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The eagle scouts warned her first, a fox scout running up a few minutes later, out of breath. So Elphaba was ready, waiting at the entrance of their makeshift city in the trees when the man approached.
He was riding a horse, brown and large. Elphaba couldn’t be sure if it was the same horse from that fateful day so long ago, but something in her hoped that the horse was the same. When he got to the Vingara, the man dismounted and looked up at the trees to where Elphaba should have been hidden. But he seemed to find her effortlessly anyways, his eyes going directly to hers despite the distance that separated them.
His clothes were creased and travel-worn, but he stood tall and easy. There was no army at his back. Elphaba wondered if that was the surprise. That he was alone.
“May I come up? Or is there a different admission process that I should be applying myself to?” he called up.
Elphaba looked at Lucinda, her right-hand owl. Lucinda made no gesture—only stared back steadily, leaving the decision entirely to Elphaba.
Elphaba nodded to a woman at the entrance to the city of Vingara and she pressed a button which started a series of clanks and jings as a staircase unfurled itself from the tree city and down a small building’s worth of air to the forest floor.
“Welcome, Fiyero Tigelaar,” Elphaba said, her voice carrying.
It seemed that every living creature in Vingara held their breath as Fiyero ascended the staircase. Maybe it was just her.
When he arrived, they both stood there—Elphaba drinking in the sight of Fiyero as he watched Elphaba carefully. Without meaning to, she’d started cataloguing what had changed since she’d seen him last. His hair—still effortlessly perfect. His face—more creased. Elphaba wondered if the lines around his eyes were from smiling. Fiyero was still effortlessly settled in his own skin—tall and solid in space. But he had become thicker with muscles in a way that spoke to fighting.
Well, there had been a war.
What have you been up to? Elphaba thought. She’d received some news about Fiyero during the war—he was in the army. He was a captain. He was engaged to Glinda. He was engaged to Glinda.
“I come with a message, Elphaba,” Fiyero said. His voice—that was still the same. She’d dreamed about that voice—dreamed of Fiyero saying her name.
Elphaba swallowed.
“The wizard of Oz is dead, and Madam Morrible, too,” Fiyero said and the bottom dropped out of Elphaba’s world. “Glinda would like peace.”
A million hushed whispers started but Elphaba heard none of them.
“A formal messenger will be arriving in a few days,” Fiyero said.
“You’re not the formal messenger?” Elphaba asked, the words out before she could stop herself. What was Glinda’s fiancé if not her official representative?
Fiyero huffed out a laugh. “No. I’m a friend.”
And that had been true, once. They had been friends.
“Then welcome, friend,” Elphaba said.
Fiyero opened his mouth but whatever he had planned to say was lost in the euphoric roar that had started. He shot a rueful glance at Elphaba—and that was the same too. She remembered that look very well and that made Elphaba laugh, giddy with it as his words sunk in.
They were dead. Her adversaries were dead? It was unthinkable, wonderful, a hope that she’d barely ever hoped to have.
Maybe now—they could begin the long path to rebuilding—it certainly wouldn’t be easy, but—
“Great Oz, don’t you ever let yourself be happy?” Fiyero demanded, suddenly right next to her and Elphaba’s whole body reacted, a pin point attuned to his presence. Fiyero’s face was lit up and Elphaba couldn’t help but mirror it.
There was no time to talk in the celebrations that broke out. Elphaba found herself with Fiyero and a huge crowd outside of an impromptu party that someone had assembled, drinks thrust into their hands. People were crying and laughing and Elphaba found herself surrounded on all sides while Fiyero watched from just outside as he made conversation with one of the bears who served as a lieutenant in Vingara’s guard. His eyes tracked Elphaba as she made a helpless gesture and he smiled widely before excusing himself and pushing his way in to Elphaba’s group.
“Excuse me, I have some very urgent business to attend to with Elphaba,” he said, winking at the group and immediately charming them. “Very very urgent. You know, I’m a very important person and yet of very little consequence.” Everyone laughed, spellbound, and Elphaba was taken back to Shiz for a second before Fiyero hustled Elphaba away.
He immediately seemed to know the city better than Elphaba and he managed to find the sole quiet spot three levels up. They sat on a bench and Elphaba made sure to keep a prudent distance between them.
