Three days after the destruction of Wisptown
The hot water from the shower washed over her, as Evantra stared into a single point on grey tiles of the motel shower. She looked down at her feet, watching the droplets fall from her hair to the floor. The pattering of water calmed her as much as it was possible.
There was a part of her that never wanted to leave.
With a sigh, Evantra tapped the screen to her side and watched it blink into existence. Sh...
2025-08-17 01:25:04 +0000 UTC
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The archdemon’s first missiles impacted the barge the moment the Mythic Veilsurge closed.
Evantra dashed out of the hall and was met with the blaring of alarms that echoed down the deserted corridors. Apart from the emergency alarms, the ship's interior electrical systems were down. The only light which entered the corridors was from the large, horizontal windows at the ship’s side. The noise made her skin crawl, and set her heartbeat racing with the urgency they instilled. She paus...
2025-08-15 01:15:02 +0000 UTC
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“Belphegor the Seeker—”
The attendant’s words were interrupted by shockwaves.
Her skin crawled as she heard the telltale sounds of detonation after detonation activating sequentially, the waves of force spiralling outwards, reverberating throughout the Spirit. The echoes of the blasts reached them, shaking her to her very bones, originating—
From Wisptown.
She triggered them.
The multipurpose hall glowed red. ...
2025-08-13 01:15:02 +0000 UTC
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When Evantra emerged out onto the main floors of the Spirit of Nimue, she found them deserted. The personnel that she would ordinarily have seen going about their duties, occupying the various rooms of the ship, were nowhere to be seen. The hallways were empty, and the air was eerily stagnant and still.
Elaine must not want any of the staff to catch on or interfere.
They must be relegated to the living quarters or…
No.
Evantra’s ...
2025-08-10 13:15:01 +0000 UTC
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When Evantra awoke, the pain ringing in her head had disappeared. Her hearing was no longer muted, her ear canals no longer filled with blood from ruptured eardrums. She leaned forwards and realised that her broken bones – wherever they had been – had all been mended.
Her freedom of movement was impeded for a different reason.
The only lights in the room in her vision were the glittering pair of ruby eyes before her, along with a pair of crystal blue above them.
She had ...
2025-08-08 01:15:02 +0000 UTC
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“Feet shoulder-width apart, keep your knees slightly bent.”
She pulled the trigger, the instant that Trevor, no, the spirit moved.
It screamed, tearing through the street towards her. Her palms were met with the cold grip of her Nagantra as she withdrew it from its holster. She held the trigger down even as her arms trembled, feeling every vibration as each bullet escaped her magazine. She watched as they speared into the flesh of his thigh in a red haze.
...
2025-08-06 01:15:01 +0000 UTC
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Evantra stared at the damning words, her heart beating out of her chest. The [ritual of consumption] she had triggered had failed to consume Caliburn’s catalyst. Her foolproof method of making Caliburn’s integral artefact detector vanish into thin air had failed her.
I can’t consume it yet.
We’re going to the contingency.
Evantra lifted the compass from its compartment and undid the flap of the large, empty black purse she had brought along, stowing...
2025-08-03 04:17:28 +0000 UTC
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“Thank you, one and all, for attending Caliburn’s celebration for a successful raid venture.”
Elaine Hallwell paused, smiling cordially as her words were greeted with a spattering of applause. She inclined her head, signalling her intention to continue, and the lingering sounds of applause vanished.
“Having felled the wyvern and thinned out the Veilcreature presence, our mining efforts are sure to continue smoothly with the decline in threats. None of this would have been ...
2025-07-31 11:33:02 +0000 UTC
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“Evantra! Pardon me, Mordred, like the bellends say it. You made it! Did you enjoy your time off?”
Evantra returned Clark Hallewell’s grin as the man strode up to her, clapping a sizeable hand on her shoulder. Turning to look around in the interior of the ship, it seemed as if Caliburn had pulled out all the stops for the celebration of a successful raid.
They had turned the Ghostslayers’ multipurpose hall into the venue for the celebration. Ghostslayers, the oper...
2025-07-29 03:57:18 +0000 UTC
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“There’s our girl of the hour, come here, pendeja.”
Evantra smiled as she watched Trevor wince at Carmen’s choice of language, inching over to cover Lucas’ ears as he giggled. Trevor looked up at them, shooting them a smile, before returning his attention to arranging the disposable plates with Lucas.
“Hey, Carmen.”
“Don’t you ‘hey Carmen’ me, come here.”
Carmen wrapped her up in a tight hug, and she didn’t let go. When Evantra tried ...
