Chapter 1- Thoughts
Glinda stood near the window and gazed outside. The flowers in her rose garden were blooming in their spectacular colors. Pink with green. Oh… pink goes good with green… Glinda smiled bitterly. Their colors.
"Oh, Elphie…" she whispered wistfully. She moved back to her desk. There was a lot of work to do for the spring festival the following week. It had been two years since the Wizard left Oz, and she was chosen to replace him as the ruler of the Emerald City. Two years ago, everything still looked so simple, and Elphaba was still alive… but now, Elphie was dead, murdered by the furious citizens of Oz who thought her to be wicked, and Glinda was left behind to collect the pieces of her broken heart. The city was a mess after the Wizard's departure and the death of his daughter, the Wicked Witch of the West. Glinda did her best putting everything together, but doing it alone was difficult, harder than she expected. She had never intended to run a city on her own, for the matter of fact. Sure, she had great expectations from herself, but running Oz was something she has never dreamt of doing. It was more like Elphaba.
No one mourns the Wicked.
How could they possibly believe Elphaba to be wicked? How could they kill her like that? If only she wouldn't have given Dorothy the ruby slippers, Nessa's ruby slippers… Maybe Elphie was still alive. Oh, if only…
Stop that!Glinda knew she wouldn't be able to do this for long, being so sentimental, but thinking about Elphie, about "what might have been if", was something she couldn't resist doing. The citizens of Oz might forget her, with time, and they seemed to be doing just that, actually. Glinda, on the other hand, couldn't. Sometimes she wished she could. Things would have been so much easier that way.
A knock on the door put an abrupt end to her reverie, making her raise her head sharply.
"Come in!" she called in her most authoritative voice, and in came a young maid, dressed in pink uniform. "Yes, Lalley, what is it?"
"There is a man here to see you, Madam."
"Oh?" Glinda was a little surprised. No appointment was due for her until the next day, if she remembered correctly.
"He wishes to speak with you, privately."
"Did he give you his name?"
Lalley shook her head. "No, Madam."
"Well, let him in," ordered Glinda. She didn't know who it might be, and she was surprised to see the Tin Man standing on the threshold a few seconds later. "Oh, it's you!"
"I hope I'm not disturbing you, Miss Glinda," his voice was kind, and so familiar… She thought she knew his voice when they first met, two years ago. He was one of Dorothy's companions on her journey to meet the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. She didn't have a chance to explore it, though, back then, when everything in Oz started to fall apart.
"You are not disturbing me at all," she said in her friendliest tone. "Please, have a seat. Lalley, please make sure no-one will disturbs us."
"Yes, Madam."
Glinda waited until her maid left the room; then she sat in front of her desk and looked at the Tin Man. "So, how are you?"
He hesitated, but then softly replied, "Honestly, it could have been better. This is why I'm here. I didn't want to bother you earlier… when the Wizard left, I assumed you'd need time to…" Mourn? "…Put the city together. My personal problems seemed unimportant. But now I need your help."
"How can I help you?"
"Well, I was hoping you'd be kind enough to… put me together," he said slowly, carefully looking at her.
She returned his look, utterly confused. "I beg your pardon?"
"This is not who I am," he said, hitting on his chest. It echoed as he did. "The Wicked Witch did this to me."
Glinda was completely taken aback by his statement, by its meaning. Elphie did that? She was a little shocked to witness the result of Elphaba's strange powers. She made a man become tin!What else could she have done if…
"I want to be human again," he continued, bringing her back to reality. "I just want to be myself. You might remember me from Shiz University. I was one of your classmates."
Realization suddenly hit her. She suddenly understood who he was. "Boq?" she whispered. She was really confused now. Why would Elphaba want to transform Boq into tin?
"It's nice to know you remember me, after all these years," he said. He was actually quite surprised she had remembered.
"I had no idea she… why didn't you say something when we met two years ago?"
"I've already told you. Two years ago the City was a mess. I didn't want to add my personal problems to your trouble supply… And we were all after her…" his voice trailed off.
Glinda flinched involuntarily when she detected the bitterness and anger he used to refer to Elphaba. She hoped he didn't notice. "Did Elphaba do this to you?" she asked, unable to believe it. She had always admired Elphie's sorcery abilities, but that… she had never realized how powerful they actually were.
