He focused on each shaping, drawing as much power as he could without resorting to pulling upon the Convergence and drawing through that. He didn’t want to cheat in the test.
There came a surge of energy toward him.
It was a blast of power. Fire that countered his earth.
It came at him from Draln, spiraling at him with a violent intensity.
Tolan reacted. He reached through the connection to hyza, slamming fire back at fire, using earth with earth.
He had no limitation to the power.
Draln called upon even more power.
Tolan smiled to himself. He was using a bondar.
There was no reason a bondar was not permitted during the testing. The Grand Master had made it clear anything necessary was allowed. He just hadn’t expected Draln would resort to a bondar.
The nature of the bondar was potent. He shifted the shaping toward Tolan, using wind and water, trying to attack him with multiple elements.
Draln was strong. Not only strong, but he was also talented, so each of the shapings he sent targeting Tolan was incredibly potent.
He didn’t have a bondar, but what Tolan had was a connection allowing him to reach for the elementals.
Doing so now would potentially be a mistake. He didn’t want Draln to notice him reaching for the elementals, not without knowing how the other man might react.
There was something else he could do.
Borrowing from the runes was easier now. He had done it enough times that reaching for that power was a simple matter, and he strained across the distance, grasping for it. He felt the energy of the runes fill him.
Using that, he sent it swirling toward Draln.
The other man attempted to battle him. Draln pushed with his bondars. There had to be more than one, unless he had discovered a warrior sword. Tolan didn’t think it was likely, which meant he had shaped power the more conventional way.
Tolan continued drawing upon the strength of the runes, using that energy to find the strength he needed. As he did, he pushed outward.
He was going to succeed.
That wasn’t the purpose, though.
The purpose was to test Draln. To see whether or not he had enough knowledge to pass on. It was to see if he was skilled enough to be considered a master shaper.
It wasn’t a matter of defeating him.
It meant he was going to have to retreat. It meant he was going to have to give Draln what he wanted.
Victory.
As much as it pained Tolan, he knew he couldn’t be responsible for continuing the attack. He stepped back, holding onto the pressure, before letting it begin to splinter under the nature of his shaping.
Draln batted at him, using the shaping to attempt to combat him, and Tolan struggled against it, making a show of how difficult it would be to withstand it.
The attack struck him.
The nature of it was forceful. He realized the Draln had waited, using a break in the attack, and in doing so he forced himself upon Tolan. The nature of the attack struck him, driving him to his knees.
He reached for the power of the runes, almost without controlling it, delving deep through the runes into the Convergence, drawing that power into him. That energy exploded up through him, and he prepared to unleash it on Draln.
But he couldn’t.
He had to push it back down. He couldn’t allow himself to be baited into an attack like this. That wasn’t the purpose of it.
Breathing out, he used earth, sliding Draln back.
That was all he needed to do.
The Grand Master stepped forward, using a shielding of each of the elements, and Draln wasn’t able to break through it.
The Grand Master nodded and finally, Draln released his hold over the shaping and the bondar.
“What was that?” Ferrah whispered.
“I got a little bit carried away.”
“No, but from him.”
“He has a bondar. Possibly multiple bondars. He must have learned he was able to use them in the testing.”
“Who would’ve told him that was allowed?”
“I don’t know. And he doesn’t really matter.”
“When he was battling me, I thought he was stronger than I remembered, but I was able to keep him back. When he came at you, he was using more than one element.”
Tolan nodded. “He was using all of the elements.”
“And you were able to push him back?”
Tolan nodded, locking eyes with Draln. “I used the runes, connecting to the Convergence.”
“And you, Master Changen?”
Ferrah stepped forward. “He has passed.”
Tolan knew he was next. He could refuse to permit Draln to pass, and if he did, he had no idea what repercussions there would be. Perhaps Draln would need to test again. Perhaps it meant he would stay a student for a little while longer.
If he did that, what would the Grand Master say?
“And you, Master Ethar?”
Tolan locked eyes with Draln. He could see the eagerness within him.
“He has passed,” Tolan said.
He looked away, not wanting to see the expression of victory in the man’s eyes but knowing he could do nothing else.
“Congratulations, Master Sar.”
Tolan took to the air on a shaping, not wanting to remain for the rest of it. He didn’t need to be there to feel the excitement within Draln. He didn’t need to be there to hear him taunt him.
It was bad enough he was responsible for passing him to master shaper.
6
The inside of the Academy didn’t seem to welcome him. It was almost as if the Academy blamed him for passing someone like Draln to the level of master shaper, though there was nothing Tolan could have done otherwise. Draln had proven himself, and Tolan understood how they needed to promote those with potential. Knowing what he did about his mother and the way she intended to attack, they would need powerful shapers. Unfortunately, there was no doubting Draln was a powerful shaper.
He passed several students and turned away when he saw Velthan in the distance. He didn’t want to deal with him, not after having promoted Draln.
