The Shattered Elemental

THE BINDING TRIALS BOOK 4

D.K. HOLMBERG

JASPER ALDEN

Copyright © 2024 by ASH Publishing

Cover art by Damonza.com

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Chapter 1

There was a strange weight in the air, one that seemed to hang heavy upon Lathan. He didn’t know if it was tied to his understanding of the elemental energies, such as it was, or if this was real. Regardless, as he focused on the strange power that he was able to pick up, he started to question if he could use it in any way.

Returning to the city had been an easy journey. He had traveled with Isa and had followed whatever power that she had, flowing on the undercurrent of energy that existed. It was something beyond any way that he had ever imagined was possible before now.

“Why is it that I can feel something? It’s strange, but I wouldn’t expect to detect anything,” Lathan asked, looking over to her.

The sky crackled, and he noticed that there was a steady streak of lightning moving from the clouds overhead, shooting straight down and toward them. It would be either Jef or Marin, and he wasn’t entirely sure which one of them was coming first.

“You are Asiran. That is why. And I would imagine that you can feel more than even I can feel.”

He wasn’t exactly sure about that. He could, however, feel something. And it was the fact that he was aware of something that suggested to him that whatever power was here and whatever pressure was building, while potent, was useful in a way.

He took a deep breath, focusing on the strangeness that he had uncovered previously, wondering if maybe there was a way for him to draw on that power. “Are you staying?”

“We have found the Asiran,” she said.

“That’s really not an answer,” he said.

But in a way, he suspected that maybe it was an answer, and it might be the only answer that he was to receive. To them, he was some long-lost powerful ruler, and somehow, he had returned.

“We must help you understand.”

“So you will train me?”

“You are the Asiran,” she said.

He smiled at that, feeling as if maybe it were a little bit more ridiculous than he had expected, but perhaps it didn’t need to be. Perhaps it was what it was.

Instead, he turned, looking all around. He couldn’t feel anything here. But in a way, he was going to have to try to find how to open himself to spirit so that he could better identify if there was anything here he could use. That was going to be the key, after all. Spirit would help him connect to other powers, and it might even help him free others, especially if they were somehow still influenced by the Sacred Mother.

When the crackles of lightning cleared, Marin stepped over. She looked harder than she had when they had first set out from the village, and her clothing was dirtied, though Lathan suspected that his was, as well. Her hair was wild, the wind whipping around her the way that it often did. And he felt a bit of spirit coming off of her, the same familiar sense that he had started to identify when she was using it.

“Why have you been waiting out here?”

“Either we’re waiting on you, or we’re waiting on my comfort level,” he said. “And honestly, I’m not entirely sure which it is. Maybe a little bit of both?”

“You decide,” Isa said.

He couldn’t decide. At this point, he wasn’t even sure that he wanted to decide.

But it was good that Marin had come, because if there was a danger in the city, a danger to their people, then they were going to need others with spirit to try to free them.

“Henash and others from the kingdom are on their way,” he said.

“You saw them?”

“I caught sight of movement as we were coming down. And… I can feel them. Can you?”

She was quiet for a moment. There were aspects of spirit connection that were different between the two of them. “I don’t feel things the way you do. And maybe that’s okay. You really have a different connection altogether.”

It wasn’t just his connection that was different, though. It was him, in some way that he still wasn’t entirely sure how to explain or how to describe. Lathan was part elemental, descended from his father the shadow elemental, and his mother, who was connected to the spirit element but not elemental.

“I wanted to stay back there,” Marin said, turning and looking behind her, as if to stare in the direction that they had come from. “They wouldn’t let me. Apparently I can’t wait to see if the draasin would return.”

He blinked. “Did you really want to?”

She looked up, as if to find the draasin circling. “Why shouldn’t I want to? We haven’t seen anything like that—and neither has anyone else. We haven’t even heard of anything like that. I know that you probably can talk to them in some way, but…”

“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I won’t be able to talk to it. It’s more about trying to… Well, I’m not even sure what it is like. It’s just a matter of trying to make sense of what I can do and what I can be, maybe.”

Another crack of lightning came and then landed near them. Jef stumbled forward. Once done, Lathan looked over to the Maelen, curious what they might say. They waited, watching.

Jef stepped free and shivered. “I’m not so sure I care that much for that. What are we going to do now?”

“Let’s get down into the city and see if there’s anything that we need to do. Some of these were our people. Or at least, they should be.”

“And if any of them are with the Derithan?” Jef asked.

“I’m starting to think that perhaps we misunderstood the Derithan. Or at least, we might have. I’m not sure.”

Lathan started forward. The landscape was fairly barren, and he wondered if he would be able to identify any sort of elementals that were here. Then again, now that the Sacred Mother was no longer here, he doubted that there would be any reason for elementals to have remained. And those elementals that might have remained would obviously have known that doing so would be dangerous to them and for them.

“It feels so different,” Marin said. “I feel… emptiness. Then again, I suspect you feel it, as well.”

“I do. It’s sort of leaving me on edge.” He glanced over. Then he watched the Maelen stayed close to them, dressed in the gray jacket and pants that Lathan suspected was some uniform of theirs, though some had more embroidery than others. All carried a weapon with them, long, slender swords. “I’m going to need to figure out what they are doing so that we can avoid any more surprises.”

“And have you?”

“Not particularly,” he said.

Once they got to the outskirts of town, he felt a little bit more uneasy. He was reminded of the very first time that he had come here. There had been others with them, and they had turned on he and his friends, especially after it had been revealed that the Sacred Mother had wanted them to do so. Now that he was here, would they have to face other dangers? Other threats?

As he said something to Marin, wrinkles in the corners of her eyes suggested the concern she felt. “I wonder how much of them were controlled. She had so much power over spirit, and given the way that she was able to use her connection to it, it seems to me that is the key to it.”

“Maybe,” he said. “But if that is the key, then there has to be some way that we can get past what she did here. We did it once.”

“Did we?” Marin said, looking over to him. “That was all you.” She started to smile. “I trust that you can handle this, though.”

He wasn’t sure what he could handle these days. At this point, it was difficult for Lathan to know how difficult the challenges that they might face might be. They had been dealing with such impossible things, including now a powerful elemental of spirit that had wanted to use them, though Lathan still didn’t know what the Sacred Mother had wanted to use them for.

They reached the outer edge of the city. Jef had been quiet, but the moment that they reached the outskirts, he withdrew a binding stone from his pocket and held it in hand as he swept it away from him.

“I’m not feeling anything,” Jef said.

“I don’t think it’s going to work quite like that,” Marin said.

Jef shot her a hard look. “And you don’t know. If there is anyone still here, including any of the elementals, that are serving the Sacred Mother, I want to be ready. If I have to bind it, then I will. And if we need to make more binding stones, that’s what we have Lathan here for.”

“Or you could just ask the elementals to go,” she said. “Just send them away.”

“Assuming that they would leave. What if they want to be here? What if all of this is about some way of collecting power?”

“I don’t think that’s what it is,” she said.

But like her, Lathan wasn’t sure.

The outskirts of the city were the busiest. Lathan suspected that was out of a comfort, or perhaps a discomfort, as the case may be. The people here were not exactly sure if it was safe for them to get any deeper into the city, a place that the Sacred Mother and her elementals had controlled. For that matter, Lathan wasn’t even sure if he knew that, either. It was better that they have a chance to test. And considering what his type of connection happened to be, he had to hope that he could help discover how much of an influence might remain.

Many of the people were those he recognized, though not all. Most of them were townsfolk that they had brought here. Some might be from elsewhere, either outsiders or people who had ventured to the city for protection. It was another thing to be concerned about, though was it for him to be concerned about? Lathan could use the elementals—or at least, he could borrow power from them—which others could not do, but that didn’t mean that it was something that he wanted to be responsible for. For that matter, he wasn’t sure that he should be the one responsible for what happened here. It might be more than what he could handle.

And as far as he could tell, none seemed aware that there was anything that had happened. That was reassuring, but a little surprising, as well. He would’ve expected that somebody would’ve known something had happened. The calm here was a little unnerving, especially considering everything that they had been through leading up to this point.

He leaned into Marin. “Nobody even knows,” he whispered.

“The focus wasn’t on them,” she said. “And she was trying to use you up until the last few moments. So maybe it’s better this way.”

Lathan didn’t know if that was true or not, but right now, perhaps that wasn’t the issue that he had to resolve. Now it was a matter of getting settled, dealing with the consequences of removing the Sacred Mother from her position here, and ensuring that she couldn’t cause additional challenges for them.

“I’m going to check on a few people here,” Jef said. “The two of you go. I can’t do what you can do, anyway. And I’d probably just get in the way.”

“Are you sure?” Lathan asked.

“Well, I’m sure that I can’t do what you can do. I’m not so sure that I’d get in the way, but I don’t want to cause a problem, and I do want to check on a few things.” He glanced the way they had come. “Why aren’t they coming in here?”

As they entered the outskirts where the townsfolk had been held, he had noticed that the Maelen had waited. They didn’t enter the city. They stood as if on patrol, and what was more was that there was a strange sense of an energy that emanated from them, which Lathan suspected was tied to their ability with the elements, not that he knew that with certainty. It was possible that they had binding stones on them. More likely, he figured, considering all that he had been through. At least, binding stones were a kind of power that Lathan understood, not like this connection to the elements that they had described, a connection that he wasn’t even sure if he could understand.

“I don’t even know. Maybe they are concerned about getting too close?”

“Or maybe they’re watching for other elementals,” Marin suggested.

“If it was about elementals, they would’ve come with us,” Lathan said. “So this is something else.”

As he watched, he saw that they were making a steady circuit around the city.

“They’re looking for other traps,” he said.

“Would you have felt something?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s possible that I wouldn’t.”

It was hard for him to admit that, but seeing as how he was part elemental—something that was still strange for him to consider—he might be best equipped to pick up on such things. Then again, they were far more potent than he was, and they had an ability with the elements he did not have. They had a connection far different than anything he had.

“The others are going to be here soon enough. I wouldn’t be surprised if Henash has brought extra support. We could use that to search the town.”

“I’m a little concerned about if we find something before they get here,” she said. “Unless they’re almost here?”

“They looked to be a little ways out, so we probably have a couple of days, though it’s hard to know. If they are using binding stones and if Henash is with them, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that they were able to travel much faster than I would’ve expected.” Especially considering he thought there were others from the kingdom that were coming with Henash. Henash was talented. There was no doubt of that. But there were others who were even more talented.

And they needed time here in this town.

He wasn’t entirely sure what they would even find. The biggest concern was finding elementals, but if they found something along those lines, it seemed as if it should be a relatively straightforward process for him to be able to neutralize it, especially given what he had been able to do with that sort of thing in the past. He could bind it.

“Let’s go. I want to see if there is any sign of her or of her people, or elementals, for that matter, remaining.”

All around, Lathan felt an undercurrent of strangeness. Maybe it was more imagined than real, but it felt as if there was something still in the city, perhaps a residual from what the Sacred Mother had done.

Lathan had never taken an opportunity to explore the city. Not like this and not unencumbered, as there had always been a representative of the Sacred Mother with him when he had visited before. But now he couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps there might be something about this city that was significant.

The Sacred Mother had chosen this place, hadn’t she?

It was probably just about her access and reach with the elementals, he figured. Or maybe there was another reason. With her, it was difficult to know.

He remembered the first time that they had come here. He remembered how he had marveled at the way the buildings had looked, and how it had all felt so marvelous, and even delicate. Knowing that the Sacred Mother had used the elementals, and likely had forced them to serve, left him thinking that perhaps she had forced them to build much of the city. Some of the buildings were newer, with an almost crystalline structure. Then there were older buildings, some made of a thick, gray stone that emanated a sense of energy from them, though what he detected from that was difficult for him to understand.

Maybe there would be something about the Sacred Mother they could learn by going to where she had been. So long as they avoided traps—and Lathan had to believe she left some sort of trap behind—they might understand what she had been after. An entity like her would have to have had an agenda.

“How much of the city was tied to her at the elementals?” Marin asked.

Before he could answer, there was a trembling. Lathan immediately turned. He noticed that one of the nearest buildings had started to tremble, and stone from within the building had started to rise, building with elemental power.

Marin started murmuring something, though Lathan didn’t know if her connection to the wind was even going to matter now. Here, where the Sacred Mother had been and where she had bonded other elementals, left questions about whether or not the elementals would even respond.

He was surprised when the wind began to swirl, picking up.

“Good,” she breathed out, as if she had been equally concerned.

Lathan tried to make sense of whether there was anything here that he could feel. He did not really understand the connection to the elementals, nor did he really know if there was any part of what he could identify of them that would make much of a difference, but he did, however, recognize some of that power.

Even as he focused on it, and he struggled to make sense of what was happening here, he could not find anything more. Power, but what kind of power?

“I can feel something here,” he said softly. “It’s like there’s some potent elemental here, but I’m not quite sure what it is, and worse, I’m not quite sure if it is going to be a problem for us. I just know that we need to be careful here.”

But maybe him opening himself to the shadow portion of himself was not the right strategy here. Until he had a better idea about how to do that, and if he had any control over it, Lathan did not know if that was going to be a wise decision or strategy. Increasingly, he had to feel like there was something unique and distinct about what he did here. What he could, however, feel was the possibility that binding stones might allow him to hold some of this power, move it, and then maybe release it someplace where it wouldn’t be as dangerous.

Until he had a better idea, Lathan wasn’t sure what to do with it, just that he knew that there was something here and that something was starting to emerge in a way that was quite potent in ways that Lathan did not know.

“Be careful,” Marin said.

“I know,” he said softly. “I can feel it. I’m going to try to calm it, without trying to harm it.”

“Good luck,” she said with a bit of a laugh.

“Relax,” Lathan said. “You don’t need to fight.”

The elemental continued to tremble. All around him, he noticed other elementals, more agitated. There were several different elementals, all in various nebulous phases. The most prominent was one for fire, a haze of heat and energy that Lathan had not seen before. There was a potency to that elemental.

“Relax,” he said, focusing on the cold again.

But the elemental did not relax.

It looked as if it were going to shake apart the building. He could see it and could practically feel the way that the elemental was building, and he could practically feel the power in it as it was shifting and shaking and changing.

“Lathan,” Marin said.

“Just stay back there,” he said. “I can feel it. They seem somehow unstable.”

And as Lathan attempted to try to control the power working around him, he thought this was the trap that the Sacred Mother had left. And worse, it was more than he could withstand.

Then earth surged. He staggered, falling back.

And he tried to call to the shadow to protect him.

Chapter 2

He lay in place, unable to get up. The power that was building came from earth elementals in the row of buildings near him. He focused on the cold shadow inside of him, wondering if it could even be enough as he strained and struggled to try to overwhelm whatever was out there. Even as he tested that sensation, some part of it struggled against him. It was there, but it was there in a way that was so different than what he had felt.

“Get up,” Marin snapped at him.

“I’m trying,” he said.

“Get up,” she said again.

And he realized that the ground around him was starting to crackle. The buildings near him were starting to crumble. Lathan wasn’t even sure what he could feel, just that he was aware of the earth around him and the spreading of power. He attempted to try to build on that and wanted to know if there was some element that he could draw, but even as he did, that power eluded him.

Then lightning crackled from above.

As he struggled to move, he saw lightning streaking toward the stone, streaking toward the elemental, and hitting it. The trembling within the building increased, but when another burst of lightning struck, that trembling fell still.

Only then was Lathan able to get up.

He stood there, looking down at the crack in the ground. It had been spreading toward him, dangerously close to hitting him, which would then have dropped him into the ground. He didn’t have enough control over his power—if he had even any power of his own—to have been able to escape.

He would’ve been swallowed by the earth.

He staggered back until he reached Marin, and then Isa came shooting down from the sky, coming to land next to the building. It was one of the older buildings, made of the pale-gray stone, and as Lathan stabilized himself, he noticed that there were letters etched along the surface of the stone that were unfamiliar to him.

Isa turned, intensity blazing in her eyes, her hair wild as if standing from the force of the lightning she’d been summoning. He saw her doing something, though he didn’t think that it was a matter of her speaking to any of the elementals. Instead, it felt as if she were commanding and directing earth on her own, wielding it directly, rather than drawing it through the elemental the way that he had done.

The crack in the ground beneath him sealed shut.

“Are you harmed?” Isa finally asked, turning back to him.

“No. And I’m sorry. I knew there was an elemental here, but I thought I could help it.”

“The elementals remain conflicted,” she said, and she frowned as she turned around. Another bolt of lightning streaked out from her, crackling down the street, striking some of the nearby buildings. When it did, Lathan noticed that the buildings suddenly fell still, as if the elemental energy that had been causing them to tremble and shake was suppressed.

“You can tell that?”

“Perhaps not the same way as one such as yourself can,” she said, looking to Marin and then over to Lathan. “But I can feel it. There is instability here. I am doing all that I can to help neutralize that, as I suspect that the instability can be suppressed, but there remains an aspect of it that has been challenged.” She shrugged. “I do not know anything more than that. It is enough, I think.”

He wasn’t sure if that was true or not. But maybe, as she said, it was that they were irritated. He moved closer to the nearest building that he had been feeling. And as he did, he touched the stone and tried to feel for any of the elemental there. He did not know if there was some part of that elemental that he could even communicate with, because while he was able to feel some of the deep trembling, something that seemed as if the shadowy portion of himself reacted to, he could not do anything more with it. It was there, but it was also hidden from him in some fashion. That was strange but was also not anything that made any sort of sense to him.

“You must be careful with it,” she said. “You must be careful with the way power is unfolding around here, because this was a stronghold of the Sacred Mother. She will have corrupted these elementals. It will take time for them to forget what happened to them.”

“You think they can just forget?” Marin asked.

“I do not know, but I think that it is wise for you to investigate whatever hold she still has on this place. I will come with you. It was my mistake that I allowed you to do this on your own, Asiran,” she went on, bowing deeply to Lathan.

He didn’t much care for that.

“I should’ve known better than to have come before testing whether there was a danger here,” he said. “I thought that if there were elementals here that I might be able to help them. Maybe even disconnect them from her.”

“There are some elementals who seek out a binding,” she said as she continued looking around. “There was a time when elementals would often seek it out, because it was a benefit to them and a benefit for them. I cannot speak of what the Sacred Mother would’ve promised them, but I suspect that she had made some connection to them that was different.”

She moved down the street, and every so often, she would send lightning crackling down, leaving him watching but also a little uncertain.

“What do you think?” Marin asked.

“I don’t really know. Here I thought I would be able to talk to the elementals, or maybe just help settle them. But if they wanted to be bound, what can we do?”

“Leave,” Marin said. He looked over, and she shrugged. “I’m not saying it to be flippant. I’m just saying that we don’t need to stay here, do we? This place obviously is connected to power, and there’s a danger here. This place is something unusual, and whatever remnants she left behind are going to pose a problem for us. That’s the challenge. I mean, we can stay here, but what happens if we do? What do you think we will find?”

“I don’t know. Reasons why she did what she did?”

Up ahead, Isa was still moving away, getting further and further from them, a bit of a power radiating from her. He could feel it, even if he didn’t quite know what she was doing, nor did he know how she was doing it. Just that it struck him as connected to something different.

“Maybe we should stay with her,” he said. “We don’t want to get separated.”

And it wasn’t just that they didn’t want to get separated. He didn’t want to end up in a situation where there were going to be other elementals trying to get free and causing more problems for them.

He hurried to catch up to Isa. Every so often, she continued to use her connection to power, primarily lightning, he noticed, and would send it into some of the buildings, into the ground, even. When she did, he noticed that there was often a trembling, as if the elementals that were there were either startled or scared away by what she was doing.

“What are you doing with that?” Lathan asked.

“I am trying to scatter the elementals. They have remained, but I think that they have done so out of a sort of familiarity. This is not their place. At least, it is not most of the elementals’ place. There are some that might be naturally occurring here, which may have been how she gathered strength, but seeing as how this is not a place of congregation, I would not have expected the elementals to have lingered.”

She sent another blast of power out from her. Lathan could not track how she was doing that nor did he know what type of energy she used. It wasn’t elemental, though, so perhaps he couldn’t follow it.

“Is there any way that you can teach us what you’re doing?”

She looked over to Marin and then him. “You must first learn to use and shape the elements before you can try to combine them. What you have is not what I have. At least, not yet.”

“But you said that he’s the Asiran.”

“He has power, yes,” she said. “And I will not deny the fact that his power, and what he is capable of doing, is significant. But it is not what he is doing now.” She looked over to Lathan. “And perhaps that was my mistake. I should not have allowed you to wander here by yourself. It is too dangerous to do so while the remnants of the Sacred Mother wander this land. We’re moving most of your people away because the elementals that have been freed are still roaming. They will be tied to the structures she considered her home. And until they are cleansed, if such a thing is even possible, it may not be safe for you or others to linger here.”

“What can we do? I can use shadow.”

“That may be useful,” she said. “But the only purpose in that is to bind, and the only time that would be necessary is if you felt as if you had to force the elementals into a binding.”

“I’m not trying to force anything, I just…”

But even as he said it, he began to feel a different sort of pressure and presence. This one was strange. In the past when he had been moving along the street, working with Isa and Marin, he had been picking up on the trembling of earth and how the buildings were shaking. Now he felt something else. It wasn’t so much in the wind as it was all around him. It was as if pressure was crackling.

And in a way, it reminded him of the strangeness that he had uncovered when he first came back. It was as if some of the different powers that lingered were still there, pressing upon him and maybe trying to tie him in some way. He said as much to Isa, and she frowned.

“They’re returning,” she said, shaking her head. “Too many. Too dangerous.”

“The elementals?”

“When you targeted the Sacred Mother, you separated some of the power from her, stripping it free. If there is this much, it might be beyond what we can do. We need to remove the danger, otherwise they are going to continue to congregate here. And she may return.”

There was a danger in that which Lathan may have been the only one to truly understand. It was a danger that was tied to this city, and to the power that she had left behind here.

“We can talk to them,” Marin said.

“It will not work. They do not listen.”

“They listen to me,” she said, and then she turned to Lathan. “And they listened to you. See if there’s any way. It doesn’t have to be you, or at least, doesn’t have to be all of you, does it? You have that shadow portion of you, right? If there’s any way that you can summon something, it seems to me that you could and should be able to draw upon the deep part of yourself.”

The deep part.

He was going to have to connect to the shadow and probably do more than just connect to it. He was going to need to master that. And even knowing that he had that part of himself, Lathan didn’t know if he had enough of an understanding of it to be able to master that power and to control the way that it worked within him.

“I’m going to need your help,” Lathan said, though he was speaking inwardly, wondering if maybe there was some part of him that was still connected to the shadow that would help him reach for that power and try to draw it out. He didn’t know if it would work that way, but he felt as if he had to try. Whatever power inside of him would be the key here.

“I need the shadow.”

Spirit wasn’t going to work. Not with what they wanted to do. What he wanted was not to call the elementals. He wanted to send them away. As he focused inwardly, he tried to summon the cold and felt a bit of a tingling sort of resistance inside of himself. That resistance swelled, sweeping through him, and left him with an awareness but no real level of control. Still, he pushed on it.

And darkness began to slowly dissipate.

It was slow, soft, and strange. It swirled, though this was unlike anything that he had done before. When he had used shadow in the past, he’d allowed the shadow to take control. And in this case, Lathan felt himself controlling it. And he pushed outward.

All around him, the strange energy seemed to react to shadow.

Lathan felt how it expanded, as if the shadow were trying to speak on his behalf. But not to him. As the shadow was a part of him. It was talking, somehow, to the others. Still, even as it did, Lathan did not understand what it was doing, nor could he communicate with it somehow. Slowly the power began to clear.

Once it cleared, the strange elemental energy all around him had cleared with it. There was no sense of it remaining.

He breathed out, looking over to Marin, who was frowning. He wondered what she had detected. She was connected, no differently than he was, to a different kind of power. “What is it?” he asked.

“I felt that. I’m not sure what it was, but I felt it. Do you know what you did?”

“Not completely,” Lathan admitted. “I’m still trying to fully understand what it means for me to have that part of myself. When I thought that it was a separate entity, it was easier to work with, because I thought that I could wield it in some fashion. Now that I know that it’s tied to me, it is harder. It’s like my mind doesn’t want to grasp what I need to do with it quite as much.”

“But it worked,” Marin said. “I don’t feel them the same way. Whatever you did, it worked.”

“He directed the elementals,” Isa said, striding over. “And that is what makes you the Asiran.” She bowed her head slightly.

Lathan found himself looking at her, and uncertain. He directed the elementals. But what would happen if he were to try to control—and command—the elementals?

Could I?

And if he could, did that make him any different than the Sacred Mother?

Chapter 3

The line of people from the kingdom came into the city late in the day.

Henash was among them, wielding wind around him, and speaking to it, as if trying to direct it, but not saying anything substantial. Everybody had been moved outside of the city, away from the potential danger. Though increasingly, Lathan started to question if there was any sort of a danger, partly because he couldn’t help but feel as if what he had done, the way that he had wielded the power that he had, had truly managed to chase away the elementals.

“There he is,” Jef said. Lathan and Marin had not shared with him what they had done, but mostly because Lathan wasn’t exactly sure that he wanted to share with Jef, because he wasn’t exactly sure what to make of it. “It’s strange. The last time we saw him, I thought he was going to die. Now he looks⁠—”

“Stronger,” Marin said, nodding, but it was mostly to herself. “What do you think he’s been doing while we’ve been away?”

“Gathering those from the Saval who might be able to do something,” Lathan said.

At least, that was what he suspected had been happening, though he didn’t know if it was true or not. There was a part of him that was left with questions about it, and without any real answers as to whether Henash would’ve done that or not. Maybe he had simply been trying to find his way here. Then again, they had sent word, and he was thankful that Henash was here.

“There you are,” Henash said, striding forward and grinning. He nodded to Jef, then turned to Marin, before finally facing Lathan. “You managed to get everybody to safety. And to a city like this. Amazing.”

“It’s not quite as amazing as it looks,” Marin said. “Why don’t we get settled, then we can talk about what we’ve been dealing with. There’s much that you need to know.”

A question lingered in Henash’s eyes, but he didn’t speak it.

“Where is this child?” a haughty voice said from behind Henash.

Henash’s expression soured as he shook his head. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t coming alone,” he said, dropping his voice to a whisper. It seemed as if he was carrying his voice on the wind, and Lathan didn’t know if he was speaking to the wind or if he was having the wind carry it for him. Either way, he did so on a slight quiet hint of sound that seemed as if it were building in some fashion.

“Henash,” the person said again.

Lathan looked past him to a dark-haired woman dressed in a flowing robe, wearing a heavy silver necklace wound tight around her neck. Jewels on each of her fingers suggested that she was incredibly wealthy, but the irritated nature that she carried herself with suggested that she was not at all pleased to be here.

“Lady Naserra,” Henash said, tipping his head, and then turning to Marin and Lathan. “These were the young ones I was talking about. As I said, they were quite instrumental in ensuring that the outer village was protected.”

“They are children,” she said.

The woman had silver eyes, and her black hair was woven into a braid that was bound on top of her head like a crown. Her long neck, obscured by the silver necklace, gave her an almost strange, possibly comical-looking appearance. And yet, she carried herself as if she waited for Henash to simply obey what she asked.

“Perhaps in a part of the kingdom they might be considered children, but out here, they are experienced. And I can assure you that Marin has quite a bit of potential. She would train well at the Saval⁠—”

“Yes, you have made it quite clear that you are fond of these children.”

Lathan looked over to Henash, trying to catch his gaze, but Henash made a point of almost trying to avoid looking at him. That actually brought an amused smile to Lathan’s face.

“And where is the city representative?” the Lady Naserra said.

“They are gone,” Lathan said. “There was a strange attack here, and it seemed that there was a powerful elemental that ruled in the city and has been deposed. Now we are free, but there’s still some element of power that lingers here, and the possibility that some lingering concentration of elemental energy is here. We, along with our Maelen friends,” he went on, motioning to Isa, “have been trying to remove any additional dangers.” He smiled and said nothing else.

The Lady Naserra just stared, as if trying to decide whether or not Lathan was telling her the truth. Then she surprised him. A surge of warmth radiated from her.

Spirit.

Of course she would have spirit, especially if she was with Henash and had some skill within the school. But then, he had not anticipated that she would have so much potency within it. He felt the rippling wave of spirit wash outward from him, and from her, and sweep all throughout.

When she worked, there was a strangeness to her features, and there was a bit of pressure that worked away from her, until it fell still.

She finally turned to Henash. “The boy’s speaking the truth. There were elementals here. Why would the elementals be gathered in this place? This is a city, as well as some strange settlement, but I would not have expected any elementals to be present like this. You claim that the Derithan were not⁠—”

“This is not a place of the Derithan,” Lathan said, feeling as if he needed to speak quickly to get through to her. “This is a place of elemental energies. As I said, the elementals once resided here. Many of them are released from what this powerful spirit elemental”—and he chose to use the word spirit intentionally, watching her as he did—“was using some element of control to hold onto the elementals. We have disrupted what she planned, but it is entirely likely that she is not done and that she might return.”

She continued frowning, and then tapped her lips. “Interesting. We will set up in one of the outskirt buildings, and you will come talk with me.”

The way that she said it suggested that he could not argue with her. She strode past. A pair of other younger people moved with her, dressed in similarly decorative robes, as if providing her a measure of protection, though he had little doubt that she needed nothing for protection. He wondered what sort of binding stones she had on her, suspecting that she would’ve had several with her in order for her to feel the measure of comfort that she did, and for her to have arrived the way that she had.

Only when she was gone did Henash let out a breath of a sigh. “Did that really all happen?”

“Pretty much,” Lathan said. “And this is Isa, one of the Maelen. They use the elements directly.”

Henash’s eyes widened. “Directly?”

“And it seems as if there are others who can do that. And⁠—”

“And I would imagine you have some potential in that,” he said.

“He is the Asiran,” Isa said. “Of course he would have the ability to do so.”

He frowned, and as he did, he turned to Lathan with a bit of a smile curling his lips more so than it had before. “Quite a bit has transpired in the time I’ve been gone. You have a title now?”

“It’s familial,” Lathan said. “And apparently, it is tied to what I am, and who I’m related to. But then, you knew some of that, as well.”

“I only knew hints but didn’t know enough.” He nodded toward where the Lady Naserra had gone. “She really is going to be useful here, Lathan. But she’s also going to be a challenge for you. You need to be honest with her about what’s going on and about what you have been doing. And when we head back to the heart of the kingdom⁠—”

“The Asiran cannot go back with you,” Isa said.

That surprised Lathan. “I can’t?”

“You have an obligation to understand what it means for you to be able to do what you can do, and to better understand the connection that you have. You can learn much.”

“I’m still trying to learn,” he said. “But I can do that around my people.”

But could he?

Even though he made the claim that he could stay around his people and that there were things that he could still learn there, he didn’t know if that was true or not. A part of him wondered if perhaps it wasn’t possible for him to continue to learn the way that he needed to buy staying. His people, or at least those who still survived of his people, barely even understood the elementals. And what the Maelen were talking about was him trying to learn something about the elements, but even more than that. It was about the opportunity to learn about what it meant for him to have the power that he did, and to somehow be able to wield it in a way that would make a difference for his people.

Marin looked in his direction. “Why don’t we just get settled first, and then we can decide what you’re going to do. And then you can talk about what has been happening for you.”

“Before you talk with her,” Henash said, “that’s what I need to do. I managed to get away, and thankfully, stayed ahead of the Derithan. They chased me for a while, but the wind was strong, and it carried me. I was thankful that it did, because otherwise I would not have made it in time. I was injured and needed significant healing before I was able to fully recover. But once I got deeper into the kingdom, closer to some larger cities and better schools, I was able to get some better healing.”

“I’m glad,” Lathan said. “We were concerned about you, especially when we had some trouble along our journey. We thought it was the Derithan, but it was them.” He swept his hands around. “They brought us here. At the time, we thought that it was all some sort of a benefit to us, that they were offering us protection and a way to learn more, but we didn’t realize that it was all about trying to use us, and to use what we could do.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help you, and that you had to go through that on your own. Still. Naserra is not wrong. You are still children.”

“It doesn’t feel like that anymore,” Marin said. “It’s not what we’ve been dealing with. It feels like we are… I don’t even know what it feels like, but I don’t feel like a child anymore.”

“I haven’t felt like a child since we dealt with the Derithan the very first time they attacked.”

“Perhaps not. Still, it changes little about how you will need to speak with her. She heads up the Saval, and she has the king’s ear. I would encourage you to listen to her, and to answer her questions, especially as the king has seen fit to equip much of his army with various binding stones as they attempt to deal with the Derithan. I showed them the key of the binding stone jacket⁠—”

“You didn’t try to help them make their own, did you?” Lathan asked.

“It’s not about making their own. It is about disrupting what the Derithan already have, and then taking it from them. In doing that, we have an opportunity to try to claim power from the Derithan so that we can overpower them.” He shrugged. “That, at least, is my plan. I’m not entirely sure it’s going to work, but I came here, rather than sticking around where I had been. So I don’t know.”

Lathan felt a bit of uncertainty. He didn’t like the idea of the kingdom using the binding stone jacket like that, but then again, knowing what they were, knowing that the Derithan had been used in a way, he couldn’t help but feel as if maybe all of this was something that could be solved. Maybe he and his friends, combined with the Maelen, could find some way of disarming the Derithan.

“The Derithan have begun to push. There are more of them than we realized. It has created a dynamic that I think even the king had not anticipated. I’m not sure what to make of it, other than the fact that it is far more dangerous—and challenging—than I think any of us appreciated.”

“I would imagine they have gotten stronger,” Marin said. “Not just in numbers, but in overall strength, as well.”

“You are correct. They have gotten stronger. Especially of late.”

“It hasn’t been that long,” Lathan said, turning to her. “It shouldn’t have been possible.”

“But if she knew something was happening, and she figured she had you dealt with, I could see her sending forces in the form of the Derithan after the kingdom. Especially if she thought it was going to give them access to another place and another of these powerful connections.”

“Regardless,” Henash said. “It has become a little difficult for us to do much. We have not withdrawn, but we have not pressed the attack. We came here because I told the king that you and Marin learned aspects of how to wield the binding stones that might be beneficial for us.”

“Because you think I can make a binding stone jacket,” Lathan said.

“It’s more than just the binding stone jacket, but yes. I believe your knowledge and what you can do are going to be key in helping the kingdom to defeat the Derithan for good. Now, if you don’t mind, let’s go talk to the Lady Naserra, and we can decide what you will do next.”

He motioned for them to follow, but Lathan hesitated, looking over to Marin. She had a deep frown on her face, one that Lathan wasn’t exactly sure what it was from, but he suspected why it was there.

“You don’t want to do this, do you?” Lathan asked.

“I don’t know. I feel like we’re missing something. And honestly, when it comes to the Derithan, the power that were dealing with, and pretty much everything else that we have been seeing, I can’t help but feel like there is something more that we need to try to understand.”

“And I agree,” he said. “Because I’m worried that the longer that we wait, the more likely it is that it’s going to be too dangerous for us.”

“I’m less concerned about that,” she said. “I’m more concerned about what the Sacred Mother is doing. And now that she has been chased away from here, and now that you disrupted her, what might she do? How might she react? And what sort of an attack is she making against the kingdom?”

Chapter 4

They found Naserra inside of a building with walls made of almost perfectly smooth stone. Lathan was aware of some of the power in the walls, and it left him questioning if maybe there was still a hint of the elemental there, though he didn’t see any sign of it. And when he attempted to use some of the shadow inside of himself, it didn’t react, so maybe it was not, or maybe the shadow simply didn’t work well enough for this.

There were places inside of the city where he felt the power of elementals that seemed to linger, as if there was some sort of a memory of it that remained. He wasn’t sure if he imagined it or if it was real.

Unfortunately, ever since they had returned to the city, Isa had stayed with him, as if she needed to provide some sort of a protection for him, despite the fact that Lathan had been the one to have stopped the Sacred Mother in the first place.

Naserra was standing in front of the hearth, and she had placed a single binding stone inside of it. There was a faint crackling fire. Lathan was aware of the power of the elemental trapped within that binding stone and was also somehow aware of how there was a little bit of power that seeped out from her, causing the binding stone to leak that power so that she could use it.

“You will sit,” she said. She didn’t turn to them.

The other two that had trailed after her were standing in the corner, watching. Lathan took an opportunity to look at both of them and noticed that they were both younger women. Both had similar dark hair, braided and woven on top of their head in the same crown Naserra did. Both wore robes of the similar style and design of Naserra, but nothing else. No jewelry. And he couldn’t tell if they had any binding stones on them, though he wouldn’t put it past them to have done so.

Lathan looked around until he found a strangely shaped chair. It was modified out of wood, woven together as if it had been grown that way, and in a way, he wondered if perhaps it had been.

He dragged one over and offered it to Marin, before taking another, and dragging that in, as well. There were several other chairs, along with a table, which left him wondering why they would have these items here. As elementals, he doubted that the previous occupants would have needed anything as mundane as a table and chair.

He took a seat, clasping his hands in his lap, and waited. It seemed as if the Lady Naserra wanted him to wait, and at this point, considering that he needed her help, and more than that, he needed her information, he knew better than to challenge her or to say anything that might pose any sort of a danger.

Henash strode over to her, and they whispered quietly to one another. There was a silence between them. It suggested to Lathan that one or both of them was using a bit of wind—and possibly a binding stone, as he didn’t feel any connection to the elementals here—to speak behind them.

“Shall I remove their protection?” Isa asked, leaning forward.

Lathan looked back. “You can do that?”

“They think the shielding they have erected is adequate, but unfortunately for them, they are using something quite basic. I can permit you to listen, if that would make you happy, Asiran.”

He felt a little ridiculous with her continuing to call him Asiran, but at this point, the idea that she might be able to bypass the protections that Henash and the Lady Naserra were using also made him curious. And so he nodded.

With a slight buildup of a bit of energy, he felt wind slowly whispering its way toward him. It was almost as if there was just a direct conduit of the wind from the other side of whatever protection Henash and Naserra had erected, and it came directly to Lathan.

“Can you do the same for Marin?”

“Of course,” she said.

“They are useful and skilled students,” Henash said. “And I will not have you mistreating them.”

“Mistreating?” She cocked her head to the side and frowned at him, as if he were speaking something outrageous. “Do you think that I care about what they feel? I am the head of the Saval, and I will not be challenged by you.”

“I’m not making any attempt to challenge you,” Henash said. “But again, they have quite a bit of experience, and with what they have been through and what they have dealt with up to this point, I think that you owe them an opportunity to ensure that they are not struggling with what you ask of them.”

“We have come here to ask nothing of them. It is only what the king has asked of them.”

“And the boy knows what the king wants. And he will help, but you cannot force this. He understands the complexities of what you are asking, and⁠—”

“And he will serve the king.”

“What is she talking about?” Marin asked, and Lathan realized that she had placed her own bit of wind shielding up, though he didn’t know how she was doing it. There might be a little bit of wind around them. Or maybe she was drawing on whatever it was that Isa had permitted them.

“They want me to make a binding stone jacket,” Lathan said. “And it sounds like Henash is trying to at least give me an opportunity to refuse. Or at least, he is making it seem like he is giving me the opportunity to refuse.” It might not be true, though. Henash might want him to serve the king and want him to do the same things that he felt were necessary.

