The Water Ruptures

by D. K. Holmberg

The resistance continued to build and Tolan released his connection, fearful that if he pushed too hard, he might damage the bondar. Maybe wind wasn’t necessary to understand the shaping involved. What if he attempted earth?

  He summoned his connection to earth and began to push it into the withering, but much like it had with wind, there was a resistance.

  That wasn’t the key.

  Could it be water? Wind and water were opposites, counters with the elements, and so it didn’t seem as if it would make sense for it to be water, but perhaps it was. He drew upon water, finding it easier than he remembered, and sent that connection into the withering. It flowed slowly, but it also met resistance.

  Rather than forcing it, Tolan retreated, drawing back from his connection to it, and decided to try fire last. Maybe he should have tried fire first, as fire and wind were complementary, though not quite as complementary as earth and wind. He pushed on fire, and because he had a greater connection to fire, his shaping went more rapidly. As it met resistance, he again retreated, withdrawing before damaging the withering.

  That wasn’t the key.

  How was he to understand how the shaping was made?

  Unless each of these elements wasn’t the one he needed to use.

  Could it be spirit?

  Tolan didn’t have any way of connecting to spirit. He still thought he might have reached spirit in his vision but had no idea what he’d done or whether he could repeat it. Even if he could repeat it, he didn’t have enough control. He would be far too likely to damage the withering if he approached with spirit.

  He sat back, staring at the withering. There were answers within it, but it seemed as if he wouldn’t be able to reach them.

  “Shaper Ethar. Do you intend to work, or will you be contemplating how to rescue the bondar from my classroom?”

  Tolan looked up and met Master Rorn’s eyes. Others in the classroom laughed nervously and heat began to rise in him, starting in his neck and working up toward his face. “I will be shaping, and then I will be returning the bondar, Master Rorn. Thank you for your concern.”

  He turned his attention back to the withering, ignoring the muttering around him. Tolan set the withering down, ignoring it, too. He focused on wind, the shaping Master Rorn had demonstrated. He could see it within his mind and recognized what was involved.

  There was a release of wind as he had said, but it was a controlled release, and it needed to be not only from beneath him, but on all sides, holding him in place. He was tempted to attempt the shaping but decided against it. If he did, all he would do would be to bring attention to the fact he might not need the withering.

  Instead, he sat and watched others in the class. Jonas had little difficulty with hovering. He demonstrated it over and again, lifting himself in the air before settling back down. Draln did the same, hovering in place before floating around the classroom, completely controlled, disrupting nothing, no differently than Master Rorn had done.

  Master Rorn looked upon Draln with approval. Ferrah had some success and remained in place as the shaping held her in the air. They were the only three who did so without a withering. Others were using the bondar, holding it as they attempted their shapings, and many students were able to lift themselves, though some did so far more rapidly than others. Master Rorn made his way around the class, preventing students from slamming into the ceiling overhead. Occasionally, he had to bring them back down when they hovered too high and feared releasing it. He made his way around the desks, murmuring something to each student before moving on.

  When he reached Tolan, he stared down at the withering. “You refuse to even try?”

  “I’m not a skilled wind shaper,” Tolan muttered.

  “There is no shame in admitting your deficiencies, but all students must attempt to shape in class. I would like to see your attempt.”

  Tolan squeezed his eyes shut and reached for the withering. He had to be careful. He began shaping, pulling upon the stirring of wind within him, and released it. It came out as a trickle, barely more than that, and he listed off his seat. He floated in the air, and compensated for the movement, preventing himself from sliding too far off to the side. He began to shift again, and he compensated again.

  Opening his eyes, he saw Master Rorn watching him. It seemed as if there was a pressure upon him, a shaping, and he realized Master Rorn was attempting to force him down.

  Tolan clenched his jaw. It reminded him too much of what Master Irina had done during the Inquisition. Much like her, he was trying to use a band of shaping to drop him, to force him to his will.

  Tolan added earth to his shaping, and he honed it to an edge, carving through the shaping trying to hold him down. When it sliced through Master Rorn’s shaping, Tolan went shooting up.

  There were gasps in the classroom, but Tolan quickly adjusted, shifting the nature of the wind shaping. He released just a little, enough that he would be able to keep from slamming into the ceiling, and then began to lower. He dropped slower and slower until he was hovering right in front of Master Rorn. He held the withering tightly in his hand, and Master Rorn grabbed it from him.

  Tolan maintained the shaping for a moment. Master Rorn’s eyes widened slightly, and Tolan let go of his shaping.

  “At least you’ve tried,” Master Rorn said.

  He turned and headed back to the front of the classroom, leaving Tolan staring at his back. He took a seat, not looking up or at anyone else in the classroom.

  Master Rorn set the withering down on Tolan’s desk.

  And it was possible he had been going about it all wrong. He had assumed it was using the elements within the withering to release that power, but what if it hadn’t been the elements at all, but the elementals?

  If it was the elementals, then there was a risk of something much more.

  Tolan pushed the withering aside and simply sat, staring at his hands.

  He felt empty. It was strange for him to feel that way, considering he had spent all of his time wanting nothing more than to be able to reach for shaping. He’d wanted this. Wanted to be able to reach for the wind, to manage to shape more than just fire, and now it was fire and earth and wind and water. There was hope for even spirit.

  Despite his success, why did he feel this way?

  He returned the withering to the front of the class, setting it on the tray, catching Master Rorn’s eye. He wasn’t going to have Master Rorn accused him of stealing it. The wind shaper stared at him for a moment, saying nothing.

  Tolan turned away, returning to his seat, and sat there silently.

  After a while, Master Rorn made his way back to the front of the classroom and began to speak, going through his lecture on the various elementals. Tolan barely paid any attention. There was no point. He was able to recite everything Master Rorn was saying and could even correct some of the inaccuracies. And there were inaccuracies, something that hadn’t bothered him before, but now it did.

  When the class was finally over, Tolan shuffled out, not wanting to talk to anyone. What would he say, anyway? There wasn’t anything to speak about, other than to acknowledge the fact he’d been singled out.

  He reached the main level of the Academy and headed back outside. Once there, he noticed that clouds covered the sky. He hurried off to the park, wanting solitude, and managed to avoid students who were making their way to the same location.

  He took a seat near the pond, on the far side where students rarely went. He reached for the various elements, shaping them, and continued to walk through the various shapings he had been taught since coming to the Academy. Why not practice if he had nothing else to do?

  Footsteps behind him caused him to turn around and look up.

  “I thought I might find you here,” Ferrah said.

  “You don’t want to be seen with me.”

  “Why would you say that?”

  “You heard Master Rorn.”

  “That’s one master.”

  “Master Sartan and Master
Shorav will be the same. I don’t doubt Master Wassa will be, too. It might be best for you to stay away from me for a little while.”

  “I get to decide what’s best for me, Tolan.”

  “I know that. It’s just—”

  “It’s just that you’re trying to push people away.” She fell silent for a moment, and Tolan didn’t say anything to break the silence. What was there to say, anyway? “What was that back there?”

  “What was what?” Tolan asked.

  “That shaping. What was it?”

  “It was nothing.”

  “It was more than nothing. You were holding yourself in the air far better than you should have been able to do. What were you doing?”

  “I was shaping.”

  “I’m aware you were shaping, I’m just trying to get a sense of what sort of shaping you’re doing.”

  “I think it was a frustrated one.”

  “You didn’t need to react quite so strongly when Master Rorn was doing that.”

  Tolan shot her a look. “I get to decide what’s best for me, Ferrah.”

  “Not when you’re being foolish about it.”

  He breathed out. It wasn’t that he wanted to get away from Ferrah. He was happy to have her sitting with him. It was more that he wished he could do something a little differently than he had.

  “What really happened to you during your Inquisition?”

  “Nothing they didn’t want to happen to me,” he said.

  “You’ve changed. You would never have snapped at a master shaper before, and to Master Rorn, of all people?”

  “He was antagonizing me.”

  “Did you consider the possibility he was doing so to see what reaction he might get out of you?”

  “Then he got exactly what he wanted.”

  “Maybe he did, but is that what you wanted? Do you want to continue to draw attention for things like that? Or do you want to continue your studies at the Academy?”

  He sighed again. “Since coming here, all I’ve ever wanted was to understand how to shape and feel as if I were a part of something. And for some reason, I just don’t. It’s been so many different things. Not only my inability to shape when I first got here, but everything that’s transpired since then.”

  “Only because you allow it to set you apart.”

  “I’m not sure that’s it. I think I was set apart from the very beginning.” It was the reason Master Irina had been willing to accept him as a Selection. Had she wanted him to fail?

  What purpose would there be in wanting that for him? Unless she already had known about Master Daniels and was trying to draw him out.

  There were so many different things that raced through his head, and all he wanted to do was sit here and practice shaping, working on the various techniques he had learned, trying to understand how his ability was so different than others’.

  “I’m going to continue my studies,” he said. “I’ll do my best to avoid angering any more of the master shapers.”

  Ferrah flashed a smile at him. “It shouldn’t be difficult. I thought if anyone would irritate you, it would be Master Sartan, but the two of you have gotten along quite well.”

  “Only because I was able to reach for fire from the very beginning,” he said.

  “And now you can reach each of the elements. Without a bondar.” She watched him, saying nothing for a moment. “I observed you for a little while before coming. I saw you shaping. That was something else you weren’t able to do before your Inquisition. What did they do to you?”

  “They might have unlocked something within me,” Tolan said. He focused on his various connections to the elements, feeling fire, then earth, then wind and water. Each of them flowed deep within him, a connection that he could reach and claim. “I still don’t know if they were successful in spirit shaping me.”

  “You can’t spirit shape an ability to reach the element bonds.”

  “What if they unlocked something?”

  “Then it was already there.”

