Shiver watched, as Icey shot down the corridor to meet her. She was seated on the steps leading up to the golden gates that barred them from the Floors of Trepidation. Her eyes lingered on the ward behind her, her lips drawn into a slight smile. Caledon and Vale were in the pods, seeking to reach their acknowledgement. She had tasked Icey with keeping an eye out for their pursuers.

  The appearance of her guide could only mean one thing.

  "They’re finally here? Let’s go greet them, shall we popsicle?"

  "Shiver… are you sure about this? You should be careful!"

  "As certain as can be. Watch the magic happen."

  Shiver strode past the pod room that Caledon and Vale were dreaming in. Pevir, against her advice had descended alone to the basement to explore the academy’s library. She had to give it to him, the man was unstoppable when he caught sight of an interesting book.

  The lift that Shiver entered creaked as it came to a stop.

  Shiver walked out into the courtyard with a confident smile.

  "Welcome to the academy gentleman. Here to be taught a lesson? I’ll be your instructor for today."

  Lord Semille, flanked by his knights, and Triol Revenant stood in the courtyard. Shiver’s grin widened as she spotted the bandages wrapped around Semille’s midriff, where the academy’s guardian had pierced him. Even the legendary armour of the Dreadwood had been unable to fully relieve him of the wound. Although, it did look like the armour had successfully resisted the flames that the Terror had brought forth.

  Regrettably.

  "YOU!"

  He stalked forward, drawing his sword.

  "My lord, please, do not fall to her provocations-"

  "Silence you insolent bastards! Just because my mother knighted you does not give you authority over me."

  His eyes gleamed in hunger, as they hungrily roved over Shiver’s body.

  She was reminded of the way the lord had stood over Blaze, after beating her into submission. The welts on her eyes and bruises that blossomed all across the young grl’s face and body.

  "The great Lord Semille Flora, I presume? Please forgive my insolence. I had not realised that I was standing in such esteemed company the previous times we met."

  Lord Semille’s mouth curled into a savage smile, as he stalked closer, his tongue wetting his lips with his bloodlust. Triol Revenant just sat back, watching the exchange, his undead wolves by his side.

  "I’m glad you’ve come to your senses girl. Perhaps I’ll forgive your previous indiscretions if you served your lord as befitted your station."

  Shiver’s voice pitched even higher, she clasped her hands together, her doe eyes staring at his.

  "I would ever be grateful for the opportunity! However…"

  Her gaze flitted to his trousers.

  "I’m afraid there wouldn’t be much to serve."

  Lord Semille halted in his approach. Shiver’s smile widened, and she capitalised on the momentary silence.

  "The great Lord Flora so failed in his single task to deliver a package to Brimstone. Lost to an orphan girl all of twelve years, because you were too busy staring at some cleavage. Madam Knifely’s supple bosom, it was if I recall correctly. Blaze did very well."

  Shiver cast her doe eyes at him, with artfully manufactured pity.

  "What your poor mother must think? A boy incapable of a simple delivery task, distracted by the temptations of his tiny wooden twig."

  It was a cheap insult. Shiver would’ve given it a 4/10.

  But it didn’t have to be elegant, it just had to be enough.

  A feral growl escaped Semille’s lips and he shot towards Shiver. An undead wolf intercepted the lord’s charge towards her, and Shiver’s expression of glee dropped momentarily.

  "Lord Semille. The academy does not tolerate unsanctioned violence."

  Semille’s face was flushed through. His eyes bloodshot, as they strained from his sockets.

  Feardamnit. Looks like a 4/10 won’t cut it.

  "You’ll accept my challenge won’t you girl?"

  Her voice resumed the sweetness that it possessed just a moment ago. Her eyes alight again. She paced before them casually.

  "I wonder how much your dearest mother would reward me for my attempts to rid House Flora of the shitstain on its reputation. I’ve always wondered how she triggered your fear of plants. I have a theory, hear me out. Mummy must have stuck a corn cob up your arse! There’s no other feasible way that comes to me. And I bet you enjoyed it didn’t you, you dirty little bo-"

  Semille charged towards her screaming, shoving the wolf out of the way.

