(A/n: sorry for the dark Fiyero in this story but keep in mind while reading that those are not the same Fiyero and Elphaba we are accustomed too either from the musical or the books. They are two different people to whom or favorite characters are reincarnations. And this is how I justify the difference in the pronunciation of their names. Instead of "Tiggular" I'm using the last name "Tigelaar" and instead of "Elphaba" I'm using "Aelphaba".

I don't know if I'll continue writing to see what will happen with our favorite couple if their actions are controlled by ghosts of the past. For the time being this shall remain a very long one shot.

Any criticism will he welcomed unless a comment is incredibly rude. I hope you like it. Please let me know what you think of this story.

Thank you for reading,

Katria

Disclaimer : Wicked the musial, The Wicked Years and the Wizard of Oz do not by any means belong to me.


**The selfish Prince**

*Province of the Vinkus, Kiamo Ko, 1325 Before the Wizard *

The proud horse rose on his back feet, following the orders of its master to stop his wild running in this spit precisely. Ιt received the rewarding caress on its rich brown mane and with a quiet snigger it came to a stop so as to allow the man to came down. It had followed this specific path numerous times in the past few moths so it followed its usual routine and stooped its head so as to spy out the long grass that had grown very bushing at this spot of the mountain.

The man, trusting completely his horse's attitude, left it free beside him and made a few steps towards the edge of the hill. The view in front of him softened for a while his thudding heart. The grand mountains of The Great Kells were almost entirely visible from his peripheral vision, while Kiamo Ko, the place he had grown up, looked like a tiny grey stone beside the imposing wild rock of the mountain. Other places in Oz were similarly beautiful, his heart though belonged in this land- his homeland.

His eyes narrowed. Seeing the exact same view everyday, at the same hour for the past two months, he knew in details how the first morning hours found the citizens of the Vinkus. Men would soon start working at the fields and women would take care of their children and go to the market.

His gaze traveled to the north, where the magnificent castle stood. Build at the times of the first Princess Ozma many centuries ago, it hadn't lost the glamor of its youth and continued serving its purpose. A symbol of power! Centre of authority of the great lords! Watchtower for the localisation of intruders! Prison to the offenders of the law!

His skin shivered underneath his clothes. His fists clunched so tightly that he felt his blood boiling. The golden pin at the shape of an eagle that was holding his cloak suddenly felt so heavy that irritated he unbottoned it to get rid of the cloth. The cold summer breeze that immediately burrowed his silk white shirt made him feel a bit better. It was long short though! Because in a matter of seconds his thoughts followed his gaze and he focused on the small stoney dwelling beside the main tower, where she was held.

The sharp breath he took in order to recuperate, burnt his lungs. His knees started trembling in their poor effort to keep his body standing. Maybe he still had a chance, he thought, feeling the wetness in his eyes getting thicker and thicker. Maybe he could persuade her to admit her wrongs in front of her interogators and save her from the worst of punishments: burning at the stake in less that two days in the central square.

"Aelphaba..." he mumbled in an almost pleading tone as if that mere word was enough for fate to take a different turn and delete recent history.

The horse beside him, feeling its master's inner quarrel, neighed annoyed.

"If only you had chosen me" he said "You could have had it all... I would have made you a queen... Five servants would prepare your bath every day and you would sleep in the softest mattress... You shouldn't have denied me..." he concluded, justifying as always his final decision to have her arrested by the Gale Force as a witch.

He didn't want to remember the night of her arrest in front of the eyes of her fiance and his own eyes. He didn't want to think of her screams when they dragged her roughly from her small, poor home to lead her to the place of her torment. He didn't want to brink into his mind all the abominable consiquences of his actions, but he did. She was there, every moment and every minute since the cursed days that followed, torturing his existance worse than how her flesh was daily tortured.

He dismissed those thoughts with a violent shake of his shoulders and he jumped on his horse. He pulled the reins and the horse turned around to go down the hill. He didn't lead the horse to his castle, Kiamo Ko, but towards the Tower of the Great Kells.

Very soon he was standing right in front of the metal gates of the tower, which the guards opened immediately the moment they recognised him. They didn't speak a word to him, afraid of his status and respecting the protocol. They only stood tall, following orders. The man brought his horse to a stop when he saw an officer approaching him.

"Goodmoring your royal Highness. How can I be of service to you?"