2025-07-26 08:32:41 +0000 UTC
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Megacorporations acting together in a conspiracy. Concealing occult artefacts from society… it would make sense if they don’t want further competition to arise.
It lends further credence to the idea that the megacorporations are incorporating them into cybernetics somehow. Maybe even more broadly into their products and advances.
Evantra paused, looking up at Adeline.
“Adeline… have you heard of these occult artefacts being used to power cybernetics...
2025-07-23 17:57:59 +0000 UTC
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“Where are we going, Evantra?”
Evantra had dragged Noelle out to the car, ignoring the discomfort that lingered after their discussion.
She hated to admit it, but the other girl was right.
No matter how much she tried to confront the Veil or the things that terrified her, she was still cursed with the guilt of her actions, the tremors in her hands a reflection of them.
It was time that she started to properly account for them.
“Noelle… I’m sorry about B...
2025-07-22 06:05:53 +0000 UTC
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Hi all!
I come with some sad news for those of you reading Fearshaper – I’ll be putting the series on hiatus to shift my focus to Ghostslayer and some other ideas that I have floating around.
Unfortunately, the brutal reality of serial writing (especially when you’re trying to turn it into a living) is that if a series doesn’t take off on either Royal Road or Amazon, it’s usually best for the author to take whatever lessons they learned from it and bring them to their ne...
2025-07-21 07:40:01 +0000 UTC
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Saravagan Dreamer, the Highlord of Dreams, sat in a quaint café in the Town of Eleric, watching his daughter tend to her flowers.
Rose Flora.
He had vehemently opposed the name when his wife had suggested it. There was such a thing as leaning too heavily into a theme.
As usual, he hadn’t gotten his way.
Saravagan sipped his tea as his wife sat at the table, joining him.
Solastra Flora smiled as she regarded her daughter tending to the very objects of her Fear,...
2025-07-21 07:33:23 +0000 UTC
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Shiver never knew what it was like to suffer from success.
She usually just… suffered.
That was, until she accomplished her goal of severing all eight of a serpentine dragon’s gargantuan grey wings with a single strike of her Phobia.
Her dilemma born of the efficacy of the strike, was that she wouldn’t live to tell the tale if she didn’t find a way to safely reach the ground again.
Had she the foresight of mirrordancing the moment that she del...
2025-07-21 07:23:06 +0000 UTC
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They emerged into a dark, frozen world. Towering mountains that eclipsed the Verscallian Peaks could be glimpsed in the far distance.
Thunderclouds filled the skies above her, and cobalt lightning flitted in their midst, accompanied by whispers of thunder. The rumble of the thunder was soft, as if reluctant to break the peace of this place.
A single, cerulean moon gleamed in the distant horizon, casting its light across the plains of frost.
Their quarry was framed by dark, c...
2025-07-21 07:20:28 +0000 UTC
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Caledon watched as the guides around the dragon fell into tombs of earth at their feet, buried underground. Then, he watched as shadow and earth melded together, creating a protective barrier around the dragon, as it triggered its self-immolation.
Not even the combined forces of earth and shadow were able to even partially mitigate the force of the creature’s blast. Caledon lunged towards Vale, slamming into her with such force and speed that he barely felt her in his grasp as he tumb...
2025-07-21 07:18:19 +0000 UTC
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Caledon Brimstone lost track of time as they pressed forwards through endless corridors of void. His breath had grown ragged, and his muscles burned from their continuous passage through corridor after corridor.
Despite the Insanity of this place, his thoughts lingered on his Fear, his paranoia preoccupying him.
It had continued to build, burning in his body, present at the peripheries of his consciousness whenever he tried to turn his thoughts away from it.
His Fear of corr...
2025-07-21 07:15:03 +0000 UTC
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Rathos’ gaze effortlessly pierced the world of darkness he had imposed upon reality.
He knew that while he maintained his Dreadwalk, they retained the advantage.
Shadow was his domain.
They needed to injure the soulweaver before the call of his Dread waned. The creature’s soulsight was momentarily rendered ineffective in the shadow of the twilight woods.
Rathos Blackwood struck, calling his Delirium.
[Shadow walk]
[Clea...
2025-07-21 07:13:33 +0000 UTC
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To stave off the Insanity that lurked at the edges of her consciousness, Vale recalled the words of Solastra Flora, that had instilled her with hope and dread in equal measure.
The terrifying dimension of her Fear that Solastra had proposed that she elaborate upon.
Highlady Solastra’s words had been clear.
