Recalled and CommittedA Chapter by joyinchrist Aleck gets recalled to the Army and Jareth goes mad because of there separation. Chapter
2 Recalled and Committed “In today’s news, a mysterious
alien group has invaded the inner world of Oron. They are a gray-skinned race, and
reports are that they are actually eating
the populace. The Vandarian government has officially declared war…” Aleck
gripped her spoon. “No, no, no!” she whispered. “It’s not enough time. I want more time with my family.” Across from
her, Ben and Jareth struggled not to cry for her, and Odette openly wept while
the rest in the ice cream shop gasped in horror at the news. “So you and your brothers
will be recalled,” said Ben sadly. Aleck shook her head no. “Only
me. Shem and Payton have already been recalled.” Odette looked confused. “But
they’re still here.” Aleck swallowed. “The general
is keeping them on Vandar as his assassins. I mean, who would suspect two
teenage boys from a small hick town of being professional, if unwilling,
assassins?” Odette and Ben looked at her sadly. Jareth stared at his hand as he
flexed it, wishing he could take her hand to comfort her and that he could
somehow change her and her brothers’ fate. His influence and power as a prince were nothing on Vandar. Less than nothing after
the scandal with his wife. “Come on, Aleck; we need you to come down to the
basement. Me and Odette have something
for you,” said Ben, moving out of his seat. The bright summer sun
that marked the end of summer break seemed too joyous for this unhappy day. When
Ben got down to the basement, he removed one of Aleck’s arms and put a small
chip, invisible to the naked eye, into it. Aleck looked on curiously. “What’s that?” Ben smiled with a mischievous
twinkle in his eye. “My and Odette’s goodbye gift that we’ve been working on
since the night of the vampire movie. It’s a virus.” Aleck jerked her head up
from the couch and choked. “You’re giving me a virus!” she said incredulously
with her eyes popping out her head. Ben grinned as he tweaked
the arm he was working on with one of his many gadgets. “Yeah, it will
eventually destroy your cyborg codes and anybody else’s cyborg codes you come
in contact with electronically. Oh, and Odette helped attach some pictures of
home to the chip as well. Any time you want to see them, just say, “The
Impossible Dream activate photos,” and they’ll come up. Be careful with
choosing when to resist your cyborg codes, though. It will only work for short
jogs of time at first. If I made it react too quickly, a scan would detect the
tampering, so it has to be slow. To activate the virus, just say the words
“impossible dream,” and you will see how much time you have in the corner of
your optics to ignore the cyborg code command. It will work the same with
anyone else you choose to infect with the virus. To infect the person with the
virus, touch any of your cyborg parts to any of theirs and whisper, “impossible
dream,” and they’re infected. It can look like something as subtle as a hand
shake. They then will get some quick directions on how the virus works and how
to spread it on their optic screens,” Ben finished saying as he reattached
Aleck’s limbs with pride. On top of the virus, she’d have cyborg reflexes that
would put the others to shame. Aleck gasped at the
immensity of the weapon Ben had put in her hand; a way to eventually rebel against the cruel rule of the general. “Why
the impossible dream, though?” Aleck asked with a grunt as he refitted her arm.
“Flex,” Ben said as he
watched the motion of her arm with satisfaction. I found it in an ancient retro
song from an ancient movie called “Man from
La Mancha” and by an amazing songwriter by the name of Joe Darion. Want to hear
it?” Ben asked with a grin. Odette, Jareth, and Aleck nodded with skeptical
looks on their faces as he reached for a button on his music system and chose
the song. They stood, and the look of skepticism turned to one of respect as
they listened to the song.
To dream ...
the impossible dream ...
