The Spirit Binds

by D. K. Holmberg

  His father followed after him. “Why here?”

  “Because there’s someone here who can help.”

  When he reached the dais, he looked up at Master Jensen. “Where is Master Minden?”

  “Shaper Ethar. You have been gone.”

  “I know, but now I need to find Master Minden.”

  “I’m afraid I—”

  Movement caught his attention and Tolan jerked around. He realized something was amiss that he should’ve realized before. Maybe because he’d been so focused on Master Minden, or the fact he had focused only on Master Jensen when he’d entered the room.

  Soldiers. Two of them.

  They were stationed on either side of the library, and they approached with hands reaching for their swords. Tolan glanced up at Master Jensen, who made a point of ignoring Tolan.

  The rest of the library was empty. That wasn’t terribly surprising considering the fact there were these soldiers here.

  What had Master Minden said to him?

  The Council had sent the soldiers. They had come to stabilize and establish a sense of peace.

  Tolan pushed on them, drawing upon a shaping of spirit, using the bondar to do so. In this place, there weren’t many who could shape. It was the only advantage he might have. The library didn’t separate others from shaping quite the same way as they were separated at the waste, but the effect was similar.

  As he pushed spirit upon them, searching for something that might suggest they were compromised, he didn’t come across anything.

  He frowned. Their swords.

  He needed a sword in order to test whether or not the combined bondar would make any difference.

  Taking a deep breath as the soldiers approached, he whispered, “I’m sorry.”

  Then he pushed out with a shaping of spirit, letting it flow out from him and slam into them. He used it to overwhelm them. When they collapsed, Tolan hurried forward, grabbing one sword before racing over to the other and unsheathing it.

  He glanced up at Master Jensen. “I’m sorry about this.”

  “Master Minden is safe,” Master Jensen said.

  “Where is she?”

  “With the Academy under surveillance, she has decided she would stay isolated.”

  “If you find her, send word to her that I might need her help.”

  Tolan took a seat at one of the tables, and as he did, he looked at the sword. It was a plain blade, nothing about it unique or remarkable, and he sent a surge of power through it.

  Was there a way to add a rune using one of the elements?

  He started with fire, adding that on one aspect of the blade. It was slow and meticulous work, and had he not done the same with his father, he wasn’t sure that he would have known how to do it now. Once it was set, he moved on to water, then wind, then earth. He alternated the symbols, staggering them on either side of the blade, the forms appearing with his shaping. It took an agonizingly long time and sweat dripped down his brow with each passing moment, but he didn’t dare wipe it away. He needed his focus. If he lost that now, the shaping would fail.

  That left one element remaining.

  He knew only one shape for spirit. Carefully, he added that to the hilt. It seemed right.

  “Did it work?” his father asked.

  Tolan took a deep breath, holding onto the sword. He hesitated. It seemed making the bondar—if that’s what he had made—like this was unusual, and he wasn’t even sure whether or not it would work.

  He sent a shaping through it.

  When he started, he used fire first. It surged, power flowing through him more strongly than it usually did, and he added each of the other elements quickly in succession afterward, adding spirit last.

  “Look at the blade, Tolan.”

  Tolan’s gaze darted down to the sword blade. It glowed with a white light.

  A shaper’s sword.

  Not just that, but a warrior’s sword.

  Tolan hurriedly did the same thing with the other, and he handed it to his father. “Can you use it?”

  “I might be able to use it for the other elements, but I can’t shape spirit. I never could. If I could have, I would have been able to protect myself from your mother. Unfortunately, that was why and how she was able to use me as she did.”

  Tolan gripped the two swords, heading into the main part of the Academy building. He stalked down toward the Grand Master’s room, and he pounded on the door.

  It took a moment, but the door opened. The Grand Master glanced from him to his father.

  “Come in.”

  “I don’t have time.”

  “There is always time, Shaper Ethar.”

  “You don’t understand. There’s an attack. I finally understand who’s behind it.”

  The Grand Master nodded. “Come inside.”

  Tolan frowned and followed the Grand Master into the room. When he did, Tolan nearly dropped the two swords he carried.

  His mother stood behind the desk.

  20

  Tolan stood frozen, unsure what to do or say, and unsure whether or not there was anything he even could say. This was his mother. There was no mistaking her, and as he looked at her, he was certain it was her, and he couldn’t help but feel anger flowing through him.

  “There he is,” his mother said. There was warmth in her voice, and mixed with it was a shaping, a spirit shaping, and it washed over him.

  Tolan resisted the spirit, using his own connection, and found as he did, he was forced to push through the ring.

  He stared at his mother. She had the same dark hair he remembered as a child, and the same smile he’d seen on her face, but more than that, there was a look of concern, almost as if she actually worried about him.

  “What are you doing here?” Tolan asked.

  “I thought you would be happy to see me.”

