The Shape of Fire Read online

“The bonds will grow weaker,” Velthan said.

  “The bonds won’t change because we pull the elementals out of them. Besides, it’s not a matter of pulling the elementals out of the bond so much as it is not forcing those that don’t wish to be in the bonds to be jammed down into them.”

  Tolan didn’t understand what the elementals experienced, only that it must be awful. In his experience with the elementals, they were more than eager to escape from the bonds; practically straining to get out.

  Then again, there were some elementals that preferred to stay buried within the bonds. He wished that he understood the reason behind that better, but he did not.

  Perhaps he just couldn’t understand since he was not an elemental.

  “Some of the master shapers think that by letting the elementals out of the bond, we will weaken the bonds,” Velthan said.

  “What about you?”

  “I’m not a master shaper,” Velthan said.

  “You are nearly. You have enough experience with shaping that you would be able to know if anything has changed dramatically in the time that you have been shaping. Has it?”

  Velthan looked over at him, staring for a moment before shaking his head. “No.”

  Tolan shook his head. “No. Nothing has changed because nothing will change. The bond is the bond. The bond carries with it its own sort of power, and it doesn’t necessarily matter if the elementals escape. There are always going to be elements and elementals within the bond, and that power will always exist, granting the bonds the power that they need in order for you to hold onto it in order to shape.”

  That, at least, was what Tolan had convinced himself. He didn’t know if it was the case or not, or whether releasing the elementals meant they really would weaken the bond. According to Master Minden, there was a risk in releasing the elementals, and that risk came from the fact that there was a time when shapers had a harder time reaching for the power of the bond. There was no doubt in Tolan’s mind that the element bonds were far more powerful than his own natural shaping ability. Without the element bonds, he wouldn’t be able to reach for certain aspects of power, but even without them, he would still be able to shape.

  “You were chasing after elementals?”

  “Not chasing after them,” Tolan said.

  Then again, that was exactly what he had been doing.

  Not that Velthan needed to know that. He didn’t need to know what Tolan had been doing; the way that he had been spending his time away from the Academy.

  The only ones who needed to know would be himself—and perhaps Ferrah.

  Then again, there were others who might need to know. The Grand Master would need to know, especially if Tolan had uncovered something. Master Minden would need to know, partly because she would be able to help him understand what he uncovered.

  “Come on,” Tolan said, urging Velthan to follow.

  They hurried along the Shapers Path, and everything blurred beneath them. He stared at the ground below, watching it change.

  After a while, he reached a buckling on the Shapers Path.

  He paused.

  It had been a while since he had traveled along the Shapers Path, so to find a buckling was uncommon, though it was an easy enough problem to fix. It required using each of the elements, and Tolan poured those elements out, letting that power flow from him so that it could sweep into the Shapers Path, though he didn’t need to use spirit. There might be a purpose for spirit with the Shapers Path, though Tolan had never needed to use it to modify or add to the path.

  “What did you do?” Velthan asked.

  “I smoothed out the Shapers Path.”

  “I see that, but how did you do that? I thought it took multiple shapers in order to be able to smooth the path.”

  Tolan glanced over. “Multiple shapers, possibly, if they don’t have a connection to each of the elements. Knowing you the way that I do, and knowing that you have access to each of the elements, this is something that you would be able to do alone.”

  “How?”

  “You simply continue to shape the elements together, sweeping them along. Watch.”

  Tolan demonstrated the shaping for him, letting it flow outward. Velthan watched, and a shaping began to build from him that mimicked what Tolan did.

  The translucent shaping worked as he swept along, gliding along the Shapers Path. Without a connection to shaping, Tolan wouldn’t be able to see it, though he suspected he’d still feel it. The path was intact, so Velthan’s shaping wasn’t necessary, though he did the same thing Tolan had done when he had first uncovered the shaping. He added to the Shapers Path.

  Velthan created a translucent section off the main part of the Shapers Path.

  Tolan nodded to him. “Very good.”

  “That’s it?”

  Tolan shrugged. “It’s not nearly as complicated as it would look.”

  “Who taught you this?”

  “No one taught me. I recognized the type of shaping that was involved and replicated it.”

  Velthan glanced over at him. “You recognized it? How did you do that?”

  “As I said, it’s not nearly as complicated as it looks. We each have the ability to detect a shaping, so as you learn to probe these shapings and learn to recognize when a shaping has been used, you can begin to tease them apart. Think about some of your tests or gaining a level within the Academy. In several of them, you have been required to demonstrate just how you can pull apart the type of shaping used.”

  Velthan nodded. “I suppose that I have.”

  “This is no different. In reality, all shaping is similar. You just have to begin to tease it apart and you can find answers that you didn’t know were there.”

  “What have you had to tease apart recently?”

  Tolan shook his head. “I haven’t really had time.”

  “Because you have been chasing the elementals?”

  There was less venom in his voice this time, and he said it almost teasingly, not smirking in the way that Velthan often did.

