Disclaimer: I do not own the Labyrinth.
The Labyrinth's Chosen
Chapter 21
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Everyone stared at Queen Lysithea in shock.
Hestia was the first to regain use of her mouth.
"What does this mean, Your Majesty?"
"It means everything being my only granddaughter entails. Angelina is a princess and the only true heir to this throne."
Angel on the other hand was taking all of this in but she couldn't think clearly about any of it. All she could do was gaze listlessly at the floor with tears running down her new looking face.
"How do we know that she is the True Heir?" a voice came from the crowd, "The only daughter you had was banished to…"
"The Aboveground, yes. But even though I never kept track of her, my blood recognizes this child. Just as it recognized Sarah so many years ago when she set foot in our world."
Jareth looked at the queen's unmasked face that so much resembled Sarah's and asked, "Why? Why didn't you tell me about Sarah?"
The High Queen sighed as she turned her face toward him, "Because Jareth, her answer to you was no, she wanted to go back to her world, I could not just stop her. Besides the Power of the Labyrinth stayed with her, she could have returned any time she wanted."
Hestia after waiting to see if Angel would regain herself, finally got up from her throne and looked at her closely, there was something wrong.
She lifted Angel's slumped form and looked into her eyes.
They were black.
"What is happening to her?" she turned around panicked.
Queen Lysithea shot up from the throne where she sat and quickly walked down to where the two women were huddled on the floor.
"No. this isn't right. Someone go get the healer immediately." She ordered.
No one moved, they were all glaring at the former human woman.
"Someone move NOW!" she ordered.
"Your Highness, I am here." Came a voice from the door to the hallway, a short man with white robes was out of breath as he made his way to the person on the floor.
"The old man told me something was wrong up here, he said he needed me here immediately." He said quickly.
"Excellent. Hestia let us get out of his way."
The Royal Healer looked over the girl mutely for a few tense seconds.
"She's fainted."
The room filled with derisive laughter form some of the Nobles.
Suddenly marble shot out from the floor and captured those who had laughed. They all looked to there queen in fear.
"You fools! You have made him angry. Let this be a lesson to any who try to harm Angelina while she is in this palace." Queen Lysithea said angrily in faery.
"Now, all of you are dismissed."
Then she put her hand on the floor and thought, "I know you are angry but you must let them go."
Immediately the marble was withdrawn and those who were in its grasp scattered out the door like wounded animals.
"We need to put her in her room close to her elements. They will help her get over whatever emotional turmoil has left her in this state." The healer said firmly.
Tinoth who had been watching everything with a horrified sense of detachment finally regained his self and hurried over to pick up the comatose woman. The healer, Jareth, Hestia, Lysithea, Charon and Salacia followed him out the door leaving one angry princess alone in the throne room.
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"We have a serious problem." Triana said to the blond woman who sat on the dark throne before her.
"Why do we have a problem sister?" the blond woman sneered slightly.
"That little bitch, the one my prince did not let me finish off has a new title now."
"What does it have to do with our plan Triana? Don't make me ask again…"
"She is the heir to the High Queen's throne."
"What?" the woman hissed angrily.
"And I can't kill her, they will know that it was me." Triana finished, wary of the other woman's reaction.
"Why don't you just kill her in the tournament?" The blond said in a very bored tone.
"What makes you think she will…"
"Think about it you idiot," the woman snapped, "she is a princess now, she can fight to try to gain the hand of your precious prince, now won't she?"
Fear clutched at Triana, at the thought of losing Brendan to that goodie two shoes.
"Oh please, I kicked her ass last time we fought." Triana said loftily.
"Yes, but she was not prepared for you then and you have another two months till the tournament." The blond reminded her idly.
"Whatever, I am still able to nullify her attacks…"
"Well, the ones you know about anyway, you only know a limited amount of pure wind and water magic because you are better at the shadow form of it."
"You know, you are starting to really annoy me, sister. I am out there risking my neck for us and you're just…"
"Do you want to be queen or not?"
Triana just closed her mouth furiously and disappeared into thin air.
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Hestia and Jareth sat in chairs that were positioned on either side of the bed that Princess Angelina was laying on fast asleep.
After making sure that the young woman would be taken care of, they had gone to dinner with the High Queen as protocol demanded. Now, they were presently sitting in silence gazing tiredly at the sleeping lady.
Abruptly, Hestia looked across at her husband and asked, "How do you feel about all this?"
"There is no way to feel, this is how it will be." He said quietly.
Silence.
"You know, I am positive she had a reason for keeping Sarah's death from you." Hestia said shocked momentarily at her own daring.
