The Spirit Binds

by D. K. Holmberg

  She took a step toward him. “That is interesting, Tolan. I must admit I didn’t think your father had any new bondars in him. He had shown me everything he knew when we were together.”

  Tolan shook his head. “He didn’t show you everything he knew. He protected me from you.”

  “Perhaps he did, but now you will still join me.”

  “I won’t let you influence me with chaos.”

  “Do you really think you’re strong enough to refuse? I certainly don’t. You might believe you have more power than you do, but I know what you possess. I helped instill that power within you. And it’s because of me that you will serve.”

  Her shaping continued to build and Tolan was forced back. His father was there, his hand on his back and his eyes wide. Shaping flowed from his father, and Tolan realized he hadn’t been opposing his mother alone. His father had been trying to help, adding his own shaping, and the two of them had been working together, though Tolan hadn’t even felt the nature of his father’s shaping until now. As he did, he realized that despite the fact they were using these powerful shapings, despite the fact he was drawing through the bondar he’d created, his mother was far more powerful than him. There was nothing he was going to be able to do to overpower her.

  He thought about raising the other sword, using that, but even if he did that, he wasn’t sure it would be enough.

  How else was he going to get power?

  What he needed was some greater connection to the elements. But he was at the Academy. How could he not have a greater connection to the elements than he had right here?

  The runes provided that connection. That was the purpose of them, the point of their existence, and he could feel that power flowing deep beneath the Academy. Those runes bound the building itself, tying it to the place of Convergence, and Tolan knew he could reach for that power.

  The key wasn’t attacking his mother with the shaping he was able to draw. The key was changing it in a different way.

  Tolan continued to focus on his shaping, continuing to draw power, and he slammed the other sword down into the ground. As he focused on pointing the one sword toward his mother, the other planted into the stone of the building filled with power. Tolan drew up through it, connecting to the greatness of the Academy, to the power existing all around him, using that to help him find even more strength.

  It was there. It had to be there.

  As it filled him, he continued to draw more and more power, letting the strength roll up through him. It was overwhelming, and it came to the point where Tolan had no control over it. It simply exploded through him.

  Her eyes darkened, her brow furrowed. She continued to resist, to fight what he was doing. The more he was extending through the Academy, through the runes, connecting to the place of Convergence, the more he knew he’d succeed.

  And she knew it, too.

  His mother pushed, sending a surge of shaping energy out from her. It exploded, striking everywhere in the room, leading to a burst of darkness.

  Tolan tried to push past that darkness, sending fire and spirit exploding out. When it was done, she was gone.

  He took a deep breath, holding onto the shaping through the swords, and he glanced over at his father.

  “What happened? Where did she go?” his father asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  He’d been so focused on his own shaping, on drawing power, that he hadn’t paid any attention to the type of shaping she’d used. It was possible she’d used something akin to a warrior shaping, the burst of lightning that would carry her away, but if that was what she’d done, there was no residual energy from it that would tell him that was what it had been.

  He had no idea what she’d used.

  All he knew was that she was gone.

  Tolan had a feeling this wasn’t over.

  He turned his attention to the Grand Master and pushed out with spirit. Connected as he was the rest of the Academy and to the runes around it, and through them to the place of Convergence, Tolan had considerable power. He pushed out onto the Grand Master and felt a sense of resistance, the strangeness within the Grand Master, and he pulled, looping around the shaping that confined his mind, sending a burst of each of the elements through him and exploding the connection to chaos.

  When he was done, he sent a hint of water shaping, healing the Grand Master.

  He sat up, looking at Tolan, and blinked, rubbing his eyes for a moment before glancing at Tolan’s father. “Who is this? What are you doing here?”

  “We figured out who was responsible for the attacks.”

  The Grand Master frowned. “Who?”

  “Unfortunately, it was my mother. It seems she was once an Inquisitor, and she used her knowledge of spirit shaping to turn my father.”

  “Why would she have done that?”

  “Because my father has knowledge of creating bondars. She wanted to use them to reach for chaos.”

  The Grand Master’s eyes widened. “How is it you know about this?”

  “Other than working with Master Minden? I need to help the Grand Inquisitor as well, but I’m not sure where to start.”

  The Grand Master stood, rubbing his hands together. “Probably in Par. After Irina lost her other daughter, I don’t know she would have been able to tolerate losing another.”

  Daughter? “That’s why she went to Par?”

  “Emily got involved. I think she wanted to do what she could to save her.”

  “She has two daughters?”

  “She lost one of them in the war with the Draasin Lord.”

  Tolan turned his attention to his father, frowning. That couldn’t be it, could it?

  “What was her other daughter’s name?”

  “It was Felicity.”

  Tolan shook his head. “No,” he whispered.

  “Why?”

  “I think I know where she went.”

  “Where?”

  “Apparently, I’m the Grand Inquisitor’s grandson.”

  The Grand Master frowned. “What?”

