The Last Dream Before Oblivion: Sarah is Queen without her King. Jareth long dead, she has stoically taken up the role as the Labyrinth's eternal caretaker. One day a stranger enters the kingdom and upon seeing the Queen decides to run the labyrinth. What does he seek? What will Sarah learn about her heart?
The goblins started squealing like mad chickens and I felt a surge in the maze's ancient entrails. Somehow without the making of a mortal wish, someone had entered the kingdom. Puzzled, I paused and tried to think of all the possibilities and implications of this odd happenstance. In the end, the event was so unparalleled I knew I had no choice but to make an appearance.
As I glittered my royal form on the hill outside the gates, my sights were struck with the vision of a man. Putting on a haughty and disdainful air as required of my persona, I approached and carefully assessed his features. To my surprise he seemed to be one of my own kind, that is, human. I could see the beginnings of fae transformation in the faint glow of his face, something which might very well occur naturally with sufficient exposure to certain energies in the Underground—but yes, nevertheless undoubtedly mortal. He was slender in build, neither short nor tall, fair haired and carried a subtle weight in his eyes. His lips however grinned at me, corners broadening as I scolded him for his impudence.
"Well, if such a one as yourself is Queen, I cannot help but be led astray. Now that I have seen you, I am nearly certain it is the center of your Labyrinth I seek," he flirted blatantly with a jocular tilt of the head.
At his words, a part of me was absolutely taken aback. I was not expecting such a reaction. I had been intending to appear cold and perhaps a little cruel.
"The rules are the rules: the Labyrinth protects itself from individual intruders. I cannot bar you from entering at your own free will, but it would be a pity to have a mortal die to no purpose under my reign." I explained to him with iron in my tone, but somehow his mood seemed only to improve.
"Are you telling me this is a challenge?" He teased and shot me the most unsettling of looks. I had to work a split second to re-center my composure.
"I do not know whence you come that you would prove so ignorant of the Underground and its peoples. The Labyrinth is a timeless kingdom where wished-away children are collected by goblins. The maze is both to protect my peoples and to teach spoiled caretakers a valuable lesson about taking young lives for granted."
"I accept," he uttered with strange resolution dangling in the air. It dawned on me he spoke my human tongue, but with a delicate accent slightly reforming the contour of his sentences.
"Impertinent. What a pity you have little space in your head to take in what you've been told."
"My lady, do you already think so ill of me?" I could almost detect a real wound in the way he caught my eye as he spoke, as if it were uncommon or unheard of to make oneself painfully plain.
Disgusted with his obstinacy, I decided to leave him with that last thought. Transporting back to my throne room returned my shaken perspective to a sense of normalcy; nevertheless, I couldn't help from pulling out a crystal to spy on the man and see what he would do. To my dismay, I found him stepping through the main gates into MY labyrinth. Instantly, I vowed in my heart of hearts to teach him a lesson for assuming impunity in such matters.
We are lying together, bodies clasping one another. A touch I cannot describe, except to say it is a sensation only produced between two who truly love and who have loved for a long time. Before he took me to be his Queen, I'd never known but small tastes of this sort of intimacy. But since him, I feel as though my heart is a great ocean full of unspeakable tenderness. Here in silence, there is nothing I can refuse him. His hands speak to mine more plainly than any poem. Our mouths intertwine and I can feel myself coming undone at the preciously minute motions of his tongue. Ah, he lets me feel his soul with every inch of our bodies, and I give my soul over to him in return. He feeds me his heart in little mouth- and fistfuls, pulling my sensations to center upon the electricity of his palms, fingertips as they dance over my bare skin. I press myself into him and know that I have been opened, that he dwells already inside me. And as I kiss his neck, shoulders, exposed chest I want the life in me to pour out between my lips and rush inside of him. It continues like this; we fill one another. For he knows my longing as I grasp his desire…
I woke from sleep listless. He'd come to me again in a dream, like he'd been coming for years. The flesh around my eyes felt stiff and my stomach lurched as it always did after such a dream. A sense of loss leeched the energy from my core—nothing new. Nevertheless, the transition from dream to reality refused to relinquish its sting. The sheer ache of it caught me every time, regardless. I was a bit surprised at myself for dozing off at this time of day though.
Alas, I still hadn't thought of an ingenious plan to thwart the overconfidence of the intruder now fumbling through my territory. After watching him for half an hour my mind must have drifted. He'd been going up and down the infinite corridor—the monotony of his fraying patience was mildly hypnotic I'll admit. At some point I simply assumed he'd never get past the first challenge—this labyrinth was built for the exercise of questioning one's assumptions, was it not? I also had neglected to inform him of his time limitation…I supposed that was the rule anyway. I imagined the labyrinth's magic would allow me a bit of elbow room in his case, seeing as he wasn't after a child.
