B2 Chapter 36: A Dance with Insanity

Highlady Solastra Flora’s banquet was positioned in the heart of her court.

She was joined by Caledon, Shiver and Vale – unaccompanied by her Knight-lieutenants.

They dined alone, in the dying light of the sunset, captured by the Dawntree’s million leaves that shifted far above them.

“Nice lighting.”

“Thank you, Shiver. I’m quite proud of it myself.”

“I have to ask, lady. Do you eat your own plants? Is that cannibalism, seeing as how you’re made from them?”

“The same could be said of you and your popsicles. Does that trouble you?”

Shiver halted in her show of ravenous consumption, a shadow of doubt flickering over Shiver’s expression for a brief moment, before she continued to eat.

Highlady Solastra Flora laughed.

“Evidently, not very much.”

Vale instantly saw through the veneer of confidence that Shiver projected. Once you learned to see it, it was relatively easy to detect, not that she would ever admit it to the girl. The way Shiver stared into the distance, preoccupied after her discussion with Flora, gave her away.

Caledon looked to be faring no better. His face was pale, and he hadn’t touched his food.

Neither had Vale.

Solastra turned to regard each of them.

“Tell me, all of you.”

Solastra’s bright yellow irises glowed, and each of them felt a jolt of anticipation as the Highlady’s eyes settled on them in turn.  

“How did you find my garden? Has the Dreadwood lived up to your expectations?”

Vale exchanged a glance with Caledon, and they felt the hair on their necks rise.

“It was astou-“

“I would like only the truth, please.”

Solastra calmly cut Vale off, and the girl balked as the Highlady saw straight through her.

Vale pleadingly looked in Shiver’s direction. As the girl chomped down on her food, she shrugged her shoulders.

“Don’t look at me, I found a fox that froze time. Well... sort of. I thought your forest was nice.”

Solastra smiled.

“Your opinions, Vale and Caledon?”

Vale cleared her throat as she watched Caledon do the same.

“In all honesty, the Gravewoods were nothing like I’ve ever seen. All the creatures that resided within, they were astounding. You, Caledon?”

Vale watched as the lord flinched in surprise, as Vale elegantly passed Caledon the floor. “Passed” was inaccurate, the girl had thrust him under Solastra’s scrutiny to shamelessly save herself. Vale blushed under his brief glare, before he addressed the Highlady.

“I could say the same about the Emberwoods, they were beautiful. The fires that burned without smoke, even the creatures within. We were told stories about wyverns and emberhares, but I thought them all long dead and extinct.”

Solastra waved a hand impatiently, as if expecting something more from them.

“Yes, yes, and?”

“I think what they’re trying so hard to say, is that your Dreadwood was kind of boring.”

Caledon and Vale stared incredulously at Shiver.

“What? Am I wrong?”

Solastra laughed at the glares they shot Shiver.

“You three remind me so much of my old friends. No offence will be taken-“

She winked.

“This time.”

“I meant every offence, plant lady-”

“Well, I suppose I should explain just why my Dreadwood disappointed. And for that, it is necessary to reveal to you the true nature of Trepidation.”

The sounds of their cutlery on plates suddenly drew to an abrupt halt.

“Before that, I would like the answer to my question. Do you wish to descend?”

“Yep.”

Shiver delivered her decision swiftly, before turning back to her meal. Still, Vale watched how the girl looked at the Highlady with the barest hint of vitriol, as she dug into her food.  

Vale nodded, after a brief moment. She had been prepared to descend from the very moment of entering the Dreadwood.

Caledon hesitated, but with a deep sigh, he too nodded his head.

“Good!”

Highlady Solastra clapped her hands, a beaming smile on her expression.

Caledon frowned as she beamed at them. Vale exchanged a glance with him, as she picked at her palm anxiously.

It’s like she’s treating this as a game. Like we’re all pieces in her puzzle that she moves as she sees fit.

One thing is for sure, though. She wants us all to descend and refuses to tell us why.

“On to Trepidation then. Can anyone tell me, what is meant by the phrase ‘dancing with Insanity’?”

Shiver raised her hand high as her cheeks bulged with food. Vale and Caledon on the other hand, exchanged a glance.

Of the three of them, only one of them was Insane enough to play her games without fear.

“Ooh me!”

“Yes, Shiver?”

“That’s what we have to do when we descend, right? Dance with your Fears until we conquer them in Serenity.”

Solastra nodded patiently.

“Correct, but there is wisdom hidden in the phrase. Tell me, does the Singer say that you are ready for your descension to Delirium? Vale and Shiver, that is. Caledon, with the scarce invocations that you obtained, I highly doubt you’ve obtained the message.”

Solastra smiled, her words designed to invite his ire. He ignored her.

True to Solastra’s words, both Vale and Shiver had received the same message.

