I'd like to add something that AmericanWoman pointed out to me about the last chapter that may clear up some confusion. The five crystals that I've been mentioning are indeed the five crystals that Jareth is seen spinning right before the ball scene. There are five in his hands, the only five we've ever seen him use. :)
Oh, and a bit of clarification on this (you should catch it, though)--the section in bold is read by both of them.
Again, comments and suggestions are loved. And as always, Labyrinth is not mine, blahblahblah.
She blinked.
"W-what? Did you just talk?"
"I've always been talking, Sarah. I'm surprised that you've never heard me. Perhaps you weren't listening."
The shaggy, gray and white dog thumped his tail against the banister. "Surprise, surprise. The humans can finally understand the dogs. How ironic."
Sarah gulped. "I…I don't understand. I've never been able...I mean, have you always talked? "
"We've just been through this. Don't be stupid." Merlin said, licking her shoe. "Your dad has got supper on the go. Are we going to the park again? The last time we went, Karen left and you did too."
Sarah stopped in her tracks. "Wait." She said, trying to piece things together. "You mean yesterday?"
"Oh, don't be ridiculous. Dogs don't have a concept of time." The dog said, sneezing.
"So I was gone." Sarah said slowly, starting to piece the puzzle together. "For how long?"
"After you put me in the garage, Karen left and let me out. I saw an owl fly through your window, but I was too busy hiding under the porch. It was raining" and as an afterthought, he added "You owe me a bath."
"So I was gone. I must have really been spirited off." She said. Yeah, that about covers it.
"Well, I'm not going to tell you. And you're going to have to figure out yourself." She said.
"Delphina--"
"Oh, Jareth. Shut it. You know you should have done your history homework ages ago. You've had the time."
"Yeah, well. You know it because you created most of it." He spat back at her. "I don't want to even start. That library is so dusty and dull. Besides, who'll oversee the goblins?"
"I will." She said, folding her arms across her chest.
Jareth couldn't muster up a response, so he stormed off to his chamber. Stupid, stupid, stupid old bat. Telling me to take care of my crystals! They're my spinning glass balls, and I'll do whatever I want to with them.
It was screaming. Screaming so loudly and viciously and coming at her like a high pitched waterfall and dro--
"AHHHHHH!"
She sat up in bed. A nightmare usually wouldn't wake her, but this was--
Shaking, she curled back up into a ball. It was just a story. Sarah yawned to herself. It was just a simple children's story. Nothing to worry about, a story is a story. Still, she shuddered at the thought of her dream. It was scary, no denying that and Sarah hated scary dreams. She quickly put it out of her head and went to sleep.
"Nice, Delphina. Good way to torture me."
It was the day after. And he hated the day after anything. The day after his defeat was one thing, but the day after his forced hiatus and his defeat was another. And she had to be spinning her five in her hand while humming a strange little tune and sitting in his throne.
"You look like you have a hangover, Jareth. You couldn't possibly run a kingdom like this.", she scoffed. "Besides, you haven't even done your hair yet."
Jareth stammered. "I have…sensitive hair."
"Bullshit." She replied, twirling a strand of her own hair in her hand. "Now go start your history lesson."
With all the honor that he could muster, Jareth swung the woven blanket around him and started off to the library. Delphina's laughter could be heard all the way down the hallways, following him like waves.
"This. Is. Ridiculous." She said, picking it up off her carpet. "I didn't think that it would follow me back."
"Yeah, and a while ago I apparently couldn't talk." Merlin said, jumping onto her bed. "Besides, I think its all for the better. You can now actually feed me what I want to be fed. I could actually eat food fit for a dog, and not for some--"
"Yeah, yeah. We get the point." Sarah said, cupping the object in her hands. "Really, Merlin. If something like this is what gets you to talk, I have no use for it." For a moment, Sarah thought about throwing it out the window. It definitely wouldn't break, and it would be out of her hands forever. She couldn't muster the courage though. It was all part of it as much as it was a part of him. It would be like stealing someone's soul, and even though the mighty king might be able to steal a soul from a child Sarah couldn't ever do anything like that to Toby--or any other child, regardless of how much she disliked them.
Besides, it was a pretty little bauble. All shiny and clear, with pinky-purple-blue shiny lights dancing around in it. It will show you your dreams, he had claimed. Well, she had wished that she could understand Merlin, and it had happened. But she didn't like the dreams and the falling asleep that it seemed to have brought on.
Sighing, she left the crystal on her desk with the book and went downstairs for breakfast.
Jareth was halfway down the hall when he felt it. Like a rubber band had been squeezed around his chest, binding him from breathing. He stopped in his tracks. That couldn't have been good. He thought. Delphina might be right. She might have caught on to something. I have to hand it to her, she does know her stuff.
