The Elements Bond (Elemental Academy Book 7)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Most of the bondars have other element runes around them. I think it’s what ties them over to the Convergence.”

  “And these are even more different,” she said and tapped on a series of patterns. “As far as I can tell, they don’t look like they are any sort of element rune.”

  Tolan glanced at them. He used a shaping of wind, little more than a subtle drawing, not wanting to weaken himself too quickly out on the waste. When it came to wind, he didn’t have the same connection as he did with fire and earth through hyza. He created a magnification, barely enough to augment the shape of the symbols.

  “I see what you’re saying. I’ve been looking at these and haven’t seen anything helpful. Maybe the symbols here are little more than an accessory.”

  “An accessory?” Ferrah glanced over, cocking a brow at him. “We’ve been discussing how some of these shapers knew more than we know. Why would they place something extraneous on a bondar?”

  “Practice?”

  Ferrah shook her head. “Everything would have to have some intention behind it. We may not know what that is, but everything would have a purpose. That’s what we have come to know about these runes.”

  What was it going to take to learn what they needed to know, though?

  Tolan had access to as many of the references within the library he might ever need. Some of them were incredibly old, older than what was generally accessible. Now he was a master shaper, he was allowed complete access to the restricted section within the library, but even there, Tolan hadn’t found anything helpful.

  “I keep thinking shaping through this will help,” he said softly. He pushed on wind, adding a hint of spirit, letting it flow through the remains of the bondar, but as he did, there was no additional sense from it. He could feel the energy there, and he could feel what had once been there, but other than that, he wasn’t able to determine anything.

  “I think it’s a matter of understanding the runes. Those are the key.” She straightened, looking around the clearing. “Maybe it’s a matter of understanding what they are trying to do.”

  “They’re trying to protect the Convergence here.”

  “I get that, but why?” She glanced down at him. “The Convergence here is no different than the others, is it? Why would the Guardians be tied to the Convergence in the elemental village?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Don’t you think that’s something we should discover?”

  “The Guardians don’t want us to do that.”

  “They don’t want to be separated from the bond, either. What if you can connect them to that Convergence while you’re trying to figure out what else to do with them?”

  From where he stood, Tolan could feel the energy from the Convergence deep beneath the ground. It was a strong sense, and it was one he had noticed when he had first come to the waste. Back then, he hadn’t given much thought to the idea he could connect to the Convergence here. There was some concern the Convergence in this part of the waste was dangerous.

  The elementals didn’t seem to know. When he’d attempted to talk to them, there had been no sense from them of the reason they guarded this. There were runes around other Convergences, but not around this one. The bondar served that role, connecting this Convergence and the elementals here to those elsewhere. Tolan didn’t understand. Neither did, it seemed, anyone else.

  Tolan found himself in the center of the waste. There was a sense of power deep beneath the ground, and he thought he might be able to use it. All it would take would be to focus on it, to use that awareness of the waste and try to draw upon that power.

  Was that what he wanted?

  Tolan wasn’t sure if it was what he wanted, or whether it was something he should even consider. The Guardians protected this for a reason. If he were to do anything, he would potentially damage that, and he would potentially do exactly what his mother wanted.

  She wanted this area disrupted. She wanted the power of the waste torn asunder. She wanted the protections of the waste removed.

  Tolan pushed out with spirit instead. As he did, he focused on the sense of the villagers, those who were the bondar masters, and used their knowledge. By borrowing from that, he blended it, looking to see if there was anything he might be able to uncover about the way they could create a bondar here. If his father was right and they needed to attempt to create the bondars all at once, then maybe there was something to it he could offer them. As Tolan focused on that sense, he pushed through them, drawing it up, but he wasn’t strong enough.

  If he had the advantage of the Convergence, he might be able to do so, but out here in the waste where he was separated from his ability to shape, he just didn’t have the necessary strength. When he had used that before, he had been within the Convergence.

  As he looked around, he couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps that was what he needed to do again.

  A different thought came to him.

  What if the shape couldn’t be placed here?

  He turned to Ferrah. “I have an idea.”

  “Why do I get the sense I’m not going to care very much for this?”

  “It takes us out of the waste.”

  “Then we should go.”

  He took her hand and, looking around, gathered the elements, drawing the warrior shaping and then exploding. It happened more slowly out in the waste than it did within Amitan, and as the lightning burst from the sky, he was able to see the others around him, all looking at him, wondering what he was doing.

  Answers would come later. If he was right.

  3

  The warrior shaping carried them to the free elemental land.

  Tolan guided them atop a mountain nearby, overlooking the rest of the village. From here, the vantage was such that the village spread out in the valley before them. There was lush green grass and trees and shrubs, a sense of life all throughout it. A gentle breeze blew through. The sun was warm overhead, not nearly as hot as it was within the waste. There was energy here.

  He breathed it in, letting out slowly.

