Generalized disclaimer.
Golden Threads
Chapter 6: Researching
Jareth and Ptah were in the library of the castle, in the Goblin City. Ptah, in a striking set of white and turquoise robes, paced throughout the length of the great room, reading aloud from one or more books which were somehow floating before him. One great volume rested in one of his hands, as he quickly moved his fingers along the page, seeking the next section to read to his scribe, who was following the pacing fae while scribbling frantic notes onto a slightly glowing tablet. Jareth, meanwhile, was gazing intently at one of his crystals, occasionally writing down a thought on one of the milky sheets of paper before him. It had been weeks since Sarah had started training with her guardian feline, Aurie, and the amount of information that had been retained Aboveground was astonishing. The things that were revealed to Sarah had not been heard in the Underground kingdoms for generations, and left much researching to be done by Jareth and Ptah. Of course, others were in on the action, but only in a cursory manner. Kaltar was busy helping keep goblins in check, and keep up appearances with the other kingdoms.
Within Jareth's crystal, a tiny image of Sarah moved about her home. It was still early enough in the day that Sarah's focus was on the more mundane aspects of life. She was cooking. She was stirring a pot of what appeared to be rice pudding, and another with some form of white meat and vegetables. Whatever other gifts Sarah had, cooking was not one of them. The interesting part of the scene was what she was doing while she cooked. She was talking to herself and reading a textbook from her classes. She was conjugating verbs and phrases from English into Japanese, and then into Spanish. Occasionally, she would say it in French or Italian, but was obviously focusing on the other two languages. The book, however, was her anthropology text. On the table, a few feet away, was a book of mythology, and another for Calculus. She moved around the room a bit as she cooked, stretching her limbs and moving in graceful arcs and spins. It seemed she was dancing, in slow motion. She was smiling, though. It was something Jareth hadn't seen her do, genuinely, in a long time.
A sound caught his attention, and in the reflection from the surface of the crystal, turquoise could be seen. A gold trimmed sleeve fell in front of Jareth's face. Ptah was getting his attention, surely.
"I know Abovegrounders value multi-tasking, Jareth, but is that normal for her?"
"Ptah, surely you forget your own teachings. What exactly is your definition of normal?"
Chuckling, Ptah finally sat across the table from his friend. He tapped a tanned fingertip on the top of the crystal. "You've no doubt realized, though, that few of our own kind have a mind capable of that. It took me nearly forty years to master the ability to move thoughts in compartments as she seems to do."
"I think," Jareth said, thinking back, "that she's always been able to do it in a small way, but has only recently discovered the ability to its full extent." Ptah watched Sarah for a few more moments before leaning slightly forward and placing a book of magical law in front of Jareth. The king looked at the pages blankly for a moment, so Ptah enlightened him.
"You can't contact Sarah directly without her calling for you, but you can still find out more about her new situation. You can still summon objects from Aboveground."
"What object could I possibly summon that would help? I can't call on specific magical items, so I can't get the Books of the Dun Coe, or her interesting pendant, for that matter."
"Jareth, mortals have the same love of keeping records of things as the dwarves do. And since she's obviously related to at least one of the magical lines, why not pull up some information on her family's past?" The king looked at the councilman, dumbstruck. It was such an obvious answer.
"By the powers, Librarian," Jareth said, smacking himself in the forehead, "we are such idiots!"
Sarah was curled up on the sofa in her attic room, listening to the television program on some ancient construction project while reading one of her textbooks. She reached across the coffee table to pull an ashtray closer to her. She took the last drag from her cigarette, exhaled, and jammed it out in the little glass tray. Aurie, ever present, flopped herself down on the back of the sofa. "Why the frustration, child?"
"I'm getting tired of school already, Aurie," Sarah said. "As important as I know it is to have an education, I wish I was done with it already. I love to learn, but this is just kinda boring."
"Let's take your mind off of things."
"No, Aurie, no practicing rituals, or exhausting myself over the history of magic on Earth, tonight."
"No, but how are you really doing? I've been working you for a while now, and you just keep going. Talk to me." Sarah looked at Aurie for a moment, and then turned her gaze back to the television. She relaxed back into her couch cushions, fiddling with the end of her short hair, staring at it with seeming intensity. Shoving her hands through the short locks, she looked back to Aurie.
"Why me? Why now, for crissakes?"
Instead of answering, the cat jumped down and laid across Sarah's lap, nudging her hands into a petting motion along her neck. She stroked the cat's soft fur, and let herself be lulled into a dozing state. She closed her eyes and let herself rest a while.
Kaltar bowed deeply at the edge of the dais, not too far from Jareth's throne. He was holding a day of meetings with subjects. It was one of the pretenses that Jareth was keeping up, to show his land that he was still governing like they thought he was. They wouldn't know that he was spending the majority of most of his days seeking answers about a mortal woman from across the barriers, in the Aboveground. Jareth nodded to his adviser, who climbed the short steps up and stood to Jareth's side. He leaned towards the king's ear, whispering for a moment. Jareth turned quickly, sitting up so suddenly that the members of his court turned to look for a moment. The king spoke so animatedly with his adviser that his long blonde locks shook for a moment. A few sharp hand gestures, and Kaltar bowed again, before turning and hurrying from the room. A few of the fae women who were visiting court whispered to one another as the king stood from his throne. "Lords and Ladies," he stated clearly, with a shallow half-bow, "our audience will now conclude for the day, barring any urgent issues. Please, enjoy the fine foods awaiting you in the dining hall." With this, he strode quickly from the hall, leaving his courtiers in a mild state of confusion.
Stepping quickly into a corridor, he met with Kaltar, who was walking directly towards him. The shorter man nodded curtly and lead the king into his study, quietly shutting the door behind them. He shuffled a few scrolls around for a moment, and placed one with a long chart in front of his sovereign. "Kaltar, what is this?"
"M'lord, the ancestry line of Lady Sarah of the Aboveground."
"Why not simply bring me the documents themselves, Kaltar?"
"Mortals do not keep their ancestries in documents as well compacted as we do, sir," Kaltar said, while stacking other scrolls and bound volumes onto the desk, "that scroll is a condensed version of the other documents that Lord Ptah and yourself summoned. If you'd rather see them for yourself, they are here."
"No, Kaltar, you have done well, let us look, shall we?" Jareth poured over the chart, tracing lines back into the branching history of Sarah's bloodlines. He furrowed his brow. "Call Ptah."
A/N: SORRY! I know, my chapters are really short, and getting farther between...really, I'm sorry. I have 18 hrs of classes, and still have to work a lot of hours. :( Hopefully, I'll manage to get some more LONG chapters in the next week or two, instead of these cheap versions. :)