"Good Sarima." Glinda said from her chair. The three witches were in the courtyard where Sarima was practicing her control of air spells. Currently, she was floating an object. Said object was redheaded and apprehensive. "Relax, Wynnessa. Elphaba is here in case anything goes wrong."

"I dislike having my feet so far off the ground." the woman replied, and wiggled in the air. Sarima gasped and Wynne slipped a little in height.

"Focus, Sarima." Glinda urged. "And stop wiggling, Wynnessa. It makes it more difficult."

"Yes, My Lady." Sarima replied.

"Still don't see why I have to be the test dummy." Wynne grumbled.

"Because, Wynnessa, Sarima needs to have practice with irregular shaped and dense objects. It's no good for her self control if she never has to worry about her level of force."

"That doesn't make me feel better."

"Relax," Elphaba drawled. "Sarima doesn't have the talent to squish you. Only drop you."

"Yeah, thanks for that Elphaba. Really puts me at ease."

"Alright, Sarima, bring her down." Glinda ordered. The Vinkun woman scrunched her face as she slowly lowered Wynne to the ground. When the redhead's feet finally touch the stone, both women let out a sigh of relief. Glinda gave a brief clap. "See? Well done."

Glinda felt her hand shift. Looking down, a small letter had appeared. Glinda's brow furrowed in concentration as she turned it over. In a plain hand, it had Elphaba and her names on it. The green woman stood over her shoulder.

"Were we expecting mail?" she asked. Glinda shook her head.

"No."

The blonde quickly unfolded the letter. Looking at the signature on bottom revealed it from an unlikely source: Duran.

My Dear Ladies,

I hope you are doing well. That is a half-truth: I know you are doing well but I still hope for it. Either way, the purpose of this letter is a request for you. I have been attempting to track down who had the ability to capture Glinda. As you have realized by now, it is not some normal magician that is able to corral her nor move so many players on the board against us. Fortunately, I believe I found a way to do so. All my scrying points towards using a specific divination ritual at a cloister in the northern Vinkus on the next full moon. Unfortunately, it appears that I cannot do it myself as my own imbued magics will interfere with the ritual. As such, I will need you to undertake this. Time is of the essence: it is only on the next full moon that this will work. I've attached both the ritual to find the cloister and divine our foe to this letter.

Best of luck,

Duran

"Looks like we're going on a trip." Glinda said.

'Looks like I'm going on a trip." Elphaba replied. "Six months pregnant is no time to travel."

"I could go by bubble." Glinda protested. Elphaba shook her head.

"That's still too much exertion for you. Besides, we don't know what we might find there."

"I don't think Duran would send us into danger without telling us."

"I agree, but it's better safe than sorry."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Wynne interjected, "but I agree with Elphaba."

Glinda looked over to notice both women had come over during their conversation. Wynne was looking apprehensive. Glinda scowled at her.

"Thank you, Wynessa, for your concern."

"Don't be petulant." Elphaba chastised. "Wynne is just looking out for your health."

"Oh, the irony of this conversation." Glinda grumbled. Elphaba smiled at her in response. She looked back at the two women and asked,

"When is the next full moon?"

"Next week." Sarima answered. "Is there something I can assist with?"

"Yes." Elphaba answered. "Are there any maps of the northern Vinkus? Supposedly there is a cloister up there. Duran says we can use a ritual to find it, but any additional information would be helpful."

"I can look in Kiamo Ko's map room." Sarima replied. "They have many now since the coronation. It might be on one of them."

"Thank you." Glinda said. "But now, back to your lesson."

Wynne groaned.

Elphaba hopped off the broom. Her boots crunched on the paver stones of the cloister courtyard. Despite signs of long term abandonment, no weeds sprouted through the paver stones nor vines crept up the colonnades nor moss grew over statues. The only thing that coated every surface was a fine layer of sand. Elphaba surmised that being this close to the Thursk Desert kept decay to a minimum. Elphaba was glad she flew on a broom as the sand would have to be swept away before she performed the ritual.

After a brief sweep of the courtyard to get rid of most of the sand, Elphaba started laying out the various jars and bags of components. It was essentially a more complex and powerful scrying ritual. The light of the full moon above made it easy for Elphaba to see as she drew her chalk circle. No normal chalk, it was mixed with a reagent that caught moonlight, making the circle twinkle.

Elphaba froze. A soft sound caught her ear. Her earlier movements had hidden it but was now revealed. In hindsight, Elphaba realized she should have checked out the convent before setting to work. She slowly brought her magical senses to the forefront. It would be unlikely that anything that was not magic would be a threat.

The first thing she saw was her own circle, shining with a cold glow and a hint of citrus. As she looked around she saw a lingering scent in the air, wafting in ghostly green. Elphaba's eyes followed the trail. At the end was a glowing green silhouette of a person.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" Elphaba demanded, taking a step towards the person. From the shadow colonnade, a tall pale woman wearing a black dress that hugged her curves strutted out.

