"It's almost time, Glinda! Come on!" Elphaba dragged her friend behind her as they approached the palace, clutching her invitation tightly. Glinda allowed herself to be pulled along, sharing Elphaba's excitement in going to meet the supreme ruler of all Oz.
"We're here to see the Wizard!" Elphaba presented her invitation to the guard at the front entrance.
"One moment, please." The guard passed through the grand doors, leaving the two outside to let their imaginations get away with them.
"What do you think he's going to be like?" whispered Glinda, anticipation making it hard to stand still. She bounced from one heel to the other.
"I don't know," Elphaba looked up at the amazing palace where the Wizard lived. "But he's going to be wonderful," The guard returned, and announced proudly:
"The Wizard will see you now!" Elphaba and Glinda chocked back a very fan girl scream and finally entered the majestic palace they had seen towering up over the city all day. There was a short walk down a green hallway, then another pair of double doors into the Wizard's throne room.
Darkness flooded in the room, lit by wavering torches spaced a tad too generously, leaving patches of frightening shadow. The walls were more of a muddy olive than a bright emerald, leaving a sharp contrast from the hallway. At the end of the throne room, the two could barely make out a dark shape floating above a chair. Suddenly, the shape came to life, and they realized it was a giant head.
"I AM OZ!" It bellowed, eyes flashing menacingly, turning and twisting as it spoke. "I AM OZ, THE GREAT AND TERRIBLE! WHO ARE YOU, AND WHY DO YOU SEEK ME?" Sound reverberated off of the walls, drowning rational thought in fear.
"Say something!" Glinda hissed, hoping her friend had some witty remark, as she always did. The green face seemed pale in the low light, and Glinda couldn't tell if Elphaba truly was scared as she was.
"I…I am Elphaba Thropp, your terribleness!" Elphaba called out toward the head, desperately hoping the Wizard wouldn't think less of her if she was afraid.
"Oh! Is that you, Elphaba? I didn't realize…" A much more normal voice shouted from the throne room. The head fell back onto the chair, lifeless, and a man climbed out from behind the great head. He seemed in his late fifties, but still had a wild spark in his eyes. His coat was gray, with a gray and black suit under the long jacket. He pulled off some dirty goggles and gloves. "I hope I didn't startle you, it's so hard to make out peoples' faces all the way back there." He said apologetically, controlling the urge to start from Elphaba's skin. For the past week, ever since Morrible wrote to him, she sent a few relatively accurate sketches of the sorcery student so he could get used to her unique tone. "So, let's see... which is which? Elphaba!" The man approached the pair, a spring in his step, offering his hand to Elphaba. She couldn't help but like his manner, the way he seemed to view everything so enthusiastically. "And you must be…" He looked at Glinda, who curtsied regally, offering her hand.
"Glinda. The 'Ga' is silent." Glinda said in her light and delicate voice as the Wizard shook her hand, despite the curtsy's convenient position to have him kiss it. Elphaba stepped a bit closer to the large head. Most of the components she could tell were metal now, colored lights for pupils in the shining eyes, gears visible in the eyebrows with close examination.
"I know. It isn't much, is it?" The Wizard joined Elphaba in studying the Oz head. "But, people expect this sort of thing. You have to give people what they want. The thing is, I hardly ever let people meet the real me, but this being special occasion…" The Wizard considered Elphaba, not exactly surprised she held so much power. Magic seemed to be a part of her appearance; the sharp contrast of green and black, the confident stance, the hat… More surprised from her looks was the fact she reminded him of someone he knew a long time ago, very intimately yet without really knowing who she was at all.
"I'm so happy to meet you," Elphaba looked from the Oz head to the Wizard, more relieved he was like a normal person, excluding his intense wisdom and power, of course. The Wizard smiled a kind of 'I knew it all along' smile.
"Well, that's good.'Cause that's what I love best: making people happy!" The Wizard bowed his head slightly. "I am a sentimental man, who always longed to be a father." The looked up again at the two girls, complete polar opposites. He liked the one called Glinda very much, but there was something about Elphaba he couldn't place.
"That's why I do the best I can to treat each citizen of Oz a son…" Noticing he was in the presence of two girls, he added on: "or daughter. So, Elphaba, I'd like to raise you high…" He took one green hand and lifted it; she didn't resist. "'Cause I think everyone deserves the chance to fly!" Elphaba giggled a little bit, remembering when she was very little Father would occasionally fly her around the house. She grew out of it quickly, but Nessa didn't, mostly because she was never higher off the ground than he chair was.
"And helping you with your ascent'll allow me to feel so…" He stared into the green one's eyes, trying to remember where he had seen them before…or had he? "Parental. For I am a sentimental man…"
"Thank you very much, Your Ozness, but I'm here…" Elphaba dropped the Wizard's hand and stood beside her friend. "We're…here to alert you that something bad is happening…" The Wizard waved his hand dismissively.
