Alright, as I said during the last chapter, this picks up after chapter 12 ends, and takes place during Chapter 13.
This was the moment that she had been planning for a month. This was a battle. This was something that needed her complete focus, and that forced all her doubts, all thoughts of Lana into a corner in the back of her mind.
She had always looked to see if Lana's necklace was there, tucked under her dress, because she had thought that it had meant that she was Moasha. And it was because of that that she had noticed, during that party when the Vinkun Royal family had came, that it was green. She had guessed then, and she had checked that night. Taken the necklace off when the other 2 girls had been asleep. She had imagined throwing it off the balcony, the way one imagines ringing the alarm to signal a fire but knows that they never would.
Now, she knew she couldn't hesitate, couldn't lose the element of surprise. She stepped forward, to where Glinda had been standing moments before. "The witch has deceived us! She has come to us as begging for sympathy, when in reality she is the spawn of the wickedest witch there ever was!" She had planned the words so carefully. Witch. Not girl. Not woman. Spawn. Not child. Not daughter. Nothing that would allow either the wicked witch created by Jeema Morrible so many years ago or the one she was creating now any humanity.
And she saw that she was succeeding, turning joy into fear and then into hate. She knew that no one would question what she would say now, and she new that she had to say it.
"Kill the Witch!"
The crowd roared like a dragon, and Byra ran past.
Byra.
She hadn't thought of Byra at all. She turned and grabbed her wrists, without thinking about how it would look. There was no reason to let Byra run to her death.
"Don't." She said softly. She wondered if the crowd had even heard her.
"Let go of me you traitor!" Byra screamed, fighting her. Amira held firm. Byra hates me now. Lana must hate me too. And Tyron. She had most likely lost all of the friends that she had made during her year in the Emerald Palace, although Byra and Lana weren't exactly friends. They don't matter.
"In the name of goodness, think about what you are doing!" Amira turned, and all thoughts of Byra were forced backward as well, because Glinda had taken the bait. "You have no proof-"
Proof didn't matter. Not really. "Would you have us wait for proof while the Witch slaughters our families, casts her curses upon us, and ruins our country as the Wicked Witch of the West did before her?!" Amira fired back, trying to look the part of an outraged and fearful defender of Oz.
"She has been here for a year, here in the heart of Oz, and done no such thing." Glinda was trying to keep an even tone, having cast a spell on her voice to magnify it, but her voice was shaking. "She has-"
No one was listening, and members of the crowd were already pushing up the stairs. Amira needed Glinda to be heard. "What did you just say?" She asked in a voice that she hoped sounded dangerous and threatening.
Glinda realized what Amira was doing, she might have known for longer. Now she spoke more quietly, so that only Amira could hear. "Don't do this. Whatever you want, it's not worth it."
Amira hesitated, for the first time feeling guilty about what she was doing to Glinda. She didn't care for her, but she understood her, understood that there was pain behind her smile, that Amira was manipulating years of guilt- and she understood that Glinda understood her as well, or as much as it was possible. And most of all, because she understood that Glinda was who she could grow to be.
"Wickedness must be punished!" Amira half screamed, half sang, and Glinda yelled, "She was born 5 years after the Wicked Witch died! How could the Wicked Witch give birth when she is 5 years dead?!"
It was a good point, and it stopped the crowd temporarily. But Amira knew that Glinda had used that argument as a last resort. Because there was an explanation, one that Glinda had probably thought of, one that she wouldn't want to push the crowd towards.
Amira chose not to use that explanation. "She's a witch! She can change her appearance at will! She's older than she looks!"
The crowd roared again, and no one pointed out that if Lana could change her appearance at will, she wouldn't need the necklace in the first place. They surged forward, and Glinda turned and threw a spell at Amira.
The crowd saw. It didn't matter that Amira had blocked it. It didn't matter that they didn't even know what it would have actually done.
"Did you just attack me?" Amira screamed.
There had been rumors circling for years about Glinda and the Wicked Witch of the West. Father hadn't even had to fan the flames that much. But it had been easy to dismiss as a crazy conspiracy theory.
Until now.
"Glinda has always been allied with the Wicked Witch of the West!" Someone screamed.
"It's true! I know someone who knows someone that went to school with her, she shared a room with the Witch!"
Amira looked around and realized that she and Glinda were alone on the dais, Elphias, Shartine, and Byra had all left at some point. Good. It's better this way.
"Glinda has betrayed us!" Amira screamed.
Glinda raised her wand to summon her bubble, and began to float across the room, and out the window. The crowd split up, some going after Lana, but Amira leading her own group after Glinda. Glinda was the important one. Father didn't care about Lana, she had told herself, choosing not to think about the way his eyes had lit up when she had told him her suspicions that Lana was Elphaba Thropp's daughter.
Outside, Glinda was not as high in her bubble as she could have been. Lucky for her, because Amira threw a spell at it, popping it. Glinda still fell several feet, probably breaking something, but survived.
For now.
Glinda managed to climb to her feet using the wall behind her, allowing the crowd to corner her against it. She shot another spell at Amira, which she blocked again. Someone in the crowd smashed a glass bowl against her face.
Try to capture her alive. Amira remember the cold calculating hatred behind Father's eyes, that she saw whenever Glinda was brought up.
"Stop!" When the crowd failed to do so, Amira used her own powers to push those nearest to Glinda back. She knew that she had to be careful, that the crowd could turn on her even more easily than it had on Glinda.
"Ketil and Jimto." She addressed 2 members of the Gale force that had joined the crowd by name. "Take her to the dungeon. I shall come with you to make sure that she does not use her magic to escape." When the crowd started to protest, she said, "She shall be tried and then executed!" And they quieted down. "The rest of you, after Wicked Witch's daughter!"
§
Amira wished that Glinda would scream at her. Would yell at her as Byra had. Or at least would say something.
Glinda looked at her as they walked, but she didn't glare. The look almost said, "I'm so disappointed in you. I thought you were better than this." Or maybe Amira was imagining things. That was why Glinda's silence was driving her crazy. Because she didn't know.
She was still holding Lana's necklace. She realized abruptly.
After Glinda had been imprisoned, and Amira cast the necessary spells to prevent her from using magic to escape, and a few extra to make Glinda look more dangerous, she didn't join the mob that was going after Lana. There was work to do, and she would do it, but she couldn't do it now.
Even if Tyron wouldn't join her, she loved the roof. Loved how it was the only place that she could let her guard down. Loved how in the day she could see the city, and in the night she could see the stars. It helped her relax.
She should contact Father.
She could never contact him here, not because it was impossible but because it would feel as if Father was invading, to hold his crystal ball, to see his face, on this roof. She could leave though. She could contact him in her room, now that her roommates were… gone. She told herself that she should do it, but felt no urgency. No desire to stand, to leave, to make her way down.
I will though. I will.
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