Chapter 11: Parting is Such Sweet Happiness

"I know," Toren said as he dropped from the tree and approached the speechless Tira. "I look awesome. I cut my hair short, I'm about two inches taller than you, and-"

"And you're not Toren," Tira interrupted. Toren smiled and nodded before replying, "True, I'm not Toren, but that was an easy guess. The hard part is figuring out who I really am." Tira was getting irritated. Tira closed her eyes and rushed at Toren, but ran into the tree. Tira opened her eyes to see Toren was now resting in the garden.

"Well," Toren began as he stood back up, "now that you've got that out of your system, would you like to try and guess who am I?" Tira curled her hand into a fist and once again rushed Toren. Toren yawned and ducked the punch, causing Tira to trip. Tira stood up to see that Toren was no back in the tree.

"Okay," he began. "Clearly you're never going to figure it out, so I'll tell you. I'm not Toren, I'm you." Tira remain confused as Toren began to explain. You see, your good side and your bad side have never seen eye to eye. In order to keep your good side alive, part of it was transferred into Toren, so that anytime you were with him, you could never become completely evil."

Tira loosened her fists as she sat down. Toren nodded before continuing. "You see, Tira, you're not normal. You are destined for great things, things you can't do if you're evil. When you were exposed to the evil seed, it seemed that hope was lost. The evil seed had corrupted pat of your mind, you home was destroyed, and worst of all, Toren, the only thing keeping your evil side from destroying me, your good side, left to protect you."

"I feared for my existence and even worse, I feared for the existence of mankind. You began to kill mercilessly, even worse than before. This was clearly the work of the evil seed and I thought nothing could bring you back into balance, that is, until Viktor and Driese took you in. With the exception of Brendan, this family seemed to be a perfect replacement for Toren."

Tira sighed as Toren hopped down from the tree and grabbed Tira by the arm and brought her inside. "The rest of the story is better with a visual aide." Toren explained. "You see," Toren began as he pointed to Viktor and Driese talked in the hallway upstairs, "these two people gave you the same love and care Toren gave you, the very same love and care required to keep me and your bad side in check."

"Okay," Tira replied, "so if they're keeping me from killing, why are you here?"

"Kordin," Toren replied calmly. Toren walked upstairs and passed Viktor and Driese without being noticed. It was clear to Tira that he was a part of her, and thus, only she could see him. Tira followed him upstairs and into Brendan's room. Tira saw that Brendan was not home, and that Toren was now wearing Brendan's black sweater and black pants. "Perfect fit," Toren commented.

"Can we get back to the conversation," Tira commanded, getting irritated again. Toren left the room as he continued, "When Brendan asked you to do something for him, I figured you'd say no, no matter what he offered you, but Aiselne Drossel is no ordinary weapon. Tira, you were drawn to that weapon the exact same way you were drawn to the evil seed. At first I ignored it, but when you agreed to help Brendan for it, I knew something was wrong."

Toren sighed as he entered Tira room and stared out the window before continuing, "I don't think you fully understand the power of that ring blade. When you arrived at the chapel, you weren't controlling Aiselne Drossel, Aiselne Drossel was controlling you. As soon as you launched your first attack, the power of the ring blade completely removed me from your mind. As you fought Kordin, you didn't have any goodness inside of you. Let me ask you, as you fought Kordin, did you ever wonder the location of the supplies, or whether Brendan was the bad guy in this equation?"

Tira remained speechless. Toren nodded and continued. "You didn't. Tira, the second you killed Kordin, the evil seed reattached itself to you, causing me to try and fix the problem from the outside."

"And you failed miserably," came a familiarly deep voice from the doorway. Tira and Toren spun around to see Zasalamel standing at the doorway. "Tira," he began. "You are a killer. Don't let yourself stop you from what you are."

Toren stared at Zasalamel before sidestepping closer to Tira and whispering, "Don't listen to him, Tira. You're not a killer. You're human."

"Don't flatter yourself," Zasalamel yelled at Toren. Tira side stepped over to the wall and asked, "Who are you and how can you see Toren?" Zasalamel chuckled. "You don't remember me. That actually kind of funny, because last time we were together, I tried to kill you and someone who looks like this image saved you. Of course, I was angry at the time, but I figured it was all for the best, because now I can use you to my advantage."

"Shut up!" Toren yelled.

Zasalamel pulled out his scythe and said calmly, "You don't tell me what to do." Zasalamel threw his scythe and impaled Toren against the wall. Tira stared speechless until Toren replied, "Good thing I'm not real or else this would probably hurt." Zasalamel removed his scythe and said, "Give me one more order and I'll impale your mouth shut."

Zasalamel turned back to Tira and said, "Aiselne Drossel is calling you, and the only thing in your way are Brendan, Viktor, and Driese. "All you need to do is to take the ring blade and you can go back to killing like you used to." Toren stood against the wall, as Zasalamel walked over to Tira and asked, "Tell me Tira, how did it feel as you took that ring blade from Brendan's hands? How did it fell as you launched that first attack? How did it feel as you impaled him against the wall?"

