A Fading Fire

by D. K. Holmberg

  If this was real, and if the elementals had gone into the paintings somehow, then maybe the draasin were real. That relieved him a little bit. With what he sensed of the Draasin Lord, and the weariness of the elemental, he had begun to worry that the Draasin Lord would be the last of his kind. Now that he grew weaker, no longer even answering when Tolan sent a summons, he couldn’t help but question whether his time was truly short.

  “I found something,” he said, holding out the books.

  Master Minden stared at the painting a little bit longer before tearing her pale, milky gaze away and heading over to Tolan. She joined him, taking the books from him, and started to flip through them.

  “Where did you find these?” she asked.

  “Beyond.”

  “Beyond what?”

  “Beyond the waste.”

  She studied them, going from page to page, and there was a sense from her of first surprise, then of concern. “How is it that you came across these?”

  “We found a tower there. We had been captured there before, but this time, we went into the tower. Ferrah and I came across the library.” He glanced at the books in her hand. She had stopped on one page, holding it open. “We think it was an Academy.”

  Master Minden studied the books, keeping them open as she breathed out heavily. “Likely it was. There were rumors of many different Academies throughout the world. Terndahl was not the only place to have an Academy. In fact, Terndahl had more than one Academy at one point.”

  “We still have more than one Academy,” he said.

  “We have academies of shaping, but the Academies that existed before were much more impressive. Your friend Master Changen came from a place that had an Academy of great power.”

  “Par?”

  “Par was a land that had many shapers. There was a time when they had the most powerful shapers. They were able to draw upon power, and their connection to something else, to gain a certain level of prestige.”

  “This wasn’t anything like the Academy building here,” he said.

  “Nothing like it?”

  “Well, other than the library in the classrooms, but it doesn’t have the towers for each of the elements.”

  “Perhaps they had a different approach to teaching.”

  Tolan paused before asking the question that he thought needed to be answered. It was one that left him with the most questions, but it was the one that he thought might help them understand the other land better. “Do you think there are different elementals in other lands?”

  She looked up at him, frowning slightly. “Possibly,” she said.

  “I’ve been trying to understand why Ferrah and others aren’t able to shape in the Beyond. They can sense, but not shape. I’ve started to wonder if it has something to do with the land itself. Maybe the elements and the elementals there are different.” He paused, frowning. “Or perhaps not the elements, but the elementals are different.”

  “That would be possible.”

  “And if the elementals are different, then perhaps the element bonds are different.”

  Master Minden frowned. “We believe that we have access to the only element bonds.”

  “What if there are more bonds?”

  Master Minden turned her attention to the portraits. “Perhaps it’s not so much a different bond as it is a different way to reach the bonds. You’ve seen for yourself that we reach the bonds because of elementals we are familiar with. Perhaps the elementals in that land and the connection to the bonds are different because of that.”

  That made a certain sort of sense to Tolan. “I’m going to have to go back.”

  She looked over at him, frowning. Her milky eyes cleared for a moment, a hint of a shaping coming from her, before fading again. Tolan wondered what she saw when she did that.

  “I need to find understanding.”

  “You need to?”

  “I spoke to the lizard.”

  Master Minden tore her attention off the painting. “You did.”

  Tolan nodded. “He came to me. Or I came to him. I don’t even know. Either way, I spoke to him. He told me I needed to better understand.”

  “Understanding is the key to many things.”

  “I don’t understand the languages within that library, so until I do, I don’t know that I’ll even be able to find anything within the library that would be useful.”

  “I suspect in time you’ll gain the necessary experience and knowledge to be able to use what you want within the library.”

  He glanced over at Master Minden. “I feel like we should be able to find something there. That there are answers, if only we know how to find them.”

  “I think you feel that way because you want to feel that way.”

  “Roland couldn’t have disappeared altogether.”

  “Oh, I doubt he has. And as you know, the Grand Master has others searching for him.”

  Tolan could only nod. The others were all Inquisitors, all shapers who had the ability to use each of the elements, including spirit, and they were all powerful. Tolan had given them as much knowledge as he could to protect their minds. It still might not be enough.

  “He’s after something. If it’s not spirit and creating a spirit bond like when he was in Terndahl, it’s something else.”

  “We will find him,” she said.

  It felt as if they were behind Roland. It felt as if the other man was playing a different game. Despite everything Tolan could do with the elements, he didn’t know if they were going to be able to figure it out.

  Tolan turned his attention to the portraits. “The lizard suggested the elementals within the portraits went into it willingly.”

  “Is that right?”

  “Are these connected to the element bonds?”

  Master Minden smiled. “Perhaps they are.”

  “How?”

  “The nature of the paintings is such that they control considerable power. We have always known that.”

