Author's note: this idea was originally Meltalviel's so thanks Mel for letting me run away and do my own thing with it :) I'm also using Mel's title (for now) because I want to post this and spent three hours pumelling my brain for idea without success
In the centre of a trade caravan travelling west of the Emerald City was a coach with two occupants - a man in his seventies, as fit as one twenty years younger, and a girl in her teens. They sat in awkward silence, she read a book while he made notes for messages to be sent home when next they stopped for the night.
The pair had been with the caravan for less than a day when another traveller, a lady of a somewhat delicate condition, caught a glimpse of the girl and nearly fainted. When her escort had revived her somewhat she declared that the girl was "green as sin!" and demanded to know why it was allowed to travel in the group.
This event prompted the guide to explain to everyone that the unusually hued young lady was the Eminent Thropp Third Descending of Nest Hardings being escorted by her Great Grandfather, the Eminent Thropp of Munchkinland, to be married to a Prince of the Arjiki Tribe.
The group soon discovered that while the Eminent Thropp was as polite and talkative as a man of his age and rank could be expected to be the granddaughter was a sulky, rude, thing and the general sentiment was that the Eminence was well rid of her though they did pity the poor boy forced to wed her.
The girl, Elphaba, didn't care at all about their opinions though she couldn't help overhearing them. She was busy being furious with her grandfather who had, after summoning their father to bring his granddaughters to Colwen Grounds, promised to send her to University as soon as she was seventeen as preparation for her future role as the Eminent Thropp. She was only just sixteen now and he had, quite precipitously, asked her to accompany him on a diplomatic journey halfway across Oz to the border of the Vinkus. It wasn't until the day they reached the Emerald City, where they would stay for a day before joining a caravan heading to the Vinkus, that he had informed her of the actual reason for their journey – she was to be married to a complete stranger in a foreign land.
If only he had told me sooner I could have...she thought for the hundredth time since her Grandfather had broken the news but this time she continued the thought. I could have what? Run away from home? Stayed home and suffered the lectures Nessa and Nanny were bound to have given me on a variety of subjects? Read books about the Arjiki – as if such a thing actually exists in any unbiased form? I could still run, the maid sleeps so heavily she wouldn't hear me go, but where would I go? Back to the Emerald City? And do what? Back to Quadling Country? Ha! Not likely. I doubt there's anywhere someone as...distinctive as me could hide from my Grandfather and the ruler of the Arjiki.
She heaved a heavy sigh that made her grandfather look up, only to see her apparently engrossed in her reading.
No, she decided. I obviously have no choice in this matter, Grandfather has anticipated everything I could possibly do. Who would have thought the man could know me so well after such a relatively short acquaintance?
She closed her book, loudly, and looked squarely at her Grandfather.
"What's his name?"
"I beg your pardon?" he replied, not looking up from his note making.
"The man you have so summarily engaged me to?"
"It was hardly a hasty decision, Elphaba, it took several years to arrange."
"One would hardly think so from all the warning you gave me," muttered Elphaba.
"What did you say?"
"Nothing you care to hear I'm sure. Will you answer my question?"
"I never did get his name," replied the Eminent Thropp with a shrug. "The Arjiki King and I referred to you both by your relationship to us. It will be written on the formal agreement that I will sign upon our arrival naturally."
"Naturally," muttered Elphaba, raising her voice to a barely audible level she apologised for interrupting his correspondence and returned to her reading.
I suppose it should have occurred to me that I'm nothing to my grandfather but a tool of his political ambitions.
Unable to keep quiet, her grandfather often chided her for that bad habit as did the various teachers he'd employed for her and her sister since they'd gone to live with him, Elphaba closed her book again.
"What did you have to promise them to have me taken off your hands? Or did you just neglect to mention my..." she ducked her head, making a mockery of the 'womanly decorum' she was frequently lectured about. "Peculiarities?"
"Only the most obvious physical 'peculiarity'," replied her grandfather with obvious disinterest. "I thought your personality was best left as a surprise for after the wedding, so I would be much obliged if you would refrain from speaking more than necessary until the day after the occasion."
"As the beloved Patriarch of my family wishes, of course."
