The silence was palpable. Confused glances were exchanged up and down the table, inevitably ending with all sets of eyes resting on Jareth.
"I'm afraid that I do not understand your meaning." Valdrom said quietly after several moments of agonizing silence.
"Eahanan." A name, and nothing more, was the Wise Woman's reply.
"Impossible." The king whispered. "Impossible. My brother's son is dead." his words were slowly spoken. Deliberate.
"How say you that, when the boy himself stands before you?"
"It is not possible. Eahanan is dead." Valdrom repeated.
"Not so, Heir-Apparent, not so. Do you doubt me?"
"How can I help but doubt?" he demanded, rising to his feet. "My sister, my dear, sweet sister and my brother's wife were murdered by a mortal and Eahanan disappeared without a trace. My brother returned, blood-spattered and bemoaning the death of his loved ones… He begged me to leave the room so that he could take his own life in dignity and silence, and when I refused he forced me out of the room with the most violent burst of magic I've ever been subjected to." his words were flying quickly, as if the memory were too heavy to linger over. "The sheer impossibility of what you are saying… what it could mean…"
"Misunderstandings lead to the delusion of impossibility. The humans who took the lives of the old queen and princess royal could not bring themselves to end the life of an infant with their own hands. They left the princeling in the forest where his cries roused a peasant woman, whose own babe had succumbed to the ravages of poverty while her husband was away. She took the child and passed him off as her own." the woman paused as her last words echoed off of the high ceiling. "Now, I must ask of you, Prince, how you did not recognize the haze of your own bloodline hanging around this child."
Valdrom couldn't speak, but only stare dumbly at Jareth, who shifted uncomfortably in his soft leather shoes. He couldn't decide what to feel. Didn't know what to think. He resorted instead to staring at the fine lines in the stone floor, content, for once, to leave the situation in the hands of the adults.
"Eahanan." Valdrom said at last, his voice thick with emotion. "I never dared to hope… the improbability of it… I should have suspected, should have known…" he trailed off into silence.
"Hail the king." broke a voice somewhere near the end of the table. A chanting chorus of 'Hail the king' rose up around the table.
Jareth looked up from the floor.
"Blessed be king Eahanan." murmured the multitude.
"No," Jareth called suddenly, though no one heard him over the din, except, perhaps, for the Wise Woman.
Valdrom stared Jareth dead in the face. "Hail the king Eahanan." he murmured, stepping down from the dais.
"No." Jareth said again, firmly this time, his small voice crackling loudly over the noise. A hurried hush fell over the table. "I am not a king… I am not Eahanan."
"He doesn't understand, your maje--- Valdrom," began Ailin. "You must explain---"
"I understand perfectly." Jareth corrected. "But I… I am not Eahanan anymore. I was… hardly ever Eahanan to begin with. I have only ever been Jareth. I can't be anyone else. I don't know how to be anyone else. It would be wrong to put… everything in my unprepared hands. Wrong for everyone." he paused. "I don't want… I renounce this title." he turned to Valdrom. "Hail the king."
The words were met with silence.
Jareth surveyed the silent courtiers, mismatched eyes flickering up and down the long lines of Fae gathered around the table. "Rule well your silent kingdom." he said before turning sharply and marching towards the heavy double doors that sat closed on the opposite wall. All eyes followed him as he moved.
The Wise Woman cackled wildly. "Will none of you here swear fealty to your past-and-future king?" she demanded.
"None will, for I am not the true king. The power of the land rests in the boy. I cannot---"
"Power is not a king make, Ruling Raven. The effectiveness of a king is determined by what he has done, not the means he used to do it." the Wise Woman said. "You owe it to the boy, you all owe it to the boy, to honor his wishes. His decision was purely selfless, made for the good of all of you. How many of you here can say with pure truth that you would have done the same?"
Silence still hung, unbroken.
"You owe it to the boy." she repeated as her eyes went glassy. "For he will live to regret it."