The moment had passed and he now continued down the hall. He couldn't think of what might have happened to him. He personally doubted it had to do with the girl, but she had tricked him once and could do it again. Besides, he obviously didn't know much about the crystals and as Delphina had pointed out; his subjects probably knew more about them than he did. And he didn't have any successors to the throne, which probably worried her as well.
Luckily for him, the goblins weren't too bright. Hopefully they wouldn't notice the change in rulers, and he could always kick out Delphina if he needed to. It wasn't as if they didn't know her, she had been their ruler before. He turned to his left and opened the library door before any more odd thoughts got into his head.
"Sarah? Are you feeling well? Her father asked over the mandatory cereal-toast-orange juice breakfast. He looked at her with concerned eyes.
Sarah smiled. "Yes, dad…just tired." And she spooned another bite of frosted flakes into her mouth. No, I don't feel well at all. I've had terrible dreams, been falling asleep everywhere, and I just found a crystal ball on my bedroom floor and I don't know what to do with it!
Her dad clucked his tongue. "You're staying home from school today. You can go to the library or whatever, but I want you staying away from school. You look bad Sarah. You need a day off. "
Karen opened her mouth to protest, but Mr. Williams lifted up his hand in protest. "Not now, Karen." He said, wiping the corner of his mouth with a napkin. He was scared for his eldest child. She looked almost translucent.
The library was dusty. The light spattered through, like speckles on a chicken egg. It was so dusty that he could smell the dust. He had forgotten how much he loved the library though, and it looked as it had the last time he had visited it. The red and gold interior was covered in even more dust, but it was so warm and welcoming that he couldn't resist.
However, he knew he had to so something about the crystals. Two left wasn't good, larger kingdoms had been destroyed by loosing just one. He was teetering on ground that had never been tested, and Delphina was trying to save his ass before it was too late.
She had walked all the way here, in the rain. She cursed at the rain, shaking her fist at it. It was worth the library, though. She knew exactly what she was looking for, but she had brought it in her backpack. The little book was too much trouble on its own, and as a second thought she grabbed the crystal and shoved it into her bag as well. She couldn't afford for Karen or Toby to find it without the knowledge of what it was worth.
His eyes gazed over the texts that appeared on the shelves. Most of them dealt with death and dismemberment of goblins and the history of kingdoms. Unfortunately there weren't very many history of magic books hanging around, Self protection and all that, blahblahblah "for the kingdom's own good" blahblahblah.
FOR SUBJECT PRESS 1
Sarah pressed the 1 key on the computer.
SUBJECT:
She typed in "CRYSTAL BALL"
SEE CRYSTAL BALL: DIVINATION Y/N?
Sarah hit the Y and pressed the enter button. A list of books popped up. She wrote down the book with the oldest publication date with a pen on her hand, picked up her bag, and rushed off to find it.
Jareth fingered through the texts. The only book that looked useful was large, old, and very heavy. And it had no index.
Sarah managed to find the book. It was a monster of a book; the librarian had stared when she asked for it. However, she felt that she needed to know what she was dealing with. Shuddering, she flipped through the pages, looking for it. It looked as if she would need to sit down, so she slowly walked over to one of the dark blue canvas chairs. She sat the book in her lap and unzipped her bag as she flipped through the pages. Aha. Here we go. Crystal balls as used in divination.
Still, no luck with the book even though he had been flipping pages for several moments. Sighing, he turned to the last page. There was no index, no glossary, and no table of contents. How was he supposed to figure out where it was in the book?
Sarah grinned. I've caught up with you Jareth. Your stupid tricks won't plague me this time; I've got you cornered like a mouse.
Frustrated, Jareth threw the book across the room. Damn it. Why couldn't I have just let it be? If I hadn't said anything about not knowing anything about the in depth history of the ball, then I wouldn't have too--
And the book had opened up to the right page. Jareth groaned, irony was not what he needed at this point.
Crystal balls have been around for thousands of years, used by all cultures and creatures alike. Usually made of quartz, these objects are used for seeing the past, future, and wishes of the user. The same ball, used by different people, can sometimes produce different seeing results. Crystal balls, if created by certain persons will form a magical contact with the owner making possession of the ball or balls in question by another painful by another being. When made properly, the crystals can sometimes form bonds and actions that the bonder wishes. When broken, the ball becomes erratic and unfit for any use. The pieces of the ball should then be discarded and never used or formed into another ball. According to Goethe, the crystal ball is used by the fabled king of elves to seduce children.
Sarah blinked. Carefully and quietly, she unzipped her backpack. Ruffling around, she found what she was looking for. Grinning, she pulled it out of her bag and held it to the light. The polished surface gleamed softly in the sunlight.