"Quite demanding, aren't you? Judging by your skin tone, you must be Elphaba," she purred dangerously in a low voice. "It's a sickly color."

"And just who might you be?" Elphaba snapped. The woman's haughty chuckle incessed her further.

"Oh, I'm known by many names, dear, but I shall give none to you," the woman smiled cruelly. "Didn't anyone tell you names have power?"

"Only cowards hide behind anonymity," Elphaba retorted.

"So naive," the woman grinned. "But what should I expect from Morrible's cast offs."

Elphaba was about to retort when she saw dark lines creeping from the woman. They were magic, but not a type she had seen before. Snatching one up with her own magic and blowing it apart, the pieces were strange. Her moment of academic curiosity sated, she waved her hand to dispel the others.

"Cute trick, trying to cover your spell by talking," Elphaba retorted. "Though it means you have some skill."

"Impudent brat!"

Elphaba let the woman make the next move. Shadows lept from their places on walls, grasping at Elphaba. Invisible except to her magical sight - that was a pattern. Elphaba exploded in dazzling light, cutting the tendrils at the same time. The woman hissed in pain. Elphaba caught the sight of something else in that brief moment before her attention was drawn back to the woman.

More invisible forms and shapes rose at the woman's command. For Elphaba, that sealed it. The woman used mostly invisible magic. To anyone else that would be a huge obstacle. Elphaba dismissed them as easily as if they were a fireball. Yet again, she spotted something out of the corner of her eye.

Elphaba's fist glowed and she shot a ball of light in the air. In its illumination, she saw a young boy and a three horned ox. Had she paused to think about it, she would have wondered what a boy and his ox were doing here, or why he faintly glowed. However, her every instinct saw a child in the middle of a magic fight and so instead she yelled,

"Go! Get away from here!"

The boy started at being acknowledged. Before he could move, a wave of force hit Elphaba and knocked her to the ground. She tumbled over to her hands and knees, but magical weight pressed her down. Her vision clouded with shadows as they tried to pierce her.

Elphaba gathered the magical sight spell, molding and expanding it until it acted as a shield. With its effects being put to a different use, Elphaba's vision cleared to see the grimace of effort on the woman's face.

"Fine," she hissed. "If you won't die so easily, we'll take care of this another way."

Elphaba felt her skin itch as the woman advanced on her.

"I curse you, Elphaba Thropp," the woman spat as she approached. "I curse you to make all the lies revealed to be true."

Elphaba grit her teeth as her skin began to burn. The woman drew nearer.

"I curse you that all your friends will turn against you with jealousy in their hearts. "

Elphaba cried out as the pain grew and her vision narrowed.

"I curse you that all those who hear your words judge them false and dismiss them out of hand."

It took everything in Elphaba to not give as she felt the curse sink into her skin and begin to spread across her body. Her vision swam and she became dizzying.

"I curse you that all your offspring-"

Elphaba let out a scream of pure agony as she unleashed a torrent of raw magic. The woman was blown back, crashing into the convent wall. The wall itself crumbled under the blow, revealing the outside world. Released, Elphaba staggered to her feet. The feeling of fire raging across her skin matched the magical fire she summoned to her hands. Still woozy and disoriented, she lobbed a great burst at the woman. The woman dodged the explosion, rolling to the side and gesturing with her hand. Elphaba's vision swam again and she lashed out with fire around her.

"Come on, Tip!" the woman yelled.

Elphaba froze, reminded of the child. She held the flame in her hands, looking for any sign of movement as her vision cleared. After a few moments of nothing, she redirected the magic sight spell back into its original form. Besides a new glow to the area, there was no sign of the woman, boy, or ox. The ritual itself had been destroyed in the fight. Giving a cry of frustration, Elphaba summoned her broom to her hand. As she went to mount it, her vision swam again. Elphaba closed her eyes, leaving only the one open. Though it hurt her depth perception, she did not need it to fly. Inwardly growling at letting the woman get away, she kicked off the ground and set her course back to Kiamo Ko.

Glinda was waiting in the courtyard for Elphaba as the woman hovered over Kiamo Ko. She frowned when instead of landing, Elphaba slowly lowered herself onto the balcony on the west wing. Huffing, Glinda pivoted on her heels and stalked towards the tower. Sarima and Wynne followed at her heels.

Cursing the number of stairs on the castle, Glinda pushed open the door to the tower.

"Don't come in!" Elphaba's voice met her. Glinda paused, and waved away the other two women.

"Elphie, what's wrong?" she asked as she crept into the dark room. The light coming through the shudders did not reveal the other woman. "And where are you?"

