sakon76

Your Future Hasn't Been Written Yet
by K. Stonham
first released 4th August 2021

The bell to GDT Arcane Books chimed as Jim pushed open the door.

As usual, the shop was empty. Douxie peered down from over the railing to the second floor and he gave half a wave. "Hello, Jim. Training over already?"

"Toby's at it," Jim reported, "but I had practice for the school play today. That's done so I thought I'd see how you were doing."

"Yes, well." Douxie swept a hand at the expansive emptiness. "As you can see, I'm keeping quite busy."

"Yeah." Jim laughed and mounted the stairs. "Hey, how much of this stuff is real and how much is..."

"Bunkum?"

"Yeah, that."

Douxie looked at the book in his hand then snapped it shut. "It's a mix," he said, reshelving the book. "Some of it's plain fantasy, some of it's historical stuff, compendiums of legends and such. A few books are genuine tomes of magic. Got wards on those. And there's a back room, for special customers, of volumes written in, shall we say, more esoteric scripts."

"Maybe I should tell Blinky about this place." Jim leaned against the railing. Hisirdoux joined him, grinning.

"Well, from what you've said about him, that'd be a good way to get one serious customer in the shop."

"Do you ever actually sell any books?"

Douxie shrugged. "Some, mostly to tourists, psychics real and false, New Agers and those people who consider themselves mystics or who want to be. Enough for Mister Del Toro to make the rent, I guess."

"Not many to wizards?"

Douxie rolled his eyes. "The few who want to research in books tend to use this place as a library."

"What's wrong with books?"

"Not as easy to update as the Internet."

"Ah." Jim could see that. "I'm guessing that's the HexTech gang?"

Douxie looked surprised. "You know them?"

"Yeah, you introduced us to them in the future."

"Huh." Douxie looked out over the empty shop for a minute, then straightened. "Come on into the back. I'll lock up, make us some tea, and we can discuss whatever you really came to talk about."

The back room was somewhere between cramped and cozy, with two ratty-looking armchairs and an ottoman, a beat-up table between them, and a camp bed neatly made up and tucked halfway out of sight. Place of pride was given to Douxie's guitar stand. A counter next to the half-bath held an electric kettle and a hotplate. Jim sat and watched as the wizard measured herbs into a trio of tea balls, put them in mismatched mugs, and poured water on. A plate with half a packet of cookies completed the set.

The room was scrupulously clean, and as cheerful as it could be given the circumstances, but it was clearly the abode of someone whose resources were the curb, the dumpster, and the thrift store. There was nothing, except maybe the guitar, that Douxie or Archie would regret leaving behind if they had to run.

Stretching and yawning, Archie appeared from the hidden half of the bed as Douxie set the cups on the table.

"It's my own mix," Douxie said, with a nod to the mugs. "It's never the same twice."

"Still quoting that movie, Douxie?" asked Archie.

"It was a good movie!" Douxie defended. "Or would you rather be stuck with a wizard more like Howl?"

"No thank you," Archie replied. "The wizard I've got suits me just fine."

Douxie smiled. "I love you, too, Arch. So," he said, as he took his own seat, "what did you want to talk about, Jim?"

"You know," Jim said, with another look around the room, "before I met you, I'd always thought that someone who lived for centuries would have built up a fortune over time."

"Hard to save up money or build a career when you have to move every five years or so," Douxie replied, unpeturbed.

"And if you don't, well..." said Archie. He and Douxie shared a look that filled in quite a lot of gaps in history for Jim.

"Running's just a way of life, I'm afraid," said Douxie.

Jim remembered another time, another way, when Douxie had promised Nari no more running. He hoped that part of that future, at least, would still come to be. "Do you even have a social security number?"

"I had one, in the nineteen-thirties," Douxie replied. "As someone who doesn't actually look around a century old now, it's functionally useless." He shrugged and took a drink of tea. "Legally, I'm Hisirdoux Casperan the Fourteenth."

"Previously the Thirteenth, the Twelfth..." Archie murmured.

Douxie ignored him. "Practically, I exist mostly off the books. It's a lot easier and less morally grey than mucking about with the government and faking documents."

