[Fsh] Chapter 48: Fearshaper of Blades

They had found Bladey by following the marks of their battle. Scars in the landscape, that were not wrought by the duels of bladefrogs. That was how they stumbled unto the cave in which they found him with Voltroth.

The cavern around them, was covered by the scars of their bladedance. Huge gashes carved into pure stone, as if they carved through butter. A similar gash was carved across the fox-man’s chest. The revenant’s gleaming, golden Phobia was covered in the guide’s blood.

“Don’t approach.”

Virgil held up a hand, as the revenant stared back at them unblinkingly.

“Change of plans, I’m calling Vale here. Maybe she can discern his state.”

Shiver stared at the revenant in confusion. From the sounds of it, Voltroth had missed his old Fearshaper. She had not sensed any animosity between them when they spoke prior to her battle with the Bladefrog.

Could this be Vale’s Fear playing up? She was concerned about her revenants.

[I walked between the stars]

Virgil opened another tear in reality, and a pale-faced Vale strode through. It seemed like she had been expecting Virgil’s portal. Vale gave Shiver and Caledon a smile.

“You missed me that much? You two look terr-“

A familiar black skeleton followed her out of the portal and Shiver raised an eyebrow.

“I’ll explain later. I’m fine… for now.”

Vale stared at the destruction around her. Then, a chill came over her when she saw her revenant, its axe bloody over a strange creature.

“Bladey killed his guide.”

Vale’s gaze hardened as she fixed her second revenant with a stare. Shiver continued, as she joined Vale.

“His name was Voltroth. He told me he was a keeper of the Thundervale. Then, he disappeared after giving me some tips.”

Vale broke away her glance for a moment, raising a questioning eyebrow.

“Tips?”

“Tips. I was trying to kill this frog, and almost died. It’s not important. They seemed to be on friendly enough terms. Can you work your magic?”

Even though Shiver spoke casually, Vale could see her eyes lingering on Bladey. Her hand poised over the hilt of her Phobia.

Vale invoked her Fear.

[Insight of the griefwalker]

A tangle of emotions washed over her, as she reached out towards the soul of the Fearshaper of blades.

The yearning for redemption was still there, his failure to protect his village like a stain on his soul that he desperately tried to redeem himself of.

However, there were new emotions that blossomed within.

Relief. Like a huge weight had been taken off of his shoulders. Accompanying it, was happiness, that radiated throughout his being. Paradoxical to the bloody gash in his guide’s chest.

Most of all, a sense of hope.

There was not a single hint of anger, vitriol or frustration to be found. No matter how intensely Vale searched, she could not find any sign of bloodlust either.

“It’s strange… he feels relieved, and happy. Hopeful. I’m not detecting any anger or thirst for blood.”

“Another unforeseen obstacle that halts your progress, I see? How inconvenient.”

The floor beneath them cracked as vines sprouted upwards forming into the familiar form of the Kindly Gardener.

“Plant bitch, I was beginning to miss you.”

“So was I, frosty bitch.”

She turned to the Fearshaper of blades, with its bloody Phobia held high, resting on its shoulder.

“So, have you figured it out yet? Go on.”

There stared at her with clueless eyes. It was impossible trying to parse the Solastra’s motivations, and that was when she was feeling generous with her words. Finally, she relented with a sigh.

“There is another purpose to the inheritances in my Dreadwood.”

“Shiv me sideways.”

“You only have to ask, Shiver. It was plenty of fun the last time.”

Solastra’s yellow irises glowed alight with mirth, and the image of her vines freeing them from Tranquillity’s grip by spearing them with her roots resurfaced in their memories.

“You’re protecting the guides. From… us. Fearshapers who would use them as tools in their descent.”

Solastra nodded with a hint of pride, gracing Shiver with a smile for her insight.

“I’m glad you’ve realised. What Idriel so dispassionately terms ‘named hunts’, reduces guides to resources to be harnessed in the descent. A little bit ruthless, wouldn’t you say?”

