Then it disappeared in a burst of light.
The lizard was freed.
Tolan stood there, trying to comprehend what had happened, when another surge of power exploded, and he was thrown free of the portrait.
24
Tolan stood in the hall of portraits. There was a residual energy that he could detect, but nothing else. The portraits lining the hall looked unchanged—all but the one he stared at.
The portrait with the lizard was different. The wizard was no longer even in the portrait. The young girl remained, though now a smile curled upon her face.
Always before, there had been a sense of darkness around her. Now it still seemed as if the darkness surrounded her, but there was a hint of light pushing outward, almost as if it were trying to combat the darkness. The level of detail and intricacy of the portrait was impressive.
Tolan felt as if he knew the tunnel in the portrait. He had somehow gone into the portrait.
How was that even possible?
He wondered what had happened to the lizard. The lizard had been a part of this portrait, and important in some way, though Tolan had no idea how or why.
What am I supposed to do? Tolan wondered, though the answer was obvious. Stop Roland.
To do that, he needed to question Jersan. He needed to restore the classroom. He needed to find Ferrah—and the Grand Master.
Tolan hurried through the Academy, and when he reached the earth tower he saw that the shaping he’d placed over the door remained intact. Tolan lowered it and almost immediately he could feel the energy of power beginning to converge, turning toward him.
He embraced spirit.
There was a surge within him, a burst of power that built far more rapidly than he had expected. He pushed outward, letting it sweep out over the classroom—and the students.
When he stepped into the room, Master Shorav was near the back, a barrier of stone all around him. The room was in complete disarray. Desks had been strewn around, and the bondars at the front of the classroom were scattered around the ground, some of them damaged. There was a time when damage to the bondars would’ve been impossible to restore. At least now they could fix them. Power thrown at the walls had left them damaged, though nothing so significant that it couldn’t be repaired. The assault looked like a blast of power had simply overwhelmed this space.
“It’s done,” Tolan said.
Slowly, the barrier began to ease and Master Shorav strode forward.
“What happened?”
“An attack on the Academy,” Tolan said.
“How?”
“A spirit shaper most thought dead.” Tolan strode forward, heading toward Jersan. The boy he now saw was young, no more than twelve or thirteen, far younger than most shapers who came to the Academy. The shaping that had been place upon him had created an illusion—along with altering his interactions to make him seem older.
He’d thought him older than most—though not as old as Kelvin—and connected to the elementals. Now not only was he responsible for bringing one of the oldest shapers, he had also brought the youngest.
“Come with me,” he said.
Tolan used a sweep of spirit, using it to erase the memories of the other students within the room, wiping from them what had just happened, and brought Jersan with him.
Once out in the hallway, he turned to Master Shorav. Using the shaping of spirit, he sent a connection to him. It was a message, his way of letting Master Shorav know the students would not have any memory of what had taken place and that everything had been restored.
The other man seemed shaken; a reaction that Tolan understood. They had just undergone a significant attack, but none other than Tolan and the master understood that.
He guided Jersan through the halls and toward the spirit tower before deciding to take him to the Grand Master’s room. While heading there, Tolan focused on Ferrah. With his connection to spirit, he had an awareness of her most of the time. He was able to use that awareness and he locked onto her mind and sent a surge of energy. All he wanted was for her to have the desire to come find him and the Grand Master. The shaping was far more powerful than what he had intended.
When he reached the Grand Master’s room, he knocked. There was a delay before the door came open.
The Grand Master frowned at Tolan. “Master Ethar. Is there a reason you brought a boy into the Academy?”
“This boy is one of the shapers I Selected in Telfair.”
The Grand Master frowned, nodding, and then stepped aside.
Tolan guided Jersan inside, and the Grand Master closed the door, sealing it with a shaping. The Grand Master’s room was enormous and cluttered. He had shelves and desks and floorspace littered with strange items, many of them seemingly shaped into existence, and when Tolan had probed the items previously he had found power radiating out of them. Portraits hung along the walls, not paintings like in the hall of portraits, but there was a similar feel to them. Tolan had wondered if perhaps they were not in fact the same, though when he had attempted to uncover more about them he found nothing.
The air within the Grand Master’s office had a distinct aroma as well. It was an almost sickly-sweet spice. Incense burned on one desk, a trail of smoke drifting up. A fire crackled in the hearth near the far wall, though no logs were there. It was either shaped—or elementals. Tolan didn’t think it was elementals, as there appeared to be none present.
“The Academy was attacked. Roland Var hid himself within the Academy.”
“For what purpose?”
Tolan shook his head. “It’s the bonds. I think he’s trying to use spirit to connect to the bonds.” The Grand Master frowned. “Either that, or he wanted to be close to me.” That was a dangerous possibility given Roland’s knowledge of spirit. What might he be able to learn? “I’m going to need help going after him. I have requested that Master Changen join us,” Tolan said.
“May I ask how she is aware she should come?”
