[Fsh] Chapter 52: Skinsweller

Vale Revenant was tortured by two, tantalising and horrifying possibilities.

The first, was the graveyard at the foot of Rael Revenant’s guide. The leviathan that rivalled mountains – Azkhul Zahaard, that bordered the circular sandy plains that glimmered gently, under a golden moon.

The resting place of the progenitor of the Revenant family had been a mystery, even to her father. It was unsurprising that Fearshapers of death sought out his body, and the body of his Revenants.

Vale’s eyes were locked on to the vast tree with glimmering silver leaves, far in the distance, at the foot of the leviathan. It was situated at the edge of the sandy plains, where they ended, before being met with an abyss below, and the leviathan beyond.

What awaited her at the foot of Rael’s final resting place?

The second possibility, was the dimensions of Fear Highlady Solastra had advised her to further expand. The natural proclivity of Vale’s Fear, was to nurture souls to become revenants, that much was clear. However, Quietus being a guide of [mythic] burden, she was free to expand her Fear in different directions.  

The first, she had wholehearted delved into, was the suggestion to gain invocations which would help shape worthy vessels for her Fearshapers. Perhaps capable of amplifying their abilities in ways that were precluded from them in life – with [forgery of the graveserpent]. Unlike her other invocations, crafting bodies for her revenants with this invocation would take time and practice.

The second, that the Highlady presented to her, was to expand her Fear similarly to her step-sister Savegery. Her Fearshaping was capable of transcending the limitations of the flesh – wounds, disease, and injury trivialised with her invocations.

The prospect was terrifying. While the power she would gain would be undeniable, her Fear would gain a whole, new and different avenue of terror to torment her with. It wasn’t hard to imagine, the was in which nightmares and hallucinations of being free from her very skin could send her into a spiral.

Still…

Vale cast a glance at Caledon Brimstone, who was currently faced with a similar dilemma.

The nightviper.

A parasitic creature first encountered in Anhedonia, the Archcity of Fear. The creature that Triol had used to put Pevir – the cheery archaeologist – into a liminal state, using him as a puppet to scour the Archcity for her father’s purposes. The man would forget his previous forays into the Archcity, and he was stuck in a perpetual loop thanks to its toxin. The same toxin Solastra Flora employed in her design of Tranquillity, to induce collective amnesia in the elven population as to Fearshaping.

It was clear what dimension of Fear Caledon’s corruption would expand to encompass, if he chose to absorb its Alarum.

Memory.

Vale shuddered at the thought of it. The lord was already tortured by hallucinations that altered his perception with little limitation. He had recently expanded his Fear in such a way that he could now be tormented by physical means.

To embrace an invocation that gave him power over memory? To alter it, or change it?

Her gaze lingered on the lord’s form, as they prepared to depart in search of their next target.

“Caledon, are you o-“

Lord Quietus burst into reality on her shoulder, in a brief flash of green flame.

“Young Vale! Have you decided on your course of action?”

She nodded, gripping her outstretched fists tightly, as Caledon returned her a tight smile. He gently shook his head, as if to reassure her to reply to her guide.

“I’m killing it.”

“Then you will be a master of death, across multiple dimensions. Vale, for all that you may be tormented with, never forget that you will have me as your guide-“

“The honourable Gravelord, Quietus Vingrave, how could I ever forget.”

She shot a small smile towards the rat that sat on her shoulder. To her surprise, he shook his head, his voice soft.

“The grandiosity and artifice aside. It will be a challenging road, but you will have me to remind you of yourself. And your companions.”

Vale nodded, a lump in her throat preventing her from delivering her reply. How quickly, she had gone from killing the creatures in the Gravewoods, and coming to terms with the nature of her Fear as it stood, to charging forwards towards expanding it.

Vale knew, that if she left even one weakness exposed, it would be exploited by her father. She would not let the trappings of mortality become a vulnerability.

Shiver nudged Virgil in the side.

“So Starboy, where can we find this skinsweller.”

In response, Virgil opened a portal that seemed to lead into a dark cavern, presumably located beneath the sandy plains.

Vale walked, to unlock yet another dimension to her Fear of death.

---

“This… is the skinsweller?”

They stared at a pulsating, fleshy worm. It was a pale white, a darker shade of ivory that the skeletons they encountered in the Inheritance. Numerous sections of the worm’s body pulsed as it moved languidly across the bottom of the ravine.

golden light of the moon filtered down, past sandstone jutting out in the cliff faces above them, to greet the bottom of the sandy ravine.

“Princess… are you sure about this?”

Shiver locked her cerulean gaze unto her.

Vale smiled.

The question coming from a girl who had unlocked the most dimensions to her Fear out of all of them. Shiver had gained invocations that allowed her to wield ice offensively and defensively – to shape it in various forms. Invocations with only the most tenuous connection to her Fear – such as those she gained from the bladefrog which gave her proficiency with her Phobia. The ability to freeze time to some degree, even if limited by the drain on Alarum – to halt her wounds, and to create decoys and a means to traverse through planes of frost.

Vale could not even begin to imagine, the means through which Shiver’s Fear would now torment her. Yet the girl faced it irreverently, in the effort to retrieve her guide.

If there was one thing, Vale had in common with her friends, it was her resolve.

Vale stepped forward, aiming the light crossbow she had been given at the creature pulsating at their feet.

“WAIT!”

Vale stared at Shiver with wide eyes, from her sudden outburst.

“Can I kill it? Pretty please?”

Vale rolled her eyes, and gestured for Shiver to kill the worm.

Shiver summoned her Phobia, and delivered a precise downwards slash into the worm’s head. They watched with wide eyes, as the wound closed, steaming over as its flesh congealed. In a matter of seconds, the worm was inching along, as if nothing had happened.

“Why you-“

Vale and Caledon exchanged a glance, as Shiver redoubled her efforts to no avail.

Vale summoned her Phobia, the towering scythe of bone and interrupted Shiver’s efforts, plunging it into the creature’s skull, as her lavender eyes glowed. Just like it had the bodysnatcher, it phased through the creature’s body, and once it had, the creature went still.

“Why… did you make me fight the Graveserpent if you could just instantly kill it with your scythe?”

Vale stared defensively at Shiver.

“It doesn’t work for every creature… I think I have to hit the creature’s soul... precisely. Even then, it isn’t a guarantee. Besides… I’m not killing its soul, merely severing it from its body.”

Shiver stared at her wordlessly, wordlessly questioning the significance of the distinction.

Thanks to [soulsight of the witness] Vale had ensured that she directed her unwieldy scythe right at the blight, glowing orb that represented the creautre’s soul.

Alarum seeped out of the skinsweller, and with a deep breath, Vale drew it into her Fearcore.

It took effort to incorporate a new dimension to her Fear. While it was still within the bounds of death, it departed significantly from her affinity with souls. She persisted through the resistance, sweat dripping down her forehead as she finally succeeded.

She felt her flesh curl as the death of the skinsweller finally gave form to the invocation.

[Regeneration of the skinsweller]

Vale felt the invocation at her fingertips. Her gaze shifted to Triol and Bladey for a moment, lingering on their forms.

Wondering, if she could return their flesh to them.

As her heart thundered in her chest, she called her Trepidation and-

Nothing changed.

Vale let out a sigh, containing a mixture of relief and disappointment. It seemed like the invocation would allow her to heal the wounds of the living, but it wouldn’t return the flesh of the dead.

Then, she looked to Caledon, who nodded with a tight smile.

Vale tightened her grip around her Phobia, as her thoughts fell on the graveyard they had spotted in the distance. Their next destination – Rael Revenant’s final resting place.

As her gaze lingered on the young man, caught up in paranoia and thoughts of his own Fear, the slightest degree of emotion blossomed in her chest, as they strode through Virgil’s tear in reality.

Hope.

For just as revenants could herald destruction and death, in the rarest of instances…

They could bring salvation.