Author's Note: Sorry guys, but it's time to bore you with a history lesson. But don't worry, as soon as that's out of the way, JS will begin.
The history of the Underground was completely made up, by the way.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Labyrinth
Disclaimer: And again for chapter 7, I don't own the Labyrinth
Chapter 8
"I've gotten this far, but I don't know what to do," Sarah said, depressed. She was back at the Farrixes and was sitting in the kitchen with Frieda, helping her make dessert for tonight. "I mean, every time he's near, I just…I don't know, I get so nervous. This was so much easier when Jareth wasn't actually around." She traced the rim of the mug she held in her hand with a finger, breathing in the enticing scent of hot chocolate.
"Hmm, it does seem complicated," Frieda agreed, adding flour to her hands and rolling the dough for pies. "Are you going to stay in the castle?"
"No. Yes. Wait! No. Oh, I don't know!" She wailed, embarrassed that she was still acting like a child. "Don't get me wrong, I want to stay. I want to succeed. Is staying in the castle by myself even proper?"
The fae laughed, "No, young ladies staying over is not proper at all. If you were to stay, I would accompany you as a chaperone."
"What about Lavinia? Didn't she stay by herself too?"
"Well, Lavinia was a mistress already, so her virtue does not need protection. Yours does however," Frieda patted Sarah's hand. "And I would be there to keep you on task, and to provide advice on your mission should you need it."
Sarah smiled, relieved. While the woman's presence was a burden the first days in the Goblin City, Sarah wanted someone she could be relaxed with. Someone familiar. "Well, maybe I should stay there then."
Frieda chuckled commending herself. All the girl needed was a little push, that was all. "That's lovely, dear. Now, help me put the dough in the pans."
As they were boiling the filling, Sarah sighed. "He's so confusing. It seems as if he can't stay on one emotion. And if it is one emotion, it's either anger or indifference."
"Hmmm," Frieda tasted the cherries, "add some sugar, dear. All right!" She took the container from Sarah and scraped the sugar off of the top of the boiling mass. Frieda then moved the girl to the stool on the other side of the small room. "Why don't you sit here, and…cut some strawberries for ice cream?"
Sarah began to cut the fruit absentmindedly, wondering about the king. Jareth was like…Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre.
Or maybe he's more similar to Heathcliff in craziness from Wuthering Heights.
Perhaps a version of Mr. Darcy with all the brooding and good manners and all that.
Or maybe he's a freaked up romantic adaptation all three.
Or maybe he's none of them.
Sarah growled softly, bringing the knife hard on the strawberries to take out her frustration. This would be so much easier if he was predictable.
He was like…Othello, honorable and sturdy. Did that mean she was Desdemona? Iago was more likely . She was plotting the man's doom after all. The sudden comparison of herself and the villain disheartened her. Did this mean that she was evil?
Well…yes.
Or maybe like King Arthur. She could be Guinevere. But didn't she betray her king?
God, what was he!? Fae, immortal, beautiful, deadly. Honorable, dependable, caring, sympathetic. Angry, brooding, intense, frightening. Gentle, warm, generous.
I can be generous, or I can be cruel.
She couldn't pin him down. Jareth, even his name was exotic and mysterious. Good god, was she developing a crush? Sarah stopped her work momentarily - then shook her head. No, she was assessing his strengths and weaknesses. So she could be ready the next time they meet. She then wondered if he ever thought of her.
"…keep up with your lessons. No need to waste time." She was startled out of her reverie.
"I'm sorry, what?"
Frieda sighed, "Sarah, have you been paying attention to anything I've told you?"
"Not really, I have a lot on my mind," Sarah said sincerely.
"I said that Bartten was coming over to stay in the city to resume your lessons. And to take over for Lavinia, for no one knows if we can really depend on her."
Sarah made a face at the prospect of having Bartten come over. "I already know how to dance."
