He focused on where that energy struck and whether there was anything in the air he might be able to pick up on. Tolan held onto that energy and felt it wash outward. He mixed in a hint of his own shaping, a touch of wind, and it burst away from him.
That was a mistake. He wasn’t able to pick up on anything.
What he needed instead was spirit.
He pushed outward with fire again, but this time as he added wind, he also added a hint of spirit. He didn’t use anything more than a hint, slipping deep within himself, pulling upon that power, and it exploded outward.
It radiated away from him. With spirit, there came a different sort of understanding.
There was a sense of Ferrah near him, but also a sense of something else.
The corrupted elemental was out there. They couldn’t linger. He would have to use the warrior shaping.
He readied his shaping, focusing on the various elements, mixing them together within himself. The corrupted elementals surrounded them, but so far, they weren’t aggressive. There was a sense of power and energy, along with a sense of something more, almost as if they were trying to edge closer to him and Ferrah, but Tolan wasn’t willing to let them get too close. He stayed away, distant, and prepared for anything he might need to do.
Ferrah grabbed him.
He mixed the elements together, adding a hint of spirit, and drew through the connection to hyza. He pulled on that power, mixing it as quickly as he could. He prayed to the Great Mother he would be quick enough.
The energy surged. The shaping struck.
Lightning exploded from the sky, streaking down to the ground. It happened faster than the last time. The energy around them began to collapse, coming toward them. If they waited too much longer, that energy would reach them.
Tolan pulled on that warrior shaping, letting it consume him.
As it struck, he focused on where he wanted to go.
When it carried them, it did so quickly—far more quickly than the last shaping had done. This time, Tolan was almost out of control with it.
They landed, striking the ground.
He got to his feet, holding out the sword, pulling on the connection to hyza, reaching through it for fire and earth, knowing his own abilities would be wiped out, almost depleted.
There was nothing.
He pushed out through earth, sensing, avoiding any shaping.
If he were to shape, he knew he would be detected, and he didn’t want to draw the unnecessary attention, but the corrupted elemental wasn’t here.
Yet.
It wasn’t going to be long before it reached him. It seemed to know where he was, the same way he was able to find where they were.
And if it continued to track him, following him, he had to worry that he and Ferrah wouldn’t be able to stay ahead of it for long. If there were other corrupted elementals, he was going have to figure out some way to stay far ahead of them that would keep him and Ferrah safe.
He started to sag, the effort of the shaping and the energy he’d been using growing almost too much. He dropped to his knees, holding onto the sword.
Ferrah was there, grabbing him. She pulled him forward. He wouldn’t have been able to do this without her.
She propped him up against a rock and he rested his head back, looking up at her.
“We should really return,” he said.
“Now you want to go back?”
“Not really, but I wonder if maybe this is a mistake.”
There came a sense of energy, of heat, and he stirred himself to alertness. He drew upon the energy of hyza, calling to it, using that, and it flowed into him, filling him. As it did, he jerked to his feet, holding the sword out.
“There’s something out here,” he said as he noticed Ferrah looking at him.
He focused on earth, adding a hint of spirit, and in doing so, he was able to push outward, using that connection in order to determine just what he was picking up on. It was faint and subtle.
Power. Worse: whatever was there was strong.
15
Tolan pushed Ferrah behind him and focused on the sense of the elemental. The longer he did, the more he became aware the elemental was there, watching. As he pushed earth and spirit outward, there was another sense to it, one that surprised him.
It wasn’t corrupted.
It was different than what he had detected from the other elemental out here. He had come to expect the elementals would all be corrupted. In this case, what he had picked up on was different.
It was powerful and completely invisible.
It was almost as if the elemental didn’t want to be seen, and yet it wanted to be felt.
He pushed outward using a hint of earth, but added fire to it as well, mixing with spirit. Then he had a sense of understanding.
Tolan grabbed Ferrah, holding her with him as he started forward.
He headed across the waste, away from the sense of the Convergence he knew was nearby.
He held onto earth and fire with a little bit of spirit, but not much more than that. Tolan wasn’t sure how much more spirit he would be able to use. His own strength was flagging and were it not for the energy he borrowed from hyza, Tolan wasn’t sure he was going to be able to stay on his feet. If it were not necessary to keep going, he didn’t know if he would even be able to do so.
Ferrah remained quiet, keeping close to him, staying behind him.
It was at times like these when he wished they both had the ability to shape here. If she would have been able to shape, what might she have done when it came to the corrupted elementals? There wasn’t any shaping she would have been able to use on them. There wasn’t any shaping he thought he wanted her to use on them. Until they had a better understanding of them, it was better to simply run from them.
“Where are we going?” she whispered.
“There’s something we need to see.”
“Is it another elemental?”
He nodded slowly.
“Like the last one?”
He shook his head. “Not like the last one. This is different.”
“Are you sure? If it is…”
“I’m sure.”
