Here is the final chapter of Vidia's Revenge. Enjoy.
When Queen Clarion was ready to speak with Vidia she found the fast flyer was incredibly agitated and seemed ready to explode with anger at the slightest provocation. This was going to be extremely difficult for the queen to navigate, so she chose an activity that Vidia would enjoy while they spoke.
"Fly with me," the queen asked of Vidia. Once airborne, Queen Clarion explained that she had come to understand the meaning behind the law which prohibited tinkers from flying to the mainland. This coupled with the incident between Silvermist and Vidia had challenged the queen's assumptions about the fast flyer.
Vidia had a long history of anti social and antagonistic behavior towards her fellow fairies. In many of the official records Vidia claimed to be the victim of another fairy's humiliations against her. It was always assumed that Vidia was the antagonist and was simply trying to avoid her due punishment.
"Yeah, tell me something I don't know," Vidia hissed. "Any wonder why I don't care anymore?"
As the pair flew around the Pixie Dust Tree, Vidia was quickly flanked by two scouts who would ensure that the flyer did not attempt to flee. The sentencing of the fast flyer had been completed when Vidia levied her accusations against the queen. Her assault on Tinker's Nook afterwards and the emotional breakdown that followed required an addendum to her existing penalty. But there was something else, too.
"I am well aware of what you did in Tinker's Nook and I am very disappointed by your lack of self control," the queen said.
Vidia merely grunted, unwilling to comment further.
"I am also disappointed that when you concluded that the law in question may have been unfair to a certain guild you did not come to me first with your concerns," the queen added. "You may have saved all of us, including yourself, a great deal of grief."
"Oh, please," Vidia replied. "That law was bad and you should have known it from the beginning."
"Perhaps I should have," Clarion admitted, "but I did not. And it is the responsibility of every fairy and sparrow man in Pixie Hollow to bring forth any concerns to me about any law they believe to be unfair."
"Oh, like you did with Tinker Bell when she wanted to go to the mainland?"
It was a comment that cut Clarion deeply. "It was a mistake. One I will not make again. However, you must still be held responsible for not speaking up."
"Why me?" Vidia questioned. "I wasn't the only one here, there were plenty of others who could have told you about it?"
"They would have had they drawn the same conclusion you did," the queen responded. "They did not, just as I failed to do. We all assumed the same thing, we each had a reasonable expectation that the law had a good and just purpose for existing. And as it turned out, it did." Queen Clarion explained the series of events that lead to the law being written and why the reasons behind it were not readily available in the normal historical records.
"Hmmph, tinkers are nothing but trouble. I could have told you that," Vidia replied.
The queen paused briefly in mid flight, she looked quite troubled by Vidia's comment. "Why do you hate the tinker's so much?" she asked.
"Why? I told you, it was that law. If the queen thought that the tinkers weren't equal why should I?"
"Are you trying to say that the presence of this law created an environment of inequality which you took to mean that the tinkers were not worthy of equal treatment, even by you?" the queen asked her flyer.
"Yeah, that's about right. If you could get away with it, why not me?"
Queen Clarion sighed. "Follow me," she said just before flitting up higher into the trees and over a heavily populated area of Pixie Hollow.
"What do you see, Vidia?" Clarion asked.
"What do you mean? What am I supposed to be looking at? All I see is a bunch of fairies."
"Exactly. Pixie Hollow is populated by thousands of fairies all of whom have lived in that 'environment of inequality' against tinkers," the queen told her. "Yet not one of them has ever held the tinker guild or any single tinker in such contempt because of the presence of that law. Only you did."
Vidia harumphed again and turned her back to the queen. The scouts assigned to Vidia tried to force the fairy to turn and face her queen, but Clarion waved a hand and they quickly stood down.
"Vidia, you have always had a high opinion of your guild and an even higher opinion of yourself. I believe you chose to interpret that law to mean that tinkers were inferior. Just as you chose not to bring it to my attention. And you did it because it fermented your own sense of superiority."
"Oh, please."
"Think for a moment, Vidia," the queen prompted, "if you had brought that edict to my attention all those years ago, you and I would not be here. But you did not. You chose not to. That tells me you had a reason of personal gain to keep your supposition to yourself. It made you feel better about yourself to think that one guild was so inferior to the other guilds and to your own that they could be considered undeserving of equal treatment."
