It was night Above, and Sarah opted for the little black dress again. Alix had told her to wear whatever she liked, but she didn't want to look too out of place. She meant to show up as just another guest, though that plan was foiled when Ojore recognized her and waved her in ahead of the line.

Inside Imperiale, the music was already pulsing, and Sarah followed Ojore up the same narrow stair that led to Alix's office. He took her past that door, to a balcony behind the club's lighting system, where they could look down at the bar and the dance floor without being easily seen by the customers. Sarah looked down from the rail, curious; the crowd was mostly young, and appeared mostly human. They dressed dark and pretty, and currently they were dancing to a song she remembered from her own Goth phase.

There were several dancers up on small stages, with spotlights trained on them so their moving shadows flowed gracefully up the wall behind them. Those, Sarah guessed, were fae, their movements slightly too sinuous to be human. The bartenders had to be fae too, as employees in a critical role.

Ojore stood beside her a moment. "It is lovely, is it not?" he asked.

She smiled. "Yes, it is. This is a good place – I can feel that much, even without training. What I'd really love right about now is a drink. Let me head down there and grab a cider, okay?"

He demurred gently. "Allow me. Alix wishes to see you, and she will be up momentarily. We have several ciders in bottles. Have you a preferred brand?"

"Strongbow Cherry Blossom, if you have it," Sarah said, and he nodded. For the moment she was alone on the balcony, looking down at the club as if into her own youth.

There was a faint shushing noise behind her, and Sarah turned to see a small elevator opening. Colleen and Alix had ridden up, and the merrow rolled her chair forward as Alix stepped out with a smile. "Welcome, Sarah," the dryad said. "I admit, I am surprised to see you when I know you have so much to do Underground."

"That's why I'm here," Sarah replied honestly, letting out a sigh. "It all got pretty overwhelming, the night before the coronation, so I decided to come up and have a drink to steady my nerves. And where better to drink than among friends?"

"We'll make sure we don't send you down with a hangover, at any rate," Colleen added with a chuckle, rolling up beside her. "It's a good night, methinks."

"Yes," Alix replied to them both, coming to Sarah's other side. "And what would you like to drink?"

Sarah smiled. "Ojore said he'd get me a cider. I wanted to go get it myself – your people aren't my servants – but he insisted."

"No, we are not yours to command, but you are our guest," Alix corrected. "That confers certain privileges. And our drinks should be here in a moment, in any case."

She'd barely finished speaking when one of the bartenders ran lightly up the stairs, balancing a tray with Sarah's cider, bottled spring water for Alix, and a cocktail for Colleen. The three of them drank, Sarah letting the slightly alcoholic cider relax her, along with the easy company.

A few others joined them, Ojore among them. Alix introduced Sarah to the group, which included her sound technician and a few of the other support staff. Most of them hung back from the rail, letting Alix and Sarah have the prime spot. They all seemed content to sip their drinks and enjoy the ambiance.

"So you find yourself overwhelmed by the notion of being queen," Alix mused. "I can certainly see where that might require a drink or three. But barring that luxury, for you surely don't want a hangover, perhaps we can arrange some other distraction. We did say your next lesson would be working with the ambient energy here."

Sarah took another sip of cider, thinking about that. That was most certainly guaranteed to take her mind off things. Wasn't that why she'd come up in the first place? Finally, she said, "I'll try, but I'm so not at the top of my game today."

Alix shrugged. "It cannot hurt to try. So, ground and center, first."

Taking a deep breath, she did as requested. The ground was further away here, but Sarah found herself able to root into the sense of it even when she wasn't touching the earth directly. She felt so much steadier after she'd done it, her concerns about the coronation no less prominent, but they seemed to sway her less.

"Good," Alix said. "Now, feel the energy coming from the dance floor. It's much milder than what you're used to, with a king and kingdom at hand. It may take a while."

Sarah tried, she truly did. Her eyes closed, her brow furrowed, she was aware only of the fae around her. Nothing from the club below. She bent every ounce of her will in concentration, and then lost the sense even of Alix of beside her. Sarah grumbled under her breath.

"Relax," Alix told her, placing one hand atop hers. "You cannot force it. You're not trying to re-route a river, Sarah. You're gathering dew. Be patient."