He continued forward, focused on the energy he was able to feel. It told him the direction of the elemental. He was drawn to it, compelled to go to it, almost as if fire itself were calling to him.
In the case of the draasin, of course it would be.
Tolan found a strange-looking boulder near a ridge. As he approached it, a shimmering heat radiated from it, as if the sun had been beating on it directly throughout the entire day. There was something quite unusual about it.
Tolan paused in front of it, looking at it, watching to see if there might be something he might be able to uncover about it, but he didn’t see anything.
“I know you’re there,” he said.
He held his breath, holding onto the sense of earth and fire, using spirit as much as he could, and he waited.
The stone remained unmoving.
The heat radiating off it called to him and Tolan waited, listening to that sense, focused on it. The more he focused on it, the more he recognized what it was. But how was he going to unleash it?
The only thing he really needed to do was find a way to reach the draasin.
He couldn’t tell if it was the same draasin he had encountered when he’d been with his father, but he had a sense it was. The Draasin Lord. There was something distinctive about it, massive, and given the nature of the stone, he could tell the draasin was there, wanting him to find it.
“What is it?” Ferrah asked.
“This is the Draasin Lord,” he said.
“This? This is a rock.”
Tolan shook his head, heading closer to it.
He didn’t have any malevolent sense from it, not the way he did with the corrupted elementals. All he had from this was a sense of power and heat, and that of fire. That sense came through his connection to hyza, and with it all, he was able to feel w
hat was inside the rock. He was able to determine this was something more than he could see with his eyes.
“I know you’re there,” he said again.
He stepped forward again, and as he did, he held onto fire and earth, using spirit.
And then he let go of fire and earth.
If there was some way to communicate with the draasin, to reach it, it would be spirit. He stepped forward, out of the shadows, and could feel the energy of the elemental, the energy of the power the draasin radiated.
He waited.
It uncurled.
He was an enormous creature, his head tucked down into his wings, which were wrapped around his body, his tail curling all around him. Somehow, the draasin made all of itself look as if it was nothing more than a cluster of massive rocks.
Ferrah gasped and staggered back a few steps.
Tolan reached for her, keeping her from running.
He understood the instinct, as he had had it before.
The draasin opened its wings, setting them down and leaning forward. It was massive. The entire body of the draasin was the size of a building within Terndahl. Massive spikes protruded from its back. Heat radiated from it, giving off a shimmering around each of the spikes. His wings were thick leather, and seemed to glow with the heat now they were unfurled. The tail stretched out, curling around, and it still looked something like stone resting on the waste.
“You found me,” the Draasin Lord said.
“Were you trying to hide from me?”
“Not hide from you. That is not my purpose here.”
It seemed to Tolan there was something the draasin wasn’t telling him, but he didn’t know what it was. Perhaps it didn’t matter. “I found the corrupted elemental.”
“That is unfortunate.”
“Is there anything we can do for him? Hyza tried to show me I need to help him, but I’m not sure what it will take for me to do so.”
“Hyza is more optimistic than some.”
“You don’t think anything can be done?”
“Hyza is more optimistic than most.”
Tolan looked up, meeting the Draasin Lord’s eyes. They were golden and glowed, looking so different than hyza, but similar as well. When he had been looking at hyza, there had been a mixture of orange and blue, a swirling sense of heat and power, but as he looked upon the Draasin Lord, there was nothing but the bright golden eyes. Intelligence shone behind them and burned within him, searing him, almost a warning.
He was acutely aware of just how powerful and old this creature was. This was a creature which had lived at a time when the shapers knew shaping differently. This was a creature that had been alive in a time before the elementals had been forced into the element bonds. Because of that, he knew to respect the Draasin Lord. He knew to fear him.
“You brought another,” the Draasin Lord said.
“This is Ferrah,” Tolan said, stepping off to the side. “She’s a friend.”
The draasin chuckled, if a creature like that could laugh. It was a strange and throaty sound, as if fire crackled. “A friend? If I called my mate a friend, I am quite certain she would be displeased.”
A flush worked through Tolan, but he said nothing. He wasn’t about to argue with the Draasin Lord. He wouldn’t call Ferrah his mate, either. She might be just as angry, and he didn’t know whether he should irritate the Draasin Lord or Ferrah more at this point.
“Why are you here?” Tolan asked.
“This has been my responsibility.”
“The waste?”
The draasin stood upright and swung his massive head, peering all along the entirety of the waste before lowering back down. He curled his wings back around him, his tail sweeping behind, making the rest of his body look nothing more than the stone he was trying to blend into. The only things that stood out were his head and his eyes. As Tolan looked at him, he couldn’t help but feel the energy from the Draasin Lord, the way the creature looked outward, and the energy he was able to make out.
“The waste is something more than just the waste.”
“I’ve encountered others touched by this darkness. That’s what you wanted me to help with.”