  Tolan focused on the power within the paintings. He shaped using the shaping that Master Minden had demonstrated. It was one that unlocked something about the portraits. It was a mixture of each of the elements with the addition of spirit, though spirit was the predominant element within it. Holding onto that shaping, Tolan could feel the energy, and he could feel the sense of power there. He latched onto it, letting that power flow to him.

  “Are you able to read those books?” Tolan asked softly.

  “No. The language has been lost.”

  “Do you think that you might be able to find a way to read them?”

  She nodded. “Just because language has been lost doesn’t mean that it can’t be found again.”

  He turned to her. “Would you help me understand?”

  “You have done an excellent job of that yourself, Master Ethar.”

  “This is different. I think I need to try to get a better sense of what’s going on before I can understand anything else. And the lizard wants me to find even more understanding,” he said.

  “I suspect he does. That would be spirit. As you know, spirit seeks to connect.”

  “What do we need to connect this time?”

  “I have been trying to figure that out myself, but I still don’t have the answer. The only thing I can think of is that he wants us to connect to ourselves. He wants us to connect to what’s out there. Perhaps he wants to see if we can connect Terndahl to the land beyond.”

  Tolan thought about his experience with the lizard, and the energy he had felt from the lizard, and within it was something similar. He couldn’t help but feel as if perhaps she was right.

  If we were able to connect to the land beyond, what would happen?

  Terndahl had been separated by the waste for so long that he had a hard time thinking about what it might be like if they were to connect to someplace else.

  He thought of the portraits here, the power that existed. Maybe the lizard wanted him to uncover something from the portraits to find som
e answer, but perhaps there was a different explanation altogether.

  “Why did he appear?” he asked softly, staring at the portraits.

  Tolan should have asked the lizard that question.

  He stared at the paintings. As much as he understood about them, there was still far too much he didn’t understand. There was still far too much that Master Minden either hadn’t shared with him—though that might be because he wasn’t a librarian—or she didn’t know.

  Master Minden stood next to him. Her shaping built, and it did so with a subtle sort of energy. Her control made him smile slightly. In the time that he’d been a student, progressing to a master shaper, he’d come to understand that she was possibly even a greater shaper than the Grand Master.

  “I feel as if there’s an answer here. I just have to find it,” he said.

  “There’s always another answer.”

  He stood for a moment, looking at the paintings, reaching briefly into the bonds as he shaped. When he touched upon the earth bond, there was a hint of the strangeness that remained there. Tolan looked over at Master Minden. “I haven’t gone to the earth bond again.”

  She looked over at him. “And at some point, you will need to.”

  “That’s why I’m here.”

  “I figured as much.”

  The last time he had gone into the earth bond, he had nearly been trapped, but that had been before he had a way of reaching for spirit. The lizard had wanted him to try to gain understanding.

  The Draasin Lord might be able to help, though the last time that he’d gone to him, he’d been weakened. Tired. He hadn’t answered when Tolan had called to him in the waste—and still hadn’t responded to him. He was fading. He wouldn’t be able to help.

  Tolan turned to Master Minden. “What happens when the Draasin Lord dies?”

  “Are you asking about what happens in the After? There have been many people who have speculated about that. I suppose that given what you have encountered, I’m not surprised you would question.”

  Tolan frowned. “Actually, I wasn’t. At least, I hadn’t been before.”

  “Why the question then?”

  “Because the Draasin Lord has warned me that he’s near the end of his life. He rests for long periods of time, and even when he comes around, he doesn’t really move all that much.” As far as Tolan could tell, the Draasin Lord would hunt, but not much more than that. He was tired.

  Tolan had tried to protect him when he’d been severely weakened once before by placing him into an orb, but even as he had, he had known that was no life for the draasin. It was no different than when his predecessors had forced the elementals into the bonds.

  “I suppose that when the Draasin Lord nears the end of his life, he will perish the same way as other creatures do,” Master Minden said.

  “He said something about returning to the bond.”

  “There are some who believe that we never really die. That our power returns to the elements and eventually it can be reborn.”

  “What would happen if Roland is someone who was reborn?”

  “Perhaps the better question is whether any of us have been reborn.”

  Tolan hadn’t given it much thought.

  But if that were the case, then who had I been before?

  He looked at Master Minden, studying her and wondering who she might have been before. He supposed that he could have speculated about everyone he had ever encountered. Possibly all of them had been someone else before.

  Tolan smiled at the idea that he had been someone else in the past. Others might be troubled by it, but the idea that he had lived before, that he’d experienced the world, left him with a better understanding as to why he was so compelled to pursue the elementals and the knowledge of them. Maybe the person he had once been had a tie to the elementals.

  “What about the elementals? Can they be reborn?”

  “You are the one who has connected to the elementals. Perhaps that’s a question for them.”

  Tolan wondered whether or not that was something the elementals would even know.

  If they did, would they be able to answer? Would they want to answer?

