Jareth heard raised voices. As he blearily reached across the bed for Sarah, he discovered she was missing. Ah. With her parents, then. That didn't last long. He pulled on his clothes, forcing himself to confirm that they at least matched enough for him to look regal if not intimidating, and loosely belted his dressing robe around himself.

As he turned the corner into the guest wing corridor, he saw Toby hunched over outside their door. The young boy was crouched over, knees to chest, as he stared at the door and picked at a crack in the stone floor morosely. Jareth glanced at the guard keeping vigilance; one would be hard-pressed to find a sterner Fae. If Toby had tried to lure him into conversation, he would have quickly learned it was futile.

"In exile, little prince?" Jareth asked as he approached.

Toby looked up. "Oh, hi...Goblin King," he added on quickly. He shrugged. "Mommy and Dad told me that I should wait out here."

Jareth hunched his shoulders. "You may call me Jareth," he muttered. "You and your sister."

"Cool."

After a moment's hesitation, he suffered the indignity of sliding down the wall to sit beside the boy. "They're being quite loud, aren't they?"

"Yeah."

The king waited, but no more information was forthcoming. "I suppose," he said casually, "that they ejected you as soon as Sarah arrived?"

The boy shook his head, messy, shaggy brown hair swinging around his ears. "Not for a little bit. Dad got Sarah mad when he started talking about her trusting them. Then Sarah got mad. Then Mommy got mad. Which is why they're fighting. Mommy threw me out when they started to use Blue Language."

"I see," Jareth said blandly.

"I don't know what they're even talking about. They won't tell me," Toby mumbled.

"Would you like me to tell you?"

Toby looked up quickly. His wide blue eyes gleamed. "Would you?"

Jareth's explanation was quick - nothing his parents would object to - though he didn't downplay the threat against them. The boy was intelligent and had seen much. Toby kept his gaze fixed on Jareth without interrupting, absorbing until Jareth had finished.

"So," he said slowly. "The Fae don't want Sarah to be queen. Marcas doesn't want you to be King. You can order the Fae to do what you want, but you want them to help if you need to fight Marcas. Marcas is mean and won't play fair. That's why he said that he'd hurt us - to get Sarah to do what he wants, which would make you do what he wants. So Sarah took us Underground, away from him."

"Succinctly summarized, little prince," he said.

"And Mommy and Dad are mad because Sarah didn't tell them she was coming here instead of England."

"That is indeed the purported final grievance," he said with a nod.

Toby thought about it. "Well, that's stupid," he announced. "They didn't believe her when she told them about magic. Why should they have listened to her about this?"

"My thoughts precisely."

Toby faded into silence once more. Then, abruptly, he asked, "You and Sarah gonna have kids?"

Jareth coughed. "I beg your pardon?"

"Well, Mommy and Dad have me. All of my friends' parents have kids."

"Your grasp of logic is impeccable," the Fae king murmured.

"Duh. So are you and Sarah gonna have kids?"

"Ah." Jareth rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. "It's a little complicated. I knew she had considered having them one day, once. Now, I'm not so sure. It's...complicated."

"Ohhh." Toby nodded sagely. "I know about 'complicated.' Sarah told me. It's because you're an ego-testical dutch, right?"

The High King blinked. "What?"

"I asked her about you once. She said that she learned the hard way that all men were 'ego-testical dutches,' I think, and that she wouldn't come near one with a six-foot pole. She also told me," he added, "that I'd better not go around promising girls things I didn't mean just to make them do things I wanted or else I'd break their hearts. Which I didn't understand. Girls are boring. Why would I want to do things with them?""

He ignored the jab of pain at the boy's words. Has she suffered the illusion of my maliciousness all these years? No wonder she hated me. Keeping his voice level, he murmured, "I think you mean 'egotistical dou- , uh, person."

"Maybe. She was cranky. Mommy said that it was a special time for her and that I shouldn't bother her. It was a long time ago," he said indifferently.

