The Darkened World

A Turn for the Better

A/N: I am determined to finish this book before the end of the week, but I do have plans for a sequel because most of you are going to hate how I end this one. 

Sarah stumbled through the hedge maze and kept a running stream of cusses focused on the Goblin King in her head, but only in her head. She did not want to summon him back when she finally got rid of him. Honestly, he could have at least left her at the beginning of the labyrinth, it was not as if she was going to be able to get the doors opened on her own...

She broke through the hedge and realized she was in a part of the labyrinth she had never before been to. It was beautiful, no other words could describe it. It was a garden of color glass, and the light, though lacking warmth, cast rainbows and different colors upon the earth through the glass. Flowers of all shapes and kinds made of the garden, so perfect in detail and yet fragrant as a real plant. It was beautiful. 

But the most beautiful sight of all was the old man and his hat sitting at a table in the center of the glass garden.

Sarah nearly ran to the Wise Man and his hat. 

"Excuse me? I have a question." Sarah prodded, gently, as she approached the Wise Man and was glad to find him awake. 

"Hmm? Oh...a young lady." The Wise Man said as he looked up and saw her. 

"Not just any young lady, you old fool, the Lady." His hat informed him as the hat leaned over to get a better look at Sarah. She had the uncomfortable feeling as if the hat was sizing her head to see if it would fit on it. She took a small step back while trying not to make it obvious that she took a step back. 

"The Lady?" The Wise Man echoed Sarah's thoughts. Now the goblins were calling her the Lady with a clearly capitol L?

"The King's Lady." The hat clarified and Sarah physically bristled. What was she? Sarah was going to have to do some massive damage control. 

"Listen hear, you feather brain, I am not anyone's lady. I am my own lady and I don't need the King-"

"That sounds rather lonely, Signorita, and from what I've heard you are the King's Lady." The hat argued as if Sarah didn't know. As if she had missed something. Honestly, the goblins would start saying that Sarah was engaged to the King, before long. 

"And what have you heard?" Sarah inquired with a glare at the annoying hat. 

"Hmp, only that the pixies caught a certain couple in a rather compromising-"

"I came to ask the Wise Man a question, not you." Sarah cut off the smug hat as her face warmed and she wondered what would happen if she strangled the bird. 

"Hmmm...what is...your question?" The old man asked when he realized Sarah's attention was on him and not the hat. 

"I came back to the labyrinth to find something that I lost." Sarah explained as she tried to think of the best way to phrase her question. 

"And?" The Wise Man questioned as he waited for her to get to the point so he could give her some gibberish that would make sense in the end, somehow. 

"You see, the problem is I don't know what it is I lost." Sarah explained to the Wise Man as she sat tiredly on the cobble stone of the garden. She felt as if she had been walking forever and, when not walking, falling or being pursued by the King. Sarah wanted a hot bath, clean clothes, and a warm bed and days of dreamless sleep. 

"At times..." The old man began before almost falling asleep. Sarah had forgotten this part of the Wise Man. He was tiresome at best and damn right annoying at worst. 

"Yes?" Sarah prompted with a hopeful look at the old man. She had so been hoping that he would be able to help her, that he would have some advice for her that didn't make sense at first but did once she puzzled it out. 

"Good lucks with that Signorita." The man's hat said as it rolled its eyes at the hopeful expression of the girl who had not been smart enough to stay out of the Goblin King's interest. 

"...At times it is not what we have lost..."

"But what we have found." The hat finished, impatiently. 

"But what we have found." The old man echoed with a glare at his hat for the interruption. 

"But I haven't found anything." Sarah stated as she tried to puzzle out her answer on her own. It was even more nonsense than what she had been expecting. Jareth had told her she had lost something. How could the answer be not something she had lost but something she had found? 

"Then perhaps you need to lose something?" The man questioned, hopefully as he brought out his beggar's box. 

"I don't think so, besides I don't exactly have anything left to lose. Thank you anyways." Sarah stated as she stood and brushed off the dust from her already ruined jeans. Sarah was about to walk away when a thought gave her pause. 

"You wouldn't happen to have my ring, would you?" Sarah asked as she looked over her shoulder at the Wise Man, whose eyes were getting heavy and she knew her question would not be answered by him. She looked at the hat, instead.

"No, the King took it as payment for taxes or some such nonsense." The hat informed her, quite put out, as the Wise Man fell asleep. 

"Oh, thank you." Sarah said, absentmindedly, as she walked away. So Jareth had her ring and he still sent her on a goose chase to find something she had lost. The question she could not answer was what he got from it, besides the obvious enjoyment at annoying her. 

Why did he care about what she had lost? 

Sarah wished he would have just left her be in her miserable little world of reality. But no, he had to walk back into her life and fill it with magic. It sounded strange, but she liked her world where everything was exactly as it seemed and nothing was hidden. She missed that world. But she also enjoyed the world filled with magic and deceit where nothing was as it seemed and Goblin Kings hid in the shadows in wait for when the heroine screwed up. 

Sarah was almost certain that she needed to see a therapist.