Icey let out a bloodcurling scream.

  Silvanis’ venom carved a path through her body, eroding it by the second. Triol watched, as his guide’s venom, gathered into a jar, ate away at the ice cube trapped inside.

  The frost that coated the mansion doors was quickly dispelled by Triol’s efforts, and it hadn’t been long before he discovered that Icey had set up a diversion. No traces of Vale or her companions were left in the mansion or at the hidden entrance to the Archcity which it led to. Which meant, they must have found a way to hide in the temple after their awakening.

  "Be careful, Silvanis. If she’s snuffed out, she’ll just return to her Fearshaper. This way, her agony will lead her charge straight to us."

  "What a delightful plan."

  Silvanis circled the jar with twisted joy, watching the ice cube’s torment.

  Icey had been placed into a transparent jar. Silvanis, Triol’s guide, floated in the air above it, and from the undead eel’s fangs dropped a potent poison that sunk slowly and painfully through Icey’s body. Each one of the ice cube’s cries buffeted the surroundings with a small wave of ice.

  "Surprisingly, she’s fairly resilient. Perhaps her Fearshaper has descended further into her Fear than I anticipated."

  Triol casually reflected out loud, as he watched Silvanis slowly erode Icey’s body and sanity.

  "Get ready Lord Semille, they’ll be here any moment. Keep an eye out for Terrors."

  "Brilliant, Lord Triol, you live up to the Revenant name! How devious, turning the little ice cube’s agony into the perfect trap."

  Triol calmly received Semille’s grin. He checked the Dreadwood knights' encampment. They were hidden and poised to strike as soon as their targets appeared in the street before them.

  Icey’s ragged cries continued to pierce the silence. Lord Semille sauntered to the jar.

  "Poor thing, it looks like your beloved Fearshaper has abandoned you. You should call out to her, don’t leave us all waiting."

  "Lord Semille."

  "I hope you don’t mind my fun, Lord Trio-"

  "They approach."

  Lord Semille stiffened, and quickly took position together with his knights.

  ---

  From the moment she had met Icey, Shiver had been repulsed by her.

  Not only did she have no say in precisely who her guide was, Icey physically embodied the very thing that caused her so much pain and dread.

  Her reaction was only natural.

  Then, came her guide's childish character. Ever cheery, naive and reckless. Beyond even that, the ice cube was a contradiction. For all she that acted like a child, she seemed to possess an innate knowledge that was beyond all of them.

  All excellent reasons to dislike her.

  Yet it seemed like that very same na?ve guide that so repulsed her, had sacrificed herself for them.

  Icey had lied about the academy guardian's willingness to be enlisted to help save her. The winged Terror had been apathetic to Icey’s fate, even as Shiver continued to hear her bloodcurling screams echo through her skull.

  She had lied, to ensure that Shiver, Vale and Caledon would reach the academy. She knew that its guardian would keep them there.

  Away from Triol and Semille.

  Away from her.

  A small price to pay for an impossible escape.

  As Lord Quietus had informed them, guides would eventually reform within their Fearshapers if they perished, at least within Anhedonia. It was the suffering that was the problem. It would leave its mark, as it would on any mundane elf. Her screams reached her across the distance, tearing straight into her mind.

  That Feardamned ice cube was sacrificing herself for them. She hadn’t given them a choice in the matter.

  Well, not on her watch.

  "And how exactly do you know if this will work Shiver? I’m too young to die!"

  "Oh, shush princess, we’ll be fine."

  "And how do you figure, that?"

  Vale huffed, as she beelined away from the palace with Shiver, struggling to exchange words with her as they sprinted.

  "Hopefully that lordling will buy us enough time."

  "Oh? Coming to trust the nobility now?"

  "Hardly. Just look at you my lady, nothing about you screams reliable."

  Vale huffed, staring at Shiver with wild eyes. Unlike Shiver, Vale’s stamina was rapidly approaching its limits. They tore through the grey fog of the Archcity, running blindly into its depths, guided only by the scarce orbs of light that lined its streets.

  They approached a fork in the path before them.

  "Well you’d better hope that I am reliable, or this plan is going nowhere!"

  With a cry, Vale turned down another street and sprinted with a scream.

  Even if they drew Terrors towards them, they wouldn’t be a threat to them for long. In the distance, Shiver heard Caledon shout in alarm.

  Before his voice disappeared.

  One down, one to go.

  Shiver continued to sprint towards the mansion, her muscles burning as if Brimstone’s very own coals were being dragged across her body. But she kept putting one foot after another. In the silence of the dark Archcity before her, it hadn’t taken much time before Vale’s shouts came to an abrupt end.

  I guess that leaves only me. Catch me if you can.

