B2 Chapter 38: Reawakening

“I’m going to murder that plant bitch.”

“You know Shiver… for once I agree with you. My head feels like it’s going to explode.”

Vale, Shiver and Caledon sat in Castle Flora’s infirmary. They had finally awoken from the haze in Solastra’s “Mansion of Madness”. The mansion was where she kept Fearshapers under the effect of Tranquillity – the “Nectar” they had been consuming.

Along with the other Fearshapers in the mansion, both their memories and their Fearshaping had been suppressed, and for a brief while, they enjoyed freedom from the symptoms of their Fears. Even Shiver, who benefitted from Icey’s efforts of holding back her own Fear had experienced the joys of enjoying popsicles without feeling like she was going to die, from the dread those delightful pieces of terror induced.

She was sure that a certain chef Spicefury had seen to it that she had been accommodated for.

Of the three of them, there was only one of them that the substance had been less effective on.

Caledon Brimstone.

His Fear of corruption had intrinsically resisted the impact of the substance. It was thanks to his Phobia, that on their final day, the Tranquillity in their bodies had burned away at an accelerated rate – bringing attention the anomalies that surrounded them in the mansion.

To surmount this small challenge, it seemed as if he had received special attention by the mansion’s attendants, ensuring that he consumed multiples of what Shiver and Vale had, in their stay at the mansion.

The result?

Splitting headaches.

“Has everything stopped spinning for you?”

“You’re still a shifting blob in my vision, princess. It’s actually quite the improvement.”

Shiver’s eyes lingered on the infirmary’s entrance, where a few of House Flora’s attendants were hovering.

“Speaking of the plant bitch.”

They watched, as a mass of roots started to grow from between the beige stone flooring, to form the visage of a familiar smiling woman.

Solastra Flora strode forwards to greet her guests.

“Very impressive. I hardly anticipated that you would snap out of your haze of Tranquillity on your own accord, barring finding the source of the mansion’s supply and burning it. You exceeded all expectations, Caledon.”

Caledon just glowered at the Highlady, who effortlessly endured his sweltering gaze.

“You were keeping my mother in the mansion? That was the safe place you proposed to keep her?”

“Where better? The Fearshapers that linger in the mansion are those dearest to me, I couldn’t bring myself to relinquish them to the Archcity of Dreams. As per my agreement with the Highlord of Dreams, they remain in my protection. Rest assured, Caledon, your mother won’t be partaking of the Nectar. But there is no safer place for her, free from prying eyes.”

Caledon gritted his teeth, as the Highlady smiled. With a wave of her hand, the attendants entered, bringing with the supplies that they deposited at the foot of their beds.

“You will find the necessary provision to tide you over for a few days, although your hunts should not take you more than about two to complete. By that time, the effects of the Tranquillity withdrawals will begin to wane-“

Solastra’s eyes gleamed as she met theirs in turn.

“And you would have to spend another pleasant stint in my mansion. Its doors will always be open to you.”

This time, even Shiver had lost the will to dignify her taunt with a response.

After the brief period free from their Fears, they were beginning to feel the consequences of their reprieve.

Shiver was shaking. Her hand clasped her wrist tightly, willing her body to stop shuddering from the cold emanating from her Fearcore. Her teeth gently clattered, despite the warm spring air that greeted them, where they sat.

Vale rubbed at her throat, her eyes darting anxiously about in search of her revenants. Mercifully, Solastra had kept to her words, and Triol and Bladey were nowhere to be seen.

Caledon stared at the Phobia that he had manifested in his hand. His eyes hollow, defeated. Shiver watched as Caledon’s eyes lingered on Vale, before his fingers curled tightly around his Phobia. Shiver noticed how his nails dug into his palms with such force they bordered on drawing blood. He was trying to use his sense of pain as a mechanism to ground him in his reality.

Her eyes narrowed.

Something happened between them when I returned after my time in the ice glades. I never asked Vale what that was about. Could it be… his Fear playing up?

Solastra interrupted her thoughts, withdrawing a parchment, which she held before her.

“I have prepared a list of creatures for each of you to hunt. The approach that you adopted in the initial stage of your descent was sufficient to stabilise your Fearcores. Seeking out compatible creatures of little consequence… with some exceptions. Descending blindly will not serve you, in this second component of your descent, where you define the dimensions to your Fears. Absorbing deadlier invocations.”

Virgil Starstrider strode into the room. The Fearshaper of Stars that had been their guide through the Dreadwood, when they had first arrived at the town of Eleric. The same man who had played them all for fools, deceiving them when a gigantic hand born of his own Fear had swept him up before their very own eyes.

“Virgil here, will assist you. The creatures you will face in the Inheritances within my forest will be far deadlier than the ones that you’ve encountered thus far. You will need to work in unison to triumph over them. I have taken the liberty of outlining the order in which you should visit the invocations, so that you may tackle the more dangerous ones with greater ease.”

“Hello again. I promise I won’t disappear… again.”

Virgil raised a languid hand in greeting, and winced at the flat stares that he received.

“I have one final warning for you. A small detail that slipped my mind when explaining Trepidation’s true potential to you.”

Shiver’s eyes narrowed as they drilled into Solastra’s own.

“Should you kill every creature you find, indiscriminately absorbing their Alarum, you might find yourself saddled with unintended dimensions to Fear, bringing with it, new avenues of Terror. I’ll leave it to Virgil to inform you of the details.”

Even as Shiver gritted her teeth, knowing that it was most certainly an intended omission of Solastra’s it did bring her a degree of satisfaction to see how Virgil paled at the Highlady’s words.

Solastra clapped her hands together with a smile.

“Now! That’s enough talk. It’s off to the Inheritances of legends with you.”

Solastra’s gleaming yellow eyes hovered over each of them in turn.

“One last thing. Don’t rely on Virgil to kill your targets for you. You may be valuable to me, but if you don’t have the guile or strength to surmount the challenges of your Trepidation on your own two feet…”

Solastra grinned.

“Then you would be better off dead. Do try not to die. I despise minor inconveniences.”

As much as the symptoms of their Fears had worsened, and the recently revealed risks of their looming descension awaited them, they could help but exchange a glance.

Filled with anticipation.

At long last, they would glimpse the true wonders of the Greatwood.

It was a small mercy that this time, they wouldn’t be braving it alone.

---

“Ouch. Seems like its sharp enough.”

Shiver held twin ebonwood daggers in her hands. In her initial foray into the Dreadwood, she had learned that she was utterly unprepared to wield her Phobia effectively, if she had to do so with any degree of mastery. Her daggers seemed to have been wrought from the same ebony wood as Rathos’ armour. Vale had been equipped with a light cross bow and a long steel dagger – both light and accessible enough to be wielded without expertise. Caledon had been equipped with a white, ashwood shield and a mundane shortsword.

“Vale… I still think you should bring your revenants. If you’re concerned about Triol, we could at least use Bladey when we take down the creatures.”

“Bladey?”

Vale sighed, but she nodded with reluctance. Shiver was doubtful that the Highlady had meant what she said, about being content to leave them to die. Still, if the Inheritances were anywhere near as deadly as the Highlady made them out to be, Virgil’s presence would not be a guarantee of their wellbeing.

To her surprise, Caledon nodded his agreement. Shiver continued.

“We’ll monitor him. Besides, if he does try anything, I’m sure Virgil would be able to send him right back if anything happens. Right?”

“I-“

“Shut it Starboy. You don’t get a say in this.”

Virgil cut short his protests wisely, as Shiver rose to poke him in the chest repeatedly with increasing frequency and force.

“Alright Shiver. We’ll bring… “Bladey” along.”

Virgil muttered under his breath.

“Bullies… All of you. And I thought the Highlady was bad.”

Shiver shot Virgil an angelic smile to haunt his nightmares.

“We’re hardly bullies, this is just how we warm up to people!”

Virgil stalked away from Shiver. Seeing that they were ready to depart, their packs on their back, Virgil called his Fear.

[I walked between the stars]

They strode through the tear.

Back into the Dreadwood, to face their Trepidation.

---

They emerged at the precipice of the Emberwood, the Shadow Woods laying before them.

“Woah.”

Caledon watched as Shiver admired the burning canopies of the trees in the Emberwood, casting dancing firelight into the darkness of night.

“It’s beautiful. This was where you tried to descend, Caledon?”

He nodded in response to Vale’s question, his eyes passing over the Emberwood.

The very first thing that he did when he reached the precipice of the Emberwood, was call Idriel’s voice to him.

As the Singer resonated with his Fearcore, his face fell immediately as his eyes passed over the creature that he sought to query.

·        Phoenix [10% compatibility]

The sight of his mother, so twisted from her ordinary self, had made him desperate. He cursed himself for even considering it, in his moment of weakness and focused on the task before them. It seemed as if the decision had been made for him. Even with the Tranquility withdrawals, he wasn’t nearly close enough to absorbing its Alarum.

Then, they turned to regard the forest that lay before them. Yet unexplored, by any of the trio, though Caledon had sighted some of its denizens in his explorations of the Emberwood. He had watched, as they effortlessly tore apart one of the lords of the forest of flame, the flame wyvern from which he had obtained his first invocation in the Dreadwood.

The Shadow Woods were true to their name.

Towering trees with ebony bark loomed above them. Despite the dancing firelight above them, the boundary of the shadow woods did not bow to the light generated by the forest’s flames. Similarly, while the soft crackling of flames could be heard at their back, none of the telltale, mundane sounds of a forest emerged from within, as if equally smothered by the shadow and silence enshrouding the landscape before them.

Which was why, they froze, when they heard a crack cut through the silence, from within.

“I will scout ahead. Remain here, I will ensure that our path to the Gloamshores is unimpeded.”

They watched as Cygni, Virgil’s guide melted into the darkness before them.

The Gloamshores, inheritance of shadow, awaited.

Where darkness and silence reigned.