“Fiyero,” she said, trying to wrap her mind around everything. It was too much. “Fiyero! How are you—what are you—it’s been five years!”
“I’m well aware,” Fiyero said, that same grin on. “But first, a drink?” He held up a bottle of orange spirit that he’d managed to purloin and shook it enticingly.
“Yes, a drink,” Elphaba said. “Then, I want to hear everything.”
They had one drink, two, three and Elphaba found herself closer and closer to Fiyero, talking about nothing of importance. Despite how much Elphaba did want to know about everything—she wasn’t sure that she was ready to hear about Glinda. There was an ache in her heart larger than life for her best friend. Former best friend. And her best friend’s fiancé and star of Elphaba’s dreams who was currently pressed up against her side. When had they moved even closer to each other?
Elphaba should have fought the inevitable pull. It would have been the right thing. No matter that she and Glinda had been on the opposite ends of a war across Oz for the last five years, they were once friends. Maybe they were still friends. And Fiyero was Glinda’s fiancé.
But—Elphaba had spent the last five years doing everything for a purpose bigger than herself. For the animals of Oz. For the people of Oz. You could have this one thing, right now, for yourself, a voice inside her said. And just sitting next to Fiyero wasn’t doing anything wrong? Right?
Fiyero was warmth and happiness, his eyes never leaving Elphaba’s. He laughed and brushed his hand against hers as he told a story that seemed to involve his horse and a very angry boar. Even if Elphaba had wanted to stop herself, she wouldn’t have been able to. And she simply didn’t want to stop herself. She leaned into Fiyero’s side and accepted another drink.
Elphaba woke up in the morning feeling like someone had picked her up and slammed her against a wall. Her head ached and she slowly, cautiously opened her eyes, unwilling to re-enter the world, only to see someone next to her.
Elphaba opened her eyes up all the way—there—that was—Fiyero. Fiyero! It all came back to her—his arrival, the news of the war being over, drinking beyond all reasonable means. She had a gap in her memory from drink four or possibly drink six and waking up here, in her bed. Where Fiyero, being a visitor and having no assigned quarters, of course, had also chosen to sleep. That was reasonable and normal, right?
Elphaba forced herself to keep her breath slow and steady as she catalogued their situation. Fiyero’s arm was draped over Elphaba’s stomach and his hand was a brand against her back. In and out. In and out. Elphaba breathed and breathed again. Fiyero didn’t wake or stir and eventually Elphaba closed her eyes again.
When she woke up again, her head felt better but Fiyero was already up and changing in Elphaba’s small wash room. Elphaba tried not to miss his presence.
Elphaba met with her council after breakfast and they began the work of preparing their requirements for peace. There was a sense of disbelief among the council members, but they set themselves to the task of preparing for peace. Already, other scouts had come back bearing the same news as Fiyero—the Wizard was dead. And his successor, Glinda, wanted peace for the good of the realm.
While Elphaba’s council debated amongst themselves of terms and who would travel with Elphaba, she excused herself and found Fiyero waiting outside the council chambers.
“Perfectly timed,” he said. “I was about to go in search of a midday meal and you look like you could also use some food.”
“I—” Elphaba started and gave up finding any argument to follow him.
They ate lunch in the canteen, Elphaba telling Fiyero about Vingara, the thriving city of refugees and most of her army. When they were done, Elphaba let Fiyero divert them on a meandering walk before they started back in the direction of the council. While they walked, Elphaba let herself look at Fiyero and wondered how long she would be able to do this before he left.
“Will you stay until we leave for the peace negotiations? Wait—you should come with us to the negotiations,” Elphaba said.
Fiyero stopped and looked at Elphaba. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” he said.
“Fiyero, you’ve never failed to charm a single person,” Elphaba said. “I know that you just left but—”
Fiyero took Elphaba’s hands in his own. His hands were roughened and callused, gently scraping across her skin. Elphaba grounded herself in that—that rasp and warmth.
“I can’t go back,” Fiyero said, a faint smile on his face.
“Why?” Elphaba felt stupid and tongue-tied, but it was hard to speak coherently when Fiyero was touching her. He is here! Kiss him! her body said.
“Because I killed the Wizard and Madame Morrible,” Fiyero said, infinitely careful, watching her reaction.
The world stopped. Started again. Elphaba’s mind, temporarily derailed, began to turn, the gears working.