  Shiver felt a chill creep up on her. Whatever the academy’s Terror was, it seemed to rival, no, eclipse the power of the blizzard that had raged outside the Archcity. Even as she tore through the Archcity's streets alone, she couldn’t help but wonder about the nature of the Terror’s existence.

  Back at the academy, the guardian had blocked their path as soon as any made any move to escape it. As soon as they fell into its clutches, they were teleported back to the academy in a shower of frost.

  What she would give for that kind of power. With it, her revenge wouldn’t be such an unlikely dream. The guardian definitely bore some similarity to the woman in her nightmare, that was for certain. They both carried an undeniable presence, and command over ice. Not to mention their wings, comprised of innumerable shards of ice.

  Now, it was right on her heels.

  "Just, a little more…"

  Shiver burst across the corner, and leapt with a devilish smile straight at Lord Semille who gazed at her in shock.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Instinctively, from behind the barricade that they had erected, he extended his hand with a shout, calling his Fear into reality. Shiver hesitated, as a familiar feeling returned. The brief feeling that had washed over her in the orphanage, when she had briefly comprehended the shape of the lord’s Fear of plants.

  This time, it was more intense than the Fear he had called in the orphanage.

  [Thorn prison]

  Wiry vines covered in deadly thorns erupted from the cobblestone streets. Small shards of rock and dirt flew from their sudden emergence, surging straight towards her. Shiver fearlessly maintained her bearing, spotting a jar on the ground before her. In an instant, she recognised that it was the source of the screams that echoed in her skull.

  Shiver thrust her hand to extract Icey from Silvanis’ venom. Her skin burned, and she felt it melting into her hand, but the tormented screams that rang through her skull came to an abrupt stop.

  Which was right when Semille’s thorns tore across her skin, enveloping her whole. Rivulets of blood emerged as she fell into the grip of the vines.

  Locking eyes with Semille, her lips, scored by cuts, parted into a bloody smile.

  "NO, SHIVER!"

  Icey watched her charge fall straight into Lord Semille’s trap.

  Overcoming his momentary surprise, he didn’t spare even a second to gloat.

  Would you look at that, Triol! Right into my clut-"

  "Behind you!"

  Semille whipped his head around, as he felt the temperature drop. Having experienced Brimstone’s harsh winterlands, the very first time he had left the city’s comfortable protective dome, the immediate drop in temperature had been enough to render him senseless for a moment.

  It did not compare to the cold that he experienced at present.

  Semille gaped as a long, sleek sword of bright ice speared through his stomach, casually ripping its way out through his midriff and out to the side. He felt every modicum of warmth flee from his body, and tears welled in his eyes in response to the piercing pain.

  Before instantly freezing in their tracks.

  He stared wordlessly into the Terror’s eyes before him, his eyelids held open against his will by frozen tears of his own making.

  He stared into its infinite eyes, that looked like a blizzard of stars, circling in the darkest of voids.

  Wings of ice extended outwards from her back.

  He had not sensed her approach. Not even the slightest of sounds had betrayed her presence.

  The winged Terror that resembled a beautiful elf tore its elegant blade free from his side, and through his armour with the slightest flick of her wrist. Its dark lips parted to whisper something that was lost to him, as the sound of the blizzard around her grew.

  Triol stood shocked, Fear wracking his body as he comprehended a being far beyond his power. His lips were numb from the cold, and he shivered as he clutched at his side, attempting to retain whatever warmth remained before it fled him.

  Before he could react, the Terror thrust its arm into the vines, freezing them over instantly and shattering them into tiny slivers of ice.

  Then, the world was engulfed in black flame.

  Triol watched as a shield of frost blinked into existence over him, the sigil of the academy burning cold on his own neck. Similarly, Shiver was protected from the sea of black flame that washed over them.

  Lord Semille and his knights bore the full brunt of the immolation.

  Then in an instant, the flame blinked away, betraying not a single lingering fragment of its passage. So quick that he thought it a figment of his imagination, questioning his grip on reality.

  Then his eyes were drawn to one of the dark towers above them, where another Terror was perched.

  Shiver recognised it as the same one she had seen on the clocktower.

  She felt the urge to call her daggers into existence. Then to drive them into her eyes, to free herself from its form.

  A black halo of flame raged above its head.

  Its skin parted once more, as six vertical slits tore open featureless skin to reveal its eyes. Six of them in total, lined in two vertical columns, each containing a solid dark ring.

  As it drew closer, Shiver felt a second urge.

  To impale herself on her guardian’s sword and bring an end to her existence, to free herself from its ire.

  The academy’s Terror executed a half-moon slash.

  With a casual flick of her sword lasting less than a second, a line of frost emanated outwards in an arc from her feet where her strike began, to the point above her shoulder, where it ended.

  Shiver blinked, and it had sliced clean through cobblestone road in an arc, through to the tower on which the creature was perched.

  A vertical slash appeared a moment later across the Terror’s body.

