Many moons before the Wizard descended from the clouds and came to Oz and even before King Pastoria's death, the royal family had four daughters who lived at the Emerald City palace. They were Locasta, Glinda, Evanora and Theodora.
Locasta was the oldest of the daughters, but perhaps the weakest of the four. An introvert and a moody child, she often shied away from social engagements, but enjoyed intellectual pursuits. With her powers of teleportation, she would often teleport throughout the palace, much to Queen Lurline's chagrin, and play pranks on the Emerald City Guards. At a young age, she developed a deep, masculine voice. She had no interest in playing with dolls and no interest in wearing the finest of silks often adorned by the Emerald City gentry class. Instead, she would disregard the strict social etiquettes of the Emerald City and would even act belligerent and aggressive towards Ozians who would displease her. Due to her deep voice, her overly aggressive tendencies and her blunt mannerisms, many fellow Ozians even thought that she was a man. This embarrassed both Queen Lurline and King Pastoria, especially since Locasta was their eldest daughter and the one who would take over the throne if something should happen to her parents.
Perhaps then, it was much a relief to her parents when Locasta claimed to have no interest in politics and in ruling Oz. When she was of adolescent age, their oldest daughter left the palace and moved to the north. For many years thereafter, she became a hermit and disappeared from Ozian life.
Glinda was the second oldest of the four daughters. Unlike Locasta who disliked social gatherings and lacked the social skills necessary for building allies and ruling Oz itself, Glinda was a social butterfly. The favorite of King Pastoria, the young witch was not only socially gifted, but she was beautiful as well. While the king ignored his eldest daughter on many occasions and secretly wished she was not his first born, Pastoria for years groomed Glinda to rule the land and to take over the throne when his time had come to depart the land. He spent a lot of time with Glinda on how to control her powers—that of air—and because of his mentorship, she became one of the most powerful witches in all of the land.
Evanora was the third oldest. Inquisitive, intellectually brilliant and somewhat reserved, she was fascinated with magic. Unlike Glinda, who was incredibly gregarious and friendly to everyone, Evanora often kept her emotions to herself and spoke less. However, and like her sister Glinda, Evanora had a deep interest in politics and also secretly desired to rule all of Oz. Her power was electricity, a highly valued commodity at the Emerald City. As a result, Queen Lurline took an interest in developing Evanora's powers and it was this daughter who became her favorite. This not only resulted in sibling rivalry and intense competition between Glinda and Evanora, but also increased the marital tension between their parents, with each favoring different offspring. This, in turn, created a toxic family environment.
Then there was the youngest witch, Theodora. A shy and timid girl, she often kept to herself. As her powers were fire based, her parents believed that this made her incredibly dangerous to not only other Ozians, but also to the entire city. As a result, she was shunned by her parents, confined to her bedroom and forbidden to speak with others outside of her immediate family. Despite the best effort of her parents to keep her away from others, Theodora's odd behavior would not go unnoticed. The palace servants would often report hearing strange laughter coming from her bedroom. Others would describe it as an eerie and frightening cackle.
Sometime after Locasta departed from the city, but still many years before the Wizard arrived, Theodora would often sneak out of her bedroom and meander aimlessly throughout the palace. The witch would simply wander the hallways and, at times for no apparent reason, would convulse into fits of cackling laughter. Sometimes she would do this when she was by herself, while other times it was in the presence of others. If Evanora happened to witness this behavior, she simply rolled her eyes and continued along her way without acknowledging the presence of her little sister. If Glinda witnessed it, she would casually comfort the witch and then escort her back to her bedroom, treating her like a lost little girl who had to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.
And if she was caught by any of Glinda's guards, she was bullied. Relentlessly.
"FREAK! SHUT THE HELL UP! WHAT ARE YOU LAUGHING AT WEIRDO!" On one such occasion, a soldier in Glinda's army had pushed the young witch against the wall as Theodora tried in vain to control her cackling laughter, to no avail.
The soldier sneered at her. "What's so funny, freak!?" But even Theodora didn't have the answer to that question. Whenever she was very nervous or had a lot of anxiety, her laughter would often become cackling or even maniacal. And she didn't know why. Those who resided in the palace didn't know why, either. This made the young witch different from everyone else.
As the guard in Glinda's army forcefully pushed Theodora towards the wall, the young witch extended her arms so her hands would absorb the shock. "Please…I…" The young witch then turned around to address her tormentor, but then started to break down into fits of laughter again. "I…..Hahahahaaa…can't…help…PWUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The young witch arched her back as a loud roar echoed throughout the hallway.
Another guard in the egged the main instigator on. "Teach her a lesson!" As the young witch lowered her head and continued to cackle in shame, the guard made a fist with her hand as she grabbed Theodora by the shoulder.
"If I ever catch you here again, freak, I'll give you a beating you won't ever forget…" She then punched Theodora in the stomach. With the wind knocked out of her, the young witch collapsed to the palace floor.
"Yeah, come on, let's go…", the leader said to the other guards as they turned and casually walked away.
"Why do they have to be so cruel to me", Theodora would later ask Glinda as she laid on her bed.
"Who bothered you today?", Glinda asked softly and with much concern as she sat on Theodora's bed.
"One of your guards. I don't know why they are so mean to me. I only want to be their friends", the young witch sadly said. "I have no friends."
While Glinda's response was said in earnest, her blithe answer left much to be desired. "They just fear what they don't understand."
"Am I someone to be feared and hated? No one ever wants anything to do with me…" Despite Theodora's whimpered response, her older sister looked at her with much sympathy, but otherwise remained silent.
Over the years, Theodora would try to speak to Glinda about her female tormentors. While Glinda would tell the young witch that she would address the situation with Agatha, nothing would ever come of it.
