The Spirit Binds

by D. K. Holmberg

  Lessons flashed in his mind, many of them provided by the master shapers. Within each of those lessons was something he was to try to recall. He remembered Master Shorav talking about the types of shapings he’d need to know to pass the test, and he remembered him saying specifically which things they would be asked to do. Many of those shapings were not complicated, not the way they once would have been.

  After a while, the door opened and Ferrah entered. She made her way toward his table, taking a seat, and glanced down, frowning. “You’re not reading anything?”

  “I was just trying to come up with a way to steady myself,” he said.

  “I’m sure you will. The rest of us have seen what you’ve managed to do over the last few months. You’ve proven you’re a skilled shaper.”

  “This is different. Passing to the third level means…” It meant he was a skilled shaper. Very few were able to progress to that point. It would mean he was well on his way to becoming a master shaper. “I think I’ll feel better when this is all over.”

  “Well…” She looked up, meeting his eyes.

  “Well what?”

  “It’s time.”

  “That’s why you’re here?”

  “They came for both of us.”

  “Who did?”

  “The Grand Master.”

  “The Grand Master is performing the testing?”

  Ferrah nodded.

  He didn’t know if he should be reassured or troubled. He had enough experience with the Grand Master to know he’d be given a fair testing, but at the same time, the Grand Master was an incredibly skilled shaper. More than that, the Grand Master wouldn’t have reason to hold him as a second level.

  Tolan looked around before getting to his feet. Master Minden was gone, or else she’d disappeared to a hidden section of the library.

  “Are you ready?” Ferrah asked.

  “I guess I don’t have a choice.”

  She took his hand and squeezed, and together they made their way from the library. They reached the front door of the Academy, and when they stepped outside, sunlight streamed down. As soon as she turned, Tolan knew where she was leading him. There was a park near the Academy, a place students often went to find solitude, but it was also a place powerful with shaping energy.

  “It’s out here?” Tolan asked.

  Ferrah nodded, and he realized she was twisting the fabric of her jacket between her fingers. “They created some sort of seal around the park. Apparently, they do that during testing times, and it prevents others from knowing what’s taking place.”

  “There have to have been testings since we’ve been here,” he said.

  “I’m sure there were, but unless we were out here, we wouldn’t have known about them.”

  It was strange, and yet it made a certain sort of sense. There was power in being out among the natural aspects of the elemental energies. Even if it didn’t have anything to do with the elementals, the power came from the fact they were here, surrounded by that energy, and in doing so, they became closer to it. It was the same thing he’d been trying to show Ferrah the other night.

  “How many people fail testing?”

  She glanced over at him. “I don’t know if that’s the question you should be asking. I think the better question is how many people pass testing.”

  As he thought about it, Tolan realized he didn’t really have much of an idea about how many people passed testing. It wasn’t something spoken about, and in that way, it was something like the Selection.

  “If you fail, it’s not as if you’re banished from the Academy, not the way you would be if you didn’t reach the spirit tower. Once you reach this point, they hold onto you to see whether or not you can progress.”

  “Even if we do, we’re still separate. If we don’t pass, then…”

  She nodded at him. “If we don’t pass, then others who do will know.”

  It would be bad enough if he failed, but Tolan thought it might be even worse if someone like Draln passed but he didn’t.

  There was another possibility equally worrisome. What if she passed and he didn’t?

  They reached the outside of the park. As she had suggested, there was a shaping around it. It had a shimmery sort of quality to it, and he could detect the energy from the shaping creating a barricade, a separation between the rest of the city and the park.

  “What are we supposed to do?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “I don’t really know. We were just told to meet here.”

  “Both of us?”

  “I have the sense they test more than one shaper at a time.”

  It was different than the testing to the second level. Tolan looked around. Who else would be here with them? If it was just him and Ferrah, he worried only one of them could be selected.

  He didn’t see anyone else and began to grow even more nervous about that, but then heard an irritated laugh.

  “Ethar. Changen. Why am I not surprised to see the two of you here.”

  Tolan turned to see Draln approaching. He was a large man, muscular with the kind of build Tolan once had envied. He seemed to exude earth energy, but Draln was equally skilled with all shaping elements, not just earth. He had grown even more skilled in the time they had been at the Academy, to the point where Draln was already proving himself the most likely—other than Ferrah—to become a master shaper.

  “Just you?” Ferrah asked, stepping toward Draln.

  “What do you mean just me?”

  “They sent the missive for both Tolan and me to come.”

  “Perhaps they wanted me to show how much more skilled I am than either of you.”

  Tolan shook his head, turning away from Draln. Engaging with him would do nothing other than irritate himself. Instead, he focused on the shaping in front of him, looking to see if there was anything he could discover about it. From what he could tell, it was a complicated shaping, which left him wondering if perhaps this was part of the test. What if they had placed the shaping as the first layer, a way of determining who had the potential necessary to move on?

