[fic] [Tales of Arcadia] Your Future Hasn't Been Written Yet 167/?
Your Future Hasn’t Been Written Yet
by K. Stonham
released 1st March, 2024
Aja was escorted into the banquet on the arm of the king. This, she thought, probably would have impressed her more if she'd known fewer kings. Or if she hadn't seen how this one treated some of the people he should have been protecting.
"My lady," the Arthur king said, simultaneously overly familiar and overly courteous as he bowed her into her seat.
"Thank you," said Aja, as gracious as she could be under the circumstances. It was part of the plan, she reminded herself. She needed to stick to the plan. She was the distraction, while Jim, Claire, and Douxie ran their scheme to remove the poisonous influence of the gravesand from as many of the trolls as they could.
She did not like being the distraction. For all that Varvatos had taught her the value of patience and waiting, it still did not come naturally to Aja.
Perhaps, she thought, I am too much like Mama.
Though that was mere speculation on her part. Mama had always seemed so proper, so regal. A standard to which Aja had aspired, during her time as the reigning queen of Akiridion-5.
It was only her and Krel's foray into Mama and Papa's memories that had allowed Aja to see the other side of the parent she so resembled. That had allowed her to learn that Mama had been a warrior as well as a monarch.
Well, perhaps I aspired to both her roles, Aja admitted to herself. Seklos knows Krel never aspired to either of Papa's, so it is just as well that one of us did.
Krel was now separated from her, seated on the king's far side, beside Lady Morgana. On Aja's other side sat Merlin, with the younger version of Douxie hovering behind his master, just as Zadra and Varvatos stood behind Aja and Krel, and Mary behind Morgana. Treated, for now, as servants rather than equals or advisors.
Do not stand out, Aja reminded herself, casting what she hoped was a reassuring smile at younger-Douxie. Do not make waves. Jim said we need the cover of this feast to start making things right.
And she both hated and was amused by the fact that Jim knew exactly what words to say to get her to do what he needed. If Earth ever entered the larger galactic alliance, with Jim as its head, she was going to enjoy watching him learn who could be trusted, and who could not... and even more, Aja planned to enjoy watching him using that devastatingly honest smile of his to get exactly what he wanted.
"A charming smile," Arthur complimented her.
"Huh? Oh." Aja hadn't realized her thoughts had been showing on her face.
"Daydreaming again," her brother teased her from Arthur's other side.
"Eat a vorlak, Krel," she sniped back.
He started to respond, then visibly caught himself. Forced himself to swallow his words. "No, thank you," her brother replied. "Though I am curious what we will be eating at this feast," he said, addressing Arthur. "From what I have seen of it, the food here is very different from what we eat at home. Or even in Arcadia."
"Arcadia?" Arthur asked curiously.
Aja smiled. This was a plan the two of them had come up with, to explain the discrepancy, if ever asked, as to why four of their party were from Akiridion-5, and the rest of them from a place called Arcadia. "It is a... suburb?" she asked, as though testing the word. "We have a second home there, Krel and I. It is where many of our friends come from."
"We were also partly educated there," Krel expounded.
"Ah, a part of your kingdom, then?" asked Arthur.
"Oh yes." Aja crossed her fingers at the lie. Something which Mary and Darci had taught her. She was not sure if it actually warded off the bad luck of one's broken word, but it seemed a harmless enough gesture. She made a mental note to ask Douxie about it sometime.
Sometime when things were less tense.
"And, beg your pardon, your Highness," said Merlin smoothly next to her, "in your kingdom, may I ask how magic is tolerated?"
Arthur tensed. Beyond him, Morgana went very still.
"There is not much magic on Akiridion-5," Aja said, choosing her words very carefully, as though feeling her way across a booby trapped floor. "Though we have been at work unraveling why that is, when our Atlantean ancestors used it so freely."
Arthur raised an eyebrow at Merlin, looking smug. Aja got the feeling that there was an entire conversation being had between the two men, of which she was catching only the outermost edges.
"Arcadia, of course, is rife with magic," Krel appended.
"Ah, thus the young duke's armor," Merlin said, nodding down the table at Toby. He also glanced at Mary standing behind Morgana. But his lips only tightened; he did not call out her magic.
"Exactly," said Krel, nodding. Aja wondered if he was getting as much of the subtext going on as she was. It was entirely possible; Krel had never loved playing politics, but he'd been raised to it, and his thought process was sometimes a mystery even to her. "There is a trollmarket under the city, as well as a conclave of hedge wizards engaged in open commerce."
"Really?" Merlin's shaggy brows raised; he seemed surprised.
