The Wicked Witch of the East: Evanora's Return
[Part 2]
CHAPTER 16: GUARDIAN
-Emerald City-
*~ Firefly ~*
They only just sat down for breakfast when the attack started. Fork in hand, about to charge at her plate with vigour, Firefly was made to pause at the sound of bells ringing. Mister Wizard shared a glance with Miss Glinda before both shot up and out of their seats, half-shouting instructions as they made for the door.
Firefly was urged out of her chair by one of the servants and Finley was quick to rush over with China Girl in his arms, wings stretched out and ready to go.
"This way, please Miss. Quickly now."
Following the servants' instructions to head deeper into the palace, Firefly tried to keep pace, worry gnawing at her for her new-found family and the city.
"Where are we going?"
"The queen has instructed us to take you both to Lady Evanora. Her room has the best fortifications against magic at present."
The leading maid silences their questions with a look before the guards even have the chance to voice anything, another servant opening the door for them.
"Guard this room with your lives."
"Y-yes, ma'am."
Directed inside, Firefly goes first, followed by Finley, her mother already making her way over to them. Firefly leans into her touch when her mother places a hand on her head, watching as her mother frowns at the leading servant. "We are in the middle of an attack, shouldn't they be somewhere safer?"
"Is there a safer location than one with an established security team and a witch?"
Her mothers eyes narrow. "I see."
-Emerald City-
*~ Evanora ~*
Evanora listens as the flying monkey passes on instructions to the China girl and Firefly, eyes occasionally darting to her. He mainly speaks reassurances that only have half as much affect, but the children seem to appreciate it regardless. He asks them to behave, to stay in the room, to listen to her and to keep their guard up. Sharing an embrace with each of them, he turns to go, hesitates, then looks back at Evanora, nods, and flaps his way out the door after the retreating servants.
The guards pull the door closed behind him.
Silence falls over them, save for the sound of the warning bell still ringing in the background. She doesn't quite know what to do. The attack has her concerned, but with both her daughter and the little doll brought here to her, it's clear what Glinda expects. Especially after the monkey's nervous glances and requests.
"Mother?"
Evanora's attention turns back to her daughter and the doll clinging to the rim of her tunic. It's hard to imagine this China Town girl once snuck into the dungeons to free Glinda and her wizard from Theodora. Those halls were much darker than Evanora's current room, for one. At least this time, the little doll doesn't have Glinda's wand. "Yes, dear?"
Ozma looks up at her expectantly, eyes alight with hope and innocence that nearly has her flinch. Not for the first time, Evanora wonders how in the world her child has managed to remain this pure in a world she had helped to make so dark. "Will you tell us that story about Father, please? The one you started yesterday?"
Evanora pauses, apprehension washing over her. Firefly has asked about her father as one of her numerous questions. The story in question is simply something Evanora had fallen into, but to speak of such things in front of others is another matter. She has never done well with being vulnerable before the eyes of strangers. "Wouldn't your friend rather hear something else?"
"Your father?" The doll echoes, looking between Ozma and Evanora. "Glinda's brother?"
The name sounds affectionate on the girl's glass tongue, not unalike the way Theodora had once called out her own name. The child is likely a ward of Glinda's now, being one of the few survivors following the attack upon the Wizard's arrival. A year has past since the report found its way onto her desk, yet still she wonders for a moment if the soldiers she sent to help made it to the town before swearing themselves to Theodora.
It's irrelevant now.
What isn't is the girl's closeness with the current rulers of Emerald City and the apparent friendship held with her daughter. As much as Evanora would prefer to put distance between her family and Glinda's, she cannot bring herself to separate her daughter from people she seems so delighted to be around.
They have taken care of her, provided food, clothes, shelter and a safe haven. As a mother, she is in their debt.
"Uh-huh! Mother was telling me about the time Father tried learning fire magic!"
The doll hesitates, smile faltering. "Fire magic?"
Although much of Oz remained untouched, there are none in Emerald City for whom those two words together have not become the equivalent to speaking Theodora's name. Though her sister's reign was brief, it did leave a lasting impression on all of them.
"Right." Evanora claps, drawing their attention back to her. "Let's move away from the door and sit down for some tea. We shall decide on what story you wish to hear once we're settled, yes?"
The China girl's features shift between relief and caution, but Firefly has no such reservations. Instead, her daughter runs past her, making a beeline for the nearest chair. Evanora follows instinctively, catching both chair and daughter just in time to prevent both from falling over sideways. "Careful."
