~Chapter 4~
After I had found something at least partway edible to shove down my throat and stop my stomach's protesting being empty so long, Chistery hopped onto my shoulder, curled his tail around the back of my neck for balance and we doggedly set out to rediscover the rest of Kiamo Ko. I knew exactly what my next stop on the tour would be: the late Sarima's Solar.
Sarima had been Fiyero's wife. They had been married as children, and love never had the chance to grow between them. He was hardly ever with her here at Kiamo Ko; normally he was in the Emerald City, as he was that year he recognized me in the temple of Saint Glinda. Sarima, her sisters, and her children inhabited the fortress after his death. I lived with them here for the better part of, oh, what was it, seven years? Or was it nine? I can't remember the number, only that it was quite an extended period of time for me to be stuck in a place with a tyrannical Mistress of the house, her overbearing sisters, and her three beastly, savage, creepy little children, not to mention Liir, the boy who insisted on following me here, but he was always a little more bearable than Sarima's brats. I was never able to call Sarima a "friend", being the type of person she was, but she was someone to talk to if nothing else. I'm still not really sure whether or not the deaths of she, her sisters and her children were my fault, as was her husband's, but I've piled them on myself like I have the deaths of whoever else had once been close to me in some way or another. Even so, their blood was on the Wizard's hands in every one of those deaths.
I trekked doggedly, dizzily onward until I finally reached the Solar. The room was still familiar in most every aspect, except for the dust covering everything. I had spent a lot of time in this room in years gone by. I missed it, in some twisted little way. Snatches of memory images swam into my eyes of the many occasions on which I had frequented this room. Chistery swished his tail in my ear, and as I went to brush it away I thought I saw a ghostly Sarima out of the corner of my eye, sitting on one of the chaises in a beam of sunlight. When I looked back at the chaise the vaporous image was gone.
I shook my head to clear it, convinced that what I had seen was a trick of the light and my still weakened eyes. Chistery chattered anxiously, tapped my forehead and bade me look to the chaise where I thought I had seen Sarima. Once more there was nothing there.
"There's nothing there, my furry little friend." I said to him, half to convince myself it was true, half just to say so to Chistery. He shook his head in disbelief and settled himself back on my shoulder.
Thoroughly spooked, I made my way out of the Solar before my eyes could deceive me into believing there really was a ghost here in Kiamo Ko. I shuddered, jostling the monkey; he swung his way from my shoulder down into my arms. It hurt some, but I hugged him to my chest with one arm as I walked. That was enough of the Solar for me. I didn't know where I would wander next. I wanted to go down to the basement, where the underground well was, but I most definitely wasn't up to descending more stairs today. Liir had once said that he saw a large, gold fish there, and that it had spoken to him. I was never really sure if I believed him or not, but now that I remembered it I was anxious to find out.
:Next time.: I told myself, :Once I'm up to descending more stairs. Maybe tomorrow . . . : as I went to drag myself back up to the tower.
:Oh, fun, more climbing.: I thought dryly, dreading the return trip upstairs.
Later on that night, as I sat in my tower room on a chair near the window, I was absentmindedly stroking Chistery and watching the sunset. My mind kept wandering back to Sarima in the Solar. Common sense told me that it couldn't have been her ghost, but that tiny nagging part of me kept worrying, :Well, what if it is her?:
"You don't believe in that sort of stuff, do you?" I asked my monkey, not expecting a reply.
"Spirit sat Solar." he chattered at me.
"You wouldn't say 'spirit' when I tried to teach you to not terribly long before that Dorothy girl came here. Have you been waiting for me to stop bothering you about it, you devious little thing?" I asked him, yet I pondered over the monkey's words. If Chistery had seen her as well . . . But then again they were the words of a monkey. Exactly how much regard should I give them?
I sat there until Chistery fell asleep in my lap and the sun had set long hours ago, just thinking on many different things. Now that I had the time to just sit and think while healing I was going to use it to the best of my ability. As I grew more and more tired my thoughts started to slur together until they weren't thoughts anymore but dreams. My head leaned over onto my shoulder as I slept. Abruptly the snatches of incomprehensible dreams ended, and a brilliantly clear image swam to the front of my mind. Everything was black, except the bright white fog that swam and spun into a face, Sarima's vaporous ghostly face.
"Aunt Witch," she whispered hoarsely as I looked on in disbelief bordering on fear.
"Elphaba," she said. How did she know my name? I had never told her or any of her family my name, aside from Fiyero, who never spoke to her of me.
"My husband is still alive."
What? That wasn't possible! I tried to refuse to believe it, but when you have a ghost speaking to you in what was no longer a dream but a vision, continued disbelief was hard to manage.
"Find him, Elphaba. Find Fiyero. Help him avenge the deaths of his family." With those last words the vision faded, but her words resounded throughout my head.
I awoke in a painful paroxysm due to the cold sweat that had coated my skin during Sarima's phantasmal apparition. The fiery new pain on top of the dull aches I had been experiencing since Dorothy splashed me with the water was almost too much to take. Chistery leaped from my lap as he first felt me convulse and perched on top of my shelf, trying to find a scarf or something to give me to dry myself off. He threw me an old black headscarf which I managed to catch and I fervently tried to rub down my face and arms, which had felt the worst of it. Once I had composed myself again, Chistery vaulted himself back into my lap. I stared unseeingly out the window into the moonless, starless night.
