AN: I'm glad you all seem to be a little less murderous now.
SnowQueen: No - she offered it to Glinda, but Glinda didn't take it because she can't read it, so Elphaba took it with her instead ;).
Chapter 21.
Elphaba stared at her blonde friend for a few everlasting moments.
Then, much to Glinda's horror, she burst out laughing.
Not really laughing, actually. It was more like… cackling, Glinda realised with growing worry. That maniacal Wicked Witch cackle of hers. Had Elphaba completely lost her mind? She feared so.
Just as abruptly as she had begun, the green witch stopped, boring her eyes into Glinda's.
"No," she said flatly. "For Oz's sake, Glinda – I can't believe you came all this way to tell me a stupid fairytale. Or are you just doing this on purpose to torture me? He's dead, Glinda. I know he is. Morrible would never have let him live. She wanted to get to me by murdering him, and she succeeded. That is all."
"But Elphie, he really –"
"Either you've suddenly grown very cruel in the time since we parted ways," Elphaba snapped angrily, "or you've just become really stupid. I don't know which one it is. Frankly, I don't even want to know. But let me tell you this: if this is a joke, I swear to Oz I will never speak to you again; and if you genuinely believe this preposterous story, then I guess you really are a dumb blonde!"
Glinda flushed and her eyes narrowed.
"Elphaba Melena Thropp," she said in a dangerously low voice, "I sure hope the real you is still somewhere underneath there and she'd better come out really soon, because right now you are behaving like a wicked witch!"
"Well, it seems like we both finally suit our titles then, don't we?" Elphaba spat before spinning around and stomping back up the stairs. Glinda could see that there was still a slight limp in her walk because of the leg she had broken a couple of months before, and she shook her head. Clearly Elphaba had not been taking care of herself at all.
"Come back here, I wasn't finished yet!" Glinda ordered, stomping her foot childishly. Elphaba just snorted.
"Elphaba!" the blonde yelled. "Listen to me! He's alive! Fiyero is alive! Your spell somehow saved his life!"
Elphaba froze dead in her tracks.
"My… what?" she asked faintly, her face now so pale that it was almost white.
Glinda nodded earnestly.
"You put a spell on him, didn't you?" she said softly. "Right after Morrible first took him away. It…" She hesitated. "Cohvu saw him, and… we think your spell changed him into a scarecrow, Elphie. So that he wouldn't be able to get hurt."
"A…" Elphaba stumbled, just barely keeping herself upright by reaching out to seek support from the wall. She slowly descended the stairs again.
"That's what we think happened," Glinda said quietly. "But we're not entirely sure. Cohvu only got a brief glimpse of the scarecrow as he was being escorted down the Yellow Brick Road by a few Gale Force soldiers. We think they're taking him back to his parents."
"Why would Gale Force soldiers escort him?" Elphaba asked sharply. "If he really is Fiyero, Morrible wouldn't just bring him back home and do nothing about it anymore. This is nonsense, Glinda. He's not alive. He can't be." She turned away from her blonde friend. "Now please just go, and stay with your parents until I find a way to kill Morrible. It shouldn't be much longer now."
"Is that what you've been doing all this time?" Glinda asked. "Trying to find a way to kill Morrible?"
"Yes." Elphaba pulled back her shoulders, a grimace of pain flitting across her face when the motion tugged at her previously hurt collarbone, but luckily Glinda did not see that. She knew the blonde was right – she hadn't been taking care of herself at all, and some of the wounds from her fall over two months before still hadn't completely healed. Maybe they never would. She couldn't imagine that a damp and cold dungeon, and then later a damp and cold castle, were very good surroundings for broken bones to heal. Especially since she hadn't exactly been resting.
Glinda shook her head. "Elphaba –"
"Would you go already?" the raven-haired witch said, not turning around to face Glinda. "Go home, Glinda."
Glinda crossed her arms and raised her chin. "Fine. Give me the Grimmerie."
Elphaba scowled at the wall. "What?!"
"Give me the Grimmerie," Glinda repeated. "I want to look for a way to counter the spell you put on Fiyero, so that I can prove to you if he really is the scarecrow or not. I know spells from the Grimmerie are irreversible…"
"They're not," Elphaba admitted, finally turning around. "Morrible said they were, but I figured out relatively quickly that they're not. Not all of them, at least." She made a helpless gesture. "I couldn't change the Monkeys back to the way they were before, without their wings; but some spells have counter spells."
"Help me find one," Glinda said softly. "Please?"
Elphaba sighed, and her shoulders sagged.
"Fine," she muttered. "But only to prove you wrong and get this ridiculous notion out of your head."
She took Glinda upstairs to her tower, leading her to the Grimmerie and opening the book. She searched for the spell she had tried to cast right after Fiyero had been taken away.
"Here it is," she said. "I think this one does have a counter spell. Hold on…" She flipped through the pages until she found the counter spell. "Here. This one."
Glinda peered over the green girl's shoulder. "I can't read that."
Elphaba rolled her eyes. "It's a lost language, Glin. You've never been able to read it. I don't even know how I am."
"Cast the spell yourself, then," Glinda suggested enthusiastically. "Do it right now. Just think of Fiyero – or the scarecrow – whatever – and cast the spell, and then we'll see who is proven wrong."
