The Past

The strange elf stared at Sarah not moving, not saying a word.  Sarah stared back with her one good eye, not knowing what to do next.  He stood about her height, white hair flowing past his shoulders and ice blue eyes staring through her.  There was no expression on his face and his body, what she could see, was toned and well muscled.  He wore a pair of midnight blue breeches, that were well torn.  Aside from that, his left ear was covered in silver hoops and he wore steel cuffs on both wrists.  Sarah backed up slowly into the nothingness, away from the imposing figure, never taking her eyes from the elf. 

“Who are you?” She asked shakily, wincing at the pain the ring was causing her.

“Who are you?” Came the deep throaty reply.

“Sarah.”

“Xaven”

Sarah doubled over in pain and pulled again at the ring, blood oozing out of her finger.  “Damn it.”  Dizziness set in, and Sarah began to fall.  Instead of finding herself crashing to the stone floor, she found she was being gently laid down and her head resting in the black elf’s lap.

“Rest.  His majik is working it’s way though your system.  Before long, you will be too weak to speak.”

“Are you trying to comfort me? Cause it’s not working very well.” Sarah asked through gritted teeth while tears began to form at the corners of her eyes, the salt stinging the swollen one.

“I am so sorry child.  I wish things were not this way, for either of us.”

“Who are you?”

“You really shouldn’t speak, you will waste your energy.”  Xaven said, his icy eyes echoed her own pain. 

“It’s a better way to spend my time than waiting for whatever Stark has planned.”  She winced again, feeling the darkness spread.  “Why are you here?  Do you work for Stark?”  Sarah asked, tredidation on the edges of her question.

A deep laugh came forth from the dark elf, and his eyes seemed to echo the humor.  “I hold more hatred for that thing, than you could ever know, child.  No I do not work for him.  And I will tell you if I could get these bracers off of my arms and free my magic, then he would know pain beyond this realm.” He smiled sadly and began to stroke Sarah’s hair, seeing the pain so clear upon her face.

The dark fae’s gestures coupled with the pain coursing through Sarah’s arm eliminated her fear.  Besides, there really wasn’t anything else to do but to talk with the strange, tattooed man who had just saved her from splitting her head open and who was now, very gently, massaging her head.  Something in her told her to trust the man who was locked away in this hell with her.  When he didn’t answer her original question, she asked again, “What did you do to find yourself here?”

Xaven sighed, “I fell in love with the wrong woman.”  Seeing the confusion in Sarah’s eyes, Xaven sighed again.  “I suppose there is no harm is speaking of the past given our, ahem, present situation.”

Making sure the woman on his lap was comfortable, Xaven began his story, “Within the fourth kingdom, my mother was the matriarch of our tribe, myself the eldest son of the ruling house.  Darken fae, my kind, are keepers of the night, worshipping the stars and tending to all that thrive in hours after the sun has set.  Our kind love the night and all that flourish in it.  We are a peaceful race, much akin to our light skinned breathren.  We worship life and life in all forms is sacred to our kind. Years ago I witnessed the most horrible of abominations.  In a clearing at dusk, the man you and I know as Stark was meeting with a woman.  My Goddess what a woman.  She was perfection, and from the moment I had seen her, my heart and soul were hers.”  There was a sadness and a depth of love in his voice that Sarah found comfort in.  Her compassion for this strange fae grew every moment they spent together. “ I had seen her wandering the clearings at night a hundred times.”  Xaven’s demeanor shifted, it was no longer cold, but full of passion,  ”She was beautiful, but I knew her heart belonged to another, belonged to that foul creature Stark, and I also knew the pain he was causing her.”  He smiled to himself, “She liked to talk to flowers and I happened to listen to them and to her from time to time, wishing I could be the flower, comforting her in my presence.  However, Darken fae are not generally accepted among the fairer races.  Being bathers of the night sky, we just do not interact.  It is not that it is forbidden, it is just not done.   But I digress, Stark stood over her and a majik began to radiate from him – I tried to move, but was paralyzed, everything was,” He closed his eyes and sighed, “I could only watch in horror as he reached into her and destroyed the life growing inside of her.”  Anger filled his ice blue eyes, eccentuating the coal black of his skin and turning his white hair to fire.  “He was gone in an instant, and when I could again move, I flew down beside her as a black hawk and there took my fae shape.  I allowed her to cry herself to sleep upon my lap.  It was as if she knew she was safe beside me.  We spent several days together, I helped her recover from the trauma that Stark had caused.  She told me that when she confronted the counsel, they had banished her.  My tribe took her in and, in time, the love I felt for her was returned in full.  She consented to be my chosen, and in time, would have been my wife.  I loved her, with all of my soul I loved her.  We were to be joined.  I still love her.  No other shall ever replace her in my heart.”  His voice trailed off.

After a few moments of silence, Sarah spoke “What happened?  Why are you here and not with her?”  her voice was barely a whisper, not from weakness, but from being touched so deeply by the passionate story of the elven, who only moments before she had feared.

“Stark learned, somehow, of us, of our love, of her happiness.  I was lured into a clearing and attacked.  I was shackled with these bracers, nullifying my magic, and beaten and brought here.  Stark delighted in telling me that he had told the counsel of the “banished one” living as one of our tribe.  The tribe had to exile her or they too would have been banished.  That was the last he told me of her.”

“I am so sorry.” Sarah said, forgetting the pain that had worked it’s way across her chest and was slowly consuming her body.  “I am so sorry,” She repeated. 

“Tell me now, why are you here? “

“I think he wants to hurt Jareth, the Goblin King.  I think he plans to use me to do it.  Although he is a fool is he thinks Jareth will just lie down and give him what he wants.”

