“Not this time,” she said. “I’ve been putting out feelers to find the other members of the Circle.”
“Who are you missing?”
She took a deep breath, setting the stack of books onto the table. “I suppose now you are a part of the Circle, it only makes sense that you know. There had been thirteen of us.”
“Had been?”
She nodded. “Had been. We have brought others in over time, wanting to involve as many as we could that we thought were trustworthy. They were shapers, mostly, though I have advocated for the inclusion of other librarians. As you have discovered, the master librarians have a unique skill set.”
Tolan smiled. “There were only three members of the circle.”
“Three that were here. Two more that were not. The others…”
“What happened to the others?”
“Over the years, we’ve lost them. Some have disappeared while trying to find information about the Draasin Lord. It’s part of the reason the effort to chase down as much as we can about the Draasin Lord has been as aggressive as it has. There have been others who have disappeared while searching for information on behalf of the Circle.”
“You’ve lost eight members?” Tolan asked.
“Not all at once. The last attack on the Academy, the last real attack on Terndahl, was decades ago. There hasn’t been the same sense of urgency to reform the Circle as there once was. Those we have lost have not been replaced as aggressively as we probably should have. We thought we had time.” She took a seat and looked up at him. “Until your mother reared her head.”
Tolan took a seat across from her, looking over the table. The thirteen chairs made sense, and they all looked inward. Was the Grand Master in charge of the Circle? Perhaps within the Circle, no one was really in charge.
“But you knew the Draasin Lord wasn’t quite what you thought.”
“Some of us did. And yet, the challenge was convincing the others. We understood the draasin, and the other elementals, for that matter, would not attack the way many believed. It took all of our focus in order to convince others the attack was made by a shaper and not by someone using the elementals.”
“My mother.”
“Your mother, at least recently, though perhaps not the entire time.”
“She was working with someone else,” Tolan said.
“I’m certain of it,” Master Minden said. “Only, we have not seen any evidence of this other. Whoever they are has remained hidden enough that it has been difficult. They have influenced events from behind the scenes, making it difficult for us to know who they are. Uncovering your mother and her influence over the Inquisitors was the first break we’d had in all of this. Understanding her connection to the Draasin Lord, at least the Draasin Lord as we within Terndahl understood it, was another piece, but I fear it’s not the last.”
“What is she after?” Ferrah asked.
“We know what she’s after,” Master Minden said. “She made that clear when she demonstrated her control over power. I don’t know if she intended to do so quite so openly, or if it was out of a necessity because of what we managed to do.” She turned her gaze to Tolan. “I think you intervened in a way that forced her hand. Perhaps forced the hand of the one she serves, whoever that might be. Either way, it revealed something we had not known.”
“She’s the key, isn’t she?”
Master Minden locked eyes with him. “She’s the key. The others…” She glanced toward the door, and Tolan didn’t have to use a spirit shaping in order to know what she was thinking. He could practically feel the connection that had formed and knew where she was looking—and why.
On the other side of those doors was the cell, and within there was Master Daniels. He, along with others, had served his mother. They were a part of it, but she was the head of what they were after.
“The others are following her, but it’s a matter of finding what she was after,” Tolan said.
Master Minden smiled tightly. “I’m afraid what she was after is probably no more complicated than it appeared at first blush. Your mother wanted power. When she was here, still held captive, there was little doubt in my mind as to what she pursued. She practically radiated her thirst for power. Even after we removed the connection to that darkness, she still radiated that sense,” she said. She leaned forward, clasping her hands together and looking across the table at Tolan. “We don’t know who helped her. What we don’t know is how they helped her.”
“Or why,” Ferrah said.
“Or why,” the other woman agreed.
“It was chaos,” Tolan said.
“Perhaps, but are we so certain this is something tangible? She used power, but she had to have learned of that power from someone. That is what we need.”
Tolan closed his eyes, resting his elbows on the table as he leaned forward, thinking about everything they had seen and everything he’d experienced. He remembered the image of the waste, when he had been there with Ferrah, when they had looked out over it. And when he had stepped into the middle of the Guardians, feeling the power all around them, pressing downward to try to probe for the Convergence, he thought he had found the key.
When they had gone out into the heart of the waste, that was what he had believed they would uncover. That there would be answers there. That he would find something, some way of tapping into the power his mother had gone after, and perhaps he would find some way of undoing what had been done. Even undoing what had happened to her.
Despite everything else, that longing remained within him. He wanted to save her.
It was possible there was no way of saving her. When she had been captured within the Academy, she had still chosen her path. She had made her plans known. She had chosen to attack, and because of that, she had nearly harmed others here.
“We could force Daniels to talk,” he said.
“We could try, but even as I’ve attempted to influence him, there has been no way of getting past what has been done to him.” She smiled sadly. “Your mother is a skilled spirit shaper. When she was here, Irina made it entirely clear she was one of the most gifted spirit shapers she had ever worked with. Losing her had nearly broken Irina.”
