Chapter 18
The Prophecy and the Price
We all sat at the enchanted table that set its self up for the lot of us. Evardo, Alec, Anthony, Julia, Argy, Ben and Glinda all together at last to discuss matters of grave importance. Suddenly the ground shook. Glinda tripped on her rose staff, with everyone watching.
"We haven't got much time, he's starting to lose patience," Glinda muttered.
"Alright then, were all here, tell us what you wanted to tell and we can continue our quest." Evardo said.
"Yes, that. Anthony I speak mainly to you since you were the first one I brought here, but I speak to all of the ones who hail from Earth. There is a reason why all of you have had a near death experience, and somehow lived. There is a reason why the same man who threw me out of the Emerald City when Elphaba came back the first time, you all know, after Dorothy thought she killed her for good. The same man then returned some years later, again with a second time resurrected Wicked Witch, and lastly, the same Thropp who rules Oz as we speak. I did not chose you Anthony because you had a nice head of hair, which I see is now looking more blonde tinted like Ozma, very interesting. I did not chose you because you know all about Oz either. I chose you because there was a prophecy." Glinda began.
Everyone raised their eyebrows and dropped their mouths. Their hearts raced, and they were hanging on every word. Glinda held a crystalline, transparant scroll, and unraveled it in mid air. As the crystal scroll extended, Glinda's red roses and gown which now slowly changed color from blue to purple and seemed alive against the dim candle light of the room.
"The prophecy is this. A boy, heart large as earth, arm strong as steel, and witts true as magic, will come to Oz in an accidental storm of winds in a house that had began to pitch. The first day his love will come, against the will of Lurline, and provide aid and comfort to the people and to him. The second day, an evil will return, brought with a blood line of the enemy, and again the lover will come, but she will not leave. The returned evil shall kill the new evil of stone, and lust for rubies and flaming emeralds. On the third day, the witch shall take the Rubies, and the Emeralds, but the golden sun, and the white treebranches will forever defeat the green enemy, and a friend that once was furry, will now live as humans. On the fourth day, an old hag of Ozma's past shall return. A brother of the blue shall smite the crone but on the fifth day, all turns are made. The oldest living in the blood line of evils in this land will be stopped, but there is a price that must be paid. The son of the nation shall reverse, and the blue shall re-establish the emeralds of the throne. The ghost will reveal the seed of the line, but for an age, all shall be good."
When Glinda finished reciting the Prophecy, all of them were silent. Evardo had walked out and moved to another room already, but the others, the ones from the prophecy, remained. Anthony the Blue Wizard. Argy, the former furry Squirrel. Natalee the lover that died from the Nome King. Julia the one who figured out the riddle of the Ruby Slippers by Natalee's Ozmist, and Lady Glinda back then using the Golden Sun Staff, and Anthony the Altar staff often described as tree like. Ben, one of the brothers of the blue Wizard. Alec the son of Ozma ruler of the nation. All of them understood it, and so far, all of it had come true.
The question that remained was how this mission ended. According to the prophecy, it ends with death, a reversing friend, and the victory of good over Shell Thropp, but with a price. How much will have to pay? Is the price death? Or is the price extra?
Julia was crying, and Anthony moved to Evardo's empty seat closer to her so he could hug her. The big wizard's hat he now wore covered her head too with the wide brim, as if even his clothing were attempting to protect and comfort her. Ben and Argy and Alec all had the same faces. They were processing the incredibly unbelieveable information they just recieved.
Alec was mainly thinking about who will take the throne when he is reversed, at the moment, only he and Glinda knew what that meant, but he wasn't concerned. He was more concerned and sadend about what was to come of him and Anthony. They had become good friends over the few months that had passed, helping eachother in the most treacherous of times. The dragon attack that shot fire bombs that spread like paint down on the fields, the mystic Death marshes, where it seemed all was lost, and all alone as Bluefire-Glinda could not follow. He looked up from his watery eyes into Anthony's across the table. No words were spoken as none were needed. Anthony loooked up to see Alec's mental realization, and returned the watery expression with sincerity.
Argy was feeling larger than life. he saw the prophecy as a declaration that the ones mentioned were heros, or some strange derivation thereof. Either way, chosen to clean out Oz of its Witches and necromancing villains. He liked the calling but didn't know what this meant. He saw Anthony however, and squeezed his hand, and pat it with the other.
Ben couldn't stop thinking about Mombi, the clone of his mother from Earth that was an ancient time Witch here on Oz. And about his role in Anthony's career in Oz. And about Shell's repeating camios and larger mover and shaker of history for Oz. When he saw Anthony hugging Julia who was crying in a heartbreaking and worried manner, he moved over to them and gave a hug from behind, and then handed Anthony his dragon staff, to show the fight isn't over, its ok to be scared, theres a lot of weird things being said right now, but it is not over. Argy agreed, nodding his head, and turning his face to a fierce promise, reassuring Anthony and Julia, and Alec. They were also somewhat happy too about the end result. "the blue shall re-establish the emeralds", sounds like a coronation of someone they all loved, and one that Alec already approved of. They were just afraid of how the road get bumpy until that happy ending is reached.
"Your hands might remember their calling, if they grasped your staff," Lady Glinda smiled tilting her head in her trademark way. She bade Anthony to kneel in his newly acquired robes from Glinda herself. She figured a change in character or at least, a realization of his true purpose, deserved an old friend and a new one. It was at this point that Glinda showed him his old friend: the Altar staff. She had forged a new one with the dragon staff he had been using, along with the snowflake and golden sun staves she once used. Keeping the enchanted green ball from the dragon staff, an added enchanted sapphire at the base of the staff (allowing to caast two spells simultaneously now) the white shaft, and tree branch shaped enclosure for the orb from the altar staff, and all the magic from all four staves, combined into otherwise the new staff was just like the old one, except now, the most powerful of them all, in all the land.
"You're right Argy, its not over, we can do this, and we will do it together, like we always have." I turned around to address all of them, as Glinda gave them all new weapons and armor as well. Ben's was Red, titanium armor combined with powerful rubies, the last remaining magical rubies fro the mines in the Glikkun Mine (remembering Ben absorbed Gillikin with Glikkus). Argy's was pure stone, with a layer of moonstone that lit an off white at night. Julia's was amythst covered armor, and Alec's was ebony; a dark black powerful defensive armor, dotted with powerful Emeralds, from the former Emerald Palace. All of us however, kept our crowns awarded to us after the Wicked Witch's grandmother, Mombi, was killed.
As Anthoyn was admiring his new staff, he found a gilded gate in the floor poking from underneath a rug. I moved it quietly as Lady Glinda was showing the rest of them their weapons and armor, so I could do it alone undetected. I tried opening it with hands but it only worked when I whispered a spell, waiving my hand slowly past the lock. When it opened, there were white and tan colored leather robes with sapphires studded on the shoulders. The neck had a big gold and emerald Oz brooch holding a peculiar enchanted metal yet light as a feather cloak made of some kind of iron. Glinda saw out of the corner of her eye as she fitted Ben with his ruby studded armor.
Glinda, could tell exactly what each of us were saying in our heads, and decided to give us all time to process it, and decipher its vague clues. She knew what more she had to tell Anthony, about Shell, and the only way to defeat him.