A Fading Fire Read online

  Tolan nodded slowly. “I understand. Has Master Shorav explained why it has gotten difficult to use?”

  “He tells us that the bond has been modified.” Grace looked up from studying the bondar, meeting Tolan’s gaze. “Not that he needed to tell us, though. Most of us can feel what changed.”

  “What do you feel?” Tolan asked as he took a seat next to her.

  “I’ve always had a connection to earth.” She rolled the bondar in her hands, her finger tracing along the runes marking the elementals that the bondar was designed to capture power from. Tolan doubted that the students understood the way the bondar was used. Perhaps given that they were now using bondars, he should explain the function and the creation of them a bit more so that they could better understand it. “It was one of the earliest element bonds I gained understanding of. When I was home, I could use earth to connect to others in my city. It was helpful.”

  “Where’s your home?” Tolan asked.

  “Versan. It’s a small place in the west of Terndahl. Far to the west, I should say,” she said, smiling. “Not too many people know about it.”

  Tolan smiled. “I’ve been there,” he said.

  She looked up at him, eyes going slightly wide. “You’ve been there? Nobody has been there.”

  “I wouldn’t say nobody has been there,” Tolan said. “You must’ve had a Selection, which means that some from the Academy have been there.”

  “I suppose,” she started.

  “My travels take me all throughout Terndahl,” Tolan said, getting to his feet as another student shaped their way into the spirit classroom, this one with fire. Using a single element bond to travel to the spirit tower required incredible control. Tolan had learned how to do it, but he had been more of an advanced student at that time. “It gives me an opportunity to see where my students come from.”

  “That’s why you travel?”

  “Not necessarily,” Tolan said. “The Grand Master has me doing many things on behalf of the Academy.”

  The new arrival was a boy named Laurent. He was tall, slender, and had bright red hair. So many of the pure fire shapers were touched in such a way. It was part of the reason that Tolan was surprised Ferrah did not have fire as her primary element.

  Laurent studied Tolan for a moment. “Is it just the two of us?”

  Tolan shook his head. “The two of you are early.”

  “I can come back,” Laurent said, glancing down at Grace before looking up at Tolan.

  “There is no need, Shaper Rens,” Tolan said, thinking that perhaps he needed to indicate a bit more space between himself and Laurent. “Why don’t you and Shaper Yveln attempt to spirit sense each other?”

  Laurent shot Grace a strange look for a moment before shaking his head and settling down across from her.

  Even without using a hint of spirit, Tolan could tell they weren’t necessarily friendly. Perhaps friendly enough, and perhaps they would get along out of necessity, but the expression that Laurent gave her suggested that they weren’t friends.

  Tolan had interacted with plenty of people over the years within the Academy who weren’t his friends but who he had been forced to be friendly with. It was a good lesson for them to learn; that they could work together despite their differences.

  He took a seat at his desk, pulling a stack of papers over. On the papers, he had a list of places throughout Terndahl that he had visited. In another pile, Tolan had a map of Terndahl, and he had marked off every place that he’d been to, using that to help ensure that he traveled everywhere to find the answers about what Roland might’ve been doing.

  Other students appeared, shapings of each of the elements carrying them to the spirit tower. The spirit tower was unique among the various towers, different in that one had to have mastered the ability to carry themselves on one of the elements in order to reach it. It signified an aspect of control, and because of that, only shapers who had the level of control needed to reach the spirit tower were able to study with him. That might be the only way he had survived as an instructor.

  Tolan only half listened as the newcomers learned from Grace and Laurent how they were supposed to work on spirit sensing. He shuffled through the papers, looking for patterns that he might have missed, but failing. He struggled to find anything that might reveal what else he needed to do to uncover Roland and his plan.

  Perhaps Kerry’s suggestion was right. It was possible that Roland had created something similar outside Terndahl.

  The only problem with that suggestion was that in Tolan’s experience, the places beyond Terndahl weren’t quite as connected to the element bonds. In the case of the land Beyond, there was no connection to the element bonds.

  Which was why Tolan was convinced Terndahl was where he’d be spending most of his time. So far, he had not encountered Roland again.

  Tolan looked up. The classroom had filled with students, and it was time to begin teaching.

  As he got to his feet, he looked around the students and realized that quite a few of them had bondars with them. Grace wasn’t the only one who carried a bondar.

  He frowned. “How many of you needed an earth bondar before?” he asked. Several of the students raised their hands, and Tolan nodded slowly. “That is what I thought. Today we will talk a little bit about bondars.”

  “Why bondars and not about spirit?” Grace asked.

  Tolan shrugged. “Considering many of you,” he started, looking at the students gathered around him before frowning, “perhaps most of you, have begun to need a bondar, I thought it would be best for you to understand just what it is that you are using and how that power is drawn from the bondar.”

  “Doesn’t it only help us connect to the bond?” Lisa asked. She was tall, heavyset, and already a skilled water shaper.

  A shaping of spirit swirled toward him and he looked up to see Carson joining the class. The Inquisitor had done so more often of late, especially since Tolan had begun disappearing. Tolan had to be especially careful with him.

