He needed to try.
Scrambling off the wall, he took a seat on the other side, down in the grass, smoothing it around him. He pulled the furios from his pocket, resting it on his legs. He would start with fire, the way he always started with fire. If he could summon one of the elementals, then he could move on to earth. If he succeeded there, then he could try wind and water. He was a second-level student now. He had to continue to use the various elements. Eventually, there would be another test, and though he didn’t know what would be involved, he suspected it would be as difficult as the last one had been.
He drew through the furios, and hyza suddenly surged into view. It happened the same way as it happened each time, the elementals springing into view, and he held on to that connection, watching as the foxlike creature prowled around him, before he released the hold on the elemental. The shaping disappeared slowly, and as it winked out, there was a sense of something more, almost as if he should recognize something about the elemental, but it faded too quickly for him to do so.
Tolan frowned, thinking about hyza again. He would continue to work with fire until he had it.
It was something he probably shouldn’t be doing, and yet he wanted to better understand the elementals. How could he not when so much of what had happened at the Academy seemed to be tied up within them?
8
The courtyard outside the Academy was one of the nicest places within Amitan. Most of the students came to the courtyard after getting settled in, and Tolan was not surprised to find the first-level students no different. He and his second-level classmates had done the same thing when they had first come to the Academy, using that as an opportunity to get out of the Academy towers as often as they could. It wasn’t that they minded the inside of the Academy, it was just there was something about being outside, surrounded by the elements, feeling the infusion of power.
That had to be the intent of the founders of the Academy. They would have known the students needed to return to a place like the courtyard, and that had to be the reason they had built it so close. There was water for water shapers, and a breeze continually gusted through. The rugged contours brought a proximity to earth, and the brightly shining sun that usually favored Amitan shone overhead, casting a certain warmth.
In the last few days, Tolan hadn’t been able to uncover how many more people had gone on a Selection with the Grand Inquisitor but given the sheer size of the first-year class, he had to believe it was more than he had uncovered so far. It had to be more than him and Jonas and Haervn.
The first-level class was nearly twenty shapers larger than Tolan’s class. That many students would put a burden on the instructors, and while Tolan hadn’t seen any evidence of irritation out of them, he doubted he would. They would be far more skilled at controlling their emotions and their irritation. Most would probably be excited about the fact so many students had been Selected.
From what he had been able to gather, the fact only a few each year were able to be Selected was something of a disappointment to many of the master shapers. They wanted to increase their numbers, finding strength to overpower the disciples of the Draasin Lord, and he had heard murmurings that suggested many of the master shapers feared they wouldn’t have enough numbers to really ever take on and defeat the disciples or the Draasin Lord if they didn’t continue to bring in students.
Had they changed the Selection?
The fact the Grand Inquisitor had been there for his Selection, along with the Selection of several of these larger groups, had to mean something. Tolan wondered what it could be.
A large grouping of first-level students sat near the small pond at the center of the park just outside the Academy. Tolan stayed off to the side, sitting on a bench, focusing on the book resting on his lap. Every so often, he fidgeted, slipping his hand into his pocket, and as he did, he came across the things he’d brought back from Ephra.
He hadn’t paid much mind to them. They had been his parents’ items, things he had wanted, if only for the memories they might hold. Now he knew his father—and possibly his mother—had some connection to the bondars, he wondered if perhaps these items weren’t more important than he had realized before.
Tolan pulled a small ring out of his pocket. He had found it in his mother’s wardrobe. Like so many of the items his parents kept, he wasn’t surprised it was made of stone. It was an exquisite design. There was a spiraling pattern to it, twisting as the ring was formed, and he ran his fingers along it, tracing for some sign of runes, thinking maybe it was a type of bondar, but there were none found upon it.
Perhaps it was nothing more than jewelry.
Tolan had seen something similar before but couldn’t remember where that had been. He traced his fingers around it, feeling the pattern and wondering how much time would have gone into its making. It had to be something his parents had made. There would be no reason for them to have a ring like this otherwise, but why this style?
Pulling the earth bondar from his pocket, he set it on his leg, rolling it over. It didn’t take much to connect to that bondar anymore. It was almost as if it were designed for him to use, though that was more likely related to the fact he had spent so much time working with the Keystone, connecting to the element bonds in that way. Ever since doing so, his ability to at least reach the element bonds through bondars had improved.
The stone felt familiar.
What secret did his father know about the making of bondars? Tolan had tried—and failed—at making them, but if he could have an opportunity to figure it out, he could make one for wind and water, and then he wouldn’t have to worry about attempting to shape the elements he wasn’t able to reach easily. He suspected part of the testing for passage beyond the second level would involve demonstrating reaching a third shaping, but he didn’t like the chances of doing so on his own. He would need help, especially when it came to wind and water.
He attempted shaping each of the elements through the ring, but nothing succeeded.