“Love the song, and the
gift, thank you.” Tears were in Aleck’s eyes as she thanked her friends and
hugged everyone but Jareth, whom she gave a bow of respect to. Ben’s gift was incredible. It was a glimmer of hope. But
to defeat that monster the general, she’d have to plan very carefully. Jareth smiled at her
sadly. “I have my own gift to say goodbye,
but if you don’t mind, I’d like to wait till we are at your house looking at
the stars together to give it to you. Meanwhile, maybe we can plan some together
on what you need to do to overthrow the general." Aleck nodded as she got
up from the old worn, brown leather couch. Looking at the stars was her
favorite time with her four friends. She and
Jareth discovered that, with their mental connection, Aleck could
experience a little real vision by looking at the world though Jareth’s eyes. Because
of concerns Odette expressed about the depth of mind contact like that not
being healthy, they limited it to one time a day, and that was watching the
sunset in the evening as the stars come up. The friends made their
way slowly across to the other side of the little town and down the country
lane, with the sunset painting a glorious
picture across the summer twilight sky
and casting a light that illuminated the multitude of wild mountain flowers with a fiery red glow. They rambled slowly to
the wooden swing in Uncle Donald and Aunt Karla’s yard. It was full of spring
wild flowers, and a well-cultivated flowerbed lined the front of the huge white
farmhouse that sat about 100 feet back from the chain fence. They talked for a
while, and then Odette whispered something to Ben. They both made an excuse to
leave so Jareth could present his gift and say goodbye. “I don’t get it, Odette,”
Ben asked in reference to letting them
have alone time. Odette rolled her eyes in
exasperation. When it came to people, Ben could be a bit dense. “Have you ever
noticed how Jareth stares after Aleck with that hunger in his eyes? He has more
feelings for her than he’ll admit, even to himself.” Ben raised his eyebrows
in surprise. He had not noticed, to tell the truth. His feelings for Aleck were
like a brother for his sister. He had
presumed Jareth’s feelings were the same. “Then, do you think it’s smart to
leave them alone, given he’s a Rillian and all?” Ben asked with concern as he
brushed the fine wispy branches of the huge willow tree away from his face. “Ordinarily, no, and we
won’t leave them for long. I just know that somehow this gift of his is
personal. He wouldn’t ever deliberately hurt Aleck," Odette said as she
glanced back at the two distant figures silhouetted on the swing that hung from
the great oak in the front yard. “I know he wouldn’t
deliberately…” Ben replied with a sigh. Each race had their strengths and
weakness. The Rillians had some very specific weaknesses in the area of sex
drive for both the men and women of the race. It was why they had such very
strict laws regarding marriage and touching the opposite sex. Odette slapped Ben
reassuringly on the back. “Don’t worry; we’ll
head back in a bit.” Ben nodded but did not tear his eyes from the two sitting
on the swing. He was not comfortable with this, not one bit.
Jareth looked at his two
friends talking in the distance, grateful for his chance to talk to Aleck alone
for a bit. His gift was the gift of princes. It would enable her to get help
from any in the Rillian royal family. Jareth took the Nova starguard necklace
from around his neck. He took off the pendant and broke it neatly in half. He
then slid it on a chain made of a light, strong, thin metal that was of
incredible value, yet which would lie clear against the skin. “Hold out your
hand," Jareth said gravely as the pendant’s three and a half points glowed
in a brilliant multi-color fire in the light of the setting sun. “This is a
starguard necklace. It will mark you to any of my family you meet as under my
protection. They’ll give you help if you need it.” He lowered the pendant into
her hand. “Jareth, they’ll just
take it away,” Aleck said in appreciative concern as she gave the ground a
nudge with her feet to set the swing in motion. Jareth shook his head no.
“Put it on, and I’ll show you why they won’t.” Alek slid it over her neck. “Yaza,”
he said quietly, and the necklace and chain disappeared. “Not even a scanner
can detect it. Only one wearing a starguard can see it, and any of those who
did would protect you.” Aleck nodded her thanks, wondering how the technology
worked in this unique necklace. Odette’s and Ben’s shadowy figures approached. Aleck
spotted a government vehicle driving down the road in the distance with her
cyborg night vision. She swallowed in dread. “They’re coming,” Aleck
said with tear-filled eyes. She stood up and turned toward her friends. “Goodbye.
