The Shape of Fire

by D. K. Holmberg

  “I don’t know if that’s the case or not, or whether it’s just that spirit binds the element bonds together.”

  “Unless spirit is what allows us to reach the element bonds.” Ferrah leaned back, scratching the side of her face. She took on a look Tolan recognized. It was one of distance. She looked that way when she studied, trying to contemplate a problem. “There was a time when shapers didn’t reach the element bonds. We know that from you.” She looked at him for a moment. “Other shapers in the past used to have power the way you do. What if spirit in the element bond opened up shaping to others like me?”

  “I don’t know. I also question whether or not powerful shapers would have been able to reach shaping on their own.”

  “We tried that before, Tolan. I can’t shape in the waste on my own.”

  “You haven’t fully embraced it.”

  “I’ve tried.” She shook her head. “Even when we were beyond, there wasn’t any way for me to shape where they didn’t have the element bonds.”

  “But you were able to sense the elements.”

  “That isn’t the same thing.”

  Tolan didn’t want to argue, but he felt strongly they were related, even though Ferrah and so many others didn’t agree. Short of going back, exploring the land beyond even more—something he eventually would need to do—he wouldn’t be able to test that theory.

  “So you went into the earth bond. You found spirit was there. And you returned. None of that tells me why you seem quite so troubled. Unless you really had a hard time getting back, but you weren’t missing for a long time.”

  Tolan really hadn’t known how long he had been gone. It was possible time traveled differently within the bond; the same way time seemed different for the elementals.

  It hadn’t changed anything for him. The only thing that had changed was that he was now afraid to reach the earth bond. Afraid of what he might uncover. He was afraid of what was pressing upon him from within the bond. There was something within the bond pushing outward, leaving it feeling… off. Could that have been hashin? He hadn’t detected it, but within the bond, there was a strangeness that made it difficult for him to know what was there. His mere presence was difficult to fully understand.

  “When I was there, I tried to come up with some way to escape, and finally latched onto the idea that I could use the Guardian. Given the way the Guardian was connected to the Convergence, and the bondar that tied them, I thought maybe that flow of power would help me find my way free.”

  “That’s actually… clever.”

  “You don’t have to sound so surprised.”

  “Did it work? Is that how you’re back here?”

  “No. That’s the strange thing. When I went, thinking I was finding the Guardian, I found something else.” He shivered. “I don’t know what was. While it was an elemental, it was nothing like any I’d ever experienced before. When I was within the bond, the other elementals I saw were all familiar to me. Roland was there. He attacked. After he forced me into the bond, I could feel him. I wasn’t at all sure what it was, only that his presence was there. I don’t know what he was doing, but it seemed that he was pushing against the Guardian.”

  “What do you mean he was pressing up against the Guardian?”

  “It seemed to me he was attacking the Guardian.”

  Ferrah sat in silence for a moment. “What has Master Minden said about this?”

  “I haven’t been able to talk with her about it.”

  “Why not? She’d be interested in knowing what happened.”

  Tolan nodded. “I know she would, but when we went to the village of Telfair, I had a sense from Master Minden that she was troubled by everything.”

  “I’ll admit I’m troubled by everything. I don’t really know what to make of what you’re telling me. And I’m upset with you.” She flashed a hint of a smile. “I suspect you knew I would be, and that’s why you hesitated to tell me anything.”

  “I knew you’d be upset.”

  “But I also recognize we don’t know nearly as much about the element bonds as we think we do. You may be the first person who has attempted to study them—really study them—in centuries. I doubt anyone even thought it possible to actually enter the bonds.”

  That was why he’d come to the library for answers. He hadn’t found anything within more recent volumes. As far as he could tell, no shapers had looked into the element bonds over the last few hundred years. The older books on the element bonds were different. They were harder to interpret, mostly because the language was so difficult. But those were the books he was going to have to embrace in order to find the answers he wanted.

  “It’s one of those things where I wonder why our shapers don’t try to understand more about the bonds,” Tolan said.

  “Because they don’t need to. The bonds are bonds. We can use the power of the shaping bond, we can feel that energy, and we can draw through the connection to the elements.”

  “Even though the elementals are within the bond.”

  “I think that’s part of the problem,” Ferrah said. “Most people who come to the Academy begin to learn about the elementals and the connection to the bond, but they don’t even think about what it means that the elementals are within the bond. They know the elementals are meant to be there.”

  “They’re not meant to be there.”

  “You know what I’m saying, though. The elementals are there, for whatever reason. Whether they went there voluntarily, or whether they were forced in, I don’t know if it matters all that much anymore. What matters is that by having elementals within the bond, and by having access to the element bonds, we’re able to use it.”

  “The elementals were not fully in the bond when I was there,” Tolan said.

  “You said that before, but I don’t even know what that means.”

  “Neither do I.”

