"We're steady in the southern Vinkus, but not that steady." Salamaris pointed on the map. "Northern Vinkus is pretty heavily allied with the Wizard, maybe trying to make up for the fact you're here, Elphaba. We need a stronghold there to spread out from."
"There's barely enough of us to divide camp and still survive," Jacatu pointed out. "What with all the scouts we need for finding Animals and recruiting."
"How are the other territories?" Elphaba scanned the map, trouble spots marked with small red flags. The center of the map was a sea of red, one large flag directly in the center of the Emerald City.
"Gillikin is leaning our way, but hasn't officially declared support. Quadling is exactly the opposite, the City is obvious, and Munchkinland is silent as the grave." Salamaris examined the map. "It's like it's not even there. We haven't heard anything at all, Animal related or not."
"I'll go find out what Father is doing there." Elphaba picked up her broom and left the tent in a swirl of black skirts, careful that her hat was firmly upon her head. She passed through the camp with a purpose, noticing the familiar sights in the mobile camp. A fire was constantly going in the middle, an old blacksmith they found a few months ago melting down piles of cage metal into blocks for sale or use. They actually made very nice stools, if you could move the weight. A few people wandered around with mute Animals in tow, talking to them about everything they saw and passed, trying to get them to speak again. She could tell at a glance those who were rescued recently and those saved when the resistance started. Older ones were saying random words depending on what was the most effortless for them to say. Most of them usually called her 'Aba' the long 'a' sound easier for them to say than 'Elphaba'.
Elphaba passed these sights with barely a backward glance, and took off to the sky, staying low in the trees first so observers couldn't tell where she had taken off from. It was nice here, but there was business at home to attend to.
Nessarose sipped cautiously at the rose hip tea, the perfect blend of flavor and heat.
"Will there be anything else, Madame?" Boq bowed slightly, acknowledging Nessa's superiority over him. Something inside had snapped a while ago, and Boq didn't really care what she asked of him much anymore.
"I've asked you to call me Nessarose," Nessa laughed slightly as if Boq had just made a pun. His mouth didn't even move as Nessa giggled. "Remember?"
"Yes, Madame." Boq said stoically. He left the room, habit leading him to stay away from his governor, though he wasn't worried about what order she might provide next. Nessa watched him go sadly. All this while, and he still avoided her. She set down the tea and picked up a hand mirror from the dresser and checked her reflection. Delicate face, careful makeup, hair pulled back in a simple and neat bun, long black silk dress. What was not to love about an attractive face like hers?
"Well, it seems the beautiful only get more beautiful," A voice said from somewhere. Nessa dropped the mirror in her lap and spun the chair around in fright. Elphaba was standing, one foot still in her sister's wardrobe as she climbed out. "While the green just get greener." She shrugged her shoulders at the thought, then looked at her sister for the first time in about three years.
"It's good to see you," Elphaba said softly, studying the face of a girl that had become a woman all too soon for her liking. Nessa had always, in some way or another, been less like a sister, and strangely more like a daughter. Someone who needed Elphaba to look after her, to care for her, looked up at her to always have the right answer when she was little.
"What are you doing here?" Nessa demanded nervously, shrinking back into her chair. Elphaba was a ghost from her past, the only person that could ever have told her no.
"There's no place like home," Elphaba said innocently, like a little girl again. "Can't a person go home every once in a while?" Nessa remained wary, not sure Elphaba was here to chat. She had always been too busy saving the Animals of Oz to visit her sister. Elphaba sighed as she saw her sister was unconvinced.
"All right. The truth is, I need Father's help. I need him to support our cause."
"Our?" Nessa said reproachfully. Did Elphaba somehow think SHE supported her sister in running around Oz and opposing the Wizard?
"The 'Elphs' and I." Of course. Those idiots that ran around in Elphaba's wake, making noise and occasionally doing something worth noticing.
"That's impossible," Nessa said, for once glad she could tell Elphaba no instead of the other way around.
"What do you mean? All I have to do is ask, and if he approves-"
"Father," Nessa said cockily. "is dead. I'm the governor." She stopped to let the words sink in. Elphaba seemed lost for a minute, memories of time spent with her father flooding back, the good and the bad all mixed into one big pool. How could father be gone? It wasn't possible.
