"You're late for dinner, young lady," Fiyero said the moment Nor slid into her seat next to her brother.
"Was out," she spoke between bites.
"Did you go out with Geram?" Fiyero could not help teasing her.
"I went to visit Gerrie," Nor replied. Gerrie was Geram's elder sister.
"Same house – OUCH." Liir glared at his sister as he rubbed his ankle.
"Gerrie told me that they will be going back to Glikkus for the summer. They are making a new wardrobe for her just for this trip. And they will be meeting lots of people and making lots of new friends."
"I like new friends," Irji said.
"Not this kind. They're going to marry her off and make her stay in Glikkus."
"You will be staying in Glikkus when you marry Geram next time," Liir reminded her.
"I'm not marrying Geram. How many times must I say that?" Liir stuck out his tongue at his sister.
"What's 'marry'?" Manek asked.
Liir turned to his brother. "You know, like Papa and Mama. Stay together, kiss kiss and have little babies?"
"Ew." Manek snorted in disgust.
"She's hoping that they'll ask for her opinion when the time comes." Nor looked down. "I'm going to miss her when she's gone."
"She's not going to get married so soon," Elphaba comforted her. "There will be an engagement first. And even if she gets married, I'm sure she'll come back to Vinkus often to visit her family and friends."
"Is that how you and Papa met?" Liir asked. "Parties, engagement and then marriage?"
"Well, not really. In fact, we didn't even see each other before the wedding."
"What?" Liir choked on his food.
"What a terrible idea," Nor said. "I'm so glad I'm not from that generation. You have to face that person every day. I mean, what if you hate each other?"
Fiyero patted Elphaba's hand.
"I agree. I'm so lucky that your mama and I hit it off from day one, but not everyone is so lucky. That's why we've agreed that we'll let you decide who you want to marry."
Many, many years ago.
Frex was outraged when Elphaba proposed that she went unescorted, but Nanny had to stay with Nessarose and he could not spare anyone or ask anyone else he knew for help. So he had to pay the driver to get a female relative to escort her to Vinkus, which cost a fair bit and did not please him the least. But the woman dozed most of the time which gave Elphaba some peace so long as she could filter off the snoring sounds.
She brought two pieces of luggage with her, the badly altered wedding gown and veil taking up one easily.
Before she left, Nanny sat her down and told her what to expect on her journey and on her wedding night.
"How did you know that when you have not been married yourself?" she had asked Nanny.
"Well, little frog. Mind your words, for you'll realise that everything I said is the truth when the time comes." The green girl rolled her eyes.
On the way to Vinkus, one of the wheels of the carriage broke, and it took them more than a day before it could be replaced. That was followed by another day of delay when the driver got too drunk the night before and had such a terrible hangover he was unable to get out of bed until one day later.
And that was most probably the reason why she was rudely pulled out of the carriage by a group of women the moment they arrived at Kiamo and she was identified as the one that they had been waiting for. The women crowded around her, her luggage passed from one woman to another as they brought her into Kiamo Ko via a side door. A woman told her before they entered that they would all have to remain silent once they had entered the place.
"Why?" she asked. But the rest of the women had entered the castle and no one answered her.
Once inside the castle, they were silent. They brought her to the biggest bathroom she had ever seen (not that she had seen many in her whole life, since the mansion that she had lived in her whole life only had two bathrooms) with a wooden bathtub. They tried to open her luggage despite her protestations, and Elphaba quickly directed them to the correct luggage. Between the five or ten or fifteen women, they quickly disrobed her and got her into the bathtub and scrubbed her quickly, with not a single comment on her verdigris. When that was done, they quickly helped her into the wedding dress in front of a mirror. Two women started to apply make-up on her when that was done, and they were so skilful she had no chance to protest before they were done.
The crack of a door opening broke her out of her reverie. They were ready to usher her out.
"Wait!"
They froze.
"I… " Her brain turned. "I need to relieve myself." The women huddled together. Did she need to get a majority vote before she could go to the washroom?
But luckily no one objected, and one of the women pulled her to what she thought was the direction to the washroom. She quickly grabbed her other luggage. The brief duration behind the closed door gave her the privacy to do whatever she wanted.
Elphaba was then dragged down a long corridor, the women following her along. At the end of the corridor was a door, and they all stopped. One of the women put a finger to her lips, not that anyone was speaking.
"What?" Someone pinched her. The woman repeated the gesture and opened the door.