  “A bondar does allow you to reach for the element bonds, but it’s the how I think you would benefit from better understanding.” He went to the back of the room and found a length of wood. He had it here for this very reason, though he hadn’t expected to do so around the students. Keeping the creation of bondars secret didn’t serve the Academy. It was why Tolan had been willing to demonstrate the creation. He took a seat in the center of the rune for spirit, settling to the ground with the length of wood resting on his lap. “You can join the lesson,” he said to Carson.

  “I am only here to watch. As Grand Inquisitor, that is my right.”

  Tolan shook his head, straightening and looking at the class. “How many of you could create the rune for earth if I asked you to?”

  Only a few of the students raised their hand.

  Tolan nodded. “As you continue your studies, you will find that there are runes for each of the elements. Those runes allow you to connect to the power of the element in a way that you wouldn’t be able to otherwise. There is energy within those runes; a way of reaching elements and the element bonds that you wouldn’t have were you not able to master that.”

  “So we just have to mark runes on a branch?” Laurent asked, laughing.

  A few of the other students laughed nervously along with him.

  “When I was a student, probably about the same level as you, I had that same question. I wasn’t a very skilled shaper at the time.” Tolan had told that story enough times that he knew the students were aware of it, but it never hurt to remind them that not all students were skilled shapers when they first came to the Academy, and that didn’t necessarily mean they couldn’t become one. “I needed bondars. That was the only way that I could access the shaping of the element bonds. Unfortunately, when I was a student here, we weren’t given access to the bondars the way that you are now.”

  “We aren’t usually given access to the bondars,” Emily said. She sat off to the right of him, and seemed
to try to shrink in upon herself. It was almost as if she didn’t enjoy speaking aloud.

  Perhaps that was only Tolan’s sense of her through spirit, and not necessarily the reality.

  “No. I suppose that you aren’t usually given access to bondars, but I think that the master shapers have done well by allowing you to use them. You need to have access to the bondars, if only so that you can continue to reach earth while it has been tainted.” He made a marking on the branch, tracing over it with his finger, using a faint shaping of spirit and fire to create the rune. As it settled into the branch, Tolan solidified it, holding it there. It was a familiar rune, one that called forth the elemental saa, bridging it into the bondar.

  Seeing as how he was going to start with the bondar for fire, creating a furios, he might as well continue.

  “Each of these runes is tied to the element in a specific way. The one that I’m using is tied to a gentle flame, one that many of you are probably familiar with.” He glanced up, tracing the symbol for saa again, and once again sealed it with spirit. There came a surge within the bondar, adding the hint of power from the elemental into the newly formed bondar, bridging power into it. Tolan didn’t need to use much strength in order to do this anymore. He had an understanding of bondars that very few did.

  Carson moved a step closer. Few people in the Academy truly knew how to make bondars, so Tolan wasn’t surprised.

  “All we need to do is study the runes?”

  Tolan looked up, meeting Grace’s eyes. “It’s more than just studying the runes. That is a part of it. You do need to have the knowledge of runes in order to fully understand what the bondar would do, but it’s more about how you place it. This first rune represents saa.” Tolan waited, and a few of the students sucked in breaths. They recognized the elemental name. Tolan began to trace a different pattern. “This one is for iffin. As you see, it is less about the flame and more about sparks.” There was a faint crackling as he sealed it. He created again, copying the same rune, binding power into it as he did. The students around him watched, but had fallen silent. “This one would be for lisinar. The flame from this burns a little bit differently than it does with saa, and it would be prominent in a different region than saa.”

  “What do you mean a different region?”

  Tolan looked over at Emily. “Why, the elementals are more common in specific regions.”

  Carson shot him a curious look that Tolan ignored.

  “The elementals are bound within the element bonds,” Laurent said.

  Tolan nodded. “They are. And I’m not saying anything we do here will release them from the element bonds.” He swept his gaze around them, noting a relieved look on most of their faces. It was a shame that the fear of elementals persisted. His gaze lingered on Carson, who held his arms crossed over his chest. Tolan was tempted to use spirit on him, but didn’t.

  He had to counter the fear of the elementals. Tolan had been working to try to counteract that, but there were still too many people who feared the elementals and their power. “But the elementals, in their natural state, had a predilection for different areas. In the case of saa, it was far more common in Parnal. Whereas lisinar was much more common in Cholan.” Tolan started to trace a different pattern. “Shiron represents smoke in Erand and surrounding areas, whereas esalash would represent it in Terndahl.” Tolan marked both of them, sealing them within. Already he could feel the changing of the bondar he formed. “Now we could begin to add several of the other elementals for fire, such as ivay”—Tolan sealed the steam elemental to the bondar—“or even isaw, but you would need to know how to utilize them, and to be fully aware of how to control the power.”

  “You use that to control an elemental?” one of the students near the back of the room asked.

