[Fsh] B2 Chapter 39: Gloamshores

Shiver’s angelic smile bore into Virgil.

A scant minute into the poor man’s mission, it was already going wrong.

He really should have known better.

Where they stood at the boundary of flame and shadow, Cygni prowled protectively before her Fearshaper. Virgil Starstrider stared at the trio that had relieved him of his parchment. The piece of paper listing out the creatures that Solastra had set for them to hunt. Her instructions had been clear – minimise the information at their disposal, to incentivise them to descend in the way she intended.

With this merry bunch, the chances of that happening was near-zero.

The crack in the distance they had heard had been Shiver’s work. A number of [shards of the frostwolf] clashing to draw his guide away from him, keeping her momentarily distracted as they swooped him to relieve him of his list.

He had relented.

Even if it was within his competence to keep it from them, it did him little good. His objective was to facilitate their descent, it was almost inevitable that they came to a head, wishing to know what creatures the Highlady had assigned them to kill.

I’m sure my wonderful boss is watching this all unfold, sipping that tea of hers.

The “plant bitch” can do this herself, if she’s so concerned.

The Highlady’s laughter was echoed in the swaying leaves around them.

---

Shiver recalled the explanation Virgil had provided them, about the risks of stretching one’s Fear in Trepidation. He had warned them, that just as easily as they could define new dimensions to their Fears, their nightmares would also be provided with new avenues to torment them.

Killing creatures and absorbing their Alarum indiscriminately in an effort to descend could easily backfire.

“The invocations in Trepidation can assist in defining dimensions to your Fears, but so can they create new avenues for your Fear to torment you. As an example, I have a Fear of the stars.”

Virgil sighed.

“One of the key dimensions of my Fear is my ability to travel across distances. Space, is one of the dimensions of my Fear.”

Virgil paused, discomfort taking root in his expression.

“Sometimes, in my Nightmares – I find myself in places that are alien to me, isolated and alone, with no recollection of how I found myself there. There was even once… when I called my Fear unconsciously…”

He trailed off, shuddering at the reminders of his Nightmares.

“Another dimension of my Fears, is gravity. This one, is more straightforward. Being overwhelmed with the sensation of being crushed, or the very opposite – in some nightmares, I drift away from Elucidor helplessly, adrift, and with no means of reaching the ground.” 

Virgil met each of their gazes with a sigh.

“I am glad that you’re being prudent about the invocations that you gain. If you kill indiscriminately, you could find yourself a Fearshaper with innumerable dimensions to your Fear. Equally, your Fears will gain innumerable means of tormenting you.”

The only problem posed to them, was that Solastra Flora withheld the information about the precise invocations they could expect to receive, it was even possible to predict them.

Shiver watched as Caledon stared helplessly at the list of unfamiliar creatures that he had never heard of, save for a few of them. No doubt the Highlady had intentionally kept them in the dark, limiting their options to research and put together a roster of creatures to develop their Fears in the way they wanted.

Her assistance was conditional. They would descend, and enjoy the fruits of her Dreadwood, to the extent that it aligned with her own interests.

Then she watched as Caledon sighed, his eyes latching onto one of them particular.

Shiver knew exactly which creature his thoughts lingered on.

Solastra had assigned him to kill a nightviper.

The same creature that Triol had infested Pevir’s body with, keeping the man unaware of his extended stay in the Archcity of Fear, funnelling his discoveries to the Fearshaper, before his memories were erased once more.

It did not take a genius to infer the dimension to his Fear, the nightviper would expand.

Caledon’s Fear of corruption already influenced his perception.

If his Fear had dominion over his memories…

Finally, her thoughts returned to her own Fearshaping. The very firsts beasts she had killed, the frostwolves, had bestowed mundane invocations. Wielding frost and ice in an elementary fashion – physically shaping it into various forms.

[Shard of the frostwolf]

[Shield of the frostwolf]

[Howl of the frostwolf]

Using ice and frost as a means of protection and aggression. Shaping it in simplistic ways. Straightforward applications of her Fear of ice, born of the wolves’ own Fear. It fell squarely within the bounds of Quietus’ explanation of the purpose of Trepidation – mimicry, before the true artistry in Delirium. The single exception was the invocation gained by the pack leader.

