A/N: Hi! Sorry that it's been a little while. My computer had a meltdown and this scene was giving me a bit of problems. The next chapter should be up relatively soon as I know where I'm taking it. Also, to those that normally get reviews from me... as soon as my computer's fixed I'll catch up. Honest. :) Also, as you've probably noticed, I've decided to change the name of this fic. I had trouble naming it the first time.

"Binh, honey, why are you crying?" Merra squatted down beside him.

The boy attempted to wipe the tears from his face and slanted his head sideways to look up at her. "I'm… not."

Merra sat down beside him and placed a hand on his back. "What's wrong?"

"I just was thinking about Kass and how she's coming back tomorrow. And I don't want to send her… there." He paused. "What if they don't come back?"

"Nor and Kass?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Nor's coming back. She did it once and she can do it again. Plus," she said, nudging him, "now she's got you 'n Kass too."

He smiled weakly. "Tell me the story."

Merra settled back against the wall and pulled Binh into her lap. "See, when Nor was little—"

"Like me?" he asked.

"Yes, like you," she said. He smiled. "When Nor was little, she lived in a big castle. So big, you coulda put the whole palace inside. But one day a wicked old Witch came, and weird things started to happen." Merra paused just long enough for her words to take effect. "So they all were sent away. Nor and the princes and the king. But the weird things didn't stop. Nor got put in prison. And there was a big, mean tiger." Binh gasped as though such an event were surprising to him.

"But Nor knew what to do," she consoled him. "She sang a lullaby and the tiger fell right to sleep. Like a little baby. She escaped, and came to stay with us until the Troupe would stop looking for her."

"How come she never talks about it?" he asked.

"Because it's top secret, you goose! She can't just go telling everyone about all of her secret adventures."

Binh smiled wide, momentarily pleased with the story that he'd never really believed. "Thanks Merra."

She hugged him. "Anytime."

Raine closed the slit in the blinds and made her way to the table. She placed her head wearily in her hands.

• • • • •

She sat up in bed, suddenly, turning her head all around. Every morning scared her. It was as though, overnight, she'd returned to the mauntery in spirit and hadn't expected to wake up anywhere other than her old bedroom with the familiar stone walls and stark white sheets.

Weak sunlight trickled in through tht skylight like the uncertain beams of a candle in the dark. Lena sat up in the mildewed bed and pulled the cloak on over her head. The room was quite damp, as though the rough wooden walls weren't much of a match for the storm.

She rose and crossed to the small wood-burning stove along the opposite wall. Pulling the sleeve of the cloak over her hand, she gently tugged the door open. She hadn't really expected there to be any wood inside, but the charred black ashes disappointed her.

A stretch of golden light fell onto the soot-covered planks along the wall behind the stove. Lena glanced up at the skylight once more. The sun seemed to have returned from hiding.

"May as well get out and look around," she said, for no other reason than to hear herself speak.

She removed the lids from a couple crates, both of which were packed with wood shavings. By the third crate, she was both curious and annoyed enough to plunge her hand into the shavings to find what was inside. Her fingers met cold steel, and she pulled out a large metal drum that reflected the sun in thick lines along the wall. The letters embossed on its shiny surface suggested printing, but there was no ink.

The fourth box held stacks of yellowed paper up to her knees. The fifth surprised her.

Scarves. Nine of eleven of them, flowing translucent silk in greens and magentas and blacks with roses and swirls. She stumbled away from the crate.

"Fae… Elphaba." (This shouldn't be underlined... I don't know why it is)

Lena covered her ears and stumbled out the door.

She collapsed on the stairs, crying. No scarves, no Elphaba, no Fiyero, no cat, she thought. "Why is this happening?"

"I love you."

"So that's that then, and that's it."

Lena tripped down the stairs and out the door. She ducked beneath shadows and between figures, hiding beneath her hood. She wanted nothing more than to get away from the people, the voices, the noise.

She slid into an alleyway to escape the roar of the wind. Had Liir heard, too, the mother and father that had been cruelly ripped from him? Is that why he'd left the press? He never had told her, or anyone, about the city.

She blinked the tears back from her eyes, tried to talk some sense into herself. She was before a metal door covered in graffiti. She swallowed.

So it had been her, rushing through the crowds, oblivious to any watchers in the sky. Lena reached for the door handle and glanced around. Right before she slid through into the darkness, she looked up at the sky. Certain that she'd see something, anything, she could almost swear that she'd made out a face in the clouds.

"Name," a voice called from the shadows.

"Fae," she offered, her voice sounding much more sure than she felt.

Half a dozen hands gripped her tight. An anxious voice tickled the inside of her ear. "Don't speak. Come with me."