“Let’s sit down,” Fiyero suggested and directed Elphaba backwards onto a bench. He still hadn’t let go of his hands.
Fiyero? He’d killed them. He’d killed the two people who had kept Oz in thrall and caused the persecution of the animals. And Elphaba. Although they certainly hadn’t been the first for the latter. She’d always hoped that Fiyero would understand her cause enough to join her in it.
But killing the Wizard of Oz and Madame Morrible…Elphaba had never wanted that for Fiyero. (She’d never wanted that for herself. Or any of the war. It had—like the inevitable tide, been thrust upon her.)
“I’m sorry,” Elphaba said eventually.
Fiyero’s thumb stroked her hand. “I’m not.”
Without thinking about it, Elphaba threw her arms around Fiyero and he froze for a second before relaxing against her. Fiyero held her, his voice a soft murmur against her hair.
The messenger arrived the next day with a request that Elphaba and her advisors meet in the neutral city of Up Town in Gillikin. Elphaba’s stronghold was in Winkie Country, its inhabitants more sympathetic to the plight of the animals and distrustful of the Wizard. Munchkinland and Quadling Country had strongly aligned with the Wizard.
Elphaba found her bags packed by Fiyero—who had stayed the night again. It had been natural to curl up against him, a chill in the room at nights, and she’d woken to Fiyero pressed against her, her head nestled against his shoulder and her arm laid over Fiyero’s heart.
Was she sleeping with someone’s fiancé? Neither one of them had brought up Glinda.
Before Elphaba left her hut, bags neatly stacked by the door, Fiyero caught her by the wrist. “I expect that this will be the last private moment I have with you for a while,” Fiyero said and he leaned in and kissed her.
The world went white—like the first snowfall of winter, absolute and silent. At first, there was the heat and press of Fiyero’s lips against her, a cascade of pure feeling, her whole body electrified. He kissed her like he was drowning, like she was drowning, and they only had the air between them. He was the center of the universe, the heart outside her body, she was, in fact, drowning, and the only way up was Fiyero.
Eventually he pulled away, his hands cupping her face as his thumbs swept across her cheekbones. Why had they stopped kissing? Maybe they could just keep touching for the rest of her life—or at least until she had to leave for Up Town.
Up Town—it was a splash of water over her whole body. If it didn’t douse the flames, it at least dampened them, and Elphaba tried to focus, think.
“I probably need to go,” Elphaba said, as Fiyero finished speaking.
He laughed. “You do. Good luck. I’ll be thinking of you.”
And before Elphaba could respond to that, there was a loud knocking on the door of her hut and Lucinda called from outside that the coaches were ready.
Glinda waited until Elphaba had arrived in Up Town before making her grand entrance, descending in her trademark pink bubble that Elphaba had to work very hard not to roll her eyes at. Glinda was wearing a conservative travel suit and she was dressed in her deepest, darkest, most somber pinks. Elphaba wondered if it was to convey that she was in mourning for the Wizard and Madame Morrible? Was it to convey that she was going to be treating the peace treaty discussions with all attendant respect?
She might have known the answer once, but this Glinda—this paragon of Oz—she was unreadable to Elphaba. She walked to Elphaba, a beatific smile on her face and reaches out a hand to shake Elphaba’s.
“Elphaba,” Glinda said, her voice stately and carrying.
“Glinda,” Elphaba echoed.
“It has been some time,” Glinda said and Elphaba knew that she needed to make some type of banal conversation back.
Instead: “You let Fiyero be exiled?” Elphaba hissed before her brain caught up to her mouth.
“I did not do anything!” Glinda hissed back. “When the captain of the guard manages to decapitate the Wizard of Oz and his press secretary in front of a host of witnesses, it makes it very difficult to spin that into a more pleasantified story. As it was, I had to use my not inconsiderable influence to ensure he could escape!”
“Escape?” Elphaba said. She definitely should have talked to Fiyero about literally anything of substance before she left.
“You know, normal fiancés end engagements by odiosiously asking for their ring back. Mine did it by assassinating my evil superiors and getting himself exiled!” Glinda was starting to get worked up, color rising in her cheeks. “He might as well as have written the love declaration to you right then and there.”
“Sorry, excuse me?” Elphaba said. “What? You’re saying that Fiyero killed the Wizard and Madame Morrible…for me?”