Tira stared at Zasalamel in deep thought. She wasn't ecstatic, but she sure didn't feel any remorse in his death. Tira sighed, but before she could respond, Toren interrupted. "Tira, how did you feel when Driese asked for your help in the garden? How did you feel when the garden was perfected with you help? How did you feel when you and Driese were handed the first place trophy four times in a row?"

Tira was split, and Zasalamel could tell. Zasalamel grabbed Tira by the collar and dragged her into Brendan's room. "Do you see that bird in that cage," Zasalamel pointed out. "I wouldn't call that cage good living."

"So what," Tire replied. "Why should I care if Brendan doesn't take care of his pets?" Zasalamel smirked and obviously evil smirk before grabbing Tira by the collar and staring at her eye-to-eye. Toren jumped towards Zasalamel, but was impaled against the wall again. Tira stared into the golden eye as a smoke covered it. The smoke cleared to show a bird swooping down from a tree branch and landing on a younger Tira's shoulder. The younger Tira ran and joined up with a younger Toren and began to talk as they exited the jungle and the raven flew from Tira's shoulder to the tree. Tira attempted to struggle free from Zasalamel's grip, but he continued to hold on tightly. Tira tried to ignore the memory, until it all came back to her. "Liv," Tira mumbled.

Zasalamel loosened his grip and dropped Tira to the ground. Tira scrambled up and removed Kamisade from the cage. Tira took the raven to the window and said to him, "If you see a bird named Liv, tell her Tira says hello." Kamisade seemed to understand before flying off. Zasalamel began to laugh his triumphant laugh until the front door opened. Zasalamel smirked before saying, "It would appear the Viktor and Driese are back. This should be interesting." Zasalamel grabbed Toren's head and they both instantly disappeared.

Viktor and Driese came up the stairs and entered Brendan's room. Viktor caught his breath and asked, "I heard some noises up here. You wouldn't happen to know where that came from, would you?"

Tira shook her head no as Viktor and Driese began to walk out. Tira was relived to see that Viktor and Driese hadn't noticed the raven's disappearance, but Brendan wasn't so ignorant. "Hey!" Brendan yelled as he pushed through Viktor and Driese and ran to the empty cage. "Where's my bird?" Tira remained silent, but Brendan still spun around and yelled, "It was you! Why else would you be here in my room?"

"Tira," Driese began. "Is this true?" Tira, once again, remained silent. Viktor groaned and said, "Go to your room as Driese and I figure out your punishment."

"Punishment?" Tira yelled. "I'm surprised you two know the meaning of the word! All these years I've seen Brendan do wrong, immoral, and even illegal things and he's never been punished, and now, only for releasing an innocent animal from captivity, I get punished?" Viktor and Driese remained silent as Tira stormed out and to her room.

Hours passed and the sun fell down and Zasalamel suddenly appeared behind her with Toren. Zasalamel shoved Toren down and whispered to Tira, "Don't you see, Viktor and Driese never listen to you, so don't you think that they should have some sort of punishment of their own?"

"Tira," Toren began, "You don't have to enact revenge. You don't have to kill." Tira was clearly not listening to Toren as she said, "They don't listen tome."

"Precisely," Zasalamel replied. "So we should make sure that they never listen to anyone again." Tira left her room and stared at Aiselne Drossel that hung in the hallway. Toren knew he had lost to Zasalamel as Tira grabbed the ring blade. Toren groaned in pain. He could feel the evil seed slowly wiping him out.

Tira tiptoed into Viktor and Driese's room and stared at them laying asleep in their bed one last time before lifting up her ring blade and killing them instantly. Tira walked out to see Zasalamel with a giant smirk on his face say, "Okay, now Brendan is outside in the garden. You know what to do."

Tira nodded and walked down the stairs and outside and saw Brendan staring out unto the moon. " I saw you kill them," Brendan began calmly. "To tell you the truth, Tira, it's no big loss. I'm going to take a wild guess and say you're going to kill me to, but the question is, why you haven't done it yet."

Tira sighed and replied in a deep, inhuman voice, "You deserve the most painful death imaginable." Brendan chuckled and replied, "Funny, I was just thinking the same about you!" Brendan spun around and pulled out another ring blade and charged at Tira. Tira pulled out Aiselne Drossel and blocked Brendan's attack.

Tira turned her ring blade horizontally and charged At Brendan. Brendan jumped into the air and landed behind Tira. Brendan put the ring blade in his left hand and swung, Tira successfully bent down and kicked Brendan in the leg, causing him to trip back and drop his ring blade.

"Okay," Brendan began as Tira put her left leg on his stomach. "You win, but you will never be happy." Tira shrieked in anger and killed Brendan instantly.

Tira began to walk off and mumbled, "You're wrong Brendan. I feel very happy."