Firefly smiles sheepishly. "Sorry."
Evanora can only sigh, righting the chair and helping her accident-prone-human-shaped-ball-of-energy-disguised-as-an-innocent-child into a proper sitting position.
"You shouldn't charge at a chair like that." The little doll admonishes lightly, face scrunched up in concern. "You could get hurt."
"I know, but walking is just so slow! Besides! Mother's here!" Ozma pauses, a frown slowly taking over her smile. "I'm clumsy as a girl. Like with the tea-incident."
"That was an accident." Evanora reminds, rubbing her child's back in hopes of comfort. Of all Firefly's near-disasters, that particular one seems to have impacted her most. Evanora is uncertain how to ease her guilt, having already explained - several times - that she doesn't fault her for it.
Carefully making her way onto the nearest chair, the doll tilts her head with an echo of interest, "Tea incident?"
"When Mister Wizard came to visit with me, I knocked over Mother's teacup. The tea was still hot and splashed all over the table. Mother got burned blocking it so it wouldn't reach me."
"As I said, I could have used magic." She brushes back Ozma's hair, bending slightly to be eye-level with her. "Being burned was no more than a consequence of my own lack of appropriate judgement. Now then, didn't you want to hear about how your father ended up smoking us all out of the throne room?"
The excitement that overtakes Firefly doesn't entirely vanquish the guilt still in her eyes, but it does seem to push it from the forefront of her mind, so Evanora accepts it as a victory and tells the story, hardly minding that she must do so in front of the doll. It's preferable to being asked to sing, at the very least.
Thus she tells them both of the time Andahan took up the challenge of learning fire magic in order to encourage Theodora to continue with her training. She tells them of his failure to learn from his father, how next he went to his sister, but Glinda's flames could only heal and lacked any heat which in turn made Theodora attempt to test her own flames against the servants. If not for Locasta, the situation would have been far worse.
In spite of this, Andahan did not give up and instead turned to Locasta to help him and Theodora. Although Locasta could not summon fire, she was able to instruct them in the creation of a flame. Unfortunately, Andahan had little talent for fire magic. Instead, his fireball quickly turned to smoke which was swift to spread throughout the throne room, forcing Glinda to create the largest bubble she had been capable of at the time in order to shield them all. Evanora had been the one to clear out the smoke.
"Although Locasta saw it as a disaster, King Pastoria was most amused. He claimed it was the best trick to encourage we witches to work together. Of course, only being a child, Theodora took this as a challenge and declared a battle of tricks upon Andahan. Not wanting to disappoint, he agreed. Locasta, Glinda and I had our hands full in the month in which their little war was at its height. Most were simple pranks, but others were more complex. Fires would spring up in the oddest of locations, for example the vase of flowers in Glinda's room. Other times, one of Andahan's inventions would be malfunctioning, set to explode if not quickly subdued with one of our elements." She shakes her head, a fond smile finding its way onto her features despite the exasperation she felt. "Once, Glinda was on the receiving end of such an explosion while learning to bake the king's favourite pastry. She was banished from the kitchens until the cook was given irrefutable evidence that the oven's abrupt collapse was not her doing."
Firefly dissolves into a fit of giggles whereas the little doll sits primly with a hand masking her soft laughter. It's oddly warming to see and Evanora pauses a moment to appreciate the joy it brings her. A moment cut all to short by the commotion at her door.
"Stop!"
"Who a- ahg!"
Quickly rising to her feet, Evanora motions for the girls to remain where they are, adding a gesture of silence for additional measure. In the time it takes the door to swing open, she has already moved to stand between it and the young ones, her magic crackling softly in answer to her call.
The old witch who appears, with the room's guards lying motionless and ash-covered at her feet, only has time to look from one occupant to the next and attempt the start of an attack spell, the girls her mark. Green lightning arches through the air, Evanora ignoring the heat and burn of the restrictions enforced by the seals spread across the chamber. Her lightning hits exactly as intended, bringing the witch down to her knees in the doorway, one hand clamped down on the junction of her neck and shoulder.
Evanora calls another bout of lightning to her palm, glaring down at the sneering older woman. "Leave them be or this pain shall be your last experience in life."
"You Emerald City witches are infuriating!" Rushing to her feet and taking two steps inside, the woman lashes out with a blast of fire, but the flames are pale, their reach small and Evanora watches on as the room's magic restrictions set in, snuffing out the remainder of the puffs before they can reach her. The witch stares, indignation rising in her features as she pushes to her feet. "How dare you!"
