Chapter 1
"There is sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief...and unspeakable love."
He was so cold. He hated the fact that he couldn't control his own body as his jaw chattered uncontrollably. Damn his weakness. The wind was cruel; it whipped angry swirls of snow past him, and against him, lashing as effectively as a whip. Groaning he forced himself to his feet, stumbling a bit as the wind pushed against him before he regained his balance. It was dark but still so bright, the moon reflecting off the icy white landscape, softly glaring. He was numb.
Not just from the cold; but from realizing he was in Gicaz, the barren ice land that served as a border to his world, a place of exile. All he remembered was falling, and, his lips becoming a thin line at the memory, her damning words. The words were simple, a few sentences really, but they had changed the fate of a king.
A king...He thought almost hysterically, of what? He was a king without a kingdom, a king without a Queen.
"Sarah." Jareth wasn't sure if he thought her name or spoke it aloud. Even though she had betrayed him, taken his words and thrown them back at him, he found comfort in just thinking of her, of her defiant eyes and smug smiles. There was so much about her that he had wanted to discover, he had wanted to see more of her faces, to see what she looked like in love, in ecstasy.
For a moment he forgot everything but her, forgot that he was in this banished wasteland, forgot that she had rejected him and imagined what it would have been like to love her. He held her so briefly at the ball, and it had been such a simple embrace but it had made him feel content, happier than anything had in centuries.
His face felt cold suddenly, so he brought his gloved hands to his face to warm it and was surprised to find his cheeks wet. He stared at his damp gloves for a moment before it registered to him that he was looking at his tears. He felt disgusted at himself, what was he, a child?
'You have no power over me' she had said, but you have so much power over me he mused as he continued slowly trudging forward, his elaborate owl feathered coat providing little warmth. He drew on his power to change his clothes and then to leave this dratted place, annoyed that he hadn't thought of it immediately, that his thoughts had immediately gone to Sarah instead. His waited a moment, his brows drawn in confusion when nothing happened.
He reached out, searching for his stream of power, for his connection to the Labyrinth, to the Underground. His body was clenched, reaching for his magic only to find a thread remaining, like everything had been severed. He gasped, chocking at the pain that came as soon as he acknowledged his missing magic. The pain made him bow over, clutching himself. His magic was not just a thing, or a tool, it was an essential part to him, as natural as the blood flowing in his veins as second nature as breathing.
He had a sudden flash to when he was just a boy, learning to ride a horse with his mother. He had gotten frustrated at his inability to ride correctly and he had tried to create a spell to enable him to ride flawlessly and turned to see his mother laughing, her long golden hair hallowing her angelic face,
"Dear what are you trying to do?" He had merely glared at his mother, trying to mimic his father's expression when he was annoyed. This only caused Arielle to smile wider before she told him, "magic, like everything has rules."
"How can magic have rules?!" He had demanded, confident in himself even at such a young age, he was a prince of the realm; there were no rules for him.
"There is logic to magic. Though not necessarily logic as we understand it."
He hadn't understood what she had meant then. Only that he was going to actually have to learn how to ride a horse independent of magic. He understood now, and it was horrifying. Magic's logic, magic's rules, had stripped him of his power when Sarah had claimed that he had no power.
Her will had been as strong as his, greater, and simply with her words he was powerless. He almost laughed at the irony. He had given her special powers when he had fallen in love with her and his gift had become his undoing.
"Oh, Sarah."
He fell to his knees, and then fell forward face down in the snow, letting the blackness and cold consume him, taking the pain. He had lost everything else that was important—what was his life?
Her friends had just left, Ludo hugging her tightly and Hoggle asking if she would visit, she had promised she would even though she didn't even know if it was possible. Sir Didymus had been harder to persuade to leave; she had thanked the knight but insisted that she was going to be safe; he had been doubtful about her security and had begun insisting on staying with her.
