Author's Note: Ah, in case someone new starts reading this, I flip between first person and third person. Third person is for the majority of the characters, first person is for the female lead Karleigh.


"Kill me?" Jareth asked. His voice seemed to echo on the walls of the throne room, which suddenly seemed to be miles high and wide. And the goblins had disappeared, too. Convenient of them. "Why would you want to do that, Gideon?" In the folds of his shirt, Jareth began spinning his fingers. He could feel the slivers of smooth glass against his skin shape themselves into a crystal. "Gideon?" He asked, raising his eyebrows. It would only be a little longer for the magic to weave between the threads of glass.

Gideon ran his hand over his face, hoping to get rid of his anxiety. But his mouth stayed dry and the edges of his vision were blurry. He could feel his aggressive side boiling inside of him. The side that got into fights, the side that provoked every beating Gideon had ever received, the side that really wanted to kill Jareth; Gideon referred to it as He. Giving Him a proper name gave Him too much power. "Um…" Gideon licked his lips. He hadn't been able to keep his fighting side from bringing him to the castle beyond the Goblin City, but maybe he could keep it under control for a few critical moments. "Um…"

Jareth palmed the completed crystal and slowly stood up, strolling over to Gideon with a casual an air as he could muster. The orange-haired man was twitching slightly. Jareth regarded him carefully.

Control was slipping farther and farther from Gideon's grasp with every passing second. Dark spots of light flashed in front of his eyes from the mental effort he was exercising. It would be better, he decided, if he just went ahead and fainted. He was just about to pass out when Jareth decided he couldn't wait any longer, and gently pushed the crystal into the back of Gideon's head. It passed, unbroken, under the man's hair and into his skull.

Clearing his throat, Jamnis took a few steps backwards and waited to see how Gideon would react. The reactions to this little trick were always different. Things could get complicated fast, when you were pushing raw magic into someone's mind. Especially when that person had multiple personalities. Too bad Jareth didn't know that.


"Disappeared?" Seth asked, looking up from his desk. His reading glasses slid down his nose, and he didn't bother to push them back up. His focus was directed over the frames, at the goblin standing in front of his desk. She was short, of course, and dressed in a plaid dress reminiscent of Little House on the Prairie. Seth assumed that the goblin was female. He leaned back and ran a hand through his short, black hair. "Who are you, again?" he asked the goblin.

A noise that sounded somewhat like a sigh, and somewhat like the thud of a knife into wood, came out of the goblin. She shifted her weight slightly and put her knit bag down. The bag was almost as big as she was. "My name is Maam, Master Seth," she said in a gravely voice. Seth flinched at the old moniker from his childhood, but Maam didn't take a speck of notice. "Master Jareth has disappeared," she said slowly, so her words would come out right. "The other goblins picked me to see you, since we think you might know where he might've gone. Do you?"

Seth gave in to her pleading stare and actually thought about it. He considered Jareth's usual hang-outs, his favorite spots to get away, and the typical locales he wandered off to when he got drunk. But, surely, the goblins would've checked all those places. "I'm guessing no one else knows about this?" he asked, immediately getting a frantic headshake in return. Of course not, he thought, sighing. What kingdom of Underground would alert anyone when their monarch went missing? It'd be an invitation to war. War in the Labyrinthine kingdom wasn't pretty, either. No wonder Maam had come all the way out to Edoc, Seth's estate, to ask for his help.

He sighed again. "I honestly don't know," he said.

Maam didn't even blink. She showed no sign of disappointment, if there was any under her weathered exterior. "Thank you anyway, Master Seth," she said, turning around. She puttered across the richly decorated study, done up in maroon and gold. Seth watched her in half-horror and half-amusement. On one hand, his best friend had gone missing. On the other, there was a goblin in his house. In his house! Normally they didn't even leave the suburbs of the Labyrinthine borders. "Be kind, and don't spread the word around," Maam asked as she bowed out of the room.

