The Shape of Fire

by D. K. Holmberg

  Practicing spirit in the village would be easier here than in any of the towns they’d been, both because there weren’t many people here and because there wasn’t much in the way of conflicting shaping as there would be in other places.

  “I count seventy people or so,” Velthan said.

  Tolan nodded. It was seventy-eight, but seventy was close enough. Even in that, he was surprised at Velthan’s control over spirit. He was getting more talented with it.

  “What else can you detect about them?”

  Velthan glanced over at him, frowning. His deep brown eyes narrowed. “What else should I be able to detect? I think even being able to determine how many people are here is a good step. Great Mother, Tolan, if anything were to happen, I could use any of the other elements if necessary.”

  Tolan resisted the urge to say anything to him. It would be great if Velthan would at least refer to him as Master Ethar. “It’s more than you needing to use the other elements. This is about trying to understand your ability. This is about you trying to understand what it means for you to shape spirit.”

  “I’m not shaping spirit, am I? I’m sensing with it.”

  “Sensing leads to shaping,” Tolan said, repeating the same thing he’d told him over and again.

  “I haven’t done much in the way of shaping,” Velthan said.

  “You’ve done more than most at your level. We couldn’t really practice in the other places, but out here, we have a chance to do that. Focus again. Think about what we’re detecting—why we were drawn out here. Something pulled us here.”

  Tolan could feel that, though he still didn’t entirely know what it was.

  Maybe it was only tied to the elementals that he’d felt moving, though not why he’d felt them moving.

  Velthan laughed softly. “How long are you going to have us stand here?”

  “Long enough for us to see if there’s anything we can detect.”

  “What do you detect?”

  Tolan closed his eyes. “When I use spirit, I detect the village. I count seventy-eight people within the village. There are forty-one women and thirty-seven men. I detect a dozen children, about evenly split boy and girl, and from what I can tell, they are of various ages, including a pair of unborn twins. There’s a wind shaper here with some natural talent but not much formal education. Also, one child has potential.”

  That person had to be the reason they were here. It was a Selection, but it was a different sort of Selection than the traditional Selection of students for the Academy.

  “You detect all that?”

  Tolan nodded slowly. “If I were to add a spirit shaping, I’d have been able to find out how many of them were farmers and how many of them were shop owners, and I would’ve been able to dig into their minds in order to—”

  “I get it.”

  Velthan stared at the village, a hint of shaping coming from him. Tolan smiled to himself as he realized Velthan had used spirit, though not with much potency. Still, it was more than the student had been using before. Tolan hoped that with time Velthan would continue to improve. Already he’d improved, even during the short time they had been out on this Selection.

  It was the first time Tolan had ever been to Telfair. From what he could detect, pushing out with a shaping of spirit, there had not been a Selection within the village before. It was isolated along the boundary of the mountains. The village was far enough to the north that Tolan had never visited, though he’d traveled nearby since becoming a master shaper, back when he’d been searching for the elementals.

  “You’re right. There are seventy-eight people here.”

  Tolan smiled to himself. That was the part Velthan focused on?

  He motioned for Velthan to follow, and they headed into the village.

  Tolan could head straight toward the young shaper, being able to detect him without needing to do much else. It wasn’t even spirit that guided him. It was a sense of his shaping.

  It was raw and powerful, and the shaping he unleashed surged throughout the village. Between this young shaper and the wind shaper who’d instructed him, there wasn’t much other shaping sense here.

  That wasn’t to say there wasn’t more power here.

  “Do you think this is going to be any different than the others?”

  Tolan shrugged. “It’s possible it won’t be.”

  As far as Tolan knew and understood, the Selections had rarely traveled this far. Most of the time, Selections remained in larger cities, near more shapers and shaping Academies. It was simply a better use of time. Coming where there was no formal Academy, where there was what appeared to be a single shaper who instructed this one student, meant that Tolan had come to test only a single individual. The odds weren’t in this young man’s favor.

  The power he possessed, the power Tolan could detect, did argue in his favor. As they headed through the village, the repeated blasting of power—the energy he could detect—continued to catch him; filling him with an understanding. He held onto that sense, focusing on it, and tried to track the raw energy this young shaper used.

  “I detect a shaping,” Velthan said.

  Tolan nodded. “He’s been shaping for quite some time.”

  “You knew?”

  “I detected him when we first started to approach,” he said. “I think that’s what drew me here, though I don’t know for sure.”

  It was even before that, though Tolan didn’t want to make Velthan feel any worse than he already did. Telfair was isolated, and Tolan would not have even tried to come here had he not detected this shaping at the last location they’d visited. Even then, detecting a powerful shaping didn’t necessarily mean he needed to visit. A single powerful shaping wasn’t often enough. Were it not for another urge, Tolan might not have visited.

