Once back in the palace, DG handed off the box to Coriander to put in her room while she went to go see Jeb, gift in hand. She found him in the garden, firing off question after question at Hoggle, the gardener answering with patience whatever intrigued the lad's curiosity.
"Hey there," DG greeted the two with a grin. Before Jeb could see the cube in her hands, she made it disappear magickally. Might as well give him a small show before giving it to him. Her uncle had taught her how to work crystal magick years before when she had turned ten.
Jeb grinned up at her, "Hi, Princess DG."
"How about just calling me DG? Okay?" she asked, wanting to get him used to the idea of her being around before he found out that he was going to stay there for the rest of his childhood.
The boy frowned, but seeing how insistent she was, he nodded, "Okay, DG."
"What are you two up to?"
"Hoggle's explaining what makes fairies different from pixies."
DG laughed at that. Only someone like Hoggle could make something as banal as the difference between fairies and pixies interesting for a young boy.
"What are you doing, DG?" Jeb asked, pleased that he was able to banter easily with her, just like he was able to do with Princess Azkadellia.
She grinned again, making a crystal appear out of the air, "I've brought you a gift, Jeb."
His eyes were wide as he watched her make the crystal float over her hands. She held it out to him, "Do you want it?"
He nodded, reaching out to take it. When the crystal was in his hand, he was pleased and surprised to see it change before his eyes in the cube puzzle that DG had picked out for him at the silversmith's.
"What is it?"
"It's a puzzle. Each side has a different alphabet on it - Elvin, Goblin, Troll, and Gnome."
Jeb frowned as he looked at it. "It's not a very good puzzle if it's already solved," he complained in the manner peculiar to little boys.
DG touched it again and suddenly each side was un-solved. "There's magick in it so that each time you solve it, the cube will create a harder challenge for you to solve. It'll even teach you pronunciation and short phrases and words when you get good enough."
Jeb's grin was contagious, "Thank you, DG." He gave her a massive hug before running off to go play with his new game.
DG watched him go with a smile, staying still for a moment.
Hoggle cleared his throat, bringing her attention to the dwarf. He had a piece to say - something that had been bothering im for quite a while, but it still took all of his fleeting courage to say, "I heard what happened this morning, Princess."
"What do you mean, Hoggle?" DG asked, looking around at the statues made out of hedges.
"The first time you sent a man to an oubliette he tried to attack you," the dwarf replies, turning to face his princess with fear in his heart. But he couldn't stay silent any longer. DG was beginning to scare some of those who had known her for years.
She nodded, feeling indignation rising in her that she had to fight to keep down. She would not yell at Hoggle. No matter what he said.
Her lack of a reprimand emboldened the gardener some and he continued, "No one faulted you there, but the second time you tossed him in the middle of the darkest oubliette in the Labyrinth for questioning your sexuality. The next one got thrown into an oubliette because he told you he thought you should be riding side-saddle. Then there was the one who made a very rude suggestion about what you could do to make his stay here more enjoyable."
Hearing the encounters put in words like that, DG shrugged, unsure what to think about her actions. "I guess I've been on edge the past few weeks," she finally replied.
He shook his head, "It's more than that, your highness."
"It's much more."
DG and Hoggle turned to see Azkadellia standing a few feet away with a sad look in her eyes. She had approached while they were talking and decided to take Hoggle's words at the perfect opening for confronting her sister about her actions.
"What do you mean, Az?" her heart dropped. Did everyone have something to say about how she'd been behaving the past month?
"You're letting the darkness control you, Deej," Az explained. "I've watched you for the past year and a half let it take more and more control over your actions." She shook her head, "But it has to stop, Deej. It's making you turn evil."
DG's eyes widened at the comment, unsure what to make of both her sister's comments as well as Hoggle's. Was she turning evil? Granted, she could have handled the situation with the suitors better … but was her temper beginning to fray too much?
"I - I have to go," she said, turning and running into the palace that had been her home for years.
Her feet knew where she was going - as did the walls, and they led her quickly to the room that was calling to her in the heart of the Labyrinth: the stair chamber.
Her breath came in quick, heavy gasps as she collapsed on one of the numerous flights of stairs that ran into each other and left no indication of which way was up or down. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she examined her actions ever since seeing Wyatt again. She had let the darkness take more control. Too much control, perhaps.
What was happening to her?
"I should not have bound you so young," a voice sounded from all around her. She wasn't sure how long she had been in the stair room, crying, but it must have been a few hours at least.
DG's tear stained face looked up at the room of stairs.
