The Shape of Fire

by D. K. Holmberg

  “You mean the Convergences. Yes. That was what your mother thought, but in the time since you and I have last seen each other, I have come to realize the Convergences are not quite what I had hoped they would be. In my mind, I thought that they would give me the power I needed over the elementals, but unfortunately, Convergences are tied to the elementals. How can I use power tied to them against them? What I needed was information, and you provided the means.” He grinned. “It was a simple matter to hold spirit shapings even at your precious Academy.”

  Roland said it in a way that sounded so rational, so reasonable, as if he was telling Tolan nothing more than facts. He looked at Tolan, studying him, and there was something about his expression that Tolan wanted to…

  He forced that sense of spirit back.

  He was skilled with it. Spirit continued to slide underneath the protections he held onto. Even with the power he drew from the distant Convergence, the runes he’d formed tying him to them, he wasn’t going be strong enough.

  Eventually that connection would begin to fade. His strength would begin to fade. When it did, whatever Roland intended would happen. As much as Tolan wanted to prevent the other man from succeeding, he had enough control with spirit that he could batter at Tolan’s protections. Eventually Tolan suspected Roland would succeed.

  The only way he had a chance of stopping him would be by pushing him back, knocking him out and—unfortunately—killing him.

  Even if Tolan killed Roland, he wouldn’t be able to have the knowledge and information that he needed to undo whatever Roland intended. Without knowing what Roland was doing…

  Knowledge.

  That was what this was all about. That was why Roland had wanted to go to the Academy. Roland was far more gifted with his knowledge about spirit. He was far more gifted with how to shape. He had experience as well, which made him doubly dangerous, but Tolan was at the greatest disadvantage in that Tolan didn’t even have Roland’s knowledge.

  With the shaping coming at him; the way he snuck through the protection Tolan tried to place, there was something Tolan could do to find what Roland was after. Doing it was a dangerous gambit. He had no idea whether it would even work.

  He was going to fail if it didn’t. He was going to fail if he did nothing.

  What choice do I have other than to try?

  “Why did you want to use spirit against the elementals?”

  “You aren’t going to get me to share, Tolan Ethar. I can tell your thoughts. I can tell you intend for me to share with you, thinking you can delay me. Do you think you can outlast me when it comes to spirit?”

  “No.”

  With that, Tolan stopped fighting.

  Spirit flooded into him.

  It happened quickly; almost more than Tolan could withstand. He recognized the sudden shift, the way that Roland shaped him. Spirit offered a certain natural protection, but against somebody who had as much power as Roland did, even that wasn’t enough.

  Tolan had done something Roland wasn’t expecting. The sudden connection forged between them allowed Tolan to race along it. He’d been ready the moment he lowered his natural protections.

  Tolan pushed outward, using his connection to spirit, sliding into Roland’s mind. All he wanted was knowledge. He wanted to know what Roland intended, but Tolan also wanted his shaping ability. He flooded into Roland’s mind.

  There came a surge. It happened rapidly, and then knowledge exploded within him. Everything that had been happening began to make sense.

  It was about spirit.

  Roland wanted to strip spirit free from the element bonds, tearing it free from the elementals. He wanted to create a connection to spirit that hadn’t existed before. Roland wanted a spirit bond. With that bond, he could control incredible power. With a bond like that, he could control shapers and elementals alike.

  Roland’s knowledge filled Tolan as he severed the connection.

  He did it in no more than a heartbeat. In that time, he’d absorbed as much of Roland’s knowledge as he could. He’d absorbed the way he could use shaping, the nature of how he controlled spirit. He was able to grasp where he’d placed other bondars like this.

  Tolan sealed off his mind.

  It was similar to the shaping he’d used before. A warrior shaping, but in the case of what Roland had demonstrated in that brief moment, there was a way of twisting it; inverting it slightly at the end of the shaping, that allowed Tolan to protect himself.

  He could feel how Roland tried to batter at his mind, but was unsuccessful.

  “You are after spirit,” Tolan said.

  He was able to move, and he stepped toward the other man.

  With a drawing of his own spirit, calling upon it, Tolan released Master Minden.

  The hold over her faded, and he forced a connection between them, shoving as much of his knowledge that he’d borrowed from Roland over to her. It filled her, flooding into her mind, and she quickly created the same shaping as Tolan. They both sealed their minds off from Roland.

  She turned her shaping upon Roland.

  Tolan focused on the Grand Master. He was next to him—and surprisingly, the Grand Master was getting to his feet, power coming from him.

  Tolan shaped through him as well.

  Between the shaping he used on Master Minden and the one that he used on the Grand Master, it took barely more than a few moments.

  When he was done, he turned his attention to Roland.

  “You are incredibly gifted with spirit, but you forgot one critical piece when it comes to it. You forget that spirit binds all things. When you have knowledge of the elementals, and when you have communicated with them, you recognize that spirit works in both directions.”

  Roland glared at Tolan and tried to take step toward him, but Tolan held onto the power from the runes, from the bondar he’d made, and held him in place. That power wasn’t going to last for much longer, but hopefully it would last long enough for him to do what he needed to incapacitate Roland.

  Then… then he would have the Grand Master and Master Minden help him decide what needed to be done with him.

  “I know what you were planning. I know what you know.”

  Roland tipped his head to the side. “You think you can know everything in a moment? You know nothing. You know only what I permitted you to know. You know the power I have allowed you to have.”

  A spirit shaping built from him and it washed through Tolan, overpowering the barrier that he held. It washed over Master Minden and the Grand Master. None of them could move.

  Roland started toward him. Tolan strained, focusing on spirit. He needed to find some way out. Roland had far more power than Tolan thought was even possible.

  “You have been so easy to manipulate, Tolan Ethar. With your connection to the elementals, you will be the key to what I intend.”

  Elementals.

  There was something about that which tickled in the back of his mind. Tolan grabbed for the element bonds, all but earth. He felt the power within them. He felt the energy of spirit. Recognizing that it was intertwined within it, he was able to separate out what he needed.

  Spirit surged within him.

  It wasn’t going to be enough.

  What he needed was earth as well. He had avoided using earth ever since Roland had attacked it, but Tolan had to try now. He focused, sending his connection through the earth bond and drawing on that power. It was still there, and the energy interwoven within it was still there. He teased that out, borrowing spirit, and he drew it forth.

  He mingled them together.

  It was a sort of shaping he’d never attempted before.

  With it came a flash within his mind. An image of the lizard appeared in the back of his mind for some reason and spirit exploded, filling him.

  He was freed.

  Filled with spirit, Tolan latched onto that energy.

  In that moment, Tolan was aware of what Roland had done.

  Tolan had a connection to
spirit that he hadn’t felt before. He could draw that power to him, letting it fill him. He pulled upon spirit, sending it streaking toward Roland, attempting to forge a new connection.

  It simmered there for a moment; nothing more than that. In that moment, Tolan had a flash of understanding. Knowledge. Tolan began to build a shaping.

  Too late, he realized that the connection that formed between himself and Roland had given Roland the same insight.

  He knew the moment Tolan prepared to attack.

  Roland reached for a bondar, pulling it from his pocket, and in a blast of power, he wrapped the warrior shaping around him, summoning a burst of power and disappeared on a blast of lightning.

  Tolan could scarcely breathe.

  He stood, panting, focusing on the power that was flowing within him. It filled him. There was a sense that hadn’t been there before, an understanding of the bond that he’d never had before. Spirit was a part of it.

  He breathed out, slowly releasing that energy.

  Master Minden came over to him, resting her hand on his arm. “You can let go.”

  “I don’t know what I did.”

  “You have reached for the spirit bond.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Because I see it within you.”

  Tolan looked down. His breath caught as he realized that everything within him seemed to glow, reminding him of when he was in the Convergence. Power radiated from him, almost as if he were filled with spirit that expanded out beyond him. It reminded him of what he had seen within the hall of portraits, a sense of power that had been there and something that could not be real, but Tolan had no other explanation as to what it was.

  “He escaped.”

  “He escaped. For now. We know what he intends.”

  Tolan wasn’t even sure if that was completely true. He knew what Roland had wanted him to know. He knew the locations of other places like this that Roland had given him. Despite that, he suspected there was something more.

  And they would have to hunt it down. It wasn’t over between them. Tolan looked over at the other shapers.

  “There’s something more I think I can do,” Tolan said.

  Master Minden nodded.

  Wrapped in the power of the spirit bond, Tolan called upon that power, and he pushed through the Inquisitors.

  27

  The Academy was quiet. It was times like this when Tolan felt it comforting being here. He hadn’t been back for long. The search for the bondars Roland had left had taken him the better part of several weeks, and in that time, he’d been concerned that he might appear at each place they visited, but there had been no sign of him as Tolan destroyed each of the bondars he uncovered. As he had worked, he gradually began to relax.

  Tolan wasn’t even entirely sure he should relax. Roland was still out there, and he was planning. He knew more than Tolan did about spirit. Tolan might be able to tease apart the element bonds, he might be able to separate spirit from them, but he still didn’t have the experience he needed.

  As he had traveled, he had spent time focusing on the spirit bond, focusing on what he might be able to uncover from it, thinking that if nothing else, he might be able to work with it. He might be able to practice and see if there was anything else that he could learn.

  He strode through the hallway. Ferrah was somewhere nearby in their quarters. She would want to know he’d returned, so he sent an alert to her. She seemed willing to forgive him, which he appreciated, but he would have to keep proving himself to her. Perhaps that was what was needed in a relationship—not the distractibility he’d demonstrated with her for far too long.

  Not only with her, but with the Academy. He had to be better in so many ways.

  He passed the library and paused.

  The door was closed and Tolan pulled it open just a crack, looking inside. It was late enough that there wouldn’t be very many students inside, if any at all. He was surprised to see students poring over books in one corner. One of them was Velthan, who looked up as Tolan peered inside, nodding to him briefly before turning his attention back to his studies.

  Sitting on the dais were two master librarians Tolan didn’t know all that well.

  He closed the door, making his way up to the hall of portraits. It was the first time that he’d been back here ever since the latest confrontation with Roland. As he strolled along the portraits, he wasn’t at all surprised that something had changed. He had changed, and his connection to the elements and the elementals had changed, so he recognized that the nature of power was different.

  He paused at one of the portraits. In it were three draasin flying overhead. Every time Tolan saw this one, he felt a hint of sadness. In his time, there was only one draasin—the Draasin Lord.

  When he was gone, would other draasin suddenly appear?

  Tolan hadn’t attempted to reach into the fire bond in order to determine whether or not the draasin were even there—or interested in coming out of the bond. There was a time when he wouldn’t have believed the draasin were able to go into the bond. They seemed so physical and formidable that the idea that creatures like that could be forced into a bond was almost laughable. That was until he’d uncovered how they could be forced down into it.

  He breathed out, moving on. He reached the portrait with the young girl. The lizard was gone, but the rest of the painting had shifted as well. The light within it was different.

  “You always end up looking at that one,” Master Minden said.

  Tolan looked up and smiled. He wondered how long he’d been staring at the portrait. “I guess I do. This one has changed the most for me.”

  “Has it?” She joined him, staring at it. “I have always found it intriguing. This girl always looks so stern, and yet there’s something of an optimism in her eyes.”

  “The lizard is missing,” Tolan said.

  Master Minden leaned forward, squinting. The milky film over her eyes shifted for a moment, almost as if she had healed it, but then it returned. “Perhaps it is.”

  “When Roland attacked, when he abducted you, something happened with this painting.”

  “Oh?”

  “It felt as if I were pulled into the painting. I used a shaping on it, trying to figure out what Roland was after.”

  “Was that shaping anything like this?” Master Minden began to shift the nature of the shaping that she used, pushing out with spirit, but also mingling several of the other elements within it. She let it wash along the ground—but no further.

  Tolan noticed that she never pushed it toward the paintings.

  “It was like that.”

  “He shouldn’t have known that shaping,” she said.

  “Why?”

  “What happened when you used that shaping on this portrait?”

  “I was pulled into it. At least, that’s what it felt like. It seemed as if it dragged me inside. There was power. I was not alone. I could feel the energy there, and I followed the power within a cave, trailing through until I came to this lizard.”

  “Not the girl?”

  “Not the girl.”

  Master Minden pressed her lips together, frowning again. “That is unfortunate.”

  “Why?”

  “There is one secret I have kept from you, Tolan Ethar. Given what you’ve seen, perhaps it’s time you know.” She took a deep breath, standing up and clasping her hands behind her back. “There has been a master librarian within this library for centuries—more than that, there has been a Minden librarian within this library for centuries.” She smiled sadly. “In time, that will end. Mostly, that is because of choices I made. Misfortune that has befallen me. But because of that, the knowledge of the Minden line will fail.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Oh, but you do. When you first were pursuing your understanding of shaping and the elements, I shared with you a journal that my ancestor wrote. Many of these paintings were created by my ancestors, much like the one that you are looking at
.”

  “Your ancestor painted these?”

  “Painted. Shaped. Perhaps it’s all the same. The shaping Roland used is one he should not have known about. It’s a shaping that allows these portraits to be unlocked.”

  “You’ve shown me power within these portraits before.”

  “I’ve shown you the hint of power in these portraits before, but I’ve never shown you the true power.” She glanced over at him, and in that moment, the film over her eyes was missing entirely. “Each of these paintings has something you can learn from. Each of these has more than what appears within them. When you gain the necessary knowledge, you can unlock it.”

  “And this one?”

  Master Minden shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t have the answer to this one. I’ve never been able to unlock it. That you have tells me you should be the keeper of knowledge here.”

  “I’ve told you I don’t want to be a master librarian.”

  “You don’t want to, but I question whether or not you have much choice. At this point, given what you have proven and seen, it might be necessary for you to take on a greater role.”

  Tolan started to laugh. “I’m not sure how I take on a greater role than I have.”

  “There is much about the world you need to know, Tolan. Much that most have forgotten. The Minden line has never forgotten. Now it’s my turn to pass that knowledge on to you.”

  “What is the lizard?”

  Master Minden stared at the painting for a long moment before moving on and stopping in front of another painting. This one had a rolling field within it, and strangely, there was a series of markings. Something about the painting reminded him of Telfair.

  Tolan frowned, studying it. He didn’t remember it looking quite like that before.

  “This wasn’t like this before.”

  “No. It was not.”

  “What does it mean that it’s changed?”

  “Most of the time, these paintings change when our knowledge changes, but there are some times when these paintings change when the world changes. Unfortunately, I fear the latter is true now.”

  “With what Roland has done?”