“You don’t want to force who to serve?” Marin asked.

“The elementals. Aren’t you concerned about that as well?”

She frowned. “Of course, it’s just…”

He understood. He understood that there was much about what they were dealing with and what they might still be facing that she wasn’t quite sure of.

“The others have begun their incursion,” Naserra said. “And you know why I was willing to accompany you here.”

“You didn’t have much choice in the matter,” Henash said, glancing toward Lathan. “If you would have, you may have chosen something different.”

She scowled. “And now I’m here, and I see nothing but children and a wild woman.”

Lathan smiled to himself. He glanced over at Isa. She made no sort of reaction that she even cared, but he wondered how she felt. Isa was far more powerful than Naserra, and more powerful than anybody inside of the kingdom, as far as Lathan knew. And given the connection she had to the elements, and how she could travel, he wondered what Naserra might think if she were to learn the details of that. And maybe it wouldn’t even make a difference. Maybe she would continue to criticize and call her some sort of a wild woman.

“I’ve heard worse,” Isa said.

“Oh?”

“There are people to the south who feel that our connection to the elements is rudimentary.”

“Yours is rudimentary?” Marin asked.

“In a way, it is. They focus more on writing and the power involved in that. They have a delicate touch with it and refuse to draw the elements directly. They feel like drawing them through their writing is far more profound.”

“Well, we did have a little experience with that,” Marin said, looking toward her. “Though I don’t know if it’s more profound. It’s just different.”

“Where did you learn this?”

“My father,” Lathan said. “He left journals behind that we use to try to help us understand more about things like that.”

“Interesting. I should like to see this.”

“You don’t know how to use that same writing?”

“We do, though not with the same intricacy as those to the south. Not that I would want to. There is little value in it. But I would be curious what an elemental might have documented.”

And hearing her say it like that, and talking about his father in those terms, brought everything back to a different sort of focus for Lathan. His father was an elemental. And everything that he had learned about his father, everything that he continued to learn about his father, made it so that Lathan couldn’t help but feel as if understanding him and the connection that he had to shadow was going to be key for him.

Because he was an Asiran.

That was important, and not only because it was important to Isa.

Finally, Henash and Naserra turned to them. The wind shielding was lowered, and Henash smiled tightly. “Sorry about the silence,” he said.

“There was no silence,” Lathan said, and he shrugged. “We could hear you just fine.”

Henash suppressed a smile, but the Lady Naserra sputtered.

“You were eavesdropping upon servants of the king?”

“Actually, we were eavesdropping on Henash,” Marin said, “and you. But when you’re going to talk about us, we would really appreciate it if you were going to do so openly. We understand you’re struggling with some invasions along the northern border, but we also understand that you, and maybe the king, want Lathan to generate some binding stone jacket so that you can summon the elementals. He’s not going to do that.”

“You would talk to me like this, child?”

“Naserra,” Henash said.

And she turned to Henash. “You will address me as the Lady Naserra, or you will address me as Your Eminence. Either is fine, but I will ensure that I am treated by the appropriate nature of my titles.”

There was something else that he was missing. Lathan had thought that she was just a part of the school, but if she was referring to herself as your Eminence, that was something different.

“My apologies,” Lathan said, “but we have been on our own for quite a while, and we are outside of the boundary of the kingdom.”

“You are still subjects of the king,” she said.

“We are,” Lathan said, choosing his words carefully.

Behind him, he felt Isa stiffen. And as she did, he thought that he understood why. She wouldn’t want him to be a subject to anybody, especially because she believed that he had a right and a purpose to rule in some way. He had no idea what that meant, no idea what he was going to do with it, but at this point, he couldn’t help but feel as if he should try to find some way to better understand it so that he could learn what that meant for him.

And if he was meant to be this Asiran, and in order for him to become something more, shouldn’t he try to understand it?

“Now that you are here,” Lathan said, “tell us more about what’s happening.”

She turned and waved her hand, and a chair came pulling out from the wall.

Behind Lathan, he could practically feel Isa snickering. She flicked her fingers, and another chair came toward Isa, and she took a seat in between Lathan and Marin.

It left only Henash.

He strode over to the wall, grabbing the table and dragging it to the middle of the room, where he leaned on it.

When Lathan looked at him, he shrugged. “No more chairs.”

That brought a smile to Lathan’s face at the absurdity of it all. They were outside of the kingdom. Yet, here was a representative of the king, somebody who had come here presumably because Henash had convinced them that there was something that Lathan and Marin might know and that they might be able to do to help the kingdom, but she was more concerned about ensuring that she had been addressed by her proper and appropriate titles. Rather than being concerned about what was happening and the dangers there. And rather than having a curiosity as to what somebody like Isa could do, especially considering that Isa had so much power.

“As you have ascertained, there have been some incursions along the northern border. That has been taking place for the better part of the last two years. We have managed to mitigate most of them, mostly through the generous application of binding stones that have allowed us to ensure that any sort of attacks were deterred and delayed. Unfortunately, over the last few months, those attacks have become more forceful. When Henash arrived, he spoke of another attack in the south. We thought that it was all related, and we started to try to piece together what was going on. Then he claimed that there was one among him that managed to make binding stones. At first, we would’ve dismissed it, but hearing some of the reports and the way that power was moving, we decided we would be remiss to simply dismiss it.”

“So the Derithan have been forcing you in this direction.” That was what he assumed now.

“Force maybe a little bit strong,” she said, glancing over to Henash. “But we struggled to mitigate the danger along the border. The Derithan have proven a more potent foe than they have been previously. We do not fully understand what threat they pose, but we believe that it is more than what we had been told.”

“It’s not just the Derithan,” Lathan said. “Because the Derithan are serving another master and probably don’t even fully know it. But if it is a matter of dealing with them and suppressing the attack, we will help.”

“Lathan,” Marin said.

“No,” he went on. He glanced over to her. “We do need help. I don’t know that we will help the way that she wants us to, because I’m not making a binding stone jacket. I’m not even going to make binding stones. I don’t know if I still can.” When Henash looked at him, Lathan just shrugged. “Something’s changed for me. When we went out to the…” He trailed off before he revealed too much, because he wasn’t entirely sure that he wanted to share where they had gone and what he had encountered. “Whatever. When we went out there, we started to detect something. It was strange, in fact. I’m not entirely sure what to make of it, and I don’t know how to describe it to you, but something about this, and about me, began to change. And I’m still trying to understand what it is, and what it was, and whether there’s going to be a way that I might be able to change with it.”

Lathan wasn’t even sure how to tell Henash. And he wasn’t sure that it made a difference.

“Well,” Henash said. “I think we have more that we need to talk about. But why don’t we get situated, and then we can deal with this. And you can fill us in more. That is, if you choose to do so.”

“I’m not so sure what else I can tell you,” he said.

“Well, for starters, we need to learn more about this Sacred Mother that you have referred to. If she is that powerful, then we must ensure that there is no additional threat to us here or to the kingdom as a whole.”

“She’s gone,” Lathan said.

“Not entirely,” Isa said. “She’s just not here any longer.”

“Then where is she?” Henash asked.

“We don’t know. We have others tracking her. But if we find out, we will let the Asiran know.”

“And what is the Asiran?” the Lady Naserra asked.

Lathan shook his head, trying to keep her from saying anything more, but not sure that it was going to work.

“Why, he is our leader.”

With that, Henash laughed.

Chapter 5

“Ireally wish she wouldn’t have said anything like that,” Lathan said, guiding Marin out of the building and leaving Naserra and Henash to talk. He had heard the Lady Naserra arguing with him for a little while longer, but Lathan didn’t know if she was upset about what was going on or if she was just upset because there was an accusation that Lathan was somehow a ruler. And it fed back into the previous conversation that they been having, which made it even more difficult for Lathan.

“At least it’s out in the open,” Marin said.

“You must not hide from what you are,” Isa said, striding with him. “And it is time that we begin to work.”

“Now?”

“You have met with your people, which has been what you wanted to do, but now it is time for you to continue to focus on what you can do so that you can serve.”

He wanted to ask how he could serve and what he was serving, but in a way, he had a strong idea about what she wanted from him, and what she hoped that he would do in order to serve.

It was serving the elementals, he suspected.

“Why don’t we find a quiet place out in the open where you can be surrounded by the powers of the world. That will be a place where you observe and understand the world in a way that is untouched by others.” She glanced back at the city. From where they were standing, Lathan could still feel something, though he wasn’t entirely sure if it was elemental energy, or if it was some residual that lingered from whatever it was that the Sacred Mother had done. If it was that, then Lathan knew that he needed to be careful, because he knew that there was a real danger to the kind of power that she had access to.

“There has to be something else that we can do here,” Lathan said.

“Yes. That is why we will go. You may join us, though I don’t know if you will have the same potential as the Asiran.”

Marin smiled tightly. “I doubt that I will. I doubt that I can do anything quite the same way that Lathan can. The Asiran is far too powerful, isn’t he?”

“Not yet, but he can be.”

When Lathan looked at Marin, she offered a hint of a playful shrug.

He supposed that he deserved that. For all the times that he had taunted Marin, now it was her taunting him. And in a way, it actually made a certain sort of sense, because in a way, this was something that he deserved.

As they moved out of the city, Lathan noticed that there was a little different contour of activity than what he would’ve expected. The streets were empty. That didn’t surprise him, especially considering the fact that so many of the people that had occupied the city were tied to the elementals. Though, there were those from Lathan’s home village, which had turned away and had been hiding within the city in a certain way. Though, most of those people had avoided the sections of the city that had been occupied, as if they understood the danger to it.

“It feels so empty,” he said. “It didn’t feel like that before. It always felt⁠—”

“You always felt the Sacred Mother,” she said. “She ensured you did. That was intentional, because she believed that you would be swayed. She needed your connection to your familial line. That is why you are the Asiran.”

“So it will allow me to reach the elements?”

She shook her head. “That does not. That comes from within.”

He stood upon a small hillside, and from there, Lathan could not only see the city, but behind him he noticed a narrow stream that gradually widened as it ran off into the distance. He remembered it vaguely when they came here, but the journey had been difficult, and they had been afraid of the impending Derithan attack.

“You will feel it all around you,” she said. “Some find it easier to find an aspect of one of the elements first.” She nodded to Marin. “You have already touched upon spirit. That is often the hardest, though in some cases, it is the easiest. And in some cases, unfortunately, it is the only element that can be reached.”

“Why only?” Marin asked.

“Because there are some who can only touch upon a single element. We have different names for them, but the ancient name for such people is a shaper.” She smiled tightly. “A shaper of the elements. A shaper of power. A shaper of the energies that work throughout the world.” She shrugged. “And those who can draw upon more of the elements, and can draw upon all of them, are referred to as Maelen.”

“So you aren’t our people?”

“We are your people, but we are not like your people.” She shook her head, looking around her. “There was a time when all lands knew shapers in Maelen. A time when the elementals were friendlier, and would speak to us. A time when the world was different. That has changed, but then, much has changed over the years.” She was quiet for a few moments. “And as you begin to understand the change, and what it means for you, you might begin to understand the way that the power feels. So I would suggest that you search yourself and see if anything is particularly potent internally. There may be one such element that is stronger than others. If you can find that and if you can feel that element, then you may be able to wield that element in ways that will allow you to start to unlock others.”

“What am I feeling for?”

“Have you felt the elementals?”

He nodded. “I’ve worked with binding stones my whole life. I’ve known elementals my whole life.”

And even as he said it, he realized the ridiculous nature of what he was saying. He had been an elemental, or at least a part of an elemental, his entire life. The fact that he had felt elementals was of obvious significance.

“Then you have some familiarity. You can feel the wind as it whispers along your skin, the way that it works down into your lungs. You can know wind as it breathes past you. You may know the earth as the pressure beneath your feet, but you may know it as the dampness from a rain, or you may know it as the food that you eat. You may know water as the blood in your veins, or the way that water feels as you swallow moisture. You may know it as the rainfall or the early morning fog. You may know fire as the warmth of the sun, the sting of the flame, or even the heat of steam. All are variations of the elements, and all allow you to impact them, and to reach for them, in different ways. I do not know which one you need to start with, but I can help guide you once you start to feel it.”

“So I just have to find one?” he asked.

“That is the start,” she said. “If you can gain access to one, then you can begin to gain a mastery of it, before you can work on some of the others. Over time, it is likely that you will quickly begin to gather those elements to yourself and will have a different sort of mastery.”

“Why?” Marin asked.

“Because he is the Asiran.”

“You keep saying that,” Marin said. “But what does that really mean. We know he is descended from an ancient lineage, but you believe he is connected to power. We still don’t know quite what you mean by that. What does it mean for Lathan?”

She was quiet for a while. “The last of the known Asiran was generations ago. They have led those who understand the elements and the elementals. They have long led. And there are some who believe that there will be another coming of the one who guided us into a place of knowing. There is a time when the elements in elementals were not well known.”

“Like now,” Lathan said.

“Like now, which is part of the reason we believe that you may be the coming of the one that the powers have foretold.”

“Wait,” he said, turning to her. “It’s one thing for me to have been descended from some ancient and powerful lineage,” he started. Even that didn’t feel quite right, and he wasn’t quite sure how he felt about it, because it did seem a bit ridiculous to him, especially as he had grown up in a place where he could not even imagine being descended from real power. “But it’s another for me to be some sort of prophesied return. I don’t like that.”

“Power cycles,” Isa said. “There are ancient powers that have once existed and have hidden, only to return once more. Those powers have long been lost, and over time, they were meant to return.” She stared, and for a moment, he began to feel something. At first, he wasn’t entirely sure what he was picking up on. It wasn’t until a bit of a haze began to work around her. He thought that maybe it was a bit of wind, but he realized that she was using fire in a way. “You have seen it. You were there when the draasin returned. That is a return. A cycle.”

“We still have to deal with that,” Marin said. “I know that you obviously aren’t terribly concerned about it, but the draasin are rumored to be powerful elementals.”

“Among the most powerful,” Isa said. “Not that they had been seen in some time. As I said, that power has been locked away.” She looked over to Lathan. “And the return of the draasin is one more sign.”

“All right,” Marin said. “So now you think that there are signs that he is something more?” She frowned. “And what happens if he… isn’t?”

“Then we can still help him find what he is meant to be.” She seemed disappointed as she said it. “We can help him understand what he can be, even if he is not going to be something more.”

“All right,” Marin said. “So let’s talk about what signs you think there are. What makes you believe that Lathan is this recurrence?”

“It matters not,” she said.

“I think it matters, especially if you’re going to say that there is something to him and what he can do that will make a difference. So why don’t you share it with us.”

“I can only guide you in the first steps, and you must find your way beyond that. There are other signs, all connected to old power. And your coming was one. Your reaching the reservoir was another. The release of the draasin was still another.”

Lathan wondered how many other signs there were, how many of them were real signs and how many of them were signs the Maelen might want to find themselves, or perhaps even just create as a way to make themselves feel better about what was happening. At this point, he didn’t even know. He wasn’t entirely sure that it made much of a difference. The only thing that he knew with any real certainty was that he felt confident that he was not what they thought he was, and even if he was, he wasn’t entirely sure that it made much of a difference.

“I want to understand how to wield the elements,” he said. “That is the primary thing that will be beneficial for me and for others. So if there’s some way that you might be able to help me with it and help me understand what is happening, then I am happy to do that. But I don’t know that there is anything that I can do about your Asiran, or being that person, until I better understand all of what I am trying to do and to be.”

Isa watched him for a moment, and another hint of a smile curled her lips.

“What?” Marin asked.

“It is just that the Asiran should not want power,” she said. “It is different than the Sacred Mother and what she was chasing.”

“So I shouldn’t want power, and I should have power, and…”

All of it felt like it was starting to be too much for him. At this point, he didn’t even know what he would be able to do with it, but he couldn’t help but feel as if what she was trying to tell him, and how she hoped to use him, put him into a difficult position.

“It is fine, Asiran. You will come to know your place, and you will come to know what you are meant to do. I have faith. As should you.”

Lathan wasn’t sure about that, but he just breathed out. “Let’s practice, if we can?”

“Of course, Asiran.”

Chapter 6

The practice consisted of him focusing on various different aspects of elements.

He attempted to work through them in the way that she suggested, trying to choose one element over another that might be more sensitive to him, and one that he might be better attuned to. As Lathan attempted to do that, and tried to find the answer within him, he had not been able to uncover anything, though there was a part of him that wondered if the answer was buried somehow.

Perhaps the messaging was the challenge. He kept focusing on the element, the way that she described how he needed to reach for them, and the way that it would feel to him. In the process, he found that it was not connecting to him quite as robustly as he had hoped. He started to question why and question what that meant.

It was getting late. He had attempted to cycle through several different elements, none of them being more effective than another. Marin had been working with spirit, but had been doing so mostly on her own, looking over in his direction every so often, before turning to face the town. Lathan had ignored what was happening in the town, but he was vaguely aware of the sense of the soldiers that were moving in, taking up positions around it, and likely fortifying the position.

The kingdom was claiming it as their own.

He had no idea what would happen in that case, because he had no idea whether or not that was a problem. He felt as if the kingdom taking up position meant that there may be some other issues at play, partly because there was still the issue of the Derithan and an issue of what the Derithan might try. There had been no sign of them and no sign of elementals, including the Sacred Mother, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t the possibility of such things.

“I haven’t been able to do this,” Lathan said, looking over to Isa. “I might not have the potential you believe.”

Isa was crouching, her knees bent, elbows resting on them, and looking over at him. She had a stern look to her eyes, and there was a hint of irritation there, as well. “Do you know how long it took me to touch fire?”

Lathan blinked. “I have no idea. How long?”

“I was able to sense it. From a very young age, I was aware of the way that fire would just touch my skin, like the brush of a hand across my face.” She closed her eyes, and she tilted her head back, which made it seem as if she were basking in the sun. “I was able to feel it, mostly because I was aware of it and aware of the way that it lingered, but I was not able to touch it. I could not shape it. But recognizing its presence is the first step.” She blinked, looking over to him. “There was a time when such a thing was referred to as sensing the elements. If you can sense it, then eventually you may be able to shape it. So in this case, what I’m hoping for you to be able to do and hoping that you can find a way to do, is to sense what is there, so that you can then begin to use it. Do not rely upon the power of the elementals to do the work for you any longer. You have done that enough.”

“But the power of the elementals allows me to do something that I can’t do on my own. And at this point, I’m not able to wield the elements. Until I can do that, I don’t know⁠—”

“Until you have an opportunity to try, you will never gain the mastery that you seek. Choose one, and it does not matter which one it is, but choose it, focus on it, and see if you can follow it. Feel it. Sense it.”

It was her advice that he found to be a little bit difficult, partly because he wasn’t entirely sure what he was going to be able to sense, nor did he know which element he should choose, if any of them. There was an aspect of what she was telling him that felt right, but an aspect that also felt unusual. Lathan didn’t know what to make of it, much like he didn’t know whether any of it would even work for him the way that she claimed that it could and should. Perhaps he was too different from her and her people.

He was part elemental, after all. Didn’t that mean that what he would do would be different?

“I will leave you with that advice,” Isa said. “As I think you must allow the words to settle in for you to have an opportunity to try to understand what it means for you to sense.”

She straightened and then tipped her head to Lathan in a polite bow. With that, she strode away, leaving him.

Marin started to laugh. “Well, isn’t that quite the interesting way,” she said, shaking her head. “You just have to find the power, and then you just have to use it. But if you don’t use it, then they’re going to be disappointed in you.”

“It’s more than that, I think,” he said. “It’s strange that she wants me to try to be able to feel this power, but what if I feel it differently?”

He looked off into the darkness. Somewhere distant, he noticed a flash of light. Maybe lightning. Maybe it was more Maelen coming in their direction. He didn’t think so, because he would’ve expected Isa would’ve said something if she had more of the Maelen coming, but it was strange, nonetheless. He focused, testing whether there was anything that he might build here. He wondered if maybe the elementals would even be willing to speak to him, or whisper to him, but right now, everything was quiet and calm and empty.

“You think that because you are part elemental that all of this is going to be so different for you?”

“I think that’s a reasonable question,” he said. “Because if I am part elemental, then reaching for the elements is going to happen differently for me, won’t it? It’s going to feel a little different. And my connection, the way that I’m able to reach for that power, is going to happen in a different fashion than it would happen for her. Maybe even for you.”

“I’ve been trying to do what she suggested,” Marin said. “I keep thinking that there might be some aspect of this connection that I might be able to use. It just hasn’t made sense. I do think that it’s worthwhile for you, especially, to test it.”

“I’ll try,” Lathan said.

And so he did.

He spent much of the night thinking about the way that she had described it, testing whether or not some of the different elements would work for him in the way that she described. He thought about wind in particular, not because he was so particularly drawn to it, but just that the description that she had used seemed as if it might be fitting. Would he be able to feel something brushing past him? Would he be able to feel his breath in his lungs? Would he be able to feel the way that it touched his hair or tugged on his jacket? But nothing there allowed him to sense the wind and the way that he thought that he needed to.

He shifted, thinking about how she had described water. He focused on his heartbeat, focused on what he could feel, but even then, it wasn’t as if he could simply detect the blood inside of him, nor could he feel anything of the stream that ran nearby. Fire was not possible, not the way that she had described, and he doubted that he would be able to pick up on anything, anyway. Still, he attempted to feel for any warmth that was in the air, including the warmth of his skin, and the warmth of Marin nearby.

None of that helped.

That left earth. For a moment, as he focused on it as he walked across the ground, his boot stomping across the surface, he thought that maybe he would find something. Hope began to bubble inside of him. There was the desire that maybe he would find a way to uncover the secret of what he needed to uncover here, but it never truly came to fruition.

Eventually, he grew frustrated, and he told Marin as they went back to the town.

“Do you really think that it’s safe to stay were we stayed before?”

“I’m not so sure that it is dangerous anywhere in the city. Without the Sacred Mother, I’m not sure that we are going to find anything, but I also think that we can test whether there is going to be any activity more effectively if we stay there. Besides, the Maelen can remove any remaining elementals.”

“Can you still make binding stones? I know that you were telling Henash that you couldn’t, but can you? Is there still any part of you that works that way?”

He shrugged, and he looked away. “I can still feel the shadow, if that makes any sort of sense. It’s like a cold inside of me, and when I want to, I can draw on that part of me.”

“So you can still use the shadowy portion, but everything else is not working quite the way that it had before.”

“Mostly,” he said. “It’s like I know that there are these other aspects of power that are there, the elements, but I can’t do anything with it. I feel like I need to try, and I feel like there should be a way for me to try to understand everything that is there and try to make sense of the power that I know to exist, but even as I attempt it, it simply does not work for me.” He shrugged. “It’s like I try. Does that make sense?”

“Of course,” she said. “I get that you are trying to do it, and I get that you feel something, but I wonder… Well, I wonder what you feel.”

He wondered what he felt, as well, and wondered if there might be something more for him, some other way for him, to draw upon the power that he knew to exist. But unfortunately, it didn’t seem as if there was any element that wanted to work for him. As much as he tried and as much as he strained, it fought him in some way.

They made their way back toward the town, moving past some empty rock and into the mostly barren outskirts of the city. The stone here was simple, the structures blocky, and not nearly as ornate as they were deeper into the city. They passed several patrols, though no one ever paid much mind to them. Lathan could feel the binding stone power of the soldiers and was left wondering what sort of weapons or armor they had with them.

“I keep seeing more and more of the soldiers,” Jef said. “Something’s going on.”

Marin hurriedly filled him in on what they learned from Henash and from Lady Naserra.

“Derithan attacking? We could handle them, especially with what you can do.”

“That’s not quite what I want to do,” Lathan said.

“Why not? With everything that you’ve been able to do already, it doesn’t seem like that’s something to avoid.”

“It’s more about what the Maelen have started to tell them about how they view him.”

Jef started to smile. “Oh? And how, exactly, have they started to tell him things?”

“It’s complex,” Lathan said. “And it doesn’t really make any difference. Not really. They believe I’m going to be some leader for them.”

“Ruler, I suspect,” Marin said.

“I don’t intend to rule.”

“King Lathan?” Jef asked. “Well, at your service,” he said, bowing deeply. “I suppose that with your shadow elemental, the two of you can rule for an eternity.”

“That’s not funny,” Lathan said.

“It’s sort of funny,” Jef said, and when Marin glowered at him, he frowned back at her. “What? I’m not taking it seriously. Are you?”

“It has nothing to do with what we are taking seriously. It has everything to do with what they take seriously.”

“And they really believe it?”

“They really do.”

Jef shrugged. “They aren’t letting us go back to where we’re staying before. Not that I think it was a good idea or anything,” he went on, “because I think that we were probably too close to her, to what she was trying to do with us, and maybe to us, but they are keeping everybody in clusters. Henash managed to ensure that we’re boarded near him. I figured that if nothing else, we can talk more with him. He wasn’t sharing anything with me, though. And now that I know what’s going on, or at least, have a better idea about what’s going on, I think that I understand why he wasn’t telling me anything. He didn’t want me to get involved, did he?”

“Probably not,” Lathan said.

They found their way into the small room that they were given. They were guided by a pair of soldiers wielding swords and heavily armored with binding stones. Lathan could feel the trapped power in them as he brushed past them, and there was this part of him that had to struggle with the idea of that trapped power. It took him a moment to realize why he struggled so much. It was as if the shadowy portion of himself, that elemental energy that he had, reacted to it.

Once inside, Marin elbowed him.

“Sorry,” he said.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“It’s that I can feel something,” he said. “I feel the trapped elementals. I don’t really know what to make of it, but I probably should just let it go. It’s there. And I can feel it.”

“There’s no probably about what you should do,” she said. “You definitely need to try to let it go.”

“It’s strange for you,” Jef said, settling down onto the mat that they had rolled out on the floor. There were four mats, though the room was cramped otherwise, and Lathan didn’t expect anybody else to join them. “Especially considering how much you did with the binding stones and how many elementals that you were responsible for trapping.”

“I don’t even know if it is that or if it’s some part of the shadow within me that’s reacting. I just… I guess I don’t know.”

“Maybe you’re finally coming to terms with the idea that trapping elementals isn’t a good idea. Maybe because you are part elemental, you feel like the power is too dangerous for you to waste.”

“And maybe I’ve already told you that it doesn’t actually harm the elementals,” he said.

And if it didn’t, the real question was what he would be able to do, if anything. It wasn’t harming the elementals, was it?

That was something that even his father had made clear to him, had wanted Lathan to be able to know, because the elementals were not to draw upon that power. At least, not drawing upon the kind of power that he was drawing upon. They were draining the link to the elements, but in the process, it didn’t do anything to the elementals. It didn’t kill them.

But there was a way for the binding stones to be overwhelming. He had seen it from what the Derithan were able to do. If that were possible, it suggested to Lathan that not only could they drain too much from them, there was also the possibility they might withdraw too much from them.

Could that be his issue, and what left him with that uncertainty?

“I need to sleep,” Lathan said, looking over to the other two. “And maybe in the morning, I can keep working to uncover if there is any way for me to reach for the elements.”

“Now you’re trying to be like the Maelen?” Jef asked.

“What part of ruling them didn’t you hear?”

“I guess I didn’t think about that side,” Jef said. “So if they can do it, do you think the rest of us can?”

“I don’t know,” Lathan said, closing his eyes. His mind worked through all the different techniques that Isa had said to him, and none of them seemed as if they worked for him. He didn’t feel attuned to any of the elements, so why was it, and what did he have to try differently?

“I would be surprised if you even need to do anything like that, though. You’re an elemental. Maybe only part elemental, but that means that you’re more elemental than the rest of us. And you don’t even need binding stones for it.” Jef chuckled, shaking his head.

As Lathan drifted off to sleep, those were the words that lingered. Part elemental.

And he knew it, and he understood what Jef was saying, but that didn’t mean that it was any easier for him, any easier for him to try to understand, as all of this felt like it was beyond him and his comprehension, as he struggled to know what more he had and what more he could do.

Uneasy feelings lingered as he drifted off to sleep.

He had flashes of cold, flashes of the shadow portion of himself, and a strange drawing, an eagerness almost, seemed as if it were trying to pull upon the powers he felt around him.

Chapter 7

Lathan awoke to the sound of thunder. It was atypical for thunder, though the trembling left him with an awareness, as if there was some rippling wave of a storm rolling in. He felt it working through him, a surge of energy and perhaps something else though Lathan wasn’t quite sure what it was.

He jumped up and immediately tripped over someone.

“Ow,” Jef muttered.

“Sorry about that,” Lathan said, and he moved to the door, pulling it open. He felt the thundering, but he didn’t hear anything.

He was certain of what he had detected, though.

He stepped out into the hallway. The hall was long, narrow, and lined with doors. He wasn’t exactly sure what the purpose of this building had been for the Sacred Mother, other than the fact that it looked to be some sort of a boarding hall and had been occupied by many of the villagers that came with them. Nobody had complained about the fact that they had dragged them here, and that they had been given an opportunity to stay, especially after they had all seen the village destroyed.

“What is it?” Marin asked, coming up behind him.

Lathan glanced over to her. “I can feel something in the storm. I don’t know what it is, but I can feel it.”

“Just go back to sleep,” Jef said. “There are others out there watching, aren’t there? I know that the Maelen were watching. They didn’t trust the school representatives or the kingdom soldiers to keep an eye on things. Not that I blame them, because the Maelen will probably be able to handle anything that’s coming, anyway.”

Lathan couldn’t shake what he was feeling, though. He couldn’t shake the fact that there had been something, and though he didn’t know what it was, the simple fact was that he had detected something. That something had left him trembling with power, trying to understand just what it was and trying to make sense of why he was able to pick it up. He moved down the hallway and reached the open area. The outside was quiet. The moon was bright and full, and there were a few dark clouds that hovered in the sky. Distantly, he caught sight of lightning crackling.

But that wasn’t what he felt. It wasn’t what he heard, either.

Then again, Lathan hadn’t heard anything.

Marin had joined him and stayed by him, looking up at the sky along with him.

“I don’t see anything. I don’t hear anything,” she said. “Though, the wind has been quiet to me. Ever since we came here, or I suppose I should say returned here, the wind has been intermittent. Every so often, it will listen and respond, but most of the time, it just stays quiet.”

“I’m sure,” Lathan said. “I would imagine that the wind is still trying to decide what it wants to do and whether it is trying to respond to the Sacred Mother or open to talking to others.”

“Maybe,” she said.

There came a strange trembling.

He jerked his head toward the source of it. It was to the north. He didn’t see anything, but he was certain about what he felt.

“Did you feel anything there?” He asked, turning to Marin briefly, but Marin didn’t notice anything from what he could tell.

“I didn’t. I’m not sure what you have detected, but if there is something out there, then we should be careful, Lathan. We shouldn’t go wandering outside of the city. We know that the Derithan⁠—”

“The Derithan wouldn’t be out here, would they? They wouldn’t attack us here. Not knowing that the Sacred Mother…”

But even as he said it, he realized the folly in that line of thinking. The Derithan might actually come out here and might actually attack, because the Derithan might be directed by the Sacred Mother.

He found himself wandering, drawn outward. And as he worked his way to the edge of the city, he began to feel the cold inside of him and could feel some of the shadows. He attempted to try to use them, to manipulate them, even, as he strained to see if there was some part of this that he might draw.

It was slow, steady, and quiet, but he knew there was something here.

Marin was quiet as he searched but finally broke the silence. “Let’s get Henash. Or somebody who can help. I don’t have enough control over the wind, and⁠—”

Marin cut off when there was a flash of lightning, and a figure suddenly streaked to the ground.

Lathan staggered back, and the cold bubbled up inside of him, the shadow reacting. When it did, he felt as if that cold began to draw on the energy up ahead of him.

It was strange. When he had felt the way that the shadow could work with the elementals, drawing them in, he had known that there was a power, almost as if it were trying to engulf those elementals and trap them.

In this case, however, he didn’t feel as if he was trapping elementals.

This was a crackling of power, and he couldn’t shake the feeling of it. He wondered if he might be able to draw upon the lightning the same way that the Maelen did, and if he could, if he would ever be able to control it in a similar fashion. The idea that he could travel like that seemed impossible, but he could easily see the benefit in doing so.

A bolt of lightning came streaking in his direction.

But as the light cleared and as the lightning faded, he noticed that Keeley stood across from him.

“Asiran,” she said, bowing her head. “We knew that you’d come out here and wanted to warn you that you should not be here. I did not know that you had already progressed this far.”

He shook his head. “That wasn’t me.”

She flicked her gaze up and then over to him. “I saw what you did. I felt it.”

“I was borrowing from what you did,” he said.

It wasn’t even that he was borrowing, was it? It was more that he had stolen it. He had taken her power, her connection, and he had redirected it. Then again, he had not been able to do anything with it, because the power had been building too much within him to the point where he had lost control over it. That energy had been profound. If he had wanted to try to hold onto it, he wasn’t even sure that he would’ve been able to.

It was vastly different than what he did when it came to the elemental energies. With them, he felt that there was a power tied to him and power tied to what he was able to draw, but then it would fade. This time, what he was focusing on, the energy had been just there. There had been distinct or connected powers for him to be able to do anything more. It was just… power.

“I am sorry,” she said. “I did not mean to startle you, Asiran.”

“Lathan,” he said.

He hadn’t been able to get Isa to stop calling him Asiran, but he wanted to give Keeley, and whoever else came, that opportunity. “I felt something. I don’t know what it is, but there’s… a trembling.”

“There is a force amassing to the north,” she said. “Some of our scouts detected it and are watching it.”

“Scouts?” Marin asked.

“We have others keeping watch. With the Asiran here, we thought that it was prudent to do so. And considering that there are some unstable forces here, it has proven to be prudent.”

“What do you mean by unstable forces?”

“Those that have been relying upon the power of the elementals to offer a measure of protection. That power is unstable. It is partial power.”

Binding stones. That was what she meant.

“Can you show me?”

“Asiran…”

“I just want to take a look. I don’t need to see the amassing force, but I want to know what you are seeing.”

“I can only take you, Asiran.”

Marin started to object, but he thought that he needed her to stay anyway.

“Can you stay here and warn Henash?”

“I don’t like this, Lathan,” Marin said. “If something were to happen, and⁠—”

“If something were to happen, I’m going to be with one of the Maelen. I don’t think that there is anything that anybody would be able to do to any of the Maelen. The only thing that I have to fear would be elemental power, and considering that I have no reason to fear elemental power…”

“Other than the Sacred Mother.”

“Well, other than that,” he agreed. He tried to smile. “It’s going to be okay.”

“I understand, but I…”

“It’s going to be okay,” he said again. “I need you to go to Henash, and I’m going to see what I can find. If there’s anything else out there, anything more that we need to deal with, I want to be ready for it.”

Marin looked as if she wanted to object, before finally looking to Keeley. “Keep him safe, will you?”

“I will guard him with my life.”

With that, he stepped over to Keeley, who wrapped her arm around him. With a burst of strange crackling energy, they took to the air.

Lathan had felt them using the strange lightning travel technique before and had not understood the technique behind it. Just that they were wielding some force, and some energy, beyond what he could use and beyond what he understood. As that power wrapped around them, lifting them into the air, it felt almost like the shadowy portion of himself recognized aspects of what was happening, but his mind did not fully understand it. He didn’t know what it would take for him to learn the key, or if there was any key that he could even learn. He was not Maelen, so why should he be able to use their kind of power?

Then they hovered.

It was strange. Lathan was aware of the shift from the lightning that carried them up to a use of wind that kept them aloft. Somehow he could feel the way she transitioned.

He didn’t feel it. The shadow felt it.

What is the shadow but me?

It was a thought that lingered inside of him, though it did feel strange, especially because there had been a time when the shadow had felt so distinct from him. Now he felt otherwise. What was the shadow but him? He was the shadow, the shadow was him. They were one and the same. Until he could truly understand what that meant, he wasn’t going to be able to control it, nor was he going to be able to control that part of himself.

“There,” Keeley said, pointing into the distance. “You can see the force. There are many.”

Lathan stared, trying to look down into the distance, but he didn’t see anything. It was all too dark and too distant. He wondered how high up they were.

Lathan wasn’t afraid, though perhaps he should have been. If Keeley were to lose control over this connection to the lightning, he would drop. And Lathan didn’t know if he would be able to call to the wind, or any of the other elementals, to catch him.

“I don’t see anything,” he said.

“There is something that I can try,” Keeley suggested. “But I do not know if it will work as well for you as it does for the Maelen.”

He was surprised when the wind swirled in front of him.

It became something almost tangible, tinted with a bit of light, and he suspected some fire that was burning within it, concentrated like a spyglass. Then he saw everything magnified down below him.

Within it, he recognized what she was talking about. There had to be hundreds of people amassing, much like they had said.

He sucked in a breath. “So close,” he muttered.

“That is our concern, Asiran.”

“And if they are drawing on elementals, we need to be able to protect those that remain free.”

That had to be what he had felt, after all. Lathan didn’t know what else they might be doing, but if they were drawing upon the elementals, then it had to be the Derithan. Or maybe it was others from the kingdom.

Then again, he would’ve expected that he would’ve known about it if they were coming from the kingdom. Henash would’ve known about it. Lady Naserra would definitely have known about it.

“They have not moved upon us,” Keeley said. “They are not a threat.”

“But they’re using elementals.”

“Yes,” she said.

“That doesn’t bother you?”

He turned, trying to twist so that he could look over to her, surprised by how she had no difficulty dismissing the idea that they were using elementals. He had thought that they were offended by that, but it didn’t seem as if she, in particular, had been.

“The elementals are making a choice,” she said.

“Are they? I thought the Maelen wanted to help the elementals.”

“Some elementals make a choice,” she said. “And some have a choice made for them. We would help those that have had a choice made on their behalf, but we cannot help those who choose. Do you understand?”

As much as he wanted to tell her that he didn’t understand, he truly did.

Hadn’t his father made a choice?

And because of that, Lathan was here now.

He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “You can take me back.”

She nodded, and they started to move, when Lathan felt a flare of cold inside of him. It was sudden and severe.

And when it happened, it drew the wind away from Keeley.

It wasn’t Lathan’s intention, but it happened, nonetheless.

It was almost as if the shadow portion of him swallowed her use of the element power. And then he dropped.

Chapter 8

Lathan spun in place as he fell, trying to look around. Panic settled into him, and he tried to slow his mind. He needed to do so in order for him to think through what had happened.

Why it had happened.

Why had the shadow reacted like that?

Not shadow. It had been him.

It was a part of him that he had to get a hold of.

But with it active inside of him, there was something that Lathan thought that he might be able to do.

He had the wind. He had Keeley’s wind, to be exact, but that didn’t mean that he could not try something, and that did not mean that he had no power whatsoever. In fact, he did have power, didn’t he?

He didn’t know if he could control it, but maybe with the wind, he could call out to the wind elementals that had to be around him.

He was falling, but now he seemed to be slowing.

Was that him doing it?

It seemed as if the shadow portion of him was drawing upon the wind, using that to push outward and slow him.

He didn’t stop, but he slowed.

And then he felt crackling energy shoot past him.

Keeley suddenly appeared, grabbing him, redirecting herself, before shooting back upward. The change in direction was jarring. He attempted to suppress the shadow, not wanting it to react again, and was increasingly concerned that he would have no control over it.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know,” he said.

“But you did not fall all the way,” she said. “You must have mastered the elements.”

“No,” he said. “I think that was⁠—”

Lathan didn’t get a chance to finish, because there came a burst of power streaking toward him from down below.

