So sorry about the delay! Urg, I feel so bad about it. My life is a bit of jumble at the moment with jobs and distractions and musicals and boys and the Justice League dying... But never mind all that! You have a chapter to read! Secrets of "the book" partially revealed!

Elphaba and Frexspar walked along the In Road, heading back to the church. An uncomfortable silence had engulfed the two, both of them unsure how to act in the other's presence. Elphaba walked a few steps behind, her arms crossed firmly over her body, hugging the box from Mr. Dillamond's shop to herself.

Glancing up at Frexspar's black- coated back Elphaba marveled that he hadn't said anything about the strange box she was carrying. She had left the post she was supposed to deliver in Mr. Dillamond's shop where it was most definitely ashes by now. Of course he had no way of knowing where she had gotten the box from, but to ignore it so completely? That was strange.

But something other than Frexspar's ignorance towards the box was bugging her. Determined to take her mind off of it and what had just happened, Elphaba focussed her attention on the black coat just in front of her. "Why were you going into town?" she asked abruptly.

Ahead of her on the path, Frexspar stopped midstride before turning to look at her for a long moment. He heaved a breath before saying, "I heard that the Humbtons, that Goat family who regularly attends mass, were being mistreated by some soldiers so I came to assist. Unfortunately, I was too late."

Something unreadable passed over Frexspar's face before he schooled himself back into his stoic silence. The two continued on, tension thick in the air. Arriving back at the church, Elphaba began to walk in the direction of the kitchen, preparing to get back to work, despite being physically and emotionally exhausted. Behind her, Frexspar's jaw tightened as he hesitated for a moment.

"Elphaba? I'm sorry about your Goat friend." Frexspar called after her, his voice much gentler than his usual growl. He cleared his throat awkwardly before continuing, "You can have the rest of the day off."

Elphaba's eyes widened in surprise before she muttered a quick thank you.

As she ran upstairs she heard him call after her in his usual thunder, "But I expect you back at work first light tomorrow!"

Scrambling up the ladder, she hastily shut the trapdoor behind her, heaving the trunk that rested at the foot of her bed over the top of it to ensure she wasn't disturbed.

Elphaba hurried over to her bed, resting the box atop the covers and sitting before it. The logical half of Elphaba's brain was unsure if opening it was the right thing to do, but somewhere deep in her mind, her curiosity was pushing her to open it, reassuring her that this was what she wanted. Undoing the small latch on the box, Elphaba pried open the lid to find a thick, leather-bound book inside. There were no markings on the cover to indicate a title, nor did there appear to be anything special about it.

Curious, and a little confused, Elphaba wondered what was so important about the volume before her that Dillamond had been so anxious to protect, especially when there were so many other wonderful books in his store that were far more valuable.

As Elphaba reached out to touch it, her fingertips grazed the book's cover, and without warning, a small shock flew up her arm. Startled she pulled away, the shock fading almost immediately into a dull tingling before disappearing entirely.

Hesitantly, she reached out again. This time, the shock came as less of a surprise as Elphaba grasped the book, lifting it from the confines of the box.

As her hands enclosed the book her eyes widened as the tingling sensation returned, spreading from her fingers up her arms and into her chest before splitting in two, nestling in the pit of her stomach and in the base of her skull.

Elphaba didn't know whether it was the strange feeling or just the stress of the day making her hallucinate, but before her eyes, words were appearing on the book's cover, as if being written by an invisible hand. After a few moments the word 'Grimmerie' was spelt out before her in large, gothic lettering.

A part of Elphaba's logical mind was desperately telling her to put this 'Grimmerie' down before something bad happened, but she was too drawn in by this new discovery to pay her conscience any mind.

Now even more curious than before, Elphaba quickly pulled open the cover, eager to see what strange and wonderful things it contained.

The cover fell open easily in her hands, almost as though it helped her lift its heavy leather, as if it wanted her to read its content. Just as she flipped the empty title page to begin reading, a piece of neatly folded paper fell from between the pages, fluttering off her bed to rest on the wooden floorboards. Bending over the edge of her bed to retrieve it, Elphaba's hold on the Grimmerie slipped, causing her to blink a few times as the tingling sensation abruptly stopped.

Picking up the paper she slowly unfolded it to see that it was a letter written to Mr. Dillamond in an erratic, yet neat cursive.

Dillamond,

I recently acquired this most curious piece from some travellers that passed through the Loch a few months ago. He said that it was a mysterious writing born of Lurline herself amongst the workings of the Time Dragon clock! Utter nonsense of course but it does give it an air of mystery, yes?

From what I have gathered it is extremely old, yet very well preserved, dating back nearly three hundred years. The cover had some dull, indistinguishable title etched into it that I cannot read. When touched it seems to gain a strange, and dare I say, life-like quality. It is best experienced firsthand then explained I am afraid. Although, I did show the book to my assistant and he did not seem to understand the fuss I made. The fellow even called me mad asking me what in Oz I was talking about, saying the book was completely blank. Determined to prove my sanity, I showed it to a select few more people and found that only a handful could see anything at all within the book, and even then, at best, squiggles of useless ink that one man described as childish scrawl. I must agree with him on that, from what I can see it is a very adequate description.

I'm afraid I can make neither head nor tail of the strange markings inside so I have decided to pass it on to you. Knowing your interest in the finer points of literature, I was hoping you might be able to find a good home for it.

Sincerely,

Ferian.

Elphaba slowly lowered the letter to look back at the Grimmerie. "Strange," she muttered to herself. This Ferian said no one could read the title, let alone the words inside, yet here she sat atop her bed, the word 'Grimmerie' emblazoned upon the book before her for all to see.

Even more confused than before, Elphaba once again picked up the book, this time taking a closer look at the pages inside. As she turned the first page, Elphaba saw the strange markings that Ferian had described. At first glance they did indeed seem to be childish squiggles that didn't even resemble letters, but the closer Elphaba looked, the more the tingling in her stomach and head grew, and the more she saw.

Childish squiggles soon formed letters that floated across the paper, joining together in seemingly random strings. The joined strings then seemed to form archaic sounding words in the same gothic print as the title. The words themselves wafted across the pages forming phrases before sporadically shattering into single letters that spiralled away to join others, the process repeating an infinite amount of times in several different places on the one page. If one page was such chaos, Elphaba dreaded to think of what the rest of the book was like.

Without really registering what she was doing, Elphaba began to pronounce the strange archaic words that appeared on the pages. The sounds, though foreign and unfamiliar, flowed freely from her mouth as though she had been speaking this language her entire life. As she said the words more and more letters floated across the page to continue the string of sounds she was speaking.

Outside her window, a man's scream echoed around the church.

Dun dun duuuun! What has she done?! Next update coming soon ;)

Why are you all so smart? The answer was Pygmalion! It's very good and definitely worth seeing if you can. Congradulotions to vinkunwildflowerqueen, heatqueen, Broadwaygirl21 and The Wizard Of Wicked!

This week's challenge is another easy one: Which musical is the character Old Deuteronomy from?

Reviews are love and happiness :)