The Wizard reviewed the response from the Emerald City. Besides the day he reclaimed the city from Evanora and the day of his own trial, it was the night before one of the biggest and most important events of his life. Everything was riding on his successful outcome the following day in front of this "Magistrate" a witch he had never met. His future. Theodora's future. Even the future of Oz was riding on this outcome. And like all his prior trials and tribulations, an enormous amount of pressure was being placed on him and tension filled his body. The Wizard did not like stress, which would often adversely affect his sleep.

As he read each page, it became immediately clear to him that the council was entirely opposing his demands. It asserted that the Wizard's true and official role at the Emerald City was not a king or a ruler, but that of a mere guardian, not one who had official duties or responsibilities. Because of this, the Wizard needed the council's permission to appoint other high-level advisors of his own. He was prohibited from supplanting their duties, responsibilities and privileges. The council was not only former advisors to the late king but since Evanora's fall, they were now elected by the residents of the Emerald City. The document attacked the Wizard's character, claimed he was trying to seize dictatorial power for himself and wanted to appoint irredeemably wicked and unscrupulous candidates who did not have the requisite moral leadership to serve at the Emerald City. In its conclusion, the Emerald City asked the Magistrate to dismiss the Wizard's complaint, to uphold the council's determination that he was not fit to continue in his leadership duties and for him to be banished permanently from the city.

Dusk settled in as he sat on the chair in the main dining room of Theodora's castle. The sun had now set and the Ozian sky was filled with a wonderous deep blue hue sprinkled with many dazzling stars. The hallways of the castle were lit with numerous gas lanterns that filled the opulent rooms with a charming orange glow. Still, and despite the comfortable surroundings that the Wizard had grown accustomed to, an uneasy feeling of dread came over him. What if the Emerald City was right? What if this was an administrative issue that he overlooked? He tried to remember the first few days after Evanora was banished from the city. He never remembered being placed in a subordinate role. It was true that he would routinely go to the council and to Glinda for advisement and direction, but he never saw them as his superiors.

The sudden and soft melody of distant music broke his concentration. The noise was faint, but soothing. And he knew exactly where it was coming from. She was playing again.

He never knew that Theodora played the piano. She never told him. In fact, he had only learned about it earlier that day when he returned to her castle after spending the night at Mombi's. And when Daisy allowed him entry, who had grown quite tall since the last time the Wizard saw her, he heard dark and rich music emanating from another part of the castle. It was a sound that he remembered all too well. It was enchanting and romantic, yet vibrant and tranquil. He followed the sounds until he reached the grand ballroom. And he couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was the witch, her back turned to him, playing the same music that they danced to all those years ago.

"Theodora." This startled the witch as the piano playing abruptly stopped. The sun was still high in the sky as she turned her body to face him, her face started to blush from not realizing he was listening in. "Wizard!" She didn't realize that he would be back so soon from his trip. "I—" But she was interrupted when the Wizard beamed at her, his eyes lit up. "You play the piano? That's wonderful…"

"You like it?" The witch was taken by surprise at his compliment. She didn't think she was that skilled, even though her guest was quite shocked at how adept she was when striking the keys with her fingers and playing the tune to what he thought was near perfection.

"I love it", he said, still surprised by his unexpected discovery. "And you re-created the music from…from the music box, from scratch…"

She flashed him a faint smile. "Yeah…I've been practicing a lot over this past year."

"How long have you been playing?"

"Since I was little. The queen…I mean…my mother…taught me how to play. And Harriet encouraged me to continue playing after you left last year, especially when I was feeling stressed."

"Harriet? Who's Harriet?"

The witch's eyes twinkled, and she gave the Wizard a bright smile. "Oh! She's my spiritual advisor! You met her the day you returned to my castle!"

"Spiritual advisor?"

"Yes! She helps me when I'm going through problems! When I'm angry, lonely or sad. She's so wonderful, Wizard!"

Her smile disappeared as her eyes studied him anxiously. Her guest was used to seeing and anticipating the sudden and abrupt change in Theodora's emotions and facial affect. She wanted to ask him something, but she didn't know how. "Wizard…", she said in hushed tones. "Can…can Harriet come with me to the Emerald City? Please…" She gazed upon him with bated breath as she normally did when she asked him important questions, but he already knew the answer.

