Author's note: Look out for a movie quote/paraphrase, I’ll tell you at the bottom what it is. Incidentally these quotes are almost always accidental ^_^

The meal prepared by the young sentry was no where near as bad as Anjeri had implied and Fiyero remarked to Elphaba that his brother had probably been spoilt in some easy post before he volunteered to come here.

“And the food they gave the Captain of the wizard’s guard was dreadful I’m sure,” Elphaba had retorted half-heartedly, Fiyero could tell from her abstract manner that her mind was already miles away – upstairs with her magic book probably.

“Do you need to be alone to find your spell?” he asked her when they were upstairs in their room again. Despite being married to an Arjiki Sorceress Fiyero didn’t know a lot about non-Arjiki magic, Glinda had never talked to him about what she was learning with Morrible.

“I don’t,” replied Elphaba, smiling at his nervousness. “But you might find it dull to watch.”

“The romantic thing to say would be that I could never get bored when I’m with you but to be honest there are other things I could do.”

“For my part I’d rather be alone then worrying about your mood,” replied Elphaba, equally honest and distantly pleased that they could be honest with each other.

“That settles it then. I shall go and find out if there are any keys around for the south tower, no one has been on there in decades and I want to make sure it’s stable enough for your friends.”

“Thank you, Fiyero, I know they’ll appreciate that. I’ll call them back later would you come and tell me when it’s an hour before sunset? If I’m not out by then, sometimes I get caught up in my reading and lose track of the time.”

Elphaba didn’t want to worry him so she didn’t mention the Grimmerie was the only book that had ever had so much of an effect on her.

“Of course,” agreed Fiyero, not thinking for a moment that it was any more than she said, after all what harm ever came from reading a book? He kissed her, quite unhurriedly, then left the room closing the door behind him.

Elphaba felt a shiver of unease as she lifted the Grimmerie out of her bag, she couldn’t help remembering the last time it had been used…

There had been a lot of discussion amongst the senior figures of the Resistance, Elphaba included despite the fact she had come late to it, and it had been decided that more overt actions must be taken. To that end emissaries had been sent West, to the tribes but not the King, and South. Elphaba volunteered to go East feeling that if she couldn’t convince the Governor to stand with them against the Wizard no one could. Of course, when she left, she had no idea how things had changed in Munchkinland.

It was easy enough to get into Nessa’s room, the same ground floor apartments Nessa had lived in since she was born, then hide away in the enormous wardrobe like she used to when they were younger and she used to sneak into Nessa’s room to sing Quadling lullabies to her like their mother had done for Elphaba.

She stood in the dark, shifting her weight every so often to stop her feet from aching, and eventually she heard muffled voices.

“Will there be anything else, Madame?” asked a male servant, leading Elphaba to wonder why he was calling her that instead of “Miss Nessarose” like they did before Shiz.

“I’ve asked you to call me Nessarose, remember?”

Elphaba frowned, Nessarose had never encouraged any of her servants to address her by her name without any title, it seemed strange that she would do this with a new servant.

“Yes, Madame.”

Whoever it is obviously has a better sense of appropriate protocol than she does, mused Elphaba, entertained by the fact that she was thinking of protocol in her position.

“Boq!”

Boq? Boq came back here with her? I wonder why he didn’t go to his home when all of the Munchkins were called back from the rest of Oz. Ah well, time to make my presence known, there’s not likely to be any good time to do this.

“Well,” she remarked out loud, her voice echoing strangely in the confines of the wardrobe. “It seems the beautiful get more beautiful, while the green just get… greener.”

She heard Nessa gasp and quickly pushed the door open, wondering how Nessa could have not recognised her voice – or maybe that was the reason she had sounded scared.

“I’m sorry, did I scare you? I seem to have that effect on people… it’s good to see you!”

She hadn’t expected to be happy to see her sister and Nessa’s reply reminded her of the reason for that.

“Elphaba, what are you doing here?”

“Well there’s no place like home!” she retorted defensively, realising that was not a good approach she dropped to her knees next to Nessa’s chair and grasped her sister’s hands.

“I never thought I’d hear myself say this but I need Father’s help, I need him to stand with me.”

