Do You Believe in Magic
Do you believe in magic,
In a young girl's heart?
It was her birthday today. Slightly different from normal days, but not really unique from the other twelve she'd had previously. Except she was older of course.
She'd woken up to find a new dress and hair tie draped over the chair of her desk. Just like always. Though she'd probably never wear this dress. It was too fancy and she disliked putting herself on display any more than absolutely necessary. She preferred clothes that helped her melt into the background.
The hair tie was nice though, it was a simple black thing, but one could never have enough hair ties.
Ms. Mildred, the cook, made cake for breakfast that morning too. Lemon pound cake., her favorite. Frex and Nessa loathed the stuff, so she only made it on her birthday, and they would eat some together before her family came in for breakfast.
Other than that the whole day went on as normal. She had her lessons and Nessa had hers. Nessa had left with Nanny to go shopping and Ms. Mildred was now in the kitchen starting on dinner already. She hadn't a clue as to where Frex was. She guessed he would still be in his office working, though he'd probably come down in time for dinner.
She didn't know what to do with herself. Nanny normally didn't take Nessa out with her, so she was usually taking care of her sister at this time. And whenever she wasn't entertaining her she was reading. She didn't feel like reading at the moment though, for once. She'd finished her book last night and was ready for a break before she started another.
She walked through the halls of the house. They were empty, except for the maid she passed once. After a while she found herself out in the gardens, by the fishpond she rarely ventured close to. She liked fish about as much as she liked water, if only because they seemed to go hand in hand. But for now she found herself utterly fascinated by the movement of the little creatures. She supposed she was bored enough to watch them, having nothing better to do at the moment.
At times she wondered about her irrational fear of water. She'd never been afraid of anything else and logically saw no point in being terrified of such a thing. She did just fine having showers, though she grown accustomed to that. But the idea of filling a tub full of water and bubbles was appalling. She hated to go out in the rain, but she loved to watch it and sometimes thought, when she saw Nessa and the other children having so much fun in the puddles, that it might be fun to join them. But she'd always get to the door and stop, then return to her room or the library to read.
She reached out a hand tentatively towards the pond, thinking maybe she could summon up the courage to reach in and touch a fish. But her hand froze over the liquid and hovered there for a long minute. She bit her lip, steeling herself to go through with it and willing herself to try. Just a little more.
"Elphaba what in Oz are you doing?" Frex's voice stopped her and she jerked back, nearly toppling over from the power of the movement.
"Just looking at the fish," she answered quickly, not wanting to admit she'd been trying, and failing, to overcome a fear.
"Well stand back a little, last time you did that you fell in." Frex said, but didn't really pay much attention to his own words.
I've fallen in before? She wondered at that, she couldn't remember falling in. But that would go a long way towards explaining some things if she had. She nearly asked him to explain but he continued before she got the chance.
"Come inside, I've got something to show you."
She had to wonder at that too. Frex normally avoided spending much time with her. Maybe he thought she was a constant reminder of the perfect child he didn't have or something, he just wasn't normally a very hands-on father with her. Birthday or no.
She followed him back into the house and up the stairs to the section generally reserved for state business. This was where his office was located and the council room and audience chamber, where meetings and assembly's were held. She'd only been allowed in here twice, and once she was just a baby so she couldn't remember the experience.
Frex led her into his office, it was ornate and old fashioned, Quoxwood and bronze statues filled the place. Law books, and records filled the back wall and his desk was a neat mass of papers and files. He walked over to a dark cupboard she hadn't noticed before and unlocked the doors.
"I know I don't usually do this," he began somewhat uncomfortably. "But Nanny bought it off some street vendor at one point and thought you'd like it. She said it looked liked something from your books and that you ought to have something special on your thirteenth birthday so..."
When he turned h held a wooden chest, it wasn't extremely large, but it was bigger than any present she'd received previously.
"Here, it's heavy," he said, and moved to the coffee table between to oversize chairs. Then he handed her an aged key, one that would fit the ancient lock on the box.
She fit the key into the hole and turned, the lid snicked open to reveal a velvet interior. She peered inside to find the top of what looked like a large crystal ball. She reached reverently for the object and gently pulled it out and set it next to the box.
It was a crystal ball. She'd read about them of course but never actually believed they existed. It was a beautiful and intricate thing. The ball itself was about the size of her head, maybe a little larger. It sat on a square, gold base. Dragons occupied each corner and their wings held the ball in place. The rest of the base was carved and molded to look like a city.
"Ozmatlas," she breathed, remembering the city from various fairy tales. It was said to be an ancient city where magic originated, and would have been located somewhere in West of even the Vinkus. An oasis in the middle of the desert. The Ozma's were supposed to have risen from there and it had once been the capital of Oz. That is, before the Ozma's and the magic disappeared sometime before the great drought. The Wizard had been sending teams out to look for the lost city and supposedly the Ozma herself, since he'd come into power.
She'd read about the crystal ball itself in her books too. It was supposed to have been lost along with the Grimmerie. If this was the real thing it was very powerful, a talisman as well as an orb.
"The gypsy's told Nanny it no longer worked, she doesn't think it ever did, but we both agreed you'd like it and that as long as it didn't actually do anything then you could have it." He said stiffly.
Working or not working Elphaba didn't know how in Oz Nanny had convinced him to give it to her but she was glad she did.
"Thank you, I love it," she said quietly, still marveling the beautiful thing.
"Why don't you take it to your room, dinner's in less than an hour and I still have some things to finish."
She nodded and thanked him again. She put the ball back in it's box, put the key in her pocket for the moment and then hauled the box to her bedroom.
After she set it down on one of the few shelves not filled with books she pulled it back out of the box. She looked into the crystal abyss, trying to decide whether it was really broke or not, and whether it was the real Orb of Ozmatlas. If it was real it couldn't break, maybe it was just dormant because the magic was gone. Magic was a rare thing in Oz these days. Even she, who had a little latent talent for it, knew this.
She willed something to happen but the crystal remained opaque and empty.
When the dinner bell rang a while later, she was still staring at it. She jumped, she hadn't realized it had gotten so late. She got up from her chair. The key was still on the table, lying below one of the Dragons. She picked it up and strung it through her necklace. She'd leave the ball out for now, maybe keeping it out from the box for a little while would make it do something. But she'd shut the door, if it suddenly decided to wake up it was best that it wouldn't happen in plain sight of Frex or Nanny.
With one last look she shut her bedroom door and raced towards the dining room.
That night, she lay asleep in bed, her back turned to the table where the ball remained. Something odd happened, in the darkness of the hour. The stars were the only light creeping into the room until the orb started to glow and inside smoky swirls formed. It cast light around the room, first green then purples, reds, blues and golds.
Elphaba slept on oblivious to the phenomenon. Pictures appeared inside the crystal, showing memories she had no access to, worlds she didn't know existed, events she'd never heard of and some that she had swirled around.
By morning the images were gone, though the fog remained. When Elphaba awoke she looked at it, and noticed the small change. She decided she'd better put it in the box. If her father found about even such a small thing as a slight change in its appearance he'd probably take it away and have it destroyed.
But a flicker of hope lit in Elphaba. Maybe the magic wasn't gone after all. Maybe it just needed somebody to look for it in the right place.
W I C K E D
Sorry again for the time between updates. This chapter did NOT want to be written. But it's finished now and I like how it turned out. What say you?