Fiyero held Elphaba's hand comfortingly as they waited to be admitted into the Wizard's chambers from the lobby of the Palace. "Don't worry. You'll be fine."
"I know that!" She told him harshly. "I don't need you to mother me."
"I wasn't." He protested.
Elphaba stuck her nose in the air.
A guard with an emerald uniform embroidered with a GF in the corner pocket strode into the lobby with a clipboard in hand. "Would the students sent by Madame Morrible, headmistress of Shiz, please step forward and present their invitations?"
The three girls did so and the guard began to lead them away. Fiyero grabbed Elphaba one last time and kissed her hard on the mouth. "Good luck."
She was too dazed to be angry until they'd passed the doors into the depths of the Palace and it would do no good. Elphaba watched Glinda and Nessa's faces as they walked solemnly down the corridor to meet the ruler of the only land they knew. Taking a deep breath, she helped push Nessa beyond the emerald and golden doors labeled so simply "Conference Room". It was so much more than that to the three young women.
The first thing she saw was a disgustingly ugly contraption that consisted of a giant metal head, maneuvered not even by sorcery but simple levers and mechanics. An uneducated imbecile would know it wasn't real. What sort of impression did this Wizard want to make on his guests, anyway? All at once the head's pulleys and springs began to move and a microphone voice echoed harshly, "State your names."
Elphaba rolled her eyes. "I am Elphaba, third Thropp descending. This is my younger sister Nessarose."
Glinda curtseyed daintily. "I am Glinda of the Arduennas, sir."
"You are the three aspiring students recommended by Madame Morrible?"
"Why else would we be here?" Elphaba retorted, ignoring Glinda's anxious glare.
"Ah, yes. Miss Elphaba and Miss Glinda, you are in your third year of college, am I correct?"
Glinda nodded. "Yes, sir."
"And Nessarose is in her second?"
Nessa spoke for the first time in the room, "Yes."
"Madame Morrible speaks, well, highly of you." The voice boomed.
Elphaba bit back a comment and decided to cut to the chase. "Why are we here?"
"I wanted to see you, watch you speak and act, before I choose to hire you. Now, this creates a slight dilemma. You see, I was thinking of dividing up Oz. I'd still be in charge of all of it, of course, but each of you girls would handle the majority of ruling and report back to me yearly. However, since Miss Nessarose and Miss Elphaba are sisters, I assume they will both reside in the East. Miss Glinda would handle the North, I the South, but now I do not know what I shall do to keep the West of Oz in check."
Glinda piped up. "Well, you see, sir, Elphaba's dating a prince from the Vinkus and they've been together for a year. They very well may get married…"
"Glinda!" Elphaba exclaimed.
"So she could preside over the West, since the Vinkus is in the middle of the Western Ozian territory, sir."
"Is this true, Miss Elphaba?"
"I am… involved with the prince of the Arjiki tribe, yes. I, however, was not currently considering marriage." Elphaba said haughtily.
"Perhaps you should. With or without the delegation of being an advisor, marrying your prince of whatever tribe may well put you in a decent situation of power. And power, my dear, is always a good thing to have and put to use."
"I see, but sometimes the wrong people can be in control of such power, your Ozness. In fact, even Madame Morrible - "
"Elphie, what are you thinking?" Glinda whispered, poking Elphaba in the side.
Ignoring Glinda, Elphaba continued. "Even Madame Morrible may be abusing her power. It wasn't widely publicized, but have you heard about the murder of the last outstanding Animal professor at Shiz?"
"Ah, yes, that doctor so keen on causing trouble."
"How was he causing trouble?"
"This Animal you speak of, was he not going around trying to prove the equality of Animals?"
Elphaba cocked her head. "Well, yes. How is that harmful, sir?"
"Miss Elphaba, we can't have an uproar. People don't like change. It's been hard enough weeding out the Animals. If they fought it, it would bring too much attention to it, would cause too much disturbance. Citizens could even grow to dislike the government they are under, and that would make it quite difficult to rule a country."
"Rule? I thought we weren't a complete dictatorship?" Elphaba was suddenly uneasy.
"No, not at all." The voice coughed. "It will be especially different soon enough, if you three women can prove yourselves worthy enough to take on some of my power. I want you, no doubt, to finish school and then head out into the world for a year, wherever that may be and whoever that may be with, single or married."