"Of course you can!" Her eyes twinkled like they normally did when she beamed at him and looked relieved. She then became serious once more. "Come, Wizard! You must be hungry. I want you to tell me all about your trip." But as she was about to walk past him, the Wizard held out his hands and gestured for her to stay.

"Actually, and if you don't mind, I would love to hear more of your piano playing. Are there any other melodies you know?"

And for the remainder of the afternoon, the witch played numerous Ozian songs, from the Ozian Spangled Banner—the Wizard knew that one—to many others which he hadn't heard before. Even more amazing was the witch being able to deftly play all these songs by heart. The Wizard was truly dazzled by her, so much so that his jaw dropped at times from hearing her effortlessly play complicated chords. The witch's talent was quite extraordinary, and he kept showering her with compliments that made her blush.

After several hours of merriment, hearing this wonderful music and the Wizard's rich storytelling of what had transpired on his journey—with some bits magnified and exaggerated since he always loved to see her gaze at him with wonderous awe—the witch then broke the news that something came for him from the Emerald City earlier that day, which she placed on the dining room table.

The evening melody began to fade. And it wasn't long before the witch joined him in the dining room. "What happens if we lose tomorrow", the witch asked while she leaned over him from behind as he studied the Emerald City's response.

"I'll appeal to the Guardians", the Wizard said.

"And how long will that take whole process take?"

"Years…"

The witch lowered her head as her lips frowned. This is not something she wanted to hear. "What would we do? I mean, what would you do?"

"We have a path if we lose tomorrow, even if it's a narrow one. I'll just fight until I can't fight no more…"

The Wizard knew if he lost tomorrow that the road ahead would be long and difficult. If the Magistrate determined he did not have the power to appoint the Wizard's nominees, then he would be forced to have the council appoint theirs. This "hearing" was at 2PM in the Munchkin Country and the budget with the council's nominees set to be approved at 5PM, which did not give him much time.

Still, he would fight tooth and nail to nullify these unwanted appointments, but by the time he would be able to have his appeal heard, so much time would have passed. The Guardians were very busy in Ev, hearing appeals from across Nonestica. And even if the Magistrate's decision was ultimately reversed, it would be a pyrrhic victory. And if his suspension was permanent and he was banished from the Emerald City permanently, such a decision would be catastrophic. Would the Emerald City even remember his name by the time the Guardians heard the appeal?

He would fight for the witch, but would he even have the energy to fight for himself?

After eating some light fare, the pair started to get ready for sleep. As they made their way towards the bedrooms, the witch gently tugged on his arm, her jaw tightly locked. "Come with me. I want to talk to you about something I didn't want to talk to you about at dinner..."

"Theodora, I—"

"You can sleep in a separate bed later if that's what you want to do. But I need to talk to you about tomorrow. Something's been bugging me that I need to express."

He acquiesced and the pair entered the witch's bedroom. And every time he did so, he would always gaze at the intricate painting of his fireworks and hot air balloon. To him, what happened that night in the city seemed like it was only yesterday.

"Relax, Wizard", the witch calmly said as she went into her adjoining washroom to change. As she did so and closed the door behind her, her guest casually took off his pants, leaving only his undergarment and white button-down shirt. He propped himself onto her bed with a bunch of pillows and she re-emerged a short time later. "What are you thinking about, Wizard", she asked him as she started to blow some of the gas lanterns out, leaving a faint orange glow next to each side of the bed. She then plopped onto her side as she gazed at him tenderly. "Talk to me, Wizard. What's on your mind?"

"Tomorrow. What else?"

"I know it is. And that's the problem. It shouldn't be.

"Why is that?"

"Because you shouldn't have to go. I'm really bothered that you think you have to go."

"But Theodora, what other choice—"

She interrupted him before he could even finish his sentence as she was clearly high strung and anxious. "No, this is not fair. Why do you have to go and continually have to prove yourself to these people! You are the Wizard! It is high time that you start acting like one and treat others as such!"

"So, what should I do?"

"I don't know. But it's like what I said from the beginning, that you would be the best Oz that this land had ever seen. Now show it."

"How?"

"What do you mean how? By fighting and by putting all those who oppose you in their proper place!"

"What do you think I am doing?"

No, not that way, Wizard. You *know* which way I am talking about!"

"Theodora, no…"

This irritated the witch. "You see, there you go again!"

"Go again with what?"

