Together We Can Make It

Sarah walked into the studio, placing a basket on a free surface before donning her work apron. “I brought dinner.”

Bishop set his work aside and took a still warm pastry from the basket. “You already ate with Jareth?”

Sarah shook her head. “I grabbed something while the kitchen prepared the basket.” Jareth was working on a commission with Rook. When she’d asked if he had time to join her for a meal he’d flashed her a mad grin with his arms wide and made grabby hands in her direction. As said hands were covered in paint, she took that as a negative and had to agree with whatever obscenity that Rook had growled at him. “Jareth is otherwise occupied.”

“How goes his current project?” Bishop helped himself to another pastry and opened the bottle of cider that had been tucked in with the baked goods.

“I think it’s nearly done.” Sarah picked up a piece from a tray of vases. It had a round body, with a small mouth and a white glaze. “You’d think having two people working on the same artwork would be problematic. Their style is almost identical, but I can tell it apart now. This work has a violence to it and Jareth’s side is like he snuck up and slit someone’s throat.” She shuddered at how the work had impacted her.

Bishop foraged in the basket and happily found a muffin. “Where Rook’s side leans more towards bludgeoning someone?”

Sarah nodded. “Exactly. Their victim is still dead, there’s just a different mess to clean up. I really don’t think they have a high opinion of the commissioner, but those who can afford their work Above always seem to be unpleasant.” She picked up a brush and glanced at Bishop. “You really want me to cover this in ink?”

Bishop’s eyes lit with mischief. “Trust the process. Paint it black, then wipe it off. Just the top half.” Sarah raised an eyebrow. “You’ll see the demarcation line once you start to clean it.”

With a shrug, Sarah pulled on her gloves, dipped a brush in the ink and steadily painted around the vase from the lip to midway down. Setting aside her brush, she used a damp cloth to carefully remove the ink. She chuckled in delight at the now darkened spiderweb of fine cracks that covered the top of the vase. “It’s almost magical seeing the effect appear.”

“It is fun the way the ink brings out the crackle glaze,” Bishop agreed. “We’ll ink this batch and then give them a clear glaze to seal it. The morning crew will fire them.”

Sarah reached for another vase. “It’s definitely more elegant than Jareth’s commission.”

“Alas, refined homewares do not make the kind of prices that his work does,” Bishop snorted.

“The obscenely wealthy do seem more prepared to be parted from their money for violence rather than beauty.” Which, Sarah conceded, likely had a lot to do with the contempt Jareth held for them.

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labyfic — drabble #233: expensive
Part of the Balance!verse

Sarah watched the birds slowly spiraling higher as they rode the thermals over the Labyrinth.

The owl tucked his wings and dropped into a dive, hurtling towards the ground at an alarming speed, before dramatically spreading his wings at the last moment to slow his descent and gently land atop the garden wall.

Sarah muttered under her breath about showboating feather heads and grinned unrepentantly when the owl turned his head and blinked at her. His stately demeanour only slightly tarnished as he hopped to the side to avoid a flying goblin.

“George,” Sarah called out to the boy who was playing on the lawn with a group of goblins. “Mind your aim, please.”

The boy turned to Sarah, bowed his head and saluted her, then promptly returned to chasing goblins, using his staff to fling them over his head as he caught them. The flung goblins kept returning to join the game, so the only danger to anyone was being in the firing line of an ejected goblin.

The owl clacked his beak loudly to catch Sarah’s attention and she asked George to stop his game for a moment.

Everybody looked up as the raven, who had continued to circle overhead, now tucked her wings to mimic the owl’s maneuver. She shot down as swiftly as the owl, but slowed her descent much higher above the ground than the owl had, before gliding over to the wall and landing neatly at his side.

Sarah clapped and George whooped in delight, the goblins joining in loudly.

The owl launched himself off the wall, transforming into Jareth as he landed. He turned to look back at the raven, who ruffled her feathers before transforming into Ada. Jareth lifted her down from the wall and she ran to join her brother’s game.

“Her landing is improving,” Sarah noted, smiling happily when Jareth kissed her in greeting.

“It is,” Jareth agreed. “George’s issue seems less troublesome as well.”

As the boy was using his staff less to balance when walking upright and more as an offensive weapon or, in this case, a goblin flinging tool, Sarah could concur.

The only thing that did seem to be a cause of fascination for the pair was not that they could shapeshift, but how different their eyesight was in each of their forms.

“They’re adapting well.” Sarah was surprised just how quickly the children were getting the hang of changing forms and wondered if she would be as malleable in their place or if her adult experiences would be an impediment. She had to admit that the thought flying with Jareth would be worth the hassle. Sarah just hoped that in such a case it wouldn’t be as chaotic as her experience with magic, because unexpectedly transforming into a bird when she was annoyed in a meeting was unlikely to help the situation. Although, she supposed the upside was that she could then fly away from the annoyance or deposit her displeasure, so there were advantages.

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labyfic — drabble #232: spirals
Part of the Balance!verse