She had intended to walk about the grounds, but found herself at the foot of the tower stairs. She decided to forego the tour and climb the stairs instead. Unfortunately, the spiraling stairs triggered her spiraling thoughts again and by the time she reached the top the mouse had worn its way through mere dissatisfaction with her life to reach pessimism and depression.
She sat down on a bench and hugged her knees to her chest, pulling the cloak tightly around herself and waiting for the sunrise.
"I don't know why I even bothered to try to do this. I'll never stop that company and I don't even know if that fruit will work. It probably won't. Nothing ever does. Cara will die anyway and I'll be all alone." Walking across a desert, flying with a dragon, finding her way through the labyrinth buried in the cliff, and standing up to the Goblin King were irrelevant. She never even thought of those things. She could not see them at this point. Alia was miserable and she was determined to wallow in it as long as she could.
She continued her mental self-abuse and self-pity, not noticing when Tieran arrived and quietly watched her from the stairs for a few moments.
"Could you not sleep either?" he asked quietly.
Alia jumped, startled, and shifted her position on the bench to try to cover it. "I woke up early and knew I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep," she said in a froggy voice and cleared her throat. She quickly rubbed at her cheeks with the palms of her hands before she turned to look at Tieran. "I was going to go for a walk, but I came up here instead."
"This is a good place for thinking. I come here often for that." He approached the bench where she sat and she turned her face away hiding it against her knees again. "Is something wrong?" he asked as he sat on the other end of the bench.
"No, nothing's wrong," she answered, muffled, from behind her arms. "Everything is the way it always is."
"Something is bothering you. What is it?" He reached out to touch her hand where it clutched her elbow. "Will you tell me? Maybe I will be able to help."
Alia was stubbornly silent. She did not feel like being helped. She felt like immersing herself in her pity for a while longer and he was ruining it by sticking around. "Why is he always hanging around where he's not wanted? Maybe if I don't answer him he'll go away and leave me alone."
He sat waiting, determined to outlast her. As each waited for the other to relent, the sun rose, gilding edges and casting lacy lattice-shadows. Finally, Alia's curiosity pressed her to peek up over her arms to see if Tieran was still waiting there or if he had silently vanished. She found him, spangled with gold from the sunrise through the lattice, patiently studying her as she sulked.
"What're you waiting around for?" She was annoyed that he had madeher look first.
"I am waiting for you to tell me what is bothering you. Please."
Alia put her head back down on her knees. "I'm just depressed, that's all. Don't people get depressed around here? Just a fit of general dissatisfaction with everything."
"Dissatisfaction? With what? Things are going well. You have the peaches. You are not in an oubliette. You have made friends with a genie and a dragon. That is no mean feat. Think of the things you have seen and done and accomplished."
"Sure, I've got the peaches, but there's no guarantee they'll work. And there's no way we'll stop this company. And then everything will be ruined and it will all be my fault."
"How will it be your fault?"
"The Underground will be gone because I couldn't stop it. Cara will die because I couldn't save her."
"That is not your fault. Look at me." Alia looked up at him. Tears trickled down her face again.
"You will have done everything you could and that is all you can do. And what if everything succeeds?" Alia looked down at her feet on the bench and toyed with the laces of her shoes.
"You are assuming you will fail and that is by no means a foregone conclusion. Think of all that you have already accomplished that you did not expect to be able to do." Tieran got up unnoticed by Alia and moved to sit behind her on the bench. He put his arms around her. She tucked her head back down in the crook of her arm and shrank away from him into herself.
"The whole world is not your responsibility," he said, releasing her, but still leaning near and soothingly stroking her hair where the sun brought out the gold, copper and red from the everyday brown. "You cannot possibly fix everything and no one should expect you to. This situation is not all your responsibility. I am the one who brought you here. Jareth commanded me to stop this company, as well. It cannot be all your fault."
Alia began to relax under the caress and turned her head so that he could see her profile.
"It seems to me that you are counting your Caras dead before they have died. Even if the peach does not heal her – and I believe it will – anything may happen. I know you will miss her if she dies, but would she want you to suffer and mourn her before she dies? I do not know her, but I doubt she would."
"No, I guess not," Alia sniffled eventually.
"Now what would make you feel better? You cannot go back to Cara looking like this. She will worry."
"I'll be fine. Just let me go wash up and get something to eat." She swung her legs down off the bench and stood up.
"You are certain?"
"It'll pass, I just need some time and distraction. The sooner we get back and the peach works, the less I'll have to be depressed about, won't I? Positive thinking."