"What did you expect?" Nessa felt contempt and a strange joy in rubbing this fact into her sister. "With you getting your little green face all over Munchkinland with your great achievements: spelling bees, math competitions, everybody knew who the father of the great terror of the west was. They blamed him, Elphaba, for what you're doing." Finally, the grief of talking about her own father settled in. "He was killed by a mob in Munchkin Square, about a month after you left." She started openly crying, fond memories of her own playing havoc with her emotion. It was impossible to stay straight-faced in the face of her rival, talking about such things.
"Don't cry, Nessie," Elphaba knelt down to hug her sister. Nessa could feel tears on the green cheek as it pressed against hers. "We'll pull through. You and I…"
"No!" Nessa shoved Elphaba off of her. The feared Wicked Witch of the West landed with a thud and a bemused expression. "There never was a 'you and I'," Nessa said accusingly. "You deserted me at Shiz after you left! How can you call that a 'you and I'?" Nessa wheeled her chair, advancing on Elphaba. The green one scuttled away, being shorter than Nessa now that she was on the ground.
"All of my life I'd depended on you! How do you think that feels?!" Elphaba ran into a wall, and used it to pull her up, slowing Nessa's advance. "All of my life I'd depended on you and this hideous chair with wheels!" She finally stopped, Elphaba cornered two inches from the wall. "Drowning in bits pity to pick up, and longing to kick up my heels…"
"Nessie…" Nessa turned away from her sister at the use of her pet name. "Nessa, I'm sorry that I left you at Shiz! It's not like I could have said goodbye for good, I had no idea what the Wizard was up to when I left!"
"You didn't just leave me," Nessa said. "You left your studies, your friends, and leaving Father was the worst thing you could have done. He's dead now because of what you did!"
"Is it enough to say I'm sorry?!" Elphaba was almost pleading with her sister, not stooping to the level to push the chair and its helpless occupant out of the way. "I never wanted this to happen! I'm trying to help-"
"Help?!" Nessa spat, her face becoming an ugly sneer, unbecoming of her fragile features. "You can't even help your own sister, who needed you since the moment she was born!"
"Nessa, I'm not all-powerful! I don't know everything! There's only so much you can do with magic!" Nessa finally let Elphaba out of the corner, but only to turn her back on her sister. "It's not like…cobbling up a pair of…" Wait. It was. Elphaba knelt down and started to flip through the Grimmerie. She flipped past an owl, a hand, the bat wings, then finally she saw it. A simple human figure was standing, a crutch discarded, with a pair of glowing shoes. Cripples may walk, Elphaba scanned the spell, thinking of how best to cast it.
"What are you doing?" Nessa was intrigued. "What is that?" Maybe there was a spell for this…
"Ha be mun dah bay la fae na to ha bey mun dah bay han oh say… (I think…)" Elphaba started moving her hands, as if trying to bring the magic closer to her. Nessa wheeled closer. She had actually never seen Elphaba cast a spell this way before; it had always been with some sort of wand. Suddenly, Elphaba grabbed Nessa's feet and the jeweled shoes she had received from Father the first day at Shiz. She had taken to wearing them constantly since he died as a reminder of her dear father's love. The shoes started to glow, bright red a sharp contrast to the silver in the shoes. Nessa felt something in her legs…pain. A licking pain, like fire.
"My shoes!" She gripped the chair, squirmed, anything to relieve the pain in her feet. "It feels like they're on fire!" She backed away from Elphaba, not trusting her anymore to fix her problems. "What have you done to my shoes!?!"
"…la fae na to la fae na to ha." Elphaba raised one hand. Nessa's left foot shot out, pulled forward by some mysterious force, the shoe like a glowing ember. Then the other hand. The right foot joined the left. Nessa held on tight to the chair, her body almost horizontal to the floor. Elphaba raised her hands together, and Nessa was eased into a standing position. She looked down, her legs supporting her, good for something! The shoes glowed brightly like stars, red gems in a dark world. Suddenly, the glow faltered a bit, and Nessa's strength left her legs. She fell down, hard, her legs stiff. Elphaba rushed over to help her sister. Had the spell gone wrong? Did it wear off? Was something happening to Nessa and not just the shoes?
