Your Future Hasn't Been Written Yet
by K. Stonham
first released 27th May 2022
"Whoa," Jack breathed, his eyes wide, at first sight of Heartstone Trollmarket.
Hisirdoux swallowed a smile. The feeling of first introducing someone to wonder was addictive, always had been. But somehow Trollmarket took that initial /look, there's magic in the world!/ feeling and amplified it a thousand times.
"It really is a pity that Arcadia's trolls and Arcadia's wizards historically haven't gotten on better," Archie said thoughtfully from Douxie's shoulder.
"No kidding," Jack said. "Uh, are photos allowed?" he asked. "Jamie's going to be so jealous already, and I want to be able to show him what it's like down here."
"I think photos are okay," Douxie said dubiously.
"You'd better check that thought by Vendel first," Archie advised. He jumped from Douxie's shoulder, poofing into his dragon form. "Well, come on," he said. "We haven't got all day."
Twirling his staff and resting it over his shoulder, Jack followed Archie and Douxie's lead, his eyes wide as he walked and looked around.
For their part, the trolls seemed mostly unbothered by yet another human invading their sanctuary. Jack sidestepped a pair of younglings who nearly ran into him as they played tag. "Huh. Guess some games are a constant."
"Did we learn it from them, or did they learn it from us?" Douxie shrugged. "Maybe humans and trolls used to play it together, back when our species were talking to one another."
Jack eyed him sidelong. "You're talking about ancient history. Older than you, even."
"Older than Merlin, even," Douxie agreed. "But A Brief Recapitulation of Wizard Lore insists there was a time we all got on better. If you read between the lines, that is."
"Geek," Jack accused.
"Says the one with a libriomancer for a roommate."
"There's a library, isn't there?" Jack asked. "Take me to the library. I must take photographs of it, to torment Jamie."
Douxie laughed. "The library shall be a stop on our tour," he promised. "But first Vendel, and then I have a bit of commerce to take care of."
Vendel eyed the white-haired human who stood beside Hisirdoux. He gave a heart-felt sigh. "And what is this one?" he asked the wizard.
"A fellow wizard," Hisirdoux told him. "Allow me to introduce Jackson Overland, cryomancer."
"Ooh, we're breaking out the fancy words," the white-haired wizard teased.
The black-haired one ignored him. "Jack, allow me to introduce Vendel, the Elder of Heartstone Trollmarket. Whose permission you kind of need to be down here. So don't be an ass."
"Good luck with that," the dragon muttered.
The white-haired wizard straightened, levity dropping from his face, though the smile remained. "It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance," he said in... less than perfect Trollish, dropping a few end affricatives. "If there is any service I may provide to your people, it will be my honor."
Hisirdoux and Archibald, Vendel noticed, were staring at Jackson with surprise written large across their faces. It made Vendel want to smile; the pair of them were often too certain in their superiority. Wizards, he thought, always thought they knew everything.
"You are welcome to Heartstone Trollmarket," Vendel told Jackson. "Do harm to none, and welcome you shall remain, friend."
The wizard grinned widely. "Awesome," he said.
Following Douxie and Archie around Trollmarket involved a lot of stopping for short chats, for quick requests for magic repairs (which Jack watched with interest and no little jealousy; for all that he'd tried now and again in the past, his own magic was stuck firmly in winter mage mode), and for darting in and out of shops to barter for salmon jerky (cost: a bunch of bottle caps) for Archie, and two dozen perfect quartz crystals for Douxie. Jack ran his hand over them, appreciating the cool, smooth facets, as Douxie kept pulling a ridiculous number of items out of his backpack. Finally a price was agreed on: twelve empty two-liter soda bottles, a bunch of tin cans, and a carton of raw eggs, which the troll smashed with one huge stony fist, then gobbled up entire, carton and all.
"Huh." Jack stopped petting the crystals and picked one of them up, peering at it closely.
"What's toward?" Douxie asked him, stuffing things back into his apparently limitless backpack.
Jack picked one of the crystals out of the stack and held it up to the light, peering into its depths. Something was in there...
Letting his staff fall against his shoulder, he touched his other palm to the crystal and closed his eyes, seeking. "There's a seed of winter magic in this one," he reported.
"Really?" Douxie leaned in close to peer at it, inspecting. "Huh. Fascinating."
"That one's, uh, double price!" the shopkeeper tried.
Douxie laughed. "Nice try, mate, but we already paid."
The troll shrugged, unoffended. "It was worth a shot."
Jack snickered. "Yeah." He pinged a fingernail against the crystal, sending the slightest pulse of his magic into it.
