Authors' Note: Hello, readers! This fic serves as a prequel to the movie, and details how Jareth came to rule the Labyrinth. It includes details and backstory from our main fic 'verse, which began with Draw Your Swords, continues in And My Kingdom as Great, and will conclude with Like a Raging Storm. If you enjoyed the OC's we established in those stories, you should like this one a lot, too.

The chapters are going to be MUCH shorter than our usual, and the overall fic is shorter. This started as a request on the Labyrinth Fanfic Lovers community on FB, and it snowballed. It's also good to firmly establish just how our dear, spoilt Jareth acquired his crown, and (eventually) became someone worthy of Sarah's love.

The fae cannot lie. But the one who stood before the High King's inquisitors had striven for hours to avoid speaking the names of the others aloud. Every possible trick of wit and silver tongue had been employed, sweating and swearing, until at last he gasped out the names.

The High King was unsurprised at most of them. A dozen ne'er-do-wells, minor nobles and second sons, all of them with more time and power and coin than sense. If his queen had not been in a frothing rage over the insult – that damned play, with Titania swooning over the ass – he would've slapped them all down once and let them go. Or killed them, whichever was more expedient. They were fools only, and had caused no permanent harm, even when the magic used became obvious. A few mortal memories had needed adjusting, and that was that.

But the insult could not be borne, even if that was not the charge they would prosecute. And then his eye landed on a name in the middle of the list, the one who'd played Puck. It should not have been a surprise; such power wielded so skillfully would require a mage of that caliber.

If only the boy wasn't his cousin's grandson. The Sorceress of Astolwyr was a power he did not like to gainsay; her strength was entirely self-made, and her powers had been learnt from the goddess' third face directly. A warning would have been enough, but such errant foolhardiness must be curbed … and again, the High Queen raged at the insult.

Turning to his seneschal, the High King spoke quietly. "Find me a law that forbids me to kill a crown prince," he demanded.

"Yes, my liege," the man replied, and hastened off as the High King turned his mind to finding suitable, non-lethal punishment. If said punishment could kill two birds with one stone, all the better. And he did have a masterless kingdom out in the wilds, it was true…