Author's Note: Just interrupting these broadcasts to send a general message of gratitude to everyone who reads. I know this has been a long fiction, so let's hope you've all got the stamina to go the distance.


"I still cannot believe it," Pandora smiled, eyes shining with excitement, "Oh, I am so happy for the both of you."

Jervohl's smile widened, even as she sneaked a shy look at her fiancé. "It- it does seem a little unbelievable."

"But what is that old Labyrinth saying- everything is not as it seems?" Gildred laughed quietly, almost to himself, "Certainly true for the Labyrinth."

"My Lord," Jervohl rebuked quietly, "You are both allies now. Making fun of your ally is not a very friendly thing to do."

"My dear, be quiet."

"I see no reason not to speak. We are equals now."

"Equals? Us? You must be delusional," Gildred remarked.

Pandora's eyes almost fell out of her head. The two were actually sniping bitterly at each other, no hint of a smile on either of their faces. She couldn't understand it. Why so soon after their very public betrothal? Not, of course, that they were officially betrothed. That would take some time, yet. And now that she thought of it, such a high-level betrothal needed to be celebrated in a noble way. A ball, perhaps? Yes. A ball. And would not her son groan if he were to hear.

"Speaking of which," she said out loud, "Where are my sons?"

The two broke off from whatever argument they were in the midst of to answer her. "Mother, Dieter died many years ago," Jervohl pointed out, "and Jareth is still somewhat in a temper." Gildred looked confused but his bride didn't notice it.

"A temper?" Pandora echoed, "Why is he in a temper? Never tell me he got angry at the Council again!"

"You could say that." Jervohl shifted uncomfortably until Gildred soothed her with a slow stroke to her hair. She took courage from that simple gesture, though why she needed courage she didn't know. "I take it that the plan to have Gildred propose marriage to me at the Council was Jareth's idea. Confound him as an interfering old hen!"

"Yes, yes, but what about the Council?"

Gildred took over. He kept his words simple and his sentences straightforward- "The Council disapproved of Jareth's obvious interest in a truce with my Kingdom, and of my uncivilized public proposal. The Duke said some harsh things."

Pandora stiffened and stood up, a hand on the table to steady herself, never mind that she still had a needle in the other hand that she waved impatiently at her new son-in-law. "Get on with it," she demanded, "What did he say?"

Gildred looked at Jervohl for guidance. She was staring down at her hands, carefully tracing the shape of her nails with her eyes. No help, then, from that quarter, Gildred surmised. "He called him a waste of intelligence and a profligate… among other things."

"He insulted him." The Lady was almost breathing fire and brimstone by now. She may have said much the same things about her son. She may call him a leech and a spider and a wastrel, but no matter what her views on the matter, dare anyone vocalize such things and she would fight as any mother would for her offspring. Jareth had often laughed at it as hypocritical. She called it a mother's right. And this- in open Council! Pandora could have cut the Duke's throat with the needle in her hand.

"Mother, please sit down. Gildred, help me keep her here."

"Never you mind about me." Pandora sat down regally and picked up her embroidery bracket again. "Where you get such ideas from I will never know. Did you think I would chase after the Duke like a mad thing? I assure you I have a little more control than that."

Jervohl stayed silent as her mother got on with the busy task of embroidering. She hoped with a pang that Gildred would not think her family too strange to adopt as his own. But she needn't have bothered; Gildred wasn't thinking of adopting any part of Jervohl's family. He still saw her brother as a rival. Her mother was sweet, but Gildred really had no need for a mother. All he wanted was Jervohl. And if he had to put up with a dozen family members to have her, he could stand that.

"I am sure the Duke had his reasons for such a lapse of good breeding," Pandora continued, stabbing the needle almost hard enough through the fine mesh to tear it, "I am sure I have called Jareth worse on certain occasions. He can be quite infuriating, you know. What else did he call him, Gildred?"

"A trickster, I believe."

"Oh dear. I seem to have torn my mesh. How tiresome. Never mind, Eloise can help me start again. I really must have this patch done by next week. The Year's End celebrations are close and Lady Harenet has her heart on hosting this year's ball. She wanted this short piece to pin to her dress. I shall have to finish it soon. Gildred, what else did the Duke say?"

"We really cannot remember," Jervohl tried to interject anxiously, just as Gildred said, "Immoral, schemer and corrupt influence."

"Ah, I see. Well, to be sure he can be all of those things. Mercy knows I have told him so often enough. He does insist on sleeping with anything that moves and quite frequently quite a few things that do not. And he is a corrupt influence. Just see how Luka turned out… and Dieter was none the better for having Jareth as his older brother. Dieter died, you know."