Progress to Fearcore consolidation: 100%

READY TO DESCEND

After obtaining invocations in Solastra’s forest, they had initially assumed that they had completed their descent.

That had changed, with their conversations with Solastra’s knights.

Rathos’ words in particular, had alluded to Shiver that there was something more to Trepidation. The knight of shadows, capable of retaining a control over plants that allowed him to adorn the Dreadwood armour. Something that should have been impossible, if he was limited to acquiring invocations from creatures that were compatible with his Fear of shadow.

“Shiver, when you first departed, I told you that the Singer lies. Idriel, the system, does not do so expressly. The lie is in what the words would lead you to believe.”

Solastra regarded the others as she interlinked her fingers on the table before her.

“As I have told Shiver, that you may descend to Delirium does not mean that it best for you to descend, as you are. Had you listened to her, you would have descended prematurely, without fully developing your potential-”

Solastra fixed them with her bright, yellow irises that contained an immeasurable depth.

“Without fully fleshing out the shape of your Trepidation.”

Caledon interjected, voicing the question that Shiver had posed to Solastra.

“If the Singer is meant to help us, what’s the point in a system which lies to Fearshapers? Even if it isn’t lying directly?”

Solastra smiled, as frustratingly as ever. Then, her body fell to the ground, dispersing into roots, vines and plant matter.

Roots surged out of the ground behind Shiver’s chair, and in an instant, the Highlady had formed behind her. She laid a hand on Shiver’s shoulder. The girl just shot her a glare and continued to eat.

“I will gladly illuminate you as to the true nature of Trepidation… But that question will be for you to untangle. Now, on to the lesson. In Anhedonia, acknowledgement brings your Fear into awareness. Embracement allows you to shape it into a receptacle from which your Fearshaping will stem, by taking in your Fear.”

She paused, meeting their gazes.

“In Trepidation, a Fearshaper defines the dimensions to their Fears. The common refrain, one you most likely heard from your guides, is that the invocations you gain in Trepidation are simpler, mimicry, before the true art that springs forth in Delirium.”

Solastra nodded.

“That much is true. The invocations you gain in Trepidation are more mundane. They can hardly be characterised as bringing your nightmares into reality. Their true value… lies in the foundation they lay.”

Solastra smiled.

“In Trepidation, a Fearshaper fleshes out the nature of their budding Fearpath. Usually, the burden of your guides mark the limits of your potential, the flexibility afforded to you. Which is why you are given the choice when you first awaken.”

With a wave of her hand, roots erupted from the floor to take the shape of a familiar knight.

“Clona, with her Fear of roses. She selected a guide with [minimal] burden. She wields their thorns, but equally does she wield her Fear to seduce, as roses do. Two, simple but significant dimensions to her Fear. Even so, she is not to be underestimated. A guide’s burden alone tells you nothing about a Fearshaper’s ability.”

The figure shifted into a woman with long, flowing black hair in an elegant black dress, before it shifted once more.

This time, it depicted a kindly old woman with a needle an thread.

“Velra, with her Fear of wounds. She selected a guide with a [moderate] burden. Just as she removes them, so can she inflict them if she wishes. It was thanks to her ingenuity that my armour has attained the potent healing potential that it has.”

Solastra momentarily frowned, as if troubled by a pebble in her footwear.

“Perhaps made a little too potent, seeing as my dearest shit stain of a son, Semille is still alive.”

Vale choked, spluttering water.

She waved her hand once more. This time, the vines morphed into a knight wreathed in black armour of shadow.

“Rathos possesses more conventional powers related to shadow. Obscurity, wielding it as a blade. You know the like…”

Shiver raised her eyebrows.

How was wielding shadow like a blade conventional, exactly.

She shot Shiver a smile.

“As some of you know, he possesses control over plants with the same properties. That is why, even though he does not share a Fear of plants in its many iterations, he is capable of donning my armour. Beldrian, a guide of [severe] burden supports the flexibility of his Fear. So far, are there any questions?”

Vale tried unsuccessfully to ignore the thundering of her heart in her chest.

“Aren’t we limited by the compatibility of the creatures we gain the invocations from? A Fearshaper of shadow who gains plant-related invocations seems to be contradictory to what the Singer. He can’t exactly go around killing plant creatures-”

Vale’s eyes widened in realisation.  

“Excellent. You happen onto Idriel’s second lie by implication. The Singer displays creatures compatible with the nature of your Fear, who might offer you invocations should you slay them. Compatibility is crucial to allowing an invocation to take root in your Fearcore. Idriel’s voice offers an exceedingly useful function.”

Solastra’s eyes gleamed as bright as the Dawntree that loomed above her.

“Yet… it can be stretched under the right conditions.”

Solastra smiled.