From the Derithan.

It was wind and fire. It came with a fury.

Keeley reacted quickly.

She dropped them downward, using a bolt of lightning energy, carrying them back to the city and away from the Derithan attack.

Only once they were back on the ground did she let him go, releasing a breath in a sigh. “I nearly failed you. I am sorry for that.”

“That was me. It was the same thing that happened when you first arrived. I don’t know what happened. It’s like some part of me swallowed your power.”

“Because you are Asiran,” she said. “Until you gain control over it, your power will remain fragmented. It is difficult to describe, but you can control it, even if it is still fragmented like that.”

“It didn’t feel fragmented. It felt stolen. I was taking from you. I was using your power.”

At least, that was the way that it felt to him. And he also felt like he had to gain a better control over it, because if he didn’t, he feared what was going to happen to him the next time.

But then again, the next time meant that he would be risking himself. He didn’t want to do that. He didn’t want to endanger himself. He didn’t want to run the risk of falling. He didn’t want to, because he feared what would happen if he were to tumble down.

“I must speak to the others,” she said. “You must be protected.”

“They’re coming,” Lathan said. “I know you don’t view them as a threat, because you feel that they have a partial power, but there are too many of them. If they all have access to elemental energy, they’re going to pose a threat to me.”

“Then we must get you away from here.”

“I’m not leaving my people or my friends behind.”

She frowned. “I will see what we can do.”

She shot upward again on a bolt of lightning.

“Lathan?”

Henash’s voice came out of the darkness, and he breathed heavily, turning back to face him.

“I’m here,” he said.

“What happened? Marin said you were going, but now you’re already back?”

“Derithan,” he said. “Hundreds upon hundreds of Derithan.”

Henash appeared out of the darkness, holding onto a binding stone that allowed him to release just a little bit of light. It was faint, but that light left Lathan with the irritation he had felt when he had come past the soldiers. It was as if that part of him was reacting every time that he was exposed to that partial elemental power.

“Are you sure?”

“Quite,” he said. “We saw them. We nearly crashed into them.” He started to laugh, before realizing how that sounded. “But we managed to avoid the danger. They are coming this way, though. I don’t know what we’re going to be able to do, if anything.”

“We need to be ready, then,” Henash said.

“We need to get the people moving,” Lathan said. “We can’t stay here, not if there are nearly a thousand Derithan making their way here.”

“That force is more than we can withstand,” Henash said. “We can try to repel it, but⁠—”

“The Maelen might be able to help. I’ve already asked them to try to offer whatever assistance that they might be able to give us, and if they can counter some of the Derithan, then we don’t have to worry nearly as much.”

Then again, Lathan didn’t know if they would even be willing to do that. They viewed things differently. They viewed their obligation differently, and they viewed him differently.

“I will alert Naserra,” Henash said. “She is not going to be pleased.”

“Will she believe you?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “She doesn’t view the Derithan as the same danger. Or at least, she hadn’t until they started pressing down from the north. And this force is going to be more sizable than anything they faced in the kingdom. And here we are on the southern border of the kingdom, outside of where there should be any sort of real danger to us. So…” He shook his head. “I just don’t know.”

“Great.”

Henash headed off, and Lathan found his way to the edge of the town, where he looked out. He could still feel that hammering of power, even though he didn’t quite know what it was. He felt it, but he did not know why, nor did he know what he was picking up on, just that the power, such as it was, continued to linger, trembling within him.

It was the sense of the Derithan. It was a sense of their movement. It was the sense of what was out there, and what was a threat to them to come.

Lightning crackled, and then there was a shift and a sudden drop as three of the Maelen landed. Keeley was among them, as was Isa, and Lathan didn’t know the third one. This was an older man, with dark hair and eyes that seemed to blaze with a vibrancy. All of them crackled with light, as if glowing with fire.

“We can’t leave you out here, Asiran,” Isa said, striding over to him. “If there are others coming, we must get moving.”

Lathan stared out into the distance. They didn’t try to force him, which he was thankful for, as he wasn’t sure that he would have been able to have fought if they tried to make him do something.

“Keeley, did you tell her what we saw?”

Keeley looked over to him for a moment, before turning her attention back to Isa. “She knows what we encountered, as she knows the danger that is out there.”

“So if you know what it is and you know what’s coming, you know that I’m not going to leave my people behind.”

“We cannot stay here,” she said.

He said nothing for a few moments. They weren’t going to be able to get these people free without help. Lathan was certain of it. And he didn’t know quite what that help might look like. But even with binding stones, those from the kingdom weren’t going to be able to handle the onslaught of the Derithan.

There was only one way that they could deal with it.

Only one thing they could do.

He had to make a promise, and he was going to have to make an agreement.

“I will be willing to go with you, willing to do whatever it is that you think that I need to do, if you help my people and help deal with the danger that’s coming here.”

“Lathan,” Marin said from behind him. He glanced back and then he shook his head. “I am willing to do that, only because I know what is coming, and I know that we won’t be able to manage to get away without your help. Will you help?”

Isa looked conflicted, but if they wanted him to be the Asiran, he suspected that she knew the same thing that he did and that they were going to have to work with him.

“As long as you do not enter the fray,” Isa said.

“I need to see what’s happening,” he said. “Consider it my education.”

Marin stepped forward, grabbing his arm and pulling. “You can’t be serious, Lathan. You know what’s happening, and you know that it’s too dangerous for you to have anything to do with this, and⁠—”

“And I don’t want to sit back and wait,” he said. “Not if there’s something here we can influence. Especially what they can influence.” He nodded at Isa and the others, who were talking quietly to themselves.

“But Henash said⁠—”

“I doubt that there’s going to be much that Henash and the others are going to be able to do. They’ll use their binding stones, and they’ll get the soldiers and anybody else who might have some capability out there, but they’re not going to be able to do anything that would overpower the hundreds upon hundreds of Derithan we saw.”

“Hundreds?” Marin mouthed, and then she turned, looking out. “But the wind hasn’t spoken of that.”

“Probably because the wind is not able to speak of it.”

“So they have that many captured elementals?”

That was how Lathan saw it, especially considering how he knew that the Derithan would capture the elementals and force them to try to serve.

“I want to go with you when they attack, wherever they are taking you.” She locked eyes with him. “We need to learn, right? This is all about us trying to understand what’s happening, and to try to find a way to counter the danger of the Derithan and the danger of the Sacred Mother. And if they know some way for us to reach the elements⁠—”

“There is no guarantee we will be able to reach the elements.”

“But I can already reach spirit,” she said. “I don’t need to reach anything else. If that is all that I have, and if that was all that I am, then it is enough. But if there’s the possibility of more, then I need to take advantage of that possibility, and I need to understand what else I might be able to do and what else I might be able to be.”

He let out a slow breath. And before he could say anything more, Isa turned back.

“We will send word to the others. And you will remain with me,” Isa said, nodding to Lathan. “If that is agreeable.”

“It is agreeable,” Lathan said. “But what about Marin?”

“I will bring her,” Keeley said.

“Then, let’s get moving.”

“You don’t want to wait and talk to the others?” Marin asked.

“The only thing that I want to wait for is Jef,” Lathan said. “And that is because I don’t want him to think we left him behind.”

“He was right behind me, but I don’t think he’s going to think you have left him behind, anyway. He knows what you’re dealing with.”

“No,” Lathan said, shaking his head. He knew what his friend might think, as they had spent their entire adolescence together, hunting elementals, working together. For Lathan now to leave him would be hard on Jef. “I doubt that Jef is going to be very pleased if he thinks that I have decided to leave him behind. Especially if he thinks that we’re going to be taking on the Derithan.”

“I can get him. Just wait.”

“They will bring you,” Lathan said, looking over to Keeley. She frowned, but then nodded. Marin hurried away at that point. When she was gone, Lathan turned his focus to Isa. “Is this an agreement? You’re going to help?”

“It will be as you request.”

And with that, she stepped forward, taking his hand and shooting them upward on a bolt of lightning.

The power was different than what he had felt with Keeley. Strange. He wondered why, and wondered what the shadow seemed to recognize.

But strangely, once again, it seemed as if the shadowy portion of himself became active in a way that it had not been before. It was as if the shadow did not care much for what was happening here, nor about the way that the Maelen were dragging him up, and perhaps did not care for how they were getting him closer to this danger. It surged within him.

And with that, Lathan could feel the cold beginning to envelop him. It was not anything that he had control over, but he had at least enough understanding of the shadow, understanding of what it was doing inside of him, for him to know he was not in any abrupt danger. He could feel the way it suddenly engulfed him, and engulfed her, wrapping around the power she was wielding.

And then Lathan plummeted.

Chapter 9

It was the second time this evening that Lathan had plummeted to the ground. This time was different, though.

He wasn’t necessarily prepared for it. Lathan wasn’t sure that he could be prepared for it, but he didn’t panic. That was probably the best thing that he could do, as he felt the surge and the fear bubbling within him.

Cold bloomed but drew on some of the power from Isa, and then it was as if the shadow itself began to express that cold outward, slowing him.

Wind whipped around him, crackling with energy in a way that it had not before.

The shadow was pulling on it.

He often called it the shadow, but perhaps that wasn’t the case. Maybe the shadow was nothing more than it was just him. He had thought that the cold, the response to the powers that he had felt before, were all tied to that shadowy portion of him, but truth be told, it was just an energy Lathan was aware of.

Perhaps that wasn’t even true, though. Knowing what he did, and knowing what he did of himself, it was possible that this was the beginning of what the Maelen had been hoping for from him. Maybe this was how he was going to be the Asiran and how he could begin to connect to this power, starting to absorb some of it. Perhaps this was how he could control it.

He wasn’t even sure what that might look like. He thought about what Isa had tried to teach him and the technique that she had used, but none of that really helped here.

Feel for the elements.

Those were the thoughts that flooded through him as he dropped. In this case, it was the cold of the shadow he felt the most, but through that cold of the shadow, he was aware of the whipping of the wind and the way it was drawing around him.

Wind continued to whip, and now seemed as if it were crossing his arms, his hair, his jacket, tearing the breath out of his lungs.

And he felt the cold pushing against it, pushing against him.

And then he hovered.

It was a strange thing to feel. Lathan simply hovered.

He felt the currents of wind.

But they came deep inside of him, and they came from someplace he was not fully connected to. He tried to make sense of that current, as he could feel some part of it, but it was vague and buried inside the current of air that was flowing around him.

There was some deep part of Lathan that could practically feel the current, as if it were reacting in time to another part of himself. Maybe it was the shadow, or maybe it was just an awareness of the elements in a way that he had not been aware before. And if he could feel wind like this, was there any reason that he couldn’t feel any of the other elements?

He was certain that this was what Isa had spoken about. And though he did not know how to shape the wind the way she’d described, he felt the wind in a very different fashion. This was not an elemental. He was certain it was not.

This was pure wind.

And it came through him in a different fashion, flooding into him. None of it felt natural, but none of it felt dangerous, either. It was neutral power, but a power that he had never known before. And it felt different from what he had felt when he had used and called to the elementals.

And it was tied to the cold, the shadow, the elemental side of him.

Currents moved around him, flowing and swirling, allowing him to glide. And as he grew aware of them, he felt a different awareness. He felt how he could control that. And so he did, flattening those currents, giving him something to extend upon, layering upon the wind so that he just moved along it. And he flowed toward what he felt of the Derithan.

There was a crackle of energy, and then a burst of air as someone—probably Isa—came jolting through the flat, transparent wind boundary he had created.

But with what Lathan was feeling, the energy that was around him, he was able to smooth out that buffer, and he was able to create an a walkway so that it again reformed. Once solid again, Lathan continued moving.

It didn’t take long before Isa managed to find him.

“You are shaping,” she said. She said it as an accusation and didn’t seem nearly as excited about it as he thought she would’ve been. Especially considering that she had been willing to teach him. Had she thought that he would’ve needed more time?

And maybe she knew he wouldn’t be able to shape the way she did. Maybe she had known that his connection through the elemental was going to feel different than it did for her.

And maybe she had hoped that he would become reliant upon her and the others, and be forced to go with them.

“I am shaping,” Lathan said. “And you are going to do what you said you were going to do. You are going to help my people.”

“There are too many out here, as you have undoubtedly sensed.”

“I’m not asking you to kill them,” Lathan said. “But you do have control over the lightning, and I’ve seen the way that you use the connection that you have to the elements. So I would imagine, through all of that, you can use that in an attack that will free some of those elementals. Can’t you?”

There was a shifting, and it seemed to Lathan that she was trying to take the wind from him. He stepped forward ever so slightly, feeling the way the wind moved underneath his feet. The layers of wind were more solid now, as there seemed to be more currents of air that he could feel moving past him. It all flowed through the cold within him. All flowed through the shadow.

It was as if the shadow itself was doing the work, shaping the wind.

“I can do this, but I cannot promise the others will survive.”

“You are going to do this, because you have already told me that I am the Asiran.”

“You do not understand⁠—”

“I understand what you’re going to do,” he said, anger and frustration filling him, and at this point, he knew that he was going to force her if it came down to it. But how?

The shadow. That was how he was going to do it.

The shadow could swallow other powers, couldn’t it?

There was a crackling, and distantly, he noticed more crackling. Energy scattered throughout the sky. And through it all came that steady drumbeat of energy that he knew came from the Derithan.

If he did nothing, if they did nothing, the Derithan would continue their march, and inevitably would reach a point where they would become too dangerous for him and the others to be able to handle.

“We will do this,” she said.

She sounded filled with resignation, but Lathan needed to help his people before they did anything else.

There was another crackling as he felt power converging. She followed him as they moved forward.

“You can stay here, Asiran,” she said. “It will be safer for you.”

“Do you think I’m going to stay where it is safer?”

She bowed her head. “No. You are the Asiran.”

She moved, and he followed, walking along the wind. It would be easier if he could do something the way that she did, mixing the elements, but he was simply pleased that he was able to walk on the wind the way that he did.

Shadow called the wind through him, as if it understood exactly what needed to happen, and Lathan did not have to do anything. He wished that he fully understood it, wished that he could master it, but it didn’t seem to be working for him. It was as if the shadow had to control it.

Up ahead, he saw the Derithan moving. And more than that, he was vaguely aware of power surging from them. There was something urgent about that power.

And an explosion of different element energies came toward him. Fire. Earth. Wind. All of it radiated toward him. It battered at him, coming from the ground, rather than the sky. He tried to use the wind, tried to disrupt it, and felt the cold beginning to bloom inside of him as it attempted to create its own buffer. But even in that, Lathan wasn’t sure if it was going to be enough. He wouldn’t have enough control.

And then Isa began her attack.

He felt foolish calling her out. He felt foolish because he knew that the reason she had said what she had, and the reason she had acted the way that she had, was because she wanted to protect him.

But now he saw what she was doing. He could feel the way that her attack was forming. He understood the true power of the Maelen.

Lathan had seen that before.

When they had done battle with the Sacred Mother, Lathan had felt that.

Lightning crackled from Isa. It streaked down into a dozen different strands, and in each place that it struck, Lathan felt a slight surge and then a release.

Elementals released from binding stones.

And some part of him trembled.

The shadowy portion of him reacted to what was happening, as if it was the only part of him that needed to.

He needed to use that, primarily to free the elementals, to disperse the Derithan power, but Lathan did not know if he had enough control over it to be able to do so.

More and more elementals continued to erupt. More and more of the strange crackles of element power, lightning and thunder and wind, rain, fire, earth, all slamming into the Derithan. It was a battering of it, a dizzying sense of energy. And through it all, Lathan tried to focus, to follow what was happening, but everything that was there and happening to him, happening around him, was too much.

Around him, he heard the crackle of lightning. The rumble of thunder. Maelen fighting, targeting the Derithan. All around were attempts to do what he had asked. Attempts to deter the Derithan.

But would it even be enough?

Lathan could not tell. He was aware of that power, but that was the only thing that he was able to truly identify. Power.

An explosion began to build, energy that rippled toward him.

Energy that rippled toward all of them.

The Derithan managed to repel much more than Lathan would’ve expected.

But there was something else that was there, as well. A dizzying sense of power came each time that the elementals were released. And every time it happened, he felt the trembling, as if some part of him was reacting to it.

And as much as he wanted to ignore it, Lathan could not.

That trembling struck again and again.

The focus he had managed to hold onto, the focus that had allowed him to walk on the wind, creating a layered platform for him to do so, began to tremble. It became unsteady.

Could he work with more of it? Lathan tried to build the wind-based platform, adding more and more streaks of wind, but every attempt that he made felt as if he were missing something. He didn’t understand it well enough to be fully effective. Not the way that others did. Lathan needed more time, more experience, more training.

He had rushed into this without really knowing what he was doing.

His control became erratic.

He braced, trying to maintain his hold on the wind.

Isa was just up ahead of him.

At one point, she looked back. Did she know what was happening?

Another burst of different powers struck, this time coming from some cluster of Derithan Lathan hadn’t even been aware of. But then again, he had known that there were hundreds upon hundreds of Derithan.

What had he been thinking? How had he thought that he could come out here and survive? Why did he believe that there would be any way for him to be able to withstand the Derithan, when he had no reason to believe that there would be any way for him to control this power?

One of the attacks slipped through.

Heat slammed into him, hot and burning. Whatever use of fire this was seemed as if it were going to overpower everything that he could do.

The shadow portion swallowed it, the cold swirling, surging, and as it did, Lathan began to feel some shifting of that power. He tried to maintain his connection to it, trying to understand whether or not there was going to be anything more that he would be able to do, but that connection started to flutter, falter, and then he felt it.

A strange, dangerous drawing. The drawing of a binding stone.

It was calling to him.

And Lathan didn’t know if he could resist.

Because he was part elemental.

Chapter 10

Lathan panicked.

He tried to solidify the wind. He tried crying out to the wind, or any of the other elementals that might be there, freed now so that they might help him, but none of them answered. All he could do was reach for the wind. And he didn’t even have enough control over it to be able to do much with it.

Then a figure streaked past him. When the Maelen landed, another buffer of wind pushed on him.

But only for a moment. The Maelen was targeted. A blast of earth came shooting out of the ground, followed by a crackling to the air, a hissing of steam, and a pelting of hard water that came shooting at them. Lathan braced, but his own control was not enough.

And this Maelen was here because of him. Another crackle of power as they attempted to deflect the Derithan attack, but the Derithan were too potent, and the force of the attack too significant. It pushed him back. He pushed them back.

The ground ripped with an explosion. It was one thing to want to come out because he felt like there were aspects of his ability that would help, but another to bring somebody else into it. The Maelen were here because of him. They had wanted to bring him away. They had wanted to bring him to safety. They had wanted to escort him from here because they must have known what was possible.

And he had been stubborn.

There was another burst and another drawing sensation. That cold began to change. He felt the shadow portion reacting, and he tried to ignore it. Every bit of him that felt that power and struggled with it tried to ignore what was happening around him.

Everything became too much. And then he fell.

When he hit the ground, he lay for a long moment, finally managing to lift his head and look around. If any Maelen were around, they would come for him, but he saw no sign of them. Maybe that was for the best. No one else would get caught here because of him.

Figures moved just at the edge of his vision.

Lathan got to his feet. Something felt… off.

Had he broken something? If so, he wasn’t going to go very far. If he had some control over water, it was possible that he might be able to use healing, but Lathan did not. He didn’t have any control over any of the elements, save wind, and that had seemed to come accidentally, and not at all intentionally. Not the way that it would’ve needed to in order for him to have true mastery of it.

He limped away.

Distantly, he heard voices shouting, calling out, and they were heading in his direction. Overhead, the lightning continued to crackle, but he didn’t know how to signal to any of the Maelen that he needed their help.

He whispered to himself, thinking to the shadow, to his father, even, wondering if there would be some way for the cold to react. It had saved him before. His innate defenses had saved him before. Lathan had to believe there could be more that he could do to protect himself, but how?

He needed elementals.

Somehow, he was going to have to call them off of the Derithan, but if the shadow didn’t react to him or for him, it was possible that the elementals were not going to respond to him.

And as he limped away from the figures, he felt a deep, distant sort of trembling. He didn’t even know where it came from. But he recognized the type of elemental. And it was dangerous.

Mixed with it came heat. Fire was somewhere nearby. Lathan tried to use that shadow portion of himself to summon it, because that was what he could do, wasn’t it? And maybe he could use the shadow portion of him to try to hold onto those elementals.

And there was wind.

But what he felt of wind felt different, though. It was the strange wind that flowed through him, the strange energy that he had detected before, the strange connection he had felt when he had been walking along the wind.

Could he control it again?

He needed control. Then again, that was what Isa had said to him from the very beginning, hadn’t she? In order for him to be able to be a part of this, he was going to need to understand what he could do, and he was going to need to understand how he could do it.

He needed control. He needed to find, to feel the wind. But how?

Those strange currents were soft, subtle, and seemed as if they were attempting to get closer to him. It wasn’t working. Something faltered.

Was it because he didn’t have a true command over the wind? Had he been using elementals and not the elements?

Pressure around him persisted. Lathan glanced around but didn’t see the figures.

And he kept moving.

Then he saw another form on the ground.

He slowed, pausing, worried that maybe it was an injured or dead Derithan.

But no. Not Derithan.

This was one of the Maelen.

This was an older man that Lathan didn’t know the name of, but he had seen him with Isa and Keeley and the others. He approached and crouched down, looking at the man. He was still breathing.

Some part of him was attuned to this land, attuned to his presence, to the wind in his lungs, and attuned to what he was trying to do, though Lathan wondered if it was because of the wind, or if it was tied to the shadow elemental side of himself. Or perhaps it was neither. Maybe it was just spirit. He had a connection to that, as well.

“Hey,” Lathan whispered, keeping his voice low. The way that the wind was swirling, took his breath, and his words, and it pushed downward into the man.

The man blinked, rolling and looking over to him. When he looked up at Lathan, there was a question in his eyes. “Asiran?”

“It’s me,” Lathan said. “I need to get you out of here. Can you stand?”

The man groaned, and he tried to sit, but he couldn’t move.

“You should not be here,” he said. “Too much danger. Did they not tell you?”

“I think they tried to,” Lathan said. “I told them I needed to come.”

“They could summon.”

“Apparently,” Lathan said.

They could summon. Which meant that they could summon the elementals.

Which meant that they could summon him.

The man tried to get up, but he winced again.

“Let me try,” Lathan said. He focused on the wind, on the currents, and felt the way that it was swirling around him, and slowly began to guide it, hoisting the man with that wind. It had to be element energy, not elemental, didn’t it? No elemental would respond to him like that. The elementals would speak to him, and this did not have a voice. It was just the wind itself that was reacting to him. And in that case, it was good that it was, good that he could get the wind to work, good that he might even be able to help this man.

“Can you use your lightning to travel?”

The man shook his head. “It is lost to me right now,” he said. “Perhaps in time it will return, but it is lost to me.”

“What’s your name?”

“Esarkin,” he said, and he tipped his head. “And you are the Asiran.”

“Lathan.”

“Lathan,” he said.

That brought a smile to Lathan’s face.

At least he wasn’t trying to call Lathan Asiran the way that others were. That, he felt, was for the best.

“I’m sorry that you are here. I’m sorry that you and the other Maelen stayed.” His face clouded for a moment. “It’s my fault. I thought that we could stop the Derithan, or at least slow them, so that we could get my people away and then yours could leave. I just didn’t realize that the Derithan⁠—”

“This is the Sacred Mother,” he said. “This is her army. One branch of it. I have faced it before.”

“Where are they going?”

He thought that he knew, thought that they were heading back to the city to overpower what was happening there, Lathan and his people, but what if he was wrong? What if the army, such as it was, was marching somewhere else?

“I do not know,” he said. “I cannot tell. But I can feel it. I can feel it deep inside of me. With every step they take, it is as if they are trying to push further, and harder. It is dangerous for them, dangerous for us, for them to be so far afield.”

“Why dangerous for you?”

“Did they not tell you that our land is not far?”

“No,” Lathan said. “They left that part out.”

There were many things that he didn’t really know about the Maelen, and perhaps he couldn’t.

But none of that mattered now. For now, he had to get Esarkin out of here. Could the wind carry him?

“There are some of the Derithan—the Sacred Mother’s army—behind us. And I can try to keep pushing you, but if you have some way of healing yourself, maybe using water…”

“Water does not work on oneself,” he said. “Healing yourself can have dangerous repercussions. It can change you.”

“I didn’t realize this.”

“You have not begun to understand the elements yet. You are still new to them. But if you were able to learn, there are plenty who are willing and eager to teach you, Asiran.”

“I’m sure that there are others who would be willing to teach, but right now I want to get us out of here. And since you’re still talking, that suggests you are stable.” Lathan didn’t really know whether or not. If only he had some way of using water, or perhaps even a binding stone for water. Either might give him an opportunity to have some measure of control over what was happening here, a better way of knowing what was going on with Esarkin, and perhaps even the ability to try to protect and heal him. “But for now, let’s keep moving. Head south, and we can reach the others. I don’t know how long it will take, though.”

And partly that was because he didn’t know how far they had gone.

When he had been traveling on the lightning, traveling with Isa, they had gone quite a distance. It was possible that it had been much further than he knew. Could Esarkin last?

“I will see what I can withstand.”

“I don’t suppose you know how long I can hold onto the wind like this?” Lathan said.

“It depends upon how strong you are with the wind, As—Lathan.” He seemed as if he was struggling to refer to Lathan by his full name, but at least he was trying, which was more than most of the Maelen had been doing.

“I haven’t had much practice or connection to it before. But I can feel it now, and it flows through me, leaving me cold.”

“Flows through you?” He frowned as Lathan said that.

He continued to use the wind, guiding them. And as he focused on it, he attempted to try to make sense of whether there was anything there that he might detect around them. There didn’t seem to be any of the Derithan coming. Though increasingly, Lathan started to question if maybe there was going to be something else that he might be able to do, something more that he might be able to try, as he attempted to push them away.

“You should not feel it coming through you. That is not how wind works. You call it, and it responds. You direct it, and it moves. You shape it.”

Lathan shook his head, and he heard the sound of a shout behind him, and he saw figures moving.

He swore softly under his breath and then used the wind, feeling the flowing through him. He gave Esarkin a slight shove, until they headed down a narrow valley and reached a pile of boulders. From there, he hid behind them. He hoped that they could remain hidden, but if anybody had any control over any of the elementals, or had any sort of earth elemental that would allow them to detect their presence, it wouldn’t take long for any of the Derithan to realize that they were there and to know how to find them.

“I can’t say what it’s supposed to feel like. I’m just telling you how it does feel. And right now, it seems like it’s flowing just fine.”

Thankfully enough, at least. A part of him wondered if he might be able to push off with that. And if he could, could he draw up into the air, and push them away?

But doing so was going to be too hard, he thought. It might be too dangerous. And it might be too difficult for him, as well. The only thing that he could tell was that there was something pushing, flowing, and something working.

But there was also something there, fighting him. And maybe that was the Derithan. The Derithan realized that he was out there, and they were trying to counter anything that Lathan might do. As they moved, Lathan could feel the pressure upon him, something distinct and unique that he had never felt before. He wasn’t entirely sure why he picked up on that, just that there did seem to be an element that lingered differently than what he had felt in the past. Perhaps he could draw on it, but when another trembling of earth was followed by a gust of wind, he knew that they didn’t have much time. The Derithan were pushing, and with the elementals they were connected to, it would only be a matter of time before the Derithan found them.

Which meant that he was going to have to try something else, if he wanted to ensure that he and Esarkin survived.

“Maybe we need to hide a little bit first.”

“And if that’s the case, it may be too late,” Esarkin said. “For you, and for me.”

“I refuse to believe that.”

Chapter 11

The Derithan never managed to find them. At this point, Lathan started to think that maybe they had just gone in a different direction, or maybe they were lucky. The other alternative was that there might be some elementals out there that were still redirecting the Derithan, hiding them in some way, from the possibility that the Derithan could track them down.

Wind still flowed through him, though it did so with a steadiness. There was a contour of that wind that had persisted. Lathan didn’t know if what he detected was real or if it was imagined, but he held on to the sense of it, attempting to focus on what he could feel as he searched for answers.

Esarkin continued to watch him, though.

“Go on,” Lathan said. “You look like you want to tell me something, and I’m sure that it has something to do with what I’m doing here.”

“I would not challenge the Asiran.”

“Fine,” Lathan said. “Then challenge Lathan. I’m the one who got others involved in this, so I’m the reason that this is a mistake. So if you want to challenge somebody, challenge me.”

He was quiet for a moment. “The way that you have described moving wind is unusual. It should not move that way.”

“Isa said that I was supposed to feel for it, feeling for the way that it would work in my lungs or the way that it moved around me. I think I was doing that, but it wasn’t until I felt the way that it was moving through me that it reacted for me.” Lathan shrugged. “And that’s the only element I can use quite like this. I keep thinking maybe there’s going to be another, but none of them react to me or for me in any way. I would love it if they could because it would be nice if I could make some of the other elements and maybe even mingle them the way that you all do when you create your travel lightning.”

“It is the Way of the Warrior,” he said, and he did so with a bit of reverence. “That is what it has long been known as. The Way of the Warrior. It is a pathway open to those who have found the warrior path. It is a way that we can travel. It is walking the clouds.” He smiled. “And the first time that I did it I felt the enormity of the responsibility for me. It is what makes one Maelen.”

“So until I have some measure of control, I’m not going to be able to be anything like the Maelen.”

“You are the Asiran.”

Lathan wasn’t exactly sure that was what he wanted.

And he wasn’t entirely sure that it was the right answer for him, anyway. The more that he thought about what he could do, and what he wanted, the more that he thought that he didn’t want to be involved with anything here. And it was a strange thing for him to feel, strange that he was interested in what he could do and what it meant for him to have this new potential that he had, but he was also curious as to whether there would be any other way for him to have a measure of control over what he could do. He needed the Maelen, so that he could learn.

“I think Isa was a little too pleased to find me in the first place, so everything else about who I am, and what it is that I might be able to do, fell off to the side. I still don’t really know what she thinks other than that I’m supposed to be some prophesied ruler.”

He laughed, and then fell into a cough. “It’s not prophecy. It is more of a lineage than anything else. It is one who would return. There has always been someone who has returned to serve as the Asiran. It is one bound to the elements, and they to him. It is one who understands that power and the way it works within the world.”

“And apparently there are signs affiliated with it.”

“Depends upon which reverential branch you choose to follow,” he said, and then he coughed again. “If you follow the history, though, none of the reverential branches make much of a difference for what matters.”

“Reverential branches? So there’s some sort of religion around it?”

“There has always been religion around the Asiran, but the real question is whether the religion matters. Because most people who follow the history of such things would say that it does not. It is simply who you are and what you do with it.”

Lathan snorted. “I don’t want to be some returned power, if that makes any sort of sense.”

“Then choose not to be,” he said. “No one will force that upon you.”

“Considering what they have called me, I have a hard time thinking that they would allow me to be anything but the Asiran.”

He was quiet. “I have always questioned the role of the Asiran. It is something that my people value, but not something that I have ever seen much value in. Besides, we know the Asiran is supposed to be our salvation but can also be our failing.”

Lathan hadn’t heard that. “What do you mean your salvation?”

“I just mean that we have long believed that there will be others who can offer a measure of protection. We don’t need the Asiran. It is part of the reason that the Maelen have trained the way that we do. We train the way that the old warriors trained. And it permits us a connection, and an understanding, that we would not have otherwise.”

Him saying it that way suggested to Lathan that it was more than just about the Asiran. It was about his feelings about the Asiran.

“You don’t care much for what I’m supposed to be.”

“I do not think that you understand what you are supposed to be, and I do not think that you want what others want for you.”

In that, he wasn’t necessarily wrong.

“And I think that you must find what is necessary, and prudent, for you.”

Lathan watched him, and it was odd. He had been around other Maelen who had been so determined that he was going to be this person for them and to them, but Esarkin felt otherwise. And in a way, Lathan couldn’t help but feel as if maybe he should feel otherwise, as well.

“Let’s just keep moving.”

They were making their way forward, and the farther that they went, the more that Lathan began to feel the changing of the wind. Increasingly, he was aware of it slowly working through him. And at times, he couldn’t help but feel as if maybe he was drawing upon something elemental. As he felt that cold inside of him and the shadow portion of him, he started to realize that maybe it wasn’t the elemental type of energy as he had believed.

At one point, he could’ve sworn that he felt something. It was a flash of cold, the shadow elemental beginning to surge inside of him in some way. It struck him as familiar, but it also struck him as something that was odd. Lathan could not identify the source of it, just that it seemed as if there was some lingering bit of power.

He didn’t find it, though.

And as he looked, focusing on that cold, needing to have a better understanding of it, he did not find anything. He did not understand anything.

Esarkin kept watching him, though. He said nothing.

At one point, they had to take cover again. They found coverage in a cluster of trees, and thankfully, Esarkin had recovered enough that he was able to wield a little bit of his connection to earth to cause it to create a mound up and over them. As it did, Lathan felt the earth beneath him, and there was something else to it, something that felt striking and familiar in a way that he couldn’t quite place. Maybe it was that he felt the way of earth, or perhaps it was elemental energy. Regardless, he wasn’t entirely sure why, nor was he sure what he was picking up on.

As they rested, sitting, listening to the sound of the Derithan, and giving Lathan an opportunity to test whether or not there would be any way for him to pick up on any of the Derithan moving around him, Esarkin watched him.

“You felt what I did,” he observed.

“I did,” Lathan agreed. “I’m not exactly sure what to describe it as, but I can detect when different elements are used.”

“How can you feel it?”

“Why? So that you can have some additional confirmation that I am what you think that I am?”

“I need no further confirmation of what you are,” he said, and then he shrugged slightly. “You are as you are supposed to be.”

“Then why does it matter?”

“It is more of a curiosity. I’m trying to understand what you have and what you can be.”

Lathan took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I feel earth trembling, but I don’t know if it’s real, elemental, element, or something else.”

And that was the hardest part for him. He didn’t know.

“So you believe that this trembling,” Esarkin said, coughing again, “is the elemental? Are you sure that you can feel the elementals?”

Lathan looked around. The canopy overhead shielded them from the fading sunlight, and the forest floor beneath him felt damp and had an earthy sort of aroma to it.

“I’ve been able to feel some of the elementals for a while now,” he went on. “At this point, I don’t know if this is elementals or what I’m feeling of the elements.”

The cold within him typically was triggered when he was around elementals, but now it didn’t seem as if that was what he had detected. Lathan wasn’t exactly sure what it was, just that he had felt something.

“Are you calling on it in some way?”

“I don’t know how to call the elements, and I’m not actively calling on the elementals.”

“But you could?”

He said that with a bit of curiosity and more than a little concern.

He hesitated. At least with elementals, Lathan thought that he had a distinct awareness of the elementals, and he thought that he understood what they were doing and the purpose that they had for them. In this case, however, he wasn’t entirely sure if he would be able to pick up on anything with that. And he didn’t know if what he could find, and what he could feel, would make much of a difference, anyway.

“I can try, and if there are elementals here, then hopefully they will not be too offended by the fact that I’m going to be drawing power through me.”

Esarkin coughed again. It carried, but then it seemed as if Esarkin swallowed the cough on the wind, redirecting it back so that anything and any sound that he might make would be returned to them.

He focused on what he could feel, on the power around him, on the flow.

That was the key here, wasn’t it? Some bit of that flow that might allow him to identify something more. And if he were to do so, he wondered if there might be some additional technique that he could use.

But until he had an understanding of it, he had to trust that the cold might be the key here.

A trembling of earth left him with more uncertainty. Then it faded.

“It doesn’t feel the same as the wind, and I don’t know quite how to reach for it.”

“It is an effort,” he said. He coughed again. He rested his head back on a tree. “Wind is different than earth. You have to feel earth differently. You have to know it differently. You have to understand it differently. With wind, it can be fickle, and you have to try to chase it at times.”

That wasn’t how he had experienced wind. It had flowed through him and had not been fickle, almost easy, more than anything else.

He didn’t know if this was going to be the case, though. What if it would be different for some of the other elements? What if there would be a way for him to reach that power and to understand it differently than what he had reached for, and understood, in the past. What if he could call on it?

And if he could, Lathan couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps there might be a different technique or way for him to master the power of the elements than what he had already done.

He thought about the warmth, the fire that Isa had described to him, and the technique that he was going to need in order for him to try to grasp for that. As he focused on it, he could not feel for anything more. It did seem as if maybe there was some vagary of power that lingered at the back of his mind, but so far, Lathan couldn’t grasp for it. It was wind only.

And water…

There was no real sense of water here. He tried thinking about how Isa had instructed him, tried to focus on various aspects of that power. He could concentrate on his heartbeat and on the blood in his veins, thinking that maybe there would be a way for him to draw on it and to wield it to help Esarkin, but it didn’t work for him any better than the others had.

And eventually, he gave up. There was no point in pursuing something that wasn’t going to work for them, anyway. Instead, he just listened, resting and focusing on the elementals.

As they traveled, he continued to feel the Derithan.

It came in surges of cold. It came in evidence that the Derithan were out there, chasing, hunting, even. It came in his concern for what was pursuing him and the possibility that it would catch him. He feared what that might look like.

They had to stay ahead of them.

He just didn’t know how or if they could.

Chapter 12

Morning came slowly.

He was tired. Lathan had been trying to stay awake, wanting to offer Esarkin a measure of protection, but periodically, he would hear and feel the sounds of the Derithan moving around him. He didn’t know if what he was picking up on was actually the Derithan or if it was just rogue elementals moving around them.

Regardless, he elected to stay hidden, trying to stay in the copse of trees that would give them a little anonymity and that he thought might offer them a measure of protection. He did not want to be caught unaware, so he remained protected as much as possible.

Esarkin coughed again. He had been coughing throughout the night but didn’t seem to be getting any weaker. That much, Lathan thought, was good. It didn’t seem as if he was deteriorating, which was best, as Lathan didn’t think that he would be able to do anything to bring him back.

He made a quick circuit through the small copse of trees, brushing away some of the branches and the grasses, heaping up dirt to make it look as if they were not here. Through it all, he focused on the shadow cold inside of him, wondering if there would be anything that he could use. But right now, Lathan didn’t feel anything. If there was some aspect of it, it was distant, difficult for him to follow, and it was absent to him.

“Are we fine?” Esarkin asked. He got to his feet and stood unsteadily.

“I think so,” Lathan said. “At least, for now.”

“Good. I did not detect anything overnight. Did you?”

Lathan shook his head. “I kept listening.”

“Did you sleep?”

Lathan looked over, and the man was pale, his eyes drawn, and his face gaunt. Whatever he was going through, and however much he had fought, had been considerable, to the point where he was obviously struggling to withstand the attack.

“No,” Lathan said. “I didn’t sleep very well, nor did I sleep very much. But it’s fine. We just need to get back, and then both of us will have time to recover.”

He licked his lips, swallowing, and then looked around. “I don’t suppose you know which way that town is from here? I think it’s to the north, at least compared to the way that were coming in.”

Lathan shook his head. “Not north. We need to head south.” At least, that was the way he thought it was, though he didn’t have a clear memory of what it had been like, just that he had seen something. The hard part for him, however, was remembering what he had seen when he had been traveling.

And he thought that it might be possible for him to use the wind if he could summon it through him.

“How do you intend to do this, then?”

