Chapter 1: Moon Music
Scar's ghost was sitting on the tip of a large boulder, perched in the upmost of ghostly positions on the tip of his booted toe, one leg folded over the supporting one's knee. His contortion seemed an effortless coupling of grace and balance. He held in his hands a silver violin, and from its body he brought forth the most beautiful ballads Jareth had ever heard played on the instrument. After some encouragement from the specters' part the king consented to sing, on the up chance that Scar played something he recognized. As if the gods above were mocking the Fae man, Scar began to play the melody of Jareth's love song. He sang along without a protest. He hadn't protested anything as of late anyhow. Then again it was near impossible to oppose anything a ghost ordered you to do. The song finished and Scar continued to play softly while Jareth lay back on the smooth stone he'd chosen to be his bed for the night.
"Scar?" It was a soft voice that only Scar could hear. He continued to play but turned to face the slightly green fog of air that was Sarah.
"Hello, dear." He said and smiled to her.
"How is he?" She asked. She was leaning on her cloud toward where Jareth lay half-asleep.
"Ask him yourself," Scar said. "He can hear you in his sleep."
"Really?" Sarah moved on her fog to Jareth who as if he could sense her presence near him inclined her way and mumbled in his sleep. Scar turned away to give them privacy.
"Jareth?" Sarah asked quietly. "Can you hear me?"
His eyes opened slightly and he spoke softly. "I…Sarah…how are you be here?"
It was enough for her to erupt in joy. She let her cloud fall around him and she lay against his chest. Tendrils of her streaming green, glimmering magic flew around them in swirling clouds, blowing her hair around their faces.
"It doesn't matter how I'm here, I'm here." She said and laid her ghost lips on his.
Jareth could hardly feel her touch, while for Sarah even the soft gust of his breath on her cheek was like a flaming touch. Her body was trapped back in the emerald casket and she'd only just begun to soul-swim as Scar called it out of that body and around the world. For a long time she had only been able to see into the world around her until she was finally able after good practice to break from her body and mind and 'swim' through the sky. The first time she met Scar Jareth was off behind the trees bathing in a pond. The two men were traveling far into the unmapped regions of Underground and Scar refused to tell Sarah and Jareth anything. Tonight was the first night she had been able to talk to Jareth.
After the kiss Jareth wound his real arms around her and he fell into a deeper stage of sleep, where Sarah talked an endless stream of gab just because she wanted to.
When the orange Underground sun pushed the crystal moon down into the seas Sarah felt the tug of her body on her soul and she untangled her soul from Jareth and let the tug drag her back over the uncharted Greenland's, through the forests of elves and over the desert where she had not too long ago destroyed the Darkness. Her heart quivered at the memory of the icy blade she stabbed through her body to penetrate the personification of the Darkness, the doppelganger of Jareth. She had not planned on near murdering herself in the process, nor had she even considered what she was doing until she was pulling the blade back out of her body and she had seconds to turn and chop off the head of her enemy. The rest of it was a bit of a blur, aside from the conversation with Scar in the land before the Forward. There she had made her choice to go back, to hold on to that thread of life she still had flowing in the body she left behind. It was not a hard decision for Sarah, though upon later reflection she wondered if it was a hard choice for the others in her similar situation. Then she realized as she settled in the cocoon of her emerald body that no one was in a similar situation to hers. It was something to silently laugh over.
Jay greeted Sarah when he sensed her return. The hard emerald shell she was trapped in was set up in the master's chambers of the Castle beyond the Goblin City. Half of the crew was searching for the Emerald Queen, while Jay, Margo, Frizz and Scoot and a few others remained at the castle to guard Sarah. Though she could not answer Jay felt it was important to greet her, smile and treat her like she was still a living breathing girl. As hopeless as the game seemed he never stopped.
Margo was sitting nearby in the chair humming distantly while flipping through a book of drawing he'd found on the desk. Jay had been reclining on the couch on the other side of the room, listening and counting the whispering swishes the turning pages made.
"She's back?" Margo asked without looking up from the book.
"Yes," Jay answered. "A bit later then normal."
"She probably wants to spend as much time as she can ogle over the king, wherever he is." Margo laughed.
