Life continued as it had before. Hoggle relocated already grown plants to Sarah's garden to speed up the creation project. Sarah, Amber and Hillevi worked together on almost all of their projects, loving the natural equilibrium they'd found in their work. The brainstorming sessions were as productive as ever, despite the growing aversion between Miranda and Sarah. Amber and Hillevi were included in the fallout and Jenny had fully joined Miranda's side in the conflict so there was a definite division in the group. Nevertheless, work continued steadily and for the most part the girls got on well enough.

Sarah continued to spend some time alone in the morning before breakfast, enjoying the peace and quiet and feeling truly at home in her solitude within the Labyrinth. Most evenings Sarah and Jareth would converse alone after dinner. After Sarah's trip Aboveground, there was very little conflict between the two, other than when it came down to the running of the Labyrinth, in particular, his treatment of his subjects. One night as the two sat in Jareth's study, Sarah was outlining an idea she'd had for a new challenge, a simple either/or task. Like the doors with the knockers on her own run, there was no logic to solve it, and both doors led to equally difficult paths, it was simply a distraction meant to slow down a runner.

Sarah's idea was to have a path that split into two and on both paths have a missing flagstone at the start. Natural curiosity would no doubt have a runner peeking into the hole, at which point a couple of the goblins who lived underneath the stone maze would appear. Sarah had met these goblins a couple of times since her return to the Labyrinth, having missed them on her first run even though they had been involved in changing her marks, and they amused her to no end. Their speech took a while to be able to understand and even when you could decipher it mostly it was confused babble or inventive insults. Hopefully any runner that came across the goblins would waste time trying to understand what they were saying in an attempt to ask them for help. There were not many of these types of challenges in the Labyrinth, most of them had a lesson or meaning behind them, but sometimes it was good to just make the runners lose time, increase their anxiety which often made them all the more appreciative if they won.

Jareth approved of the idea and summoned a goblin to him. As usual, Gree was sitting on top of Sarah's foot, chewing on a shoe lace she had given him earlier, and at the summons he poked his head out from underneath the table.

"Ah Gree." Jareth said when he spotted him. "Go fetch a detailed map of the stone maze from the Library."

Gree scowled at him before stuffing the shoelace further into his mouth and stalking off. Seeing a foot high goblin with extremely short legs trying to stomp away made Sarah giggle and even Jareth cracked a smile, although he soon turned to Sarah in confusion.

"Now what do you suppose made him so angry?"

"Well it could have been the fact that you interrupted his evening snack." Sarah said, teasingly. "But I think it's more likely to be that you didn't say please."

"I didn't say please?" Jareth asked incredulously.

"No Jareth, you didn't." Sarah said, exasperated that they were having this conversation once again. "Gree spends most of his time trailing me, and the few times he leaves my side, or my feet, he's usually on an errand for Amber or Evi, both of which share my manners."

"You're spoiling them."

"I'm being polite, there's a big difference."

"I'm their King."

"That doesn't stop you being polite and you'd be more likely to be obeyed if you asked them nicely."

"You're saying they don't obey me?" Jareth asked, anger creeping into his tone.

"I'm saying they don't obey you well. Anything you'll wager that Gree doesn't bring back the map you asked for."

"Gree wouldn't dare not bring a map."

"Oh he'll bring a map," Sarah said tauntingly, "But it won't be the one you demanded."

Jareth had no reply to that. It was true that he usually had to ask multiple times before a goblin brought him what he actually wanted. If he asked for a glass of wine he'd get a bottle of beer, a mug of whiskey and a shot of port before he finally got his original request. Over the years he'd got used to it and had put it down to the natural stupidity and forgetful nature of the goblins. Yet Sarah's accusation had him intrigued and his innate love of games and gambling came to the fore.

"A wager it is then, name the terms."

Sarah grinned in response, knowing this was a wager she could not lose.

"If I win, you have to start being polite, to all your subjects, goblins and girls included."

"And if I win?" Jareth shot back, his grin matching hers.

"What do you want?"

"You have to help with the goblin courts."

Sarah laughed at this. The goblin courts were a joke. Every little disagreement within the goblins could be brought before the king every second Tuesday. Occasionally there were genuine disputes over land and work, but mostly the cases were ridiculous. One goblin eating another's helmet, a chicken causing havoc in the goblin pub, grit cake being used by one goblin for roofing material when another had intended it for breakfast; it irritated Jareth beyond belief but only amused Sarah. Even if she lost, it wouldn't be too hard a task, she sat in on some of the courts anyway.