"Yes." He did not sound completely convinced. "Would you like to avoid the stairs this time?"
"That would be nice. Quicker." She held out her hands to him.
He took them and soon they were standing in front of the fireplace in her room.
"You are sure you will be all right?" he asked brushing the hair out of her face.
"I'll be fine," she responded a little testily, avoiding looking at him and rubbing at her face and hair where he had moved it, as though trying to push it back out of the way as well. "I just need to wash my face."
"Then I will go get breakfast."
Just as she finished cleaning up, she heard a knock at the door. She opened the door to Tieran holding a steaming mug out to her.
"What's that?"
"Hot chocolate. Irielen said you seemed to enjoy it last time."
"You asked Irielen about me? Does the whole place have to know I was upset?"
"No, Irielen is still asleep as far as I know. She mentioned it in passing the other day. Take it."
"Oh." She took the mug and cradled it in her hands as Tieran bent to pick up a large covered tray from the floor. She backed up and opened the door further to allow him enough space to enter the chamber. He set it on the table and removed the cover. "Breakfast," he announced.
Alia chose a flaky croissant-like pastry and wandered over to the doors to the balcony. Holding it in her mouth for a moment, she opened the door with that hand and walked out onto the balcony. As she gazed out over the landscape and ate the pastry, she heard Tieran follow her.
"When would you like to leave?" he asked her.
"As soon as I'm done eating. Are you going to come with me? I mean other than to just drop me off." She looked over at him.
"Unless there is a reason I should not?"
"I can't think of one. You might want to change though."
"Why? What is wrong with what I am wearing?" He wore much the same outfit as he had when he first appeared in the hospital.
"There is nothing really wrong with it, I like it, but you'll stand out. It's kind of ...um, theatrical, not much like current clothing in my world."
"Wait here. Let me see what I can find." He went inside and Alia followed to refill her hot chocolate and get something more to eat. He closed the door to her room behind him as he left. Alia returned to the balcony with her mug and a handful of berries to wait.
She was returning to herself already. She felt better and was starting to get fidgety. She tried to plan for the attack on the company, but just did not have enough information to do anything. "What was their name again? Virtual Pencil? What kind of name is that? I guess when they can do what they're doing they don't have to worry about their name."
Tieran walked out onto the balcony. "How will this work?" He held out his arms and turned around. He was wearing a simple white shirt with a band collar and perfectly normal – for her world – navy blue pants.
"That's perfect. If you had those clothes, why didn't you wear them the first time?"
"I did not have them."
"Well, you look great now. Those shirts were high fashion a few years ago. There's no telling what is now though."
"As long as I am properly attired...?"
"You are. If you are going to stay for any length of time you will need a change of clothes, though. Particularly if you start working for that company. Do you have anything else?"
"I would have to look."
"We'll have to go window shopping so you can get an idea what to look for."
"Window shopping?"
"You look, but you don't buy. Unless you want to buy clothes? What'll you do for money?"
"I assumed I would be paid for this job."
"Yes, but probably not right away. We'll just have to wait and see." Alia drained her mug, took it inside and returned to the balcony. "I'm ready to go when you are."
"Do you have everything you brought with you?"
"I think so."
"The pendant?"
"I think I left that on the table last night. Why?"
"That was yours to keep. Please take it with you."
"That'll take some explaining," she answered as she walked inside again to retrieve the necklace.
"Tell them it is a gift," Tieran suggested as he followed.
"It's some gift. Will it still work in my world?"
"Yes, just the same as here."
"That could be useful, too. Okay, I'm ready," she said as she slipped it on.
They returned to Cara's room where everything was just as she had left it. That seemed like ages ago.
"The peach! I forgot the peach." She frowned. "I never had the peach. Do you have the peach?"
"Relax. I have it right here. You have plenty of time. Only a few minutes have passed." He handed her the fruit. Where he had been carrying it, she had no idea.
"Cara. Cara,wake up. I have something for you. Cara."
Cara stirred and looked at her groggily. "What is it? Another movie?"
Alia hugged her. "I've missed you so much."
"I've missed you, too, I guess." Cara hesitantly hugged her back. "I was only asleep for half an hour. You've been working too hard. Are you all right?"
"I'm fine. I've got something for you." She held the peach out to Cara. "Here, eat it."
"After that movie we watched, you want me to eat a peach? You have lost it. It was a movie, Alia. It wasn't real. Besides, all it did was give hallucinations. Nothing it did was real, even in the movie."
