AN: warning for this chapter, contains some graphic violence and mentions of suicide. (beats ffnet with a stick for not centering the lyrics).
Standing still here for a moment
Breath held tightly in my body
A world that's growing darker
Not worth a longer stay
All the wisdom that I earned
Can't make a change to this state
As I lay down my spirit's arms
On my knees to seal my fate
Collapsing pride and fading joy
Are marking my capitulation
To a world that cries in pain
And slowly dies in misery
Come the demons of my soul
To carry my sane mind away
I'm just a noble soul of honour
Who has left its way
Cast my hopes into the water
Awaiting judgement from the sea
And someday the tide will rise
Up so high to swallow me
Judgement - L'âme Immortelle
Chapter 25 – No One Mourns the Wicked
Elphaba had, of course, seen the enormous storm and she knew that Morrible had sent it but she simply couldn't bring herself to care what the older sorceress was up to. She had spent the last three days curled up on the bed, alternately weeping and going over and over the past events in her mind trying to think of something she could have done better, some way she could have changed things. That Fiyero was dead and that it was her fault, she did not doubt in the slightest. Chistery, keeping the other Monkeys away from her, did his best to encourage her to eat but the most she would do was sip a little water whenever he pressed it on her and the Monkey wisely chose not to force the issue lest she forbid him from coming in the room at all.f
Of his own accord Chistery ordered his fellow Flying Monkeys to make regular patrol flights around the castle and surrounding mountains. On this particular day they returned to report that there were some people approaching the mountains and Chistery immediately passed on the report to Elphaba who, responding to his urgent prodding very reluctantly made the effort to drag herself across to the Crystal Ball and see who the people were.
"That's Cub," she noted in mild surprise as the picture focused first on the Lion. "And Dorothy Gale from Kansas, and Boq? Well that is an odd combination to be coming this way to be sure."
She frowned and looked closer as Boq gestured towards the mountains, she hadn't bothered with the more complicated spell this time so there was no sound but it was clear that he intended to lead the group over the Great Kells.
Several thoughts passed quickly through her mind. Boq was coming here, bringing Dorothy for Oz knew what reason, Boq who undoubtedly wished her dead for her part in his transformation…
At that moment she decided it was time to surrender, but on her own terms. First she used a touch of magic to open the heavy main gates, just a little, so they looked as if they had been carelessly left unlocked but were not deliberately open then she addressed one of the Monkeys.
"Chistery, could you and one of the others carry a small human woman from there to here?" she surprised the Monkey by addressing him with a complete sentence for the first time in days.
"Will ask others," he decided, leaving the room for a few minutes.
"Seris says two can carry girl."
"Even though that storm is still raging out there?"
"Yes, no problem that."
"Very good, bring her here if you please."
"Yes, Miss, will bring."
It hadn't occurred to Dorothy that she was in danger until Boq yelled for her to run then, before she realised what was happened, two creatures that looked like nearly man-sized monkeys with wings were carrying her through the storm and all she could do was scrunch her eyes shut and pray that they weren't going to drop her.
She kept her eyes shut until she felt her feet hit something solid and the monkeys gently set her down. She opened them to see that she was standing on a balcony attached to what could only be the Witch's Castle. Obviously tired of standing in the rain one of the monkeys pushed her inside while the other took off and disappeared around the tower. The one escorting her closed the door behind it while Dorothy looked around.
The room was well lit, by torches and whatever sunlight managed to penetrate the clouds, but many of the corners had deep shadows in them. Her immediate impression was that it did not look like a witch's room, it looked like a woman's room. There was a pink nightgown folded on the end of the bed, a black gown with a small pile of petticoats spread out over a chair, and a comb on the bed with a few strands of dark hair still caught in it. Finally her eyes reached the end of the room where the Witch sat, wearing a simple gown that was probably once black but now looked dark grey, and Dorothy was treated to a sight so incongruous that she blinked and looked again. The Witch was hunched in a chair with her long dark hair falling in a tangled curtain over her face and cuddling a stuffed animal of some kind to her chest.
"Girl," said the monkey, no it must be a Monkey, quite clearly.
"Thank you Chistery," said the Witch in a hoarse tone as she unfolded herself from the chair.
"Hello again Dorothy Gale from Kansas," said Elphaba Thropp, brushing back her hair so the girl could see her green face. Dorothy was so startled that she couldn't speak for at least a whole minute.
