Chapter Text
CHAPTER 1
It had been thirteen years since Sarah’s Labyrinth run and return from the Underground. She had grown into a very beautiful, dark-haired twenty-seven and a half-year-old woman with vivid emerald green eyes. She was very physically fit and had taken up many interests in self-defense, hand-to-hand combat, survival, archery, and shooting training classes over the years. Her great-grandmother had a big influence on her and told her that she always needed to be smart, strong, and ready for anything.
She had gone to Harvard University at eighteen years old and got her Master's in Liberal Arts, studying and tailoring her degree in Celtic Languages and Literatures, Anthropology, and Archeology, focused on Celtic culture, as well as History of the Celtic culture. Sarah got it in four years and wanted to know about everything she could gather in information pertaining to her family's history, the culture they came from, and anything to do with the Tuatha De Danaan of the distant past.
Her father was unhappy with her choice of studies and thought a Liberal Arts master's degree in Celtic Historical Studies was a big waste of time and money. He was arguing with her to get her to be an attorney for the money. Her great-grandmother stepped in and paid for everything for Sarah to go to Harvard and do what she loved and wanted to study. Frannie, Sarah's great-grandmother, who came from Ireland, told Robert to leave the poor girl alone and let her live her own life the way she wanted to be happy. She then reminded him that she had paid for his and his two brothers’ educations also. Robert groused and caved in by backing off telling his grandmother that she just threw away part of his inheritance on a useless education for Sarah.
When Sarah was nineteen years old, after taking care of her great-grandmother Frannie for years, her great-grandmother died at one hundred years old. Sarah grieved terribly because she was the only person whom she could trust and completely understood her. Frannie believed in her and was the only one out of the entire family who did. She had gone away to college for six months. She felt guilty but had talked to her all the time on the phone and went to see her in between semesters regretting not having more time and being able to be there when it happened.
The entire inheritance and estate turned into a huge fiasco and legal battle because her father and his two brothers were angry and teamed up because they were all cut out of the will except for Sarah. They complained that they had been waiting their whole lives to cash in. Sarah had gotten 100% of the inheritance and estate in full, which was worth twenty-four million dollars.
Sarah had taken care of her great-grandmother, Frannie, for years, making sure she was safely taken care of by her or arranging help to come in to help her when she couldn't. Sarah even lived with her during the summers out of school and tried to go be with her as much as she could during the year and on holidays. She was actually glad not to have to deal with Karen and her father during those times. She never forgot her great-grandmother on holidays or special occasions to make her smile.
The brothers, including her father, all contested the will, but couldn't in the end, which caused a huge rift pushing Sarah completely away. All three of them were telling her that she selfishly manipulated a helpless old woman. It was all because of the money. It infuriated Sarah because none of them lifted a finger to help take care of Frannie or remembered her on holidays, ever, including her father. Her father said flippantly, that was why he let her go do it all as his part. She knew that she would have shared some of the money with them, but once they started their selfish hateful behavior and Karen started throwing gasoline on the flames, she was done with them all. Her will was drawn up and made out that if anything happened to her, and she had no children or spouse of her own, everything would be divided up and go to charities designated by her.
Her great -grandma had told her that her three grandsons were fine, as long as they were never asked to do anything because then that would be an inconvenience to them. Sarah saw the worst come out in them as greedy moneymongers spewing hate at her in court wanting their payday off the back of Frannie’s death. No grief, no love, and no compassion. They didn't even come to the graveyard or the funeral. The will was ironclad and there was nothing they could do about it. Sarah had a security company set up and paid to monitor the closed-up waterfront on two sides, a beautiful old Victorian home on Greenwich Cove in Old Greenwich, until she could finish her degree, living in the dorms of Harvard. She took in her great-grandmother’s twenty-five-pound cat, Mr. Boots, a large black Persian, all-male, loveable cat. He passed away a couple of years ago at the age of eighteen years old when Sarah was twenty-five years old. She loved that old cat.
