Maria led Vidia deep into Home Tree, which was becoming darker and more foreboding the furthur they went. Vidia half expected to bump into Veronica at some point. She couldn't get the idea out of her head that she was lurking somewhere in the shadows of the hallway. Vidia had been attempting to create a mental picture of the evil tyrant since she had first heard about her. The image that came to her head the most often was of a snake-like demon lady with fangs, bat wings, red glowing eyes and fangs with poison dripping from them.
Vidia was so lost in her nightmarish thoughts that she didn't realize she was lagging behind Maria. When Maria noticed this, she spun around and snapped at her newest charge.
"Keep up, will you! Didn't you'd ever have to be told that after what you just showed us!"
"Huh? Oh, sorry." Vidia mumbled.
Maria sighed and rolled her eyes. She hated being made to feel like she was the babysitter for new arrivals. It wasn't her place, yet she was constantly being asked to undertake it. She personally loved being out in the field, keeping order amongst the populace with her own special brands of discipline.
Maria was the head of Veronica's Special Scouts Force. They acted as a sort of police force for Pixie Hollow. While guards were tasked with protecting the Queen, and soldiers were used for militeristic measures, the Special Scouts had the job of keeping peace order throughout the many small villages that made up Pixie Hollow. Doing this usually involved brutal tactics such as beatings and such. They were also tasked with managing the massive prison that was located in the deepest, darkest recesses of the Home Tree. Maria herself was particularly skilled with torture, both physical and mental. Not only could she break your legs, but she could break your spirits as well; make you feel as though you there was no hope left as she whipped and beat you. It was a skill she was quite proud of.
Vidia continued to follow her new "friend" deeper into the darkness. There was no telling how far into the Home Tree they were now. Vidia felt as though she would never see light again. She even had a brief yet chilling thought that they knew she was a spy and were leading her to her death now. At any moment she could take a face full of arrows. It was enough to make her visibly shudder.
She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't notice that Maria had stopped in front of her. Vidia collided solidly into her back, cuasing her to spin around and snap angrily at her."
"ARE YOU BLIND, YOU IDIOT? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?"
"I-I'm sorry," Vidia apoligized frentically. "It's just so dark down here, and I could barely see you."
Maria sighed and pushed Vidia off her.
"If you weren't so talented I'd have gutted you right here and now!" She spat. "But," her voice lowered a bit. "Seeing as you're one of the fastest fairies we've possibly ever seen, I'm going to let General Irving decide what he wants to do with you. He is the Commander and Chief of Her Grand Royal Highness Queen Veronica'a army. Yes, you heard me right, we have an army, and we are currently engaged in deadly conflict. But like I said earlier, he can explain better than I can. So, I want you to enter through this door here," She pointed to a wooden door similar to Clarion's back at the Rebel camp, though this door had two guards stationed on both sides of it. "And he will fill you in on everything. He should be expecting you since we alerted him when we picked up you laugh coming in."
"O-okay." Vidia said nervously.
She made for the door, but Maria stopped her agian.
"Let me warn though, Vidia." She said menaceingly. "General Irving is not a sparrow-man to trifle with. I may have put up with your clumsiness, but he won't. You will speak to him only when spoken to, and you will answer his questions with a 'yes sir' or 'no sir'. Anything more or less than that is unacceptable and will not go unpunished. Do you understand?"
Vidia couldn't find her voice. She felt seconds away from passing out from fear. She managed to give a weak nod, which she hoped Maria could see through the darkness. To Vidias relief, Maria seemed to have a content look in her eyes, which pierced through the blackness. She stepped aside and ushered Vidia into the room. The two guards on the side sniggered a bit as Vidia walked passed them.
"New meat." One of them mumbled to the other, getting a nasty laugh from him.
Once Vidia crossed the threshold, she had to shield her eyes with her arm. It went form being gloomy and dark to luminously bright in an instant. When her eyes adjusted, she found herself in a beautifully decorated room with golden Pixie Dust shimmering on the walls. There were arrays of large, beautifully shining weapons such as swords and spears. At the center of it all was the bulky General himself, sitting behind a large desk, simmilar to Clarions, but much more elegant. He wore a slight smile on his face as Vidia approached him.