  Tolan stretched his hand out in front of the shaping, approaching slowly, keeping his hands out in front of him as he did. He searched through the shaping, using a combination of the elements in order to try to unravel what he could detect. It seemed there had to be something about it he could uncover, and yet the longer he stood there, the less certain he was that he could do so.

  “What is it?” Ferrah asked.

  “This shaping,” he started, keeping his focus on the barrier. “It’s almost as if I can feel something about it.”

  “What are you able to feel?”

  “I don’t know. I think that’s part of the test.”

  Ferrah started shaping, pushing outward with her energy. Tolan was accustomed to detecting her shapings, having been around her often enough to recognize the way she shaped. There was a particular signature to it, an energy distinctly hers. With anyone else, he wasn’t sure he’d recognize it quite the same way, but with Ferrah, he was acutely aware of how the shaping built from her.

  “I’m not picking up on anything,” she said.

  “You can tell the barrier is there?” he asked.

  “I can. But detecting a thing and being able to push through it are different.”

  “What are the two of you going on about?” Draln asked.

  “You wouldn’t want to know. You don’t need our help,” Ferrah snapped at him.

  “What makes you think I need help? I was just trying to figure out what the two of you were blathering on about while you were standing here. Maybe you want me to leave you alone? I hear the two of you have been wandering out after dark to get some time to yourselves.”

  Tolan glanced over at Ferrah, feeling the seething energy starting to emanate from her. “Ignore him,” he whispered.

  “I’m trying but ignoring him is easier said than done.”

  “Then focus on the shaping. See if you can unravel it.”


  That seemed to be the key. It wasn’t so much he had to force his way through it. He wasn’t sure he could even do so if he were to try. A shaping like that would be likely powered by multiple master shapers, and possibly even augmented with the energy coming from the runes situated around the various towers. If that were the case, then it would be unlikely he or Ferrah would be able to push through it.

  And it was possible that pushing through it was not even necessary. Why would he need to push through it if he could simply find a way to step between it?

  He focused on it and opened himself up to the power he could detect here. It was the same way he opened himself up to the various elemental energies when sitting above the city, using that as an opportunity to feel for the various powers flowing around them. As he did, Tolan started with the element he had the easiest time with—fire.

  As he suspected, there was heat within this shaping. It was woven through it, a twisting sort of sense. Interestingly enough, it was a shaping he recognized. Not just that he recognized, but it was one Master Sartan had wanted them to know how to use.

  Frowning to himself, he shifted the focus of what he could detect. Now he had a sense of fire within this shaping, he moved on to earth. Reaching for earth required a little different touch, and it was considerably different than what he had known when he had still been in Ephra. When he had been there, the connection to the element had left him with some ability to detect earth, but never with much strength, certainly not as strong as many. His time at the Academy had taught him much about reaching for earth—and the earth elementals.

  He focused on his connection to the ground, to the earth itself, to the energy all around him. He used that no differently than he did when he was sitting above the city, looking out at it while focusing on what he could uncover while there. He used the same sort of sensing he had used when he had been with Ferrah. It came to him slowly, but there was a power within it.

  And he was able to detect the shaping.

  It started from deep within the ground, drawn upward, something like a wall that stretched, mixing with the fire shaping, though the two elements were often not complementary.

  With that knowledge in mind, he shifted to wind, but hesitated.

  The earth shaping had a certain familiarity to it, as well. It was one they had been taught, and as he focused on it, he realized this was one Master Shorav had taught them, much like the shaping that had gone into holding fire.

  Was that the key?

  He could run through the various shapings Master Rorn and Master Wassa had taught, but it seemed there wasn’t the same need, not with the way he picked up on shapings. He focused on wind, letting his awareness of it work through him.

  It started with his lungs, the swirling energy he detected with each breath, and he added to that his understanding and awareness of the air swirling around him, small currents within it reminding him of the elementals themselves. From there, he moved on to the shaping, reaching through what he could sense, searching for whether there was anything there he might be able to uncover about the nature of the shaping. As soon as he felt wind within the shaping, he recognized what it was. It was another shaping he’d learned, one Master Rorn had taught.

  That left only water, and he focused on his connection to water, the way he could detect it, starting within himself. There was the pulsating of his heart, the contraction each time blood flowed through him. He could feel water within the ground, within the air itself. It was all around. Connected as he was, Tolan was able to reach from there to the shaping, and he used that to draw that power outward and detected the shaping they had created.

  Four elements all woven together. Was spirit a part of this? He focused on spirit, searching to see whether or not it was there, but unsurprisingly, it was not.

  As he had learned from not only the Inquisitors but from even Master Minden, spirit was different than the other elements. It seemed to bind them in a certain way, but it also sat apart from them. In doing so, it made reaching for spirit more difficult, and those who could do so far more select.