I have to go say goodbye to my family now,” Aleck said, giving hugs to Odette
and Ben and a bow of respect to Jareth. The friends’ eyes filled with tears as
she ran quickly toward the house. They hid in the bushes to watch, with a stark
warning from Aleck not to interfere no matter what. It would only get them and
her family killed. Aleck quickly said her goodbyes to the members of her family
that were there. The twins deliberately were far away so those who came for
Aleck wouldn’t be tempted to use them to harm their family for their amusement. Alexia stared out the
window, waiting for Mitchel to take her
to the movie. She refused to come downstairs for whatever drama was going on
with Aleck. She watched as her sister waited outside on the front porch. Headlights
came down the lengthy driveway, and an army vehicle pulled up. The men in
uniform stepped out, said something, and to Alexia’s horror, the skin from
Aleck's limbs folded in to reveal robotic limbs attached to a ripped-up body. The
men said something else, and Aleck collapsed. One of the men grabbed her by her
bright red braid and dragged her limp body to the jeep. He stuffed her in the
back as if she was no more than a piece of luggage. Alexia gasped, turned,
and ran downstairs, screaming for her uncle in horror. Uncle Donald grabbed her
and put his hand over her mouth. “We can’t save her if they kill us, sweetheart,"
he whispered in her ear as she just sobbed on his shoulder in horror. She
hadn’t understood till now. She knew now something horrible had happened to her
family during the Cutoff. Ben gasped as he held
physically onto Jareth. Odette held him back with her words. “You’ll only get
them killed and us too.” Jareth dropped to the ground and wept with tears of
blood streaming down his face. He did not know which hurt worse, his heart at
losing his best friend in such a horrible way or the throbbing in his head as
Aleck attempted futilely to block from his mind the horrible things that were
happening to her. The connection was too deep. Unintentionally and without
realizing it, Jareth and Aleck had bound their minds together in an unbreakable
way. So when Jareth’s mind started to sink into the depths of insanity, Aleck
found herself holding onto hers by a thread. Coronel Mires was furious
when the men brought Major Aleck Morganson to him bruised and beat up. If they’d
touched her in other ways, there would be hell to pay. He ran a body scan over
her and asked her some questions. He sighed in relief. Her innocence was
intact. He had to act like a pervert from hell in front of that monster the general
to keep her that way. He owed her parents that much. If he couldn’t manipulate
a scoundrel like the general, he didn’t deserve his doctorates in psychology. The
things he had to do to keep the general convinced of it were horrible enough. Guilt
washed over him. He pushed it back. He was a cyborg slave like the rest. He got
away with helping others by convincing the general he was as much of a monster
as him, but if the general found out otherwise…
He shuddered as he thought of the things General Wallock would use his Borg
codes to force him to do. The colonel escorted
Aleck to their shared room. She[J1] glanced at him. He was
short enough to be eye to eye with her, and she noticed that he had a few more
gray hairs around the side of his bald head. She knew the routine. She knew
some of the why behind what she had to do, and she knew that the colonel was
trying to protect her. She knew she had to have bruises to convince the general
that the colonel was hurting her very badly. She knew that if the general found
out the deceit, he would force the colonel to hurt her in terrible ways. So she
used a combination of dye, makeup, and some real self-inflicted wounds to
convince the general’s medics otherwise when they examined her. The medics were
slaves themselves. They would report the real wounds and avoid reporting the
dye if they were thorough enough to notice it. The colonel was looking
over the news reports on the interactive wall screen. Aleck came out of the
shower room wearing a dull gray military towel robe. She wrung the water from
her hair. “I suppose it was an impossible dream ever
to think I’d be free of war." She sighed, and to the colonel’s
surprise, she walked up and hugged him and whispered “impossible dream” in his
ear. He almost gasped as the
instructions on how the virus worked popped up on his screen just long enough
for him to read it before disappearing. He responded, “It was an impossible
dream to think you’d ever be free from the general. " He glanced at the
clock, two minutes. Not much, but enough to allow himself to smile in hope and
