EDIT: I somehow managed to post the second half of the Chapter twice. I've fixed that now. (I hope).


A/N:

I was sure I wouldn't get another chapter out before Christmas, good thing I was wrong?

Just before hitting the publish button I decided to cut the second half of the chapter and wrote an entirely new second half in just under a day. I haven't written that quickly in a long time. I hope it doesn't show I did that too much.

As always constructive criticism is very much appreciated so if you see any mistakes or know of anyway I can improve my writing please tell me.

And have a great Christmas (There is a possibility I will upload a chapter before then, but just in case I don't).

Note: I do not know if the term 'Circus' has the same alternative meanings outside of the UK, but to save any possible confusion 'Circus' is used in England not only to refer to an actual circus but also a round area where multiple streets meet. Think Piccadilly or Oxford Circus.


She found him with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and his undone cravat hanging loosely around his neck.

He looked to her with a face red with tension.

"What are you doing in here?" Sir Chuffrey sat back from where he had been hunched over his desk, his eyes bleary and equally as red as his face.

Glinda shut the door to his study and moved closer to the desk on the other side of the room. She had been planning to get her question, or rather demand, out of the way so she could move along to prepare for her visits and other obligations.

"I just – Are you alright Dear?"

He shook his head, a motion that appeared to have the intention of clearing his mind.

"You should not have to concern yourself over any of this." He gestured to the papers covering his desk. Many were stacked up; others had been tipped over carelessly spreading across the wooden surface in a wave of white and black.

She leant forward subtly catching the numbers and figures of his work. Financial worries? What else could it be?

This turn in his behaviour had occurred suddenly, which only made it all the more perplexing. He was his usual self only yesterday – or so Glinda thought. It was more than possible she was wrong.

"I know Dear, I doubt I will even understand it, but do we not all need an ear to talk to every now and then. A problem shared and all that."

He ran his large palm over his face and huffed in agitation. His lips pressed tightly together but twitched, forming a wavering smile.

It never seemed to take much for her to convince him, nor many others of the male persuasion for that matter.

He sat forward, leant his elbows on his desk and rested his head on his folded hands.

"I am just a bit stressed. Things have been deteriorating worse then I, or any of the other men in my position, could have predicted."

Her latest speech returned from where she had stored it at the back of her mind, the vague details contained therein and the sheets of paper covering the desk filling in the blanks of what Sir Chuffrey was referring to.

"The Wizard is sorting things; it shan't be too long now."

"That is a given." He paused to free one of his hands so he could run it through his waning hair. "But economic worries will never be fixed that quickly. We have been in negotiations with the other countries – those that are still a part of loyal Oz – they have a say in things but I believe the Wizard could override their decisions if he had to."

The wooden floor creaked underfoot as Glinda edged closer to the red wood of the desk. She would have to remember to get that floorboard fixed.

"Negotiations? In what?"

"At present? Food. Unfortunately for us Quadling Country is far too swamped, the Vinkus too dry and even dear old Gillikin cannot supply enough food for the mouths of Oz. Water will be next, or will soon overtake food in importance."

She knew about the cost of food, but water? How could something so common become a rarity?

Perhaps she misunderstood.

"The lakes."

Sir Chuffrey's head tilted and he paused for a moment as if deciphering what she meant. She was not even sure what she meant.

"Restwater provides all of the water for the Emerald City, its placement ensuring that it has that function. If we can no longer obtain our water from there we will have to transport it from Kellswater or even Lake Chorge, which will not only be a drain on resources but also ensure water will become rationed."

Her hands twitched at her side, a sign of the effort she was putting into preventing herself from biting her thumbnail.

"The fees Munchkinland are charging for basic goods are rising almost daily. I don't understand what their leader is trying or planning to do, but whatever it is; it is enough to cause the Wizard to divert a great share of money into the armed forces and our defences."

Defences? A war? Glinda found that hard to believe. Nessarose was religious, surely killing went against her beliefs. But even as that thought entered her mind she knew it was not necessarily true.

She remembered her Father telling her about how the Unionists had always prosecuted Lurlineists, even killed them in some cases. He had once told her of how he had been cornered by Unionists, at least that is what he believed, when he lived in the City. He had returned back to Glikkin afterwards, and that was where he met her Mother.

He had not told her in so many words of course – she had been too young at the time – but when she had grown older she understood the implications of what had happened to him.

Her Father insisted the Wizard was doing his part in destroying the old religions. Her Mother neither agreed nor disagreed.