Ah, so not a recent opinion, at least. He smiled slightly. She has, after all, discarded her six-foot pole distancing.

"So is that why it's complicated?" Toby pressed.

"I don't think so," the blond man replied lightly. "I'm less egotistical with her now."

"Oh."

At that moment, the door to the Williams' suite opened. "I am not a child any more," Sarah yelled as she backed out. "And you didn't believe me then either! Not even last night until the truth stared you in the fucking face. Now I'm going to go for a walk before I say - or do - something I regret! Enjoy your fucking eggs!"

She slammed the door behind her, but froze when she saw the two males sitting on the floor.

"Oh. Good morning," she said faintly.

"Yes, we heard all of that," Toby said cheerfully. "I'm bored. Can we go for a walk?"

"A walk sounds lovely," Jareth said firmly. "Guard - let Sir and Lady Williams know that their son is safely in our custody."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Toby kept up a steady stream of chatter as they wandered the corridors of the Labyrinth together. He insisted that he remembered everything from Sarah's Run, even though Sarah was fairly sure that he was remembering by osmosis from her own recollections.

"...and then a great big snowy owl swooped away, and it's been watching us ever since," Toby finished with an air of sinister glee. Suddenly, he paused, letting go of Sarah and Jareth's hand. He turned around and stared. "Wait," he said slowly. "I think I get it."

"Get what?"

"Why you and Sarah aren't gonna have kids!"

She groaned and yanked her hand off of Jareth's offered arm to plant her fists on her hips. "What did you tell my precious, naive, innocent baby brother?"

"Nothing!" Jareth said defensively.

"I am not innocent! I get it! He said," Toby declared hotly, "that it would be 'complicated for you to have kids.' It's because he's half-owl, isn't it!"

Jareth began to laugh, deeply and full of mirth. He bent over at the waist, hands on his knees. "Maybe that's it," he gasped. "Half owl!"

"Like dogs and cats can't have kittens," Toby insisted, a flush of irritation rising on his still child-plump cheeks.

Sarah's smile was small, though she kept her tone light. "Actually, it's not far off the truth, Tobes. You're so smart for figuring it out."

"Besides," Toby continued, encouraged by her serious treatment of his theory. "If you had kids, they'd probably be weird and gross baby owls. Have you seen baby owls? I saw baby owls at the zoo on my summer trip with Mom and Charlie. You should be happy, Sarah - they looked like angry fuzz balls. Like, socks in a hamper that had gone smelly and was really, really mad at you for not being folded and put it away -"

Sarah coughed, hand over her mouth to disguise her own sudden laughter. Jareth straightened, looking vaguely affronted. "My perfect, perfect children would not look like angry laundry!"

She gave him a look. "I suggest you take your own advice, my love: know when to surrender the battle," she warned over Toby's enthusiastic descriptions of grotesque juvenile owls. "Stubbornness runs in the family."

Lavena arrived three days later with her entourage. In comparison with dealing with her family's arrival in the Underground, Sarah had thought her expectations for the difficulty of integrating Lavena into their lives were realistic. She knew it wouldn't be smooth sailing, of course; barring Jareth, no one expected Jareth's ex-fiance and one-time queen-elect to return as Sarah's new Mentor and Sponsor. The human woman had braced herself for the initial reaction of everyone's hackles rising; Lady Lavena had spent more time in the castle than most cared to remember, and she hadn't exactly been liked then, either.

However, Sarah hadn't expected a complete meltdown from Aine when she broke the news. Sarah could scarcely keep up with the normally very sweet and mild-mannered Fae. In fact, Sarah wasn't sure she knew this Fae at all.

"You could have warned me!" Aine said, gesticulating wildly; Sarah, sitting on the edge of a granite fountain, watched as Aine stomped laps around the length of the Queen's Gardens. "She is vile and untrustworthy, not to mention cruel and – "

"I am aware, Aine," Sarah said quietly. "She is all of those things. I am also aware that in light of…certain unexpected developments… Jareth wants to bump my presentation to the Court to before the end of this month, and while you are my most trusted advisor," Sarah held up her hand to stop Aine from interrupting, "and my best friend, I completely understand your reservations. But there is a reason she's here."