The sun glinted through one of the large windows in the study. Seth closed his eyes to block out the glare, and took a deep breath while he tried to think. The Goblin King was nowhere to be found. The kingdom where dozens of children disappeared to each year, which was the banishing grounds of fairy criminals, and which acted as a prison for half of Underground, was currently leaderless. This, Seth finally decided, was a Bad Thing.

A quick glance at his papers made him realize he could put them off. During his one year Aboveground, serving Museship under Karleigh, five years had passed in Underground. These tax returns had waited those five long years already, surely they could wait a little longer while Seth investigated this disappearance.

He pushed away from his desk and walked into the hallway, turning right and instantly hitting a staircase. He stepped lightly down the stairs, shuffling through the list of servants that had actually waited these five years for him to return. Mostly maids, a few gardeners, and two cooks. Seth scowled to himself for never hiring spies. He had never needed to, really. Seth (like so many Hollywood actors) did his own spying. Or had done, at least. He was not about to risk jail time on such a small offense as spying. But it left him with no one in his staff to choose for the task.

Hiring out was too risky, he decided. You could never trust rented spies. They were always willing to sell information to the highest bidder.

Seth could feel his fingers start to itch. The thought of sneaking into a house, masking his identity, or, Heaven willing, breaking into a safe… it made his mouth water, so to speak. Perhaps he could return to the dark side of the law, just this once. The risk couldn't be that great, he wasn't that out of practice. And if he did get caught, he could always talk his way out of it. Rachelle had hindered that before, that was the only reason he'd gotten convicted. Without her around, he could talk his way out of anything.

A door opened down the hallway, and Seth stopped brusquely. To his amazement, he blushed. He felt like he'd been caught, and could sense the shame washing up from his feet to his heart. A brown head of hair poked out from the door, and was quickly followed by a slender frame clothed in a clean, white cotton tunic and a pair of denim-looking pants. "Karleigh," Seth said, hoping he didn't sound guilty.

She turned around and smiled at him, gray eyes sparkling. "I'm not going to ask why you have women's clothes lying around," she said, looking down at her outfit. Her other one had, unfortunately, had blood splattered all over it. She'd been glad when Seth told her about his stash of extra clothes.

"My sister," Seth explained, smoothing his bangs away from his face. "She vacations here occasionally."

He could see her face fall. "You have a sister," she said, rather stiffly.

"There's a lot you have to learn about me," Seth admitted. "But we have time."

The truly teenage side of Karleigh came out, and she made a huffing noise. "Eleven Underground days. Eleven days isn't even two weeks," she said, shaking her head. "And then I have to go back Aboveground. You won't even come with me. You served your sentence, remember?" They'd gotten the letter from the High Court only hours ago. Karleigh felt more bitter about it than she was willing to admit. She'd convinced herself she wouldn't let Seth's fading from her everyday life upset her.

"I can visit, you know that," Seth said. He started walking down the hallway again. "Come on, we're leaving for Capitol. Do you have your things?"


I made a face. "I didn't bring anything," I said, trotting after him. Damn, his legs were long. He could slow down a little for those of us under six feet. "How would I have brought anything? It's not like I had a suitcase packed when I wished you away. I didn't even think the Labyrinth was real." It was getting hard to keep my voice under control. But at least my eyes were dry. I'd cried too much in the past couple days for my tastes.

Seth stopped abruptly. I didn't, and knocked into him. If he hadn't spun around and grabbed my arms, I would've fallen down. "You're really upset, aren't you?" he asked. His blue eye and green eye flickered slightly. The sight of the two different colors made my stomach drop. It was hard to remember he was a Fae.

I pushed his hands away. "No," I said. I'd planned to elaborate but couldn't think of anything. The look he gave me reminded me of when my father would catch me in a fib. But I just stared at him, careful to keep my face as blank as possible. "Why the sudden change of heart?" I asked, changing the subject. "I thought you wanted to look over some business stuff before we left for the oh-so-creatively-named city."

