Edana spun around at the sound of an unfamiliar voice. She gasped at the figure who stepped out of the shadows of the hallway and into the room. "My God…"

"Your Highness would have sufficed," the man said in his strange accent as he bowed low, "but I won’t complain."

Edana was dumbstruck. He was surely not a king, let alone the Goblin King, though he bore an uncanny resemblance to the villain Sarah had always described for their imaginative games. And she had said the words. What other explanation could there be? She watched, still not sure what to say, as he ambled to the desk and peered at the collection of knick-knacks. They he turned and observed the room.

"The room seems awfully familiar," he remarked thoughtfully, "though with a different occupant." He gave Edana a speculative look. "What was her name…" he murmured finally, as he gave her a sidelong glance and could see that she had finally gathered her wits. "Susan? No… Samantha?" He knew perfectly well what her name was, but of course it was all part of the act and he enjoyed being disconcertingly unpredictable.

"Sarah," Edana offered quietly.

Jareth snapped his fingers. "That’s it. Do you know her, then?" He spied a photograph of the two girls, dressed in medieval costumes at some fair. "Yes, I see you do," he answered himself. "She never mentioned a sister."

Edana debated over how much she should tell him – after all, according to Sarah he was the incarnation of evil, though he had not yet appeared so to Edana. "She’s my cousin," she finally told him.

The Goblin King replaced the picture and raised an eyebrow. "A strange susceptibility to calling on me seems to run in this family," he remarked casually.

"Well, she never said it really worked!" Edana defended herself. She wished she had not done so immediately, it had made her sound petulant and far younger than her nineteen years.

"No excuse, my dear – you attempted of your own accord and by your own hope that it would work." He shook his head. "Shall we be off, then?"

"I never said anything about-" Edana objected, recalling once again stories of how malevolent Sarah had told her the Goblin King was. By the time she had reached that point in the sentence Sarah’s room had dissolved and the two of them had materialized in the throne room of Jareth’s castle. "Hey, wait a minute! That’s not –"

Jareth rolled his eyes in an exaggerated motion of despair. "Here we go again. Are you sure the two of you aren’t sisters?" Edana glared up at him as he walked a slow circle around her. "So you crave adventure," he said meditatively. "There’s plenty of that here, if nothing else. I really don’t see why you’re so upset."

"I didn’t say anything about adventure," Edana said guardedly.

Jareth laughed. "My dear child, you don’t need to actually speak the words. Besides," he mimed the unrolling of a scroll and adopted the stance of a town crier. "Dear All," he began. "I love you very much – nice touch, that bit. It’s important to make sure they think you’re being sincere. But I digress." He continued reading the imaginary scroll. "But I am not living up to your expectations or my own." Again he interrupted himself. "Need I continue?" It was very clear from the helpless expression on Edana’s face that he did not need to.

"I was being sincere," Edana snapped indignantly. "And how did you know about that, anyway."

"Just because you can’t see me doesn’t mean I’m not there," he told her mockingly, with a leering smile. "Sarah knew I was there – in the forest, anyway."

With a start, Edana realized that Jareth had mismatched eyes, and an image of the owl flashed into her mind. She nodded, now she understood why Sarah had reacted to violently to its presence. "Perhaps I should try to remember her warnings about the Underground as well, then," she said aloud softly to herself.

"No!" Jareth said sharply, stepping forward and grasping her firmly by the shoulders. "Make your own decisions about this place – and about me. Hate it all if you must, but let it be your own conclusion."

There was real worry behind his voice, he was actually imploring her, though Edana could not fathom the reason. She looked back at him with a clear gaze. "No one makes decisions for me," she said with finality. They stood staring at each other for seconds, maybe minutes, each unable to turn away for reasons neither could surmise.

A clock chimed, breaking the spell. "Ah," Jareth said, clapping his gloved hands together once. "Dinner. Are you hungry?"

"I could be persuaded," Edana agreed. She followed the Goblin King into a great hall, which at the moment was full of Goblins.

"Shoo!" he commanded. "Be gone, all of you, I’ll not have you ruining my peaceful dinner." The Goblins looked at each other in surprise, then hurriedly vacated the room. "Now then," Jareth said good-naturedly. He pulled a chair out for his guest, then crossed the room to the doorway leading to the kitchen. "I don’t suppose you’d like to bring some dinner out, unless you lazy creatures haven’t’ begun to prepare it yet," he said to the goblins inside. There was an unmistakably threatening tone to his voice.

Edana never heard it. She was, against her better judgement, more interested in watching her esteemed host. She had never seen anyone move with such fluidity, certainly never spent time with anyone exuding such a commanding presence. He returned to the table and sat down opposite her, so graceful that he seemed not to move at all. Sarah had always described him as deceptively handsome; the epitome of why one could not assume that appearance and virtue reflected each other. She had not done him justice, Edana reflected, trying to do anything but stare like a lovesick teenager.

He watched her intently for a few seconds. "Edana," he said softly, "why are you here?"

Edana almost didn’t remember the question, she liked the way he said her name so much. Then she recognized what she was doing. Men just play games with you Edana, so pay attention and don’t get suckered in. You know it would never happen to you, she told herself. "It’s as good a place as any," she responded with intentional vagueness to his question. "And I wanted to see if I could really come here."

Jareth pondered this. He leaned back in his chair, his elbows on the armrests and his fingertips touching, and just looked across the table. She was not being completely honest. After about a minute, she cocked an eyebrow.

"See anything interesting, then?" she asked dryly.

Instead of being intimidated, he smiled. Well, her defense certainly takes no great effort to discern… "Cynicism does not become you, my dear," he admonished playfully.

"Yeah, well, cynicism is what my entire personality is based on, so if you have any ideas about not letting me leave, you’d better get used to it."

"I didn’t say I didn’t know how to deal with it," Jareth chided her gently. "It’s one of those things one becomes quite adept at when king."

Edana knew he was teasing her now. She decided to change the subject. "What’s your version of the story – why did you bring me here?"

"I never turn down the request of a beautiful lady," he answered. He was quite amused by the fact that Edana obviously did not know how to take his statement, which was of course precisely what he had intended to happen. An entire spectrum of emotions revealed themselves on her features in a matter of seconds, though she was trying to hide it.

"Pity you only got me," she muttered under her breath, not realizing that he could hear.

Jareth, to his credit, briefly considered saying something along the lines of how she really was not that objectionable, but decided against it on behalf of his stomach. "Neb!" he bellowed, turning in the direction of the kitchens. "If my dinner is not on this table before me in the next five minutes, it’s the dungeons for you all!" He gave an almost apologetic smile to Edana, who had jumped at the volume of his voice. "We don’t get much company," he said apologetically.

"Oh, so you’re desperate," she returned tartly.

Jareth could not help but laugh, though he reflected that he was going to have to cure her of that impudence. He was beginning to like her. She was infuriating, but also unquestionably beautiful, and he admired how vicious she could be with words. Much more than her would have guessed from looking at her.

Finally two goblins wearing aprons waddled out with the food. They set it down on the table and cringed at the glare they received from Jareth.