Your Future Hasn't Been Written Yet
by K. Stonham
first released 28th November 2021

The door to the record store opened. "Hey, welcome to Zimoc's," Zoe, reshelving a couple returns, called out automatically. When there was no reply, she turned around to see Hisirdoux Casperan standing there, an Asian teenage girl behind him. "Hey, you can't-"

"Shut it, Zoe," he snapped at her, his weird eyes blazing. "Quick question for you - how many of your HexTech coworkers were actually trying to scrub the video last night?"

She pulled her wand out of her pocket, pointed it at him. "Back off and get out, Casperan."

Power hummed around him in response, raising the hairs on the back of her neck. But he took a breath, and his tone turned mild. Careful. Dangerous. "Answer the question, Zo."

"I don't know!" she said. "I was working the counter."

"Any chance they weren't trying particularly hard?"

She scoffed.

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow. "Because I would love to know how an untrained sixteen-year-old managed, during school hours, to convince the whole internet into thinking it's leaked footage from a movie. Especially when a whole shop of trained technomancers couldn't - or didn't."

Her wand lowered an inch. "What?"

He nodded at the girl. "This is Mary. Who's apparently better at her hobby than the whole of your startup is at their jobs."

"He thinks I'm a technomancer," the girl spoke up, side-eyeing Douxie. "I think you're all just making it out to be harder than it is."

Zoe blinked. And hesitated. Because Douxie's fuckup had been immense. And because there was no way she could hope to best him if she didn't have a weapon.

But if the girl was really another technomancer-

"Catch," she called, deciding, and tossed her wand, sparking pink, to the girl.

Who fumbled it, trying not to let go of her phone in the process.

Both wand and phone began to glow an indigo blue.

Douxie raised an eyebrow. "Still doubting?" he asked the girl.

Who was staring at both phone and wand. "No..." she said weakly.

"It's fixed?" Zoe asked Douxie.

"Looks like it. No thanks to you or yours," he told her.

"They told me they tried-"

"Did they." His tone was flinty, liable to cut her if she wasn't careful. For an instant she saw Merlin in him, and almost shivered. "And you didn't try anything yourself."

"Casperan-"

"I will simply say," he said, impossibly calm, "that I would have thought our friendship meant more to you, Zoe. And I'm sorry to find out that when I needed help, it didn't."

Her protest died in her throat because he was right. She should have tried something. Anything. And she was going to kill her coworkers if they'd lied to her.

He turned to go.

"S-see you at band practice?" she asked weakly.

Douxie turned to look back at her. And she could see it as the anger suddenly melted out of him. He looked... tired. And sad. "Sure, Zo," he said. "See you at band practice."

The door closed behind him.

It reopened a moment later as the girl poked her head back in. "Hey, catch!" she called, and threw Zoe's wand back.

Then they were both gone.


"You okay?" Mary asked Douxie. Sadness was practically dripping off him.

"Yeah," he said lowly, hands stuffed in his pockets as he looked at the pavement. "Just... I've known her for hundreds of years. We were good friends, I thought. But I guess it didn't mean as much to her as it did to me."

"Eh, some people are just shallow," she said.

Douxie looked at her.

Mary flushed. "So I like kissing boys!" she defended herself. "It's fun. It doesn't mean anything."

He smiled. "And this does?" he asked, gesturing at the space between them.

"Well, yeah." Mary shrugged. "I mean, not many people get me. They just see boy-crazy and don't look any deeper."

"Is that what you want?"

"Sometimes," she said, looking away. "It's just easier if no one looks too deep."

"But at the same time, you want to be seen." Douxie exhaled and looked away. He stopped walking. Mary stopped next to him. "I'm going to say this here, where the others can't hear."

"Okay...?"

"I'm not a technomancer by nature. I can do a bit of it, but only a little. What I can teach you is how magic flows, how to use it and encourage it... and stop it. But for the actual use of your specific magic, Mary..." He looked back at the record shop. "Zoe and the HexTech staff can teach you the nuances far, far better than myself. Though either they were not trying very hard last night... or you're already stronger than any of them."

