The more Tolan stared, the more certain he was that he recognized it.
“What can I do to help?”
“You can continue to do what you have been doing, Tolan Ethar.”
Tolan paused. “You know my name.”
“Of course, I know your name.”
“How?”
“You and I have connected.”
The elemental said it simply and then turned away, heading deeper into the garden. Tolan was forced to trail after, to hurry toward the elemental, and when he reached him, he found him sniffing at the flowers; he was moving around but there was something there Tolan still didn’t understand. He focused on the elemental.
When he did, there came a stirring within him.
It was the same sort of stirring he often had when he was attempting to shape, but the stirring came from a sense deep within the elemental. The same place he had tried reaching in the waste.
He reached for that stirring. As he did, there was a sense of power coming from it, and it radiated across the distance, across whatever connection had formed.
The elemental turned his head, watching him, as if he wanted Tolan to do what he was doing, but why?
Heat surged within Tolan.
It was a connection of flame, but it was a different connection than he had with the element bond, different even than his usual shaping.
When he had reached for the elements before, he had often used the image of the elementals, and it had seemed as if he had pulled the elements and the elementals out of the bond, but in this case, he was doing something different.
He was drawing upon the energy of the elemental.
“We’re connected,” Tolan whispered.
Hyza turned toward him, looking up at him. There was a flicker of flames within the elemental’s eyes. Behind that came a surge of orange and a hint of blue. They were flames swirling deep within the elemental’s eyes.
“When you first freed me, you connected to me.”
“How did I free you?”
“When you were learning.”
“You’re the same elemental?”
“You have freed many elementals, Tolan Ethar. We know you.”
“Is there any danger in that?”
“Only if you attempt to use us.”
“If we’re connected, then you know I wouldn’t.”
“It’s because we are connected that I know you won’t. It is because we are connected that I have come to you.”
Tolan took a breath. He inhaled the sense of the flowers around him, the sense of the heat around him, and he inhaled the sense of power he could feel surging within him. It was a strange sensation, but the more he focused, the more certain he was that he needed to use that power, that he needed to call upon it, and he had to wonder if that was what the elemental wanted from him.
If he could use that, if he could connect to hyza, then perhaps that was what was going to be able to free him, to keep him safe.
“What did I encounter in the waste?”
“You encountered danger.”
“I understand that, but what was it?”
“You came across the Lost.”
“The Lost?”
“A powerful elemental that has been separated from the light and brought toward the darkness.”
“I’ve seen the darkness.”
“I know you have. And know it’s more than just those who shape the darkness that you have to fear.”
“I have to fear this elemental?”
“Only that which has corrupted him. He can be saved.”
“I’ve tried saving others. I know what happens.” A memory of his mother came to mind. Despite using the Convergence, he hadn’t been able to save her. He wanted to find a way, but perhaps there wasn’t one. “My mother was saved. She was separated from that darkness, but I still haven’t been able to rescue her.”
“There will be no rescue,” the elemental said.
“How?”
“Until the corruption is removed, there can be no rescue.”
“Can she be saved?” Having seen his mother, having known exactly what she was and having known she had willingly gone toward the darkness and willingly been corrupted, he hadn’t allowed himself the chance to even hope; but if it was possible she could be returned, he wanted to do whatever it would take.
“All can be saved, though all may not choose to do so.”
“What about the elemental?”
“The same is true.”
“What happens if he can’t? Or won’t?”
Hyza turned away, heading along the garden, pausing every so often to sniff at the flowers.
Tolan trailed after him, watching and leaning toward him. “What about the elemental?”
Hyza paused, looking up at Tolan. “Then the rest of the elementals will suffer.”
The elemental turned away and headed along the garden.
Tolan followed, watching as hyza prowled, though he didn’t move very quickly.
“Why do you think you are in this place?” hyza asked.
“What do you mean?”
“This place. You call it a vision, but why do you think you’re here?”
“Because…”
Tolan shook his head, looking all around. Hyza had made it sound as if he hadn’t been here before, that this was someplace that could be. In the past when he had visions, they had always been something he had seen. By unlocking those visions, Tolan had unlocked something within himself.
Hyza wanted him to know. As Tolan looked around, focusing on the sense of the ground, the garden, the energy within this place that consisted of all of the elementals, he didn’t have any idea.
“I don’t know why I’m here.”
“You’re here because I have permitted it,” hyza said.
“You permitted it?”
“Because I have permitted it,” the elemental said again.
Tolan looked around, focusing on everything he could see, and a different understanding came to him. If it was because the elemental had permitted it, then perhaps it was because of a connection to him. And if that was the case, then…
“This is within your mind,” Tolan said. “Where is this?”
“This is what could be,” hyza said softly, turning toward him.