"Tell to Avaric Tenmeadows that the Prince Fiyero Tigelaar wishes to see the prisoner Aelphaba Therops immediately." he ordered coldly. And when he saw the small traits of sweat running down his interlocutor 's forehead, his expression became hard. "Now!" he repeated quietly but the sound of his vouce was so weak that even if he had spoken louder he wouldn't have been heard more.

"The woman is in no position to see anyone..." said the other completely and utterly scared.

"She will see me."

"As you wish your Highness!"

The prince tied his horse in a pole nervously and passed by the pale man, understanding that the official didn't want to follow his order. The right thing to do would be to announce his arrival but time was far more precious now. He had to interfere. He had to persuade Aelphaba to cooperate with the Gale Force and be saved from her horrid fate.

The official seemed startled for a while and the prince got advantage of the moment of carelessness to enter the building unnoticed.

"Your Highness!" he head a voice behind him but he didn't stop.

The sound of his heels echoed in the stony cold floor as he grapped a torch from the wall so as to see better in the dark. He heard more footsteps from the other side of the dark corridor and he hurried to greet their owner. Whoever he was he had to listen to him. Time went by so fast against her. The smell of her death already filled his nostrils. Maybe he could delete the accusing words he had first said. Aelphaba... Aelphaba...

"Fiyero!" The hoarse familiar voice brought him to a stop. Very few people were allowed to call him with his name and not his title, including...

"Avaric!"

"If you are here to see the woman I'm sorry my friend but you'll be dissappointed. She cannot see you. She does not have the power to speak to anyone."

"I have to see her Avaric !" He grapped the man by the collar, ignoring the proper etiquette his position required. "I need to speak with her!"

"I'm afraid you won't accomplice much. It's too late."

"What did you do to her?" he yelled "What in the name of Oz did you do to her?" The other man lowered the prince's trembling palms from his collar and straighten his head. An ironic smirk appeared on his thin lips.

"Everything you knew was going to happen to her the moment you pointed her with your finger and named her a witch. You must have been right my friend. Only those vile creatures show so much durability and valence in the martyrdom of the flesh. She was laughing!" he informed him while playing with golden ring in his middle finger, decorated with valuable stones and his family emblem. "She was laughing even during the water torture!"

"Oh my Oz!" the prince exclaimed stunned. "You promise me that she..." Maybe he would have completed his sentence if a woman's voice hadn't reached his ears. And then metal being hit with metal and the sound echoing for several seconds... He knew perfectly well what was that sound. The woman was hitting with force the heavy locket of her cell on the metal bars. She was yelling. Cursing. And the horrid words that roughly left her mouth were often accompanied my his name.

"Fiyero!... Fiyero!..."
He shivered.

"Unbelievable valence!" commented approvingly Avaric, the man who had become an inquisitor just a few months ago and really enjoyed his job.

"Let me see her!" ordered Fiyero.

"No objection your Highness." said the other man while laughing. "You came here looking sick and I'm sure you'll leave looking like a dead man. Deter!" he called and straighten his body. A chubby guard with unreadable expression came immediately, ready to follow Avaric 's orders.

"Accompany the prince to the dungeons and inform me when he leaves."

"Yes sir!"

It took them five whole minutes to go down the second basement where the few prisoners were held. Fiyero placed his hand on his nose to fight the disgusting smell. Human impurities and blood made his stomach clench by the smell. He composed himself though and tried to focus his dark gaze at the door of the small cell in front of him and not on the blood underneath his feet.

"I'll be upstairs if you need me." the guard informed him and Fiyero nodded. Then he took a deep sighed and kicked a small rat that had come near his boots. Respecting the pain around him, he took off his hat and made a few steps forward.


**Falling in love **

She felt his presence long before seeing his face behind the bars of her prison. A whole year had passed since that fateful day she had first met him in the gardens of the palace on top of his horse. It was always like that. She could see him before he would appear in front of her. Most of the times it was seconds before she could sense him but as the days passe the second became minutes since he would appear on her point of vision. She could never give a logical explanation as to why this was happening. It was her darkest secret, along with the fear that their secret meetings always caused her.

Now it was too late to right her wrongs. The same and the cowardice to fight him had given the wrong impression for her. The prince had misinterpreted her reactions and had translated them however he desired. In their second to last meeting he had openly asked her to be his mistress, to betray her vows to her fiance, to persuade her family to accept a heavy back full of golden coins that would buy her for her to follow him. And she had denied. How could she accept?