"No!" Nessa said in a commanding voice Elphaba had never heard before. "Don't help me," Elphaba was concerned, that even in her moment of weakness, Nessa was refusing help. She pulled herself up against the chair, her knees unmoving. Elphaba wondered if this was the spell's fault. The shoes glowed even brighter as she came to a full stand, finding her balance quickly and surveying the world from this new height. It was truly spectacular, like a bird flying for the first time. Nessa's smile could have been measured in feet as she looked about her.
"Oh, Nessa, at last…" Elphaba stood up as well, admiring her sister's elation at standing, reminding herself of being in the Emerald City. Well, before everything went wrong. "I've done what long ago I should, and from these powers something good! Something good…" Nessa tried walking a few steps, easing into use of her knees, constantly having to wave her arms to keep from falling over.
"Boq!" she shouted. Leaning on her dresser, she rang a little bell a few times. "Boq, come quickly!"
"Boq?" Elphaba questioned, looking to Nessa for an answer. Boq was here? The little bell couldn't have meant he was here visiting. And what had Nessa been doing so that nobody knew what was going on in Munchkinland?
"Boq! Come at once!" Nessa let go of the dresser and turner her chair facing away from the door.
"Nessa! What's going on?" Elphaba tried to ask her sister, but she just smiled and hid herself behind the wardrobe Elphaba herself had hid in.
"What is it, Madame…?" Boq opened the door, leaving him seemingly alone in the room with Elphaba. He saw her, then glanced around briefly for Nessa.
"Boq…" This was the first time Elphaba had seen Boq as well. He seemed older, more tired, less…alive. Something was terribly wrong with the way he walked, spoke, even looked.
"What are you doing here?" Boq said sharply, suddenly electrified with hidden energy. "You stay back!" Boq pressed himself against the wall.
"Boq, I'm not going to hurt you!" Elphaba tried to take a step forward, but Boq found a letter opener on a table and held it out at her threateningly.
"You're lying!" He shouted, years of pain and anguish he had learned to ignore seeping into his voice. "That's all you ever do! You and your sister!" Nessa lied? The Nessa Elphaba knew was too scared of being caught to lie. She couldn't even lie about doing her homework. Then again, the new Nessa was full of harsh resolve and determination. Could the new Nessa be capable of lying? "She's as wicked as you are!"
"Boq, what are you talking about?" Elphaba asked him, trying to piece together the answers herself but going nowhere. The letter opener drooped to his side, depression overshadowing his face.
"I'm talking about my life." He said simply. "The little that's left of it. I'm not free to leave Munchkinland, none of us are." The magic words. That's why nobody heard of Munchkinland anymore. Nobody was able to leave, to tell people what was happening. "Ever since she took power, she's been stripping the Munchkins of our rights... and we didn't have that many to begin with!" He pointed at the empty chair, honestly believing that Nessa was in it. She couldn't walk, so she had to be in it. He didn't even care if she heard him saying things like this. There wasn't anything more she could take away to punish him with; the only punishment she could give was to let him go.
"And do you know why?!" Boq continued, ready to say every little thought he had harbored against Nessa, everything about her that made him cringe and long to go to Glinda, even if she called him 'Bick' and barely knew he was there. He'd at least be away from her.
"To keep you here with me?" Nessa suggested from behind the wardrobe. Boq looked first to the chair, then turned as Nessa walked from behind the wardrobe. Her stride was almost normal, the shoes down to a dull glow. "because none of that matters anymore. Look," She pointed one foot, the glittering slipper matching her hopeful face. She was perfect now. Nothing could make him not love her. They'd be happy together, life perfect. Boq looked to Elphaba, barely believing the miracle before him.
"You did this for her?" He asked. This wasn't a wicked deed, this was good! There was nothing wrong with wanting to help someone else, and succeeding. This was the best day of his life! She didn't need help anymore.
"For both of us," Nessa said gently, taking Boq's hands in her own. Nessa was a short girl, even when standing, which made Boq the perfect height for her.
"This changes everything," Boq said, Nessa nodding eagerly. This was exactly like the night at the OzDust, everything perfect, people smiling, dancing, having a great time, and Nessa could finally join them on the floor, able to dance as well as the next person. "Listen, Nessa?"
"Yes?" This was the question! Nessa felt over the moon, her hands started shaking in Boq's steady hold.
