The next day…
The Heroes Forge and all its liveliness had been cut off on routine as our training came to an end. Toby was bent over with his hands on his knees when I caught his eye across the Forge, sweat soaking through his shirt, chest heaving like a pump.
"Dooouugh." He wheezed it more than said it. "I'm done. No more. I have given everything I have to give."
"You've got maybe forty percent left in you, tops."
He almost flipped me off between gasps but knelt to the ground instead, which took real effort in his condition, and I had to give him credit for the attempted multitasking. Blinky hovered nearby with his usual post-training checklist "ahH! Master tobias, your pace is excellent today keep up the tremendous effort."
"Good work little man." Arrgh chimed in sat cross-legged against one of the stone pillars, patient as a mountain, unbothered by any of it.
I didn't wait for Toby to fully catch his breath before I finished my own workout and got into my goal of the day. "Hey everyone, I've got something important to share and it could be related to Bular,"
Everyone turned waiting for me to continue.
"yesterday. I think I caught something, suspicious at the museum."
"Someone in that museum transformed. I know I saw it. And it could be a hint to finding where he rests and his plans other than taking the amulet."
Toby, still catching his breath, gave me the look he reserves for when he thinks I've finally cracked. "Jim. Buddy. You want to maybe workshop that sentence before you say it to anyone else cause that made no sense, there's no troll that can transform."
Blinky's four eyes narrowed all at once, "That's A serious claim master Jim," he said, "Unfortunely if your information must hold true it requires serious scrutiny before it is believed —To keep the peace Vendel will not have half-formed sightings spreading through Trollmarket on your say-so, or even by mistake. No offense of course."
"None taken. That's why I want to go back and get proof."
"Sooo, where going on a stake out?" Toby said a little curious at the thought.
Concrete, photographic evidence is, in fact, the only language that reliably convinces trolls of anything — and you humans are, credit where due, remarkably equipped to gather it with those little devices you carry everywhere."
"exactly, Toby, text your nana you'll be busy it's time to stake out."
cutting through the same streets I'd biked down, with Blinky and arrgh cutting straight through the woods we all arrived at the meeting place. Which was how the three of us ended up crouched in the bushes outside the Arcadia Museum of Natural History, Toby and I already with our phones out.
My mom was still four hours from getting off her shift so today was the perfect chance to gather this info. With killahead bridges discovery I'll really be able to use every resource in troll market, I may even be able to strike first against Bular before he tries going for the amulet again or even destroy killahead entirely.
"There." I pointed.
"That's it? That's our big secret entrance?" Toby whispered.
"What? You want to try the front windows instead? It still should be open from the night cleaners finishing up."
Of course it was the front entrance. Toby didn't like the idea but seemed ready anyway.
Blinky stopped us at the treeline before we got to far. "I will remain here," he announced,
"I and Aaarrrgh are to big, Go. Quickly. Stay vigilant."
We continued at a quitter pace.
Up close, the museum looked bigger than it ever had tall windows staring back at us dark and blank, It was the kind of grand for impact alone but in our case it only made the task feel that much bigger.
The lot was empty except for a single car parked near the entrance, engine off, windows dark. I couldn't see anyone inside past the glare of the streetlight bouncing off the windshield Someone was likely still here, though I couldn't tell exactly who.
We stayed low. Crouched-low, moving between the shadows like the slightest sound itself might give us away if we stood up straight.
The door was still open when we reached it. I eased it open another few inches, just enough to slip through, and Toby followed so close behind me I could hear him not-quite-holding his breath.
Inside, it was just dim enough that every display case threw a shadow twice its actual size only the moon providing a hint of clarity. We moved past a rack of dinosaur replicas, then a hallway of taxidermied animals frozen mid-snarl and glass eyes our cautious reflections, soon going deeper into the building we entered a room lined with mineral cases, rows of quartz and geodes glinting faintly. I was a bit interested in figuring out If they had actual security alarms here.
The cases seemed to simplistic, that's when I noticed the minerals gleam was growing brighter I looked through a window first catch toby and my shadow, the fully turned.
A beam of light swept across the far wall a flashlight, and I froze mid-step, Toby noticed and was about to whisper before hearing footsteps and freezing aswell.
