Whew! Finally! When I first conceived this story, it was supposed to have a simple resolution.
When I added Vidia's apparent discrimination, I did so to add complexity to her character and provide motivation for some of her misdeeds.
It also had the unfortunate effect of making this finale much more difficult to write.
When the queen began to ask why Vidia was the way she was, I had no answer initially.
Then I remembered a major event in the first film and used it to provide a reason for Vidia being who she was.
This lead to a huge left turn that nearly threw a monkey wrench into this and the next story, but I got it figured out...,I think.
That explains why this chapter took so long to write and post.
So, here it is the sentencing of Vidia, which unfortunately, despite being so dang long, is only halfway through.
It promises to be explosive, scandalous, outrageous, incredible and will likely knock your socks off..., or not.
Chapter 12 - Part V: Vidia
Queen Clarion was well aware of Vidia's superiority complex and how often she belittled other fairies and sparrow men to reinforce her own sense of supremacy. These incidents, however, were unrelated and generally isolated moments. She did have a history of disparaging entire talent guilds as she spoke of the pre-eminence of her own; however, never before had Vidia used such inflammatory language or spoke in terms of wholesale discrimination against any specific talent. Her characterization of the tinker fairies as not being real fairies, that they were little more than clumsy humans with wings, and didn't use magic like the other talents did, was provocative at best and seditious at worst.
For several minutes the queen merely stared at Vidia, occasionally rereading the charges against her and reviewing what the flyer had said to Tinker Bell, both during her testimony and a moment ago while Queen Clarion was sentencing the tinker fairy. Leading Silvermist and Tinker Bell to realize their mistakes was easy. Both were young, intelligent and willing to understand their mistakes and accept their penalties. Vidia, on the other hand, was a different matter. She could be obstinate, preferred to deflect blame to others and would ignore authority whenever it suited her. Clarion, however, gamely decided to try anyway.
"Well? Aren't you going to do something? Aren't you going to kick me out of Pixie Hollow or something?" Vidia said defiantly.
"Good question, Vidia. What am I to do with you?" the queen responded. "You plotted for days to destroy Tinker Bell's home and successfully carried it out. You also led everyone to believe it was an accident. When found out, you ran. Tinker Bell followed you in a fit of justifiable anger. Then you lured her into a fallen tree where you captured her, humiliated her, beat her with tree bark and insinuated that she and her talent guild were not real talents or true Never Fairies. Tinker Bell boiled over with fury and filled your house with mice in retaliation. You in turn responded by starting a fist fight with her in Tinker's Nook. Why?"
"She got me into trouble. I wound up chasing those stupid weeds when she was the one who wiped out all the spring preparations," Vidia said.
"Did you tell her that capturing thistles was considered impossible?"
"No, if she is supposed to be such a great talent, let her figure it out," Vidia spat.
"And did you tell her that she couldn't change her talent?"
"No. Why should I bother, I'm not her keeper. Isn't that supposed to be your job? Or Fairy Mary's?"
Queen Clarion sighed before continuing. "We protect and advise each other, Vidia. You may not be her keeper, but you are old enough to be wise counsel to her. Yet you refused to offer any when she came to you for help."
"I still don't see how it's my job," Vidia sneered.
"It is everyone's task to perform, Vidia. Like it or not," the queen said restating what Vidia should have already known.
Vidia just harrumphed.
"You knowingly and willfully took advantage of Tinker Bell in her moment of need. She had a crisis of confidence and you exploited it to your own ends. To wit: undermine and crush her spirit so you could maintain your position as the greatest and most talented fairy in Pixie Hollow. It nearly worked. But Tinker Bell was able to invent machines that allowed the spring fairies to bring the season on time. You, however, tried to obstruct her, in point of fact all of us, from employing those same inventions. That is why you were made to take the thistles to Needlepoint Meadow."
Vidia said nothing. Her brow was furrowed deeply and she kept her arms folded tightly across her chest.
