Last time...

"Where is it? Where is it?" Thor was mumbling to himself now. Hera had a bad feeling about this, but she didn't get the chance to say anything, because Thor looked up at her and exclaimed. "I wish the goblins would come and take you away, right now!"

Chapter 47

It is not often that there is an older Wish Away, but Jareth suspected that the young woman on the cusp of adulthood had not expected to be here now anyway. Few did. She stood before him in shock, as if still processing what had just happened, wide eyes so green they almost glowed. Her wild ink black hair was close to her face, almost framing her pale skin and near jewel like green eyes. She hadn't yet acknowledged him, too busy taking in her new surroundings. There was power about this girl, something familiar that he could sense just under the skin, and that made him curious.

"Do you know where you are?" He asked in a gentle manner, drawing her attention to him. No need to scare her, and she seemed just shy of a bolting doe as it was. "I am the Goblin King. You have been wished away to my Kingdom in the Underground. The one who wished you away has thirteen hours to run my Labyrinth if they want to you returned to them."

"I don't understand…" She replied, a standard answer from those who were wished away that were old enough to offer conversation. "He really did it, didn't he? He actually wished me away."

He had not expected that, for her to accept it so quickly, for her to understand.

"There is magic about you, a mix of soul and time." Jareth realized, trying to analyze the power he felt coming from her. "You are both here and not. How?"

"Oh, I…" She seemed to fumble for a way to explain what he was sensing. "I needed answers, and went looking for them instead of asking one who might know. There's a potion designed to throw your soul through the aether, across time and space, to the last time your soul was as young as you are now…I took it, and now…Now, sometimes, when I dream…I am here, and…not here."

"I think I understand. I reorder time, move the stars at my choosing. This sounds similar, yet more…selective." He noted. "Well then, under normal circumstances the Wisher must run the Labyrinth to have the Wished Away returned to them. Stay here while I explain the rules to your would be rescuer, and we can see about what to do with you when I return."

Jareth was not prepared for her to go stone still before throwing her head back as she seemed to laugh with her whole body, much the way he would have when someone said something utterly outrageous.

"Thor? Rescue me?" The young woman exclaimed as she continued to laugh, wiping away at a tear that managed to escape. "No offense meant, Your Majesty, but I wouldn't trust him to be able to rescue his own self out of a wet paper bag, let alone me."

"How do you expect to be rescued then?" Jareth asked, a mix of curiosity and disbelief in his voice.

"I assure you, Your Majesty, should I ever feel like I need rescuing while here, I'll do it myself." The young woman assured him, reaching up to pat him on the shoulder in a way that he could only describe as patronizing, before promptly walking out the door.

…

"I wish the goblins would come and take you away, right now!" Thor exclaimed happily, and then looked around somewhat in bewilderment. Had she disappeared again? "Lady Hera? Lady Hera, where are you? Where did you go?"

"You know exactly where she is, Thor Oðinson." Came a voice that was entirely unfamiliar to him.

"On the contrary, I know not where she goes when she disappears as she does." Thor countered, upon seeing the strange man leaning against the opposing bookshelf. "This is not the first time she has left in such a manner."

"And yet it is the first time you have wished her away." The strange man reminded him.

"…You're the Goblin King." Thor realized, and then a sudden fear gripped him. "You have the Lady Hera! I demand you release her at once!"

"I can not. What's done is done, and what's said is said. Those are the rules." The Goblin King pointed out, and then tilted his head as he regarded him. "Why not forget the girl?"

"I can not. I…" Thor realized that perhaps he had miscalculated. She had been warning him away from this very thing, and he'd charged ahead without thinking, as his brother had so often accused him of doing. "She is not of this realm. I foolishly thought this would be an adventure for a particular sword of goblin make, but she tried to warn me against the endeavor. I wished her away, in the hopes that she could aid me from within."

"So you thought to steal from my kingdom then, and you wished the girl away in order for her to become your way in." The Goblin King scoffed. "No wonder she has no faith in you. She actually laughed when I told her you would be tasked with the quest to do so."

It hurt to hear him say that, but Thor knew it was well earned. Why should she have faith in him after what he'd done?
"Please, where is she?" Thor inquired, worry clawing at him. "Is she safe?"

"Do you still wish to look for her?" The Goblin King asked, knowingly. With a flick of his wrist, a full length mirror stood against the wall by the bookshelf, though the image within was not a reflection of the room. "She is there in my castle. You could turn back. Should you choose to try and find her, you will be given 13 hours in which to solve the labyrinth before she becomes one of us forever, such a pity."

"You would hold someone against their will?" Thor demanded, now angry.

"I don't see why I shouldn't. After all, you wished her away against her will." The Goblin King reminded him, making him look down in shame.

He had done that, but still…Lady Hera did not deserve this fate! He had to find a way to make it right!

"I brought you a gift."

"What?…What is it?" He asked, hesitantly, looking back up now. The Goblin King waved his hand, and a crystal appeared in it.