Apparently, she can't sense the restrictions on the bedchamber. Even so, for her spell to take shape means that she is not to be underestimated.
"Leave." With a flick of her wrist, another bolt burns the air and forces the woman back onto her knees, panting. Evanora approaches her slowly, watching for signs of retaliation, but she seems to have spent the most of her energy getting inside the palace. Even so, it may be a ruse to trick her into letting down her guard. "Why did you come here?"
"I have nothing to say to a filthy traitor!" The old woman snarls.
Evanora raises a brow. She bends at the waist, forcefully pulling the witch's face up by the chin with her forefinger and thumb. "Traitor, am I? How so? I don't recall swearing allegiance to your master."
"You abandoned the east! Cursed Emerald Witch!" The crone spits in her face.
She manages to avoid being blinded by closing her eyes in time, but even so Evanora keeps herself still, forcing down her rising emotions. She cannot kill. Not if she wants to prove herself. Not if she wants to spare the girls the nightmare of charred flesh. She opens her eyes. "Is that all?"
"Your mother was a good woman! But you are just like that bastard that took her from us! You left us with nothing! We will take back all that Emerald City has stolen! Starting with the children of the east!" The woman lunges, aiming for her throat, but Evanora has been expecting something of the likes and reinforces her grip, forcing the woman's momentum against her to slam her head against the side of the doorframe.
"It is not Emerald City that took your children." Evanora has a fair idea of what the old woman is referring to. A sudden string of disappearances eight years ago, children of varying ages going missing over the course of a few months, all in the east. Half were later found dead, abandoned in forests and fields with their life force drained out of them by magic. The remaining ones made an appearance in battle under Orison, completely bereft of will. Powerful as he was, he could not have acquired - or kept - them on his own. "Whatever grievances you have with me, take up your concerns with the queen and seek your justice. Leave the innocent be."
"Bitch!" Fire rises around the woman, quick and volatile now that she's out of the restriction's range once again, but Evanora doesn't even blink. The fire burns itself out on her clothes, spluttering to an end against her skin, leaving the material singed and no more. The old woman stares at her wide-eyed, "How…"
"I fought in the war against the Witch Slayer. Only a fool would not prepare themselves to face his fire magic." In one swift motion, Evanora turns her around and hits her against the side of her neck, exerting only enough force to incapacitate. She calls to hand one of the decorative ropes used for the curtain tie-backs, turning it into a makeshift restraint with which she binds the witch's hands behind her back. After a moment's consideration, she calls the other to tie around the crone's ankles.
Once done, she glances back to check on the girls then turns her attention to the guards. Evanora tests each for a pulse, then carefully moves them into the room, leaning them against the wall. "Firefly, bring me the basin of water please." She removes the guards' upper armour piece by piece, ignoring the heat of the plates and the shake of her hands. It eases their breathing and allows her a better view of the burns they sustained. None are life-threatening, their armour having done a decent job. The shock in combination to the pain must have overwhelmed them.
"The water." Her daughter whispers from beside her, holding out the basin carefully. Next to her, the little doll is doing her utmost to hold up the wash-cloth brought in early that morning by the servants.
"Thank you both." She takes the cloth and drops it into the bowl, taking the entire set to reset it on the floor in front of her. "Strip the bed and bring me the thinnest sheet, we'll use it to make bandages."
"Yes!"
She leaves them to their task, focusing her attention on cooling and cleaning the burns. The two have a bit of difficulty bringing her the sheet, the doll staggering under its weight, but somehow they manage. Evanora uses one of the guards' swords to cut through the cloth, tearing it into strips the rest of the way.
The girls help her to bandage the guards' wounds.
"L-Lady Evanora? Miss Firefly? Princess?" The first guard blinks awake just as they finish, turning his attention between them until he settles his sight on the restrained witch. "Ah. I apologise. It seems she got past us." Shame is clear in his expression.
Evanora sighs. "No matter. The girls are unharmed. Rest while you can, then call for whoever can be spared to bring magic-restriction cuffs."
He sighs. "No need. I have a pair on hand." True to his word, he removes a pair of the requested restraints from his belt bag and holds them to her, not meeting her eyes.
Evanora can imagine why a guard at her door would have these, as well as which of the two witches who are responsible for keeping an eye on her suggested it. She accepts the cuffs wordlessly and clamps them down around the crone's wrists while checking her pulse. It remains steady, so she isn't nearing awareness just yet. Good.