"As I understand it, shortly after she arrived Tinker Bell tried to introduce herself to you in friendship. You responded by turning her way and belittling her and the tinker talent guild. You tried to convince her there was no good reason to take pride in her talent. Why did you do this? Was it because Tinker Bell's talent glow was brighter than yours? Could you not accept that another fairy was more talented than you?"
"She's not more talented than I am because she's a tinker and tinkers aren't real fairies. They don't use magic like real Never Fairies," was all Vidia would say.
"Is that what you try to tell yourself so you won't feel like second best? Is that how you justified what you did to Tinker Bell and her home?"
Once again the flyer held her tongue.
"This is very troubling, Vidia," the queen said. "It troubles me greatly when you speak of discrimination against any talent."
"I'm not discriminating. They just aren't deserving of being called Never Fairies, that's all. They aren't like us."
"That is the very essence of discrimination, Vidia," the queen said. "Why do you think this way? What is it about a tinker that makes you dislike them so much?"
"Like I told you, because they don't use magic, they don't have innate ability and their 'talent' is mindless work that any fairy, or clumsy human, could do," Vidia replied with a bit of agitation.
"And how did you come to this conclusion?"
"Well just look at them. They are nothing like you or I. I spent years watching them and could never figure out what magic they used or if they had a specific skill set. They just make pots, pans, kettles, bowls, satchels, baskets and what not. I mean, it's not like we couldn't do that ourselves."
"Did you ever consider taking the initiative to ask them to explain their talent?"
"Why bother, it's just swinging a hammer or using a saw," Vidia said, uncrossing her arms and mimicking each tool. "I've used both of those before. I didn't exactly have a panic attack when I picked up either one."
"Did you ever try to work like a tinker? Perform their tasks or create as they do?"
"No, but then why would I? They do the menial labor, we do the important stuff."
The queen shook her head in disgust. "This is incendiary, Vidia. Do you actually believe that the tinkers are inferior creatures and not worthy of equal treatment?"
"I didn't say that," Vidia said, not liking how the queen was rewording her opinions.
"Oh, but you did. Or just where did you believe that kind of thinking would lead? If they are not true Never Fairies then does it not logically follow that they should not be treated equally under our laws? Isn't that correct?"
The fast flyer said nothing. Instead she just crossed her arms again and glowered at nobody, anger clearly building inside her.
"What if your opinions found favor in Pixie Hollow?" Clarion started
"Nice," Vidia interjected.
"What if your opinions found favor and were employed to their logical conclusion?" the queen asked. "What kind of changes do you think would have to be made and institutionalized to create your idealized version of Pixie Hollow? Loss of equality? Loss of rights? Persecution? Enslavement? Banishment? Where would it end?"
"Hey, I have never said anything like that! Don't put words in my mouth!" Vidia said, pointing irately at the queen.
"Didn't you say during your testimony: 'tinker fairies should be kept in their hole in the ground'?"
"Yeah, but I didn't mean all that other stuff you said!" the flyer spat back.
"Exactly what do you think 'keeping the tinker fairies in their hole in the ground' means, Vidia?" the queen asked.
Vidia just stood there; arms crossed once more, her brow still deeply furrowed. She refused to ponder the question because she disliked being challenged by anyone, even Queen Clarion.
"It means that their rights must be taken away," the queen explained. "When you say that a group of fairies should be regarded as inferior creatures, 'clumsy humans with wings' as you stated, then not only are you justifying their oppression, but you must also persecute them and deny their natural born status as free Never Fairies. And if they are to be held captive to do menial labor on demand then you have made them slaves."
Vidia, arms still crossed tightly over her chest, turned away from the queen. Viola moved to force Vidia to face Clarion once more, but the queen waved her arm and Viola returned to her position at the queen's side.
Queen Clarion thought for a moment as she tried to get through to her wayward flyer. As the purple clad fairy stood there, Clarion noticed her extra long wings which fast flyers needed for their speed. "Vidia, what if it was decided that the lengthy wings of a fast flyer made your entire guild different?"
"They do make us different," Vidia said. She started pointing towards the door and the outside. "They make us superior to the other guilds because we can command forces of nature more powerful than any other nature talent in Pixie Hollow."