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It was the beginning of September, in the year 1999, Sarah sat looking out the window from her kitchen at the table as the sun was rising with rich vermilion and a bright orange colorfully painting the early dawning sky. The colors danced around the yellow crescent sun peeking and coming up from under the horizon at a distance. It all took place over an illuminated and far-reaching sparkling cove of waves beyond the peninsula at Greenwich Point. She had woken up very early to see the sun come up from out of that same old dream again. It was one of dancing in the Goblin King’s ballroom again and smashing the wall with a chair in a panic to get out. It always unsettled her as warning signs were ever-increasing in the last two days.
She sighed happily at the beautiful show of color from her old Victorian house with round rooms and spired roofing surrounded on two sides by water from Greenwich Cove in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. Sarah had a beautiful home on the water on two sides of her house, worth a couple of million. It was big, beautiful, and meticulously landscaped. It had a very nice garden of flowers with trellises, arbors of grapes. She even had her own vegetable and fruit garden with mature fruit trees on the property. Sarah loved her home, which she had inherited from her great-grandmother, and learned canning, food preserving, and storage from her over her childhood years. Sarah loved the old Irish woman and all the stories her great-grandma would tell her of the old ways and fairytales from old Ireland. It was such a pleasure listening to her for hours and asking questions.
This fragile moment in time, sitting looking out the window, was only a temporary escape from reality for her, by grabbing a moment in time and finding your center, like “a captured moment of Zen”. She was sipping her hot cup of tea with honey about to contemplate her next course of action to prepare for the inevitable. She knew Jareth was coming for her. She was completely relaxed for the moment and her mind drifted off to going over what had happened two days before until now.
~~~Flashback To Two Days Ago~~~
Sarah was shopping in the small, quaint, touristy district of small boutiques and shops on South Beach Avenue. She loved window shopping at the end of summer after most of the tourists had left the area. She wandered into several stores to buy this and that with a couple of shopping bags in tow. Sarah went into a little quaint store called Athena Books that had new and used books she frequented from time to time and loved.
As she walked in the door, the bell tinkled and the store owner and clerk, an old woman in her eighties named Clarissa, smiled at her. Clarissa said very friendly and familiarly, “I just got a big shipment of old books in the back, Sarah. They are stacked in crates in the back by the storeroom door in the entry hallway. You can drag up a chair and look through the four crates there?”
Sarah smiled and nodded saying, “Thank you, Clarissa.”
She went to the back and put her bags and purse down on a small table. She took a chair from the table and dragged it up by the crates. Sarah set one crate on the ground and started sifting through the books. Some were very old and collectible. She would photograph and write a description to add them online to the inventory. Clarissa, with Sarah's help, got set up with an online store of new and old rare books she got from her book connections over the decades. It had become quite lucrative for the elderly woman and boosted her profits substantially.
Many of the volumes were old and very dusty from being in humidity-controlled dry storage for who knows how long. She was just so enthralled with old literature. Old books held a fascination for her. She continues sifting through the books and looking at the copyright publishing dates putting them in different stacks according to potential value. Going through these books made a memory trigger, and she started thinking of her great-grandmother, Frannie, again, back when she had first visited her, returning from the Underground.
~~~Flashback Fifteen Years Ago~~~
After she had returned from the Underground, she would spend a substantial amount of time with her great-grandmother. The old woman was sharp as a tack and sensed something different about her when she sat down before her on the fancy Victorian sofa in front of her.
Her great grandmother, Frannie, said curiously looking intensely at her, “Sarah, me child, ye have been touched by tha fairies. Ye can't fool yer gran, I can feel their ways and magic upon yer skin. Tell your gran, what happened and what troubles ye, child? What be happenin’ ta ye?”
Her great-grandmother became the only person she told in complete confidence about the mistaken wish and the entire tale of her Underground adventure in great detail. After she was done, her great-grandmother told her, “Ye did good ta be gettin’ yer brother back from the Goblin King and ye be learnin’ a valuable lesson this time. I be fearin’ and knowin’ ye not be seein’ tha last of it though because ye been marked by them. The little man Higgle, be tellin’ ye that, ‘Even if ye get to the centre, ye'll never get out again.’ I believe in heedin’ his words. They be sayin’ ye never really can be gettin’ away even if ye be winnin’ back Toby. Also, me child, ye got bit by a fairy before ye even be inside tha maze. Ye also be eatin’ that peach which be fairy food that ties ye to that realm. The fae king be pleadin’ and offerin’ ye ta stay an be with him too. Ye said the book be sayin’ tha king be in love with tha girl. No, ye may be refusin’ his offer, but ye not be free of the fae or that realm, me child. I be afraid, time be passin’ and that king he be comin' fer ye, child, one day when ye be grown into the woman ye be destined to be. Time be not that same in the fairy realm like here. Time be slower there.” The old woman was shaking her head solemnly.