"Really," Krel confirmed smugly. And if a brief glimmer of magic swirled under his fingers against the table, the same bright cyan as his eyes when not disguised....
Well, Aja didn't think she was missing Merlin's eyes widen even further at that.
But neither did the master wizard draw attention to the fact. Instead, he turned to younger-Douxie, as a man in very nicely embroidered robes approached the table, bowing to Arthur. "Hisirdoux, find your place," Merlin instructed, waving his apprentice down the horseshoe shape of the table even as Morgana did the same to Mary.
"My lord," said the man, "the food is ready; the jongleurs likewise. At your command."
Arthur nodded. "Thank you, Sir Kay." The king stood. Voices fell silent; faces turned to look at him. "My lords and ladies," he said, "I thank you for your attendance. Let us honor our visiting guests, Princess Aja and Prince Krel, of the kingdom of Akiridionfiev."
A smattering of applause rose, but Aja mostly didn't pay it any attention because she was feeling something she hadn't before. Like there was a thread connecting her to King Arthur, or at least trying to. Drawing her to him. Drawing her attention. Her focus.
Her loyalty.
He felt like Jim.
Oh, Aja realized. This is what Douxie means when he talks about 'divine' kingship, isn't it? Several things suddenly slotted into place, leaving... not precisely a new understanding in her mind, but a deeper one. It wasn't just that Jim was a king because he had one of Earth's deities backing him. It was that he was something more. Something which could be used to unite armies, planets, maybe even galaxies, and point them all in the same direction.
But any power, Aja knew, could also be misused.
Perhaps the "Round Table," as the others called it, was more important than she had realized. Allies who knew of Jim's power. Who could resist it. Who could keep him from pulling them, and others, along with the young king as he ran off a cliff.
Her breath shuddered in her lungs, cold.
She trusted Jim.
She did not trust Arthur.
Aja looked up again as the man seated himself and servants poured in through the doors, bearing platters of food, jugs of drink. "Princess Aja," said Arthur, "your servants may sit."
"With all due respect, your majesty," said Zadra, standing behind her, "my place is with my royal. Protecting her."
Arthur looked discomfited to be gainsaid, but he raised his goblet nonetheless, wordlessly toasting Zadra. "Loyalty," he said, "is a rare coin, and one to be treasured."
"This is going to work," Douxie muttered as Claire followed him down into the bowels of Camelot. Into a place she hadn't been before, and she thought she'd thoroughly explored the reconstructed castle. "This is going to work."
She could recognize an anxious habit when she saw one. "I don't recognize this place," she said. hoping to distract him.
Her teacher flashed her a tight smile over his shoulder. "Krel didn't get the whole castle up and running, Fair Lady Claire," he explained as he took another turn, a new torch flaring to life ahead of him to keep their path lit. "The lower levels, like these," he said with a gesture, "were pulverized during the crash landing, along with the Heart of Avalon."
"Oh!" She got it. "And since he couldn't superglue the Heart back together, there wasn't any need to rebuild the parts lower than the dungeons, when he got it flying."
"Exactly." Douxie stopped, not at the end of the hallway, but halfway there. "Do you see it?" he asked, gesturing at the stonework before himself.
Claire squinted. "No...?" she said unsurely.
"Ah." Douxie pursed his lips. "When we get back and have time, we'll need to work at unlocking your Sight."
"My Sight?"
"There's a door here, Claire. Plain as day to anyone with a glimmer of the Sight." His lips pursed. "Actually. Hmm." He pressed his hand against the wall and closed his eyes.
Sky blue magic emanated from under Douxie's palm and fingertips, spreading through previously unseen runes like ink through water. His magic spread up and down the line of characters, wrapping around the hidden doorway, illuminating them.
He opened his eyes and took his hand away, shaking it out. "That should do it." There was a hint of a question in the statement, directed at her.
Claire blinked. "Wow." The door was clearly visible now, outlined with glowing runes that slowly darkened, turning emerald green.
Douxie grinned. "Master Merlin is very good at his spellwork." He fished a small golden key out from his pocket. Ran it down the stonework, hovering just over the surface of the runes, until he found the character he was looking for. He tapped the key a single time against the heart of the rune.
The runes vanished. And as Douxie pocketed the key again, the entire space they'd outlined shoved back and away, swinging inward on invisible hinges, spilling vibrant green light out into the hallway.
"Come on," said Douxie, still grinning, and led the way.
Inside, there was a narrow ledge that Claire really thought could use a railing. To either side steps led down to the curving faceted surface of the heartstone, second in size only to the one under Arcadia. Great golden bands arced overhead, carved with characters she didn't know how to read. For some reason, the inscriptions reminded her a little of the equations she'd seen Krel write on his holoscreens.
