sakon76

Your Future Hasn't Been Written Yet
by K. Stonham
first released 8th November 2021

If Draal wasn't distracted by meeting his father's eyes for the first time in... years, it would have seemed to happen in slow motion.

Instead, Usurna pulled a knife out of her robes and slashed at Vendel almost as fast as lightning.

Draal caught her arm in time, but only just. The tip of the blade hovered a millimeter away from Vendel's pale skin. Usurna snarled and tried to shove it just a bit farther, to make the contact that would surely doom Vendel, but Krubera though she was, Draal had spent years building up his strength, hoping to make his father proud.

He was a stone she could not budge.

"Well, that's a nasty little blade," Douxie's voice cut across the distance, across the utter shocked silence that had befallen Trollmarket. Blue light suddenly limned Usurna's hand, forcing her fingers apart. The knife drifted away even as Draal restrained her.

When it reached the wizard, he circled his hands around the hovering weapon, encasing it in a blue bubble. "Venenum Revelare," he incanted; the blade flashed bright white, blinding everyone for an instant. "It's definitely poisoned," Merlin's apprentice reported, looking up at Vendel and Usurna and Draal. "I'll wager Creeper's Sun, but I'd need to do more extensive diagnostics to confirm that."

Usurna snarled and thrashed, trying to escape. She failed.

And Draal... Draal looked to his father's ghost, inhabiting the body of Aaarrrgghh. Kanjigar meet his gaze, and nodded.

And smiled, proud of Draal as he never was in life.

Then a blue glow rose from Aaarrrgghh and Toby both, and the spirits of the past Trollhunters returned to the Soothscryer, their mission complete.

The traitor revealed, for all to see.

Usurna was locked in a cage with which Jim was all too familiar. It felt good, to have her exposed and ready to be dealt with. He ignored her shouted threats as Draal chose from among the volunteers to have a rotation of guards on her until she could be dealt with. He ignored the soft murmuring of Vendel politicking with the Krubera, helping them reconcile their queen's treachery, figuring out how they could explain it back home, asking how they would choose a new leader since Usurna had been theirs for thousands of years.

He ignored it all, in favor of the citizens of Trollmarket, who didn't seem to know what to make of him, now that it had been revealed that he, too, was a Trollhunter.

"Sooo," Toby said, sidling up to Jim, "I have an idea."

Jim turned his head. "An idea?"

Toby grinned. "Well, I still haven't dealt with Bagdwella's gnome revolt...."

Jim had to grin. "Think they've taken over her shop by now?"

"Oh yeah." Toby held out his hand for a fist bump. "Duty calls, Jimbo."

"Race you," Jim offered, bumping back.

"Okay. Three, two, one, go!" And Jim and Toby both laughed as they pelted off through the crowd, answering the call.

They were none of them exactly low-key, all being known close associates of the Trollhunters who were high in the populace's mind at the moment. But nonetheless the witch, the wizard, the dragon, and the two trolls quartered Trollmarket and combed through it, searching for their quarry, each of their phones armed with the identifying photo Blinky had taken.

To no effect.

"He's fled the coop," Blinky was forced to conclude as they reunited just shy of the crowd outside Bagdwella's shop. Wherein, to judge by the muffled thumps and shrieks from within and the bets being made among the crowd without, Toby and Jim were still working on subduing the gnomish revolt.

Claire frowned. "This sucks."

"One adversarial changeling gone, but one treacherous queen of the Krubera exposed and captured." Douxie shrugged.

"I'd call that a good day," Archie advised, hovering by his familiar's shoulder.

There was a resounding crash from inside the shop, then a shout of triumph. Among the crowd, coins and gemstones exchanged hands even as Jim and Toby came out, the shorter Trollhunter bearing a huge, squirming sack that he plopped down triumphantly before Bagdwella. "One gnome revolt, put down," he said. There was shouting and growling from inside the sack.

"How are they not gnawing their way through?" Claire wondered aloud.