  “Felicity is my mother. And she is most certainly not dead. She’s the reason you were twisted. Chaos overwhelmed your mind. Had I not intervened, she would have succeeded.”

  “Succeeded in what?”

  Tolan shook his head. “I have no idea what she was trying to do, only that we prevented her from it.” He turned to his father. “I need to go. If she’s the Grand Inquisitor’s daughter, and if Emily is her sister, I know where they are.”

  And he didn’t think he could go by himself. He needed someone who knew the city.

  “Where are you going?” the Grand Master asked as Tolan turned away from him.

  “I’m going to Par. I’m going to stop my mother and save my grandmother.”

  He stepped out of the hallway and raced through the building.

  As he did, he focused on his shaping, focusing on what he could detect, searching for the signature of Ferrah’s shaping.

  He didn’t detect anything, but he was certain there had to be something.

  Master Minden. That was where he needed to go. Hurrying through the Academy, he reached the hall of portraits, and he stood studying them. No answers came to him, though he hadn’t really expected them to. The only thing he had hope for was to gain understanding.

  As he looked at the portraits, he couldn’t help but feel as if there was more than just the one portrait with an image that seemed to be impacted by that strange darkness. He paused at another, this one depicting a castle set on a rocky hillside. The ground had seemingly cracked, and black oozed from within those cracks, pouring out from them. There were other cracks, and he noticed them on the castle itself, almost as if this strange energy was destroying the building.

  And yet, that wasn’t the main focus of the image. The first time he’d come here, he had seen the portrait of a man with dark hair and deep brown eyes. The artist had him dressed in a black cloak, a sword strapped to his waist reminding Tolan something of o
ne of the soldiers. Power radiated from this shaper—and Tolan suspected it had to be a shaper. That power struck the ground, stretching away from the shaper and toward not only the ground but also toward the building, and at first, Tolan would have suspected the shaping was designed to heal, and yet the more he studied the image, the more he questioned. Maybe it wasn’t about healing. Maybe it was more about trying to destroy whatever it was that caused the cracks in the building and the cracks in the ground. Maybe it was more about trying to suppress that chaos.

  Master Minden wasn’t here. And if not here, then where would she be?

  There was only one place he thought she might have gone, and Tolan frowned, wondering if there might be some way to reach it faster.

  He focused on the place of Convergence, and as he did, he pulled upon each of the elements, creating a powerful shaping, and exploded downward. When he stepped out of the shaping, he was standing in front of the place of Convergence.

  How was that even possible?

  Master Minden was there, and though he wasn’t surprised by that, he was surprised by the fact he was able to reach this place so easily.

  Tolan raced over to her. She was crouched in front of the place of Convergence, her hand making a trail in the liquid, and she glanced up as he approached.

  “Shaper Ethar.”

  “Did you know?”

  “Did I know what?”

  “About me. About the Grand Inquisitor.”

  “I thought it might be likely,” Master Minden said. “Then again, I wasn’t entirely sure whether it was true or not. It was difficult for me to determine. There seemed to be some connection, but there was something about it that was shifted as well. Now I know about chaos, I wonder if perhaps that had something to do with it.”

  “My mother faked her death. She was an Inquisitor. She was the Grand Inquisitor’s daughter.”

  “Felicity,” she whispered.

  Tolan nodded. “Where’s Ferrah?”

  “Your friend is safe.”

  “I’m sure she is, but I’m going to need her to stop chaos.”

  Master Minden shook her head. “Unfortunately, there will be no ending of a conflict with chaos. It is a part of the world, and the key isn’t ending it but finding balance within it.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I think that is the part none have ever understood. Including myself. We have always believed the key to stopping chaos was controlling it. But that’s not it at all. The key isn’t controlling chaos. The key is recognizing it, doing what we can to minimize the damage caused by it, but finding a sense of balance. Think of everything in the world. You have darkness and light, you have left and right. You have order and chaos. One cannot exist without the other. They are connected, bound together, and that is what I think we need to keep in mind. If we can, perhaps we can ensure we can survive.”

  Tolan didn’t know how to do that, but that wasn’t the key right now, was it? The key was finding a way of removing the influence his mother had impressed on others. And for the most part, it involved removing the influence of the Inquisitors.

  “I think I know how to do this more quickly,” he said.

  “I’m not surprised you have uncovered the key,” she said.

  “Why?”

  “You have continued to demonstrate a certain knowledge and resiliency, Shaper Ethar.” She cocked her head, frowning as she studied him. “Perhaps I should call you Warrior Ethar.”

  He felt a flush work through him. “I needed something that could hold bondars of each element. The only thing I could think of that might work would be a sword like the warriors of old had used.”

  Master Minden smiled at him. “It suits you. You had better be careful, or the Council will try to turn you into a soldier.”

  “There are two soldiers in the library I incapacitated.”

  Master Minden huffed. “Unfortunately, they thought they could come to my library and abuse the power we hold. Thankfully they don’t have any ability to shape there, so…”

  Tolan smiled. “They don’t, but I do.”