"Morally grey?" Jim asked.

Douxie grimaced. "Look, I may not have always been a strictly upright individual, but if there's one thing Merlin drilled into me, it's that it's an easy, slippery slope toward the dark end of magic, and if you let yourself take the first step in that direction, it becomes all too easy to take the next."

"And forever your destiny shall it dominate," Archie agreed. "Unfortunately, this also means Douxie's limited in the type of employment he can take. Dragons never have problems with such nonsense - nothing wrong with a nice bit of treasure for one's hoard. But, regardless, thus our genteel poverty."

"So," Douxie said, "what did you want to talk about?"

"Healing magic," Jim replied.

Archie and Douxie exchanged a raised-eyebrows glance. "What about it?" Archie asked.

"Does it exist?"

"Well." Douxie set his cup on the table, leaned forward slightly. "To my knowledge, yes... and no."

"Yes and no?"

"It exists," Archie said, "in legend."

"Master Merlin said it was real," Douxie corroborated, "but that he'd never personally met anyone who could do it. He had one text on it that he put any stock in." He pinched his fingers close together. "Very thin, scanty on the details. Seemed to hang together, though. He practically made me memorize it. I think he was hoping it would work for me, because healing magic would be invaluable. And I gave it a real go." Douxie shook his head. "Magic may be mastery over life, but I can't do healing any more than he could."

"So, maybe real, possibly mythical, either way unlikely to come our way?" Jim summarized.

Douxie nodded. "Pretty much. Why do you want to know?"

Jim let out a long sigh. "I'm worried about Tobes. I know Draal's going to keep coming after him until he finds a way to get the amulet."

"And with Merlin's Amulet, that means the death of the previous bearer." Douxie's expression was serious. "And you want to keep him from getting hurt."

"I didn't reset the whole timeline just to lose my best friend again!" Jim burst out. He immediately regretted it, covered his face with his hands. "Sorry."

"It's all right," Douxie said after a minute. "Can't say what I'd do if Archie was killed in front of me, either."

"Or I you, Douxie," the cat-dragon murmured.

"Still. Draal," the wizard said. "Any way to get him to change his mind?"

Jim breathed a laugh, slumped back into the chair. "He'd never listen to a fleshbag like me. Not yet, anyway. It took me months to get him to like me the first time around."

Douxie hummed for a minute. "But you're not in the same position you were the first time around, are you?" he pointed out.

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Douxie said, picking out a cookie and examining it before looking back at Jim, "this time you're not his rival for the thing he wants, are you?"

"For the amulet of his father? No." Jim turned the thought over in his mind. Still-- "But I'm still just a human as far as he's concerned."

Douxie's smile was devious. "So prove him wrong."

"What, with... with this?" Jim pulled his amulet out of his pocket, tossed it on the table between them.

"Why not?" asked Douxie. "If he won't listen to an unblooded Trollhunter, then maybe one who can kick his butt might catch his attention."

"There's no way I could do that without telling him the whole thing!"

"And why's that such a bad option?" Douxie asked. "After all, you told Archie and me."

Jim couldn't come up with a response to that.

"May I?" Douxie gestured at the amulet.

"Go ahead."

Douxie's long fingers picked up the amulet and raised it. He examined the engraved words. "For the good of all, daylight is mine to command," he read aloud.

Green light crackled up his arm. Douxie's eyes flew wide.

Magic exploded out of the amulet.

"Douxie!" Archie yelled.

"Douxie!" Jim gasped.

As the blinding light ebbed, a last line of emerald static writhed through Hisirdoux's hair, then vanished. He looked stunned.

"Oh," said Douxie. He blinked twice, then looked at Jim, eyes widening. "Jim?" he asked. He sounded strange.

"Douxie! Douxie, are you all right?" Archie demanded, jumping on his lap and redirecting Douxie's gaze with a paw.

"Archie? Oh snagbits, it's good to see you!" Douxie grabbed his familiar and clutched him close.

"What do you mean? You see me all the time. What has that amulet done to you?" Archie demanded, squirming, checking him over.

"You got yourself and your father trapped in the Trollmarket in Hong Kong, you wit! I thought I'd never see you again."