Her fiance, Damien, was her whole life. She knew him since she was a little girl. They had grown up together in Munchinland, they were best friends since she coulf remember and they had the same fate. Their life followed the same path. When she had lost her mother from a terrible illness at the age of ten, and her father came to the point of losing his sanity and disappeared, leaving herself and her little sister alone, Damien was there. It was his mother that had taken the two girls under her care and she hadn't hesitated to take them with her when they had left Munchinland for the Vinkus. The woman cooked for six people, she took care of them during cold winter and caressed their hair before falling asleep.

Since she was fifteen she knew that she and Damien would get married one day. His mother and her adoptive mother had taken her aside and said that it was the logical and right thing to happen. This way she would repay the woman's kindness and unite two Munchinlanders. She didn't love him like a lover loves a lover or like a wife loves her husband but she loved him as a sister her brother. And that was enough. As Munchinlanders in a strange land they had to stick together. Besides, Damien was her best friend. He was her supporter through all their struggles and a man who adored her with all his heart. It was true that Damien loved her completely and trully and according to him they were destined to be.

Αccording to Damien they were a pair made in heaven. One heart. One soul. One dream. His love for her was enough for the both them and Aelphaba was sure that in time she would come to love him as something more than a brother. It would be easy to love him like that if only Aelphaba allowed herself to embrace his love. Love was something that scared her. Especially after her mother's death and her father's disappearance. Not that they loved her in the first place though she loved them. She just couldn't allow herself to be in love.

She wasn't in love with Damien but she respected and loved him deeply in her own way. She would never betray him and her vows to him and his family. And she didn't want to hurt him.

Aelphaba had never felt or seen a love as pure as Damien 's for her. Actually she hadn't expected anyone to ever love her because of her deformity. Yes, she was beautiful and elegant for a servant girl but she was also green. Her skin was a peculiar emerald colour , unique to the rest of the world. It was the reason her parents had deserted her all her life and the reason why she hadn't allowed herself to love. When Damien had expressed his feelings for the green girl- dare she say it- she was the happiest woman alive. Her sister insisted that they would be perfect together. Suddenly, poverty and malnourishment seemed bareable. She was at least a bit happy.

However if they wanted to get married they would have to work hard and save every last penny. Damien was already working at the fields many hours a day but she wanted to help him. She didn't have many choices because oh her status and gender. It was either hard work at the fields or work as a maiden, a servant girl, in the palace. She chose the latter and for the first time in her life the brief education she had been given - reading, writing, calculating- had come in handy. Everything seems do be okay in her life and she had even started warming up a bit more to Damien's affection.

And then she met him...

One cold February early evening he entered her life... Crown Prince Fiyero Tigelaar who thought he could own her just like he owned his other precious possession.

She was in the gardens that day, taking care of the Queen's winter blue roses when she suddenly saw him on his horse, handsome as he was and powerful as he looked, and Aelphaba's heart had stopped beating. He noticed her staring at him, not in the slightest intimidated by his status, and had decided to approach her. That servant girl behind the blue roses had dared to lock eyes with him, the prince. However the moment he saw her fully he had lost all anger and had forgotten her disrespectful behaviour. He was stunned and completely overwhelmed by something he couldn't identify and probably never would.

From that day on he met her daily, every evening when she cared for his mother's roses. He distracted her from her work and he asked her to accompany him on long strolls in the gardens. A couple of times he had walked her to her small house and hadn't even thought or cared of the dirty looks her fiance would send his way. He wasn't threatened by a peasant bot who couldn't defend his fiancée in front of the prince.

Aelphaba always accepted his company out of curiosity and fear. In her nineteen years of age she thought that it was the right thing to do. She had been taught that the lords were always right.

"Don't you dare disobey his orders even if they are completely irrational" her adoptive mother had said when Aelphaba had told her about her meeting with the prince and his interest in her. "My dear he has the power to kick us out of his land and our home. He has the power to destroy the life we've built. And then where will we go? This is our home now and we do not have the means to start over elsewhere!"

