Tolan retreated, afraid if he let himself push through that fluttering, he might draw out an elemental. But then, he hadn’t been focusing on elementals. He’d been focusing on the earth itself, pushing through it, searching for some connection. If it didn’t require an elemental, then did it mean he was actually shaping?
The fluttering within him, that strange stirring, was what seemed to be the key.
Tolan focused once again, realizing the connection to the trees, and from there, he focused even deeper, on the prowling animal. A wolf, though it was now heading away from him. There were other creatures, though they were more distant still. There was no one else in the forest with him that he could tell.
Maybe that wasn’t true. There was a sense of an absence near him, something he should be able to detect with his connection to earth, but a void closed off to him.
Tolan started toward that sense, feeling ridiculous. There was no way there was someone this close to him who he hadn’t detected, but there had been that cracking sound.
As he approached, he reached for his furios. If he needed to protect himself, a shaping of fire was the only thing he might be able to do. Connecting to the earth in this way might allow him to sense, but that didn’t mean he would be able to shape.
And then he found the sense of a void.
There was nothing here.
Tolan stepped forward, approaching the sense, and as he did, he searched, straining to see if there was someone here who was somehow masking themselves with a shaping, but there was nothing.
He was being foolish.
He turned and continued back toward Amitan.
It was long since time for him to return and he dreaded explaining to Marcella why he’d blown off his training with her. As he walked through the Academy’s front door, he glanced toward the entrance to the student section before changing his mind and heading toward the library. He wanted to know more about the strange park and the sculpture within it, and there was only one person he thought he could ask.
He didn’t know if Master Minden would share with him and didn’t know if there was even anything she would know, but if anyone would know anything about that strange place, it would be her.
The library was empty at this time of day. Usually, there would be other students sitting at tables, but he had lost track of time, and while he thought it had only been an hour, as dark as it was, it probably had been much longer, meaning it was much later.
Thankfully, Master Minden was there.
He made his way to the dais and she looked up as he approached, a shaping building from her. He was no longer surprised when it happened, and it washed over him.
“Shaper Ethar. It’s awfully late for you to visit the library.”
“I lost track of time. How late is it?”
“Well after midnight.”
“Why does the library have a librarian here at all hours?”
“This is our domain. We remain here to protect it and to serve the Academy if the need arises for research.”
“Why is it always you in the overnights?”
“I need very little sleep,” she said.
“I’m sorry if I’m bothering you during your research.”
“The librarians are here to serve the Academy, Shaper Ethar. What is it you need?”
“I have questions about a bondar again.” He would start with that and get to his questions about the park.
“You know I’m unwilling to share with you about the creation of a bondar.”
“I know. That’s not for student shapers.”
“Not even for most of the master shapers,” she said.
“Are there more powerful bondars?”
“More powerful than the ones the students use?”
Tolan nodded.
“There are other bondars, though they are the originals.”
“The originals from when?”
“Unfortunately, little is known about the bondars other than that they have been here as long as the Academy has been here.”
“And how long has the Academy been here?”
“The Academy has stood and trained shapers for well over 1,000 years, Shaper Ethar. As a student here, you owe it to yourself to understand the history of Terenhall.”
It was a gap in his knowledge that he needed to fill, especially if he were to stay here and continue to learn, but at the same time, he had many gaps and trying to understand the history of the Academy wasn’t high on his list of needs. Perhaps it should be, especially with as old as the Academy was. There were probably many things he could learn about shaping simply by attempting to understand the history of the Academy itself.
“I will spend more time on it,” he said.
“I have many books that might be of interest to you.”
He nodded, thinking those books would probably be far more interesting to Ferrah than they were to him, but he wasn’t going to tell Master Minden that. “I was just questioning whether there might be larger bondars that might help me reach the elements more easily.”
“More easily, or at all?”
“At all. I… I struggle to reach the other elements, and we have our testing soon.”
“Many who came to the Academy never reached the other elements without a bondar, Shaper Ethar. There is no shame in that. You come and learn and try to maximize your potential. When you leave the Academy, you will do so as skilled as you can be, and you will be able to serve the Academy as well as you can.”
“Are there any larger bondars at the Academy?”
She frowned. “You have already uncovered a secret of the Academy very few know about. If that’s what you imply—”
Tolan shook his head. “That’s not what I’m getting at. I’m wondering if there are any actual bondars. I thought the Convergence was something else. I didn’t realize it was a bondar, too.”
“The Convergence would not be considered a bondar, but the power is similar. It allows you to access the element bond more directly, similar to the way the bondars hone your connection. In the Convergence, there is nearly a direct connection to the element bonds. While the bondars allow for something similar, it’s not the same.”