Gildred looked puzzled again, but had no chance to ask questions.

"I believe the only one to escape relatively unscathed from Jareth's clutches was Elban. And Jareth has told me that he could not be bothered spending the time and effort needed to open his eyes to the 'real world'. Real world, indeed! My son likes to be a little enigmatic, at times, Gildred, as I am sure you have seen."

Jervohl covered her eyes in despair, not wanting to see the explosion when it happened.

"Toby seems to have occupied his attention for the past year," Pandora remarked, rising to find a sharp blade, "The poor child. Jareth has certainly twisted his sense of identity. It is so sad, but what am I to do? The Goblin King, you know, is not a nice person to associate with."

Gildred nodded gravely and kept his amusement to himself.

Pandora stopped and looked him firmly in the eye, her jaw tightened by fury and determination. "You do know," she emphasized, "That the Duke will not last the next year if I have anything to say about it. He might live out his life as he sees fit, but his title will be stripped from him. And I will see to that personally. I am a dangerous person to cross, Gildred. You might perhaps want to remember that in relation to how your treat my daughter."

Jervohl went red.

Gildred nodded respectfully and accepted the warning as it came. "If I hurt her, I will submit to any fitting punishment you devise," he agreed.

The old lady grinned a small, lopsided smirk that was far too familiar to another, though much too rare for most comparisons. "With such honeyed words, you have already spared your own life," she said archly, "Any more and I might take your side over Jervohl's."

Gildred smiled his glimmer of a smile back at the formidable little female and clasped Jervohl's hand as tightly as he could. "Then it is a good thing I take Jervohl's side in everything," he laughed.

Jervohl had had enough and she squeezed gently on his fingers to warn him. He let go and excused himself, citing the need to speak with his advisers and good friends before he met the Goblin King in the evening. The conditions needed to be reviewed, he explained, and Braan and Dervina needed to be made aware of what was afoot.

Pandora dropped an elegant little curtsey to him and Jervohl kissed him softly on the cheek before he left, still giddy and dizzy about the new turn of events.

"You really will not let the Duke be," Jervohl sighed.

Pandora shook her head in brutal anger. "What I say about my son is allowed to me. No one else has that right."

"And yet Jareth is all of those things."

"And yet he has done a lot of good," Pandora retorted, "I have no idea why he acts the way he does and I despise him for the chances he wastes, but I will say for him that he tries to keep this Kingdom in some kind functioning system. I may not agree with his ideas, but they turn out for the best."

"The Kingdom could be better," Jervohl pointed out.

Pandora shrugged and sat down heavily in her chair. "He gives us all we can expect from him, Jervohl. We really cannot ask for more."

Jervohl sighed heavily and sat down in the nearest seat, absently reaching out to play with the torn embroidery mesh. "I will never understand you. You speak as if you despise him, and then you defend him from anyone that speaks the same."

"Because I have that right. The Duke does not."

"What takes the right from him? He works with Jareth. He puts up with his disturbances and his tantrums and odd behaviour."

"Let me explain something to you- I have never yet abandoned any of my sons to their vices. I will not do it for Jareth or Toby."

Jervohl considered that. "You consider Toby as your son, then?"

"I do."

"He does talk of you as he might of his mother. How long did you raise him?"

"Since he was nine," Pandora said wryly, "Jareth summoned me expressively to hand him over to me. He said he wanted nothing to do with the 'brat'."

The two females looked at each other and shook their heads ruefully. "It does not seem to have changed much," Jervohl commented, "Though I will say that Toby gave the Duke an effective dressing-down this morning. It seemed he did not like the Duke's opinions either. I do not know if Toby even realized, but he swore a protection oath to Jareth."

Pandora sat up straight, blue eyes wide. "No!" she gasped, "He never did!"

"Oh, but he did," Jervohl said smugly, "I think he said that he pledged his allegiance to the Goblin King and said that he would give his life in service for as long as it was needed."

"This is a surprise."

"You hardly seem upset."

"Hmmm?"

"Mother?"

"Oh. What was that, dear?"

"Mother, you have that plotting gleam in your eyes again. What are you thinking?"

Pandora picked at the threads on the table. "I have been thinking," she began, "That perhaps I should make things a little more settled." Jervohl looked blank. "We are a family, the three of us. But Jareth is here and now you will soon leave for Gildred's Fortress. Not that I expect you to stay; of course not! I brought you up with the hope that you lot would one day leave me in peace. But it would be nice to have someone stay with me and I thought… Toby has no home or family."

The other female began to smile.