And so Aelphaba obliged to the Prince. She always sent an apologetic in the distance for Damien to feel her silent apology from afar. She bit her lower lip nervously and she followed Prince Fiyero in long walks in the gardens. At first he was very kind and charming. He talked to her about everything. About his hopes and dreams- the dreams he had abandoned fir his royal duties. He talked about his wife of a few months, Lady Sarima of the Clowning Lands, about the castles his family owned, about how much he wanted a son. He had confessed to her that he didn't love Sarima and that he probably never would even though he was still very young- only three years her older. Sometimes she could see his azure eyes darkening as he looked at her with something she couldn't identify. This dark look though made her blush furiously and feel embarrassed. He never failed to show her how much he enjoyed her company.

A few months before she found herself imprisoned, everything changed in her relationship with Damien. They fought all the time because of her daily strolls with the prince and they started drifting apart. Aelphaba even caught herself feeling things she had never felt before.

At first she was just curious as to why Prince Fiyero seeked her company. She had- as odd ad it easy for her- opened up to him and had told him things only her sister and best friend knew. She told him about how her mother had despised her or how her father had abused her. She told him about her secret dream of traveling the world or her wildest fantasy that was to fly. She was curious as to why he seemed amazed by her when she was so plain and poor and ... well... green. She concluded that he just pitied her but that didn't explain all of his actions towards her. He seemed to genuinely like her and it scared her more than Damien's true love. Slowly, Aelphaba found herself enjoying his company more than she should. He was a good talker and a good listener.

And just like that Aelphaba started dreaming other things too. She could sense his presence and it terrified her. She imagined how her life would be if she lived in a castle like his or if her slim figure was dressed in expensive clothes like his. She wanted to smell beautifully of rose perfume and for her midnight hair to float elegantly like a waterfall of silk down her shoulders and back like his wife's did. For some strange reason she wanted to be beautiful for him so for the first time in years Aelphaba had unbraided her locks and after carefully washing them she didn't drain them again as usual. She let them loose instead. She was blind. She was dreaming, even hallucinating. She was so lost in her dreams that she forgot her vows to Damien and his family.

And she allowed Prince Fiyero to take her hand in his, to run his fingers through her locks, to caress the soft skin of her neck and finally to kiss her lips in a way no one had and no one would kiss her.

Slowly, Aelphaba found herself falling in love with the prince. He was a very handsome man and experienced and his presence made her innocent, naive heart skip a beat. She completely forgot Damien and barely talked to him anymore. She lived in her dreams. Because every night she was dreaming about Fiyero- she had stopped thinking about him as a prince- and every morning while she did her usual work in the castle, she hoped to take a glimpse of him. When they were apart she longed for their shared evenings in the gardens. She longed for his soft touch and his deep kisses that made her heart melt and her knees go weak.

Soon the other servants started talking about her and gossiping. She was called horrid names- beside the usual rude remarks about her skin colour- but she barely cared anymore. She was in love for the first time in her life and her mind was clouded. Her sister that needed a home, her fiance who loved her, his family that had taken care of her, her status, Fiyero's wife... Nothing mattered. Only Fiyero and her...

And so she made a decision. She would accept his proposal. She would invade in his world no matter the cost. She would become his, body and soul, and he would love her always and forever. She believed that in time she would be the only woman in his life. His wife would be forgotten and she would become the queen of both his castle and his heart. He had let her believe that. He had made her believe that with his words and sweet nothings.


**The point of no return**

It was too late when she realized she had fallen into a trap. She had foolishly believed that she would listen to vows of eternal love the night she dared to wear her worn out cloak and leave her house minutes after midnight. She didn't know that someone had seen her walking in the dark and later that would be one of the reasons she would be arrested. She defied the danger of her decision and she met the Prince in their usual meeting spot in the garden. With her heart pounding, she took his hand and trusted him to lead her where ever he wanted.

He took her inside the palace but didn't head in the direction of the guest rooms or his own bedroom. Aelphaba knew the castle well after working there for months, so she recognised the way to the most deserted part of the castle, the West Wing. They climbed the stairs to the tallest and darkest tower of Kiamo Ko. She knew for a fact that no servant had ever gone there for a very long time. At the end of the stairs there was an old wooden door which he pushed to reveal a bedroom that looked more like an empty attic. It was a bit dusty and the furniture was old. In the middle there was a bed with an old mattress. A thought occurred to her; how many other servant girls had he taken in this place before her?

She came to her senses when she realized that the Prince only seeked those kind of meetings. He had never trully cared for her and he never would. Everything was a lie to get to be with her for one night and then gain his throphee. And she wasn't a throphee... And so she backed away...

