Your Future Hasn't Been Written Yet
by K. Stonham
first released 4th April 2022

Jim sat up straight at the lunch table, staring at nothing as an idea suddenly hit him.

"Jim?" Claire asked, lowering her fork.

"I'm an idiot."

"Well, yeah," Steve said from farther down the table. Darci, sitting next to him, reached out and smacked him on the back of his head. "Ow! Hey, what was that for?" he demanded.

"We don't have to fight the Arcane Order," Jim said, looking at Claire and Toby and Krel and Aja. At the ones who remembered. "Or at least maybe we don't."

Glances were exchanged all around the table.

"Okay, how do you figure we don't need to fight the ultimate evil big bad guys?" asked Mary.

Toby nodded. "Yeah, gonna need you to back it up and unpack that a little, Jimbo."

Jim shook his head. "Well, I mean, maybe we still have to fight them, but it's not on the same... scale?" He tested the word on his tongue, then nodded. "It's not on the same scale as last time."

Krel raised an eyebrow. "How do you come to that conclusion?"

"Douxie thinks they came to Arcadia Oaks because they were following Merlin," Jim listed off. "And he implied that he thinks Merlin's been fighting off the Order for centuries."

"Not sure how that gets reconciled with the nine-hundred-year nap," said Toby, "but I'm following you so far."

"No, that totally makes sense," Claire rebutted. "Remember how no magic worked in Merlin's Tomb? The Order wouldn't have been able to find him. And we know he's got the-" She looked around and dropped her voice to a whisper. "The Genesis Seals. So they were probably hidden in there with him."

"Uhh. All he had was like his armor and his staff, Claire." Toby got a disturbed look on his face. "You don't think the Seals were inside his armor, do you?"

"Not thinking about that," Jim said loudly. "I do not want to know what Merlin does or does not have under his armor. But my point is, if they don't get the Genesis Seals, they can't end the world. They only got them last time because Douxie had to trade them for us and Nari."

"You say that," Aja said, speaking slowly, "but that depends on the Order never defeating this Merlin and winning the Seals from him."

Claire shook her head. "I don't think they can," she said. "Douxie said something once, which... well, I think Merlin's got it set up somehow that even if they do kill him, the only one who can get the Seals then is Douxie."

"Guys," Jim said. "You're missing the point. Douxie was a brand-new master wizard, and he fought the Arcane Order to a stand-still once. Merlin's got centuries more experience."

"Ohhh." Eli's eyes lit up with comprehension. "So you think they're so evenly matched all they can do is take potshots at one another?"

"Exactly," Jim agreed. "I don't think the Arcane Order can take him down. And we don't have to worry about them fighting us, because we don't have anything they want. So we can get to work changing their minds instead."

"Merlin kind of is a powerhouse," Claire agreed. "The only reason they took him out last time was because Douxie was his weak spot. And because who the Green Knight was surprised him. Which we've already warned him about. So I think Merlin can handle himself."

"Heck, the only reason they managed to take Camelot out was because he lost his staff and Archie didn't get it back to him fast enough!" Toby agreed.

"We know Merlin will never give the Genesis Seals to the Arcane Order," said Claire. "And we know the only other person who knows where they are is Douxie, and he'll never give the Seals to the Order again. And for right now, at least, I can't see Merlin coming back to Arcadia for anything. So maybe you're right, Jim, and things aren't as bad as we were expecting?"

"Wait." Mary flashed her phone. "Does this have anything to do with why Douxie suddenly wants to do TikTok videos with me?"

Jim nodded. "Sort of. Douxie says that what the Order wants is a return of magic. Which we can't get unless people know about magic."

But Krel was frowning. "I remember what Nari said. The Order is supposed to protect the balance between mortal and magic, right? Bellroc and Skrael believe humans are lost beyond the point of correction. So I think Douxie is on the right path. Only a few humans have magic, and they are in hiding. But in order to change the Order's minds and restore a balance, a lot more humans will need to have magic, not just know about it."

