A/N: WHOOOOOT! I'm so glad so many people like my story! It's really a pleasure to write. The weird thing is all the long chapters in such a short amount of time ... normally my chapters are much shorter ... wow ...
For my adoring (and much adored) reviewers:
Aurora Ranger: Wow ... such a long review! ((hugs)) I figured, this is gonna be a continuation of the original movie, and so it should have some depth, right? So many fics just have original ways of getting Jareth and Sarah together and don't focus on much else. But there's so much else to focus on! That's why this isn't going to revolve around the romance, everything else is just too interesting to ignore. So, here's the requested chapter, all spiffied up and such!
Bailaora: Hmm. Yes, "bach" is Welsh, but they don't speak just Scottish in Scotland, and Wales is nearby, and I really like the word. It has "Darius" written all over it. And it may mean 'baby' literally, but in this context I'm using the Encarta Dictionary definition: "bach: affectionate form of address to a man or boy, alone or after somebody's name." Thanks for pointing that out, though, I didn't know it had other meanings! ((more hugs!)) And I'm so glad you like it!
Bess: ((falls over)) OKAY! I UPDATED! I'M GLAD YOU LOVED IT!
Lonewolf-chica: Wow, you're going to delete from your favorite stories to make room for this! ((shock and awe)) Wow, I'm so honored, thank you!
Ashira: I'm so so so so glad you like Darius! So far, anyways, heheh ... I was afraid people wouldn't like him, most of the time I see Jareth getting a best friend/second-in-command with either a really forceful, military-ish personality, or with a laid-back personality that is almost as bad as Jareth's, if not worse, and Darius isn't either of those. I'm glad you like the random bits of humor! (The goblins get all the tapioca pudding that the schools never use, and even they don't like it, so they give it to the puny little cobblestone goblins. Who hate it. This is what led to the revolt in the first place, but as you can see, Jareth really has no idea.)
Jareth hated Council Meetings.
With a passion, he hated them. He despised them, reviled, loathed, and detested them. And, for once, he truly had good reason to do so.
Council Meetings weren't truly meetings. That is to say, once in a while, all the Fae and Sidhe and Fair Folk and Duskie rulers and leaders and kings and queens would gather together to catch up on goings on between kingdoms, perhaps bring up a territorial dispute to the Elders, or some other such complaint. Other than that, if nothing truly serious concerning the kingdoms was going on, it was basically a large social event, where rulers and their followers and servants met and mingled and danced and made polite chit-chat.
Jareth couldn't stand polite chit-chat, though he realized its necessity in the neverending game of intrigue that so captivated so many of the Courts – a game in which he was an unwilling player all too often. He didn't enjoy playing by another's rules. He was used to creating his own rules. Having to grit his teeth and play along with the other rulers needled him ceaselessly. Normally, Darius would be there, acting as his anchor, restoring his short patience with his mere presence, which was always calm and steady. That was just the sort of person he was. But this time … this time, it was that bothersome Sir Didymus, that knightly fox with his manic energy and archaic mannerisms, and Jetsam, the tall, wiry, demonic kobold with his silent, slightly threatening behavior that persuaded anyone approaching him to leave the vicinity as quickly as possible.
The aura about both his subjects did not do wonders for his mood. The hum of speculation surrounding the absence of Darius did not help matters very much, either, all of which amounted to a very surly Goblin King.
"E-excuse me, Your Majesty." A stammering, nervous voice interrupted Jareth's thoughts. He looked down to see a young pixie standing before him. She was small, but then all pixies were, even in their larger forms, which was what she had assumed for the meeting. Her long tawny hair, streaked with darker shades of brown, hung down three-quarters of the way down her back, with a long single braid hanging down one side of her face, braided with ribbons of earthy brown and green. Her ears were long and delicately pointed, her cheekbones high and her eyes slanted, their shade a muddy brown. Her skin was light, tanned slightly from the summer sun. She wore simple clothing, though attractive nonetheless, her dress made of more earthy tones of blue and green. Jareth had seen this particular pixie many times before – apparently she was a skilled spell-singer for health and beauty, young but not extremely so – talking with Darius. They gravitated towards each other every meeting, talking for lengthy periods of time. Jareth had the suspicion that she had a slight crush developing on the handsome and friendly cat-hawk, though he knew that Darius felt her to be a good friend. Her name was … Ada? No, Adie, that was it. One of the simpler names – the pixies were of German origins. The Goblin Kingdom was one of the few kingdoms that was common to practically all the cultures of the Aboveground.
"Yes?" he said finally, when it became clear that she was too intimidated to continue.
