Chapter Ten:
Mrs. Sylvia Reynolds glanced up over the rims of her reading glasses, scrutinizing the young woman seated across from her. Maybe young was a bit of a misjudgment. The stunning redhead certainly appeared young but her blue eyes were clear and deep, stretching back miles to dark places Mrs. Reynolds couldn't imagine. And they were misjudging her, as so many had before.
As the most popular and effective interviewer at Marie Christine Domestic Products, Mrs. Reynolds stood a average five-five height, sported a wispy blonde-grey bun, and liked to steeple her hands. In a word she was unassuming. However, Mrs. Reynolds thrived on her underestimated appearance for it hid her pin-point discerning eye from potential employees. Mrs. Reynolds had been doing what she did for quite a while now and considered herself quite good at it. Many of the tushes that had sat in her hard wooden chair left and never got welcomed back as Mrs. Reynolds had seen through their patronizing attitudes to their true intentions and she didn't care for what she saw. The woman before her now had also made the lethal assumption that Mrs. Reynolds was reserved and the elderly interviewer couldn't wait to discover what motivated this set of pitiful eyes.
"Name?" She inquired, playing up a slight cough to emphasize her age.
"Jaclyn Mills."
The answer was curt but surprisingly respectful. Mrs. Reynolds inwardly nodded. Maybe she should give Ms. Mills a little more credit.
"Age?"
"22."
"Ah, to be 22 again. You are quite lucky Ms. Mills."
This was a trick. Her reaction could determine a great bit of her personality. There was a flash of those dark light blue eyes then a slight inclining of the head and a, "thank you." Huh, Mrs. Reynolds mused. Not bad.
"I see you have quite a reasonable set of qualifications, Ms. Mills. A masters in business management, skill in stenography, and a statistics emphasis on that major."
Ms. Mills nodded. If she was lying about her qualifications, she was a talented liar indeed. The kind of actress who could fool anyone. Ms. Reynolds folded her hands on the table, not bothering to lean forward and attempt to intimidate a woman about half a foot taller.
"What kind of position are you aiming for, Ms. Mills?"
The redhead blew a lock of hair out of her eyes and pursed her lips. "I don't have much in terms of true goals. For the moment I am merely searching for a job that I can excel in."
A good answer but a little alarming. An overqualified interviewee who had no interesting moving up the ladder or even finding a job to fit her talents? There was something she was missing here.
"Pardon me for prying but is everything alright in your personal life, Ms. Mills? Having no ambition is very uncommon especially amongst those looking for a job."
The woman visibly stiffened and for the first time her eyes flickered around in their sockets. A typical behavior of one about to lie. Mrs. Reynolds narrowed her eyes imperceptibly. Bring it on. The younger woman got her thoughts together and turned back to her companion, no longer smiling.
"My sister and I have been going through a rough patch. I moved recently to get away from her."
Slight twitching of the jaw and a solid stare. Mild signs of lying yet not enough to indicate a complete falsehood. It was highly likely that the statement was true but much of the story was omitted. It meant little to Mrs. Reynolds. Her question had been answered and a new feature of her subject's personality revealed. Mrs. Reynolds shuffled the papers on the table into an acceptable stack she would peruse later.
"Well, Ms. Mills, thank you for your time, we will contact you as soon as we can."
The sly witch stood and shook hands with her partner, before taking up her purse and exiting the room then the building. That last question had been completely out of left field and no fun at all to answer. Even the small two sentences she'd given felt like too much in her eyes. Zelena scuffed her heels on the sidewalk as she strode towards her apartment. Why would she tell a total stranger such personal information? The truth too! She had been doing that a lot. It was on her long list of reasons as to her loss against the Heroes of Storybrooke. Note to self: stop oversharing so your enemies can learn your weaknesses.
The bus ride and short walk she took happened too fast and she was upstairs in her room, sitting pathetically on the end of the bed before she knew time had passed. Zelena suddenly gritted her teeth and slammed her fist down onto the flowery bedspread. She had spent enough time feeling sorry for herself and doing nothing, ten years of it, in Oz!