"But how can we give people magic?" asked Eli. He adjusted his glasses. "I mean, it's a you're born with it or you aren't thing, right?"

Jim and Toby both looked automatically at Claire, who reached up to touch her dyed streak. "Um, not exactly?" she said, drawing eyes to her. "My magic only got woken up because I got possessed by Morgana Le Fay, the first time around."

"Yeah, and Jimbo and I don't actually have magic, either," said Toby. "We just use it."

"Huh," said Steve, thoughtfully. "So, like, if we get more people possessed by dead evil witch ladies-"

"NO!" Jim, Claire, and Toby said as one.

"All right, all right!" Steve quailed in his seat. "It was just a suggestion, geez."

"He is not entirely wrong, though." Aja drummed her fingers on the table. "How can we give people more magic, to prevent the world being destroyed?"

"I don't know," said Jim, wishing he did.

"Aww, no Douxie?" Eli complained later that day as he followed Jim down into the Arena.

"He's out at his friend's ranch, either working on his armor, or Krel's daxial array," Jim said. "Maybe both."

Krel huffed. "Perhaps I should go see this ranch, to see how he and Hiccup are managing it. I must admit," he said, "I am most curious as to how Akiridion technology could be manufactured on your planet."

"Yeah, well, Douxie's putting every waking hour into it right now." Jim frowned. "Plus working two jobs."

"Uh, Jimbo?" Toby looked unimpressed. And maybe a little worried. "Weren't you saying he worked too much already, before your mom made him cut down? And now he's back to an insane schedule again? And still working on making videos and stuff?"

"Yeah, I know." Jim wiped a hand down his face. "The problem is, the stuff he's doing? He's literally the only one of us who can do it. And it's important."

Eli sighed. "I was hoping he could help me with learning Trollish," he confessed.

Jim blinked. "I can do that."

"You can?" Eli immediately brightened up. "That would be great, Jim! I stopped by Trollmarket this morning and Blinky gave me the alphabet to memorize." Setting his backpack down on the ground, he dug around in it, triumphantly pulling out a notebook and flipping it to a very familiar set of characters. "I think I've got them all memorized, but maybe you can quiz me? And then I can ask Blinky for another lesson tomorrow?"

"Ooh, I can go get that volume of Gems and Geodes for you to practice on before I head down to Trollmarket," Toby said. "I'm not quite done with it yet, but you can sure use it while I'm training."

"That'd be great, Tobes," Jim said. Toby hurried off to the far exit, the one that led to his house.

"I must admit, I too would be interested in learning to read Trollish," Krel confessed. "Eli, may I borrow your notes?"

"Yeah, sure!" Eli handed them over. "Okay, this first letter is murtagh, which apparently makes a kind of guttural sound, like hch." He sounded like he was coughing up a hairball. Krel nodded and listened, absorbing the explanation.

Jim had to hand it to Eli - he didn't miss a single character. By the time Toby returned, carrying his book, Eli had gone through the entire list, letter-perfect, and Krel was taking his turn, going back through the list himself and exactly matching Eli's pronunciations.

(Jim would not be surprised to learn that either of them had an eidetic memory. He felt kind of jealous at the thought. He was smart enough, but he wasn't a genius the way they were.)

"Here you go, guys," Toby said, handing the volume over. "Sorry it's kind of dry and technical, but beggars can't be choosers, yanno?"

"It will be fine, I'm sure," said Krel. "At least we can learn some vocabulary from this."

"Yeah, and I can help you with the grammar," agreed Jim.

"All right, I'll leave you to it 'coz I gotta run. If I'm late, Draal will have my gronk-nuts for supper." Waving, Toby set off, jogging down the tunnel to Trollmarket at a good pace.

"Sorry we don't really have a lot of Trollish books laying around," Jim apologized.

Eli laughed it off. "Eh, this is kind of out of the blue, isn't it? No worries!"

