, that is why." Nari's eyes had sought out Jim where he stood beside Claire, still recovering from the onyx shard's effects. "But I watched the Trollhunter. I watched him fighting for both magic and mortal, not only his own kind. I was certain if he knew what was at stake, he would be willing to help. Though… I cannot say precisely how yet."
Left with these troubling thoughts, the residents of Camelot found little rest that night.
Nari accompanied Merlin to his workshop, closely followed by Douxie, who had received an ominous frown as his master crooked one commanding finger at him. His familiar had returned to their room, complaining bitterly of how cold he was and determined to curl up in a blanket for a minimum of three days.
The elfin witch poised beside the great cauldron in Merlin's fireplace, peering into it to observe the residual leavings of natural magic he'd been working on so feverishly the last few days. Her rounded antlers gave an even gentler air to her already-sensitive appearance, and earnestness filled her eyes when she turned to gaze at Merlin.
"I did not wish to say it aloud before all," she murmured, and he kneeled down to listen respectfully, "but I sensed something different about the Trollhunter after you placed him in the emeralding stone. Every night I went to him to be absolutely certain. I could see…"
Her voice dropped to a whisper that Douxie wished he could hear. By the thunderstruck expression on Merlin's face it must have been important.
"I never considered the possibility," he said, stroking his beard, brows knitted tight in concentration. "I must think on what this means. If you're right, Nari, then this truly could be the solution we've been searching for all along."
"The Trollhunter Amulet is the key, I am certain," she said confidently. "With my powers I can feel every living thing in the world and I am sure I can help."
Merlin stood once more, reaching down to place one hand on her shoulder beside the vine-like designs crawling along her neck. "Go back to the burial chamber. Rest and prepare yourself, Nari. I will focus on this new prospect myself and see if it has merit."
"I do not need rest, as you know. It is difficult without my… my staff… but I will gather what power I can." She bowed her head to him in a formal gesture and then slipped through the door, hardly having to open it much because of her slight figure.
Only two of them left now, the old wizard stared at Douxie. One minute went past then another and another, during which the object of his attention stood still, eyes roaming the room uneasily and a trickle of sweat beginning to slide down his spine. But Merlin didn't address him until he was sure his apprentice's small intestines were tied in several complicated knots.
"Now do you see why I wanted none of you to know about Nari's presence in this castle?" Merlin growled so suddenly that the other almost jumped. "At the first opportunity you were willing to tell our enemy her whereabouts!"
Douxie shoved down the nervousness and ground his teeth. "It wasn't like that at all! I never intended to tell him the truth. I was just busy trying to come up with a more convincing lie."
The old man snorted, one hand rubbing his skullcap as though it was giving him a headache. "The fact that you revealed you knew her is bad enough."
"What was I supposed to do?!" Douxie suddenly yelled, feeling small beneath the condescending sneer that reminded him too strongly of the enemy they had just faced. "Skrael hurt Claire and he was about to hurt Zoe too! I had to get him away from them, so I would have said it even if I had no idea who Nari was!"
"After hundreds of years walking this earth, you're still so willing to put insignificant lives above those who matter most. The world hangs by a thread. All that prevents the Arcane Order from destroying everything is keeping Nari and the Genesis Seals safe." He ran one thumb down his staff, turning away from Douxie with something very near contempt. "If you could get that through your head, you might be a master wizard someday."
"Then maybe I'm not cut out for it!" he threw back, sick of being belittled and diminished by an old windbag with impossible standards. "I won't sacrifice my friends whether or not you think their lives are worthless. Not when I can stop it!"
By the time Merlin had spun around to admonish his apprentice, the workshop door had already slammed behind him. Douxie made it halfway down the stairwell before stopping, his breaths coming in such rapid bursts that he felt half-suffocated.
If he'd ever thought Merlin would give him a staff one day, that hope was dead now.
Squeezing his eyes shut, he slammed one fist into the wall. Blue light from his bracer flared and the impact sent cracks through the stone in a crooked, spiderwebbed pattern. After an eternal minute he sagged there, hating himself and Merlin at the same time. He didn't even notice someone ease around the stairwell's curve.
"Are you okay?" His head jerked up and Zoe backed off, hands raised disarmingly. "Sorry! I–I just saw you and I—"
"What do you want?" he demanded, covering up his embarrassment with a veneer of anger.
For a few moments she said nothing, glancing at the nearby niche and its silvery crystal-lamp, the crack he'd made in the wall, a moldy-looking stain on the step—everywhere except at him.