She tried to explain that she had regretted and that she wanted to leave. At first she was calm and she spoke to him kindly, almost lovingly but he ignored her pleas. When she saw him removing one by one his clothes she panicked and started crying. She asked. She pleaded. She begged him to let her be and forget their meetings but it was all in vain.

"We're past the point of no return Aelphaba!" he told her with raw desire in his dark eyes. "What did you expect love? This is the only place you can have in my life. And believe me, it's a possition many girls are jealous of."

He made her his by force that night. He ignored her resistance and her battle against him. He closed her mouth with his palm to stop her screaming and he broke her body in a way more cruel than her heart. Her tears only made him want her more. When he was done with her he left her on the old mattress like a worn out coat, he got dressed with slow movements and threw some fresh water on his face. She, on the other hand, laid there, lost in her sobs of pain, shame and heartbreak.

"This is what I want from you !" he said coldly, his eyes still staring at her with need and desire. His orbs followed the odd shapes her dark her created as they spread over the pillows. They followed the path of her slim but curvy figure as she curled her body in a human ball. They were fixed on the rise and fall of her chest as she silently cried. The Emerald skin, exposed in the dim light of the moon, made her even more intoxicating and beautiful. It didn't occur to him how much he had hurt that flesh. He was used in taking everything he wanted. He was a prince after all.

"And this is what you'll give me whenever I want you to. Thanks to you, your family will lice like royalty in these lands. I'll personally make sure of that! "

The girl finally found the strength to stand up. With trembling hands she wrapped the sheet around her body and with equally trembling feet, she approached him.

"I don't want to see you again" she managed go say to him after straightening her body. Her dark eyes, locked with his ,were filled with determination and pride. "I don't want to live like that..."

"You have my mark now Aelphaba" he interrupted her and his fingers grapped her chin and forced her to look at him. "And everyone will find out if you keep on insisting on your ridiculous statement to never see me again. Are you ready to take the risk?" His fingers now brushed her cheek and she flinched. "Will you take the risk of facing the same fate as those other women who were named Witches? Because this is what will happen if ... in some way... people find out you seduced an honorable man. And you know how those women left their last breath."

"I prefer it!" she said and shoved his hand away from her cheek. "I did a mistake, I betrayed those who trusted me the most, and I'm ready to face the consequences of my actions, however severe they are. Death is the only way for me. I can't live with the same and without ... without the man I fell..." She couldn't say that she couldn't live without the man she had fallen in love with. But that man had been an illusion and the illusion had been broken and she had ended up there.

"That boy..." he started saying and for the first time Aelphaba understood what it had all been about. The powerful prince Fiyero Tigelaar was jealous of a farm boy and she had been at the receiving end if him jealousy. He had thought that she had denied their lovemaking because she was in love with Damien. He had hurt her because he was a spoiled brat. She would have smirked if she wasn't in pain. It was her time to hurt him now by playing along with what he thought to be true.

"That boy is the only man I've ever loved and his love is the only beautiful thought that I'll have in my mind while burning. You are free to do whatever you want with me. I did a mistake and I'll pay. Thus know that I'll never come with you willingly. Never!" She did a step back, satisfied with her words after seeing the hurt in his eyes.

"Is this your last word?" he asked with an odd stitch from his flesh to his heart.

"Yes!"

"Because you expected more than I could afford to give you?" He was already defeated but he would play with his last card.

"Because you don't love me and I can't love you. Because I cannot live a life of secrets, sneaking in the middle of the night for a few hours with you and living my days jealous of you having a family while I can't have that with you or with anyone. Because I made a promise to a family who didn't let me to starve to death. Because my sister needs her only family close by. Because I love... " She stopped to sweep the tears in her eyes away. His eyes never left her and the remorse she saw in them made her reconsider. She couldn't live the life he wanted from her and he had hurt her, but she was still a woman in love with the man she had met in the gardens. And at the moment he looked more like that man. Timidly she approached him again and took his hands in hers.