“Jareth?  The name is familiar.  I think my love mentioned him once, the King of the fifth kingdom.  Lord of Goblins.”

“He is so much more than that.  I didn’t realize it until now, but he is the only man I will ever love.  I would never do anything to harm him or endanger him.  I would give my life, dignity, pride, and self for him.  I won’t allow Stark to use me and if Stark thinks for a moment that I would, he is dead wrong.  I love Jareth.  I wish there were a word stronger than love.  It’s as if we were created to be together.”

“There is a saying where I am from, ‘that one soul is created so that two may share it’.  There is a ritual that shows if the souls are connected called the illis or the joining.  Perhaps he is the other half of your soul, the way my love was the other half of mine.  You know, child, you smell like her.”

“How do you mean?” Sarah asked, tears staining her cheeks.

“You smell of orchids and white magic, just like my Areyne….”

“Areyne……Areyne of the Darken Fae?”

“That was to be her title, once we were joined.  My Goddess she was beautiful…”

Sarah’s excitement was exploded in one statement “She lives, Xaven, she lives.”  Excitement grew in her voice while confusion mixed with a touch of anger set upon the dark elf’s face.  Sarah tried to stand, but the pain flowed to her head, and she grew dizzy.  Still she tried to stand and Xaven stood beside her holding her for balance.  “In the fifth kingdom, in Jareth’s kingdom, the Goblin King’s kingdom, my love’s kingdom!  Xaven, that is where she lives!  I have seen her, spoken with her!  She is a friend to the Goblin King, at least I think they are friends, I think…. Owwww” and Sarah leaned heavily on the dark fae.

“Shhhh, rest now.  Don’t work yourself up, my lady.  The majik is taking hold, you must be imagining it, rest now.”

“No, Xaven.”  And Sarah stared hard into his eyes, hope and brutal honesty mixing in her bloodshot orbs, “She lives.”

Xaven’s elation was cut down as Sarah collapsed to the floor and began to convulse in pain, the dark majik consuming her being.

“Goddess be with you,” Xaven whispered as he kneeled beside her and stroked her hair, whispering a ancient prayer to whomever would hear.  And Illianna heard.

Jareth stared at Areyne, pain and concern etched into his porceline face.  “I am so sorry, I had no idea the depth of pain.  Areyne, had I known…”

Her blue eyes rose from the floor to stare into his mismatched ones, “And what would you have done, my friend?  Killed him?  Begun a war that would have ended all Illianna and the other had strived and sacrificed to achieve?”  There was no anger in her voice, just solomn understanding – as if she had been over this a million times in her head.  “I realized long ago my banishment maintained the peace.  No one would have believed me had I fought against him.  The peace was too fragile.  As it lies now, Jareth, it took the kidnapping of your Chosen and the reading of all of my dealings with Stark to prove to the counsel that this man is beyond insane, that to let him remain here in the Underground would jeopardize the peace far more than any of us can imagine.” 

Jareth paused and took her hand, “There was a time between your banishment and when you came to me, where did you go?”

For the first time, Areyne’s eyes filled with tears, “I never told you.  I never wanted to relive it.”

Jareth stared at her, he knew of no way to comfort her, no way to offer her the sanctuary she needed.  Her heart and soul had been shredded by Stark and she had stitched them back together with time.  “The Darken Fae took me in.  Stark knew of it.  Stark hated that I had fallen in love with another man, that I had found my soul mate, he hated me.  He enjoyed watching me suffer, tormenting me.  One night, my love never returned home.  It was because of his disappearance that I was banished from the fourth kingdom completely.  He came to me days later and told me he had murdered my love.  I tried to kill him then and there, to destroy him…..he was too strong and I was to weak from grief and hunger.  He took everything from me time and again, and yet there was no way to fight it.  He laughed in my face and spit on me, calling me a whore and a dog, a traitor.  He took it all, first my child, then my love, now you and yours.  I don’t understand Jareth…..I…I had wandered for days before you found me.  I nearly went insane with grief, the pain was too much,”  Areyne shook her head and fought the tears that poured down her cheeks.  Breathing deeply, she straightened and slowly raised her head to look into his eyes again.  Gone was the gentle blue kindness, the soft sadness that had always radiated from her eyes.  Gone was the soft smile and easy grace that permeated her being.  It had been replaced by a cold, calculating, seething anger.  Her eyes changed before him, from blue to steel gray and her countenance would have caused any other many to shrink away from her in fear.

Jareth smiled wickedly, he always knew she had a dark side.  “For too long you have fought your anger, dearest friend.”

“For too long I have been helpless.”

“He will pay for all he has done.”

“We will find Sarah in his estate, on the edge of the fourth kingdom.  That is where he took her.”

“Can you transport us there?”

“I am afraid not.  I only saw it once from a great distance, I was never inside.  I doubt he remembers that he showed it to me while it was being created.  We will be miles from the estate, I don’t know how far.  Are you ready? ” Areyne asked, there was no fear nor any other emotion in her voice, simply fact.

“Are you?”

In an instant they were gone from the chamber and now sat astride two black horses in the middle of a clearing.  In front of them sat the Sheirtaken Mountains and on one of the low plateaus sat Stark’s Manor House.  Created from polished red granite, the building looked as if it were a bleeding sore in the flesh of the rocks.  “There,” Areyne pointed in the distance.  “I tried to get us closer, but it is warded.  Jareth, I know that is where he has her, and I believe he knows we are coming to him.”

Jareth’s voice dripped with hatred as rage seethed from his very essence, “Then we mustn’t disappoint him.”  With a kick of his heel, Jareth’s mount took off at a gallop for the manor with Areyne only a stride behind.  “I’m coming for you my love.  Pease hold on.”