Ascension
Jareth and Tobias turned to the east. The Fairy Queen stood framed by the first light of morning. Fairies flitted about her and the light played on her red velvet gown.
She opened her arms and Tobias bounded toward her. She embraced him, then held him at arm's length, looking fondly at him.
"Tobias is Karen's son," she told Jareth. "My fairy blood was through my mother. His death would have been for nothing."
For once, the Goblin King was without words.
"But my blood, my mortality, was enough," she told Tobias. "The land is restored, and I am as I was." She sighed.
"You are," Jareth's words rang out coldly in the morning light. He retrieved the dagger and presented it to her, hilt first. "Will you have my blood then, Your Majesty," he asked. "It may restore nothing, but it will assuage your rage."
Sarah sighed again.
"There will be no more death between us, my husband," she said. She gestured and the dagger was a horseshoe once more, hovering in the air.
"This is for you, my brother," she told Tobias. "Touch it and it will take you back Aboveground. Our father should not lose both his children at once. He and Karen will have to get used to your age difference. They will find some way to explain it — to themselves, anyway."
"But I want to stay with you," he said. "I don't know anything about Aboveground. I don't even remember it."
"It is your place," she said sadly. "I will miss you. When you come of age, you will have to choose — mortal or Faery, Above or Underground. Until then, learn all you can of mortalkind. They have much to teach us."
They hugged again. Tobias backed away and reached toward the horseshoe.
"I'll be watching you, Toby," Sarah said. He touched the cold iron and vanished.
Sarah bowed her head, reflecting on what she had lost. Jareth looked toward the Labyrinth, sensing great changes there.
"Will you leave without greeting me?"
Jareth looked at her. "I cannot leave you. Wherever I go in Faery, so there you will be."
She smiled wryly. "Poor Jareth, he has his playground back, but will have to share it again. You would have done better to leave me Above."
"I tried. I couldn't. You drew me as a lodestone draws the needle. I convinced myself that ruling dust alone was better than contending with you, but I need you."
Sarah saw the hurt in his face as he admitted the truth.
"What I said was not the truth entire," she said. "I am not as I was. There is much I don't remember. I am a different person now."
"And I have learned much in your absence," he said. "Though I don't know that I'll be able to keep from fighting with you always."
"If you could, you would not at all be the Jareth I remember," she said, smiling into his eyes.
"Sarah," he whispered, drawing her to him.
"Just a minute, Jareth," she said, looking hard at him and holding him away from her. "About that bog…"