Her lips pursed as she considered what he'd said. "Is Magic 101 what you're teaching Claire?"

Douxie nodded. "Partly. The problem with her magic is, shadowmancers are rare. There's literally no one else on Earth right now who can teach her what she needs to know, so she and I are muddling along with books. You have more options."

Including people that Douxie clearly felt he couldn't really trust. "Eh." Mary shrugged. "I'll think about it, okay?"

"You do that," he said, smiling again, and, wow it really was a pity he wasn't into her, because he was pretty and she'd make out with him in a hot second.

But some things, she knew as he opened the bookshop door for her, were too precious to sully with something silly like playing at love.


Their plans were made in rapid order. The lake was situated sixteen hours ahead, or eight hours behind, depending on how you counted it, of California time, and was currently still frozen solid, according to Google and Mary. The weather forecast said cloudy, with snow flurries. So they would go the following day, giving everyone time to dig out the winter gear usually reserved for jaunts up to Big Bear or Tahoe. Toby and Eli would be camera crew, and Mary run the social media accounts, uploading "on set" snapshots from Russia. Whatever footage they got... would be worked into the script somehow. Toby was infuriatingly vague about plot.

"Well," Archie said with a sigh, "Will was often the same way at first."

"True," Douxie had to admit, much though it pained him.

"Tell me you're not comparing The Adventures of Captain DJ Kleb to Shakespeare," Claire pleaded.

Douxie shrugged. "Everyone has to start somewhere. Even a glove-maker's son from Stratford. Besides," he added, grinning, "I can think of some bits of that film that Will absolutely would have stolen and reused."

Her expression was appalled.


Unlike Jamie, Douxie's other coworker at the bookshop, Beth, was clearly pissed at him for breaking the informal Statute of Secrecy. Even showing her the good progress his friends had made at repairing the damage didn't mollify her much. But then, her brother worked at HexTech and she would always take his side and position as her own, so Hisirdoux wasn't much inclined to feel kindly toward her at the moment either. He didn't stay a minute past his shift, and very much enjoyed the thought that the delayed book shipment was supposed to be arriving in the next few hours, so stocking would be her problem.

The odds were even, though, whether or not she'd claim it had arrived just before closing time and leave it for him to deal with in the morning. Well, whatever.

His slow-burning anger at HexTech in general, Zoe in particular, and Merlin at large, however, had left him in with a bug in his ear for a new song, though, and he wanted to hammer it out before band practice the next afternoon, so he could present it and workshop it with his bandmates and see what they thought.

(And if Zoe thought it was about her, well, it was, a little bit. He wasn't over that hurt yet, and probably wouldn't be for a while.)

So he was humming Scarborough Faire the entire skateboard ride home, switching the lyrics around a little, trying to plot out a tone, and what sections of the tune they could all really go to town on. He could take out the "parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme" placeholder line and put in something meaningful... and "Camelot" scanned in nicely for Scarborough, though he had a feeling Gil would make him change it back.

Distracted, he barely said hi to Jim on his way upstairs, wanting to get to his guitar and a notebook.

"Don't mind him," he heard Archie say behind him. "Douxie's composing. We may have to physically drag him away to get him to eat dinner."

He spent the rest of the afternoon plucking at his guitar strings between bouts of writing down lyrics and musical notation. The classic tune was good and all, but needed some shaking up for what he had in mind. At the same time, he didn't want it completely unrecognizable. Higher key, or lower? Speed up the tempo or leave it the same? Definitely not slower... except maybe at the end? No, scratch that. He wanted anger, he wanted wrath. He wanted everyone to understand he was singing about the death of trust.

About betrayal.

About the master for whom he'd done everything he'd ever been asked, only to be left alone for nine hundred years, then condemned for something he hadn't even done yet.

