Title: The Labyrinth: The Way Back
Author: Aviry Nolane, slvrluna47@aol.com
Date: Dec. 2, 2002
Notes:
I know, i'm sure i could have done more with the Jareth = mortal situation, but i didn't want to risk getting *too* detailed, i still have a lot left to the story and that really wasn't the main focus. Thanks to all who enjoyed that little twist of fate and encouraged it!! :)
b The Labyrinth: The Way Back
Chapter 7 - Replacements /b
Sarah straightened her dress. The last few hours of Jareth's visit had been taxing to say the least.
The day before Bill had insisted on taking the two of them out to lunch, as it had been after two when she had woken up. Been woken up. By Jareth.
Lunch had been difficult. Bill was already wary of Jareth - George's presence in her house, no less in her bed that morning. But after explaining to her fiancé that George was an old friend from Yale who had dropped in at the restaurant to see her and I accidentally /I been knocked out in the kitchen by a falling pan... things became easier. Then his being in her bed had been easy enough to explain away, as she more or less told the truth. Though she had left out a few details, such as Jareth's labored breathing for example...
She grinned at further thought of that little detail.
When she had further explained that his wallet had been stolen and she invited him to stay with her, things had looked rocky, but after the admission that George was happily married with two children, he had caved.
The three of them had gone out to lunch at Mozart's, a small deli just around the corner. It seemed an easy enough plan. Go to lunch, appear mortal, act mortal, return to the apartment. But Jareth had apparently not been satisfied with the simple plan. He had taken every opportunity to nearly blow their cover, chatting with Bill about Neologism through the ages and various art periods. He had even begun discussing Quantum Physics and his utter disbelief of the theorem before Sarah had to excuse them to the payphone. George really had to call his wife.
It was his youngest son's birthday.
Jareth was disgusted by the idea of his ready made family waiting at home, and so to spite her upon their return his behavior was only worse. He took every possible chance to flirt openly with Sarah, winking at her with reckless abandon and passionately stroking her hand over the table. He had even gone so far as to offer her a massage.
Bill had nearly passed out with shock.
Sarah shook her head. She should have known better after all.
But she supposed that no harm was really done. Jareth's antics had subsided as soon as Bill had bid them farewell and headed back to the office.
Jareth had been quite amicable since then though his lewd undertones hadn't completely subsided. He still let the occasional comment about the perks about being the Queen of the Underground slip, such as never having to fill your own saltshakers, though she was sure he meant it only in jest.
The day had passed quickly. Only one more day, a few hours, and Jareth would be leaving. She couldn't say that she was going to miss his overbearing presence once he was gone, but she was sure that at least some part of her would feel at a loss when it was time for him to go. The curious dreamer in her that still wanted to believe that places such as the Underground, namely. Until he had come, that part of her had nearly been gone forever. Secretly, she was almost thankful for that.
She brushed her hair back once more and stepped back to view the woman in the mirror. She actually looked good tonight, she admitted. She wasn't usually one for vanity, but she had worn her favorite evening dress for tonight's dinner. It was a silken rust colored gown that reflected light when she turned in it. Her neckline was steep, coming to a triangular point at the lower edge of her breastbone. It hugged her every curve, and the folds of her dress hung loose at the end, which flowed to the floor. She wore extra high rusty red heels to keep the dress from dragging and small black diamond earrings with it. Both of which had been a gift from her mother.
She made a mental note to herself to call her mother when she returned from dinner tonight. Her wedding to John Paulman, a well known serial actor, was only weeks away and she still hadn't called to find out the details. They hadn't always been so close, their bond only strengthening when her father had died of cancer a few years earlier. Now she was grateful for the relationship they shared, weather it was rocky at times or not and felt a deep regret that she hadn't phoned in over a week. But that would have to wait, she reminded herself, tonight was about her.
Finally she smoothed the red crystalline necklace down under her fingertips and adjusted the thin golden chain that held it there. Tossing her curled hair over her shoulder she grabbed her purse and walked out into the living room.
Bill was already waiting, standing with a bouquet of flowers and smiling rather apologetically at her.