"What if it was decided that those extra long wings made you different enough to be considered something other than Never Fairies? What if it were declared that fast flyers were not real Never Fairies? Not deserving of the same freedoms and protections under our laws. Would you like to have your freedoms taken from you? Would you want to spend your life in forced labor all because of the size of your wings?"
Vidia just laughed. "Never going to happen, your highness, we're the best guild in Pixie Hollow. If the other talents can't accept that it is because they are too inferior to realize just how superior we really are."
"And the tinkers?"
"Are the most inferior of them all," Vidia stated gleefully.
Queen Clarion sighed. "When did you start to think this way? When Tinker Bell arrived? Is that why you hate her so much?"
"No. I can't remember when…," Vidia said, her voice trailing off a bit at the end.
The queen stared at Vidia and cocked one eyebrow. "There had to be a time when you started thinking this way. When was it?"
"Okay, fine, it was not long after I arrived," Vidia snarled, clearly agitated by this question.
The queen was shocked to hear this news. Her best fast flyer a bigot her entire life? Was it possible? "So you believe that the tinker guild is so inferior that they should be treated differently from all the other guilds?"
"I just think that we shouldn't consider them real Never Fairies, that's all," Vidia said, restating her previous claim.
"Because they do not use magic in their work, do not possess innate ability and that they perform menial tasks that any fairy could perform?"
"That is it exactly."
"And you would want to see this viewpoint adopted by the other fairies of Pixie Hollow?"
"Absolutely," Vidia replied.
"As well as the queen of Pixie Hollow?"
Vidia thought about that for a while. "Would be nice."
"No Vidia, I cannot believe that my fairies would ever allow our current state of harmonious affairs to become an ancien re̕gime, but I also cannot stand by in good conscience and do nothing, either," the queen told the fast flyer. "All Never Fairies of Pixie Hollow are equal in the eyes of the law and in the eyes of their queen and I intend to keep it that way. There will be no après moi, le deluge, because of inaction. I am going to nip this in the bud right away."
"So what are going to do to me? Make me wash the Pixie Dust Tree, leaf by leaf? Build Tinker Bell another house? Put in my confinement for the rest of my life? You did say that I was inciting rebellion against you."
The queen thought for a moment before speaking again. "Are you inciting others to change how we treat the tinkers? To institutionalize their discrimination? Their persecution? Their enslavement?"
"No. Let those green collar fairies do whatever they want. I just can't understand why you and everyone else in Pixie Hollow want to consider them a talent? They aren't a talent and they certainly aren't true Never Fairies. They're just manual labor. When compared to the rest of us, tinkers shouldn't matter."
The queen listened to Vidia's sometimes contradictory statements. It was frustrating because Clarion was unsure if Vidia clearly understood what she was saying or if the fast flyer was merely playing head games with her. Either way, Clarion eventually came to the conclusion that Vidia was not a threat to the Pixie Hollow status quo. She had neither the resources to rebel against the crown nor could she ever garner enough support to accomplish such a monumental task. Vidia had effectively isolated herself from the Pixie Hollow community with her snobbish behavior and bullying tactics. Furthermore, no one would follow her ideas anyway. The Never Fairies of Pixie Hollow adored their queen and would never turn against Clarion and her gentle rule.
"Then the charge of sedition is dropped," the queen said. "But I do think it is time you learned about the tinkers."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
Vidia, the fast flying fairy, you will be punished in accordance with your crimes," the queen began.
"Well, it's about time," Vidia injected.
The queen took in a deep, calming breath before proceeding. "Vidia, you are confined to Never Land until the end of the summer season."
"What?!"
"Silence while Queen Clarion sentences you for your crimes," Viola announced to the flyer.
"Oh shove it up you horn," Vidia grumbled.
The queen continued, "You will finish your previous task and lead the remaining thistles to Needlepoint Meadow with Tinker Bell. Upon completion you will spend one month mucking out the mouse stables, working alongside Tinker Bell."
"Why do you keep sticking me with that lousy tinker?!" Vidia demanded.