"I already know why she did." He stated somberly. "She doesn't know how her mother died, she died not want to tell me until she found out, but not only that... She wanted to protect me."
"How do you know all of this?" Hestia asked not hiding the pain in her voice.
"It was the look she gave me before she said it. Her eye told me everything, disguise spell or not."
"I'm truly sorry Jareth. I know how much you loved her." She said calmly all the while silent tears were cascading down her face.
He looked at her now, almost as if he were looking at her for the very first time.
Silently, he got up from his chair and went and knelt before the raven haired beauty that was his wife and said softly, "I am sorry for hurting you all these years in the process of loving her."
And with that he put his head on her lap and wept.
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The prince was sitting on his bed when Triana walked in angrier than he had ever seen her.
He really did not feel like putting up with her right now. He was fighting with his guilt and wanted to be alone right now.
"Triana now is not the time I…"
"Do you want to know what we all found about your old partner in crime tonight, Brendan?" she yelled at him.
"I heard about Sarah already, I know she lied about it okay? I really want to just go to sleep." He said tiredly.
'Just go away!' he thought bitterly.
"Angel," she spat nastily, "is not human."
"She's what?" he asked, scarcely breathing.
"She. Is. Not. Human." Triana drawled out angrily.
Brendan's mind was reeling.
She mistook his stunned silence for anger.
"Oh but it gets better, not only is she not human, but she is a fae princess. Lysithea's great granddaughter to be exact!"
The world could have ended and he would have never known it.
"But she looks human."
"No, not any more she doesn't, her father had to be from this world because Sarah didn't know magic and there was a powerful disguise spell placed on her." Triana said but then her eyes narrowed dangerously.
"The real color of Angelina's hair is silver." She said in a low voice.
Brendan's eyes narrowed much like Triana's.
"But that would mean…"
"I haven't told me sister this yet." Triana said suddenly.
"You know he will be here soon."
"I know. And when I get my hands on him…"
'I can't believe this is happening!' his mind screamed.
Now he felt even guiltier than he had a few minutes ago.
"So what was her reaction to all this information?" he asked carefully.
"She fainted." And then the little red headed witch began to laugh.
Brendan's fingers twitched involuntarily at the horrible maddening sound.
'I hate you.' He thought mercilessly.
"When I asked one of the maids near her room what her condition was, she said that Angelina was still knocked out."
"Oh." He said.
"Did you want some dinner? I can have one of the servants bring you some." She said looking at him worriedly. "You haven't eaten and we both know you need your energy…"
"Actually, Triana, I think I will go get dinner myself, I need the time to think of how to handle these new circumstances."
The red head pouted slightly, but she knew that right now was not a good time to push him.
He walked out of the room feeling completely dumbstruck at the current situation.
First things first, he needed to make sure she was alright.
It was pretty late now and he wasn't exactly sure where Angel was staying…
"Alright, old man, make yourself useful and show me where Angelina resides."
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She heard voices coming from everywhere and nowhere all at once. The emptiness that surrounded her was vast, but to her relief there was light coming from some unnamable source.
Suddenly, Angel found herself awash in a myriad of blue and green colors and suddenly she spotted a figure on the horizon walking toward her.
Her eyes darted around to see if anyone else was coming towards her finding nothing she pulled her eyes back in the direction where she last saw the figure and realized will a start that the figure had caught up to her.
It was the human form of Angel.
"So you have found the truth about yourself." Human Angel said.
"When you ask that, does that mean that you are not me?" Angel asked curiously.
"Clever girl. No, I am not you, I thought I would take this form to make you feel more comfortable."
"I see. Well, honestly, seeing me like that kind of freaks me out right now." Angel said sadly. "What do you really look like?"
"That is kind of impossible to show you, at the moment, but I can show you what I used to look like."
"Okay." Angel said feeling a little better.
The vision before her blurred, it was almost like a reflection moving in the surface of water.
When she blinked, she opened her eyes to find a young looking fae man with blue black hair gazing at her with kind eyes. His hair reminded her of Clytia's but that is where the resemblance ended. This man was incredibly handsome, a strong chiseled face, a slightly pointed nose, pale skin, dark hair, blue eyes and a wonderfully lithe muscular body.
Angel however, was not in the least bit attracted to him, nor did she feel that vibe from him.
"Who are you?" she asked surprised, truth be told she was expecting a girl.
"That, my dear, is something that I cannot divulge to you right now." He said smiling at her serenely.
She frowned at him slightly.