"What could she possibly do to help you that I cannot do?" she asked, and from the cracking in her voice, Sarah understood had finally gotten to the crux of the matter.

The human sighed before speaking. "Sit down, Aine," she said gently. Sarah waited until Aine had seated herself on the fountain ledge several feet away before scooting over next to her. "Aine," she began slowly, "you shouldn't feel threatened."

"Threatened? Why should I be threatened? If I felt threatened," Aine said, defiantly crossing her arms over her chest, "would I be so angry?"

Sarah smiled. She really was getting better at this. "Yes, you would. And more importantly, you would be angry with me. Am I right?"

Aine's tea-colored eyes finally met Sarah's. Fae couldn't lie, and Sarah knew it.

"Yes," Aine whispered; her posture abruptly deflated. Sarah wrapped her arm around the taller woman's waist and laid her head down on Aine's shoulder. She'd learned that, in lieu of barefaced words, the Fae were more comfortable communicating tender feelings in the more subtle language of touch.

"How many of the governmental councils of the Court have you attended as a participant, Aine?" Sarah asked calmly, staring ahead.

"None," Aine whispered so softly that Sarah scarcely heard her. She looked down at her lap. "Only nobility and royalty may attend and speak at Court Councils save than by proclamation of the King or Queen," she recited, a line from one of the many books Earnon had tasked Sarah with reading about the protocol of the Fae.

"Exactly. And I'll need to know Court etiquette - not just the book stuff, but the actual people, figuring out who are my real allies and enemies - very soon, right?" Aine was silent, so Sarah continued. "That's why she's here. Not to be a new friend, not to take your place, but to show me all the things I'll need that you aren't an expert in. You've taught me what it means to live in the Underground, all the things worth protecting and loving. Lavena will show me how to convince the Nobles that they should listen to me and trust me as I try my damndest to do that."

Sarah smiled at her friend. "Besides, you've already done all the hard work. I hardly ever complain about you lacing my dresses up so tightly anymore."

"Because you loosen them the moment you're out of my sight!" Aine burst out; Sarah chuckled.

"Well, Lavena will never know that, will she?" Sarah said standing and offering her hand to help Aine up. "You have nothing to worry about, Aine. She could never take you place. No one could." She gave Aine a kiss on the cheek before turning to leave.

"Sarah?" Aine asked in a small voice, causing Sarah to turn and face her.

"Yes?"

"If she steps one foot out of line, I will consider it my personal duty, as your friend, to make sure it doesn't happen a second time."

Sarah just smiled and inclined her head before leaving the garden.

Sarah figured that if she were just going to preverbally rip off the band-aid, she might as well make her way to the Healer Cailleach's workroom before word got to her about Lavena. If there was anyone who would be as equally protective of her as Jareth and Aine, it would be Cailleach.

The Healer's laboratory was empty; a drop of trepidation slid down the back of Sarah's neck. She wheeled on her heel and jogged back towards the guest wing.

Damn it.

The upraised voices were coming from the newly designated Sponsor's apartments, which were the door next to the Queen's Quarters. Hearing the voices drifting from the corridor, it would appear Sarah was too late. She hastened her pace, and the voices – no, now it was just the one voice – grew louder.

Sarah took a deep, steadying breath as she stood before the half-open doorway. Whatever she saw, she told herself, she could handle it.

Maybe.

Sarah's mouth dropped open as she pushed the door open and took in the tableau. Lady Lavena had been bound by the wrists and feet to a small sapling that appeared to have erupted into existence in the middle of the room. That wasn't the worst of it, though, no: Cailleach, her fingers dancing as intricately in the air as if she were playing an organ, appeared to be conducting a small mountain of spiders as they swarmed up Lavena's legs, hips, and shoulders.

