A Fading Fire

by D. K. Holmberg

  What if this was the first step in Roland starting a war with Terndahl?

  If they had spirit shapers like Roland, there wouldn’t be much that Terndahl would be able to do. Tolan squeezed his eyes shut, thinking about the power here, and opened them again.

  “I need to return. I need to get help.”

  “Very well.”

  The draasin gradually took to the air. He seemed even slower than he had before and Tolan struggled, holding on to the draasin, clinging to his back, and as they stretched across the waste, Tolan could feel that power radiating off him. It was almost as if the Draasin Lord were depleting the farther they traveled.

  Tolan breathed out, hating that he felt as if he were losing his connection to the Draasin Lord, hating that it seemed that there was nothing that he could do differently, and hating that it seemed as if he would lose the Draasin Lord.

  There was a time when he would’ve asked the Draasin Lord to assist in any fight.

  But how could I do that when I have the distinct sense that the Draasin Lord wouldn’t survive?

  They continued flying, reaching the heart of the waste and passing over it. Tolan looked down at the Guardians, focusing on the bondar there, feeling the power that existed. As they traveled, he felt as if there was something more that he needed to understand about the strange Convergence that was here, and couldn’t help but feel as if some aspect of it eluded him.

  Then they continued past.

  Tolan twisted so that he could look behind him, staring at the Guardians. He had believed the Guardians protected the Convergence here, preventing something from getting released, but knowing now that they had been separated from spirit and he had connected them again, he couldn’t help but feel as if there was something more.

  Spirit had kept them from accessing the element bonds completely. Now that he had reconnected them—or connected them, whatever the case may be—they were a part of those element bonds. That had to matter.

  Which meant that the original purpose of the Convergence had not required spirit.

  Or it had depended upon the Guardians not having that connection.

  He frowned, turning back to focus on the Draasin Lord.

  “Wouldn’t they have needed a connection to spirit?”

  It should have made them stronger, more equipped to withstand any attack. For whatever reason, the Guardians had been separated. They had not been tied into spirit.

  As they passed back into Terndahl, the energy of his homeland flowing over him, Tolan couldn’t help but feel as if that were significant. The only problem was that he didn’t have any answer as to why. Worse, he could feel the Draasin Lord fading, and knew that any answers the Draasin Lord once might have offered were no longer possibile. Any answer that came would have to come from Tolan.

  The Draasin Lord dropped him at the edge of the waste.

  “It is time for me to hunt,” the Draasin Lord said.

  “Do you need help?” Tolan felt bad even asking, but feeling the heat fading from the draasin left him wondering if he would be able to hunt on his own.

  He roared, power erupting from him. “I am a draasin. When I no longer have the strength in me for that, it will be time to return to fire.”

  With a flap of his massive wings, the Draasin Lord took to the sky, spiraling around as he lifted off, quickly becoming a shadow high overhead.

  Tolan stared for a moment before tearing his gaze away. When he was done, he looked out toward the waste and focused back on the Academy, along with Terndahl. Using a warrior shaping, he called power to him, letting it carry him up and away.

  19

  Tolan landed on the top of the tower within the Academy. He hurried through the tower, pausing at the spirit tower before shaping up to the classroom. Voices caught his attention, and he realized that he had interrupted a class. He had a moment where he felt troubled by that, a moment where it irritated him that someone else would teach. At the same time, this was for the best. He needed to let somebody else take over, even if it was for a little while. Thankfully it wasn’t Carson.

  Velthan’s voice rang out, describing his technique for reaching spirit. Tolan listened for only a moment, shaking his head. At least Velthan still talked the way that Tolan did.

  This wasn’t going to be where he needed to go. He left the spirit tower before any of the students realized that he was there and questioned why he wasn’t the one teaching.

  As he headed down the stairs, he passed Kerry and two other Inquisitors. They were speaking softly, shaping spirit, and as she looked up, she nodded to the others, whispering something before they looked over at Tolan and headed off.

  “You look concerned,” Kerry said.

  “Not concerned,” Tolan said. “Just preoccupied.” He glanced back in the direction of the spirit tower. At least it wasn’t one of the Inquisitors teaching. Velthan could be irritating, but at least he had the best interest of the students.

  “I understand you are responsible for cleansing the earth bond. That is quite impressive.”

  Tolan nodded. “I did what I could, but I am still trying to figure out what Roland was after.”

  “What makes you think that he was after anything?”

  “He was in the waste the last time I saw him. I know he’s up to something; I just don’t know what it is.”

  “He shouldn’t be able to shape in the waste,” she said.

  Tolan shook his head. They were standing in the stairs, which was a strange place to have this conversation. “Not without a bondar. There are some bondars that would hold stored shaping energy.”

  “I understand you don’t need a bondar to shape in the waste.”

  Tolan looked up, meeting her dark eyes. Spirit swirled from her, touching him briefly. In that moment, he realized something.

  She was a powerful shaper. Not just a powerful spirit shaper, but a powerful shaper in general.

