She nodded.
To Amia, saying she felt it amounted to the same as sensing something.
As he looked at her, Tan noticed the troubled look on her face. What would she have sensed that would bother her so much? And what would she have sensed through all the noise of the people within Ethea?
“What is it?”
She shook her head. “Probably nothing.”
He could tell she kept something from him, but not what. At times, he had been almost convinced the bond would let them share thoughts. If it would, what would he find if he shared her thoughts now?
He touched Amia’s arms, and his fingers slid down to reach hers. “What is it?”
She turned to him. “I was in the city earlier today. Roine left some coins and after…” She took a breath. “After what happened, I needed clothes. I wandered to the east. Another shop owner told me about shops where prices were more manageable.”
Tan smiled. Likely the shop keep hadn’t intended to share such knowledge with Amia, but she was blessed by the Great Mother, gifted with the ability to sense and shape spirit. The ability to sense spirit is what gave the Aeta their advantage trading. But Amia could shape spirit as well, force suggestions and change thoughts. He’d experienced firsthand how powerful such shapings could be.
“While shopping, I saw them.”
Tan shook his head. “Saw who?”
Amia blinked and looked away from him. “My people. Aeta.”
Tan laughed, cutting off when he realized Amia hadn’t smiled. “But isn’t that a good thing? After losing everyone you knew to the lisincend, aren’t you happy to see others of your people?”
She sighed. “It’s not that I’m not happy,” she started. “It’s just—”
“What?”
“It’s complicated.”
Tan could tell she didn’t want to explain it any more than she had. While he didn’t understand why she wouldn’t want to see her people, he would let her decide when to explain to him the reason she struggled with it. In the meantime, he had a problem she might be able to help with.
“Roine thinks the draasin attacked.”
Amia blinked and the troubled look on her face faded. “The draasin? It was draasin?”
Tan sighed. “I…I don’t know. I’ve tried speaking to them but haven’t been able to.”
Her eyes lost focus. A tingling sensation worked through him.
“What was that?”
Amia shook her head, the troubled look returning to her face. “I tried reaching through you to the draasin, but I can’t tell either.”
“Reaching through me? You can do that?”
She laughed softly. “I shouldn’t be able to, but something happened when we escaped—”
“You mean when you shaped me.”
She nodded. “The shaping was unintentional. I hadn’t done that since I was young, but with the lisincend… it shouldn’t have worked like that. Even when I shaped unintentionally, I never forged a connection like this.”
“Do you feel the draasin in my head?” Tan wondered if she had shared in the pain when the connection had been stronger. Had she known the pain he’d been going through?
Had she been protecting him?
Amia leaned forward on her elbows, looking at the books. “I can feel something. I know it’s there, but not what it is. I assumed it was the draasin.”
“I can’t feel it like I did before. Not since I spoke to it the other day.”
“You connected to the draasin?”
“I didn’t even mean to, but I was tired and my head had been hurting.” Tan felt the need to explain, though Amia did nothing to make him feel that way. “Something I said upset it. Since then, I haven’t felt the connection the same way.”
Amia frowned and touched the back of her head. “Your head?”
Tan nodded. “Since we arrived in Ethea, my neck has been bothering me. It’s been worse the last few days.” And especially bad now, while sitting in the archives.
“Does it affect your vision?” she asked softly. “Does it keep you from seeing certain colors?”
Tan shook his head. “Nothing like that. Just the pain. A distant sort of ache. I knew it was the draasin, but I didn’t know what I could do about it.”
Amia sighed. She touched her head again. “I’ve been having pains as well,” she admitted. “They’ve grown worse the last few days. I don’t know what they mean.”
Tan frowned. “Do you think you’re feeling the draasin, too?”
Neither of them understood the shaped connection between them. Could she use the connection to speak to the draasin? Could she speak to the nymid?
“Not the draasin,” she said. “This is different.”
“What is it?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know.”
Tan watched her and frowned. “You have an idea.”
She nodded. “I felt something while we searched for the artifact. I thought it had something to do with the lisincend, but it’s only grown worse.” She offered him a smile and tried to turn away. “Now that we’re in the city and not running for our lives…” She shook her head. “The pain has gotten worse.”
Tan grabbed her hand and turned her to face him. As he did, he realized what she feared. “You think you’re feeling the shaping.”
Amia didn’t say anything at first, but then she nodded. “I think it’s possible.”
“How? What’s causing the pain?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never done a shaping like it before. I don’t even know what it was I did in the first place. I’ve been testing different things to see if it will make a difference, but so far, nothing has helped.”
That Amia tried various things to make the pain go away told Tan all he needed about how badly it bothered her. “Is that why you’ve been staying away?”
She didn’t meet his eyes. “I’ve not been staying away, Tan.”
“You have. I thought you were giving me space to understand the university, but that wasn’t it, was it?”
