Chapter 12 – Meet the in-laws
The next morning, as Sarah lay in bed wondering whether to get up and wake Jareth in the process, or simply lay there and relax in his arms, a knock came at the door. Jareth awoke groggily and stared at Sarah in surprise for a few seconds that it wasn't her that had awakened him, before the knock came at the door again and he called out for the goblin to enter. However it wasn't a Goblin that came through the door when it opened, but a Fae male wearing the opulent, brightly coloured, and, in Sarah's opinion, slightly ridiculous looking clothes that marked him as a messenger, although whose messenger, Sarah had no idea.
As the messenger came through the door he made a long low bow to Jareth, followed by a smaller, yet still respectful bow to Sarah. Straightening he began to unfold a scroll and speak.
"Your Majesty King Jareth of the Labyrinth and his betrothed, Lady Sarah, I bid you both welcome to the castle of the High King and Queen a week hence, to announce and celebrate your formal betrothal before the noble courts of the four Kingdoms."
With that he bowed once more in their direction turned on his heel and promptly disappeared. Sarah stared at the place where he'd stood, slightly amused at the whole display, Jareth however hid his face in his hands and gave out a melodramatic groan which caused Sarah to turn to him and giggle.
"Giggle all you will, but all that those pretty words meant was that my parents want to meet you and now they finally have a good excuse."
Such was his theatrical despair that Sarah could not help but laugh once again, causing Jareth to fall back down on the bed, throw the covers over his head and mumble something which Sarah didn't manage to catch the drift of. Instead she lay back down next to him and peered round the covers until she could see her beloved's face.
"Now I'm sure your parents aren't all the bad."
"They're like any parents, protective over their son which means no girl will ever be good enough. Add to that they're the High King and Queen of the underground and they want to meet you surrounded by every important member of said Kingdom and I don't see how you possibly can think it's not all that bad."
A slight frown touched Sarah's forehead. "Every important member?"
"Yes, every noble Fae, Elemental, Animalanis, hell even the noble Goblins will be there!"
"There are noble Goblins?"
Even Jareth had to laugh at that. "No, usually the Goblins hold a lottery between themselves as to who shall attend… of course with all the cheating going on it tends to erupt into a huge brawl and I'm left to chose those who look the least injured to join me."
"Well then why not just choose yourself at the beginning and save all the hassle?"
At this Jareth sat up kissing her lightly on the lips. "Clearly my dear you've not been here long enough. Their attempts at civilized society can keep me entertained for weeks on end." At that he got up and began rummaging through his wardrobe.
Sarah tried to look offended at the thought of the King laughing at his subjects fighting for his favour, but she had to admit that the image of Goblins drawing a lottery then dissolving into fighting was more than just mildly amusing. Still as future Queen…
"Jareth why not let me choose the Goblins to come along?"
"Ha! And have that no good Hogstail following us around all night I think not."
"You know full well what his name is, and he's my friend!"
"And I love you for being so kind hearted, but truly he can be a bore sometimes."
Sarah crossed her arms and pouted at this statement, so put out did she look that Jareth turned away from his wardrobe and knelt in front of her.
"My dear forgive me, invite who you wish. As is custom we're allowed twenty Goblins plus ten Royal Guards to accompany us."
"Royal Guards… aren't they just Goblins?"
Once again Jareth chuckled.
"Yes, but they're Goblins with swords and armour. They can come in handy at times."
"You think we'll need guarding?"
Sarah looked faintly troubled at this prospect. Sensing her unease Jareth pulled her onto his lap.
"No my dear, at this ball we'll be safe. I simply meant that there's always some sibling rivalry at these formal doings, and seeing as I'm… sorry, we're the centre of attention… well it would be nice to have some goblins on guard against any… tricks." Once again he kissed her on the forehead. "That is assuming they can keep their mind on the job for more than five minutes." At that he placed her back on the bed, dressed and walked out of their room.
Almost as soon as Jareth left, Mandana walked into the room from Sarah's room.
"Well Sarah, looks like ya'v got a busy time ahead of ya, we've been lax 'til now, but ya need t' know things before this ball."
"Know things?" Sarah asked confused.