"It's not just dancing. We still need to work on expanding your vocabulary, getting rid of certain speech patterns, show you how to address the nobility, teach you how to eat using the utensils…"
"Ok, ok! I get it," Sarah said, I know how to eat with utensils! "I suppose if it's that important."
"It is important. The king is more likely to allow you to be in his presence if you don't act in an embarrassing manner."
Sarah pouted, "The king should be grateful I allow him in my presence. The man ruined my life for chrissakes!"
"Yes, but all the training we did before was just to prepare you for that ball. You'll need continual guidance to be able to blend with the wealthy."
Sarah's mouth hung open, "All of THAT was for one night?" Frieda nodded. "Good god, it took almost a month! And I still made a fool of myself!"
"Do you understand me now?" Sarah nodded and slid down to the floor, resting her back and head on the stool.
"I'm not so sure about this anymore. If it takes a month to get me ready for one night then how can I do this? Maybe I can compress the time it takes, so I can finish the mission in about a week or so," she said half-jokingly.
"Nonsense, if you become uncomfortable in His Majesty's presence, I can take you somewhere else." Sarah didn't stir, and Frieda bent down to pat her head. "The ball went quite nicely, after all, you did somehow get into the good side of the king. And you did that by yourself. Don't worry dear."
Sarah stood up, Frieda was right, she could do this. "I can do this," she repeated out loud.
"That's a good girl, now let's finish these pies." Frieda turned to look at Sarah's handiwork, "Oh dear, it seems like you made strawberry jam instead of slices."
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"This one?" Sarah held up a cotton nightgown, complete with ruffles and pink ribbons.
"No! You want to seduce the king, not remind him of his mother." Lavinia said. She then stood up and rummaged through Sarah's trunks and her closet. "Let's see what we have here." She began to throw the dresses onto the floor and bed. There wasn't very many, just a small collection that were made to tide Sarah over until she could travel to a fashion district.
"Don't blame me," Sarah sniffed. "You and Frieda were the ones that chose everything."
"I think this calls for a shopping trip. We can go to Froma."
"Froma?"
"Sarah," Lavinia said, exasperated, "it's only one of the most fashion conscious cities. This is royalty we're talking about, it would be a huge embarrassment if you weren't dressed well. I mean, I would be embarrassed."
"Hmm, why do I get the feeling that this is more about you than me?" Sarah asked mockingly.
"Because it partly is about me. You are staying at my apartments, and if you look bad I would too. We're all here to help you do this." Lavinia was now folding the garments, her mind seemingly somewhere else.
Sarah started to fold too, thinking about something. "Why is everyone helping me? I've never really gotten a good answer from Julian." She had actually forgotten about them since everything seemed so long ago.
"Well," Lavinia sat down and indicated for Sarah to do the same. "it's a long story, which is good since you have nothing to do all day."
"Ok."
"How do I start this?" The woman mused, toying with her red hair. "Hmm, well. Once upon a time, humans and magical creatures once lived together and - "
"Yeah, I heard all that already." Sarah interrupted.
"Oh. Well goody for me, I don't have to tell as much. How far do you know up to?"
"I think up until the goblin wars or something."
"Let's go to the beginning." Lavinia pointed a finger at her. "Polytheism, what is it?"
"The belief in more than one god." Hey! Paying attention during history actually came in handy.
"Well, those 'gods' were actually various faes and mythical beasts."
Sarah gasped. "Seriously?" Lavania nodded. "Why?"
The fae shrugged. "Who knows? Some already existed, but a lot were created from human belief. You see, the ones that already existed were usually the good ones like the fae that gave inspiration, or that helped nature grow. Others were created by humans, they were used to help them, or they manifested through fear, like your Aboveground 'boogyman.'
"Mythology is said to be a mortal way to explain nature, when in reality they were stories passed down through time when those characters really existed - and still do. The same with folklore; the Loch ness monster exists, or monsters actually.
"So if the mythology was true, does that mean that Isis, or Zeus or whoever really exists?"