Both men eyed the emerald girl on the bed, half expecting her to jump up and smite them with her armed wit. But she remained unmoving, no change made.
"Yes, well love does things to your head." Jay continued the conversation.
"Makes you think a man covered in glitter looks sexy." Margo snorted.
"She would kill you for that." Jay said.
"I'm just worried what sort of damage her children will suffer." Margo said, hinting horribly.
"I don't follow."
"Well, wouldn't you be a bit disturbed if your father ran around the house in tight pants singing and dancing?" Margo smiled.
Jay smiled wisely. "How do you know my father didn't?"
Jareth was unaware of Sarah's visit when he rose in the morning. Scar thought it was curious that he should not mention it, but it occurred to him when Jareth stood and tied his black traveling cape around his shoulders that the king may have only considered it a dream. He had to correct that.
"Sarah did seem well," Scar said. "Or did she tell you otherwise? Women tend to only expose their true selves when under the pressure of a badgering man who loves them."
Jareth froze in the process of untangling the chain of his amulet about hi neck and looked up at the floating ghost above him. The specter's lifeless eyes stared back at him, like marbles slashed with faded grey-brown color.
"She really came?"
Scar only needed to roll his eyes for Jareth to understand.
"Are the dead truly so wise?" Asked the king.
Scar snorted loudly and the billowing smoke around him fumed thick and dark with his agitation. "Yes, the dead are."
"Care to tell me where we are going oh wise-one?" Jareth crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow.
The ghost gritted his teeth. "I suppose I should," He smiled coldly and turned the direction they were heading. Pointing to where the sun was beginning to glow the dead elf began to whisper in a voice dry as the wind around them. "On the fifth day of our journey we shall reach a place called The Lovers' Tomb. On the seventh day a solar eclipse shall occur and in the process of blocking the light of the sun the invisible light of the emptiness shall light our way through the endless caves to Forever's Teardrop." He smiled again like this answered every question and explained the deepest meaning of life at once. Jareth swore angrily.
Jay found the library. It was a padlocked room that goblins weren't allowed to ever enter in. The key was not to be found but the pirate had more then enough experience in the picking locks that he soon made his way into the room. He planned on bringing a few books to Sarah, so she would have something to read when she turned back to flesh. Margo had argued at first with the old man against it.
"She can't read now and we don't even know if she'll live in that casket 'til the king returns!" It had been enough to send fifty goblins into a mad craze. Twenty yelled for the king in a continuous yodel of sound, ten cried for their mother', fifteen made a wall of their bodies around Sarah and the remaining five vanished into the Labyrinth.
In the end Jay went to the library and stayed there until a new night was born again.
Tiran had left for the High City. Repairs were swift; peace was born and Underground was serene again. The High King however was certainly not.
He hardly slept, never ate and refused the company of others. It was on the evening of Jareth's second night journeying when Sarah appeared to Tiran.
The High King had been leaning against the mantle piece watching the purple flames dance and lick the violet dragon scale in the hearth when a green butterfly fluttered through the balcony doors on a broken wing. Tiran turned when the shadow danced near him and smiled at the little creature.
"Hello there, little one." He said softly. Letting the insect land on his ungloved hand he whispered gently. "What's happened to your wing?"
The creature hopped about in answer.
"I see, well let me fix that up a bit for you precious." He paused, remembering when his son had used that endearment to describe his Sarah. But regaining his composure Tiran let a few drops of glittering magic spill from his fingers and heal the wing of the butterfly.
A crack of light and a gust of peach scented wind sent Tiran flying backwards. He crashed into the wall and landed on the hard floor, blood dripping from his lip.
He raised his eyes and gasped.
The room was alight with green flame and the ceiling shone with thousands of round crystals. In the center of the swirling magic stood a slender figure with long dark hair, a silvery gown and cat-green eyes.
"Good gods above!" Tiran cried. "Sarah!"
Jareth trudged over the mud covered earth. Floating above him Scar played the silver fiddle softly. When all at once he came to an abrupt stop Jareth turned to look up at him.
"What…"
"Shut up! Listen!" The ghost slammed a hand over Jareth's mouth.
He could hear nothing. And then it came to him. The birds weren't singing, the sounds of rushing rivers were hushed and nothing moved. Danger. The silence meant danger.