Your Future Hasn't Been Written Yet
by K. Stonham
first released 25th October 2021
When Jim got home, there was no sign of Douxie. He pulled out his phone and shot the wizard a quick text, asking his location. A moment later, he got his reply. "He's in the arena," Jim said, shucking his messenger bag and dropping it on the sofa. Toby and Claire followed suit with their backpacks, and all three of them went down to the tunnels.
Douxie was sitting in one of the ratty armchairs that had been relocated in the dead of night from the back room of the bookstore down to the tunnels. On his lap rested the book he'd gotten from Gatto's Keep. "Hey," said Jim. "You look terrible."
"Thanks ever so," the wizard replied. "Think I figured out what happened."
"Oh?" asked Claire.
Douxie hefted the book. "Came down here this afternoon, found this on the table." He nodded over at the ping-pong tables that had been pushed together to form a work surface. "I didn't leave it there - it was on my shelf last night."
"Merlin must have been taking a look at it," Archie took up the thread from the chair's headrest. "And whatever he made of the book, it led him to question what Douxie's been up for the last several centuries."
"And whether I can be trusted, given I've picked up all kinds of traditions and spells he wouldn't approve of," Douxie said wearily. "So he's off to Camelot, and we're presumably on our own again."
"Dude, that sounds like Merl's got problems, and they're totally not your fault," said Toby loyally.
"Maybe. That still leaves us down a master wizard, and without a major source of firepower," said Douxie. "Plus, Morgana completely aside, I can think of one large problem we now have no solution to."
"Oh?" asked Claire. "Which one?"
"If we decide Eclipse and Excalibur alone aren't enough of an edge with human wielders," Douxie said, "I can't make the potion to turn either Jim or Toby into half-trolls. I don't have the skill, and, more importantly, I don't have the recipe."
Jim hissed through his teeth. "And if I'm not a half-troll, Camelot will go very differently." No getting tossed into the dungeon with the other trolls. No jailbreak with Callista. No leading the Dwoza trolls to reform Aaarrrgghh.
Douxie nodded. "Exactly. So this is my fault, and I'm sorry."
"This is totally not your fault," Toby argued. "This is Merlin's fault, and he's the one I'm going to blame for leaving us high and dry."
"But if I'd just gone with what he wanted-"
"What, and let him remake everything you are, Douxie?" asked Archie, thwacking Douxie's hair with his tail. The cat-dragon shook his head. "You know it wouldn't have worked. He should have known it wouldn't work. You've had nine centuries to learn and grow."
"Yes, but I've grown away from the proper British Isles traditions, and that's apparently a problem I hadn't even realized would be one," Douxie argued.
"Would you have done things differently if you'd known it would be?" asked Archie.
Douxie was silent for a minute, then said lowly, "No."
"Well, then, there's your answer," Claire put in. "You're you, and Merlin's a dick."
That won her a wan smile. "Say it like you mean it, Claire," Douxie teased.
"So, summing things up, Merlin threw a hissy fit because you own a book you can't even read, demanded you somehow live up to his exacting standards and get rid of all the parts of yourself he doesn't approve of, and made you feel like his flouncing off to Camelot was your fault?" Jim asked.
"Well, when you put it that way, it sounds stupid," Douxie said, but his smile was real now.
"Come on, Doux, whatever we're up against, we'll figure out a way somehow," said Jim. "With or without Merlin. It's what we do."
"Our natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster," said Claire.
Douxie blinked. "But strangely enough, it all turns out well?" he asked.
"How?" she replied.
"I don't know. It's a mystery."
"Uh..." said Toby, as the two mages cracked up together.
"Shakespeare in Love," Douxie explained to him. "Good film, if off in a few details."
"Which you are going to tell me about," Claire said.
"I would never betray the secrets of the dead," he told her. "Unless you ask nicely, I suppose." A thoughtful look crossed his face and turned into something like defiance followed by mischief. "Actually, speaking of secrets, and going with today's apparent theme of pissing off Merlin, want to see something cool?"
Toby scoffed. "Come on, do you even have to ask?"
Douxie's grin became bright and wicked as he stood and took off his hoodie. The expression lit him up; somehow he suddenly looked younger than nineteen. He indicated his bare shoulder with a finger. "Watch." Then his eyes half-shut and he began whispering something that Jim couldn't make out.
