Illianna

Sarah was in the park, dressed again in her princess gown that had been one of her mother’s old costumes.  She was rehearsing a play.  She had rehearsed it a thousand time before and always loved the final scene.  Merlin sat attentively in front of her, panting.

“Give me the child.  Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child that you have stolen.”

“He didn’t really steal him you know.”  A woman’s voice shattered Sarah’s concentration and she whirled around to see her mother sitting on a bench watching her intently.  “You asked him to take Toby.”

“Mom?”  Sarah asked, as tears began to well in her eyes.  Forgetting her rehearsal, Sarah ran to her mother’s side and sat at her feet, resting her head upon her lap.  “I missed you so much….why did you leave me?  It wasn’t fair that you had to go and, and…..you never should have gotten on that plane.  How are you here?”  Sarah pulled away from her mother’s caress and looked into her soft green eyes. 

“Sarah, there is something you need to know, something that is so important right now.  Do you know where you are?”

Sarah looked confused, “I’m in the park, by Karen and Dad’s place.  I come here a lot.  I know Karen can’t stand when I take Merlin out, but it’s not like……”

“Sarah, you aren’t in the park.”

Sarah looked confused and frightened, as if she was fighting with the reality of the situation.

“Sarah, you are in a steel crystal in the Manor House of Stark, in the Underground.  You are there with another of his prisoners, one he loves dearly to torment.  You are there because Jareth, the Goblin King, loves you.”  Sarah began to pull away, fear creeping in to her expression.  “And you are there only because you do not realize the power you possess.”

“No, I am here, in the park, with Merlin, and you, my mother.  I am not in the Underground, I am safe here at home.”

Taking a deep breath, the woman stood and offered Sarah her hands.  Sarah took her hands and the two were now standing over Sarah’s and Xaven’s bodies.  Xaven who quietly whispered some chant she did not recognize while stroking Sarah’s sweating forehead.  Sarah looked down at herself and remembered it all.  She looked down to the other Sarah’s ring finger and saw a dark ink spider webbing up her arms and through her veins.  It was past her chest and had begun to climb her neck.  She turned to the woman beside her “What can I do?  I don’t want to die, I want to be with Jareth, I want to help Xaven, I..”

Sarah’s mother interrupted her “Did you get the book Toby sent you?”

Sarah’s jaw dropped open as she was caught mid-sentence.  “Um, ah, auh, um, yeah, the Labyrinth.  Yeah, I got it before I left.  In fact I was reading it the night that, um, that Jareth brought me here.  But what does that have to do with……I really don’t think that this is the time or place to be discussing……”

Sarah was interrupted again “Jareth did not bring you here.  You brought yourself.”

The confusion was evident on Sarah’s face.  “I don’t understand…..”

“What did you feel when you opened the book?”

“What?  Why are you asking me these things?”

“What did you feel?”

“God, I don’t know.  I felt a fuzzy jolting kind of pain, it shot up my arms and made me dizzy.  I’ve felt it a couple of times now, whenever I get really excited, why?  Am I sick?”

“No, my dearest child.  You are not sick nor will you ever be.”  Staring her right in the eyes, the woman spoke “Sarah, you were half Fae.”  Before Sarah’s eyes, her mother changed.  Not completely, her green eyes remained the same, but her image, it was as if some artist had turned her into a fairy queen, her hair was longer and smoother, there was no testament of time on her face, she was truly the most regal and beautiful looking woman Sarah had ever seen, “My name is Illianna and I am you mother.”

“You’re the one that……”

“Yes, I was banished from the Underground.  I lived in the Above world for a very long time before I met your father. More time than you can image.  Time passes differently in the Underground, and time is of no consequence to an immortal.  When I met your father, I thought I had found love.  We had one daughter, you, and then I knew I had found love.  I could tell that you were strong from the moment you were born – you radiated power even though you were only half Fae.  I think you frightened your father, I know I did, and that is why I had to leave.  Sarah, you have always known you were different.  Always felt as though there were more.  You have always fought it though haven’t you?”

“I guess, why are you here?  Why tell me all of this now when I am so close to…..to….” Frustrated and hurt by the truth, Sarah turned away, allowing the anger to build insider her as her mother continued. 

“You mystical side is why you were able to win against all odds when challenged by the Goblin King and the Labyrinth.  Your mystical side was why you were able to call Jareth into your dreams, and why you were able to return here.  Sarah, I know how hurt you were when I ‘died’, but I didn’t leave you.”

