(AN: If anyone is reading this who was directed here-to from Tira: A Tale of Torment, you're in the right place.)
(Sorry for the long time it took to update: college is soul-crushing, especially when you have no friends and a sea of problems. Oh well, you don't need that, just the story. So here we are. [disclaimer: all references to Tolkien's work are his and NOT mine. They are only there because the previous adventures of the Ozian Adventures series featured such and are needful for reference.] Enjoy!)
The Prisoner
Glinda was led into a room by one of the Schwarzwind, a young woman clad in armor like the lady Von Krone. She reminded her of Nessarose: a pleasant, oval face with long, dark hair. She had small lips and an otherwise plain frame, neither large nor narrow like Elphaba. Were it not for her armor, Glinda doubted not that she could easily overlook this young woman were she in the midst of a crowd.
"I don't understand," she said at last. "I thought I was going to see the prisoner your leader spoke of before."
"So you shall," the young woman said. "It was requested, however, that you be given a new change of clothes."
"Thank you!" Glinda sighed. "I've been traveling for so long, my clothes must surely reek!"
"Nicht zu danken," the young woman replied. "Now, I will leave you alone while you change your clothes. When you are finished, come outside and say so."
"Thank you again, uh..." she said, just as the woman was starting to depart. "Wait! What's your name?"
"Hauptmann Olschmidt," replied the young woman.
"Glinda, the ga is silent," she stated. "Oh, just where are these clothes you want me to wear?"
"Over there, in that chest," Olschmidt stated, pointing to an oaken chest lying at the corner of a meager bed at one corner of the room. "Auf Wiedersehen."
She left the room, and Glinda opened the chest, rummaging about for something appropriate to wear. Unfortunately, there was nothing in the bright, sparkly pastel colors with which she was familiar and would have preferred. Eventually, she found a simple dress in a kind of teal blue color, along with heavy riding boots: hardly her first choice, but she had been wearing riding boots for a whole year now that it was almost second nature. Her hair was still in its long braid, similar to how Elphaba had worn her hair before she had 'Galindafied' her: braiding was how the women wore their hair in Worms, especially if they were married. She wasn't married, but she didn't want men pursuing her like a deer on the hunt, so she kept her hair tied thusly. Without any time for washing, she had kept her filthy, sand-encrusted hair in its horrible braid, waiting for the moment when she would have a proper bath.
For now, however, the dress and boots were enough. Now in a pair of clean clothes, she walked outside and told the young Olschmidt girl that she was ready.
"Sehr gut," she replied. "Come, I will take you to where they keep the prisoner."
"Wait, there's one other thing," Glinda interjected.
"Was?"
"Could I, uh, could it be arranged for me to...have a bath?"
"A bath!" exclaimed Olschmidt. "Now why on Earth would you want a bath?"
"Because I'm filthy and smelly and covered in..." she looked at her hair: usually a shining blond, it looked like a dark shade of gold with so much oil in it. At last she gave a shudder of revolt and exclaimed: "Ugh!"
"Ach, das ist nicht sorgen," she replied. "We'll deal with that later. Come on now."
Glinda was rather disgusted that they had such disregard for personal hygiene, especially the women. Though she usually didn't say so, it had not been pleasant at all, traveling with Elphaba and Fiyero. First they were with the Fellowship, all male, by the way, and some of them a little more rank than the others. When at last it was just the three of them (or five, including Nessa and Liir), she hoped there would be fewer smell issues. Unfortunately, Nessa was a horse and Elphaba was pregnant, not to mention Fiyero smelled the worst, being a man. In Worms, no one seemed to mind the odors or much else for that matter: she had seen some men wash their faces in the same water their fellows had spat in moments ago. Though she had had a bath in Iceland, she hadn't any other since then. In Maaptia, aside from everyone feeling grimy beyond belief due to the sand (it did, after all, get everywhere), both Boq and Kloxolk reeked of oil and, of course, Liir made a mess of himself more often than not.