"Ah – I-I was wondering, Your Majesty, where –" she stammered, obviously ill at ease, her discomfort and nervousness showing up vividly on her face. "I was wondering, Your Highness, where … where Darius is." She stood there, her eyes fixed on his face as if she was too frightened to look anyplace else. What kind of horror stories did Queen Didrika spread about him to her servants that this young pixie was so terrified of him?
Jareth looked at her for a moment, each passing second increasing Adie's discomfort, before replying easily, "Why ask me? Why not ask one of my subjects?" Seeing her chastised face he added, "Surely you'd be more at ease with them."
Hesitantly, Adie shook her head. "Begging your pardon, but no, Your Majesty," she whispered. "The kobold frightens me, and the fox knight is … indulging in the drink a bit much, sir. So I … I came to ask you."
Jareth cocked his head, fixing her with his coolest stare. Finally, he replied, "He is in my kingdom."
She bit her lip, as if gathering her courage, before continuing, "Yes, but why did he not come? He always …" she swallowed. "He always comes," she finished quietly.
"Yes," a sharp voice that was not loud so much as carrying added as a tall figure approached the two. "Why, indeed, has the faithful Darius not come this day?" Jareth sneered angrily at the intruder, who was none other than Lord Alaric of the Kelpies. The Kelpie Lord was in his human form, tall and pale, with long hair so dark a black that it seemed to have greenish-blue highlights where the light glinted off of it. A gold circlet rested about his brow, an emerald glittering at its fore. His eyes were dark, as deep as the forbidding marshy pools where his people made their homes. His nose was arched, his cheekbones thin and slanted, his mouth twisted in a mocking sneer. If you looked closely, a lock of seaweed dangled at the back of his head, intertwined with his dark hair, the only clue as to his true form.
Alaric stepped to Jareth's side as his loud inquiry attracted the attention of the other lords and ladies in the room, focusing the spotlight on their conversation. "We should all like to know," the Lord added, indicating the rest of the royalty and servants. He cocked his head, malice glittering deep in his eyes.
"That is none of your concern," Jareth snarled, anger flaring up. Adie was caught in the crossfire, too terrified to move away. Jareth ignored her – she wasn't part of this.
Alaric smiled – a smile that Jareth didn't trust. "Indeed. Well, perhaps you felt he wasn't fit to come tonight. What with him being blinded and all."
Astonished silence greeted the Kelpie Lord's words. Adie gasped. "Blinded!" she exclaimed in genuine anguish, staring first at Alaric in horror, then at Jareth in a silent plea for him to deny it. It pained Jareth to see the agony in her gaze: Adie was a simple girl, with no subtleties or pretense within her, who felt emotions rather more strongly – and oftentimes painfully – than most. She was like a child that way, and that was why Jareth (and Darius) appreciated her – she reminded them of the children they so often entertained. Jareth, contrary to popular belief, was in possession of a heart, and truly adored children. It was a requirement when you were Goblin King and Lord of the Labyrinth, really. And Adie was so like a child sometimes, innocent and guileless.
Jareth pinned Alaric with his coldest glare, his mismatched eyes blazing. "And who, precisely, led you to believe that?" he hissed menacingly.
Alaric laughed, a cold, mocking sound. "Oh, no one led me to believe it. I have my sources, King Jareth, and they told me in absolute certainty – the brave, noble Darius is blind. By a rouge rover, if I recall the report correctly."
Murmurings sprung up all around them, surrounding Jareth on all sides – some faces shocked, some sad, some calculating, a few worried. Tears welled up in Adie's eyes, though she bit her lip to keep them from falling, a fact that did not escape Jareth's attention. Yes, she truly was like a child, though he knew her grief was genuine. She was a good friend of Darius.
Mentally, though, Jareth was swearing a blue streak into the wallpaper. Damn Alaric … now there was no way to accuse him. The Kelpie Lord had deftly deflected all blame from himself with his mention of a rogue rover. Rovers were magical beings that did not make their home in any one place, nor ally themselves with any one court. Robin Goodfellow – better known as Puck – was one such rover. But 'rogue' rovers were wanderers that went about striking out at random kingdoms, with the intent to do harm. No one knew their intentions or motivations – even mortals knew of them, as testified by their popular children's game "Red Rover". Jareth could not now accuse Alaric's court, for if it was a rogue kelpie, then it was no concern of the Kelpie Lord, and to accuse him would be a horrendous insult. Damn him, he danced upon a web of lies and intrigue woven so tightly that not even Jareth, master of mistruths and wordplay, could not pick his way through it. The Goblin King wished viciously that someday Alaric's own web would trip him up and ensnare him, though he knew that the damn Kelpie Lord knew his own web as well as Jareth himself knew his Labyrinth.