'Apologetically? What?' Sarah pondered. "Bill. What's-"
He cut her off with a burst of energy, "Sorry Sarah, I really can't make it tonight. I know I promised but something's come up that just can't wait."
She didn't move. That usually wasn't a good sign.
"Really Sarah, I have to get these new chefs trained in time for the opening. There's only two days left and we still have a lot to cover. I've arranged a get together at Hotel Martin to get them together. I just can't get out of this." He smiled. It was going to take a lot more than that to get out of this.
Sarah was fuming. She nearly broke out into tears at the mere mention of the next idea.
"I've talked to George, and he said he'd be okay with taking you out to dinner in my place tonight. If that's okay."
She really must not have been thinking straight, but the last three hours of primping had prepared her for a night out and nothing else. Blame it on the hairspray, it has a way of effecting the female mind in a most adverse fashion.
"You'd go?" She blurted out, turning to view Jareth's reclining figure draped carelessly over the white recliner.
He grinned out of the corner of his mouth. "Delighted."
And with that it was settled. Sarah embarked on her date with the Goblin King.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Sarah felt enormously foolish as they entered the restaurant. She could practically feel the stares of everyone inside locking onto her.
Jareth felt it too, by the way that he was staring back at all of them. Sarah almost laughed out loud.
'So now he feels at home, does he?'
The attendant led them to their table and Sarah felt herself biting back a mixture of tears and giggles. Bill had reserved the most romantic table, nestled in the very back of the low-lit lavish restaurant. A low canopy of bronze velvet dipped over the seating area, a sheltered booth for two. The flames of the candles threw enigmatic shadows over the entire area and cast blazing beams of reflecting light onto the dinnerware.
Jareth motioned for her to sit down first and held out and arm for her coat. She obliged, put off by his returning royal demeanor. He slid in next to her and pressed up against Sarah in a most persuasive manner. Not that it could be helped, Sarah noted, the booth was rather small.
'And with good reason', Sarah's inner voice prompted. She closed her eyes and shook her head. Why on earth had she subjected herself to this?
When she opened her eyes the wineglasses had been filled and Jareth was ignoring her to her left, instead concentrating on the menu.
She looked toward him with a questioning gaze and he held her menu out to her, not even turning his head from his consideration of the carte du jour.
Sarah took it from him gratefully and tried her best to interpret the French before her, but her mind kept floating back to one detail in particular.
Her wineglass looked huge.
She tired not to think about it and settled for simply pointing to something on the menu. When she turned back to Jareth he was admiring the trails of light that spun from his now half emptied glass.
They ordered when the waiter came by and then remained sitting quietly side by side.
She took this moment to study him closely as she hadn't before. The last two days she had spent the majority of her time with him rationalizing his existence and avoiding his prolonged company. As far as she was concerned, she rather liked him as George, the long lost friend. Who was married.
She watched him without hesitation for a moment, aware that this was likely the last time she would be able to do so. He looked much like he did when she had first faced him, eight years ago. When she had beaten him at his own game. He was still just as slender as he was when she had first met him, yet he had a strong muscular tone that she noticed only now that she was pressed so firmly against him. The unruly halo of gossamer golden strands still framed his face in the same enticing way that they had when she was only fifteen and his mortal enemy.
'Enticing? Did I just say enticing?' She paused, and then decided to continue on with the mental compliment, 'well, I suppose he is moderately enticing. If that,'
The shadows played across his face, casting a mysterious and dangerous glow across his inhuman features. Even as a mortal there was still something undoubtedly magical about him.
Sarah found her gaze transfixed to his with a mere tilt of his head. He stared at her for a moment in much the same way she supposed she had been looking at him, as if he were drinking her in, in place of the wine.
There was something different about his eyes, she decided, but she couldn't quite place it.
She remained still, pondering over the past and the present. And over Jareth.
He looked ravishingly beautiful in the candlelight, she admitted to herself.
He perceived the momentary flash in her eyes and she knew she was caught.
"Sarah," he whispered, raising a brow in her direction.
She wasn't quite sure what her reaction was.
But she didn't object.
And with that he was upon her, pressing his lips to hers with a soft sort of urgency. He probed her mouth with his tongue, enticing her senses to near exhaustion, and she kissed back with a serene intensity that could have frightened her if she let it. His free hand snaked behind her head and brushed against her hairline.