"Done. So, we'll see what Gree comes back with. If it's the correct map, you win. If it's not, you summon another goblin and I make a polite request of it. If it gets it right then I've proved politeness is the way to go and I win."

"Let the games begin." Jareth said good-heartedly.

They waited in silence for a few more minutes before they heard the tapping of feet in the corridor and moments later Gree entered holding a large scroll. Taking it off him wordlessly, Jareth then opened the scroll and laid it on the table between them. His groan told Sarah all she needed to know. Looking at the scroll she saw it was indeed a map, and it was detailed, but it was of the hedge maze instead of the stone maze. Sarah looked up at Jareth and raised a mocking eye brow. He shook his head in response before summoning another goblin.

"This doesn't mean you're going to win." He said, although there was doubt in his voice.

"Hello Dåshe." Sarah said as the new goblin entered. "Could you bring me a ball point pen from my room please?"

With a small nod of his head the goblin went running out of the room. No more words were said until Dåshe returned, although Gree went back to sitting on Sarah's foot and chewing on his shoelace. A few minutes later Dåshe came running back in at full speed. Jareth caught him as his tried to run past him to Sarah and sat him down on the table. Dåshe looked at him fearfully for a second before turning around and handing Sarah three pens. Laughing Sarah held them up for Jareth to see; she held a red, a black and a blue ball point pen.

"I never said which colour I wanted so he brought me all three. Thank you Dåshe."

With a grin, the goblin jumped off the table and scurried out of the room. Jareth meanwhile sat silently studying Sarah, his expression unreadable. He'd never expected to lose this bet, never thought his own lack of manners could possibly impede his ruling. The fact that his subjects' incompetence was a direct insult to him was a bitter pill to swallow. Yet he was never one to brood long. With a smile he turned to Gree.

"Gree, would you fetch me a detailed map of the stone maze… please?"

Sarah couldn't hold back a smile, not just because she'd finally won this argument, but also because Gree had just fallen face-first off her foot and onto the floor. Stunned, he picked himself up and slowly walked out of the room, constantly looking back at Jareth to see if this was some kind of trick. Once he was gone, Jareth turned back to Sarah, smiling.

"Well if he comes back with the correct map then I guess you're right."

"I've already won the wager, Jareth." Sarah teased.

"Indeed you have, but I'm making some exceptions."

Sarah frowned at this, she'd expected better of the King than to weasel out of a lost bet.

"I'll be polite, but only to those that deserve it."

Sarah opened her mouth to protest but Jareth cut her off by continuing.

"I shall be polite to the goblins but not when they are being rude or require punishment. The same goes for the girls and the rest of my subjects."

Sarah thought over his terms but agreed they were acceptable. Not everyone deserved politeness all the time and there were times that it was necessary to be impolite. As long as Jareth stuck to the terms he'd set, she'd be happy and she told him so. Gree returned at that point carrying another scroll and handed it carefully to Jareth before running back to the safety of Sarah's foot. Laying it on the table Jareth laughed to see that it was the correct map. Maybe this politeness lark could have its uses. He looked at Sarah, intending to say as much, but found her looking at him with one eyebrow raised before she looked down at Gree. Confused Jareth looked down too but still couldn't figure out what was going on. He studied Gree for a few minutes, enjoying the wariness in Gree's face at his new found politeness before he realised what Sarah was getting at.

"Thank you Gree." He said with a smile.

Shocked even more Gree dove off Sarah's foot and hid behind her leg, causing both Sarah and Jareth to laugh.

"Well this is going to take a bit of getting used to." Jareth said. "Now, back to the matter at hand, where shall we put this new task of yours."

Smiling at her own triumph, Sarah leaned over the map and began to study it. Jareth was right though, this would take some getting used to, but she was proud to have made a difference in this land. And more than proud that she'd managed to win a bet with the Goblin King. Nevertheless, she did begin attending the goblin courts regularly, helping Jareth out when he needed, intervening when a ridiculous case got him riled and even taking over for an hour or two when Jareth's duties took him away from court. Of course with her help came constant reminders for him to be polite but it was a compromise they could both live with and Jareth certainly didn't resent the new efficiency of his subjects.

A/N Thank you once again for reading and even more for the reviews! I apologise for the slight delay in updating, I've had a crazy busy week and an even busier weekend ahead but hopefully you liked this chapter and there shall be more soon...