"What about that book?" Krel asked, pointing. Jim twisted to see what he meant.

On the pushed-together ping-pong tables lay Douxie's mystery book.

"Uh. That one's Douxie's," Jim said. "He kind of picked it up in a raid on a mountain troll's stomach? No one knows what it says. Not him, not Blinky, not Archie..."

Eli blanched. "A mountain troll's...?"

"Interesting." Krel's eyebrows had already gone up and he was heading for the book. "Do you think he would mind if I took a look at it?"

"Go right ahead," Jim said, and then Krel was opening it, slowly flipping through the first pages.

"This looks... I feel like I should know this," Krel said. "This is familiar somehow."

"Wait, is this Akiridion?" Jim asked, crossing the room.

But Krel shook his head. "No, not Akiridion. But..." He hesitated. "I could swear I know this from somewhere."

"Let me see." Eli popped up on Krel's other side. His eyes narrowed behind his glasses as he scanned the page. "Wait, I know this too. But from where?"

"Wait, you know this language?" Jim asked. How the hell did Eli know whatever language Douxie's book was written in?

Eli shook his head. "Well, I can't read it, but I know I've seen something like this before. Give me a minute." He whipped out his phone, poking and swiping at it. His brows were furrowed, his face crinkled in concentration.

After a few minutes-

"Aha!" Eli shouted triumphantly, shoving his phone in Jim and Krel's faces. "I knew it!"

Jim and Krel exchanged glances as Krel set the book back down on the table and took Eli's phone. "Eli, what is this?"

"It's the Voynich Manuscript!" Eli said proudly. "It's a collection of pages, about four hundred years old, in the Yale Library. Nobody has ever been able to decipher it."

Krel zoomed in on the picture and compared it to Douxie's book. "He is right. This is the same system of writing!"

"Holy crap." Jim stared first at Eli's phone, then at Eli. "Douxie's been worrying over this thing for months, getting nowhere, and you take one look at it and find a, a sister document? That's amazing, Eli!"

Eli had a small, pleased look on his face. He pushed at the bridge of his glasses. "I mean, it's not hard, you just have to know where to look."

"I am calling Douxie right now and telling him," Jim said, taking out his own phone and doing just that.

"I. hate. this," Hiccup sang to the beat of his hammer striking metal. "I. hate. this. I. hate. radio~. ac. ti. vi. ty."

"You and me both, mate," Douxie commiserated. Before him, untouched by human hand, greyish silver wire, gleaming like moonlight and starlight combined, as fine as spider's silk, wove back and forth in a standing loom. It worked in a tabby weave pattern, wrapping around only those warp wires it needed to create the shape of a metal mesh trouser leg.

"There aren't nearly enough studies on the interaction of magic and radiation," Henry groused, using tongs to repositioning his work. "If I screw up on this..."

"If you screw up on it, it'll be inside the Tarrons' ship, and /they're/ not bothered by radiation," Douxie countered. A fine sweat gleamed on his face. He was able to talk and maintain concentration on the levitation, but it was a close thing. Anything requiring more depth, more concentration than reassuring his fellow wizard, would have broken the spell.

As the ring of his phone did. "Ugh."

"I'll get it," Archie volunteered, and did so, leaping up to the counter where the phone lay.

"You'd better take it outside," Hiccup said. "I can't stop in the middle of this."

Douxie sighed and stretched his shoulders, then took his phone, walking outside and around the building, where the echoing beat of Hiccup's hammer would least impact the call. "Hello?"

"Douxie!" It was Jim.

"Jim, I'm in the middle of making armor-"

His brother cut him off. "Eli found a match for your mystery book!"

Douxie blinked. Then, "What?" he demanded.

"It's apparently written in the same language as this thing called the 'Voynich Manuscript'?" Jim sounded questioning. Another voice on his end of the line murmured in assent. "It's just as untranslated, but this means yours isn't the only piece! And apparently scans of the whole thing are available online?"