“I’m going to try to coax the wind to work. I’m hoping that some of the Maelen will come looking for us. I doubt they will leave us out here.” Or more specifically, he doubted they would leave him out here. He was nervous about traveling, but he was also concerned about lingering here too long because the Derithan might come for them.

“Can you walk?”

“A little bit. If you can support me, that will be helpful.” He looked over to Lathan, as if questioning more than just whether Lathan could keep him propped up. It was a suspicion that lingered in his eyes.

“I think I can for now,” Lathan said. “But it’s difficult for me to do that for very long, I think.”

“It takes time to begin to summon power consistently. You are still too new to what you are doing and knew to what you are able to draw upon. As you gain consistency and familiarity, the elements become easier for you.”

“And maybe it won’t matter,” Lathan said. “Because I might not have the ability that you believe.”

“Perhaps not,” he said.

They started moving. The landscape was a rolling sweep of hillside, a part that Lathan hadn’t spent much time, at all, exploring. Then again, he wasn’t even sure that it was a part of the world that he would have been able to have explored, because without having one of the Maelen carrying him out here, he doubted that he would’ve been able to have reached it.

The wind continued to carry, and he summon some of that power, attempting to try to hold onto it as potently as possible. He grew increasingly weary, as the attempt to maintain it and to hold on to it was difficult for him.

“How long did it take you to begin to control the elements the way that you did?”

Esarkin was quiet for a few moments, and when he finally answered, he looked over, frowning. “You cannot rush such things. It takes time and understanding to be able to control them.”

“I’m not trying to rush anything. I’m simply asking a question.” He thought about how Isa had described how he was going to need to work to better control some of that power, and he didn’t know if there would be a way for him to do that without forcing it to a certain extent. And he didn’t know if he could take much time to develop that skill.

“The first element is always the most difficult. It is the most unfamiliar. As you gain an understanding and gain a measure of control, then the others start to follow. It becomes easier. I suppose it is like anything.” He looked over. “You said that you can speak to the elementals?”

“I can, to a certain extent.”

“Was it difficult to do that?”

“The first one,” he said.

“And it will be like that with the elements. Now that you have reached for wind, I suspect that the others will come.”

That was reassuring, but despite what he said, Lathan didn’t know if he felt comfortable in waiting. He didn’t even know if he could wait. It might be that he would need to have a measure of control over what he was doing. At least in order for him to gain mastery of what he needed to do.

They continued moving, neither of them talking, and Lathan continued to practice reaching for the elements.

“Which one are you trying?” Esarkin asked at one point as they kept moving. They had reached a small stream, and Lathan had paused, taking a drink. Esarkin did the same, but he had only drank a little bit.

With every passing hour, he looked more and more sickly than before, which left Lathan thinking that while he was trying to hold out, and make it look as if he were strong, he simply did not have the stamina that he needed. Eventually, it might become too much for him.

“I’m trying for water here,” he said. “There was something Isa said about it, and how I was supposed to feel the way it would be similar to the blood flowing through me, or⁠—”

Esarkin started to laugh. “Is that what she described it as?”

“Why? Is that not accurate?”

“I think that it depends upon each person. Everybody feels the elements differently.” He coughed. “What do you think of when it comes to water?”

“Tears,” Lathan said without even meaning to, but it was the first thought that came to mind.

Esarkin arched a brow at that. “Why tears?”

“I think that it is because they remind me of water. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just that I’ve lost my parents and that’s what I’m thinking about.”

He was quiet for a moment. “Every experience is individualized. You have your own awareness, and your own uniqueness, that helps you understand the elements in the way that you will need to. In the case of what you have been doing and how you have connected to it, I believe that it must be those experiences which have brought you to that.”

Maybe, Lathan had to admit. He had lost so much. His father, what seemed like an eternity ago now, but then he had an opportunity to talk to him again, even if he wasn’t exactly sure whether he was talking to his father or some memory of the elemental that he had been. And through that, he couldn’t help but feel as if there was something else that he needed to better understand, some other aspect of all of it that he could learn.

And then his mother had been taken from him by the Derithan, as well.

And as he thought about it, he swirled his finger through the water, and he thought about that pain.

That was the familiar feeling here. Pain.

As he traced his hand in the water, he felt a stirring.

It was similar to the way that he felt a stirring of wind, only in this case, the stirring of water was a little bit different and a little bit less connected. But it did tug on something inside of him. It tugged on something inside of his chest, something deep, something painful, almost. As he focused on the swirling, he realized that he had a measure of control over the water his finger couldn’t account for.

“There,” Esarkin said, his voice soft. “If you’re feeling it now, continue to feel it. Allow that to flow through you. Allow that sense to be what you find.”

Lathan continued to trace that, and he wondered if the pain was always going to be present with him, and wondered if maybe that was always going to be what he knew. “Does it always hurt?”

“Maybe the way you are drawing upon it,” he said. “Because the way you are drawing upon it is tied to a measure of pain. It doesn’t have to, though. And perhaps it shouldn’t. At least, it shouldn’t unless that is what you need from it.” He looked around. “My own connection to water is a lake that is near my home. I used to swim in it when I was a child. I remembered the happiness, the joy, the laughter, and so when I think of water, I think of happiness in life. But in your case, maybe you think of water in terms of sadness and death.”

“That sounds terrible,” Lathan said.

“Well, I’m not saying that it is optimal,” Esarkin answered, laughing a little bit. “But as I said, it is the way that you feel it, and it doesn’t mean that is wrong, just that it is how you experience it.”

Lathan found himself tracing his hand just above the surface of the water. He didn’t even have to touch it any longer, because now as he was tracing his finger there, he could feel the waves, rippling just beneath the surface. And it was strange. Once again, it was that cold that seemed to be controlling it. He was the shadow. It was the elemental side of him.

And what was stranger still was how it felt as if that was trying to tug on something deeper, trying to tie him into something else, though Lathan wasn’t entirely sure how, nor what it meant.

“If I can use water, I could⁠—”

“You don’t have enough control to be able to make much of a difference here for me,” he said. “All you would do is refresh me, and I wouldn’t know any limits.”

“Sometimes that’s useful,” Lathan said.

“I’m not at a point where I need that. I would much rather you hold back, and we can keep moving. You still have that connection to wind, and I don’t need to walk, correct?”

Lathan nodded. He could still feel the wind. He could still draw on that platform, and he could still guide Esarkin, which he thought was beneficial, because he didn’t have to make the man walk.

“Then that is what I will do.”

“Just don’t collapse and die the moment we get back,” Lathan said as he straightened. He wiped his hand on his pants, but he stood above the stream, and he focused on the water, wondering if he could control it without moving his hand. Even as he focused on it, he did feel a little bit of the water moving vaguely, but it moved and slower ripples.

“I will take that under advisement, Asiran.” He said it with a bit of a smile, this time.

They set off again. Lathan looked up at the sun coming down through the trees, occasionally catching his exposed arms. He thought about the warmth, and he thought about the way that he had it described to him when he was supposed to try to find fire.

Every so often, it felt as if there was a greater warmth than he would’ve expected. It was almost as if there was some external warmth that bloomed, building, sweeping toward him. Even as he felt that, Lathan didn’t know if it was real or imagined. But he felt like he needed to understand it. He needed to know what was happening. He needed to master these elements.

But now he wondered if they were going to be able to return.

Perhaps Esarkin was right and that Lathan should not have tried to help him. If he would’ve, it was possible that his sense of pain might have extended to what he was doing, and how he was trying to help him, and it might have ended up harming him more than helping him. That would’ve been a mistake, and Lathan wanted nothing to do with that.

It was late in the day, as the hills were rolling in front of him, that he began to see a bit of a gleam in the distance. He felt a surge of cold, but what he felt was a little bit distinct, distant, and it was difficult for Lathan to identify the full contour of that power.

“Can you sense anything?”

Esarkin forced a smile across the anguish on his features. “I wonder if you chose that word intentionally or not. You know that is one of the old terms, don’t you?”

He had heard that, and he hadn’t chosen it intentionally, but perhaps that didn’t matter.

“Well, I suppose it’s applicable here, isn’t it?”

He snorted. “Yes. I would imagine that it is. But no, I am not a skilled earth sensor. Especially not in this condition. I would have a modicum of skill otherwise, but right now, I am doing my best just to keep myself upright.”

“You’re using your other abilities to walk,” Lathan said.

He nodded. “Unfortunately, that has become necessary. I’m trying to keep myself enhanced.”

“What if you were to stop?”

“I don’t know if I could get myself going again. I will keep forcing myself forward. If I do not make it, I will not hold it against you, Asiran,” he said, the last with a little bit of force and perhaps just a hint of irritation.

“Lathan,” he said.

“Yes,” he said. “Of course.”

They kept going.

Eventually, darkness fell around them. Lathan thought that he felt and heard elementals moving around him, and it one point, he even went so far as to stop, raising his hand and testing whether there was anything that he could uncover around him. He did not feel anything, though.

The cold did not bloom inside of him the way that he thought that it could and should. He kept testing, thinking that what he needed to really find was a way to touch upon the shadow, but even that didn’t speak to him as it once had. Perhaps it was the effect of the Sacred mother, or perhaps there was something about him and his own reaction that had muted that response. Whatever it was, Lathan could feel how it worked, but he didn’t know whether there would be any way for him to find the shadow and to use that to help him with the Derithan.

Because he needed to have a better idea about what the Derithan were doing and how they were spreading their influence. Increasingly, Lathan had to believe that was going to be necessary, and had to believe that it would be important, as he had no other idea how they would find them.

Right now, however, there was no sign. None of the Derithan. None of the Maelen. Not of elementals.

There was nothing.

As it grew darker and darker, different and much more dangerous thoughts began to bother him.

What if he was heading in the wrong direction? And if he was, there was a very real possibility that he was going to be leading them both into the emptiness of night.

Somehow he was going to have to get Esarkin to safety, but his hold on wind faded, and he felt Esarkin slipping. As Lathan tried to call that wind through him, it sputtered.

Lathan was forced to stagger forward and catch Esarkin before he fell.

Esarkin sagged under Lathan.

“That is much longer than I thought you were going to be able to last,” Esarkin said, his eyes fluttering shut. “You are summoning wind, shaping it, for the entirety of the day. It is much more than I thought you were going to last. You are inexperienced, Asiran, and I am sorry, but this might be as far as I go.”

And with that, Lathan felt something different. It felt like a trembling, and aching, that came from inside of Esarkin.

And Lathan knew that he was fading. And it was happening quickly.

Chapter 13

He didn’t have a significant connection to Esarkin. But he was a Maelen who had come out here, and perhaps fought, because of him. Despite what he had said about him as the Asiran, there was a part of Esarkin that had come out here for something. Maybe answers. Or maybe he came because he was Maelen, and he felt as if there was an obligation for him to do so. Regardless of what had compelled him to do this, Lathan did not want to lose him.

Esarkin’s breathing came slowly in ragged gasps. He was getting weaker. How long did he have?

If Lathan had some way of using water, perhaps he could help him. If there were any elementals here, maybe he could coax them into helping, but he didn’t even know if that would be possible.

He felt for the cold. He needed to. He wondered if he could cause that to bloom inside of him, and perhaps he could coax something more out of it. But even as he attempted to do so, it didn’t feel as if it were working the way that he believed that it would need to in order for him to have a true measure of control over it. He felt that cold deep inside of him, but unfortunately, it wasn’t a cold that he had any control over.

As he focused, straining for any way that he might find some additional aspect of that cold and the shadow, he slowly started to detect something a little different, something that was changing in a way. Distantly, he felt something stirring, as if reacting to the cold inside of him.

It was slippery, and sliding, and it was working toward him.

It was cold. It was wet. It was water.

And it answered him.

It was almost as if the water elemental—and Lathan was certain that this was a water elemental—recognized Lathan’s need. He felt power slithering toward him within it, which had him a little bit concerned. He was nervous about what would happen if that were to reach him, and if he were not to be ready, though he had never feared elementals before.

Slowly, a translucent shape formed near him.

It had been working through the ground. And Lathan recognized that it wasn’t just water. There was a faint vibration to it. Earth mixed with water?

That was odd, but then again, there were so many different odd elementals that Lathan had chased and hunted in the past that he wasn’t terribly surprised that there would be a mixture one like this.

“Can you help him?” Lathan asked, looking over to the elemental. “We aren’t trying to harm your kind. Well, my kind.”

The elemental moved toward him, and there was a bit of vibration. And within that, Lathan thought that he felt something strange. Something familiar.

A voice. “You should not have come through here,” the soft, feminine voice said.

“You speak,” Lathan said.

It wasn’t the first elemental that he had spoken to, but it was the most recent.

“Of course I speak,” the elemental said. “We speak. You speak.”

“Why shouldn’t I have come through here?”

“She wants you. She wants to claim you. We run.”

“We? And by that, I presume that you mean the other elementals?”

“We run,” she said.

Distantly, Lathan could feel a faint trembling of cold, and it struck him as if there was a little bit of warmth that floated on the air. He glanced up, looking around, and it seemed as if maybe there was a distant orange glow, though perhaps that was just his imagination. These days, it was difficult for him to know what was imagined and what was real when it came to the elements and to the elementals.

She moved closer to Lathan.

Lathan pointed to Esarkin, motioning and waving a hand, feeling for a bit of the cold inside of him and wondering if that cold would even make a difference here.

“Can you help him? I don’t have enough control over water to be able to heal him. But you would, wouldn’t you?”

“You should not have come here,” the water elemental said again.

“But I am, and I did. We, I, were trying to free the other elementals that were trapped. I wanted to do whatever I could in order to try to rescue them, and I realize that I had made a mistake in doing so, but I felt like it was necessary.”

It was strange sharing that, strange because it felt like it was unnecessary for him to speak the words aloud, but at the same time, Lathan felt like he had needed to, partly because he felt like in the act of sharing, he felt as if he were talking about his strategy. And there was something else about it that felt right to him. He felt like speaking to the elemental might give him a better understanding of water, and maybe even earth.

“What did he do?” the elemental said, moving closer.

Lathan could still feel that vibration, and as he focused on that, there was a little bit of the earth trembling that began to persist.

He didn’t even know what kind of elemental this was. Considering all the time that he had been hunting elementals and trying to bind them, he would’ve expected that he would’ve had some idea about what type of elemental that he was encountering now, but this one eluded him. He didn’t have any experience with anything like this.

“He was helping me. He saved me.”

“Saved you?” The elemental looked up. There was almost a face to the elemental, and something about it seemed very human, but also alien, as well. The elemental was probably only about up to Lathan’s knee, but he had seen how it formed out of the ground. So the elemental could slide through the ground, in a way. But extruded from the ground like this, it was humanoid in appearance. “Why would he have needed to save you?”

“Because I’m still trying to learn about what I can do, and trying to learn about what I am. What are you?”

“I am etheran,” the elemental said.

“I’m not familiar with that,” Lathan said.

“It is not surprising. You have not seen the world yet, child.”

It was almost comforting the way that she said that. And in a way, it reminded Lathan a little bit of what his father had done, the way that he had spoken to him. It was almost as if the elemental spoke in a similar fashion as his father. Maybe they had known each other. That was something that he would have to think about, though perhaps not now. First he needed to get Esarkin to safety.

“I’m trying to see the world,” Lathan said. “I’m trying to understand. I’m trying to know what I am to do.” He nodded to Esarkin’s fallen form. “And he was helping. If there’s anything you can do to help him, I would appreciate it.”

The elemental touched Esarkin’s hand. A bit of cold washed out of the elemental, and it was added to the cold that washed through Lathan. He felt a pang of anguish inside of his chest, as if the water elemental was wielding that power, but it was also an interconnectedness to him and the part of him that was elemental. He wondered what he could feel so strongly, and maybe he could even try to understand how the elemental was wielding water.

Then he felt the cold changing.

He felt the flow.

He touched Esarkin on the arm, curious if there was going to be anything that he could identify of what the elemental was doing. He could feel the flow of power and could feel that there seemed to be some contour of that energy within it, but nothing more than that.

“How do you do this?”

“You find the imperfections,” the elemental said. “And you work with them. Work around them. Eventually, you work through them.”

Imperfections. “What type of imperfections are you looking for? Are you harming him? Or are you healing him?”

“I’m removing the imperfections,” the elemental said. “You do not have to fear what I am doing here. You can stop it if you choose.”

I could?

But then, couldn’t he?

It was easy to forget that he was part shadow, and that Lathan could use that aspect of himself. Maybe that was what he had been doing when he had been describing feeling the wind flowing through him. It was not the way that Esarkin believed that he should be able to draw upon elements, but it worked for Lathan.

That was what he was going to have to try to understand.

As the waves coursed inward, he noticed the imperfections that the elemental had spoken of flowing through him. Maybe that was the key. Find all of that, wash through it, and remove anything unusual. He didn’t know how he could, if he could at all.

And there was a pulsation. A vibration. It seemed as if it was a combination of the earth and water. And then Esarkin took a sharp breath.

Lathan just sat there. He couldn’t even imagine what was happening here, could not even fathom the kind of healing that had been worked on him, but he had felt it. And in a way, he wondered if he could even replicate it.

If he was able to control water, he understood that concept. It was simply a matter of flow, wasn’t it? This was not beyond him. Somehow he was going to have to try to wield it similarly, and somehow he was going to have to try to understand the limits and the elementals in a way that would grant him a greater understanding of what he might be able to do.

But was it supposed to be now? Was it supposed to be here?

The flow. The water. The energy. All of it continued to lap, slowly starting to weep its way out, until there was none of it left. And then the elemental looked at Lathan.

“You should not stay here.”

“I don’t intend to,” he said. “Thank you.”

“Do not let her catch you. She will harm. Especially you.”

And with that, the elemental’s voice fell silent.

Lathan sat listening, focusing, feeling.

The elemental lingered, providing him with a bit of that cold that was tied to the shadow that called to the elementals. There was something about that which Lathan thought that he needed to better understand. He felt as if there was some part of that which was drawing to him, calling to him, but even as he focused on it, he could not feel anything beyond what he had before. That aspect of power, that lingering bit of energy, was beyond his understanding.

The elemental called to him, but there was little else to it.

And it was time for him to get back to the city. He had to avoid the Derithan, avoid the Sacred Mother, because he was quite certain that she still wanted him for something. And he was quite certain that he did not want to be there when it happened. Whatever she was after was powerful. And he did not know what it was. And he did not know if he would be powerful enough to stop her.

And in a way, he suspected that the elemental had been right. He should not be here.

But he was.

It wasn’t only his people, his friends, that were in danger from the Sacred Mother. It was other elementals.

And he needed to stop her.

Chapter 14

Lathan kept waiting for the elemental to return, but there was no sign of the creature coming back to him. He thought that there would be something, as he had attempted to try to focus on the cold inside of him and attempted to try to draw that power back, but it did not seem to respond to him quite as well as he wanted it to. In a way, the emptiness bothered him the most.

He wasn’t sure if the reason that it bothered him so much was because there was a quiet around him, or if it bothered him because he suspected that the water elemental had lingered, but didn’t have any proof of it. Maybe it was just the fact that he thought there should be some part of this that he would have been able to identify, but so far had not been able to. Whatever it was, he strained, thinking that there should be something, but did not feel it.

As far as Lathan could tell, however, Esarkin was well.

That was the only thing that he really cared about, as he hoped that the Maelen would come around and that he wouldn’t suffer. He also didn’t know if what the water elemental had done would make a difference to Esarkin, or if there was something else to that whole process that he should have been able to feel. When the water elemental had been there, he had been able to feel the connection and had been able to pick up on some aspect of water as it moved around and through Esarkin. But he hadn’t been able to detect anything else about it.

Increasingly, Lathan couldn’t help but feel as if that connection to water, and what he could identify, was going to be the key for him to fully understand just what was happening here. He needed to understand it, and he needed to use the elementals, if possible, to provide them with a measure of safety. He didn’t know if there was going to be any way that he could do it, however. He didn’t feel anything different from the elementals, other than what he had already attempted to find. And they didn’t feel the same way as they had when he had been reaching for that power what seemed like a long, long time ago.

What he wouldn’t give to have one of his friends with him.

Jef, primarily, though even Marin would be useful, especially with her understanding of spirit. He knew that spirit was connected to what he could do with the elementals. He wondered if Marin would be able to pick up on any of that power.

After checking on Esarkin again, Lathan moved away, heading into the grassy landscape nearby, wanting to know if he could test whether there were any signs of the Derithan or any signs of the elementals moving around them.

He hadn’t gone very far before he began to pick up on a hint of a faint, quiet energy. It was subtle, but through it, Lathan could identify that there did seem to be some element lingering within it that struck him as a little bit disarming. It was elemental power. Which meant that the water elemental was not the only one that had been there. Not that he would’ve expected that, because he had known that the water elemental was not the only one, just that he had thought that maybe that would have been the only one that would have come close. But there were other elementals moving. So far, they were not moving very fast, and they were not coming toward them. He did not think that they were in any danger from them, though he was somewhat concerned about the possibility of what might happen if those elementals did try to come at him.

Would he have enough control?

He was lucky to have been able to draw upon the wind the way that he had, and right now, Lathan did not know if he would be able to draw on any of the other aspects in order for him to call that power to him. He had attempted to reach for other elements, but they had not responded.

He stood out in the open, testing if there could be anything more that he could find or feel that would help him understand the elements. He thought about how he had felt water, and in the process, he recognized that there was a flow to it. Though he could no longer feel the water in the same way, there was an element to that water that lingered that felt familiar. Vague, strange, and perhaps a little more indistinct than he would have expected, but there was some aspect of it that was still there.

Could he pull that through him?

Lathan didn’t know if he had the necessary control in order for him to do that. It would involve him trying to draw upon a power that he did not necessarily have complete control over.

He didn’t know if he needed control, though. What he needed was practice.

He focused on water, on the memory of what it had felt like, and as he thought about how that cold, wet energy had slid through him, he started to recognize that there was an element to it that seemed…

Present.

He paused, turning.

“You’re still out there,” Lathan said.

He had not anticipated that the elemental would have lingered, not with what the elemental had done and how it had already helped. He had figured that the elemental would have dispersed, returning to wherever it had gone, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Lathan didn’t know why that wasn’t the case and wasn’t entirely sure what the elemental was doing, only that he could still feel some element of it lingering.

Slowly, that watery cold slithered toward him again. As it did, Lathan continued to focus, feeling for it, feeling some of that energy as it bloomed, and feeling the way that it reacted to him. Or perhaps, it was him reacting to it. The shadow portion of him.

“It is dangerous for you here,” a soft voice said from someplace buried.

Lathan turned. When he did, he saw the humanoid features of the elemental protruding from the grasses. It occurred to him that the elemental could change its size, which made him think that the elemental could change its shape, as well. That shouldn’t be terribly surprising, considering that this was an elemental of water, after all. Lathan would not have been surprised to know that an elemental of water would have that ability. Still, there was something about it and how it worked that struck him as a little bit unusual in a way.

“If it’s dangerous for me, then it means that it’s dangerous for you.”

“Some of us can resist,” the elemental said.

“Only some?”

“There are those of us who have experience in fighting the draw.”

“What does she want with you?”

It felt odd to him to have an opportunity to talk to an elemental like this, especially in elemental that was so close to him, but this was an opportunity that he couldn’t pass up. He felt as if having answers about the elemental, and about what was happening here, was going to help him understand what the Sacred Mother wanted, and would help him understand if there would be any way for him to be able to counter what she was doing. Because in his mind, she was very much doing something still.

“It is not so much what she wants with us. She has access to each of the types of elements.”

“And that is why she uses you?”

The elemental slipped closer. When it did, Lathan felt a bloom of the cold within him, but there was something else within it that was equally familiar. It was as if the elemental moving closer struck him with a very different sense of an energy. It was one that reacted inside of him and bloomed with that cold, and that power, that Lathan felt erupting around him.

“She uses us because she has no choice. She has spirit.”

“She is spirit.”

“No,” the elemental said. And around him, Lathan began to pick up on an echoing, as if the grasses themselves were responding to him. Perhaps they were, as he would not have expected there to have been such a response, but he couldn’t shake what he felt. Maybe there were other elementals here. Maybe there was more of this water elemental, or perhaps there was something tied to the grasses themselves? Earth, perhaps? “She is not spirit. But she has it.”

In Lathan’s mind, they were not that distinct, but apparently, the elemental believed otherwise. Lathan wondered why that was and wondered what that meant.

“Does that mean that I have shadow?”

“Have, and are.”

Lathan smiled to himself. “How is that any different than what she has and is?”

“It is different.”

All around him, Lathan felt as if the grasses, in particular, were swirling, answering, and repeating the same word: different.

They sat in silence for a few moments, and the quiet began to build around him. Lathan listened to the wind, listened to what he could feel of the cold of water, and focused on maybe there being something in the earth that would help him, but he didn’t feel anything of fire. At night, with the cool breeze around him, it was difficult for him to do so.

“Fire will find you,” the elemental said, its voice soft.

He blinked. “How did you know?”

The elemental laughed, a soft, musical sound, and it mixed with a little bit of the wind. And it occurred to Lathan that this was not a singular water elemental. He had known that when the elemental had first approached, but this was a merged elemental, carrying with it more than just water, but another element, as well.

“Thoughts such as yours are not hidden from those such as us.”

And again, there came a chorus of voices all around him: us.

Lathan sat and stared, trying to make sense of it. “Because of spirit.”

“Yes,” the elemental said. “Spirit binds.”

“But it does more than that, doesn’t it? From what I’ve seen, spirit has control.”

“It has not always been the case,” the elemental said.

“How so?”

It was strange having a conversation with an elemental, as Lathan had never had that chance before. Having it now left him with plenty of questions that he hoped he could find answers to, but he didn’t know if there were going to be answers that would be available to him. He felt as if it was necessary for him to find an answer. Increasingly, he couldn’t shake the feeling that what he was dealing with now was significant for him and perhaps would give him insight that he wouldn’t necessarily have otherwise.

He was part elemental, wasn’t he? That was something that his father had seen to, ensuring that Lathan had a shadowy component to himself. And the shadow itself was something that Lathan was still trying to understand. He wanted to know if he had any real control over it, as in his mind, it didn’t seem to him that he did.

“I will show,” the elemental said.

And before Lathan had a chance to react, there was a bloom of cold inside of him. At first, he thought that maybe it was tied to the shadow, but the more that he focused on what he felt, the more clear it became to him that it was not the shadow at all. It was the connection of the elemental. It was a bloom of cold that was followed by warmth, and Lathan realized that there was spirit mixed within it, as well.

Then he saw.

The visions—and in Lathan’s mind, these were definitely visions—blurred across his consciousness, an awareness that bloomed in his mind and an understanding of what came through it. He saw.

He saw hyza, an elemental that he had chased while hunting with Jef, but this one was different, larger in a way and roaming across an unfamiliar grassy landscape. As he saw hyza, he saw something in hyza’s eyes, and he noticed something about the elemental. It was as if spirit bloomed a little bit brighter.

“What is that?” Lathan asked.

“The bond,” a distant, different voice said.

“Hyza bonded to another elemental?”

He couldn’t quite determine what he was seeing, but he felt something about it. The more that he focused, the more that Lathan felt as if this was going to be the key to understanding what the elementals were doing and what they wanted from him. Because the elemental obviously did want something from him, though Lathan was not quite clear what it was. He could feel it, and he could feel the strangeness, and then…

Then he didn’t even know.

He could feel the connection, spirit, and he could feel it blooming, but it struck him as oddly potent.

Why, though?

“They once connected,” the elemental said. “It was necessary, not only for those that came before, but for the elemental. It provided both with a strength, and a safety. Even the great ones did.”

“Great ones. And by that, you mean the draasin?”

The elemental laughed again, the soft, musical voice carrying, much as it had before.

“Them, and others. They were not the only great ones. There were others. Many, many others.”

“I didn’t realize there were other elementals like the draasin.”

“The draasin are great elementals of fire, but there are great elementals of other aspects of the world, as well.”

“Like you?”

“We are great, but we were not the great ones. It takes significance to touch upon the depths of the world and to find a true bond.”

There was something more to that statement that Lathan suspected was significant, but even as he tried to understand, he could not quite grasp just what the elemental was telling him. There were pieces to it, a puzzle that he thought that he missed out on and that he needed to try to understand. Lathan did not know if there would be, or could be, any way for him to learn just what the elemental was getting at.

“So others like the draasin, but connected to water, wind, earth, and even spirit and shadow?”

“Others,” the elemental agreed.

Which meant that the elemental either didn’t want to reveal that there were other significant bonds to spirit and shadow, or didn’t know.

“Do they still exist?”

“In memory,” the elemental said. “As you have seen in all things. It is a cycle.”

He smiled at that, as in a way, it reminded him a little bit of what his father had said to him. The power did not disappear, did it? Power simply cycled through the world. Fire became fire which became fire. Elemental to element to binding stone to whatever other form it took. And he thought about how he had used those binding stones, and how he had used that power, and he wondered if there might be something different to it that he could use now.

“But some things disappear from memory,” Lathan said.

“Some things are hidden, shadowed,” the elemental said.

And as the elemental said it, Lathan couldn’t help but feel as if there was something of an amused note to the elemental, as if that was a joke. But was it a joke at Lathan’s expense, or was it a joke because the elemental simply didn’t have any other way of expressing itself?

“I’d love to know more about the elementals,” Lathan said.

“You must search inside yourself. The answers are there. It is always going to be there, because it has always been bonded to you. It is a part of what you are and a part of who you are.”

“But I can’t control it.”

“Can you control the wind? Can you control the waves? Can you control the snow?”

“If I had control over the elements,” Lathan said, thinking about what the Maelen did and how they were able to wield their powers. If there was anything like that, Lathan could easily imagine being able to do something similar. But he did not know if it would even be possible. He did not know if there was anything like that which he could do.

“But you could not,” the elemental said. “Because that is not you. You are not them.”

Lathan snorted. “I know that I’m not them, but if I am to help them, and if I am to try to keep her from whatever it is that she is after⁠—”

“Control,” the elemental said, immediately, as if needing to get that out. “That is what she wants. That is what she has always wanted. Control.”

“But control over what?”

“Control over all such things. It is why you must go. You, especially.”

The elemental stood, and Lathan hadn’t even realized that they had been seated. At some point during the conversation, Lathan had taken a seat in the grasses. He had felt comforted by that, maybe because of the other elementals that might still be there in the grasses, or maybe because there was the comfort of just sitting and having a conversation with the elemental. Whatever it was, he felt at peace.

“Why me, especially?”

“Because she will seek to use you. She will seek to control you. She will seek to bind you.”

“I don’t think that she can bind me.”

“And you would be mistaken. The others that can will go. The others that can’t will come.”

“So she’s forcing some but not all?”

“She is forcing all that she can,” the elemental said. “And you, especially, must avoid her touch.”

With that, the elemental moved on. “Do not listen to those that stay. They do not know what they do. They cannot. But those that go will continue to do what we can.”

“I would like to help the elementals, along with as many others as I can.”

“It is too late. She has planned too long. And you are not ready.” There was a sadness to the elemental’s voice. “I knew him, you know.”

“My father?” Lathan asked.

“I did. There were few who could make that claim, but I knew him. You have some of him to you. It is why I think that I was drawn here when I felt your presence. Not entirely him, though. You have as much of your mother, I suspect, which makes you unique. What makes you, you. Use that, and say that, and protect that. Do not let her claim that.”

And with that, the elemental dispersed, leaving Lathan with more questions than answers. But perhaps there were not meant to be answers. Perhaps all he was meant to have were the questions that lingered inside of him.

Chapter 15

Esarkin eventually came around.

It was midnight, or thereabouts according to what Lathan was able to tell. He, once again, was not able to sleep, but then again, he felt very different than he had before. Thankfully, he had released his holdover some of the wind and the other elements that he had been trying to probe, and he no longer felt nearly as tired as he had before. Though he suspected that it was a transient thing, and the longer that he waited here, the more likely it was that he would start picking up some of that fatigue once again.

When Esarkin awoke, he looked over to Lathan. “What happened?”

“It wasn’t me, if that’s your concern.”

Esarkin’s eyes closed, and Lathan felt vaguely aware of what he was doing, though he didn’t know how he was wielding his power. It was just that he was using some part of the elements at some point, at least from the way that Lathan could tell. When he opened his eyes, he looked over. “This was skillfully done. Elemental?”

Lathan nodded. “She called herself etheran.”

“Interesting. They should not be here.”

Lathan snorted at that. “Well, that’s sort of what she said about me, as well. And I’m curious why you’re saying that.”

“Because the elementals are not traditionally found in this area.” He started to get up, resting his hands on his thighs for a moment and then straightening. He didn’t look nearly as bad as he had before. And in the time that the elemental had worked on him, Lathan had seen the way that his whole demeanor had changed, starting to look a little bit more vibrant and a little bit more alert. “Elementals have a specific distribution area. In some places, they are more common, and in other places, they are less. And that is not one that should be in this land. That suggests that the Sacred Mother has been gathering elementals from outside of this area for quite some time. It is dangerous, not only for her, but also for them.”

“Why would it be dangerous for them?”

“Because elementals are stronger in certain areas and weaker in others. In a place like this, that elemental would have been weaker.” He shrugged. “I do not understand the workings of it, because I am not one who studies the elementals. There are others that you could speak to if you so desire,” he said, looking over to Lathan and arching a brow, as if waiting to see what Lathan would say about that.

And in a way, Lathan wouldn’t pass up that opportunity. Why should he, after all? He was curious as to what he could learn about the elementals, if anything. “So we have an elemental that is moving through here and is not supposed to be here. And the elemental made a point of saying that I shouldn’t be here, either.”

“We have said the same thing to you, Asiran.” He took a deep breath, and he flicked his gaze up. “I am feeling well enough, I think, to perform the warrior shaping. Are you ready?”

“Are you sure?”

“Once restored, it does not take nearly as much effort as you would think. It is merely a combination of the elements, and it is your prominent element which leads it.” He looked at Lathan. “In your case, it might be wind.”

“Might be? Wind was the first one that I was able to draw upon, at least consistently.”

“That does not mean that it will be your prominent element. The prominent element is the one that calls to you the most. And it is hard to say which way you will lean. It is not always reliable.” He shrugged. “Mine was water, as you probably imagined.”

“I didn’t,” Lathan said. “I suppose from what you described, I should’ve known that.”

He chuckled, and he held out his hand, until Lathan joined him. “There are some who call water the key to life, though the scholars believe that each of the elements is crucial, and spirit binds. We shall see.”

With that, the lightning crackled, coming down toward them in a streak, and then they shot upward.

They hovered for just a moment. In the distance, Lathan could see the glow of the city, and he searched, using wind. Remembering the way that Keeley had formed it to augment his eyesight, he brought it closer to his face so that he could peer out, and he found the Derithan. The army had not moved that far away. They were still there. And, unfortunately, it seemed as if they had gathered in greater numbers. And it wasn’t just that army. Now there was one to the south of them, coming up from behind the city.

“They’re going to surround us,” Lathan said.

“You can see this?”

“Keeley demonstrated a technique. I’m just copying it.”

“You are shaping,” he said. And he smiled, though it was mostly to himself. “And quite skillfully already, I should say. But then again, seeing as how you were able to walk on the wind, I am not surprised you would have some skill with shaping. Especially with the technique you used as you walked on the wind. It was an unusual one.”

“Walking on the wind? You have names for everything.”

“That one was obvious,” Esarkin said.

They went streaking downward. When they landed, they did so with a crackle of power, and they came to land just outside of the city. Lathan let out a relieved sigh.

He stepped away from Esarkin, who staggered for a moment, before he raised his hands, waving Lathan off. “I am fine.”

“You don’t look like you are.”

“I wouldn’t be here if it were not for you and your… Well, I wouldn’t be here if it were not for you, Asiran. So I am fine.”

It didn’t take long before several of the other Maelen came storming toward them. One of them was Keeley, and the moment that she saw Lathan, she hurried over to him, checking him over and sweeping water through him in a wave of cold that was quite different and distinct from the cold that Lathan felt from the shadow.

When she was done, she released it, releasing him, and stepped back, regarding him.

“You have been gone for two days. We have searched and searched. We were not able to find you.” She glanced over to Esarkin. “Did you protect him?”

Esarkin coughed, and then he straightened. “I believe that he was the one who protected me. And saved me, in fact.”

“Saved?”

Esarkin coughed again. “I was injured. He found me. He brought me to safety. Were it not for him, I would not be here.”

“He should’ve returned.”

“Which is what I told him,” he said.

“She’s not going to be pleased,” Keeley muttered.

“I can deal with Isa,” Lathan said.

“She’s not going to be pleased,” she said again, glancing over. “But I suppose it’s good that you are back. And we didn’t need to lose anybody. We had enough troubles as it is.”

“What happened?” Lathan asked.

“It is complicated. And it is not something that I will openly speak of, Asiran.”

The comment made him miss the time with Esarkin, when he didn’t have to be called Asiran all the time.

“I’m sure that it’s complicated because of what we saw,” Lathan said. “But I’m also aware that there have been Derithan moving. And I’m guessing that the elementals have been pushing, and I’m also guessing that there has not been any way for us to evacuate.”

She nodded. “We can evacuate,” she said, “because we can travel differently. But Isa and some of the others were reluctant to do so until we knew what happened to you, Asiran.” She bowed her head. “Now that we know that you are safe, we can depart.”

“I’m not ready to depart yet. My people need to get out. Especially with the Derithan moving. I need to talk to Henash, and then I can find you as soon as I am able. Have Isa, or yourself, find me.”

“Asiran—”

Esarkin stepped forward, and he rested a hand on Keeley, quieting her.

Lathan didn’t intervene. At this point, he was more irritated than anything, and he was thankful that he interrupted her and kept her from doing or saying anything more. Because he wasn’t sure what else he would do or say. He was just frustrated by this whole premise, and by the fact that all of this seemed to be… Well, he wasn’t exactly sure what it was, just that it felt like it was all too much for him.

“What’s happening… Lathan?”

“It’s me,” he said, stepping forward.

Henash had swept outward, and he was holding onto a binding stone, which seemed to be radiating a bit of wind with it. And as he came toward Lathan, he was flanked by a pair of soldiers, both of them in binding stone armor. The amount of power that was here, and wielded in this place, was significant. Lathan wondered if, under other circumstances, this would have been enough to have defended his village from the Derithan and what they had intended to do.

“Your friends are perfectly safe,” Henash said, “so why don’t you tell me what happened.”

Lathan glanced back toward where Esarkin and Keeley were talking. Keeley was watching Lathan. At one point, she turned and looked incredulously at Esarkin, probably at the point where Esarkin was telling her about how Lathan had spoken to the elemental, the elemental who had saved him.

“Oh, just a mess. I did find wind,” he said.

“I didn’t realize that you were looking for it.”

He snorted, and then he shared with Henash what he had been doing, and how he was trying to connect to the elements, and how he thought that the elemental part of himself was reacting. Henash understood what Lathan had been through, and in a way, he thought that Henash might even understand some of his connection, and what it meant for him, in ways that Lathan did not need, or want, to explain to others.

When he reached the point where he was talking about the strange water elemental, Henash’s expression clouded.

“They should not be here,” he said.

“That’s exactly what Esarkin said.”