"It's a crystal, nothing more." The Goblin King was quick to assure him. "But, if you turn it this way and look into it, it will show you your dreams. But a gift such as this is not meant for an ordinary prince who feels the need to rescue such a boring girl who does not wish to let you go on adventures."

He did like to go on adventures, and Hera harped on about responsibilities in much the same manner as Loki did.

"Do you want it?" The Goblin King asked, tempting.

He did. He did want it. More than anything.

"Forget the girl."

...

…But he couldn't take it.

"I wish the goblins would come and take you away, right now!"

He didn't know who'd said those words, but they had Tony bolting for Hera's new room faster than he thought he could move. No one should be able to break into his home, not with Jarvis on watch, but he didn't know how Hera's magic affected the AI. In the sort of lounge area she'd made out of what should have been her room, Jör looked as confused as any large snake could manage, and the window wasn't opened. He scrambled into the workroom she'd made out of one of the admittedly insanely large walk in closets, but there was no sign of her, and she wasn't sleeping in the other walk in closet she'd turned into her bedroom. Tony wasn't sure who else to call, and so for the second time in as many weeks, he called Professor Snape.

…

"Don't give me shit about what time it is over there, Snape." Tony snapped, by way of greeting, as soon as Severus answered the phone. "I need answers, and I'm trying not to panic. Hera's missing, and I need to know if the goblins take away children."

It felt like ice shot down his spine at those words, and whatever acerbic response he'd been planning to give was shot to hell.

"Tell me the truth right now. Did you wish her away?" Severus demanded.

"What? No!" Tony objected, sounding genuinely insulted. "I didn't even know that was a thing, and even if I had known, I wouldn't have done it! That's a thing? It certainly explains what I heard, but the California branch of Gringotts placed wards to prevent the teleporting thing unless on the approved list, and there isn't an approved list yet. Someone said those words, I heard them, something about wishing the goblins would take you away. I ran as fast as I could, but Hera isn't in her room, and I didn't say those words, and I don't know what to do!"

"Owl Gringotts, and request a meeting with their king. He is in charge of taking care of wished away children." Severus explained, hoping that Stark retained some of this information in his panic fueled brain. "That we remember her tells me she is not a true Wish Away, or there were complications. With Potter, I assume it's somehow both. Get to Gringotts. I'll meet you there, and we'll figure out what happened."
He hung up before Stark could object, and made to pack. He had a feeling that this would be more of an extended trip than his usual summer getaways. The Headmaster tended not to make demands of him over the summer, so he had quite a bit of leeway with how he spent his time. Perhaps he should have kept a closer eye on his apprentice, as it seemed trouble found her even when she didn't look for it. Time to put the money he hadn't spent from those patents to good use.

Jareth found her in the library, such as it was, slowly flipping through a book as if she could actually read it. There were few races who could read the language of the High Fae. What were the odds that this newest Wished Away was one of them? She did not seem bothered by the chaos that the exuberant goblins he was in charge of were creating. In fact, when one of them nearly hit her with some flying object, she merely deflected it without even looking up from the book she was engrossed in.

"You are not bothered by chaos of the goblins." He noted, as he walked into the room.

"Reminds me of the Gryffindor Common Room." The girl replied with fondness and ease. "In a way, it's kind of soothing background noise."

"Give me your name, so that I might address you properly." He insisted, and was surprised when she snorted.

"You're going to have to try a bit harder than that if you want to trap me, Your Majesty." She commented, glancing his way so he could see the mirth in her eyes. Good. She wasn't panicking yet. Hopefully, she never would. "However, you may call me Hera, if you like."

"Then I insist you call me Jareth." He replied with a slight bow. "Where did you learn the rules of the Fae?"

"Most people know the stories, though since the Statute of Secrecy got erected that's all that most people believe them to be; stories." Hera admitted, as she closed the book, using a ribbon as a place marker rather than folding the end of the page. "For the in depth stuff, which I'm not sure I understood correctly, I snuck into the restricted section of Hogwarts. It all seemed a bit unwieldy, but I'm not High Fae, so I wouldn't know why those things are so important, and it wasn't like there was a lot of reliable information in there. I'm still not sure why thanking a fae is seen as an insult or an invite to take a soul as if it's been offered. There was even one book that said that when someone said that after a Fae did something for them, it was seen as they were owed that thing. Like I said, the information I found was…unwieldy."

"How many times did you try to escape since I left?" Jareth teased, amused when she cracked a sheepish grin.

"Enough to know the castle is sentient." She replied impishly.

"I'm impressed." Jareth admitted easily. "Not many realize that. Your would be rescuer did not take the gift I offered, and is attempting to run the labyrinth. How would you like me to proceed?"