“That’s impossible!” snapped Nessa.

“No it’s not! Not if you ask him, he’d do it for you, Nessa!”

“He’s dead!”

“What?” said Elphaba in quiet disbelief.

“He’s dead,” repeated Nessa, pushing Elphaba’s hands away. “I am the Governor now.”

Elphaba stood up and walked away from her sister, dazed by the news. Their father was dead? How could that be possible? He had never liked her, she knew that, one of her first memories was of him rejecting her but dead? It seemed so unreal, Father had always seemed so young, now frail delicate Nessarose was the Governor?

“Well what did you expect?” snapped Nessa. “After he learned what you’d done, how you disgraced us, he died of shame! Embarrassed to death.”

That confused Elphaba, she couldn’t imagine Frex caring enough about her actions to die of them… but then Nessa had said “us” so maybe he was ashamed of her because of how her actions would affect the rest of the family, yes, that sounded much more like him. But surely if he was dead Nessa would have no reason to be publicly uninvolved with her.

“Good,” she said and the word echoed around the room. “I’m glad. It’s better this way.”

“That’s a wicked thing to say!” gasped Nessa but her tone suggested she hadn’t really expected Elphaba to be wicked and that gave her hope that Nessa would help.

“No. It’s true,” Elphaba denied Nessa’s statement firmly then dropped to her knees again and grasped Nessa’s hands to try and make her understand. “Because now it’s just us. You can help me and together we can…”

“Elphaba! Shut up! First of all I can’t harbour a fugitive I am an unelected official,” Nessa seemed to realise that she was holding onto Elphaba’s hands and dropped them so abruptly that her older sister leaned away from her. “And why should I help you?”

Any thoughts that her sister might have grown up in the last four years, as she had been forced to do, were dispelled from Elphaba’s mind. Nessarose might be the Governor of Munchkinland now but she was still the same spoiled, selfish, child she had always been and there was nothing to do when she was in one of these moods but let her rant until she had gotten everything off her mind.

Considering when we last spoke, pondered Elphaba. This may take awhile.

“You fly around Oz trying to rescue Animals you’ve never even met, and never once did you think to use your powers to rescue me. Do you have any idea how it felt for me, to have to depend on you for everything? You and this… this hideous chair with wheels! Forced to put up with the pity of everyone I met and longing to be like everyone else! Of course I have power now and people spend far less time feeling sorry for me but that doesn’t mean I don’t still want to be normal!”

“Nessa,” protested Elphaba, taking the risk that she was finished for the moment. “There isn’t a spell for everything!”

And how true that was!

“The power is mysterious it’s…”

A glint of light on silver as Nessa turned caught her eye.

“It’s not like cobbling up a pair of…” then inspiration struck. “Wait!”

Elphaba dropped to the floor and pulled the Grimmerie out of her bag.

I need a spell, she thought, flipping through the pages frantically and willing it to show her what she wanted. A spell to cast on her shoes, so she can walk, because I owe her this it’s my fault so it’s mine to fix! There!

Triumphantly she started chanting the spell she had found, ignoring Nessa’s protests.

“What are you doing? What does that mean? Elphaba answer me! I demand that you tell me… ahhh my shoes! It feels like they’re on fire! Elphaba, what have you done to my shoes?”

Elphaba heard the demands and questions but ignored them and kept chanting, if her spell worked the way it was supposed to Nessa would soon know exactly what had been done to her shoes. She heard Nessa draw breath for another yell but it turned into a gasp as first one of her feet then the other moved to the floor pulling her upright for a moment. It was only when Nessa tumbled to the ground that Elphaba moved, completely forgetting (to her later regret) to pick up the Grimmerie.

“No, don’t help me,” insisted Nessa and Elphaba stopped, suppressing the ingrained instinct to take of her sister, and watched as Nessa pulled herself up and stood on her own two feet. Elphaba was only a heartbeat behind in standing up herself as she watched Nessa smiling.

“Oh Nessa, I should have done this so long ago. I keep talking about wanting to use my powers for good and now I finally have!”

She hadn’t expected Nessa to start thanking her profusely or anything, after all she owed this to her, but some kind of reaction would have been nice – it seemed like Nessa didn’t even know she was there. Suddenly Nessa rang a handbell on the desk and called out for Boq to “come quickly” then sat down in her chair.

