Disclaimer you know.
Having decided it would be best to wait to see if the problem was only temporary, Dorothy had spent most of the rest of the day not speaking at all. Madeline acting as a proxy to funnel her thoughts through. She had been put off magic for the rest of the day. And really didn't want to experience any more of it. early the next morning however, she found herself in Glinda's room. Glinda had been waiting for her.
"I know you really don't want to do this, I don't either" she admitted as she opened the jar and produced one of the lollipops, "it is unfortunately necessary though."
"No alt-wenatives?" she asked curiously.
"a very powerful spell that will leave exhaling energy for the majority of the day." Glinda said sighing, "a spell that I haven't worked the calculations out for yet."
Dorothy sighed and took the lollipop, popping it into her mouth, she almost gagged. It was one of the sourest things she had ever tasted. she had tried a small piece of pink fruit out of curiosity for the proper taste, but this was pretty close. She had wanted to spit it out again but found she couldn't. she wasn't surprised by this. Though she wasn't entirely sure as to why.
"I did warn you." Glinda said giggling.
"Oh, here you are kitten." Alex said coming into the room, "I'd figured you wait until at least after breakfast."
Dorothy attempted to open her mouth to say something but found that she couldn't, that her lips were almost sealed shut. She looked at Glinda curiously.
"Oh right, she won't be able to say anything until she's finished that lollipop, I'm hoping we'll only need one" Glinda said, "but I don't know how powerful a spell the scepter cast."
"I suppose we'll find out." Alex said looking back at it.
"My aunt was very thorough with her spells, which I'm proud to say has mostly rubbed off on me to an extent." Glinda said sighing, "though I've never really tried my hand at any of her remedies."
"Did she write them down?" alex asked curiously.
"Of course, most magic users do" Glinda said
Dorothy looked around for Madeline, who came running up behind them for once with a pad of paper and a pen. She nodded and took them from her, writing something down.
"This is honestly unpleasant" alex read, "I'm sure it is kitten, the taste of magic in general must be horrible."
She nodded at this, taking a moment to glance in a small mirror. Surprised that her hair wasn't getting any brighter.
"Not enough energy to make a noticeable change." Madeline said, "it's still happening though." She says
The scepter pinged in agreement at this. This resulted in dorothy exhaling quite loudly through her nose.
"Look at the Bright side" Madeline said.
"there's a bright side in the immediate moment?" Alex asked curiously.
"She could go back to guessing when your birthday is" Madeline said with a giggle.
This resulted in a giggle from Glinda
"She still hasn't got that yet?" Elphaba asked coming in behind them with a tea tray.
Dorothy scribbled the word 'no' onto the pad and got a very sour look on her face.
"She usually just gets me a gift, but she's never actually known when my birthday was" alex said
"The fact that she hasn't guessed it, is honestly rather funny." Madeline said.
Dorothy rolled her eyes and wrote 'thanks for having a laugh at my expense' followed by 'considering the amount of laughs this game tends to get, I assume it's going to be the last thing I'll ever guess?' before turning the page and working on the back of it.
"I would have to answer that question with a yes" Madeline said nodding, "But that's usually how guessing games work, if it's an obvious answer, its usually going to be the last thing you guess that's right." She said.
They all nodded in agreement at this.
"I mean you've got three hundred sixty-four wrong answers, and one right one" Alex said, "so, one in that of getting it right on the first guess."
"The problem being that she feels she's missing something terribly obvious, due to the fact we always have a laugh at her expense about it." Madeline said.
"I mean, and no offense kitten, you kind of are missing something obvious" Alex said meeting her gaze,
"This said, like I said, if your speech hasn't returned to normal by the time you finish that one, I'll give you another." Glinda said resealing the jar and putting it on the shelf behind her.
"Again, I would have waited until after breakfast kitten." Alex said sighing, "Glinda how long does it usually take to get through one?"
"Well for me it took a few hours, but I'm not a fan of sour candy" Glinda said
"Neither of us have a real opinion on them" Madeline said, her eyes locking onto the lollipop stick, "However, there's sour then there's excessive"
"I know, it's almost as bad as the pink fruit." Glinda said looking at Elphaba, "We would know." She added.
"Oh, that sounds like something everyone should try" Madeline said rolling her eyes
Everyone who could, shared a laugh at this, dorothy just snorted.
"I liked Oscar's idea for elocution pills, improve your diction with easy to swallow tablets." Elphaba said with a smile.
"So did I, any suggestions on how to make it palatable?" Glinda asked curiously
"Well, you can't use sugar directly in the spell" Elphaba said "but what about a sugar paint."
"That could work." Madeline said, "you'd have to be very careful though and have the formula more self-contained, so the magic and sugar don't mix."
"I mean, condensing magic into pill form isn't exactly difficult." Glinda said going to her bookshelf "it's not a common practice, but it can and has been done, the capsules of poppy essence are made that way."
"This revelation coming as a surprise to absolutely no one" Madeline said with a giggle.
Dorothy took this time to write something out.
"Good point, we did wind up learning that magic and sugar don't mix particularly well." Alex said looking at the paper. "You wound up with your hair incredibly short and smell like molasses any time you work up a sweat."
"The effects of mixing the two are typically unpredictable, it starts with crystal grown but there's no telling what will happen after that" Elphaba said nodding
"The molasses congealed and stuck fast in her hair, requiring it to be cut short." Alex said nodding, "according to Glinda, the transport spell that sent us back shouldn't have been enough to cause it, however that was also around the time the scepter started doing what it's been doing."
The scepter let out several pings at this remark.