“Do you know, what is needed, to stretch your Fear in dimensions that would otherwise be incompatible with your Fear?”

Caledon whispered the words, as they finally clicked in place.

“A dance with Insanity.”

“You truly are my favourite Brimstone, Caledon.”

Caledon bristled at her words but he shook it off. Too enraptured to care.

“How would you induce…”

His eyes widened, and he met Shiver’s gaze. It seems like the girl had realised it as well.

“You’re Insane. Plant bitch.”

Solastra laughed, as Vale recoiled at the uncharacteristic vitriol in Shiver’s words. Vale looked cluelessly between the pair of them. As her eyes fixed on Shiver, she saw the girl had lost all of her mirth and the casual air with which she was carrying herself.

Shiver glared at Highlady Solastra, her cerulean piercing into the Highlady’s yellow irises.

What could get Shiver so outwardly angry? How do you dance with Insanity, as she says?

“You, my dear girl are as sharp as that pretty Phobia you wield. Care to explain it to our dearest Revenant friend?”

“Tranquillity withdrawals.”

For a moment, there was only silence in Solastra’s court. Their meals left forgotten before them.

Finally, Caledon broke the silence with incredulity in his tone.  

“When you ingest Tranquillity, elves experience the relief of having their Fears suppressed. Then, when they experience withdrawals, their Fear returns with a vengeance. So… you impose the withdrawals intentionally, to gain flexibility in defining the dimensions of your Fear in Trepidation, to obtain invocations from creatures you would otherwise be incompatible with. That’s…”

Caledon fixed Highlady Solastra with his gaze.

As Insane as it was brilliant.

The suppression of an elf’s Fear did not come free of consequences. Caledon knew as well as Shiver, that many slum orphans in the lower circle fell to Insanity due to Tranquility withdrawals. It was why Mother Ventra chased after her next dosage so intently.

Eventually however, they caught up to you.

As repulsive as it was, the act of suppressing an elf’s Fear to intentionally worsen their Fears, to grant them additional flexibility in their descent was something that he would never have considered.

What did it mean to dance with Insanity, in your descent?

They finally came to understand the common refrain, and everything it implied.

“With that, we finally come to the question that I posed to you all, at the very beginning of our delightful dinner. Whether my Dreadwood has met your expectations.”

Solastra walked over to a bush that bordered their table.

She plucked a single black rose, its edges outlined in gold.

“When a Fearshaper in Serenity dies, they are granted a single opportunity. They can meld their wishes and Fear into a final Inheritance.”

She turned to regard them.

“The academy in which you descended through Anhedonia, was one such Inheritance. The only reason, my Dreadwood possesses the meagre reputation that it does in your eyes…”

Solastra’s expression was wistful, as she turned over the rose in her hands.

Then, the rose began to bloom, in the darkness of night.

“Is because you haven’t glimpsed its true wonders.”

Her eyes flashed as she raised her gaze.

“The Inheritances that form its very foundations. Those bestowed by some of the greatest elves to stride in Serenity. Tell me, why would they be necessary?”

Vale volunteered an answer, putting an end to the silence that drew on.

“Perhaps… the Inheritances are necessary to imbue your woods with different types of objects of Fear? Flame, shadow, lightning, and so forth?”

Solastra shook her head.

“A discerning guess, but false. My woods achieve that without their assistance. You wound me, do you think me to be so reliant on cheap tricks?”

She pursed her lips teasingly, as the lordling broke away his gaze.

Shiver spoke, her cerulean gaze drilling into Solastra.

“You want to limit the accessibility to invocations. The most dangerous creatures, which offer the most tantalising “rewards”.”

Solastra smiled at her, giving her a proud, affirmative nod.

“And to prevent the ecosystem from collapsing. There are some creatures that would destroy the equilibrium between the ecosystems. Most of all, however, it is to control the access to invocations which could be…”

Solastra smiled.

“Problematic. If they were made freely available.”  

Solastra resumed her seat on her throne, high above them where they sat.

“So, Shiver, Vale and Caledon. Will you see the true wonders of my garden, and expand the bounds of your Trepidation?”  

They paused, looking incredulously at one another.

Would they be willing to dance with Insanity, to achieve their goals?

Caledon, to gain a mastery over corruption capable of restoring his mother.

Vale, to gain a mastery over death, to deliver it to her father and reclaim her sister.

Shiver, to gain a mastery over ice, to save a silly guide who had sacrificed her very being for her.

They nodded.

The opportunity that Solastra was presenting them was too tantalising to refuse, and they were certain that the Highlady was well aware of that fact.

“You would have us ingest Tranquillity?”

The Highlady’s laugh was like the rustle of leaves on a spring day. That was to say, it echoed in the Dreadwood around them.

“That, is the least of your worries...”

Solastra gave Shiver a sweet smile.