Viola blew her horn and cried out, "SILENCE!"
"So you will come to know her better," the queen replied. Vidia grumbled under her breath. Clarion went on to complete her sentencing of the fast flyer. "At the end of one month, you will report to Tinker's Nook where you will learn what it means to be a tinker."
Vidia exploded when she heard that. "ABSOLUTELY NOT! I WILL NOT WORK ALONGSIDE THEM."
"You will do as you are told, Vidia," the queen scolded.
"BUT THEY ARE NOT REAL NEVER FAIRIES, THEY DON'T MATTER."
"Then I will ask you again, Vidia, if tinkers do not matter then why did you find it necessary to do all of these terrible things to Tinker Bell? Why did you want to break her spirit and then force her to state she was inferior to you?"
Vidia refused to answer. Viola demanded that Vidia answer the question, but the flyer held her tongue. Viola blew her horn, but Vidia grabbed the horn right out of Viola's mouth causing the summoner to inadvertently spit on the flyer. Vidia then tossed the horn to one side in frustration.
"Vidia!" the queen called her out. "Pick up Viola's horn and return it to her immediately."
Vidia just crossed her arms, harrumphed and did nothing else.
"Vidia, now!"
The flyer groused, but did as instructed. "Here's your stupid horn," she grumbled as the flyer returned the instrument to Viola.
"Now answer the question," the queen demanded. "Why would you persecute Tinker Bell and denigrate her guild if they did not matter?"
"Like I said before, because you and everyone else on this island think they matter. Well they don't, they just don't."
The queen moved to Vidia and questioned her further. "Why do they not matter? Because you believe they do not use magic or have innate ability?"
"Well, duh. That's what I've been telling you all day today." Vidia grumbled and growled.
"I grow weary of your circular answers, Vidia," the queen said. She then tried another way to get the information she wanted. "You said that your opinions about the tinker fairies began shortly after you arrived. Is that correct?"
Vidia sort of nodded.
"I will take that as a yes."
"Whatever."
"Who taught you to think this way?!" Clarion asked, a touch of frustration in her voice.
"You don't want to know. You won't want to know," Vidia replied.
"I want to know, Vidia," Clarion responded. "Now who taught you to think this way?"
"You'll call me a liar," Vidia said.
"The truth is the truth, Vidia. Tell me who instructed you to denigrate tinker fairies."
"Will you punish her like you're trying to punish me?!" Vidia asked angrily.
"I will," the queen replied, finally able to get to the truth of the matter. Now Clarion would be able to get to the root of Vidia's contempt for tinkers and the queen could begin the process of reforming the flyer.
"Ha, you won't," was what the flyer said in reply. "You won't because it is someone very close to you. Someone you are unwilling to punish and that makes you a liar!"
Viola was about to step in, but the queen brushed her away.
"How dare you call your queen a liar, Vidia," Clarion reprimanded.
"Because you are. Do you really want to know who trained me to dislike the tinkers?"
"Yes."
"The truth?"
"Yes!"
"Can you handle the truth?"
"I am the queen, I can handle any truth," Clarion demanded, irritated by Vidia's questions.
"Do you promise to punish her as you have punished me?"
"I already said I would, Vidia, now get on with it."
"Well, you won't, and do you know why?"
The queen decided to stop playing Vidia's game. Clarion turned away from the flyer, but the purple clad fairy continued.
"Because the fairy who taught me, and taught me well, was you!" Vidia said loudly.
Clarion turned around sharply and glared at the fast flyer. "I did no such thing," she said, trying to keep her regal composure in the face of Vidia's malicious lies.
"Ha, I knew you would say something like that. I knew you wouldn't be able to handle the real truth," Vidia said, a scowl on her face.
"Very, well," the queen said, maintaining full composure. "How did I teach you to have such contempt for the tinker talents? Please enlighten me."
Vidia grinned. "Because you wouldn't let the tinkers fly to the mainland."
The queen was blindsided by Vidia's simple answer.
