Sarah and the Laws of Queendom Ch 4

Chapter 4: Magic Lessons, AKA, The Physics of Fluff

“Remember, students, physics is your friend.”

Sarah awoke with a start, the dream too real for her liking.  It was as though she was back in her physics class, her professor going on with zest about why physics was needed in the world.  Physics was not her friend, though she got along with it better now, thanks to Jareth.

Jareth woke up soon after Sarah did, looking at Sarah with uncertainty.

“Sarah, is everything alright?”

“Yes, I think so.  I just had a weird dream.”

Sarah shivered slightly, leaning into Jareth, who pulled her to himself for safe-keeping.  After that, Jareth tipped Sarah’s chin up, forcing their eyes to meet.

“What about, Precious? Tell me your troubles and dreams.”

“I had this foreboding feeling, and then suddenly I was back in the classroom.  He only said one thing, that physics was my friend.”

Jareth smiled inwardly at his wife.  If only she knew the truth.  Outwardly, he treated her dream as seriously as possible.  It would not do to dismiss it, even if she was overreacting.

“Perhaps it means something.”

“I hope it doesn’t.  Next you’ll be telling me that it was predicting the future.”

“In a way, Sarah, it was.”

Jareth kept his smile to a minimum, but even that was enough to drive his wife out of his arms with a wild look in her eyes.

“What are you talking about, Jareth? Why and how is it predicting the future?”

Jareth did so enjoy watching his wife get her dander up.  The way she put her hands on her hips and glared so menacingly and regally, despite her bed-touched hair and skimpy nightie, really made him proud.  One day she would put all of court in their place at last.

“Do you realize what we planned to do today?”

“Practice with our magic, I thought.”

“Yours especially.  You need much more training,” added Jareth.

“But what does that have to do with physics?”

“Sarah, think about it.  What did I tell you before about the connection between magic and physics?”

Sarah grinned.  “Anything that can’t be explained by physics is magic.”

Jareth was tempted to find something and kick it until he saw his wife’s teasing look.

“Be serious, Sarah.”

“It’s early, and you have bed head.  It’s hard to be serious right now.”

“I have bed head? You should see yours.  Mine is fine, just slightly tousled.”

Unconsciously, Jareth’s hand went out to check for any hairs that were more wild than normal.  Sarah came over to swat Jareth lightly for commenting on her early morning bed hair, but Jareth would not let her.  Instead, he kissed her and sat her on the bed.

“Kissing you ought to be illegal, Precious.  I never get work done once I start.”

“Oh, hush.  We’re married, and you know you’d be even more distracted if you weren’t allowed.”

“Also true,” he added with a grin.

“So let’s just stay here-“

“Oh, no you don’t, Sarah.  You aren’t distracting me from our lessons today.  I’ve been looking forward to them for too long.  Just because you don’t have good memories of physics doesn’t mean that you won’t enjoy today.  Give it a chance.  You learned from me before.”

“Yes, but-“

Jareth shushed her complaints with another kiss before picking her up and taking her to the bathroom so that they could freshen up.  They continued their discussion in there, as well as at the breakfast table. 

Once court was done for the day, the couple went to a large, unused room on the second floor.  It had a few chairs and other objects lying around, including several mirrors on the walls.  Jareth saw Sarah in her forest green day dress and decided he better make sure she was ready to begin the lessons.

“Are you certain that you’re in comfortable clothing, Sarah?”

“No, but I didn’t realize it mattered.”

“It does.  What do you want to wear?”

“Jeans, a t-shirt, and some keds.”

“Really, Sarah? A t-shirt?”

“It’s comfortable,” she said with a shrug.

“You could have chosen something a little more fun for my sake.”

“That’s what half of my wardrobe is, if not more.”

Jareth huffed in exasperation, but said no more.  It was going to be a long day of training, and she would need it most likely. 

“Then make it appear, Sarah.”

“I don’t know how.  Show me, please.”

“You made cookies appear, and while clothes are a little more complicated, it’s still not that hard.”

“Show me how, Jareth,” Sarah replied, taking his hand.

“Imagine exactly what you want to wear.  Good, you already know to close your eyes to help you concentrate.  Now, once you see the clothes, imagine them on you.”

Sarah stood there, eyes closed and waiting in expectation.

“Try again, Sarah.”

Sarah straightened more, getting up on her tiptoes, but still, she stood there in her dress.

“Hmm, perhaps we need to help you find your magic’s core first.  Look deep inside, Sarah.  Find your heart.”

Minutes passed.   “Alright. What now?”

“Do you feel the magic pulsing, how it sits in eager anticipation to be used?”

