AN: Hay ya'l... just a short chapter to tide ya'll over. Its mostly
background information but it was necessary. ;) Thanks to everyone who
reviewed... wohoo! I have three active fics going right now and this
one gets updated the most because.... it gets the most feedback!! LOL
Thanks to all who have reviewed multiple times (I luv hearing what
ya'll thought about each new chapter) and who have visited my page/
signed my guestbook. You guys are all great! Keep reading and
writing!
Standard disclaimers apply... forever and ever and ever and ever....
******************Sacrifices: Chapter Six********************
Drevlyn rose and gave Jareth a mocking little bow as he
materialized in his private parlor. The scrying spell disappeared
from the Dragon Prince's almost taloned fingers. Jareth glared.
"I don't appreciate being spied on, especially in my own
home." Drevlyn ignored Jareth's anger... He was aware of it; one did
not ignore Jareth himself and live long, but for all practical
purposes he ignored Jareth's anger and moods. It made conversations
much more productive.
"That was unnecessarily harsh. Do you expect to win her
affections by cruelty and humiliation?" Jareth's mismatched eyes
flamed.
"No Prince Drevlyn," and he spat Prince like an unclean thing,
"it was entirely necessary. I... I am not well loved by the Sidhe
Court. They do not rule me but to some things I must answer for my
actions, for the best of the Underground as a whole certain rules must
be enforced, even among Kings." Jareth paused, looked away, and
started pacing. Drevlyn, still standing, watched, mute.
"I will have to present her as my subject. They will test her
Drevlyn, Sarah would be a fine prize for any High Sidhe, now that she
is barred from Aboveground."
"Thanks to you," Drevlyn inserted, somewhat bitterly. He
quieted in the face of Jareth's caged fury.
"Dragons are a fine race and I hold Dragon's Trust dearly in
my heart but you know your race is weak politically, at least for
now." Together, for one breath, both men's thoughts drifted to the
rocking egg hidden deep within Jareth's castle. "She must be mine, in
every sense of the word Drevlyn or she shall be taken away." Jareth
continued in a softer, though in no less angry voice. "Evirey would
love her Drevlyn, you know that."
"And would that be so bad?" Drevlyn asked, his voice also
subdued. "Sarah distracts you Jareth, distorts things. Do you really
have time to be playing with a girl who already refused all you had to
offer? Evirey is not Tortar, or Draculo..." Jareth whirled on his
friend, rage even more apparent as he hissed his reply.
"Sarah might have refused all I had to offer but she did not
wish to be loved by the Unicorns... She did not call upon the Unicorn
Queen to take her to a world of magic and incense and crystals. She
called upon the Goblin King Drevlyn. She gave me her future, not
Evirey. Tortar and Draculo are not options. Evirey would vote for me
if it came down to that. Even I am preferable to the Trolls or
Vampires.
"And as to the last of your claims I shall not win Sarah's
affections. She will give them to me, when she chooses, in time."
"Are you so sure about that?" Drevlyn demanded, skeptical.
Jareth strode closer to his friend, until they were eye to mismatched
eye. Drevlyn dared not look away; he was awed by the simple certainty
in Jareth's carved features.
"She dreamt of me for twenty years Drevlyn. I can hear my
name, whenever, where ever its spoken... I've heard her whisper it
Drevlyn. She may, she may not even know it passes her lips but I am
not a memory forgotten, dead, and buried. I am alive within her. I
am a part of her past and despite what mortals, what even some
immortals like to believe, while the past may be sealed and set it
will always change and shape you.
"I am Sarah's past. Every breath, ever thought she formed for
the last two decades had a part of me in them. She is drawn to me, as
I am to her. It frightens her, terrifies her, but she cannot deny
such attraction." Jareth smiled and it in itself was a terrifying
thing. "Believe me, I've tried."
"How long will you have before you must present Sarah to the
Court?" Jareth shrugged, form once more relaxed, arrogant, all anger
hidden.
"Not long enough. Evirey watches me closely. I spent much of
my power bringing Sarah here. Such expenditures shall not go long
unnoticed." Drevlyn nodded.
"I know."
******************************************************************
"High Sidhe?" Sarah asked. Hellin nodded vigorously.
"Yes Mistress Sarah, High Sidhe."
"I... I don't understand..." Hellin nodded again, as if she
had expected this answer, and took Sarah's hand in her small one,
leading her to the bed where they sat, Hellin's short legs swinging
childlike, over the edge.