“It means that wherever they came from would be isolated. But then again, we had that same consideration out near the village. Didn’t we?” Lathan nodded. “I imagine you saw the Derithan have pinned us in?” He nodded again. “We have tried to negotiate with the Maelen, asking them to evacuate us, but our numbers are too many. They can only take a few at a time, and they were reluctant to leave until they knew what happened to you. That, of course, angers Lady Naserra, but it’s more than just angering Lady Naserra. It is a matter of us being trapped here, Lathan.”

They started making their way back toward the city and passed by several of the buildings. In the day or so that Lathan had been gone, there was a bit more of a settled feeling here. That was strange, partly because these people had been planning on evacuating this city before. But he didn’t feel any sense of the elementals, either. That was probably a good thing, as they didn’t have to feel as if they were trapped outside, either.

“I’m not so sure there’s going to be any other way that we are going to be able to go, then. We could travel east or west of here, but to the north and the south, we are trapped.”

“Well, to the west are mountains,” Henash said, waving his hand. “And unless you can open some pathway to the mountains, or some sort of magical portal,” he went on, glancing over to Lathan, and smirking, “we cannot go that way. And to the east, we run into similar problems, mostly because the Derithan are positioning themselves in such a way that they will pinch us in. So we are stuck, Lathan. Eventually, we’re going to have to fight.”

“And the Maelen⁠—”

“The Maelen will help, inasmuch as it will involve getting you out of here. And Lady Naserra and the soldiers are perfectly content to smash through, but they want us all to work at the same time. It has been a little chaotic without you here, because we have had differing factions all taking a different approach to what they need to be doing. And I, and Marin, for that matter, have been trying to calm them.”

Lathan imagined that Marin was doing more than just trying to calm them. She was probably trying to use spirit to soothe them.

She was skilled with spirit and was growing in her competence and capability the longer that she had been working with it, especially around the Maelen.

Only it didn’t have to be just her, did it? He had seen how the Sacred Mother and those who served her would use spirit in such a similar way. And in that case, it was hard for him to believe that there would be anything else that he would need to do differently, anything that would even make much of a difference. In his mind, he could easily imagine how having that ability and having an opportunity, to use spirit in such a way might grant them a chance.

“I need to rest,” he said. “And once I recuperate, we can keep talking. But until then, I…” He shook his head again. “I just need to rest.”

There was more than just his desire to rest, Lathan suspected. It was almost as if there was a reluctance within him. Maybe it was about teaching Lathan, or maybe it was about everything else that they had been through, and his fear about what else they might have to face. Lathan didn’t have a good answer to that.

The Derithan had not caught them yet.

But the longer that they lingered, the more likely it was that the Derithan would catch up to them, and if so, would he be able to fight? Would Esarkin, even recovered, be able to do anything?

It was even more reason that he needed to learn how to manage this connection to the elements. More reason for him to gain a measure of control. Because if he were to do that, he could function something like the Maelen, even if the Maelen were not willing to help.

Chapter 16

He stayed inside of the city near the courtyard. This was a quiet place, and a place that was vaguely familiar from his time here in the city. The stone around him was all of a darker, older variety compared to other parts of the city. Lathan could feel something about it, as if there was some part of the elements stored within, or maybe it was still tied to trapped elementals. He wasn’t exactly sure. He could still feel some aspect of elementals that lingered, almost as if there was a memory, but was not sure about it.

Increasingly, he was concerned about what the elementals were doing. They had not completely abandoned this place. Neither had the Sacred Mother, not from what he was seeing of the Derithan and their movement. That alone was reason for him to be concerned, but what was it about, and would there be any way that he could understand what the Sacred Mother was after without having a chance to actually talk to her?

Marin lingered with him, and he suspected that she was going to stay with him, as she had been quite relieved after learning that he had returned. She wasn’t the only one, though. The Maelen, Isa in particular, had stayed behind him, watching him.

“You have done quite well with wind,” Isa said.

She had returned to the city after learning that Lathan had come back, and while she had seemed to be pleased with his return, she was also irritated. Lathan suspected her irritation was tied more to the fact that he had been gone for several days, that he had been working with Esarkin, and had managed to find one of the elements in the process. Or perhaps it was tied to the fact that he had nearly died under her care.

“I can feel the wind flowing through me, and I know that is not supposed to do that, but⁠—”

“It is not about what it is supposed to do, but what it does. Did another tell you that?”

“Esarkin,” Lathan said.

Her expression darkened briefly. “You are not Maelen. You do not have to understand the wind the way that we do. You understand the wind the way that you do. You will be Asiran.”

“But the technique should be similar, shouldn’t it?”

As he thought about what he had seen, and the way that the elements and the elementals interact, Lathan couldn’t help but feel as if there had to be some similarity to it, but so far, everything that he had uncovered of that power seemed as if they were distinct. The elementals caused a surge of cold within him as the shadowy portion reacted, but the wind, in particular, flowed through him. It was distinct, different. Separate.

“It should be similar, but it is possible that your understanding of it is clouded because of your connection. I cannot say. I’m not Asiran.”

Lathan wanted to say that he wasn’t necessarily Asiran, though in a way, he wasn’t exactly sure that it even mattered. The one thing that he truly knew was that the power that he had been feeling was different. Primarily because the wind felt different.

And there was more than that. It was tied to elements, somehow.

“I would encourage you to work with what we have been talking about. Focus on your connection to the elements, and focus on how it feels to you so that you may come to know it. You will need to understand that power before you can truly use it.”

With that, she called on lightning, shooting upward and disappearing.

“She’s stubborn,” Marin said, leaning forward, and then wiping her hand across her mouth. “She wants to protect you. When you were gone, she was the first one to return and panic about it. I don’t think that the others knew what happened. And I think that she thought that maybe you had found your way back. I don’t know, though.” Marin let out a heavy sigh. “But you really can use the wind?”

Lathan focused on what he had done before, pulling on the wind, allowing it to call through him, where he solidified it and then walked across it.

“Like that,” he said. “I have some measure of control over it, but it is difficult for me. At least, difficult for me to do anything but the wind. That one seems to be easier. I don’t know why.”

“I wonder if it’s because the wind whispered to you as much as it did when we were working with the wind the way that we were. I wonder if some aspect of it started to call to you. Maybe that connection is what linked that to you and gave you the opportunity to be able to follow it. Or maybe it’s just something that your father did.”

Lathan considered that as a possibility. His father had certainly seen to it that he had an understanding of the elementals, and with everything that he had done with the elementals over the years, he had a rising certainty that it had been designed to not only help him understand different types of power, but also to understand the elementals themselves. He didn’t think that his father had spoken or focused on a particular type of elemental. That didn’t seem to be the reason that he had the connection to wind that he did. Lathan did not know why he had what he had now, but perhaps it was the fact that he had been spending time around Marin.

“I should know about all elements, though. Especially with what I was able to do and how he taught me to hunt them.”

“He taught you to hunt the elementals, not the elements, right?”

Lathan shrugged. “I think so. And maybe it’s just that I have been struggling with everything that has been happening here, and trying to understand what I saw when I was outside of the city, and what I felt when I was there.”

“You still haven’t talked to me much about what happened with that water elemental. The water elemental healed Esarkin, right?”

Lathan nodded. After having spoken to the elemental, he had kept some of that conversation to himself. He didn’t think that others really needed to be privy to it, as it really didn’t make much of a difference in his mind, especially with what he was going to have to do. Lathan increasingly felt like what he was going to need to do was going to be tied to chasing the Derithan away, and perhaps that was about it. They had not seen any sign of the Sacred Mother, but if the elemental was right, the danger was not gone. Not nearly yet.

“There was a water elemental that I spoke to,” he said softly. “After Esarkin was healed. It was the same one, I think, or maybe it wasn’t. I don’t know. Or maybe they are all part of the same one.” He thought about the strange echoing of voices that he had heard from the elemental, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe there was more to that elemental than what he would have known otherwise. “Regardless, the elemental knew my father.”

“The elemental told you that?”

“He did. It did?” He shrugged.

“And do you think the elemental was telling you that because the elemental wanted you to go with it?”

Lathan considered for a moment. “I don’t think so. There wasn’t any sense from the elemental that it was trying to guide me or force me to go in any particular way. The elemental just wanted me to know to be careful. It was as if the elemental was trying to caution me against the Sacred Mother. They were leaving, as were others, but it was quite clear that if I didn’t go and if others didn’t go, that they would soon run out of time to do so.” Lathan shook his head. “And maybe that’s where we are now. Maybe we have reached a point where it is too late to go anywhere.”

“We can still leave,” she said. “The Derithan are moving, but we have time. We just have to get the others on board,” she said, and then she frowned. “I think that Naserra is convinced that she can recruit the Maelen.” She started to laugh. “She hasn’t really talked to them very much, but she still seems to believe that she can coax them into doing her bidding. I think if she were to spend any time communicating with them—really doing so—she would learn that they are unlikely to be motivated.”

“Not into protecting this place,” Lathan said. “But I think that they still have some risk to their home. I don’t know what it is, and I don’t know how dangerous it is, but I suspect that whatever the Derithan have done, and whatever it is that the Sacred Mother has done, has gotten closer to the Maelen than they want to admit. Something Esarkin said to me while I was gone with him made me think that we were not terribly far from their lands.”

“We haven’t ever seen anything like that, though. If they were nearby, shouldn’t we have seen them?”

“I would think so.”

He breathed out heavily, the Sai catching the wind. As it did, Lathan once again felt a stirring, as if maybe there was some part of the wind that he might be able to use and wield, but nothing beyond that. There was no hint of any elemental around it the way that there had been before. It was an emptiness.

“It’s strange to me, that after being raised in a place that had so few elementals that I feel their absence so prominently.”

“I don’t think that’s strange at all,” Marin said. When he looked over, she shrugged. “Well, I don’t. I think that the elementals are powerful and useful, and I think that we have grown accustomed to their presence around us. You, in particular, have a different connection to them. Maybe that’s why you feel their absence.”

“Or maybe we had more elementals around us all this time than we ever knew.”

She was quiet for a moment. “It could be. I guess I never thought about it that way.”

“And in order for us to help the elementals⁠—”

“Now you want to help the elementals?” Marin asked.

“I think that we have to free them from the Sacred Mother.”

She started to laugh.

“What?”

“It’s just that I find it amusing that you’re talking about freeing elementals. Especially after all the time that I dealt with you trying to hold elementals.”

“What I did, and the way that I did it, was nothing like what the Sacred Mother has done.”

She held her hands up in a placating gesture. “I’m not trying to say that is the case. I’m just saying that I find it ironic.”

“All I had ever done was to touch upon that power. I didn’t damage them, I didn’t harm them, and I didn’t drain them. We were just⁠—”

“Lathan,” Marin said. “I know. And I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to upset you. Maybe you need to start focusing on learning about the shadow, and about the connection that you have to the different elements, so that you can understand more about this power. Because if it comes down to it, you might need to do something in order to keep the Sacred Mother from succeeding.”

“It doesn’t have to be just me,” he said. “The Maelen⁠—”

“The Maelen had made it clear that the only thing they are concerned about is you. And if you are concerned about this, then I suspect that they will be concerned about it. At least until it becomes more of a threat to them.”

“I think it has always been a threat to them,” he said. “But maybe you’re right. I do need to understand that power, and I do need to understand what it is that I can do, so that we can keep it from being a problem for us.”

“Good,” she said. “I was worried that you were going to push back on this.”

“Oh?”

“Sometimes you ignore good advice. And I’m full of it.”

Lathan started to laugh, and when Marin shot him a glare, he just shrugged. “I won’t deny that you are full of it. You most definitely are.”

“Well, what do you want to do?”

“I think it’s time that I start working with the elements, and I attempt to try to master as much of them as I can, while also trying to work with the shadow. We need to get a sense of how long we have, and see if there is going to be a way that we might be able to keep the Sacred Mother from succeeding in what she plans. I just don’t know what that’s going to look like, nor do I know if there’s going to be enough time to do so.”

Chapter 17

Lathan carried Marin, using a bit of the wind. It was a strange thing to do, as it was not the same as how they had traveled with the elementals, and it was not truly traveling on the wind or flying so much as it was walking on the wind platform. But as he created his platform, he was able to walk above the wall and out to the outer edge of the city. There were several soldiers that were standing guard, and he even noticed that there were a scattering of Maelen, with more and more of them seeming to have been arriving. How many Maelen were out there?

He could not tell, though he suspected that there had to be some way that he could detect them, and yet, at this point, Lathan had not been able to detect anything of the Maelen, not the same way that he could detect the elementals.

“You shouldn’t be out here, Asiran,” Keeley said, striding over to him. He hadn’t even noticed that she was there.

“I felt elementals moving,” he said.

She frowned. “You felt it?”

“I think I’ve always felt the elementals,” he said, though it was mostly to himself. “I think that I have been aware of them longer than I would’ve expected. It’s like they have always been a part of me. That’s how I have been successful in hunting and trapping some of that power.”

His father might have intended him to do that, even. Lathan didn’t even know. Maybe it had been intentional. Or maybe it was just him, something unique about him.

“Of course,” she said, bowing her head. “I did not mean any offense, it was just that I would have expected that we would’ve identified any elemental movement. There has been no sign of it.”

“There has been some sign,” Lathan said. “The Derithan.”

“The Derithan use bound elementals. They are not in control of them. And from what you have said, you are talking about a free-roaming elemental.”

“Exactly.”

Still, he felt something in this city. Power that lingered, power that seemed to be bound to some of the buildings, and power that he suspected was tied to what the Sacred Mother had done here, only Lathan wasn’t exactly sure how to describe it in any other way than what he had already done. He could feel some aspect of it, and it left him thinking that it would bloom within him if he were to call upon it quickly enough, but so far, he had not been able to do so.

He looked over to Marin. “Can you try to talk to the wind?”

“I have been talking to the elementals as much as I can,” she said, looking over to him. “The hard part is that they are not answering.”

“I wonder why,” Lathan said.

“I think they do not choose to speak with us here,” Keeley said. She frowned, looking over the soldiers, back at the city, and then out and away. Her gaze drifted, as if going toward the neighboring landscape where, Lathan suspected, there had to be other elementals. “I think they fear what has happened to them, and I think they fear that we might try to do something similar.”

“If I have an opportunity to actually talk to the elementals, I would tell them that I had no interest in doing something similar. I keep thinking that it would help.”

“I’ve been trying that,” Marin said. “I’ve been mixing spirit with it⁠—”

“Spirit?” Keeley asked.

“Yes,” Marin said. “Spirit. Why?”

“You should not be using spirit on the elementals.”

“It’s how I speak to them,” she said.

“You can speak to them using spirit, but you must be careful that you do not push too much spirit out with it. They will not be pleased.”

“Why?”

“Because with what happened with the Sacred Mother, there is the possibility that they will believe that using spirit is you attempting to try to control them in the same fashion.”

Lathan could see the rationale but didn’t know if the way that he attempted to communicate was even going to be effective. He could feel that working, but so far, everything that he had been trying had not been fully effective for him. It left him with a vague sort of unease about what else he might need to do. He attempted spirit, but when he did, he felt nothing more.

“Be careful with these elementals,” Marin said. “I can still feel them.”

“Then perhaps you should redirect them,” Keeley said.

“Why would we want to redirect them?” Marin asked, standing on the buffer of wind.

“We try to encourage them to go elsewhere.”

“Let me guess, through lightning?”

“That is but one of the techniques that we utilize,” she said.

Marin carried a look of irritation. “I doubt they are going to be very pleased with you using lightning on the elementals. They will think that you are attacking them the same way they had been attacked before. I think that you need to be much more careful with your approach.”

“I have enough experience with spirit to tell you⁠—”

“We don’t need to go through this,” Lathan said. He started off, gliding Marin with him.

He used wind in a different way. Rather than walking along the platform of wind, he used the platform to hold himself aloft, and found himself pushing forward, as if propelled on the wind while also standing on it. It felt as if the wind were actually pushing, guiding him forward, gliding him along.

Not elementals. That was certainly clear. But he could feel the flow of the wind, and the flow of the power as he was siphoning it through him. It was siphoned through that cold, and it was siphoned in a way that allowed him to touch the elements, and the power around him, in a very different fashion.

“That’s interesting,” he muttered. “It feels like we are traveling the same way that the elementals traveled with us, but this is just me propelling the wind.”

“It would be a lot nicer if you could travel the way that they do.”

“I can’t use the lightning pattern yet. It’s a mixture of other elements. I can probably use water, but I haven’t been able to find fire, and haven’t been able to find earth. I think that I need to find all of the elements before I can mix that together.”

“What if there is something to your elemental aspect that would help you with this? The techniques can’t be that dissimilar, can they?”

Lathan thought about everything that his father had taught him about the elementals over the years and how much he had documented. And in a way, Marin was right. The elementals did have different ways of connecting to power.

That was the key: connecting to power.

He thought about what he had always said about the elementals when he had hunted them, using the binding stones. Lathan had always believed that he wasn’t actually trapping elementals so much as he was trapping some aspect of their power. What he needed was to better understand how he had been doing that, but he didn’t have a good answer. The wind propelled them, until they were no longer traveling alone. Keeley was moving alongside him, but not just her.

Up ahead, there was a crackling of lightning, and several of the Maelen came streaking down toward them. Isa was among them.

“You should not be out here, Asiran,” Isa said. “This is unsafe for you until we have secured the area.”

“I intend to speak to the elementals.”

“There are elementals moving,” Isa said, sounding as if she were irritated that she had to acknowledge that to him. “They are still bound to the Sacred Mother, and she is still commanding them. Until we have freed the elementals from that connection⁠—”

“I can help free them from that connection,” Lathan said.

“You do not have full control over your abilities yet. At some point, I have little doubt that you will be able to do that, but for now, you are still trying to master what it is that you can do, and master the technique that you have. I am sorry, Asiran, but we cannot permit⁠—”

“I don’t think that I am going to be able, or willing, to have you decide such things for me.” He called the wind, feeling it flowing. And strangely, there was some other contour within it that seemed familiar, as well.

Could he control the flow?

He hadn’t even tried that, and had simply summoned the wind, thinking that was the key for what he needed to do, but perhaps it wasn’t just about control. Perhaps it was about requesting, and trying to gather the wind, trying to get it to do something unique, to swirl, and to carry in ways that it would not otherwise. Perhaps that was the key.

“We have to protect you,” she said, and her voice was soft. More than that, it sounded as if she were a little nervous about what she was saying, as if she feared angering him. “You have to understand what we are going to do. I am sorry, Asiran, but it is essential that we keep you safe. We almost lost you once. And were it not for⁠—”

“Were it not for what I did, you would’ve lost Esarkin, and you would’ve lost me. But I am not going to be held here.”

With that, Lathan felt the cold surging within him.

That was what happened when he had been traveling with Keeley, with Isa, and as that cold surged, he felt the way that it suddenly engulfed the powers around him.

But not his own wind. It engulfed the power of the Maelen that were near him, and he drew upon that. He simply felt the shadow portions swallow that power.

It was as if it just took it.

In the process, he felt a faint crackling.

Some of it came from the Maelen drawing upon powers that Lathan still didn’t fully understand, and some of it came from the agitation he felt. He needed to better understand what was happening, and whether there was any way that he would be able to control this power. In a way, he wanted to, and thought that perhaps it would be something that he would be able to handle, but he wasn’t entirely sure if he had enough control over it. He needed to mix those powers so that he could draw upon them.

With that, he went crackling upward, shooting up on a blast of lightning, carried away until he reached a pinnacle in the sky. He immediately began to focus on the wind, letting that carry him.

“You did it,” she said.

“I was just trying for control,” Lathan admitted. “I didn’t mean to actually do that.”

“But if you can do that, then we don’t have to depend upon them, right?”

Lathan looked down. That shadowy cold inside him had reacted, blooming once again. And as it did, he continued to question if there was some part of it that he was always meant to find, and if there was going to be anything more that he could uncover. That shadowy cold lingered inside of him. But there was some other aspect to it that he did not fully recognize. Power. Elemental power.

And they were moving.

What did it mean that the elementals were moving toward them, though?

Was it dangerous, or was this the elementals coming to help?

Either way, he needed answers. And he didn’t know how to get them, short of going to the elementals and risking everything to do so.

Chapter 18

The air was thinner, and clouds swirled around him. There was something quite interesting about it, as the clouds carried with it something almost dense, wispy, and cool. Distantly, Lathan could feel elementals, but he wasn’t entirely sure if what he had been picking up on was true elemental energy, or if it was something tied to the Derithan and binding stones. Unfortunately, he did not always know how to track the distinction.

The landscape was more mountainous here, with a dense forest that made it difficult for him to see the movement of the Derithan, but he didn’t need to see them for him to feel what was happening down below.

“There are elementals gathering. Or maybe it’s just Derithan, but they are there. So many of them.”

“How many do you see?”

Esarkin neared, which surprised him.

“It’s good to see you,” Lathan said.

Esarkin tipped his head. He flicked his gaze around and nodded to Keeley, before he frowned, a bit of power surging from him. Lathan was aware of it, but he didn’t know what he was doing with it. Then he noticed that there were several others that came streaking up toward them. More Maelen.

“What do you see?” Esarkin asked.

“It’s not what I see as much as what I feel. And there are quite a few different elementals down there. I feel them, and I feel the way that the Sacred Mother is forcing them to move. Whatever she is doing is going to require that they follow her command. Unless I can counter it.”

“She’s going to attack soon,” Esarkin said, looking over to where Isa suddenly appeared.

She hovered for a moment, and there was irritation that flashed in her eyes. “Then he must be taken from here,” she said.

“He is the Asiran, isn’t he? Isn’t that what you believe?” Esarkin asked.

“I believe that he is the Asiran,” she said. “And that means that I understand the danger he is in by staying here.”

“I believe that I have some opinion in this,” Lathan said, looking over to Esarkin, who still had a bit of irritation about him. Lathan wasn’t quite sure why, though he suspected that it had something to do with how he didn’t necessarily agree with the assessment that Lathan was this Asiran.

And in a way, maybe that was the most important thing. He didn’t know, either.

“What do you think?” Lathan asked, looking at Esarkin.

Esarkin looked as if he wanted to argue, as if he wanted to be anywhere but there, and as if he wanted to retreat, but to his credit, he straightened, meeting Lathan’s gaze. “I think you carry many aspects of the Asiran, but it is also possible that you are simply a talented individual and that we must stop trying to pin the hopes of our people upon you.” He glanced over to where Isa was standing. “Too often, we look to others to do what we must do.”

“But you were calling me Asiran.”

“I was calling you what I thought that you needed to hear.”

Lathan didn’t know quite what to say about that, but he felt a comfort in having Esarkin around him, even if it wasn’t clear whether Esarkin cared much for him. In a way, Lathan couldn’t help but feel as if Esarkin wanted to see him as his enemy, primarily because Esarkin didn’t want Lathan to be the Asiran. For that matter, Lathan didn’t want to be that, either, so it wasn’t as if he had to try to do anything more significant.

And yet, he also had questions. He didn’t have many answers about what he was going to need to do, but he had plenty of questions.

And more than anything, he couldn’t shake the feeling that perhaps there was going to be something more that he was going to have to try to do so that he could better understand what others like Esarkin, and other Maelen, were doing, and whether they were going to try to work with him, or perhaps work against him. At this point, Lathan simply did not know if there was anything more that he would find or anything more that he could understand.

“I need to disrupt the elementals from the Derithan. I don’t know if they are trapped here, or if they have just used binding stones to trap some of their power. But it has been my experience with the Derithan that they tend to hold that power. I would disrupt that.”

He just wasn’t sure how. Increasingly, he wondered if there would be anything, or any way, that he would be able to do it, because the technique seemed improbable, without having access to the disruptive lightning that the Maelen were able to wield.

“I would be happy to lend you my assistance, but the others hesitate,” Esarkin said.

Lathan frowned at that. “They hesitate?”

“They do. They have questions about you and about what you might do. Because of what you are. You have a predilection toward the elementals. And they are concerned about you choosing to favor them.”

In a way, maybe that was true.

Lathan focused on the wind, holding it through him, and trying to maintain a stability here in the air. He wondered if there would be anything that he could do about the Derithan, especially now that he knew that they were out there, and could feel their power. But even as he attempted to try to make sense of it, Lathan did not think that there was anything out there and to them that he could follow. He just felt the vague sort of energy, and within that, he knew that he was going to need to try to better understand more.

“Well, maybe you can help me learn more about what I need to do so that I can make sure that we don’t have to give them any reason to question me.”

“I would love to, but I do not think that it is prudent. I would, however, caution you. I would advise you to ensure that you know who you are trusting, because some may offer you promises and may not be able to back those promises up.”

That was an odd comment, but before Lathan had an opportunity to question, he went streaking away from him.

It was strange for him, but stranger still was that he felt like Esarkin was not saying it out of spite. Rather, he was saying that because he truly was trying to give Lathan some measure of advice.

“I don’t know,” Marin whispered. “I wish that there was something that we could say about it, but I don’t know.”

“And neither do I.”

He looked over, and the others were still lingering, hovering on their strange power, until they too, departed.

Isa shot Keeley a look, and then the two of them went streaking down.

One by one, other Maelen went down.

Until it left he and Marin just hovering on the wind.

“That was something,” she said.

“I get the feeling that they’re not all on the same page with what I am. I thought Esarkin believed I was this Asiran, but now I’m starting to wonder if maybe he doesn’t.”

“Oh, I think that he believes that you are, but my feeling is that he’s not exactly sure that he believes what they want to do with you, and he doesn’t know if he wants to go along with it.”

She watched down below, as if trying to find an answer that only she could see. “It’s strange, though. I get the feeling that there are some among the Maelen that view things differently. And here I thought that they all believed you to be this Asiran, and that they wanted you to join in whatever they had to do. Now I’m starting to question if perhaps that’s not quite the case.”

He snorted. “You and me both. I feel like there is more to this than I know, and the hard part is that I question if it is about helping me, or helping them.”

Distantly, Lathan was aware of the power that they were wielding. There were a series of lightning strikes, coordinated, as fingers of lightning coursed outward, drawn by what they were doing. And elementals began to depart within it. He felt that. He felt the connection, the power, and he felt something odd about it, but he wasn’t exactly sure why, and not exactly sure what he detected.

“Is it working?” Marin asked.

“Seems to be. Every time they use that technique, I can feel the elementals separating. It’s a relief, mostly for me, but strangely, it also feels like there is some relieved sensation from the elementals.”

“Could you call to them?” Marin asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe? If I could, I don’t know if I would be able to direct them, and even if I could, I don’t know where I would direct them. Does that make any sense? It feels like they need to get to safety, but I also don’t know what safety looks like for the elementals, not with what we have been doing. I wouldn’t know where to send them to ensure that they were not targeted again.”

Marin breathed out. “It’s too much to hope for, I suppose.”

There was another bit of crackling power, and even as he focused on it, he noticed something else. Distantly, Lathan felt a bit of warmth.

It had to be tied to spirit. The Maelen all had some connection to spirit, the same way that Marin, and for that matter, even Lathan, had a connection to spirit. Lathan had not been picking up on that, though. Now that he felt the flashing of energy, he couldn’t shake the sense that came with it, and he couldn’t shake the way that the power bloomed around him, leaving him wondering if perhaps there was some other great aspect that he should have been able to find and to feel as he attempted to understand the elements and the elementals.

“Did you feel that?” he asked.

“I keep feeling the coursing of the lightning. I would really like to know how they do that. But,” she went on, looking over to him and frowning, “you seem like you have been picking up on something else.”

Another burst built. This one felt different, jagged, irregular. Lathan looked over, but it must’ve been a Maelen that he hadn’t seen before. The sudden shift, and the power within it, changed, and it left some part of him trembling with that energy. He had never felt anything quite that potent before, but it left him awash with power.

“I don’t know what I’m feeling,” Lathan admitted. “I keep picking up on tracings. And I keep thinking that there should be something to it, something more, in fact, but I can’t quite place what it is. It’s like there is something there, some bit of power, that had been moving, shifting, and sliding around, but unfortunately, I can’t quite tell what it is doing.

“Just be careful,” she said softly.

“I have been careful.”

“You’ve been trying to be careful, but I want you to truly be careful here, Lathan.”

He smiled, but he cut off when he felt another burst of energy. This was warm, but it was different, a different, strange sense of warmth. Lathan was not entirely sure what it was, nor what to make of it, only that he could feel that power as it bloomed.

And as he looked around, attempting to try to make sense of what he picked up on, he was not sure what it was. Another burst came, and then another, and then another. More Maelen?

There was a blast, and air crackling, and there was something different to it.

As it crackled, Lathan looked over. He thought that was going to be one of the Maelen. The lightning strike was certainly similar to what he had seen from one of the Maelen, but the contours of lightning held a little bit different than what he had felt before. This was not the kind of pattern that he had felt from Isa or from Esarkin, from Keeley or any of the others. There was something almost darkened in the lightning, almost black in the way that it was crackling, and rolling toward him. There was an element that he felt was trying to overwhelm him. He struggled to concentrate, pulling a bit of wind at him so that he could concentrate the wind around him so that he might be able to see what was happening, and what was coming toward them.

But the crackling of lightning was changing. The power was changing.

And the energy was coursing in a way that Lathan could feel building up and coming toward him.

This was not Maelen.

And he didn’t know what it was. The only thing that Lathan knew with any certainty was that what was coming was potent.

And worse, Lathan suspected that it was tied to the Sacred Mother.

Chapter 19

“Hold on,” Lathan said.

He began to push with the wind.

He pushed the wind behind them, gliding along the trail that he had been generating. He called it through himself the way that he had learned that he could, feeling the stability of it but feeling something else on it, as well. It was quite unusual, and strange. He thought that he could pick up on some contour here that was distinct and quite different from what he would have expected that he would’ve been able to find otherwise. The longer that he held onto it, the easier it was for him to feel the wind flowing around him.

A buildup of energy came from behind him.

It did so with a strange rippling.

And he noticed the electrical streak of heat coming.

Lightning. The power of the Maelen.

Only this was something unusual.

He immediately released the wind.

When he did, the connection to it faded, and he and Marin went toppling downward. She cried out, and Lathan had to hold a loop of wind around her, using a very different form of potential than he had used before to hold her up against him. In the process, he felt somebody streaking down toward them—following them.

He ignored the power, ignored everything else, and held onto the wind until they neared the ground itself.

Then he pulled upon the wind, drawing it through him again, and sending them streaking off in a different direction. They skimmed above the surface of the trees.

It was a good thing that Lathan had been practicing with the wind, because if he had not, he did not know if he would have been able to protect them. Even doing this, Lathan was not entirely sure that he had enough control over what he was doing and how he was doing it in order for him to keep them perfectly safe. There was a strangeness here, and more than that, Lathan felt the wind crackling, as if it were going to be unstable again.

He released the wind, and then pulled it again, regrouping and summoning it once more. In the process, they shifted course once more.

They stopped, and he hovered.

Distantly, Lathan could feel that dark energy crackling again.

“What was that?” Marin asked.

“I don’t know. Somebody with the Sacred Mother? Maybe one of the Derithan that is using the Warrior Way, but doing it in a twisted fashion. I just…”

“We’ve not seen anything like that before.”

“I know,” Lathan said. “We need to call on the elementals.”

“Wind hasn’t answered for a long time,” she said.

“Try,” he said.

He knew that he needed to try, and he knew that it was unlikely to work, but he also knew that he wasn’t sure what else he could do here. Not until they had an opportunity to get through this. The more that he summoned the wind, the more that he began to feel it reacting, the more that he began to question if perhaps there was some other aspect to it that he should be able to find, but he could not. It remained hidden, distant, and damaged in a way.

Lathan pushed again.

If only he had a way of calling on the wind in a very different fashion.

If only he had something else that he could use. Elementals.

Couldn’t he do more with the elementals, after all? He was part elemental, and if he had a way to connect to that power, and to draw on it, he couldn’t help but feel as if there could be a technique that he could use in order for him to draw upon enough of that power so that he might be able to disrupt this dark power.

But Lathan did not know what that would entail, and he did not know if he had enough control over his own Asiran abilities.

Lathan continued to concentrate. They had dropped about halfway from where they had been before. The air was a little bit warmer here, and with the wind whipping around him, he felt the power, felt the way that it was trying to tear away his breath, but with his control over the wind, and the cold that he had flooding through him, Lathan thought that he could at least commanded longer.

But without any real control over it, he didn’t know if it would even be enough.

A thought came to him, but he suspected it would be dangerous. What if he could use the shadow to swallow whatever power chased them?

Without knowing the nature of the power, Lathan didn’t think that would even be safe , because it seemed to him that it would be far too unstable and there would be the likelihood that he would falter again.

“I’ve been trying to direct it, but I don’t know how.”

“Just keep trying, and I’m going to do something.” He shared with her what he planned, and as her eyes started to widen, he pulled her closer, wanting her to brace for what was to come, a little concerned that perhaps she wasn’t going to be ready for it.

He released the wind again.

They plummeted.

He focused on the wind, trying to redirect it. A crackling bolt of power streaked toward him. Lathan used some of the wind, shoving them to the side so that he would miss the attack. That bolt of energy streaked past where they had been. He could feel the sizzling bit of energy and was thankful that he did not get caught up in it.

He sent another boost of wind, gliding themselves off to the side so that he could avoid the attack. He didn’t know if he could do it quickly enough or powerfully enough.

And the person was moving too quickly.

The Maelen needed to be involved.

What if this was some aspect of the Maelen?

The power certainly felt similar, and given the way that it crackled, there was some part of it that he thought that he might recognize, but he needed to be careful.

He noticed power near the ground.

Lathan called the wind to him, sending it sliding through him, and as he did, he felt them slow. It was brief, and barely enough to be able to slow his descent, but it caught them just as they skimmed above the ground.

Where were the Maelen?

In the distance, he noticed the crackling of lightning.

He pushed them that way.

There was a burst of the darkened lightning in his direction, and Lathan ducked, spinning, using the wind in a torrent of power to send them spiraling.

Marin cried out, and Lathan almost dropped her.

Thankfully, he had a tight grip on her.

Then he shoved them again, using the wind as much as he could.

He was forcing it, drawing it through himself, but the wind worked against him. Somehow.

The dark Maelen was somehow taking the wind away from him.

And it seemed almost as if they understood how to do so, as if they understood what he needed and were able to strip it away, which was unique. It wasn’t terribly dissimilar to the way that Lathan used power when he was drawing on some of the energies that existed in the elementals, only this was him.

But wasn’t he an elemental?

He pushed, holding the wind, sending it out as a platform. He went sprinting along it.

And then Marin was there, racing alongside him. A crackling of lightning came. It was close, but it was too close, he feared.

Then there came another bolt of that strange dark lightning, another bit of energy, and Lathan staggered.

He fell off the platform. Marin stumbled, staying on it, until Lathan released it so that she would not be caught without him. Then he rolled, popping to his feet, and started sprinting across the ground as he headed toward the Maelen.

He shouted, using the wind to carry his words, calling to Esarkin, to Keeley, to Isa, to anyone who would listen.

As he got up to his feet, attempting to move quickly, he struggled. Marin grabbed for him, attempting to drag him with her, but even with her help, something inside of him didn’t seem to be working the way that it should. Lathan had a strange unease that was building, and it made it so that he could not react as he knew that he needed to. It was a potency that was causing a difficulty for him, making it so that he could not move as well, nor as quickly, as he wanted.

“Are you okay?” Marin asked, trying to get them moving.

Even as she did, Lathan felt an awareness of some of that power near him, and he started to question if there was some additional component to it that he might be able to take advantage of. That power that was there, some element—or elemental, he had to acknowledge—surged, causing that cold inside of him to react in a way that he felt like he needed to handle. It caused a strange buildup through him, making it so that he could not function nearly as well as he thought that he needed to. It was too potent for him, and it was too challenging to embrace the shadow. Something out there, though, began to burn, and it seemed as if there was some of that power, elemental in this case, that was working, perhaps even helping. He did not know why, nor did he know what it was.

Another burst of power came, building toward him.

He ducked, pulling Marin down with him.

“We aren’t going to be able to stay here very long,” he said. “I don’t know what we can do, but we are going to have to move, and quickly.”

“I don’t know what I can do,” Marin said. “Spirit doesn’t let me talk to the elementals.”

“But you can use spirit, right?”

She eyed him for a moment, and then nodded, as if understanding what he was getting at. She could wield spirit, which meant that, perhaps with spirit, she might even be able to exert a measure of control. It was possibly a dangerous technique, but if it granted them an opportunity, then they needed to take it.

Another burst of power came, and a flash came from above.

He saw a crackling, and then high overhead, he was certain there was a glow. Was that fire?

Something burned once again inside of him. He had felt that only moments before, and had not been entirely sure what it was, nor had he been sure how, or if, for that matter, he could use it. But this time, Lathan couldn’t help but feel as if he needed to.

Fire.

Lathan pulled upon that fire, and he thought about what he had done when he had worked with elementals before, and how he had felt fire bloomed within him. This was the power that he needed to draw upon, and he focused on it as he continued to push.

The heat began to erupt, creating a cascading line of flames in front of him. And within that, he sent the flames shooting out, whispering on the wind, and in the combination of the wind and the flame and the heat, everything began to burn.

Marin pulled on him, dragging him to his feet. They staggered away. “What was that?” she asked.

“I don’t know. It feels like fire, but in a way, it feels almost like it is some elemental of it.”

Marin looked up, and when she did, she frowned. He could practically feel something changing from her, as if whatever it was that she was doing, and how she was doing it, was tied to spirit. Maybe she was radiating some aspect of her spirit in order for her to pick up on something more. But if that were the case, why could he pick up on it so potently?

He did not know why, did not know what he detected, and did not know if there was something else there that he should have been able to find, just that there did seem to be a bit of a burst of energy around him.

“If it’s fire, then what if that is the draasin?”

Lathan wanted to tell her that it would be unlikely that it would be the draasin, and that he doubted that the draasin would even have followed here, not after what happened, but why wouldn’t they?

“I don’t know. They would have left, wouldn’t they?”

“I would’ve thought so,” Marin said. “But what if the draasin decided to linger because they thought that it was necessary for them to do so?”

“I don’t know.”

If only he had a better idea, and better opportunity, for him to understand the different elementals and that power. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to work the way that it should. Try as he might, Lathan could not call that power nearly as well as he wanted.

Another burst, and this time, it was a crackling of energy, reminding him of the Maelen. The buildup of it was significant, and it left him staggering backward.

“There’s more,” Lathan said. “Quite a bit more. I don’t think that it is safe for us to linger here any longer.”

“And I don’t think that it was ever safe for us to linger here in the first place,” she said. “Why do you think we should move?”

“Because I think that there are Derithan that are more than Derithan.” It had to be what he had detected. Derithan who had access to the power of the Maelen, but could also bind, or trap, the power of the elementals. Derithan who were even more powerful than any attacker that they had access to.

Which meant that this might be beyond their ability to withstand.

Chapter 20

Lathan braced for the attack, uncertain about what was coming and where it was coming from, as energy began to crackle around him. The Maelen had taken up a position around he and Marin to protect them and provide a measure of safety. Every time that there came another burst of the dark lightning, he felt it through him, as if some part of him responded to it.

He kept waiting for evidence of these Derithan to come down to them, but so far, there had been nothing. He was thankful for that, because Lathan didn’t know what he would do, if anything, if they did come to attack. The only thing that he knew with certainty was that what was coming, and how it was coming, felt different than what he had felt otherwise.

“There are others with power,” Lathan said, looking over to where Isa was standing, positioning herself as if she had to protect him. “Others like you, but who are bonded to elementals.”

A pained look crossed her features. “We don’t talk about that.”

“You knew?” Marin asked.

She let out a frustrated sigh. “We knew that there were some of the Maelen who had sought an alliance. They thought that it might be the only way that they would be able to survive what the Sacred Mother intended. They thought they had no choice in the matter.”

And Lathan couldn’t help but feel as if maybe that had been understandable. With what they had been dealing with and the dangers that existed, it made sense to him. How could it not? What they had been working with, and what they had seen, was certainly dangerous enough. And if it would offer an opportunity for them to get to safety, why would he want to take that from them?

Lathan couldn’t take it from them, and he could not blame them, for that matter.

“Is that what you were doing here initially?” Marin asked.

He frowned, looking over to her, before turning his attention back to them. “Is it?”

“We wanted answers,” Isa said. “We knew that it was necessary in order for us to find what these traitors had done. We knew that there may not be anything that we could do to ensure our safety or the safety of others, but we thought that we had to try something. And so we came, thinking that we could follow some.”

“Somebody that you knew had betrayed you,” Lathan said.

She nodded.

That was what this was about. At least, what it was about for the Maelen.

“So this, and me, were accidental,” Lathan said.

“It was,” she said. “We did not know that you were going to be found. We had been hoping, thinking that one day the Asiran would come in the time of great trial and tribulation, but…”

She flicked her gaze up, and then a bit of lightning crackled from her. It was strange and unpleasant, as he could feel that lightning as it coursed around him.

He didn’t know what they had done, but he still feared it. He feared what it meant, feared what he might need to do, and he feared the change that was crackling in the air around him.

“So you know some of these people?”

“We know many of them,” Isa said, her voice soft. “It is why some among us feel that we should not stay here. We should leave before…”

When she trailed off, Marin took a step toward her, and Lathan had a vague sense of her doing something, though he wasn’t entirely sure what it was. Maybe it was spirit, but there was no flash of cold within him the way that he often felt when there was an aspect of spirit used. Instead, there was just a hint of warmth. But considering what he had felt of fire recently, Lathan was left with questions about that, and he did not know if there was anything to what he had done, or what she had done, that made any sense to him.

“You should leave before others are tempted?” Marin asked.

“Do you think they would be?” Lathan asked.

“They will not,” Isa said. “The ones who remained, the ones who have seen you, understand that our cause is just. They understand that they must be here, and they must linger until we can get you to safety, trained, and ready to defend.”

“But what if I can’t defend the way that they think that I can?” Lathan asked.

“You can. You must.”

“You’re putting a lot of hope in me, in what I might be, instead of putting it into what you know of yourself and your people.”

Isa looked over to the others, and they were waiting, quiet. These were Maelen that Lathan did not know, but they were all waiting on her. Waiting to protect him.

And knowing that there were some Maelen who had betrayed their people made a certain sort of sense. But worse than that, he couldn’t help but feel as if this was asking more of him than he could promise. More than he thought that he could offer.

“You don’t understand,” she said.

“I understand. I understand that you have been looking for a way to help people, and there are some of you who have latched onto the idea of me being the next in line for the Asiran, but I also recognize that you need to deal with the Sacred Mother and the threat that she poses, regardless of what I am or could be. I’m going to help, but I’m going to help because it’s the right thing for my people.”

“You are not yet ready.”

“I keep hearing that,” Lathan said, shaking his head. “And you know, you’re probably right. I am not ready. I don’t know how, or when, I might be. But I do know that I can’t wait if she’s going to send Derithan who have Maelen abilities at my people. If we wait, we are going to continue to lose.”

And it was more than that, though Lathan wasn’t exactly sure how to describe that to her, or if it would make any difference. In his mind, if he did nothing, there was a real possibility that the Sacred Mother would continue to grow stronger, and eventually would gain enough potency that she would be able to handle him, but more than just him. She would eventually gain the ability to overpower the kingdom. It was getting to that point already.

They had weakened her. And considering that they had weakened her, it was time to take advantage of that.

“I want to go back,” Lathan said. “And if you aren’t willing to take me, that’s fine. I will travel on the wind.”

“It is too slow, and not safe,” Isa said.

“Is it as safe as trusting your people?”

“Lathan,” Marin said.

Lathan shook his head. “I don’t say that to be offensive. I’m saying it because I want to know. Is it safe?”

“You can trust us.”

He wondered if he could. But then again, he also needed to trust them. He needed the Maelen. He was going to need them to fight.

He just had to figure out a way to convince them to do so.

Isa approached, and she looked from him to Marin, before he felt her doing something. She summoned the power, and if he had any way of controlling it, he would have done the same thing himself. There was a burst of pale white lightning, and then the sense of movement lifted he and Marin, guiding them up, and then back to the city. Once they landed, she bowed her head.

“Don’t,” Lathan said.

“You don’t understand.”

There was a crackle of additional lightning. A burst of power came as others began to arrive. Lathan counted the Maelen, wondering if perhaps there would be something that he could use of them, and with them, to help fight.

“We will deal with them,” Lathan promised. “We will deal with all of them, because we must. And if it involves us finding those who betrayed your people, then we will. But for now, I’m going to make my preparations.”

He might be their Asiran, and they might believe that he could be something more than what he had already been, but with his connection to the elementals, what he was going to be able to do, and the way that he was going to be able to wield that power, was quite a bit different than what they possessed. His ability, and what he could learn from them, was going to be quite a bit different from them.

He strode away, leaving them talking amongst themselves, and he hurried back toward the buildings, and strode inside until he found Henash talking with Marin.

Henash looked up as he entered. He frowned as he looked at Lathan. “All of this is quite a bit dangerous. And I do not know if this is a wise decision on your part, but I will support you if you think this necessary.”

They marched down the hallway. By the time they reached the door with a pair of guards standing, Lathan still felt the crackling of wind. While he could feel a little bit of the fire, he wasn’t exactly sure what it was, just that it was burning inside of him. If it was fire, he wondered if he could draw on it, or use it in some fashion. He had not attempted to do so, because he had not wanted to lose control over it. It had taken a while to master the wind, and even now, Lathan didn’t know that he had any real mastery over it so much as he had a familiarity with it.

“She is expecting us,” Henash said.

The guards looked at Lathan, as if trying to decide if they wanted to stop him or not, but at least they gave Henash a bit of respect.

“She has been making preparations. We were told not to disturb her.”

Henash hesitated. “This is not a disturbance. We need to talk about the attack and our next steps.”

As Henash was talking to the man, Lathan began to feel something, though he wasn’t sure, at first, quite what he had detected. It struck him as a little bit of a strange sort of power that worked through him, though right now he couldn’t tell quite what it was, just that there did seem to be something familiar. It was a strange, vague sort of energy that bothered him.

“Lathan?” Henash asked.

Lathan had started forward down the hallway, before stopping. He looked over to Henash. “I’m not sure what’s going on, but I feel something familiar here. It’s an elemental kind of power. I’ve been feeling it ever since we came to the city in the first place, but now I feel it even more profoundly than previously. I don’t know why, nor do I know what it is, but there is something here.”

The longer that he focused on that power, the more that Lathan knew that he needed to be careful. It was a buildup of a different sort of an energy, and it was one that he increasingly thought that he needed to have a better control over. Even as he attempted to do so, the understanding of that power evaded him. He was not entirely sure what he would need to do, nor how he could do it.

And until he had a greater understanding of what he could draw upon, and how it would work, he was not entirely sure what he was going to need to do here.

“Lathan,” Henash said.

“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s like elemental power, but it’s not elemental power.”

“Who is she in there with?” Henash asked, and he tipped his head to the side. Lathan could feel something, as if Henash were talking to the wind, but in this place, a place that had once been the Sacred Mother’s, there had been the connection to wind. There was a bit of a buzzing in the air, one that seemed as if it were sweeping outward, sweeping away, and it began to build in a different way.

“She is making preparations,” the guard said.

And with that comment, and with the strangeness that Lathan felt, he thought that he understood.

“The Sacred Mother,” he said.

And he focused on the wind, focused on what he could do with it, and pushed his way into the room.

Chapter 21

The force of his attack left the guards startled.

Lathan had no interest in trying to startle them, and he wished that he had Marin’s level of spirit control that he could soothe them so that they would not be quite as afraid of what he was doing, but he simply did not have that. Instead, he had to try to push past. He immediately tried to radiate some bit of energy in order for him to attempt to calm them, but he did not know if that was going to even be effective.

The moment that he stepped inside, he noticed the Lady Naserra standing in the middle of the room, her head back, her arms out to either side, and her legs spread. She was standing in the middle of a stone circle.

There was power in that circle, as if it were drawing upon the elementals.

Not an elemental, though. This was something else. This was something familiar.

It was the warmth of spirit.

Naserra turned to him, and her eyes were glazed silver. Her mouth was ajar, and the wind seem to stream around her. The elements were working here.

That spirit. This was something else.

“I think this is the Sacred Mother,” Lathan said. “I didn’t know that she could possess somebody, but she is a being of spirit, so maybe she’s using the other elementals?” He frowned, stepping forward. Marin grabbed for his arm, trying to keep him from getting to her, but that wasn’t going to stop him. Not if there was something here that he could do. And Lathan very much thought that there was something here that he could do, even if he had no real idea what that something might be. He had to keep going, in order for him to have some answer here.

He focused, pulling on the wind, trying to wrap it around Naserra in order to keep her from doing something dangerous. For a moment, he thought that he had it done correctly.

Then Naserra started to laugh. “You really think that you have any real strength in the elements, child?”

Her voice was different than the voice Naserra had. Now it carried with it a little bit of sharpness that the Sacred Mother had spoken with. Though not at first. When Lathan had first seen the Sacred Mother, she had seemed warm and comforting, and it seemed as if she were trying to be understanding. Now he felt a very different sense from her, and it was one that struck him as dangerous and a little bit unnerving.

“Child?” Lathan asked. “I presume I’m speaking to the Sacred Mother now.”

She laughed, and she flicked her gaze from him, and then turned to Marin, who let out a gasp.

Lathan had felt a pulse of warmth, and he suspected that the reason for Marin’s gasp was because the Sacred Mother had attempted to use spirit on her.

Could she protect herself?

Marin was growing increasingly skilled with spirit, but in order to protect herself from an entity of spirit required a greater strength than he thought that Marin might even have.

The other person he worried about was Henash. Henash was also powerful and capable, but there was a very real possibility that Henash would not be able to defend himself against the Sacred Mother if she were to exert herself. The only thing Lathan thought might be able to deter it would be… Shadow.

He swept the shadow outward. It was the one elemental aspect of himself that he had any control over, but then again, Lathan was part elemental, wasn’t he? He had that power, and he was able to wield it, and he used it to draw the sense of spirit off of him, Henash, and Marin.

Marin moved closer to Lathan. When she was nearly touching him, she reached out, and grabbed for his jacket. “I don’t like that,” she said.

“I’m trying to keep her away from you, but I don’t know how long I’ll be able to do this.”

The Sacred Mother laughed again. “You have a little bit of skill, but you are so young, so inexperienced, and you do not even understand the ways of the world. You have just barely begun to touch the elements, and you think that you can challenge an elemental?”

“Which elemental am I challenging?” Lathan asked. “Am I challenging you? Am I challenging the elementals you’re hiding? Am I challenging elementals that you’re sending? Or am I challenging the Derithan, which you have permitted to capture some of the elementals that you have been working with?”

All of that went out with a bit of force, and Lathan even tried to push out with a bit of spirit, as well. It was the only way that he thought that he might counter what she was doing, but even as he attempted to do so, Lathan didn’t know if he had enough strength, or enough control of her spirit. For him, it was simply blasting with spirit.

Henash had followed him. Lathan glanced back, curious if there was going to be anything that he could do, or anything that he needed to do. He wanted to try to focus on his attack, and whether there was anything more that needed to be done here. He could feel some of that power as it rippled, and more than that, he could feel the way that it was working.

“You should check on him. I’m going to keep protecting you, but I can’t do both.”

“Are you sure?”

“I am going to give you as much time as I can,” he said. “Because I can feel the need, and more than that, I can feel something else here. I think that with enough time, I can stop this.”

Marin slipped away, hurried over to Henash, and crouched down next to him. Lathan began to feel the warmth of her spirit as she attempted to try to use it on Henash. He was thankful that Marin had the necessary control here.

“You don’t need her,” Lathan said. “You don’t need to speak through somebody else, do you? Or maybe you do.”

He was taunting the Sacred mother, but he needed to get her to separate. And there was some deep, instinctive part of himself that felt as if that was the right strategy. He wasn’t quite sure if it was, just that some part of him seemed inspired by that. He maintained a connection to wind, wanting a barrier, but it didn’t work.

There was resistance.

Elementals, most likely. She was manifesting inside of Naserra, but she was also using the elementals.

Could he use something of that?

Lathan was able to summon the elementals, as well, wasn’t he?

He had bonded them in the past, but he didn’t even know if bonding to the elementals was safe for him, or if it was something that he should even attempt to do, because there was a real possibility that doing so would harm them.

And he didn’t want to harm the elementals. But he also wanted to try to protect these people from what the elementals might do.

Henash was lying motionless. What else had she done to him?

Lathan needed another attempt, another attack, another technique, but unfortunately did not have one.

What he wouldn’t give to have had an opportunity to master the Maelen lightning. That Warrior Way pattern seemed as if it might be beneficial here. And if he could do that, then maybe he could create a crackling of energy that would shake Naserra free from what the Sacred Mother had done to her.

“Do you want me to release them?” The Sacred Mother turned, focusing her full force of her attention on Lathan. “I can tell how much you care about them, and how much you believe you can save them. But in order for me to be willing to release them, I’m going to need assurances from you.”

He was focusing on the wind, continuing to try to wrap it around her. As he did, he could still feel the fire burning inside of him. That fire seemed as if it might be beneficial here, but only if he could gather some connection to it and could wield it in a way that would allow him to wrap that fire through.

“Oh?” Lathan asked. “What sort of assurances do you want from me? It seems to me that I should be the one asking for assurances from you. Especially considering what it seems like you’re trying to do here. You are attacking one of my people.”

“I can tell that you do not care for this one. You radiate that sense.”

“You’re using spirit.”

“Oh, yes. But you are not nearly as much of an open book as these others. Do you think that they care about you?”

“They do,” Lathan said.

“They care about you because I want to use you.”

“I’m sure,” Lathan said.

“And you don’t care? You don’t want to know what it might be like for those who truly care about you? You don’t want to know what it might be like to feel the warmth of those who know nothing but affection for you?”

He began to use fire, adding it to wind. It wrapped into the wind, heat building slowly and steadily, somehow coming from the connection that he had to the elemental that had ignited some fire inside of him. It was there, burning. He thought that he could reach for more power, but he feared doing so, and feared what it might mean for him if he were to do it. He had to be careful, and he had to maintain control.

But more than that, he wanted understanding.

And that was what he wanted. An understanding.

He hungered for it.

He wanted to use the elements because he couldn’t help but feel as if that was what he was meant to do. That was what shadow did. It helped him hunger for the power, and it helped him find the energy, and it helped him reach for what he couldn’t reach on his own.

And through it all, Lathan could feel something, and he could feel the way that was building, and he could feel the brimming of power as he attempted to try to ignore it, but there was no ignoring of that power. There was no ignoring of anything, as the more that he focused on that energy, the easier it was for him to draw upon that.

“What do you think I can do?”

“You?” The Sacred Mother started laughing again. “You can do so little, child. You have done so little.”

“No,” Lathan said. “I can do more than you know.”

“And you think your tiny touch of fire is impressive to me?”

“I think you’re afraid of the shadow.”

“I fear nothing,” the Sacred Mother said.

“Then why can’t you step forward.”

It had taken a moment to realize she had not moved, and she had remained in place, which suggested to him that there was some reason for it. Maybe it was the place that she was standing that was significant. If so, Lathan had to think that there could be something about that which he might be able to take advantage of. If she couldn’t move from it, then maybe he could trap her there.

But how, and why, had Naserra been involved in it?

“You do not understand what is happening here,” she said.

Lathan ignored her, pushing a bit of wind.

This time, he didn’t try to do anything other than to push inward. He collapsed the wind. He added the fire to it. And it was Naserra, not the Sacred Mother, who cried out.

Lathan didn’t want to harm Naserra.

He just needed to separate the Sacred Mother from her, and to keep her from possessing Naserra.

Then Naserra cried out again.

Lathan doubted that he had much time. That was what he was doing with what he suspected that power around him did. He had to have a better control over it, somehow.

The wind whistled, the fire stirred, and there was something else. Lathan could feel the ground, he could feel the way it was trembling, and he thought that maybe he could add some additional element to that. And as he pushed, feeling that trembling of the ground, he started to detect whether or not there would be anything more that he might add to it. He didn’t know. Though there was a bit of power there, it was not the kind of power he had any familiarity with. He strained against it, nonetheless.

And then he felt it working upward. It disrupted the connection. Within that, he felt the different elementals. That connection gave him just a moment, and that was all that he needed.

He needed to disrupt the elementals, and he needed to disrupt what the Sacred Mother had done to them.

Lathan pushed on the shadow, adding it to the fire, adding the wind, and swirling that toward Naserra.

He ripped at the wind elemental, freeing it. He pulled it to himself, absorbing it, or at least, linking to it, however briefly, with a bloom of cold that echoed inside of himself. It was as if the shadow recognized what he was doing, and how he was doing it. And in the process, he felt a separation. It exploded, expanding, and then it rippled outward. Wind allowed him to push harder, further.

In doing so, he felt the flames. The fire. He drew on that, felt the cold match once again, and more elemental power began to explode inside of him.

He kept drawing. Moving from one elemental to another, stripping that power away, connecting to it. He had to hold onto it as long as he could.

That left only spirit.

He had moved forward.

Naserra hung limp, her eyes still silver, but some of the energy was drained from her. And he realized that the Sacred Mother required the elementals, and her own connection to them, for her to have the strength that she had.

He had seen it before, and considering how she had used the elementals to bind them to this place, he had a pretty good idea what power was going to be necessary for her, but he also didn’t know if there would be a way that he could use that in order for him to try to help free the elementals.

That was the key here, wasn’t it?

It wasn’t so much that she was sending the Derithan. The Derithan were easy enough to deal with once they had the numbers. It was more about the elementals. It was more about dealing with the Sacred Mother. It was more about the threat she posed.

He held her gaze. “I’m going to find you. I’m going to remove you. And you aren’t going to be able to harm elementals or those wielding spirit any longer.”

She thrashed.

“And you can try, and you can fight, but I am the shadow.”

And with that, the shadow swirled. He pushed, and the energy faded entirely.

Naserra collapsed to the ground.

Chapter 22

After the attack on Naserra, Lathan couldn’t help but feel as if he had to get a better idea about what was going on. The presence of the Sacred Mother coming into the city suggested that whatever she was after was here, but it was more than just the fact that it was here. It was about the fact that she had been willing to try something here.

He reached the edge of the city, making a point of avoiding the Maelen as much as he could. It had been difficult for him to do so, but he found that if he focused on the cold inside of himself, using the shadow as much as he could, he could try to hide and could shroud himself. He doubted that he would be able to do so for very long, as in his mind, he fully anticipated that most of the Maelen, and even some that had come to the city with Naserra and Henash, would be able to figure out what he was doing and might even be able to counter it.

But for now, he wanted an opportunity to wander on his own and to see if there might be anything else that he could uncover.

Because increasingly, Lathan couldn’t help but feel as if what he needed to know was what was happening here and if there might be a way for him to stop it before it got to be too much.

The Sacred Mother wanted the city.

It wasn’t him, he didn’t think. Despite what the water elemental had told him when they had been sitting there after the elemental had saved Esarkin. There couldn’t be anything about Lathan other than the shadow, and the shadow might be unique, but the shadow didn’t do the same things that spirits did. Lathan could bind it, but he could not claim, could not possess, could not control the same way that spirit could. She didn’t necessarily need him for anything, did she?

She just wanted this place.

He made his way around the perimeter of the city, testing the cold inside of him, curious if there was any part of him that would react to what was found around the outskirts of the city. He did not feel anything. As far as he could tell, the elementals that had lingered after the fall of the Sacred Mother initially had all abandoned it. Some forcefully, all through what the Maelen had done, and some had willingly departed.

It left Lathan with questions about the elementals that he did not know if he would be able to get an answer to.

At one point, he paused near a small stream, reaching down, and tracing his fingers through the water. He wondered if there was something within the water that he might be able to try to find, and some way that he could draw upon the elemental that had passed through. If only he had found a way to connect to the elemental and to speak to it, but Lathan did not have that skill. He thought about what the elemental had said, about binding elementals.

Could he have done that?

He was not quite like the Maelen or the warriors of old, as he had a very different aspect to himself that made it so that what he was able to do, and how he could do it, was quite distinct. It made him think that there might be some other technique to it that could be useful.

Did he need to have that ability?

As Lathan thought about it, he couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps he did not need that. Perhaps what he really needed was a very different approach, and a different opportunity, in order for him to try to understand some of what he was using and some of how he could use it.

The key, as he saw it, had to be tied to something more significant.

“If there are any elementals here, I would like to speak to you,” Lathan said.

He didn’t really expect much of an answer.

And he was surprised when the cold inside of him surged a little bit. It was as if the shadow decided that it was going to work and perhaps even attempt to try to summon some of those elementals to him. As he felt for that, Lathan attempted to try to make sense of it and struggled with it.

The cold didn’t provide him with answers.

The shadow part of him was distinct, unique, and it was an aspect that Lathan did not fully understand, even though he struggled to do so.

It was there, though.

Could he come to terms with it?

There were times when he thought that he could, and that he did understand just what the shadow wanted of him. And there were times when he was certain that the shadow did want something from him, as he felt it distinctly inside of himself. But there were other times when he questioned whether or not it was only his imagination, whether there was anything or any way that it would bloom inside of him. He could not feel it. Despite what he tried, and despite what he wanted. He could not, because strangely, that connection, such as it was, remained vague and indistinct inside of him.

“I need answers,” Lathan said. “I need to understand the shadow, and I need to understand the elementals. But more than that, I need to understand what the Sacred Mother intends. Not just for you, but for me.”

He spoke aloud, and while doing so, he also attempted to try to focus on what it felt like inside of himself to see if there might be a way for him to summon some of that connection, and perhaps to even use that. But it didn’t work.

There continued to be that bloom of cold deep inside of him, but that bloom remained empty, and the part of himself that he had detected remained empty.

“Please,” he said. “If there’s any way that you will respond, please…”

And again, there was nothing. Just quiet.

It was as if the elemental inside of himself was pushing the others away.

But why would that be the case? He had felt as if the elementals, and the shadow, wanted to have an opportunity to communicate but had not been able to do so. There was a distance and a distinctness that made it so that it was difficult for him to follow that connection.

He kept moving.

He hadn’t gone very far before he found a small heap of earth. It looked man-made, or at least, it looked artificially made. As he moved around it, he looked over, saw how close he was to the outskirts of the city, and focused, testing if there could be anything to what he picked up on that might help him with anything more. Even as he looked, he did not see anything to it. It just left him thinking that perhaps this was some old ruins that were tied to the city, but tied to it in a way that Lathan did not fully know and perhaps could not fully know.

As he moved around the outskirts of it, he continued to feel something within it, some element, in fact, that bloomed with him. It left a strange contour to this place.

Why should he feel it like that?

It had an element of earth to it, but it was a vague, and distant portion of earth. But it wasn’t just earth. If he wasn’t mistaken, Lathan thought that he could feel each of the other types of the elements that were left with it, memories of them that lingered, aspects that seemed as if they were meant for him to find.

And more than that, there was a tracing here.

It flowed in a particular direction.

Strange that it would do that.

He kept moving, but now that he had found a place like that, Lathan started to focus on whether there might be others that he could find.

He found another not far from the first. It was also outside of the boundary of the city and also carried with it a distinct memory of different elements. Or, as Lathan suspected, a memory of different elementals. He tested it, curious if this was a binding stone in some way, but it didn’t strike him as one. Or at least, it didn’t strike him as how he knew binding stones, but with the memory within it, he couldn’t shake the feeling that perhaps there was some aspect to this that was not particularly dissimilar to a binding stone. He didn’t know why that should be, just that he felt something there, and he struggled to try to make sense of what it was and why it felt so similar to him.

He moved on.

By the time he reached the third one, similarly fallen into disrepair and similarly waited with ancient energy, Lathan could not tell if there was anything more within it that he might be able to understand, just that he could feel some contour that lingered.

Not binding stones. At least, not traditional binding stones. But there were element powers here.

Why were they here?

It was a question for those who had found this place, but in a way, knowing that the Sacred Mother had wanted this place, Lathan couldn’t help but feel as if there had to be some reason for that, perhaps some connection to what had been happening and a bond to this place.

But if that were the case, then the question was why?

There had to be a reason, but he did not know quite what it would be. He did not know quite what he picked up on, just that he felt something about it.

More questions, and more curiosity, as he did not know if there was a reason behind what he detected that would help explain just what he thought the Sacred Mother was after. Was there something else, some other reason, behind it?

By the time he made his circuit of the city, Lathan had found five distinct places. The number seemed significant to him, especially because there were four primary elements, but then there was spirit and shadow. Why five?

It didn’t make sense.

Maybe the number wasn’t significant, either. There were aspects of some of the ancient connections to the elements that Lathan did not understand and that had been lost to time. It was an aspect of all of that which Lathan wondered if he could even master, because the people who had come before and who had built cities like this one, had obviously known parts of the elements—and the elementals, he suspected—much differently, and perhaps even better, than they did. Despite the fact that he had hunted elementals for his entire life and knew something about binding stones, there was still something about what they were able to do and how they were able to connect to the elements that Lathan did not think that his people, and those that had come before him, could have known, because the connection, and uniqueness to what they were able to do, was quite a bit different.

And maybe it had nothing to do with any of it. Considering how old this place was, it might just be that it was some ancient ritual. And perhaps that was something that the Sacred Mother had been after.

He debated staying and testing and searching, but what he really needed were answers. And Lathan did not think that he was going to be able to find the answers that he wanted by staying here. In fact, where he needed to go, Lathan suspected, was to go beyond. Where he needed to go, and where he feared going, was to test what the Derithan were doing, and to test how close they were getting to the city.

He called upon wind. That was still the easiest element for him, and he questioned if it would always be the easiest for him. He summoned that power to himself and attempted to try to draw it in as he maintained a measure of focus on it. He felt it flowing through him. As before, Lathan had attempted to try to master that to see if there might be a way for him to call on anything else, but even in doing so, he could not feel anything else. The wind was there, and it flowed through him, flowing in a way that allowed him to solidify it. So he did so, creating the invisible, translucent pathway that he stood upon. Then, he used that pushing flow of wind to glide onward.

He moved ever higher, gliding upward on the pathway of wind until he reached a vantage where he could look out toward the outskirts of the city, and begin to look for the Derithan.

Even as he did that, however, Lathan did not see any sign of the Derithan moving. It was difficult, however, because the density of the forest in the trees around them would make it difficult for him to be able to pick up on the Derithan’s movements. Still, he thought that he could pick up on some contour of what they were doing, the way that they reached for the power of the elements, but even in doing that, Lathan did not feel anything more distinct to that. There was some aspect of the binding stones that lingered down below, but as he attempted to try to hold onto it, he did not find anything.

What he did, however, feel was the strange bloom of cold inside of himself, and he noticed that there were elementals.

Countless elementals.

Lathan could feel them more so than he could see them. But as he focused, it struck him as if there were elementals that were working their way closer and closer to the city.

He thought about what the water elemental had told him, and how some were attempting to escape. Some elementals would manage to do so, getting free of the Sacred Mother and getting free of what she intended.

But others would not.

Was that what he saw now? Elementals that did not have any choice in the matter and were coming because they had been summoned, and because they could not fight the Sacred Mother?

If that was the case, then what did it mean for him?

That was an aspect of all of this that Lathan did not fully understand. He had his shadow portion, and as far as he had been able to tell, there had not been an attempt to try to hold him, nor to call him, nor to bind him.

Strangely, that was the aspect that left him both reassured and also concerned. He couldn’t shake the feeling that there could and should be some other reason for his presence here, and that there could be some other need for him, but he also did not know if it was a danger to him.

And until he had that answer, Lathan didn’t think that it was going to be safe for him to get too far from the city.

But increasingly, the answer stared at him.

He had to do what the other elementals, the water elemental that he had greeted before, had attempted to do. He had to evacuate.

Because he didn’t think that he had much choice in the matter, did he? How could he, not with what they had been facing, and not with what he had been dealing with, and not with the possibility that everything that they had faced would continue to come to a head.

He had to evacuate, because the Sacred Mother might come for him after she finished with the rest of these elementals.

He turned, making his way back toward the city. From above, he could see the contours of the city, the pale, gleaming white, and there were other aspects of the city itself that struck him. Perhaps it was just the shape of the buildings, or perhaps it was the nature of the stone. Some of it was old, buried beneath some of the newer stone. It caught the light, as if glowing with a different, vibrant intensity all on its own. And within that, he couldn’t help but feel as if maybe it was something about the city itself that he needed to understand, but Lathan did not know how to do so, and did not know what that might look like, as he did not know if there would be a way for him to handle that.

For now, however, he had to be careful.

For now, he knew that he needed to avoid the Sacred Mother. For now, Lathan had to try to find an understanding, not only of what he was, but of the power inside of him, and what the Sacred Mother intended.

And he feared that he may not know enough—and that it was already too late.

Chapter 23

The city was awash with activity after the attack. And everybody viewed as an attack, even though there were some people who didn’t really understand what had happened, only that from some of the stories that had spread, it seemed as if Lathan had targeted the Lady Naserra.

“Did you realize that Henash has been telling everybody what you did?” Jef asked as Lathan moved through the streets. He could feel the binding stones that some of the soldiers carried and recognized that the power within them was potent, but so far, nobody had used any of the binding stones against him. Though, Lathan wondered if it was even possible for them to do so.

“What did he tell people?”

“Oh, just rumors. I think he did it intentionally. He’s trying to give you a little bit more respect.” He motioned to a pair of the soldiers that were marching along the street. Some of the people from his village veered out of the way, as if they wanted to avoid them at all costs. “I don’t know if he thinks that he’s going to be able to do it, though. I have a feeling that he’s a little bit concerned about what he might be able to convince others of and if he’s going to be able to keep them safe. But he’s also trying to convince Naserra.”

“It’s more than just that.”

“Well, it’s more than that, but it’s better that he share those rumors than the ones that you attacked Naserra because the Maelen have named you as the Asiran.” He started to laugh. “I like that myself because it makes it seem like you are jealous of her. Or maybe the opposite. She’s jealous of you?”

He had wandered with Jef a little while longer, hearing more and more about the rumors that had been spreading and how nobody had spoken about the Derithan that converged upon the city.

Finally, Lathan had moved off on his own. He continued wandering, working, until he caught sight of Esarkin, all by his own, and approached. An idea had begun to form in Lathan’s mind, but he wasn’t sure if it was going to work. If he could be like the Maelen, then it wouldn’t be so dangerous, would it?

“I need to know how to get earth and water regularly,” he said, looking over to Esarkin. They were at the edge of the city. Ever since he had defeated, however that was a defeat, the Sacred Mother, the elementals had withdrawn. The Derithan had pulled back. The attack was halted, at least for now.

Lathan needed to try to find a way to end it definitively.

And increasingly, he couldn’t help but feel as if standing against that threat definitively meant that he was going to be able to protect the kingdom from the Derithan, as well.

But it all stemmed from the Sacred Mother.

That was the key, but Lathan had no idea how he was going to do that, no idea what that was going to entail, and no idea if he was even going to be strong enough to get to her, if it came down to that.

“There are others who are much more eager to work with you,” Esarkin said.

“I know, which is why I want to work with you. I figure that if anybody can help me, it’s going to be the one person who doesn’t really want to help me.”

“I think you are mistaken. It’s not that I don’t want to help. It’s that I understand that I am not one who agrees with what others have been doing. I feel like there is much more that needs to be done. And I have my reservations about the Asiran.”

Lathan did as well, but maybe not for the same reason.

“Because you don’t want me to become the Asiran,” Lathan said.

“Because I recognize the danger of the Asiran, and what it represents to our people. My people, I suppose I should say.” He looked over, and behind him were a pair of Maelen that Lathan didn’t know all that well. He suspected Isa had assigned them to stay with him while Esarkin worked with him.

“I still need to learn how to use the other elements. My intention is to go after the Sacred Mother, remove her as a threat, and figure out some way to trap her power.”

“Trap it?”

“She’s an elemental, right?”

He frowned. “I suppose.”

“Well, if there’s one thing that my father taught me when I was younger, it’s that elementals don’t really die. They have power, and they can be drawn into the element itself, but they don’t really die the way that we do. And maybe we don’t even die,” Lathan said. He had thought about what had happened to his father, the way that he had disappeared, as if drawn into spirit. But even that had left Lathan without real answers.

He had thought about how the elementals could cycle power, how they would draw it into themselves, and how his father had made it seem like the elementals could be drawn into power, as well. It was a strange and unique concept, and it was one that he still struggled to understand, but in a way, it all made a certain sort of sense. Especially when it came to the kind of power that he knew the elementals would draw upon. It was not power that drained elements. And when he drew upon the elementals, it didn’t drain them, either. It was a cycling of that energy, a drawing, but nothing destructive to it.

At least, it was not destructive the way that he did it.

“So you intend to hold her? Does that mean that you intend to take her domain?”

“I don’t want her power; I don’t want her people. Or elementals. But I do want to free them.” Lathan paced. “When I was younger, elementals were rare. Or at least, I thought they were rare. We hunted them for power. I grew quite gifted at hunting the elementals so that I could trap their power.” Esarkin frowned at him, but Lathan kept going. “Then, I realized that some of the elementals had been bound and held in place. I didn’t understand it, but after learning that my father had been responsible for it, I can’t help but feel as if the reason that he had done it was because he believed that it was necessary to ensure a measure of safety. But safety from what, and safety for who? I don’t know. Maybe it was just tied to what he had been dealing with, which I do think was different than the Sacred Mother.”

Only there did seem to be some sort of a connection to what his father had been doing, and to whatever it was the Sacred Mother had been involved in. Lathan wasn’t entirely sure about that, but increasingly, he had to believe that there was a link there.

“And now, I think that I can hold her. It’s going to take me figuring out where she is and where she’s strongest so that I can take the fight to her. I think that’s what I need to do.”

“You would go to her?”

There was something in the way he said it that suggested that he feared for Lathan, or perhaps he just feared in general.

“I would do what’s necessary in order to help people. I have this ability. And I need to continue to progress with it. I want to learn how to control it and learn how to control what I can do.” He sighed. “Anyway, I was hopeful that you can teach me so that I can have control over the Warrior Way⁠—”

“Way of the Warrior,” Esarkin said, striding to him. “If you are going to find it, then you need to refer to it by the proper term.”

“Exactly,” Lathan said. “So help me find it.”

“I’m still not entirely sure that I trust you. And there are others here that feel the same way.” He motioned behind him.

“So not here because of Isa?”

“They are here to observe,” he said. “And whether or not they trust you is another matter, as there are some who are believers and others who simply want to ensure that people like Isa do not cause our people irreparable harm.”

That was interesting. Lathan hadn’t realized that.

“You know, when this is all over, maybe I will want to visit your homeland.”

That caused Esarkin to hesitate. “And why would you want that?”

“Not to rule it , If that’s what you’re concerned about. I just want to learn.” He frowned. “Anyway, I can still feel fire.”

That was the strangest thing. He didn’t even know what happened to have awoken fire inside of him, only that he believed it was an elemental. There had to have been something that had done that, though. It seemed as if it had bloomed inside of him all of a sudden, and once it did, Lathan could feel nothing but that fire. Maybe there would be a way for him to learn how to draw upon it, to awaken that aspect so that he might be able to better use it. It was something that he felt was increasingly necessary, so that he would have the type of control that he wanted. He wondered if it was another elemental that was going to be necessary to help him awaken earth and water.

“How did fire awaken?” Esarkin asked.

“I saw an elemental and felt the fire inside of her. It gave me an aspect of power I hadn’t been able to feel before. And I can still feel it.”

“You still feel the elemental, or you still feel the effect that you had before?”

“I don’t think I’m feeling the elemental.” Lathan had tried to ascertain that, and the more that he had focused on it, the more certain he was that was not what he had done.

“So perhaps it is just a matter of you understanding the elemental aspect of yourself. You are part elemental, from what you have claimed.”

“Because you don’t believe it?”

“There are many who have claimed to be one of the Asiran over the years, and it has been a long time since any has appeared. I’m not saying that you are not. I’m just saying that I think it is less likely, though perhaps it is true. Given what you have described, I believe it is far less likely that you have bonded to an elemental in order for you to do this.”

“If only that were the case,” Lathan said.

“So getting back to this, if it is a matter of you feeling for elemental power in order for it to awaken something inside of you, then I would encourage you to focus on some of the other elementals that you have some experience with. What earth elemental do you most associate with?”

“I don’t know that I associate with any earth elemental,” Lathan said.

“Are there any earth elementals that you feel a familiarity with?”

“Hyza,” Lathan said.

He frowned at him. “Hyza? That is an unusual earth elemental, and from what I understand, it is not a pure earth elemental.”

Lathan shrugged. “Well, that is the elemental that I feel the most affinity for when it comes to earth. Why?”

“Well, that would suggest that you might have a more complex relationship with the elementals. Perhaps that is your problem. You have been focusing on a simplistic view of the elements, rather than a more complex one.”

“Maybe, but hyza is just familiar to me because I captured power from hyza recently. And I remember the way that it felt.”

“If you remember it, then perhaps you can focus on what you remember of it and it can provide you with some additional information, perhaps a different way of feeling the power.”

Lathan thought about that. What if it worked? He hadn’t really tried anything like that, and in a way, he found it to be surprising that it might even be effective for him, as he had never really attempted to use specific elementals in order for him to feel for power. But as he thought about it, he had to at least give it some consideration, and in a way, it made a bit of sense.

He thought about what he had felt when he had captured hyza with Jef what seemed an eternity ago. That was where he had first come into contact with the Derithan, and because of it, he realized that maybe there was something else, some other aspect, something more that he could draw upon and could hopefully learn something from.

“I can feel the ground trembling,” Lathan said, though it was mostly to himself. “I remember the way that it did so, and I remember the way that there was some heat with it.”

“Focus on the ground, not the heat. This is a combination elemental, from what you remember. As you wield that, I would encourage you to focus primarily on a singular aspect, and then you can add more to it as you grow more accustomed to it.”

A singular element. Maybe he was right. Lathan had to see if there was anything there that he could try to find, because there did seem to be a bit of an energy, but there was also something else within it. He wasn’t entirely sure and didn’t know quite whether there was anything more that he could pick up on, just that he felt… Well, he didn’t know what he could feel. Just there was a bit of that trembling.

Trembling.

But focusing only on earth didn’t seem as if it worked. It was as if he needed to link earth with that bit of heat, with that fire, that was familiar to him. That was the key here.

He focused, and gradually, he started to feel the shadow pulling through him, that cold, and then he noticed how the ground around him rippled.

It was working.

“Was that you?” Esarkin asked, standing.

“I think so,” he said.

“What did you do?”

“You’re not going to want to hear it,” Lathan said.