  Memories of the vision and battling with Master Irina came back to him. He had fought her, resisting the barrier she had attempted to push around him, and in doing so, he had managed to connect to each of the element bonds, discovering a way of shaping he hadn’t known before. If only he could reach for spirit, then perhaps he wouldn’t have to fear a spirit shaping upon him. As it was, he still didn’t know if she was using a spirit shaping on him.

  “I can see in your eyes there’s something more you haven’t said, and I won’t push it. Just know I’m here if you need me. I’m willing to help you.” She laid back, resting on her elbows and looking up at the sky. “Great Mother. I’m not even able to shape all four of the elements quite that well.”

  “Maybe you need to be subjected to an Inquisition.”

  Her eyes widened. “I think I’d prefer to continue working on my own, thank you very much. I can work with you, Tolan. I might not have all the answers, but we’re more alike than you realize.”

  “How is that?”

  “Because Par is along the edge of Terndahl. You might not see it from Ephra, but most of those within Terndahl view Par as some backward place. And maybe we are, but it was still home to me. I’d hoped I could better understand that home by coming to the Academy. I still hope that.”

  “What did you hope to learn about Par at the Academy?”

  “I wanted to better understand the markings. Some of the ancient ruins have writings upon them that has significance, but even the people who study such things haven’t been able to fully understand them. I was hopeful I could learn something here, that I could gain an opportunity to work with the librarians and hopefully uncover something that would enable me to better understand my homeland.”

  “I’m sorry I kept you from that.”

  “You haven’t kept me from it. You enabled me to ask different questions. Because of you, I’ve begun to see that perhaps the questions I have about Par aren’t the only ones that need to be asked.” She glanced over at him, smiling. “Then again, I’m not sure I necessarily want to be caught up in some of the things you’ve done. To think I’d face disciples of the Draasin Lord as a first-level student!”

  “That was part of the accusations against me,” Tolan admitted. He looked away, staring at the sky. “They accused me of being a part of some of the oddities that had been taking place ever since my arrival.”

  “There have been strange things that have occurred since we came to the Academy.”

  “There have, but they aren’t my fault.”

  “I wasn’t saying that. I was just suggesting maybe we need to begin looking for the reason behind all of the strangeness. I don’t remember the search into the Convergence the same way you do, but first we had a shaper who attempted to dig into a deep place of power within the Academy, and then we had the disciples attacking before your Master Daniels was trying to do something with the Keystone.”

  “And that’s after what happened at the waste,” Tolan said.

  “I’d forgotten about that. You and Jonas were also attacked when you went back for the Selection. I don’t remember so many stories of attacks. The last time there were this many, the Draasin Lord had been active. As far as I knew, the Draasin Lord has been suppressed and the threat gone.”

  “What if he’s making an attempt to return?”

  “Why would he make an attempt to return? Why now?”

  Tolan didn’t have any answers. It was all speculation, anyway. Nothing really was able to be connected, and if it was, he certainly didn’t have a part in it.

  “Maybe rather than spending my time trying to dig into that sort of thing, I need to focus on my studies. With everything else that’s happened, that’s probably the best.”

  “Is that what you want to do?”

  Tolan threw his hands in the air and shrugged. “I don’t even know what I want. I’ve already told you what I thought I was doing with my shaping, but now, even that is different. Somehow, I’m now
connected in a way I wasn’t before. I welcome that, but at the same time, I’m not sure what it means. And I worry because of everything that’s happened, the master shapers are going to be more like Master Rorn.”

  “All they need is time, Tolan.”

  He forced a smile, wishing that were true, but he had enough experience in Ephra to know that time didn’t necessarily mend all things. Regardless of what Ferrah wanted for him, it was possible he would remain a pariah in the Academy.

  And was that what he wanted?

  20

  The second-level rooms were boisterous and loud. Tolan approached the top of the stairs, stepping into the common room. The moment he did, everything died down. The sound of voices all around him quieted and he looked around, taking the survey of the people within.

  At one table, Draln sat with three other students. A sneer crossed his face upon seeing Tolan. He leaned into Riley, whispering something into her ear, and she laughed.

  At another table, Peter and Dion whispered silently. Tolan had half a mind to shape the wind so he could listen, but even if he did, he doubted he’d like what he heard. Others watched him, and he knew they would say something once he left.

  Why was he even here?

  It was bad enough that Master Rorn had treated him the way he had. Now, as expected, students were watching him.

  He turned around, heading back down the stairs. Voices picked back up and he heard a distinct thread, with one phrase piercing the others.

  Draasin Lord.

  They accused him of serving the Draasin Lord.

  It was much like he had feared, and even though he’d finished his Inquisition and had returned, supposedly able to return to classes, now he would have to deal with this.

  How long would it linger?

  If his time in Ephra taught him anything, it would be too long.

  He reached the main level of the Academy, and even some of the upper-level students looked over at him, something in their gaze judging him. Tolan decided he didn’t want to remain here.

  He wanted to be anywhere but within the Academy walls.

  He passed the library. Master Minden worked at the shelves, slotting books back into place, and she glanced over. He imagined her shaping as she studied him, though with her filmy eyes, she shouldn’t be able to see him.