Elphaba frowned as her friend, her beautiful friend...her only friend...tried not to weep over the pile that once was---and unbeknownst to her, would soon again be---The Wicked Witch of the West. Elphaba...or, Elphie, as Glinda had called her, frowned, high spirits lost at Glinda's uncharacteristic holding back of emotion. Glinda had been known to weep over the most trivial of things, a flaw that Elphaba had sadistically exploited in recent years. These tears, though, the ones that wouldn't fall...these were real tears. That was what hurt the most.
Glinda crouched down and lovingly ran her hand over Elphaba's abandoned cape. She lifted it for a moment and held it to her face, breathing in the scent of her deceased friend. It was then that the tears came.
"Elphie," choked out the blonde tearily, "Wherever you are...I hope you're happy."
Oh, God, Elphaba realized with horror, She's giving me something like a eulogy. I don't think I can bear it.
But bear it, she did. Tied to her ashes, unable to leave the room as a result of her spell, Elphaba bore the burden of every word uttered. Glinda's brief but poignant speech on Elphie's behalf made her feel, if possible, worse. She was none of those things Glinda said she was. Brave, intelligent, a friend. Had she been any of these things, Glinda would not have been weeping on the floor of Kiamo Ko at that moment, spilling her heart out to someone who should have been there.
Elphaba ached to reach out to Glinda, ached to tell her that she had betrayed her, ached to do just something, anything. Even if it made Glinda hate her, it would be better than the guilt she now felt. Elphaba didn't feel much these days, but somehow, Glinda could get to her like no one else could. It was for this reason she knew that Glinda was, in fact, her one, her only friend. The only one who chose to mourn the wicked. For this, she was both grateful and resentful. As Glinda composed herself and left the room feigning dignity and detachment that the outside would would expect her to display, Elphaba, for the first time wept real tears. No one was there to wipe them away.