But this was not about religion. This was about something else. Something Glinda could never comprehend, not at this point in her life.

"You have fixed things before have you not?"

"Yes I have, I was like this then too." He did not look too convinced of the validity of his statement but still smiled, albeit faintly. "After all the Yellow Brick Road was not built with sticks and mud."

She did not respond. That was long before her time.

"I have let my work get on top of me that is all." He laid his hands on the edge of the table and leant back. The stiffness of his shoulders disappeared as if an invisible weight had been lifted.

He seemed assured of himself, at least more than a few minutes earlier.

Glinda had been clueless. She had not known that things had gotten into such a bad state. She knew there were problems, Lurline, she had just performed a speech about it! But talking about it – reading another's words – and seeing it firsthand were two completely different things. If you could call what had just transpired 'seeing it firsthand'.

The gravity of everything, however, was as clear as day.

"I will get one of the Kitchen maids to bring you up something to eat." She paused before adding with a sly smile, "Unless you want me to cook you something. I'm afraid it may be burnt and thoroughly inedible though."

She laid a hand on his shoulder, a gesture that caused a true smile to cross his face as he patted her hand with his much larger one.

"You go and do whatever it is you need to."

She moved from him and stepped to the door, stopping to smile back at the man she had married. Things were never as bad as one imagined they were going to be.

"I always do, do I not?"

"Thank you Glinda."

She did not reply, instead choosing to leave the room and pull the door to quietly.

She could not recall why it was she had gone to his study in the first place; even so the loss of her objective did not worry her now. There appeared to be more pressing matters that should have her concerned. Things would get worse, she knew that. She had just not expected it to affect her life. Perhaps it would be over shortly; perhaps it would not, who was she to say?


"I would rather not."

"It'll be interesting Elphie, fun even, come on." Her hand hovered near Elphaba's for a short moment before she gripped the other woman's wrist to pull her along with her.

As they had left the train station Glinda had caught sight of a peeling sign for the Sunday market, she had not known it was still an ongoing event. When she was back at University she had never really paid any attention to it but now it brought out a childlike excitement in her.

So once she had rid of herself of a less than willing Miss Dithre and had found her friend, she had pulled Elphaba along with her all the way from Railway Square to the Ticknor Circus where the air was full of the smell of roasting nuts and hot wine.

When they finally stopped at the edge of the market Elphaba had finally found her voice.

"You're acting like a child." There was no malice in Elphaba's words but there was a hint of something else. "You used to get like this if you were upset about something."

"What are you talking about?" Glinda asked as she blinked up at the sharp features of Elphaba's face.

"You would either go as hyperactive as anything or go on a spending spree. Sometimes both."

"I was a teenager, what more could you expect?" Looking around at the bustling people; the students, the couples, the families with their children, she could almost be mistaken in believing what she had heard the day prior was untrue.

"You're most definitely not a teenager now."

"Why Miss Elphaba I do hope you aren't implying that I am old." Her gaze remained fixed ahead as she found herself bouncing ever so slightly on her heels, "I haven't had anything to eat. Let's see if we can find anything."

As they stepped into the crowd – Elphaba with a roll of her eyes – Glinda ensured she had retained a firm grip on her friends arm and her handbag was securely in place.

She peered, as well as she could, over people's shoulders to see what food was offered on the stalls surrounding them.

Glinda hummed and tapped her chin with her free hand, "Fried fish? No."

"Meat pudding!"

Elphaba sighed.

"Boiled pork. Ick." Glinda's nose wrinkled.

"More like Pork."

"Baked potato."

"Are you going to look at every stand?"

"Shush you! I'm trying to decide."

"I guess you do need to concentrate more than the average person."

"Oi." Glinda slapped Elphaba's arm, before something caught her eye, "Ooh."

Glinda brushed past Elphaba, dodged around a couple and came to a halt in front of a small stand decorated with pies and pastries.

That was more like it!

"One sweet tart. Strawberry please." Feeling a body next to hers, she looked up at Elphaba who looked back with her usual raised eyebrow.

A sweet every now and then can be excused.

She turned back to the stout man behind the stand, "And a..." she looked at the hastily scrawled on piece of paper tacked to one of the supports of the stall, "A coffee, black. And a hot wine please."

"I can order for myself."

"You would have ordered nothing, or given it to me. I know you."

The man handed over the sweet and turned to one of the large drums on the counter to retrieve either the coffee or wine, she was not sure.

"At least you made up your mind at last."

"Please. I remember how you were when you couldn't decide which book to check out of the library when you were near your limit."