That was his impression, too. “I’m just looking for a stronger connection. One that might allow me to reach for some of the other elements so I get more familiar with shaping them.”
“More strength is not necessarily better. There are times when even working with the bondar is dangerous. It’s the reason master shapers have restricted access to classrooms for the most part.”
Her gaze drifted to his pocket and once again he wondered whether she knew he had the furios. As far as he knew, no one other than his friends knew about it. Even having the furios hadn’t allowed him to do anything dangerous. Not so far, at least.
“Do you know of any?” he pressed.
“There might be some, but they are restricted.”
“Restricted?”
She nodded. “Any of the ancient designs are often restricted, especially as they are difficult to replicate.”
“Why do you think the shapers from long ago had the ability to make things we don’t?”
“We have master shapers quite capable of creating similar things.”
“But I’ve been told they can’t make bondars anymore. That they’re only able to make copies.”
“And those copies are effective. Don’t mistake a change in knowledge, and evolution over time, for ignorance. The master shapers of today are incredibly capable, Shaper Ethar, and we have much knowledge the shapers of old did not.”
“It seems to me they had knowledge we do not.”
“You suggest knowing about the elementals would be valuable?”
“We can only read about them. Not experience them.”
“I believe you have experienced the power of an elemental before. Would you like that power released upon the world?”
“I don’t think so, but the elementals are connected to power the same way as shapers
are, aren’t they?”
“They are connected more directly to the elements, but your assertion would be correct.”
“And if they are connected to the same power, then understanding the elementals and the use of that power would also be beneficial to us, would it not?”
“Which is why we study them.”
“From what I can tell, we study the elementals so we can recognize them and suppress them, pushing them back into the bond, not trying to understand the various aspects of their powers.”
“What have you uncovered about the elementals?” she asked.
Tolan realized he was heading into dangerous territory. He was pressing one of the master shapers about the elementals, and was alluding to how he didn’t necessarily see them as dangerous in the way the master shapers typically did. It wasn’t a far stretch to accuse him of sympathizing with the elementals, and from there, it wouldn’t take much to accuse him of siding with the Draasin Lord.
He really needed to be careful with what he was doing and saying. And yet, he had a sense Master Minden knew something but was keeping it from him.
“Each of the elementals seems to have a different connection to the element powers. They seem to represent various aspects of the elements. I think of something like saa, and how it would be the power found within the hearth, the crackling flames of a fire. Then there is esalash or shiron, both of which have some different aspect of smoke, and there are examples of that throughout the elementals.”
“You have been studying.”
“You lent me those books. I thought you wanted me to learn about them.”
“Many study elementals over the years, but very few take the time to grasp what that knowledge means. Most would try to recognize them, as you say, for the sake of being prepared to suppress them. There is benefit in that. The Academy trains shapers so we can be ready for the threat of the elementals escaping the bond, but very few seek understanding. I am surprised to find a student, especially a first-level student, looking for understanding.”
Tolan wasn’t sure if she was implying anything or if she was simply praising him. “I thought understanding would be the key to knowledge.”
“It can be, but it can also be the key to persuasion.”
“What do you mean?”
“A warning, Shaper Ethar. There is a difference between understanding and sympathizing. Be sure you know the difference.”
He blinked, taking a step back and realizing what she was implying. She was suggesting to him he might be siding with the elementals. After everything he had seen and done, was that true?
He didn’t think so. Everything he had experienced with that power had suggested he wasn’t releasing any dangerous magic into the world. All he was doing was trying to master and understand his connection to the elements—and perhaps the elementals.
“I will be careful.”
“And I would caution you not to pursue power you’re not prepared for. That way lies danger as well.”
Tolan nodded, and when she turned back to her writings, he headed out of the library, making his way back to his room and flopping onto his bed, doing so as quietly as he could so as not to wake the others. Even though it was late and he was exhausted from hours spent shaping in the clearing, he had a difficult time falling asleep. His mind continued to race, thinking through everything he had done and everything he had seen.
When sleep finally claimed him, dreams of elementals consumed him. One lingered most of all, the vision of the draasin as it continued to emerge from his shaping.
In the dream, the draasin escaped.
18
Days began to pass, one blurring into the next, and with each day, Tolan found himself heading out into the forest, to the clearing with the park and the sculpture, practicing reaching for each of the elements. It was his way of preparing for testing for the second level. Everyone agreed they would be tested soon, though no one knew when that would be. Even Marcella hadn’t shared when, though Tolan had a feeling she knew.
He was no longer certain whether he was reaching for elements or elementals, and the steady fluttering he felt when he succeeded had become familiar. The longer he did it, the more control he had. It got to the point where he recognized the elementals he formed, solidifying the knowledge he had been studying in each of the books within his mind.
Tolan had not tried to summon a draasin again.