" I wasn't born to be a slave to a Prince's desires. I wasn't born to be a Princess and the fact you are already married leaves me with a title that equals a whore for royalty. I trusted you and believed for a brief second that you loved me and that I lived in a fairytale. I had never believed in fairytales Fiyero and you made me live mine by making me... making me love you the way I did and... and still do, in a way." They were closer now, their bodies almost pressing together, their eyes locked and their hands entwined. "But the fairytale is over now. This is real life and witches, green girls, don't get the prince, ever. Our worlds are different. You can't give me what I want and I can't give you what you want. So..." she took a deep breath and continued. It was now or never. "We made this fairytale last as long and we could. Now we have to let it go. Let's forget it ever happened Fiyero and move on. Let's forget this fairytale happened and go back to reality... It is better this way..."

"Never!" he whispered and when she let go of his hands and her brow furrowed, he repeated with determination "Never!"

"Don't you understand that..."

"If I can't have you under my conditions Aelphaba then no one can. I prefer to sent you to death and I swear to Lurline I'll do it!" His eyes betrayed his nervousness but his voice was so cruel that she backed away again.

"Then I'm at your disposal." she said hastily. "Either I live far away from you or I die. My desicion is final!"

"Aelphaba be reasonable!"

"I've never been more reasonable in my life, considering the severity of my crime!"

"They will torture you!" he said in an attempt to scare her out of it but she didn't even flinch.

"What's the pain of the flesh compared to the pain I will endure everyday in my shattered heart?"

"Again with that farm boy?" Her eyes widen in horror. After everything he still acted like a spoiled prince who never took no for an answer. He was still jealous of Damien and he was willing go hurt her more just because he couldn't see her with another man when he was married and had a chance in having a family. This realization hurt her more than what had happened a while ago.

"That farm boy is ten times the man you'll ever be. And this is my last word!"

"So be it then." he said coldly. "It was your choice. And this is my last word."

And those were indeed the last words they exchanged in a face to face encounter before the day of her arrest. As the Gale Force dragged her out of the house with violent movements, in front of the eyes of her family, she screamed his name. Birds flew away in fear as her scream echoed in the darkness of the night, so desperate, so pleading, so heartbreaking... And Fiyero cried for the first time in his life.


**I curse you**

He felt his stomach flinch at her appearance. The woman standing in front of him, hidden behind the heavy prison bars, barely looked like a human being and not at all like the beautiful young girl that had stolen his heart and mind. Her body was bony from malnourishment and her shiny soft emerald skin had taken a sad grey shade that made her look one with the stony walls of her cell. She was beaten brutally, her body was full of bruises and open wounds that still had blood. Purple rings were created on her wrists and angles, rings created by the tight ropes that straightened her hands and legs for hours while she was tortured. But nothing could be compared to the horror that was her gaze. The once chocolate orbs with the green freckles were now two dark dots in a bloodshot ocean. There was no passion or bravery because those things had given their place to terror and indifference. Though had he had in front of him didn't look human, the Prince couldn't help but admire her strength .She had stuck her skinny face on the bars so as to spit on his feet the few saliva she had in her mouth. He deserved it...

"You can still save yourself Aelphaba" he told her, not daring to come any closer.

"With lies?" she found the courage to answer. She coughed loudly and drops of blood escaped her lungs. "I'm waiting for the end Fiyero..." she said, breaking all formalities. He wasn't above her anymore. After his deplorable act to report her to the Gale Force as a witch, he was no longer better than a filthy rat. "I'm waiting for it paitiantly" she added.

"I could take you out of here" he dared to suggest "make sure for you safety and a good life in a place where no one knows you."

"On the contrary, I prefer the wind to spread my ashes upon this land and many of them to get into your luxurious castle. To remember..." she added, smirking in what could be described as a wicked smile. "To pass your entire life feeling remorse for what you did. You took everything from me..." she continued. She allowed a few teardrops to run down her sulken cheeks and the salty tears burned her wounds. "You took my family, my dignity, my love, now you take my life. Live with that!" she dared him while she shook the metal lock once again. "Live with that!" she repeated. "And live, knowing that I'll curse you never to find peace till my very last moment! Live your years, as many years as Lurline has in store for you, without knowing what happiness means ever again. You will never again find a reason to smile!"

"Why can't you admit your wrongs and save your life Aelphaba?" he asked as if he hadn't listened her words. "Aelphaba why?"

"Because I don't want to live after what you did to me. Because I can't bare to look at my sister's eyes without seeing my betrayal. Because I cannot bare to look at other people being happy, loving each other like I thought we did, having children... Even if I go and live somewhere else free from the label of the witch you made out of me I will never be happy... Because I'll never give my heart to anyone else. Because you destroyed all my stupid ideas of happiness and love. Because... Because I'll never have the chance to hold my own child in my arms. Don't you know Fiyero? Didn't they tell you?"