"Please, I'm the Wizard of Oz. I already know why you've come." Oh, please don't test me…don't test me… Glinda and Elphaba shared a brief moment of wonder, no question running through their minds that it was true; of course the Wizard would know of Animals forgetting to speak! It was stupid that they had ever thought otherwise.
"Of course, you must prove yourself…" The Wizard said slowly, hoping that if this girl was anything like Morrible had described, she would jump right up. Unfortunately, he was a tad disappointed at first. Glinda seemed more eager than Elphaba was.
"Prove yourself! Prove yourself!" She tugged on the long black sleeve and bounced up and down.
"But how?" Elphaba asked of her friend, hoping that she would settle down. Most of the spells Elphaba had cast were with a wand, which she didn't have. She needed her notes for big spells, and if she tried to cast an accidental spell, something might happen that would ruin any chance she had with helping the Wizard. Glinda stopped tugging and fell silent.
"Oh, I don't know..." the Wizard pretended to think, knowing full well what he wanted her to do. "Some sort of gesture, mostly for show…" He noticed Chistery move high in the ceiling beams behind the two enraptured girls. Stay out of sight, you stupid monkey… He willed it, not actually able to get it to do anything besides 'come' and 'stay'. Madame said that Elphaba liked Animals, so dress up one of his caged Monkeys, make sure she doesn't ask it to speak, and she'll be happy. "Something to test your adeptness… I know!" He declared, scaring Chistery back into the rafters with his sudden outburst. Good monkey, he thought. "Madame, the book!" Madame Morrible entered through a door in the side, emerald-clad and holding a book that seemed like it had been around for as long as time itself had.
"Madame Morrible!" Glinda gasped, barely believing her headmistress was in the Emerald City.
"I believe you're well acquainted with my new Press Secretary," The Wizard said, nodding to Madame Morrible approvingly.
"Press Secretary?" Elphaba said questioningly, doubts beginning to rise. Headmistress to Press Secretary was a rather large leap in social status.
"Oh, yes dearies, I've risen up in the world." Madame Morrible ruffled her collar a bit, green…feathers…shaking with the small shudder. Of course it would be bird, not Bird, feathers. The Wizard wouldn't allow it. Elphaba trained her eyes away from the swishing green tendrils. "You'll find that the Wizard is a very generous man. If you do something for him, he'll do much for you." Madame Morrible bowed to the Wizard, making sure to keep the book level.
"What do you want me to do?" Elphaba eyed the old book warily. It carried a sense of power and respect with it.
"Well, this is my monkey servant, Chistery. Chistery!" The monkey leaped down from the support beams in the ceiling, a red coat flying around him in his fall. "He looks so longingly at the birds every morning..." He took the monkey's paw like hand tenderly, trying to keep him from looking at the girls. There was something in the mute Monkey's manner that Elphaba might suspect, a kind of dumb expression.
"So the Wizard was thinking, perhaps, a levitation spell..." Madame Morrible put in, holding the book higher.
"Is that the Grimmerie?" Glinda asked, awe-struck at the book just below her eye level. She could see the cracks in the ancient binding, strange designs and chains of symbols embossed on the cover.
"Yes, the ancient book of spells and enchantments." She held out the book to Elphaba. She took it, and opened the heavy covers. Line after line of swirling letters filled the pages, occasionally with small diagrams or illustrations. A leg, a stack of gold coins, a tree, a small pair of bat wings…
"Can I touch it?" Glinda hissed, staring at the book with awe, wishing it was her holding the arcane book.
"No!" Madame Morrible hissed back, eyes cold with distaste at her less favored student.
"What funny writing…" Elphaba had stopped on the page with the wings, scanning the lines of ink on parchment.
"Well it's a lost language. The lost language of spells!" Madame Morrible said majestically, her voice echoing slightly off the walls.
"A kind of recipe book for change," The Wizard added more humbly. Elphaba stared closer at the book, déjà vu stealing over her. She sank to the floor, trying to make sense of this strange new understanding. These were familiar… they meant things… she knew what, but not how to say it, there weren't words in English.
"Don't be discouraged if you can't decipherate it, dearie. I, myself, can only read a spell or two, and that took years and years-" Madame Morrible saw Elphaba on the floor, poring over the book with a tense expression.
"Ahven… tatey… aven, tatey aven..." Elphaba began, the words feeling right as they left her mouth, manifesting themselves as sound in the air. She began slowly, picking up speed as the spell voiced itself through her.
"Oh, Chistery, what an experience you're going to have!" He took the monkey by both hands, jumping slightly to make the Monkey seem more excited. He screeched and smiled, pain beginning to flicker in his eyes. The Wizard continued, oblivious to the pain of his 'precious' Monkey. "Since once I had my own day in the sky,"
Elphaba continued, oblivious to the Wizard and Chistery. "Ah may ah tay atum…" The spell dampened the air, like a humid day's oppressive atmosphere.
