The Chaos Rises (Elemental Academy Book 6)

  The Chaos Rises

  Elemental Academy Book 6

  D.K. Holmberg

  Copyright © 2019 by D.K. Holmberg

  All rights reserved.

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  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Author’s Note

  Also by D.K. Holmberg

  1

  Tolan approached the entrance to the upper reaches of the Academy building carefully. A sense of trepidation worked through him, and even though he knew there was no reason to feel that way, he remained uncertain about what he was doing and why he was coming here. He glanced behind him, looking toward the doorway leading to the long hall, but there was no one here.

  Turning his attention back to the door, he gathered himself together, focusing on what he was going to do. There was no reason to fear, and yet heading toward this door, he couldn’t help but feel that uncertainty.

  He held his hand above the surface of the door, feeling for the shaping used to keep it sealed shut. He could avoid it no longer.

  Pushing past the shaping, he opened it and stepped inside.

  He expected to be assaulted by a shaping, one or more of the various elements trying to wrap around him, but there was no sense of that. Instead, he felt nothing.

  It was almost as if he had overreacted.

  He had been ready for the possibility he would have to use one of the bondars he carried with him. He had one representing each of the elements, but they remained in his pockets.

  The female sitting on the bed had a familiar face. She reminded him so much of the woman he had known when he was younger, from the dark hair pulled back into a braid to the way she sat, her hands clasped in her lap.

  When she looked up at him, there was almost a hint of familiarity.

  Almost.

  And then it faded.

  The more Tolan looked at her, the harder it was to ever consider this was his mother. How could this be his mother, the woman who should have cared about him, who should have wanted nothing more than to protect him, but who had been so willing to use him?

  “It’s taken you long enough to come to me,” she said softly.

  Tolan stood near the door, holding onto a shaping, prepared for the possibility he would have to defend himself. He had readied a shaping to protect his mind, using everything he could in order to seal it off, keeping her from somehow attacking him, but he wasn’t sure if she had some way of sliding past his protections. Knowing what he did of her spirit-shaping skill, it was possible he wouldn’t be able to defend against her.

  “I wasn’t sure I wanted to see you,” he said.

  “Are you afraid of me?”

  Seeing her now, the way she sat on the bed watching him, he couldn’t help but feel as if he shouldn’t fear her. She didn’t look terrifying. This was his mother, after all. There was nothing about her that should be scary, and yet at the same time, he did feel that sense of hesitation.

  “It’s not fear,” he said.

  At least, he wasn’t afraid any longer. Having defeated her, having pushed her into the Convergence, he no longer worried about the darkness within her, and yet, he knew there was still a hint of it there. There had to be. There was no reason she would’ve done everything she had done without having it within herself.

  “If not fear, then you can release me.”

  “I’m not holding you.”

  She looked past him, down the hallway, as if she could detect others there.

  And maybe she could.

  He had no idea what level of skill she had with her shaping. When he was growing up, he had thought his mother had no ability to shape, no ability with any of the elements, and yet now he knew she was incredibly skilled with spirit, at least.

  And he had seen her shaping the other elements. With those, she required a bondar, but with one, she had been quite powerful. She no longer had the bondars, but that didn’t mean she was any less a threat.

  “Someone’s holding me.”

  “The Academy holds you.”

  She locked eyes with him. In hers, he saw a hardness there that left him unsettled. “Does the Academy think they can hold me indefinitely?”

  Tolan hesitated. “Has the Grand Inquisitor come to visit you?”

  “You mean my mother?”

  He nodded. It was a strange thing to realize the Grand Inquisitor was his grandmother.

  “She hasn’t come to me. Has she come to you?” She tilted her head to the side, watching him.

  In the time since they’d defeated his mother, stopping her and returning to the Academy, he had been treated no differently than he had ever been treated before. In some ways, he thought he was treated less than previously.

  None of the other masters within the Academy had come to him. He was skilled, but as a third-level shaper, he had not raised himself to the level he would need to be in order to be considered with the regard he thought his actions had earned.

  When he had first come to the Academy, Tolan had wondered what purpose he would have and what he would even be able to accomplish. Over time, he’d developed a growing affinity for shaping and the Academy. The longer he was here, the more he felt as if this was where he belonged, that he could make a significant contribution to the Academy and the shaping community.