"When I first arrived all the talents of Pixie Hollow were allowed to fly to the mainland except one: the tinkers," Vidia said. "I couldn't figure out why. So I asked a few fairies and each one told me the same thing, 'Tinkers don't go to the mainland.' Plain and simple. Well, that wasn't a reason. And yet, there was this law that you upheld. There had to be a reason. So I decided to observe the tinkers in their little ditch in the dirt. Do you know what I saw? No magic. No talent. Manual labor that any fairy could do."
The queen listened carefully to every word. Vidia liked to pass blame to others and no doubt she was trying to do it again.
"But then I wondered what if what they do is special in some way? They used a saw, so I took one and cut down a flower. I had no problem doing that. They pounded stakes into the ground with a hammer, so I pounded in stakes into the ground with a hammer. Same result, no problem. They tied knots, so I tied few knots and again I could do what they did. There was nothing special about the work they did. So I kept wondering why they were not allowed, by law, to go the mainland."
Vidia, smiled even more as she continued her story. "If all the fairies and all the talent guilds are supposed to be equal in the eyes of the law and in the eyes of their queen, then why were the tinkers not allowed to fly to the mainland? Because for some reason only she knew the queen deemed them to be unequal and inferior in the eyes of the law, that's why!"
"I did not," Queen Clarion protested.
"Then why couldn't they fly to the mainland with all the other talents?"
"Tinker talents never expressed a desire to go to the mainland before Tinker Bell," the queen answered. "Their work has always been here."
"NO! Not going because you don't want to is a choice," Vidia shouted back. "Not going because your queen says you can't is not a choice. Being confined to an island by law to perform forced labor is not a choice!" Vidia went out of her way to throw the queen's words right back at her.
"You accused me of wanting to institutionalize discrimination. Well, I can't do that. I don't have the authority. But you're the queen, and you do have that authority. Well, guess what? You did just that! You institutionalized discrimination of the tinker fairies by upholding that law! And you also institutionalized their captivity on this island. But it gets better; you convinced the entire population of Pixie Hollow that your institutionalized discrimination was proper and even lawful. The queen can do that, I can't. I wasn't discriminating, you were. You upheld a law that implied that one talent guild was expressly less equal than all the others, which means you believed that they were expressly less equal than the other talent guilds, too. And you violated the rule of Pixie Hollow that states 'that all fairies are equal in the eyes of the law.' That makes you the criminal, not me."
"That's right, your highness," Vidia sneered, "you're the criminal. You should be the one mucking out the mouse stables, not me. You should be the one chasing down thistles all day, not me. You are a bigot, a liar, a propagandist and a hypocrite. I saw through the veil of your fraudulently criminal administration long ago. That's why I don't listen to you, why I never listened to you, because I know what you are. But I'm the one living in that scraggly tree way out in the middle of nowhere, while you, the criminal guilty of centuries of enforced discrimination and confinement of an entire talent guild, get to live in the opulent Pixie Dust Tree enjoying all the perks of being queen. And I'm sick of it. I am sick of your lies and hypocrisy. And I am sick of how poorly you treat me. And I am sick of you punishing me when I am just following in the spirit of the law you upheld for so long. You made me what I am, and then you rejected me. You betrayed me for being what you wanted. It's not fair. It is not fair and I am not going to take it anymore!"
Vidia screamed as she bolted out of the room in extreme anger.
Queen Clarion was shaken by Vidia's tirade. Was she really responsible for institutionalizing discrimination against an entire talent guild? Did she uphold a law she knew expressly violated the equality of the tinkers? Was she responsible for teaching every fairy to accept this discrimination as normal and acceptable?
Queen Clarion stumbled, not flew, up the stairs to her private chambers. Viola flew over to help he queen. Clarion had never been challenged like this before. She had never been accused of being a criminal. And now she would be forced to consult with her advisors. How would they respond to Vidia's accusations? Would they dismiss them outright? Or would they agree and look disparagingly on Clarion? Could there even be a vote of no confidence essentially stripping her of her crown and her authority? That would mean a new queen would arrive to replace Clarion.
I have no choice, she thought. I have to answer her accusations, but I'll need to consult and reflect. This is a frightening challenge that I cannot avoid.