  Tolan smiled slightly. “I would be more than pleased to use my shaping to help the elementals.”

  “Why?”

  Tolan met Velthan’s eyes. “When you have an opportunity to work with the elementals, especially some of the most powerful of the elementals, you will begin to understand.”

  “Like the draasin,” Velthan breathed out.

  Tolan smiled. As far as he knew, only one draasin remained outside the bond. “Like the draasin. That is a powerful elemental.”

  “You know him?”

  “I know him.”

  “How?”

  “The draasin and I have worked together. It’s only because of the draasin that I am still alive.”

  “No one has seen him, you know,” Velthan said.

  “No one?”

  “No one else at the Academy, I should say.”

  “There are some master shapers who have seen the draasin. Any of the master shapers who work out in the waste have seen him. And there are those that dealt with other aspects over the years who have seen the draasin.”

  “Why doesn’t he come around?”

  Tolan smiled slightly. “I have a feeling he doesn’t want to be a part of this world much longer.”

  He headed back along the path, moving quickly. While he did, he could still feel the strange pull of something odd. It was a connection to the elements—but to which aspect of it? The elementals had been moving, so it might be that, but maybe it was only his connection to the elements that felt off. He doubted it would be the bonds. They were too powerful.

  Velthan kept pace and said nothing.

  For that, Tolan was thankful.

  Speaking about the draasin—an elemental he referred to as the Draasin Lord—was difficult for him. He had a connection to the draasin, a bond that was similar to what he shared with Thoren, though unique in its own way. The Draasin Lord was an incredibly powerful elemental, and as far as Tolan could tell, he was nearing
the end of his life. Eventually, the Draasin Lord would fade, passing on.

  Tolan didn’t really know what would happen then, though he worried about it. He worried what it would mean for the draasin to pass to the beyond.

  Would there be no other draasin?

  He knew there were some within the element bonds, but knowing that there were elementals in that bond and being able to draw them out were two different things.

  As he had recently seen.

  Just because there were draasin within the bond didn’t mean that Tolan would be able to reach for them easily.

  The outlines of a city emerged in the distance. Tolan started to slow. He waited for Velthan to catch up, thankful that the student hadn’t said anything more, not challenging Tolan in the way that he had expected. Instead, Velthan had given Tolan an opportunity for quiet. For reflection.

  He appreciated that. It surprised him that Velthan would do that.

  “This is the first Academy?” Velthan asked.

  “The first one that we will visit,” Tolan said.

  “When I performed a Selection before, we didn’t find very many shapers. One each time, really.”

  “It’s not uncommon to find a lack of shapers.”

  “That seems unfortunate, doesn’t it?” Velthan asked.

  “That we find a lack of shapers?” Tolan shook his head. “There are always shapers here, though not all have the right potential for Terenhall. Those who don’t succeed can stay in their communities and serve. We need to find the right kind of shapers. It’s not just about finding shapers in general; it’s about finding shapers who have the right potential to learn.” He looked over at Velthan and smiled. “Had there not been a Selection, I would never have gone to the Academy.”

  Velthan fell silent, and Tolan felt a little bit guilty about that.

  Velthan didn’t need a reminder of what Tolan had gone through. As far as Tolan was concerned, though they had a disagreement sometimes these days, Velthan hadn’t tormented him the same way that he had used to.

  For the most part, Velthan didn’t interact with Tolan all that much. They had classroom sessions together but nothing more than that.

  “Come along. We will see what the Academy has to show. If we’re lucky, we will find students.”

  “What if we aren’t lucky?”

  “If we aren’t lucky then we move on.”

  There wasn’t the same urgency with finding shapers as there had been even five years ago. At that time, there had been a threat of the Draasin Lord—when Terndahl had believed there was a shaper who called himself the Draasin Lord and not simply a draasin who was the Draasin Lord—that threat had been enough that they had wanted to be able to withstand his attacks.

  Since then, Terndahl had entered a period of relative quiet.

  It was peaceful.

  He readied spirit shapings, as he often did, to test those he met at the Academy. He’d learned that Roland could influence with spirit. Though he was gone—at least, Tolan believed he was gone—there had been enough strangeness over the years when it came to spirit that he worried his influence remained. It was why he tested.

  As they headed toward the city, and toward the Academy there, Tolan could still feel the movement of other elementals in the distance. Not only within these lands, but still within the bonds. There was something about that which troubled him.

  Maybe it was because they had known such peace over the years. It felt almost as if it were a reminder of what they had encountered all those years ago. A reminder of a time when things had been different. A reminder of when they had experienced darkness. Danger.

  It was a reminder of a time when there was a real threat to Terndahl.

  It was with those bleak thoughts that he headed toward the Academy.

  4

  Tolan sat in the small office, resting his arms on the desk. The office belonged to one of the master shapers at the Brasth Academy, but they had lent it to Tolan. It consisted of a desk, a chair on either side, and a bookshelf stuffed with books on basic shaping. Nothing useful for Tolan other than a workspace.