Maria stepped ahead of Vidia and went up to Irving first. She whispered something intelligible into his ear. He nodded as he listened. Then Maria stepped away and made for the exit, shooting Vidia one last stern look as she passed. Vidia heard the door click behind her, and she knew now that she was alone with him.
Vidia looked him over briefly. Just earlier that day she had seen the sparrow-man brutally gut an innocent fairy. He had look almost animal like at that time; a crazed look in his eyes and raw fury in his voice. But now he looked quite elegant and proper, dashing even. And when he opened his mouth to speak for the first time, his voice was mellow and almost soothing.
"Please sit." He offered, gesturing to soft, padded chair in front of his desk.
Vidia briskly sat herself down in the chair, which was so much more comfortable than the one Clarion had offered her.
By this point Vidia was having some serious deja vu. Everything was happening very simmilarly to her first arrival. The only differences were that the conditions were nicer and the fairies were meaner. It was like going through the looking glass, everything was opposite. Still, Vidia felt her fear disaperating significantly now. She was sure that if they had known what she was up to, they would've killed her by now. So far so good.
"Your name is Vidia?" Irving asked after a moment of silence. "And you are a Fast-Flyer?"
"Y-yes, sir." Vidia answered quickly. She couldn't control the quiver in her voice.
"Calm yourself, child. You're in no danger here." Irving said reasurringly. "I understand you probably weren't expecting this, but I will make it all clear to you."
Vidia just nodded. She couldn't get the thought out of her head of how a room as bright as this could exist in such a dark part of the Home Tree. It was nagging her brain frome the moment she stepped in there. Irving voice snapped her back to attention.
"I suppose Captain Maria filled you in a bit on who I am, but I feel I should introduce myself properly. I am General Irving, Commander and Chief of Her Majesties Royal Army and the hisgest ranking fairy in Pixie Hollow, second only to our beloved Queen Veronica."
Vidia nodded again to show that she had understood.
"You have arrived a dark time for Pixie Hollow, my dear." Irving continued. "Our land, our beautiful Pixie Hollow... she is pain, terrible pain. Our glorious army is engaged in a deadly conflict against an insidious enemy; an enemy that seeks to destroy everything we sought to create. It is a truly devastating event, it has lasted for centuries, and it shows no signs of ending any time soon. Are you familiar with the early years of Pixie Hollow?"
Vidia almost said yes, but she thought that would be too suspicious. After all as far as they knew, she had only been alive for at least an hour.
"No, sir." She answered.
"Ah, I figured as much." Irving said understandingly. "Then allow me to fill you in..."
What transpired for the next several minutes was basically the same story Vidia had heard from Clarion, only with a few small changes in tone. For one thing, Irving had certainly used more "colorful" language to describe Queen Gisselle, the Animal Talent who had neglected her fellow fairies in favor of her animal friends. And when he got around to describing Veroinicas rise to power, he spoke of her much more as a Godess-like heroine than Clarion had.
"She delivered us from the brink of extinction." Irving said grandly. "You should have heard her rally us during our uprising against that despicable Animal Talent. More powerful words were never spoken. Queen Veronica single-handedly saved this land! When she assumed Her rightful place as Queen, it seemed as though our beloved Pixie Hollow would at last have the peace we so desperately craved. But in order to make sure something like Gisselle would never happen again, extreme measures had to be taken."
'Oh, here we go.' Vidia thought to herself.
Now he was going to try and justify the genocide that was commited against possible tens of thousands of innocent Animal Talents. This was the part of the story that Vidia was looking forward to hearing agian the least.
"So," Irving continued. " Our beloved Queen, to whome we owe everything we have to, took it upon Herself to... 'remove' all Animals Talents from the equation. It wasn't going to be pretty, but it had to be done. We couldn't risk another dark age like Gisselle's."
Vidia seriously doubted that Irivng really felt that it was a chore for them to do what they did. After what she had seen from him in Tinkers Nook, she knew he had to have thoroughly enjoyed the slaughter of innocents.