The lacey veil obstructed her view, but a hand grabbed her the moment she stepped, no, the moment she was pushed into the big room. There were people inside, and they were talking, chatting, and fanning themselves in the dim and stuffy room. The door shut behind her, and a sudden silence fell.
Without warning, a group of women at a corner broke into a short chorus, and the woman next to her led her to the front of the room. There were rows of candles at the front. There were two men in front, one of them dressed in a flowy, flowery robe with a sash and standing so close to the candles she believed that his robe would be set alight soon.
"She's here," the woman who had led her so far said, bubbling with relief, and Elphaba finally realised what had happened. It was the wedding. They had started the ceremony without her. Oz, they actually started the wedding without the bride. She chuckled, and quickly put up a hand to stifle her laughter. But it was enough for the man next to her to turn. She could not see how he looked like, the veil made sure of that, but she could see that he was taller than her and broad-shouldered. The woman beside her patted her arm. Most probably she had thought that she was happy to be married. As if.
The man in front of her recited from the book in his book in an old language that Elphaba had not heard before.
She daydreamed as the priest droned on and on.
The three other wheels of the carriage should have broken off too. She'd like to see what they'd do if the bride never turned up.
She would like to see their reaction when they realised that the real bride was safe and sound in Munchkinland.
She sniggered, not realising that the groom was looking at her.
Fiyero was glad when he could finally leave the party. His friends and cousins had been teasing him the whole evening about his first night as a married man. He dropped by the kitchen, picking up some finger food and wine. There was a dinner after the ceremony, but he noticed how little the bride, who was seated at the other table surrounded by the sisters (who unfortunately still had to keep quiet until the day was over), ate. He was not sure if it was because of the food or due to her nerves.
He was about to leave the kitchen when his closest friends popped their heads in.
"Is that energy food for tonight?" Tibbett asked, beaming.
"Or are you trying to get her drunk?" Crope teased.
"For fuck's sake." And he thought that he would not have to suffer any more of their teasing tonight.
"He used the word 'fuck', gentleman. Yes, he's in the right frame of mind." Avaric punched the air with his fist.
"This wine is for you, Avaric." Fiyero tried to bring the bottle to his lips. Avaric grabbed it and took a swig.
"Thanks, bro."
Tibbett quietly took another bottle from the shelf and put it on Fiyero's tray before looping his arm with his.
"Come on. Let's get the party started."
They accompanied Fiyero to his room, exchanging jokes along the way until they were at the door.
"We're going for horse riding tomorrow. But you're excused. We know that you'll be too tired to ride after exercising all night long," Avaric winked.
"Party. Party. Yeah!" Tibbett and Crope cheered and clapped. And then they clapped him on his shoulders and left him alone.
Fiyero entered the room. And there she was, his bride, sitting on the bed, still in her wedding gown and the veil covering her face.
"I got some food for you."
His bride kept quiet. He put down the tray.
"I don't suppose they prepared you well before you came here. Today must be a strange day for you, rushing all the way from Munchkinland into your wedding and thrown into the midst of all our traditions. The priest said that the ceremony must start exactly on time or else the marriage would not be blessed. I was so afraid that you'll never turn up. You laughed when you finally saw me. Are you, are you disappointed?"
"I still don't know how you look like," she replied. "I can't see much in this veil."
Fiyero chuckled. "Well, you can take it off now." He stepped forward, ready to help her and then she suddenly stood up and there was a pair of scissors in her hand.
"One more step and I will not hesitate to bury this into you."
Fiyero nearly dropped his jaw. "Wait, you were planning to kill me? Your husband?"
She pulled off her veil, revealing her green face.
"I'm not your bride, Prince Fiyero Tiggular. Nessa is safe from your evil clutches."
She pointed the sharp end of the scissors at him.
"Don't come closer. I mean what I said just now."
Fiyero chuckled and shook his head. "No, you won't be fast enough."
To his surprise, she turned and pointed the sharp end at her neck instead. "Do you still think that I won't be fast enough? What do you think others will say when they found me dead? The prince who kills his bride when he realised that she is not the one that he wants."
And that was when Fiyero pounced on her. They fought for the scissors. Elphaba tried to push him off with her hands and knees. And suddenly he fell back and Elphaba realised what she had done when she saw the blood on the scissors.
"Fuck," Fiyero swore when he saw the gash on his arm.
She dropped the scissors and went to him.
