The Spirit Binds

by D. K. Holmberg

  Breathing out, he waited, looking around. There was no one, but that wasn’t quite right. There was a sense of shaping. If there was a sense of shaping, there had to be someone nearby.

  Ferrah wrapped a quick shaping around herself. It created a barrier, a protection, sealing her off from something that might be nearby.

  Tolan pushed out with a sense of spirit. He waited, hoping the Grand Inquisitor would recognize his shaping and would answer. He held onto it, a message mixed within it. A call to her.

  It took a moment, but she answered.

  There.

  She was hidden.

  Why would she be hidden?

  Better yet, who would hide her?

  Someone had done that to her.

  Tolan pushed out with earth, disrupting the masking, and realized there was wind mixed in with it. He had done something similar, so he understood the nature of the shaping utilized. As he disrupted it, the Grand Inquisitor came into view.

  And so did three black-cloaked Inquisitors.

  Glancing over at Ferrah, he hoped she could shield herself.

  Tolan hurriedly wrapped his mind, but he’d done so even before leaving Amitan. In doing so, he had sealed off any attempt they might make to reach him. The sense of their shaping struck him, and he realized they were attempting to use spirit on him, but the fact he had already protected his mind held him safe.

  “Release her,” he said.

  At least now he knew why the others in the city had been spirit shaped. And how they had been spirit shaped.

  “Is this the one?” one of the Inquisitors said, looking at the others. Power radiated from them, an enormous amount of shaping energy, far more than Tolan thought would be normally possible.

  Bondars.

  There was no explanation other than that.

  In order to have bondars, they would have had to have taken them from the Academy—or created them themselves. Tolan had a hard time believing they had somehow created bondars.

  “He has the necessary strength, but I don’t know if this is the one.”

  “I’m the one who’s going to keep you from harming the Grand Inquisitor.”

  “This is the one,” one of the women said.

  Tolan continued to hold onto a shaping, concerned if he let it go and lost control over it, they would use that opportunity to slip in and attack. There was something unsettling about them, and it was possibly related to the fact they simply watched him, as if unconcerned about what he might do. Then again, it might be something more.

  Holding onto a shaping, keeping it wrapped around his mind, he doubted they would be able to harm him. To be safe, he carefully dragged his foot across the ground, creating the shape of the spirit rune. He wasn’t even certain whether it would work, but he felt as if he had to do something. As he formed the rune, he pushed power into it, sending enough strength and energy through the rune that he thought he might be able to use that strength, that he might be able to force enough of himself out through it in order to create additional power. All he wanted was to draw upon the energy of the rune.

  Slowly, there came a sense of strength. It reminded him of what he had felt when he was standing atop the spirit tower. While pushing power out through this rune, drawing upon the spirit marking he’d placed, he was able to use it.

  Tolan breathed out. He would hold it and push it out around Ferrah to ensure her safety as well.

  That wasn’t all he needed to do. Not only did he need to hold it, he needed to use that power and overwhelm the three attackers.

  One of them watched him, almost as if aware of what he was doing.

  “Grand Inquisitor. Are you—”

  The answer came within his mind, a shaping of spirit that sounded so soft and subtle he wasn’t even sure if that was what he detected.

  “You should go.”

  “You need my help.” Tolan used a shaping spirit to respond, drawing upon the same strength she had, using that same shaping in order to answer her. The more he did it, the easier it became. It began to feel almost natural.

  “We can’t lose you.”

  “You’re more important than me.”

  “Not with this.”

  A powerful shaping began to build from the Grand Inquisitor, pouring off her, and the three Inquisitors turned to her. One of them sent a shaping of spirit roiling toward the Grand Inquisitor. Tolan reacted. He cried out, sending a surge of spirit at the woman who was attacking the Grand Inquisitor.

  As he did, it slammed into her and she collapsed.

  The Grand Inquisitor looked over at Tolan, her eyes wide.

  Something in that expression troubled him. He had done something, and whatever it was troubled her.

  Could it be he had used his connection to spirit and his shaping in general in a way of which she didn’t approve?

  She’d warned him, wanting him to know there were ways of using spirit that were right and ways that were not. In this case, in this way, he wasn’t sure he’d used it in a way that was right. How could he when he’d attacked with it?

  Now was not the time to question those sorts of things. Now was the time to finish the other two Inquisitors and do whatever it took to ensure the Grand Inquisitor managed to get away. Once he did, then Tolan could focus on the next step.

  The other two women turned toward him. Their shaping continued to build, growing with strength, power, and it was almost too much for him. He recognized the strength within it from the bondars.

  Then again, he had a bondar. He squeezed the ring, grasping it, and pushed out a shaping through the rune he’d formed for spirit, and poured that toward each of them.

  The shaping was unfocused. There was no intention behind it, and all he wanted to do was knock them down. He’d seen the way shapings could be used to sedate, and that was what he wanted now.

  His spirit shaping struck a resistance, some sort of reflection that came from both of the Inquisitors, but Tolan continued to push, sending more and more strength out, and as he did, he overpowered that resistance.

  When it struck again, he continued to push.