The pale-haired Fae's expression was stony-faced, but Sarah could see the tendons in her neck standing out. "Lady Sarah," she said tightly, "please explain to your mad Healer that I am not trespassing in the Castle."

Sarah slapped her forehead in exasperation. "For the love of all…. Let her go! Now!" she ordered. "The spiders too!"

"Insects, rodents, and other pests are perfectly entitled to live," the Healer said calmly, "in their own domiciles. They have their own necessary part to play, however distasteful. That being said, uninvited guests - particularly the venomous, irritating, prowlers - shall be firmly reminded that their presumptuous presence will not be tolerated."

"Well, it's a good thing that I invited her!"

Cailleach put her hands on her hips, her dark green eyes flashing. "You mean to say that you invited this spider back into the web from whence you had so smartly evicted her?"

"Lady Lavena is not a spider," the human said sharply, mentally crossing her fingers that the younger Fae wouldn't renege on her promise and return to her home, enraged and insulted. "She's my new mentor and sponsor."

"New what?" Cailleach dropped her hands; the spiders froze, petrified. Lavena let out a small eep as one dangled between her eyes just above her nose. "Whyever for?"

The dark-haired girl raised an eyebrow at the Healer. "I think," she replied quietly, "we can both acknowledge the advantages in having a 'spider' as our ally, given this particular political climate. She can pluck so many threads in Court, after all. Don't you agree?"

"An ally?" The aqua-blue whorls across the Healer's face glimmered in the midmorning sunlight pouring through a nearby window as she switched her piercing gaze from Lavena to Sarah and back. "I did not think that, having rooted itself upon the mountain in the midst of a cyclone, the mighty oak would surrender to the menaces of a bit of..." her lip curled. "...unseasonable fog."

Sarah crossed the room and began to brush the stationary spiders off the Fae. Lavena was trembling beneath her hands, though she couldn't figure out if it was more with terror or fury. "You're right. This isn't a surrender. You know as well as anyone else that everyone holds several cards close to their chests. During our stay with King Angus, Lavena and I decided to show each other some of them. We have decided it's within our mutual best interests to help me do what must be done. Can you agree to play nicely?"

"War does make unlikely allies and bedfellows of us all," the green-eyed Fae muttered, flipping her black braid over her shoulder. She gestured once more, the gesture almost insolent; Lavena, released from her confines, stumbled forward. The magical tree melted away into a puddle of water as the older woman stepped forward.

She eyed the golden-haired Fae up and down. "I know what you are, Lady Lavena," she breathed. "Do not think yourself so removed that I have not seen your dreams, even as I have seen through the guise of your actions. I see you. I am unimpressed with what I have seen thus far."

"As am I," Lavena said coldly, her poise regained and wrapped around her, a protective cloak. "I had hoped that one upon whom the High King relies so often wouldn't be so hot-headed as to insult an esteemed guest."

The Healer marched across the room, gripped Lavena's pointed chin between her thumb and forefinger. "An invited guest, you may be. I'll concede that and apologize for the preemptive defense. However, my lady, you are but a guest here. Not a princess, and not a queen. You are, at best, a fire set loose by nature that, in its quick spark, does not know how to burn the old debris without harming the new. Burn what you must, if you crave the shield of smoke that desperately; however, I will not tolerate you setting needless fires in my forest. Are we understood?"

Lavena yanked her chin away. "You don't know anything. I know my place in life. Do you?"

Very slowly, Cailleach smiled. It wasn't at all a pleasant expression. "Explicitly," she said, her voice almost a purr. "I enjoy it to the full, in fact. And as such, I hope you will understand my meaning when I assure you that my good will is on loan, pending your merit of it. I would benevolently advise that you keep a tight grip on your spark, little wildfire."

Her blue eyes hardened. "It is my duty," she replied, "to push her beyond her limits. Is that permissible, Healer, or will I be accosted for being kinder than her enemies?" she asked, her sarcastic tone biting.

"Many here have already taken up the mantle of protecting her from her enemies, known or otherwise." Cailleach gave Sarah a hard stare. "She is, after all, so generous with her mercy."