  Shiver smiled, at his predictable charge. The lord barely had the braincells to overcome the primal draw of his ego, and Shiver would use it against him.

  "Semille no! She hasn’t accepted your chall-"

  Lord Semille screamed as he swung his sword down towards Shiver’s neck as she met his eyes unflinchingly with a smile.

  In the moment between seconds, it was intercepted by a familiar blade of frost.

  Shiver’s demure smile turned demonic.

  The academy’s guardian stood before them. She tilted her head as she regarded Semille.

  A serene, feminine voice echoed from the Terror’s lips.

  "Unsanctioned combat detected. Punishment will be administered."

  With a flick of her wrist, she sent her blade carving across Semille’s stomach once more, eliciting a scream of agony.

  Music to her ears.

  As he collapsed to the ground, shivering as the cold spread throughout his body, his knight attendants rushed to him.

  "The medical bay is right that way gentleman. Proceed straight and take a right at the end of the hall. You’ll have the stars to keep you company."

  Shiver beamed as she watched as Semille was rushed off…

  In the direction of the latrines.

  Hopefully, his attendants would leave their lord where he belonged. Shiver turned to regard Triol, who observed the commotion with an amused expression.

  She gestured for him to take a seat beside her.

  ---

  Vale opened her eyes, and saw the lattice of black substance that sealed her into her pod gradually retreat back into the room floor. She took a moment to stare at the artificial stars that twinkled in the room’s roof.

  I did it. That’s it?

  There was a new sensation in her body, she could feel something moving within her, uncontained.

  It was like a veil had suddenly been removed from her eyes – no – from all of her sensations. She could feel the essence of her Fear moving within her, brought within her awareness at long last.

  "By the Gravelords, you did it! Your will is strong, and especially formidable, even having seen countless talents come before me! Not that I remember them… Ahem. Forgive my excitement. Are you alright?"

  Vale smiled, this time, with a little less hesitation.

  "Thank you for accompanying me Lord Quietus. Without you, I…"

  "It was no trouble at all my dear student, this is the very beginning of your descent. There will be many more nightmares to come. And I will be there to face them with you."

  She sighed. Seeing her mother and Dawn again, reliving those horrible memories. She felt anger well up inside her, reminded of her father’s deeds, stealing their mother away from them and instilling their Fears of death within them.

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  Dawn, I wish I could see you. You must be lonely.

  She rose from the pod to see Caledon still sealed within his. Shiver was nowhere to be seen.

  "Where has that girl run off to."

  She gently opened the door, heading towards the courtyard.

  ---

  Vale’s eyes widened as she saw Shiver deep in conversation with Triol. Upon noticing her, the girl broke from the conversation and waved over at her cheerily.

  "What in Avalkin’s hairy-"

  "Vale, that is unbecoming of a lady. This is terrible… I must be a bad inf-"

  "What are you doing with him? He just tried to capture me to bring me back to that monster!"

  Vale glowered at her brother, which was when she realised that his skin had taken on an uncharacteristic pallor.

  Is he… sweating?

  Shiver cast an angelic smile at her, shooting her a wink.

  "Oh don’t you worry, I had a few choice words with him. Come find me when you’re done!"

  With a cheery pat on her back, Shiver left Vale behind, skipping away to lounge under a tree in the distance.

  Crazy orphan.

  "I have nothing to say to you."

  "Vale… please. I have always been on your side. Our mother’s side."

  "By serving father? Explain it to me, how do you expect to kill him by serving him? Have you gone Insane?"

  Triol’s calm composure broke.

  "And how do you expect to kill him otherwise? By some great miracle? Becoming a Fearshaper before he snuffs you out once his amusement of you fades away? You know that father has only kept you alive because you entertain him."

  "WELL WHAT ABOUT YOU, TRI? ARE YOU ANY DIFFERENT?"