"I was… I wanted to make sure… That is, I felt like maybe you might need…"
"I don't have time for you to get your thoughts in order. Let me know when you do," he said, starting to brush past her.
The air witch stepped into his path to block him and he looked down into breezy blue eyes. "Um… I was texting Asmodeus earlier. He said he has some new designs. When we go back to Arcadia maybe you can come with me to Hex Tech and try them out. You know… just to see if he's on the right track."
"You and your friends have been trying to make staffs for years," he said, carefully pushing by and continuing down the steps. "I explained to you why it wouldn't fully work and now you want my help to prove it's a failure?"
"Yeah, but that was before."
"Before?" Douxie rounded on her with a daunting hardness in his face. "Before what stonking revelation exactly?"
"Before I realized you were telling the truth, of course." She met his gaze obstinately. "All this time I thought you were one of those guys willing to say anything to get attention. Now that I understand you aren't—"
"Nothing's changed," he broke in, imitating her tone from that first day, then turned away again.
Zoe punched him in the back of the shoulder just hard enough to hurt.
He spun on her heatedly. "So that's all I needed to do, is it? Grafting got me nowhere but ignoring you does? If I'd known all I had to do was show no interest in order for you to notice me then I wouldn't have made an arse of myself all year!"
"You are an arse, Casperan!" the pink-haired girl boomeranged at him, mounting two steps so that they were eye-level with one another. "All you see in me is some selfish, narrow-minded girl, but did you ever stop to wonder how I saw you? What would you have thought of a wizard who messed up the simplest of spells and yet acted like he knew everything about magic? And then even though he looked like a teen, he talked about events in history as if he'd been there. I couldn't see anything but a fool or a liar in you."
"So things are different now that you know I'm over nine hundred years old, are they?"
She stared at him as if stunned he would even ask the question. "Of course! How could they not be? But don't pretend I'm completely at fault here. You weren't honest with me either."
He shook his head. "You know as well as I do that you wouldn't have believed me even if I'd told you the truth. It's better to pretend I'm the age I look—the same way I've done my entire life. I wanted you to get to know me as I am, not as some oddity from ancient times."
She grabbed his arm, holding on too tightly for him to shrug off. "Maybe you're right, but maybe you're wrong. Whichever it is, don't you think it was worth finding out?"
"Wouldn't have made a difference in the end, so no."
Light blue magic wrenched her fingers off and he left without another word.
Unable to shut his eyes even after an hour lying in bed, Douxie finally gave in to his insomnia and left his sleeping familiar.
At first he wandered aimlessly through the castle, unanswered questions bombarding his brain. Then he remembered that Nari had told Merlin she didn't need to rest, which meant it was very likely she wasn't asleep either.
A short while later Douxie looked around the burial chamber. The pale jade light mixed with deep shadows hadn't changed from the last time he'd been here, but it seemed kinder now. Less threatening. He almost felt as though he had entered some secret refuge where seeds learned their purpose before sprouting.
Copper-colored eyes watched with puzzlement as he stood there, doing and saying nothing. Nari finally stepped out of the half-gloom to crouch atop the sarcophagus once more. Looking at her, Douxie had the impression he was in the presence of an immortal very unlike any he'd ever met before. The palpable aura of magic around her felt nearly powerful enough to rival Merlin's.
"I did not expect you… Dukes-ee." She said his name as if it felt strange on her tongue.
"Are you hungry?" he asked.
Nari blinked, not expecting such a question. "I do not require sustenance, but it is enjoyable."
"Here. I got these from the dumbwaiter," he said, referring to the miniature portal they used to get food without having to leave Camelot. The dragonfruit and kiwis he held out made her brighten. "Claire goes unhinged when we pinch pre-packaged food from stores, but she never says a word when we take produce. Might as well get the good stuff."
When Nari bit straight into a kiwi—hairy skin and all—he raised a hand to warn her, but she had an expression of such delight that he decided to say nothing. Maybe she liked the texture? The dragonfruit went the same way, little bits of white flesh peppered with seeds dribbling from her chin and making her really look like a young girl. Nari sat back, licking the juice off her fingers and savoring the taste. Her formal, cautious air had disappeared and she granted him a smile.
It felt wrong coming down here and buttering her up to get information… but he needed to find out something that had been troubling him.
Douxie sat beside her, eyes boring into Nari's face. "How did he know me?"
She looked up, the smile fading at once. "Skrael?"