“How the hell would you know anything?”  Sarah growled through clenched teeth, not looking at the woman standing behind her.

“I have always watched over you.  Fae are immortal creatures, and immortality, for all of its wonderful blessings, can be a curse.  I was condemned to live Aboveground, without my own people.  I could never have told you of this place and lost you to it, to where I could never return.  I know it was selfish, but before, before you never would have been accepted here.  So I passed into the ether and passed on to you a gift.  Many Fae pass over to the ether when they grow tired of this world.  In doing so, we can travel between realms and are not restricted by time or physics.  The price is to lose our magic.  I made the choice to pass all of myself to you, daughter. 

“What are you saying?”  Sarah turned back, so many questions written in her expression.  “Why did you sacrifice yourself, your magic?”

There was no sadness on Illianna’s face, only the sweet smile a mother can give to her daughter when she is so proud of the woman she has become.  “To make you whole.  You are fighting what you already know, what you have been feeling since you opened that book – you are Fae.  But the more you hold back, the more you will be weakened by Stark.  I was never a mother to you, my precious and beautiful daughter, but this gift, the gift of my immortality and magic, the magic I placed inside the book that transferred to you when you opened it, that gift will give you the home you never knew here in the Underground.  Use it, use it and fight the darkness that is tainting your blood, fight it and….”

“Stop it!” Sarah screamed, as the dark ink that oozed up her corporeal body reached her ears and eyes and crept toward her mouth stinging her like a thousand needles over every inch of her body that it touched. The same fuzzy pain she had felt before again encompassed her entire body, but she didn’t notice it.  All of the confusion and pain was just too much and she was beyond rational thought.  Stark’s dark majik was consuming her and her mother and the ethereal realm in which she stood was fading from her site.

“YOU MUST FIGHT IT, SARAH!” Illianna yelled to her daughter, reaching to grab ahold of her and watching her arms pass through her.  “SARAH!”  Sarah screamed, a scream that would have shattered glass had there been any.  She could feel the power her mother had spoken of building inside her, just as the anger and rage and pain had.  It was pushing against the darkness, but she could feel it slipping.  And then she was gone.

“Give in to the powers I gave you Sarah, it is the only way you can beat this.” Illianna pleaded with the air, hoping that the message would get through to her daughter.  “Hurry to her Jareth, I don’t know that I did enough.  I’m sorry daughter, I tried.”  And just as Sarah had disappeared, so too did her mother.

Jareth and Areyne raced towards the manor house upon the backs of their magical mounts, but without a destination clearly in mind, and with Stark’s majik having grown so strong, there was no way for the two to simply transport themselves into his throne room without having a clear mental image of it.  There was too much danger and Jareth would not risk it, not while there was still a chance they could make it.  Time was fast fading and Jareth knew it.  Four hours remained, but Jareth truly doubted that Stark would honor that time agreement once he knew how close he was. 

Without warning, the mystical horses the two rode skiddered to a blinding stop and faded.  The two riders deftly landed on their feet, but caution immediately took over.  Jareth and Areyene instinctively stood back to back, Jareth drawing a crystal, Areyne preparing to conjure.

“There is no need for all of this, my friend.” Came the familiar voice, and instantly Jareth relaxed.  “They need you.”  Illianna appeared before them.  She was not the same woman that appeared to Sarah as a mother, and was not the Fae Jareth had known so long ago.  Her entire demeanor was pale and ghostly, but with a warm rose glow about it.  She was not physical, but not wholly ethereal – she was a passed fae, and she was magnificent in her true form.  She was as the mist, and there was a sadness to her countenance.

“Illianna?”  Jareth asked, a thousand unasked questions refusing to spill from his lips as concern for his friend fought against his urgent need to rescue his love.

“Shhhhh, there is no time.  Stark’s majik is consuming her.  I have done all I can, the challenge is hers now.”  Illianna paused, as if lost in thought, before she continued.  “I have passed beyond this realm, Jareth.  I have no more magic to give and cannot help you beyond this.”  Illianna leaned in and touched her airy forehead to Jareth’s, revealing to him the details of Stark’s manor and sharing his mind.  “You can now teleport there safely.  With the clearest of images of Stark’s throne room in your mind, there will be no danger.  Now go.”

“Illianna…”

“Go Jareth, please, save my daughter.”

Jareth nodded and turned toward Areyne.  “Are you ready?”  Areyne didn’t even answer, just stared into his eyes without fear, with only confidence.

And they were gone.