Boq nodded. "She herself, and she was dead and gone before she had a chance to reverse it. This is why I'm asking for your help."
"Well, I'm not sure what I can…" stammered Glinda.
"Maybe you know a spell that might reverse this. Please, Miss Glinda, you are the only chance I got!" He looked desperate, as much as a man made of tin can look desperate.
Glinda sighed. "Unfortunately I can't promise you anything, Boq," she replied evenly. Even though she doubted she could do something to reverse Elphaba's spell, she couldn't tell him that. He was desperate enough as it was. She hesitated, and then said, "Come back again tomorrow, I'll see what can be done for you."
"Thank you. Thank you so much," Boq said gratefully, standing up. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow, then. Have a good day, Miss Glinda." He left just as fast as he came.
Glinda sat back in her chair and closed her eyes, her head reeling. She was never too good with spells, not as good as Elphaba. She wondered what caused Elphaba to cast the spell on Boq. He was a nice boy, back then in dear old Shiz. It's just that she was more interested in mysterious Fiyero. Unfortunately, he was interested in Elphaba… Only now Glinda could truly understand why. Now she finally approved his choice. They did deserve each other.
She chose a book from one of the shelves behind her. It was a spell book she got on her gradutation. Boq's words kept whirling in her head. I was hoping you'd be kind enough to… put me together… The Wicked Witch did this to me… Flipping though a book was something she hadn't done very often. Rarely did she use magic, for she wasn't that good anyway. She was very proud of her bubble, though. She considered it as her biggest success. She hoped she would find something in that book, or in some other book, by the next day.
Fiyero entered the deserted castle. It was quiet, too quiet actually. He wondered where Elphaba was, and started climbing up the stairs towards the attic, where she stayed every morning with her books and spells. He didn't like disturbing her there so he usually went out looking for food. It's been two years since they first got to the castle, and so far, their life was good, under the circumstances of course. Being secluded in the deserted castle was difficult from time to time, but mainly they were fairly happy. They had each other, and that was all that mattered.
"Fae?" he called, knocking gently on the door. He heard her murmur from the other side of the door. Then the murmuring stopped, and a faint "come in!" sounded from beyond the closed door. He slowly pushed the door open. Sunlight invaded the room through the open window. Elphaba sat near her desk in front of her books and wrote something, her back to him.
"What are you doing?"
She turned to look at him. "What time is it?" she asked, deliberately ignoring his question.
"Almost lunch-time."
"Really? Already?" she got up and they left the room together.
"Seriously, Fae, what are you doing up there every day?" asked Fiyero when they crawled into bed that night.
"Just practicing couple of spells. So I won't forget them," she answered. By the look on his face, she knew he wasn't convinced. She didn't need all these books anyway. She could cast any spell she wanted if she just tried hard enough. "Oh, all right, I'll tell you," she sighed. "I wanted it to be a surprise, but… I'm trying to find a spell… so I can reverse this," she touched the straw on the side of his face. "I didn't want to tell you until I was sure, so you wouldn't be disappointed… in case it wouldn't work."
"How are you going to do that?"
"I'm not sure yet. I'll have to go over my potion-book tomorrow."
"It will be great if you'll be able to find something," said Fiyero. He always suspected that this was what she was doing up there. He knew that it still bothered her, even though it happened two years ago.
"Maybe if I had the Grimmerie with me, I could…" she started, and suddenly it just hit her, and she wondered why she hadn't thought of that before.
Unfortunately, Fiyero realized what she did at the exact same time, and shook his head. "Oh no, you better not think what I think you think," he warned her.
"If I had the book I might find a way to cancel this spell!" she insisted. "And… I can go check on her," she added quietly.
Fiyero reached out his hand to caress her hair. "It's okay to miss her."
"I know."
"But it will be too dangerous to go back to the Emerald City. For both of you. And I don't want you to risk your life because of me."
"Well, I won't," her features softened in the dim candle-light. "I'll risk my life because of me."
He hesitated, then said, "Then I'm coming with you." She stared at him, confused. "I'll go with you… because if anything will happen to you when I'm not there… I don't know what I'll do if I lose you," he said quietly.
"Don't worry, Yero," said Elphaba and kissed his stuffed nose, "I don't have any intention to get lost."
