Chapter Text
It took two days of wheedling to get Katie to leave Douxie’s side, and even then, she said she’d only go if Archie came with. It took an additional day to get him to go with her.
They weren’t too fond of the idea of leaving Douxie unconscious in a hospital bed, fighting off the magical cold Helena’s enchantments had put him under. But, as Zoe and Alixe were so quick to remind them, they couldn’t just wait at his side every second of every day. Hence why it took so long to convince them to leave Douxie’s side. All in all, it was three and a half days before Zoe and Alixe managed to coax Katie and Archie to leave the makeshift hospital Jim’s mom, Dr. Lake, had set up in Floating Camelot.
Brilliant as always, Krel Tarron had managed to put the broken pieces of Floating Camelot back together again. It was up in the air once more, now because of the power of Akiridion technology, instead of the Heart of Avalon. Krel had done exactly what Katie asked of him, keeping tabs on wherever the Arcane Order went. On top of that, he’d been repairing and upgrading Floating Camelot, making it less of an artifact and more of a home.
There were a whole bunch of new people there to help them – Jim’s mom, two changelings, and Krel’s shapeshifting Akiridion robots. Katie appreciated that. They needed all the help they could get. They were trying to prevent the end of the world, after all. Again. God, nothing ever let up. First with the Eternal Night, then with Morando, and now with the Arcane Order. Arcadia was just this- this magnet for catastrophic events.
“Hey, quit it.” Zoe tapped her foot against Katie’s knee.
They were sitting on the balcony of one of Camelot’s towers. The sun was waiting high overhead, hot and bright, keeping the stone infrastructure of Camelot warm to the touch. Katie was crisscrossed on the ground, Archie in her lap, Nari at her side. Zoe was leaning against the stone railing. Alixe was there, too, sitting on the ground with a pair of crutches balanced across their good leg.
As it turned out, Alixe’s life magic had taken a severe toll after the effort it took to turn Jim back to life and back to himself. As such, they hadn’t yet built back up the strength to heal themself yet. Katie suspected it was because they’d had to learn magic on their own. They weren’t born with it. They’d always been more susceptible to being drained. It took more from them. Also, what little energy they had was going to the cultivation of the Heartstone, which meant Alixe didn’t have any magic left over for themself. And it was clearly, deeply bothering them. Alixe hated being useless, especially when people they cared about were at stake. Katie could tell their injury was bothering them.
But truth be told, Katie was just glad they were there. And maybe, just a bit, she was glad they wouldn’t have to be in on the fight.
“Quit what?” Katie questioned, arching a brow.
“You’re doing that thing you do.” Zoe said. “You have the same look on your face you did when you and Alixe came home after helping the Tarrons. Like it was all too much.”
“Sometimes it is.” Katie admitted. She leaned her head against the stone railing and closed her eyes, soaking up the warmth. Archie rubbed his head into her hands. She scratched behind his ears, his favorite spot.
“Do you regret it?” Zoe asked quietly. “Not leaving that night?”
“No.” Katie said immediately, opening her eyes and shaking her head. “There isn’t enough in this world that could make me regret staying with you guys. You’re my family. Have been since the moment I met you.”
Zoe’s bright smile returned. Alixe nudged Katie with their crutch. “We feel the same way about you, Katie.”
“Thanks, Alixe.” She glanced down at Nari, who was leaning contentedly against Nari’s shoulder. “You too, antlers. You’re family.”
Nari’s sharp teeth created a sweet, slightly feral smile. “Thank you, Katie. I am glad the Order did not rip your soul to pieces.”
Katie managed a chuckle. “Yeah, that wouldn’t have been fun.”
They sat in silence for a little while. Katie stroked Archie’s fur as he purred on her lap. Second to Douxie, Archie was her closest friend. They’d spent countless hours together in the bookstore, even before Katie had known he was Douxie’s familiar. Then there was the days they spent in the pet store, or at the park, playing chess with the locals. Or when Katie had volunteered to play one-on-one Monopoly so Archie could ‘hone his skills’ (feel the satisfaction of sending Katie into crippling debt, more like.) Katie didn’t know if it was because he wasn’t human, or because he was smarter than almost all the humans Katie had ever met, but there was something comforting about Archie. She was glad he’d let her into his life.
“We should play Uno.” Alixe proposed, after a little while. “Nari, do you know how to play Uno?”
Nari shook her antlered head.
Zoe’s grin widened, “Oh, we definitely need to change that. You’re gonna have so much fun, Nar.”
She slid off the balcony railing and helped Alixe to their feet. They adjusted the crutches under their arms and stood up as straight as they could. Nari got up and trailed right after Alixe as they step-limp-stepped down the halls of the castle. Archie hopped off Katie’s lap and scurried after them. Katie and Zoe fell in step a little bit behind them.
“Kat,” Zoe began, a little hesitant. “Can I talk to you about something?”
A weary ache settled in Katie’s bones. “If you’re gonna say something about Casperan and I-”
“I’m not.” Zoe denied quickly, “Swear. No, I- I wanted to talk to you about something else.”
Katie stood up a little taller, recognizing Zoe’s serious tone. “Alright. What’s up?”