“Boq?” repeated Elphaba. What was she doing calling him? Not that it mattered of course she couldn’t let anyone else see her here!

“Boq, come here at once,” repeated Nessa loudly, ignoring Elphaba.

“No, no, Nessa!” protested Elphaba, running to get back to the wardrobe. “No one can know I’m here!”

“What is it, Madame Governor?”

Evidently Boq had not been far away from the room and Elphaba was surprised he hadn’t heard them shouting but he didn’t seem to have seen her yet so she tried to ease the wardrobe open. Unfortunately that did get his attention and she could hardly be mistaken for anyone else.

“You!” he gasped.

“Boq…” she said his name and hesitantly took a step towards him. He grabbed something sharp from the desk, a letter opener it looked like, and yelled for her to stay back.

“Boq, it’s just me. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“You’re lying! That’s all you ever do! You and your sister! She’s as wicked as you are!”

“Boq!” protested Nessa, sounding shocked.

“What are you talking about?” replied Elphaba, confused, surely their father was the person he should be referring to after all it had been Frex who brought in all of those new laws… hadn’t it? A nasty suspicion, to shortly be confirmed by his reply and Nessa’s, started to build in her mind.

“I'm talking about my life. The little that’s left of it! I’m not free to leave Munchkinland anymore; none of us are. Ever since she took power, she’s been stripping the Munchkins of our rights – and we didn’t have that many to begin with! And do you know why?”

“To keep you here with me,” replied Nessa. “But none of that matters anymore! Look!”

Once Nessa had Boq’s attention Elphaba breathed a little easier and watched as Nessa smiled brightly and stood up.

“You did this for her?” said Boq, turning to stare at Elphaba.

“For both of us!” Nessa corrected him and Boq turned back to look at her with a smile on his face.

“Nessa… this changes everything!”

“I know,” replied Nessa, clapping her hands together in delight. Elphaba was just hoping that the seeming newfound happiness of the pair would allow her to get away.

“Nessa,” said Boq, obviously trying to think of the right words.

“Yes,” replied Nessa and Elphaba wondered if it was a question or an answer.

“Nessa, I can’t tell you how happy I am for you, this is wonderful news and I hope it means you won’t be needing my company so much because I was coming here to tell you that I’m leaving tonight.”

“Leaving?” exclaimed Nessa in disbelief.

Leaving, repeated Elphaba silently. What in Oz for? To see his parents or something I suppose, maybe he thinks she’ll be so happy she’ll lift the travel restrictions.

“Yes,” confirmed Boq. “I’ve been thinking about it all day, ever since we heard that Glinda and Fiyero were engaged, I have to go to the Emerald City.”

“Glinda?” repeated Nessa, as though he were telling her something that she was unaware of, she ran across the room unsteadily and half collapsed against the desk. Elphaba stroked her sister’s shoulder sympathetically, this was obviously not what Nessa expected him to say in response to her revelation.

“Yes, Nessa, that’s right,” replied Boq, not seeming to hear the pain and outrage in her voice that Elphaba recognised. “I lost my heart to Glinda from the moment I first saw her, you know that, and this may be my last chance to tell her how I feel!”

“Lost your heart?” repeated Nessa her voice full of more venom than she had ever directed at anyone, including Elphaba, as she stood up straight and glared at him. “Well we’ll see about that!”

“Nessa! Just let him go,” protested Elphaba, even though she felt like her own heart had been ripped to pieces at the news of Glinda’s engagement.

“Did you think I’d let you leave me here alone?” asked Nessa, ignoring Elphaba and stumbling closer to Boq.

“Don’t come any closer!” Boq warned her, driving her back by threatening her with the letter opener.

“You’re going to lose your heart to me,” shouted Nessa, using the fact that Boq didn’t really seem to want to hurt her to force him back. “Even if I have to…”

Too late Elphaba realised where her sister’s gaze had fallen.

“I have to… cast a spell on you!”

