DISCLAIMER: in the first chapter...

CHAPTER 36: Evil lurks in shadows

"They were glowing, Madame, I swear!"

Loxin Spar never before had cause to enter Madame Morrible's gloomy domain and he now wished, desperately, to be allowed to leave. Shadows clung to all four walls and moved oddly, as if spirits lurked there where the light couldn't reach. And, if that wasn't creepy enough, there was the headmistress herself staring down at him with unblinking eyes.

"I can understand how traumatizing such an experience was to you, Master Spar." She was being condescending, he could tell, and clearly didn't believe him. Her skepticism was understandable, of course; he wouldn't be inclined to believe it either had he not seen it all with his own two eyes.

Still. Was the tone of voice necessary?

"With all due respect, Madame, I know what I saw and I saw them glowing!"

"Ah… And you believe, Master Spar, that the diamonds tattooed on Mrs Tiggular's wrists and Master Tiggular's back were magicked and managed to heal the deathly wounds you claimed they both had?"

She was baiting him, Loxin realized. Mocking his story.

"No, Madame. I know I saw Miss Elphaba's tattoos glowing and then both her and Master Fiyero breathed again. They weren't breathing before… I'm sure."

"Hum…" She offered him a look of superior disdain and Loxin wondered why she seemed so quick to dismiss his story, her being a magic specialist, or something of the sort.

Looking at her… It just reiterated his aversion to magic.

And anyway, Horrible Morrible wasn't offering any explanation more believable than his own.

Huff.

The plumb woman with pale sickly complexion and way too much make-up rose from her seat behind the large quoxwood desk. Her vast skirts made noise as they dragged across the floor towards the large window. Even though it stood open, the light coming in through the window pane was too quickly swallowed by the lurking shadows of the headmistress' office and Morrible's face remained half swallowed in darkness.

She looked ominous.

"Master Spar." Not for a second did she turn to look at him. "I am sure Miss Elphaba and her husband-" She seemed to spit the word and Loxin found himself frowning. "…appreciate your help and your concern. They are both resting and unharmed and need no more assistance. You, however, have finals to study for and should be concentrating on that."

"Yes, of course, Madame." He wasn't crazy enough to disagree. "Hum... Madame? What about th… the Governor?"

He had been more than surprised to learn that the haunted man he had found in a state of shock and claiming blame for the whole situation was none other than Elphaba's father, Governor of Munchkinland. And even in possession of such information, Loxin couldn't help but feel there was much to the story he did not know.

Shudder.

He was afraid to inquire further than the state of the man, however. And even that question was met with cold silence. Loxin knew then, that he had been summarily dismissed.

Hesitant to insist on the matter of family secrets and possible political cover ups, he decided it was none of his business and he was better off not knowing the hows and the whys.

Healthier and all that.

The moment the door clicked shut behind him, Loxin felt a hand on his arm that pulled him with surprising force towards one of the semi hidden corners created by the towering columns on both sides of the hallway. He saw nothing but a flurry of blond before his back met the cold wall, but it took him only a glance to identify his attacker.

Would this day never end…

"Mi… Miss Galinda?"

She looked mighty serious and quite scary, Loxin thought, something he hadn't really thought possible; she was so delicate.

"Master Loxin, please tell exactly what you saw. Now!" Who could refuse such a request. And besides, Loxin preferred to be interrogated by beautiful Galinda much more than by Horrible Morrible.

So he did, told her everything he could remember.

From the wind that knocked him forward, to the bare trees and the two unconscious figures lying in it. He even told her about the Governor of Munchkinland shaking in the corner and felt a chill run up his spine when his revelation was met with a frightened gasp from his captor. She left him no time to ask questions of his own, though.

What then?

So he detailed, in a voice filled with near disbelief and wonderment, how he had noticed the tattoos on Miss Elphaba's wrists begin to glow – they were really glowing, Miss Galinda, bright and beautifully - and how that light vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, leaving two breathing individuals, where there had been none.

Galinda seemed more than interested on the glowing diamonds part.

Could she know something?

But she seemed as surprised as he had been. "And then I went for help. And the first person I ran into was Horrible Morrible. She looked like she had already known something had happened." He paused. "Hey! Do you think she sensed the magic?"