"So this one won't do anything, will it? Just eat it. Do you want me to cut it up?"
"No, it's fine. They're not on my diet you know. The doctors are going to kill me."
"No, they won't. You're too interesting a case."
"Hey, this is good!" said Cara, mopping up the juice as it ran down her chin. "Where'd you find it? They're not in season."
"It's a long story."
"I've only been asleep a little while. How long can it be?"
"You'd never guess. I'll tell you later." Alia looked at the wall clock, her watch having lost the correct time long ago. "Visiting hours are almost over. I've got to go. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow," Alia said as she gathered up her books and papers. "Make sure you eat all of that before the nurse comes by and takes it away. Oh, and save the pit. We might be able to use it. Come on, let's go."
"No problem," Cara slurped around a mouthful of peach as she held up a two-thirds naked peach pit. "Wait a minute. Who's he?" she asked, noticing Tieran for the first time.
"Remember the tall, dark, handsome, mysterious stranger I joked about? Well, he's tall-ish, mysterious," she looked at Tieran, "and I guess he's handsome, too. His name is Tieran and he's a big part of the long story. We'll be back to tell you tomorrow. I promise." Alia bent and kissed Cara on the cheek. "I've got to go. Eat your peach. Come on."
She checked out the door for nurses then grabbed Tieran and hurried out.
"You guess I am handsome? I think I am offended. I thought I rated better than that. Why are you hurrying?" Tieran asked in a low voice.
"I just never thought of you that way before. I never thought you were such a peacock that it mattered. I'm hurrying because I don't want to run into a nurse and have to try to explain you, Narcissus. I don't think I could manage an innocent explanation for the presence of Cara's grandmother right now, let alone you. Now, where did I park? If I'd known I was going to be gone more than a week I would have paid more attention. There it is."
She dumped her books and papers in the back seat and tossed a few things from the front seat to the back to give Tieran room to sit.
As she was driving home, he asked, "Why did you tell her to save the pit from the peach?"
"Don't you remember? In the story the children planted the apple core and grew a tree that had exceptional apples and supplied the wood for the wardrobe when it died. I thought we might at least get a nice peach tree out of it – if we can find a safe place to plant it."
"Oh. I see."
"Well, here we are," she announced a while later, turning off the car. Tieran followed her up to her apartment. He held her books and papers for her while she unlocked the door. She took them back from him and he trailed behind her as she went inside.
"Shall we do more planning for attacking the company?" he asked as he watched Alia put down her books and papers on one end of the kitchen table.
"No, now we clean out the spare bedroom," she corrected him. "When Cara makes her miraculous recovery, they will eventually release her from the hospital and she will need a place to stay. She doesn't have her own apartment anymore, so we have to sort through all of her things stored in the spare room and find a place for them.
"Damn, I forgot to stop at the grocery store. There is absolutely no food left. I'll have to do that tonight, too," Alia said as she flopped on the couch.
"You go to the store. I will unpack boxes. I think I can manage that."
Alia looked at him from the couch as though sizing up his capability for the task. "All right. Hang the clothes in the closet or put them in the dresser. Everything else leave until I get back. I'm not even sure what's in there. Cara just packed up her apartment and we stuffed the boxes in there."
When Alia got back from the store Tieran was sitting on the couch looking pleased with himself.
"What's with you? You look like the cat that ate the canary. No, wait. Before you explain, there are more bags down in the car. Could you help bring them up, please?"
After everything was put away, Alia sat down at the kitchen table and looked at her checkbook. "I hope all that lasts a while, because I can't afford another trip like that anytime soon." She looked, chin in hand, elbow on table, over at Tieran, who was sitting in the adjoining living room again. "And what were you so pleased about before? Did you come up with a plan?"
"No, nothing that good, I am afraid. Come and see." He jumped up and headed for the spare room.
Where before the available floor space had been crammed with furniture and chest-high stacks of boxes full of personal possessions, Alia could now walk into the room and see the floor. There were no boxes in sight and it looked like a bedroom instead of a rented storage facility.
"What did you do with it all? Did you throw it away? Did you zap it somewhere?"
"Zap it? I took it to the Underground and went through it there. I unpacked the clothes with Irielen's help, but there were so many boxes and other things left that it would have made no difference in the room so I left them there. Now you and Cara may go through it at your leisure. Problem solved."
"That's good. I would much rather that Cara went through it, anyway. So what do we do now? The clock here says it's late night and time to go to bed, but my body is still thinking midday. I probably won't sleep right for a week." Alia turned off the light as she walked out of the room.