His heart stopped as his sharp mind dared to make a guess. She stuck her face on the metal bars, her empty of emotion and life eyes staring directly at him, and she laughed madly. They had cut her long locks and the hair reached her shoulders, falling messily everywhere on her face, sticking with sweat and blood. As she snapped her head with her bitter wicked laugh, he would have sworn she was trully a witch.

"They ripped it away..." she said weakly and her thin hand reached her flat stomach. "They said it was devil's spawn and they ripped it away. It was yours..." Her voice was trembling. A tantrum of tears was about to get loose but it didn't. "The heir you so wanted..."

She laughed again. Evilly, madly and completely out of her mind and place. She was laughing and crying at the same time, her tears mixed with the blood and sweat, burning her skin. Drops of blood escaped her mouth and Fiyero backed away. He could have been a father... The words just couldn't get out of his mind. He could have had a baby with the woman he was immensely in love with and whom he had tormented to no end. What had he done? He felt like vomiting and as a tear run down his cold cheek he felt it burning him. What had he done? The consequences of his jealousy and his selfishness only now sunk in.

"Live knowing that Prince Fiyero Tigelaar and I'll curse you to burn in the flames of living hell until you die. I hate you in life and I'll hate you in death. And I won't stop hating you in all the centuries to come. Your spirit will eternally have a mortal enemy, me!"

"Don't talk like that!" he ordered and made another step back.

"But why? Are you afraid my prince? But you know as much as I do that I'm no witch. Why are you afraid?"

"You are talking nonsense!"

"I curse you!" she repeated with a cough.

She laughed. She stopped. And she laughed again.

"I do not curse you to burn in hell. I curse you to live in eternal darkness! Eternal darkness! Do you hear me? In Eternity!"

He backed away scared. He couldn't listen to her bitter voice anymore. He couldn't see that broken face and stare at those broken eyes. He couldn't stand to be in that dungeon anymore listening to her wicked laugh. It started driving him mad. So, as coward as he was, he turned around to live. In his hurry he stumbled upon a wall and hit his head and suddenly her cries echoed louder and louder in his ears. "I curse you Fiyero! I curse you!" His flicker of pain sounded like death. He hurried up the stair, stumbling numerous times, the dizziness finally taking a turn on his body and mind. He ignored the guard that was paitiantly waiting for him upstairs and left. He didn't even said goodbye to Avaric. All he wanted was to get away from this place.

He walked outside and took a very deep breath, allowing the fresh air to filll his lungs. After getting used to his rapid heartbeat and the fresh air, he took his horse and left. It was around noon now and the villagers were staring at him curiously. He ignored them. Nothing matter to him anymore. He could only run as fast as he could on the horse towards Kiamo Ko. Her voice still haunted him and he knew it would never stop. "Eternity... Eternity... Eternity ..." This last word would never let him rest in peace.

His dreams that night were worse than nightmares. They were a glimpse of what would have been if he hadn't been selfish. If he hadn't allowed his jealousy to take the best of him. If he had understood her and waited for her instead of hurting her. Damn it he had loved her and he had acted like a monster. He was a monster. What a life he might have known if...

There was a boy in his dreams that night. The boy had dark hair, pale complexion and sapphire blue eyes. He was holding the hand of an emerald skinned woman. They were both smiling brightly as they walked in a field full of flowers. Then he appeared and wrapped his arms around the woman and the little boy hugged his leg. They were a family and they were happy. Their smiles caused him more pain than the worst torture. He had taken those smiles away from both of them...

He only understood the severity of her words two days later. This last word crept into him and ached down to the core as he saw from the balcony of his castle the flames rising up to the sky. He would never get rid of the burning in his heart as he saw the flames eating the flesh he had once touched and caressed... and hurt... The screams that reached his ears were those of pain, betrayal. He felt immense pain, rage, hate ... love ...

Aelphaba's curse had already been activated in the most painful way for him. In front of him he could see the woman he had loved and hurt burning at the flames of her doom. And behind him, his wife, laid on silk, golden sheets, took her last breath as she gave birth to his only child, his daughter Princesa Nora.

And from then on, Prince Fiyero Tigelaar burnt in the flames of Aelphaba Therops every day and every night ...

For eternity...