"If you want to go to Mount Olympus then yes."
"What about Hades and all that? What about Valhalla?"
Lavinia waved that away. "Those are just other parts of the Underground. Kind of like," she struggled to find an explanation. "They're similar to towns or provinces in a country, Mount Olympus is one province of the Underground equivalent of Greece, and Underworld is just another one.
You see, the Underground is a larger, more expanded form of the Aboveground. For example, Egyptian gods Aboveground would live in the Egyptian part of the Underground today. Do you understand?"
"It's like an alternate dimension," Sarah commented, thinking about all the sci-fi flicks she watched when she was younger. "That's amazing. So, what part of the Underground are we in?"
"We're in the English part. The countries have the same name down here." Well, that would explain the accents.
Sarah sat back, stunned. Even though the Underground itself was a magical place, she never knew that it could be more than that. She wondered why she never thought that myths and folklore were real.
Probably because you really didn't think they were real. That is, until you met Jareth. "This is almost crazy," she laughed nervously, "I've never thought of things this way."
"Well, it makes sense doesn't it? I mean you did meet a magical dwarf the last time you came, and I think a yeti in addition to a talking fox."
"Yeti? Ludo is a Bigfoot?" So those crazy people were right after all…
"Yes, let's continue shall we?
"All right, now. Julian mentioned that humans began to stop believing correct? Well, it's because of many different things. New religions and sciences were emerging, and there were less people to feed the vast amount of mythical beings with their conviction. Because of that the weaker, more useless beings were banished. But because they already existed, they could not be entirely destroyed, instead they were sent Underground.
The ones that were left were the more powerful, more known creatures. Then those powerful ones began to get greedy and lazy. You see, belief works successfully in two ways: the ones that were worshipped had to pay their followers for their generosity. If a man prayed to Heket to protect his wife and child during birth, then the goddess was obliged to at least try to fulfill his wish. Or if one prayed to Aslesa to bring misfortune upon someone, she could choose to indulge it in order to fuel belief and attract worshippers."
"If one just had to pray to these gods and goddesses, then wouldn't life have been perfect back then?"
"Maybe, but the gods and goddesses were not stupid. You see, we need chaos in order to remember peace and happiness. If everything was protected, then there would be no balance. If a farmer had a large harvest every time through simple prayer then there would be an over-surplus of food, and the man would lose his motivation and drive. If everything were perfect, then there would be no need for prayer to those deities, because they might be forgotten in the happiness of mortals."
"Ah."
"Of course, power sometimes brings corruption, and the worshipped ones took advantage of their positions, and eventually they were despised. The banishment did not come easy, some were so angry that they created as much pandemonium as they could in order to prove their existence. But banished they were." Lavinia's eyes then showed a slight trace of bitterness and shame.
"That's horrible," Sarah said. The other woman nodded and continued.
"When they arrived in the Underground, it was like a strange copy of their world, except there were no humans. At first they lived peacefully, because there were so little magical beings in the Underground at the time. But more came, and because of it, living space soon became scarce. It was a horribly tense atmosphere, and the beings banded together: Greek 'gods' with their own Greek beings, the Egyptian and Celtic ones were their own gangs and so on.
Eventually wars broke out, and lasted for years and years. The dragons and dwarves battled over the mountains, the unicorns and centaurs, and fae against fae. The most powerful beings then had a secret meeting. No one knows exactly what happened, but after that the leaders then gathered their people and went off to the lands they assigned to each other during the meeting. Zeus and them went to Greece. Isis and her set went to Egypt, and Jupiter went to Italy." Lavinia paused for a bit, "That would be the history of the Underground in a nutshell."
"And this somehow ties into why Julian and team want to help me?" Sarah had almost forgotten why Lavinia started the history lesson in the first place.
"I'll get to that later, let's have lunch."
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"So, about that war…?" Sarah urged, putting down her fork. Lavinia drank from her glass slowly, allowing the water to cool her mouth before swallowing.