"Hail the king." someone ventured.
"Hail the king." whispered the rest.
----------
Khormich stared dumbly at Jareth as the two boys readied for bed.
"What?" Jareth demanded finally, throwing down his shoes in the corner and spinning to face Khormich. "What?"
"You gave up everything."
"I never had anything."
"You've been king your whole life and you didn't even know it." Khormich argued. "You've always had everything."
"But it doesn't matter, because I didn't know."
"What you did… you didn't have to do it."
"I did have to. It's better that I did. For everyone."
"This whole time I thought you were a nobody and really you were king." Khormich shook his head. "We're cousins, you know."
"Yes, I know. But I'm not a king."
"I know. My father is. And I'll be king after him."
"As it should be." Jareth said.
"But who'll be king after me? You?"
"Your son."
"But what if I don't have a son?"
"Your daughter, then."
"Girls can't be king." Khormich tisked.
"She'll be queen."
"But say I don't have any children at all. Who'll be king, then?"
"I don't know."
"Don't you care?"
"It will be a very long time before anyone will ever have to think about it. Why should I waste time caring now?"
"Because what if it's you?"
"If I wanted to be king, I would have stayed king."
"Everyone wants to be king."
"Not me. Not now."
"One day, you'll wake up and realize that you want it more than anything."
"It won't matter then. I've already given it up." Jareth pointed out.
"But you're still the strongest."
"Your father is the strongest." he corrected.
"Now. But when you grow up, you'll be strongest. It's always that way. The king is always strongest so no one can steal the throne." Khormich explained. "Plus, you'll support the most."
"Support?"
"Every Fae in the High Court holds something up. Everybody has so much magic that it kind of overflows, and all that magic holds the walls together and keep trees from falling over and such. You don't even feel it. It just kind of happens." Khormich shrugged. "And the stronger you are, the more you support 'cause your magic overflows so much. And the king's always the strongest, so you'll support the most."
"But your father is the king." Jareth countered.
"To us, maybe. But as long as you're alive the magic will always see you as king. So you'll always be the strongest."
"So what?"
"So if you decide you want to be king more than anything in the world, then nothing could stop you."
"I'll never want it."
"That's what you think."
----------
It was late when the goblins woke Jareth. Four or five of the small, leathery creatures had gathered around his bed and were chattering noisily.
"So is true? Boy kingy?" asked one.
"Crunch in kitchens say boy kingy." another answered.
"Crunch don't know kingy from bread. Don't gots brains in 'is head." yet another said.
"Grunt say he walk pass doors an' hears Wise Lady say that boy kingy."
"If Wise Lady say it, then its must be true!"
"Itchy say boy don't want to be kingy. Say that 'e tell old kingy that he can be kingy still."
"Tweak tell me the same thing."
The goblins stared at Jareth, who had moved into a sitting position, hair tousled, eyes red from sleep.
"Boy, you kingy?" asked one.
"No." Jareth answered sleepily. "I didn't want to be."
"So you no kingy for officially?" asked another.
"No." Jareth said again. "Weren't you at the banquet?"
"We no allowed to go feasty-feasts. Eats too messy, say Faes, so wes eaty feasty-feasts in the dungeon."
"Oh."
"You still kingy." affirmed one. "Just a'cause you no kingy for officially don't mean you not rightfully kingy."
The rest of the goblins nodded in agreement.
"Wes at you's becks and calls. Whatever yous wants, yous can gets from us."
"You kingy, and wes your loyal subjects."
"You has the magics. You has the powers."
"Boy with the power!" cried one of the goblins.
"No, listen. My uncle is the king."
"For officially." sniffed the smallest goblin. "Yous kingy for real."
"And wes your loyal subjects." reiterated another.
~-~-~-END OF PART 1-~-~-~
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Author's Note: Please note that 'end of part one' does not mean end of the story. This is just the end of the first part. Hence the 'end' and 'of part 1' thing. ^.^