Author's Note: very sorry for the wait! school has been a compelete hell and im taking on so many other personal projects that require so much time, i find myself with no time for fanfiction, but im trying harder, really i am, and please people REVIEW! lol i have to have some devoted reviewers out there!! come on!!! i know its been over a month but still, please, people READ AND REVIEW!!! expect an update within the next two weeks, I think that's ample time for me to write on...

so here it is!

Chapter 13

"It can't be! Where- How?!" her head was spinning, it just couldn't be possible. She rarely let her words move faster than she could think, but right now, she just wasn't thinking.

Nastoya gave her an odd look, tilting her gigantic head, but said nothing of it and answered her question. "The day you arrived, I traveled to Kiamo Ko myself to see what happened. What I saw puzzled me to no end, but I decided to bring back anything I thought you might need," she gestured with her trunk at the two items, "these and this." She revealed an old thick book with a worn cover and purple pages of silver ink; the Grimmerie.

"That book! I never want to see that book again! And that!" Elphaba spat, pointing, to what she had dropped, "I don't need, I don't even want!" As she looked at it again a wave of wariness swept over her; something wasn't right. Her thoughts moved back to the day she had woken up. Her brain processing everything that she had seen in Kiamo Ko...everything she had seen, and not seen. Wait...that couldn't be right. Instead of jumping to rash accusations she calmed herself and tried to sort it out logically. "Where... where did you find it?" She had spoken softly, she still was processing everything. Double-checking, trying to find away that she could be... wrong.

"It was lain across a pile of black, damp clothes...underneath your hat." Worry creased the gray skin of her forehead. Nastoya knew something was wrong. It wasn't as if Elphaba was trying to hide it. A perfect stranger could tell something was wrong with one look at her.

But as Nastoya's words left her mouth Elphaba's heart skipped a beat, and she could feel her face paling. "A-are you sure?" she stuttered, which was what she thought concerned Nastoya the most. Elphaba never stuttered.

Nastoya nodded. "Is something wrong?" the Elephant Princess asked.

Elphaba didn't hear her words, her pulse was racing and all she could hear was her heart beating in her ears. Somebody had visited Kiamo Ko after she had left. Somebody who had moved items around and left something that hadn't been there when Elphaba was. Somebody who knew Elphaba better than Elphaba knew herself. And somebody who could make a broomstick fly, for Elphaba was staring at what couldn't be, but had to be...her broom.

How the broom survived it's burning was beyond her. She had seen the entire thing go in flames, straw, wood and all. But there it was, charred black, but still in tact, even the straw.

"Its not real! It can't be, I killed it!" she whispered, but loud enough for Nastoya to hear.

Nastoya frowned, "I don't know what happened to you at Kiamo Ko, and I'm not sure I want to, but it is real, and you need it; for you won't be coming with us to the South, you will be going elsewhere."

"What-" but Nastoya cut her off.

"You must go to the Emerald City and finish what you started."

Elphaba gave her a questioning look and said, "I don't know what you m-"

But Nastoya wouldn't have any of it and stepped forward, causing the ground to shake, "Don't act like you don't know what I mean. You very well know what I'm talking about. You must make your peace."

"But I-"

"No!" Nastoya interrupted once again, but her voice softened considerably, "You will listen to me Sister of the Dragon." Elphaba had forgotten she had ever been called that, and suddenly, Nastoya reverted back to her human form. And immediately, Elphaba saw the difference in her, something she hadn't noticed before. Nastoya was weak. "I am dying." Elphaba's mouthed moved to speak, but no words came out. Nastoya brought her hands in front of her face, a face wrinkled with age, a face worn with wisdom, a face dying with grace. "I have passed my powers on to another...they were all that have kept me alive, and they have served me long enough. I have seen what I was meant to do, and that was you." She paused, "Listen to me Elphaba, go to the Emerald City and set right what you have done wrong. You must do it for the sake of Oz."

Elphaba shook her head; she couldn't try to save Oz when Oz had tried killed her. She didn't give a damn about what happened to Oz! She'd let them all die if it was up to her. But it wasn't. Something made her forget that. "They are dead! The wizard killed them all!"

"No he did not. You must trust me, I have seen it," she stated firmly, pointing to the mirror lying a few feet away from both of them. Nastoya stood up and grabbed the blackened broom. "Go, go now my sister."

And with that Elphaba left, taking the broom, mirror, and Grimmerie with her.

It had taken an hour to pack what little things she needed and to change into her old, more comfortable clothes. She had tied everything to her broomstick and left without a word to Nastoya; she couldn't say goodbye to her after what she was making her do. Damn her! She wouldn't say goodbye.

But she had said a few parting words with Temeai, who had caught her before she had time to leave without a trace. Not wanting anyone to know she was leaving, she had told him to tell nobody. She knew he wouldn't if it was how she wished it. But it hadn't seemed like a goodbye. Something gave her the itching feeling that they would meet again, and that very much perturbed her.

Bringing her thoughts away from the people who she refused to care about she decided it was time to leave. Bringing the broom beneath her she moved to take to the sky, but something wouldn't let her leave just yet. She glanced towards Kiamo Ko and sighed. "Goodbye." She whispered, but to whom she did not know.

And with that she took flight, a dark speck against a sky glowing bright with the first rays of morning. They were the same rays that crept through a solemn open window with a burnt out candle in it; the window of Glinda the Good.