[Woundstill of the frostwolf]

Even if the ability to still wounds bordered on the realm of healing, it was nothing compared to the invocations she had obtained from killing the eerie spiritfox that Vivy had directed her to slay.

The creature twisted by a strange black substance eerily similar to what she had observed dripping from the edges of Triol Revenant’s lips before he died. From that creature, she had obtained invocations that broadened her Fearshaping significantly. Even before she was subject to the Tranquillity withdrawals.

[Tinesnap of the spiritfox]

[Mirrordance of the spiritfox]

They departed so much further from reality, and even mundane ice than the previous invocations. Allowing her to freeze motion – at least in regards to the physicality of her surroundings, and to leap into mirrored surfaces or planes of ice and emerge from them. Interfacing with her Fear of ice in ways that stretched belief, encroaching into the realm of illusion and time or physicality of motion.

Killing the creature had afforded her invocations that she was only supposed to be able to obtain while “dancing with Insanity”, experiencing the Tranquillity withdrawals that she was now.

How then, had that been possible? The Highlady was watching our descent, but she made no mention of it. Virgil was sure to have reported to her after our fight, as well.

Her only conclusion, was that it related to the information that the Highlady was withholding from them.

Caledon interrupted her idle thoughts.

“The best we can do, is to try to evaluate the creatures before we slay them. Perhaps that would give us some insight into what invocations we could expect to receive, and what dimensions to our Fear it could expand.”

Vale smiled softly and nodded at Caledon’s suggestion. Shiver watched her two friends meet their eyes, before breaking contact abruptly. It seemed as if their time in the mansion had not been forgotten, but thankfully, they were fully appraised of their situation.

There would be time for distractions later.

“There you have it, Starboy. We’ll make our own decisions as to whether we follow your Highlady’s instructions. We’ll proceed on that basis, if that’s alright with you, of course?”

Shiver smiled sweetly at their Navigator. Virgil returned a flat stare. She was giving him just about as much choice as his Highlady was giving them. All he could do was nod in defeat, as Cygni growled, her presence forcing down the foliage around them as it amplified the gravity around them.

Caledon poured over the parchment Solastra Flora prepared for them, reviewing the creatures they were set to hunt in their first destination.

The Gloamshores.

---

“Shiver…”

“Yes, my lady?”

Vale’s whisper might as well have been a scream in the silence of the shadow woods. She was certainly tempted to, as her eyes suspiciously lingered on the girl behind her. Shiver was taking an especially keen interest in the woods around them. Prodding the trees they passed lightly with her ebonwood daggers.

“Why are you eyeing those trees like you’re going to stab them?”

“Uhhh… you can’t blame a girl for liking trees? Everyone has their hobbies.”

Vale just nodded, her eyes drilling into Shiver’s own, as the girl did everything she could to avoid making eye contact.

“Alright, alright. You remember Rathos? That knight with the ebony armour? He may have obtained some invocations from killing some trees. Umbrawillows.”

Shiver whispered the name of the foliage with the utmost reverence, her eyes hungrily roaming the forest around them. Vale’s lips twitched at the girl’s expression, fearing for the foliage around her.

“I swear Shiver, I will hang you on the next “Umbrawillow” I find if you go around stabbing the plant life. Do you understand?”

Virgil and Caledon coughed behind them. Shiver just grinned at her.

“Don’t threaten me with-“

“No, forget that. I will melt every single popsicle I find in the Archcity of Life. I will see to it that you never get your hands on another popsicle again.”

Shiver’s smile dropped, and she stared at the Revenant in sheer horror. Vale pulled at the rope connecting them, making the frosty idiot stumble forwards.

Caledon’s flickering Phobia provided them with a degree of visibility in the forest enshrouded by shadow. They had tied themselves to one another with rope that Solastra had included in their supplies. Searching the shadow woods in the event they were separated would be an impossible task. They all dreaded the prospect of enduring the mansion of madness another time.

One thing was for certain, the closer they neared to their destination, the less effective his flames were. It was the surest sign that they were nearing the Inheritance.

Then, Caledon’s Phobia winked out.

So did all the sound around them. Virgil’s voice reached them in a mumble.

They had reached the first Inheritance.