Sarah asked her in shock, taking her hand and moving over to sit next to her, “Gran, how do you know all these things so well?”
The very old woman's eyes were old and watery at ninety-six years old, as she then looked up seriously into Sarah's eyes and said, “Me great granbabe, the King of the Goblins be Sidhe fae and be walkin’ between tha Seelie and Unseelie fae with the goblins. There be legends and stories bout’ him as far back before history be written. He be a very jealous and possessive type, walkin’ in both sides of the split courts, neither good nor bad. He be givin’ the task to find lost or abandoned children by the humans who wish them away carelessly to him. He be givin' tha children to the Seelie, cuz they be not having many babes of their own cuz they live so long and be yearnin’ fer a babe of their own. They be stealin’ human babes fer thousands of years and sometimes be leaving changelings in their place. Now, it be the unwanted and abandoned they be claimin’. There be so many in this world that be unwanted, there be no need to steal like they be doin’ before. He don't be givin' the babes to tha Unseelie, cuz they be torturin’ and killin’ humans or any other races that mistreat them. He be changing them ta fae babies or his own goblins. I be knowin' this because it be passed down for many a generation in our family from the times long ago and forgotten by most. Our family be part of a… record of knowings of our people’s history. Me gran be tellin’ me the knowings ta be passed down and now I be tellin’ you. I be told that we be of tha last of tha only dark haired tribe of Nuada of tha Tuatha Dé Daanan fae people themselves that stayed behind in this here realm and became part of our ancestors. That be back when the fae be driven back ta where they be commin’ from. They be not so friendly towards us after that but use our babes just the same. I be not sure when it be, but after thousands of years, our people be able to feel the magic on those who be touched and those who have a bit of magic inside them, as far back as can be remembered or told. Ye feel it, don't ye, me child? Ye feel different in this world, like ye don't belong and be part of something else ye can't touch but feel it all the same.” Sarah looked at her with big eyes in shock. She slowly nodded her head.
Frannie nodded with her and said taking her hand and patting it, “It be ok, Sarah, me darling, ye be a smart and strong girl soon to be a woman. Listen ta yer Gran now. When time be comin' fer tha King ta be returnin’, watch fer tha signs I be bout’ to tell ya……”
~~~Flashforward To Two Days Ago~~~
Sarah was still digging through the books, wiping some off, and reading bits. She stumbled across a small, very, very old book, and it tingled in her fingers, which was peculiar. It was 5x3 inches and was wedged between books. It was tattered and frayed around the edges and the binding was cracked. There was no copyright date and it looked handwritten like an old journal. She started reading it.
She found it was about the Tuatha Dé Daanan fae and it had her complete attention. First, it was a history of the race of people from almost four thousand years ago that came to Ireland. A few excerpts read……
Historically:
The Tuatha dé Danann, the people of the Goddess Danu, were one of the great ancient tribes of Ireland and they ruled Ireland from 1897 B.C. to 1700 B.C. The arrival of the tribes in Ireland is the stuff of legends. It was originally Dagda's home, but there is a belief to this day that Newgrange was built as a way for the gods to travel between the heavens and this world. The Tuatha Dé Danann brought with them the 'Four Treasures' with them from four magical “cities” of Findias, Gorias, Murias, and Falias. The treasures are the Sword of Nuada, the Spear of Lugh, the Cauldron of the Dagda, and the Lia Fáil (Stone of Destiny). They taught their skills in the sciences, including architecture, the arts, and magic, including necromancy.