  Her shouts rang out in the courtyard between them.

  Triol flinched, his eyes widening as he finally noticed tears in his sister’s eyes.

  "What do you think he’ll do to you once he grows bored of you? Continue building you up? Nurturing you so that you can murder him? Snap out of it you Feardamned idiot!"

  The tears ran freely from Vale’s eyes, her hiccups echoing through the courtyard. Triol instinctively reached out to his sister, but withdrew his hand. He knew that he had no right. Then his eyes widened as his sister met his gaze, desperation filling her expression.

  "Please Tri, join me. We can do this together. We can save Dawn and put that death-obsessed bastard in the ground where he belongs. You could even apologise to Pevir. Make it up to him. We can do this! Together!"

  His sister’s voice grew desperate, trying vainly to justify the horrors he had already committed - his control of Pevir being just one of them.

  Triol’s shoulders sunk. He refused to meet his sister’s gaze.

  "I can’t Vale. You know, that we are nothing without him. Do you think these “friends” of yours will help you gain the power you require? As soon as you are an inconvenience to them, you will be discarded."

  He shook his head, emboldened by his own words.

  "You have always been optimistic, and I, no all of us, treasured your hope. But your hope alone will not save us."

  "Most of all… what would happen to Dawn if I did?"

  Triol’s words hung in the air. An ugly truth reared its head, and shame overwhelmed Vale. The implication stung, left unsaid.

  You abandoned her. I stayed.

  Vale’s words came out as a whisper, but her resolve held. It had to.

  "There was no way we would beat him while we were under him, Triol. You have to believe me. I didn’t abandon her, I tried to escape with all of you. Please. Don’t leave me."

  Triol walked past his sister, towards the elevators. His eyes, so similar in nature to Vale’s – a dark lavender that shone in the golden light of the courtyard.

  Yet devoid of all tears or hope.

  Triol gave Shiver a brief nod and made for the second time, to the Floors of Trepidation.

  ---

  "Oho. She appears."

  Vale withdrew her head from the nooks of her arms. Her face was wet with tears, her wavy golden hair matted and tangled, sticking to the trails left behind by her sorrow.

  "You’re a mess princess. I’ve seen crabs that look better than you."

  Her eyes hardened. And Shiver dodged a wildly thrown slap. Shiver raised an eye, impressed at unadulterated violence on display.

  "That’s my favourite deathlady."

  Vale lunged at her, finally finding some success as she clung to Shiver’s shirt.

  "You think its fun being locked in a nightmare pod? Then I find you cheerfully chatting with my brother? Come here you Feardamned shit orphan-"

  Shiver let out a yelp, as she struggled against Vale. After a few seconds of struggling to pull the stronger and more dextrous girl down towards her, Vale relented. In an instant all of the rage and energy she had burned with, disappeared.

  They sat in silence, watching the cold breeze filter through the glowing leaves of the trees in the courtyard.

  "I hate you."

  Shiver just sat in silence, her eyes closed as the cold breeze blew across her face.

  "What did you talk about with him anyway."

  "I just had a few choice words with him, it was nothing special."

  Shiver looked towards her, her eyes gleaming.

  "Oh? What did you say?"

  "Not telling."

  Vale was tempted, to reach the truth that lay concealed, under her thin veneer of levity, but the orphan’s intentions were undecipherable. She let out a sigh, wiping her tears away. She was past the point of caring.

  Shiver looked inquisitively at her.

  "You broke through? Reached acknowledgement?"

  "She certainly did! Her Fear has well and truly been brought within her awareness!"

  "I did. No thanks to you."

  "I recall being the one to carry you to your pod. You deserved the royal treatment."

  Vale shot a glare at Shiver, but one that was absent of true vitriol. She was too tired for it.

  Shiver took a seat under one of the frost trees, small particles of snow hanging around them like motes of silver dust. With a sigh, she sat next to Shiver, poking her in the side. Vale mumbled with a soft voice.

  "It was of some help I suppose."