His parents being shapers made a different sort of sense to him. Some of the memories he had were of their attempts at helping him reach the various element bonds. He had told Master Marcella about their attempt to help him reach wind and earth, taking him to the mountains, and yet there had been other attempts. None had succeeded.
It was almost as if whatever abilities he had were muted.
Until he reached the Academy.
A familiar voice cut through his reverie and he looked up. Velthan was standing with the group of first-year students at the edge of the pond. A shaping built from him, far more skillfully than Tolan remembered him capable of.
Water spiraled, turning in a tight funnel, and Tolan couldn’t help but watch, marveling at the level of control Velthan demonstrated. It was impressive, as much as he hated to admit it.
He turned away and had started to get to his feet when Velthan’s voice called to him.
“Ethar.”
Tolan looked over. He shoved the bondar into his pocket and wrapped his hand around the ring, squeezing it.
“What is it, Velthan?”
Velthan glanced at the others, and Tolan noticed the slight twinkle in his eye. He had seen that look on the other man’s face before.
Did he think he was going to use Tolan in some way to raise his stature here? Tolan wouldn’t put it past Velthan to use the fact they knew each other to somehow make himself out to be more than he was, and Velthan already was a skilled shaper.
“We didn’t get a chance to talk much when you were in Ephra,” Velthan said.
Tolan stuffed the book into his pocket. He glanced over Velthan’s shoulder, noticing the other students watching them talking. “The Selection doesn’t allow for much of an opportunity to talk.”
“I know, but… how is it you’re here?”
“I was Selected, the same as you.”
“But how are you here? I’m not disparaging the Selection process. The Great Mother knows I’m thankful I was Selected,
but I just don’t understand how it is you of all people managed to be chosen. You can’t even shape!” He dropped his voice at the end, and Tolan thought for a moment that Velthan was being kind to him until he realized a soft wind shaping was carrying their words.
Irritation bubbled up within him. He squeezed the furios, letting fire begin to build, and sent it swirling around Velthan. He held it tightly controlled, pushing through a connection to hyza, summoning the faintest bit of a connection to the fire elemental. He didn’t want to summon the entire elemental, not wanting to call upon fire quite so potently, but all he really wanted to do was create a funnel, to make Velthan aware he was something more than what the other man remembered.
Heat built and Velthan took a step back, his eyes going wide. “How are you able to do this?”
“I’m a second-level student at the Academy, Velthan. Do you think they would’ve promoted me if I didn’t have any ability?”
“Why didn’t you use it in Ephra?”
“Maybe I didn’t want to learn from the shapers in Ephra.”
Tolan gathered up the heat, suppressing it again. He didn’t want to overdo it, and as he started to do so, he realized the heat continued to swell. He released the connection to the furios, letting go of it, the runes leaving a tingling on his palm.
Great Mother!
He closed his eyes for a moment, sending out a surge of connection to the elemental, begging for it to retreat. He didn’t need Velthan to see him manipulating an elemental. There were already enough stories out of Ephra, and now Velthan was here, those stories would spread, more so if he were involved with summoning elementals.
The time in the park had made it so he summoned them far too easily. When there, they had disappeared quickly. Would it be the same now?
Please. Not now.
There came a sense of resistance. Tolan could feel it as if deep within him, and distinct from the stirring he felt when he attempted to shape. This was as if the elemental was trying to resist what he was asking of it.
Please.
“You’ve made your point, Ethar,” Velthan said.
Sweat broke out on Tolan’s face and he leaned toward Velthan. “I just wanted to show you what you can learn when you’re at the Academy.”
“You don’t think I know what I’m going to learn at the Academy? I’ve spent years wanting to make it. And now I have. I’m going to be a master shaper. I’m going to be one who stops the elementals from escaping from the element bond. And I’m going to be a part of stopping the Draasin Lord.”
There was an eagerness in his voice, and Tolan shook his head. “You might get your chance before you realize it.”
“What does that mean?”
The heat continued to rise and Tolan tried again to beg the elemental, feeling as if that was the only way he would convince it to tamp down, but when that didn’t work, he switched his grip, grabbing for the earth elemental, calling on jinnar.
He hadn’t tried using them in this way before, but all he wanted was to suppress fire, and earth and fire were opposite enough that it should work.
The ground rumbled softly, faintly, and slowly the heat began to dissipate.
Tolan released his grip on the earth bondar, breathing out a sigh of relief. Thank you.
He wasn’t sure if the elemental had been jinnar or not, but it seemed as if there came a soft echoing in reply.
“It just means the city isn’t as safe as most believe. There have been several attacks in my time here. Be ready for whatever you might have to face,” Tolan said.
“What kind of attacks?”
“The Draasin Lord.”
