“You will find that fire wants to live. It tries to get free. And when it does, unless it’s controlled, it will be destructive.” Master Sartan stood across from him, watching him, and Tolan felt the weight of his gaze upon him. He didn’t want to fail with Master Sartan so close.
Worse, he could feel the gaze of the others, all looking at him. They likely wondered if he had some shaping ability they didn’t understand because he was somehow tied to the Draasin Lord.
Tolan held onto that connection to shaping, twisting it. It worked slowly, spiraling in place, and as it did, he maintained his connection to it, not letting the flames drift away. That was the challenge. With this shaping, it was more about holding it steady, keeping it confined, and preventing it from escaping. Understanding that it was all about control gave him an increased power over it. He was able to restrict how high the flames leaped, wrapping them tightly, and he let the ball of flame grow just a little bit. This time, he twisted it, spinning it in place, and continued to feed it, letting power flow into it and yet he still held onto the flame.
“Good. Now I would like you to practice summoning and dismissing the flame.”
With that, Master Sartan departed, leaving Tolan and Ferrah alone at the table. He breathed out, looking around the room. No one else had been watching him. It was all in his imagination. The only person who would have been watching him had been Master Sartan—and Ferrah.
“That was good,” she said.
“It’s harder than I thought it would be.”
“Shaping?”
“Most of the time while I’ve been at the Academy, I haven’t been able to perform the shapings the master shapers want me to. It’s different when I can actually accomplish what they ask.”
“This one is a good shaping. I think Master Sartan is right. It’s about holding power over the element bond, keeping it constricted as you shape it. I’m impressed you were able to let it grow under control.”
Tolan glanced at her. “Why?”
“When I tried to do that, it started to increase in size but I could already feel it was trying to escape my ability to hold onto it. I had to dismiss the ball of fire and summon a new one with less power flowing in it.”
That hadn’t been what he had done it all. He had summoned a ball of fire, but had increased its size by pushing more power into it. What other way was there?
Tolan sat back, looking around the room. Everyone was attempting the same shaping, and there were varying degrees of success. Every so often, there would be a burst of heat and an explosion of power, but Master Sartan was there, dismissing the flames that tried to escape. Several people were working with furios, and as they used those devices, they were able to summon the fire, but they didn’t have the same control those who shaped without them were able to exert.
“What do you think you’d be able to do if we had a furios?” he asked.
“It’s hard to say. When I use them, I find there’s almost too much power available. It’s easier if I attempt to shape without it.”
“I think the power would allow better control.”
“Possibly, but it’s a crutch. If you can learn control without the furios, you don’t need a crutch.”
Tolan wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Having the furios had allowed him to understand what it was like to shape, and without it, he wasn’t sure he would have known the level of control necessary with each of the other elements. While the furios had certainly helped, it hadn’t restricted him from learning. In his mind, it was the exact opposite. Having the furios had allowed him to understand the nature of shaping even better.
“I wonder if Master Sartan would let me use the furios.”
“Tolan, you can already shape without it.”
“That’s not the point. Even though I can shape without it, I…” It was hard to explain what it was like not having the bondar any longer. In the days since the Inquisitors’ uprising, and in the time since he had returned to the Academy, Tolan had considered heading into the spirit tower in order to see if Aela had left behind his bondars, and yet he was hesitant to do so. The last time he was there, he had been attacked by the spirit shapers, and that memory was far too acute still. He didn’t think anyone would attack him, but since he’d returned, he’d seen no sign of the Inquisitors—including the Grand Inquisitor.
“I think you need to stop using a crutch when you shape. You have talent, Tolan. I’ve seen it.”
He sat back, focusing on shaping the ball of fire again. As before, he started small, spinning it in place, and gradually beginning to increase it in size. As he did, he maintained his focus and control over it. It was easier this time and took a drawing of power in order to make it work, but far less than it once would have required.
He still couldn’t shake the sense he would have been better able to shape the sphere with the furios. He would’ve had far more control over it, but he thought what Ferrah said was true. Having the furios had been a crutch. He was using it rather than focusing on mastering his connection to shaping without it. Now he no longer had it, it was better to shape on his own, to practice and work with each of the elements so he had a similar mastery.
The only part he wished he had was a way to summon elementals. The furios had been responsible for helping him do that, and though he had managed to do it while in the park by the old Keystone, outside of there, he doubted he would be able to re-create that.
“See?” Ferrah said, smiling at him. “You can shape quite well without it.”
“I still miss having it.”
“You missed the power you had with it.”
“Is that so different?”
“Power is temptation,” she said. “You know it can be dangerous. That way leads to the…”
Tolan tensed.
“I’m sorry. That’s not what I was meaning.”
He shook his head. “It’s okay. I understand. And you’re right. If I am not careful, that way will lead toward something I don’t want.” He looked around. No one was listening, at least not that they could tell, but there were enough people in the classroom that he didn’t want anyone to hear the nature of their conversation. “And it’s not about power.”
“Then what is it?”