At first, the young witch tried to reason with her bullies and even try to become their friends. This infuriated Evanora, who demanded how her younger sister could be taken advantage of like this. But Theodora waved off her older sister's concerns.
Still, the young witch's ever-growing rage was suppressed. She quickly learned that if she left her bedroom, not only would she receive stern warnings from her parents if she was caught by them, but she would also be tormented by those in Glinda's army. As time passed, the young witch became angrier and angrier at her bullies, and for Glinda for allowing this almost daily torture to occur. She became angry and resentful at her parents for shunning and rejecting her.
Despite this, the young witch would often fantasize about what life existed outside of her four walls.
Several more years would pass. One day, the young witch was determined to escape the confines of the palace, even if it was only for several minutes. This was the day the Emerald City was holding its festival. Every year and at the end of each harvest, merchants and farmers from all over Oz would travel to the Emerald City and sell their respective stock. Whenever this festival would happen, everyone from the palace would attend the festival, including Evanora and Glinda. Even her parents would make speeches. However, Theodora was not permitted to attend. To ensure that she would remain in the palace, the king would lock the door to her bedroom.
In order to avoid the same fate this year, the witch woke up extra early. As she slowly opened the massive double bedroom doors and peaked into the hallway, the palace was still quiet as most of its residents were still sleeping. As she slowly tiptoed out of her room and into the empty hallway, she ran into Glinda.
"Psst where are you going?"
Theodora decided to tell a white lie. "I….I….I'm hungry, I am getting some food…" The young witch lowered her head and blushed, knowing full well that her older sister would find out what she was really hiding. Theodora was not good at keeping secrets.
Glinda merely smiled at her younger sibling. She immediately knew that Theodora was trying to sneak out. The older witch whispered back, "I will cover for you and tell father I locked the door to your bedroom. Just don't…run into anyone else". She then raised her index finger and began to mildly chide the young witch. "And if you run into mother and father…" Theodora looked up at Glinda and smiled. "I won't." The elder witch winked in response.
Wearing only a white robe, which was customary for all of Pastoria's daughters, the young witch turned away from Glinda and eagerly made her way to the palace exit.
It had been several hours after Theodora left the palace and, for the first time in her life, she was able to look up and see the clear blue sky. For the first time in her life, she was able to feel the breeze blow gently against her skin. And for the first time in her life, she felt severe anxiety from all of the throngs of people who surrounded her. She tried to subdue these feelings of dread, but she was not at all used to large crowds.
For the festival, every main road had a multitude of vendors with thousands of merchants that lined the sprawling streets of the Emerald City. Theodora blended in to the best of her ability, but her white robe betrayed her social status. While no one recognized who she was, they knew that she was from the palace. By King Pastoria's decree, white was the color of choice for the Ozian nobility and this was reflected in the clothing the gentry wore.
As she was cautiously walking down one of the main boulevards of the Emerald City, an old man approached her.
"Would you like to have a look at my wares? It is some of my finest articles of clothing for someone of your stature…"
The young witch nodded as she entered and then gazed around this particular merchant's shop, which was a big tent laid out next to numerous other tents that had been arranged in neat rows. She quickly glanced at various trinkets. Despite casually exploring many other tents with various wares for the past several hours, she saw nothing that she liked, but one thing stood out to her most of all.
Towards the back of this merchant's tent, a black pointy hat rested on the ground. Many Ozians wore hats of varying designs, often as a means to showcase their social status. For Theodora, a hat was not something that the young witch wore. But for some reason, this particular hat called to her.
As she gazed at the hat, she started to ruminate. As she did, all of the dark thoughts within her mind she had suppressed started to take over. How dare Glinda stand idly by while she was tortured and tormented as the guards in Glinda's army bullied her. While Glinda and the young witch were close, all of Theodora's hidden emotions and sinister thoughts about her older sister started to surface. How dare Glinda act so smug and refuse to help her! Thoughts of her torturing her older sister flashed through her mind.
Theodora liked the color black. While her father loathed that color and forbid any of the good people of Oz from wearing it, the young witch was in a rebellious mood. She not only wanted her parents to find out that she left the palace to go to this festival, but she also wanted them to know that she bought an article of clothing that contained a forbidden color. Black was considered wicked, but deep-down Theodora thought maybe she was wicked, too. While the young witch didn't think she was, this black hat would be a reminder of all the eternal suffering she experienced from those closest to her and to retaliate against anyone who betrayed her. The hat complemented the way she truly felt about all of the people who hurt her and abused her over the years. This included her parents, her tormentors in Glinda's army and even Glinda herself. The young witch made a promise that if a person left her good graces, then they would experience another side of her. And while she could not put that "other side of her" into words, the black hat perfectly exemplified what that "other side" was. The young witch stared so intently at the hat that she didn't even hear the old merchant ask several times if she needed help.
"Do you need help?" Startled, the young with turned her head to the old man who was now next to her. Theodora gasped and gently placed her hand on her chest. "Oh, I am so sorry…" She smiled. "Yes. How much?"
With a noticeable limp, the old man continued past her as he carefully picked up the hat and gave it a quick flick with his wrist. Much to the witch's surprise, it turned into a shorter and wider scarlet top hat.
"The hat was inside out", the merchant remarked. He handed it to the witch as he pointed at the red cap. "This is a riding hat, usually worn when on a horse. But it can be used for everyday wear. It is of the highest quality. If you want, I can also show you matching attire you can wear with it. And it would go extremely well with your white attire underneath…"
"Sure", the young witch replied. The merchant pointed with his finger. "It's hanging up right there. A red overcoat for chilly nights and dark pants." As the witch gazed at the attire, the merchant continued. "The clothing was made by hand from a fashion designer in Noland. Only one of its kind…" He then looked and smiled at the witch. "What do you think?"
She slowly nodded her head. "I want it."