A Fading Fire

by D. K. Holmberg

  “If there’s anything that I can do to help, you just have to ask.”

  Tolan nodded. “I should be going.”

  He started away but glanced back to see Kerry watching him, a strange expression on her face. Spirit stretched from her, though it didn’t touch upon him. It was a tightly controlled spirit shaping, one that she wouldn’t have been able to use had he not passed on the connection to spirit to all of the Inquisitors.

  He was glad Ferrah wasn’t here to have seen the conversation.

  Tolan headed into the park just outside the Academy. The energy of the elements pressed upon him and he briefly reached for each of them, cycling through them, touching upon the element bonds. When he did, he found the earth bond restored. There was no doubt in his mind that what he had done had been effective, but he still didn’t know if it was going to be enough to stop Roland and his plan. All Tolan knew was that he had made some headway.

  Would it be enough?

  He paused near a tree. The branch swayed down, brushing his head, and he rested against it. There was power within the tree, a connection to earth, and it wasn’t until now that Tolan realized that the connection had been altered much more than he had known before. He could feel the flow of earth through the tree, connecting to the ground, to the other trees here, and he could feel how that all worked together, giving this park its signature energy.

  He breathed in, letting it out slowly as he focused on each of the element bonds. The energy around him was significant, familiar, and for the first time in a while, cleansed.

  He reached for the earth bond, and when he did, he focused on elemental energy and pulled it toward him.

  Thoren responded. Tolan was aware of the elemental as it approached, prowling through the trees and the park. He opened his eyes, looking over to see the fiery creature. Strange that he had once thought that hyza was only a fire elemental. Now that he had restored the earth bond, Tolan was acutely aware of just how connected hyza was to earth as well.

  “Is it better?” Tolan asked hyza.

  “You know the answer to that,” Thoren said.

  Tolan took in a deep breath. Birds chirped in a tree nearby, and he could trace through the earth bond to find them, though he didn’t really need the bond for that. All he needed was his ability to sense, though he had become dependent upon the earth bond, much more dependent than he had realized. Now that it was restored, he found himself reaching for that power far more frequently than he had realized he would do.

  “I’m not exactly sure I did what was needed,” Tolan said.

  “What does it feel like to you?”

  “It feels like the earth Guardian has changed.”

  “Not just the Guardian,” Thoren said.

  “I didn’t change the other guardians, though,” Tolan said.

  “No,” hyza said.

  He rested on the ground near Tolan, who took a seat, looking over at Thoren. “I still don’t know what changed.”

  “The Guardian changed.”

  “But the Guardian wasn’t tainted before.”

  Hyza looked up, fire flickering through his eyes for a moment before he rested his head again. “Perhaps he was. Perhaps he was not. None really know.”

  “I’m going to have to protect the other bonds so that I can ensure that he doesn’t do the same with them.”

  “You will,” Thoren said.

  “Will it endanger me?”

  “Did it endanger you going into the earth bond?”

  “I worried I would get trapped.”

  “Trapped? There are many ways to access the source of the bond. Which means there are many ways you would be able to leave the bond.”

  Tolan shook his head, frowning at Thoren. “I only know how to enter and exit the way that I went.”

  “Perhaps in time you will begin to understand other possibilities.”

  They sat in silence for a while. “Roland claims I gave him knowledge he needed.”

  “It’s likely you did.”

  “That doesn’t make me feel any better.”

  Hyza looked up. “It’s not a matter of helping you feel better or worse. It’s a matter of knowing the truth. Spirit bonded you. You have told me that you gained from that connection. He would have gained as well. It’s possible that he wanted to share that connection.”

  Tolan had given some thought to that. He didn’t know whether or not Roland had really wanted him to learn about spirit, but he suspected Roland had wanted Tolan’s knowledge of the elements and the element bonds. Probably even his understanding of the elementals, especially considering what he had seen from him while out on the waste.

  “If that’s the case, then whatever he is planning is different than he had planned before.”

  “Probably.”

  “Which means everything I’ve been trying to find from him is wrong.”

  “Or it’s not,” Thoren said. “It’s possible that everything you need to know, you already do.”

  Tolan chuckled. “You’re starting to sound like the Draasin Lord.”

  “Would that be so bad?”

  Tolan smiled, resting his head back on the tree. “I suppose not. I haven’t seen him much.”

  “He grows tired,” Thoren said.

  Through the connection they shared, Tolan was aware of the uncertainty that Thoren felt by making that comment. It was fear that filled him. Fear at what would happen when the Draasin Lord moved on. The elementals respected the draasin, in a way that Tolan thought that he understood, though it was something more primal than that. The Draasin Lord was old, almost impossibly so, and had lived in a time that was much different than this one. As far as Tolan knew, the Draasin Lord had lived a time before the element bonds had connected the way that they currently were.

  “He grows tired,” Tolan agreed. “I should visit with him.”

  “You should.”

  “If Roland has my knowledge of the elementals, then he would have my knowledge of the Draasin Lord.”