Vale and Caledon exchanged a glance. Apparently, the irony was lost on the Highlady.

When Fearshapers queried Idriel, and her voice resonated outwards from their Fearcores, it provided them with information on “resources” that could be used for their descension. In other words, it located creatures compatible with their Fear, which also extended to… guides.

Shiver interjected.

“Why is it that Ratlad and Zel aren’t appearing as guides to be used as resources? Are we just incompatible with them?”

“Excellent insight. Only a subsection of guides are caught in Idriel’s resonance. Unfortunately, your friends guides are of little use to you, Shiver.”

“Shame.”

Shiver stuck her tongue out at Quietus, who was seated on Vale’s shoulder, threateningly whirling his ivory walking stick.  

Then, Solastra lowered her voice, drawing them in. Shiver had to admit, Solastra was an excellent story teller. Or maybe, it was just that she held all the secrets.

“You must know by now, that your guides do not stay stagnant in your descent. In Anhedonia, Trepidation, and even Delirium, death will not come to your guides. They will be capable of reforming in your Fearcore, the only cost being the Alarum you expend for the effort.”

Solastra paused.

“Then… you descend to Dread. Your guides, gain a physical body. A presence.”

She turned to stare at the space beside Caledon. His eyes widened as Zel, who had been hovering there invisible, flickered into existence. The eyelids around the floating eyeball narrowed.

Solastra just gave the grumpty eyeball a wink.

“They are less like spirits that can simply reform in your Fearcore if they perish. Similarly, if a Fearshaper perishes in Dread, their guide will persist without them. Those are the guides that Idriel damns, capable of being used as resources for the descent.”

Vale interjected.

“But… Bladey is a Fearshaper in Delirium? How is it that his guide had a physical form?”

Solastra nodded with a smile, turning to Vale.

“Volstroth likely bonded with another guide after Bladey’s death. His subsequent Fearshaper likely perished after reaching the realm of Dread, leaving him behind.”

Solastra’s voice lowered.

“You will find that many guides that are left bereft, without their Fearshapers, fall to despair.”

She turned to regard Bladey, holding his bloody axe aloft like an executioner, his grin plain for all to see.

“Death was a mercy for him, an end to his tiresome existence. You have nothing to Fear from him. I’m sure the old kobold was having a grand old time clashing with one of his old students. Swordsmen love poetic deaths like that.”

“But why would Bladey kill him? To free him from his… despair?”

The Highlady clapped her hands together, ignoring Vale’s question.

“Now, why don’t we all head back to Viridian.”

The trio looked at each other in slight confusion.

“I’m sure you have lots to discuss. You should rest, before you continue with the remainder of your descent. Have you done as I recommended? How do your Fearcores feel?”

They turned their attention inwards, towards their Fearcores. Since their explorations of the Inheritances, they could feel like their Fearcores had become… more defined. With every invocation, the core within them became more material.

As much as Shiver hated to admit it, the Highlady had been right. With every invocation she gained, new dimensions to her Fear were defined. Shiver began to sense the potential she was realising – what her unparalleled Fearcore offered her.  

---

They sat in a room allocated to them, secluded away from the rest of the castle. Solastra had cited concerns about side effects of their Tranquillity affecting the other residents.

Lady Velra had healed their wounds, and they had bathed. A luxury afforded with Virgil’s assistance, having a Fearshaper of stars around to teleport as and when you wanted certainly was convenient.

Shiver turned to Vale and Caledon where they sat.

“Before we begin the deep and meaningful, we need to discuss Solastra. Haven’t you felt like she’s been playing us this whole time? Offering just enough information to nudge us in the directions she wishes? One thing I am grateful for… is that no one seems more invested in our descent than her. You have to wonder why.”

Vale shuddered.

“It scares me.”

Caledon shrugged.

