Dealing with Goblins
Disclaimer: All Publicly Recognizable Characters, Settings, Ideas, etc. are the property of Jim Henson and Co. The Original Characters and Plot are the Property of the Author. The Author is in no way Associated with the Owners, Creators, or Producers of Jim Henson and Co. No Copyright Infringement is intended.
AN PLEASE READ VERY IMPORTANT! The reason I stopped writing was because, I graduated from animation school about 18 months ago and just yesterday got a job.
Every time I tried to write something for fun I kept thinking I need to work on reel, I need to work on reel, I just couldn't write.
But I now have a job in the industry, so I can write now!
Chapter 08
Jareth smirked as Sarah opened and closed her mouth like a fish, attempting to disobey the king's command. He plopped down next to her, and she turned towards him, her eyes wide with fright.
"You can breathe but remain silent."
She took in a deep breath as he continued. "You really should be careful about entering deals with magical beings my dear. You were quite clever despite your lack of knowledge and I cannot allow harm to come to you, nor can I order you to do anything that would prick at your conscience. I cannot order you to my bed, though yours might work as it wasn't specified."
She scrambled off of the couch and darted behind it wanting to put some distance between herself and Jareth.
"Do you think so little of me?" asked Jareth, turning his head to look at her. "Watch your wording in future my dear. Taking you against your will constitutes harm, if I break the rules I lose my power over you. And before you ask—well attempt to ask. I only stopped your breath for a short while, I didn't endanger you, had I continued to that point I would have lost the power obstructing your breath.
You were not for one second in danger. You can speak again, if you wish, but remain polite."
Sarah did not move, she continued to glare at the… whatever he was, she realised she should ask Hoggle about that next time she saw him, who shrugged.
"Why are you afraid Sarah? Despite your naivety about making such bargains you managed to protect yourself nicely. I cannot mistreat you, not without losing the power I gained. So what has you so frightened?"
"I'm not frightened of you Goblin King."
"I am relieved to hear it. I'd prefer you to harbour other sentiments towards me. Now come and sit."
Sarah waited but her body didn't move without her consent, she sighed in relief that Jareth seemed to be done with his little power trip. In control again she eventually forced herself out from behind the couch and sat down.
"I'm sorry, I endangered your people, I didn't realise my powers would cause myself and the people around me to be attacked so that I could play the hero. Who was he?"
"Victor is a vampire who has some caused problems, fed on the humans in my domain without their consent; this is against the treaty I hold with their king."
"…There's a vampire king, and people willingly give vampires consent to drink their blood?"
"People Aboveground donate blood do they not? This is the same, many villages have resident vampires for protection. Donated blood is part of their payment."
"I see."
Jareth looked at her hands which were tightly clenched and almost white, her whole frame shook slightly. He sighed. "Do you have any questions?"
"Not really. It is clear you can control me completely as long as it doesn't conflict with the terms of our deal." She stated calmly, staring at the fireplace. "I understand."
"Your body to be precise."
"Excuse me?" she asked, turning to face him.
"I can control your body, your will and heart are another matter. You can also give away that control, so be careful if you ever need to make another magical bargain. If there are no further questions..." He paused, when she remained silent he continued. "I will escort you to your room."
He held out his hand expectantly, Sarah stared at it briefly before standing up and walking past him, once she got to the door she stood and looked back at him defiantly. Jareth sighed and walked out of the room and Sarah soon trailed behind.
Once the Goblin King reached her quarters he opened the door and gave a slight mocking bow before gesturing her inside.
"The books you'll need to study are on the desk."
Sarah nodded and walked towards the furniture in question; true enough there was a large pile of leather bound tomes on and beside the desk.
"One hundred and twenty three books," Jareth informed her. "I suggest you get started."
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Sarah stared at the paragraph, it was infuriating that she'd read it three times already, and hadn't absorbed any of it. It was an interesting paragraph too, they were the words a bard had used to protect his friends from being shot down by arrows. He and his friends were transporting something and had been attacked, the bard had used his power over words to make sure that only one of his team members was hit and in a non-lethal way. Apparently bards could only do so much, sustaining an injury often made for a better story. Bards often purposely injured their teammates with their powers because acquiring no injures was too improbable; otherwise it wouldn't be a believable story and therefore would not work. She had read through many examples of bards attempting improbable feats and losing the lives of their comrades as a result.
Well this explains the medical books... thought Sarah idly, hoping she wouldn't find herself in a situation which would require telling a story in which a friend would be intentionally injured. She looked up when she heard a knock on the door and crossed the room to answer it.
