The Earth Awakens (Elemental Academy Book 2)

by D. K. Holmberg

  As he meandered around, he found himself behind the elevated dais, a wall of stone with markings along it. There was no one back here.

  Tolan hesitated near the door. All he had to do would be to open the door and sneak back down the stairs to look at the place of Convergence again.

  Voices came from behind him.

  Tolan hurried forward, away from the door. When he reached the end of the dais, he turned the corner and nearly ran into Master Minden.

  Given her age and her stooped back, she still managed to come up to his nose. He suspected in her day and before age had bent her spine, she would have been quite a bit taller than him. Her eyes fixed on him, somehow seeing him despite the milky film coating them. It unsettled him, as it often did.

  “Shaper Ethar,” she said, clasping her hands in front of her. She wore the dark gray robe of the master librarians and her sleeves hung down, covering her hands. A chain around her neck caught his attention. It was a dull gray, and if Tolan didn’t know better, he would have suspected there were runes etched on the surface. It reminded him something of a bondar, but why would a master librarian need a bondar?

  “Master Minden. I was just coming to see if you might be able to help me.”

  She held him with her gaze, and then looked past him, her flat stare taking in the emptiness behind. A hint of a smile spread on her face. “I’m not sure I can offer the kind of help you were considering.”

  Tolan glanced behind him and started shaking his head. “No. Nothing like that. I—”

  “Shaper Ethar, this section of the library is generally reserved for those who have advanced further in their training.”

  Tolan looked around. It was dark back here, lacking the softly glowing orbs that lit the rest of the library. As he often noticed when he was near Master Minden, there was a sense of shaping.

  “I didn’t realize this section was closed. I thought more of the upper sections were restricted to older students.”

  “The older students aren’t allowed in the upper sections, either. Those are restricted to master shapers and above.”

  “Other sections are restricted only to the master librarians?”

  “Of course.”

  Tolan hadn’t expected her to be so blunt with him. And he also hadn’t seen any student in the upper stacks, though partly he thought that might be because the master librarians were still accommodating and came through here and offered their assistance frequently. There was no need for students to climb the ladders or even go up to the next level, not when the librarians were so willing to do that for them.

  “What sort of things are restricted to the master librarians?”

  “Do you have an interest in becoming a librarian?”

  “I might.” Ferrah was interested in serving as a librarian, and it suited her far more than it suited Tolan. He was interested in the knowledge, and it wasn’t that he thought the librarians were something to look down upon, it was more that he preferred a more active role. But then, within the library, there was no judgment. No one questioned the master librarians and how they shaped. They were left to their studies, whatever they were.

  “I think the Great Mother has another role for you, Shaper Ethar.”

  “And what role might that be?”

  “You have to find it yourself, the same way we all have to find it ourselves.”

  “Did you always know you wanted to be a librarian?”

  She smiled, and there was a hint of mystery to it. “I wasn’t always a librarian, Shaper Ethar. There was a time when I served Terndahl in a different way.”

  “What did you do before?”

  “My life has had many twists and turns. When you live as many years as I have, you come to find that you need to be prepared for the unexpected. You must embrace it, and when you do, only then can you find what you’re meant to do.”

  “I’m just trying to understand my connection to the element bonds.”

  “As you should. You should take every opportunity while studying at Terenhall to master those connections. That’s the purpose of your time here. If you would overlook that, you would be wasting that opportunity.”

  Tolan considered how much he should ask. If he didn’t try, there would be no answers. The worst thing that could happen would be that Master Minden would simply refuse to answer him.

  “I’ve been wondering about bondars,” he said.

  “The bondars are intriguing, I agree. Made by those with an understanding of the elements that surpasses what we often find today. One would think shapers of the Academy would have a greater understanding of the elements, but strangely, that’s not always the case. Too often, we find we are connected to the element bonds, but we ignore our other connections to the elements.”

  “Such as the runes?”

  “The runes are one other way of attaching to the elements. There are others, but they are perhaps the most notable, if only because they are so poorly understood.”

  “When do students begin to learn about the runes?”

  “You will have an opportunity to begin your rune work when you have progressed far enough in your mastery of the elements. Very few reach that level.”

  “So, it’s not until we’ve mastered shaping that we’re allowed to work with runes?”

  “Mastering shaping is the first step. Runes are a particularly difficult part of the element magic.”

  “Why?”

  “Because they require you acknowledge there is more to the elements than simply the connection to the bond. You must acknowledge the elementals are a part of it. And more.”

  She smiled at him, and Tolan shivered. He hadn’t expected her to share anything, and here she was, telling him far more than he had expected to know, so much that he wondered if perhaps it was a mistake to even consider trying to place a rune on a bondar. Would it be too dangerous?

  “Is that why no one can make bondars?”

  “Is that what you believe?”

  “I was told that there are the original bondars and then the rest are merely copies.”

  “The bondars used by students at the Academy are merely copies, but there are some who remain with the talents to create original bondars. It’s a dangerous process, and without fully understanding the element, you could end up harming yourself. Again, it’s why knowledge of such things is restricted to master shapers.”

  Tolan didn’t miss the implication. Master Minden was telling him he shouldn’t even try to make a bondar. He didn’t have the necessary knowledge, which meant that if he were to try, he could get injured. He didn’t want to destroy himself trying to create a connection to one of the element bonds he hadn’t earned.

  “If that’s all, perhaps you should return to your studies.”

  Tolan nodded. He headed back around the dais but paused. Several of the tables had cleared, and now Ferrah sat at one of them, a stack of books piled around her. She kept her head down as she was reading.

  He took a seat across from her.

  “I didn’t know you were here,” she said.

  “I was just having a chat with Master Minden.”

  “Don’t tell me she was giving you more books on elementals.”

  “Why?”

  “I think you’ve studied the elementals long enough. It’s dangerous.”

  “No more dangerous than practicing shaping without any ability. Not like I have any way of reaching them.”

  “Aren’t you the one who said—”

  “I know what I said, but I think you’re right. I think I don’t really have any sort of connection. It’s only in my head.”

  He flicked his gaze past her. Master Minden sat atop the dais, scanning the library before her gaze settled upon him again. How was she able to even see him from where she sat?

  “I need your help with something.”

  “Why do I get the sense I’m not going to like it very much?”

  “You don’t have to do it if you don’t want, but it would help me.”

>   “What is it?”

  “It’s something Master Minden said to me. A way of helping me reach the other element bonds. One where I don’t need to be in class to practice.”

  “You don’t need to be in class in order to practice, Tolan. There are plenty of ways you can practice without sitting in the classroom.”

  “There might be, but there’s one way that promises to be the most effective.”

  “No.”

  “You haven’t even let me say it.”

  “I know what you’re thinking,” she said, her gaze drifting to his pocket. She knew he had the furios with him at all times, and the fact she glanced down to where he kept it told him that she knew exactly what he’d intended to ask.

  “I don’t intend to steal any, not like some people.”

  “You don’t even know it was stolen,” she whispered.

  “Are you saying you were given it?”

  “Borrowed. Nothing more than that.”

  Tolan frowned. Why would she have been allowed to borrow a bondar? Especially one for spirit? There would be a question for later.

  “I need your knowledge of the element bonds and your connection to shaping.”

  “What for?”

  “Because the masters are more concerned about these attacks than they’re letting on.” She looked up at him, and he lowered his voice. “If the disciples are searching for the Convergence, I want to be ready if they try something again.” And he wanted to have another bondar that worked for him before their testing.

  “How? The best way to be ready is to keep working in classes.”

  “I don’t think that’s going to help me, but there’s something I think might.”

  “Why do I get the sense I’m not going to like this?”

  “It’s not that bad.”

  “Not that bad?”

  Tolan glanced over to Master Minden, who still sat on the dais. “I can’t shape on my own, but there’s one way I can. Between the two of us, we might be able to make a bondar.”

  15

  The park by the Academy was quiet today. He’d been tempted to head to the park outside the city, but with word of movement from the disciples, he had been afraid to do so. It was better to stay where it was safest, which meant close to the Academy.

  The sun shone brightly overhead and a soft breeze blew through, fluttering the leaves, but it was comfortable, and the wind was not so much that it disrupted their work. Tolan glanced down at the sheet where he’d made the runes. Two pieces of heavy stone held the page down, keeping it from floating away in the breeze.

  Ferrah sat across from him, her legs crossed, and she leaned over a piece of rock that she worked at shaping.

  “This isn’t working, Tolan.”

  “I don’t expect it to be easy,” he said.

  “You’re talking about somehow imbuing my shaping with some connection to the elementals? Why do you even think that will work?”

  He had to get this to work. For him to face Draln in the duel, he needed a greater connection to shaping. The only way he could do that would be with bondars. If he couldn’t take one from the classrooms, then he’d have to make his own.

  “Because of something Master Minden said. The bondars are connected to the elementals. Not necessarily the element bond, but the elementals. She said that in order to make them, one needs to have knowledge of both the element bond and the elementals, along with the necessary runes.” He stared at the sheet with the runes marked on it. “We have the runes—at least those for making the bondars we’ve been working with. And Master Minden was the one who gave me what we needed to know about the elementals.” He held out the book on the earth elementals, tapping the cover. It was made of stone and incredibly heavy, but he hoped that by searching through its pages, he might be able to come across some way of reaching earth. Especially if they worked together. Ferrah had the connection to the element bonds, and he had the knowledge of the elementals.

  “What if we don’t even have the right runes?”