And that was the last Elphaba spoke to anyone until the morning of the day they were expected to reach Kiamo Ko.
The maid her grandfather had brought along from Colwen Grounds timidly shook her mistress until she woke up.
"We're not leaving already are we?" said Elphaba, when she saw that it was still dark outside.
"No, Miss, the Eminence said I was to wake you early today and help you dress."
"And why should my Grandfather presume me to be somehow less capable of dressing myself in a timely fashion today?"
"He gave me a note for you, Miss," replied the maid, visibly nervous as she took a folded piece of parchment from her apron pocket.
I have had delivered to your tent a trunk containing clothing more suited to your station in life. Choose something appropriate for our first meeting with the Royal family of the Arjiki. Though I am sure you will do as I request I have had your old clothes removed just to be sure.
"I see. I presume you know the gist of the contents of this note?"
"Yes, Miss," replied the maid, curtseying anxiously. "Shall I unpack your dresses for you so you can choose one?"
"I suppose you had better," agreed Elphaba, wearily wishing that her grandfather had never heard of her mother's death, surely squelching through the muck of Quadling country couldn't really be as bad as this!
The maid, also the niece of the family dressmaker, knew exactly how much trouble had gone into making the dresses in the trunk. The Eminence had chosen the fabrics himself, clearly with no regard for colour coordination between clothing and wearer, and she had been dreading Miss Elphaba's reaction to them ever since they left Colwen Grounds. Swallowing hard she opened the trunk and winced slightly as she lifted out the first dress, made of lavender cotton with a wide silk ribbon in a slightly darker purple to be tied around the waist.
Elphaba raised her eyebrows but didn't say anything until after the maid lifted out the third dress (the second was a quite acceptable darkish red brown velvet) and the girl saw that it was not plain white cotton, as it looked on first inspection, but white with a pattern of small pink flowers of a variety that she was certain had never appeared in nature.
"Are you quite certain that is the right trunk? Never mind, I can tell from the expression on your face that it is."
Elphaba lifted the last two dresses out of the trunk herself. One of them was light blue with white lace at the collar and wrists; the other was white with black dots all over. Elphaba took a deep breath and then another before speaking again.
"Absolutely certain?"
"I'm afraid so, Miss."
"I was afraid of that. My grandfather has clearly lost his mind if he thinks I'm going to be seen in public in any of these abominable garments!"
"I did presume to tell him that, Miss, as did the dressmaker when he chose the fabrics but he was quite determined."
"Well I am determined as well!" said Elphaba fiercely. She crossed her arms and glared at the maid, more because the woman was there than because she blamed her.
"Miss Elphaba, please, they aren't so bad really!" pleaded the maid, fearing (correctly) that she would be the one who had to break the news to the Eminence if Elphaba refused to wear any of the dresses.
"I wasn't disputing the fact that the dresses are pleasant enough to look at. I was pointing out the fact that putting them on me would make them infinitely less attractive! But I can see you'll venture no opinion on the subject."
"It's not m' place to say, Miss, one way or t'other," replied the maid, so nervous she slipped back into the country accent she thought she'd forgotten in the years since she'd become a Lady's maid.
"No, of course, we must never forget our place in the world now must we? Never mind trying to think of an answer, that was rhetorical."
"So which dress would Miss like to wear?" asked the maid nervously, aware of the fact that the sun had risen while they were arguing and doubting that Miss Elphaba would like the dresses any more by sunlight than she did by lamplight.
"Miss would almost rather appear in her nightclothes than any one of these gowns however as Miss is not likely to have a choice she will wear the plainest, darkest, one in this pile."
She looked up from the pile to see the maid shifting her weight nervously from one side to the other.
"Oh what now?" she exclaimed irritably.
"Yer gran'father, he said I was not t' "let" you choose that'un, Miss."
"I should have guessed that he would not want me to wear the one colour that could possible suit me. Fine. Which of these...items, aside from the one that I am not permitted to wear, would you suggest will look the least ridiculous when I put it on? With the clear understanding that I am aware any of them will look ridiculous to some degree."
