In The Realm of the Goblin King
By
Jareth Haven Ruadh
Chapter One: Concerning Magick
There is a common conception amongst the writers of fiction, fantasy and the like that an object has to be imbued with magickal intent for it to be; of its self; magickal. That a person of great power must create said object, or have in their possession something to which magick can be affixed. This is; quite simply; not the case. Magick moves. It grows. Magick becomes.
Magick is not a sedentary thing that can be called upon by rules and books and study. True, that a kind of magic can be brought into play in such manners. But Magick….true magick…comes from within.
So it was with one Sarah Williams.
Three years after the curious incident of the Labyrinth, Miss Sarah Williams was rather a changed girl. You see, dear reader, Magick changes people. It gets into their minds and hearts. It gets into their soul, into their blood… into their very essence. Sarah Williams was touched by magick the moment she took a bite of the tainted; enchanted, rather; peach in the Land of the Underground. The magick of the Labyrinth is old. It is powerful. It is the magick of the land. And, as we all know, dear reader, the Land and the King are One.
That is one of the oldest canons known to the myths of our people, this sad lad so bereft of the magick that once flowed so freely among the hills and rivers, the rocks and the trees. That echoed in caves and hollows in the secretest places of the wilds. And might, though you never quite know with magick of that sort, still exist in some lonely, untapped place unknown by maps and sciences.
Sarah Williams was; as I said before; changed. The way she moved, the light in those once quite common brown eyes, the way her hair looked in certain lights, the tone of her skin and form… changed. Became the Other that all learn to fear before they leave the nursery.
"Sarah! You're going to be late!" Karen's strident voice called. "Honestly, that girl…" The voice trailed off, leaving Sarah to rise from bed on her own time. The pale brunette threw an arm over her eyes, groaning. "Coming, Karen…." She rolled over, burying her head in her pillow. Not today… not yet. She thought desperately. It had been three years since the storm that had changed her life and she didn't fancy returning to school for her senior year.
It took Karen calling up for her three more times before the girl rolled out of bed and started getting ready. As the girl dressed, she cried out in pain. "Ow! What-" Her voice caught, staring down at her hands in shock. When had her nails looked so….glass-like? Or that sharp.
Sarah half-ran to the vanity, searching frantically for the nail clippers. "No, no, no! I swear to god-" She found them finally, lost in a drawer of other such jumped items. She started clipping the talon-like nails, cursing when the clipper broke in her hands. "No…."
"Sarah! Come ON! Your bus is here!"
"C-Coming!" She grabbed her jacket from the back of the chair, and her book bag, before running out the door towards the waiting bus. Nothing for it, then, but to keep her hands as still and as hidden as possible. This might be a problem.