"We had initially hoped to keep it quiet," Irving said. "We believed it might've come as a bit of a shock the local populace. But we had also hoped that they would know that what we did, we did for their own good; the good of all Pixie Hollow." He paused for a moment to let Vidia soak it all in. "But unfortunately, when they discovered our plot... they turned on us. We, who had given them their lives back, given them a reason to live again, were now being called the enemy! They called us monsters, they said they were better off with Gisselle -curse the baby that gave her life- and that they would not stand for our 'atrocities.' They formed a rebellion, instilled a Light Talent they call Clarion as their leader, and have sought to destroy everything we worked so hard to create."
Vidia just exhaled lightly. This story was getting harder and harder to listen to. but she still tried to keep an expression of fascination on her face. She had to play her part convincingly. Irving continued his rant.
"Do you want to know what the real atrocity is, Vidia? Them. They, the Rebels, are the true evil of this land! They are like spoiled rotten children! Ungrateful basterds! We gave them everything, and it still wasn't enough. They don't approve of our methods, but do they have a better way? They sent any Animal Talents they could to the Mainland, to hide them from us. Now they'll die slowly of old age rather than quickly by our arrows. Now, rather than risk the chance of any of them sneaking back here without our notice, Her Highness has taken it upon herself to create a massive unyielding storm, blocking access to and from the Mainland. We don't know how many were sent there, but it seems likely that it could be a few hundred years before they all die off over there. It seems quite possible that the storm may never end. It may be Her Highness's wish to leave it as it is forever."
That statement gave Vidia a slightly sick feeling in her stomach. Was she going to have to live with Pixie Hollow looking like this for her whole life? Was what she believed would be a beautiful and brightly lit land going to be dark and gloomy for all eternity? And what really bothered her: would she never get to see this Mainland that she had heard so much about?
"It is a shame." Irivng said grimly. "A terrible shame. This Rebellion has become a disease, a disease that has taken hold of a massive portion of the population. We do what we can to keep order and deter those who would think to join them. We try to remind them who it was who rescued them from the brink of annihilation, but the Rebels continue to thrive. Though they don't quite posses the same skills at combat that wee have been blessed with, they have still proven to be formidible opponents.
"Do you know that under normal circumstances, the second you arrrived you would've been greeted by the Queen Herself? But unfortunately, the threat that Rebels posed have forced us to take extreme precautionary measures of protecting Her. She is unable to ever leave Her chambers, not even for the smallest of reasons. It may seem extreme, but it is the only way. Why, just one night ago an attempt was made on her precious life! She was well protected, of course, and the attempt failed, the fact that they made it this far into the Home Tree worries me. They are becoming bolder and bolder in their moves every day, using spys and whatnot."
Vidia shuddered at the word "Spys."
"What makes them truly dangerous is their ability to blend with their surroundings. They don't seem to have any official uniform, though we have noticed a sort of green battle fatigue that they seem to wear at time, but for the most part they use deception and stealth to hit us. They call it cunning, I call it cowardice!" He was beginning to sound hysterical. "They hide in plain sight, mocking us, making us confuse them for innocent civilians! It's monstrous what they do; and yet they still lable us as the monsters! Cowardly, traitorous bastards, the lot of 'em! WELL I WON'T STAND FOR IT ANY LONGER!"
He slammed his fist on the table at the end of that outburst, causing the whole room to shake and Vidia to reel back. She no longer felt safe being alone in this room with this sparrow-man. He was clearly not right in the head.
Irving breathed heavily for a moment before regaining his composure. He wiped a few beads of sweat from his brow and leaned back in his chair.
"As I said before," He said just above a whisper. "It is a disease, for which there is one cure: death. We must destroy this Rebellion that has plagued us for so long. We know nothing of where they are operating from or just how large their numbers are. Our main strategy at this point has been relatively simple: wait for them to expose themselves where they do... and kill them. They do this by attacking our caravans on a regular basis. We simply wait for them to do so and fight them off. It has become such a habit for them that we've been sending out phoney supply carvans specifically used for drawing them into a fight.