  He had done more than most had ever done while at the Academy. Certainly more than most had ever done when they were a student at the Academy. And it was something he wasn’t even able to talk about. There were only a few who really knew just what he had done.

  Because of that, he still struggled in ways he wished he didn’t.

  If only he could share with people like Draln or Velthan, people who still taunted and tormented him, maybe he wouldn’t have to feel that way, and maybe he would feel as if he fit within the Academy.

  Tolan pushed those thoughts away, turning to his mother.

  That was a subtle sort of shaping.

  She had forced that into his mind, forced those old concerns and worries to the forefront of his thoughts. As much as he had wanted to forget about what had happened, and as much as he had been trying to focus on other things, she had worked with a subtle touch.

  “You will stop doing that,” he said.

  “I will stop doing what?”

  “What you have just done,” he said.

  She smiled at him, and there was a darkness within it.

  Regardless of anything else, the darkness remained within her. The Convergence hadn’t removed it completely.

  How was that even possible?


  “You are far more skilled than I was expecting you to be at this point,” she said.

  “You don’t know anything about me,” he said.

  She shifted, turning to look at him. Her hands were clasped in her lap, but there was something about them that seemed coiled, almost as if she was poised to strike. “I know far more about you than you can ever imagine. Do you think I abandoned you when I disappeared?”

  “I know you abandoned me.”

  “I left you with someone I trusted.”

  Tolan shook his head. Master Daniels wasn’t someone he trusted, not anymore. He better understood there were two factions that had often been regarded as Disciples of the Draasin Lord. The more he understood about what had been going on, the more he thought he understood the reason behind it. The Disciples of the Draasin Lord had been after the freedom of the elementals—at least, the true disciples had. Those were the ones who served the Draasin Lord himself, the actual draasin, not those like his mother, people who wanted nothing more than to sow chaos and spread discord. She wanted to destroy the Academy, to cause upheaval, and he would do anything in his power to stop her.

  And he had to stop more than just her.

  She had influenced the Inquisitors, and that was something he needed to better understand. It was the reason he had come here now.

  “Master Daniels is gone,” Tolan said.

  “He was gone,” she said, smiling.

  Tolan held her eyes. “Where did he go?”

  “He still has service he must complete.”

  “The Inquisitors will find what we need to know,” he said.

  “Unfortunately for you, that is unlikely.” She glanced toward the door again, tipping her head to the side. A shaping built, though he wasn’t entirely sure what she was using or how much power she was able to generate here. As far as he knew, she would be restricted. There was something about this portion of the Academy that would lock her out from her abilities, but he didn’t entirely know if she had some other way of reaching that power.

  “Do you think I fear the Inquisitors? I served with the Inquisitors for many years, and there’s nothing they can do now that I don’t know. There’s nothing they can do to me that I won’t be able to defend myself against. The Inquisitors are nothing.”

  She spat the last, and a bit of rage contorted her face. Tolan took a step back at the force of it. It startled him, and yet, why should that be the case?

  She was angry and violent… and she was someone he didn’t know.

  If nothing else, despite what he believed, and despite the memories he had of his mother—visions that still came to him from time to time—that was not the person she actually was. She had pretended to be that person, pretended to be someone who cared about him, and pretended to be someone who cared about his father.

  The person she actually was happened to be someone else.

  A servant of chaos.

  And because of that, she was dangerous and deadly and potentially the reason the Academy could fall.

  “Tell us what you know about the Convergence.”

  “Us?”

  “Fine. Tell me what you know about the Convergence.”

  “You really have surprised me, Tolan. I must admit I wasn’t expecting you to know as much as you do about the Convergences. Most people believe there is a singular source of power, and it took me quite a while to realize there is something more here within the Academy. And yet here you were, within your first year at the Academy, and you uncovered the place of the Convergence.”

  “It’s been more than a year.” He caught himself. He wouldn’t give her that satisfaction either. “I only did it because there was another who needed to be stopped.”

  “Jory.”

  Tolan blinked. “You knew him.”

  “Of course, I knew him. I trained with him and helped prepare him. He was eager. Probably far too eager for his own good, and because of that, he ended up chasing power before he was ready for it. It was easy enough to coax him early on…” There was a shimmer, and suddenly her appearance shifted into that of the Grand Master. A shaping. It was impressive that she was able to shape so well. It faded. “Then he made his own choices later on.”