He turned toward the library, thinking he might need to visit with Master Minden, though he wasn’t even sure what he would say to her. Instead, he wandered toward his quarters. If nothing else, he could be reassured by the fact he and Ferrah had been given much nicer rooms than he had ever had before.
Upstairs, he heard a voice he recognized.
Tolan hesitated, debating what to say. It had been strange between him and Jonas ever since Tolan had been promoted and Jonas had not.
Staying behind wasn’t going to resolve the strangeness. What he needed to do was embrace it, head to Jonas, and simply engage in a conversation. It might be difficult, but he thought it was necessary.
It was the thing Ferrah would want from him.
That settled it.
He headed up the stairs, trying to think about what he would say. There hadn’t been many conversations with Jonas since his promotion to master shaper. Mostly that was because Tolan didn’t have much he could say, though partly it was because Jonas had assignments as a student that Tolan no longer did.
When he came across Jonas, Tolan slowed. He seemed to have filled out a little bit, more so than Tolan remembered.
“I’m sorry, Master… Tolan?” Jonas swept his gaze across Tolan, looking from head to toe at him.
Tolan smiled. “I heard you, and I thought I would—”
“I don’t have any time to talk. I’m sorry, but I have to be getting to class.”
“What class?”
“I have a session with Master White. She was going to work with me on water shaping. She’s really quite skilled,” Jonas said.
Tolan had some experience with her and knew in a little while, she would likely progress to be a rival to Master Wassa.
“You have to go now?” Tolan looked up and down the stairs. There wa
s no one else here but Jonas. “I’m sure she would understand if you visit with me for a little while.”
“I’m sorry, Master Ethar. I wouldn’t want to keep Master White waiting.”
Jonas pushed past him and Tolan turned, watching as he left. He thought of a dozen different things he could and should say, but none of them really fit. What he really wanted to do was to apologize to Jonas, but what would he be apologizing for? Tolan didn’t know what he’d done, only that for whatever reason, his friend no longer felt like that to him.
“Jonas, at least avoid Draln if you can.”
Jonas paused, not turning back. “Why?”
“He was promoted to master shaper.”
Jonas’s back stiffened and a shaping started to build from him before fading. “When?”
“It just happened.”
“How do you know?”
“I was there.”
Jonas turned back to face him, looking up the stairs at him. “You were asked to be a part of his testing?”
Tolan nodded. “Ferrah and I both were asked.”
Jonas sneered. “Then you’re the reason he’s a master shaper. Thanks for that, Master Ethar.”
He turned, hurrying down the stairs, leaving Tolan not knowing what to do or say. He wanted to call out after him, to say something to him, but what would he say to Jonas?
After a moment of staring, Tolan continued up the stairs, and he encountered Master Minden. She was moving slowly, holding onto a shaping, focused straight ahead of her.
“Master Minden?”
“There you are, Master Ethar.”
“You were looking for me?”
“I was looking for something. It seems it would be you.”
Tolan frowned. “Why?”
“I had a sense I was needed.”
Tolan looked behind him, searching toward where Jonas had disappeared down the stairs. “Was it hard for you when you became a master shaper?”
“It should always be hard to become a master shaper. You wouldn’t want that kind of title to be given to someone who wasn’t prepared for it.”
“I’m not talking about the testing,” he said, though that had been difficult. More difficult than the shaping he had subjected Draln to. As much as he believed he had done the right thing in the way he had tested him, he still didn’t feel as if the other man had the same experience with the test Tolan had. He had been subjected to considerable violence. It was almost as if the Grand Master had wanted to try to destroy him during the shaping.
Either that, or he needed for Tolan to know how he could reach for even more power than he could on his own.
Master Minden watched him. “You mean the friendships you lose.”
“I didn’t know I would lose them,” Tolan said.
“Some friendships will stand the test of time. You may find you and Master Changen will remain close regardless of what happens. Other friendships will change. Some of that has to do with the shapers, and some has to do with circumstance. Unfortunately, we cannot always predict what circumstance will come to us. In the case of your friendship with Shaper Golud, I suspect you will find it evolves over time.”
“You heard?”
“It isn’t so much that I heard, but I sensed.”
“He blames me for promoting Draln.”
“Master Sar will be an adequate master shaper.”
“Adequate?”
Master Minden closed her eyes, and a sense of spirit shaping built from her. “I can’t say for certain whether or not he will be more than that. He’s not quite like you, Master Ethar. In your case, I was able to anticipate the kind of master shaper you would become very easily.”
“I don’t feel like I am being the kind of master shaper I need to be. Sometimes, it feels as if I’m not doing everything I need.”
“You wouldn’t be doing everything you need to do if you felt otherwise.”
“I’ve been told to focus on one task at a time.”
“That is often best.”
“I don’t know if I can. I was focused on the Guardians along with the bondars, but now we have that piece somewhat solved, now I want to go and figure out what’s going on with my mother, along with who she might be serving—and I believe there is someone, especially with how she was able to escape—and go after the rest of the Circle—”
“That is quite a bit for you to focus on.”