"Doubting yourself! Not believing in yourself. Only seeing the negative in things. Come on, I'm shocked at this! At you! What type of Wizard are you?"

He looked at her with a frown on his face as the conversation continued to become heated. "Theodora, what do you want with me? You said you wanted to talk, but now you are arguing with me! And for what? I'm stressed out enough already about tomorrow! I'm also doing this for you! The last thing I need from you is a lecture…"

"I'm not arguing with you!"

"Yes, you are!"

"No! I am telling you that you are the Wizard and people should treat you accordingly! Not the other way around! Remember what I told you last year when you came to me? I said that you could rule here from the Emerald City and there would be nothing they could do about it. Because if they did try something, then we would exert our authority by force. You wanted to do it the peaceful way and look at what happened? You are back at square one now!

"Theodora, I—"

But she wouldn't let him get a word in, a stone-cold expression now clearly visible on her beautiful face. And if looks could kill, her eyes would be piercing through to his very soul. "Are you back at square one? Yes or no!"

Her face was mere inches away from his now. And despite her having a point, he continued to look upon her with aggravation and stress, which encapsulated the mood in her bedroom. The witch was edgy about the dangers they faced tomorrow, and she was filled with heightened arousal of what was possibly to come, things that she still believed were not even necessary. She was equally frustrated with the Emerald City, not only what they had and continued to do to the Wizard, but also the injustice the people there did to her. She was also upset that the Wizard was coming and going as he pleased and envious of who he was speaking to, even if she did not want to admit that to him or to herself. Despite the work that she had put into herself over the prior year, the shadow of her bad habits and dark traits still followed her. And despite the work it took for her to get to this point, those ingrained behaviors that she learned from her early childhood and formative years would never truly go away. They would be there like a serpent wrapping itself around her heart. Giving into them would include indulging in her emotional swings, acting overly angry or rageful for no reason at all and her persistent and unfounded belief that people close to her were going to leave, this time for good, and never return.

She would experience remission from these dark traits, but they would almost always reoccur. Even with her spiritual advisor's persistence, wisdom and adept guidance, she would now and only on rare occasions verbally act out against the Winkies, but her bad behavior was much more curtailed and contained. Still, dark emotions visited her at fleeting times, including envy, anger, hate, fear and rage. Stress would trigger these old habits and they would sometimes resurface in inappropriate times and in inappropriate ways, despite her self-awareness in keeping them at bay. In the past year, this was one of those rare times when she couldn't control her emotions, fueled by her pent-up frustrations and concerns at the Wizard's plight.

"No! I'm not back at square one, I'm—"

"Yes you are back at square one, Wizard! You want to be the ruler of the Emerald City again? Huh? Then use all your energy on those who anger and oppose you! This is what I've been telling you to do all along, but you don't listen to me!" She extended her arm and began to gently shove him on the bed with her hand.

"Hey! What was that for?" Instead of relaxing him, Theodora was doing the exact opposite. She was riling him up and increasing his stress even more.

"Aww are you gonna be a big baby now, Wizard? Huh! Is that what you are gonna do!? Are you gonna cry? Come on, what are you gonna do, Wizard? I pushed you! What are you going to do about it? Are you just going to sit there and allow yourself to be pushed around? Are you just going to take it? Or are you going to push back? Are you going to strike back with righteous fury and make those who despise you at the Emerald City rightly fear you? Or are you going to cower before these pathetic self-righteous whelps, just like you have been doing for the past four years?"

"No, I—"

But she still didn't allow him to get a word in as she became even angrier. "No? Then have the confidence to take what you want from them! Even if that means staying here and fighting for what you deserve! Take it! JUST TAKE IT!"

Instead of responding to her in the throes of this very heated and entirely unanticipated argument, the Wizard looked at her with simmering anger. After a moment of silence and sizing each other up, the pair decided to suddenly, and without warning, lunge for each other in a fit of burning passion, launching fiery kisses with their mouths, their tongues assailing each other in a ferocious assault and their breaths promptly and dramatically quickening. The Wizard began to ardently kiss just below her lips and when he reached her throat, one of her most sensitive erogenous zones, the witch arched her back and started to moan. And when he used his teeth and started to nibble hard, her lips parted, her excitement and anticipation grew, and she closed her eyes and snickered.