  “You could shape in the waste,” he said softly.

  She looked along the hallway before leaning close to him. “I told you that when I was at the Selection in Ephra, I went out to the waste. That was when I discovered that I had something that others do not. I wasn’t sure what it meant.”

  “How long ago was that?”

  “Only a few years ago,” she said.

  That would have been after Tolan had demonstrated the key to shaping in the waste. The ability to do that was rare. It involved a different kind of shaping than what most in the Academy possessed.

  With her having that ability…

  He was going to need help going Beyond. Ferrah couldn’t shape there. The librarians had some who could, but what he was going to face had the potential of being dangerous.

  “You said that you would be willing to help if I needed it?”

  She frowned at him. “What do you think that you will need?”

  “I’m not sure. Yet. But if I do…”

  She nodded. “I can help. If it’s for the Academy, then I will help.” She tipped her head to the side and spirit stretched out from her. “I should go.”

  She hurried up the stairs and this time, Tolan found himself watching after her.

  He hurried down the stairs and stopped within the hall of portraits. Nothing significant had changed since he was here last, though he had suspected there might’ve been something. Thankfully—or perhaps not thankfully—nothing was different.

  What he needed was to better understand these paintings.

  The lizard had lived within one of them. That was the answer—and the understanding—he thought he needed. The lizard been prompting him to chase understanding. Not only of himself, or of the bonds, but of the past.

  It all came back to what he believed; that he had thought he needed to find understanding of himself. He also needed to find understanding of the elementals and what had happened to them over the years.

  Despite believing that he knew what had happened the elementals, and despite believing he understood what they had experienced, T
olan recognized that there was much he still didn’t fully grasp. As much as he wanted to understand the torment the elemental had experienced, he simply did not.

  He stared at the paintings.

  The one where he had seen the lizard at first was no different than it had been before. The young girl was there, sitting in the heart of the chamber, the power radiating from her demonstrated by the white light that pushed back the darkness. As Tolan stared at it, he thought it significant. For whatever reason, he needed to better understand this painting.

  The answer was there. Perhaps not in this one in particular, but in the paintings in general. To truly understand them, he needed Master Minden.

  Tolan raced down through the Academy, hurrying to the water tower. When he reached the door, he knocked briefly, waiting a moment before pushing it open. Master Wassa was inside, sitting at a chair near Master Minden’s bed. A shaping of water emanated from him, rolling through her.

  She remained motionless, peaceful but otherwise quiet.

  “How is she?” Tolan asked.

  “No different than before.”

  “I need to speak to her.”

  “I’m afraid that won’t be possible. She hasn’t come around for anyone to speak to her.”

  “Even if I shape spirit within her?”

  “I believe you have tried that already.”

  Tolan had tried it, and he hadn’t been able to detect anything from within her mind. “I tried, but I don’t know if it was the right shaping for her. I need to try a different one.”

  He took a seat opposite Master Wassa, looking at Master Minden. Her face was pale, her skin seeming more heavily wrinkled than the last time he’d seen her. Her eyes were closed so that he couldn’t make out the milky film over her eyes, but she still breathed. Tolan was thankful for that.

  If they lost Master Minden, how much more would they lose?

  It seemed unfathomable they could lose her. She had always seemed so powerful to him, at least ever since learning about her strength—or real strength. When he had first met her, he hadn’t known who she was or what she was. Even now, Tolan wasn’t sure that he truly understood her for what she was.

  She was a master librarian. She was gifted. And she had helped him. Not only was she the master librarian, but she was a Minden. From what she had said, a Minden had been within the library at the Academy since the founding of the Academy. That mattered as well.

  Losing her…

  It was something that could not happen.

  Now it was his turn to help her.

  Taking one of her hands, he pulled on a shaping. This close to the Convergence deep beneath the Academy and with access to the rune in the spirit tower, Tolan could call upon a considerable strength and source of spirit. He let that power fill him before pushing it toward Master Minden.

  Turning the shaping, using a fine control over spirit, he felt something, though couldn’t find the source of her injury.

  He needed the help of the lizard.

  Tolan closed his eyes, focusing on that creature, the sense of spirit, along with the energy of the spirit bonds. He called for knowledge and power, begging for the lizard to answer. Tolan had no idea whether he even would answer if summoned.

  Rather than shaping through Master Minden, he pushed toward his desire to reach the lizard. He wanted spirit. He pressed out everything he could, unleashing all his power. A surge of awareness formed a connection to the sense of spirit.

  “Lizard,” he called out, using a connection within his mind. He had no idea if it would be enough or if the lizard would be aware of it, but Tolan pushed that outward, struggling for some way to reach the lizard.

  There was no answer.

  Tolan held onto spirit, calling more to him. He wrapped spirit around himself, around his mind.

  “Lizard.”

  This time, he thought about something different. He thought about the cavern where he had first encountered the lizard, the energy that he’d felt there. He thought about the young girl that Tolan had seen in the painting, though he hadn’t seen her anywhere else.