  He swept his gaze along the hallway once again, thinking about what he needed to do, power that he had to call upon, and he realized that he had to gain understanding. That was the whole point of what the lizard had wanted him to find. Once he gained understanding, then—and possibly only then—would he be able to do anything else.

  Taking a deep breath, he looked over at Master Minden. “Will you stay with me when I go into the bond?”

  “I think that I should.”

  It reassured him. At least this time, he wouldn’t be going alone.

  10

  The chamber for the Convergence was massive, a roof stretching high overhead darkened by shadows. He could shape light here and illuminate the upper reaches of this chamber, but there was no point in doing so. From what Tolan had been able to tell about this Convergence, the Academy had been built around it, trapping its power for use by the shapers. It allowed shapers to begin drawing on power they wouldn’t otherwise be able to obtain.

  The walls were covered by runes, something that he had not known when he had first come here. Even now, Tolan could close his eyes and feel the power of those runes working along the walls. Still, that was not the reason he had come to this chamber.

  That was at the center of the room.

  The Convergence was a pool of silvery liquid, and from here, he could feel a sense of power. It radiated throughout the room, the energy that was here filling the entirety of the chamber. It augmented each of his connections to the elements without him even stepping foot into the Convergence.

  Partly that came from the fact that the runes around the Academy were designed to draw power from it, but partly it was because of his previous attempts at going into the Convergence. He knew that it didn’t take much to connect to that power; he could feel the energy that flowed there, the energy that existed, and he thought about the power that was there and how he was going to be able to reach it.

  Tolan looked over at Master Minden. She wore a gray robe and had her hands tucked into the sleeves, clasped in front of her. She said nothing as he quickly disrobed, though she did turn away.

  He’d considered talking to Ferrah, at least letting her know what he was going to do, but he’d been worried she would try to talk him out of it. She knew what had happened to him the last time, and she knew just what he risked coming here again.

  Once he stepped into the liquid, it flowed around him. A sense of power washed up through him. It filled him, coursing through everything within him. A sense of energy radiated from the Convergence, and a distinct sense of power left him feeling just how much energy was here.

  Turning to Master Minden, he nodded. “The last time I came into this, I didn’t know what I was doing. This time…”

  “If you need to reach me, try to go through spirit.”

  “This time, I wonder if I might be able to use the spirit bond while I’m in there.”

  When he had gone into the earth bond before, he’d recognized that there was spirit, but he hadn’t known how to reach for spirit itself. By delving into it now, by pulling upon earth in order to dive into the earth bond, he not only would be closer to the earth bond, but he would also be closer to spirit. It was possible that not only would he be able to reach for the sense of spirit, but he might be able to reach for the lizard.

  Master Minden watched him, saying nothing.

  He focused on the power within the Convergence. It rolled through him, the energy overwhelming, intoxicating, and he thought about that and what it would take to call upon that power. All he could think about was just how much power existed within the Convergence. He could think only about just how much energy there was as it tried to press through him

  It flowed through him. Unlike before, when he hadn’t been certain what he needed to do, this time Tolan had a better understanding as to w
hat was required of him. He pulled on spirit, letting it flow through him, and he added a touch of earth. He didn’t need much more than a touch. In doing so, he could feel the energy as it flowed, and he turned the power of earth toward him.

  There came a sense of movement.

  He embraced it, holding onto it, and he flooded through the bond.

  When he had done it before, there had been a sense of the elementals, and this time there was the same sense. He passed them as he traveled to the bond. It was a flow of power, a river of energy, and Tolan continued to hold onto it, letting that sense drag him along. That energy continued to call to him, dragging him forward. Tolan held onto it, focusing on spirit and power, not fighting it. He let himself be dragged along, embracing the power of the elements.

  It forced him along a pathway.

  Every so often, Tolan had a sense of the elementals here.

  This time, he didn’t attempt to slow himself. He pulled upon the Convergence, maintaining that connection and letting power flow through him. It blasted him forward and he slammed into the green space that existed at the end of the bond.

  Once there, Tolan stood inside a massive forest. Trees towered high overhead. There was no sense of wind. No sense of water. There was only the sense of earth all around him. It wasn’t that it was unpleasant. There was power here, and it came from all of earth. Mixed within it was spirit. Now that Tolan was here and understood spirit within the element bonds, he could tease apart the power of spirit and the reason that it was here. It filled him with that sense. Spirit connected the elements and the elementals, along with the shapers. It was because of spirit that they were able to reach for the element bonds.

  Tolan focused on that, letting the energy fill him. He took a step, traveling what seemed hundreds of miles within a single step. At least, that was how it felt. It was possible he traveled only a few feet. The landscape changed, going from a lush green forest to a rolling, expansive landscape. Another step and it turned into a massive mountain. Beyond there, he knew that he would continue to make circles, traveling around and around, the power of this place carrying him as he traveled.