  He stopped in front of a small stone building. It was simple, stout and built in an older style, a hint of shaped energy still lingering within it to give it some solidity over the elements, allowing it to withstand time and weather. He lingered at the door a moment, focusing on whether there was anything on the other side he might be able to detect but already knowing the young shaper here had the power they were looking for—whether or not he had anything else they were looking for.

  “What is it?” Velthan asked. “Is this the wrong room?” He glanced along the narrow street. Though there were seventy-eight people in the village, none of them were out. Velthan hadn’t commented on that, though Tolan thought the younger man understood.

  Velthan didn’t need to have a spirit shaping in order to understand why the people of the village would hide. Especially not why they would hide while their young shaper worked.

  “We’re at the right place,” Tolan said.

  “Then why don’t you just go in? You’re Master Ethar. Once they know you come from the Academy they’ll welcome us.”

  Tolan glanced over, smiling. “I doubt we’re going to get much of a welcome the way we have in other places.”

  “They’ll still be excited to have us visit,” Velthan said.

  Tolan took a deep breath and focused on earth as well as water. He had a strong connection to earth and he wrapped that around him, holding it to him tightly. He used water in a similar way, ready for the possibility they might face something more than what he’d anticipated.

  At least now he understood why he’d detected such strength from a distance.

  Elementals.

  They were here.

  When he pushed open the door, power blasted toward him.

  Tolan pushed backward, using a surge of fire and wind, the elements that complemented earth and water.

  The room was small and dimly lit, but he didn’t need much in the way of illumination to be able to make out the young man crouching near a hole in the ground, his hands resting on his knees, looking down at something that appeared to be a pit. Tolan didn’t need to be able to see all that well to make out the older man standing near the wall, observing. A hint of wind swirled
around the man. There was something off about it, though when Tolan swept a shaping through the man, mixing each of the elements through him, including spirit, Tolan didn’t detect anything off.

  When the door opened, neither of them looked over.

  “We’ve told you that you we need privacy during the day’s attempts. Don’t you know that…”

  The older man trailed off as Tolan stood framed in the doorway.

  “Have them close the door,” the younger one said.

  “Jersan,” the other man said.

  “I’m almost there, Kelvin. All I need is for them to close the door. I think having the door open is distracting, not only for me, but for the hashin. You know how sensitive they can be.”

  Tolan headed into the room without even thinking. He slammed the door closed, sealing Velthan outside before he could come in.

  “You have a hashin here?”

  It was unusual elemental, a combination of water and earth, not one or the other as records indicated. There was far more power here than he had expected, and the nature of what he had uncovered was nothing like what he had expected.

  The young man looked up at him, and the shaping that had come from him—raw though still powerful—began to dissipate.

  Tolan picked up where the other stopped. Tolan added his own hint of earth and wind; a summons of sorts that was meant to draw out the elemental.

  “Who are you?” Kelvin asked.

  “My name is Tolan Ethar. I’m a master shaper from the Terenhall Academy.”

  Kelvin stared at Tolan before turning and looking over his shoulder.

  “What were you doing with the elemental?” Tolan asked.

  “We were doing what we’re supposed to when we find a wild elemental,” the older shaper said, separating himself from the wall and coming to stand near them. “As we have long been instructed. We understand we are responsible for suppressing the elementals into the bond.”

  Tolan held the older shaper’s eyes for a moment, sweeping spirit through him and finding nothing alarming other than their willingness to work with the elementals. For so many years, the shapers—especially master shapers—were responsible for finding rogue elementals. The people of Terndahl had long believed elementals were dangerous. Violent and deadly.

  Tolan knew otherwise. The master shapers forced them back into the element bond; the connection to the source of power. Each element bond held their elementals, though there were some, like this hashin, which had a connection to more than one element. That made forcing them into the element bond far trickier than many of the master shapers truly understood.

  “It didn’t seem as if you were forcing the elemental into the bond,” he said.

  “You’ll forgive me,” the shaper said. “As I said, I’m an inexperienced shaper. Out in Telfair, we don’t have much connection with the Academy.”

  “When was last time anybody from the Academy visited?” The delay in the other man’s answer suggested to Tolan that it had been a long time. Possibly never. “As I thought. Had you more experience with the Academy, you would’ve known that the view of the elementals has begun to shift.”

  “Has it?” the shaper said.

  “It has. No longer are we forcing the elementals back into the bond when they come free.” That much was the progress Tolan had made. “They can remain free and safe.”

  He turned his attention back to the elemental within the pit. He could feel the energy from the elemental. It was one he’d never detected in the wild before, though he’d read about it, and he’d detected it within the element bond. He knew it, but he only knew it because of a vague sense of understanding from his connection to it—not because he had experienced it.

  The elemental began to swirl within. Water and earth mixed together. It was a strange combination, and there was enough power within that pit that Tolan smiled to himself.

  He began to build a shaping, letting power come from him, holding onto earth and water as he sent a connection to the elemental. All he needed was to connect to it. He needed to let the elemental know he meant no harm.