Tolan had some experience with how gifted his mother was with spirit. Even when he thought he was able to overpower her, she still had enough talent in order to defend against what he could do. Despite everything, she was incredibly gifted.
“What about using the Convergence?”
“I’m not without my abilities, Master Ethar,” Master Minden said.
“I didn’t say that—”
“I know you didn’t, but you should know the power of the Academy is available within it. That includes the Convergence, once I’m inside the Academy buildings. I can use the runes, the Convergence, and all of the shaped ability that I have.” She smiled at him slightly. “As you undoubtedly know.”
“That’s how I passed my testing for master shaper.”
“A test unlike any ever given before, at least according to the Grand Master. He was most surprised by your connection to each of the elements, but even more surprised by how well you were able to reach for the kind of power he did not think you would be able to access. I imagine he has spoken to you about his request?”
“What request?”
“Eventually, all of this will be over. When it is, the Academy will need someone of your talents.”
Tolan frowned. “I’m not so sure I’m suited to teach at the Academy.”
“Perhaps you don’t think so, but I imagine you would be more capable than you realize. If not teaching at first, maybe you take on a different role.”
Tolan glanced over at Ferrah, but the master librarian chuckled softly.
“I’m sure we could have a role for Master Changen as well.”
Tolan sighed. “After this is over.”
Master Minden nodded. “After. Unfortunately, I’m afraid this will occupy much of our time. You will need to continue to work,
to see what you can uncover, and as you have discovered, your learning is not yet over. There is much you will need to learn. Some of it can only be taught outside the Academy. Which is why it’s for the best that you continue to explore your abilities.” She turned to Ferrah. “And you as well.”
“I don’t know where to go next. We need to find her. If only to better understand what she intends,” Tolan said.
“We do,” Master Minden said, watching him.
It always unsettled him the way she was able to look at him through her cloudy eyes. Ever since he had come to the Academy, he’d known Master Minden was not nearly as blind as she appeared, given the film over her eyes.
“I’ve been trying to think through what I know of my mother, trying to get to the bottom of what she would want. It’s been difficult because I don’t know that I can trust my memories.”
Master Minden leaned forward, and a gentle spirit shaping washed off her, slowly drifting toward him. It was soft and faint, and the kind of spirit shaping that was even gentler than what Irina used, though quite a bit less potent. Irina had been incredibly strong with her spirit shaping when he been around her recently.
“Your memories are your own, Tolan Ethar. I know you don’t trust them, and given what you’ve been through, I suspect you will never be able to trust them, at least when they pertain to your mother. From what I can tell, she influenced far more than you even know.”
Tolan shook his head. “I can tell. I’ve tried to reach into my mind to sort out the visions I’ve had that have helped me understand my past with a greater clarity, but even within those visions, I haven’t been able to find anything. When we were with the free elementals, there was a sense of something similar within my father.”
“His mind would be as jumbled as yours.”
“There was something else I detected.”
“What?”
“A hint of darkness. It was within my father, along with every other person that was in those lands. Not only that, but I detect it even within the elementals.” He looked up at her, holding her gaze. “I didn’t expect to find that. It seems to me there shouldn’t be that influence there, not if they haven’t been somehow touched by that dark power.”
“How did the elementals seem?”
“That’s just it. They didn’t seem anything different.” He glanced over at Ferrah. “I can’t really piece it together. I can’t get over the idea that my mother’s after the Convergences, but Irina made certain that some of them she has uncovered are protected, and we know the Convergence here and within Par are safe. The one in the free elementals land has been untouched. She didn’t find it. When we were in Par, I was convinced she was trying to use the same influence to change the Convergence.”
“Are you no longer convinced of that?” Master Minden asked.
“When it comes to my mother, I don’t even know.” He smiled sadly, shaking his head. “It’s terrible, but I can’t even trust my own memories. What if she was shaping me even then?”
“It is possible.”
Even if she had not been shaping him then, there had been plenty of other opportunities for her to have done so. When he had confronted her here, she could have shaped him. He might not even have known it. With her control over spirit, and the way she was able to use it, it was far too likely she had some way of holding onto it and manipulating it—and him.
“Initially, I thought it was about power,” Tolan said.
“Don’t you know?” Master Minden asked.
“I don’t know if it is power. With what she was able to do, it seemed she had power. What she wanted was a different kind of power, but even in that, I don’t even know if was what I thought it was.” He looked up, glancing from Master Minden to Ferrah, who had been silent. Ever since her attack in Par, something had remained a bit off for her. Was it a spirit shaping? Even if it was, Tolan didn’t know if he would be able to help her through it, other than by staying with her. “I keep asking myself what I know. And what I know about my mother is that she has used people over time. First, she used my father. Then she used me. Why? What purpose is there behind it?”