to hug Aleck with a genuine fatherly hug that he could not do before. “Thank
you. We have hope now.” She nodded and put a finger to her lip to show her time
was up. They had to be careful. They never knew when the general could be
spying on them through their links. That’s why some of the bruises from him had
to be real. But she knew that too. His mind then imagined with pleasure the
things he would do to the general when the coward could no longer use their
Borg code to control them. He knew a certain Azriangean
who would be one of the first ones he would recruit to help. Marcus’s crystal-clear
blue Azriange eyes glared defiantly at the general. How he longed to have his
blades so he could stick them through the murderous dark one's breast. Colonel
Mires stood beside the general like a faithful lap dog. Marcus longed to spit
at them both, but no thanks to the Vandarian cyborg codes, he could only stand
there and glare in silence. The general was an absolute snake, while Colonel
Mires he was unsure about. He was either
sly as a fox or an equally big snake. "Teach him a lesson, Colonel,” said
the general in eager tones. The pervert loved to see people suffer. Colonel Mires walk up to Marcus[J2] , grabbed him by his
flowing blond hair, and slammed his fist hard into his stomach, dropping Marcus
to his knees. "What an impossible dream it is of yours to even hope to
rebel," the colonel said with a sneer, and then he forced Marcus’s head
down and whispered in his ear, "Learn to act." Marcus gave a gasp and
quickly covered up a smile of sheer glee as the information of the virus popped
up on the screen. So… sly as a fox
indeed. It would not be long before he had the pleasure of killing the monster
in Vandarian clothing, the general. Marcus suffered stoically as always through
the torture as he thought about who else to recruit for the rebellion. Within
the next two weeks, almost every Borg was infected with the virus and waited
eagerly for the time to rebel against the general. The night after Aleck was taken away, Ben stood outside Aleck’s
brothers’ window, quietly listening and waiting for the boys to fall asleep
while trying not to shake in terror at what he was about to do. If they were
awakened by a controller before he could install the virus, he would be killed.
He finally heard the twins snoring slightly. He crawled in the now well-oiled
window (he’d spent quite a bit of the day, while the family was out, making
sure his entrance would be soundless) and tiptoed toward the homemade,
unpainted oak bunk beds. He opened his bag of equipment and inserted the virus
into both the boys' legs while he said a quiet prayer. “The impossible dream,”
he whispered. Both of the twin boys’ green eyes popped open at once. They read
the instructions, looked over at Ben, and smiled. Their red hair was wild from
sleep. "Thank you,” they whispered in unison. "Leave quickly now. The
controller will access us soon." Ben nodded and went out the window. The
twins both smiled and, using the twin telepathy that no controller could tap into,
began to make plans. "This would be genius
if we knew who was controlling us. We could end him or her,” said Shem
mentally. "If we use it to
disobey, they will catch it on the lack of video feed, and that could be a
problem,” said Payton, his eyes closed in mock sleep. "This program is
sheer genius, though. I wonder if our Ben could create a false video feed for
us. Then it would be useful,” said Shem as he turned on his side. "Yes, yes. I'm sure
he could. We will have to talk to him soon. It will be a rough meeting for him,
though. Bullying him will be the only way to contact him without getting him killed,”
said Payton, who began to pretend snore. “I know, but it will only
last until he can fix the video feed. He is smart and brave. He will understand
and endure it.” Shem risked a nod. “We better get some sleep before the
controller contacts us.” With that, they both rolled over and slept with a thin
sliver of hope growing in their hearts. Alexia moaned in her
sleep. She had been attempting for a solid week to contact her sister’s mind
without success. She succeeded this time, just as she fell asleep. She found
herself standing as an observer in her sister’s mind, unable to react. She
gaped in horror as she saw her sister walk in on a man who was in the middle of
beating a solder. Her sister grabbed his hand and stopped the blows. She looked
into the man’s eyes and drew on power within her mind. She told the man to
forget the soldier who was so weak from the beating he was getting that he was
crawling weakly out the door.She lay down and took the rest of beating for him.