  Adding spirit, he mixed the three elements together, mingling them in a communication. The power flowed from him, and when it struck, there was a shaping.

  It rolled toward the elemental, and…

  Something crashed into him from behind and he went staggering forward.

  6

  Tolan rolled toward the wall and prepared his response. He didn’t know what was going to happen here, but if they were attacking him, he only had a few moments to respond. He focused on earth. It was an easy element to delve into, especially here where the sense of it was powerful. It pressed upon him, giving him the energy of this place. It came from the ground below him, even the walls of the building, along with the sense of the elemental. He could use all of that.

  Getting to his feet, he turned, ready to attack, and found nothing other than the two shapers. “Which of you attacked me?”

  Neither spoke.

  He didn’t think it was the younger shaper. He had some strength, but his control over it was limited. In time, he might be able to gain more control, and when he did, he had the potential of being much more dangerous—but until then, Tolan didn’t think the young man could have attacked in that way.

  That left the wind shaper.

  What if he wasn’t just a wind shaper?

  “I’m here in service of the Academy.”

  Kelvin, the older wind shaper, watched him. “What were you doing with the elemental?”

  “I told you. The Academy’s stance on the elementals has changed. There isn’t the same view toward them as there once was.”

  A shaping built from the older man. This time, Tolan recognized the hint of earth within it. It was subtle and faint, far more controlled than he would’ve expected him to have the ability to do, especially given what he had seen from the older man. There was a hint of control to it that Tolan hadn’t noticed when it came to the man’s use of wind. The old shaper had some ability with wind, but he was weak. When it came to earth…

  “You can reach the elementals,” Tolan said.

  The other man’s eyes widened and he started toward the door.

  Tolan used a shaping of earth to send the ground surging up over the shaper’s feet. He mingled water with it, softening the ground so the instructor wouldn’t be able to pull his feet free. As Tolan held onto that shaping, he softened it back down, smoothing it around the instructor’s feet, holding him in place.

  He shot the younger man a hard look. “Don’t try anything.”

  The other man shook his head, his eyes going wide.

  “Which elementals do you have a connection to?” Tolan asked.

  “I’m not going to say anything. All you will do is try to force them—”

  “Which elementals?”

  The man glared at him.

  Tolan could use spirit, but that wasn’t how he wanted to use spirit. He’d come here thinking he could help this young man; to bring him to the Academy and test him to see if he was capable—and now Tolan didn’t know.

  He pressed through spirit to connect to him. Tolan didn’t push too hard, focusing on the sense of spirit, but also focusing on earth. He mixed the two together, probing.

  It was a request; one that Tolan sent to the elementals. He asked for an answer, hoping the elementals would recognize his need. It wasn’t any attempt to try to harm them. That wasn’t the way Tolan worked. He had no interest in doing anything that would harm any elemental. All he wanted was to try to reach the earth elemental this man was connected to.

  The sense of it was there, faint, but it was a stirring of power that flowed within the man.

  For the shaper to have any sort of control over earth like that, he would need to have a connection to a powerful earth elemental. The one Tolan detected was powerful. It was known as jinnar; one that looked something like a stack of stones come to life.

  There came a rumbling within the small room.
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  “What are you doing?” the man cried out. Terror filled his voice

  Tolan held onto the shaping of earth that trapped him in place. He focused on the jinnar, letting the awareness of the elemental come forth, rumbling up out of the ground.

  As it did, he watched.

  There was power to this jinnar, though there was always power to jinnar.

  He turned toward the massive elemental, sending a shaping of earth and spirit to him. The elemental was a series of boulders stacked atop each other, looking something vaguely like a person, though in giant form. It loomed high overhead, the top of the stone brushing the ceiling of the room. Power radiated from it.

  “I’m sure they wouldn’t want you to destroy the home,” Tolan said.

  “They have told me not to come here.”

  The words came within his mind the way they usually did when speaking to an elemental. Tolan suspected it came through spirit, though he didn’t know.

  “I’m sorry I summoned you then.”

  “They fear me.”

  “They fear what they don’t understand,” Tolan said.

  The jinnar rumbled. It had taken Tolan a long time to be able to understand this earth elemental. It was a matter of focusing on spirit, focusing on a sense of earth and the way that the rumbling came to him. There was a voice within that rumbling, and all Tolan needed was to be able to latch onto that voice so that he could listen to what the earth elemental tried to say.

  “Can you speak to him?” Tolan asked the elemental.

  “I speak, but he doesn’t listen.”

  Tolan laughed. “Not all have the ability to talk to you.”

  “They can talk, but they can’t listen. They use these,” the jinnar rumbled as he looked at the pit, “to reach the elementals.”

  That explained it better. Perhaps they had some connection to the elementals that they augmented with these strange pits. “Is he a good man?”

  The jinnar rumbled as it turned toward the shaper. That was the sense Tolan needed to know. He could use spirit, and he could use any of his shapings to determine what he wanted about man, but the question remained. What kind of person was this man?