Disclaimer: I don't own Wicked.
Eira had gone to check up on her grandmother because she hadn't come down for dinner. Her mother went to check on her before, but neither of them assured her that Glinda was all right. It was probably just one of those days where her grandmother would cry all day. She never understood why, and when she asked, Glinda wouldn't answer her. She'd just tell her that she'd be all right and to give her a moment alone.
Slowly, the blue eyed girl opened the door to her grandmother's room and saw that she was crying her eyes out, and Ellie was comforting her and saying things to her that Eira couldn't make out. The brunette almost announced her presence, but refrained from doing so. It was the perfect opportunity to look in that file cabinet in her mother's room. Carefully, she shut the door so it didn't make a noise.
When she got into her mother's room, she spotted the file cabinet and pulled on it. All of the drawers were open, but one. The opened drawers just held her mother's art supplies, which wasn't very useful. The one drawer that didn't open contained her mother's art. If it held the answer to her father, then it would hold the answer to everything, she thought. But where was the key? Eira knew she didn't have all the time in the world to look for the small key, so she did the next best thing: she went into her mother's closet and found the Grimmerie some old woman named Yackle had delivered to her. Apparently, her mother had left it back in Saint Glinda's Mauntery. That was shocking news she had learned about her mother.
Ellie had taught Eira the language of the Grimmerie since she was learning Ozish. Eira had never casted a spell before, but it didn't stop her from finding a spell to unlock something. Of course being only seven, she wasn't the best reader ever. But then, something strange occurred to her. She felt herself losing control of her body, and her blue eyes closed. She saw the outline of the figure from what she called, nightmares. The woman had no arms, but her smile seemed to be welcoming. Eira wanted to run away from her, but found that her body refused to. Was she terrified or simply entranced by this woman's delicate and fragile beauty? "Let me take over for a bit. I just need you to chant the words because I can't read them. I will do the complicated arm movements and help you unlock that drawer. I know you want your answers."
"Who are you?" Eira questioned her.
"You will get your answers soon enough, Eira." Without a second thought, Eira let the woman control her as she deciphered the words. She chanted the spell the woman had her go to. She let the woman into her brain so she would be able to read the Grimmerie. Within seconds, the file cabinet's drawer unlocked.
"Thank you," Eira said.
"Why didn't you run away from me this time?" the armless woman questioned.
"I'm trying this whole thing where I don't judge other people by the way they look," Eira said proudly. The woman gave a small chuckle and vanished from her mind. She knew what happened to her wasn't normal. Most people didn't have strangers enter their minds and have them chant weird spells from the Grimmerie her mother forgot to lock up after the previous lesson.
Eira slid the drawer open and took out stacks of folders with people's names on them. When she flipped through them, she noticed they were pictures of people that her mother must know because Liir, Nor, the Tiger Brac, Fiyero, her grandmother, and her father all had their own folders. She even had her own folder! She found one that said Kellan. That one, she knew, was of the man her mother wanted to marry for a couple of years now. However, Eira never met him, and Ellie refused to marry him for some strange reason the seven year old couldn't piece together.
There were no answers here. They were just pictures that her mother drew. Eira sighed and began to put the folders away. However, she noticed that there were two folders in the back she failed to grab. Taking them out, she noticed one said Elphaba and the other, Nessarose. She opened the one that said Nessarose first because quite frankly, she decided she liked that name better and she did love roses.
Eira gasped when she saw the pictures of the woman. She was the woman with no arms in her nightmares, dreams, visions…whatever they were. This woman must have some significance, she thought, or else why would her mother draw her? She noticed that there were some earlier pictures of the woman with arms in a wheelchair, though. Had she lost them in a cruel way? Had the Ixians chopped them off without a second thought, just like they had killed her father? It didn't matter, though, because when she looked closely, she saw the woman looked very similar to her mother. Ellie's skin was noticeable darker (she could tell from one of the paintings of this Nessarose). However, Ellie had this woman's eyes, nose, mouth, practically everything! And Eira had to admit, she looked a bit like this Nessarose, too.
Was she a relative? Her answers were confirmed when she noticed in the corner of the paper that said Nessarose Thropp. That was her last name and her mother's last name. She was indeed a relative, but who? Putting that folder aside, she grabbed the one that said Elphaba on it.
This woman had sharp features, was very thin, and seemed to be tall, but Eira couldn't be sure. As she flipped through the different drawings, she came across a painted picture of her. The woman was green. Eira hadn't noticed she stopped breathing until her lungs ached for air. "How is that possible?" she questioned to no one. The lady that wore all black had green skin, and Eira knew green skin was not common, and nobody had that odd coloring. Elphaba Thropp, the writing in the corner of the painting said. Why hadn't Ellie mentioned these people? Why hadn't Glinda? Furious that she knew those two were keeping secrets, she grabbed the painting of Nessarose and the painting of Elphaba and hurried off to Glinda's room.
Eira stormed into Glinda's room. She didn't care that her grandmother still seemed upset and her mother was still comforting her. She figured they were adults and they had to get over whatever problem they had. Eira thought she should be the one crying because she had been kept in the dark about two people in her family that seemed to hold the answers to everything. She still didn't know how she was related to her Great Uncle Shell who ruled Munchkinland, her Uncle Liir whom she doubted was even her uncle, her Aunt Nor who she knew wasn't her aunt. At least she knew her father had been adopted by Fiyero, making him her grandfather.
But she still didn't understand how Glinda was her grandmother.
"Eira, what are you doing?" Ellie questioned the angry girl. "Is everything all right?" Eira watched Glinda try to wipe away her tears.