It could only be described as torturous. If Elphaba had not thrust a book about Architecture or Sorcery – she could not remember which – into her arms she would surely have lost her mind.

"Here ya go miss."

Glinda quickly fished through her bag, retrieved the money needed and exchanged it with the goods waiting for her.

"Thank you." They moved from the stall to stand in a less crowed area near a nearby shop, Elphaba taking Glinda's drink so she could eat the tart easily.

"You've got more around your face than in your mouth." Elphaba quipped a few seconds later as Glinda tried desperately to avoid dropping the pastry to the ground, or even worse dropping it upon her periwinkle dress.

"I..." She swallowed, "I forgot how messy these things are."

Glinda found the pastry disappearing sooner than she anticipated. Elphaba had apparently snatched a napkin of a nearby stall as she was now holding it up to Glinda's cheek.

"T-thank you." She took the napkin, her fingers skimming her friends in the process. A welcome source of warmth. And dabbed around her mouth in the hope she would remove all the mess and not ruin her makeup.

The chill area caught the scent of something sweet and brought it towards them, her stomach gave a small rumble, "I'm still quite peckish."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Elphaba pressed Glinda's still warm drink into her hand, "Here."

Glinda took it with a smile as they moved through the crowd once more. Small knickknacks, wooden sculptures and most shocking of all fresh flowers surrounding them on either side.

She took a sip of the hot wine, she had never had a taste for it when she was younger but palettes changed when people grew. The taste of the honey, lemon and cinnamon overpowering but warming against the slight cold of the day.

"You don't get tipsy as quickly nowadays?" Elphaba asked as Glinda tried to see what was on a brightly coloured stall, only to fail due to the crowd surrounding it.

"I never got that tipsy before."

"I beg to differ."

"You always beg to differ."

Elphaba laughed quietly at that, it was only at that moment Glinda realised how easy they were conversing that day. How much it felt like their youth.

Perhaps Elphaba was correct, perhaps today she really was behaving childishly. 'Hyperactively' as Elphaba had said.

She was about to wonder why when another stand caught her eye. Naturally she made that her next target.

"This reminds me an awful lot of our University days." Elphaba said closely to her ear to be heard over the chatter of people, "You skipping off, me dragging behind and secretly hoping I can slip away in the crowd to do something more productive."

"You make me sound like a terror."

"That's because you are."

Glinda let go of Elphaba's arm and squeezed past a squat man and bulky woman to reach the front of the stand. A range of bright trinkets and wooden carvings lay on a white sheet, Quadling crafts. Usually surrounded by paintings from the city and Gillkinese pottery it was a refreshing change, and quite captivating.

A section containing a particular set of small trinkets caught her eye. Shiny strings of translucent glass beads and tiny bits of carved wood, she delicately picked one up, and when it caught the weak sunlight it shone with a multitude of colours. Shimmering shades of pink, green, red and purple cast upon the wood and white cloth of the stand.

Her head tilted to the side as the corners of her mouth moved upwards into a wide smile, "Elphie look! Isn't it beautiful?"

"It's a simple reaction caused when light shines through materials of a certain –

Glinda turned her head and narrowed her eyes.

"– If you say it is I guess it is. What would I know?"

"I wish you would stop saying that, even if it is true in this case."

Glinda returned her gaze to the object, it reminded her of something.

"Actually these remind me of those shoes your Father made for Nessarose. She always wore them, even if they clashed with her clothes, do you remember?"

"Vividly." Elphaba glanced at the ground her voice emotionless.

Glinda twirled the item causing the light it cast to start dancing.

"Do you even know what it is?"

"I haven't the faintest clue, but it is beautiful."

"Put it back. You're house is probably full of pointless tack."

"Sir Chuffrey's house." Glinda stressed.

"A Baronet. I always thought you would do better than that."

Glinda laid the trinket back down, deciding Elphaba was probably correct. She did have enough. Her thoughts flicked back to the discussion from the day before for the second time that day, why should she spend money carelessly when others were struggling?

"I liked you with glasses." Where did that came from?

Elphaba expression fell slack but she quickly regained control of herself, "You want me to be as blind as a bat?"

"Well no. But if that is what it takes."

With a roll of her eyes Elphaba grabbed Glinda's hand and dragged her away from the stall, "It's like Galinda is back."

"Is that a bad thing? Oh wait I forgot I was terror, and still am."

Elphaba was doing a shockingly good job at pushing and elbowing (with her free arm) people out of the way, as Glinda tried her best not to savour the warmth of her hand too much.