Okay, so maybe it was mostly about Merlin. But if Zoe wanted to think it was a little bit about her, too, he was fine with that.

By the time Archie came up to drag him downstairs for a meal, Douxie thought he had a song that might work.

And maybe might even be a little bit magic.

Are you going to Camelot fair?
Magic lessons and roses and time
Remember me to someone who's there
For they once were a true friend of mine

You told me to make you a fine cambric shirt
Magic lessons and roses and time
Without any seam or needle work
And then I'd be a true friend of thine

And I should wash it in yonder dry well,
Magic lessons and roses and time
Where no water sprung, nor a drop of rain fell,
And then I'd be a true friend of thine

You told me to find you an acre of land
Magic lessons and roses and time
Between the salt water and the sea strands
Then I'd be a true friend of thine

And I should reap it with a sickle of leather
Magic lessons and roses and time
And gather it all in a bunch of heather
Then I'd be a true friend of thine

I did all you asked but it wasn't enough
Magic lessons and roses and time
For you took, and took, and gave nothing up
Until we reached the end of the line

Beware of betrayers with bargains so fair
Magic lessons and roses and time
Who take your trust but give you not theirs
Because they were no true friend of mine


Holy crap, it's cold! Claire thought, shivering already despite having layered a sweater between her shirt and her snow jacket. And they'd only been off the gyre for a couple minutes, parking it at the shore of the lake.

Everyone else looked similarly shocked by the Siberian temperatures. Even Blinky was rubbing his arms.

Douxie finished transmuting his hoodie into what looked like a very warm (if goth) robe-cloak thing, and looked at the rest of them. He rolled his eyes and smiled. Then gathered his bandaged hands close to his face and whispered into them, something humming and blue that she couldn't quite hear over the wind blowing the snowflakes around.

Tiny motes of light ghosted from his fingertips and shot to each of them, sinking in to their chests and spreading a thin blue ripple of light out.

Claire sighed in relief as the cold became... well, not warm, but less biting.

Beside her, Darci finished hacking her guts up onto the ground, and shakily stood. "Yeah, the gyre's like that until you get used to it," said Claire, helping her to her feet. Not far away, Jim was pulling Eli up.

"You could have warned me," Darci complained.

"Pssht, I've been on worse roller coasters," Mary dismissed. "And because I'm a good friend, I'm not going to put you puking all over social." She turned slowly, cellphone in hand, searching for good shots. Claire heard her shutter noise clicking as she took pictures of the gyre until satisfied, then she walked over to Douxie.

"She's crazy," said Darci.

Claire shrugged. "She's Mary." And a wizard, which was a weird thought but she had to admit it made sense. "Maybe she's weird because she's a wizard?" asked Claire. "I mean, I'm getting the sense we're all a little bit screwballs."

"You'd have to be, to be used to that." Mary gestured at the gyre.

"All right, camera one is good, but there's not much to see except snow, snow, and, hey, more snow!" said Toby, panning around. He lowered his equipment and cupped hands around his mouth, shouting "Hey, Mary! Get Douxie to put some style on his robes. Black shows up lousy on camera!"

Mary, standing next to Douxie, nodded and yelled back "Get some footage of the speedball thing!"

"Ooh, good idea!" Toby said, trundling off to presumably get a wider view.

Douxie, meanwhile, just looked aggrieved at the slight to his wardrobe choices.

"I'm okay," Eli was saying to Jim.

"Good." Jim turned to look at Douxie. The wizard nodded toward the lake - let's get on with it, shall we? - and Jim held up a finger then pointed toward Toby - give him just a minute to get some footage. Douxie nodded, and he, Archie, and Blinky made their way back from the shore to the rest of their group.

"Right, that's enough of this," Archie said, shifting into something long and slinky, and darting inside Douxie's hood. There was a wriggling under the cloth, then gold eyes wearing glasses peered out from one side of Douxie's neck, a furry tail barely visible on the other.