Galinda spared the headmistress office a quick glance, curious herself. Her attention returned without delay to her compatriot. "I don't know. Master Spar. You said there was a knife on Fiyero's stomach, right?"

"Yes, and so much blood." He shuddered, still haunted by the sight.

"Was the knife still there after the glowing?"

"N… no. It was lying on the ground. When I returned with Morrible, there was still a lot of blood, but she didn't find any wounds…"

"Good." She was nodding, relieved. "That's wonderful, actually."

"Mi-miss Galinda?" He looked nervous as he straightened his crooked tie and the shirt the girl in question had been twisting between her fingers moments prior. "Was it Miss Elphaba, the magic, I mean?"

His question went unanswered.

The blonde hurricane was too busy leaving to pay him and his curiosity any mind.

-------

Parka Morrible stood in the space between two infirmary beds, her eyes locked onto the blue diamond Elphaba wore on her left wrist. Almost absent mindedly, she traced the colored skin of the girl's tattoo. She wondered if the green Munchkinlander knew of the history behind the markings and the power they represented.

Probably not.

Who would've told her, anyway. It wasn't the sort of thing one could find so easily on books and it's not like her air headed husband would've have been interested in myths and fairy tales.

Morrible shook her head and sighed.

She had known, of course, that Elphaba possessed more power than her wildest dreamed had dared conjure. Her raw display of magic that first day had been magnificent. And hers for the taking; Morrible had made sure of that.

All lost though…

Another sigh.

Disgusted, Morrible dropped the arm she had been gripping and cast a disdain filled gaze at Fiyero, who occupied the other bed and was the source of her anger. If not for him and those stupid diamonds, she would have it all, the dream of a lifetime within her grasp and the Wizard under her command. Her plans had been trashed, unfortunately, and the future she had strived for, forever dissolved.

All because of a long forgotten legend and a tattoo.

There was no magic strong enough to break the bond the markings represented – others had tried, in vain -, not even Elphaba's. And that bond made Elphaba invulnerable to any kind of magical interference. To make it all worse, her new union to the powerful Vinkan royalty blocked any of her schemes for political manipulation, had her powers of persuasion failed.

Dead end.

With her chin raised high and her long skirts dragging the floor behind her, Morrible left.

It was all such a shame.

And a complete waste.

Or maybe not. There was still the matter of the Governor of Munchkinland.

Hum…

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The room was quiet. And dark.

Frex vaguely remembered the young boy at the clearing. There had been others, too. He was sure someone had escorted him to his room at the Guest's Quarters within Shiz University's ivy covered walls. Some words may have been spoken. But all was quiet now.

And dark.

The world seemed to exist in the slivers of light between the shadows. A world that had seen him loose his sanity and his control. There had been blood and blue light and he couldn't recall what else. If anything else had come after the shadows had claimed him. For months, he had fought off they hold, firm in his belief that they could not overcome him.

All for nothing.

The shadows had him, now. And he couldn't move, couldn't speak. Didn't really want to. Not after…

A crime had been committed, he knew. Lives had been lost. And, as a man who had lived his whole life within the lines created by law and order, Frexspar Thropp believed there should also be punishment. It was not he, however, who should decide. One shouldn't be defendant, judge, jury and executioner, but as previously state, Frex wasn't sane anymore.

The knife he had used to plunge into his son-in-law's gut was one of a pair he always carried with him. For protection, he would have claimed, had anyone known of this habit. The handle was heavy on his hand and the blade shone like a beacon among the darkness.

A coward's move, that's what it was.

So much simpler to bail out, after all, then to face the crowd. And he decided, at that moment, that he couldn't face it, the consequences of his insanity. Frex didn't want to have to step out of the shadows and see what he had become in the bright light of day. It would have been too much.

Before he used it, the knife, Frex allowed himself a tear for the daughter he had lost and a prayer to the daughter he left behind to pick up the pieces and to rule in his stead. Then, without an ounce of hesitation, he slit his own throat and bled to death in the quiet of his room.

His plight had started with a glimpse into insanity and had spread to the evil shadows hid, him only one of its tools. Death may have allowed him respite from insanity, but evil still clung, like darkness, to the corners.

It wasn't quite over yet.

A/N: I know you guys want more Elphaba and Fiyero and it seems cruel that I'm keeping them from appearing directly in this story, but patience will pay off, promise. Don't forget to let me know what you thought!