“If you tell me that you used your shadow part to drag earth out of me, then no. If you’re going to tell me that you trapped an elemental and used to mimic the earth, then I will also say no.”

“I don’t think I did either of those things,” he said. “Instead, it seemed like I drew upon both the aspects of the elemental.”

“So you drew on earth and fire at the same time?”

He seemed concerned. Lathan wasn’t exactly sure why, but it seemed as if it were more of a problem for him than he knew how to express.

“Yes, why?”

“It is unusual, I suppose. But perhaps you, and what it is that you can do, are going to be unusual. Focus on fire, then. If that works, then so be it. But eventually, in order for you to be able to wield the elements in a pure form, you’re going to need to separate them.”

“Like I did with wind?”

“Did you, though?”

“I think so.”

“What has your connection to wind been?”

“I don’t know. I’ve used it to make these strange platforms to walk on, but other than that…” He shrugged. In a way, he had thought that he might have even flown, but the way that he had done that had been different, distinct, unique, and he wasn’t even entirely sure if it had been him flying or if it had been something else. “Nothing else, I suppose.”

“Yes, well, you used wind in order to create something mixed with wind and earth. That, unfortunately, is not pure wind. I wonder if any of your attempts have been pure.”

“Fire?”

“What did you do with it?”

“I don’t know. I added heat to the air.”

Esarkin snorted. “So you used fire and wind. It is the mixture that seems significant for you. That is most interesting. Quite unusual.”

But did it have to be unusual?

The idea that he could use joined power didn’t strike him as all that surprising, not with the way that he understood the elementals and not with the way that he had often been drawn to them. It had been rare that he had ever been drawn to a single-powered elemental. Most of the time, there were multiple types of element energy within the elementals.

And if he had that connection to the elements, did it mean that he could never truly understand working with the elements the way that the Maelen did? Did it mean that he could never use the power of the Way of the Warrior the way that they did?

He felt like he might need to in order to stop the Sacred Mother.

“You should try again and see if there is anything about it that responds differently.”

Lathan looked up and noticed a strange light in Esarkin’s eyes. Maybe one of agitation? Or maybe it was just the persistent doubt that he had as there was some part of him that questioned what Lathan was supposed to be to his people.

He focused on earth, drawing upon the power of hyza and shifting to fire, then drawing upon an unknown elemental, or a power similar to some unknown elemental, and moving on to wind, doing the same thing. As he did, he realized that maybe it made sense for him to need a blended element power.

Why shouldn’t it?

He blended power, didn’t he? Shadow and spirit.

His father and his mother. He was not one, but both.

As Esarkin watched him, Lathan began to focus on different combinations.

Blended power.

Maybe that was going to be the key. Maybe that was what the Sacred Mother had feared about him. Maybe that was the reason she had needed him, even.

But until he could master what he could do and what power he had, he was not going to be any threat to her. And so it was time for him to get to work.

Chapter 24

Lathan continued to have success reaching for the elements.

The process involved focusing on, not a single aspect of power, but on a combined type of energy. And in that, he could not feel anything different, just the unique nature of that and what that meant for him. He had been trying to understand it, trying to see if perhaps there would be a different way for him to summon something, but even in that, Lathan had found that it had flowed for him in a very different way.

Increasingly, he had to believe that he would need a different understanding of the elements, and perhaps even the elementals, for him to stop the Sacred mother.

That was what this was about, after all. He had to find a way to stop the sacred mother. And in the process, he didn’t even know if there would be a way for him to do that. Increasingly, he couldn’t help but feel as if what he had been doing, and how he had been doing it, had been unique, but it might not even be enough.

“I hear you’re having some success.”

Lathan turned to see Jef striding across the hillside over to him. Lathan had made a point of coming outside of the city, because it felt as if he had an easier time concentrating away from others. And it was also easier for him to get free of the Maelen, who had continually come to observe. He didn’t like that. Partly because he didn’t like being seen as a spectacle, partly because he was no longer sure that he wanted to be what they wanted him to be.

It wasn’t even not being certain. Lathan was certain that he did not want to be the Asiran for them.

“Some,” Lathan said, and he called upon a little bit of fire, thinking about hyza again, as the hyza elemental was one of the easiest for him. He suppressed a little bit of the earth aspect as he called for that fire. It left a crackling wave across the ground.

Thinking about things in terms of elementals had proven to be the true mental shift for him. But it wasn’t just singular elementals that had worked for him. If it were that, Lathan thought that he would’ve had success long before now. It was the combined elementals that had proven to be the key, and the more that he worked with it, the easier it was for him to feel that power and to better understand what that was going to require from him.

“Look at you,” Jef said, and he started to laugh. “You really are doing it. I wasn’t sure. Marin told me that you had been having some success. And I guess I’m not so surprised with how quickly you have begun to master this.”

“I’m not sure what elemental I was channeling through,” Lathan said.

Jef stepped over to him, dancing past the crackling fire that Lathan suppressed, drawing it out of the ground. “Channeling?”

“Or I suppose if I were to use the Maelen terms, I would be shaping. I’m drawing on the power of the element and not the elementals. It’s unique, distinct, and I’m not even sure that I’m doing it the way that the Maelen want.” He spilled to Jef about how he had been using power. He tried to describe what he had been doing, but wasn’t even sure if it was exactly what he had thought.

“Because you are this Asiran that they have been waiting for.” He bowed. “I’m so lucky to be in the presence of royalty, Your Highness.”

“Don’t do that,” Lathan said.

“What? You don’t want me to comment on how amazing you are?” He started to laugh. “What are you going to do?”

“We need to get the people away from here. Back to the kingdom. The Sacred Mother is coming here or sending her Derithan here for a reason. And I don’t know how long we have before that danger begins to build, but I don’t want our people to be here. And I think that we are either going to have to push past it, or we are going to have to do something else. I don’t know, though. I don’t even know if we’re going to be able to fight our way out.”

“That’s pretty much what Henash says, as well.” Jef turned, and he looked north. “I remember when we first came here. I was nervous. I suppose I’m still a little bit nervous, mostly because I don’t understand what’s going on and don’t really know what’s happening to you. I remember being concerned about coming here because of who we were coming with. Still, there was this hope.” He shrugged. “I don’t feel that anymore.”

“I’m sorry,” Lathan said.

“It’s not your fault. I don’t think anybody’s blaming you for what’s happening. And nobody blames you for taking away hope, but it’s more about the fact that in order for us to get out of here safely, we’re going to have to manage to somehow get past the Derithan. With the numbers of Derithan that are positioned around us, it just doesn’t feel possible.”

“They shouldn’t be here in such numbers,” Lathan said.

“Shouldn’t be, but they came for the same reason that the Sacred Mother came.”

“Me,” Lathan said.

“Well, or elementals,” he said. He shrugged. “It would be nice if you could just start churning out binding stones. That might help us.”

Lathan had thought about it, but even if he did, he wasn’t exactly sure that it would work, not with what the Sacred Mother was able to do and how she was able to draw upon the elementals.

“I fear that might actually play into the Sacred Mother’s plans.”

“You know, you take away all the fun with this. You don’t have to disagree with everything. I just wanted to see what you are planning. Well, Marin wants to see what you’re planning.”

“Is she worried about me?”

“No,” Jef said. “I think she’s worried that you’re going to go with them.” He nodded into the distance. And Lathan could see some other Maelen that were gathered. He couldn’t feel the power that they were wielding, which was probably for the best, but he was aware of them. “They keep talking about taking you from here. And the hard part is that I think Henash actually gets it.”

“I need to figure out a way to use the elementals. I think that’s the key. I have no idea what that’s going to look like with everything else that’s happening here, but I can’t shake the feeling that the elementals are the key to all of this.”

“So you have to use the shadow.”

Was that it? Was it just the shadow, or was there something else? Increasingly, Lathan didn’t know if it was one or the other, shadow or spirit, or maybe it was both.

“I don’t know. I feel like I should be able to use what I am and what I have learned to be able to handle all of this, but I just don’t know.”

“Should be able to,” he said. “Which means it is possible that you won’t be able to do it, and you might end up just getting caught up in something and maybe killed.” He shrugged. “You know, Lathan, you tend to be a little bit too cavalier about some of these things. Maybe it comes from your father, and the fact that you have been chasing elementals for your entire life.”

“You’ve been chasing elementals your entire life, as well.”

Jef reached into his pouch, pulled out one of the binding stones. “I have been. But now that doesn’t really help me, does it? I have all of these binding stones, and there doesn’t seem to be much that I’m going to be able to do with them.”

“Well, we can go and explore, maybe hunt, together, if you’d like.”

“Hunt? Are you serious? I know what happened last time you were outside of the city. You about died. I was glad that I wasn’t a part of that.”

Lathan snorted. “Let’s see what I can do with the wind.”

He focused, and he created the platform. It was translucent like it often was when he did that. Knowing now that there was an element of earth within it made a little bit more sense, and he could understand some of that energy, and understand the way that was working inside of him. There did seem to be something else with it that he couldn’t quite grasp, but increasingly, he thought that he needed to try to make sense of it. He pushed on them, allowing that window, that energy, and that power to guide them.

“So I don’t have to walk?” Jef asked.

“Not particularly,” Lathan said. “You can if you want, but I don’t think that it’s going to be necessary for me to be able to push us this way. Besides, it will be very long before they start following us.”

Lathan guided them, letting the wind carry them, and as he did, he could feel the wind, the earth, and he tried to add another element to it. Could he mix the fire and earth together? In doing so, he would combine three of the elements, and he didn’t know if he had a way of controlling all three at the same time, as he had never really tried to, but he could feel it.

Fire glowed around them. That fire was consistent and potent, and it carried with it some other bit of energy that was starting to rise with a different sort of intensity.

“Well,” Jef said. “I can feel what you’re doing there. And what’s strange is that the binding stone is even reacting to it.”

Lathan hadn’t even realized that Jef was holding onto a binding stone, but now it made sense that he would’ve withdrawn one. He was testing whether or not Lathan was using one of the elementals in order for them to travel this way.

“There shouldn’t be elemental power within it. Nothing other than me.”

“You know, the binding stones don’t react to you. Have you ever wondered about that?”

“Not before, and maybe I should’ve given it a little bit more thought, but I am glad that they don’t.”

“You make them, but you also have part of you that is elemental.” The wind whipped past them, pushing them farther and farther outward. “But being as how you are part elemental, it seems like there should be some aspect of you, and of this, that the binding stone should react to. But it doesn’t. I wonder about that.” Jef sounded mostly curious, not at all concerned. “Not about using the binding stone on you.”

“I wonder if you could,” Lathan said.

“You want me to try?”

“I don’t even know. I have no idea if it would even work on me, but I wonder if you could.”

Jef laughed. “Only you would have that question. Well, I can try, but probably not while we are flying here, because I don’t want to fall. Where are you taking us, anyway?”

“Don’t know,” Lathan said. “I just wanted to test the wind.

There haven’t been any further attacks, and I’m starting to question if there is some other reason behind it. When we were out the last time and we saw the Derithan with the Maelen abilities, I couldn’t help but feel as if there was something to that which we should have better understood. For whatever reason, I did not know what they were doing, nor what they were planning.”

“We’ve got scouts out,” Jef said. “So if there’s anything that we can learn about what they intend, we will find it.”

Lathan wasn’t as convinced as Jef, though he appreciated his friend’s confidence. “There’s something else I’m concerned about,” he said.

When Jef looked over, Lathan let out a sigh. “It’s going to sound strange.”

“With you these days, everything sounds a little bit strange. Go on. Tell me what it is this time.”

“When we were dealing with the Derithan, I thought it was potentially dangerous given what I am. But now that were dealing with something Maelen with the Derithan, I can’t help but feel as if maybe there is some other aspect that I need to know to ensure that I can be safe.”

“You’re worried that they could use the binding stone jacket on you.”

“Well, not just the jacket, binding stones in general.”

“We could test it,” Jef said.

“I was hoping you’d say that.”

“But what happens if it works?”

“If it works, then I’m going to be in more danger than I realized,” he said.

“And if it doesn’t?”

“Then we are going to be safe. Or at least, I will be safe. And maybe what I need to do is to start working on making binding stones and try to understand more about whether there is anything to that which I can use, and anything that I can do. But as I look, I feel like the answer needs to be found before we do anything else.”

He nodded, and then he reached into his satchel, pulling out one of the small stones that he kept with him. “I do have some with me. That is, if you are interested in testing it?”

“Not particularly, but I think that we need to. Or, I think that I need to.”

“So let’s do it.”

Jef held it out for him, and in the process, Lathan began to feel something odd. He wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but it didn’t cause the cold to build within him. There was no real reaction whatsoever.

“Is it drawing on you?”

“No,” Lathan said with a bit of a sigh. “Not right now. But keep trying.”

“I have several other stones. I wonder what would happen if I shot it at you like you did. Maybe make an arrowhead out of it.”

Lathan arched a brow at him. Jef just shrugged.

“I’m not saying that I want to do that. Well, I kind of like the idea of testing it. But I’m saying I am curious.”

Lathan just shook his head, feeling a surprise in it, and with him, as he focused on that.

“I’m going to keep trying,” Jef said. “Let’s consider this curiosity.”

“Curiosity. Whatever it takes. I just feel like we need to know something. And until we do, or at least, until I do, I don’t know if it’s going to be safe for me.”

“Good,” he said. “I’m ready to continue.”

Chapter 25

He and Jef had spent quite a bit of time testing the different binding stones, and none of them had reacted to Lathan. Whether they just didn’t have the right one, or whether he simply didn’t react with binding stones, Lathan didn’t know. But the idea that he could somehow be protected from the power of a binding stone was reassuring to him, because increasingly, he couldn’t help but feel as if there was the potential that he might end up caught by one of the Derithan, and if so, he be trapped.

Once they had established that he was safe, he had decided to spend time tracking Derithan.

Jef had claimed that there were others out scouting, but Lathan had felt a growing desire to do the same thing. In fact, he had felt like he needed to, because increasingly, he couldn’t help but feel as if he needed answers in the process.

But more than that, however, was the fact that he still felt like there was something to some of the ruins that were scattered around the city. He had investigated them, but as he scouted, Lathan found himself drawn to them, as if there would be more answers there. At one point, Marin went with him. When she saw the ruins, she shook her head. “I don’t feel anything of spirit here. Maybe there is some residual connection, maybe a binding stone of a sort, but I don’t know if there’s anything here.”

“That’s sort of what I had been feeling, as well,” Lathan said. “I felt like maybe there was something, but it was difficult for me to pick up on.”

“So what do you intend to do about it?”

“I don’t really know if I have to do anything about it.”

They were near one of the heaping piles of ruins, and he had been through here, but now that he was here, he felt something odd about it. Lathan wasn’t quite sure, but it felt…

If he wasn’t mistaken, it felt a little bit more active than it had when he had been here before. He wasn’t sure why, nor was he sure what it meant, just that there did seem to be a lingering bit of power that existed here. “I can feel this. And the longer that we’re here, the more that I start to think that this is still tied to what the Sacred Mother is doing.”

“We don’t know anything,” Marin said. “And I know that Henash has been trying to see if Naserra can remember anything, but unfortunately, her memories of the time when she was sort of possessed by the Sacred Mother are vague.”

“Even with spirit?”

“Well, let’s just say that she’s a little reticent to let anybody use spirit too closely on her.”

Lathan understood that, especially considering what she had been through. “So what, then?”

“I don’t know. I just…” She frowned, looking out. “I feel like there’s something here,” she said. “But I’m not sure what it is.”

And so they had continued their scouting, searching for the Derithan, though Marin had been much more intrigued by the ruins, and by what Lathan had felt of them. He wasn’t surprised by that, as he would’ve expected that she would be, especially given that it was Marin. Eventually, she left him, and he continued. At one point, even Jef came to join him. They traveled on the wind.

They were skirting along the tree line, staying low, and it gave Lathan an opportunity to test his measure of control over it. Distantly, he had noticed that the Maelen had been following them, but they had not gotten very close. Thankfully, it seemed as if they were giving them enough space that he and Jef were able to navigate without having to worry about any of the Maelen overpowering them.

“I hadn’t even thought about that.”

“Well, from everything that you’ve said, and everything we’ve been able to understand about your father, he came out here for a reason, right? Maybe he thought he might be able to create the Asiran.”

“That sounds…”

“I know how it sounds,” Jef said.

He was talking about intentionally trying to create something and someone who would have a purpose. He was talking about trying to create Lathan.

Maybe the combination had been designed to try to create something more, and something significant. Shadow and spirit.

“Listen, Lathan. I’m just trying to help. I know how strange this has to be.”

He wasn’t wrong. It was strange. Everything that he felt was strange. And perhaps it was the fact that he had learned something odd about himself and he still wasn’t entirely sure what to do with that information. But even as they moved, he couldn’t shake the feeling that there had to be answers here, but where were they going to find them?

Lathan used the wind to move them, gliding them, and searched for some answers, hoping that he might find something here. As they traveled, Jef grew quieter.

“I don’t like the way that this feels,” Jef said. “I didn’t mind traveling with the lightning, but this feels unstable.”

“Just think about it like standing on top of the elemental,” he said.

“I didn’t like traveling like that, either. You know, you and Marin were the only two that really liked that.”

“I’m the elemental,” Lathan said.

“Well, I’m not sitting on you.”

Lathan started to laugh. “I could offer if it would make you feel better.”

“Please, no,” Jef said.

They kept pushing, and when the city came into view, Lathan slowed.

It didn’t take very long before the Maelen came streaking down, landing before he and Jef got to the city. Lathan thought this was for the best, because at least this way he didn’t have to deal with talking to them, and he didn’t have to worry about them pursuing him. But he also didn’t like the fact that they were tracking him as closely as they had been. There was part of him that was left unnerved by the fact that they felt as if they needed to track him as much as they had.

He lowered them to the small courtyard outside of the building that Naserra and Henash had occupied. A pair of soldiers stopped him, raising their blades as if to stop him, and Lathan wondered if they might not even be able to. It might be that he had moved beyond what they could do. Strange for him to think that, though.

“I’m just here to see Henash,” he said.

“He is visiting with the Lady Naserra.”

“Good,” Lathan said. “Then I can talk to both of them.”

He started forward, but one of the men raised a hand.

Lathan breathed out a sigh, felt the wind, and used a drawing of it to push the soldier off to the side. “I’m going inside.”

“He’s not going to harm her,” Jef said. “He just needs to go⁠—”

“Jef?” Marin’s voice came from down the hall. “Come down here. Henash needs you. Well, needs both of you. What were you doing?”

“Looking for the Derithan. I have a pretty good idea about where they are moving, and they seem like they are still working their way toward the city. We don’t have much time before they reach us.”

They headed down the hallway and reached a different door than what Lathan expected. He remembered the last one they had been to, where he had found Naserra trapped inside of the ring and drawn by the Sacred Mother. Now that he was here, Lathan could still feel some of that energy, but it was more of a residual of it. But maybe it was just that he was so tied to it, and he felt a bit of attunement with it, or perhaps it was just that there was some element of wind, earth, spirit, and fire that had been there that Lathan could still feel. Whatever it was, he didn’t care for it.

“You have that look on your face,” Jef said.

“I’m just trying to figure out what I’m going to do.”

“What you’re going to do?” Marin shook her head. “You’re not going to do anything, Lathan. You need to listen.”

She was right. He had to pay better attention to what was happening here, and he had to be better prepared for the possibility that something might evolve, and might require that he have a different approach to this. How could he do it, though?

He stepped inside of the room. And once there, he began to feel something that surprised him. There were elementals here. But not free elementals, he realized. He looked around, and he noticed several small binding stones set in the inner ring around the room.

“You think those are going to be enough protection?”

“It’s not me who placed them,” Marin said. “It was Henash.”

Henash strode over. He had been sitting next to a chair facing the other way, and once he got to his feet, he strode over quickly and then shook his head. “I hear that you went off again and decided to just leave us. That’s dangerous, Lathan, especially with what happened the last time. You especially need to be here, at least until we have a better idea about what is happening and whether there is going to be any additional attack.”

“There will be, it’s just not yet. We have time and I was looking to see how much time we had. I didn’t know how much we were going to be able to do. I suppose in a way, I’m still not sure. The Derithan are moving toward us, and I think we are going to need to evacuate, but I don’t know what that’s going to look like.”

Henash let out a heavy sigh. “Talk with her, then. She wanted to use this place as an opportunity to attack the Derithan, and to turn the tide. Especially with the Maelen here. But it doesn’t sound like that’s going to be possible.”

“I don’t think so. I don’t even know if they will be willing to fight.”

He found Naserra sitting in a chair, a drawn look in her eyes and staring at a small stool that Henash had been sitting on. Lathan grabbed it and brought it over, before taking a seat. “How are you feeling?”

She slowly turned her head, looking at him. “You are Lathan.”

“I am Lathan,” he said.

He glanced over to Henash, who was staring with a bit of a fixed expression.

“How much do you remember of what happened?”

“Far too much,” she said. “It was cold.”

“I understand,” he said.

And in a way, he did kind of understand it, because it was familiar to him. When he had dealt with some of the different types of elements before, and different elementals, there were definitely some that were cold, some of them that were different, and some of them that were more potent than others.

“She was powerful.” She looked over. “And you managed to stop her.”

“I had help,” he said.

She turned away, staring blankly for a while, her lips twitching. Her eyes slowly blinking. And there was a darkness to her. “I think it’s time that we go back,” she said.

“I agree,” Lathan said.

“You aren’t going to keep me from leaving?”

“I’m not sure that I can. We need to get everybody out of here. Not just some.”

“It might be too late,” she said. “It was when we came here. Henash doesn’t know, but we were looking for help. The Derithan have been too strong. They have been targeting everybody that has been moving. The elementals have been attacking, wild, and violent, and we don’t have enough binding stones to handle them.” There was a look in her eyes that suggested that he could help with that, and in a way, he knew that wasn’t wrong. There would be a way for him to, if he were open to it and willing to do it. “They have been powerful.”

“Attacking the kingdom.”

She nodded. “Attacking. Destroying. And claiming. Any elemental that we had. Any binding stone that we had. They emptied them.”

“We can stop that,” Lathan said.

She laughed, but there was a little bit of bitterness to her tone this time that hadn’t been there before. “You believe that you can handle that many Derithan?”

“I can at least deal with binding stones.”

With his connection to shadow, he believed that he could shatter any sort of binding stone, and he could disrupt any way that the Derithan might have of using them.

“And what about her?”

“I don’t know. I’m trying to better understand what it is that she was able to do and trying to figure out what it is going to take for us to counter her. But I just don’t know.”

“What if she can’t be countered?” She turned to Lathan again. “What if she’s too powerful? I felt her. I felt the power. I felt the way that she was trying to claim me. I felt it, and I felt what she wanted.”

“What was it?”

That was the one thing that Lathan didn’t have a good answer to. What did she want? At this point, he simply did not know. And it was difficult for him, because in a way, he felt like there should be an obvious answer to it, and obvious answer to what she thought that she might be able to acquire from them. At this point, he also didn’t know if that was going to be anything that he was going to be able to uncover.

“Everything.”

Chapter 26

Henash pulled Lathan off to the side after talking with Naserra. She was so different than before. And he understood why Henash had wanted to try to keep her protected. But he also didn’t know if there was going to be anything more that he could do.

“I’ve been working with spirit, trying to make sure that anything that touched her mind was freed. From what you said, and what you described of some of these others, I suspect that is what they were able to do.”

“I don’t know if it’s about spirit or something else, but I suspect it is about manipulation.”

“Yes. Manipulation. There are stories of spirit shapers doing the same thing.” Henash looked over at Marin, who was quiet. “That’s not how we use it. Spirit is meant to connect, to bind.”

“To bind? That’s part of the problem, isn’t it? Because she’s used spirit to bind, as well. And in the process, she’s drawn away some of the elementals, and she has been trying to trap them, trying to force them, but she’s also binding them.”

And he thought about what he had heard about elementals in the past, and what he knew about them. The binding stones were certainly useful, but it wasn’t the only thing that was useful, he knew. The only thing that might work with that, however, was if he could find a way to bind the Sacred Mother. Doing so would involve a significant use of power, and it might be beyond his capability.

“One of the Maelen talked about binding the elementals,” he said. “He talked about people with spirit, or maybe without spirit, and how they connected to elementals of old.”

“I’ve heard those stories, as well,” Henash said. “And if you spend any time in the Saval, you’d hear similar stories to that. I’ve always wondered if the use of spirit was the key to binding stones and the key to better understanding the different connections to the elementals. At least with spirit, we’re able to speak to them.”

“But it’s more than speaking to them,” Lathan said. Finally, he looked over to Naserra. “Make sure that she is ready when it’s time to go. The Sacred Mother is going to attack again, and we either need to be ready to leave before that, or we need to be able to fight.”

“And you think we can fight?” Henash asked.

“I don’t know,” he said, before striding out, moving past the soldiers and into the courtyard. Marin caught up to him.

“We can’t take on the Sacred Mother. That can’t be what you plan.”

Lathan was quiet. “It’s not about taking her on, not really. She’s using the Derithan and the elementals as a diversion. Or distraction. I don’t know the purpose. But she wanted me to use the shadow for something specific. And she’s coming here.”

He headed out, using wind mixed with fire and a little bit of earth, and he shot upward. It was so strange to think that he was able to do this so easily now.

It was not at all like what he had done before, when he had needed to talk to an elemental in order for him to draw upon power. It was more that he was aware of the power that existed around him. Wind was there, so too was earth, fire, water, all of the different connections, but he wasn’t sure how he felt them. It seemed to Lathan that most of what he detected came from the elemental side of himself. When he called to that power, it flowed into him, through him, and made it so that he was aware of the elements. It had very little to do with how the Maelen had instructed him on accessing the elements. That part was odd to him, but perhaps it shouldn’t be. Considering how he used that power, and what he was, it should not be terribly surprising to him that he would do things as differently as he did.

Taking to the air, he floated, hovering, and it didn’t take long before Keeley and Isa joined him, staying on either side, as if they needed to try to keep watch on him.

Isa came toward him. “You cannot stay up here.”

“Are you saying that for my safety, or are you afraid of what’s going to happen?”

“I’m saying it for your safety.”

An idea occurred to him that he had not considered before, but perhaps he should have.

“I’m not going to go to her.”

“I did not accuse you of doing so.”

But was that really their concern? Was it not about protecting him so much as it was about escorting him, and trying to make sure that he didn’t betray them?

Because that made even more sense to him.

“It’s because of what I am that you’re afraid,” Lathan said, that realization slowly starting to dawn on him, one that he probably should have realized long before. “You think that because I am part elemental that I will be drawn to her.”

“We think that you are looking for answers. You are looking for understanding. And we think that she could call to both sides. We simply want for you to understand what you are and what you can mean to others.”

“I’ve seen what she’s done,” Lathan said. “I’ve felt it. I wanted nothing to do with that kind of power and do not want to wield the elementals the way that she does. If anything, I would free them. I would free all of them.”

“You cannot,” she said.

“I think that’s going to be the key.”

Keeley turned to him. And as she did, there was something else about her presence. He could feel the way that she was wielding power, and wondered if she was doing it intentionally. But he also wondered if perhaps it was more about her just testing whether she would lose control again, as there was a part of him that thought that he might lose control. Not intentionally, but he didn’t know how to wield the elemental side of himself well.

“What do you think?” Lathan asked, pointing down. “You keep looking at me.”

“I’m not looking at you. I’m looking at this place.”

“This is an ancient settlement,” Keeley said.

Isa shot her a look, but Keeley turned to Lathan. “It is an ancient place. It predates even our people.”

“All of it, or just parts of it?”

“Part of it. There were others built atop it,” she said.

“Built atop?” Lathan asked.

“Yes. If you focus on earth, you can detect it. When the elementals were here, you could have talked to them.”

“I wonder if I could call to the elementals,” Lathan wondered.

“Call to them?” Isa asked. She was still distant from him, but she was moving closer, as if trying to decide whether or not she wanted to be there or if she wanted to get away from him.

“I have a shadow aspect that can react to the elementals. Shadow and spirit.”

“You are Asiran,” Isa said. “It is what you are and what you are meant to be.”

The way that she said it suggested that she wasn’t entirely sure.

But then, Lathan understood. He had continued to do things that they weren’t entirely sure if they could trust, nor if they could follow. With everything that he had been doing, and everything that he had felt, he started to question if perhaps there might not be something else, something more, that he could wield in order for him to help differently.

Maybe it was time for him to try to call the elementals, at least those that were free, close enough to him that he could get some answers. Lathan didn’t know if they would answer him.

They were going to need allies, and Lathan wasn’t exactly sure how to go about getting them.

But if the elementals could be brought on board, and if they could serve them, then that might turn the tide in their favor.

He just hoped that they had time remaining to do so.

Chapter 27

Lathan’s focus remained on trying to understand what it was about the city, in particular, that had drawn the Sacred Mother to this place.

He couldn’t shake the feeling that there had to be some element to the thought that they could bring in allies, but so far, he hadn’t been able to come up with any strategy that might be effective in that and summoning any of the elementals to them. So even if they could be useful—and Lathan wasn’t even sure if that was going to be possible or not—he did not know how to go about it at all.

At one point, Henash found him wandering, and he had Marin with him.

“Where’s Jef?” Lathan asked.

“He is working with some of the binding stones,” Henash said, shaking his head. “I am not convinced that it is going to be the key to helping to make the city defensible, if it is even possible, but he seems convinced. And I suppose that I am going to need to defer to his and your expertise in such things. It is not the kind of power or connection that I am particularly familiar with.”

“You know about binding stones,” Lathan said.

“Not as much as you and Jef do. Especially when it comes to using them to handle elementals. If the elementals begin to pose a threat, we may need a way to counter that.”

The way that he said it suggested that he wanted to know if Lathan was going to be willing to do it.

“I don’t like the idea of binding and forcing elementals,” Lathan said.

“I believe you have told me that it doesn’t harm them,” Henash said.

“It doesn’t harm them,” Lathan agreed. “But it’s not about harming them. What you are talking about is trapping them.”

“Temporarily, perhaps,” Henash agreed. “Because it may become necessary, depending upon what we find when it comes to dealing with her. I do not like the idea that we are defenseless. Most of the people from our village do not have any ability with elements. They can use binding stones, but we are reliant upon what Naserra and the soldiers had brought with them.”

“And the Maelen,” Lathan said.

Henash glanced over to Marin, and she was the one who spoke.

“But you are counting on them to help. We don’t know that they will, do we?”

Lathan wanted to say that the Maelen would help, but he didn’t know, did he? It was entirely possible—and even likely—that they would not. Especially if they viewed what they had been doing as too dangerous.

“I suppose I don’t know,” Lathan said softly. “I like to think that they would, but I don’t know.”

Henash nodded slowly. “We have to be prepared for all possibilities.”

“Even evacuating?” Lathan said.

“That is the primary goal, and we are looking for options of where we could go, and how we would take people out of the city, and if there would even be a way that we would be able to protect them if we were to do so. But again, it comes down to the same issues, doesn’t it? We do not have people with much power. Not enough to be able to defend against what we know has been coming, and what we know might be moving. These other Maelen⁠—”

“I don’t want to call them Maelen,” Lathan said. “Because I don’t think they still view them the same way. I’m not sure what to call them, but they are something else.”

“Traitors,” Henash said. “As would anybody who would go to serve the Derithan. Regardless, they are a real threat. We understand how to handle Derithan, even if we don’t have the necessary strength to do so. We do not, however, know what to do with Maelen, nor do we have the strength to do it.”

“I will keep working with them,” Lathan said.

Henash nodded. “Good. Now. Care to tell me what you’ve been doing out here? And, from what I understand, outside of the city itself?”

“At times,” Lathan said. “There’s something about this place. I can feel it. It’s like some deep part of me feels it. Maybe the shadow, or maybe it’s just a part of me that wants there to be an answer here. But it strikes me as there being something different here. Perhaps that difference is the fact that the Sacred Mother stayed in this place. And maybe it’s just that I believe that she was after something. Me, maybe, or something tied to this place. I don’t know. I want answers, though.”

“It’s an old city,” Henash said. “You can see that it had been built over and built upon many times. Some of the markings on some of the buildings suggest that this city is much older than any others that I have ever seen before. It is quite impressive, honestly.”

“Maybe the Sacred Mother was looking for something here,” Marin said.

“Or maybe it’s just the city itself,” Lathan said. “And she’s just upset that we forced her away. With that kind of spirit connection, the power that she has, I wouldn’t put it past her to feel like she deserved something better. Something more, maybe.”

“She’s a spirit elemental,” Marin said. “What do you think a spirit elemental would want?”

“Well, it seems like she wanted and claimed control. I’m not sure what else she might have wanted. But it’s the control that worries me. And maybe she just doesn’t view us as much of a threat. The only time that we were a threat was when we were able to reach a different place of power.”

“Do you think you could find one that you could access?” When Henash started to laugh, Marin looked over. “I’m not making a joke. That place was powerful, but it’s hardly unique. There are other places that we had encountered.”

“There’s been no evidence of it,” Henash said.

“I haven’t seen anything or felt anything, either,” Lathan admitted. “So if there was something here, I don’t know.”

“Or maybe there was something before,” Marin said. “And the ruins that you have explored are tied to it. And now there’s nothing.”

“Maybe.”

If that were true, then… Well, Lathan didn’t even know. If that were true, then maybe the real answer was that this place might have been the key to how the Sacred Mother had summoned the elementals. And maybe that was why she wanted to come back here. Because she wanted to continue to summon elementals, to hold them, to trap them, to use them.

Lathan went on his way, and spent much of the day searching through the city, looking at different buildings, thinking about what Henash had said. It was an old place, after all. But even as he looked, he did not find anything here that would help him. Nothing that answered any questions that he had. Just showed him that this was old. And many of the parts of the city did have some old bonded elemental power to them, but nothing here that was active.

He had found the center of the city. There was something about this part of the city that appealed to him, though he wasn’t sure why. Perhaps it was just the fact that there was something unique about the city, and about this place, that drew to him. Or maybe it was tied to how the Sacred Mother had drawn on the elementals coming through here. Whatever it was, Lathan could feel something about that, could feel the way that it called to him, and could feel it pulling him through here.

Esarkin found him late in the day.

“I heard that you were looking into the city itself,” Esarkin said.

Lathan looked over to him. “You don’t have to be here.”

“It is a place of power,” Esarkin said.

“I’ve been trying to figure out what it is that the Derithan and the Sacred Mother are doing here. There is something about this place that she wants. I don’t know what it is, but it must call to her. I don’t know if it’s power, or this place, or…” He felt like he was rambling. “And I don’t know if it’s about me.”

“Perhaps not,” he said.

Lathan started to smile. He understood that Esarkin didn’t believe that he was the Asiran, or even if he was, he didn’t feel as if Lathan was someone he needed to recognize in any fashion. And in a way, Lathan didn’t necessarily feel that, either. “The city is old, and I keep thinking that it would have to be tied to the elementals, as well.”

“Not the elementals. A place the elementals were drawn. It is something of a beacon,” he said. “At least, that is what some suspect.”

“Then why would…”

Lathan trailed off as he started to think through it, because he had a pretty good idea about what the Sacred Mother would’ve done here, especially if she was trying to use the power that was here. He turned, focusing on the elemental aspect of himself, wondering if that might grant him a greater understanding, but not feeling anything more like he had hoped.

“I don’t feel anything,” Lathan said.

“Then, perhaps it is not here.”

“Or perhaps it’s masked,” Lathan said.

He thought about what happened when they had first come to the city. His father made certain that he had some experience with the elementals, and that he could feel some of that power, that he could even use that. Everything that his father had taught him had been about understanding the elementals. And that was what he needed to do now.

He had to feel for the cold, and rather than just focusing on it, he tried to allow the cold to flow through him in a similar way that the wind had flowed through him. It bloomed in him. Then some aspect of it seemed as if it separated, stretching outward.

It worked something like a fog, a layer of power, and it spread outward, sweeping away from him. In the process, Lathan began to feel some of the element of that shadow as it worked, and it began to skim across the surface of the ground, pressing outward. Within that, he noticed something else. Another element power, something that he thought that he could wield.

Elementals.

He felt a residual sense.

Power surged from him, the residual energy working outward, and Lathan wondered if there was a danger in him allowing the shadow to flow the way that it did. He turned, looking around the buildings. Esarkin was watching him. “What can you tell me about this, other than that it is old?”

“What do you know about it, Lathan?”

The way that he said his name was almost a taunt, the same way that he had been calling him Asiran.

“The same thing I’ve been feeling for a while now,” Lathan said, realizing the truth to the statement. He had been patrolling around the outskirts of the city, and he had been trying to get a better sense of the power that was out there. Even as he had been doing that, Lathan had not found any answers, not the way that he thought that he needed to. But now he started to question if perhaps there was something else here that he could have picked up on, and perhaps more importantly, should have picked up on here. He felt a bit of a memory of power, a lingering sort of energy that flowed, and it was something significant. Lathan wasn’t entirely sure why, nor was he entirely sure what he had come up with, but that energy that he felt struck him as significant. “There is something of the elementals that I can feel here.”

Esarkin move closer to him, regarding him for a long moment. “You can feel them?”

“I know that you don’t want to believe that I am… Well, whatever it is that I am. But that doesn’t change the fact that I am that.” He shrugged. “I’m not trying to be your Asiran. But I know what I am. I have spirit, and I have shadow. The combination allows me to do—and I suppose, be—more than I was otherwise. And it’s that combination, I think, which allows me the opportunity to pick up on the contour of the elementals that are around me. But lately, I’ve been feeling some memory of the elementals.” He closed his eyes. When he did, he could practically see the outline of those memories that were there. He could practically make out the tracings of energy that existed, and he could practically see how that power all work together, five distinct places all around the city, old memories of elementals, and power that flowed.

But had it flowed this entire time?

He didn’t know, but as he attempted to try to feel for what was out there, Lathan grew increasingly certain that he could feel some part of it. He just wasn’t entirely sure why, nor what he had started to identify.

“I can feel it there,” he said softly. “I can feel the way that it works. And this city, this ancient place, was designed to hold the elementals. And the elements, for that matter.”

Esarkin was quiet. He looked around. “Perhaps. But we have known that this place was connected for a long time. We have known that there was a danger to what they were doing and a danger to what they planned. We have known it, and we have not been able to do much about it.”

“We’ve known that the Sacred Mother had elementals bonded here, but what if there was a reason behind it? More so than just gathering power.”

“And you think that you can know the will of the Sacred Mother?”

Lathan shook his head. “No. I really don’t. Not without her letting me. There’s too much history here, too much power, and too much that I don’t understand. But I do feel like the answer is tied to this place, and tied to what it means. I’m just not entirely certain what that is, nor am I entirely certain why she would have done that, nor what that means for us.”

“So you keep tracking it,” he said.

“I’m trying,” Lathan said. “But even as I do, I’m not entirely sure what I’m tracking, and I’m not entirely sure what I will find. Perhaps the key to what the Sacred Mother wants from the city. Or perhaps she just wants me.”

“Well, as you’ve been told, you are the⁠—”

Lathan raised a hand, shaking his head. “Don’t.”

Esarkin laughed. “You don’t want to be the Asiran?”

“I thought that if anybody would drop it, it would be you.”

“I will drop it. And perhaps it needs to be dropped. But I do think that you must be careful. Regardless of what you will choose. You must be careful. Because your choice will decide the fate of my people and yours.”

Chapter 28

The Derithan had nearly reached the outskirts of the city. They had started to ring the entirety of the city, and the presence of the binding stones and the elementals bound within them bloomed within Lathan, an awareness that he could not ignore. He wanted to, but he did not know if there would be anything that he would be able to do to ignore it completely. He was alone in it, though. Some of the soldiers had been moving outside of the city, getting caught up in small skirmishes with the Derithan, battling with them as they attempted to try to keep them from getting too close. So far, they had managed to do it, but increasingly, he started to question if perhaps they were not going to be able to do that and if they were going to run into some additional trouble, something more than what they had already seen, that might create a greater danger for them.

Lathan used the wind to stand, to watch, and to observe. All of it was made more difficult because he felt helpless. He wanted to do more, but he wasn’t exactly sure how.

For now, the Maelen were holding back the Derithan. Targeted strikes of the lightning and other blasts of power from earth, fire, and even water and wind kept pushing the Derithan away, but with each blast that came through, Lathan started to understand that they were not going to be able to hold them off for very long. Eventually, everything that they had done would fall. They would fail.

It was difficult. They had attempted to evacuate, but there had not been a way to do so safely. Right now, they were stuck until they had a chance to find a way to break through the Derithan lines.

There was a rising agitation all around the city, and within it, Lathan recognized that there might not be anything that they would be able to do. He felt a certain desire to try to help anybody to get out of there, even if he didn’t know what it was going to entail or how he was going to do it.

He wondered how much time they had. With the Derithan moving, there was a very real possibility that they were not going to have the necessary time in order for them to be able to defeat the Derithan and to create enough barricades.

Lathan had resorted to creating binding stones. It was one aspect of a defense of the city that he thought that he could help with, and despite his natural reluctance to do so, it was a part of what he thought was necessary in order for him to be able to try to keep the Derithan from succeeding and moving ever closer. Because in Lathan’s mind, that was what was happening here. They were getting closer and closer, and if he and the others were not careful, the Derithan would eventually get to a point where they would overpower them.

He had been handing the binding stones to Jef, who had been distributing them. At first, Lathan didn’t know who he had been distributing them to, though he had his suspicions. It wasn’t until he had been making one of his patrols around the city—the same way that he had been doing ever since he had noticed that there was something odd about the perimeter of the city—when he had found a pair of soldiers distributing them.

They were placing them around the city as some sort of protective perimeter. And in a way, Lathan wondered if that was even wise, but he noticed that they were doing something particular with them. They were layering them, creating something of a trap with those binding stones.

Lathan doubted that the trap would be that effective, but if it did slow the onslaught and the potential of an attack, then wasn’t that for the best, anyway?

He kept moving.

He didn’t have much choice in the matter, anyway. He had to keep moving.

Every so often, Lathan would take to the air, look out around the city, and notice the steady movement of the Derithan as they moved closer and closer.

The attack was imminent.

Everybody in the city knew that it was, and they knew that there was very little that they would be able to do about it once the attack came. There was almost nothing that they would be able to counter when it came to the Derithan and to the power that they possessed, as they attempted to rebuff any additional attacks.

But it was not just the Derithan moving that caught Lathan’s gaze. It was more about what he could feel and more about what he was aware of. That strangeness started to change, building in a way that left him thinking that perhaps there was some other difference there, only he was not quite sure what he had picked up on.

It was as if the shadow was much more active inside of him. It was reactive inside of him, as well.

He didn’t like it.

Maybe the shadow sensed his own unease and was trying to help him because it recognized that what was happening was something dangerous to Lathan, or perhaps it was just that the shadow was trying to prepare to help him fight. Whatever it was, Lathan couldn’t help but feel as if there had to be something more.

But what? And how?

The connection here was unique.

Marin found him late in the evening as the city defenses remained on edge. She approached slowly, and it was odd, but she was connected to the wind the way that she had been when they had first left the village. It felt strange to Lathan, primarily because it felt as if she were somehow less than she had been before. She still had her ability with spirit, and considering how much she had continued to grow with spirit, Lathan knew that she was not helpless. But there was something to be said about having access to using her connection to spirit to speak to the elementals, and in particular, speaking to wind, which had been so potent for her.

“I think the Maelen are patrolling, as well.”

“Reluctantly,” Lathan said. “Because I think they are trying to decide if I’m going to be willing to come with them.”

Marin glanced over. “And will you?”

“I can’t leave.”

She arched a brow.

“Fine,” Lathan said. “I’m not going to leave, if that is what you are getting at.”

“I’m not really getting at anything, Lathan. I just think that there is a reason for you to go, if this is going to be dangerous. And we don’t know if they are after you, do we?”

“I don’t think they are,” he said.

“I know that you don’t think so, but what if they are?”

He breathed out slowly, steadily, and attempted to try to focus on what was there, and whether there might be anything more that he could find and do with the strangeness that was happening around him. “I don’t know. I feel…” He shook his head. “I don’t even know how I feel. I feel like there is something about all of this that I’m missing.”

“You keep coming out here,” Marin said, waving. “You keep coming to this place. Is there something here that we’re missing?”

“There’s something here that I’m missing,” he said softly. “It feels like there is an aspect that I should’ve been able to feel before, and I can’t. I don’t know why, and I can’t tell what it is, but I feel it. And increasingly, I am sure that it is tied to something that’s out here. I just am not entirely sure what. I’m missing something, Marin. And because of it, I’m concerned that it is going to hurt others.”

“It’s not your responsibility, is it?”

As much as Lathan wanted to tell her that it was not his responsibility, he could not help but feel as if maybe, in a way, it was. In a way, he couldn’t help but feel as if there had to be some other aspect, some other part of it, that was too difficult for him. Too difficult to know, too difficult to understand, and too difficult to handle as he attempted to try to keep them safe.

Because the people were here since they led them this way.

“You’ve done all that you can,” Marin said. “You have made binding stones, and I know how hard that was for you.”

Lathan snorted. “That’s the thing. It’s not hard to make binding stones. Unfortunately.”

“Well, I know how much you didn’t want to make them. So there’s that.”

He smiled. “I suppose there is that.”

“And if you can find anything else that they are doing, then we work with it.”

“Thank you,” he said.

“Even if we don’t escape, you should.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying…” Marin trailed off a little bit, looking around before settling her gaze on Lathan. They had been standing in a section on the outskirts of the city near one of the ruins, but they had moved away from it. Lathan had been heading toward another section, hoping that he might find something that would help him understand more about it. “I suppose that I’m saying that you should do what the Maelen want. If they intend to get you out of here, you should go. You might need to.”

“I’m not going to abandon us. Our people. And I’m not going to abandon⁠—”

“You won’t be abandoning anything. Or anyone, for that matter. What you will be doing, Lathan, is getting away so that you can have an opportunity to get to safety. Because that is what is necessary now. Eventually, somebody’s going to need to stand up to the Sacred Mother. And I feel like you might be the key to it. It just might not be the right time.”

“I don’t know how we can do anything else,” Lathan said. “I don’t know if there’s any other time that we are going to have. I don’t know because I can’t help but feel as if…” He shook his head. “I feel like we weakened her, and if we lose that opportunity now because I’m afraid, or I leave, or any other reason, I feel like we are going to be missing something, if that makes any sense.”

“It does, but mostly it makes sense because I know you, and I know what you think that you need to be doing.”

He looked back toward the ruins. “I don’t think I need to be doing anything, really. The only thing that I think I need to be doing, mostly, is attempting to try to make sense of all of this so that maybe I can learn more about what is happening and find a way to delay it.”

“I think delaying is over,” Marin said. “And now we are left with fighting.”

It was strange for her to say that and strange for him to feel like she was telling the truth. But he thought she was.

After she left him, Lathan continued to search. Periodically, he would shoot up on the wind, working with the other elements, attempting to try to blend them the way he had learned that he could and attempting to try to control them in something that was more akin to what the Maelen had done, but his attempts were weak, and ineffective, unfortunately. Despite everything that he had learned, Lathan did not know if there was going to be a way for him to control that.

And increasingly, he found himself struggling to try to understand why something felt off to him.

That was the hardest part for him. Something felt off.

Maybe it was just the fact that the cold shadow was blooming inside of him, but increasingly, Lathan couldn’t help but feel as if there had to be some other aspect of it that was drawing through him, and drawing to him, that he was meant to find.

What he wouldn’t give to have the opportunity to have elementals that would help.

Maybe his father, the shadow portion of himself, would answer, but every attempt that Lathan made to try to reach for that had failed him. He knew that it existed inside of him, but Lathan had not been able to do anything with it, nor had he been able to wield it in any real or meaningful fashion.

Anytime he was down in the city itself, the unease was palpable. And he felt like he was not making the preparations that he needed to, nor was he helping with the battle planning. Instead, the only thing that Lathan really felt like he was doing was searching for answers that might not be there.

It was the following morning when he noticed something distinct.

At first, Lathan thought that perhaps he had imagined it again. The cold had continued to build inside of him, leaving him awash with that sensation, and feeling as if there was some element of it that might linger. But the more that he felt that power and that certainty as it worked inside of him, the more he knew with certainty that what he had detected was real.

It was elementals.

The Derithan had stopped moving, and the attack had not come, though everybody had thought that it was imminent. And for a while, Lathan had started to think that perhaps they had time. Much more time than he would’ve expected, but time that would give them a chance to get established, to set up a different defense network, and maybe even to try to find a different way to approach the fight, but through it all, he found something else that was changing.

Though the Derithan were out there, Lathan felt something about the elementals.

He had been trying to understand why and what was blooming with that cold irritant that he had been feeling, but so far, Lathan had not been able to come up with anything or any answer as to what he had been detecting.

Increasingly, however, the cold seemed to tremble. There were different elementals. Far more than what Lathan thought was typical. And as he started to pay attention to that sensation, he started to notice that there was an aspect of what he detected that was quite different than what he thought he would feel.

It was almost as if there was some part of it that was pressing upon him, leaving him with a lingering bit of energy that was familiar, but familiar in a way that he couldn’t quite place.

But once he got close to one of the ruins, Lathan noticed something. There had been a memory there before. That was the only way that he was able to describe it. A memory of the elementals. And through that, Lathan could have sworn that the elementals had long since abandoned those ruins. This time, however, that memory seemed more acute. He couldn’t phrase it in any other way than that, just that it seemed as if there was some potency that he had not anticipated. The more he focused on it, the easier it was for him to feel that power, to feel the way that it seemed to be blooming around him and building up inside of him.

Why here?

It wasn’t just this one singular place, though. The others had a similar energy to them, as well.

All of the ruins seem to be drawing upon the elementals.

Could they be useful?

Maybe they could summon the elementals to the ruins, use that to deflect anything that the Sacred Mother might be doing, and defend against the possibility of an attack. But even if they attempted that, Lathan would need to have a measure of control in order for that to work.

And he had no control. Not when it came to what he had started to detect.

He was studying one of the ruins when he noticed something.

It was a sudden burst, and it came with a definitive explosion of power.

Lathan frowned. The earth began to tremble, and the air started to gust with powerful wind. Hard rain began to shoot down. And heat began to bloom.

With that, Lathan knew exactly what was happening.

The attack had begun.

Chapter 29

Lathan raced through the streets on the wind. Every so often, he would scoop somebody out of his way, sliding past them, until he found Esarkin following him. Even as Lathan attempted to try to do something, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to handle a fight. Not easily. He didn’t know enough to be able to handle the battling. Besides, there were soldiers that were out fighting many of the Derithan and countering the sudden onslaught of elemental power that had expanded outward. Beyond that, however, were the other Derithan. The Maelen Derithan. They had not moved forward, though Lathan could practically feel them around him, as if the shadow seemed to recognize the strength of their connection to power.

Thankfully, it seemed as if the binding stones that had been set around the perimeter of the city were absorbing some of that attack, but for how much longer?

Lathan had been making binding stones, but there had not been time to make so many that he would’ve been able to handle too much.

He looked over to Esarkin, who was still following him.

Esarkin used wind with water, a unique mixture that Lathan found himself modeling as he had not learned that before, but then he noticed something else about the way Esarkin was wielding the elements. There were aspects of what he was doing that struck Lathan as similar to the way that Lathan blended elements. Had he learned from him?

“What are you doing?” Esarkin asked, racing alongside him and pacing quickly, as if he had to keep up, as if there was no choice in the matter.

“I’m trying to get to Isa. I need to get to the other Maelen. We need to stop the Derithan and the movement of the elementals. There is something about the buildup of power around the perimeter of the city that is key here. I do not quite know what it is, but I can feel it. And whatever the Sacred Mother intends is going to be tied to that.”

“You can’t be certain of what she intends,” Esarkin said. “You are not with her. Unless you are.”

Lathan shot him a look dripping with irritation. “You may not know me well, but you’ve seen what I do. You’ve seen what I have been willing to do. You have seen how I have fought, not just on behalf of my people, but on behalf of yours.” And, Lathan didn’t add, on behalf of the elementals. He did not need to add that last part, because he assumed that Esarkin knew that. And more than anything, it was what he had done on behalf of the elementals that might have been the problem.

They had continued to free the elementals from the Derithan. They had freed the elementals, and those elementals were moving this way, following old channels, old pathways, old power, as they floated back toward the city. That was all significant, but Lathan still did not know why, nor did he know quite what it meant. In his mind, however, he was certain that it meant something. It had to. That power building was far too significant otherwise.

“I need to see more,” Lathan said.

He shot upward, allowing the wind to carry him higher and higher. The wind battered at him, and he attempted to try to hold the shadow inside, keeping it from flowing through him too strongly.

From up in the air, Lathan could see the outskirts of the city. The Derithan had breached the boundaries of binding stones that soldiers had placed. Lathan had known that they would, it was simply too easy to do so, especially when they had binding stones of their own, and far more power than what the soldiers possessed.

The Derithan were battling with soldiers, elements fighting elements, elementals fighting elementals, both bound. But he saw the Maelen staying within it, as if there was some bit of a connection that lingered within what was designed to try to bridge something more. And beyond that, however, was something else. Lathan couldn’t quite see it, just that there was a haze of energy that hovered along the forest areas out beyond.

A streak of lightning came shooting toward him. Lathan braced and was not at all surprised when Isa emerged from the Warrior Way and approached him, floating the way that he did.

“We cannot protect you any longer here. And I’m sorry, but this place is going to fall. The Sacred Mother is too potent. What she is doing is too powerful. We are not going to be able to defend you and defend against what she intends.”

“You don’t have to defend me. I know that you came because you feared what she had done to your people, and you did not care for their betrayal. You stayed because you believed that I was going to offer you some hope. I still can. But I can’t leave.”

“Please, Asiran,” she said.

Gradually, more and more of the Maelen started to surround him. There had to be a dozen or so. All of them streaking to join Isa, joining him in the air, holding a position around him. If they were going to force him, Lathan doubted very much that he would be able to do much to counter. They were just too potent. And he, unfortunately, did not know enough.

“You can help,” Lathan said, motioning to the battlefield as it swept out away from him. “You can work with my people. Some of yours are already fighting.”

“They are fighting because they are giving us time to get you,” Isa said.

“All of them?” Lathan asked.

That was awful, if true. All of them were just waiting; all of them thought that they needed to protect rather than to try to help? And if that were the case, then maybe there wouldn’t be anything that Lathan would be able to do to protect his people. Because they couldn’t do it with just binding stones. Not against the Derithan. And certainly not against the Derithan who had once been Maelen. And once he added elementals to the mix, that power became too much to fathom and too much for them to be able to handle. There wasn’t going to be any way that Lathan would be able to withstand this. There wouldn’t be any way that any of them would be able to withstand it. Despite all that he had done, Lathan wondered if there would be any way to get them to safety.

“Please,” she said.

Lathan hovered on the wind, moving over toward her.

The other Maelen converged. They were squeezing.

And he knew that they were getting closer for a specific reason, because they were attempting to try to prevent him from doing something to her, he suspected, but they had to know that he would not do anything.

Or maybe they didn’t know. Maybe they just feared.

“You’ve dealt with the Sacred Mother for longer than I can understand,” Lathan said. “You’ve dealt with the danger and the threat that she had posed. And now there is the possibility that you can be done with it. That you can finally escape her and what she plans. And I will help, but you have to help my people. We have to work together.”

“We are different,” she said, and there was real worry, he suspected, in that edge to her tone.

“You are. But I’m different, as well.”

“You are the⁠—”

“It doesn’t matter,” Lathan said. “You have to do what you know you can. I believe. Even if you do not, I believe.”

All around him, Lathan could still feel the shifting. But more than that, he was acutely aware of how the battle had started to turn the wrong way. The Derithan were winning. There was very little that they would be able to do with that, very little that they would be able to do to stop the Derithan. Lathan could feel the terror and the danger of what was happening around him.

“Why?” Esarkin asked.

“You want to know why I’m here?” Lathan asked.

“I want to know what you intend to accomplish. If you came out here to die, I want to know.”

“No. Not to die. I want to protect my people. Want to do what my father wanted me to do. He always wanted me to learn about the elementals, and everything that I have learned about the elementals has told me that I need to do this. Because regardless of if I’m this person that you believe, I am what I believe. I am me. Shadow and spirit. I’m both.”

Isa watched him for a moment. Finally, she let out a deep breath. “I will help. We will fight. But you must do what you can.”

“I’m going to find out what the Sacred Mother wants, and I’m going to stop her. Besides, I think I can feel what she’s trying to do. And once I do, I will stop her.”

She nodded, and one by one, the other Maelen departed, leaving only him with Esarkin.

“You aren’t going with them?”

“I think I will wait and see what you intend. And I will wait to see if you truly are the Asiran.”

Lathan snorted. “Well, I’m afraid you might be waiting a long time.”

Lathan focused, feeling for the shadow portion of him, and he found himself drawn toward a small building in the center of the city. It was close, sealed off entirely, and had Lathan not been able to feel anything here, he wouldn’t even have known that there was some other aspect here. But the longer that he stood here, the more that Lathan understood that this was exactly where he needed to be. This was a kind of power he had to call upon. He could feel… something.

He had been by this building before. And he remembered searching through here, trying to understand if there was anything that he could learn of it. Some pressure seemed to build around it. It was almost as if the elements were surging through here.

Not elements. Elementals.

Not just surging, either. They were drawn. This place was calling to the elementals. This was where, and perhaps how, the Sacred Mother intended to try to use that power, as she attempted to try to do something different with it as she summoned more.

Why this building, though?

Lathan studied it, wondering if there was something about the building that he could learn, or perhaps something that he could do to understand it. He focused on the cold within him, and noticed that as the shadow worked within him, some of the power within the building started to change. The shapes, the writing that he saw on it, began to move, as if there was something controlling it. Lathan had never seen anything like that before.

“How did you do this?” Esarkin asked.

Lathan shook his head. “I could feel it. There’s that part of me that reacted. That’s all, I suppose.”

“This is an old place of the elementals. Ancient. I doubt anyone has been inside of this place in a long, long time.”

Lathan glanced at him, seeing a look of concern and a question in his eyes, before he stepped inside. It was tiny. But once inside, a different feeling engulfed him. It had been blocked, at least until he was here. Now that he was here, he recognized that the energy that was here, and the power that he was able to pick up on, was significant. He felt it in ways he had not before. It left him practically vibrating with energy.

Esarkin moved in after him. All around the building, Lathan was aware of energy. Element, elemental, and maybe even the writing that was found here, all interacting, all working together, and all possibly building in some fashion, maybe causing a problem for him.

“It might not be safe for you here.”

“And who said that I needed the Asiran to protect me?”

“Now you think that I am the Asiran?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps you are.”

Lathan snorted and stepped forward.

The ground was flat and solid, and all black.

Shadow.

He pushed down again, using the shadow. And as before, there was a series of symbols that illuminated on the ground. The writing reminded him of what they had found when they had released the elemental before, and as he allowed that power to spill out from him, he added each of the elements to it. In doing so, he began to feel the power and began to feel some part of it that was building in a way that he had not felt before. The energy was quite remarkable.

He thought about everything that he had been seeing throughout the city, everything that had compelled him, called him, for that matter, through the city, and to this place. Everything seemed as if it had been building to this point, but now that he was here, Lathan did not know if this was where he was supposed to be or if there were aspects of what he had done that he should have done differently. He felt the power all around him. He felt the way that it bloomed, carried, and he felt the way that it left him trembling with some bit of that energy in a way that he had not known before. He was not sure why, nor was he sure quite what he detected, only that it seemed familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

“You are looking at it as if you have some answer to it,” Esarkin said.

“I’m looking at it as if I feel something, but even as I attempt to try to understand what it is that I feel, I am not sure. We have known that this place is ancient, but it’s not just the ancient connection that’s here. There is something else about it that is different. I don’t quite know why, only that I feel the elements, the elementals, and I feel some bit of a cold energy that’s here that strikes me as familiar. It’s like I’ve known this power before.”

“How would you have known it?”

“The only way that I think that I could. An elemental memory.”

Could his father had gifted that knowledge to him?

It would certainly explain why this seemed so familiar to him. He traced along it, feeling something, but then he noticed. The markers that were here all seem to draw on him, as if there was some element to that which reacted with the shadow portion of him. And if that were the case, then it seemed to Lathan that he had only to continue to trace that, and perhaps he could find some other power to it.

It was just that Lathan wasn’t quite sure how, nor was he sure what he detected. But increasingly, he felt as if he needed to keep working here.

Then he felt a bloom of cold.

It was the familiar bloom of shadow. And it felt drawn down into that stone.

He allowed it to flow.

When it did, it felt like the shadow called to other elements, or maybe even elementals, and the stone began to move, grinding.

“What are you⁠—”

Lathan shoved Esarkin back a step. A staircase spiraled downward into the darkness.

And it had done so when it had reacted to him.

It had definitely reacted to him. He didn’t understand it and didn’t know what to make of it, but it had reacted to him.

“I have to go down, but you do not.”

With that, he jumped, letting the wind carry him. When he landed, he did so in a darkened space that was incredibly massive and impossibly vast. He would not have expected that a space like this would have even been beneath the city. But in a way, it felt as if Lathan had been drawn by this, and drawn to this, from the very beginning. And maybe there was a reason for it.

He started forward, when Esarkin came to land next to him. “I wasn’t going to let you do this by yourself, Asiran.”

“It’s dangerous,” Lathan said.

“And the others would not let me live it down if I did not come.”

Lathan snorted. “Well, it’ll be nice to have you here.”

He moved forward, and then he noticed something. A reflection of silver from the power that Esarkin was wielding. It flowed up ahead. Esarkin started toward it. Lathan grabbed him, pulling him back.

“It’s not safe. That’s spirit. Pure spirit.”

“How do you⁠—”

Before Lathan had a chance to answer, an explosion thundered around him, and elementals spilled into the space, as if drawn.

But then, maybe they had been drawn.

And drawn by him.

A familiar voice rose around him, one that he had heard, and feared.

“You should not have found this place for me,” the Sacred Mother said.

“You knew where it was,” Lathan said. “You’ve always known where it was. But you couldn’t reach it. You needed shadow, but you didn’t know that you needed shadow.” He could feel it.

“It is not what I need, but what must be used. Same as all the others must be used. You will understand.”

Power continued to build around him, and while Lathan wanted to ignore it, he could not.

“You were so easy to guide here,” she said.

And with that, Lathan felt spirit overpower him.

And he looked up to see Esarkin standing over him.

Chapter 30

Lathan struggled to believe that Esarkin was responsible for this. He had saved him, and now he was going to betray them? Betray him?

“The agreement,” Esarkin said, turning and facing the Sacred Mother. “You will stay here, and you will leave my people alone.”

“Agreement?” Lathan said.

Esarkin was like the Derithan. He was like those Maelen. But he had done it for…

What reason?

He had known that there had been other Maelen who had gone to the Sacred Mother. But he would never have expected Esarkin to have done it.

“You don’t understand,” Esarkin said. “I needed to do whatever I could to protect my people. You were not going to do that. You cannot be trusted. You could not⁠—”

Esarkin didn’t get a chance to finish. The Sacred Mother moved forward.

“The agreement will have no bearing any longer.”

And with a surge of power—spirit, Lathan suspected—Esarkin stiffened and then collapsed.

She had simply drawn spirit out of him. Lathan had not known that spirit could kill like that. He had never seen it used that way. He had only seen it to help, to inspire, and, unfortunately, to manipulate. That was the way that the Sacred Mother had used spirit. But he would not have expected spirit to be used to kill.

And all because he had made a mistake.

What would’ve happened if he had not saved Esarkin?

Could he have ended this sooner?

Lathan doubted it. Rather than ending it, it might’ve taken longer. They had needed time so that he could come to understand what was happening, see if he could help the elementals, and find a way to stop the Sacred Mother.

Only now he could not move. Much like with Esarkin, spirit overwhelmed him. But it hadn’t killed him.

There was a swirling of energy around him. Lathan could feel the other elementals, but they were staying back. They were controlled, he knew, commanded by the Sacred Mother. All this time, she had been using them, commanding them, forcing them to serve her.

Could he do something about that?

Spirit was there, working its way around him, practically swirling around the entirety of this chamber.

“You have more of a gift than I would’ve expected. Although I should have known. You are half of one of us. You could serve your kind.”

“No,” Lathan said. His voice hurt. Everything within him was painful.

And he wondered if he could find the Way of the Warrior. Wasn’t that what he was trying to learn? Esarkin had been trying to teach him. Isa and Keeley had not shown him, but Esarkin…

There was Esarkin. Unmoving. And overpowered by spirit.

“You are,” she said. She moved closer. “It has taken me a while to find this place. Now that I know that it is here, I can tap into something far more acute. I can finally find a physical form again.”

“I thought you had a physical form,” Lathan said. How was he able to talk but not move?

He could talk because she was using spirit.

Esarkin lay motionless near him. He wished that he had water to test if there was anything that he could do for the man. Though at this point, Lathan doubted that there was anything that could be done for him. He was motionless. Dead. Spirit had overpowered him.

“There was a time when I did, but it was a long time ago. I outgrew that form, and now I am not bonded the way that I once was, though such a bond is not necessary for one such as me.”

It seemed to Lathan that she was toying with him. But could he use the time that she was taking to try to understand something more and perhaps even figure out a way to stop her?

He wasn’t sure how. She was too powerful, too potent with spirit, and she knew how to wield it.

She circled above him. “I have drawn them here. The kind that matter. And soon I will have everything.”

“What is everything that you are after?”

“Control,” she said. “And because of you, I will have it. This place has been hidden from me. Perhaps locked away. Those who once understood the elements and the elementals in ways that very few these days could claim. They understood it, and understood that such places would be necessary once more.”

“For what?”

“To ensure survival.”

There was something about her that sounded so arrogant, but then maybe it was just how she was filled with spirit. If only he had some control over his own spirit, maybe he could counter what she was doing, but he didn’t know what to do nor how that would even work. It failed him.

Or perhaps it didn’t fail him, and she just kept it from him.

Despite that, he felt the elementals around him.

It was strange that he could, especially because she was using so much spirit that he would not have expected to have felt that, but he was attuned to it in some fashion.

And within that awareness, he recognized that the elementals did not want to be here. He could feel it. Maybe through shadow, but certainly through his connection to spirit, however tenuous it might be. They were forced here, the same way he had essentially been forced here.

But it was the power of the elementals.

Trapped, coerced, and used.

But his father had wanted him to help the elementals. Lathan was certain of it. He didn’t know what his father had tried to get him to do, but he had wanted Lathan to understand the elementals, even if he bonded power from them. He had wanted Lathan to understand so that he could do something to use that power and to master what was happening. Even now, Lathan felt that compulsion that he had known for so long. He had done as much as he had, binding power, but then freeing it to be used.

Binding and freeing.

Shadow and spirit.

Wasn’t that what he was?

The Sacred Mother continued to circle above him.

And as she did, Lathan tried, straining, struggling to try to move.

But he couldn’t. It was too difficult for him. Everything within him was frozen.

Frozen by spirit.

But did it have to be?

Lathan was more than just spirit. He was shadow.

He was an elemental. But he was more than an elemental.

He was both. His father had made certain of it. He didn’t know if he was created with a purpose, and maybe he was Asiran, but even if that was what he happened to be, he could choose.

He could call to the elementals. That was what he needed to do. Not to force them. That was what spirit could do, right?

But to call them. Hold them. To bind them.

That energy came out from him, moving slowly and steadily, and as it swept outward from him, Lathan could feel the energy as it was working out. He could feel the way that it was slowly starting to creep, the power building, and there was something else within it. Maybe it was a lingering aspect of spirit. Whatever it was, he pushed.

And he felt elementals.

They were drawn, and he felt something changing. Maybe he found some part of himself changing. He could find them, even temporarily, and then he could release them again. That was how he was going to save them from the Sacred Mother.

“I did not ask them to move,” the Sacred Mother said.

“I did,” Lathan said.

“You may be able to call to them, but you cannot command. You only touch upon the truth. You do not know the depths of the truths that I know, that I have seen, that I have felt. You cannot understand it, because you were never born to understand it.”

He snorted. “That sounds quite dramatic.”

Elementals surged around him, but he felt something more than just the elementals. He felt a connection to them. But it wasn’t just a connection to them, it was a connection to their power. All of that worked through him, connected to him, whether through shadow or spirit. He didn’t know which it was. But strangely, the shadowy portion of himself seemed to connect to all of those elementals, as if it was doing so of its own accord. Perhaps it was the memory that his father had imbued within the shadow side of himself. Or perhaps it was the knowledge that Lathan had gained through all the time that he had spent hunting, searching, for elementals. Perhaps all of that worked together in some way to build and to give him that power.

Because that was what it was.

And because of his connection to it, and because he drew on it, he could free it.

Free it from what the Sacred Mother was doing. Freed from how he had felt as if he were separated. He felt shadow and spirit. And Lathan pulled them together. He wasn’t able to use the Way of the Warrior because he was no warrior.

He was part elemental.

He was something else.

He began to mix those powers, the elementals, the elements, and he targeted that power.

There was a pool of spirit, and the Sacred Mother moved toward it. “You cannot access this place. This has been planned for longer than you have been alive. You will only get in the way of what must happen.”

“To people, or to elementals?”

She looked at him. “You are a mistake.”

A mistake?

No. Lathan very much thought that he was not. If anything, he was very much an intentional manifestation of power that his parents had created for some specific purpose, and perhaps it was this one. Shadow in spirit.

She moved closer to the spirit.

Lathan moved after her. He didn’t know what elementals, or elements, allowed him to glide the way that he did, but he touched the stone, and felt power blooming inside of him, energy drawing through him in a way that he had not felt before. It was ancient, primal, and it was pure. And in a way, it seemed as if it were not just the elements, but something even greater than that.

And spirit blossomed in his mind.

For a moment, he felt as if he knew everything. He had an awareness of the world in a way that he never had before. Lathan knew that this was artificial. This was from bound spirit. Maybe this was something the Sacred Mother had done, but this was a place, and away, for him to be able to grasp something more.

Flickers of visions came to him. Visions of pools of spirit similar to the one that his father had shown him, places like that all throughout the world, convergence of power and spirit and access to the elements—and the elementals. He saw other flickers of visions. Free elementals roaming, including the draasin, massive, impossible creatures that flew high in the sky, and loomed much larger than he could even fathom. He saw people wielding the elements, power blooming. He could see it in his mind, almost as if it were real, though he wondered if that was true or not. Maybe it was nothing more than a dream. But through it all was the power of the elementals.

And he could feel all of the connections that she had formed. He could feel all of the bound elementals. Bind and then release.

Spirit and shadow.

He used that spirit, that shadow, the power of all of these elementals, and he severed that link. There was a shriek. But then he felt something strange. Elementals bloomed within him, or at least the awareness of them did. He wasn’t using the elementals, but he could feel something of them. It left him with questions about whether what he was able to detect, and how he detected it, was tied to the elementals, or tied to what the Sacred Mother had done.

Only he didn’t think so, as the Sacred Mother seemed to be dispersing. Her power was dispersing.

What could he do now? He didn’t know whether there was anything that he even needed to do, just that he felt a rising sense of that uneasiness. He felt the collection of energy building, as if there was some part of it that he may need to try to work with. But not for now. Now he needed to get out of here. He needed to get to safety. He needed to be done with this.

Because she was gone. Maybe forever.

The power of the Sacred Mother dispersed. It happened rapidly, and as it flowed down into that stone, it became something else altogether.

It started to flatten, to smooth, and to melt.

It reminded him of the pool of spirit where he had seen his father. As it dispersed, he saw that it went down, flowing into the stones, down into the ground, and beyond. And finally, the Sacred Mother dispersed altogether.

She was gone.

Chapter 31

Lathan felt the elementals around him. He looked up. He could feel that power, and he could feel the way that they were moving, and he knew that they were waiting.

“I don’t know what to tell you,” he said, feeling some energy of spirit still within him, and some aspect of the connection that he still shared with them, partly because of what he had done when he had drawn upon the aspect of spirit. “But you can go. Don’t attack, if you don’t need to. And try to find your way back to the way that you once were. Try to bind if you want, but not if you don’t want to.”

The elementals lingered, though.

Lathan felt something strange. It was almost as if there was a familiarity to it. And something else. Maybe thanks.

Whatever it was, Lathan did not know. Still, he waited, and gradually—too gradually for his liking—the elementals began to depart. Somehow, he was still aware of what happened to the Derithan and the binding stones, and he realized something. In the act of dispersing the elementals, he had shattered binding stones. He didn’t know that he was able to do that from such a distance, but maybe that was him.

Bind and release. Shadow and spirit.

He got to his feet, but then he looked down at Esarkin. He’d saved him once, hadn’t he? After everything that he had been through, everything that he had done in order for him to save Esarkin, this was going to be his fate? It just seemed a cruelty.

If he could use water, maybe he could help him again, but he didn’t know how.

Did he need to?

The difference for him compared to the Maelen was that Lathan was not Maelen, and while he could connect to the elements and draw upon that power, he was also part elemental, and he could call to them. And so he did. He called to water. He called elementals of unknown names, of unknown types, and of unknown power. And he allowed them to wash over him and through Esarkin. The connection bridged through him, and it found the resistance inside of him. It was that resistance that the elemental had claimed he needed to overpower in order for him to save Esarkin, if it was possible.

But he couldn’t stay here. He didn’t know where he could go, but not here. He scooped Esarkin up, and then with wind, he was carried up as the floor began to close around him. As soon as it did, this space would be blocked, maybe indefinitely. Or perhaps hopefully indefinitely.

The moment he stepped out of the doorway, a pair of Maelen came streaking toward him.

Isa was the first to reach him. She saw Esarkin, her eyes widening.

“I…” He didn’t know what to say. “I couldn’t help him. I tried to use water. But I don’t have enough control over it. At least, I don’t think I have enough control over it.”

He focused again, straining, and trying to draw upon that water, but even as he did, and as that bit of energy began to flow through him, he couldn’t tell if there was anything that he’d even done.

“Let us try,” she said, taking Esarkin from him.

But the moment that she took him, Esarkin coughed.

Lathan frowned. “Esarkin?”

He blinked, looking around, and his eyes narrowed as he looked at Lathan. “Asiran?”

“I didn’t think you believed,” Isa said.

Lathan held his gaze, but he didn’t say anything. It wasn’t his place. It didn’t matter, anyway. He had not done it to betray Lathan. He had done it because he had wanted to protect his people. Lathan understood it.

“Your people are going to be safe,” Lathan said. “The Sacred Mother is defeated. Dispersed. She rejoined spirit. And as far as I can tell, all of the elementals she was bonded to have been separated from her.”

He didn’t think that he had maintained that connection, but there was a very real possibility that Lathan was now bonded to them. He wasn’t sure about that, though.

“And I think that the elementals bound within the binding stones might also be released.”

“Is that what happened?”

Lathan looked back. Henash strode toward him, Marin and Jef behind him. Marin looked worried, until she saw Lathan. Then she let out a loud breath of air and visibly relaxed. Jef grinned.

“You disappeared just when things were getting good,” Jef said. “The Derithan were pushing, and they were starting to get stronger and stronger, but then something happened. They just… lost everything. It was almost as if they gave up, losing the will to keep fighting. It was amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it before. Now, I guess that means we can go back home. Or, I suppose, to the kingdom. I suppose that’s where we are supposed to be now.”

“Is that what you’re going to do?” Marin asked.

Lathan looked over to Isa, to Keeley, and even to Esarkin. And then he turned to Henash. What would he do?

“I don’t know,” he said. “I learned something, though. I learned that I was more than just spirit. More than just shadow. I’m tied to both. And I think that my father knew I was going to need that. Maybe my mother did, as well. I didn’t have a chance to talk to her about it. And now…”

He shrugged, looking at both. “I’m not sure what I’m going to decide. I want to understand what it means to be me, before I decide whether or not I’m willing to be what they want.”

“That is a wise choice,” Henash said. “And perhaps taking some time to learn yourself and learn what you can do is going to be beneficial. Besides, if they want you to lead, you may need time to prepare.”

He had no idea if that was what he wanted, but he knew that he needed to better understand the elemental side of him.

And there was something more. Something that he had felt, however briefly. There was a hint of a deeper, brighter, hotter power that he thought that he needed to understand.

The draasin were out there.

And they were powerful. That was something that he needed to better understand, and needed to learn about, so that he could know if there would be any way that he could control that power.

“I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do. But I think we have time. With the Sacred Mother defeated, we don’t have to rush into anything, do we? We can take whatever time we need. Whatever time we want. And we can learn. I can learn.”

He had to figure out how to be shadow and spirit. Bind and release. Human and elemental. A little bit of both.

He was Lathan.

And that was enough.

Lathan’s story is over for now, but don’t miss book 1 in the new series, The Dragon’s Call, The Dragon Stone.

A simple scribe meets a destiny he cannot deny as an ancient power awakens.

Jareth Isarn, once destined for a life of quiet scribing and glyph maintenance, now finds himself on the edge of the Outlands, where danger and power intermingle. His role is essential but uneventful, offering a semblance of safety and stability.

But Jareth’s life on the border is about to be upended. An enigmatic power in the Outlands draws him into a world where his skills with glyphs are just the beginning. The routine of maintaining the glyph stones, the camaraderie of fellow soldiers, and the predictable dangers of the fringe are soon overshadowed by an ancient magic awakening at the boundary.

As Jareth confronts powers beyond his understanding and faces a potential he never anticipated, his journey demands more than the knowledge of glyphs. To protect his family, to navigate the complex web of ancient secrets, and to confront a force that even the elite Detharn soldiers struggle against, Jareth must embrace a new path.

No longer just a scribe, and more than a mage, he must find the power of the dragon.

Author’s Note

Dear Reader,

Thank you so much for reading The Shattered Elemental. I hope you enjoyed it. If you would be so kind as to take a moment to leave a review on Amazon or elsewhere, I would be very grateful. Review link HERE.

Want to send me a message?

jasperaldenauthor@gmail.com.

Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook as well!

All our best,

Jasper Alden

D.K. Holmberg

For more information:

www.dkholmberg.com

Series by Jasper Alden

The Lost Riders

The Golden Fool

The Binding Trials

Similar Series by D.K. Holmberg

The Dragonwalkers Series

The Dragonwalker

The Dragon Misfits

The Dragon Thief

Cycle of Dragons

Elemental Warrior Series:

Elemental Academy

The Elemental Warrior

The Cloud Warrior Saga

The Endless War