"You're the Wicked Witch everyone has been telling me about?" exclaimed Dorothy. "No! You can't be! We were alone long enough for you to kill me at…the house. I never thought for a moment it was you. I just assumed that you had another sister!"
"They told you I wanted you dead?" repeated Elphaba emotionlessly. "I suppose that's how they got you here is it? Suggesting you strike first so to speak."
"Not at all, I only came to…" Dorothy's voice trailed off in shame and she finished very quietly. "To steal your broomstick, Miss Elphaba. You see I met the Wizard and he said he would only help me if I first brought him the broomstick of the Witch of the West. Master Boq offered to come with me, and the Lion who helped me in the forest…but, Miss Elphaba, if you don't want to…hurt me why did you have me brought here?"
"I've seen the path Boq was planning to use to bring you here and I didn't want you to get hurt trying to climb it."
"Boq," exclaimed Dorothy, suddenly thinking about her companions now that the initial shock of the wicked witch's identity had passed. "He…he said so many horrible things about you!"
"If he told I transformed him, it's true," replied Elphaba. "Though I couldn't say how close any circumstances he related to you would be to the reality of the situation."
"I think he's planning to hurt you," confided Dorothy anxiously. "He's so bitter and angry. All the way here he kept talking about how I was not to worry and he would take any steps necessary to make sure I got home. I have to admit that even though he's been my friend he does scare me sometimes, when he talks like that."
"Don't fret about that, dear, I can handle Boq well enough and you'll be safe up here until it's all over. I'll leave you the broomstick to take back with you, though I don't quite see how the Wizard is going to be able to send you home."
Dorothy shivered at that statement, partly because the thought of living in Oz permanently scared her and partly because she was still soaked through.
"How terribly unhospitable of me not to notice you were drenched," exclaimed Elphaba, an attitude that seemed bizarrely unconnected to the current situation. She picked up a towel and wrapped it around the girl, who was bewildered by the abrupt subject change.
"Use that while I get the fireplace going."
Elphaba took one of the torches out of its wall bracket and used it to light a fire in the fireplace that Dorothy hadn't even seen. In a very matter of fact manner Elphaba had Dorothy undressed and wrapped in the towel and a blanket, seated in front of the fire, with her clothes draped over a chair to dry.
"Thank you."
"They won't need long to dry though they'll be wrinkled something terrible."
"Thank you," said Dorothy again, wishing she could find something more meaningful to say but feeling that the situation was so far beyond her experience that there wasn't any right thing to say.
The silence that followed as Elphaba returned to her chair in the corner and intent study of the window was an unexpectedly comfortable one. It was obvious, even to a young girl as inexperienced at life as Dorothy, that the Witch was in some great emotional pain but – unlike, for example, Boq – she did not seem to expect any sympathy or indeed attention of any kind from the girl. So they sat in silence for some unfathomable amount of time, probably no more than a few hours, until one of the Flying Monkeys returned to the room.
"Silver Man. Lion. Nearly here," the Monkey informed Elphaba anxiously, he had no notion of her plans and was concerned for the grief-stricken Witch's safety.
"Thank you, Chistery. Please take yourself and the others to the tower and stay there until the Silver Man leaves."
"Will do. Miss, be careful?"
"Of course," she assured him affectionately, assuring herself that it wasn't technically a lie – just a different interpretation. After the Monkey left she turned to Dorothy and spoke.
"I think it would be best if you stay in this room until someone comes to fetch you," she told the girl in a soft tone that nonetheless allowed no argument or compromise.
"Of course, Miss Elphaba," agreed the girl. "Are you going somewhere?"
"I have something I need to do, away from here. You probably won't see me again – I hope you won't think too poorly of me, despite the fact it is basically my fault you are here."
"I could never think badly of you, Miss Elphaba, if anything meeting you has given me a different perspective on…someone I know back home."
"A home you will see again," promised Elphaba. Struck by a sudden certainty she picked up her bag and took out Nessarose's shoes.
"Ruby slippers!" exclaimed Dorothy. "How very beautiful they are."
"Actually they are silver…" Elphaba corrected her in a puzzled tone. "You've seen them before, they were my sister's."
"They definitely look red now," replied Dorothy. "But I can see they are the same shoes in every other respect."