Vidia, raced home to the Sour Plum Tree and threw open the door. In her anger she had forgotten that the mice Tinker Bell brought had thoroughly damaged her house beyond use. She could not occupy it until it was repaired. All of her broken, chewed and shredded personal items were lying in piles on the floor. Vidia was so angry she reached down, grabbed a handful and started throwing them at the wall, screaming as she did. "It's not fair she can get away with all of it and I can't!"
But Vidia found no satisfaction here. Instead, she raced off to what she believed was the source of all her troubles: those lousy tinker fairies in Tinker's Nook.
Vidia, flying as fast as she could, roared into Tinker's Nook, grabbed the first thing she saw, a large twig, and began swinging it angrily at piles of ready to deliver tinker wares, screaming out, "It's not fair!" with every swing.
She knocked over a stack of acorn bowls. Then she scattered a pile of pots and pans bound for the kitchen that had just been repaired and polished. In the courtyard she saw a cart nearly full of items that were to be delivered. Silvermist was sitting in the driver's seat and was waiting to leave as soon as the wagon was full. Vidia screamed and charged at the cart.
Silvermist looked over and saw Vidia, flying at the cart and yelling.
"Vidia? What are you doing?" Silvermist flew up from the cart as soon as Vidia struck it with her bodyr.
Fast flyers are not known for their strength. They are slender and built for speed, but Vidia was so furious that massive amounts of adrenaline were coursing through her body, and after great effort and strain she flipped the cart over, spilling out its contents onto the courtyard floor.
"Vidia, what has gotten into you?" Fairy Mary asked. But as before Vidia didn't want to listen. She only screamed and yelled while occasionally bellowing, "It's not fair that she can do this to me!" The fast flyer then flew into the workshop where she continued her onslaught. Vidia took a hammer and started smashing stacks of acorns and flinging unfinished woven baskets everywhere. The tinkers in the shop flitted away from their workstations in fear. Finally, Vidia became so enraged that she unleashed a huge whirlwind inside the shop. The spinning tornado took anything and everything not nailed down and tossed it into the walls, across tables and high up into the air. No longer able to sustain the whirlwind, she then took another tinker hammer and started pounding on the tables, yelling, "I'm not a criminal, she is," with each swing.
Vidia kept moving around, pounding tables, chairs, walls, anything in the hopes of releasing all of her frustrations that had been pent up for most of her life. She landed at one table; beat it mercilessly with the hammer before succumbing to physical and emotional exhaustion. She dropped the hammer and flopped onto the worktable which, ironically, belonged to Tinker Bell.
"It's just not fair!" Vidia kept saying. "I'm only doing what she always did, but I'm the one who has to pay for it. It's not fair! Not fair!"
The fast flyer began to cry as she continued her tirade. Two scout talents, whom Fairy Mary had summoned, flew into the workshop area and slowly approached the fast flyer. They brought with them something rarely ever used: wing-cuffs. It was a device that cuffed a fairy or sparrow man's wings and tied around the waist, effectively locking the wings to the back. It prevented a fairy under arrest from flying away.
When one approached and touched Vidia's arm, she reacted and flung her arm saying, "Don't touch me!"
"Vidia, the fast flyer you are under arrest in the name of the queen," another announced.
"You can't arrest me!" she told them. "I don't recognize the queen's authority. She has no moral authority to do anything to me!" Vidia yelled at them. They tried several times to take hold of her, but she kept swinging at them with her arms and fists. One of them finally grabbed the flyer and the other was able to secure the wing cuffs and to it to her waist. Vidia was effectively grounded. The two scout talents then forcibly took Vidia out of Tinker's Nook and back to the confinement area to await a new audience with the queen.
Okay. So do you think that Vidia is correct in her assessment?
Is Queen Clarion responsible for Vidia being the way she is?
Or do you think that Vidia is terribly mistaken?
Also, do you think I went too far with this chapter?
Or could this be a reasonable explanation for Vidia's attitude?
I could use all the feedback on this chapter I can get.
Thank you for being so patient.