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Shattered	By : TarnishedArmour Category: G through L > Labyrinth Views: 7714 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: Based upon the work of Jim Henson; specifically Labyrinth, copyright 1986 by Jim Henson & associated parties. I do not own or have legal rights to Labyrinth, etc., or make any profit from them. *Individual disclaimers for other works in

Chapter List
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Sarah woke the next morning, but she felt strange. It was like she remembered feeling when she had eaten the enchanted peaches, but this time the sensation radiated from her head, not her stomach. Shaking her head didn't clear it, so she stumbled out of bed and pulled on the clothes the Lady had provided in the closet for her. They were simple dresses, made to fall straight to the floor and be cinched in by a jerkin. They were warm and comfortable, so Sarah didn't object to the change from her habitual breeches and boots.
Keeping one hand on a stationary surface at all times, Sarah stumbled into the Lady's kitchen and sat heavily at the table.
"Are you well, Sarah?" the Lady asked, surprised. She hadn't expected anything like this.
"I feel so strange," Sarah said, her voice weak. "Everything's dancing…" Memory flashed into her mind and she was dancing in Jareth's arms again, a haunting melody playing as he sang to her of love. Sarah moaned, unable to stop the feelings washing over her. "Jareth…" she whispered, her eyes falling shut as she swayed in her chair to music only she could hear.
Jareth, to the Lady's surprise, appeared in the room.
"Sarah?" he asked, studying her carefully.
"Sing to me," Sarah said, thinking she was imagining his voice again. "Sing of sad love and a path between the stars…"
Jareth stared at her, amazed at what she was thinking. She should be concentrating on studying magic with the Lady now, not lost in a fantasy he had created to trap her years before. Placing his hands on her shoulders t steady her, he addressed the Lady.
"Did you do as required by the laws of the labyrinth?" he asked.
"Yes. She did not wake or seem to have any ill effects…" The Lady's voice trailed off, then she asked, slowly, "Jareth, is she of this world?"
"No, like most of my consorts, she is from Earth." He raised an eyebrow. "This has not happened before."
"No," the Lady replied, troubled. "I cannot explain it. Perhaps Marta or the Lord Magician-"
"No. I shall handle this." Saying nothing more, he scooped Sarah up in his arms and took her back into her room. Once the door closed, he pulled her into a broken moment and set her one her feet. She began to dance, as though he was leading her through the ballroom again. Watching her, he knew the only way to end this was to join her. Gently, Jareth took her hand and began to dance, the room shimmering around them to become the same crystal ballroom, though empty of revellers. He let the music build slowly around them and watched as her eyes opened and her face returned to that sweet expression of wonder that had so captivated him years before. He saw she was dazzled by him anew. He began to sing to her, completing the scene for her, investing his heart in the music, just as he had before.
"There's such a sad love, deep in your eyes," he crooned, "a kind of pale jewel, opened and closed within your eyes…"
"I'll place the moon within your heart," she sang with him, then fell silent. He continued singing, and she joined in again. "As the world falls down… Falling…Falling…" she sang, skipping a few lines. She continued a few lines later, "We're choosing a path between the stars. I'll lay my love between the stars…"
As they danced, as he sang, hearing her voice come in on certain lines sent a jolt through him. Had she truly been that enchanted with him when she danced with him? Was her will so strong that she had been able to break that enchantment with nothing but the chime of a clock? Remarkable.
They finished the entire song, the one that had been cut short by her will, and stilled. He did what he had longed to do that day. Leaning down to her, seeing her eyes open, filled with all the love she had begun to realize for him then, the love that had grown over time, he kissed her gently on the lips. Gentle kisses soon turned to passionate ones, and Jareth transported them quickly to the wastelands outside his kingdom. He had no idea how powerful she would be, but she was in no condition to control the magic as it responded to physical stimulus. He would not dare to shield her unless he knew her strength. A scorched patch of land was nothing. A scorched and magically burned king was a disaster.
It wasn't long before she was straining against him, helpless in the onslaught of the magic within her. As the magic tore at her from within, seeking an escape, he calmed her body through a distraction he knew she would enjoy. He held her on her feet, her back against him, raised her skirts, and used only his hands to bring her to pleasure. In the end, he was battered by magical shockwaves and a gaping crater opened around them, the earth blackened by the intense heat of her magical release.
To add to the amazing amount of energy expended, she had the audacity to faint in his arms.
"Only you, Sarah," he sighed, lifting her limp form in his arms.
Back at the Lady's, in Sarah's bedroom, Jareth kept them in the broken moments until Sarah revived. When she did, her eyes were clear and she was staring at him in confusion.
"Jareth? Why are you here?" Sarah asked, not remembering waking or anything afterward.
"You don't recall?" he asked, amused. "Well, here is your answer." He produced a crystal and showed her what had happened, motions fast-forwarded to fit within a shorter time.
"I don't remember any of that!" Sarah exclaimed. "Jareth, what happened to me?"
"You had an interesting reaction to--" he paused, then cocked his head to the side. "Sarah, before I tell you, I must ask. Have you ever had any magical experiences outside of my realm?"
Sarah shook her head. "No." Jareth sat on the bed, folding one leg up so he could face Sarah as she stared at him, her arms around her knees.
