Elphaba had learned every side road, back street, and alley in the Emerald City by the time she'd been there for a year. Even though there was no chance of Fiyero waking during the night and suspecting that she had left for longer than a day or a week she took the most convoluted route away from the corn exchange automatically.
Stupid, stupid, stupid, it seemed the word rang through her head with every footstep on the roughly cobbled roads. Stupid to have stayed there after he followed me, stupid to have let him come, stupid to have let him think I cared, stupid to actually care about him. I should have left as soon as he found me but no I was too certain that he'd lose interest, that he didn't really care, that I was just a diversion to him. And far beyond stupid to let myself feel that way about another person again!
Her thoughts continued to race even as she walked, not too quickly to be noticed nor too slowly to be suspicious, towards one of her cell's emergency hideouts.
I wonder if it ever occurred to him, really, that he was not the only man who…who what? Eaten a meal with me\, bedded me, loved me? He certainly didn't seem curious even when remarking upon the fact, even when I claimed myself wed though of course I meant it to say that I am thoroughly committed to this 'cause' as he called it. Such a trivial name for the purpose of so many people's lives. Such a trivial attitude towards a purpose that far better men than him have died for!
Deliberately emptying her mind of any thoughts that would distress her, a trick she'd learned some years ago, she decided to take a detour to a small chapel whose confessional was always open – manned by a priest who was also a member of the resistance.
"Good evening, sir," murmured Elphaba, slipping into the confession box and feeling uncomfortable about it as she always did – religious places and ceremonies of any kind brought back the kind of memories she'd prefer not to have.
"Good evening, daughter, how may I be of assistance to you?"
"I would have you give a message to the one above us all," replied Elphaba, speaking in the code that referred to the person behind the master plan of the resistance – a plan Elphaba was only a small part of at this moment. The message would pass through a number of intermediaries before reaching the leader's ears.
"I live but to serve all the children of that one," replied the priest. "Speak, daughter, there are none here to hear your words but me."
"Among our people I am known as Fae. That person has been compromised, I can no longer be known as her."
"I am authorised to make the usual arrangements."
It was not uncommon for an agent of the resistance to be found out, though they usually didn't survive the experience, the 'usual arrangements' were the removal of any sign that the person had existed.
"A man may be looking for me, an Arjiki man. He is not to be harmed, he blundered into the secret unwittingly, but there is a spy who may still be there. The spy, as nearly as I can tell, does not know that I know who he is. Pass the word out to all of our people: the white cat is a Cat and it is working for the other side. The building is an old corn exchange on the outer east side of the city."
"Your words will be passed along," agreed the priest, it was not his place to ask questions, there would be others who would ask her for details later.
"I will be in the second red safe house for those who want to speak to me."
"May the Unnamed God bless you, daughter," said the priest by way of farewell.
"I'd much prefer it if God, if such a being exists, kept Himself firmly out of my business," muttered Elphaba, managing to slam the confessional door as she left.
The priest smiled to himself as he listened to her leave. As it happened he was not the man who usually took messages here. He was no priest at all but at least as much an atheist as the girl who called herself Fae. He therefore considered it good fortune that he had been here when she came to speak to the priest. As leader of the resistance he knew who she really was, just as he did every other member, and he thought Elphaba Thropp of Munchkinland could still be quite useful to him. He decided that he would summon those who worked directly below him in the hierarchy and let them offer opinions, just in came one of them had a better idea than his of how to make use of her skills.
The safe house Elphaba had chosen was not red, or in any other way distinguishable from the other dingy boarding houses in the area. A widow, Mrs Erevan, a short stout woman of mixed Munchkin and Gillikinese descent, ran this one along with her widowed daughter. They were timid creatures and this was the most actively they could bring themselves to aid the resistance despite the fact the oppressive regime had caused the death of both of their husbands. Naturally they both stared at the pointed green features of their latest customer before showing her to a room. At Elphaba's insistence she was given a room with a window, not that there was much of a view but the young woman wanted a second way of leaving the building rather than something to look at.
The women left quickly, Elphaba didn't bother unpacking, she locked the door behind them and stretched out on the bed – one of the lessons she had learned in the resistance was to snatch sleep whenever she could find the time.
Fiyero wasn't worried when he was woken up by the cat pawing playfully at his face and saw that Elphaba was not next to him. She often crept out before he woke up and didn't always tell him when she was going to do so. He did think it was strange that she had closed the window Malky used to get in and out of the corn exchange and assumed that was why the cat was trying to get his attention.
This was one of those rare days when Malky wished he had been born in the form of something other than a Cat because he very much wanted to roll his eyes at the stupidity of the Arjiki-Human who was trying to coax him to the window.
"I guess you don't want to go out then," muttered Fiyero, the Cat's sharp ears picking up his words easily. Resisting the urge to reveal his Animal nature Malky jumped onto a chair normally occupied by Elphaba's clean clothes and meowed loudly.
"I don't think there's any food left," decided Fiyero. "I'll see if she's kept anything here for you shall I?"
The Cat began lashing his tail back and forth in sheer frustration as the human started foraging through the cupboard. He wouldn't have bothered staying around except he though the man might be able to find the woman Malky was supposed to be keeping watch over. His instructions at this point were to simply report her activities and see if anyone worth capturing made an acquaintance with her. Everything had seemed the way it always did when he went to sleep the night before and he couldn't imagine what could have happened to startle her into leaving – if it had been anything to do with those in authority he would have been informed.
"Sorry, old son," said Fiyero, wandering back to the chair and absentmindedly patting the cat. "Looks like you'll have to go and catch yourself some mice."
Haughtily the cat turned its back on him and started washing its face.
"Ungrateful," muttered Fiyero, feeling decidedly under the weather thanks to last night's wine drinking. Had he been his normal self he would have noticed the differences in the room much sooner.
As it was he went back to bed for a while and woke up again when the midday sun struck his face through the open window. The cat was nowhere to be seen as he climbed out of bed, made a half-hearted attempt to straighten the bedding, and prepared to leave.
He was just pondering leaving a note for Elphaba telling her why he couldn't wait around all day for her when he realised there was something subtly different about the room.
All of Elphaba's personal things, down to her clean undergarments and the funny piece of glass she'd had hanging on the wall, were gone!
In a panic he rushed around checking very nook and cranny, the only things left that hadn't been there before were the crate-seats and the bedding. He couldn't believe it but he had to. She was gone. She'd left him without even saying goodbye and all because...why?
"Why?" he spoke out loud, his voice echoing through the vast emptiness of the room. "Damn it all, Elphaba, why?"
I thought she loved me…no, I know she loved me! How could she possibly leave me when she loved me? It couldn't possibly be because I admitted I love her could it?
Shaking his head to stop all of this thinking he decided that the only to find out why was to find her and ask her, so he would do that. He'd found her once and he'd do it again, for all her bragging that she'd disappear!