Clinging onto the rope before them, they followed in Virgil’s wake as he strode forwards, carving a way through the dark.

Due to the silence and darkness around them, Vale assumed that it would be difficult to tell when they had emerged into the Gloamshores.

Then, she heard the sound of waves crashing against a black shore.

An eclipse, hung high over the horizon, over an infinite sea of darkness.

 A small golden ring blazed in the sky, obfuscated by the moon that covered it, casting the lands before them in darkness. Light dripped from the ring, as if leaking from it, creating a sliver thin scar of light that met the horizon, infinitely distant from them.

Vale felt the crunch of black sands under her feet, and she looked out onto paradoxically stagnant waters. Waves washed onto the beaches before them, but the vast black sea that spanned to the horizon was still, perfectly reflecting the golden ring which the eclipse failed to obscure, and the thin scar of light that dripped to meet a point on the horizon.

As Caledon stared into the distance, he heard the familiar dripping of blood on cobblestone the colour of anthracite.

For a moment, he was drawn into Anhedonia the Archcity of Fear once more, The Terror he had glimpsed hovering over them. Watching, as the wolf that bled shadows bisected his fleeing steed, it’s blood slowly pooling at the monstrosity’s feet.

The walking epitome of shadow.

The Gloamshores threatened to envelop him, just as the Terror that stalked the streets of Anhedonia had. The threat of being lost, adrift in the dark, stale waters. Only with the dying remnants of light to greet in him the far distance.  

“What in Insanity. This… was the Inheritance of a Fearshaper?”

Caledon whispered, and his eyes widened as sound returned to them. The question was at the forefront of everyone’s mind.

Who could have created this? This stretches belief… perhaps just as much, if not more than the Academy.  

Before they could marvel further at the landscape before them, they heard their howls. The same creatures that had torn apart the wyvern with practiced ease, not even bothering to put an end to its life as they guarded the moonbeast’s passage through the emberwoods.

Shadow wolves.

A pack of six stalked onto the sands before them. Even in the meagre light of the weeping sun, they could see the wolves shift and flicker as they prowled towards them. Wisps of shadow trailed from their black fur, as the whites of their eyes fixed on the encroaching elves.

They walked with the confidence and Fearlessness of beasts in the heart of their domain. Revelling in the object of their own Fears, from which they drew their powers.

“Shiver and Vale, you’re up.”

“So much for assessing the creatures carefully before killing them. Lordling, thoughts?”

Caledon hefted his shield and his Phobia before him.

“Separate them, draw out the battle. It will give us time to assess them. Virgil, see if you can chuck a few of them into the water.”

“I won’t be assisting you in your fights.”

The trio turned to him. Shiver raised an eyebrow.

“Not even a little? Going to play the obedient servant to Solastra?”

“She’ll flay me alive.”

They stared at him even as the wolves advanced on them in the distance.

“When I next see the honoured Highlady I’m going shove a corn cob up her ars-“

“Shiver!”

[Shard of the frostwolf]

[Frostglide of the spiritfox]

Shiver called her Trepidation.

A long, plane of ice bisected the pack into two groups of three, disorienting them momentarily as Shiver shot forwards. She skated over sands frozen by her advance with practiced ease. Three shadow wolves bounded towards her.

Vale crouched behind Caledon, and she sent the Fearshaper of blades forwards. She was a liability without her Fearshapers. All she could do for now, would be to assist Shiver in analysing the powers of the creatures.

They watched as Shiver clashed with the lead wolf. Her ebonwood dagger tore across the hide of one of the wolves, only for it to dissipate in a wisp of shadow.

Shiver’s eyes narrowed at the sight. The wolf had conjured a decoy constructed from shadow.

So that’s the Highlady’s game.

“Tsk…”

Shiver called her Fear as the stragglers leapt in unison.

[Shield of the frostwolf]

One of the remaining two wolves dissipated into a haze of shadow as it impacted Shiver’s shield. The other diverted its momentum by leaping off its frozen surface to prowl before Shiver once more.

Then, she watched as tendrils of shadow pierced through her plane of ice bisecting the pack, that separated them. The three remaining wolves that had been cut off, lunged forwards, gaining ground quickly. Vale’s Fearshaper of blades ran past Shiver, effortlessly dodging a bite from the shadow wolf that stalked before her, and interposed himself between Shiver and the remaining pack.