"I know what I'm doing, Cailleach," Sarah said firmly. "I'd ask for your civility in this."

She threw up her hands. "Danu have mercy on us all. Fine, throw upon the door, let the wind blow in what it may!" She crossed the room, threw upon the door, and flamboyantly bowed in a gesture that spoke no humility. "My Princess-Regent and her Mentor," she intoned sarcastically, "the honor has been mine!"

The door slammed smartly shut behind her.

Sarah turned to Lavena. "Well...um, hi. Do you need help unpacking before dinner?"

Lavena shook her hair out, unable to stifle a whimper when more spiders fell out of the confines of her skirts. "I thank you, but no. I think I've received all the help I require. Go - just go tell anyone else you think ought to be warned of my presence." She shuddered. "Before there are any more preemptive defensive greetings."

Sarah slid down the banister to the next floor in record time, only to see the dark-haired healer turning around another corner out of sight. "Cailleach - wait!"

It had been a good ten minutes of pursuit; the Guest Quarters were now at the opposite end of the castle. Quite frankly, her patience had worn thin. "You can't avoid me forever!" she yelled at the woman's retreating back. She was always being told to think like the Fae, and the one time she truly did, she was being punished. If given the chance to explain her decision, she fully believed that Cailleach would be on her side. In fact, she thought the woman might be proud of her. There was blackmail involved! It was about as ruthless as Sarah had ever been!

"You have to speak to me eventually," she said under her breath, though she had no illusions that Cailleach hadn't heard her.

"I don't 'have' to do anything," the Healer said, sounding to have stopped. "I am quite under my own authority, thank you very much."

Sarah gritted her teeth as she finally drew close. "Not necessarily," she muttered, barely breathing the words. She'd seen Cailleach in action, she didn't want any of that wrath turned on her.

She cleared her throat. "Cailleach, I'm asking as kindly and respectfully as I'm able: please hear me out. The decision about Lavena was thought through. It wasn't a rash, last-minute decision. I know how everyone in the castle feels about her. Hell, I feel that way about her. But she's here with a purpose. One Jareth's mother cannot fulfill." Sarah could only imagine that Cailleach wished her friend was with her as her son prepared to both wed and defend his kingdom - and Aimsir - against his traitorous brother, but Sarah couldn't change that, so she was doing the best she could with the hand she'd been dealt.

Cailleach scoffed. "Still too brash, young queen. Do you truly think me so immature that I'm offended by her presence?" She turned to meet Sarah's gaze; her dark green eyes were gleaming. "We all have a part to play, do we not?"

Sarah sighed. "Of course we all have a part to play. You've all been drilling it into my head since I've arrived here. Hell, Jareth had been driling it into my head before I arrived. I'm playing the part of Queen Consort at the moment. I get to play -"

"And what is my part?" the Healer interjected. "Have you gained sufficient understanding of the complex situation we find ourselves in to understand how best I serve?"

Sarah's mouth dropped open. What was she playing at? Of course, Sarah knew what Cailleach was, by and large, and knew something of the magnitude of her power; that was something she'd displayed to great effect. She also knew Cailleach could talk Jareth down from an incoherent fury and scare the living hell out of just about anyone. But beyond that?...

"Mallacht mo chait ort," Cailleach muttered with an eye-roll so great that her pupils did a full circuit. "Come on, in here. We're far enough away from prying ears, if you're bound and determined to have the answers spoonfed to you." She opened the nearest door. "The Healer requires use of this room," she began to announce to whoever was inside. "Vacating the premises with all alacrity would be - What are you doing to my poor Chlorophytum comosum?" she bellowed.

High-pitched shrieks.

The Fae turned around. "One moment, please," she said icily. "A spot of correction is in order."

The tall woman stalked inside, snapping the door shut behind her. An alarming number of explosions, bangs, shattering glass followed the brief moment of silence. Suddenly, the door burst open and four or five goblins came tumbling out, clutching various smoking parts of their anatomy.