  They weren’t deeper into the bond, not where the full sense of earth was. They were all trying to swim up the stream of power, almost as if the elementals attempted to escape, but why would that be? Even when he’d connected to the bonds before, attempting to understand the nature of the elementals, he’d never felt a sense quite like it before. The elementals had been within the bond and had not attempted to escape. Not like that.

  If they were changing, if the nature of the elementals and the power that was there was changing, there would have to be some reason behind it.

  The only way he might be able to understand would be by going back to the bond or by asking elementals. When he’d gone to Thoren, the elemental didn’t have the answer.

  There had to be a connection to earth, though. The only thing he could think of was hashin, and the fact that hashin had been forced into the bond about the same time as Tolan had truly felt something unusual taking place. The connection had to be there. It had to be where he had first encountered hashin.

  There were other elementals that he could ask. Seeing as how all of this seemed to start with what he had detected of hashin, he couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps that was where he needed to go.

  He’d been to Telfair twice. Did he need to go back a third time?

  Something about the village was tied to what had taken place, but Tolan didn’t have any idea how or why. The people of the village were aware of the elementals. That much he believed. There were those from the village that had shaping power.

  He looked around the library, his gaze settling on a table with students. “What are the first-level students doing now?”

  “It hasn’t been that long that you can’t remember what it was like,” Ferrah said.

  “I’m just curious about their schedule.”

  “Why? What are you going to do?” she asked.

  “There are two of the students that I need to speak with. I just want answers. All of this feels like it started around the time we went to Telfair. That was when I started to notice the strangeness within earth. If all of this is tied to that, I want to see if there
’s anything they know,” Tolan said.

  “I thought you said they could speak to the elemental but couldn’t listen.”

  “That was my thought as well, but maybe there is something more that they can help me understand.”

  “I’m going with you this time,” Ferrah said.

  “You’re a master shaper. I wouldn’t keep you from doing anything.”

  She frowned at him. “You’ve tried to keep me away from different things throughout the years, so don’t make it seem as if you would be suddenly welcoming.”

  He didn’t want to argue and grew tired of the two of them doing so. “This time, it requires taking one of our first-level students along with me. I have no choice but to include the Master of Students.”

  17

  Tolan paused at the spirit tower. He had come to gather some of his things and looked into the classroom, only to see Velthan working with some of the second-level students. They were the lowest-level students, which didn’t require as much of his concentration, but he still should have been more involved in teaching.

  Velthan was dressed in a formal jacket and pants, the gray fabric bearing the crest of the Academy on the lapel. He approached. “Master Ethar. I’m sorry,” he said, looking over his shoulder at the students. They looked from Velthan to Tolan.

  Tolan swept spirit through them, soothing them and encouraging them to visit with each other.

  “Carson found out that you weren’t here, and—”

  “And he had you take over teaching.”

  Velthan nodded. “I wouldn’t have were I to have known that you were going to be here. I’m not trying to—”

  Tolan patted him on the shoulder. “It’s probably for the best. I am a little distracted. I have something I need to investigate regarding the elementals.”

  Velthan’s brow furrowed for a moment.

  “Let Carson know that I granted permission for you to teach the class.”

  “But Carson granted it.”

  Tolan shook his head. “Let him know that I granted permission.”

  He grabbed what he needed, then headed back through the Academy and out to the tower atop it, looking out over the city. From here, the vantage left him with a sense of energy within the city. There was a feeling of power here as well, and he could feel the way everything spread out before him, the buildings sweeping out into the greater city. In the distance, there were some enormous structures, including the Temple of the Mother. It was a place where many would go and worship, though Tolan had never been all that faithful when it came to worshiping, not the same way as he knew others to be.

  Even the Shapers Paths were visible from here. They were an impressive thing to see, and though he didn’t need to stand there and truly see them so much as feel them, he couldn’t help but notice the translucent quality of them. A few people made their way along the Paths, walking rather than shaping, which suggested they weren’t all that tightly bound to the ability to shape. In one section, someone was taking the stairs down.

  “You come here quite often,” a voice said.

  Tolan turned and nodded to Master Minden.

  “I like to watch the city. There’s something about it I enjoy.”

  “The smells?” Master Minden joined him, closing her eyes. She gripped the rock railing that surrounded the top of the tower. “I’ve always enjoyed the smells of baking bread and the scent of the city. From up here, you don’t have some of the foulness you notice down in the streets.”

  “I don’t think the streets smell that foul.”

  “Then you haven’t spent as much time within the city as I have.”

  Tolan turned to her, hesitating. He needed to tell her, and sensed she anticipated what he would say. “I went into the earth bond.”

  “I felt it.”

  “You felt it?”

  Master Minden nodded. “It was when you went into the Convergence. I felt the changing within earth. I didn’t know what it meant, but there was a sense of… well, you.”

  “You were using spirit.”

  She nodded again.

