A Fading Fire

by D. K. Holmberg

  “We need to have somebody else who can join us,” she said. “It can’t just be about you and me. You might have enough shaping ability to ensure your safety, and I might have experience using the bondars, but if we end up outnumbered, we need to be ready.”

  “We just need to be careful,” Tolan said. “And if we find anything, we also need to be prepared to reach others to come and help.”

  “You have a bondar for that?”

  Tolan held up the bondar. “I think something could be retrofitted.”

  “Good. Why don’t you work on that?”

  He grunted and she slipped away, heading down the stairs, back into the Academy, leaving him standing on the rooftop alone.

  He remained there by himself, not moving as he continued to probe the bondar, stretching outward with his connection around the city, looking for answers that might be there. He didn’t have any answers other than what he had already detected. Though he could feel the energy within the bondar, there was nothing about it that struck him as distinctly tied to Roland.

  Tolan took a deep breath, letting it out.

  It was time for him to return to the spirit classroom. They had been gone long enough, much like Ferrah had said.

  He ventured into the Academy and paused, looking over at the wall of portraits for a moment before passing through and beyond. There was no point in lingering there. Answers weren’t going to come from the paintings, though he wondered what more he might see the longer that he progressed with his connection to the elements. The one thing that he did know about those paintings was that they seemed to change over time. They were tied to lessons that he had learned and connections that he had gained from the experience that he had with the elements, along with the elementals.

  Nothing seemed to be changed this time. His gaze lingered briefly on the one where he had seen the lizard, but even now that lizard was gone, leaving only the little girl glowing with the bright light.

  Tolan headed down to the main part of the Academy and then to the spirit tower, where he shaped himself on fire and earth into the tower. He froze, realizing that he wasn’t alone.

  “Velthan?”

  Velthan turned and faced him. He was standing near the desk, looking down at Tolan’s writings. “I didn’t mean to snoop,” Velthan said hurriedly.

  Tolan smiled at him, shaking his head. There was a time when he would have been far more annoyed by Velthan than he was now, but Velthan had proven himself. Not only could he shape spirit, but he was one to whom Tolan had gifted his mother’s knowledge. They’d had to work together, and Tolan had tried to ensure Velthan understood the gift he’d been given and what it meant for him, but Velthan lacked experience.

  Tolan hesitated to try to give him the kind of experience that he had gone through. It was dangerous, not only for Velthan, but also for anyone else who might be with him. After all, they might have to deal with somebody who might be a bit more impulsive, especially at first.

  Then again, his time with Velthan had shown Tolan that the other man was always going to be impulsive. The same, however, could be said about Tolan himself.

  “Not snooping. There’s nothing here I would hide from you or anyone at the Academy, for that matter.”

  Velthan turned and motioned to the desk. Papers were piled upon it, some of them falling off the side. Books were stacked along one side, all of them borrowed from the library, most of them dealing with elementals. They were more advanced volumes describing the elementals, something that Tolan had kept for himself, though he occasionally wondered if he should allow others to have access to these books, if only so that they could gain an increased understanding of the purpose of the elementals.

  A vase with flowers set into it made him smile. Ever since he had paid attention to the flowers in the main hall of the Academy, Ferrah had made a point of bringing flowers to him. At least she had the good sense to ensure that the flowers she picked went together.

  “What are these places?”

  “They’re all places that I have visited,” Tolan said.

  “Why? What are you hoping to find?”

  Tolan looked up at Velthan. He was different than the man Tolan had known when they were young. That man had been eager to torment Tolan, and had seemed to take a perverse sort of glee in doing so. Not that Velthan had completely abandoned that person, but his worst traits were mostly suppressed.

  “You were there. You know that Roland will continue to attack.”

  “I haven’t heard of anything more,” Velthan said.

  “No. Neither have I. I keep waiting for it to happen, though. Eventually, I suspect he’s going to either use what he’s done to the earth bond or he’s going to attempt to do the same thing to the other bonds. If we fail at stopping him, or fail at understanding what he accomplished by attacking the earth bond, then…”

  Tolan shook his head. He didn’t know what would happen. That was part of the problem. It was part of his frustration. Answers simply weren’t there.

  “What is that?” Velthan asked, nodding to Tolan’s hand.

  He held out before setting it down on his desk. “A bondar.”

  “I’ve heard of those. At least, I’ve heard of that type. It’s different than the ones they let us use here.”

  “This kind of bondar would allow you to shape on the waste. It would allow you to shape beyond the waste. It’s the reason that Roland could use any of the other elements.”

  “Why do you need it?”

  Tolan took a seat at the desk, leaning back and looking up at Velthan. “I found it. I have been looking for where Roland might move next, knowing that it’s inevitable that we will find him attempting to attack, but this is the only sign of him that I’ve come up with.”

  “You seem disappointed.”

  “I’ve spent a long time trying to find him,” Tolan said. “And unfortunately, there has been no sign up until now.” He leaned forward, touching the bondar. “I don’t believe we’ve stopped him. Slowed him, maybe. Even in that, I still feel like we’re manipulated.”