"Mercy!" one of them squeaked. "I cries uncles!"

"Sorry, Scary Blue Demon Lady!" one of them yelped, his skin mottled brown and orange and trying to shield his pug-like, flat nose. "We won't touch your pro'prity again!"

"You'd best keep that oath this time," Cailleach spat, emerging amid clouds of black smoke. "For upon the instance of a next time, I will reassess my reluctance to use Goblin hide in my potions. Don't you think I don't have the use for it: aside from making very good shoe leather, Goblin ears are a delicacy amongst Scary Blue Demon Ladies. They crisp up deliciously when fried in butter."

"Not butter!" another one wailed, clutching his ears preemptively.

"Full fat butter," Cailleach said severely. "With oyster mushrooms. Now, scatter!"

When they ran, Cailleach turned back to Sarah. "Imbecilic creatures. I can't see why Jareth gives them a free-run of the castle. They have their own bespoke City, after all. Now, where were we before that bit of unpleasantness? Follow me." She turned on her heel and walked back into the small chamber, cradling a shell-shocked bundle of bright-green leaves in her palm like it was a kitten, petting and soothing its trembling fronds..

"What you must understand, Sarah," the dark-haired Fae explained as she sat on a dusty chest and Sarah cautiously closed the door behind her, "is the orbiting dances of power. We all revolve around that to which we must answer. Some of us are moons, some planets, some stars. We all must tread our paths, interweaving amongst ourselves in our dance. However, some of the orbits we tread are part of a grander dance than those around us perceive." Her smile was faint. "A carefully crafted illusion, admittedly. I'm sure you understand its...necessities."

The Healer shrugged nonchalantly. "As such, it would be only natural for a resident of the castle, whose niece was maltreated by the rejected princess, to be peeved at her sudden arrival and subsequent re-establishment in a role of significance. Everyone else has been, yes? It would have been unexpected for me to have behaved rationally, as you very well ought to have known."

"I … do, yes," she nodded her head slowly, "but please allow me to explain. This wasn't something that I wanted to discuss beforehand. This wasn't something that I wanted to be talked out of. There's an expression Above. 'It is easier to obtain forgiveness rather than permission'. That was the principle I was acting on. Of course I know you don't want her here. I have stated very clearly that I do not want her here. But, as you said, everyone has a purpose - a part to play - she does, as well."

Sarah threw her hands up in annoyance. "Lavena was bred for this position. By Jareth's mother. Something I don't have the luxury of having. This is the next best thing."

Cailleach gave her a weary look. "I don't care," she stated simply. "I don't care about Lavena. You're missing the point, human. I don't care about these silly politics. I don't care about the Court. As for Aine, my niece can take care of herself - as I believe she's made abundantly clear. No, Sarah: I don't even answer to Jareth. I obey only the duty which has led me to this role and this form. At the moment, that duty happens to be lending my arm and power to Jareth. I know you are aware that there is a war of vast power in the making, Sarah, and even one feather's touch can upset the balance I seek to maintain. You influenced that balance, young human - to which a reaction had to be meted out. Meanwhile, the Fae are ignorant of… a great deal. Until we have re-balanced the scales to our satisfaction, it would be wise to keep them in this blissful state. Hence my juvenile 'response.'"

"So then… you're not actually upset with me?" Sarah said slowly. "It's all an act?"

The Fae hesitated. "You and Jareth are moving along your own track, together," she said, considering each word as she uttered it. "He shares with me as he sees beneficial for me to know. If he is agreeable to this new act in the grand charade, then I see no reason to gainsay his decision. He knows what games he plays, and he alone knows their full extents. I care only insofar as anything may hamper or help his ends. Sometimes that includes you. Sometimes it does not. There, I have been more forthright with you on the matter than I have been with most people - a revelation that you shouldn't have had to require. Are we now clear?"

Sarah shook her head, feeling a migraine coming on. "As clear as we've ever been," she said, turning and leaving the storage room without further comment.