A sense of heat and energy radiated off hyza. And for a moment, dozens of images flickered in Tolan’s mind. They came one after another, a series of images, as if they were memories. He wondered if there was any way to slow them down, to piece them together to better understand just what hyza was trying to show him, but those images drifted, focusing in and out, quicker and quicker, and then they faded.
“What was that?” Tolan whispered.
“That is what could be as well.”
“I didn’t see any of it.”
“You will.”
“This corrupted creature, this elemental I encountered. Is there any way of stopping it?”
“As I said, you must save it. You must save all. That is why you are here.”
Tolan didn’t want to admit that wasn’t the full reason he’d come. He’d come because of his mother, but the Convergence and what he suspected existed out in the waste was a part of that.
As he looked at the elemental, he suspected hyza already knew.
“And if it can’t be saved, how am I to do anything? It was siphoning off my connection to the elements.”
“Was it?” the elemental asked.
Tolan focused on what he had experienced within the garden, with what he’d experienced so far while within hyza’s mind, and he thought about the sense of the flowers, the wind, the running water, and even the earth all around him. As he did, he realized what the elemental was trying to get him to acknowledge. The creature hadn’t siphoned all that from him. It might have taken some of it, but it hadn’t taken everything.
He still had the ability to sense, and because he had reached for hyza, he still had the ability to shape. It had perhaps weakened him, but it hadn
’t destroyed it altogether.
“How long will it take for me to recover?”
“I have brought you here so you can recover.”
“How long has that been?”
“Long enough.”
With that, hyza turned away and stalked out of the garden.
Tolan attempted to follow, but there was a resistance.
The elemental began to grow increasingly distant. It began to fade from the back of his mind to the point where there was nothing left of it. Tolan strained for that sense, but there was nothing there.
He gave up. Instead, he turned and looked around the garden, searching for understanding and looking to see if there was anything here he might be able to use, but there was nothing.
He looked around, smelling the flowers again, feeling the energy of this place, feeling the power radiating through it, and he breathed it in. There was that sense of power, there was that sense of energy, and through it all, he could feel something more. He took a seat in the center of the garden, drawing in that power, that energy, and he focused on it.
It was earth, wind, water, and fire.
All that swirled around him.
What about spirit?
As he focused on spirit, that sense within him, he could feel the distant connection to hyza.
And as he did, he realized something else.
Spirit had always been there. Hyza had always been there. The elemental had remained within him, connected, and because of that, he could stay bound to the elemental.
Perhaps that was the message the elemental wanted him to know. And if that was the case, there had to be some way to use that message. Could he find a way to help the strange dark creature he’d encountered in the waste?
Tolan focused on those powers within him, and he turned them inward. As he did, he came awake.
13
Darkness still drifted around, and he took a deep breath, steadying himself. There was a sense of achiness, but it wasn’t nearly what he had experienced before drifting off to sleep. The achiness was more of a stiffness, one that came from inactivity rather than from injury. As he breathed in, he focused on the energy around him. He tried to see if any of that energy could be useful, but he couldn’t tell.
He focused on his shaping ability, that sense of everything deep within him.
He steadied his breathing, steadying the sense of the heartbeat pounding within him, and he focused on the air, the warmth, and the stone around him. In doing so, he was able to reach for power.
It fluttered within him and then burst through him.
Tolan breathed in and then released it.
He looked around. Where was Ferrah?
He found her a few paces away, curled up on the ground, and he left her resting. He got to his feet, unsheathing his sword, and realized he didn’t remember even resheathing it in the first place. Ferrah must’ve stuffed it back into the sheath, and he was thankful she had. He didn’t want to abandon the sword, not the bondar that might provide a benefit to them out here in the darkness and in everything they were going to have to deal with.
He looked out into the night.
The corrupted elemental was out there.
He was certain of it. He might not be able to feel it, but he was certain he could find the sense of it again. It had not taken his power. That had been his fear, and he was thankful to know the elemental hadn’t taken everything from him, though it had taken enough of his stamina to weaken him. And if it done that once, he had to worry it might able to do it again, and he had to figure out some way to prevent it from doing so.
The memory of what hyza told him came through.
More than just the memory, there was a feeling of need. When he had been in the vision, he hadn’t noticed that feeling, though now he was back out here, he could feel nothing else but that sensation of need, that desire for the elementals to find a way to freedom, to help each other, to ensure they were safe.
He had to find the elementals, and he had to find some way to protect them.
Wasn’t that his role all along?
Ever since he had come into his power, he had been serving the elementals in some way. Even seeing the Draasin Lord had connected him to the elementals.
