Author's Notes: Whew! Well this took longer than I anticipated, my grand mother's death, sadly, prevented me from working on this for awhile.

I was encouraged to press on by just two reviews... Normally it takes more than that to make me want to continue but, Lioness has questions about the background of this story and I intend to provide them; and LadyRyn? Gosh, where to begin? Thank you so very, very much for providing such an honest, helpful, kind review of my story.

Before we begin I again remind my readers that I am using more than just Wicked for inspiration, I'm also using the traditional books of Oz by Baum and the author's who followed in his footsteps, if you need to take detour to Wikipedia to understand the backgrounds of some of my versions of characters by all means do so; my Glinda especially is a bit different from the traditional Wicked variant.

Dedicated to Gayle Pribno Samusson,

one of the worlds classiest,

crassest,

and all around most wonderful ladies.

You will be missed.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ OZ ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

It had been a terrible mistake, letting Pfanee and ShenShen lure her away after all that work and effort. She'd been swayed by just a single moment of doubt, one tiny inkling of uncertainty had been all it took to shook her conviction at that young age.

Just that morning she had given herself entirely to the task of ensuring she and Elphaba Thropp attended the Oz Dust ball together and now, like a typical society twit, she'd allowed her flighty friends to lure away for gossip and rumor-mongering. Of course, it wasn't their fault—actually they couldn't be blamed at all—she had allowed herself to be dragged off all of her own accord. When she finally managed to tear herself away from that little social circle, the gaggle of air-headed self-absorbed society folk, she found that... she was alone.

Her loyal friend, Boq, one a very persistent courter for her affection, informed her that Elphaba had left... With Fiyero. Fiyero!? She barely knew the man! It baffled Galinda to learn who Elphie had left the party with, until Boq explained that the two had left platonically; this news would make later realizations even more painful for the gillikinese beauty.

“Elphaba was the one who suggested they leave,” Boq had explained calmly to the rather distressed blonde, “He was sitting in a corner, she was sitting in a corner, they began to chat and I joined them for a short time; it was shortly after that that Elphaba said she was leaving. She said she didn't feel like this was the sort of place she belonged at, and Fiyero agreed and offered to escort her back to her room.”

The news calmed Galinda, but it also made her feel even worse, she'd worked so hard to ensure Elphaba would be able to have a good time at the party then she had abandoned the green girl to drink spiked punch and gossip! She felt dreadful, and she left the party herself shortly there after, Boq offered to escort her as Fiyero had escorted Elphaba but she declined his kindness saying that she needed to clear her head. As Galinda left the party she wandered the moonlight path ways from the OzDust ballroom back up toward the girls dormitories, thinking back over the days leading up to the party; not fitting in was the same reason Elphaba had given for not wanting to go in the first place. . .

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

“Come now, Miss Elphaba, how can you have nothing but frocks every single day? You can't expect to go to the Oz Dust ball wearing one of those ratty old things!” Galinda had quipped haughtily one morning a week before the ball. The blonde sat at her vanity, flouncing and tossing her hair and looking at Elphaba in the reflection of her mirror.

“Pft!” Elphaba had snorted, an amused smirk tugging at the right corner of her mouth. “I don't expect to be going to that ridiculous party at all, Galinda.”

“What?!” Galinda shrieked, looking aghast at the idea of missing an event, “But it's the height of the Shiz Social Season!”

“Galinda,” Elphaba began calmly, a depressed smiling taking her expression, “I have, as you said, nothing to wear. I would have nothing to do at such a meaningless event. Oh, and lest we forget the most important thing about such social obligations, I have no one to take.”

The statement gave Galinda pause, it was true Elphaba had no date, but what really caught Galinda's attention was the way Elphaba had phrased the statement; 'I would have no one to take' as if it were she who would do the inviting to such an event even though it was standard and even expected for the man to do the inviting. She thought on this for a moment; though she often seemed blissfully ignorant and unaware of the world around her Galinda was actually quite a sharp woman, especially when it came to sociology and personality.

“Well...” She said slowly, trying to be tactful and gentle in her response, “How do you know you don't have someone to take.”

“Because no ones asked me.” Elphaba replied tersely.

“That's not what you said a moment ago.”

Elphaba resigned to set down her book and give Galinda her undivided attention. “What are you on about, Galinda?”

Galinda gave one of her soft, soothing, schmoozer smiles that always put people at ease. “Miss Elphaba, you did quite plainly say that you would have no one to take; that would suggest to me that you have someone you know you'd like to go with who has not asked you to go... Or who would not, thus you would be forced to be the one doing the inviting.”

