“Lesser?” Tolan thought about his experience with the Draasin Lord. He thought about what he knew, the nature of the Draasin Lord, and he couldn’t help but feel the Draasin Lord would have been angry at being called lesser anything.
Of course, Tolan doubted anyone would be foolish enough to say such a thing to the actual Draasin Lord. Doing so would be deadly.
“The way I see it, you are one of two things. You are either elemental like them,” he said, nodding down below. He could feel the energy, though he wasn’t able to see them. The sense of those elementals was faint, so different than the elementals he was able to detect elsewhere. It was only through his connection to spirit he was able to reach for them at all. Without spirit, Tolan didn’t know if he would be able to sense anything. “Or you are a shaper skilled with spirit.” He turned his head toward the man. “Knowing what I do of my mother, I suspect the latter.”
“You think all of this is an illusion?”
“A powerful one.” Tolan still didn’t understand. As the draasin, he would have been able to lead the elementals. What had changed?
Perhaps a desire to use them.
As a draasin, he could draw the elementals together. He could force them into the orbs. Into whatever plan he wanted.
“Is that why they’re here? They followed the draasin and now you’re going to use them.”
The man grunted. “You were to be useful.”
“How?”
“As you can see, we have a little difficulty with these elementals. They are reckless. That recklessness stems from their separation from what they know. It is why we seek to help guide them.”
“Guide them, or control them?”
The man offered a hint of a smile. His gaze flickered behind Tolan and Tolan spun, noticing that his mother stood behind him.
She was stiff, her posture rigid, and she glanced from Tolan to this other man, saying nothing. She didn’t need to say anything for Tolan to recognize the anxiety within her. Whatever else she experienced, she was troubled by this man. There was something about his power that left her uncomfortable.
He started to pull upon spirit. He did it subtly at first, drawing it slowly and carefully, worried he might draw upon too much and wanting to ensure he didn’t use too much energy. He didn’t want the man to know what he was doing.
As far as Tolan could tell, the man wasn’t paying any attention to how he was shaping spirit. The man was focusing only on looking down.
Tolan probed slowly. He let the shaping ease out.
He used it on his mother.
“We need to guide them. They’ve been wild for far too long.” He looked over at Tolan, smiling. “I understand your land has some experience with wild elementals. As you know, when the elementals are free of certain restrictions, they can be violent.”
“No,” Tolan said.
“No? I hear you have experienced it firsthand.”
“Here or in my land?”
“Why, both.”
“No,” Tolan said.
The man smiled. “The people of your land, the Academy, as I believe you refer to it,” he said, glancing over at Tolan’s mother, “have long understood how the elementals can cause danger. In your land, the danger is handled in one way. You have what you refer to as an element bond. We don’t have anything quite like here, though it’s something I would much like to rectify. Instead, we have had to deal with these wild—and unfortunately violent—elementals on our own.”
“No,” Tolan said.
“No?”
Tolan focused on the sense of the elementals. “What you call wild and violent, I call a reaction to what you’re doing to them.”
It made sense to him. Much made sense, especially given what he was able to detect from his mother. He could feel it within her.
He had been looking for a hint of darkness, but while that might have been there, there was something else he hadn’t even considered.
It was the same thing he’d experienced throughout his entire life.
A spirit shaping.
Tolan had known a spirit shaping throughout his life. It had consumed him, especially lately. Knowing he had no memories that could be believed left him feeling as if everything he had known, everything he had ever believed, was wrong.
Now he knew his mother had experienced something very similar.
That had to be what it was.
“When did you meet her?” Tolan asked.
The man turned toward him. “When did I what?”
“When did you meet my mother?”
He glanced over toward her before turning back to Tolan, smiling slightly. “I fail to see why that should matter.”
“Humor me,” Tolan said.
“I met her when she first came to my land.”
“No,” Tolan said.
“You say that quite a lot. I can assure you that when you begin to serve me, you will find yes is a much more pleasing experience.”
For a moment, pain wrapped through him. Tolan knew nothing other than a sense of pain. It was agony, and it raced through him, filling him. He strained, struggling against it, wanting anything other than that sense of pain to fill him, but it remained. It happened so briefly, so quickly, that Tolan could barely think about it, but when it was gone, he breathed out a sigh of relief.
The man looked at him, the hint of a smile on his face all the emotion Tolan needed to know he was responsible for everything that had just happened.
“As I said, you will find that saying yes is far less painful.”
“When did you meet her?” he asked.
“I think you already know.”
“Is that because you use spirit on me?”
“How would a draasin use spirit?”
For a moment, the form of a draasin spread out in front of him. It was massive. The creature had enormous black wings, leathery skin, scales and spikes, and a sense of fire blasting from it. It was so powerful that Tolan could barely consider approaching.