Douxie's shoulders both started to glow the sky blue of his magic, in patterns that looked a little like runes, a little like crop circles, and a little like the drawn spells Jim had seen the wizard set up a time or two. The luminescent marks ran down his arms, reaching nearly to his elbows
"Whoa," said Toby, gaping.
"Wizards' tats," Douxie said, opening his eyes fully, smiling. "One of the things I'm absolutely sure Master Merlin would not approve of."
"So, do they do anything, or are they just for the pretty?" asked Claire consideringly.
"Shields and power boosters, for the most part," Douxie told her. "And, no, I'm not taking you to get any until you're at least eighteen. Again."
"They're invisible to the mortal eye," Archie put in, "but, as I understand it, hurt a good deal more to get than normal tattoos."
"I cannot describe how much they hurt to get," Douxie agreed, rolling his eyes for emphasis. "And at that, they were less painful than magical ritual scarification."
Jim's eyebrows shot into his hairline. "And do you have some of that?"
"Nah," said Douxie. "Arch and I watched it being done once, and I decided it absolutely wasn't for me." He looked wistful. "Although it is really awesome. Imagine every scar you ever had pulsing with magic. It's based on a tradition that goes, 'every place the world tried to tear you apart, you put yourself back together stronger.' And that's amazing. But people who actually have those are really rare." His fingers tapped at his fading tattoos. "Rarer than these, even."
"So, like, do they glow every time you use magic?" asked Toby.
"If it's a high enough powered spell," Douxie agreed, shrugging his hoodie back on. "Haven't ever gotten to show them off to anyone who'd appreciate them except Zoe, and she thinks I'm an idiot for getting these instead of normal ink."
Jim considered Douxie's usual attire, and how little skin he actually showed. "Should I ask how many you have?"
"None of your business," Douxie replied cheerfully. "More than two, and that's all I'll say."
Jim's phone rang. Toby had given up trying to figure out how they all still had four bars underground. It was a great mystery attributable to troll magic or receiving crystals or something. As long as it worked, he did not care how it worked.
Jim's eyebrows rose as he looked at his phone then answered the call. "Hey, Mister Strickler." And Toby couldn't quite hear what their history teacher was saying - he was talking quietly - but after a minute, Jim nodded. "Sure, Tobes and I can head back to school. We'll be there in about half an hour?"
"What's that about?" Toby asked a minute later, after Jim hung up.
"Not totally sure," Jim admitted, "but making a guess... maybe he's ready to give us the Eye of Gunmar?"
"You haven't asked him for it yet?" asked Claire.
Jim shrugged. "I figured we didn't need it yet. Tobes hasn't even cut the Killstone."
"Do you want backup?" asked Douxie.
Jim considered that for a minute. "I don't think we need it," he said. "I trust Strickler. But you should probably get out of the house today. Sticking around where you had a fight with Merlin's probably not doing your head any good."
Douxie nodded. "That's fair."
"What about you, Claire?" asked Toby.
"Sure, I'll come with," she said easily. "It's either that or babysitting. My dad can take NotEnrique with him to the grocery store."
Waltolomew looked up at the rap on his doorframe. "Come in, Young Atlas," he told Jim. That the boy was followed by Toby Domzalski was not a surprise; that Claire Nuñez, Hisirdoux Casperan, and the wizard's dragon were present also, was. Though he supposed perhaps it shouldn't have been.
"Not trusting me?" he asked, straightening the stack of papers he'd been grading and putting them neatly to one side.
"No, we trust you." Jim shook his head.
"I'm here for moral support," said Claire. "It's my superpower." That got her a round of grins; Waltolomew surmised it was an in-joke.
"I needed some air and decided to come along," said the wizard, looking around Strickler's office. Given the way his gaze kept lingering on things, he wasn't missing a single magical object. "You really leave all this out in plain sight?"
"Wait, what?" asked Toby.
"I would not recommend touching... just about anything in this room," Archibald told him.
"They're not on hair triggers," Waltolomew informed the pair. "I'd hardly have them out, easily accessible by students and staff alike, if they were."
"I'll take your word for it," the wizard said with a nod, keeping his hands in his pockets.
"Most people wouldn't even know what they're looking at," Waltolomew felt the need to defend himself.
Hisirdoux grinned. "And here I thought I was reckless."
Oh, an opening- "It is in your name," Waltolomew pointed out.
The dragon laughed. "He's got you there, Douxie!"
"Wait, what?" asked Toby again.