"So. The great Darius is blind." The loud, brash voice belonged to none other than young Prince Gwydion, son of Queen Titania, queen of the Faeries – not the annoying, biting fairies; the strange, interfering, yet remote beings incapable of, among other things, love and kindness. It was said, in ancient legend, that all the Fae, Sidhe, and Elves were descended from these unique creatures. Queen Titania was head of the Seelie Court, as well.
Gwydion stared directly at Jareth, his gaze arrogant and self-assured, an expression Jareth himself often used, though not with this degree of rudeness. "Such a pity. The brave warrior, now a cripple." The last word was spat like an insult at the Goblin King, who drew himself up to his full height and power, eyes flashing dangerously.
"Little princeling, watch your tongue, lest you find yourself without it," Jareth hissed, a slight wind kicking up in his anger. Gwydion appeared startled at the open threat, but when no one backed the prince up, he subsided, cowed but by no means defeated, if the sullen glower was anything to go by.
"Yes!" Sir Didymus cried suddenly, brandishing his sword at the prince in a righteous frenzy. "You, sir, are impertinent! And Sir Darius is by no means a 'cripple'! I demand the right of battle with this brash youth!" He yipped and barked at Gwydion menacingly, his bushy tail flying this way and that.
"Calm yourself, Sir Didymus," Jareth commanded, wrapping his cloak about himself. "Come, Jetsam, knight – we are leaving."
"As are we," Queen Titania added, drawing her son along with her, no doubt about to give him a sound tongue-lashing. Other nobles nodded and began to leave as well, the party atmosphere ruined by the sudden news and ensuing dispute.
"Adie!" Queen Didrika called sharply from across the room. "Adie, come here this instant!"
Adie jumped, then bowed and murmured a hasty farewell to the Goblin King before racing off, quickly vanishing into the growing crowd. Jareth nodded to her, then turned to leave, conjuring a crystal as Sir Didymus and Jetsam approached.
"Home," he snapped, tossing the crystal into the air and transporting them to the Goblin Castle. They arrived in the throne room, which was blissfully empty of goblins, all of them herded elsewhere for the night. Jareth sank into his throne, waving a dismissal to Sir Didymus and Jetsam. The pair exchanged worried glances before leaving, glancing backwards every now and then to their discouraged king.
Jareth buried his face in his hands and groaned. Terrific. The absolute worst possible thing that could have happened … had happened. Alaric, of all people, had announced to the entire ruling nobility and their gossipy servants that Darius, right-hand-man of the Goblin Kingdom, was now blind. And soon, word would get around that his Labyrinth had finally been beaten – by a mortal girl, no less. Things could not get any worse than this.
Out of habit, he conjured a crystal to watch over his kingdom and take his mind off of the night's fiasco. He found the goblins spread out across the Great Goblin Hall, snoring loudly. In the kitchen he found organized, grandmotherly Cook, fixing some hot chocolate for Darius, who was reclining in one of the kitchen's few chairs, both of them speculating on how the Council Meeting would turn out. Jareth was strongly tempted to join them, to be surrounded by the warm, homey smells of the kitchen, to be mother-henned by Cook and hash things out with Darius, to have a cup of hot chocolate and try to forget the night's catastrophe. Darius and Cook were the only two people with whom Jareth felt no need to uphold the 'haughty, regal Goblin King' charade. Cook was like a bossy great-aunt, no real direct relation to him but one who insisted upon mother-henning him and Darius at all times, something that could be perversely comforting, as was her late-night hot chocolate and peach cobbler.
He decided to do just one more thing before joining the only two people he could truly call 'friends'. He redirected the crystal to show Sarah.
She was sitting on her bed with a pencil in hand and a sketchbook on her lap, sketching with long, broad strokes. He watched as the picture slowly took form under her hand – the Wise Man and his Bird Hat, from the hedge maze! He was surprised that she was drawing things from her time in the Labyrinth; but then, she had gone her whole life dreaming of a place like it – she wasn't about to forget it just because of …
He halted the thought. He knew what was coming next –'because of him.' Because of his interference, his tricks and traps and dangers, because of his threats. Because she had seen him as a villain and nothing more.
He scowled and hurled the crystal at the floor, whereupon it shattered satisfyingly into multicolored bursts of light. That done, he snapped his fingers and transported himself into the kitchen without so much as a by-your-leave.
Cook looked up at the Goblin King's sudden appearance, Darius grinning as the familiar clicking of Jareth's boots reached his large ears. Cook silently handed the scowling Goblin King a mug of hot chocolate. Jareth stared at it for a moment before grudgingly accepting.
"Sooo…" Darius prompted after a moment of silence in which Jareth sipped from his steaming mug; "How did it go?"
"I just want to forget it at the moment," Jareth grumbled, resting his chin on his hand as he swirled the foam around in his cup with a spoon.
