Power and Its Vices

Jareth’s back stiffened as he looked at the girl. She was ordering him, telling him to undress. She had slapped him, taunted him and claimed him.
No one had ever dared to treat him with such indifference; no one had ever spoken to him with such impertinence.
“Did you not offer yourself to me Jareth?” Sarah asked her voice quiet and unassuming.
“I don’t know.” He said softly, slightly confused. This sudden shift in her disarmed him.
“Well look at it this way; you offered me my dreams. My dreams involve a man, you in fact, at my feet. You offered me yourself.” She laughed, “You had no idea did you? You thought I still had my dreams from so logo? go? You were offering to be my knight in shining armour. Well, my dear king, what’s said is said. You are mine.”
“You aren’t Sarah, Sarah isn’t like this.” He whispered, trapped.
“I’m what Sarah has become. Come here and I’ll prove it to you.”
When he didn’t move she understood. Her self-assurance unnerved him; no one had taken power from him so completely. She loved having him like this, but if she weren’t careful he would resent her. She was no longer malicious and selfish, even if she was cruel.

She got up off the sofa and glided over to him. His eyes never moved from hers, calculating, watching. His hands were loose at his sides ready to stop any assault on his person. When she was close enough to hear his quiet breath she closed her eyes and hummed. He remembered the tune and added the words.
“As the pain sweeps through, makes no sense for you, every thrill has gone, wasn’t too much fun.”
She stopped and opened her eyes. “My world had grown cold and distant. I only had memories to sustain me.” Her arms snaked around his waist. “I remember every word said, every touch, every lesson. I defeated your Labyrinth; I defeated you, Jareth. You told me once I was cruel and I am, the world is.
“Now you come back, after I have found myself again. You come back and awaken old memories. Hoggle was right, I do want you at my knees, but I didn’t know that I wanted it until I saw your face at the party. But I want more than just you at my feet. I want you to want to be there.” She kissed him on his pale lips in a quiet unassuming kiss.
She broke away and returned to the sofa.
“Do you offer me my dreams King of the Goblins? Do you really offer me yourself?”

Jareth stepped back and swallowed, what was this trickery?
Once in a desperate attempt to win her he had offered himself, but she had refused him then, as he knew she would. One of the few who had defeated him, she like the others, pulled at his being. But the others were gone, no longer of this world, their pull now nothing but a distance ache like an ancient injury.
But unlike the others, Sarah pulled him closer to her. It seemed like she welcomed him. With conditions, but she wanted him. That alone was enough to stay.
But did he want to be at her feet? He had offered and she had accepted, he was bound to her but for some reason she was giving him a second chance.
“I am obligated to you, you know it, why ask again? What I feel is nothing. Those are the rules.”
“Because I may be cruel, but I am patient as well, I want you to be happy in your new role. Maybe if you had given a little so long ago I would be the one at your feet.” She said as she crossed her legs exposing a flash of thigh.

Her answer struck a silent chord within him. Though he had thought of it before, he never entertained the idea. It was something he couldn’t afford to dwell on.
Though, if she was willing to give him leeway now what would life be like with her? Maybe he could turn the tables on her. It would take time but what was time to him?
In a silent acceptance he stared to undress.

“Slowly pet, this is not a thing you rush.” Sarah smiled.

Jareth chuckled to himself and turned it into a display, slipping off his jacket one shoulder at a time with feline grace. He even turned his body slightly to tease as the jacket fell to the floor and disappeared. With his back turned he opened his shirt and let it fall down his back exposing porcelain smooth flesh. His slight frame belied the firmness of the muscles underneath the flesh.
He turned to face Sarah exposing his slender chest, smooth and unblemished; perfect in its eternal youth. Around his navel his shirt was bunched up in a collection of lace and flounce. He started to pull his arms out from the sleeves one at a time.
“Leave the breaches, gloves and boots.” Sarah said getting up. “They flatter you much better than that.” She grabbed the shirt and pulled it from his waist. “I’ll keep this. She put it on over her dress and took his hands. “Take us home Jareth.

In and instant hey were in his castle alone in a dark room. “Give it to me, let me take total control.” She whispered.
He didn’t’ even pretend he didn’t understand. He just swallowed. Giving her control of the Labyrinth was something he really didn’t expect. He thought she would use his body, sate her desires and fantasies and be done with it.
He thought she would eventually beg him to turn her into his slave, switch from top to bottom. But her simple order had told him that this was no game to her.
“Jareth, you have given yourself to me, I am talking it all. You can’t truly submit to me if you know you can just whisk yourself away if the fancy takes you. Give it to me and let me rule you.”
“How? Your are mortal, such things are impossible, you can’t control them.”
“You were once as well Jareth. How where they given to you?”
Jareth’s jaw worked open and closed, shocked at Sarah’s statement.
“How did you know?”
“Everyone here was once mortal, from the goblins you rule, to the tiny little pest like fairies. It makes complete sense that you were once to. So how were your powers and control given to you?”
“Sarah.. Milady” he stalled.
“Give them to me, if it pleases me I will return them. Don’t defy my Jareth, you won’t like what I will have to do.”
“I can’t give it all to you, that would destroy me. But I can link you to it, give you control, make you it’s master and bind me to you. I wouldn’t be able to use it without you knowing and being able to stop me.
“Do it. Jareth, this is what you want as well as I.”

He swallowed, closed his eyes and whispered a silent prayer to Gods long forgotten. He searched inside himself for the source, the burning coal that branded him and gave him life. He touched it, caressed it, though it scalded him. Then he took a tiny sliver and pulled, drawing it out like a thread from a skein.
He then opened his eyes and looked into her. Deeper than most dared, past the defences and pretences that blinded others, he saw her fear; he tasted her anger and desire. He knew her as no one else would. He knew that this is what she was, who she had become. He had found her true nature and started to wrap the tiny thread around it, weaving in and out so that her control would be as natural as breathing
When he had finished he withdrew, feeling lost and weakened. He closed his eyes and fell to the floor.
Sarah caught his head before it bounced off the stone floor and gently lowered it down. Suddenly she knew what he had done.
She could feel the labyrinth around her, she knew when the walls shifted and where most living things were, it was vague but it was there.
She tried to summon a crystal and found it appeared near the unconscious king’s fingers. She had control over his magic, but none of her own. It was enough for now.

He stirred; she knelt by his head and grabbed the crystal. When he opened his eyes he saw her and sighed.
“I know it now, most of it anyway.”
“Well then there is no need for pretence. Get up and we shall begin.
He got up in a single fluid movement and stood in front of her. She stood and had a thin rod appear near her hand and grabbed it