[Fsh] Chapter 43: Anglerwhale

“Dalaria! What have I told you about licking your fingers? It’s unhygienic! Do you want to miss school?”

The woman chided her lightly, as she held an ice cream in her hands. The sounds and bustle of a city reached her ears.

Shiver watched, as carriages trundled down familiar cobbled streets. She stared at towering buildings that gleamed in the sunlight, with streets filled with life and colour.

Anhedonia, the Archcity of Fear, stood before her as it had been in at its height.

A familiar woman pulled her along by the arm, as they navigated through the afternoon crowd. The woman turned on her, and her mother smiled at her.

The woman did not bear the same appearance as she had in the dream. No ethereal wings of frost sprouted from her back. Yet, her eyes were the same colour as Shiver’s, a piercing cerulean. Shiver watched as the scene played out, from the point of view of the little girl that held a melting ice cream in her hands.

“You’re telling me I can miss school if I lick my hands? Awesome.”

A fluffy tail emerged out of nowhere to slap her – albeit gently – across the face, almost causing her to drop her ice cream.

“Hey! Mum… your guide is bullying me.”

The woman laughed, slowing to ruffle Shiver’s hair.

“Is it bullying when you deserve it? Little devil.”

Her mum gently took her own hand in hers, and Shiver smiled at the familiar, comforting cold that emanated from it. Her mother mumbled under her breath.

“Just like me when I was a kid. I’m so sorry mother. Look at how Dalaria has turned out.”

Shiver poked her mum in the side, and was greeted with her peals of laughter.

Which was right when the screams began.

A flood of people began rushing down the street towards her, running away from something that was chasing them.

It sounded eerily similar, to the crashing waves-

[Spear of the ice giant]

Shiver gasped, as the temperature around them plummeted, and her mother called on her Delirium. Her mother’s invocation shot towards the horde of rapidly approaching undead grouped between the Anhedonia’s narrow streets. She watched through blurry eyes as it impacted the first row, and ice blossomed outwards to fill the space between buildings, halting their approach and momentum.

“Dalari-“

Pain blossomed in her jaw, and Shiver blinked.

The scene before her had disappeared, and she was hovering in an unending abyss of darkness. A familiar sensation to one she had experienced in a certain Academy of Fearshaping.

She was underwater, far beneath the dark waters of the Gloamshore. She instinctually drew in a breath, and her eyes widened when her lungs weren’t filled with water, drawing in air instead. Her eyes narrowed, as she took stock of the situation.

Darkness enveloped her, save for the soft, glowing light a moderate distance beneath her.

Think.

No matter how hard her eyes tried to pierce the darkness above her, there was no sign of Caledon or Virgil. The Anglerwhale they were hunting was a creature that employed illusions, altering perception. That much had been clear from her momentary dream.

Or was it a memory? It doesn’t matter now.

She watched, as the golden light began to draw closer to her. She licked her lips, as she realised that it was approaching far quicker than she could swim upwards.

So much for finding the Anglerwhale.

It looks like her quarry had found her.

For a moment, her vision flickered, and she returned to her vision.

“Dalaria, come quickly! Honey-“

Her parents grabbed at her hands, and pulled her as they rushed through the streets filled with screaming peop-

Shiver recoiled, as pain blossomed in her jaw. She was snapped from her vision returning and her eyes fixed on the rapidly approaching golden orb.

Then she realised, that it was close enough, that it illuminated a portion of the Anglerwhale. Her eyes widened, as the creature the size of a ship opened its black maw, filled with rows upon rows of curving sharp teeth, each the size of her.

Shiver called her Fear.

[Shard of the frost wolf]

[Mirrordance of the spiritwolf]

She swam upwards, into the first plane of ice, emerging some distance above, out of the second plane she conjured above the first one. Utilising the trick she had first employed in her fight against Virgil. She continued to call her Fear, as she repeatedly swam through the planes of ice, ascending far quicker than she could have by mundane means.