I need a bath, she bemoaned as she followed Olschmidt.
Their room was underground and Olschmidt let Glinda up a flight of wooden stairs to the top floor. They were inside something that looked like it had once been a monastery of some sort. Hauptmann Olschmidt stated that it had been destroyed almost a hundred years ago during the Deutscher Bauernkrieg, and had never been rebuilt since then. The Schwarzwind now used the ruins as their headquarters; for, though several attempts had been made at restoring the monastery, it had at last been abandoned.
Hauptmann Olschmidt let Glinda across the ruined courtyard to what had once been the chapel. Its spire had been torn down, the roof had collapsed and all the stained glass windows broken, but it still struck an austere, imposing figure.
"So, where are we going?" Glinda asked as they walked through what was left of the chapel.
"There's usually a cellar beneath every chapel," Olschmidt stated. "Whatever they're used for, God only knows. But we've converted this one for the use of containing our prisoner."
"Who is he?" Glinda asked.
"She," Olschmidt corrected. "A servant of Soul Edge."
"What's Soul Edge again?"
"Ask Herr Schtauffen," she said. "He knows more about it than any of us, except Frau Valentine."
Glinda's little head was spinning. It was more than she could handle, since none of this meant anything to her. For her, the only thing that mattered right now was finding Elphaba again. This 'prisoner' of theirs was the only lead she might possibly have connecting her to her Elphie.
Olschmidt led Glinda to the back of the chapel and through a corridor of stone with a winding staircase leading underground.
"Uh, excuse me, Miss, uh, Old-schmist-person?"
"Call me Salia." she replied.
"Thanks, that's easier to remember. So, Salia, uh, what exactly do you do in this...group?"
"The Schwarzwind used to be a gang of bandits," she began. "Until Herr Schtauffen reorganized us into a mercenary group: now we hunt down the servants of Soul Edge. Though the Sword has been dormant for many years, Herr Schtauffen believes it is still at large and I believe he's right. In Hungary, these is this count, Graf Dumas, who has been attacking villages and towns said to be afflicted by 'malfestation.'"
Glinda's ears perked up: she had heard that word before, coming from the blond youth who had attacked her.
"You see to know quite a lot," Glinda stated instead.
"That's because I was part of the first Schwarzwind," she replied. "I was very young, pretty much just a lookout. But that was years ago: now..."
"Yes?"
They had arrived at the bottom of the staircase, and Salia removed a torch from its iron fixture on the stone wall and turned to Glinda.
"Never mind," she said. "I am proud to serve under Herr Schtauffen, and that is all."
They arrived in the cellar, where they were greeted by Siegfried, the one whom Salia called Herr Schtauffen, and Hildegard Von Krone, his lieutenant. Behind them, up against a wall, was a young looking woman with pale skin. What struck Glinda immediately, apart from her torn and frayed clothing, was her hair: it was dyed white, black and violet, then tied into two entwining braids that hung from either side of her head like ponytails.
"Fräulein Glinda," Siegfried said. "I must advise you against seeing the prisoner."
"Why?"
"She's...unstable."
"I'm not a child, sir." Glinda interjected. "Tell me the truth."
"Your pardon, my lady. This...woman..." He pointed at the girl in chains. "Is hardly worthy of the word. She is a wild thing, raised by the ravens, who kills for pleasure. If you are to speak to her, you must not be easily unnerved by her words: she delights in torturing her opponents."
"I need to speak to her." she repeated.
"As you wish," Siegfried sighed. "Von Krone and myself will remain here, we'll keep an eye on the prisoner while you interrogate her."
Glinda nodded, then made her way towards the prisoner. The young woman did not flinch as she approached; instead, she seemed to be calming down, staring at Glinda with her heavy-lidded violet eyes. It was no trick of the light: her eyes were, both of them, violet like the amethyst plains of the Lowlands of Gilikin. Something else was wrong with her, for as Glinda walked closer to her, she could feel that there was something horribly wrong with this strange woman.
