Chapter Twenty-One

Sarah's thoughts were in a wine-soaked whirl.

Almost six years and she'd never felt the slightest attraction to any male, human or Othánas, except for Jareth. If Lily was right, it had been almost six years since Jareth had any kind of… relationship with anyone. The emotional scent… the absolute wreck she was from their parting in the Escher room to their first correspondence… his plea to her before she revoked his power over her…

It sounds like an Othánas heart-bond, I'll be damned if it doesn't. But I was so young…

After almost two bottles of wine, Sarah's racing thoughts had a pleasant buzz to them. The edges of her inhibitions were delightfully blurred. Thus, she felt courageous enough to give in to the impulse she'd been fighting for the last hour and burst out with, "Lily… can I ask you something? Between just us?"

"Anything, Sarah. I have given you my oath to never divulge our conversations with anyone unless it is a matter of life or death. You can ask me anything and it will go no further than this room."

Sarah sighed. "When I ran the Labyrinth," she paused, thinking. "When I got to the castle, something… happened." Sarah gulped her wine, "Jareth was there, in that room that had endless stairways, all going in different directions. I was frantic, trying to save my brother, and I kept demanding that Jareth return him to me. I'd finally reached the landing where Toby was. I thought I'd won at that point, but Jareth didn't say so."

Lily watched as Sarah steeled herself for what she would say next. "He held out a crystal to me, told me that he was offering me my dreams. He said that all I had to do to claim them was to fear him, love him and do as he said, and he would be my slave… he said that he wanted me to let him rule me." She took another large gulp of her wine, "What the hell does that even mean? I was only fifteen, for God's sake! I didn't understand any of it then and I don't understand much of it now. Was it a delaying tactic like the Peach Dream? What was he trying to accomplish?"

Please tell me that he wasn't just screwing with my head…

Formulating her answer, Lily quaffed the rest of the wine in her glass and quickly refilled it. "No, it wasn't a delaying tactic," she said quietly. "Those were courting words. They are usually said right before a couple life-bonds."

Sarah looked at her incredulously. "Courting words? Before a life-bond? He wanted to marry me at fifteen?"

"Not at fifteen, no. He wanted to court you when you reached your majority. Had you stayed, Garthan and I would have taken guardianship of you until you came of age. Eventually, yes, he would have offered you his courting token, but not until you were well into adulthood."

"How do you know that was his plan?"

"Because he told us so, after the Peach Dream," she said, simply. "He really didn't believe that you would win. He figured that when you lost, as Toby would have become Othánas and automatically a citizen, he would offer you citizenship in the Goblin Kingdom as well." Lily smiled gently, "You were so miserable Aboveground; he honestly thought this would make you happy. You would have had all the time you needed to grow up, to explore your new home, pursue education, make friends. You would have loved it. He also would have given you the time to get to know him outside of your Run, to see the real Jareth, if you will, long before pursuing any kind of relationship with you."

"But why didn't he just say that? If I had known…" Sarah frowned, "Why all the stuff about fear and doing what he said?"

Lily snorted, "Remember when we said that Othánas males are just as clueless as human males?" Sarah nodded. "Well, there you go. He completely forgot that you had not been raised to understand what those words meant. Honestly, I'm not sure where his brain flew off to at that point, and I told him so afterward. My best guess is that he panicked and just blurted out the words to you, thinking you'd understand."

"Well, I didn't. I still don't. If I let him court me, I become his property or something? I have to do everything he says? What kind of partnership is that?"

"On the surface, that's what it sounds like, but it's not. I suppose in some ways it's a relic of another time, when our very lives depended upon our men to defend us and keep us safe. Things are a bit different, now that we have our own kingdom, but we still depend on the men to fight for us." Lily sighed, "It comes from a promise of protection. The male is expected to literally die for his mate, if necessary… and unfortunately in our history, it became necessary far more often than anyone would want. A man has to be sure that if his wife was in danger, and he had to act in order to remove her from that danger, that she wouldn't stop and argue about it. To do so could cost them both their lives."

"Both?" Sarah said, perplexed.

"Othánas males are extremely attached to their life-mates. So are the Ughlánas, for that matter."

"The Ughlánas life-bond too?" Sarah asked, momentarily diverted.

"Yes, although they bond without much fanfare and without much care about compatibility," Lily said, smiling. "For the most part, they check to make sure what's inside each other's pants and they're good to go."

Sarah burst into laughter. "Well, it does make things easier."

"Indeed," said Lily, laughing herself for a moment, then sobering. "As I said, Othánas men are fanatically devoted to their wives. What is not known outside of our Kingdom is that the best way to strike an Othánas warrior is to strike his mate. A male Othánas will not survive the death of his wife, at least not for long. The emotional blow is too great. That is why she must be protected. To kill her is to kill them both."

Which explains why Garthan won't let Lily out of his sight when she's Above… and will sit out in the rain in his owl form all night just to guard her, without complaint… because she is everything to him, including his very life.

Lily looked thoughtfully at her glass, "I think the courting words are perhaps a reflection of that, because the only time a man will ever command his wife is if she is in danger."

"Okay, so… I can see the point in it. I may not like it much, but I get the context and even agree that it might have been necessary once. But now?"

Lily shrugged, "Human wedding customs have some archaic parts to them, do they not?"

White dresses to symbolize a virginity that had likely vanished long before, fathers "giving away" their adult daughters, the old vows of love, honor and obey…

Fear me, love me, do as I say.

Love, honor, and obey.

Not so different after all, even if we've changed out the word 'obey' with 'cherish' in the last century or so…

Sarah nodded, "Yes, I guess there are."

"Let me see if I can explain it another way," Lily went on. "Have you ever heard of a geas?"

Sarah nodded, "Like a magical compulsion, right?"

"Yes. A life-bond is a spiritual geas for both parties. The men are literally under a geas to protect, provide for, and please their mates. For the men to be able to function under the geas, their women must be willing to place their trust in them, with mind, body and heart. That is the geas upon us as women. That is what it's all about in the end, trust."

Leaning forward as if to strengthen her point, Lily continued, "The words are symbolic, not literal. Telling your mate that you will fear him, that you will love him, and you will do as he says… that you let him rule you… isn't volunteering to become his footstool or servant nor is it inviting him to order you around at will. Not at all. In fact, to treat you as such would cause you emotional harm and go against his geas." Lily put her hand over Sarah's. "To say those words is to tell him that you trust him… with your life, with your heart and with your mind. To tell him that you allow him to rule you is to say that you have claimed him as yours and that you have faith in him. Remember the exact words… to 'let' him rule you. You allow it, which indicates that the power is yours. Thus, he becomes your servant. That is why you wear his sigil, because he belongs to you, not the other way around. Body and soul, he is devoted to you and you alone, for the rest of his life."

Sarah looked at her, shaken. "And this is what Jareth was trying to tell me?"

"Yes. And before you say it, yes… it was much too soon, you were far too young, and you had no idea what any of it even meant. He really wasn't thinking clearly at the time. I believe he was just afraid to lose you after having waited so long to find you. He quite literally panicked and blurted out the first thing that came to mind." Lily smirked at her, "Don't tell him I said that, though. He really would not appreciate it."