Within, a snowflake illuminated, then disappeared. Frost crawled up Jack's fingers, originating from the crystal.
Douxie looked thoughtfully at the crystal, then at Jack. But, "Come on. You wanted to see the library?" was all he asked, packing away his purchases.
Jack wondered what was going through Douxie's head. He was sure it was something. But "Okay," was all he said, handing the crystal over.
Jamie's phone buzzed in his pocket. He ignored it until Ms. Davies had paid for her books and gone out the door. Then, store empty once more, he pulled the cell phone out to check his messages.
Jack had sent him something, he saw. Opening the message, he found a picture. Of his best friend posing with a four-armed, six-eyed troll, cheesy smile plastered broad across Jack's face. And behind them were...
/Wish you were here!/ said Jack's text.
Jamie hit the call button.
"Are you down in Trollmarket?" he demanded the instant Jack picked up. "Is that a library?"
"Yes, and yes, and how's your day going?" Jack chirped.
"I will strangle you through the phone, Jack. How the hell did you get down there?"
"Eh, I saved Casperan's bacon this morning and he let me tag along."
Jamie blinked. "Beth...?" he asked cautiously.
"Nah, a couple guys from HexTech, and a couple more I didn't recognize," Jack answered easily.
Jamie's shoulders eased. At least he wasn't in the middle of a bookshop civil war. (Yet, he amended.)
Then he thought about the picture again, about the rows and rows of leather-bound books stretching away behind Jack, who had almost no interest in them. Jamie whimpered. "Can you please, please beg Douxie to let me come down there too?"
"Beg him yourself."
"Ja~ack."
A snicker. "Fine, fine, I'll plead your case. Seriously, though, you work with the guy, wouldn't it be easier for you to do it?"
"I'm just a kid," Jamie reminded him. "You're ancient like him. He'll listen to you."
A muffled rumbling, as of a phone being passed over. "Tell you what," said Hisirdoux Casperan. "You help me figure out how to get Blinky here into the bookshop, and I'll ask both him and Vendel about giving you access to Trollmarket. Sound good?"
"Deal!" Jamie said instantly.
Douxie laughed. "Keep the ship tight, captain. I'll see you at shift change tomorrow."
"Aye-aye, admiral!" Jamie said to Douxie, who was technically the store's assistant manager. "Just don't get caught in any more time loops," he added.
"Oh! I miss a shift one time," Douxie said, mock-offended, then laughed and handed the phone back to Jack.
"I'll be home in time for dinner," Jack promised.
"You'd better. It's your turn to cook," Jamie reminded him. He hung up, and propped his head on a fist, trying to think. The bookshop closed at sunset; there was a spell laid on the building's cornerstone which granted longevity to any endeavor which "did not mix with the darkness of the night." Given how long GDT Arcane Books had been open, it was a pretty good bet that Mister Del Toro's interpretation of the spell had been the correct one.
How could he get someone who would be killed by sunlight, into a shop that was only open while the sun was up...?
"Gorgus' blessings upon you," Blinky told Douxie. "I do so long to see the interior of your bookstore. And doubtlessly purchase many of its wares."
"Yes, well, there may be such a thing as too many cooks in a kitchen, but more wizards can't hurt on this problem," Douxie replied.
"We can't portal you in, the building is warded against it," Archie counted from where he was examining the pages of a new tome. "It's California, so sneaking you in on a cloudy day is a bit difficult as well. I suppose we could get you up in a burka, but that would be rather noticeable, which we want to avoid."
"And hot," Jack added. He was perched, light as a snowflake, on the crook of his staff, which stood upright. It was rather an impressive feat of magical balance, Douxie thought. "Question, though. Why do you want to avoid attention?"
The three of them looked at him.
Jack spread his hands, shrugging. "You just, literally yesterday, threw down with a rampaging troll in front of high school students, letting a whole grade plus their teachers and, I dunno, the planetarium staff and some cops and stuff, know that magic's real and so are trolls and god only knows what else." His crystal blue gaze zeroed in on Douxie. "You've kind of already blown secrecy out of the water."
"My word," murmured Blinky.
"He... does have a point," Archie admitted.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm a genius of many talents," Jack said, hopping down. "So, can Jamie come down here, then?"
"I'll bring him down Friday and let Vendel vet him," Douxie said, mind spinning around Jack's insight. They were stopping hiding. This was... This changed everything, he realized. Not just for him personally. For all their team.
"And in the meantime, is there anything I could do for Trollmarket?" Jack asked. He might seem nonchalant, but he knew as well as Douxie did that the best way to build amity was through a network of exchanged favors. And given he wanted his best friend as well as himself to have entry to Trollmarket, the easiest way of assuring that access was to help the locals out.
