Hola! Theme: Dark Flute from Vampire Princess Miyu. Round up the disclaimers & brand em. Have fun!

Ladymage ;)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Part 23 ~ Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Sarah didn't move from her spot by the wall until well after darkness had fallen, absently petting the snakeshead as they insistently nuzzled her. For one thing, she didn't think it was wise to continue wandering around the Labyrinth. For another... well, she definitely needed to think. Things had been happening so quickly over the past few days that she really hadn't had any time to consider how she felt about it and how she should deal with the situation.

At least, that's how she tried to think. That self-centered bastard kept intruding.

Unconsciously, she chewed her already bruised lip. She couldn't blame him entirely for what had happened. He was what he was and, though she didn't understand quite how, she had provoked him. However, except for the fact she had said The Words without meaning to (not to be confused with not meaning them), she would not accept responsibility for him! He could damn well answer for his own actions! Creo had told her he was a dangerous man, but it was about time that childish, self-centered, arrogant, whatever-the-hell-he-was learn that he was not the only being in the universe! And that she, at least, did not consider him to be the epitome of anything.

With that determination in mind, Sarah rose so quickly that the sleepy vines bumped against her in indignation. She apologized, then looked around in dismay.

"Oh, dear," she said aloud. Night in the Labyrinth was only a few degrees removed from being pitch black. She could barely see the wall a few inches in front of her, much less find a path that might conceivably lead out of the Labyrinth. It occurred to her that she didn't even know where Jareth was. "Damn," she said, sliding back down to her previous position, her head between her knees.

"Excuse me, but you seem a bit lost," said a soft voice.

Not looking up, Sarah answered, "Not quite lost, just... not sure where I want to go, I guess." She heard a soft chuckle.

"A valid complaint around here," it agreed. "If I may be so bold as to offer my services, then?"

Sarah finally looked up to see a softly glowing, rather insubstantial person standing before her. She blinked, then tried passing a hand through his booted calves. He smiled gently as her hand encountered no more resistance than it would through ordinary air. "You're a ghost," she stated flatly. Somehow, she wasn't surprised.

"I am," the ghost agreed again. "I'm afraid I can't change that fact, not now, anyway. May I join you?"

Sarah nodded and he sat down facing her. "I think I know who you are," Sarah began hesitantly, "but could you tell me your name?"

"I am Philip ap Meredith," the ghost replied. "Former king of this land and now its. . . guardian spirit is perhaps the best term."

Sarah observed the ghost--Philip--more closely now that she knew who he was. He appeared as a lad of seventeen, with close-cropped, inky black hair and eyes. He was dressed in a simple cotte and hose, both a vaguely glowing shade of white. His expression. . . There was a little sadness there, but not what Sarah would have expected given the story Creo had told her. No, his face held, rather, an ancient calm, a peace she couldn't even begin to fathom. She suddenly realized that she had been staring at him, though he hadn't said anything more. She blushed. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I haven't introduced myself. I'm Sarah Williams."

"Yes, I know," he smiled. "The new queen. The Labyrinth sings your arrival. The reaction of its counterpart is somewhat more. . . mixed."

"Sings? Counterpart?" Sarah was baffled. "What are you talking about?"

"The Labyrinth is alive. Surely you can feel its life in the very stones of its walls. The life that pulses through this entire realm." He watched her, head cocked in bewilderment.

"I--" Sarah, for once, paused before she spoke. There. On the edge of her awareness, growing stronger as she recognized it. A kind of heartbeat, a steady rhythm threaded with strands of the spell she had used earlier, with a center that spoke of the secrets that are kept close to the heart and emotions that are felt in your bones and surrounded by bright Players' faces that guarded this knowledge from recognition. It was a complex being that Sarah despaired of ever truly knowing, until she looked within herself and found the same rhythm beating there. "I can," she said wonderingly. "I can feel the Labyrinth. I am the Labyrinth."

"Sarah," the soft tenor broke her thoughts gently. "You are not the Labyrinth. That belongs to its counterpart, its second soul. You carry a piece of the Labyrinth within you, but the likeness you see is entirely of your own being."

"You mean," Sarah mused bitterly, "that I am like the Labyrinth. I have the power and knowledge, but I hide it behind the masks. I hide it from everyone including myself."

"It isn't a nice thing to discover about oneself," Philip said quietly.

"No. I always thought I, at least, could see myself clearly."

"No one can, Sarah. We all have things about ourselves we don't want to recognize, things, in a way, we are better off not knowing. It wasn't until I died that I could face them, and it was very painful."

"How did you die?" Sarah asked suddenly. "Creo said nobody knew."

Philip gave a wry smile. "That little one. No, it's one of the secrets the Labyrinth guards best."

"If you'd rather not say anything. . ." Sarah's words were waved away.

"Not at all. I was, perhaps, a little hasty, but I made the right decision. Death was what I needed. Life would have held nothing but torture for me, for Jareth, for the Labyrinth. I wasn't needed or wanted alive. I have nearly everything I want now I'm dead. But to answer your question, I simply gave myself up to the Labyrinth. It surrounded me, took me into itself, and that's the last I knew until I watched Jareth take my body back to the castle. Poor Fae. He really felt nothing but triumph, you know. I was a constant thorn in his side."

"That's terrible!" Sarah exclaimed. "How can you take it so calmly! You loved him and he despised you!"

He looked directly into her eyes. "And nothing could have changed that," he told her. "Jareth is what he is. He'll change, everyone does with time, but never so completely. Jareth he is and Jareth he'll remain. I finally understood that the day I died. If I had lived a thousand years, he never would have been able to love me. I accepted that and made my choice. If you are to have any kind of relationship with Jareth, even just business, you have to accept that. Accept him for what he is and realize he can't change that even if he wanted to. Don't ask it of him."

"You still love him, don't you?" Sarah marveled. "That stubborn, arrogant, evil man. You still love him."

"He isn't evil!" Philip replied harshly, then calmed. "Stubborn, arrogant, I grant you. Selfish, opinionated, inconsiderate, hard-hearted. . . I've had a millennium to find words to describe him, Sarah, but evil isn't one of them. I should think you would have realized that by now."

Sarah's mouth opened and closed again as her thoughts drifted back over the past few days. Jareth cheerfully lying to her parents. Backed up against a wall, surrounded by cheerleaders. Standing at the front door in her apron, his hands dripping with soapsuds. Showing her how to manipulate the Fae magic. Laughing with her on the floor of her room.

"You see?" Philip made a motion like he wanted to lay his hand on hers. "He is not a demon. He is many things, but not that. And you have a right to be angry with him. What he did was uncalled for, if not entirely unjustified."

"You saw that?" Sarah's face flushed a bright red. "And what do you mean, not entirely unjustified?' Nothing could justify that!"

"No," he agreed. "But for one, Jareth is a very proud man. He takes pride in his strength, physical and magical and mental. Think on that for a while." The light form stood and appeared to stretch. "I hate to go, but I must leave you to attend to other things. If you press that knob, a passage will open. Turn right to go straight to the castle. And to Jareth. Left will take you to an empty cottage on the outskirts of the Labyrinth. And please. Think on what I said." With that, Philip faded into the darkness. Sarah gazed at where he had been for several long moments before finding the stone knob he had shown her. She pressed it and found herself facing a long, dark corridor.

With no more hesitation, Sarah turned right and began to walk.