  “Happy?” He turned to the Grand Master. “Why did you let her in here…”

  Tolan hurriedly started shaping, pulling on spirit, and sent it washing over the Grand Master. As he did, he felt the subtle sort of resistance within the Grand Master’s mind.

  He’d been compromised.

  The Grand Master was a powerful shaper. For her to be able to overwhelm him told him just how powerful she was.

  “Why don’t the three of us have a conversation?” his mother asked.

  “Three of us? You don’t want the Grand Master to be a part of this?”

  She smiled. “Seeing as how he’s sleeping?” With that, the Grand Master collapsed and remained unmoving.

  Tolan studied him for a moment. The level of control she displayed in her shaping was incredible. There was power to it, too.

  What had his father said? She’d been working all these years, training and searching for power.

  She knew far more than Tolan did. The only thing he had was the possibility of the swords and the possibility they were an effective bondar, but what if they didn’t work?

  “I hadn’t expected to see you again, Felicity.”

  His mother smiled at his father. “I thought you would be more excited to see me.”

  “After everything you did to me?”

  “What did I do other than help you find the affection you craved?”

  “I didn’t crave anything.”

  “No? I felt it within you.” A shaping began to build from her, and Tolan could sense the way spirit was starting to rise up. If he didn’t do anything, his mother would use a spirit shaping on his father and that spirit shaping would somehow destroy everything he’d regained.

  He jumped forward, pressing himself in between his mother and his father, and pushed out with a spirit shaping of his own. He drew upon the ring his father had made for him and sent a surge of spirit wrapping around his father’s mind. If nothing else, he thought he could protect his father. He had no idea whether the shaping would work or not.

  “You should know better than to get in between your parents, Tolan.”

  “Why?” Tolan
said.

  “You who have begun to taste power would need to question?”

  “I’ve been able to recognize there is power, but I also recognize there is danger to certain kinds of power.”

  “The only danger is not using the power we’ve been given,” she said.

  “I’m not sure that’s true,” Tolan said.

  “You stand there holding a sword of the soldiers, and you would question?”

  He frowned. Could she not recognize it was a bondar? If she didn’t, then there was an advantage. It was good she didn’t know. The longer she didn’t know, the more likely it was they could use that.

  First, they needed to know what she planned.

  “Why are you here?”

  “I came for you.”

  “I’m not going with you, so why else are you here?”

  She flashed a smile. “All this time, and I had never expected my son to be the key. Then again, perhaps that’s my own fault.”

  “You shaped it so I wouldn’t remember anything.”

  “I protected you from him” she said, nodding at Tolan’s father.

  “Protecting me from him? He’s the one who needed protection.”

  “Don’t let him convince you he was so innocent. He was the reason I began to understand there’s power in these bondars. As much as he might want to hide from it, and given his fear of it, he would conceal himself from the power existing in the world. I would do otherwise. I would embrace that power, and I would use it. I would use it the way it was meant to be used, and with that, I would see there was control and order established.”

  Tolan frowned. “And by order and control, you mean chaos.” He took a deep breath, focusing on his shaping, readying for the possibility of an attack. Would he even be able to do so? He didn’t know if he could attack his mother if it came down to it.

  He had to push away that doubt. He realized where that came from, some deep place within him where his mother had instilled it.

  “I mean the power that exists. Where do you think the elements and the power of the element bond comes from? Where do you think the elementals come from?”

  “They are the power of this world.”

  “They are part of the power of this world. Only a part. I have uncovered another part. It’s that power I would seek.”

  Tolan shook his head. Of course, that was what she wanted to pursue. “You know how dangerous that power is?”

  “Only if you don’t know how to control it.”

  “And you don’t know how to control it. You might think you do, but I’ve seen how that power rebels when it’s stripped away.”

  “You wouldn’t be able to have stripped it away.”

  “You’d be surprised,” Tolan said. “You tried to hide my abilities from me.”

  “Because you weren’t ready for them.”

  He wanted to move, to shift off to the side and check on his father, but he didn’t dare do so. Whatever his mother was planning involved keeping them both in front of her. What he needed to do instead was find some way to incapacitate her. Maybe it was time to stop talking and to act, to use his new sword bondar. Once he did, he had to be prepared for the possibility it wouldn’t be enough to overwhelm her. If she had access to all of the bondars his father had made over the years, it was possible she had enough strength to draw from.

  “When would I be ready for them?”

  “When I could help you understand them.”

  “And by that, you mean when you could control me?” Tolan thought he understood, then. She’d continued to use spirit shapings on him for a very specific purpose. It was because she hadn’t been able to control him. She’d been forced to mask his memories, hiding them from him, and in doing so, she had thought she’d be able to conceal things from him, including his ability to shape.

  It still didn’t explain why they had abandoned him. He thought he understood why his father had left, but he didn’t know why his mother had left, unless it was all part of some plan.

  “You wanted me to come to the Academy.”