  “We know which ones work for the bondars we’ve been working with.”

  “But you’re assuming the ones we know about are the same elemental you’re choosing.”

  “I’m trying to choose an elemental that fits with what we know.”

  “What if it doesn’t fit with what we know of the element bond and the runes?” Ferrah asked.

  “I think it’s tied to the shape more than anything,” he said.

  “The shape of the bondar?”

  Tolan pointed to the drawing he’d made of the earth bondar. Over the last few days and classes, he had taken time to draw the shape of the bondar as carefully as he could, making certain he had as faithful a representation of the runes as possible, all preparing for the likelihood they would be able to make a bondar.

  The challenge was understanding what shaping was needed. There had to be a link between the shaping of the element bond in the bondar and the elemental, didn’t there? And then it was tied to the rune placed on it. If they could work backward, using the runes they already knew, figure out which elemental had been used, maybe they could add enough to it in order to create something similar.

  Pulling open the book depicting the earth elemental, Tolan began flipping through the pages, going one by one. He had an idea of which ones fit with the shape of the golan, the earth bondar, but it depended upon the documentation within the guidebook on the elementals to be accurate. He wasn’t entirely certain it was. What if some descriptions weren’t quite right? He had seen differences between various books depicting the elementals and didn’t know if that would make it difficult to determine the correct elemental.

  Even when they did, would he be able to use what he knew about the earth elementals to make this work? He didn’t have much of a connection to earth, and without that, might not be able to recreate it.

  “I think we’re going about this wrong,” he whispered.

  “Finally. I’ve been waiting for you to realize that. We should be practicing and preparing for our testing. That’s going to come up sooner than we realize.”

  Tolan shook his head. He wasn’t going to pass testing to the next level with what he knew at this point anyway.

  He stared at the page, looking at the runes marking the fire bondar, though he didn’t even need to study the page. He had the furios, and could use that and try to copy it.

  Why had he thought he needed to start from scratch?

  Once he figured out what the key was, he could apply it across the others. Making a fire bondar might not be as helpful as making one for water and wind, but it would prove the process was effective.

  “What I’m thinking about is the fact I don’t have much of a connection to earth, not the same way as I do with fire.”

  “That’s kind of the point, isn’t it? Don’t you want to use what you can figure out and become better with the other elements?”

  “But in order for us to ensure we know what we’re doing, I think we need to take what we can uncover from the bondar I can use, and the one where I have the best connection to the elementals and copy it.”

  “Do you have anything in the book Master Minden let you borrow that might help?”

  Tolan shuffled through his pack before pulling out the book on the fire elementals. He hadn’t spent as much time looking through it as he had in the past. For the most part, Tolan had memorized much of it, taking time to study the various fire elementals, wanting to be ready for whatever he might be able to do while using it.

  While he was flipping pages, Ferrah leaned close to him. “Have you gone looking for word of that earth shaper?”

  Tolan glanced up, his hand resting on a page depicting saa. He didn’t need to pause there. He had enough experience with that elemental, that he thought he could imagine it in his mind far more easily than any others except hyza. And that was only because his experience with hyza had made it so he could practically see it in his mind.

  “I haven’t gone after Master D
aniels,” he said.

  “And you said the Grand Inquisitor sent him here?”

  “She did. She was disappointed in his ability to identify an elemental.”

  When he flipped through a book as massive as the one Master Minden had lent him about the elementals, he wondered how anyone would be able to remember more than a couple.

  Ferrah stared at the book he held open in his lap. “Before coming to the Academy, I’d never seen a rogue elemental. We don’t get reports of them in Par. There are depictions of the elementals. It’s why I’ve been so curious about the Convergence, but we don’t have the same. If I were honest, I would’ve said I never expected to encounter an elemental in Amitan. How could they escape when there are so many powerful shapers here?”

  Tolan flipped through the pages of the book, pausing every so often to stare at the elementals. For some reason, he had used the furios to at least convince himself he was summoning more than one kind of elemental. Hyza came easiest, but it wasn’t as if he couldn’t use the furios to summon other elementals. He had used it in his classes to help with his presumed shaping, making it appear as if he had more talent than he did, all tied to his ability to imagine elementals.

  What if the furios wasn’t tied to a specific elemental at all?

  He reached into his pocket and pulled the furios out, resting it on the surface of the book of elementals.

  “Now what?” Ferrah asked.

  “There’s something I’m not getting.”

  “I think when it comes to this, there’s quite a few things you’re not getting. First and foremost is the fact there’s no reason for you to even feel like you need to create bondars.”

  “Even if they do, won’t we learn more about them by making our own?”

  “You’re talking about advanced shaping, Tolan. You don’t have that ability.” She looked up at him. “I don’t have that ability.”

  “What if it’s not just about shaping?”