She took a deep breath and looked up at him. Finally, she nodded. “At first, the pain got better when we were apart. Now, it doesn’t seem to make a difference. In fact, lately, it surged worse, hot and terrible. I can’t get rid of it now.”
“Can you undo the shaping?”
Amia smiled. Sadness remained in her eyes. “I’ve tried. That was the first thing I did. But it didn’t work. When you told me of the archives, I looked through the books here to try to find an answer, but there’s nothing.”
“The archivists wouldn’t make books on spirit shaping available,” Tan said. “There hasn’t been a spirit shaper at the university in hundreds of years.”
A hint of a playful expression teased at her eyes. “All it takes is asking to find what you need.”
Tan frowned, thinking of the way the archivist looked at him, the way they treated his requests. Had he asked to access the restricted section, they would quickly have refused. He was just a senser, not even a shaper, and the restricted section was reserved for the archivists and Master shapers only.
But Amia was a shaper. And a spirit shaper at that. If she shaped her question, even the archivists couldn’t refuse.
Tan laughed. Amia looked at him strangely.
The older archivist looming along the far wall shot him a look and then turned and hobbled away. The brief pressure behind his ears told him that Amia had shaped him in some way.
“I’ve been trying to find a way to get to the restricted archives to learn about the draasin,” he explained. “But if you can walk in, you could help me find what I’m looking for.”
She shook her head. “It doesn’t work quite like that. There are thousands of works in what they call the restricted section. Some are kept locked so only certain archivists can access them.”
“That’s where you think the works you might need are hidden?”
She shrugged. “It is logical. If your university hasn’t had a spirit shaper in
as long as Roine says, it follows they would try to keep the knowledge protected.”
“But maybe the work on the draasin isn’t protected the same way. Maybe I can find out more about the draasin.”
Amia smiled, but it was a sad expression. “I’ll see what I can do.”
The archivist led them into the depths of the restricted archives.
Amia had approached him directly. He stood near the far corner, looking for all intents as if he diligently worked at organizing a section of books. The man had short white hair shorn close to his scalp. Dark splotches were smeared across his face. He only looked up as they approached. Tan hadn’t seen him in the archives before.
“May I be of assistance?” he asked. The man spoke with a thick accent Tan didn’t recognize, though he doubted he’d recognize any accent in the city other than those from Galen. Like all the archivists Tan had seen, he wore a thick, gray robe that hung to thin ankles. He looked as ancient as the other archivists, but his eyes were bright and seemed to take everything in.
Amia glanced at Tan before turning back to him. “Your help would be much appreciated.”
The man sniffed. “That is why I am here,” he said.
Amia smiled. Tan felt a warmth radiate from her, a soothing sense she barely had to shape. The archivist did not seem to respond to it nearly as well as Tan.
“There are a few works I would like to find,” she went on.
The man stood up and turned to her, waiting.
Amia glanced at Tan and nodded. When she turned back to the archivist, the surge of her shaping came as pressure in his ears.
“I would like to see your works on the draasin,” Amia said.
The archivist blinked a moment as the shaping took hold, and then he turned and led them to the doorway near the back of the archives. Amia grabbed Tan’s hand as they followed.
Tan was surprised by the sheer size of the archives. From where he’d been sitting, they archives weren’t particularly large: a few wide dusty tables and rows of shelves. But behind the door, there was row after row of massive shelves. The archivist glanced at the shelves as he made his way through them, barely pausing when he reached an out-of-the-way corner.
Then he led them down a narrow stair.
Walls were darkened; only a few shapers lanterns hung on them. Amia shaped them and pale light bloomed.
The archivist nodded at her. “Thank you, Master.”
Tan frowned, but Amia only shrugged.
They continued down the stairs. Light from the shapers lanterns guided them. Doors opened off the stairs, but the archivist continued down.
“Where are you taking us?” Tan asked.
The archivist paused and turned. “You requested to see the works on the draasin?”
Amia nodded. She sent another surge of shaping.
“Then we must continue to the lower archives.” He continued down the stairs. “Few ask about the draasin anymore. They have been gone so long, few even know about them. Those who study such things expected saa and inferin to grow stronger in their absence, but that hasn’t been the case.” The archivist looked over his shoulder. “Might I ask where you learned of them?”
“How do people forget any of the great elementals?” Amia asked. “Inferin and saa do not serve quite the same as ara, golud, and udilm.”
The archivist nodded. “Inferin and saa are lesser elementals only. Much like the nymid and thesn. But the draasin have been gone for nearly a thousand years, hunted and destroyed by the ancient warriors. One can only imagine what it must have been like when their wings filled the sky.”
“Why did you say saa and inferin would grow stronger?” Tan asked.
The archivist looked back at him and frowned. They stopped at a lower landing and the archivist pulled a ring of keys out of his pocket. “It has been suggested that the greater elementals are essential to the world. Some think that in the absence of a greater, the strength of the lesser increases.” He sniffed. “Alas, this has not proven true with saa or inferin in the absence of the draasin. Perhaps another elemental has appeared?”
