A/N: Sorry this has taken so long. i have been really busy with school. I haven't given up on this story or anything, but the updates might take a little longer then before.

Part 2 chapter 11

Liir groaned as he sat up and found Candle helping him to sit up. He caught her eyes and both of them blushed and looked away and she scuttled back a few paces. At that point the young man looked over to where Dr. Akota had run to the side of Rhonaraye, who had apparently crumpled to the ground and was not moving.

"Stupid…very stupid." Akota muttered under his breath as he looked her over, beckoning for Candle to come so that she could check the Mage's pulse. The Bear lifted the young woman's shoulders off the ground and she seemed to wake up a little and started to sit up a little on her own.

"Stupid!" Dr. Akota repeated, reprimanding her. He turned to Liir, "How much did she do, and what?" he demanded. Liir described all that had happened, from the thing with the plants, to the duel, to the transportation and run-in with Morrible and the Tin Man. Dr. Akota shook his head.

"You resorted to borrowing power from the Land?" he asked her quietly.

"She must have been desperate. You know how she hates doing that." Candle muttered

"I happen to be right here." Rhonaraye told them testily as her hand went to her temple, "My head aches if you must know, but I can still hear you!"

"You'll get little sympathy here." The Bear informed her as they assisted her to her feet, for while she refused to be carried, she apparently couldn't walk unassisted at the moment, "I have lost count of the amount of times I have warned you about this, it seems that not even experiencing it has made you see sense."

"Please don't start this argument. It isn't fair when I can't fight back, and no using my own words against me. I'm aware that life isn't fair." She grumbled at him as they disappeared through a doorway, leaving Liir and Candle and Lassie outside. There was a tense minute or so of awkward silence before she finally said

"I suppose that in a way, this kind of thing is good for her."

"How so?" Liir asked. The Quadling shrugged

"It forces her to rest. She pushes to hard and too far. Every few months she simply crashes. I wish she wouldn't do that to herself."

"Why does she?" he asked, mainly to himself. However, to his surprise her found Candle looking at him with a strange, penetrating stare, as if she was considering telling him something.

"Follow me." She said a little quaveringly, and did stay very close to Lassie and apart from him, but led him down through the chambers and hallways of the headquarters and then into a series of dark tunnels lit by eerie clusters of crystals overhead that he had never seen before. They finally stopped at a strange door with some of the same symbols on it that seemed to be oddly tattooed on his sister's skin. Candle exchanged looks with Lassie and then traced certain symbols and tapped others in a pattern that he didn't think he could follow if he tried. It seemed to be some sort of code though, for the doors opened and she walked through them. He followed her hesitantly.

There was a strange contrast in behavior as the group walked through the dark halls. Liir felt closed in, trapped, and unwelcome. He felt like some kind of intruder, whereas Candle seemed to loosen up a bit as though she felt safe, welcomed and more confident-like someone surrounded by friends who would protect and always be there for her. The collie was much the same as she normally was- cheerful and friendly.

The hallways were dimly lit by the same kind of crystals that lit the tunnels leading up to that point. There were doors and arches hidden in shadow, all with different symbols on them.

"Where are we?" Liir asked her with a shaky voice.

"The Resting place of the Great Mages of our Past. Here, come and see this." She told him and led him in through a random archway. Behind it was a circular chamber, neither overly large nor small, though it still made their steps echo a little. In the middle of the room was some kind of strangely shaped altar with a light shining on it. As they neared he realized that the altar was a normal shape, there was merely a body on it. He froze upon that realization, fearing to go another step further. Candle noticed this.

"It's alright." She said. The collie trotted back over to him to reassure her newest charge (for that was certainly how she seemed to view both the humans and Animals) and he walked right up to the raised slab of stone.

Upon it lay a middle-aged man. He looked to be of Gilikinese descent with his sharply arched brows, delicate hands (which were clasped over his stomach) and button-like nose. He also looked as though if Liir poked him he'd jerk awake. There was no smell of decay, nor in fact any sign of it and his cheeks looked as though the flush of life had only just departed. He could have died only minutes ago.

"Who is he?" Liir inquired

"He was 'Eldar the Magnificent.' You might have heard of him." Candle said. The young man gaped

"What? That's impossible! He's a hero, but an old one! Eldar the Magnificent lived-"

"More then 180 years ago." Candle finished "He died saving a town as well as a small army of traveling merchants from an active Volcano. He stopped the lava and molded it into the cavern that still stands and is used today as a shelter for those caught out in a storm or at night, but died himself of the heat and smoke. He is young in comparison to many here."

"He looked like he could have died only minutes ago!"

'There are more famous names here." She said, "Come on, I'll show you some more of them."

And she did. There were many in the grand tomb, though in terms of the eras in which they had lived, they were well spaced out, barely any even in the same century, and fewer in the same generation. They all looked as though they could have died merely minutes before, not centuries or (in some cases) millennium. However, despite what Candle had said, he couldn't help but notice that Eldar, who appeared to be in his early fifties at the latest, was also the one who looked oldest. He might have been imagining the amount of young people amongst the frighteningly life-like corpses, for they did seem to come in all ages, some of them looking as though they had died in an ancient age, but for every one of those there were three that couldn't have been older then 30. Also, a lot of them were women. The majority had glorious stories of Great Deeds and selfless acts attached, but none of them seemed to have died of natural causes, apart from the ones whose last act of extreme heroism had ended in tragedy.