'Then why are you here?" she asked with a bit of an impatient air.
"I was worried about you, I just wanted to make sure that you were okay. But then I also came to warn you."
"Warn me?"
"Yes, the fire-earth wielder, Prince Brendan is coming at this moment to visit you. Lady Triana has told him about you. Did you want to wake up to greet him or do you think you would do better asleep." The strange man asked calmly.
"I think I would do better to avoid him and stay where I am." Angel said sadly.
'He would probably just chew me out for hurting Jareth with regards to my mother.' She thought to herself bitterly.
"Why do you think that?" the man asked curiously.
"Prince Brendan has hated me for a short while because of a very stupid lie on my part, let him do or say what he likes, I won't be there to hear any of it." She said in a very sulky tone.
"Angel, he is not capable of hating anyone, least of all you." The man said, his eyes boring into hers, but not in a threatening way. "Besides, who cares what he thinks about you right now, what do you think about him?" he asked watching her expression carefully.
"I…I don't know what to think of him really, especially after what happened… What does it matter what I think of him?" she asked the man snappishly.
Once again he just smiled at her in a very calm and controlled manner, "Just think about how you feel and remember, you are a princess now."
And with that he disappeared leaving her in the whirling blue and green colors that danced around her beautifully.
Then she just sighed audibly and said to the empty yet beautiful field of blue and green, "But that's not true, I already know how I feel about him."
But somehow she felt that the man she was just talking to already knew that.
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He stood poised to knock on her door, his hands already made into a fist, when he realized that she wouldn't be able to hear it anyway.
Quietly, Brendan made his way into the recently dubbed princess' chambers.
The first room was a painted in a light blue color and was sparsely decorated with beautiful sitting chairs and tables occupying the room nicely. It was obvious to anyone who entered that this was the room that Angel would use when a guest came to call as wooden board games littered a shelf nearby and one particularly small table showed off a fancy marble chess set that looked as though it had never been touched.
The prince made his way around the furniture, walked across the room and opened the door to the next room.
The walls in this room were painted burgundy, a large table with many chairs occupied a good portion of space and like most of the palace, the floor was a polished marble. Someone, it seemed thought the small dining room could do with a few rugs here and there, but there was only one rug present almost as if they weren't sure what would match. Another few cushioned chairs were nearby as well as a huge desk in the corner next to a large cherry wood shelf with loads of books upon it.
It all seemed very basic but it was as if it was left the way with the intent on leaving all of the decorating to the person who would live in it eventually, to definitely make it their own personal haven by building upon that which was already there.
He opened the next door softly, he was nervous and frustrated yes, but he really just wanted to check her out and make sure she was okay without her knowing about it.
As soon as he took in her new appearance, though, he found quite suddenly that he couldn't look away.
Brendan kept telling himself that she didn't look that different, but deep down he knew he was lying to himself.
Silver hair was everywhere.
She was even more beautiful this way than she had been in her human form.
Immediately he felt ashamed at himself for thinking such fickle thoughts about her when she was obvious not doing well. Especially, since he did not make her situation any better. He had remembered how much he had liked her before he knew what she looked like at all, and suddenly he felt dirty and was disgusted with himself.
He took a deep breath.
'Look hard at her now.' He commanded himself, 'steel yourself against it so no one will doubt your intentions to stay away from her. You know you must do this!' a voice in his head tore at him severely.
'So beautiful.' Another voice said blocking out the first.
"No." he whispered aloud.
The prince walked to the girl's side and used his right hand to cup the side of her face gently.
"I do not want you to hate me Angel, but it would be better if you did. That way you would be protected and I wouldn't have to worry about anything happening to you."
He stood there silently for a moment just stroking her face, then he said quietly, "Just do us all a favor and don't get involved in the tournament, I have sacrificed too much to have you die on me, because of something I should have taken care of a long time ago. But whatever you do and whatever happens, don't forget me."
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It wasn't till midday the next day when Angelina woke up feeling refreshed and better rested than she had felt in weeks.
The moment she was awake Clytia came bustling in followed by two other girls that were fae and roughly the same age as Angel.
"Good morning, Your Majesty." Clytia said coming to Angel's bedside with a worried smile on her face.
"How are you feeling this afternoon?" the water sprite asked looking very concerned.
"I am fine, Clytia, I just have a little bit to get used to, you know."
The two girls who came in with Clytia sniggered unpleasantly behind her.
Angelina's clumsy smile turned into a frown instantly.
"And just who the hell are you?" Angel asked quite rudely, she did not need this right now.
