CHAPTER 17

Sarah and Merlara entered the dining room and went straight to their seats.

King Elwin said, "Good evening, ladies. This is my guest of honor King Jareth of the Goblin Kingdom. He has generously accepted to participate in the joust at tomorrow's event at 1 o'clock and come to the Winter Ball tomorrow evening at 7 o'clock. I know King Jareth you have met my daughter, Princess Merlara, but this is Lady Ashar she is a newly accepted member of the family. I would say another daughter. We have come to love her dearly." Jareth was surprised that Elwin had a human woman accepted as a member of the family. He wondered just who this woman was to get inserted and fully trusted so easily into a fae royal family. She was extremely beautiful too. Her eyes were mesmerizing.

Jareth said, "Princess Merlara. Lady Ashar, I'm pleased to meet you." He inclined his head in a bow.

Sarah fake smiled and did the same and said, "Your Majesty." The servers came in and served dinner. Sarah thought, 'So far so good.' She ate and felt from time to time, he was looking at her. She kept her conversation to Merlara in hushed whispers.

Jareth said, "So tell me, Lady Ashar, where are you from?"

Sarah said, "From far away." Jareth thought that very vague.

Jareth asked Elwin, "So how did you meet Lady Ashar?"

King Elwin said, "She saved my daughter's life from two fae trying to rob and do other things to her. She is a wonderfully trained fighter." Jareth was surprised at that answer. A human woman trained to fight? That was strange.

Jareth asked her, "Where were you trained?"

Sarah said, "Back home." He was frustrated at her short precise answers.

Jareth asked, "What else can you do?"

Sarah looked him in the eyes and said, "Why do you ask?"

Jareth said sceptically, "It just seems peculiar that you are a human woman trained in fighting and just so happen across a royal in peril. Then find yourself, readily inserted into a prominent royal family as a full fledged member and titled." Sarah looked at him and cocked her head to the side and thought, 'The jig is up, Sarah. He's suspicious of you.'

King Elwin said, "Jareth why would you say such a thing?"

Jareth said, "It just seems staged that she could just happen upon such a situation and be fully capable as a human and a female to dispatch two full grown fae men." Sarah stood up. Everyone watched her holding their breath.

Sarah said, "You always were very short sighted in all things concerning me, Jareth. You have underestimated me from the beginning when I was a child and ever since knowing about each others existence. I am no more a weak and stupid human simpleton than you are a kind and loving man. You see yourself as a generous and benevolent person of rank and stature, but I know different. You are a manipulative cruel man who has harmed me more than you will ever know with your demands and threatening behavior. I will never trust and forgive you for setting a bounty hunter and your paid minions on me to begin with. Now, your father wants me murdered, by said bounty hunter, because of you starting all this. I hate you for that. I will not comply with your rule, do what you say, or fear you any longer. You are incapable of love and compassion for anyone but yourself. I am certainly capable of defending myself from anything and everything you send at me. I can do the same in return. You are a narrow minded lustful man who wants nothing more than to dominate, control and have a complying bed slave tied to your head board. You are never going to get that from me, so you better find another fool to rule over, your Majesty."

Sarah threw down her napkin and said, "Excuse me, family, please. This is an ugly scene to display to such good people. I love you all, but I will not spend another moment with this person in a room with me." Sarah pulled back her chair and stepped away. She tapped her Invisibility ring and telepathy ring silently stepping back away from the table and out of the way.

Jareth had his mouth hanging open and was completely dumbstruck. King Elwin was very proud of her keeping her cool and saying everything she felt to him. He deserved it in his eyes.

Jareth said, "Sarah?"

King Elwin chuckled and said, "Yes, she has told us everything. Her honesty is refreshing. Really, Jareth, you thought you could tame a brilliant woman like her? She is more capable than all of us put together and is amazingly humble for everything that she has been through. You really must have been a fool to say and do all those things to her. She is not a human. Well she is, but she is half fae and half human, we found out. The best of both people and worlds for that matter." Jareth was in shock how she just transported and looked so different.