"You see," said Candle, as they entered the largest, most opulent of the chambers at the heart of the mass tomb, (was it just him, or had she said more in the first few minutes then she had since the moment he had met him?) "Rhonaraye and Jack found this place shortly after they ran away, I wasn't there, but they told me about it. It was here that the First mage, Lurline," Liir made to enquire about that, but Lassie barked to shut him up, "told her about how this all worked. Not everyone with Mage ability is a Great Mage; mostly they are of minor skill and power and are often mistaken for either sages or a Witch/Wizard. It isn't even all about skill- since there are some who have possessed incredible and terrible power that you will not find here- it's about the person themselves. I doubt that Archimedes will ever come here because, you see, they" she motioned to their surroundings and the bodies, "Are sort of…waiting I think. They can come back if needed. The Elements guard and preserve them as they each Guarded and preserved it during their lives."

"So many of them look so young." Liir breathed.

"Careful, you run the risk of sounding old in your twenties." Candle snorted. At the sound of this the young man whipped around, looking at her with open-mouthed amazement. She seemed to realize what he was so shocked about and instantly retreated into herself again.

"No, wait!" he exclaimed desperately, "It's good to see you more confident and happy-just…well unusual, though I wish it were more usual…I mean…okay I don't know what I mean…" he trailed off, feeling foolish and giddy. She smiled slightly at him

"I'm safe here." She replied quietly after a minute or two. "It's their power." She motioned towards the dead mages. At his questioning look she continued, "I think they allow me to be…well, who I would be if I wasn't so- that is if they hadn't…never mind." She trailed off awkwardly, leading to a very uncomfortable silence as she led him to the largest altar, upon which a figure lay there with her hands crossed over her chest like a Pharaoh. This one was much different to the others. She too, was far from a decaying body, but her form seemed to be more like stone or something, at least, there was a certain hardness to it. It took him a moment to realize that somehow, she had actually developed a kind of protective shell of stone around herself. The platform on which she lay also had an even more earthly and natural feel to it as plants grew around and into it gracefully so that the elaborate carvings were unreadable.

He didn't have to be told that this was Lurline. Had she been the original mage? Was that the basis for the stories about her creating Oz? A thousand questions entered his mind, none of them answerable any time soon.

But maybe one of them was. He would ask at the first opportunity. In the meantime, they were leaving. He didn't complain. The place was creepy.

Liir went to visit his sister two days later. To his surprise and indignation he found her not recuperating in the room Dr. Akota had confined her to, but in her workroom reading her Grimmerie.

"Why aren't you in bed?" he demanded

"Why do you never take out your grimmerie?" she countered, "I'm fine. I slept for something like 23 hours straight and I'm drinking that revolting concoction to regain my strengths. I'm being a good girl." she informed with an overly sweet tone and smile. "Besides, I'm waiting for something."

"What?" he asked, plunking his butt down into a chair and putting his feet up on the desk.

"A message. Get your feet off my desk." She replied as she translated something from the pages of her spell book. He got out of his chair and moved to stand behind her shoulder. She was apparently translating something from her Grimmerie again. Judging by the neat, organized piles and folders of paper she had on her desk, she did this often. Frowning slightly, he picked up a sheet of paper.

"What's Armageddon?" he asked her. She snatched the paper from his hand and stowed it away somewhere in the desk as she stood.

"Nothing you need to worry about." She told him. How the heck had she become so much like his mother after only having met the Green woman for a few minutes? (She had told him about her encounter with Elphaba) This worried him.

"What are you planning?" he demanded

"I'm not planning anything at the moment. There is nothing wrong with looking into my abilities." She informed him tersely. This was freaky. His sister was their mother's clone-with red hair and non-verdigris skin! The tense moment was broken by a small Winged Monkey flying in through the window and flapping onto the desk.

"Is that…" he trailed off

"She's one of Chistery's descendants, yes." said Raye as she gave the Monkey a hug.

"Yes I am!" said the Animal, "I am very glad to see you again Liir, Mistress Elphaba will be so happy to know that you are safe. I will be sure to tell her." Said the little one very eloquently.

"How long have you been able to speak like this?" he demanded

"Oh, a few years now. I learned young. Mistress Elphaba says that I am the best student in language she has had from my people, but I am not supposed to tell any of them that. It would hurt their feelings." She amended almost as an afterthought.

"And mother knows where you are going?" he asked, still incredulous at his ignorance

"Yes. She has been a double agent for more then 2 years now." The red-head informed him as she took the letter the Monkey handed to her and opened it whilst Liir conversed with his little friend for information on people back home at the Emerald city. After only a few lines the young woman sank into her chair again with a groan of exhaustion.

"What is it?" her brother demanded. She shook her head and thrust the page into his hand. It was in his mother's writing but was very brief. He read it aloud

Attempt on G'linda failed. Warning was appreciated and useful, we send our thanks.

"What's so bad about this?" he asked.

"Keep reading." She told him, rising from her chair and walking to the window.

Fights broken out at border. M and Tin at the center of propaganda. NO surprise there.

"War Declared." Raye finished for him "The fools!" She yelled, slamming her fists down onto the windowsill. The wind outside picked up, the thorns on the rose at the table sharpened and the glass of the other window shattered. She then whipped around, snatched the paper out of his hands and stalked out of the room

"Wait!" cried Liir, chasing after her "Where are you going?"
"To the council chamber. This is the worst possible outcome! Oh, why didn't I kill Archimedes when I had the chance?" she shouted throwing up her arms in the air angrily. A large crack appeared in the stone walls in her fury.

This, was not good.