Then she had looked in on Toby again, a smile touching her lips as she pushed back a baby curl on his forehead. She loved her brother. She had never loved someone as fiercely as she did him, looking down on his small frame she realized that she would've done anything to save him, she would run the Labyrinth again if she had to. She would use all her power to keep him safe. It was funny how she didn't even think she liked Toby before their ordeal in the Labyrinth. But isn't that what everyone always says? That you don't realize how much something means to you until you almost loose it? She smiled again and was about to turn away from the crib when a strange sensation stopped her.
She felt warmth spreading through her chest. She took a sharp breath, startled by the sudden heat. Then like a match being set her entire body was burning. Sarah felt like she was on fire, she screamed. Toby woke up and looked at his sister sleepily, and as she continued to scream he started to cry. She ran into her parent's bathroom twisting the water on in a panic, jumping into the shower fully clothed, tripping in her haste.
She fell into the tub, a leg still sprawled awkwardly over the lip of the tub, she didn't care, and she just turned her face towards the cold water pouring down onto her. It felt good for a moment, cooling her skin, but it was a superficial relief. The heat was inside her. She began to cry, terrified of what was happening to her body that she had no control over. Before her thoughts were completely formulated she was yelling for the only ones she thought could help,
"HOGGGLEEE! DIDYMUS! I NEED YOU! COME TO ME!" It was the most excruciating pain she had ever felt, searing agony ripping through her body, flames licking her under the skin. She tossed and turned in the tub and was rubbing her arms, as if she could put out the blaze by patting her arms. Not even five seconds later her three friends appeared, Didymus and Ludo looked confused and Hoggle looked downright irritated at first, and then they all realized at once something was wrong. Hoggle rushed to her side grabbing her hand,
"Sarah?!" He looked scared. "Sarah what's wrong?!" She chocked out,
"I'm-m," she gasped, "Bur-burning!" She looked up at him her eyes filled with tears, begging him to help her. Hoggle had no idea what was wrong. Ludo started to moan, at a loss for what to do.
"SHUT-UP you beast! That ain't gonna help 'er!"
"My Lady it will pass in a few minutes, please have courage," Sir Didymus was very calm, not at all as panicked as Hoggle thought he would be to see his 'maiden' in distress, "you are a Severancing."
"WHAT the bloody hells s'that suppose to mean?" Hoggle ground out, irritated that the little fox could be so calm in the face of their friends obvious distress.
The fox thought for a moment about how to explain. "More or less Lady Sarah's body is undergoing a change to accommodate itself--"
"FOR WHAT?" Hoggle interrupted the fox. Sir Didymus looked at him, raising a furry brow pointedly.
"If I could continue please with no more interruptions I could elaborate." He waited a moment, and then continued, "Somehow the Lady has become—"
"Wait. Please I can't think right now." Sarah begged softly. Didymus, like a true gentleman bowed graciously,
"Certainly, Milady."
The pain had already begun to subside, and Sarah let out a shallow breath. Her body protested as she tried to sit upright in the tub, she ached, but at least she no longer burned. It took her another minute of just concentrating on breathing before she realized the water was still on. She turned it off and grabbed a towel to wrap around herself; her steps were a little shaky so she was grateful when Ludo wrapped a big arm around her, supporting her weight. Toby was still bawling, so she gathered him, holding him almost desperately to her chest, patting his back until his cries slowed and became hiccups and eventually after a few minutes he fell asleep. She turned to her friends, confused.
She was about to ask Didymus all her burning questions when the three of them looked to the bedroom door abruptly and then vanished. The door opened a moment after they left and her father and Karen came in the room.
Her dad just looked at her a bemused expression on his face, "Honey is everything all right?"
Karen went from surprised to angry in about five seconds.
"Sarah! Why are you soaking wet! Honestly what are you doing?" She hissed. She walked over to her and took Toby from her arms, practically yanking him from Sarah's embrace. "My poor baby," she cooed over Toby, though he was still asleep, he squirmed for a moment, then relaxed in the new arms he slept in. Karen looked back up to Sarah, her eyes hard, "you realize you could have gotten Toby sick with you being soaking wet!? You are so irresponsible!" Sarah wanted to grab Toby back and pull out her step-mothers hair.
