[Fsh] B2 Chapter 47: Death of a guide

The veteran Thundermare watched helplessly as its herd turned on him.

The first Thundermare charged into him, empowered by lightning that had recently struck it. The veteran called forth a burst of electricity from within its body, aiming to disorient the oncoming creature.

Herd member after herd member turned away from the electric blue river, their eyes now tainted in sickly gold. The veteran backed away from its herd as they rushed towards him, forcing him further away from the river, into the plains behind it.

The Thundermare anxiously surveyed its surroundings in an effort to find the strange creature it had stumbled across. It was certain that it was concealing itself, the cause of its herd’s betrayal.

In its anger, it called forth the storm.

The wind halted around it, and the flashes of lightning in the story skies in a wide circumference around the veteran ceased.

For a moment, all was still in the Thundervale.

Lightning rained upon the creature’s surroundings, scouring the land around it in a vain attempt to reveal the creature that was surely concealing itself.

Clouds of water vapour erupted from its enormous nostrils, the aftermath of the exertion, scanning in surroundings for the creature that had hidden itself from its vision. It was certa-

Caledon’s blade of wrath found the Thundermare’s throat.

----

Caledon stared down at the corpse of the Thundermare that he had killed by corrupting its herd, using them as a means to lure it away from the deadly bladegrass, and hiding himself from its perception.

He was beginning to understand just how sickening and terrifying Fearshapers of corruption could be. He pushed down the nausea and dark thoughts of the horrors he had just committed aside, as he fixed his gaze on the Alarum that had emerged from the creature’s body.

So far, even if [Bloodlink of the Vampress] had expanded the dimensions of his Fear of corruption to encompass the physicality of corruption, it had not broached the dimension of purity – the deprivation of corruption – which he so sorely sought after.

Caledon closed his eyes, and pulled the Alarum within him. He felt it clash within his Fearcore, the creature’s Fear of lightning at odds with is own Fear of corruption. He pushed, continuing to circulate the Alarum within him, trying desperately to adapt it to his Fearcore, to expand it in a way that would endow benefits to him, or the people that he deemed to grant it to.

Finally, he felt the Alarum carve itself across its Fearcore, the invocation given form by the creature’s death, eased with his proximity to Insanity, brought into reach by the Tranquillity withdrawals.

The Thundermare strode in pursuit of its foal, in the clutches of the vast lightning wyvern that had alighted on its herd under the cover of dark storm clouds. The predator was a creature of lightning, but the Thundermare knew that while it wielded it itself, it Feared it, just as Thundermares did.

The Thundermare watched, as lightning wrought itself across the surface of the wyvern, causing its muscles to twitch, and the beast to falter.

Then, it imbued lightning within itself, purging away the vestiges of its fatigue to surge in pursuit of the predator, and its child.

[Lightning of the Thundermare]

Caledon crouched, breathless, having drawn in the creature’s Alarum. He frowned, as the invocation settled in his core, taking shape.

Lightning? How would that intersect with corruption?

Caledon’s question was answered when he called his Fear. Lightning seared through his veins, and he felt like he was burning from within. Electricity danced across his skin, and then his breathing seized. He fell to the ground breathlessly, clutching at chest.

I can inflict it… upon myself? Corruption of a physical nature.

All that, and he had received an invocation which inflicted him with pain. Caledon groaned as he felt his muscles twitching as he tried to move them, collapsing onto the plains again. He felt thunder echo high above him.

I suppose… if there’s a silver lining in this… it synergises well with [bloodlink of the vampress]. I’ll be able to use it to inflict the pain that I receive the pain that I receive on creatures we hunt.

Still, dread began to well in his gut. Yet another invocation, and there was no hope in sight for somehow depriving himself of corruption – gaining invocations that purified instead of corrupted.

Had Highlady Solastra have played him for a fool?

Caledon didn’t doubt it was well within the her capacity to do so. So far, the greatest expansion in the dimensions to his Fear, had been corruption across a physical dimension.

Caledon gritted his teeth. How would invocations that deepened his abilities in the realm of physical corruption be of assistance to his mother?

I’ll need to have a word with Virgil. This ends immediately, if she’s attempting to manipulate me.

“Manipulate you, son? Who would do such a thing?”

Caledon stared down at the Thundermare he had killed.

A familiar dagger of darksilver was driven into his mother’s neck as she lay bleeding on the ground. The very same dagger that Berevan Brimstone had commissioned for Vetrian Revenant. The dagger that he now had in his own possession.

He gritted his teeth, as his fingernails cut into his palm.

“Did you expect pain to snap you out of it? To ground you?”

Appella Brimstone’s smile widened.

“Let’s see how much longer that serves you, shall we?”

---

Virgil found Caledon Brimstone sitting dejectedly in the natural underpass formed by the cliffside. The young Highlord was watching the Thundermares that grazed near the riverside.

Is the river golden? Ah…

Caledon averted his eyes, at Virgil’s approach. Virgil sighed. The young lord was subdued. Guilty from the cruelty he had imposed upon the herd to acquire his invocations. He had attempted to rely on his own Fearshaping, rather than Shiver’s to acquire the invocations. A noble goal that would serve him, but the nature of his Fear…

“I know how it feels.”

Caledon started, surprised at the initiative Virgil had taken. Virgil sighed, as he sat next to the man. For a moment, they sat in silence, staring out at the red lightning that cut through the dark storm clouds above them, listening to the thunder as it echoed in the vale.

“The Highlady did the same thing to me, when I descended. I think she enjoys it.”

