Chapter Fourteen

"This is impossible!" Amalthya cried in disgust.

"Come now, it's one of the simplest spells there is." Jareth smirked from a 
chair on the other side of the library. They had decided this was probably 
the best place for her to practice, as it was least likely to be destroyed 
if she accidentally blew something up.

Amalthya shot him a withering glare. "Are you sure you're not just using me 
as a cheep form of entertainment?" Her bare feet sloshed in the puddle of 
water on the floor. Her clothes were completely soaked. "Simplest spell 
there is." She mumbled. "Stupid water spell. "I still think this is all 
some perverted form of a wet T-shirt contest."

"I assure you, I have no idea what that is. Try it again. It wasn't quite 
right, but there was magic in it." She mumbled the incantation again, and 
concentrated on filling the bowl in front of her with water. To her 
amazement, it actually worked.

"I did it! I can't believe it actually worked!" In her excitement, she ran 
over to where Jareth sat, and gave him a hug. She pulled back immediately 
upon realizing what she had done, and her face flushed a fierce scarlet. 
"Oops." She mumbled, noticing that his clothes were rather damp now as well.
"I guess I got a little excited." She bowed her head as her cheeks 
continued to burn with embarrassment.

"Well, it's -ahem- understandable." He cleared his throat in an attempt to 
cover up his loss for words. It had happened again. He had been flooded 
with inexplicable joy the moment she had successfully completed the spell. 
He attributed it to the strange link they shared, glad it conveyed positive 
emotions as well as pain and fear. Did she feel it to? He didn't know, as 
she had never given an indication that she had, though it was possible she 
just didn't recognize it's existence. He looked up and realized she was 
staring at him curiously, her embarrassment having apparently vanished.

"Are you okay?" He was looking at her vacantly, as if in deep thought.

"Fine." Was his curt answer. "Shall we try another?"
----

Interlude Five

Everyone in the cast was gathered around the huge table, celebrating the 
night's success. It had been a sell-out show, and tomorrow night's show 
promised to be the same. Xander stood up and tapped his fork against his 
wine glass. "Can I have everyone's attention?" He waited for the voices to 
quiet. "First of all, I want to congratulate you all on a wonderful 
performance. From where I sat, you guys were perfect. Here's to continued 
successes." He lifted his glass in a toast, and the rest of the table did 
the same. He took a sip and lowered the glass again. "There's just one 
thing that could make this night any better-I think I'm gonna need this." 
He took another sip, then set down the wine glass. "Silviet," He said, 
looking to where she sat next to him. He took the small velvet box out of 
his pocket and snapped it open. "Would you marry me?"

She couldn't speak for a moment. Her hand flitted up to mouth as she stared 
him. "Xander....I- Of course I will!" Tears leaked from the corners of her 
eyes as he slid the ring onto her finger. The diamond sparkled beautifully 
in the dim light of the restaurant. She clasped her arms around his neck. 
"Oh, Thank you!"

"I love you Silviet." He whispered in her ear and kissed her on the cheek. 
They took their seats again.

"About time!" Someone called out. Several chorused in agreement. Silviet 
leaned over and whispered in Xander's ear. 

"You have no idea how happy you've made me."

"If it's half as happy as you've made me, I think I know."

End Interlude Five 

----

Chapter Fourteen Continued

She was exhausted from her day of training, and flopped down on her bed. 
Her clothes had long since dried, and they had managed to mop up the small 
lake she had made on the floor of the library. She was just drifting off to 
sleep when there was a knock on her door. Her mind momentarily forgot her 
present location, and she yelled out an irate "What the hell do you want?"

"Such language." Jareth tisked at her from the doorway. "No way for a lady 
to behave."

"Oh, forgive me!" She cried, now fully awake. "I must have been drifting 
off and forgot where I was. I shared an apartment with my best friend for a 
year and a half. We got on each other's nerves sometimes. She was an 
actress."

"Ah, a clash of creative minds."

"Something like that." When was  the last time she had even given Silviet a 
second thought? And here she had meant to kill herself and leave her best 
friend to discover her body. Her own callousness made her shiver. How 
could she have ever meant to do such a thing?

"-dinner."

"What? I'm sorry. My mind was someplace else."

"I said, you must be hungry. Would you care to accompany me to dinner?" Her 
stomach growled at the mere mention of food. Jareth smiled. "I'll take that 
as a yes." 

The dining room was chaotic as goblins sat at low tables with rough benches 
and stuffed their faces. Jareth got their plates, which consisted of what 
she guessed was the Underground's version of roast beef, mashed potatoes 
and a mixed assortment of vegetables. They moved to a room just off the 
main dining hall and sat at the long wooden table there.

"Funny, I thought you'd make your own food." Amalthya commented as she 
began cutting her meat.

"I'm a king." He replied, as if that was all the enlightenment she needed. 
She raised an eyebrow and continued chewing. "Kings don't cook." He 
shrugged.

She swallowed her mouthful. "You mean you *can't* cook."

"I mean what I said." He replied indignantly. She rolled her eyes.

"Whatever." They continued eating in silence, and Amalthya looked for some 
way to break the silence. "Hey, I've been meaning to ask you about 
something kind of weird that happened a few nights ago."

"Yes?"

"Well, before I came in your room that night-" She paused to take another 
bite. "I was awake, and I heard you break the mirror. The funny thing is, 
at the exact moment I heard the glass breaking, I got this searing pain in 
my right hand. Just like it had been all cut up, and well, you cut your 
right hand pretty bad." She ended lamely.

"You want to know if there is a connection." She nodded. Jareth sighed. "I 
was wondering if you'd noticed it. We appear to have formed some sort 
of-bond- for lack of a better word. I've known about it for awhile. It 
seems to transmit only very strong emotions or feelings. I first noticed it 
in the woods. You probably didn't notice it then because you were the one 
who was experiencing all those emotions."

"Yeah." She said quietly. "But how?"

"How did it happen? I'm not entirely sure. But I have a theory. Perhaps it 
was all those years of you're wanting to be here and when you finally made 
it, your unrefined magic reached out to the one person you felt you could 
trust." She looked skeptical. "As I said, it's only a theory." He mused 
over it some more. If the link transmitted the emotions of another, could 
it also transmit dreams? "Why were you awake that night?"

"What?"

"You said you were already awake when you heard me break the mirror." He 
wasn't at ease with the idea that she had heard him in his moment of 
weakness."

"I-I had a dream." Her face colored. "Why?"

"Just curious." He said nonchalantly. 

"If you know something your not telling me..."

"What do you care? I probably doesn't even concern you."

"That's not fair!" She cried, then blushed at the sound of her mother's 
over-used line coming from her mouth.

"It rarely is, Amalthya, it rarely is."

End Chapter Fourteen