Sarah managed a chuckle. "I'm more stubborn than patient."

Alix sighed at her, but there was a smile in her voice. "Let me show you."

Her eyes opened, to see Alix's green energy twining up her arm. That deep connection to the living earth was right there, and with it, a keener sense of the subtle power in the dancing humans below. Sarah wanted to know, needed to know, how to do magic up Above, how to do it safely, without Jareth's theatrics or her own tendency to explosions. And patience had never been one of her virtues.

Remembering her last lesson, the way Alix had deftly slipped under her defenses, Sarah found that layer of protection in herself and tried to will it to part. At first, nothing happened. She remembered the dryad questioning her trust, and knew that wise or not, she did trust Alix. So Sarah envisioned a heavy curtain between them, and in her mind's eye, pulled it down.

Confusion. Now she felt the gentle, steady flow of mildly-intoxicated joy from the dancers below. But she also felt Colleen and Ojore and the rest at her back, giving her their support unquestioningly, and felt her own fierce protectiveness of them. She felt a kind of love for the dancers below, and a wistfulness, that they provided so freely and cavorted so innocently, unaware of all the supernatural dangers in this world. Her own pain and mistrust was an old familiar ache, and she no longer felt bitterness to those untrammeled by cruelty. Only a kindly sort of envy. And she felt a surprising fondness for the queen-to-be at her side, who ought to be a threat or a pawn, or both, and yet her affection for the young woman was untainted by manipulation. Something about the woman's straightforward manner, her courage, or her unflinching eyes, drew her in farther than she'd meant to go.

Sarah drew a sharp breath; those were Alix's thoughts and feelings, as if they were her own. And the instant she knew that, she also knew that Alix could sense her as deeply. The dryad knew that Sarah counted her a friend, would fight for her at need, considered her and her people part of her own concern now. For better or for worse, there was trust between them, and an almost sisterly love. Sarah had never had a sister, never even imagined an older sibling, and the confidence in each other was surprising.

Alix carefully lifted her hand from Sarah's, and gave her a look. "Well then. We were on lesson three, Sarah Williams, and how to meld your mind and magic with another was somewhere about lesson fifty-three. But you're right, you've never been patient."

Sarah laughed shakily. "Have I mentioned how lucky I am to be learning from you? Jareth would still be cackling about every thought I've ever had about him."

The dryad scoffed. "Very lucky indeed. When you did that, I could reach Umardelin through you, if I wanted. Good thing we've established I want my own kingdom, not yours."

"Mine comes with a snarky high fae king," Sarah reminded her.

"One who is madly in love with you," Alix added, and smiled. "Now then. Let's see if we can do this without being in each other's heads, hmm?"

Sarah woke the next morning to Jareth nuzzling her shoulder and gently stroking her side. "You went Above last night," he murmured, his voice soft and thoughtful.

"Yes, but as I told Umardelin, I came back," she replied, stretching. Only a great fool would have honestly thought that Jareth wouldn't have noticed. Best to just be honest and not defensive. "It's all so … so much, Jareth. And it was suddenly much, much too real. I needed a drink, a reminder of how I am outside of this, and a few minutes to process this whole coronation business. And another lesson with Alix didn't hurt."

"Well then," he purred, placing a gentle kiss upon her shoulder. "I suppose you deserve both a reward for returning, and a reminder of why you chose my kingdom and I over the supposed sanity of the world Above."

Sarah laughed. Typical Jareth, to reassure himself by seduction of her loyalties when she would wear their kingdom's crown by nightfall. Not that she had any intention of stopping him. "Oh really? And what exactly do you have in mind, sirrah?"

"Allow me to show you, precious," he chuckled, and did precisely that.

Afterward, when Sarah relaxed in his arms with an amused and satisfied smile, she searched for some witty remark to make about the king's charms being his saving grace. She was interrupted, however, by a weight landing on the bed, and Neesk's cheerful voice saying, "If you's done, breakfast is ready an' th' Queen Mum sez you's gotta get up."

Or he tried to, anyway. He was cut off by Sarah's shriek of alarm and dismay, and the way she snatched the blankets to cover herself almost tumbled him off the bed. Feeling her cheeks burn, Sarah almost couldn't look her own page in the eye from embarrassment. "Neesk! Oh my God, how long have you been in here?!"