"You had no chance for a real childhood." The Labyrinth sounded mournful, regretful in her actions. The stairs in front of DG twisted together, forming an avatar to speak with the land-bonded princess.
"It was better I learned how to control my powers young."
The avatar shook her head, "No." Her stone hand came out to caress DG's cheek. "We were wrong to mark your heart the way we did. For the reasons we did."
DG's eyes widened. "What are you saying?"
The stone avatar blinked, "When you were marked for Wyatt Cain, your heart was given to him. You were not allowed any chance to find out what lay in there for yourself. Your love is connected to him in a way that was unfair to you as well as to him."
Realization of what the Labyrinth was going to do shook DG to the core. "You're going to sever the bonding, aren't you?"
The avatar shook her head, "No, but we will make you forget the past that never was, and the future that never will be."
"I thought you said you couldn't do that."
"We cannot take away the memories completely, but we can burry them."
"It won't fix anything," DG shook her head. "I'm already tainted."
"Then I will bind some of your powers," another saddened voice said from behind her. DG turned and saw her uncle kneel down beside her. She wasn't sure why she hadn't heard him approach, but chalked it up to the magick in the heart of the Labyrinth. His eyes were mournful as he added, "As I should have done when I first learned of your abuse of them a month ago."
The Crown Princess couldn't stop the tears falling from her eyes. Everything was falling apart.
Taking a shaky breath she nodded, "If it will help, do it." It was easier for her to take all of the responsibility for her actions than it was to fight any longer.
Jareth pulled her into a hug. "I've done this to you, haven't I? You've had too much responsibility for one so young."
"It wasn't all bad," DG replied, forcing a small smile to her face. She nodded to her uncle as she leaned back on her knees. Looking back and forth between the avatar and her uncle she said, "Do it now."
His eyes were sad as Jareth called a crystal ball to him and filled it with a good portion of her power. She'd still be able to defend herself and do small things, but that was about it. When he was finished she gasped at the change in feeling. Somehow she felt lighter without the weight of so much power and responsibility. "There's a safe guard on it, DG," he explained, making the magick filled orb disappear. "If you are in extreme need, it will return. But it is for the Land and the Magick to decide what qualifies as extreme."
"Thank you," DG whispered with a nod. She turned to look at the Land's avatar, "And my memories."
The avatar shook her head, "They will be gone when you awaken in the morning. It's much less jarring for your mind if I burry them while you sleep."
The Crown Princess just nodded, unsure what to say as the avatar melted back into the steps.
Jareth stood, offering his hand to his niece. She took it and rose with him, and the pair began traveling the room for a few minutes in silence before she spoke the question that had been plaguing her for a while now:
"Why have I been changing so much, Uncle? It's more than just hormones. There's something else that's making me more susceptible to the evil, isn't there?"
He nodded, "It is in part due to the uncompleted bonding, dearest. The increase in volatile behavior means that if the bonding is not completed with the binding kiss soon, the bond will break."
"Is that dangerous?" DG asked, knowing that it was a very real possibility that Wyatt wouldn't want to stay bound to her after witnessing her behavior earlier that day.
"Not to either of you, although once the binding is broken, you will be unable to be bound to him again. A break like that is final."
The two continued on in silence, leaving the puzzle room and walking through the halls. "How did you find me?" DG finally wondered out loud.
"The castle told me you were in distress, and the heart of the Labyrinth was the most comforting place I could think you'd hide."
DG smiled softly, "It feels like being embraced and loved unconditionally."
"That's why I chose that room for my final confrontation with Sarah when she ran the Labyrinth ten years ago," Jareth commented.
She looked at him with a little guilt, "I'm sorry, Uncle. So sorry about how I've been acting."
He sighed sadly as they stopped in front of the family dining room. Giving her a heartbreaking look he replied, "It wasn't all your fault, DG. I should have disciplined you more - not expected so much. I'm sorry that I did not."
--
Wyatt wasn't sure what to think. He was bound? To a sixteen-annual-old? Why? What did that make him? A pedophile for feeling something for her the year before?
Damn lucky, a voice in his head whispered. He tried to shoot it down. He was too old for her, no matter what the Labyrinth seemed to think.
He wanted to be angry at DG for not telling him when she found out, but in his mind's eye he could see how that conversation would have gone:
"Hey, Mr. Cain, the Land thought that you'd be a good choice to be my protector and bound us together. Isn't that great?"
He wanted to punch something.
Hell - his son was only four annuals younger than she was!
Leaving Jeb in the safe and watchful hands of the palace guard, Wyatt struck out to do some exploring of his own of the palace grounds. He was so lost in thought that the normally completely coherent, cogent ex-Tin Man wasn't paying any attention to where he was going and ran smack dab into another person.