"No, everything is not all right. I want answers now. I don't want you guys to tell me to forget about it or say you'll tell me later again. I want to know who I am. All I know is my name is Eira Galinda Thropp, and the only living blood relative I have is my mommy and my daddy's dead. I want to know more."
"Eira, this really isn't the time," Ellie tried.
"This is the time," Eira pushed for her answers. "Rhea knows more about her foster family than I do about my real family. I found these two pictures of Nessarose and Elphaba." Eira knew she had won when the shocked look came across the two women's faces. Ellie looked over to Glinda.
"I think it's time we explain things to her," Glinda decided. Ellie nodded and turned toward her daughter.
"Come up on the bed with us. It's a long story." Eira obeyed and took a seat on the bed between her grandmother and her mother.
"I want to know who she is first," Eira pointed to the picture of the armless woman.
"This is Nessarose Thropp. She is your Great Uncle Shell's older sister. Nessarose is actually my mother, the one who gave me life. She was born without arms, although I never learned why, but I think I'd rather not know that. I do know that her father favored her over her other siblings, though."
"So she's my grandmother?" Eira questioned. She could see the hurt in Glinda's eyes when she said this.
"Yes," Ellie nodded.
"Is she alive?" Eira questioned, afraid to know the truth.
"Unfortunately, no, she died."
"How?" Eira questioned.
"Let me explain who Elphaba is first, okay? This way you'll understand the story," Ellie replied. Eira nodded, eager to know the answers. "Elphaba is Nessarose's older sister. She's my aunt and your great aunt. She was the one who helped me get here to the Emerald City."
"Is she still alive?" Eira questioned.
"I think so, but we don't know," Ellie replied.
"How are you related to us, grandmother?" Eira questioned. Although she asked Glinda, her mother was the one to answer her.
"Honey, Glinda and Elphaba were practically married. Glinda's actually still in love with her."
"But Elphaba's a girl," Eira looked back and forth between the two adults.
"Right," Ellie said.
"But aren't girls supposed to love boys?" Eira questioned. There were never any stories about a woman loving another woman. The only ones she was exposed to was when a man and a woman love each other and live happily ever after.
"Life is not that simple, honey," Ellie said to her. "You love who you love."
"But I've never seen a woman with another woman." Ellie could tell Glinda felt a bit uncomfortable. She was probably afraid that Eira would see her differently.
"Society does not really look highly on people who are with the same gender-like a boy with a boy and a girl with a girl. But that doesn't make it wrong or weird. Yes, it is more common for a man and a woman to get married." Ellie could tell her daughter was confused. "Okay, you enjoy ballet, correct?"
"Of course." Eira didn't see where this was going.
"And your whole class consists of girls, right? You would say girls are more into ballet than boys, right?"
"Right," Eira agreed.
"But say that one day a boy joined the ballet class. Would you think that was wrong? Would the one boy be frowned upon?" Ellie questioned.
"No, I wouldn't think it's wrong. I would be happy that someone else took ballet with me. Some people might laugh at him," Eira said, thinking of Hallie and her posse. "But I don't think he'd have it tough for too long because people would get used to him being there."
"Okay, good," Ellie replied. "Think of a woman and a woman or a man and a man as the boy in the ballet class-a bit out of place, but in a good way."
"So if Elphaba did come back, you and her would be something like the two queens of Oz?" Eira questioned her grandmother who had been abnormally silent the whole time.
"In a sense, yes," the blonde replied.
"So you're in love with her?" Eira questioned. Glinda simply nodded. "I hope I can be in love someday."
"Hopefully not too soon," Ellie laughed.
"Can you tell me everything?" Eira questioned, and Ellie did. She told her everything she knew and experienced (except mass amounts of deaths). Eira listened intently, trying to memorize the whole story of her mother's childhood growing up in another world, how she got to Oz and met up with Glinda and Elphaba, the whole tragedy of the RMS Ozmania, and parts of the invasion. She felt the invasion was a bit choppy, but she had a feeling her mother wasn't telling her the whole story. She didn't want to know it.
"And that about sums everything up. Do you have any questions?" Ellie asked her.
"No, but I will say that," she turned towards her grandmother, "you're my real grandmother no matter what." Eira hugged her, and Glinda hugged her back.
"You are such a sweet girl, you know that?" the blonde said. Eira yawned. "I think it's time for bed."
"I think so, too. Come on, Eira," Ellie said and led her daughter out of the room after she said goodnight to Glinda.
Ellie tucked her daughter in. "Mommy? Why did Elphaba break her heart like that? It didn't seem very nice."
"Like I said before, Elphaba had lost her sanity. She didn't know what she was doing."
"She seems sane now," Eira replied. Ellie stopped what she was doing and looked at her daughter slightly confused.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I think I've been talking to her. I've been talking to her after ballet practices, actually. She's really nice. It wasn't until recent that I saw her skin color. She's always covered in black. She's the one who actually told me to look for answers myself. She doesn't know who I am, though, but next time I think I'm going to tell her and then everyone's gonna be happy!" Eira said.
"Don't say those things, Eira. Elphaba hasn't shown her face for seven years. I highly doubt she'd randomly show up now."
"But mommy…"
"Eira, you really shouldn't play with people's emotions like this. Elphaba is still a touchy subject, especially for your grandmother."
"But mommy, the lady has green skin!"
"Eira, go to sleep. And don't you mention anything about Elphaba. Got it?"
"Yes, mommy," Eira said defeated.
"Good, now go to sleep." Ellie said as she turned the light off and left the room.