"But that's been something on your minds since it happened" Madeline said looking at it "that she did it deliberately"
"I mean, the fact that it started making its noises at that time seems to confirm that" Alex said looking at it as well, it remained silent.
"Hmph" dorothy said, none of them needed her to write anything down to translate this
"Right, anyways-ooph" alex said as he was pushed out of the way be a little round man
It was Ruggedo. Alex snarled at having been pushed away.
"Pardon the intrusion." He said, "but I was doing an audit, checking my brothers trades and transactions."
"And?" Elphaba asked curiously.
"Years ago, Glinda exchanged for a crystal, for the purpose of carving, and promised to give the remnants left over back to Roquat." Ruggedo said
Glinda looked at Ruggedo curiously.
"I don't recall agreeing to that, I exchanged a crystal for a crystal" Glinda said arching an eyebrow.
"You signed the document." Ruggedo said taking out a book and pulling out a slip of paper and handing it to her.
Elphaba took it up quickly, read it, then walked around Glinda and whispered something into her ear. She nodded and whispered something back.
"That is your signature is it not?" Ruggedo asked curiously
Glinda looked at it for a moment then took a magnifying glass from her desk.
"That is" she said after a few moments,
"Ruggedo, with respect, what is this all about?" Alex asked sounding rather annoyed
"Just collecting what is owed, my brother had a very generous heart." He said in response, "never really asked for anything back, that said, I feel like you must be worried about the slippers, those were a gift, I cant pursue them" he says
Alex nodded at this.
"I don't recall ever signing this, but I also know for fact if I don't return these crystal shards, you'll just find a way to steal the box they're in" Glinda said snapping her fingers.
A small box appeared on the desk in front of her. It looked rather plain, which at least to dorothy and alex made sense considering its contexts. She handed it too him. He tucked it under his arm, took the clipboard back, and signed off on it with a quill pen he produced.
"Oh, Ruggedo, we did have a question pertaining to the crystal." Glinda said quickly, "something that since your brother is no longer in the picture, I have to ask you about."
This caught his attention.
"What about them it?" Ruggedo asked curiously.
"We were wondering, after a specific set of events, whether or not this crystal was one of the kinds you guys use to create construct bodies." Glinda said.
"Why?" Alex asked curiously.
"I'll explain later, at the moment I'm just curious." Glinda said.
Ruggedo looked at them curiously, when his eyes caught Elphaba however, he observed that she was staring him down. He tucked the clipboard under his arm, took the box up, and went through the pieces. He pulled out a large, jagged piece. It looked rather like a four-pointed star. He held it in the palm of his hand for a moment. He then tossed it into the air and alex caught it on its trip downwards. Opening it up, he found it had taken the shape of a crescent. Alex held it up between his thumb and four-finger
"It would appear so, Roquat was probably well aware of this as well." Ruggedo said
"Unfortunately, he's disappeared from everyone's sights, and believe me I've tried to find him." Glinda said sitting back in her chair.
Dorothy scratched something onto the paper. Alex glanced over to it.
"I'm sure we'll find out eventually, kitten, but at a guess, I'd assume it's got something to do with the fact the scepter was able to produce the wand out of itself." Alex said looking at it.
The scepter let out a couple of pings, what this signified, they weren't entirely sure. They all turned their attentions back to Ruggedo after a moment who looked as though he was considering something. He then got a look that told them he had come to a decision.
"Well, now that all this has been dealt with, I shall leave you all to return to whatever it is you've been doing this morning." He said quickly leaving the room, vanishing shortly afterward.
Alex took a moment to look at the crescent shaped crystal piece he had in his hand still and held it up.
"I think he was hesitant to ask me for this back" Alex said, "he knows about the beast and what he can do."
Glinda nodded at this
"But why did you want to keep one of the scraps?" Glinda asked curiously.
"Because we know for a fact we cant trust him, we know he wanted to overthrow his brother but wasn't allowed the satisfaction." Alex said counting things off, "we know he had been planning to attempt another coup on his brother around the time he disappeared"
"And I really don't recall signing that." Glinda said again, "so it was either a rather impressive forgery, or the state of the time is really messing with things."
"With our luck it's something from both columns" alex said rolling his eyes
"I'll consult the book of records once we know how many lollipops this is going to take." Glinda said turning her attentions to dorothy.
Dorothy let out a sigh but didn't write anything down on the pad. Alex sighed and looked at the piece of crystal in his hand. There was something about it that made him curious. Several things raced though his mind at once as he pocketed the piece. He was snapped out of these lines of thought by dorothy writing something down. He looked at the pad.
"Is the tongue starting to go a little numb from this normal?" He asked as he read it.
"Unfortunately." Glinda said with a sigh, "once she's done it should only take a few moments for the feelings to subside"
Meanwhile back in the Nome Kingdom.
As Ruggedo returned to his kingdom, he immediately went to his private quarters and sealed himself in. opening the box he waved his hand. The crystal shards flew out and began to change their shapes. Some stretching, forming strings that seemed to weave themselves with other strands of different crystals. Others changed their shapes and sized and put themselves at certain points. Soon they were taking a shape. The shape of what could only be described as a belt. As it became completed, it began to glow. As it descended to the table in completion Ruggedo smiled.
"Soon, just not soon enough" he said, running his hand over the metal belt.
As he did so, he seemed to hear whispers. He couldn't make any of them out, but they seemed to bestow a purpose on him. All he had to do now was wait for the right time to strike. And the University of Oz would do the rest of the job for him. There was just one thing he had to do first, as soon as the moment was right.