"Your vastly superior talent created an ego problem that needed justification. In my opinion it was no longer enough to merely be better than the other fairies, you also had to dismiss the other guilds as a whole. That is what led you examine the tinkers and conclude, falsely, that they are nothing like the rest of the talent guilds in Pixie Hollow. You chose to believe these conclusions, yet you never questioned if they were correct. You never looked any deeper than was necessary to support your own beliefs. Instead you observed humans, compared them to tinkers and saw similarities. Similarities which you used to describe tinkers as clumsy humans with wings."
"Furthermore, believing that tinkers were so vastly inferior, that you may have even reasoned that other guilds were also unequal for different reasons. You may have observed them and found them wanting in some fashion or another when compared to the fast flyers."
Vidia spat back, "We command forces of nature more powerful than any other guild in Pixie Hollow, so yeah, they aren't exactly comparable to us."
"All fairies of all guilds are equal under the law, Vidia," the queen reiterated. "No one fairy or guild can be set above the others in the eyes of the queen."
"But we are unequal," Vidia insisted. "How can you deny that!"
"Fairies are equal, all are."
"Then what about me? Don't my superior talents count for anything? How can my abilities compare to someone who can barely use theirs?"
"Fairies are not equal in that sense, Vidia."
"Ha! I knew it."
"Nature has seen to it that we are not equal when comparing the strength of our talents are the creativity of our imaginations. But that does not allow you or anyone else to treat another unfairly. All fairies are equal under the law and all fairies are to be treated with equal dignity and respect."
"Then why do I get the short end of the stick all the time?" Vidia shouted. "Why am I the one who gets punished for things I never did? Why do the other fairies get to treat me like an outcast, but I'm the one who has to pay for it? For as long as I've known you, my queen," she used the phrase most disparagingly, "you enforced a law that you have admitted to be unjust..."
"The law had a reas..."
"It was unjust! You said so yourself!" Tears began to stream down the cheeks of the fast flyer. "You let that law stand for the longest time. And allowed me and everyone else to believe it was a good law. We were all lead to believe that the tinkers were different because that law treated them differently from any other guild in Pixie Hollow. And just because no one else acted like I did doesn't make me a bad person, it just means I'm more preceptive than anyone else. So I thought of them as the lowest caste in our little world, you did, too, by keeping them here against their will."
"None of the tinkers wanted to go to the mainland, Vidia," the queen responded. "They had never shown an interest and they had no reason to go there."
"And when one did want to go, you wouldn't let her, remember?! That's keeping them against their will. How am I supposed to interpret that?"
"Vidia, no one else took the law to mean that the tinker guild members were to be treated as anything less than equal members of our society."
"Then they are stupid. That law held tinkers as unequal in our world. It set the precedent that they were to be treated differently. So I didn't play all nice and treat the tinker guild the same as the other guilds. Then everyone starts to hate me. They hated me because I was following your example. I tried to explain to the others, but no one listened. Not even your idiotic ministers would listen. I got treated like an ugly stepsister, like in one of those stories the humans tell their kids."
"I was never informed of this," the queen replied.
"You are supposed to know everything, how could you not be aware that I had told your ministers," Vidia responded. "They don't like me, either. I'm too superior for their sensibilities. Too uppity because of my great talent."
"Vidia that is not true."
"On, really? From the day I arrived I was treated differently. The Minister of Spring kept harassing me about how much pollen I was collecting. He told me that if I was such a great talent why wasn't I collecting more pollen?"
"You have quotas to meet, anymore would be unnecessary."
"Yeah, try telling him that," Vidia spat. "And the Minister of Autumn wasn't all too thrilled when the fast flyers were given the task of creating the scepter for the Autumn Revelry a few decades ago."
"Oh? And what did he say?"
"When Lockheed was chosen to make the Fall Scepter he overheard the Minister of Autumn say, "Thank goodness it isn't Vidia. She would have probably kept the Moonstone thinking we weren't good enough to be its caretakers.'"
"That hardly sounds like him," the queen said in commentary to herself. "He can be very particular about who is to receive the moonstone because it so precious to us. Without it the Pixie Dust Tree would wither and die. Without pixie dust..."
"Yeah, yeah, we all know what would happen to us without pixie dust. No fairy will ever fly again. Look are we done here? I just want to get back home and fix my house so I can get back to my normal life, such as it is."