"Uh, Nessa? Surely now I'll matter less to you, and you won't mind my leaving here tonight…"
"Leaving?" Nessa's smile remained frozen on her face. Were they leaving together? Yes, that would be so romantic. Finding a lovely shore along the river in Northern Munchkinland. Father had owned a cottage there, which was hers now…
"Yes... There's a ball that's being staged, announcing Glinda is engaged…" Boq continued, his eyes growing wistful to be there, to be the one escorting Glinda to her engagement ball.
"Glinda." Nessa felt her world collapsing, with the one person who kept her living the next day gone. It all made sense. HIM leaving to go to Glinda's engagement ball. Not: 'Glinda's getting married, so let's announce our engagement on the same day.' Or even: 'Hey, Nessa, let's go pay our respects to Glinda,'. He wants to go see Glinda.
"Yes, Nessa, that's right." Boq dropped Nessa's hands. She retreated to Elphaba, burying herself in the black fabric of Elphaba's dress and cloak. "And I've got to go appeal to her, express the way I feel to her." Elphaba held Nessa tight, her heart being broken all over again. Elphaba imagined the feeling, putting together little bits from her own life. Finding out she loved Fiyero. Realizing she'd never see him again. Discovering that he and Glinda were going to be married…
"I lost my heart to Glinda from the moment I first saw her. You know that." Boq said apologetically, as if she had just made a mistake and it was his fault, but she should forgive him and all would be well.
No. Nessa pulled her head off of Elphaba's shoulder. I didn't know.
"Lost your heart…" Thoughts swirled around in her head, bits and pieces of different ideas forming into a plan. "We'll just see about that!"
"Nessa, let him go!" Elphaba tried to tell her sister, but Nessa ignored her, advancing on Boq. If Elphaba could do it, why couldn't she?
"Did you think I'd let you leave me here flat?!" Nessa took another step forward, her legs starting to shake. The shoes glowed bright again, casting dark shadows in contrast to the red light. The light reached her face, adding read to the pale porcelain features in a frightening combination.
"Don't come any closer!" Boq tried to threaten her with the letter opener, but she ignored it completely.
"You're going to lose your heart to me, I tell you!" She felt possessed, only one thing mattered in the whole world and it was Boq. She would have traded everything: governor, home, money, even the magic shoes to have him love her, but it wouldn't be enough! There was only one thing she could do. "If I have to…I have to…" She searched for the best term, but the best she could manage was: "Magic-spell you!" She let herself fall beside the Grimmerie, open and lying on the floor. She scanned through the pages, looking at the pictures the way Elphaba would when searching for a new spell. A leg of turkey. A gold chalice. A long bone. A person holding a heart…That had to be it!
"Ah... Tum... Tah... Tae..." Nessa started, the words falling from her lips choppily. Elphaba could feel the power trying to be used, but failing. Nessa didn't have the talent to do this.
"Nessa, stop!" Elphaba tried to take the book away, but Nessa threw her off, keeping the book away, not daring to look up as she tried to interpret the words.
"What is she doing?!" Boq demanded, pointing to Nessa on the floor. Elphaba paled to a dark cucumber. She got a glance of the picture on the page. It was familiar, she had seen it before, and had guessed the spell was supposed to remove your enemies' heart. Nessa must have though it meant Boq would fall in love with her.
"You're pronouncing the words all wrong!" And this isn't the spell you think it is! The letter opener clattered to the floor. Elphaba looked up and saw Boq clutching at his chest, not able to breathe.
"NESSA!" Elphaba shouted, and her sister finally looked up. She screamed, panic filling her. Is Boq going to die? Was it her fault? Could anything be done? Elphaba rushed over to Boq, searching him for injuries, dreading that he had one she couldn't see.
"What is it, where does it hurt?" Elphaba asked calmly, trying not to think of what happened to people who didn't have a heart, and needed one.
"My…heart…" Boq's voice was weak, pain choking off his throat. "It feels…like it's shrinking…" The deed was done, and it was all Elphaba could do to try and make it a bit better. It was impossible to fix completely.
"Elphaba, do something!" Nessa was shoving the Grimmerie into Elphaba's hands, tears streaming down her face. "Quick! Reverse it!"
"You can't reverse a spell once it's been cast," Elphaba recited spiritlessly, trying to think of what could be done.