  Spirit flooded through them. It flooded toward them, overwhelming them.

  Tolan continued to push, drawing more spirit than he had any right to. There came a flash of white, and as he pushed, he realized there was something else about them.

  The strange darkness he’d found on Ferrah was there.

  Tolan pushed. Once they were unconscious, he could work on removing it. Until then, he wasn’t sure it was safe to do.

  Tolan took a step toward them.

  With a burst, they went down.

  He breathed out heavily.

  “What did you do?” the Grand Inquisitor asked.

  “They’ve been tainted. Chaos, or whatever the elemental that now impacts them, has influenced their minds.”

  “What?”

  Tolan glanced up at the Grand Inquisitor. He realized her eyes were drawn and there was an edge to her. What had she gone through in the time he had been away?

  It was possible she’d been tormented, and it was even possible she’d somehow been influenced by the same sort of shaping. If she were, he’d need to try to remove that same darkness from her mind.

  Standing and turning toward her, pulling on his shaping of spirit through the ring, he watched her for a moment. He held out the ring, squeezing it, letting that shaping roll through him. “What did they do to you?”

  “They just captured me. I don’t know what they were going to do to me, and you interfered before I had the opportunity to find out who they were working for.”

  “Wait. You wanted to get caught?”

  “I was never in any danger, Shaper Ethar. And certainly not enough danger for you to have included Shaper Changen.”

  Ferrah stepped forward, looking around at everything. “They had bondars,” Ferrah said.

  “Do you think I came unprepared?” the Grand Inquisitor asked.

  She held out her hand, and he realized
she had a small length of stone tucked in it. A furios, though a small one, much smaller than any he’d seen before. She held her other hand out, and he realized it held a withering. Fire and wind. She wasn’t helpless, not at all. Had he made a mistake by interfering?

  “I didn’t know,” Tolan said.

  “Of course, you didn’t. You acted impulsively.”

  Tolan turned his attention back to the two fallen women. The other, the one who had attacked them first, didn’t appear to be breathing. It seemed as if his spirit shaping had been too much, and though he knew he should feel more than just a little regret, he had a hard time mustering any emotion. It reminded him of when Aela had attacked him, and how little he’d felt following her death.

  “I found Ferrah.” He motioned toward her. “She attacked me when I came to the city the first time.”

  “What do you mean the first time?”

  Tolan waved his hand dismissively. “I returned to Amitan with Ferrah, and Master Minden helped me remove the shaping around her mind.”

  “She did, did she?”

  Tolan frowned. Maybe that wasn’t quite true. The removal of the shaping had been more him than Master Minden. Master Minden had helped him understand what it was he had done, but she hadn’t actually been a part of any shaping removal.

  “There is something she called chaos. Some darkness that attacked.”

  The Grand Inquisitor stared at him. There was something in her gaze, something heavy and unsettling. For a moment, Tolan worried maybe she was a part of it. Would the Grand Inquisitor be involved with what the others had done? He didn’t think that was the case, but what did he know—really know—about the Grand Inquisitor?

  “She showed me the hall of portraits.”

  “What did you see?”

  Tolan stood, hurriedly drawing upon a shaping, prepared to attack the Grand Inquisitor. If he did, he would at least know she carried two bondars with her, and any attack he might use would have to overpower her. It would be unlikely he’d be able to do so. There was an alternative, but he didn’t know if the warrior shaping would work in a confined space like this. It might have brought him here, but would it carry him away if it came down to it?

  “Grand Inquisitor?”

  “This probably isn’t the place to talk about it,” the Grand Inquisitor said, looking around, and her gaze settled on the space where he had come through the building, leaving a hole. A shaping spread out from her, wind and fire, and he realized she was drawing upon her bondars. It was focused on the space around the room, sealing them within. It was the same sort of shaping they had used when he was a first-level student, trying to protect himself inside his quarters so that he and Ferrah and Jonas could all talk openly. “Perhaps that’s better.”

  “What are you doing?” Tolan asked.

  She sighed, crouching next to one of the Inquisitors. A powerful shaping built from her, sweeping through her mind, and as it did, it reminded Tolan something of the shaping he’d used when he was trying to free Ferrah from the strange dark influence. “You shouldn’t be involved in this as only a student.” She flicked her gaze up at him, smiling tightly. “However skilled you have proven yourself to be. This is not meant for you. This is meant for others, those with knowledge and experience, and for some reason, Minden decided she would bring you in?”

  “I don’t know she had much choice,” Tolan said. He told her about how he’d pulled free the strange darkness, the chaos, and hoped in doing so, he wasn’t revealing anything he shouldn’t be.

  “I suppose that is reason enough for her to have shared with you.” The Grand Inquisitor stood, looking around before nodding to the fallen Inquisitors. “As you’ve seen, there is a great danger. It’s not only the Inquisitors who have betrayed the Academy, though that is a part of it. There is more.”

  “It’s not the Draasin Lord,” Tolan said. It was almost a question. He wasn’t sure quite what the Grand Inquisitor believed about the Draasin Lord, but the more he understood about the Draasin Lord, the more he recognized whatever was taking place was more than one figurehead.

