Your Future Hasn't Been Written Yet
by K. Stonham
first released 20th August 2021
They ended up meeting near Claire's house, then trekking to the woods. Jim and Douxie walked the whole way.
"I seriously can't believe you don't even have a bike," Claire told Douxie.
"Or a Vespa," said Jim.
Douxie shrugged. "Never needed one. I have two feet, a bus pass, and until a few days ago, lived right by my jobs."
"Still. Can't you, like, ride a broom or something?"
He laughed. "If I wanted to freak out all of Arcadia Oaks and announce that magic is real in front of everyone. I can in fact ride a broom, though I'm sure Archie would say something about stereotypes." Douxie glanced behind them, then resolutely turned his face forward.
Claire touched his arm. "I'm sure he's okay."
Douxie breathed a long, drawn-out sigh. "I'm sure he is. Just, haven't wanted to let him out of my sight. You know what happened the last time I did."
Jim and Claire exchanged an unhappy glance, each clearly remembering Archie and his father becoming immured in Hong Kong Trollmarket. "Yeah."
"Separation anxiety," Douxie pronounced. "I'll get over it. Can we talk about something else?"
"Broomstick riding." Jim returned to their previous topic. "So do you ride one sidesaddle, or astride, like in Harry Potter?"
"Neither." Douxie shot him a grin. "It's more like riding a surfboard, at least the way I do it." Epiphany struck. "I should get a skateboard."
"Can you ride a skateboard?" asked Claire.
"Well, I'm no Tony Hawk, but yes, I can."
"Who's Tony Hawk?"
"And there we stop," Douxie announced. He glanced around. "Physically as well as conversationally. I absolutely cannot discuss the history of skateboarding with you without showing you a thousand videos, and we're actually here for a purpose."
"Right. My magic."
"All right, Claire. Show us what you've got."
Claire held her hands out before herself, took a deep breath and tensed. A grimace crossed her face.
Not a spark of her purple magic appeared.
Douxie blinked. "That is a severe case." Not even a flicker of power had rippled across Claire's aura.
Claire dropped her hands. "Any ideas?"
Douxie tapped the fingers of his left hand against his thumb, thinking. "I can rule out half a dozen possible causes because you're not showing any other physical symptoms."
"I could be hiding them," Claire pointed out. "Or I might not have noticed."
"Trust me, you'd notice having horns, or a tail, or turning a different color," Douxie said. "Any unusual appetites or cravings?"
She considered. "I really felt like getting a burrito from Stuart's truck the other day?"
Douxie waved it off. "We've all had that craving."
"Seriously, how can his food be that good and that inedible at the same time?" Jim wondered.
"Hmm." Douxie sat down on a fallen tree trunk. "I have to admit I'm stumped. And I'm sure if Archie or Master Merlin were here, they'd be reminding me of something I've forgotten, but I honestly can't think of anything that could be it. Unless-" His gaze shot up to Claire. "It's incredibly late in life for it, but have we gone back to before you started manifesting magic?"
Claire's eyes widened. "Yes!" She breathed out a relieved sigh. "That's got to be it. Unless... oh no."
Douxie raised an eyebrow.
"The first time I used any magic was when I first got ahold of Morgana's staff," she said. Her hands twitched, as if grasping for the absent Shadow Staff.
"The first time?" Douxie demanded, aghast. "You got your magic awoken by a magic artifact?"
"Yes?" Claire said in a small voice, flinching. What, did she think she'd inadverdently broken some kind of sacred wizard's protocol or something?
"And you were that strong?" Douxie asked. He felt practically alight with pride. "That's amazing, Claire!"
"Really?"
"Really," he confirmed.
"How old were you?" Claire asked, sitting down cross-legged on the ground. Jim followed suit. Douxie slid off his log to be at the same level as them. "When you first used magic."
"About five?" Douxie guessed. It was so far in the past that even his best estimation was fuzzy.
"Wait," said Jim. "You told me your parents died and your village kicked you out right after you showed magic. You were five?"