Blinky blinked, and put his fingers to his chin, frowning in thought. "You are a winter mage, correct?"
"Yep, that's me. Snow and ice, wind and cold."
Which was Skrael's power set, Douxie suddenly realized. Skrael's exact power set. The thought alone wanted to chill him. But he couldn't imagine someone less like that sadistic member of the Arcane Order. Jack was all smiles and fun and good, clean cheer. He worked at a daycare, for Merlin's sake!
If Jack was Skrael's mortal counterpart, that would make Hiccup, with his forge and his fire, Bellroc's. And, again, Douxie would love to replace that demigod with someone who was actually steady and reasonable.
Would that make himself Nari? He'd never had any particular bends toward horticulture, though, so maybe...
Beth. She's good with plants, he thought, which broke the musings apart altogether. Because she hated him.
(Though Beth if hated him, where Nari liked him, maybe that would make the flip complete?)
Shaking his head, Douxie tried to banish his train of thought, because it was not helpful.
"You're thinking something," Archie murmured. "What are you thinking?"
"Just how much easier our lives would all be if we could swap Jack in for Skrael and Hiccup for Bellroc," Douxie murmured back.
Archie's ears went up. "My word. That would make our task easier, wouldn't it?" He considered the idea for a minute. "Unfortunately, I can't think of any way in which that would remotely be possible. And even if it was, it would be immeasurably cruel to both Jack and Hiccup."
"Yep," Douxie agreed. "But I'm allowed to daydream once in a while."
"You're allowed to daydream all you like," Archie told him, "so long as you keep your eyes on the goal."
"I'm afraid we trolls haven't much use for cold," Blinky was telling Jack. "It tends to stress our bodies; the possibility of frost fractures are thankfully low in Arcadia, but most of us remember how painful they were. That said," he added contemplatively, "there must be some use we might be able to find for your abilities."
Jack exchanged a look with Douxie and Archie, then shrugged. "Snowball fights?" he asked. "Ice skating?"
"Ice... skating?" Blinky seemed taken aback.
"Would that even work for trolls?" Douxie asked. "I mean, they're heavy-no offense, Blinky-and I thought ice skating required the knife's edge of the blade to really work."
Jack grinned, his eyes glinting ice blue. "Oh, what little you know, Douxie."
"Do you know," Archie said very shortly later, "I'm not quite sure this was what the troll Elders had in mind when this was first built."
"Oh, hush, Arch, and let them have their fun," Douxie said.
The pair of them were stationed in the spectator seats, well up and out of the way of the village of trolls down below, who shrieked and shouted with delight as they slid across the slick surface of the Forge's floor, covered as it was in foot-thick ice. They both instinctively cringed as a crash right below them shook the very stone they stood on. Laughter bellowed up.
"Well." Archie adjusted his glasses. "At least they're having a good time."
Toby sat waiting on the Lakes' sofa, fingers fiddling with his beret. He was here to do filming, he was going to look the part, darn it! "So, I'm thinking close-in shots, and then a cut out to a wider view of Douxie's spell circle thingamajigs-"
Mary, on her phone as always, snorted. "Wow, really using the technical terms there."
Toby ignored her. "Depending on what spells he uses we might end up with a bit of lens flare..."
"Trendy," Eli said from the other end of the sofa.
"Yeah, but do we really want to be going with the trend? I mean, avant-garde is where it's at," Toby mused.
The front door to the house opened and closed. "I'm home," Douxie's voice called out.
"We're in here, Doux," Toby called back.
"Lovely." There was the sound of the hallway closet opening then closing, then the wizard himself made an appearance around the corner.
Toby's eyes went wide. "What happened to you, man?!"
Douxie's jeans, shirt, and hoodie were all shredded. There were obvious signs of road rash and dried blood showing through the tears.
"Got into a bit of a tiff with some other wizards," Douxie reported, sinking into the armchair.
"We were ambushed," Archie corrected, jumping up onto the armchair's head rest and stretching out along it.
Mary was staring at Douxie, phone forgotten in her hand. "Who...?"
"Caleb," Douxie replied. "He works with Zoe at HexTech. Don't know the other three. I don't think they'll go after you for being associated with me, but." He shrugged. "I'll have some panic button necklaces for both of you in the morning," he said to her and Eli.
Eli's eyes were big behind his glasses. "Panic buttons?" he asked, voice cracking.
Douxie held up his; Toby fished his own out from under his sweater vest. "Break them, and it instantly alerts everyone in the network that you need help," Douxie explained.