"At least, I assume 'Hisirdoux' is derived from the French 'hasardeux'," Waltolomew said.
The dragon snorted and laughed again, his "The other way around, actually," overriding the wizard's hissed "Archie!"
"Wait, what?" asked Claire this time.
The wizard, ruddy blush showing clearly through his pale complexion, looked at the ceiling. "I may have wandered over to certain areas of France after Camelot," he admitted, "and gotten involved in a few things there."
"Yes, and when we went back a century or so later, we discovered he'd become infamous for it," the dragon said. "His name had become a byword for rash actions, in fact."
The wizard rubbed at the back of his neck, still not looking at anyone. "It's not my fault!" he protested.
"Oh, it most certainly was," the dragon disagreed.
Jim was gaping. "Okay," he said, "this means you don't get to give the rest of us guff about our recklessness. Like, ever."
"I certainly do," Hisirdoux replied. "What good's being the voice of experience if it goes unspoken?"
"Yes, Merlin," said Toby.
The wizard froze. Then, lowly, he said, "Not funny, Toby."
Toby winced. "Okay, yeah, too soon. Sorry, Douxie."
As the wizard accepted the apology with a nod, Waltolomew cleared his throat. "As fascinating as your group dynamics are to view, I do have something to give to you." Unscrewing the base of his fountain pen, he revealed the key hidden within.
None of his students looked surprised, which was... interesting. The wizard and dragon merely looked intrigued.
Unlocking the secret door and continuing to observe as an entire wall of his office disappeared into the floor, he noted that the Jim, Toby, and Claire remained unphased. And, "Nice," was all Hisirdoux said.
They followed him into the secret chamber that had once been a janitor's storage room, before Waltolomew had confiscated it for his own purposes many years before, doing a bit of magical remodeling both on the school's walls, and also on the memories of the staff at the time. "According to Barbara," he said, "you have managed to acquire two of the three Triumbric Stones."
"Yeah, I cleaved one of them already," Toby reported.
"Toby!" hissed Claire.
"What?" he asked her. "It's not like he's on the other side anymore."
"You have the last one," Jim said. Like he knew already. "The Eye of Gunmar."
"Indeed." Waltolomew took it off one of the shelves, cradled it in his hands.
"You also have the Inferna Copula," Jim said evenly, his mouth a line.
Waltolomew raised an eyebrow, surprised. There was no way the boy could have known that, and Jim clearly wasn't looking around the room, his eyes fixed on Waltolomew's face. "I might," he admitted.
"Don't use it," Jim said. "We need Angor Rot to stay out of the fight for now."
"Preferably forever," Toby muttered.
Feeling like he was on the cusp of something immense, Waltolomew hesitated before finally asking, "I would hope to someday learn how you know so many things that are not obvious, Jim."
The boy looked away, toward his friends, who seemed as hesitant as he suddenly did.
"Up to you, Jimbo," said Toby.
Claire just shrugged.
"Your call, Jim," said Hisirdoux.
"He has proven himself," Archibald contributed.
Jim sighed, and looked back at Waltolomew. He studied his face for a moment, before seeming to come to a decision. "In less than two years," he said quietly, "the Arcane Order is going to attempt to destroy the world. The first time, they came this close," he said, pinching his fingers close together, "to succeeding. This time, we need clear out all the obstacles, and stop them sooner. Without people dying."
Waltolomew's mind whirled. "You're from the future."
"A future," Hisirdoux corrected. "One we need to prevent."
"All of you?"
"Good heavens, no," said the dragon. "I'm certainly not. The four of them, however, yes."
"That's not completely accurate," Toby argued. "Jim's from the future. The rest of us just got our memories of it back, after."
"Why you?" Waltolomew asked his favorite student.
And James Lake, Junior smiled at him and pulled out of his pocket Merlin's Trollhunter amulet.
Waltolomew stared.
Tobias Domzalski pulled out his own amulet. "So, like, I'm the Trollhunter this time around," he explained, "but Jimbo's totally Trollhunter Prime."
Jim rolled his eyes. "Ugh, that makes it sound like I'm a robot from another planet or something, Tobes."
"Well, we do know people from another planet," Claire said.
"Not helping," Jim told her.
Waltolomew decided to completely shunt aside the implication of alien life and focus on what was necessary for now. "Why trust me?" he asked.
Jim shifted his weight back on one foot. "Well, in that future, I agreed to be your best man," he offered. Which set Waltolomew's mind whirling - he'd asked Barbara to marry him? And she'd agreed? "And also," Jim said, something much more serious in his tone, "I don't want you to die this time."