Alexia turned as she
heard a terrible mind scream come from the source of power Aleck had drawn upon. Alexia gasped. She saw Jareth
scream in madness and helplessness at an invisible barrier that kept him from
reaching her sister's tormenter. Alexia woke up with a start. She knew now why
Jareth had been gone for the week from
school. She knew she needed to help him. Her uncle was working the
night shift at the local power plant trying to make a little extra money to
help the farm. Her aunt had been up half the night with Kara, her new baby
cousin, and Aidan was out of town at a school championship event. Who could she
call to help? In desperation, she picked up Aleck's old cell phone and called
Ben and Odette. They didn’t pick up. Frustrated, she left a message. She took off
running in the rainstorm toward the ambassador’s mansion. Barred gates with
fancy curves and swirls loomed before her as she stopped gasping for breath. She
buzzed at the buzzer, desperately screaming for someone to please open up. In sheer desperation, she
pushed hard against the gates and fell through into the mud in surprise. They
had never been sealed shut. She got up and ran into the mansion at a dead
sprint. She ran from room to room, screaming for Jareth. She finally ran into a
putrid smell. She tried not to gag as she ran to where the smell was the
strongest. She stopped when she saw Jareth sitting in his excrement in a
corner. He was thin and shriveled, with patches of hair ripped out of his head,
and he stared vacantly into space. She made a decision and called the emergency
number at her uncle’s work. There were no housekeepers to check on him because,
wanting to be alone, Jareth had dismissed them ages ago. They now came in only
once every two weeks. Uncle DonaldDonald frowned
with concern as he got off the phone with his niece. He explained to his night
supervisor that he had a family emergency, and the supervisor, understandably,
gave him leave. Luckily, the mansion was only about five miles from the power station, so he was able to get there quickly. His
niece had run a long way in the dark to reach the mansion. It was two miles up
that mountain from the house in this cold,
miserable rain. His niece was showing at
last, some of the same mettle her
sister was made of. He walked into the room
and shook his head sadly at Jareth's broken state. He called the emergency
number to Dr. Bastion's office, which he had on speed dial for Aleck. Uncle Donald
explained the situation briefly to the nurse on call. She arranged for a mental
hospital ambulance to go pick Jareth up. Uncle Donald knew it would be a while
before the ambulance showed up. "Come on, let’s get you cleaned up,” he
said, trying not to gag at the stench as he lifted Jareth to his feet with a
grunt. “Alexia, see if you can find some clean towels and clothes for us. I saw
a shower room down the hall. Leave them outside the door. Then go wait for the
ambulance in the main hall," he said as he walked Jareth to the shower
room. Alexia nodded and ran to get the stuff. The shower room was a
humongous room with a sauna, a spa, and a shower. Uncle DonaldDonald undressed
Jareth as one would undress a babe and set the shower for warm. He scrubbed him
down. He grabbed the towel and extra clothes Alexia had managed to find. He
dried Jareth, dressed him, and walked him
zombie-like down the hall into the main living room near the front door, where
they waited patiently for the ambulance to arrive from Triara Mental Hospital.
As they waited, Jareth stared vacantly at a wall. The doctor listened to
Alexia with interest as she described her dream, and Uncle Donald explained the
bizarre connection Jareth had with Aleck. “Jenkins, run a brain scan on the
prince and get me the scans we took of Aleck Morganson.” Soon, he had the two
brain scans in front of him, and he shook his head in amazement as he compared them.