"For the most part, we manage to hold them off, but sometimes we suffer significant losses, as well damage or loss of our precious supplies. Until we discover the source of this Rebel infestaion, I am afraid we cannot do more than simply wait for them to come to us. But, now that you're here..."
Irving stopped there for a moment. He eyed Vidia up and down. Vidia had to do all she could to not show her fear. She remained straight-backed and firm in her chair, her expression attentive.
"I was told by Maria that you flew at a speed beyond what many Fast-Flyers have ever reached. Is this true?" Irving asked.
"Y-yes, sir." Vidia answered. She hadn't spoke for so long, so her voice shook a bit. She had almost forgotten the sound of it.
Irving soon wore a creepy grin on his face, a grin that gave Vidia chills.
"I think we may find a few good uses for you, dear Vidia." He said in a chilling tone. "With speed as fast as you seem to have, you could definitely come in handy for various reasons. You could get to a battle quicker than most, you could be used to send important messages or warn of incoming attacks. So many possibilities. But first, I must ask something of you."
"Yes, sir?" Vidia said, feigning eagerness.
"From what I have told you," Irving began. "With what you now know... do you swear your eternal loyalty to us, to our cause, and to our beloved Queen? Do you swear that you will use your skills to the best of your ability to serve Her and our glorious army? And do you swear that you will not rest until Pixie Hollow is once again and forever more at peace?"
Vidia thought for a moment. This was some heavy stuff. Clarion hadn't made her take any oaths or swear aligence to her. A disturbing thought came to her head. Did this mean that her true loyalty should in fact be with Veronica if she was going to swear it to her?
'No, of course not.' Vidia thought to herself. 'I have free will no matter what, don't I? Then I choose for my aligence to be with the Rebels, and part of that aligence means faking loyalty to the enemy. It'll mean nothing if I say yes.'
"Yes, sir." Vidia answered eventually. "I swear my loyalty to and and to Her Highness."
Irivng clapped his hands once.
"Well said, my dear! Well said!" He exclaimed jovially. "Now then, it is rather late." He yawned. "So I'll give you a quick rundown of what I want you to do for now. I'll have Maria take you to your current living space, which will be the barracks for now. Maybe something better will open up in the future... depending on just how well you show your loyalty to us.
"Anyway, tomorrow, I will personally take you on a quick tour of Pixie Hollow, show you around a bit, give you a feel of the area and what have you. Perhaps we can get to know a little more about you as well; discover just where you will fit in to all of this. You'll need combat training, of course, as well as some of our armor, and perhaps a more areodynamic outfit. Oh, I normally don't get this estatic over a new arrival, but I have a special feeling about you, dear one, I think you will do truly great things for Her Highness's Grand Army."
He then gave Vidia a look that almost made her gag. It was a look similar to what she had noticed Creed had given once in a while. It was almost a look of longing and admiration. But where Creed's gentle stare made her feel safe and warm, Irving's made her feel dirty and cold.
"CAPTAIN MARIA!" Irving roared suddenly, making Vidia jump.
Seconds later, Maria rushed into the room and stood at attention.
"Yes, General?" She stated promptly, though she seemd to be hiding a bit of annoyance.
"Take Vidia to her quarters" Irving ordered. "Then prepare yourself for an early patol tomorrow. You'll be joining Vidia and I for a little tour of the surrounding area."
Maria could barely hide the look of disgust on her face. Irving seemed to notice it, and he also didn't seem to care.
"Very well then, Irving." She said cooly.
Irving just laughed. He so enjoyed seeing Maria annoyed. He then turned back to Vidia.
"You're dismissed, Vidia." He said airily. "Sleep well, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." Vidia replied before having her arm grabbed by Maria and yanked towards the door.
"Come on, you." Maria said irritably.
The two left the room, the door clicking shut behind them. Irving stood alone in the brightness of his room, a wide smile stretching accross his rugged face. Oh, he had plans for Vidia alright. For the first time in decades, victory felt within his grasp.
Apologies for the wait. It's coming up on finals week, and my studies have to come first! Next chapter may or may not take a while. Depends on how much free time I have. It will get done though. Thanks again for your patience!