  “The earth bond seems to be intertwined with spirit.”

  Master Minden was quiet for a few moments, and she looked out over the city, staring through her milky eyes. Tolan often wondered what she was able to see, and he often wondered why she wasn’t able to restore her eyesight. With water to heal, along with some of the other elements, especially now that Tolan understood that they could be used for healing, he would’ve expected her to have restored herself by now. Either that or going to one of the powerful water shapers who served as healers. They would’ve been able to do something to help her. In the time Tolan had known her, nearly a decade now, he’d never seen her seem to mind.

  “There was a time when the bonds were pure. They were filled by a single element. Earth. Wind. Water. Fire. They were difficult to access. It wasn’t until spirit was mingled within the bond that things changed.”

  “How do you know this?”

  “I have studied a long time, Master Ethar.”

  “Why haven’t you shared this?”

  “Because it hasn’t mattered. The bonds were mingled so long ago that it cannot be undone.”

  “Does that mean shapers once could reach the spirit bond?”

  “Unfortunately, I don’t know,” she said.

  Tolan watched her. Every so often, something would come up where he realized just how much he still had to learn about the elements. This was one of those times.

  “So the mixing of spirit allows our shapers be able to reach for the element bonds.”

  “I suspect that if spirit were separated from the bond, we would find something about it had changed. Shapers wouldn’t be able to reach the elements nearly as effectively as they currently can.”

  There was a part of Tolan that wondered whether that was a problem. At the time when the elementals had existed freely, there had been not nearly as many shapers. The elementals had been allowed to exist, and coexist. Now the elementals were forced into the bond, essentially serving the shapers, and possibly tied to the bond so others could shape.

  “It surprised me,” Tolan said.

  “When I first discovered that, it surprised me as well, but the more I think about it and understand what happened, I think it makes sense. Why wouldn’t there be a need for spirit to be within the bonds? In order for us to have access to that power, we need to have spirit tied to it.”

  “There was something else.”

  Tolan told her about the strange feeling within the bond and the way that he had felt Roland pressing upon him; trying to attack him. He told her about how the Guardian had tossed him out of the bond. He remembered just how forceful that had felt, and how he worried about what purpose the Guardian had in tossing him out.

  “What do you think that means?” she asked.

  “I think it means he’s changing something about the bond. I need to know why hashin.” That had to be the key, though Tolan didn’t know how Roland would use that elemental. “I’m going to Telfair. Ferrah is bringing one of the students from Telfair with us so that we can see if there’s anything we might be able to uncover about the village.” If she could detect the strangeness of the bond, then she might be better able to help. “Do you want to come along? With Roland involved, anyone who can fight him would help.”

  Master Minden looked over at him, and she smiled. “I don’t think it is necessary for me to go. Besides, if there is something he’s changing within the earth bond, perhaps I need to stay and better understand the nature of it.”

  “If we lose the earth bond…” They wouldn’t be able to defend against him.

  From there, it would be the other bonds. How many would he alter before Tolan wouldn’t be strong enough to challenge him? Roland’s connection to spirit was greater than his own.

  “I doubt we will truly lose the earth bond, but we must be vigilant.”

  “I’ve been afraid to use the earth bond ever since that happened,�
� he said.

  “What happens when you attempt to reach it?”

  “When I attempt to do so, I can feel a hint of power, but I can feel something else as well. There’s a strangeness there. Every time that I dive into the earth bond, connecting to that power, it’s like a reminder of what had happened and the danger of using it.”

  Tolan could still shape. He didn’t need the earth bond to able to do that, but having access to the earth bond gave him greater strength. He didn’t know what was happening to earth shapers who weren’t able to shape without access to the bond. It was possible nothing happened to them, but Tolan couldn’t help but wonder whether or not they were limited and if something had changed for them.

  “Can you check with Master Shorav and other earth shapers to see if there’s anything altered for them?”

  “I will see what I can find.”

  “I was looking in the library to see if there’s anything I could uncover about the element bonds to know how to stop him, but most of the books that study the bonds are from a long time ago.”

  “There’s no need to study the bonds these days. At least, that is what most scholars would believe. Most are content with accessing the power they do, and are not at all concerned about the reason they can access it or about the nature of the pathway there.”

  “I think we might need to try to better understand it to know what Roland is planning.”

  “Do you intend to reenter the bond?”

  Tolan shook his head quickly. “I don’t know that I could—or if I should. The idea of going back again is…” He almost said frightening, but that wasn’t quite true. The elemental he detected within the bond was frightening, but the power there was not. “Worrisome. I don’t know if I would be able to get out again if it came down to it.”

  “There might be a way for you to do so, but…”

  “What way?”

  “I will have to study. Perhaps there’s something in some of my old archives.”

  “Yours?” Tolan smiled, waiting for her to finally admit that she kept separate records from the library. He had long believed she did.