Acting on his urge, he used both his hands to rip off her white blouse, her only garment she was wearing, which only increased the frenzied and feverish pitch between the two. The pair then began to wrestle on the bed, the witch now entirely naked, with each of them trying to get on top of and conquer the other. The witch prevailed as she pinned the Wizard forcefully down onto her bed, right where she wanted him, and tore his white shirt buttons apart with her bare hands, revealing his chest. Using one hand, she pinned his hands above his head by the wrists and she used her other free hand to pull down his undergarment and then used her fingertips to squeeze the sides of his throat.

She positioned herself, released a gasp and closed her eyes as she fully enveloped him. The witch clenched her teeth together as she rocked back and forth and harder and harder on his member, the pair taking their bottled-up stress, inner tensions and pent-up frustrations out on each other. Moans, grunts and gasps filled the air as their bodies now desperately ached for satisfaction and release. A forbidden boundary had been crossed by the Wizard that night when he impulsively threw caution to the wind and popped the hidden and unresolved sexual undercurrent that plagued them for years. But for Theodora, the knowledge that the Wizard had finally succumbed to temptation after resisting her for so long only fueled her arousal. The witch herself was slowly approaching the abyssal cliff as her body stiffened and her toes began to curl. She bit her lower lip as she continued her sensual dance, the most sensitive area of her body now throbbing as it repeatedly rubbed along his pelvis. Pressure slowly started to build inside of her, an incredible sneeze that she desperately needed to release but couldn't, an intense tickling sensation that she was unable to scratch, a smoldering heat that needed a spark to ignite a massive explosion. She was on the periphery, desperately longing for succor, his own stiffness mercilessly teasing her insides and depriving her of the incredible satisfaction that she yearned for.

"I can't", the Wizard gasped between breaths as he closed his eyes, arched his back and his face contorted. The witch's lips parted, her eyes half open as she stared into space with intense desire, his passionate cries driving her wild. He wasn't wearing protection, and he didn't want to go over his own precipice. But it was the witch's continual moaning, her rocking back and forth on him with uninhibited abandon and her eyes rolling to the back of her head that drove him to the brink of lust fueled ecstasy.

"I can't", he repeated through his panting and groanings. He was trying to desperately stop himself from going over the edge, but his resistance only made the witch more excited. Fueled by her own insatiable hunger, she eagerly craved deliverance from this wonderfully searing buildup, an incredible torture he was inflicting on her.

When the witch unpinned his wrists, the Wizard could not restrain himself any longer. Surrendering to the peak of his lasciviousness, he squeezed the witch's hips with both of his hands and drove himself deeper and deeper into her. He couldn't hold it in any longer. He plunged her down as far as she could go onto him while he thrusted and stabbed into her as hard as he could.

"I can't!", he loudly roared as he was forced off the cliff by his own primal urges.

"FUCKING COME!", the witch cried out in passion as she shut her eyes tight and arched her back, the pair fully caving to their own carnal desires.

The Wizard's animalistic grunts drove Theodora over the edge and into the abyss. Her own mouth gaped silently as a warm feeling filled her. She soared high in a free fall until she exploded into a sea of heavenly bliss. She found her voice as her loud and sharp moans matched the flow of her body, convulsing from wave after wave of delicious agony and incredible pleasure that repeatedly overtook her, each delivering a more intense and ecstatic feeling than the last, sending her into a quivering, trembling mess. She clenched her teeth again as her head bobbled and weaved in sync with her entire body. The witch used her fingers to slowly scratch her face as she squirmed and winced in ecstasy's tight grip, the radiating pleasure spewing from her orifice and touching every area of her body. The feeling was so unbelievably intense that she felt like her soul was being raptured and her brain was melting to such a degree that she could barely even remember her own name. And when yet another irresistible and enormous wave of euphoria swept over her, she was teetering on the verge of passing out. The pair's rhythmic thrusting slowed, each robbed of their own stamina but still rocking, grinding and pressing the assault as hard as they could muster until their climax reached a resolution.

The Wizard's hands slowly released her hips. Breathless, the witch discharged one last and final grunt as her limp body collapsed on top of his from sheer and utter exhaustion, the pair now trying to catch their breath. Not a single word was spoken as the minutes passed, the only noise being made was Theodora's own squeaks as the Wizard's fingertips lightly scratched her back and sent shivers down her spine. The pair remained silent, savoring this delectable moment.