Elphaba stared at her roommate in awe, truly dumbstruck by the solidity and rationality of Galinda's deductive reasoning. “...You've been reading my books while I'm at class, haven't you?” Elphaba hazarded with a playful smile, trying to break the sudden awkward silence with a bit of humor.

“Oh Elphie!” Said a now flustered Galinda, rising from her seat and throwing herself upon Galinda's drab gray-tan bed spread. “I'm trying to be serious. How can you know you have no one to take if you haven't asked?”

“I just know.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes. Really.” Elphaba stated in an 'end of discussion' tone.

Galinda huffed, cupped her chin in her hands, and pouted prominently for a few moments before breaking the silence again. “It just seems like you can't ever be truly sure until you ask... her?” she hazarded a guess at the gender of Elphaba's prospective date.

The Green girls cheeks darkened to a deeper hue of emerald and she averted her gaze to the window.

“Oh come on, Elphie! You can tell me!”

“She's beyond my station.”

“Pffft, like that has ever stopped you.”

“She hasn't even noticed my affections.”

“Have you made them openly, I'm around you all the time and I certainly wasn't aware of you being affectionate toward someone.”

For a moment Elphaba's face scrunched up and it was hard to tell if she was trying not to scream or trying not to laugh, finally she broke the contorted expression with, “I'm GREEN!”

Galinda blinked. “An excellent observation to make about yourself, but I really hope you realized it before now, Elphaba.”

“No, Galinda, think! Use that brain you pretend not to have; I'm green, no woman of social status and upbringing wants to be seen at a party with someone like me!”

“How do you know until you ask?”

“Would you go with me?!”

“Wh-what?” Galinda sputtered, her voice suddenly a bare whisper, her cheeks reddening.

“See?! That's the exact sort of response she would give me if I asked her.” Elphaba explained, crossing her arms over her chest with a scowl.

The blush fled from Galinda's cheeks and her heart slowed down as she realized Elphaba was just making a point, not actually asking her to go. For a moment she was quiet, wrestling with her own mind. She felt strange, she felt... Disappointed? Could she be disappointed that she wasn't being invited by Elphaba? She already knew she could get a date, all she'd have to do is bat her eye lashes at a handsome boy and he'd invite her in the blink of an eye so why was she upset about this? Finally she pushed the question back and gave her attention back to her friend. She was slightly alarmed to find Elphaba staring directly into her eyes now.

“What?” Galinda asked in surprise, “What is it...? Is my make up smudged?” She asked, pausing to glance toward her mirror.

Elphaba sighed and looked away, drawing Galinda's gaze back to her again. “Elphie what is it?”

“Never mind, Galinda... Just, trust me. The womans' out of my league, I'm below her standard, and she doesn't even seem to be aware of my existence. There's just no point in bothering, why hope for something you can't have?”

Galinda frowned at this and suddenly grabbed hold of Elphaba's shoulders. “Don't talk like that! Elphaba, you have spirit, ambition and dreams I could never concoct in my own mind! You're one of the most inspiring, intrepid, inviting women I have ever known! Anyone would be lucky to have you, regardless of who they are.”

“. . .Even you?”

Once more Galinda felt her cheeks flush, her heart raced and her words ceased to obey the commands of her brain. “Me?” She said at least, in a tiny voice.

Elphaba was staring at her again, but it wasn't an uncomfortable stare. It was soft, delicate... Longing. How long had she been receiving stares like these from her room mate without ever noticing them, she wondered, while Elphaba slowly reached out a hand to her. She felt the green girl's palm upon her cheek and found herself leaning into the touch without thought of hesitation. For such a pointy, hawkish creature, Elphaba had very soft, gentle hands.

“I'll go... If you'll go with me.” Elphaba declared in a quiet, uncertain, voice that Galinda was not used to hearing from the viridian skinned creature.

For a long moment, too long for comfort in Elphaba's opinion, Galinda was silent. Finally, a smile broke over the bubbly blonde's pink lips. “What will you wear?”

“I don't know... I don't have anything suiting.”

“...Then I'll make you something!”

“What?” Elphaba asked, unable to hide a laugh and grin.

Galinda pouted. “I can do it! I've been practicing!” At that Galinda jumped to her feet and rushed to the far corner of her side of the room, there Elphaba noticed a dress maker's dummy she'd never noticed in the room before, how long had that been there? Surely, surely Galinda had not planned all this, surely the blonde had not been so cunningly deceptive as to plan out this entire thing?

“Come on, Elphie, just give me one of your frocks!”

Elphaba sighed, pulled away from her internal wondering, and rose from her bed to retrieve a frock from her closet. She surrendered the oldest and most frayed of her simple outfits and Glinda swift fitted it onto the dummy with practiced precision. Galinda looked the dummy up and down and clapped her hands together excitedly.