“It must be done,” the Draasin Lord said.
“Hyza tells me I have to help the elemental.”
“And I told you hyza is more optimistic than most.”
“You think the other elemental should be destroyed?”
There was a hesitation within the Draasin Lord, and for a moment, Tolan wondered why he would even be aware of it, but the more he stared at the Draasin Lord, the more he realized something else was taking place.
He had a connection to the Draasin Lord.
It was different than what he shared with hyza, as there was no sense of power or energy radiating from the Draasin Lord the way it did with hyza, but there was a connection there. There was power. Tolan could feel it.
Did that mean he could use it?
If he could, then drawing upon the energy of the draasin might be even more powerful than anything else he could do. And if he were able to do it, he could easily imagine being able to use even more power.
And if he could do that, then…
Tolan had to push those thoughts out of his mind. He wasn’t going to use the Draasin Lord. He wasn’t going to misuse that power, either.
Perhaps he shared the same optimism hyza did. He recognized there was a need for them to work together, to find some way to help the elementals, and in doing so, he thought he could do something, find some way to help free them.
He had done so before. He had helped free his mother, but when he had, what had remained of her? Would it be the same with the elementals? The challenge he faced now was in understanding just what was left, and just what they needed to do.
“Have you obtained what you need?” the Draasin Lord asked.
“You knew?”
“You were testing the connection.”
“How is it we are connected?”
“You are bound to spirit. As I am.”
“How am I bound to spirit?”
The draasin leaned his head forward, nothing else of his body even moving. It unsettled Tolan.
He looked over at Ferrah, checking to see what she was doing, but she simply stared. Every bit of her was tensed, and he worried about her. What might she do?
Seeing the Draasin Lord for the first time was a different experience. In Tolan’s case, he had been prepared for it, having been exposed to various elementals, recognizing the need to help them and work with them, but Ferrah had a very different experience with the elementals. While she understood they were powerful, she also had some of the traditional Terndahl fear of them.
Would she be thinking they would need to do something to suppress the elementals? Would she think they would need to do something to force the Draasin Lord back into the bond? When Tolan looked at the Draasin Lord, he didn’t think there was any way to do that. How could they force the draasin into the element bond? The elemental was incredibly powerful, and far too massive to be pushed into any element bond.
“Ferrah?”
She stirred and shook her head, but then she suddenly dropped to her knees, leaning forward, and bowing to the Draasin Lord.
The Draasin Lord chuckled again, the sound of crackling flames.
“Ferrah, you have to get up. He’s not going to hurt you.”
“This is the Draasin Lord,” she whispered.
“The Draasin Lord, but I think he calls himself that because he has been working on behalf of the elementals for over a thousand years.”
Ferrah cocked an eye at him. “The Draasin Lord has been active for over a thousand years?”
“The real Draasin Lord has,” Tolan said. He leaned down, grabbing Ferrah, helping her to her feet. How much of this had he already shared with her? He thought he’d shared all of it so she didn’t have to question, but then again, there were things he had been careful about revealing, not wanting anyone to know the dang
ers of the Draasin Lord and the dangers of what might be out there.
Given what they had experienced, that wasn’t an unusual expectation. There was a possibility others might be motivated to try to harm the draasin—and the other elementals.
“Others have used the title of the Draasin Lord to try to bring about various changes over the years,” Tolan said. “In the case of my mother and those working with her, they have used the draasin to create antagonism against the draasin and the rest of the elementals.” He turned to the draasin. “Why, though?”
“There are other powers in the world, Tolan Ethar.”
“I have seen other powers. There was one that infected my mother and I thought it was removed from her by the Convergence.”
“That darkness cannot be easily removed,” the Draasin Lord said.
“I don’t know that it was easy at all. I pushed her into the Convergence, and I think it was mostly removed from her, but…”
What was left was so different than she had been before. Tolan didn’t even know what to make of the memories he had of her. He had no idea how much of the woman he recalled was real and how much of her was artificial. As far as he knew, everything he had remembered of his mother was not real at all. It was possible everything she had done, all of the things she had said to him, were artificial memories she had planted within him.
And perhaps that was the hardest thing to grasp. It was painful to think about the fact his mother might have been deceiving him her entire life. She had used his father, wanting to create someone like Tolan.
At least, that was what she’d said.
He still didn’t know how much of that was even accurate, and how much was said to try to serve whoever she served. At that time, the darkness still filled her, and he hoped it was not real, but he didn’t know.
Having her as a mother, and what she had done to him, had harmed him. It had changed him, twisting him, and it had made it so his ability to reach for shaping was stunted. Had he never been shaped by her, and had she never prevented him from reaching for his power, he might have developed much faster.
It was possible he would have developed a different ability. It was possible the Inquisitors would have claimed him, and he might not have understood his ability to reach the elementals.
The Chaos Rises (Elemental Academy Book 6) Page 15