"Regardless of the colour, I would like you to have them."
"But they're all you have left of your sister!" protested Dorothy vehemently. "I couldn't possibly…"
"Of course you can," disagreed Elphaba firmly, forcing the girl to take the shoes. "I don't need a pair of shoes to remember Nessarose, I want you to have them – to remember both of the women who have been all but lost under the title of 'Wicked Witch'. Neither of us have been terribly good people but we're only human, like anyone else. You don't have to speak for us, just know yourself that it's true. Would you do that, for me?"
"Of course," agreed Dorothy and solemnly put on the shoes.
"They are more than a memento of your visit to Oz," Elphaba went on to say. "I've cast a powerful spell cast on them, if the Wizard fails to help you that spell might be enough to get you home."
"You have that much power?" asked Dorothy in awe, Kansas was a very long way from Oz after all.
"Yes," replied Elphaba simply.
Dorothy watched as Elphaba gave her stuffed animal one more squeeze then set it carefully on top of the bag Nessarose's shoes had been in.
"Where are you going?" She asked when she realised Elphaba was about to leave the room.
"To talk to Cub, the Lion, then to see Boq."
"He'll kill you!" gasped Dorothy.
"Don't worry, dear, I told you I can handle Boq and even if he does kill me…well, as they say, no one mourns the wicked," replied Elphaba in a resigned tone. She raised a hand to forestall further objections. "Get out of Oz as soon as you can, Dorothy Gale, and whatever you do don't let anyone take those shoes from you."
Seeing that it was useless to protest Dorothy bid the Witch a quiet farewell then curled up in front of the fire and dozed off, not realising that Elphaba had used a little magic on her to make her do so.
She woke up to the sound of the door opening and Elphaba telling the Lion, Cub, to watch over her. The girl leapt to her feet but by the time she got to the door Elphaba had disappeared. With the briefest greeting to the Lion she grabbed her dry clothes and pulled them on determined to find Elphaba and, hopefully, prevent Boq from hurting her (or the Witch from hurting Boq for that matter as she would undoubtedly be forced to if he attacked her).
Boq and Cub's climb over the mountains went much faster without the feebler human to slow them down and they reached the castle in good time, hopefully soon enough to save Dorothy from the Witch's revenge. As they travelled it was decided that once they reached the castle they would split up so as to cover the large building more quickly. At no point in the journey had Cub mentioned that he knew very well who the Witch was and had no intention of helping Boq harm her. In fact splitting up had been his idea and he had suggested it precisely because he hoped to find, and warn, Elphaba before Boq did.
Following this plan it ended up that Cub found Elphaba, shortly after she instructed Chistery to wait until Boq was in an empty room and lock the door behind him, and was promptly taken upstairs to watch over Dorothy while Elphaba vanished back into the depths of the castle.
Boq leaned against the wall furthest from the door of the room he had been locked in, his posture was deceptively casual, he didn't look like someone prepared to attack the next person who came through the door but he had his woodcutter's axe ready – picked up on his journey to the Emerald city in case one of the Witches came after him – and he knew he would not hesitate to use it on any of the Witch's Minions either.
He certainly was not prepared for the next creature to enter the room to be the Witch herself but he recovered quickly and, while she was locking the door behind her, flung the axe at her unguarded back. For a moment it seemed as though his mission would be completed now but at the last moment she spun around and caught the axe in her hands, sustaining no injury except a slash to one palm as evidenced by the thin line of blood that trickled down her arm.
"Not just yet, Boq," she said in a voice that sounded utterly unlike the Elphaba of Shiz. She placed the axe on a table, seeming unaware that it was well within his reach. "First I will speak."
"There is nothing you can say to change my mind about killing you, Witch!" snarled the Tinman.
"I didn't intend to try and talk you out of it," she replied, by which he assumed she meant she could see his resolve to make the attempt. "I only wanted to tell you that I cast this spell to save your life, if you would rather have died than live as you are then I am doubly sorry. Believe me or not as you choose."
"I don't believe a word you have ever said!" he shouted belatedly, it was as if some spell had held him frozen in place until she finished speaking.
"As you like," she reiterated the sentiment of her last words then slowly lifted her hands.
Boq leapt forward and grabbed the axe from the table in case she was preparing to cast some spell to finish her attempt at destroying him but she was only removing the pointed black hat she wore and placing it on the table.