"Well…Jareth is a powerful and protective fae. When others were being sent to the Underground, he was still allowed to live with the mortals. He was a protector, you see, and was duly worshipped in order to keep up with his skills.
…but then the people who worshipped him were wiped out - and of course, he was sent down to the Underground. By then the kingdoms were already set, and since Jareth was still quite young, he was given a choice: to pick a king or to fight for his own land. He decided to give his loyalty to King Zurith - the former ruler of Jareth's kingdom.
Jareth proved to be a capable knight for the king and was soon made to be an heir. Jareth was sent to preparatory school, where he met three people: Julian, Mercutio, and Hacer.
Mercutio was a son of a very wealthy nobleman, who was also loyal to King Zurith.
Julian, on the other hand, was the other heir to King Zurith, his real son. The first heir. Jareth was the second son, and Hacer was the third.
"He was!" Surprising, to find out that Jareth was adopted.
"Yes if Julian were to die, he would choose one of them to rule in his stead. Anyway, they all became friends, after all they had something in common: they all fought in wars; they were almost legends because of their victories, they were all expelled from the Aboveground, they were all wealthy, young, rich and handsome. And what is the only thing that could come between best friends?"
"A beautiful woman," Sarah knew a lot about it from watching the chick flicks that Karen loved so much.
"Her name was Ursula. Ursula was beautiful, witty and kind. It was almost impossible not to love her. Everyone loved her," Lavinia's voice shook slightly, as if she was overcome with emotion.
"And she came in between them?"
"No, not quite. Actually Mercutio and I were already seeing each other, so he didn't do anything. But Hacer, Julian and Jareth all pursued her. And she didn't know which one she wanted more."
"Ah." Classic case of the girl who wanted something, but didn't know what it was.
"In the end, it was Julian who won and he decided that Jareth should take over for him. Because he didn't want to rule, really. So Julian built his mansion for his bride-to-be and began to prepare for the wedding.
But Hacer really loved Ursula too, and he was very angry. He had lost his chance for her and now he had lost the throne. He tried to kill Jareth, because I guess he deserved at least something, but he failed. Julian offered to have Hacer killed, but Jareth refused, unable to see his brother die. So Hacer was warned, and set free.
The night before the wedding, Hacer broke into Ursula's house, and raped her. What he didn't know was that Jareth was visiting, and Hacer was caught. Jareth tried to save Ursula, but Hacer killed her. They dueled, and Jareth was wounded.
Julian came when he was called for help, and he found Jareth and Ursula. He could never forgive Jareth after that, for not allowing him to kill Hacer while he could."
"How horrible!" Poor Julian. "But it wasn't Jareth's fault that she died."
"No, but what can you tell a man who just lost the love of his life? So Jareth was crowned, and Mercutio was his advisor.
Then came the Great War. The last great war over land and such."
"When the goblins arrived," Sarah said, remembering Julian's words.
"Yes," Lavinia seemed surprised. "The goblins were among the last to come here, along with some of the most frightening magical beings: vampires and demons and such. This caused a panic, and the Underground again was in a war.
The kings all then decided to band together, to keep the evil ones from rising and taking over. Jareth united with King Elazul, ruler of the elves. In the end, we won. But guess who fought in this "great war.""
"Bartten, Oriel…Frieda?"
"Yes, yes, and no. Bartten was a great general, surprising yes? And he lost his family, because he wasn't there to protect them. He was given orders to fight at the front, you see. Oriel was a healer, and he lost his son to the war."
"I see," Sarah would have never thought that Bartten was a general, now regretting all the times she mentally insulted him. Oriel? Poor man, he was so old his son was probably the only family he had. "And Frieda?"
"Her husband went to fight."
"Oh." A pause. After a while, Lavinia left Sarah to be alone.
Sarah laid on the bed, staring at the gilded ceiling. God what a messed up world this was. She had wondered about everyone's involvement in this, and now that she knew she was afraid to go through with it.