  “Why here?” she asked.

  “Because it’s safe.”

  She looked around. “There are plenty of other places you could have taken us that would’ve been safe. This was chosen for a different reason.”

  Tolan glanced up at the mountaintop. “This is where I met the Draasin Lord.”

  “So, you came here thinking you might find him again?”

  “He’s still out there,” Tolan said.

  They would need to find him. They would need him to help search.

  If nothing else, Tolan was certain the Draasin Lord would be crucial for what he wanted to do. Not with creating the bondars. The Draasin Lord wasn’t exactly certain what would need to be done with that. He hadn’t known how to restore the Convergence, and that had taken borrowing from the villagers to understand it, but not to know what was beyond.

  That was the part of all of this he still needed to better understand.

  Movement near them caught his attention, and he turned.

  A foxlike shape stepped around the rocks. There was heat to it, and it glowed.

  Hyza.

  Ferrah stiffened.

  “It’s okay,” Tolan said.

  “I still…”

  Tolan squeezed her hand.

  “You came to visit,” hyza said.

  “You came back.”

  “I’m never gone that long. Now you know this shaping, you don’t spend much time in any one place.”

  “There are many things I need to be doing,” Tolan said.

  “There are many things you think you need to be doing.”

  Tolan glanced over at Ferrah. Would she be able to understand hyza? He had learned the elementals could choose who heard them, and when it came to hyza, he wasn’t entirely sure whether or not the elemental permitted her to know what he was saying.

  In this case, hyza was saying much the same as Ferrah. She had admonished him about his prioriti
es, and it seemed the elementals would as well.

  “I’m trying to see if there’s anything I can understand about the bondar so we can seal the Guardians back to the waste.”

  “Is that what you think needs to be done?”

  “I think we need to restore the protection the waste forms.”

  Hyza rounded the top of one of the rocks, turning his head toward the distant sense of the waste. Even from here, Tolan was aware of the demarcation the waste formed. It was abrupt, and the suddenness of it left him with a sense of emptiness.

  “The beyond has been lost to us for a long time,” hyza said.

  “How has it been lost?”

  The elemental took a deep breath. Seeing it do so was very animal-like, but the way his ears twitched and looked at Tolan, there was something almost human within him. “It has been lost long before we have been separated.”

  “The waste protects.”

  “It protects, but what else does it do?”

  Tolan frowned. “It forms a separation. Isn’t that enough?”

  “How many of your people have attempted to cross it?”

  Tolan shrugged. “I’ve asked at the Academy, but I haven’t gotten a clear answer. It seems there have been attempts over the years to try and cross the waste, but very few of them have been successful.”

  “Very few, or none?”

  “None,” he said. He glanced over at Ferrah. “No one even knew they were able to shape out on the waste. I was the first person to have discovered there was a way to do so.”

  “You were the first person to believe it was possible to do so.”

  “Is that so different?”

  “In a way. Belief has much to do with what you are able to do when it comes to the elements. You should know that, Tolan Ethar.”

  Tolan looked out over the village. When he was here, speaking to hyza, thinking about belief and shaping and everything he knew, it was easy to remember how much he had lost and just how much had been taken from him. His mother had stolen memories and knowledge he would have needed so he could know whether or not he was able to shape.

  Most of the time, Tolan believed he’d made peace with it.

  “I wonder what I would’ve been like had I been able to shape when I was younger.”

  “You would have gone to the Academy,” Ferrah said, joining him and taking his hand. She glanced over at hyza. “I wish you’d let me understand him.”

  “She doesn’t believe. Not yet,” hyza said.

  “She will. She needs time.”

  “Time for someone like you is different than time is for someone like me.”

  Tolan grunted. It was the same thing he been thinking about the draasin. With the draasin, what was a day, week, even a month to a creature that had lived for a thousand years?

  “Still,” he said. He glanced over at Ferrah. “I’ve given it some thought, and I think I would’ve learned to shape more easily, but…”

  “You would’ve gone to the Academy.”

  “Even that’s not a guarantee. There is a testing, and the Selection, and—”

  Ferrah studied him, shaping softly with water and wind. “You have the potential. That has never been your issue. In your case, the knowledge and understanding of what you need to do in order to shape was taken from you so you didn’t have that. When you were able to uncover it within yourself, then you found a way to shape again. I think you always would have found that way.”

  Tolan glanced over at hyza. Would he have found the elementals?

  Had he known how to shape when he was younger, he would have believed the same as others about the elementals. For that matter, Tolan had believed the same about the elementals. He remembered the first time he’d ever seen an attack on Ephra. It had been hyza, though probably not the same hyza he now was connected to. He’d seen the level of destruction. He’d known fear. It was almost as if he had been able to feel hyza’s fear, and given what he knew about spirit now, it was possible he had been able to feel it.

  The elementals believed in the power of the Great Mother. They believed in something higher than even themselves, something coordinating the nature of the elements, along with that of the element bonds and of the elementals. Tolan didn’t have the same belief, though maybe it wasn’t necessary for him to do so. Maybe what he needed was to know there did seem to be something directing where he needed to go and the kind of power he needed to access.

  “I need to see if there’s anything I can discover from the Convergence about how to create the bondars for the Guardians again.”

  “I do not know whether it was something possible from this side,” hyza said.

  “I should have considered that when I was within the Convergence before. At the time, I had all that knowledge, borrowed from the villagers, an understanding of how the bondars were formed and an understanding of what I needed to do to use it.”

  He looked down at the village. From here, he could see the remains of the building once housing the Convergence. Now it was little more than a flat section of stone. He could still reach for it. Once he headed down there, he would be able to borrow from that energy, and he could summon enough power using the runes scattered around the Convergence, and he could draw it down into the stone, opening the Convergence for their access. He breathed in, took Ferrah’s hand, and used a shaping of earth and wind, carrying them toward the Convergence.

  When he landed, he was surprised to see hyza bounding up alongside him.

  “Do you intend to watch?”

  “There is much I can still gain by coming here,” hyza said.

  Tolan looked around. There were other elementals, and though he couldn’t see all of them, he could feel them. One thing within this land was quite distinct. The energy of it rolled through him, an awareness of each of the elements and elementals here, adding to this place in a way he didn’t even notice within Terndahl.

  And Terndahl was powerful with the elements. It was powerful with the element bonds. The one thing it was not powerful with was the elementals.

  They were trapped, and as he looked around here, he couldn’t help but wonder if he would have to free them. Everything he’d seen so far left him questioning whether it was necessary or not. With each passing day, he began to wonder at his purpose.

  Having gone to the Academy, having been shown his quarters, he didn’t know if his purpose was really he should teach or if it was something else.

  Tolan drew upon the power of the elements, triggering the opening of the stairs down to the Convergence. It parted with a soft squeal of stone, a grinding sound spiraling down into the earth. Once it was open, Tolan looked upon the silvery liquid deep beneath him.

  Using wind and a hint of fire, he dropped down next to the Convergence. Ferrah joined him, and even hyza followed. The elemental prowled around the perimeter of the Convergence. The stone here was unique, runes carved along its surface angling the power in a specific way. When he had first come here, he had thought they were meant to augment the power within the Convergence, but as he had focused on it, gaining an understanding of the purpose of the runes his mother had damaged, he realized that wasn’t it at all. The purpose of the runes wasn’t to augment the Convergence here. They were to connect to the bondars for the Guardians.

  He had restored them, but even as he had, that didn’t change that there were other aspects needing to be repaired.

  Tolan traced his hand along the stone, feeling the runes. There was a memory of them, something he could feel within himself. It was almost as if he could close his eyes and recognize what he had done. This was his power. This was his shaping. Still, it had been guided by something else.

  Not just by him, but by the power within the Convergence and the villagers who had lent him their knowledge. All that had been bound together, giving him an understanding of what he would need to use the power here.

  Tolan pushed a shaping through the bondar.

  It was a soft shaping. Tolan was careful around it, not wa
nting to draw too much strength through the bondar and risk damaging it, though he didn’t think it would be possible to damage it. He held onto that sense, watching as the runes began to take on a little bit of a glow, a faint glimmering light allowing him the ability to see just how detailed and intricate they were.

  Ferrah crouched down in front of the bondar, leaning toward it. “I always forget how delicate they seem.”

  “I think it’s why my mother was able to damage it so easily.”

  “But they aren’t delicate, are they?” Ferrah looked up at him, holding his gaze. She tapped on the stone. “There’s considerable power here. You placed it.”

  “The power came from the Convergence.”

  “And because it is, it’s solid.” She got to her feet, walking around the Convergence, and ended up on the opposite side of it, looking across toward Tolan. “What were you hoping to find here?”

  “Maybe understanding. Maybe a way to use the Convergence to reform the bondars for the Guardians.”

  “What would happen if it fails?”

  “Then it fails,” Tolan said. Which meant he would have to find another way. He was determined to do so. He was determined there would have to be some other way to do it. All it would take would be finding that solution.

  Somehow, the answer was there.

  He breathed out, letting the sense of the elementals, that of the elements, even of the element bonds, flow out from him. As he focused on that, he could feel the energy tingling all around him.

  Would he be able to connect to the waste from here?

  If he stepped into the Convergence, it was possible he would be able to do so, but he’d never stepped into the Convergence when he hadn’t needed to.

  “Would it allow me to do so?”

  “You have never been denied access to this,” hyza said.

  “I don’t know if there would be some reason for me to be separated from it.”

  “You wouldn’t use it for yourself.”

  “That’s not why I want to draw upon it,” Tolan said.

  He glanced over at Ferrah and then began to peel off his clothes.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.