"What-- how do you know about my dad?!"

"Wait," Jim interrupted, half standing. "Douxie. You remember?"

Douxie blinked a few times. "It seems so," he said wonderingly.

Happiness, and something that felt like hope, bloomed hard and fast behind Jim's breastbone. "But... how? Nari said 'Only Trollhunter will know'!"

Archie looked back and forth between them. "Wait. What? You remember the same future that Jim does, Douxie?"

"Looks like it," Douxie said. He looked at the amulet still in his hand. His eyes narrowed. "Archie. Touch this and read the invocation."

Archie touched the amulet, but hesitated. "You're sure about this, Douxie?"

"Of course not. Try it anyway."

"How reassuring," Archie muttered, but did as bid.

Nothing happened.

"Got any memories back?" Hisirdoux asked hopefully.

"Not a one," Archie informed his familiar, then jumped onto the back of Douxie's chair. He settled, washed a paw over his head twice, then asked, "Why you and not me?"

Douxie looked at the amulet for a minute longer, flipped it over, even, then handed it back to Jim. "Maybe because I helped make it, both times?" he hazarded.

"But why didn't it kick in until after you read the inscription?" Jim asked. "If it was because you made the amulet, shouldn't it have known you when you picked it up?"

"Some magic's voice activated," Douxie mused, leaning forward, fingers laced beneath his chin, elbows on his knees. He was clearly turning the problem over in his mind. "But no, I think you're right. That's not why."

Jim thought about it a moment longer, then his eyes widened. "The ninth configuration," he realized. "That's why you remember and Archie doesn't!"

Douxie's eyes widened. "By Bran's tongue, I think you're right. That has to be it!"

"The ninth configuration?" Archie inquired from his perch.

Douxie waved a hand. "Happened after you and Charlie got yourself trapped in a Trollmarket under a collapsing bridge. Nari gave us a prophecy, or some words of advice at least, that the Trollhunter,"

"Or Trollhunters," Jim put in,

"Needed to make the 'ninth configuration'," Douxie continued. "Which, as it happened, was eight of us laying on hands while Jim pulled Excalibur from the stone." Archie's eyes widened. "And since one of Excalibur's gems now powers the amulet, that means that the amulet knows the eight of us. And since the amulet holds the Time Stone," Douxie continued, voice rising in excitement, "if we each read the invocation, it means we can all get our future memories back!"

"Well," said Archie dryly, blinking, "that will certainly make your quest to fix the timeline easier."

"So," said Jim, mind skipping ahead two or three beats, "we need to talk strategy. Also, do you guys want to come over for dinner Friday night?"

Author's Note: Douxie references two Studio Ghibli films: The Cat Returns, and Howl's Moving Castle. (The latter of which is very different than the book upon which it was based; both are stellar.) And Archie, of course, quotes from The Empire Strikes Back. Also, I cannot even imagine the headaches an immortal would have dealing with a computerized bureaucracy. I have the feeling the HexTech mages have absolutely no problems (magical or moral) with altering their own records. Douxie, OTOH, does have qualms, and thus his problems. (As well as another level of slight disconnect from the only other magic-users we know of in Arcadia, isolating him further.)

It has also struck me that one thing we do not see in Tales of Arcadia is any kind of healing magic. Draal, a member of a living rock species, gets a working prosthetic, yes, and Aaarrrgghh gets depetrified, but that's it. Morgana's replacement hand is stationary and nonfunctional. No one ever heals anyone up after damage. And if neither Merlin or "I can fix this!" Douxie knows any healing spells, then I'm inclined to think that they flat-out don't exist in their universe. And that is a fascinating obvious hole to poke at.

Also, I'm not the first to do this, but Nari's grasp on English grammar rules isn't always the tightest. And given that Jim has long been insistent that they are all Trollhunters, and Excalibur's insistence on him having his allies around it while he pulled it from the stone, the ability to give them their memories felt a logical leap for me to take. (My big deus ex machina in this story is the simple "his bonded amulet travelled back with Jim" premise. I'm trying to make that foundational basis the only deus ex machina.)