She felt the Anglerwhale barrel into one ice plane, after another, still gradually gaining on her.

Then, Shiver grinned.

The next plane of ice appeared above the dark waters, and Shiver leapt through it, falling into a smooth roll onto the icey surface of the water, this time, not a mere illusion.

“Yes!”

Caledon called out in triumph.

“You used the bloodlink and punched me, didn’t you lordling. Twice! I felt that! How was I able to breathe underwater? ”

“I fell into a dream as well. That was Virgil-“

“No time! It’s here!”

They heard a deep rumbling, as the whale’s reverberating cry began to make the ice vibrate. Cracks began to appear in its surface. Shiver whispered under her breath, as her eyes roamed for the point at which the whale would breach.

How are we going to take down this thing?

She looked to the boat, and gaped as Virgil had produced a fishing rod, and was stroking Cygni as he idly whistled a soft tune. Even though he had given them a measure of assistance, it seemed like he was content on sitting out of the current fight.

“Hey, Starboy! A little help would be appreciated?”

He raised an eyebrow at her.

“You two can take down this one, I’m sure of it.”

“Well-“

Behind Triol, the Anglerwhale breached the gap, and burst through the tranquil surface of the dark waters. Its emergence sent water tumbling over the surface she was positioned over. She watched as Virgil snapped his fingers, and appeared some distance away, persisting with his fishing efforts.

[Sheild of the frostwolf]

Water rushed over the frozen surface she was standing on, and her shield mercifully withstood the rush of water. Shiver prepared to call her Fear again, to halt the Anglerwhale in its tracks, which would allow them to attack it.

Which is when she realised, that it was swimming through the air itself. She exchanged a glance with Caledon, as its call reverberated across the surface of the water.

“Link it!”

Caledon nodded as he invoked his Fear.

[Bloodlink of the Vampress]

Then Caledon frowned in confusion, staring at his outstretched hand.

“Bladey, go! Get its fins!”

Shiver summoned shards of ice which she directed towards the whale hovering over them in the distance. The undead Fearshaper of blades sent slashes hurtling towards the whale.

Then it vanished.

The haunting, ethereal visage of the Anglerwhale floating in midair, framed by the eclipse in the sky above them, winked out.

“It’s an illusion! Lordling, have you decided? Are you going to kill it?”

Caledon didn’t have enough information. A deliberate ploy by the Highlady, no doubt to ensure that he would agree to the invocations that she prescribed them. However cautious he was, there wouldn’t be an opportunity like this presented to him again, that was for certain. Solastra had opened her vaults to them, giving them access to her most dangerous and valuable creatures.

If dealing with a few more twists in reality was the price-

He would gladly pay it. He couldn’t afford passing up on an invocation in Trepidation that would constrain him in such a way that it prevented him from curing his mother.

“Yes, I’ll draw in the Alarum.”

Shiver nodded.

“I don’t know how we would even begin to kill this thing. Going for its brain? Our easiest solution is over there, having a nice time fishing.”

They paused, turning to Virgil once more who was still idly stroking Cygni.

“Shiver, what kind of Fearshapers will we turn out to be if we have to rely on others to solve all of our problems? We already have, for far too long. Besides, my bloodlink could be of some use with parsing through its illusions, I-“

Their gazes shot to their feet as a warm golden glow suddenly emerged from the dark ice beneath them. They lunged out of the way as the Anglerwhale emerged from beneath their feet, spearing upwards, though the frozen ice.

[Frostglide of the spiritfox]

Shiver skated seamlessly on the surface of the water, turning it to ice where she moved. She watched Caledon clutching onto a floating chunk of frost. He yelled as a wave washed over him, and he desperately continued to cling on to it as waves washed over him.

We don’t have invocations like Virgil’s… yet. We can’t beat it with pure force. Although, speaking of Virgil…

Shiver’s thoughts returned to their clash.

