Okay, so it's been a while since I updated my Laby AU, and I apologize for that. However, this popped into my head recently, and I had to write it down to get it out, and even though it's kind of sad, I thought I would share it with you. So here you go.
I will be posting links on my profile to pictures of the dresses that Sarah wears in this, because they are truly AMAZING, like words cannot do them justice, you just have to see them for yourself.
I DISCLAIM!
Sarah gazed at herself in the mirror. She was wearing a sleeveless silk ombre charmeuse dress with a sweetheart neckline and a panel of organic pin-tucked silk crossing over the chest. Olive green gently faded into sage green towards the center of the gown, and beaded lace framed the chest panel. Delicate lace and beading extended over the edges, giving it an exquisite, airy feel. She was also wearing a separate matching cape of silk chiffon that attached to a beaded lace collar and elegantly draped over the arms and back, but left the shoulders exposed, and which clasped at the neck with a gem-encrusted clasp. She was wearing olive green satin flats, and her hair was done in curls.
She tried not to look at the tattoo-like band of Celtic knotwork around her bicep, or to think about what was getting ready to happen.
Thankfully, she was saved by a knock at the door.
"Who is it?" she called.
"We're ready for you, Majesty," a voice replied.
"I'm on my way."
She took a deep, ragged breath, swallowed, then turned and left the room. Normally, she would have at least smiled at Jac, who was waiting for her on the other side of the door, but today, she didn't even look at him, instead keeping her gaze straight ahead and her expression stoic as she began making her way down the hall with Jac following at her heels.
"Are you alright, Majesty?" he asked.
"I'm fine, Jac," Sarah replied.
"Are you sure? Because if you ever wish to talk about—"
"I said I'm fine, Jac."
She lowered her head and sighed.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I didn't mean to snap at you like that, I just..."
"I know. Nothing is the same without him. We're all adjusting to the change."
"I can't talk about it right now. I can't even think about it. I just need to get through this and then go cry myself to sleep and stay there for the next hundred years or so."
"Majesty..."
"Don't, Jac. Just...don't."
Jac lowered his head, and they continued down the hall.
They went out onto the main balcony, below which creatures and beings of various races and species were milling around, most of them dressed in darker colors. When Sarah and Jac appeared, things fell silent, and everyone watched as Sarah stood in the center of the balcony. Her sixteen-year-old daughter and eleven-year-old son were standing behind her, the former to her right and the latter to her left.
"Her Majesty will now say a few words," Jac announced, and then went and stood off to the side.
Sarah let her gaze wander around, keeping her face an expressionless mask. She wasn't stupid. She could see the pity in their eyes, how sorry they all felt for her and her children. She didn't want their pity. She didn't want anyone to feel sorry for her, or for her children. Neither Alastrina nor Azmyth wanted that, either, she knew. No, what she wanted, and what her children wanted, was Jareth. She wanted her husband, and they wanted their father. She wanted to find out who was responsible for this, and she wanted to make them pay. She wanted things to go back to normal for them, for the entire Goblin Kingdom. She wanted to not be doing what she was doing right now. She. Wanted. Jareth.
"Thank you all for coming," she said, "and showing your support in this difficult time. If my husband were here, I'm sure he'd make some sarcastic remark about how flattering it is that so many people suddenly seem to care for him such a great deal, and then go on to say something like, 'Then again, how could anyone not love me when I'm so fashionable and such a joy to be around?'"
Faint laughter went up, then died down.
"I was fifteen when I met Jareth, which is only a year younger than my daughter is now. Not many people know this about us, but he and I actually met because I was a runner in the Labyrinth, which, as I'm sure most of you know, means that I was trying to win back a child I had wished away. In my case, it was my half-brother Toby, who was just a year old at the time. I reached the Castle within the thirteen hours Jareth gave me, and that meant that I had won. But Jareth had been tracking my progress through the Labyrinth, and in doing so, he had fallen in love with me. He offered to make me his queen, to give me everything, make all my wildest dreams a reality if I would just forget about Toby. But I turned him down. I told him, 'You have no power over me.' And so Toby and I were sent back home to the human realm."