  Tolan shook his head. “It’s not about controlling the elementals,” he started. “The bondar does connect us to them, but control is not the key, nor is it the goal. The key to the bondar is how it allows us to reach for the elemental energy and how it allows us to use various aspects of it.” He held out the newly formed furios. Runes marked along the sides for each of the elementals that he had mentioned filled it with various powers. Tolan reached for fire through the bondar, feeling the connection as it suddenly searched. It was powerful, and it would allow whoever used it to find and access fire in ways that they wouldn’t have normally. “What the runes do, rather than controlling an elemental, is that they help you find a connection to the elementals within the bond. It is similar; not the same.”

  Tolan held it out, waiting.

  No one attempted to take the furios from him.

  “If anyone is curious whether this worked, be my guest.”

  Laurent smirked as he got to his feet and grabbed it. “You couldn’t have made a bondar like that in front of us. The other master shapers are so careful with them that they…”

  As he trailed off, Tolan could feel the energy of fire flowing through him, and he realized why he was trailing off. He recognized the power Tolan had placed into the bondar. It was different than the furios that they would use in Master Sartan’s class. The power within this bondar was a mixture of several different common elementals, and they were frequent enough within the fire bond that somebody could reach for them and draw upon that power much more easily. For those who were attuned to fire, this newly formed furios would allow them something that they could not do otherwise.

  “You were saying?” Tolan asked.

  Laurent continued calling on fire. Tolan could feel the way that it flowed from him, the energy that poured out from him. He stared, holding onto the furios, shaking his head. “How did you do that?”

  Carson had stepped forward, tilting his head to the side as he studied Tolan.

  “As I said, it’s a matter of understanding the power within the bond, using the correct rune that bridges to the intended elemental, and tying you to it. Nothing more than that.”

  One of the other students got to their feet and reached for the bondar. Fire surged through it, flowing from them, and Tolan smiled. One by one, the students began to work at the bondar, borrowing it as they tested the connection to fire. Some of the students were far better connected to fire than others, and as they attempted a shaping through it, he found himself keeping track of who had the greatest connections. It wouldn’t really matter. The only thing that mattered was that the students now, as they always did, had various connections to the elements.

  He waited until the students took a seat again, and he reclaimed the bondar. He offered it to Carson, who frowned before turning and leaving the spirit tower.

  Who would he report to?

  “Once you learn how to control the elements, you can create a bondar on your own.”

  “You said it was more than just the elements. You said it was tied to the elementals and to the runes.” Grace leaned forward, watching him.

  Tolan nodded. “It’s tied to all the ways that you can access power of the elements. Which is why you need to study. The more you learn, the easier it will be for you to recreate power and shaping that those who founded the Academy could use.”

  He took the furios and got to his feet, carrying it to the back of the room.

  “Now that we have talked about the elementals and the runes, along with bondars, I think we should—”

  Someone cried out.

  Tolan rushed forward and found Laurent making a marking for saa on a piece of paper resting near him.

  It was similar, but not the same as the one Tolan had used.

  “What’s happening?” Laurent cried out.

  “Easy,” Tolan said. “Just take a deep breath.”

  “Take a deep breath? It’s burning!”

  Tolan looked down and realized Laurent had begun to release an elemental.

  It was surprising. Using a rune like that shouldn’t do it, but perhaps it was the shape, or perhaps there was something else. It might have been the tension upon the element bonds that caused the elementals
to want to escape.

  “I’m going to help,” Tolan said. “But you are going to have to remain still. The elemental is trying to come out of the bond.” Tolan ignored the gasps around him, focused only on Laurent. “Can you feel the burning?”

  “I told you that I felt the burning. Why is it happening?”

  Tolan cupped his hands around the sudden crackling flames. “Somehow, you must have bridged the elemental through the element bonds. And it seems to me that it’s using you to bring itself out of the bond.”

  Laurent’s eyes widened. “Can you do anything to stop it?”

  “There’s no need to stop it. We don’t need to suppress elementals that want to escape from the bond.”

  “They’ll hurt us,” Laurent said.

  “They won’t,” Tolan said. “Again, the elementals simply want to have the choice.” He was repeating things that he had been told over the years from the elementals, and from creatures like the Draasin Lord, but Tolan didn’t know if it was entirely true. The only thing that he knew to be true was that the elementals that were trapped within the bond didn’t always have the choice.

  That was the reason he had committed to allowing them to remain free when given the opportunity.

  He looked up briefly, thankful Carson wasn’t here for this.

  “Now, I’m going to help the elemental.”

  “You’re going to help?” Laurent looked up, and panic burned in his eyes.

  Tolan pushed out with a soothing pressure of spirit, trying to use that to calm him. “I’m going to help the elemental, which will help you. The elemental has no interest in harming you. Give it a moment.” Tolan borrowed from the power that was erupting from the elemental and began to add a hint of fire to it, connecting it to spirit. The combination helped him speak to the elemental, and it allowed him to help soothe the elemental the same way that he was attempting to soothe Laurent.

  “It’s not much longer,” Tolan said.

  He could feel the way the elemental was coming. It pushed outward, probing through the bond, pressing with an increased tension. Tolan recognized the power in the way that it was squeezing out from the bond, and he could feel the energy that was coming with the elemental.