Stunned, Douxie exchanged a look with Archie, who had followed him outside. "Jim, that's amazing! Give my thanks to Eli."

"Yeah, I will! I know you're busy, but I thought you'd want to know."

"I did. I do. Thank you!"

A quick laugh from Jim. "I'll let you get back to armor-making. See you tonight, Douxie!"

"See you, Jim."

"A second script," Archie marveled as Douxie hung up.

"Equally untranslatable," Douxie pointed out.

"Still, the more pieces of a puzzle one has, the easier it becomes to see the picture," Archie opined.

"Yeah, I guess." Douxie looked at the phone in his hand and hesitated. He should go back inside, get back to work weaving armor, but...

"Douxie, what is it?"

He sighed and slumped against the wall of the workshop. "It's just... Merlin dropped me like a hot coal because of that book. Because it 'resonates with my magic.' He said I'm destined to unleash all sorts of magical horrors on the land, presumably because of what's in the book. So I'm not sure if finding another piece of the puzzle is really something to celebrate."

"Douxie..."

He gave a little giggle, aware that it sounded frantic, but unable to stop. "If Morgana's 'the mother of monsters,' what's that make me? Master of monsters, to keep up the alliteration? If I so much as look at this new book, will I end up making things even worse?"

"Hmph." Archie shifted shape, leaping up into the air to hover before Douxie as a dragon. "Do remember," Archie said, looking stern, "Merlin thought you releasing Nimue was a bad idea. And look how utterly wide of the mark he was about her. Face it, the old man is prejudiced, Douxie. It's part of why he never stopped Arthur, because he thought Arthur wasn't entirely wrong. Anyone non-human is to be looked at with a suspicious eye."

Douxie's head shot up. "Even you?"

"Especially me." Archie looked away. "We had a few... conversations, back in the start of your and my time in Camelot."

"I didn't know that," Douxie said, wide-eyed. "Arch, did he-"

"Oh, Merlin never resorted to anything so base and crude as threats." Archie waved off the implied accusation. "You were busy getting settled in and finding the lay of the land. He merely wanted certain assurances as to my identity, nature, and intentions."

"Arch, if you'd told me-"

"If I'd told you," Archie said levelly, "you would have packed up and left rather than risk him even possibly separating us. You needed the tutelage, Douxie, so very badly."

He sighed, knowing Archie was right. "You're right, I did."

"Tell you what," Archie bargained. "You go back to work on your armor. I will look up this Voynich Manuscript and see if I can glean anything from it, and if it's worth you looking at or not, all right?"

Douxie nodded. "Okay."

Archie shifted back into cat form, landing in Douxie's arms. "Now, you to your armor, and me to my research."

"All right." Claire spread out the map of the town square on her mother's desk. It was a black-and-white print, showing only structures: buildings, sidewalks, the gazebo at the center of the park. "The good news is, we've got only four access points to control, once we ward all the buildings."

Her mother looked up at her. "And how do you ward the buildings?"

Claire summoned a bit of magic, concentrating until the ghostly purple-black light shifted to the sigil omephera. Which was the one she'd painted on the back of countless campaign signs, a lifetime ago. "Douxie and I apply this to all the buildings. It'll cover the entire structure, and as long as no one is stupid enough to leave a door wide open while there's Gumm-Gumms attacking, it will make the buildings impenetrable to magic users."

Ophelia was frowning as she looked at the magic sigil. "Will this deface the structures?"

"It'll be invisible to mortal eyes, Mom. Relax."

"How does it work?"

Claire shrugged. Blinky had given her a lecture about it once, but she'd been sick, and tired, and trying so hard to concentrate on painting the mark correctly each time, that most of it had slid off her mind. She was pretty sure she could blame Morgana for two out of the three. "It just... does?" she said. Her mother frowned. "Look, it's a magic ward that specifically protects things from trolls. If I warded a door with this, a troll would just bounce off. It couldn't go through."