“No.  It’s just sitting there.”

“Then you haven’t found your heart yet.  Let me try something to encourage the process.”

With that, Jareth leaned in and kissed Sarah on her forehead.  She liked it when he kissed her there, and sometimes the magic was tied to another person.  That, and since the heart responded best with love, perhaps she just needed to feel more to find it.

Whatever the reason, as soon as Jareth kissed Sarah, her body temperature warmed momentarily, signaling the end of the search.

“I feel it now, Jareth.”

“Good.  I’m going to move away now.  Remember how you found that source, so that you can do it in the future every time.”

“I’ll just keep thinking of you.”

Jareth was trying not to preen after hearing that comment, but it was hard.  Hearing such things from his beloved pleased him.

Moments later, in a bright flash of glitter, Sarah’s clothing changed.

Trying to swat away the glitter, Sarah asked, “Will glitter always appear when I make changes like this?”

“Yes,” said Jareth smiling, “but it won’t always be in such large quantities.  This much is simply because you can’t control it yet.  We’ll work on that.”

“But why glitter?”

“Call it a calling card.  Just like an atom releases a certain amount of energy after losing an electron, so too do magical beings emit something after performing magic.  For some, light is released.  For us, we have glitter.  It’s messy and gets everywhere, just like the goblins we rule.”

Sarah’s face crinkled in annoyance when Jareth mentioned electrons and energy, but he ignored that.  She would have to get used to it.

“Could I at least make the glitter come out a certain way, to personalize it a little?”

“Of course, Precious.  But let’s focus on other things for now.  That’s a little more complicated.”

“Fine, fine.”

“Now, let’s practice making other things appear.  We’ll continue with inanimate objects until you’re ready to try animate ones.”

“Is there a difference?”

“A large one.  You expend more magic as you try heavier objects.  When you make yourself or others appear, imagine you’re trying to move the foundation of this castle.  That’s what kind of energy it takes to work with live beings.  Being alive means that there is a chance for injury or loss of life, so you’ve got to be careful with how you do it.  We’ll pretend that no one else has magic for now.  But we’ll work to that point.”

For the rest of the week, the two continued to make things appear, as well as move objects within the room.  Sarah had a bad habit of not bringing the whole object when moving.  They continued with larger objects until the crowning moment when Sarah made Ludo appear.  He looked confused as to how he went from playing with his herd to appearing in front of his King and Queen, but soon he recovered.

“Sawah!”

“Hi, Ludo! Do you feel alright?”

“Good.  With friends.”

To add emphasis, Ludo then moved toward Jareth and Sarah with his arms open for a hug.  Jareth tried to get away, lest he get crushed in another Ludo hug (he still remembered the wedding reception when Ludo had come over to congratulate the happy couple), but Sarah grabbed his arm, forcing a short group hug.

Once Ludo released his rulers, Jareth leaned down, as though to tie a shoe lace (even though he had none on his boots), while Sarah thanked Ludo for the hug, and then sent him back to his herd.  She was tired from the movement, but she was satisfied with the progress.

The next several months continued with the training, trying new things.  One week was spent learning “parlor tricks” since Sarah wanted to learn how to float.

“Come on, Jareth, show me how.  I’ve wanted to learn so badly since you pulled that stunt outside.”

“Yes I’m sure, just so you can feel as though you are flouting gravity, even though you really aren’t.”

“That’s not the point.  It’s just the principle of the thing.  Why is it so bad?”

“Because it’s a huge waste of magical energy to float.  All you’re doing is controlling the air speed and pressure around you so that it flows faster, and thus have lower pressure, around and above you, making you lift in the air from the pressure difference.  It’s not useful.”

“You don’t know that.  What if something is trying to attack me on the ground? Then this might be useful.”

“If someone attacks you, you will know self-defense magic to fight back.  We’re getting there.”

“I still think it’s useful,” Sarah said, putting her hands on her hips.

Jareth knew he was not going to win that argument, so he taught her.

Other weeks were spent learning how to aim her magic, as well as learn self-defense.  Since people could attack physically or mentally, he taught her how to prepare to fight in either way.  It was while they were working on how to aim for certain parts of the body that Sarah had a question.

“What if the person I’m going after decides to hide behind something? What do I do then?”

“You have two options.  You can either move to get rid of the obstruction, or you can try something a little more risky.”

“What’s that?”

“You can use the walls and other surfaces around us to bounce your magic off of it to aim for the person.  It’s very hard to get right, but I think you can handle it.”

“And why is that, Jareth? Because I’m so gifted with using magic?”