"I know everyone deserves the change to fly!" Chistery screamed in obvious pain, twitching away from the Wizard and convulsing on the throne room floor. Elphaba snapped out of the spell's trance and saw what she was doing.
"What happened? What's wrong?!" Elphaba looked on helplessly, the excitement of the spell dissolving into terror.
"Nothing's wrong, it's just the transition, dearie." Madame Morrible said calmly, watching the Monkey indifferently.
"No, it's hurting him! Why won't he say something?!" Elphaba flipped pages quickly, not caring about the age of the sheets.
"She's actually done it!" The Wizard looked from Elphaba to Chistery, equally nonplussed as Morrible was. Chistery finally stood up, two leathery wings sprouted through the butler's coat. The Monkey shifted his shoulders, then climbed on top of the Oz head as if nothing had happened.
"No! Quick, how do I reverse it?" Elphaba looked up at the monkey, his pain dissolved but sorrowfully grotesque in appearance. She had come here to help Animals, not cause them to mutate!
"You can't!" Madame Morrible shrugged, examining the Monkey's new wings with admiration.
"W-What?!" Elphaba stopped her frenzied searching and stared at Madame Morrible with her calm attitude.
"You can't! Spells are irreversible!" Madame Morrible chastised, as if this was the most basic lesson of all. "I knew she had the power, I told you!" She shook her finger at the Wizard, who took it in stride.
"You planned all this?" Elphaba cowered back, distrust shattering her long-held faith in the Wizard's power like a mallet to glass.
"Well, you benefit too, dearie," Madame Morrible waved a hand at the student, her purpose fulfilled for now. "You benefit too."
"And this is only the beginning!" The Wizard jumped in, noticing the value of Elphaba's trust better than Madame Morrible did. "Look!" He pulled a lever in the wall, and the large tapestry lifted behind the Oz head.
A cage, easily fifteen feet tall, filled the back wall of the room. Inside were easily fifty caged Monkeys, obviously crowded, even more so by obviously new wings. They flitted around, grasping at the bars, finding out best how to fly. Elphaba felt her very core shaken by the cruel conditions these Monkeys were in. They were screeching and shouting incoherently, not a single intelligible word leaving their lips. Madame Morrible clapped her hands together excitedly.
"Marvelous! Won't they make perfect spies?" She said, turning to the Wizard for support in her idea. He nodded slightly, examining the Monkeys, impressed by Elphaba's spell work.
"Spies?!" Elphaba spat, her voice cracking slightly from the overload of emotion. Fear. Betrayal. Pity. Hatred…
The Wizard sensed his foothold loosening. She needs to be calmed down…otherwise we'll lose her.
"You're right, that's a harsh word... how about…scouts?" The Wizard squatted down next to Elphaba, placing one arm on her shoulder comfortingly. "That's what they'll be really. They'll fly around Oz! Report any subversive Animal activity."
Elphaba shrugged the arm off and scooted away, moving the Grimmerie with her. The simple book, when mishandled, that had causes so much pain.
"You can't read this book at all! Can you?" Elphaba's voice building from soft disbelief into an angry rage. "That's why you need enemies, and cages, and spies! You have no real power!"
"Exactly... that's why I need you." The Wizard stood again, opening his arms to Elphaba. "Don't you see? The world is your oyster, now! You have so many...opportunities." He looked to Glinda, forgotten in the corner in the excitement. (Sorry, Glin…) "You both do."
"Thank you, your Ozness." Glinda gushed, maintaining eye contact and hoping it was like telling him how wonderful he is. Wizards love that, after all.
"Since once I had my own day in the sky, I know everyone deserves the chance to-"
"NO!" Elphaba forced strength into her legs and ran, clutching the Grimmerie close.
"Elphaba!" Madame Morrible called after her student, worried that The Wizard would blame her for teaching her to think independently.
"Elphie!" Glinda cried, shocked that her friend would reject such a generous offer over Monkeys that probably were only monkeys to begin with. She turned to the Wizard apologetically. "I am so sorry, your Wizardship. I'll fetch her back!" She ran after her friend, heels clicking in the great hall. "Elphie, wait!"
"We must get her back. She knows too much!" The Wizard said to Madame Morrible commandingly. SHE was the one who had Elphaba under her care the past month or so, SHE knew her best.
"Don't worry! I will handle it," Madame Morrible left through another door to help fix the situation. The Wizard climbed back into the Oz head, and again the powerful voice rang throughout the hall.
"Guards, guards!" A squad of five of his elite Gale Force entered and stood to attention, saluting their spears to His Ozness. "There is a fugitive loose in the palace! Find her, capture her, and bring her to me!"
The guards saluted again. "Yes your Ozness!" and ran off to fulfill their leader's wish.
Gotta love scene splits...now you all are going to be driven crazy by the need for Defying Gravity! It's awesome. The scene and what I'm going to do with it. has a great libretto, how can I support it? Review, I love you all if you do. Keep reading and writing! -LostOzian