Something else struck him. It was that reverberation, that echoing, that sense of an elemental. And if he could connect to it, if he could find that sensation he knew was in there, he thought they might be able to use it.
Tolan focused on it, thinking about what he had detected, the nature of it. The connection was the key.
“We need to get out of the sunlight,” she said.
“We need to keep moving.”
“Back to Terndahl?”
He locked eyes with her and shook his head. “We can’t go back to Terndahl yet. We have to keep moving. We still don’t know what my mother is up to. We have to stop her.” That was the entire reason for coming here, but even if she hadn’t escaped, this was what he and Ferrah had planned. There was a Convergence here—he was certain of it—and he needed to see if there was anything he could do to clear it. They were connected, but he wasn’t entirely certain why.
“Do you even detect her anymore?”
He took a deep breath. The truth was that he hadn’t detected anything since coming here. “Not her. The elemental.”
“Tolan.”
“We need to better understand the elemental.”
“Not your mother?”
“She’s out here. She…” He frowned. “She might be responsible for this.”
“Tolan, you know how dangerous this is. With what you just experienced, you know more than any how dangerous this is. Think about that. Think about—”
“I know how dangerous it is, but I also know we need to do this so we can better understand what we’re dealing with. And we need to figure out what happened to the Convergence, and to the waste, and to see if there is anything we can do.”
“Just us?”
“Now we’re master shapers, I think we’re the only ones who will do anything about it,” he said.
It was a strange thing to admit, but was true. No one else was willing to take this risk and step out into the depths of the waste, to expose themselves in such a way. Besides, who else could do it? Not many others had his same shaping ability. Maybe Ferrah could, but she’d have to be willing to try shaping in a place where no one else had managed to do so.
She guided him forward and he rested his weight on her, letting her support him. It was going to take time to recover, and until he fully did, he wasn’t going to be able to test whether or not he could shape. It was possible the creature hadn’t completely siphoned off his energy. If it had, what would happen to him?
Perhaps nothing. Perhaps all that would change would be that he would lose some aspect of his shaping ability, but he had the connection to the element bonds, so he would still be able to shape, just not quite as powerfully as he could before.
And perhaps that was the key.
He would still be able to reach the elementals, and given his connection there, he had another opportunity for strength, one not everybody had.
They continued up the steady rise, and by the time they reached the peak, the sun was starting to dip lower in the sky. In the distance, Tolan had hoped they might find something else, a vast expanse of green, something that would suggest the waste would end—but there was nothing but more of the emptiness.
“I keep thinking we’re going to reach the end of the waste,” Ferrah said.
“Me too. I know better because others have tried,” he said.
And with others having tried, it seemed foolish of them to push so hard, foolish of them to believe they would suddenly be successful when others had not been. But the others might not have had the same type of shaping connection that Tolan had. Others might not have been able to do the same thing he was able to do. Being able to shape the way he could, able to draw upon the energy within himself, meant he had to believe he could do more than so many others who had ventured across in the past.
He took a deep breath and motioned for them to keep going.
They continued downward and every so often would pause, resting so he could take a drink, so he could get himself back together, and yet even when he did that, he still felt the overwhelming sense of fatigue washing through him. The longer they went, the more tired he was. By now, he should have started to recover a little bit, and he kept expecting some part of him would, but he didn’t. That left him troubled, kept him thinking perhaps his energy and his shaping might not come back.
“What is it?” Ferrah asked.
Tolan looked away, staring out into the emptiness of the waste.
The sun was fading. It was going to be easier to navigate, not having to deal with the heat of the sunlight, but some part of Tolan was beginning to feel even emptier.
“It’s nothing,” he whispered.
“It’s more than nothing,” Ferrah said.
“I guess… I guess I thought with my unique shaping ability, I might be able to work through what happened.”
“What makes you think you can’t?”
“I don’t know, I just…”
He didn’t know what he thought. All he knew was that the lack of ability, the fact things were starting to change, and that he felt as if his shaping had been torn free left him uncertain.
In all the time he’d been at the Academy, he had grown increasingly confident with his abilities and with the type of knowledge he had accumulated. He had begun to believe he was able to do more, that he was able to be more.
Because of that, he had started to feel as if he had a greater responsibility within the Academy, and within Terndahl. Partly, that came from being able to understand aspects of shaping that so many others had not even attempted over the years. By learning about the bondars and the elementals, he had felt as if he was better connected to shaping than so many others had been.
But perhaps that was his mistake.
He didn’t know anything more than anyone else. For his part, all he really knew was that he was tied to the elements, and that here, despite everything else, he wasn’t able to do anything more than anyone else was able to do.
