I watch with amusement from a tree I grew myself as a living space, as Toirse lights yet another explosive plant on fire. The blue explosion rips through Tarnlia like only an explosion can. It's quite simply, beautiful.
Summer, get down here.
Why?
I need your ridiculous arms.I'm not sure if that's a jab so I just ignore it and fly down to him, expanding the forest as I go.
"What do you want?" I ask.
He points at a family trapped under a car.
"Couldn't you just use telekinesis?"
"I could, but I'm still getting used to it. If I break concentration, I'll drop the car and they'll be crushed,"
"Wait, you want me to save them?"
"Yes,"
"Save these pathetic humans?" Toirse turns towards me, looks me straight in the eye.
"Summer, you were human once,"
"And so were you. But why the hell are you sticking up for them?"
"I'm the spirit of rage, not sadism. These people haven't done anything to me, why should I hurt them?"
"What are you saying?"
"Summer, why are you fighting?"
"Because the humans poisoned me,"
"But did these people poison you?"
"They're human, all humans have poisoned me,"
"No, the Arkallian industrialists poisoned you. You killed your parents, didn't you?"
"Yes,"
"Apart from the industrialists, they were the only people who poisoned you, by choosing to bring you up here. These people have nothing to do with that,"
"How do you know they're not industrialists?"
"You're the one with the mind control powers, why don't you check for yourself?" I don't want to, I want to keep living this life of destruction and hatred, I want to stay away from the possibilty of an alternative, I want to destroy all traces of humanity and allow for the dominance of the forest.
But I can't control myself. A root grows from my little finger, to the head of the woman who must be the mother of the family.
Pain. Sorrow. Regret. Love for the earth.
I scream in agony and horror as the millions of memories flood into my brain, a complete record of the woman's life, the majority of which she has forgotten. It's horrible, horrendous, worse than anything I've ever felt before. I release the woman, I have to. I need my sanity.
Toirse looks at me questioningly. I don't say anything, I can't. All I can do is lift the car off them, freeing them. The children get up and help up their mother, who's obviously a little drained from sharing her life with me1. She gets up, nods her thanks to me and turns to Toirse. I see what's coming next, but I can't stop it, something forces me not to.
She spits at him.
Faster than I can see, Toirse's hand bursts into flames and goes straight through her chest. The woman doesn't even have time to scream. The children start to run away, I put up a wall of diamond to shield them.
"Toirse, how-?"
"Exactly. How? What's happening to me? Why did I do that? All she did was spit at me. What's happening to me, Summer? What's happening to me?!" Toirse sobs, his voice rising higher. He collapses to his knees, looks unsteady. I pull him close to me, hug him tightly.
"It's ok, Toirse. She was just a human, it doesn't matter,"
"Listen to yourself, would you?! You're talking about people with souls, thoughts and dreams.People you could have been friends with, how can you say that?!" I'm to stunned to say anything.
"Why the fuck did I do that? How-Wh-What's wrong with me?! FIRE!!" Toirse screams. Some animal instinct takes control of me, I'm forced to drop Toirse, he falls forward, my wings flap hard, I'm launched backwards, onto a tree where I crouch, panting as Toirse erupts into flames in front of me. He gets up, still flaming.
"It's good to be free," he says, but it's not him, his voice is deeper, angrier. The flames die down, he looks straight at me. His eyes, the eyes that were once pure, innocent blue, are now a bright, feral yellow. His hair has gone from brown to a fiery red.
That's Fire. A voice says.
And you are?
I'm Nature. I'm the spirit of the Leafstone, just like he is the spirit of the Firestone.
So why don't I have problems with you getting out?
Well, I just did get out, three times without you noticing. I forced you to look into the woman's mind, I forced you not to save her and I forced you away from Toirse. But I have no desire to become the active personality. Even Fire does not, he simply wants the occasional few hours of freedom.
So Toirse's breakdown was engineered by him?
No. The breakdown was accidental, but I helped to make it happen.
By stopping me from saving the woman, I see. But why do you want Fire to get out?
I don't particularly, it is a regrettable by-product. What I wanted to happen was for Toirse to come back to his senses in the same way he made you come back to yours.
Hadn't he already?
No, he hasn't fully recovered himself and neither have you. It will take a long time, before you are ready.
Ready for what?
That is not something I am at liberty to discuss. Now sleep... Suddenly I'm falling, straight into the earth, where I'm safe or the night.