“I sent her a suggestion.”
“Your control over spirit is more than what I remember.”
“It was merely a suggestion. Not a command.”
“We will see if it works.”
Tolan suspected that it would. He could feel Ferrah coming toward them already, and he knew she came because she had the question about why she should feel compelled. That urgency, that drive, was there within her from the shaping Tolan had used on her.
“Take a seat and wait for us,” Tolan said to Jersan.
He probed the boy, feeling the uncertainty within him.
He had no idea about what had happened. There was confusion, and a sense of fear.
He joined the Grand Master near a small basin on the table. Within the basin was a silvery liquid that reminded Tolan of the Convergence, though Tolan doubted this could be Convergence liquid. That liquid dissolved everything that it came into contact with, other than shapers.
“Do you care to tell me what happened?”
“I’ve been trying to understand what took place myself. Telfair was an illusion.” Tolan told the Grand Master about what he had experienced there, and the way that he had uncovered the key to the bondars there. “I still don’t understand the purpose of the bondar, other than that it seems to focus spirit.”
“That is most troubling.”
“That’s not the only part of it. When I realized that there was something amiss about Telfair, I came back to the Academy, wanting to talk to Jersan and Kelvin.”
“Why them in particular?”
“That is where I first discovered them. Also, Jersan had come with me to Telfair—”
“You understand that bringing a student out of the Academy without alerting others is a violation of our process.”
“It was necessary, Grand Master. The earth bond was altered. I was convinced it was Roland, even if others were not.”
“Master Minden shared the same thing, but I have a hard time believing the earth bond is altered. I feel nothing differ
ent about it.”
“Shape with it for a while, and you might feel differently. Regardless, when I was there with Jersan, he was troubled by what had taken place. It wasn’t until I came back to the Academy that I realized he’d been spirit shaped. Then I found Kelvin, holding a spirit shaping.”
“A first-level student would not be able to hold a spirit shaping, Tolan.”
“A first-level student wouldn’t. Roland Var would.”
Tolan explained what had happened, going through the details of the attack, and as he said it, he relived parts of it, including the part where he had watched Master Minden die. Even now, the retelling of it was so vivid in his mind. Tolan knew that it had to be at least partially an illusion, but he had no idea how much of it was.
“I need you to test me for a spirit shaping.”
“You are a far greater spirit shaper than I am.”
“That may be, but I still need you to detect whether there’s a shaping within my mind. I can’t tell anymore. With what he did to Master Minden, I need to know.”
“What do you think he did?”
“He used a spirit shaping upon my mind, but I don’t know why. He was in the hall of portraits, and he took Master Minden with him. I’m not entirely sure as to his reasons, only that he carried her away. At least, I think he carried her away.”
The Grand Master looked at him, locking eyes, and then he nodded.
He started shaping.
Almost immediately, Tolan reacted the way he always did when someone shaped spirit around him. He started to create a protection around his mind, trying to create a barrier—and then stopped, forcing himself to hesitate.
He frowned.
“What is it?” the Grand Master asked.
“When you were shaping spirit, I recognized it and reacted.”
“I sense that. I wasn’t going to be able to penetrate the barrier you formed.”
“When Roland shapes, I don’t know it,” Tolan continued. “I can’t even feel it. That’s unusual for me.”
“With spirit or with all elements?”
“Really with all elements, but I can blame my inability to detect other elements on him using bondars—but not spirit. I would expect I would be able to detect him trying to use spirit upon me, but each time he does it, it’s so subtle that it slides beneath even my barriers.”
“Let me try again,” the Grand Master said.
Tolan took a few steadying breaths and forced himself to relax. He was opening himself up to the Grand Master, and he was opening himself up to the Grand Master being able to find out information about Tolan, diving deep within his mind. He wouldn’t be able to maintain any secrets if the Grand Master went digging. Not that he expected the Grand Master to do so.
Even so, Tolan found it troubling.
“You need to relax,” the Grand Master said.
“I’m trying to relax.”
“You may think you are, but I can feel you resisting. Let go.”
Tolan took a few breaths, releasing that energy. It was incredibly difficult for him to let go but he needed to know whether or not he’d been shaped.
The spirit shaping swept through him.
It started slowly, shallow within his mind, but it began to work its way inward. Tolan was fully aware of it. He could feel that energy as it washed through his mind, the probing fingers of power the Grand Master used as he drew spirit through Tolan.
As that power swept through him, Tolan didn’t feel anything different. There was power, but that was it. The Grand Master continued to probe, sending power sweeping into Tolan’s mind. There was a sense of him digging, finding information. Uncovering secrets. None of those secrets were anything he wanted to keep from the Grand Master, but all of those secrets were trapped within his mind, the Grand Master attempting to draw them out from him.
It wasn’t going to be enough—Tolan could tell that already. There was something he could do. It was something he hadn’t attempted to do before, but should have.
He trusted the Grand Master.
The Grand Master needed more information. He needed to have a better control over how to hold onto spirit. That was something Tolan could offer him.
For whatever reason, ever since returning to the Academy, he had been hesitant to release all the information his mother had given him. That had been her dying gift, and though he and his mother had never had a caring relationship, at least not in his adult years, it still had felt as if it were a gift to him. It was something that he had protected; holding dear.
That was selfish of him.
Tolan recognized the selfishness of it, and he opened himself up, letting the Grand Master have his mother’s knowledge. He poured that information into him, and the shaping within Tolan began to shift, becoming more complex; gaining a higher degree of subtlety.
Giving knowledge to somebody who didn’t have the necessary experience didn’t make any difference. It was a combination of knowledge and experience that allowed a shaper to use the knowledge in a beneficial way. The Grand Master had decades of experience; far more than Tolan.
The Grand Master used the knowledge Tolan lent him in a way that was even greater than Tolan had ever managed to do. Power filled him. More surprisingly, by giving the Grand Master that knowledge, Tolan received something in return.
Knowledge was a two-way street. By shaping into the Grand Master, it opened up the Grand Master so that Tolan could borrow from him.
That was a key to spirit shaping that Tolan had never fully understood.
It made sense, though. It was an opening. Spirit bonded shapers together, and by using spirit upon him, Tolan opened himself up. Both sides of spirit could learn from each other. That was the way spirit worked.
That was the key.
Roland had shaped Tolan, and it had opened Tolan up to the other man.
What Tolan needed was to allow Roland to shape him.
If he did, Tolan could figure out what Roland was up to and find a way to stop him.
Somehow, Tolan had to find him first.
“There,” the Grand Master said.
A shaping continued to work through Tolan’s mind, and it swept through, digging; peeling away aspects of himself. Tolan braced himself for pain. For a moment, there was a flickering sort of discomfort, but it wasn’t pain like what Tolan expected. That energy continued to peel away from him; separating from his mind.
Then Tolan felt it completely removed.
Layers of power came free.
It was even more than what he’d expected.
Here he thought he’d used everything he needed to shape his mind, to reveal what had happened to him, but he’d been wrong. Nothing that he’d done was like that. Nothing that he’d done would explain the nature of power used on him.
This was a shaping that had been layered, power that had remained within him, power that Tolan could scarcely comprehend. This was an incredible amount of shaping.
The Grand Master continued to peel it away.
When he was done, he let out a long breath. “That was incredibly difficult.”
“Are you sure that’s all of it?”
“I’ve done everything I can, and once you added additional knowledge, I was able to push even more.”
“I should have given you that knowledge long ago.”
“I understand why you didn’t.”
“I am sure that you do, but I still should have given that knowledge away long ago.”
“All that matters is that you have now.”
Tolan turned to Jersan. “Now that we have him here, and now that you have the knowledge you do, see if we can uncover anything about him. Roland used him. He needed him.”
It might have to do with his ability to reach the elementals, but there might be something else. What other reason would there be that Roland would have wanted to draw upon him and use his shaping connection.
“Tell us about yourself,” Tolan said. He grabbed a chair and pulled it over to sit in front of
Jersan. They were in the center of the room, with artifacts all around them. In the Grand Master’s rooms, there were dozens upon dozens of different artifacts, items of strange and peculiar power, and all of them seemed to provide a level of power.
Jersan looked at Tolan, something on his face unreadable. “I don’t know what to tell you. I shouldn’t even be here.”
“You know where you are?”
“The Academy.”
“Very good. How much do you remember?”
“I remember all of it.”
Tolan shared a look with the Grand Master. “You remember all of it?”
“I remember being forced to come. You forced me.”
“You were Selected.”
“I was Selected, but you forced me to come here.”
“Do you remember anything that happened before then?”
“I was offered a chance to learn.”
“By Roland.”
“The Voran. He offered me an opportunity to learn.”
Roland would have posed as the Voran. For a shaping like what had happened to him to have been effective, there must’ve been an element of truth within it. It made shapings far easier to hold, especially spirit shapings where there was an aspect of power that needed to be held.
“Where is your home?”
“Telfair. You were there.”
“What does Telfair look like to you?”
“It’s not large. A couple hundred of us in the village. We are a farming community.”
“What do you farm?”
“Mostly wheat, and we trade that for everything else we need.”
“Where is your village?”
“We’re outside of Terndahl.”
“Beyond the waste?”
Jersan’s face screwed up into a frown. “What’s the waste?”
If it wasn’t beyond waste, then where was it?
“Where is your village?”
Tolan thought that he could find information that he needed by shaping him, but he was hesitant to do so. He didn’t want to dig into his mind any more than was necessary. He had already been influenced, and with everything that had happened to him, Tolan didn’t want Jersan to be tormented any longer. Besides, Tolan wasn’t even sure if it was necessary.
The Shape of Fire Page 25