  Could the girl be connected to the elemental in some way? The portraits were said to contain aspects of the elementals, but could the same be true for the shapers there? If so, then some part of those shapers had been trapped and stored within those paintings.

  “Lizard.”

  This time, not only did he send it with an image of the lizard, but with an image of where the lizard had been. He used that, focusing on what he could from where he had first encountered the lizard.

  Gradually, the cavern formed within his mind.

  Tolan knew the cavern wasn’t real, much like so much that he had encountered wasn’t real, but the energy he felt, the surge of power that suggested to him that the lizard was there, was real enough.

  He thought his connection to the lizard was real enough.

  Slowly, there came a stirring of light that grew gradually brighter. As it did, Tolan turned toward it, focusing on the light, and saw the lizard once again. “I need your help to save Master Minden.”

  “What makes you think she needs saving?”

  “Something happened to her while I was in the Convergence. I don’t know what it was, only that whatever it was affected her. She has been incapacitated ever since.”

  “You seek knowledge when you have it.”

  “I might have the knowledge, but I don’t have the experience. I need to help her. It’s not her time to leave us.”

  “You believe you’re the Great Mother now?”

  Tolan shook his head, thinking about the lizard, thinking about that power, and thinking about what he was going to be able to do.

  “I need your help,” he said again.

  “And I have told you that you already have it.”

  Which meant that he had it within his memories. All he had to do was find a way to reach through them, though Tolan struggled to do so.

  “I need to find some way to help her. I’m trying to understand if there is a connection to the paintings.”

  The lizard crawled forward, coming into view. As he came closer, Tolan could make out its details. He was larger than he had been before. Tolan thought of him as a large cat, but perhaps that was inaccurate. Now he was the size of a dog, and it was more than just the glowing light coming off him. His scales seemed to take on more definition.

  Why, though?

  “Your experience with the portraits hasn’t taught you what you need?”

  He studied the lizard. “When I entered the portrait with you, I was drawn by your power. It wasn’t anything I controlled.”

  “Are you certain of that?”

  Tolan stared at the lizard. Spirit radiated from the lizard, energy he could feel.

  “I didn’t have control over anything within the portrait. You’re the one commanding it.”

  “I was guiding you. Nothing more than that.”

  Tolan thought about his experience with the lizard, thinking about the power he could detect from the lizard and through the portrait.

  “You were doing more than guiding me. You drew me in.”

  “You had what you needed.”

  Tolan recognized power in the lizard. That power had pulled him toward it, giving him a sense of something more.

  Could he draw from that?

  “Did my mother give me something?”

  “The knowledge you have needed has always been there.”

  Tolan thought about the way that spirit had been layered upon his mind. He had felt the energy his mother had placed, the steady buildup of power that had worked over him. He had no control over it, only an awareness of that power there. Though he now recognized that his mother had done something to him, even in those memories where the knowledge was there and clear to him, he didn’t know what she had done. Though he had stripped away the shaping, the understanding of it remained missing.

  The lizard claimed that the knowledge was always there.

  How much had
his mother known?

  Perhaps she had given him what he needed.

  Tolan stared at the lizard.

  Why wouldn’t the lizard just tell me?

  He held onto spirit. The lizard had lived a long time as well, and trapped as he had been within the portrait, he wouldn’t have any more knowledge that the draasin had. The lizard couldn’t tell him anything.

  The lizard simply didn’t have the answers Tolan needed. It was all about answers. His knowledge was limited, and from what he had learned from the elementals, the knowledge of the elementals was limited as well. Spirit connected the elementals. Spirit had connected him.

  What if the elementals were able to piece together the missing aspects of the knowledge they needed?

  That had to be the answer. The element bonds were connected to spirit. That connection was the key.

  He withdrew.

  The sense of the lizard remained, though not as potent as before. As Tolan focused on the lizard, he realized that some part of him carried through. Whatever Tolan had done had bonded him to the lizard.

  He opened his eyes. Master Minden was there, still lying motionless, breathing slowly. He held onto each of the elements, drawing on spirit, and he bonded them together, twisting them in a way that reminded him of what he had done within the portraits. It was a strange sort of shaping, one that pulled power outward from him, mixing with spirit similar to the warrior shaping, and he pushed it toward Master Minden.

  There was a pressure against him.

  It was almost as if she fought what he was doing, though he doubted she did so intentionally. Tolan called energy through him, through the element bonds and into Master Minden. He needed to push out as much as he could.

  Master Wassa watched, his eyes wide. “What are you doing? That’s too much—”

  Power exploded from Tolan.

  It burst into Master Minden, filling her with the power. Something within her seemed to latch onto that energy. As soon as it did, he realized what had happened.

  Somehow during the time near the Convergence, she had been separated from the element bonds.

  How was it that I hadn’t noticed it before?

  The answer came to him. Because he was not supposed to notice it.