  “And you think you were ready for that power?”

  “I know I’m ready for that power. I was promised power you cannot imagine.”

  Tolan shook his head. “Why do you need more power than that of the elements?”

  “You have felt the power of the elementals. You understand there is more than just the power of the element bonds—or the elements.” She studied him, and it felt almost as if some part of him was laid bare. It suggested she was using a spirit shaping, and as he felt it, he tried to shape himself, using each of the various elements, turning it inward so it would protect him against her shaping, but he wasn’t sure if he was fast enough—or strong enough. “You shape so differently than anyone else. I suppose you didn’t realize that.”

  “I know I do,” he said softly.

  “You know why?”

  Tolan glanced at the door and couldn’t help but wonder how much of this Master Minden was listening in on. Knowing her and how powerful she was, he had a hard time thinking she wasn’t paying any attention to it. Of any of the master shapers at the Academy, Master Minden was possibly the most powerful shaper he had ever met, and yet, she felt as if she needed to stay separate from what was taking place. If she would stay engaged in it, he thought they would be able to uncover more than they had already.

  “I understand some of it,” he admitted.

  “Some. It’s a shame so little is really understood about the nature of shaping. For all the years we have occupied the Academy, and all the years we have thought we understood the nature of the element bonds, there are some who still struggle with the power we have been given. Very few can truly reach it.”

  “There are plenty of shapers.”

  “Shapers, yes. But most only reach for the element bond. It’s different, and because they can only reach the element bond, they can have that power cut off from them.”

  Tolan stared at her, unblinking. There were places where that power could be cut off. The library was one of them. There were other places like that, though he wasn’t entirely sure if that was what she was getting at. Maybe she knew other places than the waste.

  Could she know he had the ability to shape in the library?

  It seemed as if she knew something about him, as if she was able to dig deeper into his mind and know some part of him he was trying to hide from her. He wasn’t about to let her believe she knew something about him.

  “What sort of power do you know about?”

  She leaned forward, crossing her arms on her lap, and pressing her mouth into a thin line. As she did, there was a sense of shaping and he thought he understood.

  She had the same ability he did.

  That shouldn’t surprise him. His power would have to come from somewhere.

  “I know far more than most within the Academy,” she said.

  “Most?”

  She leaned back. “Perhaps not all. There was a time when I would’ve said I knew more than everyone at the Academy, but then I began to realize there was a subset who would oppose the types of knowledge I seek.”

  She meant the Circle.

  Tolan wasn’t about to share with her that he knew about the Circle of Warriors and that Master Minden had tried to bring him into their discipline, but at the same time, he had to wonder if she already knew that. Ever since learning of the Circle, he and Ferrah hadn’t been fully brought into it. He suspected they would in time, but they were still students.

  He had the sense that her spirit shaping was incredibly subtle and there was power within it, the kind of power he could only imagine.

  It was the kind of power he needed to be able to replicate. If he was going to have a greater role in whatever was taking place, he was going to have to know how to use his shaping talents. He would have to know just wh
at it meant to have power and control. When it came down to it, his shaping had progressed better than anyone else who had come to the Academy when he did. He was tied to the elements and the elementals, and he was able to use the element bonds—finally—but even with that knowledge, he wasn’t able to do so many other things he thought others could do.

  When he explored at the library, studying all the books possible, he found records suggesting there was a significant kind of power existing out in the world, that there were shapers who had knowledge many within the Academy did not have, and he had to believe he could gain that same knowledge. If he could, he would be able to work with it, and perhaps he would be able to better understand the nature of his own shaping.

  That had been his biggest challenge ever since coming to the Academy. There was something about him that was different, and yet he was still Selected.

  When he had first come, he had been able to use the bondars, but ever since learning how to shape, beginning to grow his connection first to the elementals and then to the element bonds and finally to his own sense of shaping, he hadn’t known whether there was something else he needed to know about.

  As he looked at his mother, he could tell there was something she knew. And it was something he needed to know, as well.

  “They’ve already chosen you, haven’t they?” she asked softly.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “You do, and you already know enough to keep it to yourself.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tolan said again.

  She sneered at him. “Don’t take me for a fool. I have been active for far too long to be looked at in that way.”

  “Why?” he asked again.