She sighed.
"By the time I was eighteen, I had come to realize that I'd made a mistake in turning Jareth down. That I loved him, too. And so a year after that, when I was nineteen, when he appeared to me without being summoned and offered again to make me his queen, I accepted. We were married on the spot, and we agreed that I would finish out the year of schooling I was in at the time, then Jareth would bring me back to the Underground with him, and that would be that. So that's what we did. Jareth visited me as often as he could throughout that year, and at the end of it, he manipulated the memories of my family and friends to make them all think I had eloped with a handsome foreigner, and he brought me back to the Underground, which is where I've been ever since. And I've been very happy with my choice, and my life here. At least, I have up until now."
She drew in a ragged breath.
"Jareth ruled this kingdom for over thirteen hundred years, and for most of that time, he did so entirely by himself. He is—"
She stopped herself, lowering her gaze.
"...Was," she amended, "a great leader. He was also a great husband and father. He was a lot of other things, too. He was cunning and smart, and skilled with magic. He was...a little vain, I'll admit, and a bit of what those of us from my native realm would refer to as a perv. And I guess he could also be cruel, but that wasn't the side of him that I knew, or that our children knew. The side that we knew was...kinder and more loving than he would ever care to admit. He cared a great deal about us, and about his kingdom and the creatures living in it. He would never admit that second part out loud, but I knew him well enough to see that it was true. He was playful in a very mischievous way, and while I suppose that's true for most fae, I've never seen it manifest with anyone as strongly as I saw it in Jareth, with the single exception to that perhaps being our daughter. But more than anything, Jareth was a great man. And nothing will ever be the same without him. It just won't. And now, I think it's high time that we gave him a proper send-off. One fit not for a king, but a Goblin King. Our Goblin King."
As everyone watched, Sarah gave a signal, and fireworks went off in the distance, exploding in the sky above the Castle Beyond the Goblin City. The crowd parted for the pall bearers, and the enshrouded body was placed on the funeral pyre, which Sarah finally allowed herself to look at. She gave another signal, and the pyre was lit. Behind her, Alastrina sobbed.
Sarah knew she should be crying right now. If there was any time that would be appropriate for her to do so in public, this would be it. But for some reason, her eyes were dry, and her face remained a stoic mask. She had been on an emotional roller coaster recently, and it had drained her. It suddenly came into her head that maybe she didn't have any tears left to shed; maybe she had cried so much that the universe would no longer allow her to do so, at least not over this.
Two weeks ago, Sarah and Jareth had gotten into their bed and fallen asleep in each other's arms, just as they had all throughout their marriage. The next morning, however, Sarah had woken up to find Jareth lying beside her with his throat slit and blood congealed around the wound. She'd screamed, then dissolved into sobs, and the guards had come running at the sound of their queen's cry. It was obvious right away that it had been an assassination, and an investigation was immediately launched into it, but so far, they still had no idea who was responsible. For the last fourteen days, Sarah had been going about her life in a dull trance, breaking down into tears every so often. Jareth's brother and sister had come to the castle immediately upon recieving the news, and they had been staying there with Sarah and the children ever since, all of them drawing comfort from one another in their time of grief.
Out of all of them, Sarah had definitely been hit the hardest. She and Jareth had been co-dependent on each other for so many years that she barely knew how to function without him anymore. It was a struggle just for her to get up out of bed every morning. She couldn't even sleep in their chambers anymore because of the memory of waking up to find him in such a state. She often woke up in the middle of the night feeling cold and empty and alone, and then she would curl up and cry herself back to sleep.
She stood and watched her husband's body burn, knowing what she had to do and already planning it out in her head.
A week later, Sarah was found in her chambers wearing a more sophisticated, grown-up version of the ballgown she had worn during her very first dance with Jareth when she was fifteen; She was on the floor in front of the desk, which had a note in her handwriting sitting in its center, and there was a red stain on her breast. In one hand, with a loose grip, she clutched the hilt of a dagger. The note only said one thing:
We chose the path between the stars.