"What happened to 'dragons have fire in our bellies; I'm not afraid of any cold'?" Douxie snarked.

"Yes, well, I'm also quite happy to leach warmth from you," Archie said.

"Uh-huh." Douxie eyed Darci and Eli, who still looked a bit shaky, and conjured glasses of water for them. "Rinse and spit," he said, and dug in his pockets while they did so. "Gods tend to take offense at any sign of sickness being brought near them."

"Being fair, I don't like being sick either," Eli muttered.

"For different reasons, I think," Douxie said, and passed them each a peppermint.

"Have you dealt with many gods?" Darci asked.

He shrugged. "A few. They're always terrifying."

"How are we doing this?" Jim asked as Toby finished and made his way back to them.

Douxie looked at her. "Claire, you up to dowsing our way across the ice?"

"I'll... try?" she offered.

"You don't have to get us dead on top of the Lady, just give us an idea of direction and distance if you can," said Douxie.

"C'mon, man," Toby complained as he rejoined their group, gesturing at Douxie's robes. "Something other than plain black, please. It sucks on camera and doesn't look all wizard-y."

Douxie huffed a sigh and snapped his fingers. Instantly his robe stared glowing, designs snaking their way up from the hems and cuffs and on the hood around his face. They settled into a blue and white that covered most of the garment with what looked like runes and spellwork. "Better?"

"Much," said Toby happily.

Claire squinted at the patterns, then suddenly grinned, looking at Douxie. He smirked back, both of them acknowledging the skulls in the repeating design, as well as the "ADP" that was scrawled in a stylized script.

Mary's eyes were wide. "Think you can teach me to do that?"

Douxie shrugged. "Maybe. But come on, let's go search for the lake lady. Those warming spells won't last forever."


Jim didn't like the ice and snow. It reminded him too much of fighting Skrael, of fighting Skrael's titan. Of watching Strickler sacrifice himself and it buying them nothing except his mother's heartbreak.

But he dutifully shuffled along with the rest of them, following Claire's lead out onto the ice. Within five minutes, the gyre had disappeared entirely, and he just hoped they were going to be able to find it when it was time to leave. Because they'd been walking for a lot longer than five minutes by now.

Beyond that, Jim was hyperaware that they were walking over a frozen lake and that the water under the ice was very deep, and very cold, and that they were trying to meet a monster goddess who had eaten people in the past. (Even if he wouldn't argue too hard against her eating Merlin.)

On the other hand, she was the one who had made Excalibur, and told Douxie that the sword was meant to do good.

She was the reason he was a divine king.

Was he supposed to kneel to her? He remembered Merlin telling him that it was traditional to kneel before wizards, and a goddess had to trump a wizard. Though Douxie didn't seem to buy into the whole thou-shalt-kneel-before-a-wizard thing. Still, kneeling would be polite, right?

What if she wouldn't help him?

What if she didn't approve of Jim? Could she take Excalibur away? It was her sword, it was just kind of on loan. She totally could take it away if she thought he was too weak or whatever.

"Jim," said Douxie, "stop overthinking."

"I'm not overthinking!" he defended himself.

"You most certainly are," Blinky disagreed from his other side.

Ahead of them, Claire stopped. Her ring was still dangling from her gloved hand, but it was no longer pulling forward, instead just swinging in a small circle. She turned back to face them, her irises glowing purple. Darci gasped; Mary ooh'ed; "Wow," Eli muttered.

"We're here," said Claire.

"Which means the Lady's probably right under us," said Douxie. He scanned the mostly flat ice around them. The snowstorm, fortunately, had died down, leaving only sporadic drifting flakes in the air. "Okay, everyone back up a bit." As everyone scrambled to obey, he spun the runes on his bracelet, selecting one then another. Power gathered in his hand. "Here goes," he said, and cast it down, where the power went through the ice like it was air, and continued downward, the blue glow getting lost in the water's depths.