"Well, last night, as your reward for finishing the first set of walls in the Central Lands, the Lady opened the magical potential you held. Apparently, there was some association of this awakening with the crystal ballroom I conjured for you years ago. I'm not sure why," he added dryly, "given the sheer number of magical things that happened to you while you were here, but there it is. The ballroom scene was played to its ultimate and original conclusion," Sarah's eyes grew wide at that, and Jareth moved on, ignoring her reaction. "The end result being a rather large crater in my wastelands. Now, because of the sheer size of the crater, it is apparent to me that you have an incredible amount of magical potential--more than most mortals who come to my realm. Have you any ideas why that would be?"
"I…Did any of the others serve as Lady of Spring Returning in the Festivals?" Sarah asked, thinking of that one experience. "I know that I wasn't…alone while I was opening the rites."
Jareth thought for a moment, then nodded. "That may well explain it. However, there are certain things you must know. From this time on, the magic will respond to your physical and mental reactions to things. If you grow angry or aroused or sad, the magic will swell and change in response. Orgasm will be destructive if you do not learn to control this, as will a loss of temper or a deep depression. No, no one knows why. Our ancestors found that out the hard way, and, despite the many magicians who study this phenomenon, there is no rhyme nor reason for it that we can detect. There are exercises that you must learn and master before I dare touch you again, lest we destroy a large part of my kingdom with your pleasure."
Sarah gaped. "Please tell me you're joking," she begged, her voice shaking.
"Would I were," Jareth sighed. "Life would be so much more fun if getting angry or other strong emotions didn't include being battered from the inside by magic. As it is, you must stay here until your initial training is completed, until you have learned the first language of magic, and until you have control over your magic, even when you are enraged or…otherwise in the throes of strong emotional or physical stimuli."
"How long could that take?" Sarah asked, feeling like a burden the Lady would be saddled with. It wasn't that she didn't like the Lady, but she was so odd. Much stranger than Mab had been.
"That is entirely up to you," he said, smiling at her. "Knowing you, it will be either a very long time or an amazingly short one. You are a creature of extremes, my dear." He touched his fingers to her cheek. "I must go." He returned them to time and Sarah gasped. "Mm. Felt that did you? Incredible potential and already sensitive to something that most magicians can't feel--I know the Lady can't. I would stay to watch your training, but there are things brewing beyond my control." The grim look on his face made Sarah nod and, when he took his hand from her face, she reached out and grabbed it with hers.
"Will I hear from you?" she asked, her eyes begging him for some sort of reassurance. He did not give it.
"You must learn without distraction, Sarah." He did not give her the comfort she so desperately needed. "Now, I really must go. Learn well, Sarah."
With that, he removed himself from the Lady's home, returning to his castle.
Sarah sat on the bed and trembled for a long time. She was so adrift at this news that she didn't want to think or feel anything. Thankfully, the magic within her seemed to be quiet for now. Finally, Sarah got up and walked into the kitchen again, smelling the delicious food the Lady produced for breakfast.
She sat down and listened as the Lady explained about the gift of magic and gave a brief outline of what she would have to do in order to learn to control her magic and work magic.
They began that afternoon with conscious detection, access, and cessation of the magic within. It was to be the easiest lesson with the Lady, yet it was the most difficult thing Sarah had ever done.
Days passed, faded into weeks, and finally months. There was incredible progress followed by a stone-stubborn refusal to learn that Sarah did not understand. It was as if she could go so far in so many directions that the Lady was left blinking at her in amazement, then something simple would make her come grinding to a halt. The entire experience reminded her of math classes at school. The difference was that this was actually fun.
Except when she materialized an elephant in the middle of the Lady's workroom, however unintentionally. And when the broom began attacking her. And when she put out every light crystal in the entire house in the middle of a lesson about the stars and the magical languages. And when she turned the fireplace into an ever-expanding puddle.
There was one incident that she didn't tell the Lady about, though, that excited and frightened her. Sarah was playing with the crystal sphere that the Lady kept in her kitchen, passing it from one hand to the other. She let the glitter of the crystal spinning between her hands mesmerize her briefly. Without intending to, she duplicated the crystal and was forced to stop her juggling in order to catch them and keep them from shattering on the floor. She stared at the two, then felt a gentle resonance from them. One seemed to pulse with her own heartbeat, something she was constantly aware of now. The other held a deeper, stronger resonance. That one, she knew, was Jareth's. She replaced the first sphere and took her duplicate quickly into her room.
It took every ounce of willpower she possessed, but Sarah wrapped her crystal sphere into her pack and forced herself to leave it alone throughout the duration of her lessons with the Lady. Agony swept over her sometimes, as the siren song of the crystal reached out to her while she practiced her magic. Something about Jareth's crystal made her think that, while she had managed to duplicate his magic, she was not yet able to work it the way he did. She wasn't strong enough to control the crystal yet. She had the sneaking suspicion that crystal would become her focus, like it was Jareth's. She had, after three months, been unable to work with any focus stone the Lady had tried, and they had tried some truly exotic stones--even common granite--with no success. Frustrated, the Lady had given up the focus-stone practical lessons and gave her the information, practice exercises, and theories of focus stone work. Sarah had excelled at each aspect, excepting only the use of an actual focus stone.
Sarah continued to learn, and, after six months (human time), she was told she had nothing left to learn from the Lady at the time, and the rest would come to her with practice and experience. Sarah stared at the Lady, thinking of the other eight magical languages, the levels of proficiency, and her own control, which was excellent, though nowhere near what Sarah would consider acceptable for an apprentice to be turned out into the world. Instead of speaking, though, she listened to the instructions the Lady gave about her next journey. Sarah made mental notes, then left the workroom to prepare her equipment and pack rations for her journey.
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Shattered