"I thought you wouldn't. There are exactly four classes of
people in the Underground; Non Sidhe, Low Sidhe, Middle Side, and High
Sidhe. High Sidhe," Hellin's small mouth curved into a wistful smile,
"that would be King Jareth, and all the other Kings and Queens.
Middle Sidhe consists of nobles and the wealthy- the elite though not
quite royal Sidhe. The Middle and High comprise all the voting
members of the Sidhe Court, the ruling political and social
institution of Underground.
"Low Sidhe are the 'peasants' the 'craftsmen' the main body of
the Underground. We run the kingdoms to the best of our ability."
Sarah, though rapt, interrupted the goblin girl.
"We?" Hellin blushed and continued.
"Aye mistress. I am indeed Low Sidhe. That it why I am fit
to serve you. Non Sidhe would be the goblins you saw on your last
journey here. They amuse King Jareth with their bawdiness, even with
their boldness." Sarah's brow wrinkled in confusion.
"So Non Sidhe are..."
"Non Sidhe are the lowest classed people of any kingdom. They
are not slaves. The Underground, unlike Above, has never had slaves.
They are the simpler minds though... How do I explain this... They
are what was left behind when Underground chose civilization.
"They reason and think and live but their lives, their
worries, they woes are shallow things." Hellin stopped, unhappy with
her descriptions but unable to think of more accurate ones. "They,
they are not stupid. They are innocent Sarah, innocent in ways I
sometimes wish I was. But they can also be dangerous.
"Few wars are fought in our realm, despite the differences
between the people who live here. The only ones capable of raising
hand, claw, or talon against another are the Non Sidhe, and the High
Sidhe."
"You best and your worst," Sarah whispered. Hellin raised
thick brows in query.
"Our most carefree. Life means little to either one of them.
High Sidhe because they are almost true immortals, Non Sidhe because
they do not understand enough to fear their own mortality.
"High Sidhe start our wars, Non Sidhe fight them among
themselves, and Low and Middle Sidhe watch. There is little bloodshed
but much, much pain. Children fighting wars is such an unclean thing,
and that's what the Non Sidhe are much like, children..."
"How, how is it determined, what 'rank' a child is? Is it
blood or breeding?" Hellin shrugged.
"I do not dare to try to understand, much less explain. It
is, a little of all sorts of things. High Sidhe are High Sidhe, by
blood or power. All others... once every ten years all the children
birthed in that time are brought to the Sidhe Court. There's this
place, called the Room of Fate. Its white..." Hellin's face clouded
with memory. "A giant place, white walls and white candles and white
chandeliers that hang from a ceiling obscured by white fog. You crowd
among children from races that you've never even seen before, imagined
before. You cower, you fear this pristine, magical place, no matter
if you're a swaddling infant or a stout boy of ten.
"And then you know, who and what you are. A voice... I've
heard its different for every child, whispers to a place deep in your
heart... whispers your true identity. There's no denying it, no
faking, you are stamped with your future for eternity, however long
eternity is for you. I don't remember much of the journey or the
people, no matter how fantastic, but I can still hear that voice, like
it was yesterday..." Hellin trailed off into silence before briskly
shaking herself.
"I'm lucky," she said frankly. "Both my parents were Non
Sidhe. I love them dearly mind you but the Voice, the Room of Fate is
never wrong. I am happy here, and I would not happy in any other
place. I live to serve and that contents me." Sarah leaned forward
and leaned on her elbows.
"And why am I like High Sidhe?" Hellin laughed and it was not
a light sound.
"Because Mistress Sarah," the goblin girl replied with a small
smile, "You are not afraid or barred from battle, and you are
immortal."
Sarah stood and promptly sat, her head reeling. "I... I'm what
Hellin?" The goblin girl stared at her, eyes wide, and replied after
a long, painful silence.
"You didn't... you didn't know."
"Didn't know what?" Sarah demanded. The goblin girl rose and
backed slowly away, trembling.
"Didn't know that you will be part of this place for
eternity. That you will not age, that you cannot die unless you
choose it or someone more powerful than you wills it. That..."
Hellin bowed her head, "that Jareth took away your mortality. That
because of your timelessness that you are barred from Aboveground.
That you are one of us Mistress, in a sense never before achieved by a
woman from Above. And you learned this all from me..." Hellin turned
her heel, tears in her eyes, and ran, leaving Sarah open mouthed,
behind.