"I'm so sorry," he said, pulling back to see a beautiful woman with dark brown hair a few shades lighter than DG's. "Forgive me, your highness."
Sarah smiled, tilting her head to one side, "Don't mention it - and it's Sarah, I'm still getting used to 'your highness'. I wasn't watching where I was going either. What were you thinking about so hard?"
He averted his eyes, unsure how to respond to such a personal question.
She nodded without waiting for his answer. "Walk with me a ways?" she asked, linking her arm in his without waiting for an affirmative. "I used to get that look on my face when I thought about Jareth. Before the bonding was completed."
He tossed a look her way as they started to walk through the halls. Wyatt hoped that Sarah knew where she was going, because he certainly didn't. "What do you mean?"
Sarah didn't look at him as she responded, "The Labyrinth initiates the bonding of her monarch and their Guardian. When Jareth told me, I couldn't help but feel trapped somehow. I chose to be bound just as much as you did, Colonel Cain."
Wyatt sighed, "I don't even know what the bonding is. Why me? I'm twenty annuals older than she is, for Ozma's sake!"
Sarah snorted at that, true amusement in her eyes as she replied, "The act of bonding is a kiss. And Jareth is forty older than I am. The Labyrinth doesn't choose based on anything outward. She chooses bond mates and Guardians for her Keepers based on inward compatibility."
"What do you mean?" the military man looked around and saw that they were entering into one of the galleries that housed family pictures going back generations. Sarah stopped in front of one that caught his attention and held it.
There were two men in the frame: both regal looking, but one much older than the other - they could have been father and son, but there was something in both men's bearings that led Wyatt to believe that they had a more romantic relationship. The younger one stood proud behind the elder, who was sitting in a chair holding the emblems of the Goblin King. They appeared to almost be protecting one another. From what Wyatt remained unsure.
"This is King Garret and Prince Consort Darien," Sarah explained. "They ruled over the Labyrinth two hundred annuals ago, during her golden age. King Garret's wife had died in childbirth to his only child - a girl - twenty annuals before he was bound to Darien. His daughter was the same age as his consort, and Garret was thirty-five annuals his senior."
Sarah turned Wyatt so that he was looking down at her. Her eyes held almost too much knowledge in them as she said, "Add that to the fact that the Labyrinth chose a male as bond mate for a king, and you get a very interesting love story. I don't know why the Labyrinth chose you, but I do know that she has her reasons. She wouldn't have chosen you if she didn't think that you would love DG with all your heart and protect her to your dying breath."
Wyatt wasn't sure if her words made him feel better or worse. Oh, well, at the very least he was decided in his course of action.
--
Lunch went smoothly enough with DG trying to figure out how she felt about everything that had happened since she woke up that morning. Part of her was quite tempted to beg off from her talk with Wyatt until the morrow, but another part of her was positive that if she begged off today, nothing would come of her desire to speak with him. Especially after she lost the not-memories when she went to sleep that night.
After she had gathered her strength enough to do what must be done, she somberly made her way to find Wyatt Cain.
She felt like she was on an emotional rollercoaster, one minute she was as tranquil as the waters of Finaqua, and the next she was ready to bite the heads of anyone around her for giving her a wrong look.
After a long walk through the halls, Dg found Wyatt in the family portrait gallery, staring at one of the portraits of the past monarchs. She pulled in to stand next to him, waiting for him to breech the silence.
"Savas told me about the binding," he finally said, not removing his eyes from the paint strokes in front of the two of them.
"And?" DG risked a glance at him, her eyes wide and vulnerable, "It's not complete and it's still breakable, Mr. Cain."
At the softness and vulnerability in her voice Wyatt turned to face her, awed by her courage in offering him one last chance at a life that would leave her nothing but pain and sorrow. His hand came up to cup her chin, forcing her to look up into his eyes when she would have liked nothing better than to stare at her feet.
He wasn't a man of words, but rather a man of actions. There was only one way he could tell her this without any misunderstanding.
With the hand on her chin, he tilted her face even farther up and bent down, his other arm going around her lithe waist for support as his lips taught hers what it was to kiss.
A/N: Not as much Wyatt/DG as I was expecting but after the feedback I got from the last chapter I felt some explainations were in order.
Oh, and for those of you interested in why DG is acting like such a bitch to her parents - it's because they gave her up when she was five and haven't really tried all that hard at forming a relationship with her since then. Her reactions are based off reactions I, myself, made after my parents' seperation and divorce eleven years ago.