She was irresponsible when she had just done everything in her power, risked her life to protect her little brother? Her stomach started churning, she really hated her. Karen never understood her, never even tried, and just assumed everything she did was wrong. Sarah just stood there waiting for her step-mother to finish her monologue about how immature and horrible she was. If there was one thing the
Labyrinth had taught her was that there were times when silence was a more useful response. Karen stopped her tirade a few minutes in realizing Sarah wasn't responding, the girl was in fact standing there quietly, but when she met her step-daughters eyes she felt a shiver of apprehension, they were so cold.
"Are you finished step-mother?" Sarah asked through gritted teeth. Karen just nodded, surprised by Sarah's abrupt change from just a few hours ago. Sarah left the room and after putting on a robe in her bathroom marched off to her bedroom throwing herself down on her bed. She felt a warm hand patting her head, she opened her eyes to see Ludo looking at her with such an endearing expression she lost all her anger. She sat up on her bad, gathering a pillow under her chest
. Didymus jumped up on her bed, Hoggle struggled up unto a taller chair while Ludo just thumped down on the floor. Sarah hoped her parents didn't come to investigate that; she couldn't deal with another encounter with Karen right now.
"So Didymus," she put her hand against her head briefly, a subconscious attempt to keep her mind from going everywhere at once, "could you please tell me what that was about?" The little knight perked up and immediately began to speak, "you Milady have somehow become the receiver of a great deal of power that someone else has lost, and it is called Severancing when another receives someone else's magic." Sarah just blinked.
"I have someone's magic right now? In me?" She put a hand to her chest almost reverently, "How can that be?" The fox just shook his head,
"Magic's logic, my Lady, follows its own rules. Who knows why you received it or from where?" Sarah began to flick her wrist experimentally, a small frown appearing when nothing happened.
"I don't think I'm going to be able to use it. I don't even know how." Hoggle snorted.
"Sarah you'ves already used it!"
"I think I'd remember that."
"When you called us to you! That wasn't no request, you brought us here whethers we wanted to or not," he made a slight grimace, "of course we'd 'ave come though." Sarah thought that explained the annoyed look on Hoggle's face when they first appeared in the bathroom earlier, they had been summoned.
"Oh. But this makes no sense! Is this like a prize for winning the Labyrinth or something?" She demanded, not liking not having answers. Nothing came free, and magic wasn't something to be taken too lightly. What was the lesson she had learned so well? Nothing is as it seems.
"No ways is that some magical prize! The amount of energy I can feel from you is too much for the Labyrinth to just gives out." Hoggle had closed his eyes briefly, feeling the magic energy, looking so serious it surprised Sarah for a moment. Then it just cemented her earlier thought, that magic wasn't something to be taken lightly, especially if Hoggle was taking it so seriously.
"Sarah"
She froze. His voice, husky and lyrical was unmistakable. Her body felt strange, almost like the feeling when a limb falls asleep, all tingly.
What was he doing here? She turned her head to the side expecting to see him arrogantly posed against her wall, but he wasn't there.
"Where is he?" She asked aloud. She was not in the mood for anymore games with him.
Hoggle had been speaking to Didymus and looked over at her curiously,
"Where's who?" Sarah looked at him like he was stupid, Hoggle had been Jareth's subject long enough she thought he would recognize his voice when he heard it.
"Did you not hear that? Jareth's here."
"WHAT?" Hoggle jumped up from the chair, looking half terrified and half angry. Didymus cocked his head to the side,
"Milady, I swear I heard not a whisper. Are you quite certain?"
"Oh, Sarah."
"There it was again! I Know you had to of heard that!" They all just looked at her, shaking their heads collectively.
"Sarawh, no sound." Ludo protested. And like that it made sense to her. The tingly sensation was getting stronger. Not painful but prompting.
"Jareth's calling me."
AN: I really like this story I came up, with hopefully you'll enjoy it too as I get it going! It's a lot easier
to have the story in your mind though to actually write it out well...feedback is good and it lets me know what I'm doing wrong so I can improve. Thanks! :)