“And what could it do?”
She smiled at him. “It’s unfortunate you must come to the end of your training like this, Tolan. But then, if all goes well, I will be the one responsible for continuing it. Once I add a specific influence to this place, you can truly understand what I understood when I took my journey.”
“What journey is that?”
She smiled at him. “A journey of understanding. One that few people—including my own mother—thought could be done.”
Things the Grand Inquisitor said to him came flashing back to him. Her frequent visits to the edge of the waste. The fact that people had tried to venture across it. The fact the Grand Inquisitor herself had tried to venture across it.
“You went into the waste,” he whispered.
His mother glanced up at him. “I went, and I uncovered something incredible. Everyone believes the waste is an absence of shaping, but that’s not it at all. It’s a place of a different kind of power. It’s a place where you can understand others. And I will help bring that understanding to these lands.”
Tolan looked at the bondar she held, the darkness swirling from it, and feared if she managed to succeed, if she poured anything into the place of Convergence, Par would become no different than the waste.
He had to stop her.
He began to shape, pulling on each of the elements, drawing power from them, drawing through the Convergence, but even as he did, he realized there wasn’t going to be enough. She resisted, using the strange bondar to do so.
It alone had enough power to overwhelm him. As much as he might want to fight, as much as he might want to resist, there didn’t seem to be any way for him to do so.
As he pushed, he sent more and more power, drawing from the Convergence, but… It wasn’t enough.
He had to get the bondar away from her.
Until he did, she was going to be able to overpower anything he might do.
He wasn’t going to be enough.
It might mean he sacrificed something, but if he did, he might find everything. Besides, what did he know about the place of Convergence? He’d seen the way Master Minden had reached into the Convergence, so he knew it wasn’t completely dangerous—at least not to her.
Would it be dangerous to him?
He thought about what he’d heard about the Convergence, and about what all of the master shapers had said and thought it might be. Despite everything else, it might be more than he could withstand.
It was a place of all the elements.
It took all of the elements to burn off chaos.
Those two thoughts came together, and he knew what he had to do. Even if he did this, it might not be something he could survive. It was something he had to be prepared for. Even knowing he might survive, he wasn’t sure he was ready.
Maybe he could try something. The only thing he could think to do would be to wrap himself in a shaping, try to find some way of protecting himself, and if he did that, then maybe he’d be able to survive.
“Ferrah?”
She looked over at him.
“I know you can hear me. And I want you to know I care for you.”
“Tolan?”
There wasn’t any other way of stopping his mother. He wasn’t strong enough, even at the place of Convergence. The only way to succeed would be to use the Convergence, to find some way of drawing its power. If he could, then maybe they could overwhelm her.
“I need you to use a shaping of wind and fire angled downward,” he said quickly.
Ferrah locked eyes with him and hurriedly formed a shaping. As she did, it created a blast of power surging outward from her, and it slammed into the ground, lifting her into the air. The combination of the shaping was enough that it threw her free of his mother.
Tolan ran forward.
His mother pointed the chaotic bondar toward him but he ignored it, slamming into her, throwing his shoulder against her.
Her shaping struck as he did.
When he crashed into her, he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in a hug, the kind of hug he once would have given anything to get from her again. This time, they went staggering off to the side, heading toward the Convergence.
A shaping built from his mother, trying to keep them from dropping into the silvery pool.
Tolan pushed and sent a shaping at her arm, sending a blast of fire, earth, wind, and water sweeping at the bondar she clutched. The suddenness of his shaping caused her to drop it, right before they teetered at the edge of the Convergence.
And then fell in.
Tolan wasn’t sure what to expect, but when they plunged beneath the surface of the Convergence, it was thick, a strange sensation, and surprisingly warm. It washed over him, filling him with a sense of power.
He struggled, but some distant part of him told him not to do that. It was almost as if it came from one of the elementals, some voice buried within his mind.
He stopped struggling and realized he could feel the bottom of the pool of the strange silvery liquid. The Convergence called to him, drawing him toward it, and he felt that power flowing through him, a reassuring sort of warmth that left him with a sense of surprising safety.
