THE FARAWAY LANDS OF OZ - Book One

Part Seven, Chapter Thirty-Nine: The South gone West

EVANORA

I was in Oz. I ended up being in Oz. I had no words. The face of Glinda and her shape running towards us had left me perplexed. I had been asleep ever since the – now second – crystal had closed me in. A painful buzz had woken me up just in time to see my sister. The Seeker.
Seven long years, I had been trapped inside the realm, slowly losing hope ever to return home. If it had not been for my Saints, I would have died from insanity, that was sure as fuck. If it had not been for people like Shaundi, Johnny, Kinzie, Matt, Asha, Oleg and dear Viola, the soul-sucking powers of the Sins would have taken me.
"Ev, you're finally home...," sobbed Glinda. She had collapsed on one of our Morning room's cushioned armchairs. I, on the other hand, was standing there like I had lost every single memory of who I was. Looking around and taking in every detail of my home.
"Yeah," was all that I could force out right now. My heart was racing, and I had so many questions to ask but also so many answers to give, "Please tell me Glinds... What the fuck is going on here?"
I was in Oz. I ended up being in Oz. I had no words. The face of Glinda and her shape running towards us had left me perplexed. I had been asleep ever since the – now second – crystal had closed me in. A painful buzz had woken me up just in time to see my sister. The Seeker.
Seven long years, I had been trapped inside the realm, slowly losing hope ever to return home. If it had not been for my Saints, I would have died from insanity, that was sure as fuck. If it had not been for people like Shaundi, Johnny, Kinzie, Matt, Asha, Oleg and dear Viola, the soul-sucking powers of the Sins would have taken me.
"Ev, you're finally home...," sobbed Glinda. She had collapsed on one of our morning room's cushioned armchairs. I, on the other hand, was standing there like I had lost every single memory of who I was. Looking around and taking in every detail of my home.
"Yeah," was all that I could force out right now. My heart was racing, and I had so many questions to ask but also so many answers to give, "Please tell me Glinds... What the fuck is going on here?"
She blew her nose, sighed and tried to talk between tears, "Well... Everything's in chaos. I-I don't even know... know where to start."
I scoffed, "Well then, I'd say you should start 'cause we don't seem to have all day!"
She stopped tapping her eyes for a split second because of my reply but did not pay much mind. I had grown to be like that during my absence. I don't know until this day though whether it was the Seven's influence or my own pain. I blamed it on them but what if it had just been the Evil Witch slumbering within me?
Glinda continued her thought, "I'll make it short then: You were gone, and we found some clues. Ruby left and has still not returned; that was a week ago. Meanwhile we tried to continue our lives but were attacked by some Morningstar persona and then-"
"Fucking stop it right there!" The panic withing me had shifted onto her face. Glinda leaned forward a bit and placed a hand on my own. But I shook her off and stood up, pacing.
"The Morningstar," I mumbled under my breath, "How? And why? Is he here? FUCK!" I felt so many things right now. But primarily, I was fucking furious. God, I should stop thinking like that - OH! I stopped myself. Things were going properly, I assume.
"Ev, calm down!" Glinda inquired and pressed me down onto the big sofa. Feeling the softness of it against my skin was heaven-sent. I had not realized how much I had missed all of this.
"He's gone," she continued, "But we've come to learn that he has always been here. Pulling the strings from the shadows. But now, I am not sure whether that is even the truth...," she sighed once again and had to blow her nose once more.
"There was this mist that we stopped which revealed three new counties. And three people who had allegedly been trapped there for sixty years by the Sins who had been controlled by the Morningstar-"
"The one with the crystal," I interrupted. In my stay with the Saints, I encountered the Morningstar on several occasions. And it overlapped with what Glinda told me.
"Yes, exactly. But her sob-story was nothing more than a lie. You were captured there and now we are here. And everybody else is either clueless or dead now. She had us all invited for this Christmas reunion," She sighed once again, "and they're all still there..."
What? "WHAT?!" I directed my eyes to the Seeker. "How the fuck could you do this?! Because of you there's a chance that my family and friends are dead! Fucking hell! Fucking Sovereign! I'm going there to save them, I don't even fucking care."
Glinda stood in my way. Arms out and chest puffed up.
"And what do you want from me now?" I snapped, looking her up and down.
"You're not going alone!" Her voice was strong, but I could hear a glint of fear, of panic in it.
"Well then fucking come with me," I sing-songed and shoved her aside.
"What, the two of us? Against her? She took out two Sovereign and killed the Overlord!" When Glinda was shouting, her voice always became so squeaky. And one death of someone we had just met twice would not distract me from my goal.
"The three of us if you count ugly Squidward there. It is his mess and he's gonna come too," I decided.
"Ev, she took you out too!" Glinda was now full-on shouting, but I did not care. I was standing at the door and one more step would be the deciding one.
"I'll teach her a lesson, that bitch," I gritted between my teeth.
"EVANORA! Do you even hear yourself? What even happened to you," she cried.
That was it. That. Was. It., she dared? She dared ask what happened? While she had been 'suffering' for A WEEK, I had been away for seven years. SEVEN YEARS! She could not even grasp what had happened to me. And the number of people I had lost there.
"You ask... What happened to me?" I decided to stay as calm as I could, not shouting at least, "What happened to me was that I was trapped for SEVEN YEARS . In a world ruled by Sin. I lost not only a handful of people. I lost people who had become friends and family. I am not the same woman that I was when you saw me last. And I never will be again. So, I do not even fucking care what you think. I am your queen and I command you – the both of you – to follow me and goddamn fight for the people you love. I will not stand and see another set of family and friends go..."
That shut her up. She stepped up to me, but I only turned and walked out the door, past my throne and out into the open air. Sapphira will die. If it is the last thing I do.