"So, um." Eli pushed his glasses up. "Who is in the network?"
"Me, Jimbo, and Claire," Toby listed, counting on his fingers. "Douxie, obviously. Doctor L."
"I'm going to be adding a lot more people in over the next couple days," Douxie said.
"You don't have one?" Mary asked Archie.
He sniffed. "Anything that could part me from Douxie will have already caused an alert."
"Do you want one?" the wizard asked his familiar.
Who swatted him atop the head with a paw. "Don't be daft. We have our familiar bond. Why on Earth would I need one?"
"Fair enough," Douxie conceded. "So," he said, turning his attention back to the others. "Filming?"
Mary eyed him up and down. "Not until you change clothing."
Douxie rolled his eyes, scrolled through his spell bracelet, and selected a rune. Blue light washed over him. When it cleared, his clothes looked like new - no rips, tears, or dust present.
"You still need to disinfect and bandage your wounds," Archie told him.
"Yes, but at least I'm presentable now," Douxie argued.
Toby shook his head, though. "The black's going to show up horrible on camera-"
"Toby," Douxie said flatly, "pick your battles. This is one you're not going to win."
Sighing, Toby submitted.
"One of the plus sides of the guy's videos is that they're always in the same location!" Mary brandished her phone as she argued. "A constant setting puts the focus on what you're doing, not where you're doing it."
"Look," Douxie said plaintively, "how about we just set this up to film in my bedroom for now, and we argue about brand consistency later?"
"Why your bedroom?"
He ticked off points on his fingers. "It's warded against... well, rather a lot. It's visually and magically unidentifiable, so no one watching the videos will be able to track them to here. And it's my space, so not a common area like down here," he said, his gesture encompassing the whole living room, "or someone else's territory."
"Someone else's territory?" Mary asked.
"The kitchen is Jim's," Douxie told her. "And Barbara's turned the basement into her studio. It would be unspeakably rude of me to do my own projects in either of those areas."
The teenagers exchanged glances. "Is this some kind of archaic wizardly etiquette...?" Toby finally asked.
"Yes," Archie told him.
"Ugh, fine, whatever," Mary said. "Let's just go set up and test film something."
"You don't, like, have pictures of naked girls on the walls or anything, do you?" Eli asked nervously. "Because I really don't think that's the kind of, um, vibe we're going for."
"Oh my God, Eli," Mary said. "Never say 'vibe' again."
Huffing, Douxie turned and went up the stairs. They'd follow him or not. He bit back a wince; now that he'd actually sat down and stopped moving for a few minutes, his knee and shoulder were reminding him that they'd like a bit of medical attention. That can wait, he thought. Right now he wanted to strike while the iron was hot, get a couple of spells filmed and in the can, and after the filmmaking trio had left, then he'd deal with various aches and pains.
Painkillers and naps later, he promised himself.
"In here," he said, opening the door to his and Archie's room, and feeling obscurely glad that he'd made his bed that morning. Even if it had been, as Archie had accused at the time, him /stalling/.
The trio looked around his room. Neat, tidy, off-white walls...
"Are you sure you live here, Doux?" Toby asked.
"What?" Douxie's brow wrinkled.
"I mean, like, no offense, but... this could be a hotel room. You could at least put up a poster or something."
"I've got my guitar!" Douxie pointed to where it rested on its stand in the corner, with his mini-amp sitting by it.
"Yeesh." Mary finished taking her own look around the room and turned back to Douxie. "No, I get that you travel light, but this is a bit much."
"Does Doctor L. know your room looks like this?" Toby asked. "Because it totally looks like you're not planning to stay, dude."
"I am staying," Douxie protested. "I don't need tchotchkes all over the place to prove that."
"Yeah, but... there's no you in this room," Eli protested. "It's impersonal."
"Isn't that what we want?" Douxie asked plaintively.
"No," said Toby. "We need atmosphere! We need to set the scene. And this," he said scornfully, with a wave of a hand at Douxie's /neat, tidy/ bedroom, "is not the scene."
Archie leapt up onto Douxie's shoulder and murmured into his ear, "I suspect you're going to come to regret Toby's involvement in this project."
"I already do," Douxie replied, sotto voce. Louder, he asked, "All right, where should we film this, then?"
"Uhh... the bookstore?"
"Out of the question," Douxie told Toby. "I am not the owner."
"Then. Um." Toby bit his lip and seemed to be thinking about it. "Uh."
"We film here, or nowhere." Douxie crossed his arms. "The point of this is that it's magic in normal life, not magic in an unusual, magical location. This bedroom or nowhere."
