"Wizard! Wizard!"
The Wizard was jolted awake by a dark figure at the front of his bed who was calling his name. The guest room he was in was pitch black.
"Please Wizard…can I spend the rest of the night with you?" He was very groggy, but as he rubbed his eyes, he recognized who the voice was. "I'm so scared…"
After the incident with the little Winkie girl, he decided to avoid Theodora for the remainder of the day. He thought that his guest bedroom would be a refuge, but when he later remembered that the room had no work desk for his blueprints, he just decided to end his work for the day and leisurely stroll around the castle.
As he did so, he passed by a locked door. When he asked a random servant who had been walking past him what this door was, she said that it was the Mistress' own personal storage closet.
"She keeps personal things in there, including magical devices and potions", the servant said. "But it's locked at all times." The Wizard nodded his head slowly as he whispered to her. "Have you ever gone inside?" She shook her head. "No, no one has…"
"That means the great fountain of essence is in there…" He flashed the servant a cheesy smile.
But the servant looked confused. "The fountain of essence? What's that?"
The Wizard looked at the servant with a confused expression of his own. Here was someone else who had never heard of this magical fountain before. On one hand, this was not a surprise. The Wizard knew that there were hundreds of different magical items throughout Oz, but so far, no one he met had ever validated or talked about this fountain. This included Glinda, who had a wealth of knowledge about everything magical.
However, something had always troubled him. Shortly after Theodora had departed from the Emerald City, the Wizard had asked Glinda why she didn't have a cure. "Something Evanora did made her that way", he cried out. "Why didn't you help her and restore her back to the way she was?"
To this, Glinda offered a rather obtuse answer. "Because it was Evanora's magic", she said. "And besides, Theodora had made her own choice when she sided with her."
"But that's not fair", the Wizard said as he started to raise his voice at her. "Aren't you a Good Witch", he retorted. "You should do something about this! You should help her! You should restore her!"
In fact, and in those few months after he became the Emerald City's so-called ruler, Theodora had become the center of many arguments between the pair. Deep down, the Wizard believed that Glinda was hiding something from him and that she was not being completely forthright about why she would let someone as pure, innocent and sweet as Theodora continue to suffer the way she did. Glinda had told him that Evanora had used her magic on her. But this story didn't make any sense. Wasn't this the Land of Oz? Wasn't this where anything magical could happen? The Wizard had seen many amazing things happen in the land, so he knew that restoring the witch's Goodness was an absolute possibility. Why didn't Glinda do it?
The Wizard wasn't stupid, and there were other things that were not adding up. He remembered many Ozians, including China Girl, tell him that King Pastoria would be able to grant actual wishes and do other supposedly wonderful things. Well, why didn't the king grant Theodora's wishes? The Wizard had concluded, backed by the witch's earlier statements to him about her father, that the king was not as good of a man as Glinda and all of Oz claimed he was.
Or was there something else that the Wizard was missing? Was the king justified in keeping his daughter perpetually locked away in her bedroom at the Emerald City? Regardless, he didn't condone abuse or cruelty.
To him, it almost seemed like Glinda was stubbornly refusing to help the young witch because of something that Theodora had done to her in the past. However, Glinda never spoke to him about what this was. Instead, he was left with more questions than answers.
After his leisurely stroll around the castle, Bella would later visit him in his room and asked if he wanted to have dinner with the witch, but the Wizard passed up on her earlier offer to join him in the grand dining room.
As he got his room ready for an early bedtime, he heard a gentle knock on his door. He opened it to Theodora, who was dressed in her evening gown. "Hi", she said. "I just wanted to say…" Her voice was hesitant, but he could tell that she had greatly calmed down from earlier in the day. "…I wanted to ask if you wanted any food. You didn't eat anything…"
Despite the way Theodora treated her maids and servants of the castle, she was always checking up on the Wizard's welfare while he stayed at her castle. This differed greatly to how the Winkies were generally treated. If one of her maids, servants or farmers did so much as to even look at her the wrong way, the witch's temper could become volcanic or even explosive.
From the Wizard's perspective, this was sad. If only she showed as much care, affection, tenderness, kindness and love to the Winkies that she showed to him or to that dastardly bitch Evanora, Theodora would probably be viewed as a good witch by the Ozian populace. She would probably even be adored by them. That she was viewed as malevolent and irredeemably evil was the real tragedy of Theodora's story, coupled with what little he knew of the witch's upbringing.
"I'm not hungry", he said. He was still upset over the way she had behaved towards him earlier and he was especially guarded after she had pushed him. "But thank you for asking", he responded impassively.
This made the witch nod her head in a rather timid manner, almost as if she wanted to ask him something else but did not have the courage to. "Have a good night", he finally said. "Have…have a good night", she replied, giving him a weak smile.
As he was about to close the door, she interjected. "Wizard!" He kept the door ajar as she asked him what she came there to say. "You don't want to sleep in my bedroom tonight?" She parted her lips as she usually did when she was hoping that his answer would be what she wanted to hear.
However, her question made him purse his lips. "We have a lot of work to do before we get to that point again", he said. This made the witch lower her head in disappointment. "I understand", she softly said. "Good night", he responded as he closed the door once more, but forgot to lock it.
