Your Future Hasn't Been Written Yet
by K. Stonham
first released 27th September 2021
Claire showed up bright and early, with a huge Tupperware of guacamole inside her backpack. "Managed that bathtubful yet?" Jim joked as he set up separate human and troll snack trays. Nana Domzalski's baking was legendary for a reason, but she never remembered to cover the salty-savory-fresh-fruit-and-veg side of things.
"Sadly, not yet," Claire said, setting the guac beside a bowl of chips. She looked around. "Where's Douxie?"
"Still asleep. Archie said he and Mom were up late talking about some things," Jim reported, ducking his head back into the fridge, trying to remember what it was he felt like he'd forgotten.
"Everything okay?" she asked.
"I think so," Jim said, finally spotting the pickles-peppers-and-olives dish he'd done earlier, and fishing it out to set by the cheeses and crackers. He had a feeling this was going to be a long planning session, and was budgeting the amount of food and drinks to be on the side of including lunch and mid-afternoon snacks. "He's just had some stuff going on."
"Anything I can help with?" Claire asked, concern written all over her face.
"I'm... not sure?" Jim said, thinking it over. He wasn't sure how much of Douxie's privacy to breach with his girlfriend.
Claire leaned against the counter and stole a chip. "Boy stuff?"
"People who've lived through some pretty horrible stuff stuff," Jim replied.
The chip stopped halfway to Claire's mouth. "Oh."
And she'd gone through some pretty bad stuff too, Jim realized now that he was thinking about it. Most of it Morgana-related. And Toby had died, so... "Maybe we should start calling ourselves the Trauma Kids Club," Jim offered.
Claire crunched her chip and considered. "Well, it's not like it'd be inaccurate."
Jim sighed. "I probably shouldn't tell you this, but... remember when he took on the Arcane Order in their castle? Back when I was still being controlled?"
"Uh-huh?" Claire's expression was unreadable.
"He said that was a suicide run," Jim confessed.
"What."
"He was buying us time with his life. Douxie didn't plan to get out of that fight alive."
Her hands clenched and unclenched and repeated, like she wanted to strangle something. "I'd say I want to kill him for that, but..."
"Yeah," Jim agreed. "I think he's really messed up in some ways."
"I thought my ears were burning," Douxie said, entering the kitchen.
Jim and Claire both jumped. Douxie smirked at them, fetched a glass and filled it at the sink.
"Sorry," Jim apologized.
Douxie shrugged. "What for? It's a fair assessment, Jim. I am messed up, in a lot of ways. And," he said with weight, "I'm trying not to run from it any more."
Jim and Claire exchanged a look as Douxie sipped at his water. The wizard looked tired but calm. "You don't care that we were talking about it?" Claire pressed.
Douxie sighed and lowered his cup. "Remember when I was helping you with shadowmancy, back in Camelot, Claire?" She nodded. "You can't get that scared of something without a really bad experience backing it up. So. You're messed up because of Morgana, Jim's messed up because of the Darklands, I'm messed up because of nine hundred years, and we're all messed up because of our parents or lack thereof."
"The least we can do is be honest with each other about it?" Jim asked. Douxie saluted him with his cup.
"Wait, didn't Shannon say that?" Claire asked Jim.
"She had a point," Jim defended.
"I'm not saying she didn't."
"So," asked Douxie, "shall we get on our way to the strategy soirée?"
"Sure," said Jim, taking one of the trays. Claire grabbed another and Douxie the third. "Have you guys seen the tunnel the trolls set up, connecting this house to Toby's?"
"Nu-uh," and "Not yet," were his answers.
"Come on, we'll go underground, then," Jim said, leading the way to the basement door. He fumbled it open one-handed and went down the steps carefully. "Blinky? Aaarrrgghh?"
"Ah, Jim!" said Blinky. "All ready, then?"
"Ready as ever," Claire called out, while Douxie paused at the top of the steps to let Archie go ahead of himself, then closed the door behind them all.
Aaarrrgghh led the way out the subterranean exit, taking a right that would lead around the cul-de-sac and over to Toby's place. The path dipped downward, then the tunnel widened out into a great flat area which Jim suspected had been excavated with fighting practice in mind. Crystals glimmered in the walls, lighting the underground room almost as bright as day.
Douxie whistled. "Nice," he said.
"Great way to keep out of the rain," Claire added. "You know, if it ever rained in California."
Jim tapped on a wall. "Let's just hope it stands up to the next 'quake."
"Trolls are master builders and excavators," Archie said. "We would likely be far more secure weathering an earthquake down here than in most human constructions."