"Time for research and planning?"
"Good idea. Let's see what we can find surfing." Alia walked over to her computer and turned it on. "Are computers one of the items of technology you have because they are useful?"
"Yes, we have them in the Underground. I do not use them much, personally."
"I'm not sure what we'll be able to find. If they have a web site, we might be able to find out if they have job openings. I doubt there will be anything about how their system works – that would give away their trade secret. We might be able to find general information about the whole industry." She sat down in front of the computer and waited for it to finish booting and loading.
"First, we'll search for the company to see if they have a site. 'Virtual Pencil.' – C-I-L. Search. They do have one. Good. See anything about jobs?"
"There, in the fine print at the bottom." Tieran pointed over her shoulder.
"We click there. Let's see ...what choices do we have? Receptionist. That wouldn't get us very far. Then again, if there's nothing else... You never can tell where a receptionist could get. I can't see you with a multi-line phone though. Payroll supervisor. We could mess up everyone's paychecks, but not the position we need. Art director. Now we're getting somewhere, but not close enough to the computers. Animation director? That's closer. Might not require too much technical knowledge – management is notorious for not knowing what it's doing. Throw around a few fancy terms, schmooze, turn in an impressive resume, and you should have it."
"Schmooze?"
"Kiss up. No, that probably doesn't tell you any better, does it? Um...You meet with important people to make connections. I get the impression it involves insinuating yourself into someone's good graces so you can ask favors later. I think it usually involves a lot of flattery and charm."
"I see. A form of diplomacy."
"Ye-es, only it doesn't have such a positive connotation and is more self-serving. Like social climbing, only it's business. Think you could do that?"
"I would have to."
"I only hope that that is what an animation director does. Better look and see. Hmm, nope, it's more like a director of a regular film or play. That might not work after all. Unless you feel you can bluff your way through that?"
"Not very well. Is there anything else?"
"There are animators, modelers, illustrators, sketch artists. Wonder what the difference is between all of those?"
"They sound as if they all require more technical knowledge than I have time to learn."
Alia scanned the job descriptions and summarized them. "Sketch artists outline the story. Illustrators draw simple pictures, it sounds like. Animators probably do most of the work. That would definitely be too technical. Here's another one. Designer. Oh, they come up with what everything looks like." She looked over her shoulder and grinned at Tieran. "You'd be good at doing that for the Underground."
"It sounds easy enough with my personal experience. Do they work with the computers, do you think?"
"Doesn't mention them. Maybe not. Here's that other one. Modeler. They make models of the things that the designers come up with. And it mentions that they need to be able to use the computers. Maybe you could do a little of both? Kind of apply for both positions at once?"
"Perhaps. They sound like the best positions to try for. I will still need more technical knowledge and terminology to 'throw around.' Can you find that?"
Alia nodded. "General information. Too bad we don't have the time for you to take classes. Can't you go back in time to before all this started and take the classes?"
"No, I cannot be in the same world twice at the same time. I have been shifting back and forth looking for you."
Alia nodded again in acknowledgement. "And if we go too far back, to before that, the information will be out of date. Here, you keep looking. I'm hungry. I'm going to make myself a sandwich. Are you hungry? Do you want one?"
"That would be fine, thank you."
Alia returned a few minutes later with two sandwiches in paper napkins. She handed one to Tieran, who was now sitting at the computer.
"It's peanut butter. Not quite on the level of the food served at your table but perfectly edible, I assure you," she said and took a bite.
He looked at the sandwich, took a bite, and chewed cautiously.
"It is sweet."
"A little," Alia agreed.
"And sticky."
"Notoriously. Would you like something to drink? Milk is good with that."
"Yes, please," he answered as he took another bite.
Alia returned with the milk and asked, "Well, what's the verdict? Is it edible?"
"Yes. I do not believe we have anything like it in the Underground," he answered after taking a drink.
"It's very popular with kids here. Practically a staple of their diet. And it's cheap so it's also popular with college students. Have you found anything?"
"Some. Can I print it out?"
"Sure. Like this. We also need to come up with a model for you, if you are going to be a modeler. They're going to want an example of your work."
"What shall I make?"
"Something from the Underground I would think. That's what they're looking for. How about one of those biters I ran into? No one would miss one of them. And that would be something that moves. Have you seen one of them?"
"No, I have not, but if you imagine it I could make it with magic."
"I wonder if they want an actual physical model or a computer model? You could follow it all the way through and cover all of the bases. Start with a sketch and then go through to an actual animation. But how do we know it will work with their computers?"