Standing, she waved her hand towards the bathroom, a white towel appearing in her hand. She tucked it under her arm and marched down the stairs, following the wooden arrow with the word "Pool" etched in it, a centimeter deep.
A waft of heavily chlorinated air smacked her in the face with the opening of the door. The pool was thankfully empty, consisting of just a simple peanut shape dug into the floor and a hot tub off to the right. Zelena glanced back down the hallway, to make sure no one was walking around then closed the door behind her and waved her hands to fog up the windows. Another wave teleported her interview clothing, a scarlet blouse and black pencil skirt, to her closet upstairs and replaced them with a green bathing suit.
Even before her skin had become coated in it, green had been Zelena's favorite color. It was the color of her forbidden magic, food growing successfully in the garden, and the solitary spire of the Emerald city she could see over the heavy woods of the West. How sad it meant jealousy too, a stained body, and sickness. And the eyes of her soulmate.
Zelena shook her head and defogged the windows smoothly before slipping into the cold water, praying its embraced would wipe all traces of him from her mind. On the contrary, the temperature shock only heightened her awareness of her thoughts. She dunked her head then allowed her body to float to the surface, dark red rippling out around her face.
She'd been sent to meet her soulmate and find happiness like her sister had. Zelena giggled, holding her dripping hand up to her mouth. Another woman defining her happiness relative to a man, sad really. What was so unworthy about her that her attempts to gain her own happiness needed to submit to being provided by someone else?
She flipped over and swum down to the bottom, trying to remain submerged for a couple seconds then pushing off the gritty surface on the balls of her feet.
Long hair was really a pain, no one but mermaids could emerge from water with it looking any bit beautiful. She parted her hair only to see a set of eyes staring at her that hadn't been there before. An ageless woman with shoulder length purple hair was slumped in one of the rough white pool chairs. She wore a black tankini, little bows tied at the ends of the top, skimming over the scrunched up skin exposed by her terrible posture in the chair. A book rested in her open palms but she wasn't reading it at the moment. Her yellow eyes had locked on to Zelena.
The witch tensed, she hadn't even felt the other come in. She must have immense magic. They stared at each other in silence for a moment then the mystery woman smiled.
"Hello."
Zelena didn't answer immediately. "H-hi."
The smile got larger. "You are absolutely right, mermaids are the only ones who can pull off wet long hair although you do a pretty nice job of it."
Zelena flinched and her hands came up, as if she could protect herself physically from this assault on her mind.
"Who are you?" She inquired, voice low and hostile.
The other woman waved a hand carelessly. "No need to worry, witch. I'm a Augmenter user. You magic is more than enough to take me out if you needed to. Which you don't."
Zelena relaxed back into the water. Augmenter users were of a very elusive branch of witchkind, able to reach amazing heights of power but for only a limited amount of time per day. In fact, the system Regina had put Zelena on was quite similar to the daily lives of these witches. She couldn't quite trust the new person's words but there was no value in, and she lacked the energy for, destroying them.
"My name is Zelena. What's yours?"
It was awfully respectful of the other to not interrupt her when her current mind-reading capabilities must have already given her the information. The purplette inclined her head.
"Nicene, at your service."
Zelena nodded, processing the name. It didn't sound like any she'd heard of in Oz. Maybe Nicene was from another realm. She looked up as Nicene continued talking.
"I'm sure we both know why we're here and with magic like that you're unlike anyone I've met here yet. Who were you at home and where was that?"
Zelena lifted her head proudly and lounged with her elbows up on the tile of the pool. "I don't suppose you've heard of Oz?"
"Oz," Nicene stated, a note of incredulity in her tone.
Zelena waved brightly. "Zelena Mills, Wicked Witch of the West, nice to meet you." Ignoring the dumbstruck expression that appeared on Nicene's face Zelena went on. "Wow, that sounded really powerful. I think I'll introduce myself to my enemies like that in the future."
