Two days after finding the fountain, Fiyero got around to meeting Avaric.

"There is a place on Lower Mennipen that I think you would like," Avaric was saying.

Fiyero looked up. He hadn't really been paying attention. "What?"

"It's not as nice as the Philosophy Club was but hey, if we wave our titles at the door, we should be able to get in for free."

"I'm not sure-"

But Avaric cut him off, "I mean, what is the point of having these silly titles if we don't use them to the fullest?"

"I'm sure I don't know."

"That was some night, yes? I've been back there a dozen or so times since, but that first one, well, that was almost magical." He winced. "Don't mind me, it's the ale talking. But really, it just about blew my mind. Among other things..."

"You went back!"

"You didn't."

"Once was enough, believe me. You know someone might have told me what I was getting into."

"Well, aren't we superior. Been taking lessons from Nellerose, have we?"

"Nessarose."

"Whatever. You should come. It might help you loosen up a little. Hire a girl or two."

"I'm going to be busy."

"And how would you know that? We haven't set a date."

"I'll make sure I'm busy."

Avaric rolled his eyes. "Point taken."

They finished the rest of the meal in silence while a measure of tension built around them.

They climbed out into the fading light several hours later, after Elphaba was beyond sure that they were safe.

Now she began to wonder if it had actually been soldiers in hot pursuit, or if it was just the product of Fiyero's damaged psyche? There was no questioning that he had been terrified in that cramped tunnel, and what could have merely been an uncomfortable situation had become a living nightmare.

Thinking more clearly, she had been half-panicked herself, she surmised it may have been a group of travellers passing through the area. It was too soon, even if they had been being watched. And what were the odds that it was the same group that had tormented him for years? Even less likely.

But it had been real enough for him.

He stood still, by the abandoned cave, arms wrapped around himself.

She wondered, with great trepidation, what the experience had done to him. Was he to go pitching back to the very beginning all over again?

His arms dropped loosely to his sides as she came closer. She watched him taking several deep breaths, and shake it off all at once. She grabbed his hand, and ran hers up and down his arm. He started a little, but in realizing it was her, relaxed at once.

"Change of plans, Mo deas. They'll be looking for us well abroad. We'll backtrack through the Vinkus for a few days. Throw them off a little more."

She arrayed herself with a heavy veil and, leaving him sitting by a bitterbynde oak, approached a distant farmhold. She was greeted by a middle aged couple and in attempting the guise of an itinerant maunt passing from one cathedral to another, she pressed the case for hospitality. For old times sake, she introduced herself as Sister Saint Aelphaba.

"But I'm not traveling alone. There is a man, a patient of mine, who I am accompanying to the Cloister of Saint Glinda." She winced in anticipation and hoped they didn't see it beneath the veil. "He's been through a terrible trial and tends toward fragility," she said, touching the side of her head in a meaningful gesture. She hated it, for all the truth of the matter. But when the other woman looked concerned, she went on, hoping to calm their fears. "He is harmless, I assure you. It's just that we would be better placed perhaps in your hayloft?"

She bartered a meal and a few supplies off their hosts, before going to fetch him.

He went through everything with a sort of mindless commitment. She watched and felt her heart growing heavy. She lit the oil lamp and sat up late into the night, keeping her hand on his shoulder.

Much later he finally spoke. "I once found a fountain in Emerald City. At first I thought it was a nymph, but it turned out to be just a beautiful woman." He corrected himself, "Not just a beautiful woman. She was every woman, everything that could possibly be attractive in one. I mean, everything, the craftmanship, the quality of stone, the artist's vision, and of course, aesthetically pleasing. She was proud, fierce, regal, elegant."

"Voluptous, debauch, inebriated..."

He ignored her. "Fae, you had to see it...She was shy and alluring. Completely intoxicating. But she was strong, you could tell she was just tough as nails, but soft at the same time. Whoever designed her cut her from jade." He paused before adding, "She reminded me of you."

She scoffed. "Well of course, she was green."

"That's not what I meant Fae."

It was quiet for a few minutes. "Are you okay, Fiyero?"

More silence and finally, "Yeah. I think so."