Sarah flopped into a chair, flinging an arm over her eyes dramatically.
“Rough day?” Jareth didn’t look up from his work.
“It wasn’t difficult, so much as…” she waved her hands around. “It just seemed to be never ending. My slate of meetings is almost back on track after the recent problems, but they’ve had to shoehorn a lot more into the day to try and clear the backlog. I just want to soak in a hot bath and not think about work until tomorrow. How was your day?”
Jareth set his papers aside and stretched. “Not dissimilar to yours. This spate of overly packed schedules is running everyone ragged.”
Sarah nodded in agreement. “I feel like I’m close to snapping. My magic has started sparking and I’m struggling to keep it in check. I almost set fire to someone’s hat today. I caught it in time, but may have singed some feathers.”
“They’ll likely blame the goblins for the damage rather than a stressed Goblin Queen,” Jareth chuckled. “Before you immolate any more millinery, I’ve had our meeting secretary reschedule anything that isn’t urgent. He’s been over compensating for the mess his departed assistant caused.”
“I’d almost forgotten he created this mess,” Sarah groaned. “How long did he last before running screaming from the goblins?”
“It didn’t quite go that way.” Jareth grinned sharply.
“Do not tell me that it was the goblins who ran away.”
“They didn’t run. They just got bored and wandered off. Goblins can be surprisingly studious when something grabs their interest, and choosing to teach them how to tie knots proved popular until they exhausted his knowledge.”
Sarah covered her mouth in shock. “How did he think that would be a good idea?”
“I think we’ve established that forethought is not his strong suit.” Jareth echoed Sarah’s baffled expression. “The goblins proved to be excellent students and put their skills to work by very neatly tying their teacher up and leaving him in a basement storeroom. While any vocalisations may have reverberated nicely within the room, the castle interiors are solid enough to ensure his yodelling would not have travelled beyond the room.”
“I might feel more concern for his wellbeing if I wasn’t exhausted.” Sarah wasn’t proud of her lack of concern, but there needed to be consequences for inconveniencing so many people. “How long was he trapped?”
“About a day. One of the kitchen staff came down to fetch something and quickly backed out of the room thinking she walked in on shibari gameplay.”
Sarah raised her eyebrows. “The goblins were that good?”
“They have their strengths and it seems he was a decent teacher”. Jareth shrugged. “He’s in the infirmary at the moment suffering from dehydration and rope burns.”
“Is he driving them nuts too?”
“Surprisingly enough, he’s been exceedingly polite, possibly due to coming from a family of healers.”
Sarah threw her hands up in frustration. “Why would they force him into administration instead of letting him follow his interests?”
RMBiehl Fri 28 Nov 2025 12:36PM UTC
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Red Wolf (FairbairnSykes) Fri 28 Nov 2025 08:34PM UTC
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