Feyland: The Dark Realm

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Jennet lifted the gaming helm. She felt woozy from the passage back through the golden light.

“Well.” Tam had unhooked from the system already. He stood beside her chair, arms folded. “I’m ready for that explanation.”

“Give me a minute. Jeez.” She sat up, then clambered out of the chair, on the opposite side from where he waited. “Want some tea? We could heat some water—”

“No. Talk.”

There was no avoiding it. She let out a slow breath, then went across the room and perched on the couch in the sitting area. Tam slouched down in a chair across from her.

“All right,” she began, but no more words would come out.

She pressed her lips together until they stung. Her stomach felt like she had swallowed a mouthful of that disorienting light. Tam just watched her from behind his hair, his green eyes wary. God, she hated how this was going to feel. She grabbed a pillow and hugged it across her middle.

“Ok,” she tried again. “You know the kids with chips, the rich ones….”

The silence stretched between them, until he spoke. “The ones like you?”

“Yes.” She squirmed inside. Time to lay it all out. “The snobs, the bullies, the privileged. The ones who will kick you for being a loser, the ones who know everyone else is worthless. Those kids. Exactly like me.”

He frowned, though it wasn’t directed at her. “You’re not—”

“I was, though. Before.” She drew in a deep breath.

“Before what?”

“Before we moved here. Before I lost to the queen. I was arrogant, just like that. I thought that appearance mattered more than what was inside. I mean, I knew better, a part of me did, but when you’re surrounded by it…” She squeezed the pillow tighter. “Well, thinking like that becomes as natural as breathing. There was a kid at our school - and you need to know that it was a much richer school than the one here - anyway, she was so obviously poor, such a misfit. We made fun of her, all the time, of her raggedy clothes and hair that stuck out all over the place. She was different, and that made us, the privileged, that much tighter. Does that make sense?”

He nodded. That thoughtful expression was back on his face. At least he didn’t look like he hated her. Yet.

“What happened to her?” he asked.

“Nothing too dire, if that’s what you’re thinking. But we treated her badly, in lots of little ways. She was still there when I left. Maybe things are better now, since I told the teachers and admins about the bullying before I moved.”

“So - what does this have to do with losing to the queen?”

Jennet swallowed. “Thomas warned me about being unkind, but it’s a hard habit to break. Anyway, when I started playing Feyland, there was this little hob-type creature. Raggedy clothes and hair that stuck out all crazy-like. She kept showing up asking for my help, but she wasn’t acting like a quest-giver or anything.”

Tam sat up a little straighter. “So you refused?”

Regret burned through her. “I wish I could go back and change that. It was only little things she needed. Sweeping out a cottage. Hanging some clothes. Fetching water from a well. It would have been easy to do, but I blew her off.”

“Three times?”

“Three. Yes, the magic number. Because she was odd and poor and even in-game seemed worthless.”