"Put an enchantment on the bag," Douxie replied. "What I want to know is, where're they going to end up?"

"Probably released on the outskirts of Trollmarket," Blinky said. "There to thrive, find their own way, and build a society to suit them."

"Or make way back to Trollmarket," Aaarrrgghh disagreed.

"Or that," Blinky allowed, even as Jim and Toby made their way over. "But it will take time for them to return."

"Seriously," Toby complained, reaching them, "is there any version of this where Bagdwella's not always bugging us about her gnome problems?"

"Sadly no," Blinky informed his protege. "Her problems with gnomes have persisted for many centuries. You, and Jim, are far from the first Trollhunters she has called in to deal with her many crises."

Jim groaned. "Great. An eternity of de-infesting her shop."

Blinky exchanged a startled look with Aaarrrgghh, suddenly remembering what Merlin had told them about the possible lifespans of all three of the human teenagers.

Toby paused, looking back and forth between the two of them. "...What?" he asked.

"A conversation... we may wish to have in a more private setting," Blinky said, glancing around at the lingering crowd. He lowered his voice. "Concerning something Merlin said."

That got four sets of full-body twitches and a glare from the hovering dragon.

"All right," Jim said cautiously. "Where?"

They ended up in the library.

"Seriously, Blinky, I thought you said you were going to organize this place," Toby complained, carefully squeezing between two stacks of books taller than he was.

"I am in the middle of it!" Blinky bellowed indignantly.

"How'd you lose the textbook stacking challenge, with this as an example?" Claire asked Jim, gesturing.

He shrugged. "I wasn't in it to win it," he said. "I just wanted to make sure Eli didn't lose."

"I think that's called stacking the deck," Douxie said, wending his way after them.

Jim shrugged. "Two to Eli, one to me, and Steve's still going to win anyway, on the student popularity vote," he said. "I've given up trying to figure out the logic of the Spring Fling points system."

Toby snickered. "There is no logic."

Eventually they came to a clear area, where Aaarrrgghh was already waiting. "Wait, how did you get here ahead of us, Wingman?" Toby asked, turning to stare at the maze of stacks the rest of them had just threaded through.

Aaarrrgghh shrugged. "Came in back door."

Toby's jaw dropped; complaints seemed imminent.

"Anyhow," Jim cut in as Archie landed atop one of the stacks, glancing down at the title before shifting down to lounge on the topmost tome. The stack swayed, but then stabilized. "You said Merlin said something?" he asked his mentor.

"Yes." Blinky took a moment, as if gathering his thoughts. "This is... something I fear may well be upsetting for all of you," he said apologetically. "But if I understood him correctly, it is something in which your choices may have already been taken away."

"You're kind of worrying me, Blinky," said Toby.

Jim felt expressionless. "What is it?"

"Immortality," Blinky said, "much like that of our wizard friend here," he said, with a gesture toward Douxie.

Who flinched. "They're not... I mean, Claire's nowhere near that level yet," he protested, wide-eyed.

"What?" Claire asked.

"No," said Blinky. "But she will be, inevitably. Won't she?"

Douxie took a few steps backward, head shaking, until he stumbled against a table. His hands grasped its edge. "I would never do that to you, Claire," he said, looking to her. "At some point, your magic might grow strong enough to infinitely prolong your life the way mine does, but you're way off that. I was going to tell you when you got closer, let you choose. I swear it!"

Claire wet her lips. "Was I close to it, before?"

Douxie looked away, then back at her. "Very close," he admitted, like it was a shameful secret. "If we'd gone on in that timeline, I was going to tell you after we'd defeated the Order, while you could still draw back."

"But not before?" she asked, voice cracking.

Now Douxie's gaze was level. "Would you have stopped?"

Mute, Claire shook her head.

"I don't get it," said Toby, looking back and forth between the two of them. "What's so bad about immortality?"

Jim couldn't help but answer for Douxie. "Seeing everyone you love get old and die."