From there the tunnel led right and up again, straight to the opening in Toby's basement wall. Blinky and Aaarrrgghh had already disappeared inside the entrance.
Which Claire smacked right up against like it was a solid wall.
The troll snacks she was carrying rained all over the ground.
"What-" Jim had turned and was staring.
"Claire, are you all right?" Douxie had set his own tray on the ground and was checking her over.
"I'm fine," she told him. "Banged the tray into my stomach, that's all."
"Claire, what happened?" Jim asked, coming back out into the tunnel.
"I don't know! I guess I just hit the barrier."
"But why-" Douxie's eyes narrowed, then widened. "Claire, have you ever been to Toby's house before? In this timeline?"
Her eyes widened too. "No."
"That'll be it, then," Douxie said. "Hold still." Blue light gathered around his hand as he performed his "freedom of the wards" spell on her. Claire shivered, then she and Douxie and Jim knelt, gathering up the spilled snacks. Jim hoped they weren't worse for being dropped on the ground. Given trolls' appetites... who knew, they might even be better.
"Well, good to know the basement doors are covered too," Jim said.
"Excuse you, a spell always works the way it's supposed to," retorted Douxie. "I can be accused of many things, but shoddy spelling is not one of them."
"That's funny, given you still use British spelling," Claire remarked.
Douxie opened his mouth to argue, but then shut it again. After a second, his mouth quirked up and a snicker escaped him. Claire started laughing too, then Jim. "That was terrible," Douxie said, grinning. "Charlie'd be proud."
Draal poked his head out into the tunnel, looking at the three humans who sat on the ground there, laughing. "Do I want to know?" he asked warily.
"Claire's terrible pun," the wizard said, pushing himself up.
"Douxie's terrible spelling," the girl replied.
"Don't even start," he warned her.
"I don't want to know," Draal decided, and went back into the Domzalski residence. The trio followed him. "Toby!" he called up the stairs. "They're here!"
"Coming!" Toby yelled back.
"Do you have enough snacks?" his grandmother's voice followed him.
"We've got plenty, Missus Domzalski," Jim called. "But thanks!"
"Okay. You kiddies have a nice time!"
"Ugh, 'kiddies'?" Toby complained as he came down the steps. "What does she think we are, five?"
"Well, sometimes we act like it," Jim pointed out. "Anyhow," he added as their motley group settled more or less into a circle, "I hereby call this meeting of Team Trollhunters to order."
"If you're the President, does that mean I'm VP?" Toby asked.
"VIP, more like," said Claire.
"I'm afraid the Man of the Week award does have to go to you, Toby, for taking down Bular," said Archie.
"Aww." Toby blushed.
"That was a brilliant use of tactical advantage," Draal agreed. "I can think of few trolls who would have been able to scale the museum's heights like that."
"Too heavy," said Aaarrrgghh, carefully picking out some snacks from one of the trays.
"The question is," Blinky said, "now that Bular has been vanquished, and Stricklander is beginning the transformation of the Janus Order from adversaries into at least a neutral party, what is our next goal?"
"I doubt Vendel will let us back into Trollmarket," Draal said, considering their options. "Our gift of Bular's head is unlikely to have softened his attitude."
Toby snickered. "I wish I could've seen his face when he got it, though."
Draal shared the Trollhunter's grin.
"Compared to how things went the first time," Jim said, "I think we're way ahead. Strickler's on our side, so we don't have to worry about Angor Rot. And we're going to deal with Gunmar on our own schedule."
"What if we could get Angor Rot to be an ally?" Claire asked. "I mean, you gave him his soul back in the original timeline, Jim. And he was on our side at the end."
"Yeah, but he killed Draal first," Toby interjected, his gaze flickering to Draal, then back to Jim.
"And he's quite possibly in thrall to Morgana," Douxie pointed out. "And we need to deal with her carefully."
"How did I die?" asked Draal quietly.
Jim, Toby, and Claire exchanged unhappy looks. "Gunmar had you mind-slaved," Jim said, "but we ended up racing with him and Angor Rot in Merlin's Tomb, and magic doesn't work there."
(Draal noticed Douxie's mouth quirk up.)
"So you were free, and fighting them with us," Claire said. "Angor Rot was going to stab Jim with a knife poisoned with Creeper's Sun."
"You jumped in the way," Jim said softly. "You shielded me, and saved my life. Because you were my friend."
Draal breathed out softly. "A noble death," he said. "To save a friend is a great act indeed. That said," he added, "I pray that it does not come to that this time."