A horrifying thought: What if she let everyone down?
Suddenly feeling weighted with expectations, Sarah fell asleep.
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"You seem tired," Jareth commented as he sat down on the bench, facing a fountain one of the courtyards.
Sarah smiled wanly, How can you do this? she asked in silence, How can you make such decisions that affect so many people? "I am, moving in took longer than I thought."
"I heard Lavinia kicked you out of her parent's apartments." Sarah nodded in assertion. Jareth thought for a moment then asked, "Why did you not ask for help, to ask for a maid or a footman to move your possessions for you?" He somehow felt insulted that she did not ask, as though she refused to believe his earlier offer.
"Well," Sarah said, flustered. "It's not my castle, you told me I could stay. I don't want to be a burden."
"Not a burden," Jareth said dismissively, "a guest. My guests have their every need covered."
"Oh."
"Did you like your room?" He waited, breath held. He had chosen the place with care, somewhere with a nice view, windows, feminine. Not too far away from his own…in case she needed his assistance. Of course.
"I did, I do." Sarah turned and smiled at him, receiving a small one in return. "It was larger than what I needed. Although Frieda wasn't given a room." A small detail that amused the older lady, she had told Sarah that obviously the king expected the human to be alone.
The thought unnerved her and she looked away.
"Frieda?" Who in the Underground was that?
The woman whose son you killed. But all she said was: "My chaperone." Keep cool, Sarah. Don't let your emotions get tied up in this.
"Chaperone?" Jareth was slightly disappointed, but surprised. How long had Sarah been in the Underground? Long enough to find a chaperone, and make friends. "I shall have to see to it that she is stationed close to you then." He basked in her playful grin.
"Well, thank you Your Majesty. How can I show my appreciation?"
Jareth breathed in the fresh air, this scene seemingly surreal. Him, speaking civilly to Sarah. Who knew that talking about the dullest things would interesting? Maybe it was the company… "Join us for dinner."
"I have nothing to wear," the young girl pouted.
"Well, that is unusual but nothing would be good," he caught her hand as she hit him on his arm. Sarah blushed and pulled away, her reaction pleasing the monarch. She always seemed so…alive, as if every day was a new beginning.
"I would, but I think I have a dinner reserved for tonight. With Lavinia." She glanced at him through the corner of her eye. Disappointment, good. Then he would think of her tonight.
"Tomorrow then."
That night Jareth watched Sarah walk from Lavinia's apartments to the inner buildings of the castle, wondering if she really had promised dinner with the family or if she had said it to avoid him.
The thought made him frown, had he done something to make her uncomfortable? Maybe he held her hand too long, or too tightly today. Perhaps she did not like to be touched? Or was she still afraid of him?
Well, tomorrow would answer things.
He loved her. He knew he did, he had always loved her. Even when she was screaming at him Jareth wanted nothing more than to enfold her in his arms and kiss her senseless. But what about her feelings? He had to woo her, maybe take her someplace. Alone.
What about the chaperone? Well that would complicate everything. Maybe he could enlist Mercutio into distracting the old maid while he stole time with Sarah. Or maybe he could just order the woman to leave…but that might not be taken too well. So, with thoughts of the mortal spinning in his head, the Goblin King fell asleep with only one thought:
To win the heart of the mortal girl.
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Zeus: was the supreme ruler of Mount Olympus and of the gods who resided there.
Hades: the lord of the dead and ruler of the nether world in Greek mythology, which is referred to as the domain of Hades or as Hades alone.
Mount Olympus: domain of most of the Greek gods.
Isis: goddess in Egyptian mythology. Possibly she was originally the personification of the throne and as such she was an important source of the pharaoh's power. In the Hellenistic time Isis was the protrectress of sailors.
Heket: the Egyptian goddess of childbirth, and protector of the dead.
Aslesa: a Hindu goddess of misfortune.
Jupiter: is the supreme god of Roman mythology
All god and goddess references can be found in: