The Earth Awakens (Elemental Academy Book 2)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “I suspect if it were up to him, I wouldn’t. I just happened to have been able to resist a spirit shaping.”

  Jonas frowned. “When were you spirit-shaped?”

  What did it matter if Jonas knew? Now Ferrah knew, it was bound to get out. “Do you remember what we were doing when we were investigating the rogue elemental?”

  “I remember being told there wasn’t anything to worry about when it came to the rogue elemental. The Grand Master said it was taken care of.”

  “It was taken care of. By us.”

  “Us? As in you and me?”

  “As in you, me, and Ferrah.”

  “And you still remember what happened?”

  “Apparently I have some resistance to a spirit shaping.”

  “What did we do?”

  He flicked his gaze once again over to the door, watching for signs of movement. There were none, but what if someone was wind shaping? A powerful wind shaper would be able to use a shaping to listen in, and with the right person behind the shaping, they might not even be aware of what was happening.

  “Can you seal the room?”

  “Do you really think someone is paying attention to us?”

  “I’d feel better if you did.”

  Jonas shrugged and a shaping built, and he glanced over at Tolan before nodding.

  “It’s done.”

  Tolan breathed out in a heavy sigh. “We stopped one of the Selectors from going to a place of power deep beneath the Academy and attempting to free a draasin.”

  Jonas blinked before whistling softly. “We did what?”

  “I know. It was pretty stupid of us to do that ourselves, but—”

  “Stupid of us? That sounds like the kind of thing you would do. And why didn’t you tell me?”

  Tolan shook his head. “I wasn’t supposed to.”

  “But we’re your friends. If you were spirit-shaped and didn’t remember it, wouldn’t you want us to tell you?”

  “I would want that, and I feel terrible, but I was only doing what I thought I needed to do, and what I thought I was supposed to do.”

  He feared Jonas getting angry with him too, just like Ferrah had. If he did, it would be completely deserved. He had withheld things from Jonas, more than once. When it came down to explaining to Jonas what he was capable of doing, and the way he shaped—or didn’t, as the case had been—he had not been forthcoming.

  “You know you can trust us, right?”

  “I do know that.”

  “You say you know it, but you need to act like it, too. We’re your friends, and we won’t be able to help you if we don’t know what’s going on.”

  “I had issues when I was younger in Ephra,” he said.

  “What sort of issues?”

  “It had to do with my parents and their disappearance. Other people accused me of sympathizing with the Draasin Lord, and I closed myself off.”

  “You know that’s no real excuse, right?”

  Tolan frowned for a moment before nodding. It wasn’t really an excuse, not when it came to his friends. They deserved more than that, and his own struggles with what he’d gone through as a kid didn’t have the same bearing. What he needed to do was to work with his friends, and that meant he needed to search out Ferrah and mend things between them.

  “You’re not mad?”

  “I’m a little mad,” Jonas said. “But mostly, I’m upset at the fact I was spirit-shaped. How often do you think they’ve done that?”

  “Spirit-shaped students?”

  Jonas nodded. “If they were so willing to do that to us, it seems like it’s something they’ve done before, and probably often.”

  “I’m not really sure,” Tolan said. And he had no interest in going to Master Irina and asking. But Jonas was right that it was odd how willing they had been to spirit-shape the students. Was the Convergence that important they needed to protect it?

  And they hadn’t even protected the Convergence. If Jory had managed to get word out to the disciples of the Draasin Lord, then whatever they really wanted to do, whatever safety they thought they were providing by shaping them, had failed.

  Tolan climbed off the bed and glanced down at the books stacked on it before heading toward the door. When he reached it, he paused, aware of the barrier Jonas had shaped and knowing he wouldn’t be able to pass through to the other side with the barrier in place. “Can you lower it?”

  “Only if you tell me what you intend to do.”

  “I’m going to see if I can find Ferrah.”

  Jonas’s shaping faded, and as it did, the tension on his skin eased and Tolan hurried out of the first-year rooms and down the steps. It was later in the day, and there weren’t that many people out. Most were up in their rooms, studying or preparing for the next day, and only he was out. The thudding of feet behind him caught his attention and he spun to see Jonas racing to catch him.

  His friend shrugged when he frowned. “I’m not going let you do this on your own.”

  “I think I have to.”

  “You only want to believe you have to. But I’m going to stay with you,” Jonas said.

  “I’m not sure if that’s going to make things better or worse.”

  “What part?”

  “The fact I’ve now told you.”

  “Well, you should’ve told us in the first place, so that’s all on you.”

  Tolan sighed. “I’m going to start with the library and see if she’s there.”

  “And if she’s not?”

  “I’m not sure where else we can look,” he said.

  When they reached the library, they found it as empty as the halls. One table had two older students sitting at it, and they glanced up when Tolan and Jonas entered, but for the most part, there was no activity here. Master Havern sat upon the elevated dais, the only librarian in here at this time of day.

  “She’s not here,” Jonas whispered.

  “I can see that.”

  Tolan hurried toward the master librarian and paused in front of the dais. “Master Havern?”

  He was an older man with gray hair and a wrinkled face. Thick glasses hung down on his nose, and he pushed them up as he peered at Tolan. His lips were pressed into a tight frown.

  “Have you seen Ferrah Changen?”

  “I’m not familiar with that book,” the librarian said.

  Tolan shook his head. “She’s a friend of ours, a student shaper. We are looking for her.”

  “I am a librarian, not a finder of students. Now, if you have some volume you’d like me to look for, I’m more than happy to do so, but if this was all about finding your friend, then you may leave.”

  Tolan glanced at Jonas, who flashed a wide smile. “I would like you to help me find something about the Inquisitors.”

  Master Havern considered Jonas for a moment. “And what is it about the Inquisitors you would like to learn about today?”

  “I was curious about their history.”

  “Do you have an interest in joining? You should know the Inquisitors are quite careful with who they choose, and not just anyone is allowed to join their ranks.”

  Jonas shrugged. “I’m not really sure if I’m interested in joining or not. That’s why I wanted to read more about them.”

  “Have you shown potential with spirit?”

  Jonas nodded. “Oh, yes. So much potential.”

  Tolan wanted to grab his friend and drag him away, but Master Havern smiled.

  “There aren’t many who show such potential. In each year, there’s only one or two, rarely more than that, though often it’s not any at all. From what I’ve heard, there are already two within your year that are showing some potential,” he said. “Perhaps you are one of them.”

  “I hope so,” Jonas said.

  Tolan knew him well enough to recognize Jonas was trying to bite back a smile. He didn’t like the idea of taunting the master librarian in such a way and could imagine he would get angry at them if he knew Jonas was not being
completely honest with him.

  When the master librarian headed off to the shelves to begin looking for a few books, Tolan glanced at Jonas. “What are you doing?”

  “I’ve been spirit-shaped. That’s what you said, right? And if I’ve been spirit-shaped, then I want to understand why and if there’s any way I can defend myself.”

  “You think studying the Inquisitors is a way to do it?”

  “Studying the Inquisitors is part of it, mostly because they’re the only ones who can spirit shape. I figured if there’s anything in the library to help us understand, it would be on the Inquisitors.”

  Tolan worried that perhaps Jonas was pushing things a little bit with the master librarian, but he wasn’t going to be the one to say anything, not when it came to Jonas, and not when it had to do with that. He didn’t want to anger his friend any more than he already had.

  “Finding things about the Inquisitors doesn’t get any closer to finding her,” Tolan said.

  “It doesn’t, but it gives us an excuse to be in the library.”

  “I don’t need an excuse to be in the library.” Tolan looked around, wishing Master Minden were here. If she were, he could ask what she might know, and he felt fairly confident that she would be open with him about where and when she’d last seen Ferrah. The other master librarians weren’t quite as accommodating, though he suspected Master Jensen might be willing to share, if only because he and Ferrah had such a connection with their research.

  “I forget. You’ve been studying the elementals, and the more you do, the closer you get to that strange master.”

  “I’d be careful calling her strange. She knows things.”

  “If I were her age, I’d know things, too. She makes me uncomfortable.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s the way she looks at you. Or maybe I should say it’s the way she seems to look at you. It’s unsettling.”

  “Can I help you with anything?”

  Tolan spun and saw Master Minden standing before them. She kept her milky-eyed gaze locked on Jonas, and Tolan had the unsettling sensation she knew exactly what they had been talking about.

  “Master Minden. I was just saying that—”

  “I know what you were saying, Shaper Ethar. Now, if there’s anything I can help you find, you have only to ask. If not, then you can move away from the master’s desk. We both know what happened the last time you decided to get too close to this desk.”

  Tolan frowned, meeting her gaze. Did Master Minden know what they’d done?

  She would have to be aware of the Convergence. It wasn’t as if it could be hidden from the librarians, especially with the door to it behind them, but they had distracted the librarians, and should have been able to sneak down without anyone being aware of them.

  Only Master Minden seemed completely aware of what they had done. It was in her gaze, the way she looked at Jonas, and even the way she looked over at Tolan, though he couldn’t tell how much she saw of him. It had to be enough for her to find books, as she seemed to have no difficulty with that, despite the fact he had a difficult time knowing how she could see anything.

  And why was there no way for Master Wassa to heal her? With his connection to water, she should be healed, at least so much as to make it so she didn’t have to deal with the difficulty of trying to see through the film over her eyes.

  “What did we do the last time we were near the master’s desk?” Jonas asked.

  Tolan grabbed his friend’s arm, trying to pull him away, but Jonas wouldn’t budge. “Come on.”

  “I don’t remember it. Is this what you were talking to me about earlier?” Jonas whispered.

  “We can talk about it later.”

  Jonas glanced from Tolan to Master Minden before spinning and storming away in a huff. He threw himself down at one of the tables and leaned back, propping his legs out in front of him, and he waited until Master Havern came to him, carrying several books. How many of them would be useful for understanding what had taken place with the Inquisitors? Would any help him understand Master Irina?

  “He doesn’t recall,” Master Minden said.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for—”

  She turned her gaze to him, and there was the strange sensation of a shaping. It built slowly, washing over him, and then passed. As he often did, he wondered how she should be able to shape here. It shouldn’t be possible, not in a place like this that had been protected, shielded from shapers for just this purpose.

  “You didn’t mean to what, Shaper Ethar? Did you think I wasn’t aware you found the Convergence? We protect many things, knowledge foremost among them, but we have another role as master librarians.”

  “You protect the Convergence?” He kept his voice low, worried that others in the library might hear, but there weren’t that many others here and he wasn’t convinced Master Minden hadn’t shaped them, concealing them in some manner.

  “The power that lives within this place has been here a long time. There have been many who have protected it over the years, and we are the current caretakers. We offer as much protection as we can, recognizing the need to keep the power deep beneath the city safe.”

  Tolan looked around, surprised Master Minden was so willing to share with him. But then, she had been equally willing to provide him information about the elementals. Did she know he had some connection to the elementals?

  “You’re probably wondering why I’m sharing with you?”

  He tensed. Could she be spirit-shaping him?

  If she were, he didn’t feel a thing, which meant she was either incredibly powerful—something he would not put past her, especially now he’d gotten to know her somewhat—or the question was simply plain upon his face.

  “The thought did come to me,” he said.

  “As it should. There hasn’t been a student come through the Academy in many years who uncovered the secret of the Convergence. And not only did you uncover it, you worked to protect it.”

  “Is that why you’re sharing?”

  She made her way to the stairs leading up to the dais, and she took a place at the desk and leaned forward. “Do you think I should not?”

  “I have questions.”

  “In this place, there are answers. That’s the beauty of the library. You can look to the past for understanding, but only in looking to the future can you know.”

  “What do you mean by that?” When she didn’t answer, Tolan glanced back at Jonas. He had begun flipping through the pages of one of the books, and Tolan wondered if he would actually put real attention into trying to understand the Inquisitors. Having lost memories, he could understand why he might be interested in doing so. Tolan shared the same unsettled feeling about the Inquisitors and their ability to shape memories away. More than that, the Selection had shaped into his mind and forced him to see something he didn’t remember, visions of his parents that were different than his memories.

  Unless they were his memories, only ones that had been unlocked. Could that be true? If so, why would he have had his mind spirit-shaped before?

  “There’ve been others who found the Convergence?” Tolan asked, turning his attention back to Master Minden.

  She bowed her head forward in a slight nod. “There have been others, but they came searching for a different purpose.”

  “What purpose?”

  “They came searching for power. You, on the other hand, came for a different reason.”

  “I would take power,” he said.

  She chuckled and reached beneath the desk to pull out a book and flipped through it. The cover was made of a thick leather, and the pages she flipped through were coarse parchment crinkling beneath her hand as she went from page to page. “Most men would chase power if it were in front of them, but you didn’t chase it for the sake of power.”

  “I just want to know…”

  She looked up at him, waiting, as if expecting him to say something more, maybe something profound, but Tolan didn’t h
ave it in him. There was nothing profound that he could say. What did he want to know?

  He wanted to know what he was able to do. He wanted to understand why his connection seemed to be to the elementals, or at least somehow tied to them, whether or not he actually pulled upon elemental power. And yet, he also wanted to understand why he seemed able to resist a spirit shaping.

  “What is it you want to know, Shaper Ethar?”

  “Did you know about the attack on the city?”

  She studied him for a moment, her lips pressed into a tight line. “I have heard about it. What do you know about it?”

  “I… I was there. I made the mistake of following what I sensed of power building.” Why was he admitting this to her? He had shared with the Grand Master, but why was he admitting to Master Minden what he had done? She had no role in protecting the city. There was nothing she could do that would offer anything more than what the Grand Master had already done.

  Yet he felt compelled, as if she wanted him to share.

  Was it a shaping?

  If so, it was subtle enough that he was aware of it, and aware of the fact something didn’t feel quite right.

  “What sort of power did you detect building?”

  “A shaping,” he said. “It was all around the city, and they targeted the Shapers Path. The Grand Master said the Shapers Path was used to provide protection.”

  “It is.”

  “Does it protect the Convergence?”

  “It does. There are layers of protection that shapers over the years have used to help shield the Convergence. The power here would draw others who seek it. Shapers connected to the element bonds would be aware of that power, and those with less than respectable desires would come for it. As you have seen, Shaper Ethar.”

  “They were disciples of the Draasin Lord.”

  “And you survived?”

  “I had help.”

  “Shaper Golud or Shaper Changen?”

  “Shaper Changen.”

  She smiled. “Now I understand. She didn’t know she had been spirit-shaped, and following the attack, began to piece things together. That one has quite the bright mind, so I can’t say I’m altogether surprised, but knowing Master Irina, I would not put anything past her. She would want to protect the secrets of the Academy as much as she can.”