“I’m trying to do otherwise, but I don’t know if I can.”
“Do what must be done first, Master Ethar. I trust you will manage that. You have always found that serving the elementals, along with the elements and the element bonds, has guided you. Perhaps it will do so this time as well.”
“I’m not so sure it will.”
A spirit shaping built from her, sweeping away and pressing toward him. When it passed, a wave of relaxation washed back over Tolan. She often had that effect on him, and in this case, he appreciated how she used the shaping, touching him with just enough power he could find a sense of peace once again. There were times when spirit shaping was beneficial.
“Do what must be done,” she said. “I don’t worry about the Circle. Others are looking into it. I am certain we will find them.”
She started down the stairs and Tolan headed up, making his way toward his new master shaper rooms. He looked around once he was there, his gaze drifting around the inside of the rooms, but nothing here felt warm or welcoming yet. Perhaps in time, that would change. For now, a part of him missed the times when he was able to work with others within the student section. Ferrah was only across the hall, so it wasn’t as if she was so far. Unfortunately, he suspected Draln would also be assigned rooms here. It meant they would have to speak more often.
This wasn’t where he wanted to be.
Tolan wasn’t sure where he wanted to be, but for now, this wasn’t it.
Heading back out, he continued up the tower, reaching the upper level and the doorway that opened to the outside. Once there, he stood for a moment, breathing in the cool air, feeling the sense of the city all around him. There was power here, and an energy filling him. He embraced that sense, taking all of it in, and then let out a long breath.
What he needed was to be surrounded by a sense of the elements.
There was a park nearby where students created, but he was no longer a student, and that no longer his place.
There was somewhere else he could go.
He let a shaping carry him, and it swept him up off the tower, bringing him back toward the testing ground. He had spent quite a bit of time here, not only as a student, but now he had been involved in his first testing. There was always a sense of energy to it, and Tolan allowed himself to use that sense of energy, the way it connected him to the rest of Amitan. It felt right, in some strange way. It was almost as if the sense of this land was distinct, anchoring him here. Other places had distinct senses of their own. He felt the same way when he went to Ephra, or even when he went to Par. He suspected every place within Terndahl had someplace and something like that. In some respects, it was an awareness of the elements, but Tolan also suspected there was some nature of the elementals that existed in these lands and near the element bonds, if only he were to reach through that connection toward them.
He wandered through the testing ground for a little while, the sense of it filling him. As he did, he focused on shaping, borrowing from each of the elements, shaping them into forms of the elementals as he once had when he had been around the Keystone. There was something about doing so which helped tie him more fully once again to his shaping ability. He worked through each of the elementals he knew, shaping an image of them. He didn’t add spirit, and he did nothing to try to pull the elementals out of the elements, though he wondered if such a thing would even be possible with the nature of a shaping that didn’t pull on the power of a bondar. This close to the towers and the Academy, it wouldn’t take much to borrow from the runes and the Convergence, so he suspected he would be able to call that p
ower out.
When he reached for the sense of fire, he shaped through the elementals, even going so far as to shape a draasin. When he had been new at the Academy and had found the Keystone, the idea of shaping a draasin had terrified him. At the time, he had thought he might be releasing the elemental from the bond, though now Tolan doubted such a thing was possible. How could a draasin live within the bond?
He created the image of a draasin, using fire, filling it all around him, and letting that power flow outward. There was little concern anyone would see him, but even if they did, he would be able to explain it by claiming he was simply testing the shapings. He filled the power of the draasin, creating the wings, the scaled back, even the spikes protruding from it. His experience with the Draasin Lord showed him everything he needed.
As he released his connection to the draasin image, the elemental winked out, disappearing into nothing more than a few streamers of flame.
When he was done, he stood in place. There was an energy lingering within this land, partly because of the shapings Tolan had been drawing upon, but perhaps even more so because of this place itself. He sighed. It was time to return, but he didn’t want to.
Tolan lingered near the testing ground for a little while. It wasn’t so much he worried about passing Draln to master shaper, though he couldn’t deny that bothered him somewhat.
Maybe part of what really bothered him was how tired he felt. His conversation with Master Minden had helped, giving him a sense of purpose, but it didn’t change his feeling there was still so much to do. Much of that was tied to what he had already done, the way he had reached for the bondars and the Guardians, doing everything in his power to bridge that connection and seal the Convergence once again. If it was trying to seal off the chaos, the darkness his mother had attempted to summon, then he had succeeded.
If there was some other purpose behind what she was doing, then he needed to know.
All of it came down to the same answer. He needed to find his mother.
More than that, some part of him believed he had to go to the beyond, to see what troubled the elementals about it. There was something beyond the waste. It was a matter of finding it, though Tolan wasn’t sure what it would take.
The Elements Bond (Elemental Academy Book 7) Page 7