A/N: Shout outs to my anonymous reviewer and James Birdsong. Glad you're enjoying it. More on our Munchkins soon. ;)


Chapter 13

Councilman Arif was briefed the next day. To say he was disturbed by the development was an understatement. So, while the Councilman promised to take a look at the symbols, Fiyero's men continued to follow the five masons that they considered suspects; hoping one of them would slip up. In the stables, Aziz was back at work. He continued to be incredibly grateful to Elphaba, Private Roth, and Private Schultz. This was unnecessary but Elphaba said nothing derogatory about it. She noticed that Private Schultz's mood vastly improved since the incident and she was glad for it. Now, a knock on Morrible's former office door, interrupted the green woman and her Munchkin friends.

"Ma'am, Aziz's mother is here. She'd like to speak to you," Corporal Bock said from the doorway. He was in charge of guarding the door to the office so the team inside wouldn't be interrupted.

"She is? Oh my. I'll be right there," Elphaba stood up and smoothed her dress from sitting in the chair. The group were sifting through every scrap of literature they could find in an attempt to decipher the symbols left on the note.

"Thank you, Corporal," the green woman smiled at him. He smiled back and then ducked inside the room, to give the two ladies some privacy.

"Mrs. Sydin, I did not know you were coming. Is something wrong?" Elphaba asked the elderly woman. Fiyero had told her that the woman in front of her had been struggling with her health. Her husband had passed away a couple of years ago and Aziz worked hard to support the two of them.

"Nothing is wrong Madam. I only wished to speak to you in person. I'm actually surprised I made it this far," the woman smiled slightly.

"The boys are busy in there, but let's take a seat in the office across the hall. There is no good reason for you to be on your feet after the walk to the Palace," Elphaba offered. The woman waved her off.

"The walk has done me good. It is the longest walk I have taken since I got sick last year. I can never repay you or the Captain for my health and the health of my son," Mrs. Sydin told her.

"We are more than glad to have helped. He was raised by a good woman, that much is obvious. Aziz does an excellent job for everyone here in the Palace. Lady Glinda is actually meeting with him this morning, I think," Elphaba smiled.

"Yes. He wore his finest suit this morning and promised me to not wear it while he worked," she couldn't help but smile back.

"Oh yes. We wouldn't want him to ruin it," the green woman said.

"I won't take any more of your time. I know you are busy, but I really just wanted to thank you in person," Mrs. Sydin admitted.

"I am never too busy for you or your son. I am glad that you are feeling better and I am glad that he is too," Elphaba told her. That's when she saw Lieutenant Zetti coming down the hallway. He made eye contact with her and the green woman knew that he needed to talk to her.

"Lieutenant, this is Aziz's mother, Mrs. Sydin," Elphaba introduced them.

"It is great to meet you ma'am. I'm afraid I need to borrow Miss Elphaba. Can I make sure that you get a ride home first?" the Lieutenant asked.

"That would be splendid. I am more tired than I thought," Mrs. Sydin admitted.

"Of course. I'd be happy to. I know just a Corporal for the job," he winked and then offered her his arm. She thanked Elphaba again and then the two headed off down the hallway. Elphaba returned to the room and told Corporal Bock that the Lieutenant would be back.

"What do we have boys?" Elphaba asked.

"A whole lot of nothing. In reviewing the archives that the fish woman kept, nothing in them has the symbols that were on the Munchkin note," Boq frowned.

"Ok so we've checked her archives, we checked the farmer's almanac, and even though they were a longshot, the spell books. What else could we check?" Elphaba wondered.

"Well, there isn't a lot of Munchkin literature here. Perhaps the symbols are in a book that is only distributed in Munchkinland?" Mopsi wondered.

"We'd need the Councilman's help with that," Popsi said.

"He's looking at a copy of the symbols now. I promised to talk to him around lunch time," Elphaba told them. That's when Corporal Bock let Lieutenant Zetti into the room.

"Lieutenant, what did you want to discuss?" Elphaba smiled at him.

"I couldn't help but think about those symbols," he admitted.

"Please share. We're running out of ideas," Boq told him.

"Maps. We need to look at the maps of Oz," Zetti suggested.

To Be Continued…