It was said that the Tuatha Dé or Tuatha de Danann had their homes in the Otherworld or the Underground, a Celtic realm seemingly unseen by humans. They are generally described as tall and willowy with red or blonde hair, blue or green eyes, and translucent pale skin with human-shaped pointed ears and slanted eyebrows.
At the Tuatha Dé Danann's defeat by the Milesians, the mortal ancestors of the Irish people, the Tuatha de Danann chose to "go underground" to live. This new habitat led to another name for the Tuatha de Danann when they became known as the Sidhe. Sidhe means ‘a fairy’ in Gaelic folklore and is divided into two courts, the Seelie and the Unseelie.
Newgrange Mound was built about 3,200 BC (about 5,200 years ago approximately at this time) during the Neolithic period, which makes it older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids by 500 years. Newgrange is a large circular mound with a stone passageway and chambers inside. The mound is ringed by large stones known as kerbstones some of which are engraved with artwork.
It was said that Newgrange is the passage to the abode of the Tuatha de Danann (a supernaturally gifted group of people thought to be the gods and goddesses of Ireland before Christianity) and the burial place of the kings of Tara since then. The Lia Fail stone has had all the Kings of Ireland crowned upon it.
Sarah flipped forward and found a complete section on interaction with the fae. It read…..
Rules Of Avoidance:
You must never eat or drink anything offered by them because it is ‘fairy food’, as this can bind you to their realm.
Avoid accepting their gifts with caution because it places you in their debt. What seems like a favor to a human can be a binding contract with severe and disproportionate consequences. The fae don't necessarily subscribe to the same concept of fairness as humans. Decline it politely but firmly.
Never thank them, thanking opens the door for them to return because you now owe them something.
Be extremely careful with your words. The fae are known for being cunning with language and will exploit any loopholes in a deal. Be precise in your language when dealing with them.
Never become a lover because the fae will mark you as a lover with their family crest, usually on the neck, to be visible to all other fae. They will enthrall, enslave, and enamor a human to be compliant and have an addiction to only them, which will further tie the lover to them. So long as the lover remains beside them and their mark is in place, they will naturally live as long as their fae who possesses them.
While fae can be tricky, they cannot lie directly and hold their word sacred if ever given. They will manipulate words or bend them around to avoid lying.
Fae will take promises, oaths, and swears extremely seriously. If you can get them to do one of these three things, then they will be bound to uphold it.
Protective Measures:
Iron: Fae are repelled by iron or salt in its pure form. Iron can burn their skin and poison them if it ever enters their body.
Offerings: Leave offerings such as milk, honey, or shiny objects in natural areas as a gesture of goodwill outside of the home away from dwellings.
Stay out of fairy rings: Do not step into fairy rings (rings of mushrooms), as they are often portals to the fae realm and you will be trapped there.
Salt: A natural repellent to fairies because it absorbs and nullifies magic.
Certain protective symbols: Sprigs of rowan were placed in homes. Stringing the red berries with five points stars into a necklace or hanging a rowan branch over a door is a common practice. Hanging bundles of twigs of oak, ash, and hawthorn, bound with red thread, around your home. St. John's Wort is a herb that is a powerful deterrent against fairy magic. Sprigs can be hung in the home or carried on one's person.
How To Know If They Are Around:
Four-leaf clovers offer magical protection from bad luck and evil. A person carrying one could see fairies even when they were using their magic to hide.
Catching glimpses of movement out of the corner of your eye.
Unusual sounds or whispers where there should be no noise or sound.
Pets acting strangely as if interacting or watching something not seen.
Flowers are blooming in unexpected and unusual places.
Feeling like you're being watched even when you know you are completely alone.
Sarah was in complete shock because it was everything her great-grandmother Frannie had told her about the fairies and fae people of the Tuatha Dé Daanan, as far as interacting with them. She always felt, from time to time, over the years, that she was being watched. She believed it was probably Jareth looking at her in one of his crystals, which he loved to wield around, especially when she was bathing. She always took extra measures to be as covered up as possible at those moments because it felt so weird like her hair was standing up on end. She wanted to go over everything in the book when she got home. She got up, put the little book next to her purse, and continued looking through the crates and splitting them up by category for Clarissa.