"Like the United States is any more creatively named," Seth said, rolling his eyes. He started walking again. His speed showed he was oblivious to the fact that I was only five four. "The most important business I have to deal with right now can't be handled from Edoc," he said. Like hell, I thought, frowning. He was acting weird. "Besides, I thought you wanted to go shopping."

"Book shopping," I clarified. Even though I was staring at the back of his head, I knew he was smirking. "And you're paying for it," I reminded him. He winced, flinching slightly. Now it was my turn to smirk. We rounded a corner and Seth opened a door, revealing a cobblestone path. The path wound down a grassy hill, and ended at the wheels of an awaiting black carriage. "Wow," I said, startled. The carriage was really nice. "You're filthy rich, aren't you?"

"I'm comfortable," he said casually, walking down the path, slower this time. I could actually keep up with him. We were halfway down when he started talking again. "Did Jareth say anything to you before we left?"

I thought about it for a second. "He said: 'Karleigh, this time has been a pleasure, I'm sure.' That's when you were in the room, Seth. When you left he said: 'If you ever use any of this against me in a fanfiction I will hunt you down and send my goblin minions after you.'" My fake British accent failed to sound anything like the Goblin King, but at least I tried, right?

"I meant," Seth said, "Did he say he was going anywhere?"

"Why?" I asked, startled. "Is he gone?"

Seth stopped in front of the carriage and shrugged. "Driver, take us to Capitol as quickly as possible," he ordered. The man sitting at the front of the carriage nodded and whispered the directions at the two brown-and-white horses hooked up to the carriage. The driver had long, pointy ears, and a tail that looked like a horse's tail. "Ah, it's nothing, Kar," Seth said, turning back to me. He opened the door to the carriage.

"Surprise!" A silky voice said from inside.

I blinked. There was a woman sitting inside the carriage. She had long, black hair that hung in a braid down to her waist. Her eyes were the same colors as Seth's, and their slightly tanned skin tones were the same, too. She was wearing a purple vest, and a purple miniskirt, and she looked good in it. "Ooh, who's the human, Seth?" she asked, leaning forward slightly. When he didn't answer right away she waved a hand and motioned for us to get inside. Seth seemed frozen, so I climbed in first. "Sethy, have you heard about poor Jareth? There was a visitor right before he disappeared, and now they can't find him anywhere!"

I looked pointedly at Seth. He gritted his teeth and climbed into the carriage, slamming the door behind him. "How did you find out about that?" he demanded of the black-haired woman.

She smiled, revealing pearly white teeth. "Sethy, your servants are only there because I kept paying them while you were gone. They tell me everything that happens at Edoc. Now, where do you think Jareth went? Do you think it was those terrible worms again?"

"Sethy?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Who else knows about this?" Seth asked, ignoring me.

"Oh, there's rumors flying everywhere. But that goblin coming to your house just confirmed everything! Poor Jareth! I wonder if there's going to be a ransom note… do you think the Labyrinth's treasury has enough money in it to pay off a ransom?" She paused and put a finger to her red lips. "I wonder how much they think Jareth's worth. A pound of gold? Maybe two?"

"How many people have you told?" Seth asked, as the carriage jolted forward. I grabbed onto the window railing in the door to keep myself steady. The dirt road was bumpier than it looked.

"Oh, just my girlfriends," the black-haired woman said.

Seth buried his face in his hands. "So all of Underground knows, thanks to my sister and her rumor mill."


Author's Note: Yay, Seth's sister. I love her name, it'll come up next chapter. What is this atom page thing?

BlueyChan: Ahh wonderful, I was scared the beginning was stupid. Thanks for the review!

Fou Fou: Hehe, my brother has a Furby and it's taken three years for the thing to finally disappear into our basement. Thanks for reviewing!

WildPixieChild16: Heh, thank you for the compliment and the review.

Princess-RainbowRose: Ya! My front, my front, my front! (Sorry, I couldn't help it) Ooh and I never said who the wedding was between, did I? Mwahaha. Thanks for reviewing!