Tan wondered if that were true. Could that be why the nymid had been so powerful?
The archivist sorted through his keys until he found what he sought and turned it in the lock on the door, pushing it open. Inside, a single bookcase stood in the middle of the room. The archivist nodded to it.
Amia lit the shapers lantern on the wall, giving a soft glow to the room as she and Tan made their way inside. As they did, the archivist pulled the door closed and left them alone.
“Is there anything here?” he asked.
Amia looked at the bookcase. Ancient texts filled the shelves. She pulled a few off the shelves and flipped them open, glancing at pages as she did. She frowned as she did.
“What’s wrong?”
She shook her head, grabbing another book. This one had a leather cover embossed with symbols Tan did not recognize. “These have nothing to do with the draasin.”
Tan looked over her shoulder, but the writing on the pages was made in a tight scrawl and done in the ancient language. “What are they about?”
Amia didn’t answer. She pushed the book back onto the shelf and grabbed another, flipping through it.
Through the bond between them, the accidental shaping, Tan felt her growing more and more agitated. Whatever she saw bothered her.
He looked over at the door. Shaped as he was, the archivist shouldn’t have left them here.
It was then he realized something was amiss.
The door seemed to have vanished, disappearing as if into the wall.
“Amia?”
She shook her head as she grabbed another book off the shelves. She flipped through it quickly, the agitation becoming clearer. “These have nothing to do with the elementals at all.”
He said her name again. “Amia—”
“What?”
She looked toward the door, toward where the archivist had left them in the darkness. Her face changed, the anxiety Tan felt through the shaping becoming fear. “He knew.”
Tan frowned. “Amia… I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She moved past him and pushed on the wall, but it wouldn’t open. Amia turned to him and shook her head. “The archivist. He knew I shaped him. And somehow, he resisted it.”
“How could he know?” Tan asked. He touched the wall where the door should be but found nothing to grab hold of, no way to open the door.
The door was locked and they were trapped.
CHAPTER 10
Escape
Amia stared at the wall, right where the door should have been. Tan pulled on her arm, spinning her so she faced him. “How could he have known?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Only those of the Aeta have resisted my shapings, and then rarely. The only other time a shaping failed was when I tried shaping the lisincend.”
Tan looked toward the shelves. Amia didn’t say it, but the fact that the archivist had resisted her shaping made it more likely the draasin could resist as well. Tan had thought the lisincend able to ignore the shaping because they were twisted. The shaping they’d done upon themselves had made them impervious to Amia’s spirit shaping. But what if that were wrong? What if Amia’s spirit shaping could be ignored?
“We have to get out of here,” she continued. She grabbed her head and rubbed at her temples, pain twisting her face. “If they know I can shape spirit…”
Tan understood. It was the secret her people had been trying to keep from the university for years. “How will we get out if we can’t get past the door?”
Amia threw her shoulder against the wall. It didn’t move.
Fear clouded her face when she turned to him. “Can you do anything?”
Tan shook his head. “Even if I’m a shaper like you think, I don’t know how to control it. I can barely sense anything here in the university.”
Amia sighed and worked to steady her breathing. She licked her lips and sw
allowed, turning back to the wall as she ran her fingers along the edge of where the door had been.
As she worked, Tan felt her anxiety building. She paused a moment and rubbed the back of her neck again, the motion the same as he did while trying to ignore the pain he felt buried there. But since the draasin spoke to him last, he hadn’t felt the same pain.
Through the anxiety, another sense came, a pressure Tan had felt during their times in the mountains. It came like a voice in his head, a soft whisper that he could not ignore. A shaping, one that compelled him. Protect me.
He didn’t think Amia had shaped him again. This was a remnant of the first shaping, the one that formed the bond between them, but he could not ignore the request.
His breathing quickened. The anxiety Amia felt bloomed in him. His heart fluttered.
Amia turned and met his eyes. Did she know the bond urged him now?
“Someone comes,” she said.
“Can you tell who?”
Her eyes went shut for a moment as she sensed. When they reopened, renewed fear appeared there. “Not the archivist. It is another.”
Another. Who would the archivist allow into the lower archives?
“Can you tell anything about him?”
Amia shook her head. “It’s strange. He is…blocked…from me.”
“You’re not usually blocked?”
Tan didn’t really know how Amia’s sensing worked. With earth sensing, he had to intentionally try and reach out around him, to connect with everything around him. Was it the same for her?
“No.”
The anxiety she felt surged again through the bond. Protect me.
It came louder this time: less of a whisper and with a sense of urgency.
He looked at Amia but couldn’t tell if she knew what she was doing. Did she shape him intentionally or was this really the echo of the earlier shaping, now lingering within him?
Tan looked for another way out of the room. Walls of smooth stone surrounded them. The air held a dampness to it, a lingering scent describing their descent deep into the earth to reach the lower level of the archives. A sense of oppression came over him, as if the room itself squeezed down on them.
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