Icicle kills Manek

The death of Manek, the middle son of Fiyero and Sarima, is a sudden, violent event that crystallizes the tensions simmering in Kiamo Ko. It occurs not through a direct confrontation but through a natural object turned lethal: an icicle, dislodged from the eaves, that drives into the boy's skull as he steps outside. The household, already primed to see Elphaba as a witch, immediately reads the accident as a deliberate act of magic, and the incident becomes a turning point in her relationship with the family and with herself.

The Bullying and the Near-Drowning

Manek had been the most aggressive of Sarima's children, a boy who delighted in tormenting Liir, the mysterious boy who had arrived with Elphaba. The cruelty reached its peak when Manek tricked Liir into climbing into the fishwell, then slid the cover shut and left him to drown. Liir was rescued only through the frantic efforts of the household, and Elphaba, who had been studying the Grimmerie, was forced to breathe life back into his waterlogged body. The incident left Liir traumatized and the household shaken, but Manek showed no remorse. His mother, Sarima, later lectured Elphaba on the difference between "hot anger" and "cold anger," explaining that boys need hot anger to survive, while girls need the cold, simmering kind—a lesson that Elphaba would absorb.

The Icicle and the Death

In the days following Liir's near-drowning, Elphaba sat on the parapet, watching the strengthening sun beat down on the snow. She thought about the weapons one needed to fight such abuse, about the nature of anger, and about the icicles that formed from the interplay of warm and cold. As she trained her gaze on a single icicle, it broke from the eaves and drove whistling downward, catching Manek in the skull as he went out to find some new way of beleaguering Liir. The death was instantaneous. The household, already suspicious of Elphaba's powers, saw it as proof of her witchcraft. Nanny, the old family retainer, told her bluntly, "They're calling you a witch, do you know that?"

Consequences and Aftermath

Manek's death devastated the family. The sisters, who had pinned their hopes on him as the future of Kiamo Ko, were inconsolable. Sarima became more aloof, taking her meals alone in the Solar. Irji, the older brother, retreated into the chapel, while Nor, the younger sister, began to wander the mountains alone, seeking attention and finding none. The death also deepened the unspoken suspicion that Liir's life had been saved at the expense of Manek's. Elphaba herself felt a complex mixture of guilt and defiance. She did not care that Manek had died—he was, in her eyes, a torturer—but she was forced to confront the nature of her own power. The icicle had fallen at her command, or so it seemed, and she could not deny the possibility that she had willed it. The event marked her final transformation into the figure the household already feared: the Wicked Witch of the West.