“Perfect! And now, Elphie, thanks to you I finally have an excuse to use my new wand!”

“Wand? Galinda, you know they taught us wands aren't necessary for spell work.” Elphaba explained with the patronizing patience of a mother explaining something to a slow-witted child.

“Yeeeeees.” Galinda replied with the same air of patient impatience. “But, they also said that a real—one properly made and enchanted—can increase the power of a spell exponentially!”

“Galinda, they don't make real wands anymore, they told us that too, remember? Whatever you've bought is probably a forgery, cheap wood and glitter to distract someone from it's useless capabilities as nothing but a stick of wood!”

For a brief moment Galinda looked very very hurt. Elphaba assumed it was from th realization that she had just thrown away what was likely a great deal of money on something utterly worthless.

“This wand,” Galinda declared, pulling a recently delivered package out from under her bed with an air of reverence and respect. “Is special!”

“Really?” asked Elphaba skeptically.

“Yes!” Galinda snapped, shucking the delivery paper away from the long box. Beneath the wrapping the box was beautiful polished quaxwood with a gold engraved inlay at it's corners. It featured silver hinges and a lock, the key for which Galinda with drew from a thin silver chain hanging in her... In her cleavage, which Elphaba was momentarily transfixed by before managing to turn her attention back to the box.

Galinda put the key in the lock, but didn't yet open it. “This wand,” she explained more calmly, looking sharply at Elphaba. “Belonged to my great grand mother.”

Elphaba's eyebrows jumped. This was an interesting statement for her, especially given their recent studies of magical effects upon the body. They had learned that it was a strange truth in Oz for death to be completely avoidable, although learning how to do it was an extremely difficult challenge. It all involved very complex mystical and philosophical theory based upon the complex principle that death only came because it was accepted an an inevitability. If you could master this concept, and learn how to harnessing it's magical potential, old age ceased to be a threat to you, even injury ceased to be a true threat. The trick, though, was that it came at a high price.

You could learn to stop death, that alone was extremely difficult, but that was considered the easy part of it because even once you learned how to stop death you still couldn't make yourself safe from harm. Immortality did not mean invulnerability. As a result, if you were—for example—to have your hand severed while working in a lumber mill, there was nothing to be done for it. In order for it to heal or be successfully reattached you had to let your body begin to age once more, if you didn't... Well then, you were in for a life of pain and agony due to a missing limb that no one could do anything to fix. In the same way, more grievous injuries were just as painful as ever, but no longer life threatening. This meant that if you were in the woods and got mauled by a bear, who then proceeded to brutally disembowel you, you wouldn't die... You'd just lay their, screaming in pain until it overwhelmed your brain and you lost all sense of thought, only once you lost your sanity would the spell and, allowing you the small consolation of death after a brutal ordeal.

Only those with a university education were given the chance to learn how to master this strange principle of magic, the principle of eternal life; and only the truly brilliant, broad viewed, and open minded could master the principle well enough to call themselves immortals. Some families mastered the art perfectly, and passed their knowledge down from generation to generation, other families didn't even know such spell craft existed—much less how to use it—and they lived their simple, short lives like normal.

Because of this, Oz could become a very nasty place when it came to crime, punishment, murder, and war. No one could ever be certain if they dealing with a normal person, or a person who knew the principle of eternal life; many who learned the principle still allowed themselves to age gradually, which gave them an appearance of age and wisdom without losing the vigor and vitality of youth. Anyone who had mastered the principle was nearly impossible to kill, and because of it, methods of death were extremely harsh.

The first, and simplest, was beheading. Next there was asphyxiation, through drowning, or strangulation, and finally the most gruesome of all... Combustion. All four methods involved one simply principle, destroying or shutting down of the one thing necessary to maintain control of the eternal life principle; the brain. Without rational thought there was no way to think of the equation and keep yourself going. Destroy the brain, and life ends. In the same way, extreme punishments by the law enforcement of Oz usually involved psychological and physical tortures meant to drive the prisoner mad; this was an alternative way to end use of the life principle without actually ending the person's life.

If this wand really did belong to Galinda's great grandmother it could be hundreds of years old, assuming she was skilled enough in sorcery to master the principle. That meant that the wand would, indeed, be one of the finest in Oz, crafted before the arts of true wand crafting were lost to the world. Galinda slowly turned the key in the lock and opened the box. Inside, cushion by blue velvet, was a beautiful wand. It was roughly 4 and a feet tall, perfect for use as a decorative walking stick by an elegant woman of Oz when out and about, allowing the wielder to never be apart from the wand. It's shaft appeared to be cast from True Silver, an ancient mineral considered to be perfect for channeling magical energies; and it's top was a decorative pentacle star, of the same rare metal, with it's inner core filly by beautiful ivory. In the lines of true silver that made up the trim of the star ancient mystical writing could be seen, but it was in such old lettering that neither girl recognized it yet and would likely need a great deal more training in magic before they'd be able to read the long dead language.

