boy named Liir, her son by Fiyero. Fiyero's family allow her to stay as their guest, but his widow Sarima refuses to hear her apology. While there, Elphaba begins to study sorcery and gains a reputation as a witch. Elphaba's father asks for her help with her sister Nessarose, who has also become a witch and has taken Elphaba's hereditary position as ruler of Munchkinland. Tired of being used as a pawn in other people's agendas, Elphaba declines her father's request. Nessarose promises to give Elphaba her enchanted silver shoes after she dies. When Elphaba returns to Kiamo Ko, she discovers the Wizard's troops have taken Fiyero's family prisoner. Seven years later, a storm visits Munchkinland, dropping a farmhouse on Nessarose and killing her. The farmhouse's passengers are a little girl named Dorothy Gale and her dog, Toto. Glinda sends Dorothy off with Nessarose's shoes for fear of their power igniting a civil war in Munchkinland. Elphaba is furious, as the shoes were rightfully hers. Elphaba meets with the Wizard to beg for the release of Fiyero and his family. The Wizard explains that he has killed them all except for Fiyero's daughter Nor, who he keeps as a slave. He explains that he comes from a different world and is not bound by the laws of Oz. After the unsuccessful meeting, Elphaba learns that the Wizard is her biological father, making her the child of two different worlds and thus destined never to fit in anywhere. When Dorothy and her friends arrive at Kiamo Ko, she tells Elphaba that while the Wizard sent her with orders to "kill the witch", Dorothy came to apologize for killing her sister. Furious that Dorothy is asking for the forgiveness she herself has been denied, Elphaba waves her burning broom in the air and inadvertently sets her skirt on fire. Dorothy throws a bucket of water on her to save her. Instead, the water melts her away. Dorothy returns to the Wizard with a green bottle, which he recognizes as the potion he used to drug Melena. The Wizard departs the Emerald City mere hours before a coup would have overthrown and killed him. The book ends with political chaos reigning over Oz. Major characters Elphaba Thropp: The protagonist of the book, Elphaba is a green-skinned girl who later becomes known as the Wicked Witch of the West. Later in the book, it