  Velthan started to chuckle. “You think all of this was part of some plan of his? That he wanted you to defeat him so that you could, what? Force him from Terndahl?”

  Tolan shrugged. “When you put it like that, I would say no, but it’s more a matter of having experience with him.” More than that. It was a matter of having the shared connection through spirit. It was because of that shared connection to spirit that Tolan realized there was something more to what Roland had been up to. He had attempted to deceive Tolan. He was using his connection to spirit, though how he intended to guide, or what he hoped to accomplish, remained a mystery. Maybe he wanted nothing. That was the most frustrating thing for Tolan. All of this might be far less vital than he believed.

  “Can I see it?” Velthan asked.

  Tolan nodded and Velthan took the bondar, holding it up. He shaped spirit, using a subtle and soft shaping, far gentler than what Tolan typically used, as he pressed into the bondar. “There’s something here,” Velthan said.

  “That’s why I brought it back,” Tolan said.

  “What is it? Is it just stored power? It feels… I don’t know. It feels different. Strange. Almost as if it is reacting to me.”

  Tolan looked up. “What was that?”

  Velthan shrugged. “I don’t know. The spirit shaping seems to react within it.”

  “Let me—”

  He didn’t get a chance to finish. Velthan pushed out with another spirit shaping, this one with a hint more power than the last one, and when he did, Tolan could feel the reverberation of power within it, and realized his mistake.

  It wasn’t simply an empty bondar.

  There was an elemental trapped within.

  “I need you hand that over. Carefully.”

  Velthan looked at him. “Why? If it’s just stored power—”

  “It’s more than just stored power. These bondars can be used in other ways. With the right control, someone
can force an elemental into the bondar. That gives the shaper almost unlimited power.”

  “Unlimited?”

  “At least if they don’t have power of their own. They could use it.” Which is probably why Roland had discarded this one. He might have believed that he had drawn off all of the power from the elemental, and once he had done that, then the elemental would have been useless to him.

  Roland had simply thrown it away.

  Velthan pushed more spirit.

  The bondar began to tremble.

  “Careful,” Tolan said.

  Velthan looked over at him. “I thought you told me the elementals aren’t dangerous? Isn’t that what you’ve been sharing all throughout the Academy? That we need to be freeing the elementals?”

  Tolan nodded and reached for the bondar, already starting to shape spirit, trying to wrap it around the bondar itself. He wanted to hold the elemental at least somewhat confined until he had a chance to release it and had an opportunity to use a subtle shaping that would allow him to soothe the elemental as it was freed from the bondar. If it had been used by Roland, there was no telling what sort of torment it might have experienced.

  “We do need to free the elementals, but we need to do so in a controlled manner, and we need to make sure that the elementals know that we mean them no harm. If you had been in a cage your entire life, you would suspect that anybody holding that cage was the same.”

  Velthan dropped the bondar.

  Tolan lunged forward, grabbing it.

  As soon as he did, power exploded out of the bondar, the stone of the bondar itself cracking, and a swirl of wind erupted. It spiraled around, whipping into the room.

  “Tolan?”

  There was something off about this elemental.

  There was power to it, but it was strange. Most of the wind elementals Tolan had worked with had a hint of spirit connected to them so that he could communicate with them. Now that he understood how the element bonds were bound to spirit, he understood the purpose behind that.

  This elemental reacted differently. Even as he stretched out with spirit, Tolan could feel something unusual about it. He recognized there was a strange energy to the elemental, and that strange energy made it so that the elemental reacted.

  The wind continued whip, tossing the papers on Tolan’s desk. It sent Velthan flying back, and he slammed against one wall. Tolan braced himself, anchoring to the ground with a shaping of earth and wind, pushing against the elemental. He shaped out with spirit, trying to soothe the elemental, but he could feel the swirling power continuing to battle him, pushing against him.

  Tolan held his hand up. “Easy,” he said, pushing out with spirit and wind, trying to reach for the elemental. Even doing so, he could feel that the elemental didn’t react to him. It reacted against him.

  It was much different than most elementals he encountered.

  There were some who were still wild and still raged against him, but in this case, he could feel this elemental in a way that he hadn’t felt before, and he recognized that some aspect of it was off.

  He pushed spirit at the elemental.

  He anchored it with wind, trying to tie to the elemental so it would understand he wanted to help, but when he did, the elemental continued to rage. It whipped around the room, tossing papers, tossing some of the books, and raging with increased violence.

  Tolan needed to hold the elemental.

  “Tolan?” Velthan called out from across the room. “I thought you said the elementals were harmless.”

  “Most of them are,” Tolan said.

  “We’ve seen wild elementals like this in Ephra,” Velthan said.

  “Those were agitated because they just came out of the bond,” Tolan said. “Maybe this is the same.”

  “Maybe?”

  Tolan pushed out with wind, probing with spirit, and continued to try to reach for the elemental.

  Having been held within the bondar, he couldn’t help but think that it would be no different than were the elemental trapped within the bond.

  What must that have been like?