"I do not believe that you will find much empathy or support when you do return home," the queen told her rather solemnly. "You have made many enemies and distanced yourself from nearly everyone in Pixie Hollow and I want to know why."
"Oh this ought to be good," Vidia replied, her voice dripping with disrespect. For some reason, only Vidia showed this much disdain for the crown AND was allowed to get away with it. She used the privilege frequently, perhaps abused it would be more accurate.
"You have no trust in the monarchy or your fellow pixies," Queen Clarion surmised.
Vidia nearly choked on her own tongue. "Gee, whatever gave you that idea?" she said sarcastically. "We're just on big happy family here in the forest of the damned."
"You believe you have been treated unfairly?"
"Absolutely," Vidia replied.
"By the other pixies and by the monarchy?"
"Yes! Often!"
"You believe you are being singled out because you are the superior talent?"
"Of course I am," Vidia hissed. "Do you know how jealous they all are? How much they hate me because I am better than they are? Do you know what it is like to live that way? To be hated for what I can do?"
"Then why do they not hate Tinker Bell?"
"They will, give them time. She'll get on their nerves soon enough and then she will be just like me. Cast out of paradise."
"Vidia you removed yourself from 'paradise' as you've described it," the queen told her. "But if it is any consolation I am beginning to understand what it must be like to be you."
Vidia nearly fell out of the air with laughter. "That'll be the day."
There was a long pause. Not a word was spoken between the two and the scouts were unsure if the conversation was over. When they made an attempt to remove Vidia back to the confinement cells the queen waved them off.
The queen was uncertain if she could ever completely understand her wayward fast flyer. She seemed far more complex than she originally thought. Was it true that two of her ministers had spoken so cruelly of Vidia? Could they be as guilty of poor judgement as Silvermist and Tinker bell were? Was Vidia's personality the result of how she was regarded by the other fairies of Pixie Hollow?
There had to be more to this than such a simple answer. Every fairy who ever arrived here has always been greeted with open arms and a warm, almost family like atmosphere. Certainly Vidia's self idealization and superior attitude played a role in how other's regarded her. But was that all? Was something else at play? There had to be a catalyst which changed her attitude towards others. Was it the law as Vidia stated? Or did other fairies play a role in her transformation? Maybe it was an event in her past. Whatever it was the queen needed to discover it if she was to have any hope of reforming her fast flyer. The past may hold secrets, but the present was very clear. Vidia acted most unbecoming of a fairy of the realm and the queen had to pass judgement and levy a sentence.
Queen Clarion returned to the Pixie Dust Tree with Vidia. Here the regal monarch renewed her conversation with the purple clad flyer. "Certain events the last few days have made it abundantly clear that you have a severe attitude problem," she began. Vidia just grunted and shook her head as if saying "you'll never understand me."
"I also believe that the fairies of Pixie Hollow also have an attitude problem when it comes to interacting with you." This unusual admission caught Vidia entirely off guard. For the first time during the entire conversation she was actually paying full attention to the queen and wanted to hear what she was going to say next.
"The actions of Silvermist and Tinker Bell revealed this to me with great clarity," the queen stated. "The other fairies of Pixie Hollow seem to think that they have carte blanche to treat you with great disrespect; to insult, instigate, disparage, harass or provoke, simply because they do not like you. And I conclude that they truly believe they can do these things without the expectation of reprisal by you or punishment by the law. When one or the other occurs these individuals seem shocked that they should be held accountable for their actions. I had hoped that this was not true, but it undoubtedly is and it will no longer be tolerated. Every fairy in Pixie Hollow should be treated with a certain level of respect and dignity and none are showing it to you."
Vidia was quite stunned by this admission. Although the queen's summary missed many details, it was somewhat accurate. This gave Vidia a fleeting glimmer of hope that things might change.
"However, I cannot deny that you did bring this upon yourself," the queen continued. With this statement, that glimmer vanished. "Because you treat others so poorly I can understand why they would hold you in contempt and act the way they do."
"Typical queenly nonsense," Vidia huffed. "I always get the blame."
"That is not true," Clarion replied. "Blame goes to everyone involved. But it all ends now. I will instruct the other fairies to treat you with the same respect and dignity that they offer to everyone else in Pixie Hollow. But you must also treat them the same way."