He took a deep breath, looking around the room, thinking of how he would answer but knowing there wasn’t an answer to give. Not that Ferrah would understand. She probably wouldn’t want him to be drawing upon the power of the elementals either, yet Tolan didn’t have any reason to fear the elementals as so many others did.
“I don’t know what it is, but it’s not power,” he said.
He focused again on his shaping. If nothing else, he was going to master what Master Sartan wanted. And if he had the opportunity, he was going to find his bondars, even if it meant returning to the spirit tower.
8
The park outside the Academy was quiet at this time of day, leaving Tolan the only one sitting there, staring at the flat surface of the water, trying to find meaning and understanding that did not come. It had been a week since the uprising. A week since he had seen his father, and a week since he had learned his parents served the Draasin Lord.
In that time, Tolan still didn’t know quite what to make of it. He’d gone through the motions, attending his classes, practicing his shaping without any bondars for assistance, and had returned to his room. He still had not gone to the library and was a little bit concerned about doing so. He didn’t know what sort of reception he might get from Master Minden.
The park was as good a place as any to practice shaping, to flow from one form to another, using what he knew to see if there was a way to draw upon the elementals. It was isolated, and yet at the same time, there was a sense of power here. Perhaps not as much as was in the place of the Convergence, but there still was some power.
Focusing on water, he created a spiral within it, using his connection to shape the water in a steady pattern. It happened far more easily than it had before, and he held th
at connection, twisting it around and around before releasing his shaping. They had worked on similar shapings in class, and while Tolan had managed to do them, there had been a sense he still was missing something.
He had yet to try pushing the sense of the elementals into his shaping. While in the Academy and undergoing his classes, he was hesitant. Without the bondar, there was less of a risk he would lose control of the shaping, and more of a risk he would simply fail. With the bondar, he could explain ignorance and claim he was drawing upon power that he didn’t really understand. Without it, it was far more difficult to do so.
Focusing on the elemental, Tolan thought about waya, an elemental that swirled within water, leaping above the waves. What he was shaping did not create significant waves, but he thought he could use that power to send a steady current through the water, and if he could do that, then he thought he might be able to find the elemental within the wave he formed.
It would be easier with the bondar. At least with the bondar, the type of shaping he would be capable of doing would be more significant, and he thought he could generate a real wave, enough he might be able to pull waya out of the bond.
Tolan sat back, shaking his head. What was he thinking?
He had taken to shaping like this, to thinking about elementals in such a way that he no longer viewed them the same way that others within Terndahl did. Was it even wise to see them like that? It was dangerous. He knew what the elementals were capable of doing, and he knew just how challenging it could be when he lost control of the shaping. If he allowed an elemental to escape, it would be his fault.
“There you are.”
Tolan turned and looked up at Jonas. There was a hint of a smile on his face, his gaze darting toward the water.
“You came out here to practice?” Jonas asked.
Tolan sighed. “I needed to get outside the walls of the Academy.”
“Why?”
He had to be careful with what he said. Jonas didn’t understand what he’d gone through and having not shared with him about the Inquisitors’ uprising, it wasn’t anything he could understand. He didn’t want to bring Jonas in on it, either. The other man didn’t need that sort of distraction, and Tolan wasn’t sure he should be the one to share anyway.
“I thought maybe a change in scenery might give me an opportunity to better understand my shapings.”
Jonas threw himself on the ground next to him. “Ever since you got back, you’ve been much better at shaping. I know I accused you of using a bondar when you worked, but…”
“But I was,” Tolan said.
Jonas blinked, watching him for a moment. “What about now?”
“Ever since the Inquisition, I haven’t had the same need for bondars. It’s like I had the opportunity to focus. As much as I hate to admit it, I actually benefited from the Inquisition.”
Jonas chuckled, turning his attention to water and creating a funnel that spiraled out before dropping back into the pond with a splash. Jonas had incredible control over water. “Don’t let the Inquisitors know about that. Otherwise they might decide all students need an Inquisition like that.”
“Hopefully, the Grand Master will decide otherwise.”
“Was he involved in the Inquisition?”
“I think he was trying to intervene on my behalf, but when it comes to the Inquisitions, the Grand Inquisitor is in charge.”
Jonas shook his head. “In Velminth, we had someone dragged away for an Inquisition. It was probably five years ago, and I remember it like it was just yesterday. They came in, searching for someone they believed responsible for a couple of elemental releases that had happened recently, and dragged him off to a building somewhere near the center of town. No one heard anything, but when they left, he was gone, departing with them.”
“I don’t have the same experience with Inquisitions. I’d never seen one before we came here. The only time I’d ever even seen an Inquisitor was when they came to the village for the Selection.” Even that was nothing like Jonas mentioned. “I have a sense my Inquisition was different than most.”
“Other than the fact that students rarely face the Inquisition? I was talking to some of the older students, and they can’t remember the last time anyone faced an Inquisition.”
Tolan grunted. “That’s not how I want to be noticed.”
