Jareth opened his eyes slowly; he was in the Throne room with no memory of transporting himself. He was surprised to find that this shockwave hurt less than the other one but was stronger. Gradually he became aware of more mundane matters; his head ached abominably and the crystal he’d been holding had shattered in the shockwave -slicing open his hand even through the gloves he wore. He winced slightly as he pulled off the ruined item and angrily muttered a curse on all females.
A trembling senior goblin entered the room.
“Sire?”
“What?”
“Lady Aereythi is here to see your Majesty. She made the appointment some time ago.”
“I remember,” said Jareth, still distracted by other thoughts. “Take her to the small dining room and inform her that I will join her momentarily.”
It surprised many to find that the castle of the Goblin King actually had such rooms. Not many people were invited by Jareth, or his predecessors, to see the parts of the castle where the goblins weren’t allowed to go.
Jareth entered the room, showing no sign of weakness, and curtly nodded in greeting to Aereythi.
“Lady Aereythi. Please forgive my lapse in neglecting to inform you that I was otherwise occupied today.”
“No forgiveness required,” replied the blue-eyed, blonde-haired, woman who had already taken the liberty of sitting at the table. She had changed little over the eighteen years since she’d been to the castle; they had seen each other at official functions in the meantime. Aereythi stood up to greet her cousin properly.
“You’re hurt!” she exclaimed, lifting up his injured hand. Looking closer she noticed some sort of mark on it. “What’s that?”
Jareth pulled his hand away quickly.
“It’s nothing,” he replied and summoned a glove to cover the hand.
“As you like,” agreed Aereythi. She knew him well enough to know that he wouldn’t tell her even if she asked again.
“What was it you wanted to discuss?” asked Jareth as he gestured for her to sit and did so himself.
“It’s Ethin. He’s dying.”
One simple phrase and years of planning came undone.
“Already?” exclaimed Jareth, resisting the urge to leap to his feet again.
“I’m as shocked as you are. Either our mystery poisoner got impatient, or someone else decided to join in.”
“Damn them all!”
“I shall take that to mean you don’t have enough Lords on your side, yet to change the Laws?”
“No. Otherwise I’d be thrilled to hear this news.”
Jareth tapped his hand on the table.
“Damn,” cursed the, normally polite, Fae. “I don’t suppose you have a back up plan?”
“Two, but you won’t like either of them.”
“I thought not,” agreed Aereythi nodding for him to tell her anyway.
“We either wait for me to get the support I need, or you marry someone who has a small claim to the Throne and rule through him.”
“You’re right. I do not like it at all. I do, however, prefer the first option to the second.”
“I thought as much,” said Jareth, sounding extremely relieved.
“Not looking forward to ruling my kingdom for me?”
“Not at all,” agreed Jareth, emphasizing each word with a rap on the table. “Isn’t there something you can do for Ethin?”
“Only if I can work out how he’s been poisoned. So far, all I know is that it is not in the air, the food, or whatever he is drinking. I’m at my wit’s end trying to cure him and he has the gall to suggest that maybe I can’t find a cure because I’m the one poisoning him in the first place!”
“We both know that he is a fool, dear cousin.”
“That is not the worst of it.” continued the angry woman. “He accused me of...”
Her voice faltered and she fell silent.
“Of what?” asked Jareth curiously.
Aereythi muttered something unintelligible.
“I didn’t quite hear you,” Jareth informed her, idly tapping the table again.
“I said; He accused me of seducing you so you would change the Laws of Inheritance when you became King of the Fae.”
“What?” exclaimed Jareth, now outraged rather than amused by his cousin’s ideas.
“That’s ridiculous!”
“On the contrary,” Aereythi disagreed with a cheeky smile that was quite at odds with her age. “If you were more like our cousin in nature I may have taken that very approach - we are not that closely related after all.”
Jareth was actually shocked, both by her teasing and by the thought of her using such tactics. Aereythi was amused by his reaction.
“Don’t look so surprised,” she said. “As it is you are reasonable and there is no need for those tactics.”
“I’m glad you didn’t, I believe I would have refused.”
Before Aereythi could make any sort of reply that might have started an argument, he continued.
“That is not important. There was another magical shockwave today. I think Ariana may have been involved, do you know where she is?”
“I wish I did, there are things I need to tell her as well.”
Aereythi considered his statement for a moment.
“Why would Ariana do something to hinder you? I thought you said she was helping.”
“So I thought,” said Jareth, speaking slowly in his anger. “It may be that she has changed her mind.”
“I don’t think you should be so quick to judge her. I have not seen her for nearly a year. The AniFae King has sent another Ambassador who denies any knowledge of the Princess’ whereabouts.”
“You have to agree that it is suspicious.”
“It could be that she just decided to leave and rejoin her husband. I certainly wouldn’t blame her if she did.”
Jareth thought this a possibility but made no comment on the matter.
“Is there anything I can help you with?” offered Aereythi. “Maybe there’s someway we can find proof of something.”
“I could reply the events in a crystal,” agreed Jareth grudgingly. “But I don’t see how that would help if I couldn’t sense anyone when it happened.”
“Maybe you need a fresh viewpoint,” suggested Aereythi. “I don’t know anything about the Labyrinth, really, so I might see things that you wouldn’t.”
“Very well,” agreed Jareth, having no better ideas himself. He held up a crystal and expanded it to half life-size.