Douxie closed his eyes and nodded. "That," he whispered.

"It is... different for us trolls," Blinky said. "We live long lives compared to yours, it is true, but we exist in a community of similarly long-lived peers. We do not endure the constant loss, as immortal humans must."

"Is this," said Jim, "just about Claire?"

Blinky pressed his lips into a line and shook his head.

"Amulets make immortal," said Aaarrrgghh softly.

Jim could hear his own heart pounding in his chest. Which was pretty odd, because he was sure he couldn't have heard Aaarrrgghh right. "What?" he whispered.

"What?" Douxie echoed him.

"According to Merlin," Blinky started, "the Trollhunter amulet, and therefore very likely Master Jim's amulet as well, possesses the quality of preserving its owner's life until that person dies... an unnatural death."

"No Trollhunter died of old age," agreed Aaarrrgghh.

Dead silence again.

Douxie swallowed. "It will work the same way," he murmured. "Krel and I followed Merlin's plans exactly." His eyes, shining wet and horrified, met Jim's, met Toby's. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I helped him make the first amulet. I led the charge on making the second. If I'd known--"

"If you'd known, then what?" Archie asked, springing from the stack and landing catlike on the table. "You wouldn't have helped Merlin make the first one, hmm? Wouldn't have made the second?"

"I would have found another way!" Douxie snapped.

"Douxie, even if Merlin knew, and had told you the effects... you had no time," Archie reminded him. "It was either making the amulet, or letting all of history fall apart like a house of cards."

"Or a tower of books," Douxie agreed, tone bleak, eyes on Blinky's library. "If you'll all excuse me, please," he said, turning to go.

Jim caught his arm. "You're not allowed to run away again," he told his friend.

Who looked at him, expression empty. "I'm not running," Douxie said softly. "But I need to go hit something rather a lot, and probably scream a fair bit, and I'd rather not have witnesses, if you don't mind."

"You're coming back," Jim pressed.

"I'm coming back," Douxie promised.

Jim let him go, watched him disappear among the stacks, Archie flying after him.

"I really hate Merlin," Toby muttered from behind him. But when Jim turned to look at him, it wasn't anger on Toby's face, but an unaccustomed blankness.

"Me too," said Claire. Her voice wavered.

"Me three," Jim agreed, and went to them.

"At least," said Claire, looking from Jim to Toby and back again. "At least we'll have each other. Right?"

They wrapped arms around one another, all three of them, and held tight. Tighter. Mourning the loss of something they'd so taken for granted that they'd never thought they might, or even could, miss it.

Blinky's arms wrapped around them, and Aaarrrgghh's, joining them in sorrow and heartache and family, while somewhere not too far away, Douxie raged at his own unwitting role in ripping them away from the rest of humanity.

When Jim returned home, his mother took one look at him, set her novel aside, and immediately came over to hug him. He buried himself in her arms, suddenly realizing in a way he never had before that he was going to outlive her.

He was going to see his mother die.

"What is it?" she asked him softly. "What's wrong, Jim?"

He shook his head, throat choked up by the impending loss of her.

"Shit." She bent her head, her hair brushing his ear. "It's that bad?"

Jim nodded, wordless. And tried to never let go.

"Toby-Pie!" Nana trilled up the stairs. "Supper's ready. I made Hungarian goulash tonight, you know that's one of your favorites."

Turning his phone over and over in his hands, Toby had the momentary desire to throw it against the wall, to smash it, to let it rain down in a thousand pieces.

Instead he stood, and walked woodenly toward the stairs. Went down them, one at a time. Sat dutifully at the dining table as his Nana set a bowlful in front of him.

For the first time in his life, he couldn't choke down a bite.

"Toby-Pie," said Nana, putting down her fork and looking at him with concern. "Is everything all right?"

Mute, he shook his head.

She pushed back from the table, came over to him. Gave him a hug. "You know whatever it is, you can tell me, right?"

He sniffed, feeling her warm, strong arms around him. "I just don't want to lose you, Nana."