2nd AN: Expect Evirey to pop up in the next chapter, unnanounced of
course. Also if you want a good movie check out Kate and Leopold. I
thought the writing was very well done and wow... It was a really
good chick flick. Just my personal, dreamer/hopeless romantic
opinion that you all just *so* needed to hear. =)
background information but it was necessary. ;) Thanks to everyone who
reviewed... wohoo! I have three active fics going right now and this
one gets updated the most because.... it gets the most feedback!! LOL
Thanks to all who have reviewed multiple times (I luv hearing what
ya'll thought about each new chapter) and who have visited my page/
signed my guestbook. You guys are all great! Keep reading and
writing!
Standard disclaimers apply... forever and ever and ever and ever....
******************Sacrifices: Chapter Six********************
Drevlyn rose and gave Jareth a mocking little bow as he
materialized in his private parlor. The scrying spell disappeared
from the Dragon Prince's almost taloned fingers. Jareth glared.
"I don't appreciate being spied on, especially in my own
home." Drevlyn ignored Jareth's anger... He was aware of it; one did
not ignore Jareth himself and live long, but for all practical
purposes he ignored Jareth's anger and moods. It made conversations
much more productive.
"That was unnecessarily harsh. Do you expect to win her
affections by cruelty and humiliation?" Jareth's mismatched eyes
flamed.
"No Prince Drevlyn," and he spat Prince like an unclean thing,
"it was entirely necessary. I... I am not well loved by the Sidhe
Court. They do not rule me but to some things I must answer for my
actions, for the best of the Underground as a whole certain rules must
be enforced, even among Kings." Jareth paused, looked away, and
started pacing. Drevlyn, still standing, watched, mute.
"I will have to present her as my subject. They will test her
Drevlyn, Sarah would be a fine prize for any High Sidhe, now that she
is barred from Aboveground."
"Thanks to you," Drevlyn inserted, somewhat bitterly. He
quieted in the face of Jareth's caged fury.
"Dragons are a fine race and I hold Dragon's Trust dearly in
my heart but you know your race is weak politically, at least for
now." Together, for one breath, both men's thoughts drifted to the
rocking egg hidden deep within Jareth's castle. "She must be mine, in
every sense of the word Drevlyn or she shall be taken away." Jareth
continued in a softer, though in no less angry voice. "Evirey would
love her Drevlyn, you know that."
"And would that be so bad?" Drevlyn asked, his voice also
subdued. "Sarah distracts you Jareth, distorts things. Do you really
have time to be playing with a girl who already refused all you had to
offer? Evirey is not Tortar, or Draculo..." Jareth whirled on his
friend, rage even more apparent as he hissed his reply.
"Sarah might have refused all I had to offer but she did not
wish to be loved by the Unicorns... She did not call upon the Unicorn
Queen to take her to a world of magic and incense and crystals. She
called upon the Goblin King Drevlyn. She gave me her future, not
Evirey. Tortar and Draculo are not options. Evirey would vote for me
if it came down to that. Even I am preferable to the Trolls or
Vampires.
"And as to the last of your claims I shall not win Sarah's
affections. She will give them to me, when she chooses, in time."
"Are you so sure about that?" Drevlyn demanded, skeptical.
Jareth strode closer to his friend, until they were eye to mismatched
eye. Drevlyn dared not look away; he was awed by the simple certainty
in Jareth's carved features.
"She dreamt of me for twenty years Drevlyn. I can hear my
name, whenever, where ever its spoken... I've heard her whisper it
Drevlyn. She may, she may not even know it passes her lips but I am
not a memory forgotten, dead, and buried. I am alive within her. I
am a part of her past and despite what mortals, what even some
immortals like to believe, while the past may be sealed and set it
will always change and shape you.
"I am Sarah's past. Every breath, ever thought she formed for
the last two decades had a part of me in them. She is drawn to me, as
I am to her. It frightens her, terrifies her, but she cannot deny
such attraction." Jareth smiled and it in itself was a terrifying
thing. "Believe me, I've tried."
"How long will you have before you must present Sarah to the
Court?" Jareth shrugged, form once more relaxed, arrogant, all anger
hidden.
"Not long enough. Evirey watches me closely. I spent much of
my power bringing Sarah here. Such expenditures shall not go long
unnoticed." Drevlyn nodded.
"I know."
******************************************************************
"High Sidhe?" Sarah asked. Hellin nodded vigorously.
"Yes Mistress Sarah, High Sidhe."
"I... I don't understand..." Hellin nodded again, as if she
had expected this answer, and took Sarah's hand in her small one,
leading her to the bed where they sat, Hellin's short legs swinging
childlike, over the edge.
"I thought you wouldn't. There are exactly four classes of
people in the Underground; Non Sidhe, Low Sidhe, Middle Side, and High
Sidhe. High Sidhe," Hellin's small mouth curved into a wistful smile,
"that would be King Jareth, and all the other Kings and Queens.