  “Knowledge, perhaps, but not your connection.” Thoren sat up, and his fiery gaze locked onto Tolan. “Much like he doesn’t have our connection.”

  “Have you felt him trying to reach for you?”

  “I have been aware of… something.”

  “What exactly?”

  “I’m not entirely sure. He reaches for power, but even as he reaches for it, he fails. I don’t know what more to say. I suspect he will not always fail.”

  “Eventually he will succeed and will be able to reach for the elementals?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Tolan let out a frustrated sigh. “We know that he’s been reaching for the element bonds. By tainting earth, he intended something. I believe that it was about trying to separate spirit out, but even in that, I’m not entirely sure.” He closed his eyes, thinking about what he had experienced within the element bonds. “It’s possible he attempted that, but then abandoned it when he shared the spirit connection with me.”

  “It is possible,” Thoren said.

  “Then what else do you think he might be doing?”

  “The answers are within you.”

  “I know they must be. But I still don’t know what those answers are.”

  “If he shared the spirit bond with you, then he will have borrowed what you know.”

  “Or he wants me to think that he would borrow what I know,” Tolan said.

  Thoren growled, and somehow it sounded like a laugh. “I think you’re overthinking it.”

  “He’s attacked the Convergences before.”

  “Seeking power.”

  “You don’t think he was trying to release Chaos?”

  “Perhaps.”

  “Chaos is real?”

  “There are many energies in the world that are real. Chaos is but one.”

  “He didn’t succeed at that time.”

  “He did not, and you must wonder if he has learned since then.”

  “From me.”

  Hyza g
rowled again. “From you.”

  “If he’s learned from me, then I need to think about what I know and how that might impact Roland’s plan.”

  “That is what you must do.”

  “It’s more than just the knowledge of the elementals. It’s more than just knowledge of the element bonds. And the elements.” All of those were things that Roland would have been able to find otherwise. He didn’t need Tolan for that. Which meant that somehow he would have pieced it together in a different way. “Why would he have been collecting elementals other than for power?”

  “I don’t know,” Thoren said.

  Tolan studied the elemental, and he had a sense that the admission troubled him. “Whatever he’s after is more than just trying to control the power of the elements.”

  “Perhaps.”

  Tolan leaned back, his mind racing. “I need to secure the other bonds,” he whispered.

  He opened his eyes, and Thoren was gone.

  But Tolan wasn’t alone. Velthan was there.

  “Who are you talking to?” Velthan asked.

  Tolan got to his feet, sweeping his gaze around the inside of the park. “I was talking to an elemental I’ve bonded.”

  Velthan stiffened. “What do you mean bonded?”

  Tolan shook his head. “When you get to know the elementals, you can form a connection to them. In this case, I bonded to one of them.”

  Velthan stared at him. “Through spirit?”

  “Through spirit, through earth, through fire.” Tolan shrugged. “I suppose it’s through all of them. I’m not entirely sure, to be honest with you. The bonding formed in my mind. I can speak to this elemental much more easily than I can almost any other.”

  “I thought you said you can speak to all of the elementals.”

  “I can, but some take more work than others. When it comes to this particular hyza, I can speak to him easily.”

  “You’re speaking to hyza?” Velthan frowned again. “Wasn’t it hyza that attacked outside of Ephra before you came to the Academy?”

  Tolan held his gaze, nodding slowly.

  “Were you connected to him then?”

  Tolan shook his head. “I was not.”

  “Does this elemental that you speak to attack the same way that hyza did?”

  “If I ask him to.”

  Velthan’s eyes widened. “If you ask him to? You control the elemental to attack?”

  “It’s not like that. There have been times when I have dealt with dangers and needed additional help. The elemental has been useful when I need that additional help. The bond permits me to ask for that.”

  “What else does it permit you to do?”

  “It permits me to reach the element bonds out on the waste.”

  Velthan took a deep breath. “She’s still in the hospital, you know.”

  It took Tolan a moment for him to deal with the sudden shift. “Emily?”

  Velthan nodded. “Still there.”

  Tolan knew that she was, but he also knew that she was recovering. She hadn’t been attacked so severely that she couldn’t come back from this.

  He had to be careful, though. Velthan was the kind of person who still resented the elementals, and he feared them, a combination that could be dangerous. That was a reason that Tolan had to be especially careful with him. But he was the kind of person Tolan had to find a way to get through to. If he could reach him, share with him the reason that the elementals could be trusted, that they needed to be trusted, then he had to believe that they could reach others like him.

  “The hyza elemental I speak to is nothing like the elemental that escaped in the classroom,” Tolan said.

  “What happened there?”

  “A student made a rune.”

  “How would making a rune make a difference with the elementals?”

  He watched Velthan for a moment. The answer was complicated, as was his desire whether or not to share with Velthan. If he wanted to get through to him, he was going to have to reveal answers he didn’t necessarily want to.

