Fae Council

Chapter 5
Sarah awoke slowly the next morning, remembering with painful clarity the previous day. Eyes wide with shock took in the full wreckage of her room. She found it hard to believe that she was capable of an act of such utter destruction. Splintered wood, ripped cloth, and shards of the broken mirror that once stood proudly up against one wall littered the floor. Shock turned into cold indifference as she cast one more look around the room, content to settle on the only piece of furniture still intact, a battered foot stool in front of the reasonably intact vanity. Trembling hands reached out for the plain hairbrush which usually sat to the left of the mirror, but was no longer there. Turning in confusion, Sarah quickly scanned the remains of her room, and, seeing her brush reasonably intact, walked over to retrieve it before sitting back down.

With slow strokes she began to brush out the tangles in her hair, staring at the empty frame where the mirror used to be. Letting out a short cry as the bristles became caught in a knot, Sarah felt the tears she thought had purged the night before returning to fill up her eyes.

She hunched over her knees and cried, although all the rage had gone out of her grief. Cool hands stroked the back of her head, smoothing her hair back from her cheeks and face.
Looking up into the clear blue eyes of her comforter, Sarah jumped backwards. It was not who she had thought it was.
The being had delicate pixie-like features, and long platinum hair that hung unbound around her waist. Her voluminous grey robes hid her figure, and for her face and voice she was completely sexless. Her crystal blue eyes dominated a face of such pale complexion it was almost translucent.
“Who are you?” Sarah asked, with a noticeable quiver in her voice.
“I am Ondine. You don’t know me, but I have guided your dreams since your first visit Underground. I am, in effect, your Soul Spirit.” The beings voice had a certain tone to it, like it was floating to the present from the distant past, ignoring the confused look on a distraught Sarah’s face.
“I have never heard of a Soul Spirit before.” said Sarah warily.
“Mortals don’t usually have Soul Spirits, or dream guardians, as it is something usually reserved for the Fae. But when you defeated the labyrinth, the magic changed you, mingling some immortal blood with your own. Now you are a creature of between, you do not rightly belong Aboveground or Underground. You are neither mortal or Fae. This has never happened before, and it is the only reason you have the option now to turn Fae, by bonding a Fae.”
Sarah remained silent, briefly digesting this new information.
“Does Jareth know this? Did he know yesterday that I am some sort of…of…freak?” Sarah whispered, torn between anger and hyperventilation.
“Jareth is not aware of the particulars of the situation. He just knows that he can’t let the Fae council dispose of you, their one threat, as they intend to do. I believe he shared everything he knew abut the matter with you yesterday.”
“It is all my fault!” Sarah sobbed, allowing the previous days events to fully catch up with her. “It is my fault they are dead! I could have accepted him at face value when he offered, I could have let Jareth keep Toby, if I had of he would still be alive!”
Placing a cool hand on the distressed woman’s forehead, Ondine willed her to sleep. A dreamless sleep where she could escape her mental and emotional torment until such a time she was capable of dealing with it.
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Jareth, who had been standing at the door, turned and strode silently back down the archway, towards his throne room. Grinding the thin carpet of straw into the flagstones with his ever pacing feet, his mind was in turmoil.
“She blames herself. If I had never told her she would still be obliviously happy. There were other ways I could have convinced her to stay, why did I have to choose to be honest?” He ranted aloud, allowing the thoughts that wouldn’t leave him alone to be vocalized, echoing around the domed ceiling.

Unable to stand the decided inactivity, Jareth threw himself out of the nearest convenient window, instantly transforming into his owl form. Spreading his wings he glided away from the castle, over the Labyrinth, letting the thermal currents soothe his raw emotions, but knew eventually he would have to return and face Sarah.

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Hours later, Jareth was lounging in his oubliette, the one place that had become his sanctuary from the madness of the Labyrinth. Time stood still in an oubliette on a whim of its own, requiring no effort from a mentally exhausted Goblin King.
He had been glowering at a floating dust particle for an immeasurable amount of time. Just waiting, waiting, for it to drop. It would drift slowly up, around, drop a little, but in the long run it would remain suspended.
Jareth sighed, and twirled his fingers to conjure up a crystal. He had put off further confrontations with Sarah for long enough. Looking into the crystal, he changed his mind about presenting himself to Sarah to explain things out. It would seem she had awoken from the Soul-induced sleep, and was now talking earnestly with Ondine. Ondine never could help but meddle. As he focused on the crystal, he could hear what they were saying...

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“You said, before, that you have guided my dreams.” Started Sarah, unsure whether to question the strange ethereal being that seemed so timeless, “Perhaps you could help me understand this strange dream I had last night. It might have just been a nightmare, but it felt different to that…”
“Yes, I know the dream of which you speak. It involved your death, and Jareth was there.”
“Yes! How did you…”
“How did I know?” Ondine interrupted. “I instigated that dream. You have the right to know what may lie ahead for you.”
“That was my future?” Sarah asked, a faint trace of panic becoming detectable in her voice.
“It is one possible outcome of the events. There is much that can be done to change it between here and then though.” Ondine cast a cryptic look directly at the well camouflaged crystal that Jareth was watching through with interest. Her next words were spoken directly at him, although Sarah never noticed.
“But it is up to you to make those changes. I must leave now, I have already lingered too long.” And with that Ondine shrank back into the lengthening shadows of dusk, leaving behind a completely repaired room.

