Emberhare

B2 Chapter 33: Lady Velra

Vale’s mind swam with questions after the Highlady’s explanation. She watched idly as Caledon left to find his sister, and Shiver, her family. She felt a hollow ache blossom within her at the sight of their departure, returning to find their loved ones.

She shook her head, and focused on the slew of questions the Highlady had prompted.

The first, concerned their descension through Trepidation. Vale’s mind turned to the words that had carved itself in her vision after felling...

B2 Chapter 32: Sacrifice

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Shiver stood before Marta and Pov in the very same room she had abandoned them.

The decision she made on the day she had reunited with them in the Dreadwood. Leaving them in the night while they slept, to descend through Trepidation.

Shiver’s neck craned downwards, and her gaze drilled into her feet, avoiding their eyes. Afraid of the judgement that would be written on their faces.

Disappointment, sadness, frustration – any combination of emotions entirely war...

B2 Chapter 31: Dreadwalkers of Flora

Dreadwalk: I strode in the shade of the twilight woods

The room around them was enveloped in darkness. Blaze, who was standing right beside her, disappeared. For a moment, Shiver comprehended what it was like to bear a Fear of shadows. The dread that it imposed. The threat of falling into an oblivion of shadows, to lose yourself and everything defined you.

She closed her eyes, as she could feel the rustle of leaves above her, invisible to her eye...

B2 Chapter 30: Dreadwalker of Shadows

Shiver walked under the midday sun in the late afternoon, closing her eyes and relishing in the flavour of the shaved ice that still lingered on her tongue.

Shiver’s thoughts centred around the spoonful of the dessert that chef Spicefury had conjured for her. She had abandoned the rest of it to prove her point, but she internally cursed her pride.

The first of the two thoughts that plagued her had been sated.

Her desire to find a popsicle, in the Archcity of Life, achieved...

B2 Chapter 29: Chef Spicefury

Shiver – after Flora’s revelations

There was a single question on Shiver’s mind.

Well… it was more accurate to say that there were two of them. Shiver had pushed the other to the furthest recesses of her consciousness.

Her first, most crucial thought was - where did one go to find popsicles, in the Archcity of Life?

Iltheria, the ice glades were too far away. No matter how hard Shiver searched, Virgil was nowhere to be found. She swore, that sh...

B2 Chapter 28: Fearshaper of puppets

“You honour him. You always have, you know?”

Silas flinched in momentary surprise as Caledon Brimstone strode out of the shadows of the workshop. He had been so engrossed in his work that the arrival of his friend and lord had gone unnoticed.

For a moment, Silas felt tempted to stand at attention at his arrival. In the span of two weeks, he could tell that Caledon, about five years younger than him, had aged indescribably.

Grief, did that to you.

Ashamed, Silas hur...

B2 Chapter 27: City of Viridian

Caledon strode through the Archcity of Life with Viveria in tow, in search of their butler.

More than that, his brother and friend, Silas.

The Dreadwood, in its entirety, was often referred to as the Archcity of Life. An accurate description, for the host of flora and fauna it contained. It did cause some confusion however, when there was a city that lay at the very heart of the forest, sprawling concentrically outwards from the Dawntree.

The city of Viridian sported buildin...

B2 Chapter 26: Brimstones reunite

Highlady Solastra Flora, the Kindly Gardener, was one of the most powerful elves that walked Elucidor. The Dreadwood was the garden that she tended to, a vast and immutable beast.

For her to make a heartfelt plea to a trio of Fearshapers in Trepidation…

Shiver did not know what to make of it.

Why… why is she asking us to kill Vetrian? Why can’t she do it herself if she’s so concerned?

No doubt that was the single question ringing in her friend...

B2 Chapter 25 - Revalations

“Shiver! Thank Avalkin you’re safe!”

Vale rushed forward, wrapping Shiver in a tight hug as she stepped through the tear in reality directly into Solastra’s court.

Caledon approached with a grin, giving her a wave. He swallowed when he saw Virgil trailing after her with his guide. The man looked like he had been beaten into the ground, if his expression was anything to go by.

In fact… Caledon had witnessed the whole event.

The Highlady had not been presen...

B2 Chapter 24: Fearshaper of Stars

The fox hesitated. 

Many creatures of frost had deigned to challenge it. All had failed, ever since it had partaken in the succour of the forest. In the very moment it had, its horizons had widened. Its understanding of the world, deepened. 

It had reveled in the helplessness of the creatures that sought its newfound power. Disgusted by his family, that had approached him, jealously seeking out its power. He had ended them, like the rest of the prey that approached him.&...

