The Darkened Queen

Return to the Darkened World

Sarah knew what had to be done and for the first time in her existence she was glad to do it. Since the moment of her birth it had seemed that she was forced to make choices that were not her own, that had been for the best of her people, her sisters, her beloved, but now she could feel the world around her, could see it with eyes unbiased. And she saw that her every action in the past, her every twist and turn, had been hurtling towards the moment before her, and she embraced her future with arms opened wide.

"You do know what you are doing, don't you?" His doubt in her almost made her falter, but she knew it was in his nature to be suspicious. Still, his uncertainty in the present hurt her more than any pain in the past. Sarah had thought that, after all they had been through, he would trust her a little more. Though she could concede that, if he had locked away her memories and trapped her in a different, foreign realm, she would also be uncertain of him.

Instead of giving voice to her hurt, Sarah simply nodded and smiled. She remembered doing that quite often in the past. Instead of talking out their issues she had always given in, always been submissive, even when they had been equal in power. She had no wish to go back to such a life, not after she had tasted a world where she had been given her own mind, her own choices.

Sarah swallowed the hurt and looked at the Esher room as she never had before. When she first saw it, she had tried to figure it out, she had tried to see how each piece connected. But in truth, they did not, it was unfinished, and no amount of staring could put it back together. It was as broken as she had been, it was impossible to solve, as she was, and it would make even the most sane being insane. Instead of trying to solve it, Sarah accepted it as it was, just as she accepted Jareth as he was, and the path began to form.

Jareth watched on as his beloved knelt and touched the ground before the door way, a secret smile played around her lips as she traced a name into the dirt, and then another. For once, he noticed how filthy the room was and, briefly, he wondered what else he had missed, what he had taken for granted.

That thought nearly made him laugh, he was the one who taught others that, and yet he had yet to learn it. As everything in his existence, he knew that she had once taught him, or tried to teach him, the lessons he thought he knew. But he realized that, though he would never admit it, he had never truly taken her lessons to heart. He had only played along because it amused him and it had brought her joy. But he had never truly learned that the way back was sometimes the way forward, nor had he learned to follow his feet. He thought he had, but he had not.

Watching the woman before him, he realized that she had always known such things, that they came easily to her, as if drawing breath, and he wondered if she had learned them or if they had been made part of her during her creation. He supposed he would never know, and he found that he was content with not knowing.

Sarah finished her writing and look at the words. While the list seemed right, it also seemed incomplete. She laughed as she realized that she had forgotten to add her own name. She wrote Aine and drew a line, longer than the others for she had lived more lives then them, and connected it to the name she now wore: Sarah.

As she appraised the names, she knew she had them all, and she hoped that she had brought enough of the castle with her to defeat the forces of her enemy. Once more, she looked over the names she had written, the names they had born while in the Fae kingdom and the names they bore while in her hastily made world. She nodded when she was finished and certain that none had been left, then she stood.

So many eyes were upon her and she realized that she had forgotten about this part, about being under constant watch, and she found that it made her uncomfortable, though she could not be certain if it had always made her so. She wondered, briefly, if she would ever truly be able to control all of her memories or if they would all drive her mad. She pushed the thought from her mind and held out her hand to her beloved.