Our backs slamming flat behind the nearest display case hard enough that I felt it in my teeth. Toby's eyes face started turning red again. I forced myfeatures still, jaw clenched, counting seconds and keeping my ears open for any unexpected movements. The light swept through slowly, finally going past without stopping. Whoever was holding it kept walking.
If we got caught in here, that was it. If Bular finds out someone's been sniffing around wherever he's keeping Killahead, every plan I've got scratched into my mind on how to actually get close enough to Killahead Bridge to prevent it's activation goes up in smoke. We'd be exposed with nothing but the amulet and whatever's in my backpack, and that math does not work out in our favor without the advantage of a sneak attack.
I locked back in. Eyes forward. No time thinking about worst-case scenarios, just on moving.
We ducked behind a row of podiums holding some fossil exhibit, staying lower than before, elbows nearly touching the tile. Toby opened his mouth — probably to complain about his knees, or the dust, or both — but I shot him a look sharp enough that he swallowed it whole.
Silence was a must.
We managed at a steady pace past the next set of doors, that's when we caught a light. Faint, bluish.
We crept closer creaking the door open slightly checking for anyone before entering, and there it was.
A giant blanket, I stood firmer before heading to it and uncovering it.
The bridge. Killahead Bridge, half-assembled, stone and rune-etched arches catching that same sourceless blue glow, sitting in the middle of what I could only assume was a hall of ancient artifacts not entirely set up. Blinky'd had the scrolls of it back in the timeline, with these pictures and the illustration it should become clear.
heard the shutter click twice before I even registered I should be doing the same thing.
"Jim." His whisper was pure awe,. "Jim, whatever this is seems important we should gather some intel."
I nodded quickly raising my own phone and started snapping, hands not quite steady enough to hold the shot level.
Click. Click. Click. Each shutter noise landing louder in my ears than the last confirming our success, bouncing off stone and glass in a room built to hold silence.
Oh right were sdupposed to be silence.
I whispered quietly "Toby turn off your shu— "
my phone chimed. Some notification, wait it was Barbara, saying she'd be back earlier, unfortunately this was picked at the single worst possible second in human history to demand my attention.
A door opened somewhere to our left.
Footsteps. Even, unhurried, heels clicking against tile — and then a shape stepped into the blue light. A woman, head starting to turn toward the sound we'd just made.
"hmm."
We didn't wait to find out if she'd finish the turn. I grabbed Toby's sleeve and we dropped behind the door we entered from, backs pressed flat on the wall, breath caught somewhere in our throats.
A sound came out the room somewhat quite with a fiery light— and underneath it, a low, tuneless whistling.
Yeah no. I signaled to Toby and we bolted.
Every step we took was a negotiation between fast and silent, we couldn't be seen or it was all over!
Toby stumbled his foot nearly a podium barely missing it but it still made a slight noise, paying to much attention to him I knocked my elbow against a wall, thankfully it was concrete but it did hurt.
I could hear the lady pick up her pace to catch up turned corners a speeds that sounded blinding, but she was still out of sight.
There, the exit!
The nano second we reach through the crack of the door to outside caution was thrown to the wind and we booked it into the bushes where arrrgghh and Blinky had been waiting patiently. somehow we made it back through the exhibit hall without a full-blown crash. Behind us, footsteps picked up, and none other than a changeling revealed herself, Confident. Like she already knew, without seeing us, that something had been there.
she was just there, arms crossed, murmuring something under her breath.
We were all dead still.
After a long moment, she transformed back into a human and walked off toward the parking lot, and only then did Blinky let out a breath he'd clearly been holding since before we even got out the door.
"That," he whispered once she was well and truly gone, "was indeed a changeling."
Toby blinked. "You know her?"
"Everyone in Trollmarket knows of them. They are spoken of in whispers for good reason. Changelings, Tobias, are trolls given human form to walk among you unseen — spies, saboteurs, the eyes and hands of Gunmar's forces in the world above. They live among you. Teach your classes, drive your buses, sit two seats away at a diner, and you would never know the difference until it was far too late to matter."
Toby gulped still out of breath.
Stil I looked down at my phone. The photos were still there — blurry in some, my hands hadn't been steady enough for the most part but a few was all we needed anyways it was unmistakable in every one of them, blue-lit stone frozen mid-glow, damning even out of focus.
Now that I actually had it, it was time to show Vendel the true dangers that lurked.