Notes: This is the prequel story to A Love Returned. Please enjoy and review.
Labyrinth (c) The Jim Henson Company
Chapter 1: Family
He was in pain. The wound was internal, deep in him. His heart felt like it was splitting in two, breaking. There was only one time before when Jareth had felt like this and that had been when his queen had been killed all those years ago. Sarah was the only one who could cause him this kind of pain. Jareth knew that.
"You have no power over me." Her words seemed to reverberate across his mind, driving him deeper into his misery and pain. His reborn queen had refused him, had said the words to defeat him. Only she could have done that. It was one of her certain powers. Even so, he didn't deserve this. He was not the villain. He never had been. He would never hurt her. He loved her.
It was true that this was not the outcome he wanted. Sarah had jumped things far too early. He had wanted to wait until she was adult, when she could be by his side again and remember. Still, he had lost himself in the game, hadn't he? Just seeing her, even as a teenager, rekindled within him feelings that he had not felt since his wife's death. He wanted her. No. It was more accurate to say that he needed her. That was why he had been so desperate to get her to stay with him. It had never been about winning, to turn Toby into goblin. It had always been about her.
Jareth felt weak and all he could do was lay in his bed in the chambers he had once shared with his queen. He didn't want to move. What was the point anymore? He had lost Sarah not once, but twice. And even he, with his powers to reorder time, could not back far enough to save her. There was limits to what he could do.
"You fought well, my love." A familiar voice attempted to soothe him.
Jareth looked over to his side to see her. Sarah was there, his beautiful queen. She was in the form he had seen her in before her death, wearing a white satin dress. She looked angelic, the very picture of the goddess he loved. He could see that the dress accentuated a slight bump on her belly.
He opened his mouth to speak, but he felt Sarah place a gentle finger to his lips.
"Hush. Don't speak. You are in too much pain right now and you need to heal." She said. He felt her carefully move his body in such a way that her lap served as the pillow for his head. Warm lips pressed against his forehead. Jareth felt a spark of magic race through him, dulling the pain.
"Sleep." She gently instructed him. "You need your rest."
He didn't know if this was real or an illusion created out of his pain and loneliness, but somehow he didn't care. The Goblin King closed his eyes, feeling for even a moment that he was in the comfort of his bed with his wife once again.
Sarah stared down at the brown leather bound book. The book itself appeared almost ancient and clearly had not been read in far too long. The young queen blew on it to get the dust off the cover before carefully opening it. The contents of it were what interested her, though she was not totally sure she could read it. The folk of the Underground had been known to have ancient tongues, which some still used today. Her husband, being of a younger generation, hardly touched the old languages, preferring the common tongue.
The book was about a subject that Jareth rarely talked about with anyone and had only said a few short words to her about it, his family. It was something that she couldn't help but wonder about, though her husband had been reluctant to speak to her about it. Why was Jareth the Goblin King and the Lord of the Labyrinth since a young age? Where were his parents? Those kinds of questions had stuck with her in her mind.
She carefully flipped through the pages, seeing drawings of several previous goblin monarchs. She had learned that in the Underground, contrary to her world in the Aboveground, titles, wealth, and lands were typically passed down to the first born, regardless of gender. That was why in her research in this book, she saw several Goblin Kings that were female in form in addition to some males as well.
Sarah soon reached the last entry in the book. Much of the wording on this particular monarch was faded. But she could see a drawing a beautiful woman labeled with the name Titania. In the biography that accompanied the drawing, Sarah could see another name that appeared to have once been connected to a sentence, Jareth's name.
"Titania." Sarah read.
This king was Jareth's mother. Although, Sarah had to admit that Jareth looked nothing like her. Then again… No. He couldn't be, could he? Was he a stolen baby? It was true that Sarah's love for Jareth was true, but even she was not blind to what he truly was. She had grown up on tales from the Underground, stories of goblins snatching babies away from humans who wished to be rid of their offspring, and turning the babies into goblins themselves. But Jareth was fae, wasn't he? He was not human, of that she could be certain. Even if she did have a new mystery to solve about this King Titania.
