How was such a thing possible?
He had no idea what she was able to do or how she was able to do it, but he understood that it didn’t seem all that difficult for her.
“What do you see?” she whispered.
Tolan looked all around. In addition to the vast expanse of the plain, something about it was familiar. As he studied the landscape, he thought he recognized some aspect of it, though he wasn’t entirely sure why that should be. It was almost as if Master Minden was showing him something from one of the portraits.
And as he turned, he realized that was exactly what she was doing.
There were snippets of various different portraits he had seen. In one area, there was a tree he had seen springing up from one, and surrounding the tree was a small stream. As he looked at the tree, as he studied the stream, he had the sense of elemental power flowing through it.
His mind worked through the type of elemental that existed in that stream, piecing it together, trying to work through what he could, and trying to get a better grasp as to what she was trying to show him. Being able to feel that elemental energy in a vision struck him as surprising.
He turned, and in the distance was the outline of the city. At the center of the city was a fortress, and above the top of the fortress, a massive fire erupted, heat and smoke filling the sky.
Even from that, there was a sense of elemental energy. There was nothing frightening about it, just the fact it was elemental power, something beyond what he had ever experienced before. The more he stared at it, the more he felt that power was out there and was something he could reach for and understand. He felt he might be able to draw upon that power.
And then that sense faded.
It was as if Master Minden shifted the nature of the image she presented to him.
There was another image, and it came from his other side. Tolan turned.
Mountains rose from the ground, jagged and rough. Snow covered their peaks.
Tolan had visited mountains like that before, but this sense was different. There was a power looming off these mountains, and that power seemed to roll through him, almost as if it was something he could grasp. He could practically feel the elemental power rolling through those mountains, and he smiled, trying to reach for it to gain that connection, but it dispersed before he had an opportunity to do so.
He turned again, and then wind gusted against him. It hadn’t been there before, but as it gusted, it swirled, and there was a translucent shape that filled it. Ara was there, the elemental swirling within the wind but dancing not alone, as he had seen it before. There were others, countless others, almost as if the elementals were flowing in a significant stream of power.
Even when Tolan had crossed the mountains where he had seen the free elementals, there was nothing like this. This was impressive and amazing. Standing here, with this power swirling around him, he couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by the nature of it.
The only thing missing was spirit.
“Where is spirit?” he whispered.
Master Minden stepped toward him, and as she did, there was a pressure upon him, that of her pushing close.
“Do you really struggle to find spirit here?”
Tolan looked around. He didn’t see anything that suggested spirit to him.
“There isn’t anything here,” he said.
“Look inside yourself.”
As he did, the sense of spirit was there, deep within him. It roiled deeply, and all he had to do was try to grab for it. If he did, he might be able to understand the nature of spirit. As it bubbled up within him, Tolan thought he needed to grasp it, to understand it. He added it while shaping outward.
In doing so, everything washed away.
The image faded, fluttering, and he was once again standing inside the hallway above the library. The walls of portraits were there, and Tolan saw more vibrancy to them than he ever had before.
“That was amazing,” he whispered.
“That is a shaping you will be able to form in time,” she said.
“How will I be able to form it?”
“These portraits give a certain knowledge of the past. You ask what they do, and I tell you they have been stitched together, a way for us to know what those ancient people knew, to experience some aspect of them.”
As Tolan studied the portrait, he thought he understood.
“This is a part of the library for that reason.”
“They can’t be anywhere else,” she said. “Because of what they can do, the way they grant knowledge, they need to be here so we can understand. And because of the nature of the elemental power we can detect within them, we are careful.”
“What would others think if they understood?”
Master Minden shook her head and leaned toward one of the portraits. Tolan followed the direction of her gaze and noticed it was the one of the tree and stream. She held her hand out and the faint tracing of a shaping washed over it.
As it did, he had the sense of a bubbling stream, the sense of water flowing, and a sense of power that rolled all around him.
“I can’t answer what would happen if others were able to see what we are able to see. It’s possible they would fear this power. So many others fear what we have experienced, and we have to be prepared for what we are doing and to protect this place.”
“But it’s in the past.”
“It is in the past, but this past is one we have to wonder why it was like that. We have to wonder what changed, why the shapers of this time, shapers who understood the elementals and who wanted them to be a part of the world, had suddenly changed and forced those elementals into the bond. We have to understand just what it was that frightened them and led them down a different pathway.”
Tolan studied the portrait and could feel the energy coming off it. Even without shaping, he thought he could still hear the burbling of the stream.
It was a strange sensation to have. The more he stared, the harder it was to know whether it was anything real.
Master Minden straightened and turned to him. “Did your mother share anything with you?”
“Nothing that was of any use,” Tolan said.
“Unfortunate.”
“Has she shared anything with you?” he asked.
Master Minden shook her head. “I have tried working with her many times, but she is stubborn.”
“I think she’s still influenced by chaos,” Tolan said.