"I suppose that means you have no questions to ask me? No, I thought not."
She had thought, as she made this plan, she might have some qualms when the moment came or that some buried survival instinct might inconveniently reveal itself and was surprised to find – as she shocked Boq by dropping to her knees in front of him – that she felt calm and relieved. After all it meant that the nightmare her life had become would shortly end and she of all people knew that peace lay beyond death.
"What are you doing?" demanded Boq as she knelt patiently before him with her tangled black hair swept away from her neck and her hands folded neatly on her knees.
"I surrender myself to your justice," she informed him quietly. It was not precisely what she was doing but she thought it would be an action he understood. "Do what you must."
Boq certainly did not believe that she was serous, he stared at her suspiciously for a moment and very quickly decided that if it was her plan to make him hesitate by acting as if she felt guilty he would foil her by taking immediate action.
"Second thoughts Master Boq?" she spoke with a hint of mockery in her voice that suggested to him that she thought he was too weak to act - he couldn't have known that it was not directed at him but at the implicit irony of the situation if it turned out to be true.
"Never!" he shouted as he tightened his grip on the axe and stepped forward.
"Good."
Boq didn't consciously register her whispered last word as he swung the axe blade towards her bare neck.
He halted the momentum of the weapon abruptly so that it only just broke the skin on the back of her neck. Such a quick death was more than she deserved and would not satisfy his desire for revenge! He'd been raised not to hit women, but she…she wasn't a woman, he justified the actions he was planning as his rage grew, she was an abomination, a despicable creature unloved by anyone and he would be doing the world a favour by punishing her wickedness!
He tossed the axe out of reach; it hit the table and knocked her hat to the floor. Elphaba lifted her head to see what the noise was, Boq noticed angrily that her eyes were just like her sister's, a moment later she felt a hand grab her hair and Boq's tin fist slam into her stomach completely knocking the wind out of her. The next blow was an open-handed slap that sliced her cheek open, made her ears ring, and her vision blur more than usual. She chuckled as she realised the tin man had a silver aura around him from the spell she'd cast, for some reason it struck her as enormously funny.
Naturally Boq assumed that she was mocking him, which made him angrier and took away the last of his doubts about his intention to hurt her as much as he could before he killed her. He channelled all his hatred for both sisters into raining blows on the most vulnerable parts of her body, his metal hands and feet doing considerable damage with each hit.
Elphaba embraced the physical pain as it momentarily dulled the emotional agony she was feeling. After awhile she drifted into unconsciousness and was no longer aware of the damage being done by the enraged Tinman.
Finally Boq became aware of a pounding on the door and the fact that the witch, who had whimpered and cried a little at the start, hadn't made a sound for quite some time – looking down at his handiwork and the blood splattered on his tin body he could see why she had been silent. He opened the door and Dorothy rushed in before he could stop her from seeing the unpleasant sight on the floor of the room.
"Oh no! Boq…is she…? Oh!"
"You shouldn't be here, Miss Dorothy," said the Tinman, gently leading her back out of the room. "It's all over now."
The girl was too stunned, too hysterical, to say anything as Boq picked up his axe and the witch's hat then led her out of the room and eventually down to the gates of the castle. He suggested they make camp for the night as far away as they could and leave the remains of the witch for her Animal-servants to do with what they liked. Numb with grief for a woman she hardly knew but was certain did not deserve to die the girl silently acquiesced.
By one of those ironic twists of fate that seemed to plague the Witch Boq had not succeeded in killing Elphaba though she was close enough to it that she would undoubtedly be dead before the next morning.
Chistery, once the intruders had left, barred the gates and went in search of the witch, following the scent of blood. A human would have taken one look at the damage done by the heartless tin man and presumed her dead but the Monkey was much more patient. He sat, he watched, he listened, then finally he saw the briefest hint of a pulse in her neck and heard the faintest breath of air pass her lungs. Even an Animal could tell that there was no hope but he could not leave her, she who had given him and his companions a new form and freedom from the Wizard, to die on cold stone. He called the others and together they carried her to her room and sat a silent vigil, along with the poor Lion, waiting and hoping for an impossible miracle.
AN: the author respectfully reminds her readers that if they lynch her now they'll never know what happens next (then the author runs away to hide from said readers in case they decide they don't care about this fact ^^)