Author's note: And now we’re back to where chapter 18 left off, more or less. Considering how long it’s been since I updated, if anyone is still reading this you may want to go back and reread said chapter 18 ^^

In the end it was nearly midnight by the time Morrible's spell began to work, it was set to begin working when both of the witches she had targeted were asleep...

It was immediately obvious to both of them that something wasn’t quite right with the situation. Glinda and Elphaba, who was wearing her pointed black hat, were sitting in Madame Morrible’s drawing room around a small table with cups of tea in front of them.

“This tea is excellent, Madame,” said Glinda anxious to please the headmistress now that she was included in the sorcery class. Elphaba remembered the day now; it was before she’d been invited to the Emerald City when Madame Morrible had invited both of them for afternoon tea before class.

“Thank you Miss Galinda. I have always been fond of this type of tea. Perhaps you recognise it Miss Elphaba?”

“Yes,” replied Elphaba politely. “It’s a Munchkinland blend, they grow it out in the far Eastern hills.”

“It’s quite delicious,” said Galinda, or was it Glinda? Elphaba looked at her surreptitiously as she took a sip of the tea but she couldn’t tell if Glinda was really here again or if it was just part of the dream.

Glinda was wondering the same thing about Elphaba, she couldn’t tell if the girl wearing the hat that had disappeared from her dressing table was really there or if this was just another bizarre dream brought on by recent stress.

“Well, young ladies how are you today?”

“Tolerably well, thank you Madame,” replied Elphaba easily while Glinda struggled to remember what she had said that day. Did it even matter if it was the same? It was only a dream after all.

“Delightfully well as always, thank you.” It wasn’t exactly the same but it would do she thought.

As soon as Glinda answered Elphaba knew that she was not just a part of the dream, Glinda’s original answer was different to what she just said and if this was only Elphaba’s dream it would have been the same.

“It’s nice to see that the two of you have made up your differences.”

Was that a hint of a smirk on Morrible’s face or was Elphaba just imagining things?

“Yes, Madame, Elphie and I are just the best of friends now, right Elphie?” said Glinda, hoping her voice wouldn’t reveal the lie in that statement, she knew the other part of herself would quite cheerfully have tipped her hot tea all over Elphaba and that would have just been the start.

“We have certainly resolved our differences,” replied Elphaba in the same restrained tone she had used on the actual day. “Galinda has been very… nice.”

“She’s such a good young woman.”

“Oh Madame you are too kind,” gushed Glinda while Elphaba made a pardon-me-while-I’m-violently-ill face behind Morrible’s back. Glinda giggled for no apparent reason, Elphaba was perfectly straight faced when Madame looked at her.

“Is the tea not to your liking Miss Elphaba? Miss Galinda is nearly finished and you’ve barely touched yours!”

“I’ve never cared much for tea, Madame,” replied Elphaba, thankful that she was telling the truth and therefore sticking to the unspoken script of the event.

“It’s good for your skin Elphie!” said Glinda enthusiastically. “As long as you don’t put too much milk in it!”

“I doubt tea would do much for my skin problem, dear Galinda, and other than that it is entirely in one piece and without flaws.”

“Well there’s no need to be so catty about it,” sniffed Glinda.

That definitely wasn’t what she’d said the first time around, thought Elphaba, not daring do anything outside the ‘script’ of the dream. She suspected that Madame Morrible was more than just a memory; there was a hint of familiar yet unfamiliar about the scene.

“Now, now, young ladies, we’re all friends here. There is no need to argue about silly little things.”

“That’s right, Galinda, we shouldn’t argue… at least not while there are people around. You know all those things about airing one’s dirty laundry in public so to speak.”

“May we be excused, Madame?”

“Of course. Make sure you get to sorcery class on time.”

“Of course,” replied Elphaba. “Shall we go back to our room for awhile Galinda?”

“Certainly,” agreed Galinda.

It was a dream so as soon as the women decided that they wanted to be in their old room they were there.

“Do we have anything further to say to one another?” asked Elphaba, not wanting to say too much when she knew Morrible was watching, she deliberately used Glinda’s own words to try and provoke a reaction.

“I’m not exactly the same person you’ve been talking to when you’re awake,” admitted Glinda, knowing Elphaba was too perceptive to believe she had forgiven her or didn’t hold a grudge in the dream. “In fact I’ve been trying to argue with her on your behalf because I know you didn’t do what Morrible accused you off but Glinda won’t even listen to herself!”

Elphaba just stared at her for several minutes, though she had always suspected that Galinda/Glinda had hidden depths she never thought for a minute that those depths were a separate entity.

“You’re what's keeping Glinda's magic alive inside her aren't you?” she blurted the words out without thinking and clapped her hand over her mouth in disgust at her own stupidity even as Glinda nodded once. “Listen carefully, Morrible is watching us, she knows you're there now. Try and keep both of you safe.”

“Elphaba what...?”

“Wake up, Glinda.”

Elphaba put a touch of magic behind the words and Glinda vanished along with the facsimile of their old room, leaving Elphaba standing in a sort of featureless landscape with one person for company.

“That was well done,” remarked Madame Morrible, as one witch to another. “I didn’t know you were good enough to do that.”

“You know less about me than you think.”

“But more than you think, dearie,” retorted Morrible. “You’ve learnt a lot since your decision to leave… you would have learned much more if you stayed.”

“Would you have really tolerated the competition?”

“You consider yourself my equal?

“On the contrary… I consider myself your better.”