  She shook her head. “The Draasin Lord was a convenient opportunity for us to keep the focus elsewhere. In this case, unfortunately, there is something else. There are only a few who really know about the true threat.”

  “What true threat is that?”

  “I suppose Master Minden sharing with you the nature of chaos is as accurate as I could tell you. We don’t really know what it’s called, and unfortunately, we have not been able to determine who is responsible for it.”

  “For what?”

  “Over the last few decades, there has been a change. I’m not entirely sure what the change is about, only that it is certain there is something. It is more than just our Inquisitors who have betrayed the Academy.”

  “Like Master Daniels attacking the Keystone.”

  “That is another example,” she said, nodding. “But there are others. Many others we have encountered over the years. Most are kept hidden, and those who remain in the inner circle are aware of the implications. As much as we have done to suppress it, new attacks continue.”

  “Why keep it hidden?”

  “Because we don’t know how to stop it.”

  Despite the shaping swirling around them, the seal she had placed around the room, the words almost thundered. The fact she was able and willing to admit the fact that she—and he suspected the Grand Master—had no idea how to stop whatever this threat was left him trembling. That was probably the intention, though. How could he do anything other than tremble under the idea there was some great power out there that posed such a threat to them?

  “And now that the Inquisitors have revealed themselves?”

  “With the Inquisitors having revealed themselves, there was some hope that perhaps we would be able to track what happened. We welcomed them back to the Academy so we could follow them.”

  “And then I interfered.”

  “I’m not sure that is necessarily a bad thing,” she said, a hint of a smile on her face. “But it would be helpful if you would not be so impulsive.”

  Tolan looked around. “What now?”

  “We have seen attacks in Par as well as Ephra. We can only assume the other cities where the Selections have gone fared the same.”

  “Master Minden tells me the Council has sent soldiers.”

  Her brow furrowed. “That is unfortunate.”

  “Why? They serve Terndahl.”

  “They do serve Terndahl, but they do so in a way they view as essential, not necessarily in a way we view as essential.”

  “By we, do you mean the Academy or this inner circle you have?”

  “We call ourselves the Circle of the Warrior.”

  The idea he had access to a shaping referred to as a warrior shaping couldn’t be a coincidence.

  “Why the Circle of the Warrior?”

  “Long ago, there were shapers of considerable power. They referred to themselves as warriors, though there was more to it, from what we understand. It was a different time. More brutal. Barbaric in some ways. And yet, they had a different understanding of the nature of shaping than what we have now.”

  “They were connected to the elementals,” Tolan said softly.

  “Perhaps.”

  There was no perhaps about it in his mind. From what he’d seen, the ancient shapers had been connected to the elementals, and it was only recently they had begun to separate and force the elementals into the bonds, changing the nature of their shaping. In doing so, it supposedly protected them from the elementals and gave greater power to shapers, giving them the opportunity to draw upon the element bonds in ways they weren’t otherwise able to do.

  “You think these two—three—were attacked by this chaos?”

  “It’s difficult for me to know.” Once again, she sent a surge of spirit over their minds, and it pressed down.

  “Not like that,” Tolan said.

  The Grand Inquisitor looked up at hi
m.

  Tolan felt a flush work through him. “You don’t push it down. That seems to change it, and it seems to add more strength to forcing it into their minds.”

  “Would you have me pull it free?”

  “It’s more a matter of trying to encircle it.” He took a step forward, crouching next to the woman the Grand Inquisitor had been working on. She had dark hair, dark skin, and lying immobilized as she was, there was something peaceful about her. “Do you mind?”

  “Be my guest.”

  Tolan took a deep breath, focusing on his shaping, sending a surge of spirit not only through the ring but drawing upon the marking he’d made on the ground. It was strange he was still able to use that even though he was not so near it. Using the rune augmented his shaping, giving him the opportunity to draw even more strength. As he did, he sent that power into the woman. He did so in a way that was soft, the touch gentle, and he held it carefully above the surface of her mind.

  While doing so, Tolan focused, listening for the possibility there was something here. When it had been on Ferrah, the touch had been vague, hard to identify, but it had definitely been there. In this case, he wasn’t sure if it was too late. Not only had the Grand Inquisitor pushed down with a spirit shaping, possibly forcing that strange chaos down into her mind, but he’d attacked all of them with spirit, completely unmindful of what effect it might have on them.

  As he held onto spirit, letting it linger, he felt the vague sense. It was there, barely present. The longer he held onto it, the clearer what he detected became.

  “Shaper Ethar?”

  Tolan ignored her and continued to push more. This time, he started to bend the shaping, swirling it around her mind. At the same time, he tried to trap that strange, almost subtle and impossibly faint sense he detected.

  The longer he pushed, the more that strange sense seemed to be aware of what he was doing.

  It started to thrash.

  Tolan drew upon more spirit, sealing it within the woman’s mind, holding it there.

  Only then did he pull.

  It took effort, but it also took finesse and control, things Tolan still wasn’t sure he was able to maintain when it came to his shaping. As he worked, as he took that strange chaotic shaping out of her mind, he held onto it.