“Sweet Oz, Galinda... It's beautiful.” Elphaba gasped.

“I know.” Galinda whispered in quiet reverence as she withdrew the wand from it's box. “I loved this wand as a girl, Elphie. My mother inherited it from my great grandmother—she was in a boating accident.” Glinda explained the death at Elphaba's questioning look. “When Momsie found out I was studying sorcery she was thrilled. She sent this to me, and told me not to use it until I'd practiced enough to understand what I was doing.”

“And you're certain you know what you're doing now...?” Elphaba asked, “I just mean I'd hate for something to go wrong and the wand to be damaged!” Elphaba added hastily at seeing the sour expression cross Galinda's pretty face.

“I know exactly what I'm doing, Elphie. Now stand back, and watch!” Galinda declared, raising the wand like a fencer with a rapier, and aiming the star-prong tip at the frock upon the dressing gown.

The two girls could almost feel the air shift. Galinda's lips moved like the flutter of butterfly wings, her words impossible to hear they were spoken so quietly. Before her eyes, Elphaba watched her dusty old frock begin to transform, like a fairy god mother in a magical fairytale Galinda turned the ratty old cotton weave frock into a luxurious black ball gown made of dozens of well placed folds and creases, trimmed with silk and lace in hues of dark green, purple, and blue. It was a beautiful patchwork outfit that seemed uniquely suited to Elphaba's strange, eccentricities. As Galinda finished her work she righted her wand and brought it to rest in her hands. She approached the gown alongside her green friend and the two inspected it together.

“Well... What do you think?” Galinda asked at last, daring a glance at Elphaba in hopes that the other woman would approve. She could see Elphaba's lips pressing, withholding a well of emotion because of her nature. The green girl finally looked at Galinda and smiled. The sort of touched smile that usually was accompanied by grateful tears, but not on Elphaba's cheeks. She simply stepped forward and pulled the much shorter woman into a tight hug. Galinda beamed with pleasure, but it wasn't for her own success. Her heart hammered and her stomach turned to butterflies as she realized what brought her such pleasure was simply being embraced by Elphaba.

“So, does this mean you'll come with me?” Galinda asked hopefully, slightly worried that Elphaba might still try to back out of going with her to the ball.

“I still don't think I'll fit in there... I'm not even sure if I'll fit in wearing a dress this beautiful.”

“Oh! Oh, oh, wait! Wait, wait, I know!”

Suddenly Galinda flew to the trunk at the foot of her bed. She set her wand on her bed as she threw open the trunk and began to dig through it like a dog in the flowerbed. Finally she gave a triumphant cry. Galinda rose from her chest holding something black and jagged. She hugged aside of the black thing and gave her hands a flick, unfurling the strange object. Elphaba realized that it was a hat, a very old fashioned wide-brimmed pointed hat, commonly worn by the wizards and witches of ancient Oz.

“This old thing is woefully out of style, Elphie... But it's perfect for you; it is! It's just what you need to bring that look together, you'll fit right in, you'll look just as ridiculously lavish as the rest of us!” Galinda declared with a playful smile, prancing over and shoving the hat on Elphaba's head.

Elphaba looked at herself in Galinda's mirror and adjusted the hat slightly so it rested at a slight angle upon her head. She took off her glasses now that she was no longer reading and gave herself a more scrutinizing look, smiling slightly when she saw Galinda straining on her tippie-toes to see over Elphaba's shoulder into the mirror.

“All right, Galinda... You win. I'll go.”

There was a sudden squeal and Elphaba hit the floor with a grunt, pounced upon in a gigantic hug from the diminutive blonde.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ OZ ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

AN:

For those of you who wonder where the idea for the Principle of Life came from, I read somewhere that when L. Frank Baum was first writing the books he wanted to find a way to keep the young readers from fearing for the lives of Dorothy and her friends and thus he tinkered with the idea of death being a sort of 'choice' in Oz, where you could willingly choose whether you wanted to pass on or not. I found the idea interesting and decided to tinker with it a bit myself... My take is probably a fair bit more gruesome than LFB's probably would have been, but it seemed in keeping with the nature of Wicked, and helped to explain why so many deaths in this place are so horrifically gruesome.