“It might require you find your mother in order to find that answer.”
“Even when we find her, I’m not sure I will get what I need.”
“Perhaps not. We still need to find her. We need to understand what she’s after, and more than that, we need to understand what the person she serves is after.”
“Why would she have been gone for so long?” Ferrah asked.
Tolan looked over at her, frowning.
Ferrah shrugged. “Your mother. She was gone for years. If this was about the Convergences, why would she simply have disappeared for all that time? It wasn’t until recently that she reappeared.”
“Her influence was here,” Tolan said.
“Her influence was here, but it seems to me there was something else taking place. She had people serving her, attacking as if she were the Draasin Lord and targeting things, but for what reason?”
Tolan sat back, thinking through it, but he had no better answer. The only thing he could come up with was that she had wanted to harm the Academy, but even that was too simple. When it came to his mother, she was anything but simple. Everything she had done had involved planning and forethought and strategy. None of it was done impulsively.
What did he know?
He kept coming back to that, but each time he did, he had no new answers.
Tolan got to his feet, heading toward the door. “I need to speak with Daniels,” he said.
“Do you think that will help?” Master Minden asked. “He hasn’t spoken to any of the guards. He’s refused to answer any questions.”
“I don’t know.”
Tolan stepped out into the hall and headed toward the cell. When he reached it, he made his way along into the darkness. He sent a surge of fire out from him, using enough of it to illuminate his way.
He stopped in front of Daniels’ cell, looking inside. There was no movement in there, though he could see the shadowed form of Daniels along the back wall.
“I know you’re there.”
Daniel said nothing and Tolan grabbed the bars of the cell, leaning forward.
“What is my mother after? What’s she really after?”
There was a hint of movement. Daniels got to his feet, but as he approached the bar of the cell, he stayed in the shadows and the darkness, just out of reach.
“I know she’s after something.” Tolan looked at him for a moment. “You were always good to me. You didn’t have to be. When my parents left, even though you were serving her, you didn’t have to be kind to me, but you were.” That was another thing he knew. Daniels could have abused him, but he didn’t. At least, not while Tolan was working with him.
Tolan hadn’t given it much thought before now, and as he stood gripping the bars, he wondered about that. If Daniels was somehow working with his mother, and he had no doubt that he was, why would he have been kind to him?
Because his mother had needed him.
Another thing he knew.
What for?
There had to be some reason his mother had needed him, and she had needed him to be guided. She claimed she wanted to use him and his connection not only to the element bonds, but the elementals. Why, though?
It was in service to this person she served.
That was what he really needed to know. Not only about himself, but about what she intended for him.
“Will you talk to me?”
Daniels stepped forward, grabbing the bars. Tolan didn’t move. The other man opened his mouth, but no words came out. He tipped his head to the side, frowning, and when he did, he realized Daniels couldn’t talk.
Using spirit, he sent a shaping through him and found a film over his mind.
It was a complicated shaping, far more complicated than anything Tolan was able to use. He had begun to understand spirit, but not so well he would be able to use it quite like that.
/>
Someone had gotten to him.
Was it an Inquisitor?
All of the Inquisitors had been tested. The Grand Master himself had seen to it, along with Irina. They should be safe.
How, then?
Tolan turned away. He wasn’t going be able to get the answers he wanted out of Master Daniels, but there might be someone who could.
He waited in the hallway until Ferrah joined him. When she saw his expression, she raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”
“We need to find the Grand Master.”
“Why?”
When he told her about Master Daniels, she nodded. They hurried out and up the stairs and reached the Grand Master’s room. Knocking at the door, the other man took only a moment before pulling the door open and motioning for them to join him inside.
When they were, he glanced from Tolan to Ferrah. “Did you uncover anything?”
“We did, but first I’m going to need you to go and check on Master Daniels.”
“Why?”
“He has a spirit shaping over his mind.”
Understanding rolled through the Grand Master. “That’s why he’s not speaking.”
“That’s what I think. Somebody got to him. There must’ve been an Inquisitor that was missed.”
His brow furrowed and his expression darkened. “There shouldn’t have been, but… There also shouldn’t have been Inquisitors working against the Academy. I will look into it.” He looked up at Tolan. “What else did you uncover? Did you find the Convergence with the free elementals?”
“We did, though it’s different.”
“Different how?”
“Only that there happens to be a bondar around it.”
“A bondar?” The Grand Master frowned, pressing his hands together. “That would be unusual. None of the others have a bondar around them.”
“That’s what Irina thought as well. She stayed behind in order to try to better understand it, but—”
“She stayed behind?”
Tolan nodded. “She was trying to better understand the nature of the bondar there.”
The Grand Master shook his head. “Irina wouldn’t have stayed behind. She would have intended to dedicate more of her time to the search for the other Convergences. Her assignment wasn’t over.”
The Chaos Rises (Elemental Academy Book 6) Page 21