He had stumbled across it almost accidentally, the result of a long illness and an even longer boredom. His doctor had recommended bed rest, but there was simply nothing to do, and his mind was beginning to ruminate. So he practiced his magic as much as could, focusing on the one form that was least draining on his energy - crystals. He used them to look in on places he was unable to go to himself - his favorite waterfall he was to avoid as long he still had a cough, the throne room to see if the goblins were sitting on his throne when they knew he couldn't do anything about it, the busy marketplace.

Hours upon hours upon hours of peering into different places through the use of these crystals. Sometimes, he found, things didn't look quite right in them. Things looked... different. Something about certain places seemed off, and he wondered if perhaps he was viewing a world that was not the one he lived in - and his confirmation of this was confirmed one day when he looked into crystals and viewed, to his initial horror, himself.

But it was not himself. Not the self he knew, the self he was. It was a parallel self, a self somewhere else.

And there was someone else there with that self of his that was not him.

He was a human in this other world, he could tell. He lived a simple human life, which he marveled at. But most marvelous of all was the fact that this human Jareth was married. He was fascinated by this human woman that his human self had found. Their relationship was never perfect all of the time, but there was so much love and respect between them, an understanding so rare that it was obvious this relationship would stand the test of time. It was so moving, in fact, that the Jareth watching through the crystals may or may not have been moved to tears. Actual tears. He had never imagined that he would ever have anything like that with anyone - yet this Jareth in the crystal had done just that. He was struck by this woman, this Sarah, who seemed perfect to him even in her imperfections. This human Jareth had such joy at being around her.

He spent time watching this parallel universe for a while, until a thought struck him. Surely, if there was one parallel, there would be others as well? Yes, he remembered old books had talked about this concept - infinite universes, infinite possibilities. He honed his crystal magic, attempting to peek into these other possible timelines. And with work and frustration and time, he did it.

And he discovered something else as well. In so many of the parallels there was a Sarah. Sometimes they were married, passionately in love. Sometimes their relationship was platonic in nature, best friends throughout life. Sometimes they were both fay. Sometimes they were both humans. Occasionally one was fay and the other was human. In one parallel they were both goblins, and Jareth didn't dwell on that particular universe for very long.

But some universes they were not together. In some they had never met, living just around the corner from each other but never knowing. Sometimes they had lived thousands of years apart, one of them dying long before the other was even born. Sometimes they had met, but it had ended at that, and they went their separate ways again, only to think later on about the other wistfully as a missed opportunity. Sometimes they spent a few years together, perhaps, before life drew them apart again.

He noticed a common theme throughout all of these separate lives of his. When they were together, things were beautiful. Life had its ups and downs, of course - life always would. But together they faced it as a team, and they were stronger for it. They brought out the best in each other in ways he didn't think possible.

When they met in passing, they often spent ages afterwards thinking of the other and of possibilities thwarted - but also often using that missed opportunity as the catalyst for radical change. More willing to take the next chance, the exciting job opening, the life changing move, to actually speak the words they otherwise would have left unsaid - all because at one point in the past, there was a chance and for whatever reason, they turned it down but still, still it haunted their mind with its ghost of what could have been if they just said yes instead of saying no. Their lives were forever changed from simply meeting the other.

When they never met, they seemed different from their other selves. He seemed to have a quicker temper, a deeper scowl. She tended to be quieter, more withdrawn. Sometimes their solitary lives turned out okay - nothing like their lives when they had met, but not too awful. But sometimes, however, their solitary lives took terrible turns. No matter how stormy their lives could become in their shared timelines, they always had each other as an unshakable anchor. Numerous times the other was there to pull them up from dark depths. But alone and separate, they were left to be tossed in the waves of life like a small boat at sea. They passed up things that would have benefitted them. They let chances slip past them like sand in an hourglass. Sometimes they made destructive or wicked choices.

And what of him, now? Now that he knew about this? Would his life be changed by this happenstance discovery? He could view these other times and places, sometimes in the future, sometimes in the past. His clairvoyance, which had always weak and spotty at best, was currently coming up blank for his own future. It was a mystery even to him.

These thoughts gnawed at him always, but during the nights especially. Sleep was hard to come by due to the nature of his illness, but now something else was fueling these wide eyed late night thought marathons. Thoughts of Sarah. Was there a Sarah in this timeline? Of course, there had to be. That's just how it worked. An infinite number of timelines and universes playing out, but always the same souls. Always. The question, now, was not whether she existed, but how to find her - if he could.

She existed, obviously she did. But she might have existed thousands of years ago, or perhaps wouldn't exist until another million years had passed. Where to even begin looking? And he had no clue of where she might be located, either. Could she be Underground? There were other places, too, Sideways places, that would be hard to peer into and even harder to access.