Douxie shrugged as Jim and Claire exchanged looks of horror. "I was born in Arthur's lands," he explained, "and magic, as you well know, was a death sentence there. The local lord disliked the king and mostly looked the other way. But harboring a mage in one of his villages would have brought charges of treason and possibly the loss of his head. So off witch-boy me had to go, to find my own fate." Douxie shrugged again. "I got lucky. Archie found me, and decided I was worth sticking around with." He went pensive, suddenly remembering something else. "I saw him at Camelot once, the lord. Years later. He was paying homage to Arthur. He didn't even see me or, more likely, didn't recognize me. Either way, I never went back. I don't even know what happened to the village." His gaze refocused on his friends. "And, yes, I'm well aware that I probably have issues on top of issues stemming from things like that, but can we please not deal with them today? I'd like to enjoy my morning off."
"Fair," said Jim.
"As long as you realize you don't get an infinite pass," Claire warned Douxie. He acknowledged that with a wave of his hand, eyes closing as his face turned up to the sun.
"So how on Earth do we get your magic working again?" Jim asked Claire.
"We'll need either Morgana's staff, or another artifact tied to shadowmancy," Douxie said, still sunning. His eyes opened as he had a thought. "How did Angor Rot even get her staff?" he wondered.
"I... have no idea," Claire said. "I kind of get the feeling she wasn't, isn't, locked up as tight as we thought."
Douxie shut his eyes again. "It was a joint spell, and Merlin passed out before it was completed. Of course there were going to be cracks. I should have thought of that back then."
"You did your best," Claire told him.
"I know." Douxie sighed. "I want to see if we can get Morgana on our side earlier this time, though. Before she gets killed again and resurrected by the Arcane Order. Again."
"I dunno, Douxie. She was pretty mad when you locked her up."
"And she's spent nine hundred years stewing in it," Jim added.
"Arthur's death drove her insane," Douxie said. "How would you feel, Claire, if your baby brother was killed?"
She hesitated, then said, "I'd burn the world for Enrique. Wait, do you think he's...?" she asked, looking at Jim.
"No way of knowing if he's Enrique or NotEnrique without a gaggletack," Jim said. "We'll have to go to RotGut's and get one."
A thought hit Douxie. His eyes shot back open. "Waitwaitwait... if Arthur's resurrection broke Morgana out of the madness, we might have a chance. We could use that!"
Jim blinked. "Do you think the Arcane Order already have him?"
"No idea." Douxie's fingers drummed on the ground. "I might be able to use your Excalibur to find where his Excalibur is. If it's still in his tomb, that would tell us."
"Flowcharts," moaned Claire. "We need flowcharts to keep all this in order. Who knows what, who is where, when what happens...!"
Douxie grinned at her. "If it's flowcharts you want, my lady, it's flowcharts you shall have." His fingers spun the runes on his bracer and tapped one. Out of it flowed a hovering trio of large whiteboards, all damaged in one corner and absolutely covered with writing. Two sweeps of his hand produced two more boards, both blank.
"Awesome," said Claire, eyes wide and shining.
"All right," said Jim as Douxie produced a marker out of his pocket. "Let's get strategizing."
"Hey, do you think Blinky or Vendel might have any shadow-magic artifacts?" Claire asked some time later, when another three boards had been covered in writing and they were all finally running low on ideas.
"I don't know," Jim replied. "It's worth asking." He hesitated, then said "I... offered Blinky his memories back."
Douxie sat up straight and looked at Jim. "So he remembers?"
"He turned me down."
"What?" Claire and Douxie both asked.
"He needs to focus on training Toby right now," Jim explained, "and he thinks remembering the future will be a distraction."
"Well," said Douxie after a moment, "he's not wrong..."
"I know. He's passing the offer on to Aaarrrgghh, but if Blinky won't take it, I doubt Aaarrrgghh will either," Jim said.
"Yeah, those two are attached at the hip," Claire agreed. She pursed her lips. "Maybe we should get them cellphones, get the group chat started back up again?"
"Is there even reception down in Trollmarket?" asked Douxie.
"Yeah, there is," Jim said.
"I'd ask how, but I'm pretty sure the answer is 'magic'," said Douxie, with a smirk.
"You know," Jim said, exchanging a glance with Claire, "I'm actually not sure. I never asked."
Author's Note: Apparently Douxie is my whump character of choice in ToA because every time I try to look further at his past, the worse it gets.
