The Truth of a Lie
a/n: I do not own Labyrinth, nor any of its' characters. I do own all original character's and I do own this plot. Some of you may be used to be posting chapters very often. This story is in depth, and much more serious than what I have written before. It will take time. I will be posting when I can, which may be only once a week. I hope you will stick with me through this. The rating right now is T, that may change later.
Prologue
I hate to tell you this, but it was all just a test. I knew it, deep down. Even though they had modified my memory, modified my life and other's lives, somehow I knew it was a test. A test of will, a test of inner strength. They had told me, both before and after, that there was only was one thing that was truly real about the whole thing, and that was Him. Him, and his kingdom of goblins. I was put to sleep, and when I woke up I was all of a sudden someone else, a girl running into a park wearing a dress that was probably picked up from some thrift store. I had never seen the house I ran to before, and had never seen the people who were supposed to be my parents before. Karen, my evil stepmother? Just some woman they picked off the street and changed all her memories. Richard, my floormat of a father? Just some average joe they treated the same. Toby? Another Foundling, just like me. Did I know any of this as I complained about having to watch the baby? No. They had me under a memory spell. My mind only remembered that life, and not the life that had began for me when I was just an infant.
He had found me behind a circus tent in Bangor, Maine. No one was around. I am told I was only a few hours old. My Founder lifted the fleece blanket that surrounded me and saw the star-shaped birthmark on my stomach. I did not cry as he lifted me and spirited me away in the night. I am told I did not make a peep. I was just a beautiful baby girl with hair like a dark cup of coffee, and steel gray eyes that bore into anyone's soul. He took me away from the known world, and into an unknown one in a castle, where he and the rest of the Trefnu gan Seren Rhyfedd resided.
The Founders are what they are called, but the formal name of the Order is Trefnu gan Seren Rhyfedd. It loosely means 'The Order of the Star Beyond Measure', or something like that. They have been around since the beginning of time, or so it seems. We live in a large, hidden castle in Japan. Hidden by magic the castle is, because no one would be able to ignore its' beauty if they saw it. The Founders are sacred trainers, training warriors and assassins. We are all marked in the same way, with a star-shaped birthmark on our stomachs. The very first time our biological parents see the birthmark, they are spelled to leave us outside of wherever they are. It is a compulsion spell, and then they are also spelled to forget all about us, forget they even had us. We are rare now, a dying breed. One is born a Foundling, and grows to become one of the Found. Once our youth and vitality leave us we become Founders, searching the world for the next generation.
It has been twenty years since that cold night in Bangor, Maine. It has been five years since the test that allowed me to go from being a Foundling to being a Found. I have never aspired to be anything more, nor anything less. This is my life. I fight, I kill. I have a great aptitude for solving puzzles. I have my own brand of magic, that I am still coming into. I can seduce when it is needed, and I can also turn someone's blood to ice water. My training is finished. I am a mistress of weapons, and of hand-to-hand combat. I can serve tea without spilling, and I can stare even a queen down. I am not to be intimidated.
Today I sit in front of my Founder, my new assignment on the desk in front of me. Him. I am assigned to Him. He has been kidnapped, taken from his kingdom by a demon named Naroof. The folder in front of me spells it out: He was taken in the middle of the night, out through a window. Naroof lives in a warded cave about thirty leagues from the Goblin Kingdom. The Castle Beyond the Goblin City is empty, some say magically so. No one knew what had happened to the inhabitants. Sarah, Found, must go to the Underground, investigate, and then rescue the Goblin King. It is not known the purpose of the kidnapping, but King Jareth must be rescued with all possible speed. I look Founder Corsair in the eye, "Does His Majesty know?"
"Know what, Found?"
"Does he know who I am? Does he know it was a test?" I ask patiently.
"Found, he knows nothing of it. He still believes you to be Sarah Williams, mortal girl personified, the only one to ever beat his Labyrinth," Founder Corsair says with a smirk, "It was a task to deceive him, he is very powerful. But he has no clue that you were a Foundling"
"'Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive,'" I quote, "Is there no one else?"
"Found, even if there were someone else, you were the one chosen for this task. We all have out crosses to bear," he says. I grab the file to take with me as I leave the room.
The heels of my leather boots click on the floor as I make my way to my quarters. He had worn boots too, I now remember. Tall, black leather ones. His pants had been too tight to be decent, and he had worn the shirts of a bad pirate. He is indeed very powerful, which makes me wonder how a demon managed to kidnap His Majesty. Any other time he could have easily defeated almost any demon. I wonder why and how this demon succeeded.
I remember that power well. He had even more powers than I myself had been privy to. I passed my test, however. I told him he had no power over me. Those were the words needed to prove myself. I had said what needed to be said. I had succeeded by telling the truth. Even then, I think as I remove my shuriken carefully from their wooden box, I had been sure of one thing: No one has ever had power over me. No one.
Glossary
Trefnu - Order (welsh)
gan – of (welsh)
Seren – Star (welsh)
Rhyfedd – Beyond Measure (welsh)
Shuriken – Japanese throwing weapon (Japanese)