"I guess this means we're done here?" They had pretty much seen everything anyway; even so Glinda inserted a note of disappointment in her voice. Elphaba looked over her shoulder, slowing her pace once the crowd started falling away.

She had forgotten how poorly Elphaba did in crowds, if she was in them for a long enough time that is. Even Glinda herself could not usually handle them well. She gave the hand grasping hers as best of a comforting squeeze as she could manage. Elphaba pulled the limb back, turned around and held it out as if waiting for something.

Glinda's lip pursed at the hand. Elphaba lifted the cup held in her other hand.

"Oh, I forgot." She peered into the cup in her hand and saw it was still half full but the cup itself felt only lukewarm. She handed it over.

Elphaba disposed of the cups in a nearby bin. Once she had returned she offered her arm which Glinda gladly took.

"We spent longer there than I thought." Glinda said when she looked at the clock tower just visible over a nearby building, "Let's go for a wander before I have to leave."

They did just that, Glinda not realising how thankful she was that people were no longer bumping in to her.

"Have you still got your belongings?"

"I'm not sure I follow."

"There were a lot of people back there, you could have easily been pick pocketed."

Glinda pulled Elphaba to a halt and dived into her bag to check it.

Confident everything was still there she hooked her arm through Elphaba's once more and resumed walking.

The noise of the market died away as they walked from it leaving a comfortable silence between them for a moment. That was until Elphaba broke it.

"Do you notice the man at that stall was not a Quadling?"

"I can't say I did."

"And yet he was selling Quadling goods." Elphaba's eyes had become hard once more, stirring in Glinda a sense of dread. "To think of it there were none as students when we were at University."

"Perhaps he was selling the goods to raise money for a Quadling village."

"Perhaps he is extorting a Quadling family to get the goods to sell." Glinda's grip tightened on the strap of her bag, "They are fashionable at present. The goods that is. Or so I hear people say."

"Must you be so pessimistic?"

"I call it being realistic." Elphaba's expression changed to one that almost boarded on a sneer, "After the Animals are dealt with who will the next laws target? Quadling's lives have already been ruined, not entirely but it will reach that level soon."

"I don't know," Glinda sighed, her head already throbbing due to the sudden shift in the atmosphere between them, "perhaps the Winkies."

"If by that you mean people from the Vinkus then perhaps. Or maybe the people of the Glikkus. Perhaps even the lower class Gillikinese." Glinda was going to roll her eyes at that until Elphaba added, "Your family would most definitely not be immune."

"Not to mention Munchkinland." Glinda snapped back. She had not intended her voice to sound so offended or for her hands to clench so tightly.

Elphaba fell silent at this. Glinda took a breath to steady her nerves and spoke soft this time:

"I don't wish to being up such a topic," though Elphaba had no qualms with bringing up unsociable topics, "but what do you suppose will happen to Nessarose if say...if say a war broke out?"

She had not wished to bring that up; Elphaba was far too smart she would see through the words. She would know the threat was more likely than Glinda had tried vainly to imply.

"If you know something –

"Don't be silly, I'm just a terror reliving her youthful days with my closest friend whom I am trying to wind up. And it looks like I'm succeeding." Glinda replied with a light laugh, it did little to ease the tension but even so Elphaba's expression relaxed just slightly.

This would not be the end of the topic, it never was. It was related to what was said that day by the Canal, and trust her to go and make matters ten times worse. A part of her wanted Elphaba to know after all she would know what to do. She always knew what to do.

But was there really a need to, she was sharp enough to know what was happening in Oz, she would piece everything together like she always had and on top of that she would know if there was a threat to her sister. She would not allow anything bad to happen to her surely. Glinda may have not been close to the girl, may not understand what she was planning now but that did not mean she wanted any harm to befall her.

"Oh look!" Glinda pointed at a shop nearby, its window display featuring hats, scarves and a fine selection of kid gloves, "You said I should wear gloves. I'm sure I have some back in the City but where they could be I haven't the foggiest."

This time it was Elphaba's turn to sigh. The weight brought on by the topic a moment ago evaporating, if only for a shot time.

"When I said gloves I meant wool, from an animal, not leather. For all you know –

Glinda slipped her hand from Elphaba's arm to hold her hand a move that halted the woman's speech, "They might have some, come on."

The taller woman's face shifted from blank to mild annoyance, mixed with a significant level of amusement, in the blink of an eye.

"You really are reliving your youth today."