There was a way to mitigate the risks of possession that she exposed herself to, as a Fearshaper of death with a proclivity towards souls.
Where her...
2025-07-21 07:10:05 +0000 UTC
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Something was amiss in the Dreadwood.
It was an instinctual, visceral reaction, that sunk into Shiver’s skin the moment she stepped out of Rael’s Inheritance. She struggled to describe it, or to identify the source of the disquieting feeling.
However, her unexplainable feelings were validated by the appearance of Iltheria, the ice glades.
The familiar snowy landscape filled with tranquil trees with burnished silver bark and glittering winterlilies had been consumed by a ...
2025-07-21 07:05:51 +0000 UTC
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Rael Revenant’s grave was the picture of serenity.
The first patriarch’s resting place was situated at the very edge of the plains. A steady stream of sand poured gently over the edge, into the void beyond them. The whisper of falling sand only added to the tranquillity of the location.
Above the graveyard, was a single tree with a wide canopy of glittering silver leaves. Golden moonlight filtered through the leaves to greet them, from the Inheritance’s single moon.
Ar...
2025-07-21 07:03:51 +0000 UTC
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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.<...
2025-07-21 07:00:28 +0000 UTC
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Evantra and Noelle sat in the VR chatroom, with Evantra seated at the head of the table, and Noelle just to her right.
“So… Caliburn. You didn’t have a chance to snoop around?”
Evantra shook her head.
“Between training for the raid and Guinevere kicking me out the moment my ‘initiation’ was over, I didn’t get a chance to thoroughly investigate. I did familiarise myself with the layout of the barge. Although… with all the organic traffic on the top floor, us...
2025-07-19 02:37:10 +0000 UTC
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The Graveserpent punished Shiver for her arrogance.
Even as the ivory driven into her leg had lost its form and slipped from her wound, as the Graveserpent’s body locked up once more, Shiver cursed her foolishness.
Despite all the invocations she received, if the Graverserpent had better aim, her descent would have come to a messy, abrupt end.
The shambling skeletons around her melted into a shifting mass of ivory as the Graveserpent began to right itself. A part of the ma...
2025-07-19 02:16:26 +0000 UTC
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“This Inheritance isn’t like the others.”
After a night of rest, they returned to their descent through Trepidation.
They entered the Inhertance situated at the very heart of the Gravewoods, the vast caverns that spanned under Solastra’s Dreadwood above. Where Vale had acquired the invocations necessary to stabilise her Fearcore.
They walked in…
A humble Inheritance.
At least by comparison to the ones they had visited before. Where the Gloamsho...
2025-07-17 01:50:42 +0000 UTC
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Evantra raised her Liberty EZ Defender, and sank round after round unerringly into the moving target as Trevor Foster watched on. Her pistol flashed as she rapidly pulled the trigger, finding her headshots without exception. After gaming with Lucas and setting up their chocolatery, Trevor had asked her to accompany him for a drive, which had inevitably led back to the police firing range.
“Kid, if you thought I was going to be all impressed with how you’re handling that thing...
2025-07-17 01:42:30 +0000 UTC
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“Carmen…”
“I know that you have a lot to do. I know. Give us your afternoon? I haven’t seen you for a week now, and it feels like—”
Evantra wrapped the woman in a hug. Her hands tightened around her shoulders, and she buried her head into the nook of her neck. For a moment, Evantra just stood there. The words escaped as a whisper.
“I missed you.”
“I missed you too, Eva. We all did.”
“Now come.”
Evantra relented, as Carmen gen...
2025-07-15 02:49:34 +0000 UTC
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“I’m sorry for abandoning you.”
Vale’s eyes widened at Caledon’s words. The first ones to escape the lordling’s mouth after Shiver’s departure.
That girl, when I get my hands on her I’m going to strangle her-
Vale’s outwardly demeanour was one of a paragon of calm and understanding, as she nodded to Caledon.
“N-not to worry about it. Lord Quietus told me that your hallucinations took you away. Besides, Solastra sent a rose explaining everyt...
2025-07-12 13:10:26 +0000 UTC
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Evantra sat upright in Caliburn’s medical bay.
She experimentally flexed her right leg, and smiled slightly when she wasn’t met with excruciating pain burning a path up her thighs. She gingerly felt at her ribs and winced. Her eardrums were numb, but her acuity had returned after the treatment. Caliburn’s on-duty doctor had informed her that they would be tender for another one or two days.
To her surprise, they had afforded her Panacea’s mid-level treatment upon returning...
2025-07-12 09:23:23 +0000 UTC
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