Elphaba felt she had to add the last, just in case the maid was under the impression that she thought any of them would suit her. Meanwhile the maid mentally contrasted what Miss Elphaba had been wearing for the earlier part of the trip to the dresses laid out around the place and barely managed to suppress a sigh.
"I suppose this one is probably the best, Miss," she decided, after a few minutes, indicating the black spotted white cotton.
"That will do," agreed Elphaba. "Dare I ask if I'll be able to fasten it myself?"
"Yes, Miss, your Grandfather specifically requested that they be made so you could wear them without assistance, in case there was none to be had there."
She indicated 'there' by gesturing in the direction of the castle that was their destination.
"Excellent. You can leave now then; get yourself some breakfast before we set off."
"Yes, Miss," agreed the maid gratefully, she remembered one more thing just before she left. "Oh Miss, there are shoe & hat boxes in the bottom of the trunk too."
"Of course there are," muttered Elphaba as the maid departed with excessive haste.
After all, what is the point of showing off how fashionably one can afford to dress one's relatives unless you outfit them completely? Well he and I shall be having words about this and no doubt about it. I may not be able to convince him to let me wear one of my 'shapeless sacks' as he calls them but I'll make damned sure he's knows exactly what I think of his taste in fashion!
With a last, almost longing, glance at the dark coloured gown she picked up the one she had chosen to make sure that she could put it on herself. The dress was fastened with a row of stylish, so Elphaba assumed, black buttons from waist to neck – fairly similar to the way her usual clothing worked despite the radically different style of this dress. With no more reason to put it off she exchanged her nightgown for her undergarments and examined the dress one last time. The dressmaker, probably realising from previous fittings that Elphaba didn't wear or own certain garments that fashionable ladies considered essential, had included enough petticoats in the trunk for three women and Elphaba wondered exactly how many she was expected to wear at one time.
Enough, she thought with a degree of cynicism more suited to a woman three times her age. To make my hips look wider, like a Gillikinese milkmaid's, probably. I'm grateful for the small mercy of the fact that summer is ended.
Finding another reason to stall after she put the petticoats on it occurred to her that she should get shoes and stockings out of the trunk while she could still bend down far enough to reach. As soon as she'd opened the first box she really wished she hadn't because she couldn't imagine what had possessed her grandfather to buy high heeled shoes for a girl who, after her last growth spurt, was taller than him!
"Because I'm not enough of a freak already," she muttered angrily. "He has to have me towering over half of the room as well!"
Though if I'm lucky, she returned to silent thought after realising she'd actually spoken loudly. The average height among the Arjiki will be more then at home and mine won't be quite so obvious.
At least it was obvious, even to her untutored eyes, which pairs of shoes were intended for which gowns and she was thankful too that the pair she was going to wear were a simple plain white. Naturally she refused to even open the hatboxes she'd never worn hats and wasn't about to start now, her grandfather would have to be satisfied with the gown and shoes!
The Eminent Thropp stood overlooking the preparations for departure, calculating how much time he had before he would have to go and talk to his granddaughter. He was quite surprised to hear her speak behind him shortly before went in search of her.
"Your Eminence," she said, her voice soft but still harsh as ever, and the formal address did not bode well for the subsequent conversation. "I would very much like to have some words with you."
"From your tone," he replied without looking at her. "I presume the maid has passed on my instructions."
"She has," confirmed Elphaba. "I will say that I understand why you felt my usual attire was not appropriate to this...occasion but I would be much obliged to you if you would enlighten me as to whether it was colour-blindness or the tragic onset of senility that led you to go out of your way to choose the least flattering fabrics you could find! And then not permit me to wear the one garment in the collection that was the slightest bit acceptable to me!"
"You mean that hideous brown velvet?" asked her grandfather, starting to turn around now that she had finished her diatribe. "It looked much more..."
His voice trailed away as he realised she was wearing one of the dresses he had chosen and, as proven by the fact she towered nearly four inches over him, the shoes to go with it as well! She'd even made the effort of having her hair pinned into something resembling a fashionable style instead of letting if fall any which way over her face, as if any amount of hair could hide that sharp chin and pointed nose.