“It all began a sit was supposed to...” He explained the images in the crystal a they watched them. He skipped past her entrance into the Labyrinth. “...but see here, she just happens to fall through the illusion covering the opening.”
“I agree,” commented Aereythi. “That was no coincidence...What was that?”
Her sudden exclamation startled Jareth and he froze the image.
“What was what?”
“Rewind it and watch.” said Aereythi, regaining her composure.
Jareth nodded and did so; it was the part of the trip when the wall absorbed Laura’s blood.
“That’s just something the Labyrinth does,” Jareth reassured her, he was equally reassured by the fact it was nothing important. “It’s old Magic, and the reason there are no bodies lying around everywhere.”
He put the images in motion again.
“She passes the door riddle - it’s designed to be solvable, and then falls into the oubliette.”
He paused the images again.
“This is where it gets interesting. The dwarf in this image was on the other side of the Labyrinth at the time he appeared there.”
“It reminds me of something,” said Aereythi, thoughtfully chewing her lower lip as she did with a difficult healing case. “Replay it please.”
Aereythi watched the same scene three times before gesturing for him to pause it again.
“I think I know what it is. Before I can say for sure I need to know if something similar has happened recently.”
“About eighteen years ago.”
“I think what has happened here is that someone used a magical recording of the last time to create an illusion of the Dwarf and his speech. If you compare it to the old one, looking for matching phrases as you go, I think you’ll find that he says coincides with what the girl says but isn’t necessarily the answer you’d expect.”
Reluctantly Jareth replayed the other girl’s oubliette escape alongside Laura’s. Sure enough, most of the phrases matched, he nodded in agreement with Aereythi who pointed out the same things.
“Thank you.”
“I think you can be certain that wasn’t Ariana. What else happened that was suspicious?”
“I still think she’s involved,” disagreed Jareth resolutely before answering her question. . “In the tunnel she escaped death by the merest of seconds. See how the wall falls in, it should be too difficult for one person to move. After that she comes to the bird and the old man who are supposed to give a gibberish answer but instead reads a note giving non specific directions to the castle and telling her to thank the Silver Lady.”
“Ariana,” agreed Aereythi, her stomach sank it seemed that one of her dearest friends had indeed become an enemy. “I don’t want to think the worst of her but this...”
“I know. I don’t want to believe it either.” His feelings of friendship momentarily overcame his anger.
“It looks very bad; the way she disappeared, her name on something that helped your enemy. NO one is lucky enough to defeat you and the Labyrinth alone.”
Aereythi thought of another question that would, hopefully, take both of their minds off the thought of Ariana's possible betrayal.
“Tell me, how did she get into the Castle?”
Jareth frowned as he considered the question.
“I just assumed she had help. I haven’t had time to look and see exactly how she did it.”
“Shall we look now then?” suggested his cousin.
Jareth fast-forwarded the images to the last time he’d actually seen her. The junkyard where Laura met up with the monster, who had fetched the fox knight, then...
“What the...?” exclaimed Jareth as the image jumped to the girl inside the castle. Aereythi looked genuinely shocked by the fact something had affected his magic.
“I don’t think Ariana has the power to do that!”
Jareth, looking equally, if not more, shocked, nodded in agreement.
“At least, not without a significant amount of help.”
He amended his agreement to reflect the fact he still suspected the AniFae Princess.
“Maybe if you reply it slowly enough we might see what happened?”
The idea was sound but provided little in the way of results; the barest hint of a shadow at the edge of the scene was all they could see of the mystery helper.
“What will you do now?” asked Aereythi when Jareth had been silent for near half an hour. When her cousin did reply it was clear that he was still angry and barely controlling it.
“Talk to Ariana - if I can.”
“I could leave a message on your behalf.”
“I would appreciate that.”
A knock on the door interrupted.
“Enter.”
“A message for your Majesty’s guest,” said the goblin, slinking into the room and handing a folded parchment to Aereythi.
“It’s under Ethin’s Seal,” she said as she opened it. “He tells me he is fully recovered, in fact he is feeling better than he did before he fell ill, and wishes to apologise for any inappropriate things he may have said under the influence of fever.”
Aereythi stopped reading at that point and snorted in a very unladylike manner.
“How nice of him,” Jareth interjected sarcastically while she composed herself.
“Lying little weasel,” replied Aereythi having finally found some words that weren’t totally unsuitable.
“Indeed,” agreed Jareth who was thinking some far less complimentary things. “At least he will live long enough to outlive his usefulness at the right time.”
“I shall certainly endeavor to make it so. As a healer I must point out that seriously ill patients often seem to get better just before they die.”
“If that turns out to be the case we will simply deal with it as we discussed earlier.”
“I agree,” said Aereythi as she finished reading the letter. “The King commands that I return to attend him.”
“It would be best to do as he asks.”
“For now,” corrected Aereythi with a malicious smile.
“For now,” agreed Jareth with a smile that mirrored his cousins.
“May I warn Ariana that you are angry with her, or would you prefer to surprise her?”
“She won’t come here if she knows I’m angry.”
Aereythi gave him an odd look and disagreed,
“Yes, she would.”
“Whichever you like then,” said Jareth, trusting his cousin’s judgment.
Aereythi nodded and bid him good day cautioning to do something about his hand soon.
Jareth was left to muse upon the women who had had such an effect, negative and positive, on his life. To his surprise, it was not Sarah who appeared in his dreams that night but Laura as she had been in the Ballroom.