Nicene slammed shut her book and set it to the side distractedly, her wide eyes on the other witch. She pointed at her.
"You. You're the Wicked Witch of the West. The famed magic user, so powerful Rumplestiltskin himself could barely comprehend her power, the terror of an entire realm, commander of an army of flying monkeys?"
Zelena smiled genuinely for one of the first times since she left Storybrooke. "Hi. You'll find I'm not quite as amazing as legend states but it sure is nice to see myself through impressed eyes for once."
"Amazing," Nicene whispered. "I never imagined I'd be meeting you. And certainly not in these circumstances."
"What circumstances? With you reading a book and me swimming in a pool?"
Nicene giggled and Zelena felt another one of those genuine smiles creep across her face. It was so comfortable to not have to impress on someone who she was and to have no acts of goodwill expected of her. Nicene was pleasant enough and she had free time.
Speaking of Nicene, the woman seemed to be struggling to ask Zelena something but unsure whether she should. Oblivious to the knowledge of her companion Nicene continued to worry her nails for half a minute before blurting out, "What's this about soulmates?"
Zelena rolled her eyes. "You really should count yourself skilled, to be able to gather so many of my thoughts in one mind-sweep."
Nicene gasped. "So sorry, uh, Your Wickedness, I just wanted to-"
The sentence cut off as Zelena doubled up in laughter, half dunking herself. When she had all of the humor and water out of her she waved a dismissive hand at Nicene.
"You don't have to apologize. I don't say this about many people Nicene, but I like you. You have nothing to fear from me." She paused to contain herself. "And none of this Your Wickedness insanity. Never in my life have I heard a title so ridiculous."
Nicene's shrugged shoulders lowered back to their normal position. There was a comfortable pause where Zelena flicked water up from the surface with her feet and Nicene leaned back into her plastic chair.
"Really though, what is it about soulmates?"
Zelena sighed. "You sound like my sister."
"Your sister?"
Zelena shrugged. "The Evil Queen."
"T-the Evil Queen," Nicene stammered. Zelena ignored this and continued. "She decided that in order to find 'happiness' I have to find my soulmate. He lives here."
"Eww. And, weird. Wasn't she a major sorceress herself, why would she be interested in love now?"
Zelena blew out of her lips. "She found herself this perfect little forester who apparently loves her. He's completely transformed her outlook on the tragedy of life and has opened up her heart to the hope that love can carry the world to joy."
"Can you hear yourself?"
"I know. It disgusted me as much to say as it did you to hear."
"Well, how's the search going?"
"I met him yesterday." Zelena glanced at her fingertips, they were getting kind of textured. She strode through the water towards the side. She tried to summon her towel to her but found there was barely any magic left in her daily amount and just resigned herself to getting it by hand. Behind her she heard Nicene's responding question.
"How did that come about?"
"I almost got hit by a car."
Nicene broke into peals of laughter. "Smooth."
Zelena whipped around. "Hey, I don't want anything to do with him anyway. I just need to create a large enough disaster to return home and tell my sister a pack of lies with a sprinkling of truth then get back to my comfy prison mattress."
Nicene lowered her eyes. "Far be it for me to encourage you to follow the repulsive advice of your sister's, but have you considered just living out here? You don't have to deal with him and you don't have to deal with your sister. Magically created money can get you very far and very comfortable in this realm."
"No, I haven't. I don't really want to stay here, in this magic-less boring world. I have to get back to Storybrooke."
"Why?"
Zelena sighed. "When I'm completely honest with myself, I don't need to get back to Storybrooke. I need to get back to Oz."
Nicene stood and magicked over her own towel. "Why is that?"
Zelena paused at the doorway. "Sorry, you have to make it to friend status to know that. But rest assured, you're getting there."
Author's note: Idk how college works. Haha. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, I am very sorry about my spotty update schedule. That will probably only continue. Let me know what you thought, thank you.