  Torment, that was what would’ve been like. There would’ve been nothing else within the bondar for the elemental. Not like within the element bonds, where Tolan had seen there were other elementals.

  He pushed spirit, trying to soothe the elemental, but it failed to connect.

  Had Roland stripped spirit away from this elemental?

  It would’ve been a horrible thing to do, but it was exactly the kind of thing that Tolan could imagine Roland having done.

  He pushed out again, and again he failed. A shaping built from nearby, and Tolan looked back.

  A student… Emily.

  He pressed out with wind, pushing against the elemental, and wrapped Emily in a buffer, forcing her back down, but the elemental turned its attention to her and whipped at her.

  She slammed down toward the stone.

  Tolan pulled upon the wind, yanking at it, pulling as much power as he could in order to protect Emily. He raced forward, swirling the wind around, and he hurriedly slammed it back into the wind bond, ignoring the elemental’s struggle.

  When he reached the ledge overlooking the entrance to the spirit tower, he found Emily lying on the ground. Tolan jumped, lowering to the ground with a shaping of earth and fire, dropping next Emily. He pushed out with water, sweeping it through her.

  She was still breathing. With the water shaping, she sucked in a gasping breath. She looked up at him, eyes wide.

  “What was that, Master Ethar?”

  Tolan shook his head.

  It was Velthan who answered. “That was an elemental.” Velthan looked over at Tolan, frowning at him. “He says they’re harmless.”

  Emily looked up, locking eyes with Tolan for a moment before her head sagged back, resting on the ground.

  “Help me carry her to Master Wassa,” Tolan said.

  “Are we going to talk about what you did?” Velthan asked.

  Tolan glanced up at him. “I forced the elemental into the bond. I hated doing it.”

  “Even though it was wild like that?”

  Tolan locked eyes with Velthan. “The only reason it was wild like that was because it reacted to being held within the bondar.”

  Velthan stared at him but said nothing.

  Tolan was glad he didn’t push.

  What was worse, Tolan wasn’t entirely sure that it was only because the elemental had reacted to its time in the bond. There was the strangeness he had detected from it. It was a strange sort of separation, a connection—or lack of one—that had left him feeling as if the elemental was even more violent than others he had seen that had escaped from the bond.

  What would’ve happened had I not been here? How many others would have been hurt? If the elementals reacted like that, how was I going to help them?

  He pushed all of those thoughts away as they carried Emily to Master Wassa and the hospital wing. It was difficult to ignore all of those thoughts, though. They lingered within him. He had hoped that the younger students like Velthan and Emily would be the ones to lead the charge to help restore the elementals to the status they once had within Terndahl, but maybe that was wishful thinking on his part. Maybe there was nothing that could be done to convince others that the elementals should be protected.

  5

  Tolan shuffled papers around his office, stacking them into place. It would take him a while to get everything organized again. That was if he could even do so. Several of the books had been shredded, the wind elemental tearing through the pages, leaving little more than tattered fragments behind. Tolan wouldn’t be able to piece them together without an incredible level of patience which he simply did not have.

  When he came upon the fragments of the bondar, he picked them up, setting them on his desk. He could feel something within the bondar that was still off. It was like a memory of the torment the elemental had left behind.

  “I heard what happened,” Ferrah said, join
ing him.

  Tolan looked up. “You heard?”

  She shrugged. “I heard. I suspect that word of the attack is going to get through the Academy.”

  She strode forward, reaching the bondar, and she rested her hand on the desk as she studied it. “I’m surprised that we didn’t detect that it was an elemental trapped within there.”

  “I wasn’t even thinking that there would be an elemental within that,” Tolan said. He grabbed another stack of papers from one side of the office, shuffling them in his hands before carrying them over to the desk and setting them down. “I should have, though. It’s my mistake to have not considered that.”

  “We know that he will use any sort of power that he can to get his advantage,” Ferrah said.

  “And because of it, I’ve set back the progress with elementals quite a ways.”

  “You have? Don’t blame yourself. This was all about Roland and what he’s been doing.”

  Tolan grunted. “What if he wanted me to do that?”

  “Roland wouldn’t have known that you would free the elemental within the Academy. Even if he did, he wouldn’t have known whether or not you would have any way of suppressing the elemental. What do you think he was hoping to accomplish?”

  Tolan struggled with that. He didn’t have that answer, but felt as if he should.

  He was the one advocating for the elementals. He was the one claiming they deserved protections. He was the one trying to convince others that the elementals deserved their freedom. He still believed it, but not only had Velthan seen the elemental attack, Tolan had been forced to push that wild elemental back into the bond.

  That, as much as anything, pained him.

  “Emily is going to be fine,” Ferrah said. “I figured you’d want to know.”

  Tolan nodded. “Thank you for telling me.”

  “And she doesn’t blame you. Or the elemental. She says you have told the students that the elementals can be a bit wild when they first are released from the bond. She thinks she startled it.”

  “I don’t even know if that’s it,” Tolan said, looking over at Ferrah. “I don’t know if it’s a matter of startling the elemental or if it’s a matter of something inherently wrong with it.”