Author's Note: For some reason, having no time makes me write faster! Or maybe I'm just obsessive. Here's another couple of chapters, so enjoy, please. And yes- poor Jareth.

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No one could blame Arradine for walking away from the meeting with her new advisers. In fact, any of the advisers who noticed were frankly glad to see her go. Her presence at the meetings were not required in most cases, all that was needed was her signature to the documents that the clerk gave to her.

But Arradine minded. She hated that she sat at the meetings feeling like a fool unable to comprehend what was going on. It felt horrible when she sat in the Griffith Chair and everyone looked at her, waiting for her to begin. It felt even worse when they all argued amongst themselves and ignored her. Damn it all, she was the Head of the Kingdom until the King either recovered or died and she had ideas of her own that she wanted to implement!

She burst into Aidan's room only to find him at his favourite pastime- talking to his cousins, newly returned to their home after a trip to Canada. Cassandra was back in her hippy phase and was busy plucking at her guitar while seated at the desk, Harvey and Aidan off on their tangent.

"I can't take this any more!" Arradine shrieked, slamming the door shut and flopping down in front of the dresser, "Harv, will Sarah have me if I get Dad to send me there?"

Harvey stifled a smile under the obvious misery on Arradine's face and Aidan's frown of concern. The two were closer even than Harvey and Cassandra; if Aidan was worried, then the situation was serious. "Mom will have you any time," he assured, "And if she doesn't, you can stay in my room and I'll smuggle food in here for you. What's up?"

"Up? I wish those bloody nobles were up, that's what," the girl howled, slamming her hands on the dresser, "Up, and gone! They are idiots, the whole lot of them!"

Cassandra looked up from her guitar. "It can't be that bad, Arra. Are they being nasty? You know all adults think we teenagers have no sense."

"Teenager?"

Aidan sighed and prepared for another screaming tirade.

"They cannot even see me as a teenager! I am a child to them; that's all! A bloody child! They ignore me when I say something and patronize me when I don't! What the devil am I supposed to do?"

"For one thing, stop shouting," Cassandra suggested. The girl put down her guitar and sat down next to her twin, wrapping a casual arm around his waist for support. "Have they said anything in particular?"

"Yes. They said I was young and inexperienced."

"Well, you are."

The girl shot Harvey a look that might have killed had she had enough power. As it was he held up his hands in surrender and made a zipping motion over his mouth.

"There are villages being pillaged on the borders we share with the Fae Kingdom and the goblins are naturally up in arms about it. My advisers," Arradine spat the word, "suggest sending a troop of scouts out to make sure that we really suspect fairy patrols for this. Pah! Cowardly fools!"

Aidan agreed on this point so he shook his head despairingly. "Tell me you never agreed," he pleaded.

"No, I argued, just like we planned, but they wouldn't listen to me. Finally someone said that we could put it aside for later, when everyone had had a chance to think. Why can they never see that time is of essence? We need to act and act swiftly!"

"Whoah!" Harvey made a stopping gesture and looked shocked. "You're not suggesting you start another war with the fairies while your father's dying, do you? No one will ever take you seriously if you do that and lose. Maybe your advisers have a point. How'd you know it's fairies anyway? It could be outlaws or wild animals."

"It's fairies," Arradine said positively, "A handful of villagers in each case escaped into the surrounding lands and managed to evade capture. They testify that it was a troop of fairies. From their description of the uniforms and the persons, I am inclined to believe them."

Harvey ceded the point with good grace. "Fine, then. But rushing in can really make a big mess. Why exactly don't you want to go with your advisers?"

The heir shared a withering look with her brother and then explained- "They want me to take precious time to scout the land for signs of something I am already certain of. Basically, they are not sure and so they want to double check and take the time to decide. Unfortunately, if I'm right- and I know I am- it will look like a sign of weakness on our part. And the fairies will get bolder and just keep going."

"But your Father…"

"My Father would hate for me to sit in that chair and just hum and haw like a simple-minded toadstool," Arradine snapped. She ripped the pins out of her hair and let it down over her shoulders. "He would never condone this! If he'd been awake, he would have sent an immediate letter to King Armand and demanded that these fairies be turned over to him. Not punished- turned straight over to him. No excuses. And this will make me look bad in front of the entire Underground! If I cannot protect my people, then what kind of queen am I?"