"What guarantees do I get that they'll do that?" Vidia asked. "I act all nice and sappy and they still treat me like the unwanted."
"Then they will have to answer to me," Queen Clarion said with such authority that Vidia almost believed her.
"And what about you?" Vidia questioned. "You enforced that law for centuries and treated the tinkers as second class fairies. It made me believe that they aren't worth their weight in fairy dust."
"Do you still believe that tinker fairies are nothing more than clumsy humans with wings?"
"More than ever," Vidia hissed. "They brought this on themselves because they couldn't keep away from those stupid, clumsy human creatures that live on the mainland."
"Then nothing has changed and nothing will change, Vidia," the queen informed the bitter fast flyer. "As long as you cling to outdated ideas and treat others with hatred you will never find the peace in your life that you so desperately want."
"I want to be left alone!" Vidia screamed. "I want to do my job and not have to worry about being treated like a villain! I want people to recognize my great talent and treat me with the respect it should afford me."
The queen didn't flinch when Vidia screamed. Clarion didn't even bat an eye. She kept her regal composure through it all. This seemed to upset Vidia even more since no response was interpreted to mean that the queen did not care. So Vidia turned things around, trying to get a response from Clarion.
"But enough about me? What about you? I keep answering your questions, I have suffered through all your psychobabble about me. But through all of this you have never once answered my one question. What about you?"
"Very well. What about me?"
Vidia was ready. She felt like predatory animal ready to pounce. "You blindly followed and enforced that law. You never questioned it, you let the tinker fairies get treated differently from all the other guilds in Pixie Hollow. They were kept unequal in violation of our sacred laws and you made me what I am by doing so! Then you let me get penalized and punished for things I never did without a second thought to my guilt or innocence! And you let all those other fairies get away with treating me like..., ,like... the muck in the mouse stalls."
"I have already told you that they will have to treat you with dignity and respect, Vidia."
"That doesn't mean much," Vidia screamed back. "They can treat me nice like they do each other, but that doesn't mean anything will change in their hearts. They will still detest me and it will always show. That's not what I want."
"What do you want?" the queen asked gently.
"What do I want? WHAT DO I WANT?! Do you know how many times I've been penalized and punished over the years? Do you know how much time I have had to spend in those confinement cells? So what do I want? I'll tell you. I WANT YOU IN ONE OF THOSE CONFINEMENT CELLS! I want you to face punishment for what you've admitted!"
"I can't do that," Queen Clarion replied.
"Of course, you won't!" Vidia yelled. "Because there will always be a double standard when it comes to me! I will always suffer while others get to enjoy it!"
"Vidia, there are many reasons why it cannot be done. However, seeing me held in a confinement cell may give you some feeling of satisfaction, but it will be short lived. It will change nothing because there will be no improvement in your life. And in general that is what you want."
"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT I WANT!" Vidia screamed at the top of her lungs. "No one knows, so quite trying to tell me what I want!"
"Vidia, you may think you know what you want, but you do not. Those feelings are buried deep within your hatred and resentment and desire for revenge. You think that what will make everything better is to change the past. No one has the power to do that, Vidia. Not even the queen of the Never Fairies."
Vidia crossed her arms in disdainful fashion. She harumphed and turned away from the queen, but she never stood up to leave. Instead she sat there, listening.
"What I can do is to change the future," Queen Clarion said sympathetically, almost motherly. "All the fairies of Pixie Hollow will learn to treat you with the same respect they offer each other. You must meet them halfway and reciprocate, no matter what you may feel about them. The law which discriminated against the tinker fairies has been lifted and tinkers will be allowed to fly to the mainland with the other talents, thus giving them the equality they richly deserve. The law was intended to protect both our society and the humans and was to be rescinded when a future queen believed it to be safe. Unfortunately, that part of the law was forgotten and the tinkers suffered because of it." The queen then took Vidia's hand in her own and said, "Now follow me."
Clarion lead Vidia to a door. Behind this door the two found the queen's helpers and Viola hard at work.
"What are they doing?" Vidia asked. It was explained to her that the fairies in this room were sifting through all of her previous convictions to find out which ones were made on dubious grounds. Once collected, they would be investigated to glean Vidia's guilt or innocence in each matter. "If we find that you are not responsible the conviction will be overturned."
"That won't help me very much," Vidia answered. "Everyone will still think I'm guilty."