  “Which is why you are more like the warriors of old than you even realize.”

  “I still need to find Ferrah.”

  The librarian waved her hands behind her, and a shaping lifted. Tolan hadn’t even been aware it was there, but he realized Ferrah had been masked, hidden by the shaping, and as it lifted, he found her resting.

  “What happened to her?”

  “Nothing happened to her, Shaper Ethar. Nothing more than what had happened to her before.”

  “She’s still out,” he said.

  The master librarian nodded. “Unfortunately, the nature of the chaos was such that she remains influenced by it. I thought I could bring her here and see if the power of the Convergence might be able to rescue her, but I haven’t had the opportunity.”

  “I need to do what I can to help her.”

  “I would expect nothing less of you,” she said.

  What could he do? It wasn’t as if he had some additional ability, some power other shapers did not, but he felt as if he needed to do something.

  He focused on Ferrah and pulled power through the sword, drawing it all together the same way he had before. This time, he used a hint of power coming off the place of Convergence. As he did, even more flowed through him, and he let it wash over Ferrah. There was no evidence of injury to her, but as his shaping washed over her, she gasped, blinking and sitting up.

  She looked over at him. “Tolan?”

  Tolan raced over to her, setting the sword down in front of her. “I’m here.”

  “What happened?”

  “More than you can imagine. But for now, you and I need to go to Par.”

  “Why Par?”

  “I can tell you while we’re there. I think my mother intends to use the Convergence there to attack my grandmother.”

  Ferrah blinked. “It really is more than I can imagine, isn’t it?”

  Tolan chuckled. “It really is. Do you think you can tolerate a shaping?”

  “What kind of shaping are we talking about?”

  “A new one.”

  She watched him for a moment before nodding. “I’m ready.”

  With that, Tolan called for lightning.

  21

  When the lightning cleared and his vision returned, Tolan looked around. There was energy all around him. It came from the crackling of shaping throughout the city, power that surged and exploded. Tolan searched for anything within that crackling energy that might be familiar.

  He held onto Ferrah’s hand and continued to look around. She blinked as her eyes tried to adjust.

  “You have to keep your eyes closed during the shaping. I should have warned you.”

  Ferrah glanced over at him. “This is Par.”

  “It is.”

  “How did we get here so quickly?” she asked.

  “That’s the new shaping.”

  “It’s some shaping.” She paused. “It feels different. There’s something off.”

  Tolan tested each of the elements. As he did, he could feel what she detected, the strangeness she was aware of. And she’d simply known something was off.

  “You’re really well attuned to Par.”

  She cocked a brow at him. “I grew up here. Shouldn’t I be attuned to it?”

  “Seeing as how I had to help you in Amitan…”

  She squeezed his hand and took in a deep breath. “What now?”

  “Now we have to find the Convergence.” And the Grand Inquisitor. She was here. Somewhere. Tolan could feel her influence.

  Before doing anything else, he should try to find her. She could be of use in the effort to stop whatever his mother planned. He just had to find her.

  Standing atop the tower, he focused on the sense of the city, using it the same way he had when he’d come the first time. Not much had changed, nothing more than the persistent sense of energy within the city. It felt natural, as if it were meant
to be here, and despite that, he had to wonder if perhaps there wasn’t something more than he could tell.

  As he stood perched at the edge of the tower, Tolan reached for something that might help him know what would be out there… and found it.

  Every so often, there came the steady tapping from a shaping. It was subtle, and yet, the rhythm of it came to him, familiar. He thought he could reach it, but even though he thought he could, there was still another sense mixed within it. It was almost as if there was something trying to block him from accessing it.

  That was strange.

  Why would anyone try to block him from realizing the Grand Inquisitor was here?

  Who would even know?

  He continued to hold onto his sense of the shaping and focused on it, keeping it forefront in his mind. Would the warrior shaping work in this case?

  He hadn’t tried it like this, but if it could help him transport to the sense of that shaping, he could reach the Grand Inquisitor.

  “I think I found her,” he said.

  “Where?”

  Tolan pointed. “Out there. I can bring us to her, but…”

  “Why do I get the sense I’m not going to like this?”

  “It’s the new shaping. I don’t know how well I can control it.”

  “The shaping brought us here.”

  “It did, and I’ve used it in other ways, but I still don’t know if I’m going to be able to use it to bring us everywhere we need to go.”

  “I trust you, Tolan.”

  Taking her hand, Tolan focused and sent a surge of each of the elements through himself, twisting them.

  When the lightning bolt came, he braced for the return. He surged up, riding the power of the lightning, and waited for the descent.

  As they came down, the power roaring through him, he could feel as the lightning exploded through a building.

  And then they landed.

  Tolan looked around, pushing out with a shaping of earth and wind, creating a barricade around himself in case there was someone here who might try to harm him.

  As his vision began to clear, there was no effort to attack his barrier.