She shivered at his touch suddenly, and he pulled away, content to again stare into the murky depths of his wine.
Their closeness was over in an instant, though to Sarah it had lasted much longer.
She had just kissed Jareth, the Goblin King, her former adversary turned friendly houseguest. Her head was swimming.
This was different.
A silent alarm went off in her head.
There was something she needed to know.
"Jareth," she began.
"George," he grinned back to her.
She couldn't help but laugh at the ease with which he spoke the false identity, fully encompassing the role playing of the last few days. "Have you met my wife?" he asked lightly, seemingly perplexed. "I believe you two would get along fabulously," a feral smile spread across his face, making him appear truly menacing in the dim lighting, "you remind me of her a great deal."
She laughed at his retort and rubbed her shoulder against his as an appeasement.
"George," she began again, "There's something I have to know."
"Anything, my Queen." He reclined back into the booth and poised a hand in the air, reaching for the wine glass he had left behind on the table.
His grasp never reached it.
"If I had lost, eight years ago, what would you have done?"
He froze, taking a moment to think of a response that wouldn't completely give him away. Any response would do.
"I would have turned your brother into a goblin."
"And what about me?"
She was taking this rather well, or so he thought.
He couldn't see her eyes.
"I would have kept you Sarah, just as I said."
Now he saw the result of his words, or rather felt it, as she reached over and grabbed him by the sleeve. She bored holes deep into his eyes with her own, their intimate moment completely forgotten.
He found himself resorting to his old icy glare. He ripped her hand away from Bill's suit jacket.
"I never lied to you Sarah. I told you exactly what would happen to you at the start of the game. I told you what I would do."
"Is that supposed to sound honorable?" whispered Sarah, a raspy edge to her voice.
He couldn't help what he said next. He was tired, he was miserable, home was only hours away, and she was putting him on the defensive. He threw what he had at her without thinking.
"I bent the rules for you Sarah, even after you won. I went easy on you because I felt something for you I had never felt before and I was curious about it. I let you have the run of the labyrinth and I let you live out your greatest fantasy through me. And then," he paused both for effect and to calm his rapidly fraying nerves, "I let you go."
"You let me go?" Sarah practically lost all control at those four words. "You let me go?"
He nodded.
"No Jareth, I beat you. I beat the evil Goblin King at his own game and came home to tell the tale. I won my freedom."
Jareth shook his head.
'Evil' he scoffed silently.
She really didn't understand. Well then, so much for being elusive, he was going to have to spell it out for her.
"No Sarah." He met her gaze, and lightly laid his gloved hand upon hers. "In my Labyrinth there is nothing to be won. Do you understand? Nothing. No one has ever beaten it because I am ruthless, as is my land. You were above average in handling it, and that made me even more enamoured with you, but it did not get you all the way through my maze. The wall falling away before the cleaners got you, Hoggle being in the oubliette, your friends finding you in the junkyard," he took a moment here, "when you left the ballroom."
She was not convinced, "I left the ballroom because I wanted to leave the ballroom, Jareth."
"No." He tapped her fingers lightly and she stared down at their hands rather than into his eyes as he continued. "There is no will in my Labyrinth. There is no winning. Most people I send home halfway through the maze and wipe clean their memories of it. When you threw the chair, I shattered the mirror."
He saw the anger sweep away from her, she was beginning to believe him.
A question rose in her mind.
"Then why did you let me go on? Why did you ever let me reach the castle?"
When he answered he did so with complete honesty, and it even took him by surprise that he did so. "I stopped helping you along after awhile, I let you have full run of your actions soon after the ball. I wanted to see how far you'd make it." He stopped speaking for a moment, though Sarah knew he wasn't quite finished. "Sarah," he pulled her chin over to meet his gaze with his free hand. "You weren't supposed to refuse my offer." Her eyes filled with glistening anger and fear, along with something she couldn't place. He pleaded with her then, showing her a side of himself she had never seen, "You weren't supposed to refuse I me /I."
Heaven help her, she understood.