  A stack of papers sat in front of him; names of shapers from the Academy. When they had reached the Brasth Academy of Shaping, he was not terribly surprised that they were thrilled with their arrival. Most of the time when academies welcomed shapers from Terenhall, they did so believing that were their shapers to be selected it would reflect well upon them. Very few realized that if their shapers—often the most skilled and advanced—came along with the Masters of the Academy, they would rarely return to their homelands.

  Tolan flipped through the pages, sorting through them, looking at names, descriptions of their abilities over the years, tests that the students had passed, capabilities that they had demonstrated.

  It was a detailed record.

  “I don’t remember finding anything like that when I went on a Selection before,” Velthan said.

  Tolan chuckled. “I don’t either.”

  “We don’t need it, though, do we?”

  Tolan shook his head. “We don’t really need it, but I fear that if we don’t look through the papers they have presented to us, they’ll feel as if we aren’t taking their Academy seriously.”

  “I wonder if the Ephra Academy records are like this.”

  Tolan looked up. “They aren’t.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He nodded. “I went there as a student during a Selection. It was nothing like this.” He looked back down at the papers, not wanting to admit to Velthan that when he had gone to Ephra there had already been a spirit shaping placed upon members of the Academy, and it had changed people that Tolan had known his whole life. That had been a dark and difficult time for him.

  “If a Selection is only about spirit, then—”

  Tolan looked up again. “A Selection isn’t only about spirit. The spirit shaping is important, and it’s a shaping you will learn—especially now that you are here—but it is more than just that. The more that you recognize the shaping, the more that you will come to realize that the way it’s utilized is such that it offers an aspect of understanding of a shaper.”

  “Only spirit?”

  “Spirit primarily. That’s why most of the Selectors are spirit shapers.”

  It was something Tolan had always struggled with.

  They let Inquisitors perform the Selection; a fact that left him bothered. Of course, there weren’t enough shapers of spirit within the Academy to have anyone else be a part of it. If there were, then they wouldn’t necessarily need the Inquisitors to do so.

  “How much longer are we going to be here?” Velthan asked.

  “Not much longer,” Tolan said. “I want them to feel as if I am taking their documentation seriously.”

  “Are you?”

  Tolan shifted the papers, sliding them over each other until he settled one page down, looking at the name. “I’m reviewing them. I suppose that’s enough.”

  “You don’t even need to do that, though,” Velthan said.

  Tolan looked up. “Don’t I?”

  “Well, considering you will use a spirit shaping on everyone here, it seems to me that it would not take much more than a hint of spirit for you to wipe away any memories of them knowing that you did or did not review their records.”

  Tolan didn’t want to share with Velthan that he had already given that some thought. “There is an advantage of having them work with us. I would much rather they think that we are listening to their concerns and that we are following through with how we intend to manage their shapers. If they don’t believe that they can trust us, and if they don’t believe that we will take their shapers seriously, then they won’t be quite as motivated to send shapers to us.”

  “But spirit—”

  Tolan shook his head. “Spirit isn’t to be used like that. You need to show restraint. When you continue to master your ability to use spirit, you will find the temptation to use it widely. It requires restraint on your part no
t do so. Were you to do that—were you to shape spirit openly—you would incite the kind of fear of spirit that used to permeate the land.”

  “I didn’t realize people used to be afraid of spirit.”

  “What did you think of Inquisitors before you came to the Academy?”

  “I guess I haven’t given it much thought.”

  “What do you think other people throughout Terndahl think of Inquisitors?”

  “They don’t care for them.”

  “No. They don’t. Much of that stems from the Inquisitions that were tied to the fears of the Draasin Lord, but partly that was because of the nature of the Inquisitors. The power they possessed. The tie they have to spirit and how very few have the ability to shield themselves and their thoughts from spirit shapers.” Tolan looked back down at the pages, flipping through them again. The Draasin Lord had been long believed to be a powerful shaper who wanted to free the elementals from the bonds, and Tolan had ultimately learned that his mother had taken on that moniker. When he’d met the true Draasin Lord, the lone remaining draasin, he had come to understand that the person he’d grown up fearing wasn’t at all who he should have feared. “A powerful spirit shaper is often stronger than the strongest shaper of each of the elements.”

  Velthan started to smile. “All it takes is for you to wrap them in earth or fire or wind or water.”

  “All it takes is for them to trap you within your own mind. Have you ever felt immobilized without being able to know why?”

  “That’s not possible,” Velthan said.

  “I can assure you that it is.”

  “You have experienced it?”

  Tolan nodded. “A spirit shaper stronger than any I’ve ever experienced used a shaping like that on me. You know how I am connected to each of the elements. That connection still wasn’t enough.”

  It was a shaping that he hoped he’d never encounter again but still feared might return. The waste was the only thing that prevented Roland from easily coming to Terndahl.

  “Can you do that?”

  Tolan shook his head. “Unfortunately, I never learned how to do that. I never even learned how to free myself from it. The good news is that shaper is gone.”