  She put her face in her hands, and heaved another large sigh. Shiver rolled her eyes.

  "Out with it."

  "Hmm?"

  Vale looked at her in alarm. And Shiver just stared back with a glib expression.

  "There’s clearly something on your mind. Is there anyone else here that you trust as much as me?"

  "Don’t forget me, Vale! You can always talk to me!"

  "I would never forget you Popsicle."

  Icey sighed, resigned to her fate. She had lost her name, never to reclaim it again.

  "How was the nightmare?"

  Vale dreaded the thought of revisiting those memories, but she supposed she did owe Shiver an explanation. The girl had followed her into an abandoned Archcity and had been put through hell, even if it was for her own selfish reasons.

  "You know, its hard to believe… but I wasn’t born into the nobility. We were bastards."

  "That you certainly are."

  "Shut it. My brother Triol, and my sister Dawn."

  Vale explained how they had been taken to Souhaven after growing up with their mother in the dreary, mundane village of Drolth.

  How they had been welcomed and showered with their father’s attention.

  How they had ignored the plight of the other siblings, basking in his praise and favour.

  All to be dashed away when their father revealed his true nature and ended their mother’s life – to instill them with a Fear of death. Their mother reduced to a mere tool, a means to plant what he considered to be a “beautiful” Fear.

  "So, you escaped?"

  "Yes, with difficulty. Triol was convinced the only path to power was through their father. He was a lost cause. But I took my sister, and we attempted to escape..."

  Vale sighed, and Icey rubbed up to her attempting to comfort her.

  "We were caught. My father, who had carefully hidden his undead, let them out in full force. He had eyes and ears everywhere."

  She paused, as guilt filled her eyes.

  "He caught Dawn. I managed to escape, with help. Father killed them."

  "Oh."

  "Part of me thinks he let me go because it would be entertaining. In fact, I’m certain of it."

  "Well then, you’ll just have to give him the show he wants. Let it be the death of him."

  Vale met Shiver’s eyes. The ones that so often held mirth and mischief, and in equal amounts, compassion and kindness. As well as the sadness and regret that she tried so hard to smother, that Vale was not ignorant to.

  Her “friend”, had come to care for a runaway lady, even if she chose a curious way to express it.

  Now, Shiver’s were coloured with an empty anger. A silent understanding of her despair.

  "But he’s a monster."

  "And so is Berevan Brimstone."

  Shiver leaned back, lying against the frost-touched grass, staring up at the tree that shaded them from the warm glow of golden light that fell from the light orbs hanging in the air.

  "It’s simple, Vale. We just need to become monsters ourselves."

  They sat in silence, listening to the gentle swaying of the trees in the central courtyard as a cold wind blew through the academy.

  The images of the Terrors that roamed the Archcity returned to them. They strode on a plane so far above the realm of reasonableness and reality that…

  As much as they terrified them… they gave them hope. That there were monstrosities out there, capable of rivalling the greatest monsters that they pursued themselves.

  As Vale stared at the serene courtyard bathed in gentle golden light, she wondered what the academy looked like back when it was populated with budding young Fearshapers, all confronting their Fears to descend. She wondered what drove them, to delve into the depths as they now did.

  "Speaking of which… You’ve already acknowledged your Fear, haven’t you?"

  Shiver gave her a smirk. Vale rolled her eyes.

  "Show off."

  Icey interjected, piping up with pride.

  "Actually, Shiver descended last night! She didn’t need the pods!"

  Vale gaped in disbelief as smugness emanated from Shiver in waves.

  Of course she had.

  "Crazy orphan."

  "It’s time for you to hear my sob story."

  "I don’t want to hear it."

  "You’ve got no choice, my lady. "

  "I don’t want to hear it. La-la-laaa-"

  Vale settled back as Shiver recounted her acknowledgment, her eyes lingering on her face. Jealousy and admiration bloomed in her chest.

  Both useless feelings.

  Better, that they inspired her, so that Vale could match her Insane friend.

  15 chapters ahead on my Patreon.