Once Upon A Crystal Ball (Part 4)

Jareth lay in his bed and he conjured a crystal and called into it,

"Marix! Come here!"

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Sarah dismissed Lirette and sat on her bed looking out through the open door into the hallway for a time. Then something passed by in a blur, but she recognized it immediately as the being who was the initial threat behind the sabotage plot. she got up to follow it, but didn't see where it went. 'Hmm.. where did it go?...'

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Marix cringed his ears at Jareth's yelling and made off for his chambers. He pushed the door aside and walked in to find the King laying on his bed.

"...You called?"Jareth looked over at the orange animal.

"Tell me, is Zandr still here?... Or for that matter the other guests?"

"They're all on their way out, but Zandr is a little lost I believe.." Truth be told, Zandr was snooping around in places he shouldn't be, but Marix saw no reason to anger the already enraged man by telling him this.

"Is that so?..Well.. If you would, have someone either escort him out or bring him here. No telling what that sneaky wretch is trying to get his hands on." Any other time, Jareth would have been down there himself but, as it were his mind was a little preoccupied at the moment.

"I'll return shortly then, Highness." Marix left and found a few security goblins. He sent them to find Zandr and waited for a few minutes until the group of them had Zandr brought before Jareth, protesting the whole way that he was merely trying to leave. Jareth stood up,

"Since you were in no hurry to leave, I thought you might have been anxious to continue our little conversation from earlier.." Maybe this was someone Jareth could take out the day's frustrations on. Marix sighed,

"Well, if I'm no longer needed I'll take my leave." Smarter than to wait for an actual answer, he ran off to find some dinner.

Sarah had to ask around a few times, but finally found Jareth's room. She wasn't surprised to find him with a group of others and didn't care what he was up to.

"I found your culprit, but it disappeared and I don't know where it went.." Jareth looked at Zandr and the guards,

"See that he finds the door out this time. " Then he turned to Sarah, " Well, let's go find it then, shall we?" He loved this, the opportunity to rid himself of two problems.. the betrayer and the girl.. Out of sight, out of mind... right? He grabbed her arm and led her outside. "What does it look like?"

"...Who was that?" Sarah's attention had been quickly focused on Zandr rather than the sabotage mastermind. By the way that Jareth apparently hated him, she already liked him.

Zandr had also taken notice of this girl who had interrupted their conversation promptly after it began. Though the spears of the security goblins urged him towards the door, he was walking backwards and trying to see what was going on with the other two. Jareth looked at her as they walked.

"For all intents and purposes, let's say he's my cousin... He's what would have been the end of the Labyrinth. Now, what does that fiend look like?"

"If I see it I'll tell you.." Sarah wanted to stay in the Labyrinth long enough to see her friends and knew quite well if she told Jareth what it looked like, he'd search on his own and send her back home.Jareth let loose her arm.

"If that's the way you want to be about it-" Jareth was interrupted as something came skidding up to them, barely halting in time.

"Ambrocious! Watch where you're--Sarah?"

"Sir Didymus? How'd you get in here? And where's Ludo?" Sarah forgot of Jareth completely and bent down to speak with her vertically challenged friend.

Jareth sighed and rubbed at his temples as he slunk back to his room, intending on at least feigning sleep for the next few hours, though admittedly, sleeping off a few years was quite tempting.

"Sir Ludo? I regret I can't say for sure, M'lady... Hast thou already checked the woods? " Didymus cocked his head sidewise as he talked, his fuzzy ears flopping in time with the words."No, I can't even find the way out of the castle. I'm not sure I should be leaving in fact. Sir Didymus, I need you to go and make sure Ludo's alright.." Sarah didn't know until now how tired she was. And since she was obviously going to be here for longer than thirteen hours, now seemed a great time to grab some sleep.

Sir Didymus bowed so low, he almost fell off his canine steed,

"Of course, Lady Sarah.. I shall go and give brave Ludo your message of concern, and return with haste! Ambrocious, onward!"

Sarah wondered around for a while until she found her room and almost immediately fell asleep.

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Jareth gazed through a giant crystal at figure in white, dancing.. dancing with him. For a year, he had been seeing her dreams.. He wrote them off at first, but no matter how he tried to avoid them, there they were. She was human, and his first connection to the real world since he took the throne. How did she know of him?..Of the Labyrinth..? She intrigued him, and now he found he couldn't stop watching her if he had wanted to.

The girl started to randomly flash in and out of the dream, always doing something different. Each time she was seen after dancing, she had a small red book with her. She never read past the first half of it and often recited it over and over again to inanimate objects and animals. Jareth stared through the crystal. He wanted to be there...Sarah's reality, what was once his reality.

He decided that he could go there, Varien certainly had, and with that mere assurance, he vanished, only to become the owl flying over head. He landed on a branch in view of her window as her sleeping figure began to stir.

Sarah had been awaken by the thunderous storm clinging to the horizon. She went to her window to watch it grow in size and get ever closer to her house, completely unaware of her watcher.

Jareth stared at her as she gazed toward the storm.. So... that was what had awaken her? Well..then...

In a moment, the thunder lulled and the wind began to still. The owl stretched and yawned as it still watched the raven haired girl. 'Go back to dreaming...' it thought fondly. Unable to hear the storm any longer, she returned to bed. After a while of turning over and over, she sat up and reached towards her nightstand and pulled the red book from a drawer. Before opening it, she started to recite a few lines from it.

The owl eyed the book curiously... there was something about it that had thrown up a flag in his mind, but he couldn't quite grasp the meaning. He watched her for a while, before the chill got the better of him and he flew home.