“I’ve got it! It’s Insanity, but I have an idea. Here goes nothing.”

Shiver watched the dark figure as it dove under the surface, making a round to trap them once more.

Then she saw a familiar golden flash-

---

 Caledon was seated with his mother in Brimstone Manor. He-

“Not again.”

He turned to the nearest wall and rammed his head against it. As he awakened in the Gloamshore once more, he extended his [Bloodlink of the vampress] to Shiver but before he could ram his head against the wall once more, he saw the girl snap out of her reverie.

He watched with wide eyes, as the whale broke the surface in its leap, soaring into the air once more, incensed by its inability to entrap them in its enticing illusions. Caledon’s eyes lingered on the golden orb that hung in front of it, attached to it with a long, robust stem. The orb was dim, but the light within was beginning to replenish quickly.

That must be how its trapping us in the hallucinations.  

“Shiver!”

The girl had grabbed the lip of the whale, as it breached the dark waters, with a wild grin on her face.

Then his eyes widened as she executed her gambit.  

Then she leapt to the side and called her Fear.

The same tactic she had employed underwater.

But on a whole other scale.

[Shard of the frostwolf]

[Mirrordance of the spirit fox]

The sliver thin plane of ice blossomed into existence above them, wide enough to encompass the entire circumference of the Anglerwhale. With Shiver latched onto it, he watched with wide eyes as the creature dove into the plane-

He watched in awe as Shiver emerged, clutching the lip of the Anglerwhale as they emerged from the plane of ice together. She appeared a short distance away from where Virgil was fishing. The Fearshaper of stars gaped incredulously at the girl’s wild grin, and grabbed his guide, leaping into a tear as the Anglerwhale came crashing down.

She called forth her second invocation the moment she emerged.  

[Desolation]

The moisture was stolen from the air, as the sea beneath her was frozen. Unlike Virgil’s invocation however, hers did not turn the surface of the waters into a superficial surface of ice. Caledon’s eyes widened as an entire column of the sea solidified into ice. Caledon winced air that he breathed turned freezing, burning as he breathed.

Shiver leapt from the whale as it crashed helplessly downwards, calling her [Shield of the frostwolf] to break the impact as she tumbled away. As she slammed into the solid frost surface, her shield winked out, and she roughly crashed across the surface.

After her, the Anglerwhale crashed, its fall only amplified by its significant weight, exploding in a shower of blood and viscera as it made contact with the slab of ice.

“Cale, yoush know fwhat chu dew.”

Virgil stared incredulously at the girl who was now shooting him a bloodied smile. He was certain that her nose was broken. He hurried over to the epicentre of the blood and viscera, taking in the full view of the beast before him.

The light at the end of its stalk had winked out with its death, and hundreds, perhaps thousands of razor sharp teeth lined its mouth. He wrinkled his nose as he was greeted with the foul stench of his death.

His eyes locked onto the manifestation of the creature’s Alarum before him.

What will taking this in do to my nightmares?

He gritted his teeth as his resolve shook. Nevertheless, he extended his hand, and drew in the creature’s Alarum into himself.

Caledon hardly had to concentrate as the invocation was carved across his Fearcore. Unlike [Bloodlink of the vampress] which required a stretching of his Fear, he knew that this invocation was compatible with the very essence of his Fear as it stood.

The young Anglerwhale roamed the depths of the Gloamshores’ dark sea. It had regarded itself, as one of the lords of the depths. In the unmoving darkness, the Anglerwhale dreamed, of an infinite sea beyond it, hoping to one day, end its eternal solitude.

The leviathan below unravelled innumerable tentacles in a flurry, each multiples of the Anglerwhale’s own size. Even lords bowed to the kings of the dark. The Anglerwhale closed its eyes, as the titanic appendages approached it, bearing the promise of eternal rest.

In its arrogance, the Anglerwhale shared its dreams with the king. Its dreams and hopes of a larger, darker sea, filled with unknowable horrors, beyond even the pair that lurked in the Gloamshores’ depths.