But he was undaunted. He would find her. He only hoped that time and space would blessedly align for him to do so.

He spent the remainder of his bedrest on searching for her, his doctor in fact recommending that he rest for longer due to the energy being expended on his search. He slowly regained health and still he searched. His morale began to wane. The world was so big, and he was only one being...

An idea dawned. He was not the only being in his kingdom with this form of magic.

He sent out the request for any goblins skilled in the practice to have the opportunity to work for him. Within months he had a veritable army of goblins holed up in various rooms of the castle, using their powers as well they could, looking for this mysterious woman that had captured the heart and mind of the King.

It was on a dull and cold morning in the dead of winter that a goblin peeked around the corner of the doorway to the library, eager and anxious. Jareth sat dozing in a tall backed blue velvet chair, his feet resting rather ungracefully on an tufted ottoman.

The goblin crept closer and cleared his throat.

"Hhhm mhh. King?"

Jareth opened one eye, squinting at the brightness.

"I think we found her, yer majesty." the goblin tittered.

Jareth sat up, fully awake now.

"Show her to me." he reached out his hand.

The goblin pulled a crystal out of his coat and put it in his gloved hand.

Jareth peered into its depths.

"I know you says maybe she an old grown lady and maybe she not, but I thinks this is her."

He only half listened to the goblin's explanation, focused instead on the images in the orb.

She was in a park of some sort, and there was a sheepdog there with her. She was young, a mere child.

He thanked the goblin and waved it away, entranced by the images.

He had worked so hard for so long to reach this point, and suddenly he had achieved his goal. It made him realize he had absolutely no clue of how to proceed once he had actually reached that objective.

The feeling of triumph warred in his heart with disappointment. He had found her, yes, but to what end? She was still a child, it seemed. In nearly all of the other timelines they had almost always met when they were near the same age - more true for when they were mortals, yes, but the amount of times they had met as adults far outweighed any other scenario he had seen. In his urgency to find her in this world, had he used magic to step out of bounds? Defied fate in some way? If he had simply let the knowledge that his other selves had found her stay at that, would, at some point down the line, they have met in some way? Perhaps this wasn't how it was meant to be. Perhaps he should have trusted whatever guiding forces there were that their meeting would happen when - or if - it was supposed to happen.

He didn't want to crash into her world and disrupt it, and he felt that that's exactly what he'd be doing if suddenly appeared to her. She was still young enough to be forming her own opinions and views, and it wouldn't be right for someone such as him, who had been around for so long, to influence her with his presence and deprive her of the opportunity to form as her own person.

As he watched her play with the shaggy dog under the canopy of trees he thought back on all the other Sarahs he had seen prior to this one. He thought of all the forms she and he had taken throughout endless times in endless places; the closest of friends, passing friendly strangers, lovers. He didn't know what this iteration of Sarah might be to him, but he knew that she deserved a normal adolescence, and normal adolescences did not include beings from Other Places. He didn't know what she would be to him, but he knew he would be her protector for now. Let her grow and live her own life untroubled by cares that could wait. Perhaps down the road they would meet if the timing was right, but for now this was it.

He thanked the higher powers that they both existed in such comparative close proximity, and created a small decohedron crystal which he enchanted to glow red should she ever be in danger. He took one last look at her in the park and then let the image fade. She deserved her privacy, and it simply wouldn't do to keep watching and looking in on her in this way. He knew where she was, and that was enough. Should she ever be in grave danger, the enchanted crystal would inform him and he could intervene if need be. That's how things would go on, he assumed, for years until the stars aligned once more and their meeting would be nigh.

But it was just that evening that crystal, which he had placed on his nightstand, began to blink blearily into the night, its red casting eerie shadows on the walls. He started out of slumber and with a twist of his hand he was viewing her.

She was sitting in her room, at her desk, seemingly absorbed in writing something in a small book with a lock on it. He watched for a few moments before turning the crystal to look around her room. All was still. He shook it, moving the view to outside the house. Was there a fire? A burglar? But there was nothing. Nothing he could see, anyway. He watched reluctantly for a while longer until he was convinced she was no real danger. He finally dissolved the crystal and sighed. A mere malfunction, perhaps, and nothing more.

It hadn't even reached midday the next morning when the decohedron began blinking once more. This time she was leaving her home and walking to school. She made it safely into class. There were no muggers, no runaway cars, no tripping curbs. She seemed perfectly fine.

For an entire month the crystal would light up at all hours, flashing its warning sign, only for him to look in on her doing the most mundane of things in all apparent safety - eating cereal, going to study hall, watching the news with her parents, brushing her dog, reading a book. Was there something he was missing?