"Fine," Toby huffed. "This isn't going to win us any awards, you realize."
"I'm not in it for accolades," Douxie told him. "I'm in it to win the long game. Now let's set up."
"Hello, I'm Hisirdoux Casperan. This is my lovely assistant-"
"Associate."
"Ahem, associate, Archie. Today I'll be performing a summoning spell from Magica Nostrum, 1629." Douxie cracked open a book that was probably older than the country they were all living in. "Now, this is a fairly minor spell, but it hasn't been dusted off in a long time. So let's give it a go. Arch, have you got the bananas?"
"Right here."
Toby's eyebrows raised as Douxie produced chalk-out of literally nowhere-and used it to start sketching a design on the floor.
"Now, the instructions say to use the Pfaltzengraff Runic Layout." Douxie glanced up at the camera. "No one's used that layout for three centuries because it's inefficient, takes three times the power to fuel it, and it's ugly! Nonetheless, we persevere."
"Not that you have opinions," Archie murmured.
"Not that you agree with them," Douxie shot back, his hand never stopping as he drew.
Douxie, Toby suddenly realized, was good on camera. He was practically a natural.
"All right," Douxie said, finishing. "Now we put the bananas in the center of the circle." He sat back on his heels as Archie did just that, setting a pair of blackened bananas on the carpet. "According to the book, this ought to rejuvenate spent fruit, veg, etcetera. Though I have serious doubts as to whether it's worth the magical effort. Unless, I suppose, your king needs a feast right now and the poor kitchen staff are likely to get sacked or beheaded if they fail to deliver."
Douxie smiled at the camera and flexed his fingers, gathering power around his hand until it was surrounded by a blue globe of light. "Here goes."
He slapped his hand down on the rune right in front of him, and the whole array lit up.
For a second, nothing happened.
Then the bananas brightened, seemed to quiver, and grew distinctly more yellow. And yellower and yellower, and green.
And then they started to shrink.
Until they disappeared altogether.
Douxie stared as the blue magic powering the runic circle petered out, and the chalk marks began to smoke black. "Well. That was. Not what I expected," he admitted.
"Indeed." Archie was staring wide-eyed at the empty circle. "No banana bread today, I suppose."
Douxie drew a deep breath and looked back up at the camera with a wide smile. "And with that, we understand why the search for a magical fountain, or in this case spell, of youth remains an unfulfilled quest. See you next time!"
Just then, the fire alarm out in the hall started to shriek.
"Fuzzbuckets-" Douxie lunged for the window.
"And, cut!" said Toby.
Douxie frantically magically wafted the smoke out the window until the alarm stopped screaming.
"That was amazing," Eli gushed.
"Eh, basic spellwork." Douxie shook out his wrist.
"No, I mean your screen presence!" There were practically stars in Eli's eyes. "Have you ever been in a movie before?"
"Eh." Douxie rubbed the back of his neck and looked ceilingward. "Once or twice."
"Attempting modesty, I see." Archie leapt up onto the bed.
Mary looked back and forth between the two of them. "Spill, Douxie," she commanded.
"I... may have been a movie actor," Douxie confessed. "About a century ago."
"A star, rather," Archie corrected.
"Arch, cut it out!" the wizard hissed.
"Hisirdoux Casperan, romantic ingenue," Archie said. "The name alone made girls swoon."
"Wait, what?" Toby demanded.
"You know that thing about how I'm legally, barely, Hisirdoux Casperan the Fourteenth...?" Douxie asked, still not looking at anyone. "Well, Hisirdoux Casperan the Eighth had a Hollywood film career shortly after we immigrated to America..."
"How have I never heard of this before?" Mary demanded, fingers frantic on her phone. Probably Googling him.
"Three-quarters of all silent films have been lost to time," Archie informed her. "Including, for better or worse, all of Douxie's."
"For better," the wizard retorted. "Gods, those were so cringe."
Mary pointed at him. "Old people don't get to say cringe."
"Old?" The 917-year-old wizard looked offended. "Me?"
"Yes, you, Mister Silent Movie Star," Mary sassed.
"I am too young to be sensible," Douxie complained to Archie, "and too old to be en vogue, apparently."
Unconcerned, the cat groomed himself. "That's why I don't try."
Author's Note: My Wonderful Husband beta-read this chapter for me and asked if the "no businesses open after dark" spell on the cornerstone of the bookshop's building was an anti-bordello spell. Me: "Well, it is now." Also, the spell on the building was probably laid by the Freemasons. Because if anyone is likely to be an organization of wizards hiding in plain sight, it's the Masons. ^_^