It's true. The Labyrinth was no longer the same as it was in the time of the Goblin King. A living entity of its own, it had molded itself to the personality of its latest queen. I kept up some traditions of course, but in general I was much less eager to bog. The challenges and complexities of the maze mutated slightly over time to match the structure of my own psyche, I noticed. A few passageways had sprung up, for one. The tunnels all shifted. My subjects didn't seem to mind, they too were in tune with the Labyrinths sub-energies.
Finally, after much immortal introspection, I convinced myself to attend to the task which less than an hour ago riled me to no end. To my utter dismay, I saw him in the crystal. He seemed to have just spoken with the worm, except, unlike my adolescent self, had been a bit more critical of the worm's advice. He was now headed down the path leading nearly directly to the castle! I thanked the Moon for having thought to complicate that passage ever so slightly several years after taking up the throne. However, I knew more efforts would be required to keep him at bay. God knows what ridiculous request he'd make if he managed to face me in the Goblin City!
Deciding on my attire, I flicked a wrist and conjured a transportation crystal. I was behind him in less than a second. He hadn't seen me yet. I mused a space before cloaking my form in a mild glamor—an old hag. Tossing a crystal adeptly over his head I watched it bloom into a small shrub and block the path he was about to take.
"What? So this place grows trees, does it?" He stopped and shook his head, a mixture of annoyance and bemusement.
"What did you expect a tree to do, not grow? Trees grow don't they?" I barked in a rasping, pinching voice vastly different from my true instrument.
Turning he jumped lightly when his eyes landed on my haggard form.
"Oh, so I've got company, do I?"
"Company? Where? Are you saying there be spies in these parts, sir?" I cackled and did my best to look taken aback.
"I meant you, my lady." He smiled and bowed politely. I knitted my wrinkled brow and eyed him with curiosity. How strange I found his courtesy to a crone! I had been hoping he would prove a touch more disdainful of my current form.
"I have the sight, you can't fool me that easily, dear Queen." Oh God, he could see me! My eyes bugged in realization shot with disbelief, but my tongue leapt in to cover for me as he planted his arms casually atop his narrow hips.
"While it is lucky for you to be in possession of the sight, you would have however impressed me more had you simply demonstrated kindness to an old, repulsive and insignificant creature." I responded haughtily as I dropped my glamor, allowing him to look without hindrance on my true form.
"Are you telling me you don't like to be seen for who you are?" I softly harrumphed and stared at him, refusing to grace him with a response.
"Well, I must have been on the right path if you're making a second appearance to distract me. Either that or you find my company enjoyable."
Oh, the nerve!
"Whether or not you were on the right path is now entirely irrelevant. See for yourself," I nodded in the direction of the shrub, which had grown significantly during our conversation, magic seeping in and sealing the footpath as though it had never been. As he followed my gesture, I could see him sink with disappointment at the sight of the new dead end. I chuckled to myself: no easy way to the castle now, boy.
"Well that was rather uncalled for." He shrugged in an almost matter-of-fact manner, turning back to face me.
"You expect fairness in a Goblin Queen's labyrinth? Turn back now before it's too late," I articulated with ominous decree.
"Oh, but why turn back , when you're having so much fun?" His cheeky response provoked further ire, but I made sure to keep my face a mask. Allowing my dark blue flowing robes to flutter as I made a semi-circle around his standing frame, I withdrew a crystal from my gauzy, flowing sleeve. My gloved fingers poised like a flower under the scintillating sphere. I watched his eyes focus in half-disguised wonder at my little bauble. Grinning, I let him ogle it for a moment while I studied his face for clues.
"If as you say I'm enjoying myself, it would be rude of me not to include you in the fun. Why don't you try this little game and see if it doesn't strike your fancy…"
I laughed shrilly as a Goblin mechanic driving a hedger machine appeared out of adjacent wall. The metallic contraption hummed and squeaked with all sorts of blades protruding from its arms. Inside, a pang shot through me as I realized what I was doing was barely distinguishable from what a Goblin King once did to me. The memory made the sparkle in my eye slacken; yet another part of me was satisfied that I had internalized Jareth's style so completely that I followed in his footsteps without even thinking. The curious man was running now, and I was dematerializing in a spurt of glitter. In any case, this would be his first experience racing with a hedger…