“
I'm gone, dearie, I'm magicked away in a puff of smoke. Forget it. And you know, that'll be good for Nessarose. She'll be a sort of local queen out there in Nest Hardings."
"She apparently did a course in sorcery, did you know? In Shiz?"
"No I didn't. Well, bully for her. If she ever comes down off that plinth - the one that has words written on the it along the edges in gold, reading MOST SUPERIOR IN MORAL RECTITUDE - if she ever allows herself to be the bitch she really is, she'll be the Bitch of the East. Nanny and the devoted staff at Colwen Grounds will prop her up."
"I thought you were fond of her!"
"Don't you know affection when you see it?" scoffed Elphaba. "I love Nessie. She's a pain in the neck, she's intolerably righteous, she's a nasty piece of work. I'm devoted to her."
"She'll be the Eminent Thropp."
"Better she than I," said Elphaba dryly. "For one thing she has great taste in shoes.
”
”
Gregory Maguire (Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wicked Years, #1))