The impossible had happened: they were natural mind mates. Dark experiments had
been done to try and force such power, but never had it been known to occur
naturally in any race except among twins. He scowled as he looked
closer at the prince’s brain scan. “What’s this?” “What’s What?” asked
Uncle Donald, concerned Dr. Bastion did not take
his eyes off the brain scan. In fact, he started marking specific spots on it. “The
prince’s mental condition is no accident. Someone went over that young man’s
mind with the equivalent of spiked boots. He has some unusual spots in it where
his mind has repaired itself where they did not design it to be repaired. Tell me more about his mind mate
relationship with Aleck and how it came about?” Uncle Donald and Alexia
told him what they knew. Dr. Bastion finally
turned and looked at them. “So the unexpected friendships had healed some of
it. But being torn from his mind mate has caused him to become insane much
quicker than was intended by whoever did the damage in his mind to begin with.” “Torn from his mind mate?”
Uncle Donald repeated. Dr. Bastion sighed. He
connected with her mind deeply. Deeper than she ever connected with her twin. The
separation must have damaged both their minds some but his worse than hers
because he already had someone do some deliberate damage to it. He needs to
reunite the connection soon, or they will both start experiencing brain hemorrhaging.”
"Can you help
him?" asked Alexia. Dr. Bastion smiled at
her. “I can indeed, young lady. I can indeed.”
It took a long time, but
Dr. Bastion managed to undo the most of the damage. The other damage would heal
in time, especially once he found his mind mate again. A nurse came in and
whispered into the doctor’s ear. “Prince Jareth's brother is here, sir.” The doctor nodded, and he
left his office to meet Jareth’s brother in the observation room. Doctor
Bastion had been beginning to think that he’d never reach any of the royal
family, but at last he’d gotten ahold of one of Jareth’s brothers, Prince Zane.
Doctor Bastion stood back in awe as the second prince of Rillia walked towards
him. The prince was much more massive than his brother, stocky and strong and,
according to many, considered to be the wisest and calmest of all the princes. “Hello,
Doctor,” he said as he looked at his brother through the observation glass. Jareth
was dressed in a white patient robe and sitting at a table in a lush garden. He
stared at a fountain as he sipped at some hot drink in his hand. “You wish to
explain this,” Zane said in no-nonsense tones as he waved his hand towards his
brother. "Yes," said the
doctor. "You might want to sit down,
though. It is a very long story." And he explained everything, including the
evidence of attacks he had found as well as the mind mate problem. “If he
doesn’t find her soon, all my bandages will be for naught. Their minds will
start tearing apart again.” The big Rillian was
thoughtful and surprised (though he never let it show to the doctor.) He’d
suspected the mental attacks for a while and had been investigating them
quietly. This twist with Aleck was what took him aback, and not just the mind
mate thing. He was the Rillian who’d
found her and her twin brothers on Etheron. He’d kept close watch over them
whenever he’d been at the base, just as if they were his children. Aleck was like a daughter
to him. The fact that she had connected mentally with his much younger brother
was an interesting coincidence. Aleck was, in fact, the very same age as Zane’s
own daughter, which is why he was so taken with her. When Zaivia had heard
about the little orphan girl and her twin brothers’ misfortune, she’d given up one
of her favorite dolls so her father could take it to Aleck. He remembered bitterly when Father forbade him to bring them
home. He did his best to help them otherwise. But ever since Father had hired
that advisor of his (poisonous beast), he had not been the same. But gathering
proof against a grand advisor who had the ear of the king was not easily or
even safely done even by the King’s children. The proof that they tampered with
Jareth’s mind delibera was the best break
he’d gotten so far, though he would still have to be careful. The unpredictable was
what was needed to defeat his father’s worm tongue of an advisor and the group
of physiologist advisors he had hired. According to the Doctor, the attackers
meant the madness to take him over at a much slower rate. But the grief over
losing his mind mate had accelerated the damage they had done, and the love of
friends had healed some of it in a way they had not predicted. So he’d lost his
mind more quickly, but not in the violent way they’d designed it to happen. Zane
watched his brother as he talked with the doctors. Jareth was broken and hurt
yet, at last, completely sane. There was one more thing: the extremne arrogance
and vanity that was once his little brother’s greatest weakness was no longer there. The Sharlakar had started
to invade Rillian space. Father had ordered Zane to retrieve Jareth so he could
serve as high admiral against the Sharlakar. So Zane would retrieve him. He
would keep silent about the changes in his brother. The advisor’s arrogance was
his weakness. That snake had made his attack on Jareth and most certainly
believe he’d planned and predicted its outcome perfectly. The idea that
something could change the end of a mental attack he’d designed would be unthinkable
to him. So Jareth’s unpredictability was a silver bullet that needed to be wielded very carefully. Zane would bring Jareth back
to Rillia and be careful not to tell his brother all of what he knew. He could
not hide all of it, but he could ask him to let him handle the worm tongue who
had harmed him. Jareth couldn’t act to save his life. Zane needed his very real and unpredictable changes to stay hidden.