He was in no danger here.
And he held onto the shaping wrapped around himself. The protection surged, swirling around him so he could be ready for whatever he might face.
Near him, there was a struggling within the Convergence.
It was his mother. She was batting at the liquid, trying to get free. Near her, the liquid had strange bubbles forming, rising up all around it.
Tolan could feel the effect of her resistance, and he could also feel the way the Convergence was working over her, rolling through her, and pushing something against her.
It was the influence of chaos.
Could he help?
As he pushed out through his direct connection to the Convergence, he pressed against his mother’s mind. There was nothing he needed to do. The Convergence had taken care of it. It had blasted away the effect of chaos, but it had done more than that.
Her mind was wiped.
The thrashing stopped and she started to sink. Tolan dragged himself toward her, moving across the thick liquid, and when he reached her, he pulled.
She was starting to drop below the surface of the liquid. Tolan grabbed her, pulling her free. Using a shaping of each of the elements, he forced himself clear of the Convergence and over to the edge, where he set his mother down.
She was still breathing, and he checked on Ferrah.
“Tolan?” she said.
He shook his head. “Not yet. There’s still something I need to do.” He found the bondar his mother had used—or intended to use—on him.
He drew from the Convergence, sending power out, and wrapped it around the bondar. He used each of the elements, drawing not only from the Convergence, but also from himself, and sent it flowing into the bondar, much the same way as he had with the ring. It took incredible power—far more than he would’ve been able to draw anyplace else—and then the rod cracked. The darkness started to seep out. Tolan shifted the focus of his shaping, wrapping around it, and shaped each of the elements into it. With a burst, even that disappeared.
He sagged to his knees.
Ferrah was there, slipping her arm around him. “Tolan?” she said again.
He nodded. “I think it’s done.”
“What’s done?”
“Whatever was influencing my mother.” Then again, whatever had influenced her had come from someplace within her as well. It wasn’t just chaos. She had welcomed that. “And her bondar. I think… I think we can figure out a way of removing the influence from others.”
It would take time, and it would take considerable strength, but they would need to do so. Now he knew what to look for—and now he knew what to do—he thought they would be able to do it.
First, he wanted to find the Grand Inquisitor.
That wasn’t what he wanted to do first. Inste
ad, he wrapped his arms around Ferrah, and then kissed her gently on the lips.
“What happened to your clothes?”
“My clothes?” Tolan glanced down and realized he was completely naked. Then he realized his mother was completely naked, too. There was something about the Convergence that burned off their clothing, removing it entirely.
Were he around anyone else, he might have been embarrassed, but this was Ferrah.
“I need to find the Grand Inquisitor,” he said. Not just the Grand Inquisitor, but perhaps his grandmother. Through everything, she’d been faithful to the Academy.
“We need to get you some clothes. Then we can worry about the Grand Inquisitor.”
Tolan smiled, tipping his head toward his mother. “We need to bring her, too.”
He grabbed Ferrah by the hand and grabbed his mother with the other one, pulling on the warrior shaping.
It carried him back to the rooftop at the Academy, somehow streaking beyond the place of Convergence, carrying him beyond Par and back to a familiar location.
And he glanced over, realizing this wasn’t where he needed to be. Not yet, at least. Drawing on another warrior shaping, he used it to carry himself into the small room where he had awoken after the attack by Tanner.
He set his mother on the bed, grabbed a poorly fitting robe off a hook nearby, and headed out into the hallway, closing the door and sealing it with a shaping of each of the elements. It might not be enough, but there would have to be someone else who could place the shaping, or perhaps even separate his mother from her ability to shape. It was something he was going to have to ask the Grand Master—and even Master Minden—about.
“What now that you found the one responsible?”
Tolan breathed out. “That’s just it. I don’t know that I found the one responsible.”