"I don't know." She sighed wearily. "Thor needs to realize his actions have consequences, but it's Tony who will suffer if Thor is unsuccessful. He…We've only just found out we were siblings. I keep doubting that he'll stay, but he's always there for me; always, no matter how crazy or weird things get, and now Thor…That berk wished me away just so he could go on a quest for a sword. He doesn't even appreciate the sacrifice his brother made to get him the weapon that will one day judge him worthy of it. He didn't even think about what he was going to be putting me or Tony through with his carelessness."

Tears stream down her face as she came to grips with what she could lose should the young man fail, something the goblins and sprites begin collecting with care. A witch's tears possessed pure magic, something that would not be wasted in the Underground.

"Is this Tony the only reason you would object to staying here?" Jareth asked, hoping the conversation would distract her from her pain.

"Well, I do have friends now. Didn't have those before Hogwarts School." She admitted shyly, trying to stem the flow of her tears. "I do like this place, and the beings here have been really nice. It's not even been half an hour yet, but everyone here has been incredibly kind. There's so much magic here. Forever hardly seems long enough with such magic to explore at my leisure."

"This sword he spoke of, do you know of it?" Jareth inquired. She shook her head no. "If you will accompany me for a light snack, I will explain further."

"If I eat the food here, I'm not going to be stuck like Persephone was in that story, am I?" Hera asked, narrowing her eyes at him. "I know it belongs to a different mythos, but still."

"It is wise to exercise caution when a Fae offers you food. Not all of us give it with pure intentions, and I will admit to having used it as a way to distract or trap someone before." Jareth admitted, nodding to her in approval, before bending down slightly and offering her the crook of his arm. "However, as you are the Wished Away and not the Runner, I will not offer you such foods. Plus, it would not do to poison or trap a potential ally, now would it?"

"I appreciate it." She agreed, accepting the gesture.

"Do I not register as a threat to you?" He asked, idly wondering how she could trust him so, as they walked.

"You do, but I hope you do not take offense when I say I have known far greater threats to my life than the one you potentially now pose." She replied, looking up at him. Images flashed in his mind of a large being with purple skin and a smile that chilled him to the bone, a pale being whose face was covered with a hood, a rather skinny being that seemed fish like, and another who looked almost more snake than man.

"I…I see what you mean." Jareth stated, managing to look away.

"My apologies, I…I've never been able to show anyone those things before." Her voice was barely above a whisper as she said those words.

He simply gave her hand a light squeeze, indicating that she need not worry about it, and it seemed to relax her. The dining hall was already set for them before they arrived. Many of the foods were ones he knew were not native to the Above, though they were safe for her to eat. A part of him expected her to stick to the foods she recognized, but oddly enough those were the foods she shied away from. He was surprised when she wanted to speak with the chef after the first bite taken, wondering what would prompt such a reaction, and amused when it turned out that all she'd wanted was to compliment the chef for the wonderful meal. When the blushing chef was gone, the conversation turned to what Jareth hoped she could help him with, though he wondered how a little slip of a girl could do this impossible thing.

"The weapon Thor seeks isn't a sword, strictly speaking, though it is trapped in the form of a sword for the time being." Jareth informed her. "It can become a sword, a dagger, a shield…whatever the wielder needs it to be, except in the case where it is used to subdue the one holding it; as is the case now."

"I don't understand." She admitted, furrowing her eyebrows slightly as she thought it over.

"There is a large wolf deep within the heart of the Labyrinth, chained with something as thin as gossamer but stronger than anything known to man or Fae, the weapon trapped as a sword in its mouth." Jareth explained, watching as she stilled at the mention of this. "If you can deal with the wolf, the weapon is yours, and you will be free to leave the Labyrinth."

He knew who this wolf was, and the story was well known enough in the Above that he knew that she would know it too. With every Wish Away that was old enough to understand what was at stake, he'd offered this deal. Jareth did not like that the Æsir had dumped the World Eater in the Underground without so much as a by your leave, completely without permission, and using one of his own swords in such a way. He had tried to remove the wolf himself, but the Asgarðians had made sure to place the wolf in an iron rich part of the Labyrinth, the concentration of it so high that it remained one of the few places Jareth could not tread in his own kingdom without succumbing to iron poisoning. No one had taken him up on the deal, knowing the story as they did.

She just looks at him with a determined air, and asks. "Where do I start?"

"Are you certain you wish to attempt this?" Jareth asked, mildly alarmed, though he knew he couldn't take it back. What was said was said. "You understand just who this wolf is, do you not? Surely Thor will win his run. You need not endanger your life unnecessarily."

"I'll be fine." Hera insisted, waving off his concern with such a practiced ease that he now was worried about what other manner of horrors she could have possibly faced to be so blasé about facing off with the World Eater, remembering what he'd seen before. "I told you that should I feel it necessary, I'd rescue myself, and you've just given me the perfect chance to do that. I'd rather take my chances with Fenrir than let Thor rescue me from the danger he put me in."

"You know you're not actually in danger here, do you not?" Jareth asked, regarding her carefully.

"I do" She replied as she smirked at him, something deliciously wicked and mischievous. ", but he doesn't."