Jareth said, "She doesn't look like herself."

Kieran said assertively, "What do you expect, Your Majesty? Sarah has been hunted and had to change her appearance and name to avoid capture. Tomorrow she could be a blonde or redhead with brown eyes. You will never know. She is the most unbelievably creative person I have ever known. She is my new sister in my eyes, I will always admire her." That was the most Kieran ever said about Sarah.

Sarah heard Jareth's thoughts… "I have to apologize. I have to beg her forgiveness. Oh my Sarah, what have we done to you? She hates me. I guess I deserve her hate after all I said and did to her. I treated her as an object to possess, never a woman to love."

Jareth said, "I must apologize to you all and to Sarah. I have screwed up everything for a very long time. I am sorry. I will stay as I promised but, I promise not to bother your family over this issue with Sarah. You seem to have seen in her what I have always failed and overlooked."

He stood up and said, "Please excuse me." Jareth left the room. Sarah tapped her remote hearing ring and tapped off her telepathy and invisibility rings.

Elwin chuckled and said, "Come sit down Sarah and finish your dinner with the family." Sarah did.

—--

Jareth went back to his room and laid on the bed staring at the ceiling and thinking of all that was said. He knew she was completely right. He had underestimated her the entire time he had known of her existence. He was so enamored with her belief in magic before her run, that he had set the book in front of her to get her under his power. She bested him at his own game that he controlled with her strength and ability to resist his magic and sexuality. He still wanted to keep her as a child to mold into a complying woman subject to his will and desires. She refused him and his offers. It gnawed at his ego to think that he, the king who could have any woman, fae or human in his bed, yet couldn't have a mere human child at his feet. He was a selfish self-serving bastard. He thought her boring as he watched her in his crystals. He didn't take true interest until he thought her possibly dead. He was just as stupid as her neglectful father was. He berated himself, 'You undervalued her until it was too late. Prince Alwin was right that, if he had spent five minutes in her presence talking to her as the capable person she is, he would have seen her beauty, capabilities and kindness.'

Jareth hated that he had made such a mess of everything. He would never get her forgiveness or love and he would rot in his loneliness as a well deserved punishment for acting just exactly like his evil father. He did not deserve a throne anyway. He never earned the right to be an authority to judge anyone after what he has learned about himself. He hated himself.

Jareth lay awake tossing and turning for the rest of the evening.

—--

Sarah had gone back to her room and put the pouch by the bathing pool. Sarah took off her beautiful dress and hung it up. She stopped and stepped down into the warm water and took stock if the day. It had been harrowing. Court, Azure and now Jareth. She was exhausted from it all with tension, high agonizing emotions and anxiety. She needed to get through tomorrow. She was glad she had the royal family to look after her here. They have been so kind. What to do about Jareth was the issue. She knew she was highly attracted to him, but at what cost if she let him in. She thought, 'I guess the ball's in his court now. I'm not sure what direction he will go in next but I am done with hiding from him.'

Sarah got into her bed with her fuzzy kitten snuggling into her neck purring away. She fell asleep listening to his purrs.

—--

Sarah was standing outside of the Labyrinth in the arid landscape. The wind was blowing her long hair in her face. She had a long beautiful blue nightgown that was billowing out around her bare feet.

Jareth walked around a large boulder and stood before her in his white ruffled shirt that was open and his gray form fitting pants and his reddish brown leather high collared jacket with cape sewn into the back. They looked at one another for a moment in silence. Sarah asked, "What do you want, Goblin King?"

He said remorsefully, "I am so very sorry for everything, Sarah. I have been the ultimate fool for so long. I just need you to understand the depth of how much I regret treating you like a lesser being and trying to inflict my wrath and ill intentions on you for years. You were right and I don't deserve your love in my life. Not after everything I did to you."