“It would mean the Convergence failed. That would be unusual,” Master Minden said.
Tolan looked along the line of the portraits, staring at them. There had to be some way to understand, something he might be able to find, and yet, he didn’t think he would have answers here. The only thing this hall allowed him to do was to understand the people of the past felt a greater connection to the elementals. Tolan already knew that.
“What about the rest of the Circle?” Master Minden still hadn’t shared much with him about the Circle, only that it existed.
“That is for later.”
“I know you think I’m not ready—”
“You’re not. Not yet. Soon, I suspect.”
“I know of the Circle.”
“Which is more than most can claim.” She smiled at him. “Don’t rush what is to come, Shaper Ethar.”
“What if this is all about chaos?” he asked.
“If it is, then we need to better understand it.”
“And what if it’s not?”
“If it is not, then we still need to understand.”
“She hasn’t shared anything that would be useful.”
“Not to me, and not to Irina, either.”
It figured his mother would lie about speaking with Irina. He should’ve expected she would have been there, questioning his mother, trying to understand what happened to her when she had headed out across the waste, and perhaps that was who he needed to go to next.
He hadn’t spent much time with her since escaping from the att
ack. He needed to have that conversation with the Grand Inquisitor. If she was his grandmother, it was a connection he needed to more fully explore, something he thought he should deal with.
And yet, he didn’t know if he could deal with it.
They’d had an interesting relationship ever since he’d come to the Academy, and yet, she was one who had Selected him, bringing him out of Ephra and to the Academy in the first place. It was because of his grandmother that he had unlocked something within himself.
And he wondered if that had been intentional.
Knowing his mother, knowing how powerful she was, it was possible—even likely—she had anticipated his grandmother would be the one to come to Ephra to perform a Selection.
Even if she had known that, she would never have known Tolan would have been the one chosen. His going to the Academy was an accident. It was nothing more than that. He wouldn’t even be here if he hadn’t chased after a friend.
And now he was here, now he knew everything, that he was a part of something deeper and greater, he couldn’t help but wonder if there was something more he needed to be doing.
“I need to find her,” Tolan said.
“You do,” Master Minden said.
“I don’t even know what I would say to her,” he said.
“Say what is in your heart,” she said.
“How do I know that?”
Master Minden reached out and grasped him on the shoulder. She squeezed, and a shaping washed through him. It was a mixture of water and spirit, and it gave him a sense of relaxation and comfort.
“You’re a spirit shaper, Tolan Ethar. You will know what to say.”
3
The library was quiet. It was late, and Tolan had spent part of the afternoon searching for the Grand Inquisitor. As he had looked, trailing around the Academy grounds, he had not been able to find her at all. There had to be some way he could find out where she’d gone. There were other Inquisitors in the Academy, and yet Tolan hadn’t seen any of them either.
As he sat in the library glancing up at the dais, he didn’t have the attention he needed for the several books spread in front of him. Master Jensen had lent them to him, knowing he was studying the elementals and that Master Minden had revealed the hall of portraits to him. Her doing so opened him to restricted sections of the library, giving him access to knowledge very few students would be granted.
He looked up when someone took a seat across from him.
“I thought I would find you here,” Ferrah said.
Tolan flashed a smile, though he felt as if he had to force it. She had her hair pulled back, tied with lace, and she carried a stack of books. When she glanced up at the dais, she waved at Master Jensen. They were as friendly as he and Master Minden were.
“I’ve been looking for Irina,” he said.
Tolan looked around the library. It was empty today, and the rows of books stretching up high overhead seemed to loom above him. Lanterns cast a faint light, and there was no sense of shaping within the walls of the library, not like in so many other places within the Academy. It was a place of reprieve. When he did detect shaping, he knew it was because there was someone like himself who had a different access to the elements.
“I’m hoping to understand what she might have learned from my mother,” he said.
“You could go to her yourself. I know you’ve been avoiding it, but I think you’re going to need to see what you might be able to learn from her—”
“I went to her today.”
“Oh, Tolan.”
“I know you probably won’t want me to have gone to her, but…”
“I was going to say that I wondered why it was taking you so long,” Ferrah said.
“You think I should have?”
“I’ve known you needed to go to her,” Ferrah said. “And because of that, I’ve known you needed to better understand just what role she had in all of this.”
Tolan breathed out, looking around the library again before resting his elbows on the table and looking over the table at her. She reached across, taking his hands and squeezing.
“Ever since the attack in Par, we’ve known there was something else taking place,” Ferrah said, keeping her voice low. Every so often, she flicked her gaze around the inside of the library, surveying it.
He had the same concern she did, not wanting to be overheard, not sure how much of what they were saying could and should be known. It was possible anyone could be listening in. On a whim, he used a shaping of wind, sealing it around the table.
Ferrah watched him, but she didn’t show any sign of knowing he had shaped.
