Oh, wow everyone. I am terribly sorry that it took me so long to update this. -hides in corner- I hope you all enjoy it, and I promise to try and get the next chapter sooner. Thank you so much for all of the wonderful reviews. I tried considerably harder to slow this chapter down, tell me what you think of it. :)
She was walking casually down a lane of the Emerald City, her auburn hair cascading in gentle waves to her shoulders. Stopping alongside an alleyway canvassed in shadow, she paused. She could make out the small figure of a child scrawling something across the already defaced surface of the wall. Slightly amused, she took a step towards the figure to read the new words now that adorned the brick.
The Wicked Witch is dead!
She felt instant heat flare up in her chest, and took another step into the alley. The boy gasped and turned sharply towards her before flitting off into the shadows. "Ma…Manek—?" she croaked out. "Manek!" She tried to hurry after him, but her legs seemed unresponsive, causing her to stumble into the wall. Angrily, she pushed off of the bricks, desperate to catch her brother before she lost him again. "Manek!" she called anxiously, stretching her arms into the darkness before her. Her voice dissipated with a sigh and was swallowed by the blackness.
The darkness suddenly gave way to guttering firelight at the edges of her vision. Gasping, she tripped and crashed to the floor with a noisy splash. Lifting her twisted form from the brackish water, she turned her head to find a decaying Boar carcass, crawling with maggots. Scampering away on all fours, she collapsed to the ground, squeezing her eyes shut tight.
After a moment she opened them to find herself in a deserted room. "Elphaba Lives!" was splashed across every surface, glaring at her incriminatingly from every wall. The room spun around her.
Suddenly she woke, gasping, and sat up in bed to find tears on her cheeks. Angrily, she wiped them away. "Tears don't change the past."
- - - -
She woke to the echoing peal of the evening bells, calling the maunts to devotionals. Stretching idly, she rolled over onto her skirts, halfheartedly yanking them from beneath her. She had only a moment to wonder why she had slept fully clothed before a knock sounded at the door.
She rose and pulled the door open to find Nor on the other side, her hair pulled back into a braid and a leather satchel slung over her shoulder.
Shaking off the remnants of sleep, Glinda managed a small smile before closing the door softly behind her. "Good morning Nor. How did you sleep?"
"Wonderfully." She smiled. "I didn't realize how much I missed the concept of sleeping in a bed."
"It's good to know that you've come to this conclusion so readily."
Nor tilted her head slightly, as though thinking about it. "Actually." She paused. "Do you think you could show me to where the stables are?"
"Sure." Glinda set off down the hallway, turning to face Nor. "Do you have a horse?"
"Yeah, I got her a few years back. She's my companion," she said.
"Well it's good to know that you haven't been traveling alone. Though of course," she glanced about, motioning with her hands, "the true traveler knows that the world about her serves as the best accessory."
At this Glinda chuckled to herself and Nor raised an eyebrow skeptically. "But of course."
"Oh, you must excuse my morning banter. Well, afternoon banter, I suppose. All the same."
Nor looked at her, rolling her eyes lightheartedly.
"Here we are!" Glinda cried, more excited than she had intended, at the sight of the stables.
Nor slipped her satchel from her shoulder and leaned it up against the paneled barn wall. "Laela…" she crooned slightly, stepping through the doors. "C'mere, girl."
A silver mare came trotting obediently from a corner of the stable, and Nor took her by the reigns and led her from the barn. "This is Laela. Lae, this is Glinda."
Nor held out a small handful of oats towards the horse, and Glinda gave her a small pat. "Nice to meet you, Laela."
The horse chomped thoughtfully on the oats for a moment before rising to her full height and stamping her hoof slightly.
Nor laughed. "I think Laela's about ready to leave."
They started off towards the gate of the mauntery, now accompanied by the soft clop of horse feet on the cobblestones.
"I'm glad that you came here to tell me," Glinda said softly, looking up from the stone path and meeting Nor's gaze. "Thanks."
"I'll find Liir. And we'll find Lena. I promise," she reassured her.
Glinda smiled. The air held a sort of foreign hope that seemed to clutch her in its grasp, making Nor's words seem not only true, but unquestionably logical and simple as well. "Yeah. I hope so."
Glinda stood at the gates of the mauntery, leaning up against the rails, watching the distancing figures of Laela and Nor.
She was glad to have met Nor. She seemed to exude a sense of passion and determination about her that was comforting and fiery. She reminded her of Elphie. But, who didn't these days?
Perhaps, she thought suddenly, that's why Nor lives the way she lives. She could remember the almost affectionate nickname that Nor had supplied in explanation for her years in the Emerald City. The "Elphaba Lives!" Campaign. Rather than avenging Elphaba's death, and the murder of her family, maybe she was also getting revenge for herself. For her lost childhood.
Liir too, she reflected. Nor was the only one left of his childhood that he had left to cling to.
Who have I got? She glanced up at the darkening sky before disappearing into the courtyard.
- - - -
The Monkey was lingering in the doorway, carrying with him a large, leather-bound book. "I wish you hadn't done that," he said quietly.
"I'm sorry!" she squeaked, jumping up from the stool in surprise. She dropped to all fours to search for the broken orb, but he stopped her.