  She smiled. “I knew eventually you would be claimed. He thought that would be a mistake, but then, with his growing affinity for the elementals and his attachment to these trinkets he was making, I wasn’t surprised. I knew the more I could work with you, the more I could show you. But then, when it became clear he’d be unwilling to ever allow you to come to the Academy, I decided to take matters into my own hands.”

  “That was the shaping that wiped everything,” he said.

  “It was. And I even cast a little doubt throughout Ephra, letting the others believe we went off to serve the Draasin Lord.”

  “That was you?”

  She smiled at him. “Don’t be sad, Tolan. It was meant to strengthen you. Eventually, I knew you would get drawn into the Academy, though this is a little later than I was expecting. It had taken some prodding.”

  “I only submitted myself for Selection because of a friend.”

  As he said it, he realized what she was doing. She was trying to convince him she was somehow responsible for what had happened to him, when in reality, she had nothing to do with it. It was not all about her or what she’d done or any plan she’d made. The fact he had ended up in the Academy was not a part of that.

  What was she really after?

  She was taking time, and…

  Shaping him.

  He barely noticed it. The level of control she displayed was incredible. It was spirit shaping, but it was so subtle and so soft, he’d almost not been aware of what she was doing. Had he not focused on it, had he not considered what she might be trying to do, he might not have even noticed. The fact she’d had that level of control was almost enough to make him want to work with her to know whether there was something more he could do. None of the spirit shapers he had been around had demonstrated that kind of control.

  Which left him with a different understanding.

  “You were an Inquisitor.”

  She smiled. “Very good, Tolan. I’m surprised it took you this long.”

  “That’s why you used the Inquisitors.”

  “They were an obvious target, and their passion for unseating the Draasin Lord was easy enough to use.”

  “And the Grand Inquisitor?”

  “You didn’t recognize her?”

  Tolan frowned, shaking his head. “No. You didn’t get to her, though.”

  “Not yet. She’s next on my list.”

  “But you failed.”

  His mother cocked her head to the side and the shaping continued to build, but now Tolan was aware of it, he was able to create a subtle buffer against it, sending it sweeping away from him. He drew upon not only the ring his father had made, but also upon the sword, the bondar he had made.

  Combined together, those two bondars gave him incredible strength, and spirit seem to flood within him, drawn from some store that he could feel. And as it did, Tolan continued to pull upon it, using it to protect himself, though he didn’t know how much his mother might be able to do. She was a skilled spirit shaper.

  And an Inquisitor.

  “If you trained at the Academy, then why do this?”

  “It’s because I trained at the Academy that I have done this. I recognize the way they use those who trained here. Not only those who trained, but especially those who would try to master some of the more challenging connections.”

  “Spirit.”

  She tipped her head in a slight nod. “Spirit.”

  “Spirit isn’t necessarily difficult. It’s just whether or not you are born to it.”

  “They refused to teach those who are born to it how to connect. You do realize anyone with a connection to each of the elements has the capacity to reach spirit?”

  “But I get the sense from you that you don’t want everyone to reach spirit.”

  “Perhaps not.”

  “You can stop trying to shape me,” Tolan said. He drew himself up and took a deep breath, meeting her gaze. “I kno
w what you’re doing. I can feel it.”

  “If you know what I’m doing, then you would have acted by now.”

  “What makes you think I’m not?”

  The nature of her spirit shaping shifted. Because of how much power he was drawing, he could feel it. It flowed up from her, roiling through her, a burst of power that was overwhelming.

  Tolan pushed against what she was doing, ignoring it. “As you see, I must have inherited your talent with spirit. And I also have something else.”

  She frowned. “What?”

  Tolan raised the sword. “This.”

  She started to laugh. “I’m well aware you are no soldier, Tolan. If you think I haven’t been paying attention to your progression throughout the Academy, then you are mistaken.”

  “I am no soldier, but I am something else.” He began to pull on his shaping, letting it flow. It was a significant burst of energy, a powerful explosion filling him. As he drew it through the sword, it was incredible, overwhelming, and he aimed it at his mother. “I’m a warrior.”

  The shaping exploded from the end of the sword.

  Tolan had not seen what the shaping would look like when he pulled all of his element bonds through the sword, but drawing upon it, he could see it was incredible power.

  His mother pushed against him, and as she did, he recognized each of the elements mixed within her shaping. She was carrying bondars, one for each of the elements, but they were separate.

  Hadn’t his father speculated the various individual bondars weren’t nearly as potent as all of them combined? It had been Tolan’s experience when using the warrior shaping that the nature of that was more powerful than each individual shaping. He had speculated that because of it, he would be able to draw even more power, and as he pulled on his shaping, as he was aware of it flowing through him, he could feel that power surging. He let it flow, and it exploded into his mother.

  She continued to resist, and he realized something else.

  While his bondar might be more powerful, her strength was greater than his. She’d been working longer than him, and more than that, she had searched for other sources of power, things Tolan had not yet learned. Because of that, she knew aspects to shaping that he did not—and did not necessarily want to know.