“A while back, you and Douxie were talking with Alixe about the difference between mages and witches and, you know, all that. And Alixe told me what you said to them, about everything your powers were capable of. They mentioned something I want to ask you about.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” Zoe nodded, “They said you could take away immortality.”
Katie stopped in her tracks. “What?”
“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Zoe requested. “I’m not- Christ, I dunno. It’s just. . . I only became immortal to stick with Doux, you know? He was all I had after the Trials. And it’s been, like, over three hundred years. I’ve lived a long time. I’ve seen a lot. And I know- I know it’s not a fraction of what you’ve lived, but-”
“It’s a lot.” Katie nodded. “I understand. But taking away your immortality? Why- why now?”
Zoe’s cheeks flushed. “Don’t think any less of me for this.”
A smile made its way across Katie’s lips. “Alixe?”
“Yes.” Zoe affirmed emphatically, “Christ, yes. I know. I know it’s new, and I’ve only been with them, like, six months. But I’ve known them almost two years, Kat, and I’m pretty sure I love them. No, I know I love them. I don’t want to outlive them. I’ve done that too many times.”
Something soft settled in Katie’s chest. Zoe deserved this. She deserved to be happy, to be in love, to be with the person she loved, for however long she wanted that to last. If that meant becoming mortal again, then Katie wanted that for her. Even. . . even if that meant Katie would outlive her. She always knew she was going to outlive Alixe, no matter how much she tried to ignore it. Now, if Zoe went through with this. . . Katie was just glad Alixe wouldn’t be outlived alone.
“And- and if I’m being honest,” Zoe stammered, a little shaky, a little fast. “If something does happen, you know? Out there? Christ, I hate to think it, but the world might end. And- and even if it does, as long as I have my ring, I’m gonna make it. Nothing happens to me. But Alixe, they- they’re mortal. If they don’t make it, I don’t want to have to spend the rest of eternity without them, you know?”
“Yeah.” Katie nodded.
She did know. There’d been so many times she thought she was going to lose Douxie, Archie, both of them, so many times she’d thought she’d have to spend the rest of her life alone. . . and- and Katie knew how to be alone. She’d been alone almost all the nine hundred years she’d been immortal. And then there was Douxie. And Archie. And Zoe, and Alixe, and Claire, and Jim, and everyone. And then she wasn’t alone anymore. And even if Zoe went through with this – even if history left Zoe and Alixe behind – as long as Katie had Douxie and Archie, she wasn’t ever going to be alone again. She never wanted that to change.
But she couldn't blame Zoe for wanting something different. She could even understand it, really. Katie would've chosen mortality, too - if she could.
“I don’t know how to use my magic that way yet.” Katie admitted, “I only just made a zero day for the first time. But for you? God, for you, Zo, I’d do anything. I promise you I’ll figure out how to do this.”
Zoe’s eyes watered, bluer than usual. “I love you. I love you, you know that? We’re all lucky to have you in our lives, but me, specifically. You’re, like- like the first person I really learned how to be friends with after Doux saved me at the Trials. That means a lot to me. You mean a lot to me, Kat.”
“You mean a lot to me, too, Zoe.” Katie reciprocated, “I love you, too. You’re, like, my second-best friend.”
Zoe fake-scowled. “What do you mean, second-best?”
“Well, Archie’s my first, and then you, Casperan, and Alixe are tied for second.”
In response, Zoe zapped Katie with a quick shock of pink lightning. Katie yelped in surprise and shoved Zoe away. The both of them continued following after Alixe, Archie, and Nari, laughing. Once they made it to where they’d gone – Floating Camelot’s newly-constructed, semi-extraterrestrial kitchen – they found their three friends sitting around the island, setting up a familiar game of Uno.
“This game seems very amusing.” Nari nodded gleefully, “I like the colors.”
“Oh, you’re gonna regret playing in a couple minutes, believe me.” Katie sighed, taking a seat next to the little nature spirit. “Alixe and Zoe are scary-good at this. We’re all gonna lose, the real question is who between them is going to win.”
Nari just shrugged, and they began playing. By the end of the game, Katie was quickly proved wrong – Nari did not regret playing, and neither Alixe nor Zoe won. Somehow, Nari did. Zoe immediately claimed beginner’s luck, so they played again. And again. And again, and again, and again.
Nari won every time.
Katie spent the rest of the evening in the library, pouring over books she could barely read.
It wasn’t just her dyslexia. Her brain was running a million miles a minute, worried about Douxie and curious about Zoe and, maybe, just a little bit scared of what was yet to come. She couldn’t predict any of it. She didn’t know what was going to happen. Her foresight hadn’t kicked in again yet. But at least everyone’s clocks were ticking right. Nothing had slowed yet. Nobody was going to die. Not yet. Katie could take comfort in that, at least.
She tried to focus. The books in the Floating Camelot library were a combination of the books that had remained intact after the Camelot crash, and the books that had been salvaged from GDT Arcane. Which, unfortunately, had been burned to the ground by the Arcane Order. Katie and Archie’s armchair was gone. Only a few books had survived. A few of which were Merlin’s old grimoires, which were exactly what Katie was studying. She needed all the help she could get if she was gonna figure out how to take away Zoe’s immortality.