"But not humans." Her mother's tone was speculative.

"Not humans. Most people don't have enough magic to even notice something like this; they'll walk right through it."

Ophelia nodded. "All right, so you're protecting the square from property damage."

Claire grimaced. "Well, I can't promise things like the street lights and fire hydrants will be safe-"

"Claire!"

"...Or the bandstand."

Now her mother's expression was flatly appalled. "Claire, that's a historic structure. It was erected in 1921!"

"Mom, it doesn't have walls," she pointed out. "Now, do you want Enrique back or not?"

Her mother huffed up, then wilted. "All right. What else?"

Claire sighed. "That still gives some points of egress," she said, tapping at each of the four corners to the square. "We might have an in with Stuart - he's the guy who has the El Guerito taco truck?" Her mother nodded. "I want to see if we can get him to call in some of his fellow food trucks to mostly block off the corners. We can apply wards to them too."

"A taco truck street fair?" Ophelia's teeth worried at her lower lip, then she nodded. "I can sell that to the city council. It'll pass."

Claire bit the inside of her lip and did not tell her mother that Archie, and Douxie, had referred to this as a 'killing pen' when they'd been drafting out this plan. Her mother wanted to couch it in the form of a street fair? Fine, let her. As long as she went along with what they needed to do.

Claire pulled out another printout, this one an enlarged photo of the same square, taken from Google Earth. "Now, what the schematics don't show is the plantings. This does. We obviously can't put the bridge where there are trees, so there's only two or three open spaces we can use-"

"Why not put it in the middle of the street?" her mother asked. Claire blinked. "Claire, if you're blocking the square off from traffic, the streets are going to be clear. Use them."

"Huh." Claire blinked, turning her mother's suggestion over in her mind. It was a good one, she finally decided. "Okay. If we put Killahead Bridge right here, in front of the museum, the best spot for our curse sniper would be..." She considered angles and lines of sight and the tree heights. "Probably here, over the record shop."

Her mother's eyebrows were in her hairline. "Curse sniper?"

Claire shrugged. "We have a stash of cursed coins. Douxie thinks he can enchant them to stick to things. So if we stick our sniper, with his completely legal potato cannon, on top of a building, he can thin out the crowd of Gumm-Gumms, and hopefully slow down Gunmar as well."

"And Enrique?"

Claire grimaced. This was the part she didn't like. "Jim will be getting him."

Her mother's eyes narrowed. "I thought you said Jim would be fighting these Gumm-Gumms."

"He will be!" Claire protested. "He's just also going into the Darklands for Enrique. He's been there, he's the only one who knows how to get to the nursery."

"Claire." Her mother's gaze was flat. It rankled, as did her treatment of Claire's other brother... but this was not the time for that, Claire reminded herself. Right now she needed to get her mother on their side for the plan to take down Gunmar, so they could do it with minimal civilian casualties. Her relationship with NotEnrique could be addressed later.

Claire huffed, shunting aside one priority for another. "We've got an artifact that stops time for one person. Jim's going to use it as soon as Killahead Bridge opens, pop through the dimensional door, speedrun his way to the nursery and back, give Enrique to you, and fight with us." She hoped the plan would work. If he used all three charges of the kairosect, Jim would have just over two hours in which to find Enrique and get back to Arcadia.

It was enough time. It had to be enough time. He was going to be outside of time; there wouldn't be any nyarlagroths or goblins or Gumm-Gumms to slow him down. Just Jim and distance and speed.

Maybe she could convince Aja to loan him her hoverboard.

Her mother's mouth was still tight, but she nodded. "All right. Tell me who will be on the ground, fighting. And what we can do to back them up."

"The first thing is, we're trying to get the good trolls to join us..."