"Why, hello, beautiful!" cooed the woman in a playful voice with a smile on her face.
"Who are you?" Glinda asked.
"Tira, that's all you need to know." the girl replied, her voice growing suspicious and angry.
"Where did you find her?" Glinda inquired, turning back to Siegfried.
"Some of my men were searching for a party that had disappeared somewhere in Hungary," Siegfried answered. "They found her on the edge of an old battlefield, wounded but otherwise alive. She..."
"Popinjay!" the girl called Tira snarled at Siegfried.
"I hear you know something about my f..." Glinda began, but suddenly thought better of it.
"About what, my pretty?" leered Tira, her voice dark and sinister.
"About a woman with green skin." Glinda replied.
"Oh, I do!" Tira replied, now sounding practically tickled pink with the prospect of divulging this information.
"Tell me what you know." Glinda demanded.
"Oh, nothing much," Tira began, shaking the chains upon her arms idly, as though the rattling pleased her. "I was in Hof, shepherding a stupid little brat about who had a thing for killing people, when all of a sudden...boo!" She lurched at Glinda, who gave a start. Tira laughed merrily at scaring her prey.
"A witch appeared, straight out of a story book: green skin and everything!" she continued. "She kidnapped the poor little girl, calling her Dorothy and hitting her over and over!" She laughed. "It was so much fun, I almost wished it was me hitting her!"
"That doesn't sound like Elphie," Glinda mused.
"What a ridiculous name for a witch!" laughed Tira, who then began to sing a little mocking melody. "Elphie! Oh, my name is Elphie and I'm a wicked old witch!"
"Just stop it!" Glinda shouted. "What happened then?"
"I followed her," Tira said, her voice uninterested and gloomy. "When the time was right, I attacked and took the little b*tch from her." She looked up, a smile on her face and a wicked fire burning in her violet eyes.
"But that's all in the past!" she began, her voice heavy with joy. "All this happened weeks ago. My plan is already in motion, and there's nothing you can do to stop it! Very soon, the world and everything in it will come to an end! You're all going to die!"
Tira laughed maniacally, rattling the chains in exultation. Glinda was disgusted beyond belief. The Wizard was a trickster, but she had seen him break down in tears when he learned he had brought about the (supposed) death of his daughter. Madam Morrible did cruel deeds, but she was never one to gloat publicly about how many Animals she had broken or how many tongues were silenced. Only the cruel orcs and the wicked Variags, weak and lesser in their strength, breeding and stature to the men of Rohan, Gondor, Worms or even Oz, were truly happy and joyful at causing other people harm.
With hands shaking from the fearful memories of hideous faces painted white and black, she backed away from the lunatic woman.
"I've heard enough," she sighed as she passed Siegfried and Von Krone.
"Hauptmann," Siegfried ordered. "Take Fräulein Glinda back to her room."
"Ja." Salia Olschmidt replied eagerly. With Salia's arm around her shoulder, Glinda left the cellar of the chapel, eager to be as far away from that horrifying woman.
-~-z-|-Ø-|-z-~-
"We should kill her," Von Krone said once Glinda had left.
"Nein," Siegfried replied.
"But she delights in killing!" the other retorted. "If we let her go, who knows what other kind of mischief she will cause us!"
"We must show her mercy."
"Mercy? She'll turn on us the first chance she gets."
"True," he replied. "But you showed mercy to me many years ago, when I did not deserve it. I have not forgotten your deed, and will show the same even to an enemy. Trust me, Hilde. I know I have made mistakes, grievous ones, recently, but I know that I am not mistaken here."
Hilde sighed.
"As you wish." she relented.
(AN: Yay! Tira's not dead, nor will she die! I just couldn't bring myself to kill off a fan-favorite [not when SCV was doing such a good job of it on their own -heavy sarcasm-].)
(As for the development of our story, that is happening as well. Hopefully the next chapter will come soon, but when it does, we will get to see how it plays in with the rest of the story.)