Caledon huffed softly in surprise, at the man’s words.

“The very first thing that she did was throw me into the Gloamshores to kill a moonwalker. A creature of the same species as my guide. Rathos was there to guide me, but she had given him instructions to keep me alive. Not to assist me. I came out with my first invocation of Trepidation – [presence of the moonwalker] – barely alive.”

Virgil chuckled softly, as Cygni came to rest beside him.  

“Do you know what it’s like to Fear the stars?”

The question gave Caledon pause, as he peered at Virgil. Cygni appeared at his side, and purred reassuringly, nuzzling into her guide. The Fearshaper of stars looked to the thunderclouds that claimed the skies as their domain.

His eyes, lingering on something beyond.

“There is a vast void beyond Elucidor. As empty as it is full of horrors beyond our comprehension. Natural forces that would render us into dust if we were exposed to them in a split second. The invocations you have seen are all symbolic of the nightmares I’ve endured in Delirium to have gained them.”

Virgil sighed.

“Solastra told me to the same thing. To trust her. I did, and I walked away with multiple, powerful dimensions to my Fear. I became a formidable Fearshaper, at least by her standards. Do I regret it?”

Virgil met his eyes.

“Perhaps. The nightmares and hallucinations that haunt me have only worsened. But the power it has given me… has been worth it.”

“Why do you descend, Virgil?”

Caledon watched as the man turned to meet his eyes. Black eyes, like the night sky, swirling with infinitesimal, soft lights. Yet imprecise enough that it could have been a trick of light.

“House Starstrider… had a calling. Just like Brimstone, was meant to usher in an age of innovation. Ours… was different. The Highlady refuses to tell me, until I descend further. For now…”

“You’re her personal carriage.”

The man gave him a pained glance, and Caledon couldn’t help but chuckle. Virgl’s Fear had been incredibly convenient, allowing them to hop from one Inheritance to the next.

“For now, at least. But there was something I wanted to tell you. I found it frustrating as well, the thought of gaining these invocations which would torment me in all these different ways.”

Virgil drew his Phobia into reality. Caledon felt a pang of jealousy at the sight of it. A beautiful, distinguished blade crafted from the night sky. As Virgil waved it, streaks of the dark, wept from the blade, leaving behind painterly strokes.

“Burning, in the light of a sun. Being adrift, in the darkest reaches of nothingness. Comprehending horrors… that I know will be the death of me. But sometimes…”

Virgil Starstrider rested a hand on his shoulder.

[Glimpse into the unknown]

Caledon’s eyes widened, as he comprehended a city. One, that was not of his world. For a moment, he stared up at golden towers that rose above him. The warmth of the place, filling him with contentment. Then he saddened, as he realised that the streets in which he stood were empty, deserted.

A society fallen from grace.

“Sometimes… you might surprise yourself. Even the most terrible of Fears can be applied to noble causes. The only cost?”

Caledon watched as the man rose, dusting himself off and extending a hand towards him.

“Learning to live with yourself afterwards.”

Virgil shot him a brief smile.

“Now, shall we?”

Virgil’s words had not dispelled his doubts. He would be a fool to let one of Flora’s very own knights sway him. But it did reassure him. There was nothing else to do, but to persist. To stretch himself to the limits, and the dimensions of his Fear.

Do the ends justify the means? I struggle to agree with him… But I have little choice, if I want to free mother from the corruption imposed upon her.

Caledon closed his eyes, as the thunder continued to rumble.

Zel, please. I need you. Are you there?

Ever since his brief encounter with his guide in the Gloamshores, Zel hadn’t spoken to him, despite his attempts to reach out to his guide. All he had asked had been an innocent question – why he though elves were undeserving of powers of corruption.

It seemed like it was a question that deeply troubled his guide.

I’m sorry if I offended you.

Caledon let out a sigh, at the lack of response. Then,  his head turned as he noticed a familiar figure approaching.

A very bloody Shiver appeared, followed by Lady Velra. Her clothes, torn and tattered, the wounds beneath them healed. Shiver’s eyes flickered to the Thundermares in the distance. Blood covered her front, and a thin, pale red mark curved around the side of her neck.

[Mirrordance of the spiritfox]

She opened a mirror before her, and with a casual swing of her Phobia, Shiver instantly ended the life of the Thundermare that she had targeted in a single stroke. Caledon watched with a hint of jealousy, as the girl drew in the creature’s Alarum from within her mirror. She sighed with relief, a degree of Alarum restored, and a new invocation gained.

She achieved in a second what had taken Caledon every inch of his effort to and practically all of his invocations to acquire.

Yet, it wasn’t the ease with which she had taken the creature’s life that he envied.

It was the mercy with which she did so.

Something denied to him, as a Fearshaper of corruption. Fated to twist the wills and realities of others.

“Shiver… what happened?”

“Don’t mess with the bloody bladefrogs. Speaking of blades… have you seen Bladey around?”

Caledon frowned.

“I thought he was with you?”  

---

[Light of the small sun]

Virgil called his Fear, and the darkness in the cavern before them fled in the wake of the Fearshaper of stars’ Delirium.

Solving the mystery of Bladey’s disappearance.

The Fearshaper of blades stood with his golden Phobia in hand, the tall greataxe usually poised harmlessly on his shoulder. The axe, typically shining in an untarnished golden sheen that matched the revenant’s burnished bones of dark gold…

Was marred in blood.

Bladey stood over his former guide.

Voltroth was dead.