:Fiyero, if you are still alive, I will find you, and we'll both avenge those that have been taken from us. Those dear to us will not have died in vain, I promise you.:
After I had found something at least partway edible to shove down my throat and stop my stomach's protesting being empty so long, Chistery hopped onto my shoulder, curled his tail around the back of my neck for balance and we doggedly set out to rediscover the rest of Kiamo Ko. I knew exactly what my next stop on the tour would be: the late Sarima's Solar.
Sarima had been Fiyero's wife. They had been married as children, and love never had the chance to grow between them. He was hardly ever with her here at Kiamo Ko; normally he was in the Emerald City, as he was that year he recognized me in the temple of Saint Glinda. Sarima, her sisters, and her children inhabited the fortress after his death. I lived with them here for the better part of, oh, what was it, seven years? Or was it nine? I can't remember the number, only that it was quite an extended period of time for me to be stuck in a place with a tyrannical Mistress of the house, her overbearing sisters, and her three beastly, savage, creepy little children, not to mention Liir, the boy who insisted on following me here, but he was always a little more bearable than Sarima's brats. I was never able to call Sarima a "friend", being the type of person she was, but she was someone to talk to if nothing else. I'm still not really sure whether or not the deaths of she, her sisters and her children were my fault, as was her husband's, but I've piled them on myself like I have the deaths of whoever else had once been close to me in some way or another. Even so, their blood was on the Wizard's hands in every one of those deaths.
I trekked doggedly, dizzily onward until I finally reached the Solar. The room was still familiar in most every aspect, except for the dust covering everything. I had spent a lot of time in this room in years gone by. I missed it, in some twisted little way. Snatches of memory images swam into my eyes of the many occasions on which I had frequented this room. Chistery swished his tail in my ear, and as I went to brush it away I thought I saw a ghostly Sarima out of the corner of my eye, sitting on one of the chaises in a beam of sunlight. When I looked back at the chaise the vaporous image was gone.
I shook my head to clear it, convinced that what I had seen was a trick of the light and my still weakened eyes. Chistery chattered anxiously, tapped my forehead and bade me look to the chaise where I thought I had seen Sarima. Once more there was nothing there.
"There's nothing there, my furry little friend." I said to him, half to convince myself it was true, half just to say so to Chistery. He shook his head in disbelief and settled himself back on my shoulder.
Thoroughly spooked, I made my way out of the Solar before my eyes could deceive me into believing there really was a ghost here in Kiamo Ko. I shuddered, jostling the monkey; he swung his way from my shoulder down into my arms. It hurt some, but I hugged him to my chest with one arm as I walked. That was enough of the Solar for me. I didn't know where I would wander next. I wanted to go down to the basement, where the underground well was, but I most definitely wasn't up to descending more stairs today. Liir had once said that he saw a large, gold fish there, and that it had spoken to him. I was never really sure if I believed him or not, but now that I remembered it I was anxious to find out.
:Next time.: I told myself, :Once I'm up to descending more stairs. Maybe tomorrow . . . : as I went to drag myself back up to the tower.
:Oh, fun, more climbing.: I thought dryly, dreading the return trip upstairs.
Later on that night, as I sat in my tower room on a chair near the window, I was absentmindedly stroking Chistery and watching the sunset. My mind kept wandering back to Sarima in the Solar. Common sense told me that it couldn't have been her ghost, but that tiny nagging part of me kept worrying, :Well, what if it is her?:
"You don't believe in that sort of stuff, do you?" I asked my monkey, not expecting a reply.
"Spirit sat Solar." he chattered at me.
"You wouldn't say 'spirit' when I tried to teach you to not terribly long before that Dorothy girl came here. Have you been waiting for me to stop bothering you about it, you devious little thing?" I asked him, yet I pondered over the monkey's words. If Chistery had seen her as well . . . But then again they were the words of a monkey. Exactly how much regard should I give them?
I sat there until Chistery fell asleep in my lap and the sun had set long hours ago, just thinking on many different things. Now that I had the time to just sit and think while healing I was going to use it to the best of my ability. As I grew more and more tired my thoughts started to slur together until they weren't thoughts anymore but dreams. My head leaned over onto my shoulder as I slept. Abruptly the snatches of incomprehensible dreams ended, and a brilliantly clear image swam to the front of my mind. Everything was black, except the bright white fog that swam and spun into a face, Sarima's vaporous ghostly face.
"Aunt Witch," she whispered hoarsely as I looked on in disbelief bordering on fear.
"Elphaba," she said. How did she know my name? I had never told her or any of her family my name, aside from Fiyero, who never spoke to her of me.
"My husband is still alive."
What? That wasn't possible! I tried to refuse to believe it, but when you have a ghost speaking to you in what was no longer a dream but a vision, continued disbelief was hard to manage.
"Find him, Elphaba. Find Fiyero. Help him avenge the deaths of his family." With those last words the vision faded, but her words resounded throughout my head.
I awoke in a painful paroxysm due to the cold sweat that had coated my skin during Sarima's phantasmal apparition. The fiery new pain on top of the dull aches I had been experiencing since Dorothy splashed me with the water was almost too much to take. Chistery leaped from my lap as he first felt me convulse and perched on top of my shelf, trying to find a scarf or something to give me to dry myself off. He threw me an old black headscarf which I managed to catch and I fervently tried to rub down my face and arms, which had felt the worst of it. Once I had composed myself again, Chistery vaulted himself back into my lap. I stared unseeingly out the window into the moonless, starless night.
:Fiyero, if you are still alive, I will find you, and we'll both avenge those that have been taken from us. Those dear to us will not have died in vain, I promise you.: