The Shape of Fire

by D. K. Holmberg

  “I told you.”

  Tolan forced a smile. “You did. When did you meet Roland?”

  “I don’t know Roland.”

  “When did you meet Kelvin?”

  “He was sent by the Voran to work with me.”

  “Work with you, not the other way around.”

  “I…”

  He closed his eyes, and Tolan could practically see him trying to work through what he remembered.

  It was spirit shaping that made it difficult. Tolan had been through something similar, and he recognized shapings like that could be difficult. When he’d gone through a similar shaping, he’d lost his own memories, losing everything he’d been able to recall about what existed. All Tolan had was a sense of inconsistency. Even though the shaping had been peeled away, he didn’t have any real memories. That was the part of spirit shapings that made it difficult.

  “It’s okay,” Tolan said. “I was shaped by him, too.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He used a spirit shaping on you. He took away your memories and he forced you to believe something else.”

  “How can he force me to believe something?”

  “He’s a powerful spirit shaper. I don’t know anyone else like him. With the shaping he used on you, he forced you to believe what he wanted you to believe.”

  “What did he want me to believe?”

  Tolan shook his head. “I’m still not sure. You have a connection to the elementals, and I think that’s what he was after, though I don’t know.”

  “I was only doing what the Voran wanted me to do.”

  “And what was that?”

  “We took the elementals and we…”

  There seem to be another struggle within Jersan.

  Tolan leaned forward. Whatever else he was going to uncover, this was the key.

  They took the elementals, but what did they do with them?

  That was what Tolan needed to understand. He knew they took them, but he didn’t know what they had done with them.

  “What does it have to do with the pits?”

  “The pits?”

  “The circles within the village.”

  Tolan focused on earth, and he created an image in front of them, forcing that outward.

  “It’s our way of helping us connect to the elementals.”

  Tolan frowned. He thought about what he knew about the bondar, the way power would flow. It wasn’t to connect the elementals, but Tolan had no idea what it was for.

  “How does it help to connect to the elementals?”

  “I don’t know. The Voran explained we had to push the elementals into it. Then we can connect to them better.”

  Push the elementals into it?

  “How many elementals have you been able to speak to?”

  “All of them.”

  Tolan blinked. “All of the elementals, or all of earth elementals?”

  “Earth, mostly, though I can speak to a little bit of wind. I don’t really know what wind is telling me, only what I can feel of it.”

  That had to be why Roland valued him. If he could speak to more of the elementals than Tolan knew, it explained it all too well.

  He glanced over at the Grand Master. They weren’t going to be able to stay here much longer. In order to know what he was up to Tolan was going to have to figure out where Roland was going. If it had to do with this hashin elemental, then Tolan suspected he knew, though he still didn’t understand why.

  “What is he after?”

  “I don’t know that he’s after anything,” Jersan said. “The Voran is only trying to help us to reach the elementals. He only wanted us to know that power. He’s trying to help them.”

  Tolan grunted. “He’s not trying to help them. He’s trying to control them. What I’m trying to understand is what he’s after and how he intends to do it.” He turned his attention to the Grand Master. “We’re going to have to return to Telfair, or whatever this place might be.”

  “What do you think that we’re going to find?”

  “If these pits are somehow being used against the elementals, I have no idea what it might be, but I have a guess.”

  “What is your guess?”

  “It’s tied to the bondars. When I studied these bondars with my father, we recognized they were for spirit, but there was something about the nature of spirit that we uncovered. It was the way that the bondar would focus that energy.”

  “I don’t see what that would do against the elementals. Nor what that has to do with him connecting to the bonds.”

  “I don’t either. That’s the trouble. But if Roland is up to something, and knowing what he wanted the last time we faced him, I fear we have to resolve this.”

  The other man nodded. “What do you need?”

  What do I need?

  Tolan couldn’t do this by himself. What he needed was people who had the ability to understand elementals. But he also needed people who had the ability to protect themselves. He needed those with spirit.

  He needed Inquisitors.

  “I think it’s time I trained the Inquisitors,” Tolan said.

  The Grand Master only nodded.

  25

  The clearing outside the Academy had a residual energy. It came from all of the shaping that had been used here, and Tolan noticed that the power swept out around him. It was considerable. He had used many shapings over the years himself, most of them in order to test students as they progressed through their training.

  Tolan was agitated. Master Minden was missing, much as he had suspected. There was a part of him that had hoped that it had been nothing more than a shaping, that Roland had created an illusion that involved Master Minden, but that was not to be. It meant she was with Roland. It was even more reason to hurry.

  He waited for the other shapers to arrive. The Grand Master was the first to come. Tolan wasn’t surprised by that, but he hoped there would be others. Ferrah stood next to him. He had to talk to her now.

  “I’m sorry,” he said quickly, turning to her. “I haven’t been the best person for you these days.”

  “Tolan—”

  “No. I know you’ve been upset. And rightly so. I’ve been so focused on Roland and haven’t paid attention to you.”

  “Is that what you think I’m upset about?”

  “Aren’t you?” he asked.

  She frowned at him. “I want you to have the same passion for me as you have for chasing him. I want you to have the same passion for the Academy. Your responsibilities. That’s what I’m upset about.”

  He nodded slowly. “I deserve that.”

  “And I deserve better.”

  He held her gaze. “I promise. I’ll be better. With you. With the Academy. With all of it.” He shook his head. “I don’t want to end up like my parents. I want to be better. I want… well, you.”

  She took his hands. “You have to prove it the way you’ve proven Roland is the threat you’ve believed. Can you do that?”

  It was her way of giving him an opening. “I can. And I’ll start now.”

  Velthan and several Inquisitors arrived, and Velthan looked over at Tolan.

  Ferrah leaned close. “Are you sure about having a student?”

  “You wanted me to prove that I can serve the Academy.” And he needed to. Not just as a master of spirit, but as an instructor. A teacher—a real teacher. “He’s the most skilled spirit student that we have.”

  “But he’s still a student.”

  “As we were when we saved the Academy.”

  “And the Inquisitors?”

  Tolan looked to the Inquisitors coming to join them. “The Grand Master and I are going to test them ourselves.”

  “You’d trust them?”

  “I need to.”

  “What makes you think you’re going to be successful?”

  “I don’t know. I just have a hard time thinking my mother was able to influence so many of the Inquisitors. Even if she was, I don’t know the purpo
se behind her doing so.”

  “The purpose was for her to hurt you, Tolan.”

  “She served Roland, and he was after power.”

  And he was after the element bonds. It was about his desire for the element bonds, for the power that existed within them.

  Does any of that help explain what I have experienced so far?

  He didn’t think so.

  There were seven Inquisitors, the Grand Master, and Velthan. Tolan knew all of them, though not well. He used a shaping spirit; sweeping it through them. It was the same shaping the Grand Master had used on him. It was different than the shaping that Tolan had used in the past, but by having the Grand Master show him what he needed to do, Tolan was far better equipped to use the power he wanted to understand if there was anything to be concerned about.

  He didn’t detect anything. He moved from shaper to shaper, sweeping through them, and when he was done, he looked over at the Grand Master and asked, “Did you detect anything?”

  “Nothing.”

  “I didn’t either,” Tolan said.

  “Are you content, then?”

  “As content as I can be,” Tolan said.

  “What is this about?” Carson asked.

  “The Academy has been attacked. A spirit shaper of considerable power has assaulted us.”

  “If there was a spirit shaper here, we would’ve known about it,” Carson said.

  “Unfortunately, I doubt you would have. This is a spirit shaper more powerful than any you have ever encountered before.”

  “We have experience with powerful spirit shapers.”

  “This spirit shaper is more powerful than Irina. More powerful than her daughter.”

  Tolan locked eyes with Carson as he said it, and when he said the last few words, the other man’s eyes flickered.

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I’ve faced him.”

  “Are you trying to convince me that you are more powerful than either of them?”

  “Not me, as I nearly died. Had it not been for my mother, I might have. What I’m trying to get across to you is just how dangerous this shaper is. He used an illusion to mask himself, hiding himself so we had no idea he was mixed in with the students.”

  By saying that, he admitted he’d made a mistake. Doing so was dangerous around the Inquisitors. They viewed weakness the way a predator viewed weakness. For Tolan to be able to get their help, and for them to be able to accomplish what he needed, he was going to need honesty with them. He was going to need them to assist him with everything he intended to do.

  “Where is he now?” Carson asked.

  “Gone, but I think I know where he’s going and what he intends.”

  “What?”

  “He intends to attack the elementals.”

  Carson watched him for a long moment. This was the part where Tolan didn’t know how the other man was going to react. He didn’t know how they viewed the elementals. Some of them still viewed the elementals in the way the Academy had viewed them for centuries. Others had begun to come around.

  It was always difficult for Tolan to know. He didn’t have enough experience with them, and he hadn’t tried to gain it in the time that he had been working at the Academy. That was a mistake, and it was one that he needed to rectify, but now he was going to have to ask for their help.

  “We know you would see the elementals freed,” Carson said.

  “I would see the elementals who want to be freed remain free. It’s a difference.”

  “I fail to see the difference.”

  Tolan shook his head. “I’m not trying to release the elementals from the bond. I’m trying to ensure those elementals who want to escape from the bond are allowed the opportunity to do so. That is the difference.”

  The other man glared at him. “What do you want from us? You obviously want something; otherwise you wouldn’t have come to us.”

  “I want the Inquisitors to help the Academy.”

  He swept his gaze along them, settling on Carson before turning to the Grand Master. “The Grand Master agrees we need to do this. This affects Terndahl. This affects our ability to instruct.”

  “How?”

  “Test for earth,” the Grand Master said.

  Carson frowned, turning toward the Grand Master. “What do you mean?”

  “Reach into the earth bond. Tell me what you detect.”

  Carson took a step back, his jaw clenched. There was a sense of rumbling, a distinct sense of the earth, and then he pressed his mouth together into a tight frown. Tolan had resisted the urge to reach into the earth bond, knowing what he would find. Each time he’d gone into the earth bond, each time he’d probed for it, he recognized there was something amiss.

  “I find nothing.” He looked at the other Inquisitors. “I’m not so sure we want to help.”

  Tolan glanced at the Grand Master, who nodded. “I can offer you something you don’t have otherwise,” Tolan said.

  “What can you offer us?”

  “Knowledge.”

  Carson stared at him. For a moment, Tolan wondered what he might do, whether he might react in a positive way or not. Then he started to laugh.

  “What sort of knowledge do you think you have? Do you think we need the knowledge you possess? What you teach the students is nothing like the way we use spirit.”

  “I’m well aware of that,” Tolan said. “Just as I’m well aware the knowledge I have is nothing like you possess.”

  “You’ve been a spirit shaper for only a few years. I’ve been a spirit shaper for decades.”

  “And I have been a spirit shaper for even longer,” the Grand Master said. “Still, Master Ethar managed to provide me with knowledge I didn’t possess previously. If he has offered you something, I would take him up on this offer. This is something that you will not be able to receive in any other way.”

  Carson stared at the Grand Master, frowning. “What do you think we could learn from him?”

  “How to use spirit in a way that you have never considered before. The memories of those who have come before us. An understanding of spirit that none in Terndahl possess.”

  Carson regarded Tolan for a long moment.

  “I can show you what my mother showed me,” Tolan said.

  Acknowledging that was difficult. So too was the idea that he might hoard knowledge that would benefit the Academy. Tolan knew he shouldn’t have done that. There were things the Academy needed; knowledge that he could provide to those who might be able to benefit from it. The Academy needed shapers to work together; shapers with the necessary knowledge to offer protection to those without it.

  He studied Carson, thinking about the offer that he was making, thinking about just how much he was willing to give up. And he knew that he had to do this. It was necessary.

  Carson stared at him, saying nothing.

  One of the other Inquisitors stepped forward, looking at Tolan. “I will do what you need,” she said.

  Carson gave her a meaningful look, but the Inquisitor ignored him.

  Tolan studied the young woman. Kerry was only a few years older than Tolan, and he didn’t know her as well as some of the others, only that she’d been relatively powerful with spirit while at the Academy. It hadn’t been at all surprising she’d chosen to work with the Inquisitors. He remembered her from when he was working with his grandmother, when Irina was trying to figure out what had taken place and who could be trusted. Kerry had been one of the shapers who had been involved then.

  Tolan focused on her before nodding. “You may have it.”

  He held onto the shaping, and he pushed out to her using spirit. She tensed at first, beginning to block the shaping, but after a moment, that barricade fell and he pushed inward.

  As had happened with the Grand Master, there was a connection between the two of them. Tolan could use that connection to sense whether or not there was anything dishonest about Kerry, but he detected that she truly wanted to help the Academy. That wa
s the reason that she had become an Inquisitor. She believed that using her connection to spirit would help. She didn’t want to harm anyone, and she certainly didn’t want to harm the Academy.

  Tolan was reassured by that realization. Not that he had doubted it, but there was always a hesitation. When it came to the Inquisitors, that hesitation would probably never go away. It was much like the fear of spirit shaping would never go away. With everything he’d encountered, he didn’t know if it was even possible for it to do so.

  He stepped back.

  “How?” Kerry whispered. “I…” She closed her eyes, and he already knew what she was doing. He recognized the feeling that she had; the way power flowed. He recognized she had knowledge she didn’t before.

  “What did he do?” Carson asked.

  Kerry turned toward him. “He unlocked my mind.”

  Carson frowned. “How?”

  “Knowledge.” She looked over at Tolan. “He really is a master spirit shaper.”

  Tolan wished he deserved the credit for that, and that it was all his.

  Tolan focused on Carson. “When you’re ready, I’ll provide the same to you.”

  Carson hesitated, and Tolan recognized how he wanted to doubt, but at the same time, Carson probably realized that Kerry used a spirit shaping that was different than what she had used before.

  Finally, Carson nodded.

  As Tolan pressed the knowledge through him, his eyes widened, and he gasped. Tolan went through each of the Inquisitors, using the shaping of spirit, unlocking knowledge within them. When done, he glanced over at the Grand Master. “I hope this was the right thing to do,” he said.

  “Do you doubt them?”

  Tolan frowned, hesitating. “Not anymore.”

  “Then it was the right thing.”

  “Why?”

  “Despite everything that you’ve been through, you still questioned. You recognize the Inquisitors we have were no longer tainted the same way as they had been before, but you still struggled. By having this opportunity, you were given the chance to find something else. It was necessary.”

  Now he knew they were as protected as they could be when going after Roland. The other man was incredibly gifted when it came to spirit, and though Tolan knew these shapers might still be overpowered by him, they would no longer be outnumbered. If nothing else, that had value.