"A terrible one," Aidan put in plainly, "Arradine, you have got to get out of this habit of effacing yourself! Go in there and tell them what you want. Suggesting things don't work with that lot."

"I have to admit he is right," Cassandra admitted, "Fighting for what you believe in can only work if you're willing to fight. Personally, I think your people should rise against you and stage a revolution, but if you want to be a complete tyrant just like your father then you have to go for it."

Aidan growled and raised his figurative hackles.

"Come off it, mate," Harvey sighed, "You know Cassie's spouted that shit to Jareth's face and he's only laughed it off."

"I have the utmost respect for your father," Cassie soothed, "But he is a tyrant!"

"At least he's a tyrant with honour," Aidan remarked scathingly, "He doesn't hide behind hypocrisy but works around it to do what he needs to for the good of his Kingdom and his people. So put that in your bong and smoke it!"

Arradine suddenly realized that they were still talking about Jareth in the present tense. Such arguments had happened often enough and they all sounded the same- Cassie would denounce their father as a tyrant or an oppressor or something of that sort and Aidan would get defensive and swipe with his claws. It was shocking, considering that the subject of the conversation was lying unconscious in his room and helpless. He was dying and they were still pretending that nothing was wrong.

"Something's wrong," she muttered vaguely.

Aidan twigged on instantly. "With us? Yes. And the only way you'll beat it is by taking charge. I can't; I am not the heir. You have to. If you want people to respect you, then you only have to do what your instincts tell you."

Cassie and Harvey were watching them interestedly through the mirror, still sitting side by side on the bed, one in faded denim and the other in sweats, identical down to their straight noses. "What was that your dad used to tell you when you were younger? You know, when you lived with the elves?" Cassie asked.

" 'You were born a Princess'," Arradine supplied, "He used to say it like it was a fairytale."

Harvey shrugged. "Well, it is to us," he pointed out, "You're a real life Princess and real life Heir to the Goblin Throne. When your father pops it- which I hope to God he doesn't for at least a hundred years yet- you'll succeed to one of the most powerful magical positions in both our world and yours. It is a fairytale."

"But it's not! I still brush my teeth every morning and pee when I need to and feel hungry and horrible and get headaches and stuff. How am I supposed to be this perfectly modulated Head of State with all the answers?"

Aidan actually burst out laughing two second before his cousins did. All three were rolling on the bed on their respective side of the mirror and laughing so hard they cried. "From- from where did you think you had to be perfect?" Aidan gasped, sitting up weakly with support from the bedpost.

"Father…"

"Throws tantrums when he feels like it, kicks the goblins when he gets upset and bounced rashly into marriage with a mortal male of sixteen. Who said anything about perfect?"

Arradine mused on that for a while, a rueful smile of her face. "That is true," she admitted, "And the meeting is still going on downstairs."

"Go get them," Harvey encouraged, swinging a fist through the air, "We'll talk to you guys tomorrow. Okay? Oh, and Mom said to tell you that if Toby needs her help looking after Jareth, she can take a month off and come down."

"No, I think Dad's coping just fine. Ereditha's watching Father with Hoggle or Sir Didymus and Dad's spending a lot of time in Father's art rooms. I don't quite know why. We will tell him, though. Give our regards to everyone and give Sarah and Grandma a hug from us."

They waited only until the image faded before planning. Aidan grabbed hold of Arradine's hands to calm her and told her exactly what she needed to do. He'd been trying to tell her this for days! It was the only way to make sure that the other goblin and half-goblin nobles didn't steal the Kingdom out from under them. Not that any of them dared while Toby was there and Jareth might still live, but the threat was evident.

"Dress," he said, "I'll come with you, but to be a Queen, you have to act like a Queen. Impress them. Make them understand that if anyone has a decision to make, it is you. Understand?"

Arradine had nodded and shared a smirk with him. It wasn't a pleasant smirk. It was the smirk of two people who were planning ruthlessly to superimpose their will over all others.

Arradine swept down the two doors to her rooms and flung open the door of her closet, sifting hurriedly through the racks for something she knew would give the impression she wanted. Her fingers clutched at a soft, forest green fabric and she drew it out, a hesitantly soft smile on her face as she saw a pair of forest green eyes in her mind once more. But now was not the time for a crush, and she hastily began to dress. But the time she left her room, she had left her hair down over her shoulders- a physical reminder of just whose daughter she was- and the forest green dress outlined all her slender curves without revealing one inch of the skin from her high-necked collar to the floor-length hem. Soft elven shoes finished off the look.

