"Fiyero!" Disheveled and terrified, Glinda knocked on the door to Fiyero's suite. Sweet Oz, please, she begged silently. Please, let them be here. "Are you there? Fiyero, please…"

The door opened to reveal Fiyero. His face was pale and tense, and there was something somber and heavy clouding his eyes, something that stopped the tight knot in Glinda's stomach from fully loosening up.

"She's here too," he said before the question was even asked, and moved to let Glinda in. She stepped into the room, looking around anxiously, and saw Elphaba lying on the couch, covered with a blanket, breathing with visible difficulty.

"Elphie!" Glinda rushed to her best friend's side. "What did you do?"

"Why are you assuming I did something?" Elphaba said weakly, yet still managing to sound a little offended, and Glinda felt slightly relieved at the characteristically snarky reply.

"She was stabbed," Fiyero said flatly from behind, and Elphaba gasped in mock fear.

"Sweet Oz, I was stabbed?" She managed a crooked smile. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

"That's not funny, Fae. You need help."

Elphaba, under her breath, mumbled something that sounded like it was pretty funny; but when Glinda looked around her shoulder at Fiyero, she noticed that he was not amused in the slightest. In fact, he looked more worried than she had ever witnessed him being, and that in itself was disconcerting.

"Fiyero," she addressed him gently. "Should I go get Shilah? He'll be able to help, I'm sure."

Fiyero shook his head.

"I'll go," he said to Glinda's surprise. "You stay here and make sure that this one doesn't try to get up."

He rushed out of the room and Glinda, once again, turned to look at her friend.

"Alright, Elphie," she demanded. "Now, tell me – what in Oz's name happened?"

Elphaba shrugged.

"I saw those thugs try to grab that Tiger," she said. "When tried to help him, one of the guys pulled a knife on me, called me a dirty freak, and very kindly stabbed me."

Glinda pressed her hand to her mouth and shook her head; her eyes starting to well up.

"Oh, that's horrible…"

"Nah," Elphaba said dismissively, "the only horrible thing is that I didn't even get to keep the knife."

She cracked a smile, but – seeing that Glinda was not in the mood for jokes – sighed and continued.

"Anyway, I was lucky. I managed to get to Fiyero and he got me out of there."

"Elphie, I'm so sorry…" Glinda whispered. "The event was my idea, I should have thought about what might happen…"

"Glinda," Elphaba interrupted, reaching for her best friend's hand and squeezing it gently. "It's not your fault. You're not responsible for bad people twisting your good deeds. You hear me? Now – tell me what brilliant way you've found to save the situation."

Glinda mustered a teary smile and began explaining how she'd managed to get rid of the intruders, and she was scarcely done when the door swung open again to reveal Fiyero and Shilah. The latter, who came in with a large rucksack on his back, hurried to kneel down next to Elphaba.

"Shilah! What in Oz happened to you?" she asked weakly, pointing to his black eye, but he ignored her, focusing instead on examining her injury; acutely aware of Fiyero and Glinda watching him carefully.

"Well?" Fiyero asked anxiously after about thirty seconds of silence. "Can you help her?"

Initially, Shilah didn't answer, focusing on Elphaba; but eventually nodded his head.

"You've done a really good job dressing the wound, so luckily she didn't lose much blood. She'll need a few potions to make sure everything heals properly, but I think I have them all here." He started rummaging through his backpack, while at the same time addressing Elphaba. "You will need a lot of rest, though, so don't try anything funny. Oh, and, until you're fully healed – no. magic."

"Why not?" Elphaba asked, sounding curious despite the pain, and Shilah sighed.

"Imagine you have a bookshelf with a large crack through the middle, and then you stack a pile of heavy books onto it. The more pressure, the bigger the risk of it breaking. Same thing with using magic when your body is weakened by, say, a stab wound. It might result in a serious injury, and magic-bound injuries are no easy thing to treat. Sometimes they require complex mixtures or rare ingredients, and sometimes they are entirely untreatable. So avoid them at all costs."

He looked Elphaba sternly, then reached into his rucksack and took out a small wooden chest, full of dozens of little glass vials filled with liquid of different colors. He picked out one of them and handed it to Fiyero.

"This one is applied directly onto the skin. Pour three drops into a cup of warm water and clean the wound twice a day for the next five days. Got it?"

Fiyero nodded wordlessly, while Shilah picked out another little bottle and put it on the table before Elphaba.

"Now, this one. Add a teaspoon into a cup of ice-cold water, drink when it's room-temperature, first thing in the morning, also for five days. And finally…" He looked through his wooden chest once again and took out a vial full of sparkling, amber-colored liquid. "This one has a strong painkilling effect. I will give you some now, and it would be best if you don't have to use it again. However, if you're still very much in pain within the next few days, you may take one more portion. No more than four drops, though, or you'll start bouncing off the walls, and not in a good way. Got it? Now, sit up please."

Fiyero helped Elphaba sit up as Shilah carefully measured out four drops of the potion onto a tiny silver spoon.

"There we go," he said, closing the bottle carefully. "This should help ease the pain and get you back on your feet. You might experience some side effects—"

Fiyero's head shot up.

"Side effects?" he repeated. "Shouldn't you have mentioned that before?!"

"It's nothing major," Shilah assured him. "Like I said, the potion contains a very strong painkiller, which makes it effective, but also very confusing for the body. The experience may be similar to that of being heavily intoxicated – one can't always control what they say or do. Elphaba might be a little unpredictable, she's likely to experience mild hallucinations and blurt out things she would normally keep to herself. So you should probably keep an eye on her in the coming days – although I don't think that's going to be a problem."

A hint of a smile appeared on his face as he glanced at Fiyero, who was watching Elphaba like a hawk. Glinda smiled, too, and followed Shilah to the door, where he stopped with his hand on the doorknob and turned around again.

"I'm sorry I won't be able to help more," he said and, having thought for a moment, pushed the little wooden chest into Glinda's hands. "Here, this is my potion kit; they are all labeled and there's a little notebook in there that explains what they do."

"Shilah, I can't take this—"

"Yes, you can, because I'm offering," he said firmly. "I will handle myself either way. Just, please, for Oz's sake, be careful with those. Now, I don't know if I'll see you again, but—"

"Wait, what do you mean you don't know…?" Glinda asked warily, and her face fell when the realization hit her. "Oh. You're… leaving. Like, really leaving."

Shilah smiled sadly.

"I'm afraid so. You've seen what it's like here for… people like me." He gestured to his swollen eye.

"Where will you go?"

"I don't know. Somewhere where I can do some good, I hope." He sighed. "Say goodbye to Elphaba for me. It's been a pleasure teaching you both."

"Ah, I was never any good," Glinda said with a half-hearted smile. To her surprise, Shilah reacted with a frown, but didn't say anything, only shook his head.

"Anyway, I'm really sorry I won't be your teacher anymore."

Glinda looked up at him for a moment, processing his words, then nodded, more to herself than to him.

"I'm sorry too," she said, and then, out of the blue, climbed onto her tiptoes and – so swiftly that neither of them could be sure it actually happened – kissed his cheek, right next to the corner of his mouth. "But I'm also not."

He watched her in confusion for a moment, his dark eyes suddenly full of questions which he at that moment had no time to seek answers to.

"Thank you, Shilah. For everything."

He said nothing; just nodded with a vague little smile and walked away, slouching slightly, with his hands stuck in the pockets of his trench coat. Glinda watched after him, then went back into the room and closed the door.

"Fiyero…" she asked, and something in her voice made him look up at her. "I know I shouldn't ask this, but could I… could I maybe stay here tonight? I just…" She sighed. "I don't want to be alone."