Nessa dropped to her knees in front of the Grimmerie and turned the pages hastily, looking fro a spell to do what she wanted. Elphaba knew her sister and the Grimmerie well enough to know that she would find the spell and ran over, as Nessa started chanting clumsily, to try and stop her.

“Ah… Tum… Ta… Tay…”

“Nessa, don’t! It’s dangerous!” shouted Elphaba, trying to pull her sister away from the book.

“What is she doing?” yelled Boq, as though it wasn’t obvious.

“You’re pronouncing the words all wrong!” insisted Elphaba desperately, it didn’t matter what the spell was supposed to do if it wasn’t spoken properly.

“I’m warning you,” it wasn’t clear which ‘you’ he was speaking to. “Don’t try to stop me!”

Nessa kept chanting but Elphaba looked up and saw Boq double in pain.

“Oh no,” she gasped, her voice unheeded as Boq screamed her sister’s name.

“Boq, what is it?” panted Nessa, her face turning paler than usual as she looked up and saw Boq collapse into her chair.

“My heart! It feels like it’s shrinking!”

“Elphaba!” Nessa grabbed the Grimmerie and shoved it into her sister’s hands. “Do something!”

“I can’t!” Elphaba yelled back at her. “That’s why I was trying to stop you in the first place. You can’t reverse a spell once it’s been cast!”

“What will we do?” asked Nessa frantically. “Please Elphaba, there must be something, you can’t just let him die? This is all your fault, if you hadn’t shown me that horrendible book!”

It was impossible to think with Nessa shouting so shrilly.

“Hush will you! I’ve got to find another spell it’s the only thing that might work!”

Elphaba didn’t even take the time to wait for an answer or (though she was sorely tempted) to point out that her sister wouldn’t be walking if she hadn’t shown her the book, she grabbed the book and the chair and pushed Boq to the other side of the room.

Boq was still and silent now, as Elphaba focussed her attention on the Grimmerie, she could hear Nessa’s voice faintly in the background but not make out the words. Elphaba didn’t know how long a person could live without a heart, she doubted the question had ever come up, but she knew she had to work quickly and sent a silent plea to anyone that might be listening that the Grimmerie would be cooperative. All she could think of was that she must not let him die she would not have his blood on her hands. It was enough to find her the spell and keep her concentrating while she cast it.

Elphaba didn’t dare look up until she was finished she really had no idea what the result would be. She took a deep breath, closed the Grimmerie, and looked. What she saw made her gasp, it seemed her determination not to have his blood on her hands had been taken literally – now he didn’t have any for her to spill. Another deep breath, at least he was not dead, she stood up with the Grimmerie cradled carefully in her arms and walked back to Nessa.

“He’s asleep,” she managed to speak without her voice cracking too much.

“What about his heart?”

“It’s all right,” replied Elphaba, and this time she could barely hold back the guilty tears and was sure it showed in her voice as she answered the question. “He won’t need one now.”

“I have to go,” Elphaba finished brusquely. “I have unfinished business in the Emerald City.”

“Please don’t leave me!” begged Nessa, halting Elphaba as she moved towards the window.

“Nessa,” she said her sister’s name with a soft sigh. “I have done everything I could for you and it hasn’t been enough. And I’ve finally realised that nothing ever will be.”

She ignored her sister’s pleading voice and vanished into the garden where she’d hidden the broom away. There was no way she could have known that it would be the last time she saw her sister alive.

She hadn’t given any thought to what would happen to Nessarose after that. She had been angry, feeling that Nessa deserved to suffer the results of her actions for once, but now she felt a twinge of guilt and wondered if there was something more she could have done for her sister? Someway she could have changed her sister’s fate?

Focus on the present, Elphaba! She scolded herself sternly. You know you need to focus to use the Grimmerie and thinking about... Nessa won’t help you to help Anjeri and the others. They shouldn’t be cooped up in this place that doesn’t even need to be guarding, locked away form their families and friends, everyone deserves a chance to be free!

Her attention sufficiently focused on the here and now she opened the Grimmerie to the first page. Sometime sit had a table of contents or and index. Sometimes those pages even gave accurate information about the location of spells in the book.

Author's note: The movie reference is the part where Fiyero thinks “after all what harm ever came from reading a book?” That phrase is from the movie The Mummy.