"Wow," she breathed again, bathed in emerald light.
"Yep," Douxie agreed, arms crossed. "The Heart of Avalon."
She looked out at it for a long moment before asking, "So where do you think Merlin dug this up?"
Douxie shrugged. "I haven't the faintest. And I've no idea how nefarious that deed may have been, either. But right now we're not here to fix past wrongs."
She looked at him sideways. "I remember when you never would have even thought Merlin could be in the wrong."
He sighed, a long, low thing, his gaze never leaving the great sea of stone before then. "I've spent most of my life as an optimist, Claire. Living on hope and dreams. One minute to the next, hand to mouth, never daring to give up."
"And now?" she dared to ask her teacher.
He cracked a sideways smile at her. "If I said I'm older, you'd point out I'm still nineteen."
Claire rolled her eyes.
Douxie returned to contemplation of the heartstone. "I still have hope, Claire. But it's tempered now by a good deal more experience with consequences." A huff. "None of which particularly matters right now. We've got work to do."
She sighed at his evasion. But nonetheless followed him down one of the sets of stairs.
Jim wouldn't exactly say he was expecting it when the shadow portal spiraled to life right next to him. But he didn't jump either.
"Hey, handsome," Claire greeted, stepping out of it.
"Hi." He leaned down. He was too big right now to kiss her. But her hands, warm and brown and strong, grabbed his horns and used them to maneuver him right where Claire wanted him. Their foreheads pressed together. Jim closed his eyes with a contented rumble.
Not a kiss - but affection enough.
"That's better," she said a moment later, letting go with a peck on his nose. He opened his eyes to see her smiling like the sun.
"My lady doth teach the torches to burn bright," he murmured.
"Ugh, such mushy rot," Callista groaned from her perch in the forked branch of a sturdy nearby oak. She dropped out of the tree and sauntered away.
Jim resisted the urge to flip her off. He didn't know if she'd understand the gesture, and, gravesanded as she was, she was just a little more volatile than he was comfortable with. He really didn't want to have to fight with her. Not right now. "Ready?" he asked Claire instead.
She drew a deep breath, shoring herself up. Gave a nod. "Point 'em out to me," she said.
Jim nodded. And did so.
The peaceful green hum of the Heart of Avalon was interrupted by shrieks, thumps, roars that cut abruptly off as trolls rained down one after another upon its surface.
Back upon the stairs, the door safely shut behind him so that there was no way in and no way out except by shadow portal or the magic key hidden in his pouch, Douxie watched the carnage with wide eyes, wincing occasionally at particularly violent splats.
Jim's theory seemed to be working, though. The trolls, glaring, rose after their falls, then paused. He tried to melt into the stone as confusion took precedence over anger. Some, moaning, just sank back down upon the heartstone. Others lay flat on it like it was a prayer rug and they were a supplicant.
A few wept.
Shortly, what had been a sea of shouts was one of low moans and soft breaths.
It really does pacify them, Douxie thought, marveling anew at just how powerful the Heart of Avalon was. He'd known that, of course; just a small fragment had been enough to send Bellroc and Skrael bouncing through time, however temporarily.
But would this exposure be enough to permanently break the effects of the gravesand?
For that matter....
His eyes narrowed.
Where's Deya?
Callista, when they found her, was with Gunmar and Aaarrrgghh.
"Uh-oh," said Jim as all three looked at him and Claire.
Gunmar chuckled darkly, his hand resting on Callista's hair. Petting her, like she was a particularly faithful dog. "So. The freedom I give you and your human whore, and this is how you repay me?"
Aaarrrgghh's eyes were fully black, his teeth bared. He was growling.
Callista just looked angry. And triumphant.
At Jim's side, Claire muttered something that he was very sure would have Nana Domzalski washing out her mouth with soap.
"General Aaarrrgghh," said Gunmar.
"Yes, Skullcrusher!"
Gunmar gestured at the pair of them with his free hand. "Have fun."
Aaarrrgghh's black, insectoid eyes lit up.
He roared.
And he charged.
"Oh, fuck!" Shifting shape to the one that had the most speed, Jim scooped up Claire under one arm and sprang for the nearest tree, running. She screamed, then spluttered as she got a mouthful of oak leaves.
Beneath them, Aaarrrgghh rammed into the tree. It shuddered, but did not give way.
"Damned English oak," Claire muttered, looking down.
"What?!" Jim was busy climbing higher and looking for another tree he could leap to once Aaarrrgghh inevitably felled this one.