To end their isolation.

The leviathan paused in its advance, entranced by the vision.

Then, the king relented, affording its prey, a degree of respect for the beautiful dream it had shared.

[Mirage of the anglerwhale]

Progress to Fearcore consolidation: [100%]

READY TO DESCEND

As Caledon finally collected himself, Virgil nodded to them, their journey to the Gloamshores now complete. They had obtained the invocations the Highlady had recommended. Now, all that was left was to-

“Virgil. Why can I see a haze of Alarum?”

Caledon’s thoughts were interrupted by Shiver’s words. He watched as Virgil paled as the girl stared at the formless haze of Alarum seeping from the anglerwhale’s corpse, visible to her alone.

“Don’t keep me waiting, I can tell from your face that you know something.”

The girl fluttered her eyelashes once more, and Virgil was certain that not even Nostrum Evershade would have been able to obscure him from Shiver’s attention.

He kept his explanation short, for he knew that the remnants of the Alarum would dissipate if his explanation drew on for too long. He dreaded meeting Shiver’s ire were that to happen.

“For one… it seems like you’re compatible with the creature’s Fear as well.”

Shiver impatiently wiped blood that continued to leak from her nose, expelling it with a snort.

“This is the first time two of us have been able to benefit from the same creature’s Alarum.”

As her cerulean eyes continued to drill into the inky black of Virgil’s own…

He relented.

“The invocations that you derive in Trepidation, are born of a creature’s own Fears-“

“I KNEW IT!”

Shiver yelled in glee, before abruptly quietening and motioning for him to continue.

“The more you are exposed to a creature’s Fear, the longer you draw out the fight and the more that you evoke its ire, the more likely you are to… maximise the invocations you gain from it. But Shiver, the reason we do not advise it, is because too many Fearshapers have fallen to creatures seeking to optimise their descen-“

Virgil sighed, as he watched Shiver draw the Alarum into her Fearcore.

This one, Shiver had to wrestle with. It was not as straightforward as the ones she had obtained from the frost wolves, but not as difficult to absorb as the invocations awarded by the tainted spiritfox.

Eventually, the invocation was carved across her Fearcore, and a new dimension to her Fear was further solidified.

The haze of frost brought with it, illusions. A dark figure, in the midst of a blizzard. Terror, that lurked in the midst of harsh, winter winds, when you found yourself all alone.

At the core of it all, was winter’s ability to tempt. Be it with the terrors of the unknown, or amplifying the appeal of a warm flame. Born of the enticing light of the Anglerwhale, in an infinite sea of darkneses.

[Allure of the anglerwhale]

“A word that starts with “S” and ends with “Y”, indeed. Here I come.”

---

Virgil watched as Caledon and Shiver walked into his tear, leading to their next destination.

He cast his gaze to the sands in the distance, and gulped at the sight of the creatures that he glimpsed.

Figures stood motionless, on the black beach. Having emerged from Nostrum’s House of Shadow, where they dwelled. The black sands and infinite seas of the Gloamshores barely scratched the surface of what the terrifying Fearshaper of shadows had left to his descendants.

They were bipedal, standing on two feet, as he did, yet they were wreathed in shadow. They stood in silence watching their departure. Virgil watched as the air around them distorted with their very presence.

Then, he turned his gaze to the eclipse that hung over the horizon of the infinite sea of darkness in the distance. It appeared as it always had, a golden ring of light with a single golden tear that dropped into the distant sea, bisecting the horizon in a sliver-thin line of gold.

Virgil stepped through the tear, and breathed a sigh of relief as it closed behind him.

Even though Virgil had shared the story of Nostrum Evershade’s Terror, he had never told them just how it had been subdued by the Dreadwalkers of old.

Then, as the shadowy figures on the beach departed, and the anglerwhale’s corpse sunk into the depths of the endless waters.

The “eclipse”-

Blinked.