"Well yes. Ya'v got t' learn people's names, and how t' greet people, how t' act at the dinner table and such like. It's not easy bein' in the court o' the High Rulers, but now don't ya look so worried, I'm a good teacher and teach I shall. When ya walk into that ball you'll be the belle all right, I'll see t' that."
Intimidated by the amount of work ahead of her, but comforted by her maid's words, Sarah couldn't help but lean down and hug Mandana, thanking her for all she'd done for her. It seemed to Sarah that after every challenge she faced, another came, and she knew that every victory she'd had was down to the work and support of her friends. Without them she wouldn't be where she was today, and she felt it was time she let them know. The only thing that bothered her was the distinct absence of her old friends, she'd only seen Hoggle once since she'd made the decision to stay, and she hadn't seen the others at all. She made up her mind that the first free minute she had she was going to seek them out, then she was rushed off to her room by Mandana.
The next week was filled constantly with her lessons. From what to wear at what time of day and what order the meals would come in, to the various ranks of noble folk and how to address them so that the higher ranking would not get insulted by being greeted after someone of a lower ranking. The time flew for Sarah as it seemed she didn't have a single second to herself, if she wasn't being given lessons she was going over designs for her new outfits for the trip, or she was holed up in her room going over the volumes of texts on all the noble families.
It was a few days later, as they were laid in bed preparing to sleep, that Sarah asked Jareth about his parents. Jareth's first response was simply to laugh.
"Ah my dearest parents. Well my father is a true King, stern yet fair, a loving father but harsh when he needs to be." At that Jareth stopped and chuckled to himself. "And believe me he's needed to be a lot where I was concerned. Still, he taught me a lot about how to be a good King. The Labyrinth wasn't part of my grandfather's Kingdom, it was my father who took it from the rule of the former King, and my father's lessons helped me incredibly in taming the Labyrinth's spirit. As for my mother… We're far too alike for our own good. She's got a temper to more than match mine, although she has much better control over it. Still we have had some truly explosive arguments, usually down to me accusing her of simply raising me to be the Goblin King and not a son." His head dropped slightly at this. "Sometimes I wish I had a better hold on my temper, but she does rile me so, I guess it's payback for all the trouble I caused as a child. Mostly though she's just a good mother, let's pray this visit is one of my amicable ones."
Sarah didn't find herself comforted by this last bit, she had visions of an evil stepmother type figure hating her on sight. Still, there wasn't much she could do about it now. She felt Jareth begin to fall asleep beside her, and so she began going over in her head all the things she'd learnt about Jareth's family.
He had three brothers, Trea, Sarnoth and Markon, all of whom had their own individual Kingdom's, and a sister, Aladrea, who, being the youngest of a father with only four divisions in his realm, had not been allocated her own land. Instead she lived in her parent's castle until such time as her father stood down as High King and one of his sons took over. At that time Aladrea would take over as Queen of the land of the brother who had become High King, unless of course she herself became High Queen. It had not yet been decided which sibling would take over as ruler of their father's realm.
The four realms of the High King divided according to the dominant race of that region. The majority of Jareth's subjects were goblins, making him the Goblin King. Markon was the King of the Animalanis, the many races of creatures with the ability to transform into an animal. Sarah had heard legends of such creatures Aboveground, but as no more than horror stories. Werewolves, a twisted tale made out of truly beautiful creatures. All Animalanis' had the ability to change into their creature at will, the creature was not chosen, instead when their powers were bestowed upon them by the source of power of their kingdom, they would gain their animal form. Their personality would call to a creature of similar, but balancing traits and that is the animal they will, from that day forward, have the ability to become. The wolf was a popular creature for an Animalanis, as a race they tended to be quiet, reserved creatures; the wolf gave them an outlet for their anger and frustrations, a balance to their peaceful nature. There were others with fiery tempers, whose animal tended to be a calmer creature; Jareth was a perfect example of this, with his animal being an owl.
Jareth's mother had been an Animalanis, yet of her five children, only Jareth had the ability to take animal form. It would have seemed logical to transfer the rule of the Animalanis to Jareth, had he not been the frustratingly mischievous child he had been. It was thought that a few years in the rule of the equally mischievous goblins would make him take on responsibility and groom him to become a worthy king of the larger realm. This had not been the case however. As a king, Jareth surpassed anyone's expectations. He had conversed with the goblins, taken time to learn their ways, and through that had become a truly amazing king. What no one had anticipated was his control over the Labyrinth. No previous king had ever been able to command the power of the Labyrinth. All Fae had an intrinsic magical ability, but the power Jareth was able to wield through the labyrinth was phenomenal. As a result he had happily remained as the Goblin King.