Maybe that was the key. Ever since he had gone across the mountains, ever since he had encountered the Draasin Lord, he hadn’t learned anything more about the elementals and their need to be released from the bond. And the Draasin Lord was still out there, its power still there. He could reach for it.
He had to find the Draasin Lord.
Perhaps he had to find other Draasin Lords.
Tolan hesitated, wary of drawing upon his shaping energy again. That was the risk, and the more he thought about it, the more certain he was that he needed to be careful with shaping. At least in this place, and at least while the danger of the corrupted elementals lingered.
Ferrah stirred and got to her feet, noticing him. She turned to him, and in the faint moonlight, he could see her frowning. “How are you?” she asked.
“I think I’m fine.”
“Fine?”
“I had a vision.”
“What sort of vision?” She started toward him but paused in front of him, studying him.
“I had a vision of hyza and a garden, and I was told what happened out here.”
“Tolan—”
“I know you don’t believe me, and I know the elementals aren’t the same to you as they are me, but I believe what I saw was necessary and that we need to do everything in our power to try to help, and I can’t help but feel as if we need to do more than what I’ve done so far.”
“We came out here because of your mother.”
“We came because of the Convergence. Figuring out what my mother might have done is a part of that. And this elemental is tied to it, as well. We have to take care of all of this.”
He didn’t know how.
There had been no sign of his mother, nothing that would indicate where she might have gone. There was only the emptiness of the waste. The strange attack.
Eventually, if he were to do what hyza suggested, Tolan would have to draw the corrupted elemental to him. He would have to find a way to save it.
“We should keep moving,” Ferrah said.
“I’m not sure walking is the right strategy,” he said.
“I thought you used too much energy already.”
“I have, but I wonder if I could use connections to the elementals in order to draw power.”
“What sort of connections to the elementals? There aren’t any elementals out here, and when you try to summon them—”
“It’s not a matter of summoning them; it’s using power I’ve already connected to.”
And it wasn’t just hyza, but there were other elementals he had connected to, weren’t there? In the time he had been working with them, he had found those connections. He had felt them.
It was hyza, it was saa, it was ara, and jinnar. It was each of the elementals, from each of the element bonds. The key was in trying to find out how to reach for them and do so in a way that would allow him to access their power.
He looked into the distance and focused on himself, on the sense of earth, on the sense of movement around him, and thought back to what he had encountered within the vision, the way he had seen the garden, the power of the flowers, and the connection he had with hyza. The elemental was a mixture of fire and earth, and because of that, he was able to use its power through their connection in order to draw it. In doing so, he was able to feel the earth stretching out in front of them. Tolan held onto that sense, focusing on everything around him. As he did, he sensed.
It was an amazing thing to be aware of everything around him in the waste. Having come here before, knowing the danger of the waste, and having known the way it separated him from the element bonds, he had never believed he would be able to sense in the waste, but here he was, pushing outward, focusing on the ground and on everything around him, and he could f
eel the earth beneath him. He could feel it stretching outward. He searched, focusing on everything he could detect, searching for any sign of the elementals, of anything that might be out here.
There was Ferrah, the distant sense of her, near enough that he could feel her, and he was aware of a little bit more than just Ferrah. He was aware of the way she stood there, and as he focused, he could feel her heartbeat, the blood within her. He could feel the energy within her.
He wished he was able to unlock that, that he could find some way to help her shape, that he could help her understand the nature of her power, and if he could, she wouldn’t be helpless out here either.
It might be that she was only connected to the bonds and not to shaping directly. And unless she was able to reach for the element bonds, unless she was able to have some access to it, then she wouldn’t be able to access direct shaping.
He sensed outward again.
The rumbling came. The corrupted elemental.
It was aware of what he was doing.
He continued to focus outward, thinking about the earth around him. Tolan sent his connection beyond, pushing. He ignored the sense of the elemental and the fear coursing through him, and instead he sent his awareness outward, searching for anything else.
There had to be something more. The Convergence had to be here.
His mother had to be here.
It was going to take continuing to push, continuing to use his ability to sense, to stretch outward, to reach across the distance. If he could do that, he thought he might be able to find the Convergence.
The rumbling came again, closer.
This time, he turned his focus toward it, sending his earth-sensing sweeping toward the distant sense of the corrupted elemental. Ferrah was there, squeezing his hand, a presence upon him.
He didn’t want to harm her, and he didn’t want to linger here any longer than was necessary. If he made a mistake, if the corrupted elemental reached him, was he going to be able to push it away?
He doubted it. More than that, he doubted he would be effective in holding it back. It was possible he might not even survive long enough to do anything. If he was knocked out again, if the elemental tried to feed on him, he would never get to the Convergence and solve the puzzle of his mother.
The Chaos Rises (Elemental Academy Book 6) Page 13