Sarah fluttered her eyelashes as she smiled sweetly at her husband.  He shook his head with patient affection.

“No, dearest.  Because you can actually beat me at billiards, or whatever you call that game with pool balls that we played a few times with your brother.”

Sarah laughed at the memory Jareth brought up.  As part of her father’s promotion one year, he had decided to buy a pool table for their basement, and Sarah had gotten good at it.  She had taught her brother, so he was good at it, too.  When Toby asked Jareth to play, Jareth had “gone easy on them”, only to get beaten.

“What does our playing pool have to do with this, Jareth?”

“Just imagine that your mind is the pool stick, and the magic is the ball.  Now try aiming around the obstructions to hit your target.”

Sarah’s eyes lit up with understanding as she began turning in a circle.  That did not sound so bad, as it was a matter of angles and how much energy to use.

“What else are you not telling me about this, Jareth? It seems too easy.”

“There’s the small matter of magic bouncing until it hits something that can absorb it, which can be just about anything. Then, there’s the other small matter of what the magic bounces off of, and whether the magic will diminish.”

“Why would it decrease in power?”

“Our magic acts as though it is colliding with other objects.  As you might remember from class, there are elastic and inelastic collisions.  If you aim at the stone floor or at a mirror, then you have a better chance of having an elastic collision where the magic’s power stays the same.  Otherwise, if it bounces off something soft, like those chicken feathers over there, you’ll lose much of what you put in.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.”

“Then try it out, Sarah dearest.”

Sarah was surprised when she let something out, and more light appeared.  The light continued to exist, though it soon bounced off the wall and came back to her.  When the light hit her, she felt the defensive spell she had tried hit her with force.  Soon she was on the ground, groaning about feeling the burning that seemed to cover all exposed skin.  Jareth took her in his arms, whispering soothing words as he healed her.

“It’s alright, Sarah.  That was a good first try.  You didn’t recoil back as I thought you would.  You must not have put as much energy into it.”

“You could have warned me.”

“And miss a learning opportunity? Never.”

Sarah sighed and groaned a little more until the burning stopped, though Jareth continued to hold her. 

“You ready to try again, Precious?”

“I suppose so.  What was that light, though?”

“That’s your magic taking its own unique form.  Mine manifests itself with crystals that I can throw and manipulate as I please.  Yours seems to be light.  We can try later on to make it brighter if you so wish to.  If nothing else, you’ll be able to blind someone with it.”

Sarah giggled at the thought, and then she held out her hands to be pulled up from the floor.  After that, they continued the lesson.

It was several days after the self-defense lesson that Sarah got a summons from Toby.   Jareth had disguised one of crystals as a cell phone so that Toby would have a way of contacting Sarah whenever he wanted to.

“Hi, Tobes! What’s up?”

“Hi, Sarah! Can I visit you for a week?”

“Sure.  When do you want to come?”

“Would tomorrow be okay?”

Sarah and Jareth exchanged surprised looks before continuing.

“Of course, Toby.  But why tomorrow?”

“Because Mom won a contest on the TV, so she and Dad are going on a week-long cruise, without me.  So can I come see you instead? Please? I haven’t seen you in forever!”

Toby whined a little at the end, but Sarah did not mind.  It would be fun to see him again, and maybe show him the “parlor tricks” she had learned.

“Okay, that’s fine.  Tell them that we’ll come pick you up as soon as we can.  When do they leave?”

“Eight in the morning.  It’s super early.”

“They probably have a flight to take.  I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay, thanks sis! I’m so excited!”

Jareth and Sarah decided to get the goblins to clean up a little (if that was even possible to maintain), and then made some plans for Toby to keep him occupied since he was not in school yet.  They took that day and the next off to spend time with Toby before resuming lessons.

Toby’s presence was welcomed by all.  He was in second grade, so he was a ball of energy and questions.  Sarah’s trio of friends was happy to babysit Toby a little, and the goblins loved Toby.  Jareth thought that the goblins were most happy that Toby had brought all of his toys with him, as loud and mess-inducing as they were.

It was right at the end of Toby’s visit that Jareth felt a new presence in his kingdom, his mother.  He had some initial doubts, but Sarah looked ready and willing to give his mother a second chance, so he was optimistic.

And then goblins happened.

Jareth and Sarah welcomed Queen Clarissa with pride, both bowing in respect.  The High Queen greeted her son with a kiss, while smiling coldly at his wife. 

“How are things at court, Mother?”

“The usual.  Squabbles to sort, treaties to maintain, etc.  How are things here?”

“Going very well.  Sarah has made much progress in all areas of magic.”