"Oh, sweetie." She brushed a hand over his hair. "That's just the way the world works. Or should," she said, with a glance at the wall, where his parents' pictures hung. "Grownups try to make a good world for their kids to inherit, and try to raise good kids to inherit that world. And then we can go to our rest, knowing we did well, and will be remembered by those who love us."

He put his arms around her, squeezed her tight. "I love you, Nana."

"I know, sweetie. And I love you too. You make me so proud, and I know you'd make your mama and papa proud, too, if they could only see the fine man you're becoming."

Claire sat in her room, looking around her carefully-curated life. Books of plays, books on acting. CDs and posters of the punk bands she liked, a delicately negotiated rebellion. Pictures of her family and friends.

Everything she loved. Everything she was going to lose, if she continued down the path of magic.

She let purple-black wisps of her power bubble up around her fingers. It was useful. It was so useful, and she loved being able to help, to do things with it that made it her own power, not Morgana's. She'd saved so many lives, so many times, by wielding her magic.

And if she kept on with it, she'd eventually lose everyone she loved.

But if she didn't....

"For want of a nail, the kingdom was lost," she said aloud into the quiet of her bedroom.

She couldn't stop training, couldn't stop fighting, not if she wanted everyone she loved to live.

Even if it meant she'd eventually lose them all.

Everyone except Toby, and Douxie... and Jim.

What they had was good. It had withstood all kinds of testing. She knew that the minute Jim asked her to marry him, she'd say yes. (She had also considered how bad he was with asking for things, and made loose plans to ask him in five years or so, if he hadn't by then.)

But the thought of being married to someone for eternity was a lot bigger than being married to them for a lifetime, and that scared her.

Claire drew in a shuddering breath. "Meditation," she told herself. Magic was emotion, and she was a witch.

If she was going to be upset, scared... she needed to use it.

By the time Douxie stopped, his knuckles were ragged and bleeding, and his throat sore. His cheeks were still sticky with hot tears, but his eyes ached, tear ducts run dry.

Guilt still choked his throat, and anger stifled his heart.

As he collapsed back against the cool, damp wall, Archie finally abandoned his sentinel post and flew over to him, curling up in his lap. Douxie ran a hand over the soft fur and smooth scales, finding comfort in someone who had lived longer than him, and who would likely continue on long after he, killed probably by his own foolish idealism, was gone.

His feelings were such a tangle, he didn't know where to begin.

"I never would have wished this on them," he spoke finally, "but it's my fault nonetheless."

Archie sniffed. "It's Merlin's fault," the dragon countered. "The consequences of his design are certainly not on you."

"I made the amulets," Douxie said. "I trained Claire."

"You didn't know. And you were going to give her the choice, weren't you?" Archie pointed out. "You still can."

"Not for Jim and Toby," Douxie pointed out dully. "The amulets are already bonded to them. I can't undo that. No one can."

"Yes, I know," Archie said softly. A pause, then, "Douxie, have you considered that having them around for centuries might be good for you? I know you've got your hedgewitch friends, but they're not really--"

"I know," Douxie whispered harshly, hands in his hair. "D'you think I haven't thought of that, Arch? How much I'd love to have them with me through the ages? And that's horrible of me, to want them to have to live on eternally the way I have."

"Zoe doesn't mind it."

"Zoe minds it a lot," Douxie snapped. "The tough shell is an act, Archie, immortality hurts her as much as the next wizard." He paused, swallowed. "Why would I ever wish it on someone I cared about?"

Archie's head rubbed against his arm. "Because you're lonely, and you want to love people without worrying about the day you'll lose them," he said quietly.

"I love you," Douxie said, looking at his familiar.

"And I love you," Archie replied, touching their foreheads together. "But close as we are, Douxie, one friend is not enough, not for someone as gregarious and loving as you. And Zoe's never fit with you the way they do, you know that."

"Yeah," whispered Douxie roughly, wishing Archie wasn't right. "I know."