"Your Grace, it is only proper that a fae princess has at least three personal servants instead of just one hand maiden." Then the girls behind Clytia bowed and said, "We are honored to be serving you, Your Majesty."
'Oh man, I feel a headache coming on.' Angelina thought dourly.
Then she looked at Clytia and saw that she had a red mark on her face.
"Clytia, who did that to you?"
"Who did what?"
One of the girls came up from behind her and turned her around abruptly and slapped her hard across the face.
"You must address her as Her Majesty at all times!" the girl yelled at the sprite viciously.
The other girl behind her just giggled.
Wind blew the door open violently and wrapped itself around the horrible fae servant suspending her in the air and more importantly, away from a quivering Clytia who was currently huddled on the floor.
What no one noticed immediately was Angel's green eye was glowing as she stared angrily at the woman suspended before her.
"Don't ever touch her again." Was all Angel said but the wind vibrated and played with her voice making it sound one hundred times more sinister than it should have.
Silence was thick, the only true sound being that of the angry wind that had burst through the door unexpected by three of the current occupants of the room.The wind then left as abruptly as it came and the servant woman fell to the floor in a heap.
Angel's eye stopped glowing.
"Now get out." She said simply.
"But, Your Grace, we were appointed by Princess Triana, it is a great honor to serve you…" the woman near the door said in a plaintive voice.
'Ah.' Angel thought sourly.
"I don't care who appointed you, I don't need you and I certainly don't want you. Be gone from my sight, no one ever touches my friends in anger and in front of me no less." She said in an angry tone.
"Friends?" the wind blown servant said scathingly. "She is your servant, you are a princess now!"
"Yes, but I knew her before I found out what I was, which really doesn't matter anyway!" Now her eyes were flashing, "Now get out!"
The women ran out of the room without so much as a backward glance.
Angel slumped visibly after she heard the third door slam distantly.
"Didn't know I could do that." She said truthfully, giving Clytia a small smile.
"You need to practice more, it won't take you as much energy if you become used to different spells. But do you think that was wise sending them away. You need to have at least three servants now that you are royalty, especially the High Queen's heir."
"I think it was wise, I don't need Triana's spies with me all the time. Besides, I would really like to talk to Jareth about having Elise come out here to live. I think you two would get along great."
"Angel, thank you for that, no one has really stood up for me except Queen Lysithea." The sprite said in a shaky voice.
"You don't talk to a lot of people, do you?" Angel asked the small girl curiously.
"Actually, I usually only talk to my own kind that live here in the palace, we usually just do our jobs and avoid the fae. The two races don't like each other very much."
"But why?" Angel asked.
Suddenly Clytia looked a bit frightened, "It's a long story and it is something you should probably hear from the High Queen… We are forbidden to speak of it."
She began to tidy up around the room and she deftly avoided meeting Angelina's eyes.
Angel just decided to drop it… for now.
She got up out of bed and sat in front of the vanity to look at her appearance once more.
At that moment, the door opened and Jareth, Hestia and Lysithea walked through the door and froze at the sight of the young woman still in her rumpled bed things gazing at herself in the mirror.
Angel touched her slim face gingerly and then ran her fingers through her soft silver hair.
"It's really not that bad," she remarked softly, "I am sure I will get used to it eventually."
Hestia came up to stand behind her and put one of her hands on her shoulder.
"You're even more beautiful now, than you were before."
Angel remembered the jealous and vicious looks of the fae women in the throne room and said aloud, "Thanks, but I don't think that is a good thing."
Lysithea who had been watching nearby gave her a sad smile and came over to give Angel a hug.
"You will do just fine, Angel." She whispered softly.
And for the first time since she came to this world she felt like this was home.
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AN: Hey ya'll! I really hope you have liked what I have written, please drop me a line and let me know how you feel about the turn of events. :) I am trying my best to keep you guys interested. I promise I will update regularly JUST PLEASE REVIEW! I JUST LOVE GETTING THOSE! Don't mean to scare you, I love you guys truly I do!
Nugrey: Thank you so much for what you said about the characters and the plot, I am trying to be interesting but go a bit slower. I have a lot of things that have yet to happen, but I really appreciate every review you have given me throughout this. And I have been working on this piece by piece so my hands wont hurt as much, but I just found out I have arthritis. I AM ONLY 24! Thanks again and I hope you liked this chapter!
Lady Ione Athene: Your reviews always make me EXTREMELY happy! I love reading them, they make me feel great! Thank you for liking my story! I can't reiterate that enough! Anyway, I hope you like this chapter!
Thanks for even glancing at it!
C