"He called me a 'time-numbed wizard'," he said with an unsettled tone. "How did he know anything about me when I've been careful to stay hidden all these centuries?"
Nari's gaze lowered, the simple pleasure of eating exotic fruit now draining away. "After our awakening we spent precious weeks scrutinizing the past to understand what had taken place during our slumber. Bellroc cares little for individuals—she lacks the patience to concern herself with any but those who pose a threat—but Skrael has always taken a keen interest in creatures he believes can be assets. Searching for the vulnerabilities of his enemies has become his specialty. If he knows much about you, I fear what this may mean."
"But both you and Merlin said he was nearly powerless," he pointed out.
"Yes, and he would not have made such a sacrifice unless the spell he cast was part of a larger plan. One he was sure would bear fruit. If not for his staff, even I—without my staff—could easily overpower him."
There was a shadow of pain in her face as she said this. After all, a staff was an intimate part of who master wizards were, reflecting and enhancing their magic over time until it became an extension of themselves. If lost, they felt incomplete.
"What happened to it?"
"…I broke it." Those golden irises swam with the sudden onset of tears. "It was the only way to sever me from the Order so that I may hide from their sight."
Douxie couldn't think of anything to say. For Nari to break her staff… she might as well have said she cut off her arm. To do such a thing meant she must have truly been desperate.
"I was afraid when I first approached Merlin. He has killed Bellroc and Skrael and myself repeatedly throughout the millennia. We die, slumber and wake in an endless cycle. We remember as well. He has taken my life three times which I see now he did reluctantly and with great reason."
The small, antlered witch had managed to suppress her tears, but the way she crouched there—huddled and furtive—betrayed the fearfulness she spoke of. Even the flowers in her hair had all closed up as though to hide.
"Merlin attacked me when I found him on the day following the Trollhunter's triumph, but I did not resist and he allowed me to explain myself. I still cannot fathom why he chose to trust me when we have been at odds since the beginning. I have spent so long hating him. I am tired of doing so when I know he is right. However, my sister and brother's feelings have not changed. At present, all they do is to find ways to harm Merlin—for him they loathe above all others."
Suddenly Nari jerked in surprise, realizing she had unintentionally divulged so much about herself. Douxie grinned as he noticed an embarrassed blush coloring her cheeks. For three months she'd had no company aside from Merlin and the decayed bones inside King Arthur's crypt. And the young wizard suspected that of the two, the dead body had been more friendly.
"Now that everyone knows you're here, why don't you come join us upstairs?" he asked, extending one hand in invitation. "If all you have is one year awake, then spend it with people. It would probably give you some perspective."
"With… people?"
It appeared to be the most extraordinary idea imaginable. One she'd never even thought of, judging by her wide-eyed expression.
"Well, I've been around longer than you considering how little time you're ever awake, so take it as a helpful suggestion from your elder," he nodded in an overly-benevolent fashion and raised a hand to pat her head.
She ducked away, mystified at the gesture. But one tiny periwinkle in her hair curiously unfurled.
"I… I will consider it."
A/N: "I think they're mad because we screwed up the planet…? I don't know." — Toby's offhanded comment at the police station reveals more than you'd think about the problem with the Arcane Order's logic. They talk about 'balance' but it's never shown exactly what they mean by it, why they think humans are responsible, or what the natural fallout would be if it's broken. So I upped the ante and made it vital to existence on Earth instead of some personal view of the antagonists. It's also a subtle way of making Bellroc and Skrael feel like they're doing the right thing because they honestly think their actions are helping. Until they gave up and decided to destroy everything, that is.
In addition to that, it bothers me that the Arcane Order is given so much unlimited power (which they never use when it ought to be the most effective) and we never really see what sorts of constraints they have. That's where my idea of them only being awake one year out of a thousand came from as well as being unable to kill (imagine all the bodies left in Bellroc's wake if she could do as she wished!). I also felt it was more important for them to invisibly set events in motion rather than being the driving force. After all, it was explicitly stated that they could not interfere for fear of "consequences"... but those consequences are never outlined. Could possibly be Bellroc's blindness, but it's not like that slowed her down much anyway.
One other interesting tidbit… If you look carefully at the screens in the background of the room where everyone chats in Hex Tech, you can see designs for several staff-like objects, so when I combined that with Zoe's reference to "use the money to fund our own mystical pursuits" it led me to assume the hedge wizards were studying how to boost their magical powers using technology, similar to the techno-wands. Too bad we never got to see the fruits of their labors.