"You needn't stare!" snapped Elphaba, annoyed by his silence in the face of her quiet anger – how she wished she dared raise her voice and scream at the top of her lungs at him! "The looks I received as I walked this way were quite enough to tell me that I look as absurd as I feel! No doubt they wonder why you wasted your time, and money too, dressing me up so."
"It's not their place to wonder anything about my granddaughter," he muttered and Elphaba's eyes widened, was he actually defending her?
"And you don't look ridiculous," he added, clearly as an afterthought.
"Ha!" declared Elphaba, so softly that the single syllable was more a sound than a word.
"Though I do think the lavender would have suited you better," he continued, ignoring her protest. "Still I am most grateful that you decided to be a little sensible and dress as I requested."
Clearly her harsh words had been completely disregarded so Elphaba took as deep a breath as she could in the restrictive gown and changed the subject.
"Grandfather, since I am to meet my future relatives by marriage today, perhaps you would be so good as to tell me what I can expect and what is expected of me? After all it would not do for me to disgrace you with my ignorance now would it?"
"Not now," said her grandfather. "But when we are on our way, in the coach, we will speak."
"Very well, sir."
"I know little of the ways of the Arjiki," explained Elphaba's grandfather, when the company had set off towards Kiamo Ko. "The King, in correspondence, is a civilised and mannerly enough sort for all that he is the ruler of a wild tribe rather than an orderly nation. I know nothing of the Queen or the Prince save what he has told me and that is little, only that the boy has no great flaws of form or character. They have a custom there that the bride and groom of an arranged marriage may not see each other before the actual ceremony, so you will not meet him until tomorrow or the day after – I've lost track of my calendar with all this travel. There will be a formal agreement which I, you, the King and the Prince will all sign once we have presented ourselves to the King today."
"If he still wants me for his son's wife."
"He will find no better political alliance for his people and that is what concerns him most, not what his son will think of his bride."
"I fear I am still unschooled in the subtleties of such politics," remarked Elphaba, genuinely interested, burying the fact that his answer would be the true reason for her marriage. "Perhaps you would explain to me how there is any advantage for either party when we are so far apart?"
"The King has great plans to unite the western tribes into a nation, even if that does not succeed he has power, do you see?"
"Not yet, sir, but please speak on so that I might."
"The Quadlings, as you will know from your time there, are greatly decimated as a people and an alliance with them would do us no great good. The Gillikinese, well they profit well from...shall we say the current state of things. The Arjiki are the most prominent and powerful of the western tribes, particularly now that they control Kiamo Ko. They were the logical choice but, when I inquired some years back, their son was engaged already and they could not in all honour break the arrangement. Then, some years back, I chanced to hear that the girl had died so I sent my offer again to the King and here we are."
"There is something, I think, that you are avoiding speaking of Grandfather," said Elphaba in a thoughtful tone. "Perhaps it is even a single word, perhaps I even know what that word is, despite what you think of me I have not been in ignorance in the few years I have lived with you. Perhaps I have even heard more than you would think, perhaps I know and understand more than you think me capable of."
"Perhaps," retorted the Eminent Thropp. "You underestimate how much I know of you, Granddaughter. You would have been a better Eminence of the East than your sister will be but she would not be so good a Princess of the Arjiki as you will. I did offer the King the choice of both of you but I knew that, with the wild life they lead in the plains, he would not take the crippled girl for his daughter in law. Nessarose adjusts to life as the Eminent Thropp's Granddaughter so much more quickly than her sister does that I cannot help thinking that the wild life of the Arjiki will also suit you far better than it would her."
"So I am to think that you have done me some great favour in this matter, Grandfather? After admitting so plainly that you were motivated by politics?"
"No I expect no gratitude from you for my part in this, I only expect that you will fulfil your duty, all of your duties, to the best of your ability."
"Of which duties do you speak, besides the matters of politics that we have already discussed?"
"Your Nanny told me that she had explained to all of a wife's duties," replied her Grandfather, averting his gaze as he said it.
"Yes indeed, sir," replied Elphaba quietly, staring fixedly out of the window, embarrassed by the mere memory of Nanny's frankness. "She was most...thorough in her explanations."