"Run it with magic?" Tieran suggested.
"Will that work?"
"As long as I am there, it will."
"If they want to keep it just tell them that you don't want to let it out of your sight, that you had one stolen once. That way we'll know they won't use it in their show, too."
"Show me what the creature looked like."
Alia concentrated and remembered the tunnel hunter from the caves under the castle. She pictured the hairless skin, the eyeless head with its massive mouth full of fangs.
"All right. That is enough for now. Let me try to put that in a sketch." Tieran opened his hand and focused on a small, iridescent, faceted stone sitting in his palm. As he stared at it, it turned into a sheet of paper with a pencil and ink sketch of the tunnel hunter on it.
"Is that how you do magic? With the jewels?"
"Yes. Jareth uses crystal spheres and I use cut stones. That is one of the reasons why you have the pendant. To focus the magic."
"So everyone has their own way?"
"Some methods work better than others for each practitioner."
"Can I see the sketch? That turned out really well. Looks just like it. Now a color illustration?"
Tieran produced another stone and turned it into a floppy disk which he inserted into Alia's computer. "Picture it again for me," he requested. "Concentrate on the colors and things that did not show in the basic sketch."
Alia did so, adding details to the head and mouth, placing the pink creature against a background of generic stone wall.
"I thought you first saw it when you reached the large chamber?"
"Yes, but I don't want them to know about that chamber. So I put it nowhere in paticular instead. Artistic license. Can you make a hard copy of that, too? A paper copy? I don't think my printer is up to that quality."
"I had better then," he said and produced another gem which changed into a matted print of the image on the monitor. "Next the model."
"Don't forget it needs to move."
"Yes. Give it more texture this time and move it so I can see where it is jointed."
Alia did as he asked while he placed a stone on the desk. She imagined the biter walking along the corridor and the stone on the desk grew and faded to pink, forming limbs and a head. Soon it was prowling along the desktop in front of the keyboard.
"Cool! This is better than remote control." She supplied Tieran with more movements, crouching, swinging its head from side to side.
"Give it more texture and detail," he said. "What kind of claws did it have? Cat's claws? Bear's?"
"The skin was smooth. The feet were more like hands. Like a reptile's or a bird's. Like Arten'barad's, but less like hands than hers. And they only had three toes I think. They had nails, but not terribly long ones like a bear has. Just long teeth."
"I think that is enough," Tieran said and the tiny tunnel hunter ceased its prowling in mid-stride. Alia picked up the burly little figure and manipulated its legs and head.
"Now back to the computer. Time to make a short movie. Remember what happened in the large chamber. We can change the background later."
Alia started by imagining the hunter trotting through the tunnels, head low to the ground tracking its prey. Then she moved her viewpoint around from the side to the front of the beast, to the view she had first had of it. She made it creep forward stalking the viewer and crouch, grinning just as she remembered it. Then it sprang and the monitor flared red.
"That is all you remember? Good! The circling around it is a good idea. That will allow them see all sides of it. I think I was able to put some of your emotion in it, as well. It will affect their perception of the animation. They will not notice it, but will just think it is a particularly effective piece of animation."
"Playing with their minds? Another reason not to let them take it from you."
"Only a little. I will need every advantage I can get."
Alia got up to take the glasses from their snack out to the kitchen. When she came back she said, "I think the time change is catching up with me after all. I'm going to take a nap for a while."
"It is not the time change. It is the magic. It takes a great deal of effort to image things, more than you would think. And you did more than you realize. You were nearly controlling the model by yourself. I only channeled your thoughts to the proper form. The magic drains you when you are not accustomed to it."
"Really? Does that mean I could do magic?"
Tieran shrugged. "You can use magic provided by your pendant, but whether you can produce it or draw on it yourself I do not know."
"Well, whether it is jet lag or magic lag, I need a nap. What are you going to do?"
"Oh, I will amuse myself. Perhaps I will do some more research, update Jareth," he said as he produced a crystal.
"Where'd you get that? I thought you said you used stones and Jareth used the crystals?"
"He threw it to me, or at me, as we were leaving."
"Oh. Well, say hello for me. I'm going to bed. G'night." Alia disappeared into her room.
"I will. Good night."
Labyrinth, etc. belong to the Jim Henson Company.
I made up Virtual Pencil – it was the only thing I could think of – but on the off chance that some company has settled on such a ...um ...wonderful name, they can have it and I'll come up with something else. I hope I got the jobs clear and correct. If anyone has some experience in the field, I would welcome the input.