While Sarah understood why everyone was on tenterhooks, she had expected the multi-party truce to last for more than a few days.

Of course this was too much to ask for. It all came crumbling down on a rainy Thursday afternoon in the dining hall during lunch - the day before the ritual of her presentation to the Court as Queen-Elect.

"You are slouching again, Lady Sarah," Lavena said serenely but firmly. "We have addressed this several times now, and I am unsure how to further impress upon you the importance of your posture - of the way you carry yourself. While there are notableimprovements from the first time we made our acquaintance," she said, inclining her head in deference to Aine, who sat across the table from them at Sarah's insistence, "the vastness of what you have still to learn is staggering. And you haven't much time to learn it."

"You know," Karen started looking at Lavena seriously, "I paid for Sarah to have etiquette classes when she was younger. It didn't go nearly as well as this."

It took a moment for Lavena to respond, and while her lips twitched just the slightest bit, her face remained cool and impassive. "My apologies, Lady Karen. I can only imagine the patience you must have expended in doing so."

"It was an adventure. As it always was with Sarah."

"Sarah is sitting right here," she interjected, smiling through gritted teeth.

Lavena tilted her head and then nodded. "Better," she allowed, "but I can hear your teeth grinding, Lady Sarah. It is most unbecoming."

"She has done that since she was a child." Karen said, nodding her head. Sarah sighed.

"I can only imagine the horror, Lady Karen."

"Oh, just 'Karen' is fine," her step-mother said, and Sarah braced herself. The conversation that was about to happen was one Sarah was intimately familiar with.

Lavena turned her pale blue eyes to the woman sitting beside her. "I mean no offence, but you are most certainly not 'just Karen.' You are the mother of the Queen Consort to the High King of the Fae. Neither are you 'just Robert,'" she said, turning her attention to Sarah's father. "No one should address you so casually. Ever," she emphasized.

"Not to mention," Sarah muttered, "that you'll get an ear-full from someone around here if you even suggest it again."

Jareth snorted from the head of the table, and Sarah noticed Robert's eyes snap to him. "Is something funny, Your Highness?" Robert hissed with a sneer.

"Your Majesty," Jareth corrected blandly, without looking up from the parchment in his hands.

"I beg your pardon?" Robert asked quietly. Sarah groaned and ran her hand down her face.

"'Your Majesty' is the proper formal address, when given occasion. I am King." His eyes finally met Robert's after setting the parchment down neatly and folding his hands over it. "'Your Highness' is a title that I will bestow to the heir of my throne, given to the children of the High King-"

"Children?!" Robert bellowed at Sarah, standing. "You're not yet married and you're already picking out baby names and titles? Are you knocked up? Is that what this is - a shotgun wedding?" He slammed his hand down on the table. "Damn it, Sarah. We raised you better than this!"

Toby looked back and forth between them. "Don't yell at Sarah, Daddy! She didn't mean to make you angry. Besides, Jareth already told me! They probably can't make baby owls, they-"

"Keep quiet, Tobias," Robert barked at Toby.

This time it was Sarah who jumped to her feet. "Don't you dare take it out on Toby because you're angry with me. Of all the people in this room right now, he and Aine the only ones completely innocent in this scenario," she growled, her eyes flashing golden for a moment.

"And what was that?" Robert asked, pointing at her face. "Damn it, Sarah, I did not sign up to see my daughter possessed by magical bastards and impregnated with something that changes her DNA!"

She saw Aine twitch out of the corner of her eye and looked over to her. Then to Lavena. "You're both dismissed," Sarah said quietly; she practiced deep breathing, her fists planted on the table to hold her up and her head lowered, trying to calm herself. Aine and Lavena scurried out of the room with a murmured "by your leave."

No one noticed Toby flee on their heels.

Sarah turned her attention back to her parents with a calmer voice. "No, I'm not pregnant. Not that there would be a problem if I were. You did raise me better, and that means making my own decisions, regardless of if you agree with them or not."