Douxie was breathing hard by the time he'd finished weaving the last piece of the third layer. Henry glanced aside at him from where he'd been engraving, very carefully and very cautiously, spells that should keep all the radiation inside the power cell. One of the very last things he wanted to responsible for was a radioactive leak.

He'd drive the piece in to town tomorrow, drop it at the Tarrons' house, and let them (and their AI!) test it. After that, it would be Zoe's responsibility to fill it. He hoped she had enough sense to use a hazmat suit and a Geiger counter.

"Double check this for me?" he asked.

"Sure." Douxie very carefully set down the remaining wire he held. There wasn't much left, but it was mithril, which was worth more than diamonds. If Henry had been any less secure in his career as one of the best smith-mages around, this armor would have been prohibitively expensive. As it was, it was still extremely dear, but worth it to repay the life-debt he owed.

"Looks good," Douxie said after a minute. "You're missing a line here," he said, fingers tapping where there should, indeed, be one more mark.

"I was getting to that next," Henry said. "Did I miss anything else?"

Eyes narrowed, Douxie examined his work for a minute longer, before shaking his head. "Not that I can see. Your work, as always, is impeccable."

"As long as it actually works," Henry retorted. "I've never made parts for an alien spaceship before."

Douxie's brow was furrowed. "Obviously Krel and his ship get the final say, but... this feels like it'll work. If that makes sense."

Henry sighed with relief. "Mages' intuition?"

Douxie shrugged. "Maybe that, maybe wishful thinking. Don't depend on it, that's for sure."

He looked worn out. As well he should; Douxie wasn't a smith-mage, and neither mithril nor dragon's gold were the easiest materials to work with. "Do you want to stay for dinner?"

That earned him a snorted laugh. "Me and Astrid, breaking bread at the same table? I don't think you want to subject your kids to that. No." Douxie shook his head. "Though if you're offering a ride to the bus stop, I won't say no."

"You'll be back out when?" Hiccup asked through the truck window.

"Sunday, I think. Got too many work commitments between now and then to make it out otherwise."

Hiccup nodded. "Give me a call or text if plans change, all right?"

"Will do." Douxie held a hand up, waving, as the man drove off. Fortunately he and Archie didn't have to wait too long; it was less than five minutes before the next bus back to downtown Arcadia Oaks arrived. Even more luckily, the wide seat in the back was open. He nabbed it, and Archie curled up next to him, catching a catnap. Douxie closed his eyes and tried to do the same.

After a few minutes, his eyes opened again as his stomach made a queer noise. He quietly slid a hand under the open zipper of his hoodie, running fingers down his ribcage, assessing. Though the cotton of his tanktop muted his touch, the fact that he could feel each rib without even trying confirmed what he'd suspected: making the mesh armor was wearing away the reserves he'd been building up. And he was less than halfway through: there were three more layers to construct, and they were of the harder metals to work with. Plus he and Hiccup would still need to bond all six layers into one cohesive unit.

Then they'd need to enchant it all so that it could be stored within, and applied from, Douxie's vambrace. The voidstone layer, he already knew, was going to fight that every step of the way. He was two days' labor in already; if the rest of the layers proved as tricky as he expected, and Hiccup needed to keep working on the daxial array for Krel... four more days of work, and Douxie would have armor.

Hisirdoux's mouth thinned to a line.

This was all going to take power. And effort. And after his armor was made, there was still the battle with Gunmar and the Gumm-Gumms to come, plus dealing with Aja and Krel's bounty hunters, who, if they weren't already on the planet, should be here soon.

Douxie unzipped his backpack and fished out a Nougat Nummy. Archie's ear twitched, the dragon cracking an eye to observe as Douxie quietly unwrapped it and took a bite. He felt like he was absolutely starving and could have wolfed it down, but he forced himself to go slow, to chew and chew and swallow. Not for the first time, not for the last, the candy bar tasted absolutely foul, sickly sweet with waxen chocolate.

He ate not out of desire, but necessity, trying to repay the magic he'd burned that day.