“Shiver, its decoys can harm you. They aren’t just for show!”

Caledon called out, recalling how the pack had torn into the wyvern subdued by the presence of the moonbeast.

Vale whispered under her breath.

“Shadow tendrils and decoys… I still don’t get it…”

“I think I’ve figured out my invocation. It’s pure Insanity, if it’s what I think it is. Any luck with yours?”

She grinned as she leapt forwards to meet the singular wolf before her, even as the pack surged forwards in their rapid approach, attempting to bypass the Fearshaper of blades. Vale gritted her teeth, still unsure as to how the shadow wolf’s Fear and abilities interfaced with her own.

[Authority of the wyvern]

Caledon called his Fear, and the oncoming shadow wolves staggered with the overwhelming urge to defer to him. Caledon’s invocation instilled a sliver of reverence in them, and he watched as they bowed for a moment, only to growl and snap free of his authority.   

They had given Shiver the opening that she needed.

Shiver leapt forwards, meeting the wolf head on. Only to disappear into a plane of ice she had called, utilising the same tactic that she had in her clash with Virgil.

Her Phobia swung down from the plane of ice above the wolf, severing the top of its neck. As she fell to the ground from within the plane of ice, breaking into a roll, her eyes widened, as she realised that her blow had not felled the beast.

In place of its blood, flesh and sinew, was shadow that filled the wound she had inflicted. The wolf bared its dark fangs at her, as it rushed forwards.

Shiver dug her hand into the black sands before her, and threw a fistful of sand into the wolves eyes, causing it to flinch. Her tricks of old still served her, just as well as they did on the streets of Brimstone. She leapt forwards, wrestling the wolf to the ground as the Fearshaper of blades kept the remainder of the pack company.

“Vale? I’m killing it now!”

Vale rushed forwards from behind Caledon, and her eyes widening as she saw what Shiver had. The shadow filling the wolf’s wounds, temporarily empowering it despite its injury.

This was why Solastra wanted me to kill it. If my suspicion is correct…

She withdrew her dagger and thrust it into the shadow wolf’s chest, narrowly avoiding a snap of its jaws, spittle flicking onto her face.

Vale drew in its Alarum.

The shadow wolf prowled the Gloamshores, in search of prey. It stalked a solitary figure at the water’s edge, gazing at the golden tear in the sky. The figure turned, and the wolf was greeted by the faceless void.

Shadows rushed to envelop it. The wolf was greeted by the object of its own Fear.

The shadows around it, its own dominion, were turned against it into blades that dug into the wolf’s hide. In a blink, the figure before it had disappeared, and the wolf lay bleeding on the black sands as the water lapped up its blood.

It would not die so easily.

[Reconstitution of the shadow wolf]

Vale’s eyes widened as she struggled to grasp the remnants of the wolf’s Fear of shadows that it had turned to its own purposes. She felt the invocation sink into her Fearcore and she shot a brief nod towards Shiver, who rushed forwards to meet the remaining wolves with a grin.

Vale had obtained the invocation the Highlady had intended for her.

As Vale retreated, Shiver didn’t hold back.

[Howl of the frostwolf]

The Gloamshores were greeted with frost, as an icey wind enveloped Shiver and the Fearshaper of blades. She shot forwards on her skates, over frozen black sands, and watched as the harsh winter winds cut through and dissipated two of the wolves, the decoys conjured by the true shadow wolf.

Twin daggers of ebonwood in her hands, Shiver lunged forwards as the wolf was disoriented by the sudden blizzard winds, tearing her daggers across its throat as she abandoned her skates and slid forwards, bisecting the black sand in her wake and sending it flying in a shower.

As the remnants of the shadow wolf’s Fear settled in her Fearcore, she comprehended the nature of its Fear adapted to her Fear of ice. The dimension to her Fear that it elaborated upon.

[Decoy of the shadowwolf]

As she rose to her feet, and looked to the narrow, golden tear that dripped into the horizon – she understood the Highlady’s plan for her.

The beginnings of a new dimension to her Fear, that she already knew was well within her potential.

As her mind rested on her familiar nightmare, Shiver’s lips drew into a grin her doppelganger would have been proud of.