The Wizard now sighed at her request. It was sometime in the middle of the night, and he was exhausted. However, because of how tired he was, he was not going to give Theodora a hard time. "Come on in…", he said reluctantly. He began to move the blankets so she could join him.
He turned his back to her as she climbed onto her side of the bed. Because it was so dark, he only recognized her by her voice and did not actually see what garments she was wearing. However, he did smell a fragrant aroma emanating from her.
As her shuffling ceased and he closed his eyes to try and go back to sleep, his attempt was interrupted by her quiet whispering. "Wizard…", she said. "Do you…do you hate me?"
He opened his eyes and turned his body around to her, not realizing how close she came to him. He rested his hand on his pillow and under his cheek as their eyes locked. "Can we talk about this tomorrow", he asked. "I'm really tired."
"I…I just want to know", she asked with bated breath. "Do you hate me because of what happened today?"
"No. No, I don't hate you", he said. "I don't think I could ever hate you." The witch didn't respond, but simply gave him a small smile. She then eyed his bruised hand resting on his side. "Let me see, Wizard. Let me see…" He yawned from tiredness as the witch reached for his free hand and held it with both of hers. "I am really sorry, Wizard", she said with much earnestness, empathy and candor in her voice as she began to rub his hand with hers. "Please forgive me." Her facial expression had gone from a smile to one of sadness. "Please, please forgive me." She then brought his hand up to her mouth as she started to kiss his hand repeatedly. "Let me make it all better…I…"
She stopped speaking when the Wizard took his hand that was resting under his cheek and placed it on the witch's cheek. As he did so, she inhaled through her mouth, closed her eyes and smiled.
"Let me sleep", he said as he yawned again. Her eyes still closed, she nodded. He turned around and now placed both of his hands under his cheek. He wanted to sleep. He just wanted to sleep.
But after several minutes of silence, and just as he was about to drift off, he started to hear quiet sobbing sounds coming from behind him. Oh no, what now, the Wizard thought. But he didn't have to wait long for an answer.
"I don't want you to go back to the Emerald City", the witch said softly through her teary eyes. "I don't want you to leave. Please don't. Please don't, Wizard. Please…don't…" He turned around and looked at Theodora again, whose lips were quivering and was now on the verge of tears. "Please…don't", she whispered to him again.
The Wizard didn't know what to do. After the incident with the little Winkie girl earlier in the day, he concluded that he had to go back to the Emerald City. Annie was right. If he stayed with Theodora, then the Emerald City would come, and he was certain that a conflict would break out. He did not want that to happen, and he didn't want anyone to die because of him. He had to go back.
However, he rationalized that his departure was always inevitable. Even if Glinda had sent him there and the confrontation with Agatha never took place, there would have always been an expiration date on his visit. He would have had to return to the Emerald City sooner or later.
But he didn't know how to handle Theodora's unrealistic desires and her capricious emotions. Should he just rip the band aid off quickly and leave in the morning without her knowledge? Should he spend half a day and give his one last attempt at persuading her?
And what if she refused? These thoughts bothered him, but he felt it best to put all these scenarios aside until the morning. He ultimately felt at ease in the belief that Theodora had quelled her sister's curse and that, no matter what happened, she would not transform into that terrifying and hideous green skinned creature he remembered her to be. Ultimately, he believed that Theodora had found a cure, which according to her, was readily accessible at the castle. No matter what he did, he believed it was safe for him to leave. Yes, the witch might be very upset for some time, but these feelings that she had would pass. She would get over it.
"Let's speak about this in the morning", he said tiredly. "Aren't you sleepy?"
"No", the witch responded as she rubbed her eyes with the back of her white nightshirt. "I don't sleep much. Witches don't sleep much. But you Wizard…you tend to sleep a lot so you must need all that sleep in order to recharge all that great and wonderful power you have…"
He gazed at her with narrow eyes. "So, what do you do the rest of the night while I'm sleeping next to you?"
She smiled at him. "I just stare at you while you are sleeping."
Well, that's comforting, the Wizard thought to himself with a hint of sarcasm.
"But I also hug you too", she said tenderly and lovingly.
"Well…", he finally said as he turned around and had his back to her again. "It looks like you young whippersnapper will be on guard duty again", he joked. "Because I need my sleep…" He then closed his eyes.
Wizard…", she whispered. "Let me hug you…"
As she was about to do so, he interjected. "Do you remember what I told you? About what to say?"
"Oh. May I hug you", she asked.
"Go ahead", he said.
She then closed her eyes as she grabbed him from behind as her legs wrapped around him. "Here…sleep on my chest", she said as she placed her hand on the back of his head and lowered his face to just underneath her neck. "Sleep on my chest…sleep…on my…" Her words then ended on her tongue.
"Theodora", he whispered, but didn't hear a response. I guess she was tired after all, he thought to himself. He tried to wiggle his way out of her grip so he could rest his head on a pillow but couldn't. Her strength had been a growing concern of his for quite some time. Instead, he simply took a pillow, placed it where she wanted his head to be and rested on it. After another five or ten minutes, he slowly drifted off to sleep once more.