“She scares me too. But I suppose we don’t have much of a choice, when she’s opening her figurative vaults to us, offering us the most valuable creatures with invocations that synergise with our own. Even if she is withholding other options from us.”

Shiver nodded.

“The lordling is right. Thundervale… is there something troubling you?”

Shiver’s gaze hardened, when the girl did not rise to her teasing. Instead, Vale was staring at Triol who stood within their room.

“My Fear finally caught up to me.”

For a moment, Vale fell silent, and Shiver bit back the acerbic comments she would have heartlessly levelled at her friend, had she not looked like she was on the brink of despair.

“I’ve been trying to figure it out, this entire time. Every nightmare in Trepidation brought me closer to her, as I gained invocations. I could barely sense her presence in my first nightmare. Then, I descended into the Gravewoods, and I went from barely sensing her to… seeing her. Feeling what she felt. Then…”

Vale shuddered, as Shiver nodded.

“Triol strangled you.”

“To save me. He was halting the possession in its tracks. In truth… it was my mother’s hands around my throat. He saved me again, the second time. He tore through my room door to make it to me.”

Vale’s gaze flickered to her brother’s skeleton with a complicated expression written on her face.

“Are you ok, now?”

Shiver laid a tentative hand on Vale’s shoulders and she smiled.

“I can still see her.”

Their breaths collectively caught. They traced Vale’s finger, as she pointed to a spot above Triol.

Asale Revenant, weighing down upon her brother’s shoulders.

“Solastra told me that she’s waiting for another moment of weakness. She’s given me a solution.”

They listened as Vale continued on.

“My father, evidently, failed to exert his dominion over souls because he constrained himself in his descent through Trepidation. Solastra told me that he rushed it, and that as a result, souls were beyond him. That was in addition to the fact… that I possess a guide of greater burden than his own.”

Their eyes widened, as they stared at a Fearshaper of death with a [mythic] guide.

As if in answer, Lord Quietus Vingrave appeared on his Fearshaper’s shoulder, his green eyes burning a he watched his guide speak.

“I possess power over souls. That is how I’m able to summon revenants, capable of Fearshaping. However… she’s presented me with an opportunity. Not only offering powers that nurture souls…”

“But the power to kill them.”

Shiver finished her friend’s sentence for her. It wasn’t hard to guess. Seeing the glances that her friend cast towards her mother’s ghost, as above her brother’s body. Assuming the burden meant to be imposed on her.

“Beyond that… she’s offered me the possibility to expand my Fear in other dimensions of death. Namely… the shape of my sister Savagery’s Fear. The ability to resist death.”

Vale’s voice fell.

“Of course, it will be accompanied by torment, in that regard.”

“And?”

“I’m taking both of her offers.”

They fell silent, as they regarded their friend. Her eyes hollow and ragged, from the nightmare she had endured, her mother’s very own soul…

Haunting her.

“If that’s your choice, my lady…”

Shiver drew closer to her friend, flaring her nostrils as if to taunt her, as she drew herself closer to the girl’s face.  

“Are you asking me if I would love you, even if you were a skeleton? Mwah-“

For a moment, Vale had no words for her. Then she burst into laughter as she warded off her encroaching friend. A true laugh, unburdened by her Fears that chased her, or the responsibilities that she was faced with taking on.

“Crazy orphan. I love you too.”

Instantly, Vale regretted the expression of affection, at the look of mirth that entered Shiver’s eyes.

“Careful now, or the lordling might get jealous. You two haven’t had a moment in private for a while now, so I’ll leave you to it. Remember… we have more Inheritances to plunder, I want you in tip top shmmf”

Vale was blushing crimson, from her cheeks to the tip of her ears, and it was matched by Caledon’s own complexion.

Shiver just gave them a wide smile, and deserted them.

---

As Shiver strode through Solastra’s training yard, trailed by two of her attendants, she reached into her Fearcore, opening her awareness, to the cold of a frozen world within her.

“Popsicle?”

Shiver smiled.