The Earth Awakens (Elemental Academy Book 2)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “I think I need to know how to use it in a more defensive way.”

  “I would agree. That’s the entire purpose of learning to shape like this. If you can learn how to defend yourself against a shaping designed to suffocate you, you won’t need to fear it.”

  These were the kind of things he needed to work on with her anyway, the kind of things he expected she wanted to teach him, to plan for the duel with Draln.

  A shaping began to build from Ferrah.

  He could feel it was a combination of wind, mixed with a hint of fire. Did she do that on purpose, or was the mixture of fire accidental and unintentional?

  He braced himself.

  When the shaping struck him, it did so with incredible force, sucking the wind from his body. As it did, he realized the purpose of mixing in the fire shaping. The fire sucked the wind from his body and he gasped, straining as he struggled to catch his breath, but there was nothing. It was as if her shaping pulled every bit of wind away from him, preventing him from reaching it.

  Tolan tried to fight.

  It was a dangerous and deadly sort of shaping, the kind he had never experienced before. Even when attacked by the disciples, the shapings hadn’t been this brutal and this violent.

  What he needed to do was maintain his focus.

  He focused, holding onto the bondar, drawing through it. For a moment, there was nothing, only his heart hammering, his lungs gasping, and the rising panic that he was dying.

  If he didn’t do anything, he would need Ferrah to stop drawing wind away from him. He didn’t think she wanted to harm him, but she would use whatever opportunities she had to teach him. In this case, the lesson was about wind, and the simple way it could be sucked away from him and he could die from just a shaping.

  The lesson was well received.

  He reached for his connection to wind. As he did, he could feel the faint stirring.

  It was there. He focused once more on the same elemental, focusing on the power he could summon. All he needed was to reach for it, to draw upon it, and to replenish himself. He had done it once before.

  The stirring continued and he grasped at it, clutching at the sense of the elemental. Pulling on the faint sense of foye, the sense came from deep within him, so faint he wasn’t sure if that was what he was detecting or not. Then it surged.

  Tolan drew the sense of the elemental to him, demanding help from it.

  As it came, he sucked in a deep breath.

  Power flowed through him. With a surge of the elemental, he took that breath and let it back out.

  “Tolan?”

  “I’m okay,” he whispered.

  “How did you do that?” she asked.

  “What do you mean? I was using the shaping we were told to use.”

  “That wasn’t the same shaping. Whatever you were doing was different than what I was using upon you.”

  “No. It was using the shaping Master Roln wanted us to use.”

  Ferrah stared at him for a moment, and then she shrugged. “Maybe it was. You destroyed my shaping, so I’m not really sure what exactly you did.”

  “What do you mean I destroyed it?”

  “I mean you powered through it. I wasn’t going to be able to hold onto it any longer. I was nearly ready to release my shaping in the first place and then you blasted your way through it. That was impressive.”

  He forced a smile and stared down at the bondar. How much more would he be able to do if he had an opportunity to continue to work with the bondar outside the city? Would he be able to finally shape the elements—really shape the elements?

  “Let’s try it again,” he said.

  “Are you sure?”

  “I am.”

  “I think it’s your turn to use it on me,” she said.

  “I’m not sure I have the necessary control to do that.” He worried if he made a mistake, he would somehow draw away wind from Ferrah and end up hurting her. That was the last thing he wanted.

  “Why don’t you try it on me again,” he said. “Let me practice reaching for wind a little bit more before you have me use it on you in that way.”

  “You don’t think I can handle it?”

  “I don’t think I can handle it,” he said.

  She chuckled but nodded. “That’s fine.” Her shaping built again, and as it did, Tolan readied himself, preparing for the inevitability of the shaping as it sucked the wind out of him. When it did, he was more prepared than he had been before. It wasn’t so terrifying, and as he lost the wind that gave him the ability to breathe, he began to shape, once again thinking of the elemental, using the bondar to summon that power. As it flowed through him, it filled him with a deep breath, tearing away the shaping Ferrah used on him.

  Tolan gasped, but there wasn’t the same sense of panic he had felt before.

  “You did it again,” she said.

  “I did the same thing.”

  “It’s not so much the same thing that you did. It’s the way you destroyed it. I’m impressed.”

  “It’s the bondar.”

  “I don’t understand,” she said.

  “That’s why I want to show you. You can tell me if you think it’s a mistake, but I don’t know I would have been able to do this without having that experience.”

  Ferrah shook her head. “You want to keep practicing?”

  “We might as well. As long as I have access to this bondar, I might as well keep working with it.”

  As he worked with Ferrah, as the shaping continued to build from him, he wondered if it was the bondar or if he would be able to do without it?

  Eventually, he intended to find out, but for now, he would use the bondar, take the advantage it offered, and when the time came, he would see if he could eventually shape without it so he could pass the testing—whenever that would be. The problem was, he worried he was running out of time to be ready.

  19

  Ferrah kept close to him, pressed up against his arm as they reached the edge of the city. She stared around, flicking her gaze from one place to the other, her eyes wide.

  “I don’t like coming out here like this,” she whispered. “What if there are disciples out here?”

  It was late. Night was beginning to fall, though it was much earlier than Tolan had come recently. Most of the time, he had come well into the darkness, at a time when there were very few people out in the city, and certainly no one who would comment on the fact he was leaving the Academy.

  “It’s okay,” he said.

  “You’re only saying that because you want to do this, but I’m still not sure this is the right thing,” she said. “There have been the attacks—”

  “I’ve come the last several nights,” Tolan said. “And I can assure you it’s okay. Nothing is going to happen to us. There’s been no one here.”

  That didn’t change the fact that Ferrah continued to shape, wrapping herself in some protection, though Tolan wasn’t entirely sure what sort of shaping she used. Was it a barrier of wind? It couldn’t be that, especially as she was pressed up against him and he didn’t feel any sense of wind. Did she fortify herself with earth? Shapings of earth were known to give shapers incredible strength, and that would be a fitting shaping for a time like this, especially if she was scared.

  They reached the edge of the city and Tolan pointed to the forest in the distance. There was a gap before they managed to reach it, and he hurried across, unmindful of who else might be out and watching. There shouldn’t be anyone out at this time of night, and he was doubtful there would be anyone watching. Ferrah grabbed his arm as he hurried from the edge of the city and reached the boundary of the forest.

  “I didn’t take you for the scared type,” he said.

  “I’m not normally, but after what we’ve gone through lately, I think it’s prudent to be cautious.”

  “We can be cautious, but I don’t think we have anything to worry about. I don’t feel any sense of shaping as I did.”

  “What if you
wouldn’t?”

  “My ability to detect shapings hasn’t failed me before,” he said. It sounded arrogant to make that claim, and yet it was true.

  “Tolan, you’re a first-level student, and while you have some interesting talents, that doesn’t change the fact you are still a student. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were master shapers able to mask themselves from you. What makes you think you would even know if one of the master shapers was using their abilities near you?”

  Tolan didn’t know, and yet, his experience with shaping told him he would. Everything he had experienced suggested he would be fully aware of a shaping. When the master shapers used their abilities within the Academy, he was aware of it. It wasn’t something he struggled with.

  Would he know if an elemental was nearby?

  When they had been at the edge of the waste, he had felt the rumblings of earth coming from the elementals, and he had felt the stirrings of wind, but he hadn’t felt any power from them.

  Maybe he wouldn’t know if it was an elemental.

  But if there was an elemental, it would be unlikely there would be any shapers nearby. The shapers would likely run, disappearing if there was the threat of an elemental appearing.

  “I think we’re okay,” he said. “Besides, you wanted to see this bondar.”

  “I still think we should have brought Jonas,” she said.

  “I would’ve brought Jonas, but I think he’s angry.”

  “He’s just upset because of everything you’ve been keeping from us.”

  “I haven’t been keeping anything from you. If anything, I’ve been sharing the things I was told not to share.”

  “I know that’s how you see it, but from our standpoint, it’s a matter of learning we’ve been shaped, and there are things we don’t remember but should. It’s strange knowing you’ve experienced something but have no recollection of it.”

  “I think it’s strange I should have been shaped alongside you and yet somehow I haven’t been. Somehow, I’ve managed to avoid the shaping.”

  “Maybe you’re destined to become an Inquisitor.”

  Tolan shot her a look, and she shrugged.

  They made their way onto the path that would lead deeper into the forest, and as they went, Tolan realized he was connecting to earth without even knowing he was doing it. After the first few times coming here, he had begun using that connection to earth in order to give himself a greater sense of strength, and with that, he was better able to detect if they were alone or not.

  As far as he could tell, the only other person with him was Ferrah. He could feel her through the earth connection, but no one else. There were the trees, and they were strangely powerful through that connection.

  He slowed when they neared the park.

  “What is that?” Ferrah asked.

  He nodded at the wall. “That’s where we’re going.”

  “It looks like the ruins we have in Par.”

  “I’d wondered if you’d say that.”

  “The ruins are places that existed long ago. Many were shaped, so they have lingered far longer than most, and even now they stand sturdy, despite the ravages of time that should have claimed them, but many are for structures with a purpose we don’t really understand.”

  They reached the wall and Tolan climbed on top of it, taking a seat. He had sat on the wall or stood often enough that he was comfortable here, and now he was here, now he waited, he stared out toward the center of the park clearing, studying the statue.

  Ferrah climbed up and sat next to him. She remained close, pressing her body up against his, and the sense of shaping building from her continued to radiate, a comfortable sense.

  “That’s the bondar?” she asked, staring at the sculpture.

  “I think so. Whatever it is, it has a connection to power that’s different than anything else I’ve been around.”

  “What if it’s not a bondar?” she asked.

  “I don’t know what else it might be.”

  “Well, you described the Convergence, and seeing as how you’ve been there, maybe this is connected to it in some way, which allows you to use it.”

  “Maybe.” It was something he’d considered. The Convergence was difficult to reach and hidden deep beneath the Academy, while this was out in the open, for anyone to use.

  “I want to know if it augments your shaping,” Tolan said.

  “What happens if it doesn’t?” she asked.

  “Considering how much it augmented mine, I suspect it’ll do the same to you, which is why I want to see what you can do with it.”

  “But that’s my point, Tolan. What if it doesn’t work for me?”

  “Why wouldn’t it work for you?”

  “Because it’s something else. Look at it. I’ve been shaping at it ever since we appeared, and I haven’t been able to get anything to happen.”

  “What do you mean you’ve been shaping at it?”

  “Just that. I’ve been shaping at it, trying to see if I could figure out how that bondar works, but nothing has happened.”

  Tolan thought about his experience with it and shook his head. “I don’t know that it works from the wall. I’ve tried doing something similar, and it’s never managed to work from here, either. I have to be right up next to it.”

  Ferrah’s mouth wrinkled in a concerned line. “You want me to go through that mess?”

  “Don’t tell me you’re afraid.”

  “Do you know what’s in there?”

  “Grasses. Some flowers. It’s really quite lovely in the daylight.”

  “I thought you said you only came at nighttime.”

  “Most of the time, but the first visit was during the daytime.”

  “How did you end up out here again?”

  “I was wandering.”

  “How did you wander out here?”

  “Fine. I was looking to see if I could uncover anything that would indicate Master Daniels was in the city and had anything to do with the destruction of the palace.”

  “Tolan, you know you shouldn’t be going after that. We don’t know enough about shaping.”

  “You keep saying that, and yet we were the reason the attack on the Academy was stopped. It wasn’t master shapers. At least, it wasn’t the master shapers to begin with. It was us. You and me and Jonas.”

  “I really wish I could remember it.”

  “I really wish I could remember my parents better.”

  “Why is that?”

  “I’ve begun to wonder if perhaps memories of my parents were spirit-shaped away from me.”

  “Why would memories of your parents be spirit-shaped from you?”

  “I don’t know. It’s just the memories I have of them are different. They’re hazy. Not quite the same as what I would expect I should have. The more I think about my parents, the less I’m able to come up with the memories I think I should have.”

  The strongest memories he had now came from the Selection, and other than that, he didn’t really have any. They were vague, memories involving them taking him places, working with his ability to shape, testing to see what connections he might have, but in none did he remember specific details. Shouldn’t that be different?

  The more he thought about it, the stranger that seemed.

  “I thought you couldn’t be spirit-shaped.”

  “What if I can’t be spirit-shaped now, but maybe I could before?”

  “That doesn’t make much sense. It’s not as if your abilities have improved.”

  “You seem to think I have some sort of protection placed on me. What if there was a spirit shaping placed upon me that protects me?”

  “I don’t think that’s likely,” Ferrah said.

  “Probably not,” he said.

  He hopped off the stone wall and headed through the grasses. As he went, he continued to stretch outward with his earth shaping, letting his connection to earth call to him, searching for anything that might be out in the night. Once he was within th
e walls, he found it more difficult to do.

  And then he neared the sculpture. As he did, there was a familiar weighty sense to it. It was difficult to put words to, other than he felt power near it. As he stood, he ran his hand along its surface, waiting for Ferrah to join him. She approached cautiously, frowning, her gaze lingering along the base of the tower.

  “Look at the top,” he said.

  “What do you see up there?” she asked.

  “When I shape, something glows up there. I’m not exactly sure what it is, but I think a rune represents the element I’m shaping.”

  “All of this is quite strange, Tolan.”

  He nodded. He took a deep breath, focusing on fire. As he did, he pulled upon the connection, feeling the stirring deep within him, and summoned a connection to saa. The elemental was powerful, but not as powerful as some, and not one he feared the way he feared others. As the elemental came to him, he held onto it, letting it flow away from him. Flames flickered, hovering in the air. Tolan was able to feed those flames, holding onto them with much more power than he usually did. Ferrah stared at the flames until Tolan pointed.

  Her gaze followed his. The peak of the sculpture glowed, the symbol not one Tolan recognized. Without any way of seeing it clearly, he couldn’t tell if it was a rune or not.

  He released the connection to the elemental and it took a moment, but the flames started easing and finally disappeared altogether. The heat in the air faded and so, too, did the glowing at the top of the tower.

  “What was that?” she asked.

  “That was a shaping.”

  “That wasn’t a shaping, Tolan.”

  “That was a shaping,” he said.

  “If that was a shaping, it’s not one I recognize.”

  “I’ve told you how I have to shape.”

  “You told me you use visualizations of the elementals, but that… that looks like an elemental.”

  “That’s my point.”

  “Are you trying to convince me that when you shape, you call elementals into existence?”

  “I don’t know if I’m calling elementals into existence or if I’m merely imagining the elementals, which creates a shaping tied to them. I just don’t know.”