"Stay back, Glinda," Elphaba's voice came from the darkest corner. Glinda squinted as she made her way over. A rustle of dark fabric hunched near the floor. "I said stay back."

"Elphie, I'm worried about you," Glinda said gently, stopping in her tracks. "When you didn't come back yesterday I sent some Animals out to find you. I was afraid you were hurt or dead."

"I'm...fine."

"You're not fine," Glinda replied, slowly advancing again. "Let me help."

"I don't want you to see me like this," Elphaba answered gruffly. Glinda stopped in front of the woman.

"I've seen you at your worst," she said, reaching for the hood of the cloak, "There's nothing that can shock me."

"I said don't!" Elphaba hissed and grabbed Glinda's hands. The blonde started at the sight of them. They were...scaled. Elphaba's skin was scaled. Glinda leaned forward, pushing past the woman's resistance.

"Elphaba, what happened?"

"I was cursed."

Elphaba reluctantly allowed Glinda to grasp the edges of the hood and pull it down. A gasp escaped her. A third eye stared from Elphaba's forehead even as the other two were closed. Her hair had hardened into quills that quivered. What Glinda's eyes finally settled on was the angry red marks on the side of her face that looked like burns.

"Elphie, what happened?"

"I...was cursed," she choked out. "There was some woman there, and we fought briefly. She had a child with her, and I got distracted. Enough for her to curse me."

"What sort of curse does this?"

"A curse that makes all the lies against me be revealed true."

"I can't believe that's possible." Glinda shook her head.

Glinda paused. She did not know where those words came from. Opening her witchsight, light emanated from Elphaba and wrapped around her. Glinda cut it with own magic. A fog lifted from her mind.

"Elphaba, was there anything else?"

"That all my words are judged false.* Elphaba replied.

Glinda watched the magic bleed from Elphaba's mouth to surround her. The blonde snagged it this time, and followed it back to where it sat in Elphaba. Not three months ago the depth of the magic would have been insurmountable to Glinda, but now it was easy to unravel the spell. After a moment she sighed.

"Well, that one was taken care of. Anything else?"

"That all my friends would turn against me with jealousy in their hearts."

Glinda caught a much subtler spell creeping out and around her.

"Oh, that is devious," Glinda said. "Unfortunately for our enemies, I am much more devious."

With that, Glinda rolled up the spell around her hand, and pulled it off of Elphaba. With a flick of her wrist the spell broke and its magical components dissipated into the ether around them.

"That's two down. Anything else?"

"She got half a curse about offspring, but I blew her through a wall at that point."

"Let's check then," Glinda gave herself a twirl. "See anything different?"

Elphaba studied her for a moment before saying,

"No."

"Must not have finished it. That's good." Glinda nodded. "Now, let's get those burns looked at."

"Water burns," Elphaba answered. Glinda huffed.

"Oh for Oz's sake. Now you're actually allergic to water. Well, let's get them looked at and we can work on breaking the other curses."

"You can't just do it now?*

"They're too deep. The others spread from you so it was easy to follow them back. This will be like breaking Duran's spells on you."

"Ugh."

"Come on. The sooner we get started the sooner we can break those."

"Good. Because I honestly don't know if I could sleep with this eye always being open."

"What was she doing there?" growled the dark clad woman as she trudged along the path.

"I don't know?" said the boy leading the three-horner ox behind her.

"Quiet Tip! I'm thinking," she snapped. The boy wilted. "What was she doing there?"

The woman knew of Elphaba; anyone with any sense of magic knew of Elphaba. But the tales of the woman always painted her as immensely talented but undisciplined. A magical hammer. The Elphaba she had faced a few nights ago was not that.

"And being able to dispel my curses - how did she manage that?" the woman grumbled. The boy knew better than to speak this time. "Curses can be blocked; curses can be lifted; but just blown away like dust in the wind - how did she do that?"

There was something - or someone - else in play that she had not accounted for. Not her little friend Glinda either. Disciplined as the woman was - her squashing of the riots in the Emerald City showed she had grown in skill - she was not that talented. She was not that powerful. She was not that knowledgeable.

"Someone is definitely moving in the shadows." The woman concluded. "Someone with more knowledge than either of those two."

A thought struck the woman. She stopped in her tracks. The boy Tip stopped to not run into her. The ox did not, and crashed into the boy, sending him sprawling. The noise caused the woman to look down at the boy disdainfully.

"Stop messing around, Tip, and get up," she spat as she resumed walking. "We have a lot of business to attend to now."

The woman's pace quickened and the boy hurried to catch up, tugging on the ox's reins. The ox groaned in protest. The boy winced, expecting another caustic remark. However, the woman did not notice. She was too lost in her own thoughts.

"If he's interfering," she whispered, "there's a lot more work to do."