“How very arrogant of you Miss Elphaba.”

“Perhaps. I think we’ll soon find out.”

“Right now if you wish…”

“Right now? No, I think right now Madame it’s time for you to… wake up!”

Morrible had just opened her mouth to scoff at Elphaba’s presumption that she could be removed as easily as the empty-headed Glinda when she did wake up.

“She is more powerful than I thought but no matter she is not powerful enough!”

Taking a deep breath she climbed out of the bed and went into her spell casting room. Taking a bag down from one of the shelves she went onto the open area in the middle. From the bag she poured the oddly coloured sand, which came from the deserts beyond Oz, into a circle and used her power to call forth a figure literally cloaked in shadows.

“You summon me while the borders yet keep me out, Belhara, why?”

“I am not reneging on our bargain,” stated Morrible firmly. “You will be able to enter Oz soon, and destroy what you will, but there are some complications with which I require your assistance.”

“Let us speak in our thoughts,” said the figure. “There may be watchers.”

“No one could watch me here,” said Morrible confidently.

“So you say but you also said that the green witch was no threat to our plans for the rulership of this land.”

“May I remind you that you have failed to kill her.”

“Because she was stronger than you led me to believe, and it is by your request that I did not try again.”

“We will do it your way then,” agreed Morrible, with extreme distaste. Being covered in his magic, as this form of communication required, was unpleasant to say the least though not as bad as being around the wretched girl who had caused these problems in the first place.

The creature dissolved into a cloud of inky mist and surrounded Morrible then both of them shimmering, like a heat reflection, and vanished leaving two previously unseen observers.

Elphaba and Glinda, both still in the dream that Elphaba had just released Morrible from.

“She won’t remember waking up twice and I don’t see any point continuing to watch, I think you get the idea.”

“That... that thing she was talking to, that's what attacked you!”

“How do you know I was attacked?”

“I was there, all of me, she thought it was a bad dream but I was so frightened, Elphie, I thought you’d died!”

“I did,” explained Elphaba shortly. “I felt my heart stop and I was lost, somewhere, I think between living and death. Fiyero called me back, no spell, no magic, with just his voice and the fact he was there.”

“I don’t think I’ll remember this when I wake up,” said Glinda, ignoring the reference to Fiyero because she wasn’t entirely sure how she felt. “Is there any way you can help me remember?”

Elphaba frowned slightly, considering the problem, and Glinda couldn’t help noticing it was the same expression she used to have back at Shiz when she was considering a particularly tricky homework assignment.

“I think I can... but I’d have to be touching or within touching distance to make it work.”

“Well then you’d better come and visit soon, Elphaba Thropp!”

“I’ve things to do first, my dear, but I promise the Emerald City will be the very next place I visit. Try to stop Glinda from screaming at me when I come through her window hmm?”

“I’m a subconscious embodiment of repressed magic and feelings, not a miracle worker,” muttered Glinda. “But I’ll do my best. How long will you need to make the spell work?”

“What I’ve done,” said Elphaba, having created the spell while she was talking to Glinda. “Is embedded the spell in a phrase. When I say to Glinda: do you remember the dream? She’ll remember everything we heard tonight.”

“You’ve done it already?” exclaimed Glinda. “But you don’t have the Grimmerie with you or anything! I mean, I thought you only did magic like that when you were… emotional.”

“You also think that you require a wand to use magic,” pointed out Elphaba. “Or at least you did at Shiz. Is that the point of the sparkly monstrosity you carry around now or is it just for the look of the thing?”

“Madame Morrible gave it to me when I was offered my position by the Wizard. She said that there was no wand in Oz that would help me use magic but I should look the part. Obviously part of me believed her or this part of me wouldn’t be here. As to your question of what I believe about using magic; yes I do require a wand to use as a focus for my spells. The fact that you don’t, I think, means that you have more focus than I do, which wouldn’t surprise me.”

“Really?”

“You’re the most intensely focused person I’ve ever met,” agreed Glinda. “And I would like to discuss magic with you but this probably isn’t the time.”

“No, of course, you’re right,” agreed Elphaba. “One last question about the wand, though. Do you carry it with you everywhere?”

“Only for public appearances, the rest of the time I keep it in my room, why?”

“And Morrible gave it to you?”

“You think she did something to it?”

“I couldn’t tell without looking at it. Try to keep Glinda away from it as much as possible until I get there.”

“I’ll certainly do my best. You may not have noticed since you didn’t know I was here but she doesn’t exactly listen to what I have to say. Still maybe if we can get her out of Morrible’s influence…that is what you intend to do isn’t it? Remove Morrible’s influence from Glinda…from all of Oz.”

“I always knew that Glinda had a mind of her own buried somewhere inside her, it’s good to finally meet you. I can’t tell you all of my plans, just in case Glinda sees some of this memory at any point, but yes removing Morrible from power is definitely high up on my list of priorities.”

“Good!” replied Glinda vehemently. “I’m sure once I realise what she’s doing I’ll help you stop her even though that part of me… well she really does hate you at the moment but she doesn’t recognise yet the fact that most of it is self pity and self loathing.”

She saw a stricken guilty look on Elphaba’s face before her friend could school her expression back to neutrality.

“I’m sorry, Elphie! Please don’t upset yourself about it, you just need to have a nice long talk with her and sort it all out then I’m sure everything will be fine! And Elphie?”

“Yes, Glinda?”

“Be careful won’t you? I can manage without you but I’d rather not have to.”