Mostly, it was because he wasn’t sure whether the summons was real or not, and if it was, he didn’t want to be responsible for making a mistake in releasing a creature out into the world that he had no ability to control. The rest of the elementals were easy to suppress. He pushed them down, tamping out that connection, and had taken to looking up at the top of the tower to ensure the glowing stopped before he moved onto the next.
Each night when he came to the park, he found it empty, and there had never been another sense he wasn’t alone. Had there been someone else here, he thought he would detect them, especially as he now felt a greater connection to earth, but there had been no others at the park. There had been no signs of the disciples.
His days were hurried through. He lost track of time and missed two of his classes, something that had gained the notice of Jonas and Ferrah. By the morning of the fourth day of heading to the park late at night, returning near morning, he woke to Ferrah and Jonas shaking him.
Both looked down at him, matching worried looks on their faces.
“What is it?”
“It’s you,” Jonas said.
“What did I do?”
“You’ve been gone. Where have you been going?” Jonas asked.
“We know you’ve been leaving at night,” Ferrah said. “What we don’t know is where you’ve been going and why.”
“Does it matter?”
“It matters. We want to know what our friend is up to. And we’re worried you’re not preparing the way you need to for testing to the next level.”
“I’ve been studying.”
“Alone?” Ferrah asked.
“I’ve been trying to get a better sense of my connection to the element bonds,” he said, rubbing sleep from his eyes. “I’m going to be ready for the testing when it comes.” If he could master the elements at the park, he thought he’d be able to.
Ferrah studied him for a moment. “You haven’t been going to the library. I’ve been waiting and watching, half expecting you will show up at any time, but you never do. So where have you been studying?” She lowered her voice. “You even gave up working on the bondar.”
“Because I can’t do it. And I shouldn’t.”
He yawned as he sat up. How late was it? He was still tired, though he wasn’t nearly as tired as he had been when he had tumbled into bed the night before. Or maybe, this morning. Tolan wasn’t sure how late it was, but the way his stomach rumbled suggested it was quite late. He had taken to heading straight to bed, though in reality, with some of the long nights, he should have been eating first.
“I’ve been studying outside.”
“In the park?” Ferrah asked.
“Not in the park.” He glanced from Jonas to Ferrah, meeting their gazes.
“Where, then?”
“There’s a place outside of the city—”
“Tolan!” Ferrah started. “You know what the Grand Master said.”
“I know what the Grand Master said, but I’m not going that far outside of the city, and it’s not like it’s unsafe.”
“We don’t know if there are other disciples of the Draasin Lord. You were there. Of all people who should be more careful about this, it should be you. You saw what they were willing to do and the way they were able to attack.”
“There haven’t been any other attacks.”
“Besides the one on the Shapers Path. And the one on the palace. And then the three in the last week along the edge of the city.”
Tolan shook his head. “What?”
“You didn’t know?”
He sat up,
reaching the edge of the bed. How could there have been attacks he hadn’t heard of? He’d been along the edge of the city in that time. “What attacks are you talking about?”
“There have been three. Each has come along the edge of Amitan. The Academy has increased its shaper presence and master shapers have begun to patrol, though none has seen anything.”
“What kind of attacks?”
“We don’t really know. The master shapers are talking about them, and all we know is the rumors that have begun to spread.”
If he had not been so distracted, he might have known about them. It was possible he might’ve even detected them. Working at the sculpture, even his connection to sensing for shapings had changed.
“Have you gone to investigate them?” he asked.
“Have we gone to… Tolan,” Jonas said. “The attacks came outside of the city. We’re not supposed to be going outside of the city. So, no. We haven’t gone to investigate them. We aren’t master shapers.” He turned to Ferrah. “I don’t know what’s going on with him. You see if you can figure him out.” He headed out of the room, shaking his head as he went.
Ferrah scooted closer to him. The concern on her face was clear, and it gave Tolan a moment of pause. Had he been making a mistake? Shouldn’t he have been sharing with his friends what he was doing? They deserved to know, especially as they would be concerned about him, and he didn’t want to have them worried about what he was doing and where he had been.
“Are you… Are you okay?” she whispered.
“I’m fine,” he said, getting to his feet. “I found something.”
“What?”
He looked around the room, but Wallace was gone. With Jonas having disappeared, it left just the two of them. He met her deep green eyes, and she frowned at him.
“I found a bondar. A powerful one. It’s larger than the ones we use in class and—”
“For what elements?”
“As far as I can tell, all of them.”
Her breath caught. “All of them?”
“With this bondar, I’ve been able to reach and shape each of the elements, Ferrah. I’ve never experienced anything like it before.”
The Earth Awakens (Elemental Academy Book 2) Page 21