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A/N: I promise you some Jareth/Sarah goodness this chapter. A little reward for bearing with the angst I put you all through. 

Chapter 6

Jareth dismissed the crystal with a hasty flick of his hand. So, Sarah had been privy to the details of the future shown to him last night. But it would not be their future, he wouldn’t let it be. The ornate clock hanging on the wall struck the seventh hour. Where had the time gone? Jareth leapt to his feet, suddenly besieged by an urge to set things right, to clear the air between him and that mortal woman who had so bewitched his senses these last few years.

But he couldn’t do that over brunch. He would never have brunch again. Of course, that meant rising early enough to catch breakfast before it left. With a sigh, Jareth popped a crystal, instantly de-wrinkling his clothes. He mustered his courage, then went to invite Sarah to breakfast.

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Sarah had been unable to sleep yet again after her encounter with her newly discovered dream guardian, Ondine, but had felt strangely refreshed from the visit anyway. So she had gone looking for amusement, just in the circle of her rooms. She had quickly rediscovered her studio, a magical room forgotten in the turmoil of yesterdays events.

Feeling her artistic drive roar to life again, she had quickly set up a canvas, and, afraid of loosing her newly found inspiration, she had started immediately with paint, completely skipping the drafting phase that normally occupied several days work.

The scene had quickly formed beneath her skilled and confident brush strokes. Ondine, dressed with her grey robes drawn up about her head, mysteriously hiding her face, Jareth standing, proudly glaring down at the Labyrinth, a circle of barely visible although none-the-less menacing ‘shadow men’, as Sarah referred to them, and she herself was in this painting, something she had never done before. She was standing in the circle of the ‘shadow men’, looking up at their pale glowing eyes. Sarah, try as she might to change the expression on her face in the picture could not seem to shift the absolute terror plastered all over her face.

Finally she sighed and stepped back, admiring how quickly the painting had formed. Every detail seemed perfect, except of course that expression on her face. It haunted the back of her mind, the fact that she didn’t seem to have any power of just that small fraction of canvas, that it seemed to avoid her attempts at repainting.

The clock striking the seventh hour behind her broke her reverie, and she became aware of another presence in the room. Turning to face the not necessarily unwelcome intruder, Sarah sighed with a mix between relief and consternation. She wasn’t sure if she could face seeing Ondine again, her brain hadn’t stopped reeling from the first visit. But seeing Jareth their, so masculine, almost broke down her god given common sense. She was struck by the urge to run to him, to throw herself into his arms, and start crying all over again. To let him comfort her. She stopped herself, pride getting the better of her. She managed to remain standing, and look him firmly in the eye.

“Yes?”

Gods but she looked beautiful this morning. Her faced was slightly flushed, her hair was a mess and she had a smear of what looked like turquoise paint across one cheek, but he had never seen her eyes so full of…life. Yes, that’s what it was. Sarah looked, for the first time in many years, happy to be alive.
“Good morning Peaches.” He said affectionately, slinking closer to her as he spoke. Seeing her withdraw slightly from him, he changed tactics. “I was just wandering if you would join me for breakfast.”
Quickly thinking over the consequences of her response, Sarah disregarded any unwarranted warning bells that might have gone off by his switch in moods, and realized she was, in fact, hungry.

“Yes, ok.”

“Excellent!” Jareth exclaimed, throwing his arms wide, instantly transporting him and a quite thrown off
balance Sarah to his garden, where there was a small table set with a light, simple breakfast of fresh fruit and croissants. Jareth leapt forward to gallantly hold out her chair for her, and Sarah, still slightly disorientated form her sudden change in surroundings, sat. The table was so small that when Jareth sat their legs met under the table, a subtle brushing of knees.
As they ate, they made small conversation. Mainly light chatter about the weather, but eventually their conversation turned to the day before, and the startling truths Sarah had been presented with and forced to accept. As he felt the atmosphere begin to tense, Jareth abruptly stood from the table.

“I am sorry I broke to you that way…I truly never intended to hurt you with my words. I hope you can forgive me. But now I will have to be excused, I have a little business to attend to this morning. Perhaps I will see you this evening.” He disappeared in a cloud of glitter, never one to resist the temptation to show off.

Sarah was left alone in the garden, the remains of breakfast still spread on the table. Wandering for a bit, she soon discovered a beautiful fountain that seemed oddly familiar. Seating herself on a rudimentary stone bench under the shade of a large tree, Sarah examined the orb. It was a glimmering sheer orb, and it seemed effortlessly suspended above the water. There seemed to be images trapped inside, images that sparked off long forgotten memories.

She was seven. Sitting all alone on the edge of her bed, ear pressed hard into the paper thin wall of the apartment. Listening to her parents argue.

“How can you do this Linda? Does this family mean nothing to you?”