Glinda glared at Elphaba and sighed. “Elphie, why do you think that Fiyero stayed for five years to rise up through the Wizard’s guards? It certainly wasn’t because of ambition. I was the ambitious one in our relationship.”
Elphaba should really have asked Fiyero some questions.
“Was?” Elphaba asked, latching onto the only thing that she could. “You were ambitious?”
Glinda blew out a breath. “Elphaba, smile for the cameras. Let’s go sign a peace agreement. You aren’t the only one who has changed since we last met.”
It became apparent during the drafting of the peace treaty that Glinda had changed. The style was there, but the substance that Elphaba had always seen hidden beneath mounds of pink and feathers and lace was at the forefront. There was a team of advisors on behalf of the Munchkinland and Quadling Country, but they were happy to defer to Glinda, especially once she turned the full weight of her smile and hair tossing at them. And Glinda was comfortable and at ease as their leader.
Glinda took the entire list of terms prepared by Elphaba and her council and read through them. She asked a few questions—how could the cities help ensure that the animals returning feel safe? Could Elphaba spare some members of her council to serve as advisors to the governors? What was the expected timeline on the return?
They spent a week working through the mechanics of peace and Glinda was polite but distant. On the last day, in full view of the press, Glinda and Elphaba put signature to paper and made official the end of the war.
Once the cameras had faded away, Glinda threaded her fingers through Elphaba’s and pulled her through the hotel that they were staying at and up to her room. Elphaba looked down at their intertwined hands and flashed back to a different night where they’d started as rivals and ended up as the best of friends.
“I thought you hated me,” Elphaba said once they were in Glinda’s room.
Glinda smiled and laughed, biting her lip. “Elphie, I could never hate you,” she said. “I wanted to. I really wanted to for a very long time. But I don’t.”
Elphaba knew how Glinda felt. For a long time, she wanted to hate Glinda as well. She had the position that Elphaba had dreamed of having, the fiancé that Elphaba was in love with and was…beloved. But she couldn’t.
“I know,” Glinda said. “It’s complicated. But let’s leaving the thinking to someone else—I’ve got champagne!”
Sure enough, she had a bottle of chilled champagne and Glinda uncorked it and poured Elphaba a glass. The little bubbles popped in Elphaba’s mouth as she drank and before long, they were giggling and laughing on Glinda’s bed, just like when they had attended Shiz University.
“I’ve missed you,” Glinda said, her eyes heavy and slow when she blinked. Elphaba felt the same, her whole body relaxing into the bed as she struggled to stay awake.
“I missed you so much,” Elphaba said. “No one else made sure I was even wearing flattering colors.”
“Undoing all of my hard work,” Glinda said. She closed her eyes and then opened them forcefully. “I’m jealous,” she said.
“Of what?” Elphaba said and then only belatedly realized that Fiyero had left Glinda for Elphaba and wanted to throw herself out a window.
“That Fiyero did the right thing for you. I should have left when you asked me to,” Glinda said and then she leaned over and carefully kissed Elphaba on the lips before she lay back down and closed her eyes. “Good night, Elphaba.”
“Good night, Glinda,” Elphaba said in a strangled voice.
The next morning, Elphaba and half of her advisors headed back to Vingara. Elphaba had questions upon questions crowding her brain, but she kept them all in, giving Glinda a cordial hug in front of the cameras that would show up in the next day’s newsprint.
Glinda said nothing else, but put her hand up to her forehead where she fluttered it. Elphaba’s throat seized up and she mirrored the gesture.
“I love you,” she mouthed. Glinda swallowed and smiled. And then Elphaba was boarding her coach and returning home.
When Elphaba arrived, Fiyero was waiting for her at the entrance. As Elphaba walked up each step to the city, everything around her seemed to quiet, until there was only the beat of her heart. Fiyero’s smile was a little crooked, but perfect. Elphaba wrapped her arms around him, resting her head against his chest as he carefully brought his arms around her.
“Tell me everything,” she said to Fiyero’s heart.
“Are you ready to hear it?” Fiyero asked.
“Yes,” Elphaba said and she leaned up to kiss him.
“I think that I have loved you since we first met,” Fiyero said when they broke apart. “But I was too scared for a long time.”
“Me too,” Elphaba said. She ran her fingers through the short hairs at back of Fiyero’s neck and he shivered. “But not anymore.”