"She also assured me, with the benefit of all of her experience behind her, that there was no reason why you could not bear healthy, normal, children. Your daughters, if you have them, will follow Nessarose as heirs to the Eminency for I am likewise assured that it is unlikely she will set aside her religious convictions enough to marry and provide her own heirs. Any sons, of course, stand heir to the Prince and King. Why, you look almost pale, granddaughter have I upset you?"
Elphaba shook her head almost frantically before returned to the unearthly stillness that had accompanied her fixed stare at the window. Her grandfather saw that she was clearly unwilling to speak now and returned his attention to some notes he had to finish.
I never thought of it for a moment! Elphaba's thoughts were as turbulent as her exterior was motionless and composed. And what an idiot I am not to realise that of course my Grandfather and the King will expect me to provide the Prince with an heir. That was one of the first things Nanny mentioned to me when she spoke of men and marriage to me. I suppose I have been so caught up in the fact that my Grandfather has taken such liberties in the running of my life that the consequences of the arrangement hardly had time to occur to me! Though I suppose they will count themselves lucky if, when he sees me at the ceremony, the Prince does not decide that no alliance is worth this and flee to the farthest reaches of his Kingdom that very day! Perhaps I will hope just a little, for I know it is not in my character to hope too much when I have been so disappointed by life, that this Prince they intend for me is at least a reasonable person and we might discuss this arrangement our families have forced upon us as sensible people would.
She did not notice, lost as she was in thought, that her Grandfather had abandoned his note making for thoughts of his own.
She seems so quiet and docile now, despite that display of temper earlier. I wonder if she even now plots some way to dishonour the arrangement I have made. I would not know the sprit of my daughter and her daughter and hers if I did not know that they are stubborn strong willed creatures that do not easily bend to the will of those older and wiser than they. I have already cautioned her a dozen times and more to behave herself until the marriage is done and the alliance cemented yet as surely as she is like her mother and her grandmother I fear she will disgrace me.
"I can hear you thinking from here, Eminence. Won't you share your thoughts to wile away some of the journey?"
"You would find my thoughts most unflattering, Granddaughter, and I fear your shrieks of rage would be audible from here to both ends of the caravan if I were to share them."
"If they are the same thoughts you have expressed on every possible occasion since you first informed me of the arrangement you had made then I doubt they are likely to make me 'shriek' with any more anger than I have already displayed but then I hardly care if you speak or not, I was only practicing my manners."
"I was wondering if this new...serenity in your countenance is the facade behind which you hide some plan to ruin my own plans at the worst possible moment."
"And is it the little you know of my character that leads you to this conclusion or do you base your judgements on the conduct of my mother?"
Well she has me there, he mused, I hardly know the girl save what she shows to the world and perhaps I have presumed to think that she is as shallow as her mother always seemed to me.
"Then speak plainly for once in our acquaintance, Elphaba!"
He saw her start slightly when he almost shouted her name and wondered f it was the tone that disturbed her or the fact he had used her name, which he did rarely – indeed he could not remember if he ever had before.
"Do not hide behind your sharp tongue and harsh words, say you will answer my questions plainly that we may have one conversation where you do not vex me beyond reason but simply answer what is asked of you!"
"A task, sir, that would be much easier to acquiesce to if you had spoken your questions."
"I had thought it obvious from our conversation. Tell me, without dissembling, what you intend to do when we arrive."
"I will do whatever if is you require of me, Grandfather, I'm hiding no secret agenda here. I see quite clearly that you have arranged matters so that I have no choice and I will try not to be bitter about that but I think I shall not care to communicate with you often, once the arrangement is complete, save on matters of politics and government."
"A much less extreme reaction than I have been anticipating," pointed out her grandfather.
"No need to make so much of it," replied Elphaba, returned her attention to the view out of the window. He had no way of knowing it but he had piqued her interest, despite a lot of doubts, with what he had (and hadn't) said about the politics of the arrangement. Of course there were no guarantees about anything but at least it could only be more interesting than being dragged around Quadling country by her father or lectured at Colwen Grounds by …well everyone. Staring out of the window she idly wondered if her grandfather had told these people anything about her other than the fact that she was green and would not have been pretty even if she wasn't such an unnatural colour.