Velthan grinned, and he glanced over his shoulder at the others. “I’ll be ready. I’m not afraid to face the Draasin Lord, especially as I’ve already faced him in Ephra.” His voice rose slightly at the end, and Tolan realized that last was not meant for his benefit—but rather that of the other students. “And if there’s a traitor here like I’ve heard…”
He should have known better. How much of this conversation had been staged, Velthan’s way of trying to prove himself more important than he was? Was it Velthan’s way of trying to allude Tolan might be the traitor?
“You’d be surprised at how many think they are prepared for the Draasin Lord but find out when confronted by him that they are not,” Tolan said.
“I grew up in Ephra. I’m ready for dealing with the Draasin Lord. If he were to come here, if he were to try to attack us, I’d be ready.”
Tolan glanced behind Velthan before shaking his head. There was no purpose in staying and arguing with him. Velthan had always been arrogant, and perhaps he was one of the skilled shapers of his class. If so, there wasn’t anything Tolan was going to be able to do to dissuade him from acting the way he was. In that, Velthan reminded Tolan more of Draln than anyone else. They were skilled shapers, and that skill gave them a bit of earned arrogance.
“I hope you are. And I hope when you’re brought out to the waste with the rest of the first levels that you’re brave and don’t run away from it the way so many others do.”
The words had the desired effect on Velthan. “They bring the first levels out to the waste?”
Tolan nodded. “They want you to know what it’s like when you lose the connection to your shaping ability.”
“I bet you ran. Didn’t you, Ethar?”
Tolan flashed an angry smile. “Why would I run? I went deeper than anyone else.”
Heading away and winding to the Keystone park, he found it empty. He reached the spot the bondar had occupied. The ground was smooth, almost perfectly so, and he suspected that came from a shaping designed to mask what had been here. The last time he’d come here, he hadn’t gone to where the stone had stood.
He touched the dirt, shaping briefly and releasing it, ensuring that he could. When he straightened, he realized he wasn’t alone.
“Shaper Ethar,” the Grand Master said.
Tolan bowed his head respectfully, glancing around. How had the Grand Master found him so quickly? “Grand Master. I—”
The Grand Master only smiled. “You don’t need to apologize. There is no harm in visiting this place. Most of the people who know of it understand what it is, and you are among them.”
“How did you know I was here?”
“We have placed certain protections around it to identify whether someone would come here.”
Then he would have known the last time Tolan had come. “You think the disciples might return?”
“It’s quite likely they will. We wanted to be ready for that possibility.”
“How did you get here so quickly?”
The Grand Master smiled at him. “We have ways that don’t involve the Shapers Path.”
Tolan imagined there were. He didn’t know much about traveling by shaping, but the more powerful shapers had ways of transporting themselves from place to place. Some of the incredibly skilled wind shapers could travel on the wind. Others were skilled with water, and he knew they would use platforms of water for travel. Still others would travel on the earth, practically sliding over top of it. He wasn’t sure how that one worked, though he had heard about it often enough to know it was possible. Fire was easier to understand, at least the way he used it but having control over it seemed difficult to Tolan. It was incredibly difficult to control the nature of fire.
And then there was the way some shapers could travel that involved combining the various elements, twisting the bonds together. They were able to simply move from one place to the next, far more rapidly than anyone could, even with the Shapers Path. That was a higher-level skill, and one he imagined they would learn as they continued to progress through their training. It involved reaching deeply into the bond in order to do it. What would happen when he was asked to do so? Would he struggle? Without having access to the bonds, it was possible he might not be able to do it.
“It feels different here.”
“As it should,” he said.
“Is it bad that I don’t like it?”
“I wouldn’t have expected you to have liked to the change. The change was for safety, though. It was needed. Had we left the Keystone where it was, there was a very real possibility the disciples of the Draasin Lord would have found it.”
“Found it again?”
“Perhaps.”
“I don’t think they were able to use it,” Tolan said.
“No. There is something about the Keystone that chooses those who have access to it.”
Tolan wondered how much of that was true or not. He didn’t have the sense he had been chosen by the stone, but there was a sense of power required to use this place. Maybe his connection to the element bonds and his understanding of the elementals was what allowed him to do it. It was possible there was another way, something that was simply different about him.
“You disagree,” the Grand Master said.
“It’s not so much that I disagree, it’s just that I…”
The Grand Master smiled. When he did, his eyes softened, the weight he normally held behind them leaving, making it so he was almost welcoming and warm, something Tolan would never have normally described the Grand Master as being.
“It’s just you had a different experience?”
Tolan nodded. “I did have a different experience. It was one that required a connection to the elements in a different way.”
“And what can you tell me about it?”
How much should he reveal to the Grand Master? This was always the part of things where Tolan wasn’t sure. He didn’t know whether he should reveal anything about the elementals, particularly to the master shapers. What would they do if he told them he felt as if he were releasing elementals?
“Was it real?”
“Was what real?”
“The release of the elementals from the Keystone.”
“Ah. That is an excellent question. You wonder if it’s a shaping you were able to control or whether it was the elementals?”
The Water Ruptures Page 10