Aidan was waiting for her, leaning against the walls outside their room in black breeches and a curiously made white shirt. His hair had been pulled back with a jewelled clip. But it wasn't what he wore that made Arradine falter, but the object in his hand that he offered.

"You took so long that I went to Dad and asked his opinion," Aidan said, "He said that those nobles probably deserved it and if he had had the guts to do the same, Father would have been rescued from the war a lot sooner because he would have known of the failure sooner. He sent this down for you and said you have free reign of the original adviser's room."

Arradine stared down at the medallion. She remembered touching it when she was a child and being told not to play with it. It had scared her then, for some reason. And Aidan handled it carefully but with assured grace. He didn't shirk from it. Even when he put it around her neck, he didn't seem to fear the power or the emblem.

Arradine straightened up and nodded to him. "The advisers' room, then."

"Oh, and I sent orders down that it be cleaned," Aidan added carelessly, "I hope that is acceptable?"

She cast a surprised look behind to her younger brother but nodded. It seemed the task of helping her take their father's place was a distraction for his personal pain. And he was very hurt, she knew. All three of them suffered the sense of loss but Aidan was Jareth's birth child; he felt it more keenly than all of them and especially because of his rejection over the past few years. But now there was no trace of weakness in the blue eyes. They glittered with intelligence and knowing, a piercing look that cut through her own defences so that she felt the answering gleam rise into her own eyes.

By the time they hurried to the small room with its staircases and throne, the goblin servants were just cleaning the last traces of grime from the stone floors. The chickens had gone with the so-called 'advisers' Jareth had surrounded himself with and the barrels of ale and dirty cushions were now far away. The room was spotless and stern once more.

Arradine seated herself in the throne and Aidan took up his stance by her right hand, picking a familiar riding crop up off the floor with a painful little smile. "Here," he teased, handing it over, "It will look quite elegant with that gown."

A dark slanting brow rose, thinner and neater than the original but clearly a hereditary trait. "Do you mock me?" Arradine asked coolly.

Aidan tilted his head affectingly, arrogance radiating off every particle of him. "Not at all, Your Highness," he murmured.

"Good. Then give the command for the entertainment to start," Arradine laughed, leaning back with a slender white hand on the curved arm of the throne.

Aidan duly complied with her wishes and in a few minutes, the goblin nobles were shown into the room, all muttering and grumbling and looking resigned to pampering the whims of a spoilt princess. What they got was a dangerous stare from two people who might have been children but were as determined as their parents.

"Sit down," Arradine said quietly, gesturing to the chairs that had been set out, "We have a lot of work to do and I suggest you hurry so we can get it over with."

"We already have a few things that we require your signature for, Your Highness," someone said.

It was an unlucky thing to say. The riding crop had been tapping gently against the leg of the throne for a while now but at that, it whisked down hard enough to serve as a dire warning. The goblin noblewoman spluttered and readily gave up the papers to Aidan's imperious hand.

"Thank you," Arradine said tersely. "The first order of business will be the attacks on our villages by the fairies."

"Your Highness, we have yet to wait for confirmation," another half-goblin put forward haughtily, not liking this turn of affairs, "We cannot just rush into this blindly as before. Let the scouts do their work. They will return in the next week and we will act then with full faith."

Two pairs of murderous blue eyes were turned to each adviser in the room until all tensed in the thick air.

"You deliberately sent the scouts out without my knowledge?"

"We deemed it the most reliable course of action."

Arradine made a motion of her head to bring Aidan forward again. "Go down personally to the barracks beyond the Goblin City," she ordered calmly, "And tell them that any who go out on this foolish task without my say-so will be whipped."

Aidan bowed and made to leave.

Insulted, the one who had given the order stood up, overturning his chair in a rage, his scraggy face reddened with irritation that a slip of a child was to give orders. "Your Highness, listen to reason! This is madness…"

"Silence!" That was not Arradine but Aidan. "I am sure you fear nothing now that my father is not here to sent you to an oubliette with his crystals, but remember a contingent of guards will work to the same ends should the Princess order it. Do not try her patience."

And then he was gone. Arradine let out an internal smile.