With some subtle direction from Zane, Jareth could keep his father’s advisors
believing he was mad. Zane pushed the guilt down about using his brother, whom
he very much loved, in this way. It was a necessary evil, and he hoped that, when
his brother figured it out, he would forgive him for it. Zane sighed and followed
the doctor back to the office. "Well, can I take him now?” Dr. Bastion looked up
from his charts. “Yes, shortly. I’d like all of us to meet with Jareth, as well
as Aleck’s aunt and uncle. We need to discuss some things together.” Jareth sat in silence as
he listened to Dr. Bastion speak to him, his brother, and Aleck’s uncle and aunt.
“Now, remember, you can reconnect without direct contact to her mind. If you
keep up the direct contact like you did before, you’ll end up bedding her even
if you don’t mean to. Now, are you sure about being able to contact her soon,
Jareth?” Jareth nodded as he fiddled
absently with the starguard around his neck. “The virus should soon spread
throughout the cyborgs. If Aleck succeeds in the rebellion we planned and follows the directions I gave her before she left, she should contact
the Rillian government soon. I should be able to meet up with her then.” Uncle Donald and Aunt
Karla looked at each other in concern. “You don’t touch her mind directly this
time until you’re married, you got me?” Uncle Donald said sternly, aiming a
finger across the conference table at Jareth. Jareth flinched. “Of
course not. I didn’t mean any harm last time by touching her mind,” Jareth said
defensively as he put his Caja down. Uncle Donald rolled his
eyes. “Of course not. If you meant to harm her, your brother would have been
here to collect your body and not you.” Zane chuckled at that, having his own teenage daughter. He was beginning to like
Aleck's uncle. “And that worm tongue,”
Jareth hissed between his teeth. “I’ll take care of him,
my brother. You just worry about Aleck and driving the Sharlakar fleet from our
worlds forever,” Zane said with knowing eyes. Jareth sighed, nodded,
and turned to Uncle Donald and Aunt Karla. He stood and gave them the Rillian sign for highest respect and honor.
“I’ll find her and protect her,” he said, “and this I swear to you. I shall in no
way touch her mind or body until she wears the marriage band of Awn on her
arm.” Donald put a hand on
Jareth's shoulder and looked him in the eyes. “You go with my full blessings to
marry her. I know you’re honorable, Jareth. I’ve known from the beginning you
were honorable, son. Otherwise, I
wouldn’t have let you within a mile of my niece. I knew who you were from the
beginning and figured the media did a job on you that you did not deserve. Tell
the truth about your first wife and don’t hold back. There is no room in any
marriage for deceit, even if it’s deceit born of pain. Be careful with the
desire within you. It is better to marry first and explain later to your relatives than to be forced to marry because of
dishonor.” Jareth nodded toward Donald, gave him a quick hug goodbye, and bowed
respectfully to Aunt Karla before finally turning and leaving. © 2016 joyinchrist
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