She wouldn’t be able to know that he shaped. Outside of the library, she would have identified it right away, but here in this place, it was something very few others would know.
Tolan glanced up at the dais. Master Jensen watched him, frowning. Tolan forced a smile and wondered what the master librarian might be thinking. As far as Tolan knew, all of the master librarians had the same ability to shape that he did, but all of them were older, and all had moved beyond the point where they would be able to do what needed to be done now.
“I think we need to go after the Convergence,” Tolan said.
“You know that’s dangerous,” she said.
“I know it would be dangerous, but I worry if we don’t go, there will be even more danger to us.”
“What does the Grand Master say?”
Tolan shook his head. “I haven’t gone to him with that concern yet.”
“Why not?”
“Partly because I’m not sure what he might say.”
“You need to go to him.”
“And if he tells me not to go?”
“Can he stop you?”
Tolan thought about what he knew about the Grand Master, the way he had experienced the skill of his shaping, and he couldn’t help but think that if anyone would stop him, it would be the Grand Master. It wasn’t that Tolan thought himself impossibly powerful, but with his bondars and the ability to make more, there would be very few people able to hold him for long.
But the Grand Master was one of them.
“He may be able to stop me.”
“I still think you need to go to him.”
Tolan closed his eyes. The longer he waited, the harder it was going to be to do what needed to be done. Staying in the Academy became increasingly difficult the longer he thought about what his mother had done and what more she might have been responsible for.
He got to his feet, releasing the shaping of wind. “Let’s go.”
“Now?”
“You suggested we go,” he said.
“I meant we should go, but I didn’t know you would intend for us to go now.”
“You want me to go alone?”
She eyed him with an angry glare, and he suppressed a smile.
They headed out of the library and he paused, looking around. Outside the door to the library, the sense of shaping struck him again. The entire Academy was filled with it. The longer he was here, the easier it was to detect. He focused on it, noting the power of it radiating through the various sections of the Academy building, stretching up the student sections and even up to the various element towers. There had to be classes going on, as he felt a particularly strong surge of shaping overhead, but he wasn’t entirely sure what that source was.
He turned his attention to the length of the hallway. The main part of the Academy was sparsely decorated. The floors were all slick marble and the walls were stone, shaped out of the ground. There were a few sculptures, thanks to previous master shapers who had served the Academy, that lined the hallways.
Occasional groups of students passed them, heading either up the stairs to their student sections or occasionally out the door, leading out to the main part of Amitan, and then beyond. Some of them might be heading into the city itself, while others might be going to work on their shaping in the park, a place designed to give proximity to the elements.
&n
bsp; As he stood there, Tolan wished things were simpler, that there could be a time when he would be able to wander out to the park the same way some of the students did, not a time like he had now, where he had to continue to work on behalf of the Academy, to try to do more than what he had been doing.
“I was just thinking it was so easy when we were first-level students, still only worried about the Draasin Lord…”
“I’m still worried about the Draasin Lord.”
He frowned at her. “You know he’s not what we once believed.”
“No. It’s worse.” She took his hand, squeezing it.
He headed along the hall, a route he had taken many times in his days at the Academy. He had even been to the Grand Master’s rooms many times. When he reached the Grand Master’s door, he knocked.
When he’d been looking for the Grand Inquisitor, he hadn’t tried the Grand Master’s rooms, though he hadn’t expected Irina to be here.
It took a moment, but the door opened, and the Grand Master peered out. He was a small man with a balding head and thin wire frames around thick lenses. Despite his diminutive stature, he was an incredibly powerful shaper. The sense of energy radiated off him toward Tolan.
“Shaper Ethar. Shaper Changen. To what do I owe the pleasure of this?”
Tolan glanced behind them, looking along the length of the halls, before nodding toward the Grand Master. “Can we come in?”
He frowned, but then nodded. “Of course, Shaper Ethar.”
He stepped back and Tolan and Ferrah entered the office. When he closed the door, the Grand Master sealed it closed behind them, walling them off from anyone who might want to listen. There was a time when Tolan would’ve expected that would have been enough, and that the power the Grand Master possessed would’ve been strong enough to prevent anyone from being able to reach the inside of his office, but that was before he had encountered others with incredible power. His mother had been able to overpower the Grand Master using her connection to the bondars and whatever darkness had filled her. Because of that, Tolan no longer felt nearly as secure here as he once had.
It was for that reason he carried his own bondars. He checked his pocket, feeling for them, and was reassured. Not that he was going to need them here in the Grand Master’s office, but he wanted to be prepared in the case that he did need them. There was another bondar he possessed that would be even more powerful, but students simply didn’t carry swords around the Academy. It was strange enough that he had one. He kept it underneath his bed, out of sight, but he had it ready in case he might need it. It was a bondar representing each of the elements and Tolan was far more capable when he was able to shape through it.
The Chaos Rises (Elemental Academy Book 6) Page 3