"Oh Lurline, I'm sorry. Are you hurt?"
Fiyero looked at her incredulously. She was asking him that?
"I didn't mean it."
"What? You've been waving those scissors at me the whole night and you don't mean to use it on me?"
"I was just trying to – "
"Can you do something for me?"
She nodded.
"Get a towel from the drawer before I bleed all over the floor. My mother will kill me if the floor is stained."
But he stood up instead, walking over to the bed and wiped his bloody arm on the bedsheet.
One generation ago, the guests would be there to witness the deflowering of the bride. He was thankful that the tradition had been abolished, but that didn't mean that they would not be checking the bedsheets tomorrow.
"What are – oh." Elphaba blushed when she realised what he was trying to do.
"The towel? The maids will get suspicious if there's too much blood. There's some ointment in the bottom drawer too."
She came back with the things that he asked for, and quietly dressed up his wound for him. He knew from how gentle she was that she felt guilty about hurting him.
"So you were saying?" he asked.
"What?"
"You said that you weren't planning to use the scissors on me. So what were you planning?"
Elphaba chewed her lower lip.
"And you kept talking about 'my bride'. You are my bride."
"I'm not. I'm not Nessa."
"Nessa as in... Nessarose Thropp, your sister."
Elphaba looked at him. "You know who I am."
Fiyero burst out laughing. "Of course, I know who you are. You are my bride."
"I'm not your bride. I'm not the bride that you want, but I'm wedded to you. How messy is that? Am I giving you a headache?"
He couldn't help smiling. "No, not yet. Boq was right. You are interesting."
"Who's Boq?"
"A Munchkin I used to know from school. We still write to each other once in a while. He told me that I'll find you interesting. He said that you used to play together when you were young. He's now living in Gillikin with his wife Milla. So you haven't told me about your plan for the scissors."
"I'm supposed to scare you into leaving Nessa alone. You can't have her."
"Why?" She glared at him. "Fuck no. I don't mean that I want to have your sister." He raised his hands in surrender.
"Didn't your friend Boq tell you anything?"
Fiyero shook his head. "He's never big on details. He didn't even tell me that you have such a beautiful skin colour."
She rolled her eyes.
"So what about your sister Nessarose?"
"She's beautiful. She's sweet, and she's precious." Fiyero raised his brows, and Elphaba saw no reason to hold back. "She's born without arms, so she finds it difficult to walk properly, especially on uneven grounds. Someone has to be there all the time, to support her, to make sure that she does not lose her balance. I don't know how she'll survive if she's here."
He understood why she was so protective of her sister now.
"So you want to protect her from me."
"I want you to stay away from her. She'll be miserable here. She does not deserve to be miserable. I don't care if her name is weaved into the mumbo jumbo that the priest said during the ceremony. Nessa wasn't there. It can't be binding, legally or otherwise."
Fiyero smiled.
"Her name is not in the 'mumbo jumbo' the priest said this afternoon."
She smiled, and Fiyero realised that she had a very radiant smile. He was disappointed that he had to say what he had to say next.
"Your name is."
"What?" she laughed. "The priest cannot even get such a simple thing right?"
"No. I." Fiyero shook his head. "Listen. My parents said they are arranging for a marriage for me to strengthen the ties between Munchkinland and Vinkus. They said that they would ask the Governor of Munchkinland for the hand of one of his daughters. They didn't dictate which daughter. The Governor, your father, wrote back and said that his eldest daughter will be marrying me. We knew who will be coming. We knew who will be marrying me."
She stopped smiling immediately.
"You must have gotten it wrong. Your parents asked for Nessa."
"No, they didn't specify which daughter. They didn't know what is the Eminent and your father's plan for both of you, if either of you is betrothed to someone else."
"That's what they told you." Elphaba still did not believe him.
"That's what they did. I read the letter before they sealed it. If you have read a letter asking for Nessa's hand in marriage, then it's not from my parents."
Elphaba exhaled. Frex was the one who told her what was in the letter. She never got the chance to read it herself. But Fiyero had read the letter that his parents sent.
Frex knew that she would never agree to an arranged marriage if he had asked her. And he would never let Nessa leave his side. But Nessa would marry the Vinkun prince without hesitation if she thought that it would help her father and Munchkinland. Frex must have known that there was only one way she would agree to the marriage.
"Elphaba?"
She finally knew that she had been tricked.
Note : the rating of this fanfiction will be increased in the next chapter.