“This attack really got to you,” Ferrah said.
“How could it not?”
“You’re the one who believed we could cross the waste. You’re the one who believed you could shape some unknown creature. You’re the one who believes you can continue to free elementals without any repercussions.”
“The elementals aren’t our enemy,” he said.
“I know that… now. Eventually, others in the Academy will know.”
“That’s going to take a long time.”
“Fine. You also brought your parents back.”
“Just my father,” he said.
He looked up at the sky. As the sun descended and the darkness began to fall, the stars began to appear. They were similar stars as in Terndahl, though not all the same. Nothing about this place was the same.
“Why don’t you get some rest?” Ferrah said.
“I don’t know it’s safe for me to get any rest,” he said.
“I don’t know if it’s safe for you not to.”
Tolan took a seat, wrapped his arms around his legs, and looked up at the sky. He breathed in, focusing on the distant energy and on everything he was able to make out, but there was nothing out there, nothing other than the darkness and the emptiness, and yet he still believed there was something.
He closed his eyes, drifting, wishing he might be able to find answers.
After a while, he steadied his breathing, starting to think about what he was able to uncover, and yet, there was nothing out there.
He had to imagine there would be something to uncover. The answers had to be there.
He drifted. As he did, he dreamed.
12
Tolan opened his eyes. He was in a massive garden. Flowers of dozens of different colors surrounded him, their fragrances drifting toward him, a sense of energy radiating from everything. He had never been in a place like this before, and he breathed it in, welcoming it.
Despite that, he was fully aware it was a dream.
He’d had dreams li
ke this before. There had been many of them over the years, especially since coming to the Academy, and he had come to understand those dreams and visions meant some memory was unlocked.
What did it mean that he would have this one now? Was it some other memory his mother had buried within him, something she was trying to keep from him? He had thought he had unlocked most of those memories, but it was possible he had not.
He wandered around the inside of the garden, feeling the energy of this place. There was definitely an energy to it. He circled around it, heading deeper into the garden, and he focused on what he was able to detect.
There was a sense of earth here. That was the most obvious to him, and it radiated up from the ground, from the flowers, and from even himself. It was a strong sense, and it seemed as if there was a variety of different powers here. It was more than just the element bonds; it seemed to come from the elementals, though he didn’t know any elementals that seemed tied to gardens and flowers.
He began to work through the various elementals he knew, everything he had learned from Master Minden and the books she’d lent him, but none of those books had been like this.
A gentle breeze drifted through the garden, sweeping across everything. As it did, he listened to the sound of the wind as it rustled through the flowers, through the leaves, and even along his clothing. It tugged at him, not violently or forcefully, but certainly with enough energy that he was able to feel it.
He welcomed that sense, enjoying it, taking it in, and turned, looking all around, searching as to whether there was anything he might be able to do with that sense of wind.
Then there was the warmth.
It wasn’t overwhelming. It was a pleasant warmth, the sun shining down, drifting through fluffy white clouds, shining on his exposed skin. He closed his eyes, feeling the sun baking him, a pleasant sensation.
From somewhere distant was the sound of water running, and that sound mingled with the others, joining them. It created another sensation, one of dew upon the leaves and humidity in the air, and finally sweat staining his brow.
Tolan breathed all of that in, welcoming that sense.
Why was he having this vision?
When he’d been in visions before, there had been a point to them, something he needed to know, but in this case he had no idea what he was expected to learn. He had no idea what the purpose of this vision was, but he had to believe there was something.
What else had he learned from his earlier visions?
When he had the first vision that had seemed so real, it had been during his Selection. It was tied to Ephra, and tied to the waste. It was a vision that had been fed to him, or at least one that had seemed like it had been forced on him. That vision had carried him, showing him something.
And that vision had unlocked some potential within himself, revealing aspects of himself that he had hidden away for so many years.
The next time he had a vision had been within his Inquisition, and it had been one that had helped him understand he had the ability to shape, and in doing so, he had learned he was able to do more. To be more.
Now what was he going to learn from this vision?
Did it matter that he was in the waste?
He was vaguely aware of the fact he and Ferrah were within the waste, and because of that, there had to be a reason why this vision was coming to him at this time. Was this a vision of what the waste could be?
He wandered along the flowers and breathed in their fragrances, enjoying the sense of everything here in the garden. The more he was here, the more certain he was that there had to be some reason behind it.
At the end of the garden, he looked up. There was an enormous palace. The stone was stacked in such a way it appeared built by hand rather than shaped, which was unusual throughout Terndahl. The stone was smooth in such a way it had a certain energy to it, power, leaving him to wonder whether it had been shaped, though shaped in a way it wasn’t used these days.
