Caledon smiled, as he watched a familiar scene in his night-

  His heart skipped a beat, as he took in his father’s study before him, Silas’ wooden puppet in his arms.

  The dream, I’m back where I was just a moment ago.

  His father, hard at work at his desk, trudging through his mountain of paperwork at a snail’s pace.

  Surely I didn’t imagine it. Am I stuck in a loop? Is it the nightmare pod?

  Caledon attempted to mentally will his way out of the nightmare. All his efforts were met with was a dull headache.

  Well, that’s just great.

  His thoughts were in flurry, desperately trying to unravel the mystery of the repeating dream.

  Of all the dreams I’ve encountered, why this one?

  Caledon took a deep breath, attempting to steady himself.

  I’ve experienced three in total. Sitting down in the living hall with Vivy and father, the discovery of Silas’ workshop, and this one. What makes this diff-

  Appella Brimstone entered the room.

  He caught a subtle tightening around his father’s eyes, a sudden hardness. He had noticed it before, but brushed it off. Now, his vigilance brought his father’s tension to light.

  I didn’t imagine it. What’s going on?

  A piercing pain blossomed from his temple, and he recoiled and let out a soft gasp.

  "‘Are you alright Caledon dear?"

  His mother gently laid her hands on his shoulders. The formless emotion returned. This time, with the benefit of hindsight, he glimpsed his father’s tension, plain to see.

  Something’s wrong, what about mother-

  MOTHER.

  Appella, who had planted a kiss on his father’s cheek and wrapped her hand around his shoulders, met his eyes silently, and a smile grew on her face.

  It widened, to an uncanny degree, as she locked gazes with him. His father, carried on as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

  Caledon pedaled backwards, toppling over the chair and falling to the ground.

  In a flash, his mother’s gaze had returned to normal, and his parents looked at him in concern.

  "Are you alright Caledon? What happened? Is something wrong?"

  Caledon withdrew from them, his heart beating out of his chest. That was the moment his Fear had been triggered. His mother’s return from the Archcity of Dreams. Something… had changed.

  I’ve forgotten. My mother was there, each and every time.

  The dream shifted before him, as if to validate his realisation. The very first dream that he had, the night in the infirmary. He was in the manor’s living room once more, watching Vivy fight an invisible foe precariously on her chair.

  This time, there was a single difference. Appella swept into the hall. A stern voice rang out, bringing an end to the comfortable silence.

  "Viveria, get down from there this instant. You won’t be fighting anyone on a chair."

  "But mother, you never know what might happen! What if we’re accosted by assas-"

  "Viveria Brimstone the only threat of assassination will come from me if you don’t get down from there this instant. Manners young lady!"

  Appella Brimstone’s words landed like a whip. Even his impetuous sister bowed before her ire. Viveria pouted as she sat in her chair and sheathed her sword. She gave Caledon a grumpy nod seeing him approach.

  "Caledon."

  He flinched, as she bore the steel in her tone.

  "You are her older brother. You should know better. It is your responsibility as much as mine to care for your sister, do you understand me?"

  Tears fell unbidden from his eyes. They were harsh words, but they were his mother’s. It had been so long, since he had heard her words.

  "You disappoint, elf. But it seems you finally understand."

  An unfamiliar voice reverberated through his skull. It was deep and authoritative in its baritone. Smooth, as it poured directly into his mind.

  Caledon ignored it.

  The scene changed again, to the scene of the second dream. This time, he was outside the greenhouse, as his father teased him about the fruitlessness of his desire to revolutionise its sprinkler system.

  In response to his father’s efforts to get a rise out of him, he had forgotten what had happened next.

  "Caledon dear, do not pay any attention to this oaf’s words."

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  "An oaf, my love? you wound me."

  "Berevan Brimstone, “Herald of the Eternal Phoenix” they say. Herald my ass."

  "Heralded your ass, I did-"

  His father attempted, and failed to dodge a slap from his mother. She turned to him to stare with firm and strict eyes.

  "Caledon Brimstone. Have I taught you to be limited by anyone? Let alone your idiot father. I do not care if House Flora are the foremost producers of elven crops, there is nothing holding you back from innovating and improving. Do not listen to your father’s drivel, do you understand me?"

  His father smiled, and her stern words reassured him more than anyone else had ever been capable of. They were blunt, and they did not carry the kindness that his father so often wrapped his own words in.

  Appella Brimstone spoke true. When she disapproved, it came like a dagger in the chest. When she reassured…

  Well… he had never ceased in his efforts to become a greater craftsman. Then, the dream shifted to when he had been caught in Silas’ workshop, in the manor’s basement. When he had returned to the manor, he had been met by his mother once more.