Elphaba tapped her foot unhappily. "And then we should return?"
"And then I will call for you, when that time comes. We shall see then if you are completely worthy, and then the decision shall be made. You may leave."
"Wait, sir?"
The head had about shut down it's creaking movement, but popped back into motion again. "What, Miss Elphaba?"
"Are you saying that it was all right for Madame Morrible to have possibly had Dr. Dillamond murdered just because he was a slight threat to perfect political calm?"
"You know who you work for, Miss Elphaba, you know the answer."
The same guard that had taken them down the hallway appeared to lead them back. Rage boiled in Elphaba's heart as they trudged back to the lobby, where Fiyero was, as always, waiting for her. She didn't speak.
Glinda began chattering, filling Fiyero in on the announcement about their occupations that the Wizard had made (leaving out the intended marriage proposal she had suggested for the couple). Nessa added the slight bit about Elphaba's question about the Animals as Elphaba stood brooding near the exit of the Palace.
Fiyero smiled at her. "That's wonderful, that you may become an advisor to the Wizard!" His smile faded as she didn't respond. "Aren't you excited?"
"No. I'm not. I don't think I'll do it."
Every one of her friends looked at her then. "What?"
"Did you not understand what he said? He approved, maybe even allowed or ordered Madame Morrible to get rid of Dr. Dillamond. I can't work for that government! I can't work for her." Elphaba's face changed. "The carriages are packed. Let's get moving." She strode out the Palace doors and headed around the corner, where the carriages had been instructed to wait for them.
Fiyero followed quickly. "Elphaba, what is wrong?"
"He's doing it, Fiyero, don't you understand? That one little comment you made was right. He isn't not being told of it; he's the one who's doing it! The Animals aren't just being oppressed because some stupid political group chose to be discriminatory. No, it's because the Wizard is!"
Glinda, pushing Nessa, reached the corner. "We'll discuss this when we return, all right? I think we should get on our way, now."
"Yes, you get on your way," Elphaba said distantly.
"You mean 'we'," Fiyero corrected nervously.
"No. I won't be coming with. I can't go back."
Glinda blinked and opened her mouth, but found herself unable to come up with words to argue her best friend's seemingly random decision to leave them. Nessa looked as if she were in the same state.
Fiyero, on the other hand, was quick to pull Elphaba to him and protest. "No! You can't just quit Shiz, Elphaba."
"I can do what I want! I have nothing to study for anymore. Nothing I do in college will make a difference to any of this. I can't just sit back and watch!"
"You can't just leave us, either!" He pushed.
"I…" She looked up into his eyes, faltering for a moment. But she could not let emotion get to her, no. He may be the only man who would care about her at all, but she didn't think that was her priority at the moment. "I'm sorry. You don't understand."
"You're right; I can't possibly understand why you'd be willing to just leave your sister, your best friend, and to leave me. I thought I mattered more than that. I thought they mattered more than that."
"Fiyero, don't." She wouldn't cry. "I care about all of you, I do. But I can't sit still. I can't endure this."
"You'll leave me after last night, Elphaba?" He didn't want to say it in front of everyone else; he didn't want to bring it up, but he had to.
Glinda and Nessa gasped, horrified.
Elphaba balked. "How dare you? What do you think you're doing? I can't believe you have the nerve to… ugh!" Swiftly, she whirled around, intent on heading back into the city with her bag, without them.
But he caught her. Fiyero wrapped an arm around her waist and would not let her go. He held her to him and pleaded with her in soft tones, "Please don't do this to me."
She turned in his arms to face him, and he only hugged her closer. Her face pressed against his chest, his smell engulfing her, and memories along with that. The first time they'd kissed; or all of the times he'd tried to coax her into admitting her feelings for him; or the way that, the previous night, just as he was poised above her, between her legs, when she'd looked at him, seen the size and the length of him and gotten nervous, he'd offered even then to stop, even then to wait, though she had, of course, refused; or the way he'd looked at her as they'd begun to make love for the first time (that was the first time she'd called it "making love"); or the gentleness he'd used until she'd pressed him into moving faster; or the sadness in his eyes that morning when she'd tried to avoid him. "Fiyero, please," she whispered.
"I love you," he murmured desperately.
Elphaba looked up into his eyes, opened her mouth, and promptly fainted.