Lasting Repercussions

Chapter 4

"So, wait. You're saying you found the headquarters to an underground changeling organization, to save Aaarrrgh... with your headgear?"

"Yeah, man! The stupid metal wiring picked up their secret radio signal!" said Toby, practically bursting with his excitement at telling the story of his and Claire's escapade into the Janus Order.

Jim shook his head, sitting cross-legged on the floor of the examination dwell, where he, Tobes, and Claire had been for the past hour-and-a-half as the two of them caught him up on the goings-on in Arcadia and Trollmarket that had transpired while he had been gone. Naturally, his first order of business had been to ask just how on Earth Aaarrrgh was alive, which had led to this fantastic -if not bizarre- story of changelings, potions, and secret subterranean hideouts beneath the Arcadia travel agency. Though, after all Jim had seen since he left, the only wonder he still had was just how Arcadia managed to not collapse into a massive sinkhole with so many hidden settlements hollowing out the ground below it.

But he kept those thoughts to himself and listened intently to their story. "And you didn't get caught?"

From her seat next to him Claire gave a guilty chuckle. "Well..."

"Yeah, we probably shouldn't have assumed that we didn't raise any alarms by getting in through one of their main entrances." Toby gave the back of his head a sheepish scratch. "After that we met their head honcho; this little German dude, totally creepy. Oh! And he was a special type of changeling! A... what was it called?"

"Polymorph," Claire supplied.

"Yeah, that."

"He was like a changeling," she continued, "but he could take the form of anyone. He turned into NotEnrique. It was... unsettling."

"You know what was also unsettling, Claire?" Toby grumbled under his breath, "Being in the designated torture chair."

Jim blanched. "They were going to torture you?!"

"Nah. They just wanted to take off my headgear so we couldn't listen to their radio signals anymore,' Toby explained. "They actually ended up offering us a recipe to an antidote to save Aaarrrgh. Before throwing us out."

"An antidote? Why would they want to do anything to help?"

"They didn't," said Claire, a sharp bitterness on her tongue, "They just used Aaarrrgh to get us to steal Vendel's staff for them."

"You stole from Vendel?!"

He flinched as Toby and Claire drowned out his exclamation with a cascade of frantic shushes. He remembered Aaarrrgh sleeping.

"It was the only way we could save Aaarrrgh," said Toby.

"And the only way we could've gotten into the Darklands to find you," Claire added. Which brought a question to mind that, admittedly, Jim probably should have asked first.

"How did you find me?" he asked. His words were slow, contemplating. "The bridge was closed. Only a Trollhunter can open it, but-"

"Well, technically a Trollhunter did open it."

Jim blinked. "I don't understand."

Claire and Toby exchanged glances, as if hesitant to decide who would reveal their news. Claire spoke first.

"Kanjigar let us in."

"What?" Jim whispered, "But that doesn't make sense. All of the fallen Trollhunters are in the Void. How did he-?"

"Through Aaarrrgh." said Toby.

All eyes fell upon the pile of fur and stone in the corner of the dwell. Aaarrrgh's peaceful snores filled the empty hush in the room.