“Frosty bitch.”

[Nutrient replacement]

They watched, paralysed in shock as Solastra called her Fear into reality.  

Caledon watched as Vale and Shiver instantly collapsed over the dining table as the Tranquillity flooded their system. Taking the place of the food that they he had just ingested, entering their bloodstreams before they could react.

He summoned his Phobia, clinging desperately to his consciousness.

Resisting, the effects of the drug that suffused through his system in an instant, as his Phobia burned brightly in his hands. Subverting the corruption with his own.

As Caledon glared at the Highlady, he thought he saw something… flicker over her head. Just beyond the bounds of his perception.

Before he too, fell in a heap on her courtyard floor, as the leaves of the Dawntree rustled in the distance.

“Sweet dreams, young Fearshapers.”

---

Highlady Solastra watched, as her attendants carried the trio towards her personal garden. The mansion that sat within, containing her dearest Fearshapers of old, who partook in eternal revelry, as they deserved.

Her personal garden confused many of her visitors, shocked at the mundane black roses that filled it.

They did not know what they stood for.

They were her tributes to the lives lost in the Rampage, as dark as her sin and as bright as the world she envisioned.

The mansion was the result of her compromise with the Highlord of Dreams, Saravagan Dreamer. While the noble houses had agreed in the accord, to surrender their Fearshapers to the Archcity of Dreams, she had refused him those that were dearest to her. Much like the girl, who lived in contentment in the town of Eleric.

The Dreadwalker of flowers.

Not that he had much of a choice.

Her lips pulled into a small smile, as her thoughts fell on Caledon.

There was no reason why she could not have used Lucidity to achieve the trio’s withdrawals. The same drug used by the Archcity of Dreams to pull Fearshapers out of their deadly nightmares in their descent through Delirium. Similarly to Tranquillity, it suppressed their Fears, and induced withdrawals which would bring them closer to Insanity. Only without the quirk of twisting their perception, and depriving them of their memories.  

Why then, had she chosen Tranquillity?

As Solastra sat on her throne and peered at the stars above, fixing her eyes on Elucidor’s twin moons – Valefor and Idriel.

“Do you think the Brimstone, has what it takes? I want to test his talent, his resolve.”

Solastra spoke to an empty courtyard before her.

Would the boy be able to discern his advantage, as a Fearshaper of corruption, and pass her test?

To free himself from Tranquillity’s grip?

Solastra chuckled lightly to herself, before her mind fell on the final detail she had neglected to mention to the budding Fearshapers about their descent through Trepidation.

Anhedonia was the step, which brought an elf’s Fear into their awareness.

Trepidation, was the stage in which the bounds and dimensions of one’s Fears were stretched.

Achieved by defining dimensions to their Fear, and gaining powers that could be contradictory, or tangential to the nature of an elf’s Fear. What Vetrian had rushed through, stifling his own potential.

But it was all too easy to forget, that it was called a descent for a reason.

What then, were the risks that Trepidation posed?

Solastra stared at her hands, and as the moonlight flickered through the Dawntree’s canopy she glimpsed her skin turn to vine and root, before flickering back to normalcy.

Just as Trepidation opened new pathways to power, so did it create new avenues of torment.

Fearshapers that killed the flora and fauna of Elucidor indiscriminately, could be saddled with invocations that paved the way for a new dimensions of terror, that would eventually spell their end.

For Vale, Caledon and Shiver, power would be assured.

Solastra had identified the perfect creatures to unlock the very limits of their potential. In a way that would serve her interests perfectly, of course.

Yet, it was not the invocations that would result from their descent, the powers that they would gain, that captured Solastra’s interest and curiosity.

“Let us see what regrets, your Trepidation brings. Aren’t you curious, dear? How silly of me, forgetting to mention it to them. I’ll make sure that Virgil informs them.”

The Highlady of Life, reclined in her throne and smiled. Her voice softening, assuming a tenor of genuine kindness that had been reserved for so few, in her life.

For there were souls, that you frustrated you, to the ends of Sanity.

That you would equally, fight for, till the very brink of Insanity.

In that regard, there was no one better than Solastra Flora, who understood Shiver’s resolve to save her silly, kind guide.

If the flexibility of one’s Fear was moderated by the burden of the guide a Fearshaper was bonded with, then there was also, no one who better understood the tribulations that faced them, than the Kindly Gardener.

A Fearshaper with a guide of equal standing to their own.

Solastra’s question posed to her empty court, was answered by the shifting sky above her.

The Dawntreant delivered it’s reply in the light of the dying sun, and the whispers of a million leaves.

No one understood the perils of Trepidation, more than Solastra Flora.

She who strode on the [Fearpath of the Dawntreant of Life], with a [Mythic] guide of her own.

For the dimensions of her own Fear—

Were legion.