"Hello?" answered Sarah, opening the door to reveal a man in his mid forties. He was carrying a tray and wore copper glasses, he had a five o'clock shadow and his dirty blond hair was coarse and dishevelled.
"Hello, Miss Williams. I come bearing food." He held up a tray with two covered dishes and two sets of silverware.
"Who are you?"
"Gregory," he bowed his head. "His Majesty's tech guy."
Sarah blinked, "Jareth, has a tech guy?"
"Occasionally the memory of a wished away is erased. And these days electronic records are kept, not to mention the pictures stored on computers. All that data needs to be tracked, a task not made easy by email I assure you, and it needs to be altered or erased. So yes a tech guy is needed. My official title is 'Captain of Electronic Memory Erasure', and this tray is heavy, can I come in?" He spoke so rapidly that Sarah took a moment to absorb the information before she ushered Gregory inside.
"Yes of course."
He set the tray on the table before turning back to Sarah.
"His Majesty asked me to join you for dinner since he had a sneaking suspicion you wouldn't want to eat with him, he hoped I might smooth over some ruffled feathers."
"I would appreciate some company," said Sarah deciding to go for a neutral reply before sitting down.
"How did you come to work for Jareth?" she asked as she picked up a fork and started pushing her food around.
Gregory took a bite of the chicken pram, "My daughter had cancer, Jareth offered to cure her and bring my immediate family down here if I agreed to work for him. My eldest daughter lives in the village near your own estate, she bakes the bread you'll be eating when you move in."
"Really? Is she the one who had cancer? What about your other children?"
"Ryan and Adel are both still in school, Adel wants to learn map making and travel the underground, she was the one who had cancer, Ryan is 12 and currently wants to be a knight. Or was that blacksmith?..." trailed off Gregory as he pondered to himself. "No, Blacksmith was last week."
Sarah laughed. "So are you and your family stuck here? Can you go back Aboveground?"
"We can visit and my children can move, so can my wife if she decides to leave me." His smile indicated he didn't think that likely. "But I signed a contract, and cannot leave, permanently, I can visit however. I wouldn't call it stuck though, this is a wonderful world, my children are healthy, and in the Labyrinth I don't have to concern myself much with politics. Monarchy is a great system when you have a just and kind ruler."
"Kind?"
Gregory's face became serious and all laughter left his eyes. "Ultimately he is the man who saved my daughter, asking only for a pittance in return. So yes Duchess, he is kind."
"But you cannot leave."
"I cannot move away, I can visit the Aboveground. My family is whole." his face softened. "And he was very good with Adel when she was sick." He looked up at Sarah.
"Are you mad at him?"
"No, he scared me for a bit, but... no harm done."
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While Sarah enjoyed her meal the Goblin King paced his laboratory wondering if Gregory had pacified Sarah. Would it be safe to mention he and she were engaged now? He knew if he waited years she'd hold it against him, hate him for it... But if he told her now after he revealed his control over her and used it… Maybe it would be best if he didn't tell her, then he could woo her, win her heart without anything hanging over her head. She'd prefer it that way... Of course that meant he might have to allow her to date mortal boys. She was young and unsure of where she stood with him and it would benefit him in the long run to see how worthless boys her age tended to themto place their hands on her. The room darkened at the thought, his power morphing his body from flesh to shadow as he conjured images of Sarah with highschool boys, of how far it could go.
He could tolerate a kiss, barely, so long as he was her first and she had a basis of comparison, it could only profit him for her to see how worthless her mortal boys were compared to him. But any further... He forced himself to calm, there was no need to tell her about their impeding marriage yet. Hopefully he'd never have to tell her about his backup plan. He didn't want to think about what it would do to them to have pieces of their souls ripped out, he suspected he'd cope but she was far younger, not as strong. Well, her strength was not as well anchored.
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The following morning Sarah awoke with a groan as sunlight filtered through the window and into her eyes, she turned over and covered her head with a blanket. Then she noticed the clock and jumped out of bed before remembering that she didn't have to go and make Jareth breakfast. She rolled over and went back to sleep.
For all of five seconds when she heard a chuckle.
"Sarah, just because you've been excused from chores does not mean you get to sleep in."
Sarah groaned and pressed her head further into the pillow, but she quickly jumped up when she felt the ice cold water. Once she was out of the bed her arms wrapped around her torso she looked up to see the still floating bucket that had held the water. It fell onto her bed and she glared at the smirking Goblin King.