“Stop standing in the way of my dreams! You and the stupid brat want nothing more then to tie me down! You are dead wait and I wont put my fate off any longer.”

“Why would you do this to us? To me?”

“Stop making yourself the victim! I am being smothered in this environment! I owe it to myself to get away from this sand trap. Don’t try and contact me.”

The door slammed. She was gone.
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Unable to resist watching what she would do with him gone, Jareth had immediately summoned a crystal as soon as she was out of his sight. He had seen her wander around the garden, and settle down to watch his fountain. Curious as to how it would affect her, it affected everybody differently, he had watched as she had fallen almost into a trance from staring at it, almost hypnotized by the ever flowing water.

Glass bubbles can only reveal so much, but it fast became apparent that something was wrong when all the blood drained from her face. Images formed in the water, scenes of a mothers cruel desertion and he had to watch on in horror as she relived every moment, and felt the cold words spoken impale his heart. How could anyone do this to his Sarah?
Suddenly Sarah broke from the trance, leaving Jareth reeling backwards, a splitting head ache blossoming at his temple.

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Averting her eyes from the fountain, Sarah lurched back, gasping, nearly falling off the back of the bench into the tangle of strangely perfumed roses that grew behind it. She had done everything in her power to forget that memory, what had brought it back to the surface now?

Stumbling to her feet she reeled towards the breakfast table, needing to return to the world of solidity, to something she knew was real. She ploughed straight into a distressed Jareth who was rushing in the opposite direction. His strong arms caught her before she fell, and she felt herself being scooped up into his arms and being transported somewhere.

Once set on her feet again she recognized hat she was once more in her rooms.

“Are you alright? I am so sorry Sarah, I should have warned you about that fountain.”

Too dazed to be angry at him spying on her again, Sarah could only nod numbly. “I am fine…just, what was that?”

“It is the Mémoire de Fontaine. As a Fae made object, it can be fairly temperamental. It appeared in my garden shortly after I claimed possession of the Labyrinth. It dredges up the most forgotten memory it can find and replays it in the mind of the viewer. It is usually a painful experience.”

She sat on the edge of her bed, feeling strangely quiet. “Would you mind leaving me for a bit? I have to do some thinking.” With a watery chuckle, Sarah continued, “I don’t think I have ever done so much thinking in such a short space of time before I came here.”

“Certainly. But may I have permission to return later? There is something I would like to show you.”

Seeing her nod her agreement, he left, allowing her time think.

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Late that afternoon he reappeared in her quarters, hoping she had had enough time to think. She wasn’t in her bed room, but he quickly found her in the studio, sitting and staring at a painting he had seen that morning. She had been applying finishing touches, and it really was a marvel to look at, capturing the eyes and drawing them around the painting whilst still remaining true to the characters embodied.
Suddenly Sarah turned to face him.

“Jareth! Sorry I completely lost track of time…”

“It is fine. Are you ready to go?”

“Yes, I guess…”

“Good.” He reached out a hand, beckoning her to take. She lightly took hold of it, feeling supple leather stretch as he tightened his grip around her hand. The room around them vanished, and quickly a balcony back lit by a room behind them solidified around them. Sarah wandered over to the banister with some encouragement from Jareth, who was eager to see her reaction.
As she looked out over the picturesque Labyrinth, Jareth leaned in as close as he dared, happy just to be absorbing the aura of Sarah, to just be around her.

“It isn’t so bad really, you see?” He whispered quietly, voice a low rumble, “It wouldn’t be so bad to stay here forever, would it?”

Sarah tensed at his words. “Forever is a long time.”

It’s only forever

Not long at all

“Depends on how you look at it. For some, forever is not long enough.”

His arm gently wrapped around her waist, expecting to be met with resistance. To his surprise she didn’t reject his advances, but instead maneuvered around so that she could relax back against him, sheltered form the rapidly cooling night air by his body warmth, his arms holding her to him tightly. Sarah let out a soft sigh of contentment, almost inaudible. Jareth turned his face into her neck, inhaling the sweet smell that seemed unique just to her.

Hearing Sarah’s gasp in awe, Jareth looked up. The sun was setting in the most dazzling array of colours he had seen in several centuries, casting a gentling light over the sometimes harsh contours of the Labyrinth. The early rising night bugs seemed to glow with a self illuminating light, catching and reflecting the highlighted colours infusing the sky. Jareth took this awe filled silence to lean closer, until he was a scant centimeter away from Sarah’s ear, and whisper, barely breathing each syllable.

“What I said before…I honestly thought you would appreciate knowing the truth. I never meant to hurt you.”

Sarah just reached up to softly stroke his cheek, a butterflies caress. “I know.”

All too soon for both Sarah and Jareth the show was over, and the night air became to cold to remain on the unsheltered balcony. But knowing they should go inside made being outside so much more appealing, and so they stayed, watching the light of the half formed moon play over the softened edges of their vision.
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Authors Note: Two chapters in half an hour. Now I am truly exhausted. Will someone baby sit Ondine for me while I take a nap? She gets moody when left alone to long. Much appreciated.