“I thought from what you told me—”
“There are others involved. It’s not just her.” Glancing back at the door, he shook his head. “She mentioned it, but it’s also more than that. It was also the fact that when I was coming back from Ephra and I was attacked—I have to tell you about that—my attacker told me there was someone there who was responsible but wouldn’t reveal his name.”
As much as he wanted it to be over, it didn’t seem like it was. They still had much to deal with. More than that, his mother had revealed something that had told them part of the secret, though to pursue it meant a dangerous venture. It was the kind of dangerous venture he wasn’t sure he wanted to make, but someone had to. It would mean traveling to the waste, and then beyond the waste, to find where the tainted place of Convergence was, and discovering if there was some way to remove it.
Ferrah wrapped her arms around him. “I think you need to rest.”
“Without any clothes?”
“It wouldn’t be the worst way to spend our time.”
“Maybe once we move into the third-level rooms,” he said.
There came a surge of shaping power, and Tolan looked up to see Master Minden appear. As she did, she frowned at him. “Shaper Ethar?”
“Sorry, Master Minden. There’s someone here that I need your help with.”
“I take it you submerged yourself in the Convergence.”
Tolan glanced down. “I did.”
“I was there.”
“There is another place of Convergence. Probably many. Including one already tainted by chaos.”
Her breath caught and she frowned at him. “How?”
“As far as I can tell, it’s somewhere across the waste. And I don’t think my mother was acting alone.”
“Then we must be prepared.”
“How would we prepare?”
She glanced from Tolan to Ferrah. “I think it is time for the two of you to join the Circle.”
Grab the next book in Elemental Academy: The Chaos Rises
The Draasin Lord is captures but a greater threat remains.
Now that Tolan knows the secret of the Draasin Lord, he recognizes more needs to be done. As a student, he’s not in a position to be able to do more, but as a master shaper, he’d be free to travel as he feels necessary.
When another attack targets the academy, Tolan knows his unique abilities might make him the only shaper able to respond.
He must survive crossing the waste, but even if he does, how can he stop the chaos where none can shape the elements and where no elementals can survive?
Author’s Note
Dear Reader,
Thank you so much for reading The Spirit Binds. I hope you enjoyed it. If you would be so kind as to take a moment to leave a review on Amazon or elsewhere, I would be very grateful.
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D.K. Holmberg
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Also by D.K. Holmberg
Elemental Academy
The Fire Within
The Earth Awakens
The Water Ruptures
The Wind Rages
The Spirit Binds
The Chaos Rises
The Cloud Warrior Saga
Chased by Fire
Bound by Fire
Changed by Fire
Fortress of Fire
Forged in Fire
Serpent of Fire
Servant of Fire
Born of Fire
Broken of Fire
Light of Fire
Cycle of Fire
The Endless War
Journey of Fire and Night
Darkness Rising
Endless Night
Summoner’s Bond
Seal of Light
The Elder Stones Saga
The Darkest Revenge
Shadows Within the Flame
Remnants of the Lost
The Coming Chaos
The Shadow Accords
Shadow Blessed
Shadow Cursed
Shadow Born
Shadow Lost
Shadow Cross
Shadow Found
The Collector Chronicles
Shadow Hunted
Shadow Games
Shadow Trapped
The Dark Ability
The Dark Ability
The Heartstone Blade
The Tower of Venass
Blood of the Watcher
The Shadowsteel Forge
The Guild Secret
Rise of the Elder
The Sighted Assassin
The Binders Game
The Forgotten
Assassin’s End
The Dragonwalker
Dragon Bones
Dragon Blessed
Dragon Rise
Dragon Bond
Dragon Storm
Dragon Rider
Dragon Sight
The Teralin Sword
Soldier Son
Soldier Sword
Soldier Sworn
Soldier Saved
Soldier Scarred
The Lost Prophecy
The Threat of Madness
The Warrior Mage
Tower of the Gods
Twist of the Fibers
The Lost City
The Last Conclave
The Gift of Madness
The Great Betrayal
The Book of Maladies
Wasting
Broken
Poisoned
Tormina
Comatose
Amnesia
Exsanguinated
hive.
The Spirit Binds Page 27