  "Caledon Brimstone. It is dangerous to be wandering around unchaperoned in the basement. Your father and Sakar work on new projects, and if you aren’t careful and stumble upon them, I might be left with ash for my only beloved son. Now you wouldn’t want that to happen would you?"

  The threat implicit in his mother’s statement was that if he turned to ash due to his own negligence, his mother would drag him from the dust to give him a piece of her mind. A prospect more terrifying than being turned into dust in the first place.

  "Finally done running from the truth? Coward."

  "Mother."

  Caledon wept, as he gripped at his mother’s arms. They were warm, inviting. For he knew, that the strict standards to which she held him, her stern demeanour, ensuring that he did the right thing, and nothing less, were the evidence of her love for him.

  So when had things changed?

  The nightmare, for he finally understood that it was no pleasant dream, shifted back to the moment in his father’s study.

  Father’s tension when greeting mother. There was no one he was more at ease around.

  Something had changed, that day in the study. Before the hearth. Enveloped in the warmth of his parents, his home.

  When his mother had returned from the Archcity of Dreams.

  It had been written plain on his father’s face. Something discomforted him. I must have realised it too… at least subconsciously. This was the moment my Fear awakened.

  Caledon shook, as he fought to confront the truth, as he struggled to acknowledge the source and shape of his Fear.

  "Something happened to you, mother. You were never the same."

  The change, it had been a gradual thing. The way in which his mother treated Viveria and him, shifted. She grew apathetic to their upbringing, their bearing, their character. She drew closer to their father, as if smitten, like a young, jealous love. His mother’s reaction to his departure on the mission was just another example of this. Somewhere along the line, it was as if she had stopped caring.

  Something must have happened to have caused this.

  "Finally, you arrive at the truth of your dreams."

  Panic gripped him, his chest constricting as he struggled to take in new breaths.

  What had happened to her?

  Sobs wracked Caledon’s sizeable frame, and he fell to his knees.

  "You vehemently rejected your Fear, refusing to confront it. Tell me, dunce. What is the shape of your Fear?"

  And Caledon understood. His lips parted amidst his sobs, in confession.

  "It is of comfort…"

  "A shallow unders-"

  "It is of comfort, perverted. Corruption. Something changed my mother, in the Archcity of Dreams. Something my father knew about. Something that made him tense, despairing."

  He recalled, how his parents’ relationship had rapidly deteriorated since his mother’s return, and her change in its nature. He had refused to believe it.

  He clenched his fists, as he finally faced his Fear that had grown, insidiously, unacknowledged, within him since childhood. That had twisted his truest memories of his with the passing of time. He now realised, that his Appella Brimstone, would never have abandoned him. That was the strength, and nature of her love.

  Why had he never confronted that little iota of doubt that arose at times? The little voice that told him to question. His curiosity, had failed him when he needed it the most.

  He had been wilfully blind, afraid of what his prying would reveal. He would rather live a lie, and pretend, that nothing had ever changed.

  His Fear of comfort? Of the hearth?

  His guide had been right. That had been a shallow assumption he had made, up until this moment – that his Fear being triggered in moments of comfort made comfort its object.

  What he truly feared, was comfort that could not be trusted. A hearth, that burned instead of nurtured.

  Corruption, was the essence of his Fear. Born from the corruption that had undoubtably befallen his mother.

  His eyes burned with rage, as the secret, the discrepancy, finally revealed itself to him.

  "Perhaps there is hope for you yet, Fearshaper of corruption. There is little to admire, but your resolve is clear."

  He needed to find answers. What had happened to his mother? Why had his father concealed it from him? Why hadn’t his father been surprised by her change?

  "You’re my guide. What is your name?"

  "That, you will have to earn. Let us see if you manage it."

  ---

  As he climbed out of the pod, feeling the sensation of something, circling within his body, he noticed that he was alone in the room. The pods were exposed to the air, with no sign of any black lattices.

  "Lucky last… I wonder where they’ve gone?"

  Caledon walked out into the hallway, to find Vale seated at the foot of the stairs leading up to the gates sealing away the Floors of Trepidation.

  The girl looked utterly dejected, her shoulders slumped.

  "Hey Vale… are you alright? Did something happen?"

  She stared up at him, and instead of fear or concern, he saw annoyance. Caledon relaxed, Shiver had surely done something to piss her off.

  "That crazy orphan has done it again."

  "What did she do this time?"

  "Oh, not much…"

  She pointed to the gates behind her with a thumb.

  "You know… walking through to the Floors of Trepidation. Before descending from Anhedonia."

  Vale looked like she was midway between shouting in frustration and breaking down into tears.

  "First, she slips through the cliffside, miraculously finding the Archcity, now this?"

  Vale sniffed, her eyes downcast.

  "We're never going to hear the end of it."

  Book 1 is complete on patreon!