Elphaba sighed, but complied, listlessly chanting the words. Glinda half and half expected a sign – a strange magical light flowing from Elphaba's fingers, a lightning bolt in the night sky, a bunch of pink glitters, anything. Nothing happened, however, and Elphaba looked at the blonde.
"Go, then," she said tiredly. "Find that scarecrow of yours and see for yourself that he is not Fiyero. Just leave me be, Glinda. I'm going to find a way to murder Morrible, and after that you probably won't ever see me again, anyway."
Glinda's eyes widened. "What do you mean?" she demanded in a high voice.
Elphaba shrugged, but Glinda caught a flash of the weariness and pain in her dark eyes before she hid it again.
"I'm limited," said Elphaba.
Glinda set her jaw and held her head high. "Well," she said, turning around with a swish of her skirts, "you can think all you want, Elphie, but I'm not going to let that happen. Killing Morrible? Sure. I'm all for that. But I'm not giving up on you, and I haven't given up on Fiyero, either." She looked into Elphaba's eyes. "I'm going to prove to you that you still have something to live for, Elphaba," she said solemnly. "One way or another."
Elphaba scoffed softly. "Good luck with that."
Glinda left and Elphaba sank down to the floor, staring ahead of her for a long time without really seeing anything, her head filled with unwanted thoughts.
"Oz dammit!" Elphaba yelled, hurling the spell book across the room. One of the flying Monkeys leapt out of the way with a shriek at the last moment and the book hit the wall instead, falling down onto the floor. Elphaba buried her fingers in her hair and gritted her teeth, frustration radiating all off her. She had tried so many things already – how had this not worked yet? How was Morrible still alive?
There was a way to kill that evil fish. There had to be. No-one was invincible, not even Morrible… she just had to find the right way to do it.
"Miss Elphaba?" Chistery said, coming through the door. "Miss Gl-Glinda is –"
He was cut off by a high-pitched voice, which triumphantly shouted, "I told you so!"
Glinda came running into the room, her cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkling.
"I was right!" she cried. She grabbed Elphaba's hands and started dancing through the room, ignoring the fact that Elphaba did not in the least move with her. "He's alive, Elphie! Fiyero is alive! He was the scarecrow, and now he's human again! I saw him with his parents in their castle, right here in the Vinkus!" She started pulling at Elphaba's hand. "You have to come with me right now!"
Elphaba looked at the blonde warily. "Glinda…"
"Just come with me," Glinda insisted. "Please, Elphie. What have you got to lose?"
My sanity. My heart – or what's left of it. Because if Glinda turned out to be wrong, if this scarecrow hadn't been Fiyero after all… well, Elphaba honestly didn't think she could handle that. She tried so hard not to get her hopes up, but with Glinda bouncing all around her, promising her that Fiyero was still alive, it was hard not to.
"Please, Elphie," the blonde girl pleaded. "Please. I swear to you on my Granny's grave that you won't regret coming with me. Please."
Somehow, for some reason, Elphaba let Glinda convince her and she followed as the other woman ran down the stairs and ushered Elphaba outside, creating a bubble around the both of them. She skilfully flew them over to the castle the Vinkun royal family lived in.
When she landed them before the gates, Elphaba suddenly recoiled, shaking her head.
"I can't do this, Glin," she said, suddenly near tears, which surprised herself probably more than it surprised Glinda. "I really can't."
"Yes you can." Glinda took her hand and squeezed it. "Think about this, Elphie. If Fiyero really is still alive…"
"And if he's not?" Elphaba asked. "Then what?"
Glinda bit her lip. "I…" She faltered.
Elphaba smiled faintly, but it did not reach her eyes. "I always loved that about you, Glin," she said. "Your optimism. But…"
"I know." Glinda swallowed. "I'm sorry, Elphie. I was so focused on what would happen if you and Fiyero were reunited again, that I didn't really think of the possibility that I could be wrong." She sighed. "All Cohvu and I saw, after all, were a scarecrow being escorted down the Yellow Brick Road, and the next day a man with sandy hair in the Vinkun king and queen's castle. But for all I know, that man was Fiyero's father, or one of the servants…" She hung her head. "I guess I didn't really think this through."
"It's okay," said Elphaba, even though it wasn't. She straightened her back and drew back her shoulders, taking a deep breath. "Well, we're here now, anyway, aren't we?" She didn't really want to do this. Correction – she really didn't want to do this. But Glinda had gone through all this trouble for her… and she felt that no matter what, she at least owed Fiyero's parents an apology for ruining their lives. Even if Fiyero turned out to be alive now – which she doubted – she still owed them an apology for keeping him away from them for two entire years.
Glinda gave her friend an encouraging smile and knocked on the heavy wooden gate. "Hello?" she called. "Is anyone there?"
The gate opened just a crack and a guard poked his head out. "Who is there?" The moment he laid eyes on Elphaba, his eyes widened and he shouted, "Witch!", before throwing the gate fully open and being joined by five of his colleagues, all looking ready to impale Elphaba on their lances.
Hello, Queen of Cliffies here. I have to uphold my title. Sorry... not sorry :3.
By the way, I expanded my fic If You Close Your Eyes with a second chapter. Because no matter how much I loved the initial cruel ending, I agreed with you guys that Fiyero would never really do such a thing.