B2 Chapter 23: [Legendary]

“To see a Fearshaper of Trepidation in such dire straights… what have you done to yourself? Where is your guide?”

‘I’m perfectly fine! Haven’t the clue what you mean.’

Shiver leant against the wall of the fox’s burrow with manufactured nonchalance. Her muscles protested, burning with fatigue.

With a flick of her tail, Shiver felt a refreshing cold encompass her body. She felt her eyes widen and her focus sharpen. Relieved of her fatigue, she took in ...

B2 Chapter 22: Iltheria

The night Shvier left Viridian – after speaking with Solastra 

Shiver strode forwards, into a field of flowers. 

Each and every one of them, the same as what she had glimpsed in the town of Eleric. Flowers with delicate petals, that seemed to be formed from elegant lattices of ice, the tiniest of gems held aloft by sliver-thin stamens. 

Winterlilies. 

They shone in the light of golden and silver moonlight cast by Idriel and Valefor. So did the res...

B2 Chapter 21: Tears of the Phoenix

Caledon sat on the outskirts of the Emberwood, his head in his hands. His Phobia was planted in the ground before him, offering him a degree of warmth and light as night fell. He held his head in his hands.

He had gained his first invocation from the Dreadwood.

[Authority of the wyvern]

He wished he could rip it from his Fearcore, along with the very first invocation he received when he first descended from Anhedonia.

[Corrupt]

The moment he had walked from the w...

B2 Chapter 20: Authority of the Wyvern

Caledon couldn’t help but admit, that even with Zel’s prickly personality on display, his guide come through for him at every critical moment.

When he had first been absorbed into the sprawling web of corruption that had encircled his grandfather.

Next, when he had been about to put his Phobia through Vale’s skull.

Finally, providing him the insight and incentive he needed, to escape the forest of shadow and silence.

Even though Zel spoke to him with suc...

B2 Chapter 19: Emberwoods

The day after their entry into the Dreadwood – when Caledon abandons Vale

Caledon Brimstone stood in the midst of darkness and silence. With every ragged breath, he could feel the beat of his heart thundering in his ears, accompanied by the rush of his blood.

Even as he yelled out, the forest effortlessly consumed his words, subduing them.

The Shadow Woods.

The strange portion of the Dreadwood he had glimpsed from the clifftop bordering the township ...

B2 Chapter 18: Insight of the Griefwalker

Vale rose groggily, groaning as she sat up, awakening from her nightmare. Her gaze, wandered perhaps instinctually, to Triol’s skeleton, who stood before her.

The sight of him confirmed the suspicion that lingered with her, as her eyes passed across his shoulders. She sighed, leaning against the building she had taken shelter in. She remained in the decrepit village she had stumbled across, taking refuge in one of the houses that had maintained its integrity over the years.

“I...

B2 Chapter 17: Screams of a Friend

A week ago – on the road to the Dreadwood

Caledon sat with the reigns in his hands. He stared out into the darkness of the evening, staring up at Idriel and Valafor as the twin moons shone down upon Elucidor. With a gentle nudge of the reigns, he guided the horses along the cobblestone path, as they carved their way out of Brimstone’s winterlands and into the highlands.

They left the eternal winterstorm behind them. Brimstone and the Verscallian Peaks...

B2 Chapter 16: Hamlet of Death

Vale’s eyes shone as she walked beneath the lanterntrees. Quietus had instructed her to use her [soulsight of the witness] to seek out creatures that she could hunt.

They had stumbled across something strange in their search. While avoiding the griefwalkers and their hordes, they had chanced upon a paved road. It was in disrepair, and Vale could barely make out where it led, yet it persisted in the midst of the wilderness, leading deeper into the darkness.

“Do you suppose that...

B2 Chapter 15: Soulsight

Vale had awoken to find that Caledon had left her. She was all alone in the Dreadwood, abandoned.

For a moment, she had been stunned to silence. Casting stray glances in her periphery.

Perhaps… he went to ward off a threat? No, he would have woken me. Does he really despise me that much?

Then, her thoughts were interrupted by the appearance of a flower.

A single black rose, edged in gold rose from the ground before her, bearing a message in the midst of its ...

B2 Chapter 14: Shiver's choice

Shiver stared up towards the roof of her room. Marta’s snoring punctuated the silence, at regular intervals, and she was reminded of the life that she had been on the brink of living, before her world came crashing down on her.

She reflected on the dinner, when they had braved the wrath of Richard the soldiercrab, to make it up to Marta and Pov for bailing them out of their failed heist of the archaeologist’s guild.

The day that Marta and Pov had offered her a pro...