Jareth had stood at her side and placed a hand on the small of her back, watching as the two of them stared each other down. Sarah didn't miss her father's eyes snapping to Jareth's hand before settling back on Sarah's face.

"Let's not forget what happened the last time you two decided to make decisions for me," she said quietly, and it took all of her self control to not remember what it was like to be hospitalized.

To be held against her will in a place that tried everything it could to suck the few memories she had of the Underground from her imagination had been literal torture. A place that made her doubt herself so much that she began to question her own mind.

If she closed her eyes long enough, she could still smell the disinfectant. Feel the scratch of threadbare, over-washed sheets against her legs. See the bright fluorescent lights overhead that did almost as much to interrupt her sleep as the nightmares that haunted her. She could hear the sound of the cart as the nurse entered Sarah's neat little cage to give her another dose of something designed to bring her to obedient complacency.

No, she would not allow an experience so visceral and terrifying to be snatched from her mind and glossed over - as if it were just a tiny blip on her radar. That place - that prison - tried to break her, tried to mold her into something she wasn't. It hadn't worked. She emerged stronger than she'd been and she refused to run from the memory that helped shape her into the woman she became. They didn't hold that kind of power over her any longer.

No one did.

This time, Karen stood, her voice shaking, batting away freshly fallen tears. "That's not fair, Sarah," she whispered.

"At least I know where you get it," Jareth whispered in her mind. Any other time, Sarah would have found that hilarious. As it were, the look she shot him would have reduced a lesser being to ash.

"I'll just locate Tobias, shall I?" he said, turning on his heel.

Sarah waited until the door was shut behind him to pick up where she left off. "Fair?" she demanded. "Fair to whom? What's the basis for your comparison? Fair to you? To me?"

"You tried to kill yourself, Sarah! What else were we supposed to do?!" Robert shot back.

"For the last time: I didn't try to kill myself. I couldn't sleep! Which is what I've told you and everyone else until my throat was raw. Between the attack - which was Marcas, by the way - the nightmares from being attacked in the one place I thought I was completely safe, and the nightmares from being locked away against my will made it really fucking hard to sleep at night!"

"You watch your mouth," Robert said to her.

"Or you'll what, exactly," Sarah responded, brow raised, her arms crossed over her chest. "Tell me to go to my room?"

"You said you forgave me, Sarah," Karen said, cutting in. She was sobbing now, tears coating her face. "I don't know how we could ever make it up to you, but you have to know how sorry your father and I are. If we had known, we never would have-"

"I did forgive you," she said, turning her attention to her step-mother. "And I do. That doesn't mean I'll ever forget it. As I said, I can almost understand it. But that doesn't mean I have to act as if it didn't happen."

"Obviously, we should have been watching you a little closer," Robert said through gritted teeth. "At least then we would have known how deceptive you could be. Of all the things I thought you capable of, this," he said, waving his hand to gesture generally around them, "is so out of the realm of -"

"The realm of what exactly? We all know what happened when I told you the truth! Do you think I wanted a repeat performance? I can't fucking believe we're still having this conversation! Look around you! You're seeing the same thing I'm seeing. The same thing Karen is seeing! The same thing Toby sees! I told you it was all real. I told you I wasn't crazy. I begged you to listen. And what did you do instead? Locked me away in shame, because Sarah couldn't deal with reality. Well Sarah fucking dealt with it just fine!" she screamed, slamming her fist down on the table.

"And my suggestion, Dad," she said silkily; it almost sounded as menacing as Jareth when he was threatening someone, "is that you don't tell anyone about what you've seen here tonight." She stood to her full height and looked down her nose at him. "I'd hate for someone to do to you what you did to me. I mean, all of this," she said, waving her hand, mocking her father's gesture, "is just a load of bull shit, right?"

"I said watch your mouth, young lady," Robert growled again.

"You should watch yours," Sarah shot back, before turning on her heels and leaving the dining hall. She'd feel guilty about what she'd said later, but for now… it needed to be said.