Then that sense of the draasin faded.
There was nothing other than this man standing before him.
“A draasin would not use spirit.” Tolan stared at the man, unblinking.
“A draasin would not.”
“How long have you known her?”
“Long enough.”
“You’re the reason she was gone.”
“When I met your mother, she had gone looking for answers. She was curious. She searched for power. She had potential, but potential can only take one so far.”
“You shaped her.”
“Did I?”
“You did something.”
The man smiled, nodding at Tolan. “Perhaps I did. You see, our land is separated from yours. We have this waste that stretches between us. Though we are similar, we are not the same. You have already elaborated the differences. I wanted a way of understanding how to reach for other sources of power. Your mother was a capable and beneficial tool for this.”
Tolan could feel the tension within his mother as this man said she was a tool. Holding on to spirit as he did, he didn’t need to probe or press too deeply to detect it. The only thing he needed was to feel it.
“You’re the reason she returned.”
“I offered her knowledge. Training. She was only too eager to accept. In exchange, she shared what she knew of your land. The teachings. The bonds. The elementals. All so different than here.”
At least now Tolan thought he understood how his mother had become so capable with spirit. She could have learned to use spirit within the Academy, but the way that his mother demonstrated her use of spirit, as well as the nature of the illusion he had seen from her, was more than he had seen in many spirit shapers within the Academy. That difference was enough that Tolan thought that it mattered. It was enough he thought he had to understand why.
“Did you send her against the Inquisitors?”
“She was a faithful servant.”
“What about the sense of darkness
?”
The man smiled at him. “Darkness. I suppose that one might call it that.”
“Chaos.”
“There,” he said.
“You serve chaos.”
“Chaos is a part of the world, Tolan Ethar. The sooner one realizes that, the sooner they will be able to use it. Most fear chaos when they should embrace it.”
“Do you fear it?”
“I fear only that which I cannot control.”
He turned to Tolan’s mother, and as he did, connected as Tolan was, he recognized the hint of spirit shaping coming off the man. It drifted toward his mother, striking her, and she trembled for a moment before falling still.
Her breathing steadied.
It was an attack on her.
“Why her?”
“She, like many who serve me, have their uses.”
“That’s what you want of me.”
“Not you per se, Tolan Ethar. I wouldn’t want you to believe that you are more valuable than you really are. I needed someone with your potential, as it were.”
“What potential is that?”
“The potential to do what must be done.”
“And that is?”
“Why, you are going to replicate what was done in your land. You are going to create element bonds here.”
21
Tolan stared at the man, not sure how to react. Everything felt cold. The sun shone down, but there was no real warmth within it. Everything around him felt wrong. Even the time he was with his mother felt off. Wrong, just like everything else he detected.
“I’m not going to do what you want.”
“You see, Tolan Ethar, one thing I have learned is that people respond well to particular pressure points. Your mother, why she has been easy. She responds well to pleasure.”
There was another soft shaping of spirit, and she moaned softly.
The man grinned. “You see?”
“That’s not going to work with me.”
“I know it’s not. I recognized it would not when I first encountered your presence here. You escalated things.”
“How?”
The man leaned over the edge of the tower. “They were so willing to hide. So complacent. The appearance of your so-called Draasin Lord changed all of that. They served before, even if they believed they served something else.”
The form of the draasin took hold again. With it came an increase in the sense of violence from the elementals below.
“Why?”
“Because they believed they were freed.” He turned to Tolan, crossing his arms over his chest, thrusting his chest forward. “I am the only true Draasin Lord.”
“I think the true draasin would object to that.”
“He might object, but he is not here.” The man smiled at him, a glitter of amusement in his eyes. “You thought you were saving him.”
“I did save him.”
“He was just as safe where he was. And now, you have removed him, which means you have removed the one they would have followed.”
“They wouldn’t have followed the Draasin Lord. They didn’t know any of the other elementals.”
“No, but they recognize him.”
Tolan thought about what Rory had said, the nature of the way that the elementals had been interested in following the sense of the Draasin Lord. Could that be it?
They wanted to follow someone, something, that would provide them with information and understanding.
They wanted to be safe.
Tolan might have made a mistake. By sending the Draasin Lord away, having an elemental who could reach for these other elementals was lost. He might be able to talk to Rory, but the others had proven they wanted nothing to do with him.
He wasn’t going to be able to do anything.
Tolan wished that there was something he could do. He wished he could try some way of reaching for them. He wished he could speak to them.
“As I was saying, you are going to be quite useful in helping me create my own element bonds. All I need is for you to place the elementals into the bond, and then…” He turned to Tolan, spreading his hands out wide.
“Why do you need that? You have the element bondars.”