"Oh, I am so stupid!" Nessa wailed, turning from Boq in her chair and Elphaba. "If I had let you cast it-"
"I wouldn't have, it's unethical." Elphaba stood in front of the chair looking at Boq's paling face, blood lying stagnant in his veins. He didn't have long. What creature didn't need a heart? Everything did, anything that needed blood did-.
Wait. One of the Elphs had commented on a pile of scrap cage metal a few days back. 'Cold, heartless metal,' he had said. Metal. Nessa, I'm so sorry… She thought as she opened the Grimmerie to find the spell.
Nessa watched, helpless, as Elphaba flipped pages hurriedly, battling for Boq's life. She knew better than to interfere; if she did, he might die. She said a silent prayer to herself to any God or force in nature that would listen.
Save him. Please, just save him! She stared down at her feet, able to take her anywhere she wanted, but all she wanted was to be with Boq, wherever he was. He could be dead next minute, but even then she wasn't sure if she wanted to go on if that happened. She would want to just lie down beside his cold body and die with him. All her life, ever since Elphaba left, was rash and desperate. Boq wanted to leave, so she made none of the Munchkins able to, and he stayed by her side. He started to speak out, so she made all of Munchkinland silent to words against her, and he didn't say a thing. What more could she do now, kill every single Munchkin so he could go on living? There was no decree to end death, no law to abolish a person's demise. She wondered if he had wanted this, do die and finally be free of her stranglehold.
She's as wicked as you are. She glanced in the mirror on the wardrobe. The face she had called beautiful a few moments ago was uglier than anything she had ever seen, and hated herself. Elphaba of the West. Nessarose of the East.
The chanting stopped, the Grimmerie closed softly. Nessa turned, expecting some sort of report.
"He fell asleep." Elphaba said flatly, eyes full of sadness. What was so sad? If he was asleep, he was alive.
"What about his heart?" Nessa pressed, desperate to know if her wrong had been corrected, even if you can't reverse a spell.
"It's all right." Elphaba said in the same dull tone. "He doesn't need one…anymore." She slipped the Grimmerie into a worn bag- Nessa recognized it as the bag Father had given her for Shiz, as she received shoes.
"I have some unfinished business in the Emerald City." Elphaba said, needing work to take her mind off of the tragedy.
"Wait, Elphaba!"
"Nessa, I have always tried to do my best to help you." Elphaba turned and faced her sister one last time. "And I've done all that can be done here." She climbed to the open window, fishing her broom out from a rosebush under the window.
"Elphaba!" Nessa called after her. "Elphaba!" But she was gone, shot off like a black streak in the sky.
"Where am I?" Boq's voice was shaky, but not weak. Nessa drew herself away from the window and tried to look presentable. "What happened?" Was there a chance he had forgotten? A chance her spell had worked, despite the heart business? There was still a chance…
"Nothing," Nessa tired to sound light, like this sort of thing happened every day. "You just fell asleep, and then…uh…Aaaaa!" Boq had stood up with a great screeching of metal on metal, his entire body shining in the late sunlight.
"What is it?" He turned. Nessa could see rivets along his jaw line, keeping his chin fastened to his head. His nose was a funnel spout, but his eyes were just grey, human eyes in a metal body. He was terrifying.
"Boq! I'm sorry this happened to you!" Nessa felt her legs growing weak again, but the glow of her shoes brightened, and her legs stayed steady even as the rest of her body collapsed. Tears sprang to her eyes as she sobbed, "I didn't want this to happen to you!"
Tin eyebrows wrinkled, and he held out a hand to ask her why she was crying, but then he noticed the metal fingertips. He looked at his whole arm, legs, chest, felt his face, finally realizing his transformation. He screamed himself, coarse metal sounding along with the human shriek.
"Elphaba changed you!" Nessa cried. She tried to take a few steps forward, but Boq still backed away and ran, his metal feet clanging on the floor of the mansion. "It was Elphaba! It was ELPHABA!"
Whew. I think this is a record for me. Time wise, at least. And we have a Tin Man! W00t. And Nessa's still evil. And Elphaba has unfinished business in the Emerald City. I'm curious, so everybody, if you've read it, even if you don't have anything to say in the review, send me one that says 'Hi' or something, just so I know how Pop-u-ler this is. Keep reading and writing! -LostOzian