Sarah sighed and said, "I thought about you a lot over the eight years that have gone by. I always felt sorry that we parted under such misconceptions that day and you didn't understand why I turned you down. I always thought that if we could have been able to communicate that we would have been able to find more common ground. I thought you were manipulating me and I was a child at the time and incapable of understanding your offer whether I wanted it or not. I did appreciate the lesson you taught me of being responsible for my actions and to never say things I don't mean. I just wish you had learned it in kind. I have tried so hard all my life to love and be loved in return but never have felt it from my parents or Toby. They say it is the greatest lesson in life that you will ever learn. You wanted me to love you, but you didn't know what it was to ever give it back to me. Jareth, I forgive you for your ignorance in that fact alone. I have learned since I've been here, that I am capable of giving the greatest of love to those who earn and deserve it. Do you want to earn it, or do you think you deserve it?"

Jareth stood there listening to every word she had said, so far. He said, "Do I want it? Yes. Do I need it? Oh, dear Danu, yes I need it more than life itself. Would I like to earn it? I would like the chance to try and do it the right way. Do I deserve it, after everything? No, I am completely unworthy of you. This, I swear to you though. I will never stalk you, try to trap you, send others to do my dirty work or think cruel and unfeeling things towards you again. I am truly sorry and repentant, Sarah." He was not acting as a king, but acting like a sorrowful man.

Sarah said, "I believe you are going to try to change your behavior. Are you going to lose your monarchy, now that your father has given you an ultimatum?"

Jareth asked, "How do you know that and several other things?"

Sarah said, "I have the power of remote hearing. If I am in a topic of conversation. I can hear it."

Jareth's eyes got big and he said, "That's fascinating. I won't know until the end of the week. I will not comply with his forced demands. He cannot just remove a monarch from their throne even if he is High King. The only way is to kill me. It would leave him without an heir and my children will never be his to even circumvent me."

Sarah said, "Too bad the power of wishes couldn't help him die in his sleep or make him disappear or something. It would solve all our problems, but oh well. I am sorry for the goblins if you ever got dethroned without an adequate replacement." Jareth looked at her and cocked his head thinking about her words and wishes.

Sarah said, "I think we need to be friends first and learn more about each other and how we feel. I need to know who you really are, not the visage, but the being inside. The one you hide and protect from others who could hurt you. It will take trust to reveal such things. It can happen though eventually."

Jareth asked, "What of you, Sarah? Do you hide someone inside?"

Sarah said, "Oh my, yes. It's the best part of me. Nobody has seen the best of me yet? It's reserved for the man I will fall in love with." Jareth hoped one day he would earn the right to see that side of her. Only time would tell.

Sarah walked up to him and wrapped her arms around him. He laid his head on her shoulder for the first time in his very long 634 years, he liked being held by a woman like this. It was heartbreaking to realize that he almost never would know how this feels, but there was so much more to come if he didn't screw this up. His loneliness had been eating him up for centuries. His arms wrapped around her and let himself feel her arms around him voluntarily.

Fae are very high strung emotional and sexual creatures, as Sarah knew from her studies and observations. To suppress that which is a part of your true nature, can manifest into something that causes an opposite reactive negative emotion. She patted his back and just held him.

She said, "Jareth, I would never judge you for feeling your emotions." He pressed her tighter to his body. He needed her and she felt good. Being able to finally touch her even in a dream was profound to him. Her reactions and words were her own in this dream with him. He finally recovered himself enough to pull back looking down. She pushed his hair from his face and cupped his cheek. He looked into her eyes and saw her sincerity.

Jareth said, "Thank you, Sarah. I hope I can earn you complete forgiveness one day. I'm glad you are at least giving me a small chance to do this the right way. Please don't give up on me. Do you think I'm a lost cause?"

Sarah says, "I don't like to really think of anyone as a lost cause. Let's just go slow, Jareth. There is too much trust that is needed to be found." He nodded and let his arms drop to his sides.

Jareth said, "I will release you from this dream so you can sleep in peace for the rest of your night. Thank you, Sarah." The dream faded away.