Archie entered the library, ironically, quiet as a mouse. Katie was sitting on the floor, surrounded by piles of books. He walked past her, eyeing the books with a sort of criticism, and jumped onto the armchair to Katie’s back. Katie watched as he made an active effort not to start making biscuits on the chair, resisting the urge to give into his feline tendencies.
“It’s not as comfy as ours was.” Katie said, glancing over her shoulder to nod at the armchair. “I miss it.”
“So do I.” Archie agreed, his regal voice low and tired.
Sometimes Katie forgot. Douxie and Archie were connected, that much was obvious, but it was more than that. Archie was his own person. Or dragon. Cat. Whatever. Either way, he was Archie. And he wasn’t impervious to exhaustion, and he wasn’t incapable of struggling. He had his own problems, and his own fears, and his own favorites and preferences. And if Katie was exhausted – which, of course, she was – then it wasn’t any surprise Archie was exhausted, too. She should’ve been paying more attention. She loved him. He deserved better.
“So,” Katie began, after a small silence. “You never told me the deal about your dad being Charlemagne, the Devourer.”
“Oh,” Archie groaned, half-embarrassedly, “it’s nothing, really. My father is quite the opposite of what you picture when you hear the word ‘dragon.’ He has a terrible sense of humor, and makes pies for his friends, and is always losing his glasses when they’re really on his snout. Creating ‘Charlemagne, the Devourer,’ was my sort of way to make my father seem a little more. . . I’m not sure, really. Different than what he was, I suppose.”
He sighed, just a bit.
“I do love him.” Archie assured her, “But I likely didn’t tell him that enough. Douxie helped me change that when we went to see him.”
The mention of Douxie made both of them fall silent, for a moment.
“What about you?” Archie queried, “What of your father?”
Katie turned back to face him, her book resting in her lap, no longer truly paying attention. She shrugged, her shoulders rising and falling with a casualness that shouldn’t have been there, but always had been. That’s the way she’d always been when it came to her father. She didn’t know how to speak of it any other way.
“I never met him.” Katie admitted, not knowing if Douxie had told him. “He was gone before I was born.”
Archie’s whiskered twitched sorrowfully. “Oh, Katie. . .”
“It’s alright.” Katie said, and she meant it. “Really. From what my mother told me, he wasn’t exactly worth the father he could’ve been for me, so it never really mattered. Not to me, anyways. My brother had a tough time dealing with it when we were young, since he could still remember our father a bit before he left.”
“Did you know anything about him?”
She shook her head. “Not really. I know he was a religious freak, and blew up on my mom for taking the lord’s name in vain, or whatever. I know he wasn’t as good of a person as everyone thought he was. I didn’t really want to learn anymore about him after that, so I never asked my mom.”
Archie nodded, not agreeing, or understanding, just thinking. Katie was glad he didn’t say anything about it. Douxie had insisted it hurt her, in some way. That it had impacted her somehow. Katie hadn’t agreed. She couldn’t be affected by a man whose absence she had never cared to mourn. But Archie wasn’t like that. He just sat in the silence and listened. Katie had always liked that about him. Especially before she knew he could even talk.
She opened her book and started reading again. It wasn’t easy. Having to focus on Merlin’s irritatingly familiar handwriting didn’t help at all, either. She didn’t like having all these reminders of him lying around. She was even less fond of having to actually look at them.
Katie had decided, over the two months she’d been on the run with Nari, that she was not going to mourn the man. He wasn’t worth it. Not to her, at least. He’d ruined her life for centuries, after all. She appreciated his apology, and she didn’t hate him anymore like she once had, but she did not forgive him, and she would not mourn him. He already had enough people doing so. Katie simply wouldn’t be one of them.
Douxie did, though. It still ate away at him. Katie could see it. He missed the old man, no matter how complicated their relationship had been. Archie missed him, too. Merlin had given the two of them a place to be safe, to be at home, when nothing else in the world was willing to do the same. Katie would always be grateful of Merlin for that.
Silence passed. After a while, Archie spoke again. His voice was quieter than before.
“Katie?”
“Yeah, Arch?”
“I’m rather tired.”
“Me too, Archie.” Katie nodded, “Me, too. Why don’t you try to sleep?”
Archie shifted his weight on the armchair and climbed onto the, well, arm. Like he was waiting for something. Katie understood immediately. They’d always slept best curled up on the armchair back in GDT Arcane, Katie’s head leaning over one side and her legs dangling off the other. Archie, curled up warm and purring on her chest. A blanket thrown over them by Douxie. That was how Katie started sleeping again. Archie, too. And that was what he needed, now.
So Katie put her book down and sat down on the armchair the way she always did. The arms were a bit taller, and not as soft and worn-in as the ones at GDT Arcane, so it wasn’t quite as comfortable, but Katie managed to shift into a tolerable position. Once she was settled, Archie crawled over and took his usual spot resting on her. His steady purring was as familiar and soothing as it always had been.
The nostalgia of it all made Katie forget how different everything was. Both she and Archie fell asleep in minutes.