He dropped her chin and she averted her eyes, though she didn't pull her hand from his.
They sat in silence for a moment.
She was shocked when he was the first to speak.
"Sarah, there's more."
She turned to him, the thought that there was nothing more for him to clarify written clearly across her face, "Jareth, I-"
"I broke the law when I sent you home Sarah." He interjected. "Not my own law you understand, but the High Fae Court law, the Seelie Court law, the law of the kingdoms. You were never supposed to return home. Toby could be overlooked, of course, as he was just a child, and generally their memories fade away soon after they leave and they never think of the Underground again." If she looked terrified at the mention of her brother, it was nothing compared to what he was about to throw at her.
"But you, Sarah... when magic touches a person, it leaves their mark. The moment you left the Underground you took a piece of its magic with you, a piece of me." He avoided her for the rest of his statement, and closed his eyes as he continued. "There is group of nobles known as the thirteen corners alliance, I am a member of this alliance, as are all the other rulers of the land. I am much more than a childhood fantasy that frightens little children Sarah." He stopped for a moment, preparing to tell her everything as he had planned, "I am Lord Protector of the entire Underground. As Lord Protector I am one of the highest ranking officials of the realm. I won't bore you with the details of my job, but I will let you in on one of the qualifications.
I have never been beaten Sarah.
I had never been beaten, that is, until you. Until I let my guard down and let you return to the Aboveground against the laws of the entire realm. Eight years ago my strength was tested and I failed. As a result, the alliance has called a review of my status as Lord Protector, which I could very well loose."
He could hear her raspy breathing burning in his ears, "I can not loose that status, Sarah."
He turned his gaze back to her. He almost pitied her as she stared up at him, her face aglow with the candlelight. Almost.
"I'm sorry Jareth, but what does that have to do with me now? I can't exactly unbeat you."
He tightened his fist and lowered his gaze.
"Nothing Sarah," he lied, "Nothing at all."
The pair sat in silence until dinner had ended and returned to the apartment.
Jareth grumbled to himself as he twisted in his sheets later in the evening. The charade was over.
It was time to play the game once again.
- - - - - - - - - -
* avi
Author: Aviry Nolane, slvrluna47@aol.com
Date: Dec. 2, 2002
Notes:
I know, i'm sure i could have done more with the Jareth = mortal situation, but i didn't want to risk getting *too* detailed, i still have a lot left to the story and that really wasn't the main focus. Thanks to all who enjoyed that little twist of fate and encouraged it!! :)
b The Labyrinth: The Way Back
Chapter 7 - Replacements /b
Sarah straightened her dress. The last few hours of Jareth's visit had been taxing to say the least.
The day before Bill had insisted on taking the two of them out to lunch, as it had been after two when she had woken up. Been woken up. By Jareth.
Lunch had been difficult. Bill was already wary of Jareth - George's presence in her house, no less in her bed that morning. But after explaining to her fiancé that George was an old friend from Yale who had dropped in at the restaurant to see her and I accidentally /I been knocked out in the kitchen by a falling pan... things became easier. Then his being in her bed had been easy enough to explain away, as she more or less told the truth. Though she had left out a few details, such as Jareth's labored breathing for example...
She grinned at further thought of that little detail.
When she had further explained that his wallet had been stolen and she invited him to stay with her, things had looked rocky, but after the admission that George was happily married with two children, he had caved.
The three of them had gone out to lunch at Mozart's, a small deli just around the corner. It seemed an easy enough plan. Go to lunch, appear mortal, act mortal, return to the apartment. But Jareth had apparently not been satisfied with the simple plan. He had taken every opportunity to nearly blow their cover, chatting with Bill about Neologism through the ages and various art periods. He had even begun discussing Quantum Physics and his utter disbelief of the theorem before Sarah had to excuse them to the payphone. George really had to call his wife.
It was his youngest son's birthday.
Jareth was disgusted by the idea of his ready made family waiting at home, and so to spite her upon their return his behavior was only worse. He took every possible chance to flirt openly with Sarah, winking at her with reckless abandon and passionately stroking her hand over the table. He had even gone so far as to offer her a massage.
Bill had nearly passed out with shock.