It was cold, far too cold for anything to survive without warmth. Snow crackled under a pair of dark boots. The fae paused in her walking, taking a moment to survey the landscape around her. There had been a village here not long ago. She could tell that. She could still see the burnt outlines of houses in the ground, stone foundation sticking out of the snow. There were bodies too, bones charred from the great fire that had taken the village.
The fae's amber eyes narrowed. This war had gone too far. She knew this village. It had been quiet, peaceful. The peoples here had helped all, regardless of which side they were on.
"Your Highness! Your Highness!" A voice cried out to her.
She heard someone slip on the snow and slide down to her side. She glanced over to see one of her advisors, one of the more intelligent among her goblins.
"Yes, Loco?" The Goblin King asked him, her tone hinted that she had little care for what he had to say. What she was seeing before her was more important.
"It's Pogo." The goblin corrected her weakly before he managed to scramble to his feet. "We got word that the Great Wizard would like to make an alliance with you and I-."
He didn't have time to finish his sentence as his king put her hand up to silence him.
"Stop! Listen." She commanded him. She had heard something as he had been speaking. Something that she hadn't heard in a long time, the crying of a baby.
The crying could be heard again, louder. Before Pogo could say anything, the Goblin King was off in the direction of the baby's cries.
She found the baby, then. He was wrapped in a tattered brown cloth. He was cold, his parents long gone. Abandoned or orphaned, it was hard to tell, but it was obvious that the baby wasn't where he was supposed to be.
The king bent down to pick him up. He was small with a few curls of blonde hair. His eyes were mismatched, one blue and one brown. The king could sense the magic on him. He was a fae like her.
"King Titania?" Pogo had materialized by her side again. The goblin was practically attached to her.
"He's alone." Titania said, cradling the baby against her chest to keep him warm from the cold. The babe responded to her by settling down and shutting his eyes to sleep.
It was strange. She had had quite a few babies wished away to her from the Aboveground, each of which she had turned into goblins. While she could honestly say that several of her goblins that had been once human didn't deserve to go back to those who wished them away, many of them had been given a better life under her rule. With a plague running rampant in the Aboveground, the wished away children would be able to live without dying of an incurable disease. Despite this, she had never been given the opportunity to be maternal, to be a mother. Perhaps she could be one with this child. He was not like the others. He was not human.
"Jareth." She decided the baby's new name. This boy would be her son, the Goblin Prince and one day the Goblin King and Lord of the Labyrinth in his own right.
"You shouldn't look into things that aren't yours to know, precious." Sarah could sense that her husband was behind her and rather agitated that his responses to her questions in regards to his family hadn't been enough for her.
The twenty year old woman swallowed to keep herself from jumping. She had been so absorbed in trying to read the faded script in the book that she hadn't noticed Jareth come in to the library.
"You said that there would be no secrets between us. You told me you hated secrets." She responded, but closed the book anyway. Being truthful, they had both decided, would be a cornerstone of their marriage.
"I have not kept any secrets from you." Jareth defended himself.
Sarah looked up at him from her seat.
"Then tell me why you don't speak about your family much." She requested. "It's not fair, considering you know my family, even about my mother's scandal. Besides, I could consider omission of information as the same as secret keeping."
The Goblin King sat down in the seat next to her. He did not want to talk about it. It wasn't that he felt shame. It was just a difficult subject to talk about, after what had happened.
"Sarah, I…" He sighed. "Do you really want to know?"
"Yes." She answered. "Jareth, I love you. Nothing will change that. You are my best friend, my husband. Look, it's just… Young kings are common enough in the Aboveground, but for your kind isn't a little out of the ordinary?"
They had met a few years ago as teenagers. He had been the Goblin King then. It had been strange for him to be king at so young an age without a king regent at the very least.
He reached to take her hand. This was no way out of this for him. Sarah's stubbornness wouldn't give him an escape.
"Come with me to the balcony. I could use some fresh air to tell you everything. But you should know that the only family I have interest in now is the one that you and I will make one day, if you desire it." Jareth told her.
She took his hand and they both stood up from the table. Sarah allowed her husband to lead her to one of the castle balconies, eager to hear his story.
Notes: The character of Titania is inspired by Titania, the faerie queen, from A Midsummer Night's Dream.
A Midsummer Night's Dream (c) William Shakespeare