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Epilogue, or Miscellaneous Glimpses
One day over ten years later, Sarah was sitting at the vanity in her dressing room brushing her hair. The vanity itself was a great carved affair of dark wood. There were three grand mirrors, and a wide top covered with boxes, bottles, compacts, and jars. Things were haphazardly arranged in a careful way, and it was the kind of encompassing dresser that Sarah had always dreamed of having. There were an odd mishmash of things cluttered around-perfumes in crystal bottles that Jareth had brought her that smelled of the flowers themselves, modern makeup containers and pencils that she had gotten herself, half a dozen jewelry boxes with drawers ajar and the ends of necklaces hanging out of them.
Jewelry was one thing that Sarah hadn't had much of, mainly because it was very easy to spend a lot of money on while buying. But Jareth had taken care of that over the years, presenting her with rings, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, armbands, even tiaras and circlets. The first thing he had given her, a diamond and sapphire necklace, clearly cost more than her "vacation" money several times over. Though Sarah wasn't sure that there really was money in the Underground. Or that Jareth hadn't simply conjured it up. She had never been able to get out of Jareth what exactly he could and couldn't conjure. (Not that she cared if the necklace had been mined from the ground, or if it had been spontaneously thought into existence. Real was real and sparkly was sparkly.)
Still, she had been somewhat hesitant at first, to possess something so obviously nice.
"Don't be ridiculous," he'd said. "I can't have you looking like a pauper."
"I'll hardly look like a pauper in this," she'd said, gesturing toward the yards of fabric that made up her dress.
Still, she hadn't complained as the jewelry had slowly been presented. She had quite a collection now.
Sarah leaned closer to the mirror and pinned up part of her hair. Then she put on her blush, and pulled out a pencil and began to line her eyes. Suddenly she stopped, dropping the pencil and leaning in closer to the light. Why hadn't she noticed it before?
She heard Jareth's step behind her.
"What did you do?" she suddenly asked, swirling around.
Jareth casually leaned against their doorframe. "And what would you be referring to?"
"I look exactly the same."
"This is a bad thing?"
"Well, no. But it's hardly the natural way of things. I mean, I sort of expected that it was going to happen sooner or later."
"Look around Sarah, we're hardly in 'the natural way of things.'" He grinned. "But no, you won't be getting any older. Didn't you take me seriously when I said I would give you your dreams forever?"
"But how?"
He pointedly glanced at something.
Sarah looked at her hand. "The ring?"
"I did say that it bound you to me. And my magic. Displeased?"
"Well, no."
"Good. You should wear this tonight." Jareth tossed a dress to her that she was sure he hadn't been holding a minute ago. Sarah caught it as he walked back into the bedroom.
She spread it out in her arms. It was gorgeous affair of midnight blue that looked as if it had jumped right out of the French court of centuries past. The top had ruffles and frills around the neckline, and the bottom looped out into a huge skirt that made her waist look miniscule. (Sarah had long ago decided that even with such dresses, corsets were most definitely not an option.) The whole thing was made of silk and velvet, and the skirt was cut in the front so that half of the skirts and petticoats beneath it could be seen. And they were certainly made to be seen, each made of ruffling materials and dotted with the fine beads that covered half the dress.
Sarah moved to put on the dress, and twirled around, looking at her reflection in the mirror. When she turned around again, matching gloves, slippers, and barrettes had appeared on her chair.
Sarah didn't know where they were going tonight, but she also hadn't asked. It kept things interesting. They might be going to some dance half the Underground away, or they might just be swirling around in whatever dream Jareth had created. She often dressed up once or twice a week, whether they were going anywhere in particular or not. They could just as easily have their own balls. Dreams were a dime a dozen. He gave her all the Valentine evenings she wanted, and mornings of gold as well. Once when she had lamented that the sunrise was simply too short, the next day it had taken twice as long to come up. Sarah had found that tricks with weather and atmosphere were something Jareth could do. He created her portrait in the clouds. He made summer rains that turned into dancing snowflakes by the evening. Foliage would stay in autumn colors forever if she wished it.
Sarah smoothed the fabric of her gown. Jareth had produced several such gowns for her, completely exquisite things that could only be made here, possibly by magic. Sarah had also continued to occasionally get things from aboveground. She went shopping in Paris, London, and New York, with money that she exchanged from gold. She also went up on "fun nights" with Jareth, when some of the others from the Underground could easily come up, such as Halloween and Midsummer's Eve. Together they danced away select nights on Earth around the dotted fires, spinning and whirling through the lonely wilds, sometimes alone, sometimes with others. Unlike the first time that she had seen them, Sarah did accept Jareth's invitation to dance with the twirling, otherworldly figures, some of whom she had met throughout the years.
Sarah had gotten a reputation in the Underground as being cold and beautiful and distant, if a little mad and impulsive at times. She had gotten it simply at first by being with Jareth, who had that reputation, but she had done nothing to correct it. She found that it suited her in an odd way. Sarah had found over the years that she was more like Jareth than she had first realized. Both of them were incredibly willful and selfish, though it seemed to work for them, not against them. Instead of disregarding each other, they tended to disregard everything else, and do only what they desired, seeing only each other.
Though several times in the past few years Sarah had seen Toby. Sarah had "looked in" on him throughout the years, but on the Halloween after his sixteenth birthday she had appeared in his room. He had instantly recognized her, and she had wordlessly extended her hand. Toby took it, and she (and Jareth) spirited him away to dance until dawn half the world away. Sarah had repeated this several times, and Toby always came with her. They had surprisingly little to actually say to each other during these meetings; there was more of just an unspoken acknowledgement. Though once Toby had told her, "I'd always believed there were things, ever since what happened when I was little. But I've never stopped believing in them. And now my sister's one of them."
Sarah pulled on the gloves, the finishing touch to her ensemble. She came out of the dressing room into the bedroom, where Jareth was waiting, dressed in an attire of deep gray silk. He extended his arm, and she took it, giving him a sideways smile as they left. She still thought that he always looked the very part of the Goblin King when dressed formally.
Once Sarah had asked Jareth why exactly he was the Goblin King. He'd said because it suited him. Sarah, on the other hand, had absolutely refused to answer to the title of Goblin Queen, and Jareth had eventually stopped even teasing her with it, she had reacted so vehemently. Though he'd asked her exactly why it was fine for him to be the Goblin King, but wrong for her to be the Goblin Queen.
"Because," she had insisted, "it just doesn't have the same ring to it. 'Goblin Queen' sounds like someone who's an old hag."
So Sarah had remained titleless, at least until one day when she heard something which she readily adopted. Apparently the lady of the Labyrinth was the description that had begun to float about for the beautiful woman who was seen moving throughout the Labyrinth, sometimes with the Goblin King, sometimes without.
She liked the sound of that, the Lady of the Labyrinth.
-END