Jareth remained much calmer, though her frantic clutching at the covers had nearly exposed him entirely. "Your pardon, Neesk. Pray tell my mother we will be down directly." The little goblin scampered off while Sarah stared at Jareth, round-eyed.

When she finally managed to string together words, her voice sounded fraught to her own ears. "Dammit, Jareth, how long was he in here? Oh my God, was he waiting for us to finish? I don't want to traumatize him!"

Jareth fell back against the pillows with a sigh. "Sarah, love. The goblins may have once been children, some of them, but most are adults now. They do breed. Yet they are different enough from us now that they see little similarity. They are no more traumatized by the sight of you and I than we would be by the sight of dragonflies mating on the wing."

She grumbled, grabbing her nightgown and yanking it over her head before getting out of the bed. And then, in the sitting room, there were two basins of steaming water waiting for her and Jareth to wash up. That had her stopping dead in the doorway in shock. How had she not noticed this until this morning? "Great. Either you magicked this in, or the servants come wandering in while we're having sex, too. Has this been happening the whole time and I just didn't notice? And don't even try to tell me they look at us like dragonflies."

Jareth scoffed at her, splashing his face with water. "Sarah. Welcome to life as a royal. You will rarely have true privacy. For our safety, guards sleep outside the doors, and for our convenience servants enter our rooms at all hours. They pretend not to notice what we do, and we pretend not to notice them. It is part of how this works. Would you inflict your embarrassment upon them as well, by pointing out that you know they can hear us?"

They told you in historical films, over and over, that this was the reality of court life. The best example of it she had seen was in a film about Marie Antoinette, the whole ritual of dressing for French royalty. Sarah could only be grateful that it was nowhere as ridiculous here. But just the thought that anyone could see… In the end, what could she do but sigh heavily and start her own morning routine. "Okay, so I've been willfully blind to it. You have a point, Goblin King. That said, it doesn't mean I have to like it."

"No, but you must accustom yourself to a different lifestyle than you've known. I do not doubt that you will change some of our traditions, my Sarai, even as you yourself must change." Jareth laughed then. "Be glad this is not your realm some centuries ago, where you would have been expected to come to my bed a virgin, and the bloodied sheets hung out the window for all to see."

Sarah snorted. "Historically, there were a lot of solutions for that – hide a brooch and scratch your arm, a hidden vial of blood in a pendant, or something. You're just still pouting that you missed being my first by what, a day?"

Jareth reached out to rumple her already-tousled hair. "If you'd known what awaited you here, Sarah, you would never have bothered to dally with teenage mortal boys. And your brother would probably be a goblin."

She only rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you still had a two-year wait, Casanova. For my will is as strong as yours…" Shaking her head, smirking, Sarah picked up a comb that was conveniently laid out next to the basin, and tried to restore some order to her hair.

After a moment of a thought forcing itself to prominence, nudging her steadily, she sighed, and set down the brush. She really didn't want to tell him what she knew, but it had to be done at some point, before he found out by other means. And with her luck, if Jareth found out in the middle of the coronation ball, he'd probably cause a scene. "Speaking of teenagers, and my brother," Sarah began.

"I had a man-to-man chat with him," Jareth told her. "He seems sensible."

Sarah gave a dry chuckle. "Yeah, so you thought yesterday. But … that was when we still thought my genius of a baby brother was crushing on Marlene. It's a little more complicated than we guessed."

"Oh gods, which of my unfortunate subjects is he fascinated with, then?" Jareth sighed. "If we're lucky, she may be single."

"She's most definitely not single," Sarah said, shaking her head. No point in drawing it out; there was no way Jareth wasn't going to have vapors, no matter how she sugar-coated it. "Jareth, it's Della. He saw Della in the hallway and fell head over heels in love. And then basically told her as much when I introduced him to her."

Jareth had been trying to tame his own hair, and he froze, staring at her. "What? Of all the idiot adolescent… At least he didn't choose the wife of someone who'd have his eyes put out for the insult. Good gods, Sarah, does madness run in your family?"

With that, Sarah turned from the mirror she'd been facing, turning with an arch look and crossed arms to face her lover. It was on the tip of her tongue to lash out at him, but curbed the prickle she felt to her dignity. "Yeah, we fall for people who are both crazy and crazy-gorgeous, present company fitting both categories," Sarah shot back. "I know, I'm damn glad Thiel thought it was funny."