  The guardian’s cut had bisected its halo, and a line of black flame dripped from its injury. Its numerous eyes silently fixed upon the guardian.

  When Shiver blinked, the Terror was gone, as if it had never been present in their reality to begin with.

  As Shiver began to doubt her memories, her guardian’s dark blue eyes turned to her.

  Shiver’s body began to shake as if only just reacting to the events she had witnessed. She felt an overwhelming urge to weep, the adrenaline mixing with dread in a deadly concoction.

  The sight of the blizzard of stars within the Terror’s eyes, calmed her, dispelling her delirium.

  As her lucidity returned, the thought came to her-

  I was utterly at their mercy. Neither my mind nor my body was safe.

  Looking into the deep pools that were its eyes, Shiver’s quivering lips stretched themselves into a savage grin.

  The guardian grabbed her, a bright convergence of frost engulfing them in a spiral.

  In an instant, Shiver and her saviour had disappeared.

  ---

  Shiver tumbled onto the academy grounds, clutching Icey tightly to her body. In an instant, the guardian had transported her back to the central courtyard. Shiver’s body was wracked with the cold. She shivered uncontrollably as her vision swam before her. She was freezing, inside and out. Her thoughts impeded by the dominance of ice. Then, she saw a flash of something, in the corner of her eye.

  A bloody smile drew itself into existence.

  Then, flesh begin to part, as it continued, revealing a maw that yawned before her, from ear to ear.

  "Miss me?"

  Shiver leapt towards it in a scream, her Phobia crystallising in one hand as she clutched Icey in the other. She forced her aching muscles into compliance as she sprung forwards, lunging at the ice shade that bore her own face.

  The shade from her nightmares.

  "Wait Shiver, wait! It’s only Vale!"

  Caledon leapt, intercepting Shiver mid-jump and tackling her to the ground. The girl scratched and scarped, and he grunted as he barely kept a hold of her.

  "It's her Fear! Get Vale away from her!"

  "Get off me you damned l-lordling."

  Shiver struggled as Caledon held her to the ground.

  "Take a second and look at who you just tried to attack!"

  Shiver paused, her chest heaving with fatigue as Caledon’s shallow breaths warmed her cheek. Her eyes widened as she recognised Vale, a look of terror on her face.

  "Vale-"

  "I-it’s ok."

  The girl swallowed, her face pale. She forced her expression into one of understanding. Shiver felt guilt well up in her chest.

  "It must have been your Fear right? Think nothing of it Shiver."

  Overcoming her reluctance, she crouched down next to her, taking one of her hands in her own. She was so warm.

  "You’re alright? You got Icey?’"

  Shiver just nodded, struggling to stay conscious as her teeth clattered.

  Vale nodded to Caledon.

  "Let’s get her inside. And warm. She’s been hurt. Both her body and her mind, it seems. Shiver… do you want me to hold Icey?"

  "N-no, s-she’s not going anywhere."

  "I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I lied Shiver. You wouldn’t have let me go if you had kno-"

  Shiver coughed and shook her head.

  "N-none of that. I’m demoting you to p-popsicle for lying to us. Now h-hush."

  Caledon and Vale ushered Shiver and Icey to the entrance of the academy before them.

  Pevir and Quietus followed suit, silently cheering at their return.

  ---

  The academy’s guardian watched as the group made their way inside the academy that she guarded.

  Only to turn its head once more, to the looming cliffside in the distance.

  Triol locked eyes with the Terror from across the vast space between them.

  The sight of it, fixing him with its gaze, provoked a memory of an old interaction with his father when he had been en route to the Archcity of Fear.

  His father’s words. Delivered in the form of a familiar ivory crow, in the quiet of night.

  "Tell me Triol, do you know what happens to powerful Fearshapers when they die?"

  "No, my lord."

  "Some leave behind a legacy. A final amalgamation of their wishes and their Fears which converge in twisted brilliance. Making their will manifest. Their Inheritance. The Academy of Anhedonia was born of the dying wish of a monster beyond even I, long dead. Its keeper and guardian, a Terror bent to the will of its creator, and cast from her own image. Long before us, there were true nightmares that walked Elucidor. Beyond even the Terrors that stalk it now, in its waning state. We stumble blindly in their stead, pathetic in our weakness. In our arrogance."

  Valefor and Idriel, Elucidor’s twin moons graced him with their beautiful light.

  The crow looked off into the dark sky above them.

  "We look to the clouds high above us and assume that we comprehend the limits of power."

  The crow returned its gaze to Triol.

  "Only to have forgotten the stars that lie beyond."

  His father’s voice reached him one final time, as he began to shake.

  "Shape a beautiful Fear, Triol. Perhaps one day, you will dream as they did."

  Patreon with some new visuals! (Read 5-10 chapters ahead)