Perhaps that was the key. Perhaps they had shaped blocks of stone, stacking them and sealing them together. As he stared at the stone, he noticed symbols on each block.
Runes.
Each rune was of power, and each designed to connect to earth. It would bind each stone to the other, and it would bind it to the ground.
Impressive. Tolan hadn’t experienced a building quite like that before. Seeing this building, the way it was shaped together, left him feeling a sense of awe at just how powerful it was.
He ran his hand along the surface of the stone, feeling it. It was cool and damp, and gritty underneath his fingers.
He smiled.
Turning away, he headed back into the garden, wandering.
Were there elementals here?
He could feel the power all around him and was aware of the energy of the elements here, which suggested to him there would have to be elemental energy as well. For there to be this much energy, typically it meant there would be elementals.
Which would he focus on first?
He thought about the various elementals he knew and considered which would be fitting for a place like this; he smiled to himself.
Hyza was the one that came first to his mind, though that shouldn’t be entirely surprising. He had a connection to hyza that he didn’t have to the other elementals, partly because it was one of the first ones he had ever reached, and partly because hyza had been the first one he had ever seen.
When he paused, he looked around, breathing in that sense of the elementals, breathing in the awareness of everything, and he focused on whether there was anything here that would represent hyza.
Hyza was difficult to reach in the waste, but would it be difficult to reach in this vision?
His experience with these visions was that they weren’t entirely real. There were aspects that were, but for the most part, they were not. He focused, feeling the energy, and called to hyza.
There was no drawing of the elemental out of the bond, not as there would be outside the vision. Within Terndahl, he had to separate the elemental, calling it in a way that tore it free from the element bond, but in this place, the elementals were free.
How did he know that?
There was a sense of energy and a sense of power around him. Slowly, the heat began to build.
The shape of hyza darted toward him. It was distinct, a foxlike creature making its way toward him, striding through the garden though much larger than how Tolan remembered hyza to appear. It was an enormous creature, with paws nearly the size of Tolan’s hands and a head the same size as his. The entirety of the elemental came up to his waist.
Flames streaked along the surface of its fur, but otherwise the elemental was far more formed than Tolan had ever seen before.
Hyza prowled around him, watching him.
“Thank you for coming,” he said.
He felt foolish speaking aloud, and in the vision, he wasn’t entirely sure if what he said was real or if it was imagined. It was possible what he was saying was only in his mind, and then again, it was possible everything he was saying was real. It was possible hyza was real, that hyza was here and had somehow called him. All of this was potentially real. The more he focused on everything around him, the harder it was to know what he was supposed to take from this vision.
“You called me,” the elemental said.
Tolan smiled. “You speak.”
“You don’t think elementals can speak?”
“I know they can, but I don’t find it all that easy to hear them usually.”
“That’s because most find it difficult to connect.”
“And you don’t?”
“Not in this place.”
“What is this place?”
Heat rolled along the surface of its fur, and hyza turned toward him. “This is your place.”
“This isn’t my place. This is a vision.”
He felt foolish admitting that, but what else was he to say to the elemental?
“Perhaps a vision,
but it’s not a vision of what has been. It’s a vision of what could be.”
“How am I having it?”
“You have connected to us. To me, now. You don’t know how that’s possible?”
Tolan shook his head, sending his gaze sweeping along the garden. “I don’t know how any of this is possible. I’ve connected to the elementals, and as much as I’d like to free them, I still don’t know whether the others would even allow it.”
“The others don’t get to choose.”
“What does that mean?”
“If the bond isn’t dissolved, the others will get to choose,” hyza said.
“Are the elementals going to attack?”
There was a part of Tolan that knew a moment of worry, but only a part. It was a strange thing to feel that way, but he recognized the elementals would not harm him. Some connection shared that fact with him.
He remembered what the draasin had said, the way he had shared that the elementals had gone willingly into the bond, and that they had done so to help their friends, but over time, those same friends had begun to manipulate them, to use the bond against them.
Did that mean the elementals no longer cared about shapers?
As he looked at hyza, he tried to connect to the elemental using spirit, but there was no additional sense from it.
Perhaps there could not be. His time with the elemental had not given him enough understanding about them, and he couldn’t help but wonder if there would be any way to change that.
“There is no plan for attack, but there is a plan to protect.”
“Protect from what?”
“Protect from something worse.”
“I’ve been trying to protect them, as well.”
“You have, but others have not.”
Hyza began to make his way through the garden. Every so often, he would pause and sniff at the flowers and as he did, there was something almost human about the gesture.
The Chaos Rises (Elemental Academy Book 6) Page 12