Sarnoth's subjects were mostly elementals; the earth elementals; Gnomes, the air elementals; Sylphs, the water elementals; Undines and the fire elementals; Salamanders, earning him the name of Elemental King. The Gnomes were small human-like creatures, typically they wouldn't even reach knee-height on a human, and yet they were very resilient creatures. They were incredible builders, had even built the High King's castle, although they preferred to build underground. They had tremendous cave systems, leading to enormous caverns and intricate passageways to confuse and lose unwelcome visitors. Throughout time there have been many similarities between Gnomes and Goblins, their small stature, their ability to build and their gnarled brown skin. Yet for all their similarities, the two races might well be at war were it not for the peacekeeping and separation efforts put in place by the High King. Goblins and Gnomes were often mistaken for each other, and in their eyes there was no higher insult. No one really knew the origin of the feud between the two races, but it was one that had led to bloodshed many a time in the past. Since Jareth had become the Goblin King though, the Goblins had become more peaceful, more content to just let the Gnomes be, the Goblins were happier now, they had been given a purpose by Jareth, they felt useful again. The older Goblin Kings had simply let people run the Labyrinth, not taken any interest in them, Jareth was different, he tailored each run to the individual, this required a lot of building, for which the Goblins were grateful, it was a chance to prove to the Gnomes how good they were. So for now there was peace between the two races.
The Sylphs were non-corporeal beings of the air. They could choose to be visible or not and although they didn't control the weather, they could certainly influence it should their emotions be heightened enough for them to control the magic required to do so.
The Undines were water creatures, unable to live on land for long periods of time unless they fell in love with a creature of the land. They were immortal creatures, but if they bore a child by any creature other than another Undine, they would lose their immortality and begin to age at the same rate their spouse and child did, thus sparing them the heartache of seeing those they loved grow old and die whilst they remained eternal.
The last of the four elementals were the Salamanders. Although Salamanders were their primary form, they could also become pure fire, and thus take any shape they wanted.
The landscape of the Elemental Kingdom was extremely varied, one minute vast lakes, the next, scorched deserts, followed by green hills hiding thousands of Gnomes in their underground cities. The land changed constantly as one elemental would take over, only to be usurped itself not long after. As such it was easy to get lost if you weren't familiar with the territory. It was a hard Kingdom to run, with the elementals alternately at war and peace with each other, but Sarnoth was a capable King, and kept the land at peace more often than not. Even when at war, Sarnoth was good at keeping the disputes to a minimum, compromise was his strength and he used it to its full power. As such, the Kingdom was generally pleasant and highly thought of by creatures of other the realms.
Trea, as the oldest, he had been given the realm of the Fae, the nobility of the underworld. His subjects were immortal creatures of the race he and his family were born of. Never truly immortal of course, but the average Fae reached an age of four digits, and illness and infections that affected mortals had no power over the Fae. Regal beings, all, and Trea as their King was the very image of perfection. To his court he was fair and just, a being of superior intellect and utmost power. To his family however, he was spoilt, constantly whining about the pathetic state of affairs he was faced with daily. He felt detached from his people, never sympathetic to their plights, simply fulfilling his obligations through a sense of duty to his father. He had no compassion, and no real love for his subjects. It was for this reason, that although a clear favourite for ascension to his father's throne in the eyes of his people, to his father he was too heartless to become absolute ruler over all four domains. This fact was clear to all but Trea, who, through the constant praise of his people, believed himself a firm choice as heir to the throne. Of course the Underground and Aboveground weren't the only two domains, there were whole other worlds that Sarah had yet to learn of, but by that point in the night she was exhausted and her brain finally gave in to the pull of sleep.
Author's Note: just a note to wish everyone a Merry Christmas
Thank you so much to everyone who's reviewed, its you guys that keep me writing, as always all comments, even negative are appreciated, it all helps improve my writing!
Happy Holidays!!!!