  “All power is interconnected. If you think about it, it’s all part of the energy of the elements. Fire. Earth. Wind. Water. Spirit. The elementals share that power, though they are but an aspect of each particular element. Some fire elementals represent the flame whereas others represent sparks or smoke. The same could be said about water. Some represent the pond,” Tolan said, motioning toward the pond nearby, “and others represent waves or the rain or a gentle fog. Each elemental has a similar connection.”

  “Even spirit?”

  Tolan shook his head. “As far as I know, spirit remains different.”

  “Because it doesn’t have an elemental.”

  “There is an elemental of spirit, but not nearly the same as we have otherwise.” He frowned, thinking about the lizard. It was different than the other elementals, and that difference still troubled him.

  Why should it be so different from the other elementals?

  Master Minden claimed that the lizard would appear when it was needed, but it wasn’t as if there was no connection to the elements and to spirit otherwise.

  He pushed those thoughts away. “As I was saying, the elementals represent an aspect of the elements, something that we touch upon with the element bonds, though not all of us need to use the element bonds in order to shape.”

  “How?”

  Tolan shrugged. “To be honest, I don’t really know the answer to that. I can access elements without reaching for the bonds. I can shape without needing to tap into that energy. That’s why I can shape out on the waste. I’m not the only one who can. There are others, and as far as I have learned, there used to be many. We never needed the element bonds in order to shape. At that time, there were fewer shapers, but those who could shape were able to do so without reaching for the bonds. Now we have more shapers, but we’re reliant upon something else.”

  “What does this have to do with anything?”

  “You asked me about runes and the elementals. I’m telling you that all of the power is interconnected. The runes you’ve begun to learn are tied to one aspect of each of the elements. It’s the same as the elementals. Those runes tap into the same source of element energy as the elementals. When constructed in the right way, those runes can actually tie you into an elemental. That was what happened in my classroom.”

  “I heard you were making a bondar.”

  “I was demonstrating a bondar,” Tolan corrected. “The making of bondars is tied to the runes and the elementals.” He didn’t know if it mattered whether Velthan understood, but he felt compelled to try.

  “And that was how the elemental escaped?”

  “It wasn’t because of my creation of a bondar. It was because of the student practicing without the necessary control. It is the reason we work with students when they learn the runes.” In the past, learning runes meant you had to be supervised by someone who could ensure that the elemental that might escape would be suppressed back into the bond. Now that Tolan no longer permitted that, as much as he could, the study of runes had increased again. It still wasn’t the way that it once had been, but it was better.

  “All of this is part of the world,” Tolan went on. “All of this is tied to the elements. That is the reason that I believe the elementals must be a part of our world in order for us to have that balance.”

  “What happens when the elementals decide to attack?” Velthan watched him. “What happens when they decide they’ve been suppressed into the bonds long enough and they want to join together and target us?”

  Tolan shook his head. “I’ve not seen any evidence of that.”

  “Yet.” Velthan crossed his arms over his chest. “You haven’t seen that yet.”

  “Yet.” Tolan looked around the park. “Just because we disagree doesn’t mean that there aren’t things you can learn from the elementals. That’s all I’m asking of you, Velthan. Give it a chance. At least consider what I’ve been teaching.”

  Veltha
n hesitated before answering. There was a part of Tolan that wondered what he might say, whether he would even say anything, and when he finally did, he did so slowly. “I will consider it. That’s all I can promise.”

  “That’s all I ask.”

  Velthan left him, heading deeper into the park, shaping as he went.

  Tolan looked around for a moment before realizing that he had been avoiding what he needed to be doing. He made his way back to the spirit tower, taking a seat at his desk, and he lingered there for a little while. Students began to arrive later in the afternoon, coming for their instruction, and though Tolan knew he needed to teach, he didn’t have the desire.

  Perhaps that didn’t matter. What he wanted wasn’t the key. It was what the students needed. He went through the motions of teaching and finally let the students get to work. Despite that, the inside of spirit tower was calm, though Tolan felt a rolling frustration that filled him. It had not left since he had been in the earth bond and since Master Minden had been injured. He couldn’t take his mind away from it, though he needed to. He needed to focus.

  More than that, Tolan needed to try to understand just what Roland might be up to. He still had time, though he didn’t know how much time he would have.

  He took a seat at his desk, moving the stack of papers around so that he had an empty space in front of him. The students in the classroom were working independently.

  A soft shaping built and Tolan looked up, thinking that it would be Carson coming to observe again, as he had so many times lately, but the Grand Master entered the room. The students returned their attention to their shaping, though a soft murmuring built.

  Tolan got to his feet. “Grand Master,” he said, nodding to him.

  “You seem distracted,” the Grand Master said.

  Tolan shrugged. “I am doing my best.”

  The Grand Master looked behind him. “Given what we’re facing, I think you need a reprieve.”

  “I don’t need a reprieve,” Tolan said.

  “I’m not saying that you need to be released from your responsibilities. I’m telling you that I recognize that you are distracted. The students need an instructor who can stay focused.”