"Sarah the sooner you gain control over your power the sooner I can stop worrying about a dragon flying in and taking you away, forcing me to abandon my duties and rescue you… although the thought is not entirely unpleasant I do presently have a great deal of work to do."
"First of all your Majesty, I would not spin such a cliché story! Second of all, even if I did the dragon would take you away and I would be the one doing the rescuing! Honestly why would I come up with a story that involves me sitting and doing nothing!"
Jareth blinked then shook his head, "Wash up, and get dressed, I'll be back in half an hour to take you to breakfast then you can continue your studies. I'll be testing you in five days, if you do well you may have a day off to explore the Labyrinth and visit friends."
Sarah's eyes lit up. "Really?"
Jareth smiled and made a note to thank Greg for his suggestion. "Yes of course, if you do well on the test. Now get ready, I'd like to eat soon." And in the blink of an eye, he was gone, not even a pile of glitter remained. Sarah shook her head and darted into the washroom for a hot bath.
"He'd better not expect me to clean the bed," she muttered to herself as she removed her clothes.
The days following passed quickly after that, Sarah studied hard with the promise of a days exploration with friends. She and Jareth ate every meal together, she would join him in the dinning room for breakfast and dinner and he would join her in her rooms for lunch. Topics of conversation would vary, from her family, her plans for her future, and her friends. She tried Asking Jareth about his past but he would always dance around the questions and bring the conversation back to her.
It was on the evening before her test that Jareth stood in front of the mirror in his chambers, he took a deep breath and released the spell that stopped him from seeing auras while simultaneously releasing the spell that hid his own.
The ability to see auras, an individual's spiritual energy was a power all his kind possessed. One's Aura was a reflection of one's self, which was why Sidhe, like himself, always kept their own aura's hidden and why they spelled themselves to not see those of others. The swirling colours could get annoying after awhile; especially when every insect, bird and even tree had one. The spell that filtered the sight of auras to only reflect the auras of those you were interested in took energy and concentration.
He suppressed a growl at the sight of his aura, it was as dark as ever, he had felt so much lighter and happier these past few days with Sarah, he should have known better. There was no getting rid of the darkness, another growled surfaced, one he didn't bother to suppress as his fist flew and punched the mirror. Cracks spread like a spider's web across the surface as pieces of mirror fell to the floor.
Jareth had always hated this darkness, this desire to conquer. He wanted little more than to go to Sarah and take her, feel her writhe helplessly under him. A powerful, defiant creature like her under him, bending to him.
He pushed the thought aside, he'd always managed to keep his darker urges in check. One of the reasons he hated his more malicious runners was that he knew and understood their urges; he kept his in check and thus had little mercy for those that failed to do so.
"And they help you," said the Labyrinth suddenly. "They allow you to live out your own fantasies, and satisfy your urges, you are guilty of all the crimes you claim to loathe, you just direct your attentions to those deserving of them."
"They may as well make themselves useful and they deserve the punishment, why should I not? And kindly stay out of my mind."
The Labyrinth shrugged, "Ask Sarah, I'm sure she'll give you a reason, or maybe she'll just look on in horror, one of the two I'm sure." Smirked the entity crossing it's arms smugly.
Jareth rolled his eyes knowing the Labyrinth would never stay far from his mind, the thing had no respect for privacy. Jareth had long ago managed to convince the entity to limit itself to the other edges of his consciousness and was grateful for that small concession.
"Why are you here?"
"I just wanted to make sure you had no intention of going to her in this state, by taking her you'd make the channel she provides to the ether larger, but in the long run it would be far more beneficial to have her willing and in love, if you can't manage that then…" It shrugged "I can only have one ruler Goblin King, either that or unified ones. She'd be more useful to me... so despite your many years of exemplary service…"
Jareth scoffed, "You make it sound as if killing me would be easy."
Okay, I admit, I got sick and tired of the Labyrinth always been personified as a kind motherly figure who wanted to protect the unwanted. It's a landmass people! Why humanize it?
I also admit that I have very rarely been satisfied with people's explanations for why Jareth fell in love with a 15 year old girl he'd hadn't even had a half hour's worth of conversation with.
Anyway I hope to have the next chap up around xmas. I get the 25,26,27, 31 and 1st off so it shouldn't be difficult to get a new chap up.
And special thanks to my new beta: Sylphien who writes great stuff you guys should check out her fic Rumplestilskin.