Sarah shook her head. She should have known better after all.
But she supposed that no harm was really done. Jareth's antics had subsided as soon as Bill had bid them farewell and headed back to the office.
Jareth had been quite amicable since then though his lewd undertones hadn't completely subsided. He still let the occasional comment about the perks about being the Queen of the Underground slip, such as never having to fill your own saltshakers, though she was sure he meant it only in jest.
The day had passed quickly. Only one more day, a few hours, and Jareth would be leaving. She couldn't say that she was going to miss his overbearing presence once he was gone, but she was sure that at least some part of her would feel at a loss when it was time for him to go. The curious dreamer in her that still wanted to believe that places such as the Underground, namely. Until he had come, that part of her had nearly been gone forever. Secretly, she was almost thankful for that.
She brushed her hair back once more and stepped back to view the woman in the mirror. She actually looked good tonight, she admitted. She wasn't usually one for vanity, but she had worn her favorite evening dress for tonight's dinner. It was a silken rust colored gown that reflected light when she turned in it. Her neckline was steep, coming to a triangular point at the lower edge of her breastbone. It hugged her every curve, and the folds of her dress hung loose at the end, which flowed to the floor. She wore extra high rusty red heels to keep the dress from dragging and small black diamond earrings with it. Both of which had been a gift from her mother.
She made a mental note to herself to call her mother when she returned from dinner tonight. Her wedding to John Paulman, a well known serial actor, was only weeks away and she still hadn't called to find out the details. They hadn't always been so close, their bond only strengthening when her father had died of cancer a few years earlier. Now she was grateful for the relationship they shared, weather it was rocky at times or not and felt a deep regret that she hadn't phoned in over a week. But that would have to wait, she reminded herself, tonight was about her.
Finally she smoothed the red crystalline necklace down under her fingertips and adjusted the thin golden chain that held it there. Tossing her curled hair over her shoulder she grabbed her purse and walked out into the living room.
Bill was already waiting, standing with a bouquet of flowers and smiling rather apologetically at her.
'Apologetically? What?' Sarah pondered. "Bill. What's-"
He cut her off with a burst of energy, "Sorry Sarah, I really can't make it tonight. I know I promised but something's come up that just can't wait."
She didn't move. That usually wasn't a good sign.
"Really Sarah, I have to get these new chefs trained in time for the opening. There's only two days left and we still have a lot to cover. I've arranged a get together at Hotel Martin to get them together. I just can't get out of this." He smiled. It was going to take a lot more than that to get out of this.
Sarah was fuming. She nearly broke out into tears at the mere mention of the next idea.
"I've talked to George, and he said he'd be okay with taking you out to dinner in my place tonight. If that's okay."
She really must not have been thinking straight, but the last three hours of primping had prepared her for a night out and nothing else. Blame it on the hairspray, it has a way of effecting the female mind in a most adverse fashion.
"You'd go?" She blurted out, turning to view Jareth's reclining figure draped carelessly over the white recliner.
He grinned out of the corner of his mouth. "Delighted."
And with that it was settled. Sarah embarked on her date with the Goblin King.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Sarah felt enormously foolish as they entered the restaurant. She could practically feel the stares of everyone inside locking onto her.
Jareth felt it too, by the way that he was staring back at all of them. Sarah almost laughed out loud.
'So now he feels at home, does he?'
The attendant led them to their table and Sarah felt herself biting back a mixture of tears and giggles. Bill had reserved the most romantic table, nestled in the very back of the low-lit lavish restaurant. A low canopy of bronze velvet dipped over the seating area, a sheltered booth for two. The flames of the candles threw enigmatic shadows over the entire area and cast blazing beams of reflecting light onto the dinnerware.
Jareth motioned for her to sit down first and held out and arm for her coat. She obliged, put off by his returning royal demeanor. He slid in next to her and pressed up against Sarah in a most persuasive manner. Not that it could be helped, Sarah noted, the booth was rather small.
'And with good reason', Sarah's inner voice prompted. She closed her eyes and shook her head. Why on earth had she subjected herself to this?
When she opened her eyes the wineglasses had been filled and Jareth was ignoring her to her left, instead concentrating on the menu.