"I thought I could adopt him. He will certainly take his citizenship- Jareth will see to that- and that will be alright but I thought perhaps it would stabilize his position if he had a family to enter into. Most young boys who are wished into the Underground gain a family, but Toby has never been officially adopted. He goes under Jareth's protection as a ward of the State. But everyone knows of him as Sarah's half-brother. It must be… unstable."

"Are you asking for my opinion or telling me your plans?"

"I thought I might broach the subject with them both when they come here this evening."

Jervohl privately considered it would be asking for trouble to put Jareth and Toby together as brothers. They did alright when they were careful about what they said around the other, but to clump them together like that? But then Toby obviously seemed to have made his peace with Jareth. And Jareth probably would not care much either way. He never did.

"It sounds a good idea," she eventually replied, "When they get here, we will tell him."

Jareth was convinced that he never would get there. They were late. Dreadfully late. And now he was in a hurry and would have no time to prepare a suitable list of terms and conditions for Gildred. Well, he would have about four hours before then, but these things took so long!

"Why not just come back to bed?"

"Toby, we have a prior appointment."

"I am sure the Lady Pandora will forgive us for our tardiness," Toby murmured archly. He stretched as he sat up, scratching his head to get his brains to work again.

"Ha!" Jareth tugged on his trousers and searched around for his hairbrush. It was under a pillow that had landed on the dresser when Toby got annoyed enough with his tickling to threw the pillow at him. "You think mothers are forgiving! I promise you that should you turn up late she will not only not forgive you, but will not let you forget it for the rest of her life. Now get up!" He tossed the pillow back at Toby.

"My shoulder hurts."

"Is it bleeding?"

"No, but the arm is stiff and the wound feels stretched. Does it look damaged?"

Jareth stared at the ceiling for patience. "No. It does not. WILL YOU GET OUT OF BED?"

"But it hurts!"

"Your own fault," Jareth retorted, "Hurry up. My mother will expect to see us soon and you are the one who does not want her to know."

"I see. My fault again." Toby roused himself enough to drag his shirt over his head and tried to button it up properly.

"Naturally. I could care less whether she- where are my boots? Oh, here. What was I saying? Yes. I could care less if she left us alone because we were engaged in several acts of the kind no mother wants to see her son involved in, but you are the one who wants to stay innocent."

"Innocent! After what you put me through? Hah! An impossibility, I do assure you."

"You can assure me by getting clothed," Jareth stressed.

The Goblin King almost fell over trying to tug his boots on and eventually just sank down on the bed for better leverage. He succeeded to some extent, until Toby interrupted him by kissing him. And then Jareth huffed but complied. It was a long, leisurely moment and both took their time over it.

"Toby…"

"Hmmm?"

"Alright, enough. Stop. No, stop." Jareth pushed him away and got on with his boots. The left one finally permitted him to put it on and he sighed as he got to his feet and went to retrieve his jacket. The long, sleeveless thing went on easily- far more easily than the footwear- and Jareth dragged his fingers a few times through his hair one last time with absentminded vanity. "Are you ready yet?"

"I want to wash," Toby complained, "I cannot possibly meet the Lady like this."

"You look fine."

"I smell awful. I can smell the sex on me."

Jareth sighed and checked the clock noiselessly counting the seconds away in the corner. "Toby, I will have to meet you there," he excused, "You know the way." He vanished out the door, intent on whatever new scheme had caught his attention and Toby sighed and fell backwards to the bed again.

His still healing shoulder hurt. And he was sleepy. He didn't want to traipse over half the Castle before pretending to his adopted mother that everything was alright. To which he could almost hear Jareth logically suggest that he not lie at all. The Goblin King was all for being open about it. But Toby didn't want them to know. He didn't know why he didn't want that, but he didn't.

What he did behind closed doors was his private business. In that little room, it was alright. When it just the two of them, they could pretend. But in public it was a very different matter.

Toby was well aware that Jareth would ask to be released from his end of the bargain at least for the coming night. And the mortal didn't mind. Jareth would probably be busy charming some starry-eyed young politician onto his side.

It was all about trust. Jareth somehow inspired a lot of blind trust in a lot of people. Those that didn't trust him, eventually only served to create problems because the Goblin King- for all his talk of the Council- operated with a team of one. Himself, so to speak. He didn't ask for help. He didn't ask for advice. He just ordered information to be delivered and a plan to be executed. But people trusted his mad brained schemes to work simply because they were mad.

So far, no one had been physically hurt by any of them. Maybe a few bruised egos and elbows, a couple of broken bones and broken hearts… but not much, surely? Jareth's reign had been quite peaceful so far. This business with Gildred was as exciting as it got. And the business with Sarah, but only because they feared the Goblin King had gone mad.

Toby hoped no one ever would be hurt by him. It would be a messy scandal indeed.