Fervent nods met his words.
"And why are you smiling?" Draal asked the wizard.
"As the one who sealed Merlin in his tomb," Douxie said, still smirking, "I can guarantee that certain magics do in fact work in there. But only certain ones."
"He's the one who enspelled the place, and he left himself a loophole," Archie explained. "Innate magic works, but not enchanted items."
"The Decimaar Blade didn't work there, or the Shadow Staff," Claire recalled. "But... you could still cast spells in there, Douxie?"
The wizard tapped his vambrace. "I won't be able to use this, but otherwise, yes, I can. The tomb's sealed against portaling directly in and out, but other than that, you should be able to use your own magic as well, Claire. So waking Master Merlin should be a bit easier this go around."
"Should we go wake him, though?" asked Jim.
The four humans exchanged looks. "He's kind of overbearing," said Claire.
"And a know-it-all blowhard," Toby added.
They looked at Douxie. "I'm not disagreeing," he said quietly, hand on his familiar's fur, "but he's also our best shot against Morgana. If we can convince him there's a way to save her."
"Good luck with that," Archie muttered. "Also, you would really like your staff back."
"And I would really like my staff back," Douxie agreed. "But I'm not going to get that present-day, so that doesn't factor in. However, I do have two thoughts," Douxie said, holding up two fingers. "One, we should use Excalibur to find out if the Arcane Order has Arthur already, so we know where they're at."
"Okay," said Toby, nodding, "and the second one?"
"We're none of the rest of us expert strategists," said Douxie. His gaze moved across the room, settled on the two trolls present. "I think Blinky and Aaarrrgghh should take their memories back."
Blinky blinked. "I-" he said.
"You said you wanted to wait until Toby was trained enough," said Jim. "He's taken out Bular."
"In a situation which you set up!" Blinky spluttered. "Hardly evidence of sufficient training to warrant my distraction-"
"I wasn't even in the room," said Jim. "All I did was find out when and where Bular would be. Anything to do with fighting him, that's completely on Toby."
"Blinky scared," Aaarrrgghh said.
"I am not scared!" he snapped.
"Why, then, do you not take the memories that are yours by rights?" asked Draal.
"I..." Blinky trailed off, looking down at his hands. "I fear I may be at least partially responsible for how things went so wrong that the use of time magic was necessary to set things right." Thumbs circled one another. "It is my charge to train and aid the Trollhunter to the best of my ability, and if this is the result of my advice..." He took a breath. "Then perhaps," Blinky said quietly, "it is not in our best interests for me to remain an advisor."
There was silence all around.
"Blinky," Jim said, but was cut off by another voice.
"Like heck you're not the best advisor ever!" Toby broke in, waving his hands wide. "You taught Jim everything he knows! You taught me everything I know!"
"We're going to need you, Blink," said Claire. "We really can't do this without you."
"The more people we have who remember how things went wrong," Douxie added, "the better our chances are of avoiding that fate."
"I hate to countermand your training," Archie said, "but fear is perhaps not the best motivator in this decision."
"No," said Jim, "the training is right." The human teenager stood, and crossed the room. He put a hand on Blinky's shoulder. "You taught me, taught Toby, to always be afraid. And that's saved our lives. So I'm not going to argue with it. But Blinky," he said, and his voice was very gentle, "sometimes you have to choose what to be afraid of."
"Do not fear the past," Draal agreed. "Fear only the future."
"Don't think," said Aaarrrgghh. "Become."
"I-" Blinky stopped. Cleared his throat. Began again. "You are right, of course, Master Jim," he said. "Please, I do hope all of you will forgive my moment of self-doubt."
"Self-doubt's natural," said the wizard. "Just don't live there."
Jim smiled, as warm and sure as the sunrise Blinky had never, could never, witness with his own eyes. He pulled his amulet out of his pocket and laid it in one of Blinky's hands, then stepped back.
Blinky looked at it. Cool and silver, it was of an identical weight and size to the one so many trolls had wielded over the centuries.
"Aarghaumont, my dear companion," he said, turning to that troll, "will you do this with me?"
Aaarrrgghh's giant hand covered his, the amulet resting between their palms. "Always follow Blinky," he said.
"Well, then, shall we?"
They said the unfamiliar incantation together, Blinky slowing his speech to match Aaarrrgghh's, Aaarrrgghh speeding up his speech to match Blinky's, so that they met perfectly in the middle.
For just an instant, nothing happened.
Then the basement flooded with eldritch green light.