She looked toward him with a questioning gaze and he held her menu out to her, not even turning his head from his consideration of the carte du jour.
Sarah took it from him gratefully and tried her best to interpret the French before her, but her mind kept floating back to one detail in particular.
Her wineglass looked huge.
She tired not to think about it and settled for simply pointing to something on the menu. When she turned back to Jareth he was admiring the trails of light that spun from his now half emptied glass.
They ordered when the waiter came by and then remained sitting quietly side by side.
She took this moment to study him closely as she hadn't before. The last two days she had spent the majority of her time with him rationalizing his existence and avoiding his prolonged company. As far as she was concerned, she rather liked him as George, the long lost friend. Who was married.
She watched him without hesitation for a moment, aware that this was likely the last time she would be able to do so. He looked much like he did when she had first faced him, eight years ago. When she had beaten him at his own game. He was still just as slender as he was when she had first met him, yet he had a strong muscular tone that she noticed only now that she was pressed so firmly against him. The unruly halo of gossamer golden strands still framed his face in the same enticing way that they had when she was only fifteen and his mortal enemy.
'Enticing? Did I just say enticing?' She paused, and then decided to continue on with the mental compliment, 'well, I suppose he is moderately enticing. If that,'
The shadows played across his face, casting a mysterious and dangerous glow across his inhuman features. Even as a mortal there was still something undoubtedly magical about him.
Sarah found her gaze transfixed to his with a mere tilt of his head. He stared at her for a moment in much the same way she supposed she had been looking at him, as if he were drinking her in, in place of the wine.
There was something different about his eyes, she decided, but she couldn't quite place it.
She remained still, pondering over the past and the present. And over Jareth.
He looked ravishingly beautiful in the candlelight, she admitted to herself.
He perceived the momentary flash in her eyes and she knew she was caught.
"Sarah," he whispered, raising a brow in her direction.
She wasn't quite sure what her reaction was.
But she didn't object.
And with that he was upon her, pressing his lips to hers with a soft sort of urgency. He probed her mouth with his tongue, enticing her senses to near exhaustion, and she kissed back with a serene intensity that could have frightened her if she let it. His free hand snaked behind her head and brushed against her hairline.
She shivered at his touch suddenly, and he pulled away, content to again stare into the murky depths of his wine.
Their closeness was over in an instant, though to Sarah it had lasted much longer.
She had just kissed Jareth, the Goblin King, her former adversary turned friendly houseguest. Her head was swimming.
This was different.
A silent alarm went off in her head.
There was something she needed to know.
"Jareth," she began.
"George," he grinned back to her.
She couldn't help but laugh at the ease with which he spoke the false identity, fully encompassing the role playing of the last few days. "Have you met my wife?" he asked lightly, seemingly perplexed. "I believe you two would get along fabulously," a feral smile spread across his face, making him appear truly menacing in the dim lighting, "you remind me of her a great deal."
She laughed at his retort and rubbed her shoulder against his as an appeasement.
"George," she began again, "There's something I have to know."
"Anything, my Queen." He reclined back into the booth and poised a hand in the air, reaching for the wine glass he had left behind on the table.
His grasp never reached it.
"If I had lost, eight years ago, what would you have done?"
He froze, taking a moment to think of a response that wouldn't completely give him away. Any response would do.
"I would have turned your brother into a goblin."
"And what about me?"
She was taking this rather well, or so he thought.
He couldn't see her eyes.
"I would have kept you Sarah, just as I said."
Now he saw the result of his words, or rather felt it, as she reached over and grabbed him by the sleeve. She bored holes deep into his eyes with her own, their intimate moment completely forgotten.
He found himself resorting to his old icy glare. He ripped her hand away from Bill's suit jacket.
"I never lied to you Sarah. I told you exactly what would happen to you at the start of the game. I told you what I would do."
"Is that supposed to sound honorable?" whispered Sarah, a raspy edge to her voice.
He couldn't help what he said next. He was tired, he was miserable, home was only hours away, and she was putting him on the defensive. He threw what he had at her without thinking.