"No, they won't. It will be made known to all of Pixie Hollow that you were not the guilty party. Then the true culprit if there is one, will be charged, tried and providing there is enough evidence, convicted. They will be given the same sentence you served, with an addition. If they lied or refused to turn themselves in, they will be given a more severe punishment for having done so then and for keeping silent all this time while allowing you to suffer in their place."
The two, queen and subject, left the room. Vidia felt different now. Did the queen actually care about her well being? Would she actually follow through with action? Or was this just the queen's way of trying to placate her while maintaining the status quo? This was uncharted territory for the fast flyer who really didn't know how to react.
The queen spoke again. "What others do to us, say to us, how they treat us we cannot always control. But we can control our own actions and reactions. They are the choices we make and they reveal our character. What others have done to you is wrong, but that does not give you the license to reply in kind. You must be held accountable for what you have done, Vidia."
"So I've been told," she replied, once again feeling as though she were being yanked back and forth between hope and despair by a cruel sovereign.
"Your punishment for what you did to Tinker Bell and Tinker's Nook stands, but with some minor additions." Clarion told her, sounding like a monarch again. "You are confined to Never Land until the end of the Autumn Season."
"You said summer!" Vidia argued.
"It has been extended. Now then, where was I? Oh yes. When we are done here you will join Tinker Bell and both of you will finish taking the Sprinting Thistles back to Needlepoint Meadow. Then you will both muck out the mouse stables for one month. Afterwards, you will go to Tinker's Nook and spend the entire summer season working as a Tinker, getting to know how that guild performs its tasks."
"Oh, yes, because it worked so well when Tinker Bell tried to change her talent," Vidia snapped.
"Well, with your superior talent you shouldn't have any trouble learning their trade."
Vidia was furious, but did nothing. Her only other option was to leave Never Land altogether and she wasn't about to cede Pixie Hollow to that obnoxious Tinker Bell.
"I am most distressed by your attitude towards tinkers in general, Vidia. So you will not only be made to work as a Tinker, you will also live as a Tinker."
"WHAT?! You can't be serious?" Vidia shrieked.
"I am very serious. You will work as a tinker, live among them, eat with them and play as they do. You will even wear green as a Tinker."
"Oh, now you are just going too far," Vidia replied. "I will not wear green and identify myself as one of those..., those..."
"Those what, Vidia?"
Vidia just crossed her arms again and grumbled at the unfairness of it all. "And where will I live in the meantime? I don't exactly have a place to sleep."
"A spare bedroom is available in the Pixie Dust Tree," the queen replied. "You will sleep there until a home can be built for you in Tinker's Nook."
Just the sound of that, a home in Tinker's Nook, made Vidia want to wretch.
"When your punishment has been served in full you will report back to me and we will talk again. I want to see how you have improved," Clarion said.
Vidia just grimaced and growled something under her breath. No one heard it, but it was a singularly disrespectful comment about the queen.
"Now then, Vidia, I believe you have some thistles to capture, do you not?" Vidia, more infuriated than when she first arrived flew off. A scout talent followed to her to ensure the fast flyer reported as instructed to begin catching the Sprinting Thistles.
With the flyer gone, Queen Clarion sought out and spoke to the overseer of the Scouting Talents. She instructed him to take a small contingent of scouts to the mainland. They were tasked with finding a few suitable locations that met certain criteria that she gave them.
"Yes, My Queen," the Scout Supervisor answered, "but may I ask why?"
"Thank you for your concern, Fairy Gregory. This will be all." It was a perplexing reply, but the Scout Overseer bowed and left to fulfill her request. She chose not to reveal her intentions to him, although her reasons involved Vidia. The queen then returned to the records room where she resumed the task at hand.
This is the end of Vidia's Revenge, but not the end of the story. It will continue in the next installment titled: Vidia, Interrupted. Keep an eye out for it.
Whew! This took a very long time to write. Real life got in the way (no, not a video game, my actual life). First there was the Thanksgiving Holiday, then a family emergency, then Final Exams and now repairs to the house. Plus I've been trying to write other stories.
This chapter was also one of the hardest to write because of the interaction between the Queen and Vidia. It is the climactic chapter to a character driven narrative and it needed more time and effort to pull it off. I hope I have done so to your satisfaction.
Please leave a review, I want to know what you think of this portion of Vidia's backstory now that it is complete. Thank you.