Waltolomew was silent for a moment. Somehow this revelation was less surprising than the other. "An impure's life has always been deemed cheap," he said.
"Not my stepfather's," Jim said quietly. "Not my friend's."
There was... just no reply to that. Instead, he suited action to desire, and passed the young man the Eye of Gunmar. "Do make good use of this," he said. "And any assistance I may be able to render is, of course, yours."
"Douxie...?" Claire asked the wizard. Who was watching the gemstone in Jim's hand, a calculating look on his face.
"I... think I might have the beginning of an idea," he said slowly. "Regarding that certain potion I can't make. But I'll need to go through a few books first, see if it might even work."
"Well," she said, "you have your homework, we have ours." She pulled a leather-bound tome out of her bookbag and waved it teasingly at him.
Toby groaned. "Don't remind me...!" he implored.
Waltolomew ignored the Trollhunter's theatrics, his eyes fast on the book instead. "Might I see that?" he asked.
"Sure." She shrugged and handed it over.
The book was heavy for its size, and was, as he thought he'd read on the cover, A Brief Recapitulation of Wizard Lore. A volume he'd never been able to locate. Flipping briefly through its pages, he felt his eyebrows rise as the pages simply did not stop coming. "Miss Nuñez," Waltolomew said finally, "I hope you appreciate the value of this book."
Hisirdoux went still, even as Toby and Jim exchanged a glance. "What, it's worth a couple hundred dollars?" Toby asked.
"Far more than that," Waltolomew told them. "I suspect a fair market value of this tome would be closer to something like twenty thousand dollars. Possibly more."
Toby's jaw dropped.
"What," said Claire.
The three teenagers turned as one to stare at their wizard friend. "Douxie!"
"What?" the wizard asked, looking taken aback.
"You got us books worth more than a new car?" Jim demanded, nearly stopping Waltolomew's heart at the implication they /each/ had a copy.
How on Earth had the wizard found not one, but three copies of the book?
"Yeah...?" Hisirdoux asked, sounding like he didn't understand the problem.
"You can't do that!"
Now the wizard looked irked. "Look, you all need the information in those books. And you know you do. Why is me getting them for you a problem?"
"Because we know you don't have that kind of money!" Toby shot back.
"Oh, is that all?" The wizard relaxed. "I didn't pay for them in money."
The three exchanged glances. "Magic...?" Claire guessed.
Hisirdoux scoffed. "What magic have I got that Mister Del Toro would need? I paid for the books with time."
"Time." Jim's voice was flat.
A shrug. "Three years' labor at the bookshop."
"Douxie..." You could have cut the tension in the room with a knife, it was so thick.
"Jim," the wizard said, matching the younger teenager glare for glare, "I'm immortal. What else have I got but time?"
Jim clearly had no answer prepared for that. His mouth opened and shut. "We're not done with this," he warned.
"I'll be happy to resume this discussion at your leisure," Hisirdoux told him. "It's my time to spend as I choose."
Jim flinched, but looked away. "Tobes, this is yours," he said instead, handing the Eye of Gunmar to the Trollhunter.
"Cool, thanks, Jimbo!" said the shorter boy. He looked beyond Jim. "Thank you, Mister Strickler," he said.
Waltolomew had to smile; while Toby was not the most dedicated of students, it was nonetheless clear that his grandmother had raised him right. "You're welcome. May you make good use of it."
Author's Note: Apparently Douxie having tattoos is a really popular thing, due to Tenyai's art? Tattoos aren't so much my thing, however, so I wanted to put my own spin on the concept and do something a bit different with it. Which fed neatly into the whole differences with Merlin plotline that hit me out of nowhere. Shakespeare in Love is a fun film. Over on AO3, Little_Squeak did an amazing etymology dive on Douxie's name in the comments on chapter 36, which was so awesome it kind of makes me feel guilty about the scene in this chapter (that I had already written) about how Douxie manages to be older than the word his name's related to. Also, Strickler now knows the truth! Gotta say, blowing his mind at the implications was fun. (And, no, I don't think Nomura's managed yet to fill him in about who's down in Trollmarket. It's been less than a day.) And Toby referring to Jim as Trollhunter Prime is a callback to my love for Transformers, a fandom I've been in since literally 1984. Optimus would definitely approve of Jim.
