A Woman of Power
by K. Stonham
first released 30th April 2010
Sarah wasn't a witch.
At fifteen, she had the love of a king and anything she whispered into her mirror would be done. Her outer life involved school and boy-crazy girlfriends, too-thick math texts and too-short theater rehearsals, a mother who was never there and a stepmother who always was. Her inner life involved a castle-city at the heart of a maze, the loyal friends who were nothing like her or one another, and the man who made her a woman.
Jareth would deny her nothing, and when she caught her fingertips sparkling in the sunlight or glowing beneath the moon, Sarah knew the power of that inner, other, world was hers to channel to any degree which she would allow.
But she was not a witch.
She refused to allow poisoned apples or gingerbread cottages into her world. No enchanted sleeps for her, nor the theft of lives or voices. Which made it so hard (even harder) when Melanie came over and closed the bedroom door and they sat on Sarah's bed. Her classmate was white-faced and red-eyed and after Sarah's question of "Are you okay?" the dam broke and a torrent of words flowed out.
A boy (the captain of the hockey team). A night messing around when her parents were out to dinner. A pregnancy test, buried in a trashcan at school. "Oh my god, Sarah, what am I going to do?" her friend whispered in her arms, voice blurred with crying. "They'll kill me!"
Sarah's heart clenched in pain. This was going to ruin Melanie's life. It seemed like too high a price to pay for an hour of stupidity. One hand was on Melanie's back, the other entwined with the other girl's on Melanie's lap. Against the back of that hand, Sarah imagined she could feel a nascent heartbeat.
She closed her eyes then opened them again, looking at her mirror. "Jareth," she breathed.
It was not even a moment later that the brown-feathered wings fluttered and rustled outside her bedroom window. Sarah met the owl's dark gaze, then turned her attention back to her friend.
"Mel," she asked softly, "what do you want to happen?"
"I don't know," Melanie said brokenly. "I can't have an abortion-my parents'd kill me!"
"Do you want to keep the baby, then, or give it up for adoption?"
The girl shook her head violently. "I can't have it, either!"
"What if," Sarah chose her words carefully, "the baby just went away on its own? To another place where it would be loved and cared for?"
"If only!" Melanie choked. "I wish!"
"And so do I, my love," Sarah breathed softly, looking out the window again at the great barn owl. It ruffled its feathers once, then flew away on silent wings.
"You ask much of me," Jareth told her that night.
"I ask little," Sarah countered.
He handed her a crystal sphere. Inside rested a tiny pink thing not even the size of her thumb. "He will never even remember being human."
"She's too young," Sarah said simply, accepting the sphere with reverent care. "What will he become?" The goblins loved children. Even Toby had never been in any real danger, terrified though she'd been at the time.
"What do you wish?"
"Let him have wings," she decided, handing the sphere back. The Goblin King accepted the responsibility, and her wishes, gravely. He hid the sphere away in his cloak before drawing Sarah into his arms, into its dark folds. She breathed deeply of his scent - wool and sandalwood, dust and peat smoke, and something that she'd never smelled in any Earthly lands. "Thank you, Jareth."
No, never a witch.
Merely the chosen queen of the Goblin King.
Author's Note: This sat hand-written in a notebook for months until I could get around to rewatching the movie. Written mainly for my Wonderful Husband, and also a bit for Ghilledhu, RacerxMachina, and Leareth. Feel free to nitpick any/all errors, but please do so nicely rather than meanly.