Cook tsk-tsked him, shaking her head. She was a goblin, naturally – one with a talent for cooking peach cobbler. She was a very organized sort of person, keeping the castle neater than it might have been if two bachelors and a certain goblin horde had been left to their own devices. "It'll just plague you 'till you tell us – and if it doesn't, we will," she half-admonished, half-threatened him.
Jareth only blinked, too tired to retort. Cook noticed this, and subsided slightly. "My crisp is nearly done," she said in her gruff, direct manner, turning to face the stove once more. Darius chuckled fondly before returning his attention to his downcast friend.
"Well?" he finally queried, drawing a questioning look from Jareth. Continuing, he gestured dramatically; "Was it horrid? Was it a debacle? Was it disastrous? Was it the end of the world as we know it, and we should now love one another like there's no dish soap left in the world?"
Jareth fought, and lost, to keep the smile from spreading across his face. Though Darius couldn't possibly know, he heard Jareth chuckle, and knew things were well on their way to being mended. "Come on," he coaxed. "It can't be as bad as all that, else I shall go and proclaim my undying love to the kettle whilst I still draw breath. I've always wanted to do that, really, and the end of the world isn't going to take that chance away from me."
Jareth shook his head, laughing at his friend's absurdity as he pushed the mug of hot chocolate away from himself. "No, not as bad as all that," he admitted, leaning back into his wooden chair. "But bad enough."
Darius cocked his head, sightless eyes fixed slightly above Jareth's head. "Well, then. Let's hear it."
Jareth sighed. "Well, Alaric announced to the Courts at large – in the middle of the ball, no less – that you've been blinded, and then pointed the blame at a rogue rover. So now I am unable to accuse him … and the whole bloody world thinks you're a bloody cripple because I didn't bring you!" His voice steadily rose until he was nearly shouting by the end. "Titania is hungry for power, as always, and her brash son is still a foul-mouthed little horror, and it seems even Queen Didrika is stirring resentment in her subjects against me! Little Adie, the one who likes to speak with you, she could hardly look me in the eye for fear of me! And soon, everyone will also know that my Labyrinth has been defeated – by a mortal girl, a child no less! Pray tell, Darius, what part of that isn't disastrous!"
Darius calmly waited until Jareth had finished, then frowned slightly in thought. "Hmm. Well, we can expect trouble from the Seelie Court, then … but if we remain alert we should be alright for a while, they like to convince people to relinquish their power of their own will, and dislike forward confrontations. And Alaric will guarantee the presence of the Unseelie Court as well … But what incentive Queen Didrika could have against you, I don't know. The Pixies and the Goblins have always been on pleasant terms. Perhaps Adie heard some horror stories from another kingdom, or perhaps Puck has been up to his usual mischief again."
"That's the problem, isn't it?" Jareth sighed, rubbing his mismatched eyes with his hands. "We don't know. We just don't know."
Cook chose this moment to interrupt, placing her steaming hot apple crisp onto the table while stating in her gruff, matter-of-fact way, "Well, saying you don't know isn't likely to do you much good, Highness. Might as well stop worrying about it, get some rest, and think it over in the morning."
Darius nodded in agreement, a playful grin lighting his face as he added, "After all, if worst comes to worst, you can always dump the lot of them in the Labyrinth. That'll sort them out soon enough."
Jareth gave a short, barking laugh, shaking his head as he helped himself to a hot piece of crisp. "Yes, there's always that," he agreed, blowing on the crisp before taking a large bite. Swallowing, he spoke to Cook; "Delicious, as always."
Cook gave him a quick, tolerant grin before sweeping away the crisp, proclaiming, "Bed, now! The both of you!"
"But I didn't get any crisp!" Darius protested, looking in Cook's direction imploringly.
"No!" she snapped, slapping his hand, which was reaching for the crisp. "I wasn't even going to let his Highness have any, but he stole some. Now, bed! Go! Shoo!"
Half-heartedly protesting, the weary pair were shooed from the kitchen to make their way to their rooms. Pausing in front of Darius' doorway, they exchanged tired goodnights. Jareth then entered his own bedchambers and flopped unceremoniously onto his large canopy bed. Without bothering to remove his formal clothes, only pausing long enough to cast away his cape, Jareth fell back and slept.
The next morning, the whole castle was awakened by a loud shout of "Daaariiuuuss!" as the Goblin King awoke to find his entire room remodeled in various, eye-smarting shades of pink. Loud crashes resounded throughout the castle for some time afterwards, and, later, if anyone ever inquired as to the large amount of green cheese playing charades in the storage rooms within the castle, they were met only with a shrug and a knowing smile.
And so, life continued at its usual pace in the Castle Beyond the Goblin City.
A/N: So ... how is it? Bad? Good? Stupendous? Horrendous? I can look up more words in my thesaurus later ...
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