Middle Sidhe consists of nobles and the wealthy- the elite though not
quite royal Sidhe. The Middle and High comprise all the voting
members of the Sidhe Court, the ruling political and social
institution of Underground.
"Low Sidhe are the 'peasants' the 'craftsmen' the main body of
the Underground. We run the kingdoms to the best of our ability."
Sarah, though rapt, interrupted the goblin girl.
"We?" Hellin blushed and continued.
"Aye mistress. I am indeed Low Sidhe. That it why I am fit
to serve you. Non Sidhe would be the goblins you saw on your last
journey here. They amuse King Jareth with their bawdiness, even with
their boldness." Sarah's brow wrinkled in confusion.
"So Non Sidhe are..."
"Non Sidhe are the lowest classed people of any kingdom. They
are not slaves. The Underground, unlike Above, has never had slaves.
They are the simpler minds though... How do I explain this... They
are what was left behind when Underground chose civilization.
"They reason and think and live but their lives, their
worries, they woes are shallow things." Hellin stopped, unhappy with
her descriptions but unable to think of more accurate ones. "They,
they are not stupid. They are innocent Sarah, innocent in ways I
sometimes wish I was. But they can also be dangerous.
"Few wars are fought in our realm, despite the differences
between the people who live here. The only ones capable of raising
hand, claw, or talon against another are the Non Sidhe, and the High
Sidhe."
"You best and your worst," Sarah whispered. Hellin raised
thick brows in query.
"Our most carefree. Life means little to either one of them.
High Sidhe because they are almost true immortals, Non Sidhe because
they do not understand enough to fear their own mortality.
"High Sidhe start our wars, Non Sidhe fight them among
themselves, and Low and Middle Sidhe watch. There is little bloodshed
but much, much pain. Children fighting wars is such an unclean thing,
and that's what the Non Sidhe are much like, children..."
"How, how is it determined, what 'rank' a child is? Is it
blood or breeding?" Hellin shrugged.
"I do not dare to try to understand, much less explain. It
is, a little of all sorts of things. High Sidhe are High Sidhe, by
blood or power. All others... once every ten years all the children
birthed in that time are brought to the Sidhe Court. There's this
place, called the Room of Fate. Its white..." Hellin's face clouded
with memory. "A giant place, white walls and white candles and white
chandeliers that hang from a ceiling obscured by white fog. You crowd
among children from races that you've never even seen before, imagined
before. You cower, you fear this pristine, magical place, no matter
if you're a swaddling infant or a stout boy of ten.
"And then you know, who and what you are. A voice... I've
heard its different for every child, whispers to a place deep in your
heart... whispers your true identity. There's no denying it, no
faking, you are stamped with your future for eternity, however long
eternity is for you. I don't remember much of the journey or the
people, no matter how fantastic, but I can still hear that voice, like
it was yesterday..." Hellin trailed off into silence before briskly
shaking herself.
"I'm lucky," she said frankly. "Both my parents were Non
Sidhe. I love them dearly mind you but the Voice, the Room of Fate is
never wrong. I am happy here, and I would not happy in any other
place. I live to serve and that contents me." Sarah leaned forward
and leaned on her elbows.
"And why am I like High Sidhe?" Hellin laughed and it was not
a light sound.
"Because Mistress Sarah," the goblin girl replied with a small
smile, "You are not afraid or barred from battle, and you are
immortal."
Sarah stood and promptly sat, her head reeling. "I... I'm what
Hellin?" The goblin girl stared at her, eyes wide, and replied after
a long, painful silence.
"You didn't... you didn't know."
"Didn't know what?" Sarah demanded. The goblin girl rose and
backed slowly away, trembling.
"Didn't know that you will be part of this place for
eternity. That you will not age, that you cannot die unless you
choose it or someone more powerful than you wills it. That..."
Hellin bowed her head, "that Jareth took away your mortality. That
because of your timelessness that you are barred from Aboveground.
That you are one of us Mistress, in a sense never before achieved by a
woman from Above. And you learned this all from me..." Hellin turned
her heel, tears in her eyes, and ran, leaving Sarah open mouthed,
behind.
2nd AN: Expect Evirey to pop up in the next chapter, unnanounced of
course. Also if you want a good movie check out Kate and Leopold. I
thought the writing was very well done and wow... It was a really
good chick flick. Just my personal, dreamer/hopeless romantic
opinion that you all just *so* needed to hear. =)