"Don't, I want to show you something." He hobbled toward the desk and placed the heavy book upon its surface. "This is the Grimmerie." He turned around to face her. "Well, don't just stand there, come have a look!"
She began towards the desk, but paused, turning back towards the window. She tugged fruitlessly at the decaying shutters in an attempt to open them further and better light the room. Unsuccessful, she turned back and stumbled backwards into the wall in surprise.
The room no longer held the blank look of a place that had long since been deserted. There were candles placed sporadically about, gleaming onto the warm oak of the floorboards and casting deep shadows across a green face.
"Elphaba?" she whispered incredulously, staring in wonderment. Elphaba was leaning over the desk, poring over the deep violet pages of the Grimmerie. Chistery was no longer seated on the stool, but perched atop the desk, hunched over in a detached way. Elphaba looked up at him with rapt eyes, as though continuing a conversation.
"Say spirit." Chistery looked at her, his eyes unfocused.
"You are animal, but Animal is your cousin, damn you. Say spirit."
Chistery picked a nit off his chest and ate it.
"Spirit," she sang, "there is spirit, I know it. Spirit."
"Spit," said Chistery, or something like it.
Elphaba laughed and cried out, "Spirit, oh spirit, Chistery! There is spirit! Say spirit!"
"Spit spite spote," Chistery tried the words aloud, clearly unimpressed with himself. "Speared?"
A sort of invisible rain began to fall from the ceiling, distorting the images of Elphaba and Chistery singing their erratic song of spirit and sport and spots. Lena pushed through the foggy veil, crashing painfully into the stool and collapsing in a heap against the desk.
She found tears in her eyes and blinked them back, sliding gently to the floor. The room had returned to its dull gray, with no more promise of song and opportunity. Biting uncertainly at her lip, she pulled the Grimmerie from the edge of the desk into her lap and flipped the cover open.
The worn velour of the page was like a mystic night sky, silken scripts chasing each other across its surface like shooting stars. She ran her fingers lightly across it, half-expecting the words to wriggle free of their page and continue their dance against her skin. She pulled her hand away and found only a thin layer of dust upon her fingertips.
Slowly flipping through the pages, she found intricate drawings of half-beasts and glorious angels, encircled by trains of looping words. Curiously, she flipped to a section near the middle of the book and found a yellowing scrap of parchment, folded into a square. She pulled it out and unfolded it carefully.
Small, immaculate handwriting swept from the top of the paper to a small drawing near the bottom. Bringing the paper closer to her eyes, she found it to be a diagram of a monkey with wings. Around the drawing was a crude imitation of the writing in the Grimmerie, flowing with the same mystic quality.
Curiously, she muttered a few of the words aloud as they formed beneath her eyes. "De le asa ento pod voar…" She found herself feeling oddly expectant, anticipation thick throughout the room.
"Oh, what a load of tripe," she announced, angry that she had let herself get carried away. She reached to slam the book closed, but paused. Had she heard something?
Shaking her head and chuckling a bit at herself, she took the soft leather of the book's cover in her hand before pausing again. Was something clucking?
Suddenly a bright light illuminated the room, sending thick shadows scampering up the wall. Lena fell over in surprise, and a chicken came clucking past her quickly and out the open door.
Sitting up and rubbing her head distractedly, she looked under the desk at the orb now sending golden rays halfheartedly across the floorboards. "A chicken? What?" she muttered, glancing around. What in Oz is going on…
She crawled across the floor on all fours and pulled the orb from beneath the desk before standing. Though it was no longer emitting the eerie rays of light, it felt oddly warm beneath her palms. Sunlight poured through the glass onto her hands and onto the surface of the desk. Glancing through the half-shuttered window, she saw the sun adamantly hiding behind a wisp of cloud. She looked back at the orb and found that she could no longer see the tarnished golden stand through its glass. It was crowded with people.
Lena placed the ball upon its stand and sunk to the stool, leaning close. Inside were more people than she had ever met, some wandering idly in the afternoon sunlight and others rushing by in a flurry of skirts and coattails.
The view began to move along through the crowd, emerald buildings slinking off the edge of the orb and out of sight. The consistent speed of the movement told her that the view was focused on a particular person in the crowd. After a moment, she found it. A figure swathed in black, sweeping through the streets with the wind.
After a moment of watching the figure dart through the crowds, Lena blinked, pushing the panic from the pit of her stomach. She'd lost them! Searching anxiously, she found that the person had sidestepped into an alley, and the consequent stilling of their cloak had made them hard to distinguish. She caught the sight of a green hand reaching cautiously for a door handle. Elphaba. I knew it.
The woman glanced about quickly and up to where Lena sat in the sky before slipping quickly through the door. Lena gasped and moved her face closer to the orb, holding her breath so as not to fog the glass and impair her vision. It hadn't been Elphaba. It was her. What's going on?
A sort of dark wind blew through the ball as the door opened and the figure came creeping back out. They stepped into the street and their hood flew back from their face, revealing a woman's sharp profile before the picture faded.
Lena leaned back on the stool, her eyebrows knit together in confusion. Elphaba?
Okay, so I know that I completely left Liir out of this one, but he should have a bit of a play in the next chapter. Also it should be noted that a few lines of dialogue are taken directly from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West in this chapter. That's all. Review and tell me what you think of this chapter, for some reason it gave me a load of trouble.