A few moments later, the ice started vibrating.

"Back up back up back up!" Blinky yelped, fleeing. The rest of them ran right behind him.

The ice exploded.

A nightmare burst out of the depths.


"Holy crap," Toby whispered, his camera never failing. "Eli, tell me you got that?"

"I-I got it," Eli confirmed, his voice shaking.

Douxie was the first one bold enough to approach the monstrous goddess he had awoken. "My lady Nimue," he greeted, sweeping a bow.

A tentacle came up, touching his chin, tilting his face upwards. And, okay, Toby had known that Douxie was crazy, but he amended that to crazy with cast iron gronk-nuts because the wizard wasn't even breaking a sweat.

"Little wizard," the kraken-lady rumbled. "It has been some time."

"Indeed." And Douxie was smiling. "I bring you your champion, my Lady."

The tentacle withdrew. "Oh?"

Douxie gestured for Jim to come forward, and Jim did, though clearly with a lot more trepidation about the encounter than Douxie. "Um, hi?"

Nimue hummed. "James Lake Junior," she said, somehow knowing his name without it having been said. "And what makes you my champion?"

Jim's chin jerked up, his face hardening. But without any other reaction, he pulled his amulet out of his pocket and said the incantation. His armor appeared around him. With a flash of blue, Excalibur appeared in his hand.

"Interesting," Nimue said, her one huge eye fast on Jim. A tentacle poked at the amulet. "The blade powers this?"

"It was the only way, when we were reforging it," said Douxie.

She refocused on the wizard. "And why can I sense two swords?"

Douxie swallowed. "Arthur still has the other," he said. "He is the puppet of Skrael of the Northern Wind and Bellroc, Keeper of the Flame."

"The Arcane Order." Nimue seemed to consider this. A seal popped its head up out of the water, among the floating ice chunks around her. Then another, and another. "I cannot go against them," the goddess said. "But you think he can?"

"I can, and have," Jim said, answering for himself. Toby zoomed in on him. "I came back in time to give us all a better chance. But I..." His voice faltered. "I almost killed innocent people," Jim whispered. "The power almost ran away with me. I don't know how to be a king."

"No one does, in the beginning." Nimue sounded very old, and tired. "But since you desire not to be like Arthur..." She touched Jim on his forehead. A green gem formed there, followed by a silver and gold circlet surrounding it, supporting it. "This will help, little king, so long as you remain worthy." She was surrounded by seals now, and Toby remembered all too well Gatto just eating the trolls that served him. But Nimue merely patted the seals with her tentacles, and they arched up into the attention, like Nana with her cats.

Jim drew a shaky breath. "Thank you."

A pat on top of his head, like he was one of her seals.

"My Lady." Douxie knelt, drawing Nimue's attention back to himself. "Have you... any advice for me?"

She considered him. "You fear the prophecies of your former master."

He nodded. "I do, eldest of oracles."

"Merlin is... flawed," the goddess said, and Toby nearly choked on his spit because damn, that was the best summation he'd ever heard of the cranky old wizard. "His vision, for all his scrying, is limited. When you freed me, did it bring about the disaster he foretold?"

"No!" Douxie looked up at her, his face shocked at the suggestion.

"Then do not fear what may happen when you free others of the old kind," she said. "Some will be angry and wrathful, yes... but others just happy to be free once more. Though," she said sternly, "do not depend on their favors or gratitude."

"I would not dare," Douxie vowed. He bowed his head. "Thank you, my Lady."

Her gaze raked across the rest of them. Toby gulped and froze as her huge single eye lingered on him and his camera. It felt like she was looking right through him, seeing all that he was and every wrong he'd ever done. Weighing him. "Magic must return to Man for the world to survive. Make your film. Do good with it," she instructed.

Then, with an enormous splash, she disappeared back into the depths.

The seals followed her down, one by one, and then, like Nimue, were gone.