I stayed up the entire night and watched the sun rise in the morning. My thoughts were rampant, mostly trying to figure out why I was here and what Sarah had to do with it all. Eevan said she had been here, Jareth seemed less than desiring to talk about it, and now I was here. I felt like I had all the pieces of the puzzles, I just couldn't figure out how they fit. "Lady Avery." Eevan's voice didn't startle me, but calmed me down in my moment of quite rage. "Would you like me to brush your hair?"
"Why are you so concerned with me?" I asked him softly, keeping my back to him and eyes fixed on the sun as it warmed the morning sky.
"Because it is my duty, I am here to serve you." He insisted; I could hear his footsteps coming closer to me and I sighed softly as I turned to face him. "There was a time I was meant for other things," He confessed to me, tuning his eyes away to not look at me, "But I've been preparing for your arrival for some time now, and I've been asked to take personal charge over you to make sure you're as comfortable as possible to make everything is easier for you. I understand how hard this must be for you and I want nothing more than to ease your suffering."
"My suffering?" I whispered under my breath as I rolled my eyes. "I have a feeling that my 'suffering' hasn't really started."
"Jareth wants to take you to see the Labyrinth today." Eevan informed me as he stepped away from me, crossing the room to stand in front of another window.
"I don't want to see it." I insisted with a deep exhale.
"Lady Avery, please." He sighed, turning to stare at me with soft eyes. "If you do as he asks, compile with his requests, he will soon see you're ready and reveal the truth to you and then you'll understand everything. But refusing him, staying in your room will only prove to him that you cannot handle what horrible truths you must come to learn and he will keep it all from you."
"Or you can tell me." I insisted sharply. "I know that you know Eevan."
"Hearing it from me will not make it any easier, in fact it will only make it worse." He argued as he turned his eyes back to watch out the window. "There is only one who has the right, and it is not me Lady Avery."
I looked at Eevan, trying to understand him in that moment as he kept his eyes away from me, watching out the window. The morning sun lit my room and shined against Eevan, softly lighting his face. His expression seemed so different then I had come to familiarize myself with; he looked sad. "Eevan," I spoke his name without realizing it until he looked at me with eyes filled with such an intense amount of sadness it broke my heart. "Can you tell me what you are?" I wasn't sure why the question came to me, it just did, and I asked it without hesitation.
I watched the sadness from his eyes fade and a cloud of grey depression overtake his expression as he sighed and stepped away from the window. I had a feeling he wouldn't tell me, but he did. "I am a man, but I was not born. I was created. Here, in the Goblin City life was breathed into me and so I was. I began just as any boy, a small baby that grew into a child, then a boy, and matured into a man. Jareth created me and raised me, and I was the Prince of this kingdom."
"Was?"
Eevan looked at me and for a moment I thought it was jealously that hinted in his eyes as he stared at me blankly before he spoke, "Jareth soon found he no longer had a need for a Prince, and found other uses for me."
"Eevan, I-"
"Would you like me to brush your hair?" He interrupted me, clearly desperate the change the topic. I didn't say anything else to him, to afraid of the pain already clouding his eyes and not wanting to upset him further than I already had. I moved to sit at the vanity and remained silent as he brushed through my hair and styled it in a French twist.
"Tell Jareth I'd like to see The Labyrinth with him." I whispered softly once Eevan finished my hair.
"Yes M'Lady." Eevan responded, being careful to keep his eyes away from mine as he left my room.
I met Jareth at the castle stables; he was sitting on a hay bale as Eevan prepared the horses. I was shocked to see horses actually, since as far as I knew the goblins of the city only rode strange looking reptile like creatures. The touch of normality eased me a bit as I walked in and greeted Jareth as enthusiastically as I could fake. "I must say Lady Avery I was not expecting you to accept my offer to see The Labyrinth today." Jareth confessed to me as he stood to his feet. "I trust you know how to ride a horse?"
"I have before, once, when my family was on a vacation." I informed him as I walked up to the rather lovely dusty brown looking horse that Eevan gestured me towards. "Is this the one I'll be riding?"
"Yes, the sweetest horse in my stable." Jareth bragged on the horse as he went to stand with the dark brown horse with black hair. "Eevan, help her up." Jareth instructed as he mounted his own horse.
Eevan kneeled down by the horse, cupping his hands together to help me step up so I could get on the horse. I almost fell at first, but I was determined and successfully managed to get on the saddle without hurting myself. "Will Eevan be joining us?" I asked as I glanced down at Eevan after noticing only two horses had been prepared for the occasion.
"Eevan has many other things to attend to, so it will be just us M'Lady." Jareth insisted as he rode his horse from the stable.
"Don't worry Lady Avery, he seems to be in a good mood today." Eevan tried to reassure me in a hushed voice so Jareth wouldn't hear.
"I don't care about his mood." I insisted as I followed Jareth out of the stables.
We rode through the Goblin City to the gates. I had spent a decent amount of time looking out my window at the castle, I knew the actually Labyrinth itself would be a good ride away for us, but when the gates opened before us was the Labyrinth, and beyond that I could see the castle. I looked backed behind him, expecting to still see the city but there was nothing but dirt lands. I supposed the sudden magic of it all shouldn't have been so shocking for me; after all I was now living in a Goblin City.
"What do you think?" Jareth asked me as we began riding towards the door of The Labyrinth.
"It's massive. Do people actually solve that?"
"People don't." He insisted. "Only one person ever has."
"I have a feeling you're going to tell me it was my sister."
"The only human to ever do so." Jareth continued.
"Why are you telling me any of this when you won't tell me the whole story?"
"I'm trying to help you." Jareth argued.
"How is any of this helping?"
Jareth looked back at me from over his shoulder, his brow furrowed and eyes slightly annoyed. "Be patient."
"I don't want to be patient." I snapped. "I want to know the truth."
"Must you really spoil this day?" Jareth sighed. "I'm trying my best to make you happy but how can I do that when you're acting so stubborn?"
"Because you know none of this will make me happy but you insist on doing it anyway. It only annoys me."
"Well you annoy me!" He shouted as his horse stopped and he turned his body ever so slightly to glare back at me. "Neither one of this prefer this situation so the least we can do is make the best of it." I said nothing to him, only stared as silence found itself between us in that moment. His eyes softened, and a sigh escaped his lips as he turned away from me.
He continued on, but I remained. "If I annoy you then why not let me go?" I shouted at him, but he did not answer. My pushed on, riding up to his side but he did not look at me, "Jareth, answer me." I insisted. "Answer me!"
"Because I made a deal!" He shouted again, keeping his head down and refusing to look at me.
"A deal? I'm here because of a deal?" Anger built in me, and his insistence on keeping his eyes away from mine only made it worse. I rode up before him, cutting him off, trying to make him look at me, but he still did not. "A deal with who?"
He looked up at me, his eyes staring blankly at me with a face rid of any emotions. His eyes said it, and it didn't shock me, "You're sister." He finally spoke, as if I was really expecting any answer other than that.