"It's from a movie. No, Jim, wait--"
Jim paused. Still under his arm, Claire's eyes flared black in concentration as she lined up her shot.
Callista disappeared from under Gunmar's hand.
"Got you," Claire said with no little bit of satisfaction.
"Great, now can you portal us out of here?" asked Jim.
The tree shuddered again.
He glanced down. "Or, better yet, portal Aaarrrgghh out of here!"
"I can't get a lock on him!" Claire complained. "He's not our Aaarrrgghh yet."
"Wait, that makes a difference?" Jim totally did not get how magic worked.
Claire huffed. "Apparently."
"Whoa--whoa!!" Jim grabbed tighter onto her as another hit by the brute beneath them took out the tree. It began to fall.
With them still in it.
He scrabbled, trying to free the both of them from within the grabbing branches. "Claire!"
"I'm on it!" She thrust her hands forward, causing a portal to appear.
They fell into it.
With another roar, General Aaarrrgghh followed.
Finally Callista appeared, falling from a far greater height than any of the other trolls had, yelling imprecations the whole way down.
Douxie blinked. What on Earth was happening in the Wild Woods?
Callista struggled to her feet, still spewing invectives, and looked around. She glanced over the other trolls, sneering.
Her eyes locked onto Douxie where he stood against the wall.
Her face set.
She surged toward him.
His eyes widened. He started hastily spinning runes around his vambrace -- shield spell, where was the shield spell?!
She almost made it to him, and he almost had the spell cast, when the problem was truncated by a worse one.
Jim and Claire fell out of another portal on top of Callista, literally flattening her back to the heartstone under her feet. Which was good.
Less so was the Aaarrrgghh of this time following them through the portal, roaring.
Jim managed to grab Claire, rolling clear before Aaarrrgghh landed on them and squashed the pair flat. Callista was less fortunate.
Douxie just stared, frozen, spell bracelet forgotten. General Aaarrrgghh of the Gumm-Gumm army glared around, his eyes as black as death.
"Oh, fuzzbuckets."
"Oh, crap, Jim!"
Her boyfriend gritted his teeth together. "Get them out of here," he said with a slash of his hand indicating all the trolls laying prone on the Heart of Avalon. "I'll deal with Aaarrrgghh!" And then he was gone, springing forward, making the Gumm-Gumm general roar and chase him across the vast expanse of subterranean Camelot.
"Claire!" Douxie skidded up by her, pulling her to her feet. "What do you need? What can I do?"
"Not sure." She cast a glance at Callista's moaning figure. "Watch my back, Teach. I gotta get all these guys out of here."
"Where to?" he asked.
"Not the Wild Woods," Claire said, wrinkling her nose. That had been the plan, to de-gravesand Gunmar's new troops then dump them near Killahead. But given that he was now duly pissed off with her and Jim and anyone who had anything to do with them--
"Dwoza," Douxie suggested.
"They hate outsiders," Claire rebutted.
He shrugged. "That may be. But it's a safe place to send this lot, and we're going to need their help sooner or later anyway."
Her nose wrinkled as she thought about it. She really didn't have any better ideas; she wasn't familiar enough with anywhere else on this continent to have someplace to send them. And she wasn't going to break the timeline by dumping a bunch of trolls in proto-Arcadia centuries early. "All right. Dwoza it is."
She raised her hands, summoning magic.
The thing about having different forms, Jim had figured out after months of training in all three of them, was that they each had different advantages.
Full troll form had the advantage of brute strength and durability.
Half troll form had unmatched speed and, not having the same mass as full troll form, could turn on a dime.
And human form meant that he could eat real food and not have to worry about people looking at him funny.
The thing about Aaarrrgghh was, he didn't have a half troll form. So unlike Jim, he couldn't shed that mass. His momentum worked against him.
Which doesn't mean he's not dangerous! Jim yelped as he was just a little too sloppy and furious stone hands almost caught him. He stuffed the panic down, keeping the fear to a reasonable level, and jumped, sprang off the ceiling, and rolled just like so, putting him almost-safely ahead of Aaarrrgghh again as they completed the first lap of Heart of Avalon.
Douxie could see the magic rising through Claire even as he kept a wary eye on Callista, who was trying to get back up again. But being knocked flat by Aaarrrgghh had clearly taken the wind out of the Trollhunter-to-be's sails.
Claire's eyes were going purple and sclera black as she fought to send all of her targets to Dwoza.
Douxie's own eyes widened. "Claire...."
"I can do it," she grunted.
She'd already transported all these trolls once today. And made not a few other portals as well.