Jonas chuckled again. “You might not want to be, but the good news is that you were released. There was no consequence.”
“That’s not quite true.”
“Why?”
“It’s complicated. And not something I’m able to talk about.”
“But you can talk about it with Ferrah?” Jonas held his gaze, and while he smiled, there was a hint of a hurt expression hiding behind his eyes. “I see the two of you talking at night. She sealed off the room, blocking everyone else out, and it’s not until she lowers that shaping that we can even get into the room. Now, if she had closed the door as well, we might question what was going on in there,” Jonas said, grinning a little bit, “but she leaves the door open. Which tells me whatever you’re talking about in there is something she doesn’t feel can be shared with anyone else.”
Tolan needed the help of his friend. Jonas had been there for him and with him ever since he’d come to the Academy. He couldn’t risk alienating Jonas the way he had with Tanner in Ephra. “When was the last time you saw Master Aela?”
“I don’t know. We haven’t had a spirit class in quite a while.”
“Have you seen her in the halls of the Academy?”
“What are you getting at, Tolan?”
Tolan looked around, and on a whim, decided to wrap wind around himself and Tanner. He didn’t have nearly the same strength that Ferrah did with a similar shaping, but had enough control over it that he was able to seal off the possibility that others could listen in. When the shaping took hold, the soft sounds of insects chirping in the park faded. The occasional calling from the birds disappeared. The burbling sound within the pond was gone. There was nothing but silence.
“Master Aela attacked me, Jonas.”
Jonas had been looking around, almost as if trying to understand the shaping that Tolan had placed, and he jerked his head around. “She what?”
“It was after the Inquisition. I came across her and asked her what sort of lessons I might have missed, and she offered to show me some of the things I needed to learn.” That should have been a warning, but he’d never experienced any of the master shapers posing a threat to him, and of all of them, he’d not expected Master Aela to be the dangerous one. “She used a spirit shaping on me. At least, she tried.”
“What do you mean, she tried?”
“While I was in the Inquisition, getting a better handle on my ability to shape wasn’t the only thing I did. I learned how to protect myself from spirit shaping.” That was as good an answer as any, and prevented him from trying to explain to Jonas that he had the ability to use spirit. That was one piece of information he intended to keep to himself, at least for now. “There’s a trick to it, and I’ve shown Ferrah, which is why I think Master Sartan gave us our talk on shaping oneself.”
Jonas blinked. “I don’t know which of these to be most upset about. That you told Ferrah how to do it or that it involves shaping yourself.”
For a moment, Tolan thought he saw a flicker of movement, but it disappeared. Maybe it was nothing more than imagined. “It’s not a shaping that I used on myself, at least not the same way Master Sartan described it. It’s not even a shaping upon myself. It’s more like, it’s around myself.”
“I don’t know that that makes it any better.”
“It’s like a barrier, sort of like how I’m using wind now.”
“About that. You never were that powerful before.” Jonas looked around before his gaze settled back on Tolan. “I mean, it’s one thing to discover you can shape, but this is something more than just shaping. This is a control and power you never had before.”
“I�
�m just copying what I’ve seen Ferrah doing.”
“That’s all? I guess that’s better than what I thought you were doing.”
“And what did you think I was doing?”
“I don’t know, maybe using a bondar and lying to me?”
Tolan shook his head. “No bondars. When Aela attacked me, she took my bondars.”
“Why don’t you go and get them back?” Jonas watched him for a moment. “I see. You don’t want to go back there.”
“I don’t think the Inquisitors are there anymore. The Grand Master knew about the attack, and he helped keep them from hurting me, but the idea of going back there, the way she very nearly controlled me, the awareness I had as she was trying to force herself into my mind…” Tolan shivered. Even now, it was difficult. The idea of it pained him and left him feeling helpless.
That might be the worst part of it. He hated the idea of being helpless, especially when it came to shaping and others more powerful than he was. For his whole life, he had been around others who were far more powerful, much more capable with not only shaping, but even sensing. When he’d been living in Ephra, he had never been much of a skilled sensor, something that had always shamed him.
“Was it just her?” Jonas asked.
“It was more than Master Aela, but I don’t know who the other Inquisitors were.”
“That explains why we haven’t seen nearly as many.”
“There aren’t usually all that many Inquisitors found in the Academy.”
“Not usually, but ever since they took you and began your Inquisition, there had been a steady presence of Inquisitors within the Academy. And now there are none.” Jonas shrugged. “Most people just thought they’d gotten what they needed from you and departed, but this makes a little bit more sense.”
“As far as I know, Aela escaped.”
“Why would the Inquisitors attack you and then run from the Academy?”
It didn’t make all that much sense. She’d made it seem like it was all about trying to uncover information about the Draasin Lord, but he didn’t think that was quite the case. It became almost personal, about her finding some way to defeat him, of convincing herself he truly did serve the Draasin Lord, even though at the time, Tolan had not thought he had. “I don’t really know.”
The Wind Rages (Elemental Academy Book 4) Page 8