“The bondars are limited. What I need is what you have in your land. When you can replicate that—” He caught himself as he began to get more and more agitated.
There was something in that agitation that Tolan wondered if he might be able to use. “Why the bondars?”
“What was that?”
“The bondars. Why?”
“There are many ways of reaching power.”
“You don’t need them.”
“I don’t, but I need to ensure the elementals are protected.”
“When you say protected, what you really mean is controlled.”
Tolan was trying to stall, trying to think through what he needed to do, but even as he did it, he had no idea if he was going to come up with anything that would help him figure out what was taking place.
The only thing he could come up with was that there had to be some way to oppose this man. With the thought, pain began to stretch through him. It was hot and agonizing, and it struck him, leaving him trembling.
The man watched him, smiling.
He somehow knew what Tolan was thinking.
He was incredibly powerful with spirit. Tolan had to keep that in mind, to remember that this was someone who had been shaping his mother for over a decade. This was someone who had guided her, forcing her to use his father, then him.
The pain began to fade, leaving Tolan trembling.
The man just watched him. There was nothing Tolan could do with that pain. He struggled against it, struggling to handle that pain, trying to find out if there was anything he might be able to do to survive it. If it came again, he didn’t know how he could do that.
“As I said, the key is finding each person’s pressure point. In your case, you respond to pain.”
“I can handle pain,” Tolan said.
“Perhaps. But what about pain to those you care about?”
The two shapers appeared, dragging Ferrah with them.
She looked at Tolan, her eyes wide, and she glanced at the man before looking over at his mother.
Tolan tried to push on spirit, wanting to reassure her, but Ferrah began to scream.
The sound of it cut through him.
He would do anything to keep her from screaming. He would do anything to stop this man from harming her.
“Stop!”
“See?” He said it with such a hint of a smile, a grin that left terror leaping into Tolan’s chest. “Pressure points. In your case, you become predictable. I do admit your mother has found you to be unpredictable.”
Tolan needed to stall. He needed to bide his time.
“There’s still something I don’t understand. Why did you have her using the Inquisitors?”
“Because you had failed.” The man turned to his mother. The soft expression on his face had shifted, fading, and there was an angry look in his eyes. “I don’t take well to failure, but she failed me. Look at her. She does not want to fail me.” He turned to Tolan. “Neither do you.”
The man wanted to find a way to force the elementals into the bonds.
He wanted to find a way to create the bonds.
Either that, or he wanted to extend the bonds within Terndahl across the waste.
That was what his mother had been trying to do.
She was there on his behalf.
“She remained because she found me,” Tolan said, looking at her.
“Yes. She should have returned far sooner, but she persisted. You have no idea how that aggravated me.”
It was strange, but for the first time in what seemed like forever, it felt to Tolan as if his mother had done something to protect him. It might’ve been in some twisted way that mattered only to her, but still, it was protection.
He thought he understood.
If this man wante
d to find a way to rid himself of these elementals, to deal with the troublesome nature of them, then Tolan was the way. She had served him initially, but then had she begun to have second thoughts?
Tolan wished he could understand her better. He tried to use spirit, but any attempt to dive deeper into her with spirit would be blocked.
The only thing he could do was try to piece together what he knew. All this time, he’d been thinking about the ways that his mother had hurt him, but perhaps she had also been trying to protect him. It would be in her own way, and it would be to hide him, but could it be she had done what she thought was necessary?
It didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she had ultimately led him here.
“I’m not going to do what you want.”
“I think that you will.” The man strode toward Ferrah and Tolan attempted to jerk himself free, wanting to step toward him, but he couldn’t move. Everything within him screamed when he tried. He tried to take a step, but it seemed as if his body didn’t work. It was almost as if his legs cried out against him, rebelling, seeming to tell him he could not walk as he knew he could.
The man stopped in front of Ferrah. When he looked at her, he raised his hand, tracing around her cheeks.
“She can serve me just as well as you, Tolan Ethar.”
He thought about the way his mother had been shaped. The way that spirit had been used on her. He had believed his mother had been twisted, and in that way, she had been. She had used a twisted sense of spirit to control others. More than that, she had become twisted herself. There was something dark within her he had detected, but that darkness was gone. Even without it, she still had served.
It had taken him a long time to realize why. Now he saw this man, he understood. She served because she had been spirit-shaped.
This man served because he wanted to. He embraced the sense of chaos.
Had his mother?
Perhaps not initially, but eventually she must have.
Ferrah sucked in a sharp breath, her eyes going wide.
Tolan looked over, trying to see what the man was doing to her, but he couldn’t tell. The only thing he could tell was that she seemed to suffer.
The man smiled at him. “You see? Everyone serves eventually. Even your delightful Ferrah.”
The Elements Bond (Elemental Academy Book 7) Page 24