He could see it the instant the roots of her hair started to bleach.
Douxie's breath shuddered.
Claire could do this, he knew. She would do this, and succeed. She was made of steel, and like a true wizard, would drain herself dry in the process of doing what must needs be done.
But then she'd pass out, leaving the problem of Jim and Aaarrrgghh remaining. And even if Jim could defeat the Gumm-Gumm general, Douxie certainly couldn't portal him anywhere.
Healing magic, Douxie thought, latching onto the wisp of an idea. It's basically feeding magic into someone else, right?
He bit his lip and glanced again at Callista, who still wasn't making much progress toward the whole "sitting up" thing.
Decision made, Douxie reached out and pressed the palm of his hand against the back of Claire's where she had her hand outstretched, summoning and directing what seemed like every shadow in this green-lit place.
And he started feeding magic into her, healing the drain that using her own power was causing.
One did not rise to the rank of general in the army of Gunmar the Black by being stupid. Therefore, when every troll in this great vast cave was surrounded by a swirl of black, then vanished at once, Aaarrrgghh knew exactly what had happened.
The sorceress, who had stolen the newer half of the Skullcrusher's army, had put all the new recruits somewhere else. Someplace Aaarrrgghh did not know.
Someplace, presumably, from which they could not be retrieved.
Gunmar would not be pleased.
Aaarrrgghh was not pleased.
He shifted his focus from the tricky shapeshifter onto the witch who had taken what was not hers, and the other human standing with her, presumably guarding her.
Not guarding her well enough.
Aaarrrgghh roared hatred, and leaped at them, intent on having a human dinner to at least make up for the disaster this day had become.
He would have succeeded, too, if not for the warning yelp and someone else tackling them to the side.
He landed, rolling, and spun to see the green-skinned she-troll, the very one who had brought this scheme to Gunmar's attention, standing between him and them, panting. Trembling.
As well she might.
Aaarrrgghh grinned toothily, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "You choose them," he said. His eyes narrowed. "You choose wrong."
Snarling, he leapt again, this time for her.
"Oh crap!" Callista yelped, seeing the behemoth that was Gunmar's lieutenant jumping at her. She didn't know why she'd saved the two scrawny humans, but she hadn't even thought about it, just moved, getting them out of the way. And now, she knew, she was going to pay for it--
Only maybe not, as Jim, in his larger form, tackled the other troll from the side just the same way she'd tackled the humans.
Saving her ass, when she was the reason he and his human girlfriend were in this trouble to begin with.
Shit.
Callista cast around, looking for any kind of weapon she might be able to use, to join in this fight. But there was nothing. Nothing but her and the two humans and the two huge violent trolls doing their best to smash one another into the walls, the floor, and the ceiling of this strange cavern.
She looked at her hands. Flexed them. Made fists.
Even if she didn't have a weapon, she could still fight, right?
She took one step forward, but was caught by a hand on her arm.
She looked back, into the weird ringed eyes of one of the humans she'd saved. "Don't," he said, looking beyond her at the no-holds-barred battle. "You can't fight that and hope to win."
"Not yet, at least," the smaller human--Claire, that was her name, wasn't it?--said.
Not yet?
Jim panted. Wrestling with Gumm-Gumm Aaarrrgghh was nothing like wrestling with Trollhunter Aaarrrgghh. For one thing, even during the worst of Jim's training, unlike Draal, Aaarrrgghh had never seriously wanted to kill him. For another, the Aaarrrgghh of his own time had never possessed this amount of raw fury.
I don't want to kill you! Jim thought. But I don't know how to beat you.
Aaarrrgghh must have seen his thoughts on his face because he grinned, leaning in close. His breath was rank, and smelled of dead things. "Youngling is weak," he said. "Traitor. Will learn his place."
He drove a fist straight down, at Jim's head. Jim barely managed to dodge.
Aaarrrgghh's fist impacted the crystal.
As from far away, Jim heard Douxie's cry of horror.
So did Aaarrrgghh.
His grin intensified. He pulled Jim to his feet and threw him away, as hard as he could. Jim hit the wall hard; the breath was knocked out of him.
Aaarrrgghh's fists, like pile drivers, hit the Heart of Avalon in the same spot again.
And again.
One more time, and Jim could only stare in horror--
--as the heartstone broke.
Author's Note: Sorry I missed posting last week! My boys had their midwinter break from school and I thought I would be able to write, but... ha. No. Claire's line in this chapter about "damned English oak" is a reference to the movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Also, amusingly, this story has now surpassed War and Peace in length! This was so not my intent when I started writing it....