Returning to her daughter and the royal doll, Evanora motions them back to their seats. She serves biscuits to them in an attempt to restore some peace, the tea having unfortunately gone cold a while ago. "I've been curious. What do you two usually do?"
The China girl smooths out her dress at the question, Evanora having caught her mid-glance back at the guards. "Uhm…"
"China Girl has lessons so we don't always get to play, but we read stories and play games like hide-and-seek. China Girl is really good at those because she's small!" Ozma jumps on the opportunity to share with her, perhaps eager to break away from the tension. "Sometimes Mister Wizard even takes us on picnics!"
Had her daughter told her this before Evanora had seen how the Wizard treated her, she my have been encouraged to seek a means of separating them, but his care for Firefly as a child new to people and the outside world is apparent. Evanora is grateful. Heartbroken, yes, as her husband will never have the chance to see his beloved firefly soar, but she is grateful that her daughter does not lack in those willing to love her. "Oh? What do you do on those picnics?"
"Do you remember the lanterns? That was such a beautiful surprise."
"The floating lanterns with the star patterns!" Firefly claps in delight, her face lit up in awe. "It was so pretty!"
"Lady Evanora."
The girls startle, jumping in place at the abrupt call from the second guard. Both are standing now, bowing at the waist. Evanora waves them on.
"Thank you for your assistance." The first opens.
"While I remain behind to continue standing guard outside, my partner will see to it that the witch is taken to the dungeons." The second continues.
"Once finished with that, I will be reporting the incident to the Wizard." The first adds.
"We ask that the three of you remain inside until it has been deemed safe."
Even now, Evanora can hear the bells ringing. The battle might not end for a long while yet. She glances at the girls, sitting quiet and hesitant. For now, they are her priority. "Very well. Although, if possible, I would appreciate you stopping by the kitchens before your return. I believe that the children's breakfast was interrupted." She never received hers due to the attack, but that's neither here nor there. Rather, she's more concerned about the medicine that Ozma needs to take every morning.
The guard nods, a soft expression on his face as he glances at the girls. "Of course, my lady." With that, the two pick up the captured crone and drag her out of the room, closing the door behind them and leaving Evanora and the children once again in silence.
A silence that seems to emphasise the pounding in her head more than abate it. The continued phantom burns in her hands are annoying as well, though equally as frustrating is the every-so-often trembling in her left arm that makes holding and carrying items a challenge. All three are mild symptoms of using magic in a restricted area, but she would prefer not having her attention swayed by it when she has more important things to tend to.
"Well, we've been interrupted quite a few times now yet we have only just started on our list of things to discuss. Any suggestions?"
Hesitantly, the doll asks, "Do you have any storybooks?"
"Oh, yes, please Mother! Will you read to us?"
"I'll see what I have on hand."
By the time the battle reaches its conclusion, it is well past midday and both Firefly and the little doll are fast asleep, curled up together in her bed with Evanora sitting at bedside in the chair which was once occupied by Locasta.
It's the second guard that brings her the news, but the first pokes his head into her room not long after with a message from the Wizard and the man's monkey flapping in the air next to his shoulder. She's reluctant to leave them, but serving girls follow the monkey and busy themselves around her room, more than half of whom she easily identified as being Glinda's subordinates.
The guard escorts her to the Wizard's study in accordance to the summons, but each step seems heavier than her last. Surely this audience with the current acting king is not in order to pass judgement. Not so soon after being attacked.
"Lady Evanora as requested, your majesties."
"Thank you." Glinda bows her head and the Wizard waves the guard away.
As Evanora takes in their tired calm, her eyes fall to Locasta, leaning back on one of the armchairs, awake. The Good Witch of the North has bruises and scorched clothes that linger with the thrum of magic. One of the servants did mention that she had woken up, but Evanora did not think she had joined the battle right after doing so. She supposes that she shouldn't be surprised. Locasta never was one to follow the rules if she felt them incorrect.
"Sorry for calling you here so soon after the battle, but there's something we need your help with." The Wizard does not spare words, going straight to the heart of the matter as soon as she is left alone with them. Having been wrought with anxiety the whole way here, Evanora appreciates the frankness. "Locasta and Glinda have found a way to defeat Zurline."
Her eyes widen.
A chapter, on time and almost twice the usual length! What sorcery is this? This is the magic of my plans for the chapter needing stretched out scenes, apparently. Also, I was able to start writing sooner and I am so very happy that I found the time because now I can meet my self-designated deadline. Finally!
Until next time!
– L.L.