“Self-defense and mind-manipulation?”

“Yes to the former, and only with regard to self-defense for the latter.  She is not ready for that, yet.  She has other talents to make up for that, and I don’t think she has that gift, either.”

“A pity.”

“I’d be happy to provide a demonstration to Your Highness if you would like,” Sarah said bristling at not being allowed to speak for herself.

“No need.  I trust my son.  Carry on with whatever you were doing.”

“If you insist, Mother.  Come, Sarah.  Let’s go check on Toby.”

“Who’s Toby?”

“My brother.”

“You brought another mortal into the Underground? Isn’t one impossible one enough?”

“Excuse me-“

“No, let me, Sarah.”

“Oh please, do let Sarah speak.  I’d like to hear what she has to say, in her own special way.  I’m sure she-”

“Geronimo!”

This exclamation was soon shouted by five different goblins, all with homemade parachutes.  Sarah thought it was adorable to watch them imitate the toy soldiers her brother brought, while Jareth groaned about the mess they caused as they threw out chicken feathers as they floated down.  Queen Clarissa was worried that the parachutes were in fact old curtains from one of the West Wing bedrooms, and that they would all have to be replaced.

It took some time to get the goblins to come down (Jareth wanted to bog them on the spot, but Sarah refused, telling him that they needed to be forced to clean before being bogged), and when the goblins came down, they explained the source of their ideas. Needless to say, the High Queen was not fond of Toby after that.

Between the High Queen getting divebombed by chicken eggs (including one that cracked and splattered yolk onto her dress) and having goblins on roller skates zoom under her skirts, she was quite ready to leave within two hours. Sarah had never been more pleased.  Jareth wanted to reinstall group bogging practices, as well as get a bigger bog.

“Jareth, you’ve gone soft.  You’re letting your wife walk all over you, and the goblins are out of control.  I hope that the next time I see you, things have improved a lot.”   

“Mother, if I want your opinion about how to run my kingdom, I’ll ask.  I have my wife for that, and she does a wonderful job.  She appreciates them far more than you ever did.  Thank you for keeping your opinions to yourself.”

Sarah was tempted to do a victory dance and stick her tongue out at Clarissa, but upon seeing the nonplussed face of her, Sarah decided to stick in something that she had wanted to say earlier before being interrupted by goblins.

“As my mother always, if you haven’t got anything nice to say, you ought to keep quiet.  For all your talk of tact and diplomacy, you’re a terrible example to me.  The only thing I’ve learned from you is how to snub others.  Personally, I don’t agree with that, which will be reflected in how I rule along with Jareth.  I don’t care about court rules-”

“Then you’ll be ridiculed by all!” disdain lacing the High Queen’s shocked words.

“And I will support her, as I’d like to change things just as much,” came the booming voice of Jareth.

The High Queen was appropriately cowed by such a declaration, but Sarah was not done.

“We have an understanding after much discussion, and we know what we want to do.  We both want the same thing.  If we want your help, we’ll ask for it.  If all you plan to do is belittle me, then please do it elsewhere, as it’ll not be tolerated here.  I’m the Goblin Queen; this is my kingdom now, not yours.  And since I’m queen, my family is also welcome here.  My brother will always be welcome, and if you aren’t willing to forego your pride to get to know me or my family, I fear you’ll not be seeing much of us for a long time to come, or anyone else afterward.”

“I’ll see myself out.”

Moments later, glitter could be seen throughout the whole room.  Jareth sighed in defeat.

“She is exactly why glitter became our calling card.  If you think I love it, you should see her use it when she is angry.”

“How does this rank?”

“On a scale from one to furious, I’d give this a seven.  I’ve seen her angrier.”

“When was the last time?”

“When you won your run.”

“Oh,” said Sarah with understanding.

“She thought it was unable to be beaten, so you showed her.   It was to be the first in a long line of times you made her angry, and I’m very proud of you for that.”

“I think that’s a good thing.”

“Come on, let’s go play with Toby.  I bet he’d love some playmates, and I need to convince him not to bring roller skates with him anymore.  They don’t need to get into trouble even faster than normal.”

“That’s for certain!”

With both in agreement, the couple headed to see Toby.  Jareth had great hopes of teaching Toby magic in the future, if Sarah could be convinced.  On the other hand, Sarah decided to seek out books on how to better control her magic, especially the glitter.  She did not want to make Jareth look bad, and she wanted to be ready, should anything ever happen.

Meanwhile, in a kingdom next door, a certain Troll King was making plans of his own.  He was not called Benedick for nothing.  He would have more land, one way or the other.