"I bent the rules for you Sarah, even after you won. I went easy on you because I felt something for you I had never felt before and I was curious about it. I let you have the run of the labyrinth and I let you live out your greatest fantasy through me. And then," he paused both for effect and to calm his rapidly fraying nerves, "I let you go."
"You let me go?" Sarah practically lost all control at those four words. "You let me go?"
He nodded.
"No Jareth, I beat you. I beat the evil Goblin King at his own game and came home to tell the tale. I won my freedom."
Jareth shook his head.
'Evil' he scoffed silently.
She really didn't understand. Well then, so much for being elusive, he was going to have to spell it out for her.
"No Sarah." He met her gaze, and lightly laid his gloved hand upon hers. "In my Labyrinth there is nothing to be won. Do you understand? Nothing. No one has ever beaten it because I am ruthless, as is my land. You were above average in handling it, and that made me even more enamoured with you, but it did not get you all the way through my maze. The wall falling away before the cleaners got you, Hoggle being in the oubliette, your friends finding you in the junkyard," he took a moment here, "when you left the ballroom."
She was not convinced, "I left the ballroom because I wanted to leave the ballroom, Jareth."
"No." He tapped her fingers lightly and she stared down at their hands rather than into his eyes as he continued. "There is no will in my Labyrinth. There is no winning. Most people I send home halfway through the maze and wipe clean their memories of it. When you threw the chair, I shattered the mirror."
He saw the anger sweep away from her, she was beginning to believe him.
A question rose in her mind.
"Then why did you let me go on? Why did you ever let me reach the castle?"
When he answered he did so with complete honesty, and it even took him by surprise that he did so. "I stopped helping you along after awhile, I let you have full run of your actions soon after the ball. I wanted to see how far you'd make it." He stopped speaking for a moment, though Sarah knew he wasn't quite finished. "Sarah," he pulled her chin over to meet his gaze with his free hand. "You weren't supposed to refuse my offer." Her eyes filled with glistening anger and fear, along with something she couldn't place. He pleaded with her then, showing her a side of himself she had never seen, "You weren't supposed to refuse I me /I."
Heaven help her, she understood.
He dropped her chin and she averted her eyes, though she didn't pull her hand from his.
They sat in silence for a moment.
She was shocked when he was the first to speak.
"Sarah, there's more."
She turned to him, the thought that there was nothing more for him to clarify written clearly across her face, "Jareth, I-"
"I broke the law when I sent you home Sarah." He interjected. "Not my own law you understand, but the High Fae Court law, the Seelie Court law, the law of the kingdoms. You were never supposed to return home. Toby could be overlooked, of course, as he was just a child, and generally their memories fade away soon after they leave and they never think of the Underground again." If she looked terrified at the mention of her brother, it was nothing compared to what he was about to throw at her.
"But you, Sarah... when magic touches a person, it leaves their mark. The moment you left the Underground you took a piece of its magic with you, a piece of me." He avoided her for the rest of his statement, and closed his eyes as he continued. "There is group of nobles known as the thirteen corners alliance, I am a member of this alliance, as are all the other rulers of the land. I am much more than a childhood fantasy that frightens little children Sarah." He stopped for a moment, preparing to tell her everything as he had planned, "I am Lord Protector of the entire Underground. As Lord Protector I am one of the highest ranking officials of the realm. I won't bore you with the details of my job, but I will let you in on one of the qualifications.
I have never been beaten Sarah.
I had never been beaten, that is, until you. Until I let my guard down and let you return to the Aboveground against the laws of the entire realm. Eight years ago my strength was tested and I failed. As a result, the alliance has called a review of my status as Lord Protector, which I could very well loose."
He could hear her raspy breathing burning in his ears, "I can not loose that status, Sarah."
He turned his gaze back to her. He almost pitied her as she stared up at him, her face aglow with the candlelight. Almost.
"I'm sorry Jareth, but what does that have to do with me now? I can't exactly unbeat you."
He tightened his fist and lowered his gaze.
"Nothing Sarah," he lied, "Nothing at all."
The pair sat in silence until dinner had ended and returned to the apartment.
Jareth grumbled to himself as he twisted in his sheets later in the evening. The charade was over.
It was time to play the game once again.
- - - - - - - - - -
* avi