  Tolan focused on the various elements, the shapings used to bind them together, and started to pull them apart. It was slow work, but as he went, he found he didn’t need to use considerable strength, not as he’d have to if he were to try to destroy the shaping altogether.

  A bubble formed within the shaping. He had no other way of describing it other than that. It created an opening, something of a doorway, and Tolan stepped into it. As soon as he did, he realized he should have checked on Ferrah, but once he was inside the shaping, the opening began to close. He turned, trying to separate it, but found he could not.

  The bubble started to collapse around him.

  Tolan pushed against it, straining to maintain his position and his focus, but turning around as he had looked for Ferrah had made him disoriented. And now, he was no longer certain where he was within the shaping.

  The longer he stood here, the more he could feel the shaping collapse around him. As it did, he realized something. If he weren’t able to step out of it, he was going to be crushed under the weight of it.

  4

  The shaping continued to squeeze around him and Tolan stood in place, focusing on it, knowing he needed to be ready for the possibility he’d have to try to force his way beyond it. The only way he’d managed to open up any sort of pathway into the shaping was because he had unwound the shaping slightly, creating a doorway. Now he’d begun to turn, the doorway he’d unwound began to reform, sealing itself once more—and him within it.

  Tolan took a steadying breath, focusing on the various shapings he’d detected. He recognized them, and now he knew what they were, he could use those shapings, continuing to work through them, and he was certain he could find some way to unravel them long enough to make his way somewhere.

  The challenge was that he no longer knew which direction he needed to go. When he had been standing on the other side of the shaping, he knew he had to head straight through it, but now he was within it, it was evident the shaping was incredibly wide, enough that he’d find it difficult to determine which way he needed to open in order to work his way through it. If he went the wrong way, he could continue to spin around the barrier, winding through the outer edge, perpetually stuck within the shaping.

  And yet, he needed to hold on, to use his focus, to hold the unraveled shaping open for as long as possible. As he stood there, he strained.

  There had to be some way to detect where he had come in.

  It would be more than just stepping through the shaping. He’d have to use sensing—all of the elements—and would have to be quick about it. With every passing moment, the shaping threatened to collapse around him even more.

  It took not strength but considerable effort to shift his focus. He didn’t need to shape in order to figure out where he wanted to go next but separating from what he could sense was difficult.

  Pushing outward, he strained, thinking about what he could detect of earth and wind and water and fire and trying to determine what he could uncover to guide him. The inside of the park was different than the outside, and if he could figure out what was there that might draw him, he thought he just might be able to find a way through.

  There came a flicker of energy, little more than that, and he spun. That flicker seemed to guide him, though he didn’t know which element he was following. He strained, using what he could remember of the various shapings, unraveling them as quickly as he could as he tried to push through them, and managed to open up another pathway through the shaping.

  The bubble formed again, though this time not nearly as large as it had been the last time. He suspected it had something to do with his growing weakness. The longer he remained here, the more likely it was he’d grow weaker and weaker to the point where eventually the shaping would crush him completely.

  He found himself needing to duck, crouching down as the bubble narrowed, and yet, Tolan continued to work his way through it,
unraveling it as quickly as he could, scrambling forward. By the time he found himself on his knees, crawling forward, he no longer knew if he was heading in the right direction. It was possible whatever surge of energy he’d detected had guided him in the wrong direction. If that were the case, then he’d end up squeezed, crushed under the shaping. Would the master shapers have any idea what had happened to him? Would they realize he was potentially injured and come for him? He might fail the testing, but at least he’d still be alive.

  The unraveling squeezed down to no larger than his body. He was crawling forward on his belly, and he dragged himself forward. Tolan continued to focus on what he was able to do, continuing to unravel that shaping, squeezing forward.

  He had to be close. How thick could they have made this shaping?

  There was no farther he could go.

  The shaping pressed down on him, squeezing.

  Tolan strained, taking a deep breath, and he surged against it, creating a little bit of a buffer against the shaping pressing down upon him.

  Was there any way he could add spirit and strengthen himself?

  It was the only element not present in this shaping, and while he didn’t know if that mattered or not, he had found adding spirit to shapings changed them in certain ways, though they were often unpredictable ways. In this case, he could use a little unpredictability.

  Drawing upon spirit in this manner, with this sense of urgency, was difficult. Spirit always came from a different place within him. Whereas fire he could feel from the warmth around him and connect to it that way, and wind came from his breathing and the air around him, earth from the ground and everything he could connect to, water from his blood and the moisture he could detect, spirit was something else. It came from a deep place within him, almost buried within him. As he reached for it, his shaping began to fail.

  With a surge, he grasped for his spirit shaping, using that to add to the other shapings, solidifying it. He resisted, pushing outward yet again.