"He would," Jareth growled under his breath, and turned away to get dressed.

Sarah had to hurry back to her own room to get fresh clothes, so she made it downstairs slightly later than Jareth. Which meant she got to see him flick Toby in the ear as her brother sat at the breakfast nook. "You are a fool," he proclaimed.

"Ow!" Toby complained, wincing away. "What was that for?"

Ignoring Sarah glaring at him, Jareth answered, "My mother. Yea gods, boy. Everything I said of Beldych goes double – nay, triple – for my father. I have seen him cleave a troll in half with one swing of his sword. Be very glad you are young enough to only amuse him."

Toby blushed furiously, and Sarah swept in, elbowing Jareth on the way by. "It's under control," she said, cutting her brother a look that warned it had damned well better be. "We have a coronation to get ready for, so I need some food. And the way this is going, another drink."

"Don't get so sloshed you forget your lines," Toby warned.

"I'm not gonna get drunk," Sarah sighed. "Just get me some breakfast and a cider and don't do anything else stupid until I'm crowned, okay? That goes for both of you."

The affronted looks Jareth and Toby gave her for that were nearly identical.

Sarah considered herself very fortunate that she didn't have to greet the guests who were arriving in throngs. She was in a small private room off the main throne room, fully dressed in her gorgeous coronation gown, with several of the small fairies flitting about her head, placing jewels in her hair. All she had to do, for the next little while, was wait. And concentrate on not fainting, or freaking out and running screaming out the castle.

Someone tapped on the door, and slipped in before Sarah could even say she wanted to be alone. It was Toby, and one glance at her face had him hurrying to her side to hug her. For a long moment, Sarah just hugged him back.

At last, he said, "If you wanna run away, I'll cause a distraction."

She couldn't help laughing. "I don't want to run away. That's the problem, Tobe. I want this. It's huge and it's scary and it's going to change my life forever, but God help me, I want this like I want my next breath. I need it. And needing anything that bad, that's what scares me. I'm too deep in the story now to close the book, and even if I could, I know I'd be closing off a big part of who I am."

His arms around her waist squeezed extra tight. "Then go out and get it, Sarah. When have you ever not kicked butt and taken names to get something you really need? Dude, you're the Champion of the Labyrinth, they're all talking about you down there like you're … like you're Wonder Woman and She-Hulk all wrapped up together. Half those pointy-eared guys are scared of you. You got this."

Sarah smiled at that, then the expression faded. Toby had been mingling with the guests? Jareth promised her someone would keep an eye on him, knowing the fae propensity for toying with mortals, but he sounded as if he'd been freely roaming among them. "Someone's sticking by you in case anyone starts trouble, right?" she asked, arching a brow.

"Oh yeah, Thiel and Della are always right there," he replied easily. "He was the one who showed me how to get up to this room, when I worried about you. Thiel's made it his job to look out for me, and he does a really good angry-dad face. Better than Dad, actually."

That earned a relieved sigh. With everything that could possibly happen in this mad day, at least there would be very little chance of a faerie-kidnap. Even the thought of possible murder if Toby kept eyeballing Della was preferable to that. "Good, he needs to be. I want you safe down here, Dorklord; how would I explain it to Karen?"

"Yeah, no, Mom would have you committed," he laughed, then nudged her playfully. "Don't call me Dorklord, and I won't call you Queen of Tights, okay?"

Sarah scrunched up her nose at him for that one. "I'm not usually the one wearing the tights, Tobe."

"No, but you're the one ruling over the guy who is," he pointed out, and brought forth welcome laughter from both of them.

The hour had come round at last and there could be no more stalling. Even though Sarah had seen the guest list, she still wasn't prepared for the crowd in the audience chamber when she stepped out. For half a second, she felt her heart stutter, internally fighting the worst case of stage-fright she could imagine, but who could blame her? Half of Umardelin was there, along with a host of fae nobles from far and wide. Luckily, Toby was in the front row next to Thiel and Della, and her little brother gave her a quick wink before the fear could dig its claws in. Unable to stop herself, she chuckled out loud and smiled at him. Maybe it had been a good idea to have Tobe there, after all.

Sarah took a deep breath, her chin rising slightly, and strode forward to the appointed place, with Sir Didymus and Ludo on either side and an honor guard of goblins behind her. Her heart thundered in her ears, even as she refused to betray her nerves. The wise man awaited her before the throne, and Jareth stood to the other side of it.

She had seen the new throne room and approved of its design, but it was entirely different to be standing up here on the dais, all eyes on her in her official capacity. The grandeur of it left her nearly breathless.

Jareth's voice rang out, strong and sure. "Lords and ladies, and all citizens of Umardelin, I here present to you Sarai, your undoubted Queen. Wherefore all you who have assembled to do her honor and service this day, will you do the same?"

"Long live Queen Sarai!" the goblins and fae of her realm called back. Sarah was startled to feel tears prickling in her eyes at that. They had such confidence in her, all of them, from Beldych's hoarse shout to the night trolls' deep voices and the goblins' piping cries. All of them acclaimed her in one voice, without hesitation. And suddenly, Sarah could no longer hear her traitor heart, only the ring of their voices. So many years of slipping in and out of this realm, of its magic touching her life, and now it would be her own. She would never be in fear of living without it. You are mine, I am yours. The phase, which had once only been used between she and Jareth, would now become a vow she shared with her kingdom, as well.

The wise man stepped up then, regarding her fiercely from beneath bushy brows. For once, the solemnity of the occasion kept his hat silent, but it bobbed its head at her in excitement nonetheless. "Will you promise and swear to govern the peoples and realm of Umardelin according to our traditions and customs?" the wise man asked.

The weight of his words, the power there, swirled around her briskly. Never had she been so aware of Umardelin as a presence, not even the first time she felt it. Never had anything felt so real. It was nearly overwhelming. "I do so swear," Sarah replied, glad of all those acting classes allowing her voice to project and keep steady.

"Will you use your power for the cause of Law and Justice, tempered by Mercy, in all your judgments?" the wise man asked.

"I will," she responded with the barest nod.

"Will you to the utmost of your power protect Umardelin and its people from all threats, serving your land as we shall serve you?" came the final question.

"I shall," Sarah said, feeling an ancient strength and surety cloak her, a kind of soul-deep relief coursing through her. In this moment, she knew that this had been inevitable. This was who she was, this is what she had been meant to be, from the moment she had opened that little book with the red leather cover, with its black roses and scroll-work. The golden letters, faintly metallic, reading The Labyrinth. From the moment Umardelin had seen fit to spirit it into Linda's path. "I as your Queen shall do all I that have promised this day, as long as I shall reign."

Jareth gave a slight nod, indicating that the formal oath had been completed correctly, and Sarah let out the breath she was holding. Behind her came a furious buzzing of wings, as an entire flock of flower-fairies bore her mantle to her and draped it around her shoulders. Rich, heavy velvet of royal purple, trimmed in pure white ermine, it fastened at her throat with a golden clasp worked in the shape of a laughing goblin face.

This part of the ceremony was the investment of her regalia, of which the royal mantle was only the first part. Sarah received, with all due ceremony and presented by the wise man after various officials brought them forth: a sword of justice, a scepter of mercy, a crystal orb of wisdom, and finally the signet ring that symbolized her bond to the land. Its deeply carved face bore an image of the Labyrinth itself, or at least part of its stone maze, signifying her status as Champion.

Now the four goblins came forward, bearing her crown. All of them beamed toothily at her, and Sarah smiled back with affection. They were hers now, the same as Jareth, hers to care for, hers to protect. She lifted the crown reverently, and though the rehearsal version had been weighted, this one felt heavier somehow. Rich gem-studded silver, warm and lambent in her hands, and she raised it high for all to see. "With this crown, I claim my right to rule Umardelin faithfully, justly, and wisely, for as long as I may live," she called out, and brought it carefully down upon her hair.

At that precise moment, bells tolled throughout the kingdom, trumpeters at the back of the throne room played a fanfare, cannons fired a salvo from the castle's battlements, and every resident of Umardelin cried out "Long live the Queen!" three times, growing louder each time.

But Sarah heard and saw none of it. The moment the weight of the crown rested on her head, the crowd vanished. For her, the world had gone purely golden.