Shiver walked through another corridor which led to the Floors of Delirium, having successfully passed through the second ward guarding the entryway.

  "All those dead creatures…"

  "Descending through Trepidation must have something to do with them."

  Shiver’s eyes glinted as she glanced at her guide.

  "You spoke of a Fearcore. Maybe we have to kill them and suck them right in."

  "Shiver!"

  "What? Surely you were thinking it as well? Do you have any further insights, Popsicle?"

  Her guide quailed and slowly retreated from her gaze, where she was perched on her shoulder.

  "I-I don’t know what lies ahead for you in Trepidation… at least not yet."

  "I have to ask."

  "Yes, Shiver?"

  "How did you know what we needed to do to descend through Anhedonia? Did you know, as soon as you awakened?"

  Icey paused, seemingly puzzling the question.

  "I think… I did. Lord Quietus experienced something similar. There are facts about Fearshaping and Elucidor that we were granted when we were… “born”. It explains how Quietus knew about the nightviper infecting Pevir when I spoke of it to him. The knowledge of how to descend through Anhedonia came with it."

  "Then how did you know about this academy, when Quietus didn’t? That the guardian would trap us here. That we wouldn’t be able to leave until we descended through Anhedonia?"

  "Shiver…"

  "What did I tell you about Popsicles?"

  "They lie."

  "Then are you going to allow yourself to be reduced to one?"

  Icey fell silent, not rising to Shiver’s taunts. She would have to change tack.

  "You’re stuck with me on this Fearshaping journey whether you like it or not. It’s best if we’re honest with each other. Otherwise, if we don’t trust one another, we aren’t going to get very far, are we?"

  It was unfair of her to say so. Shiver knew, that so far, everything her guide had done had been in her best interests. She had suffered through torture, the burning venom of that undead eel, just to give them a chance at escape.

  Shiver not only had concerns about what her guide was withholding from them. She was also concerned that the experience would have scarred Icey in some way.

  After all, it took one to know one. And Shiver was an expert in both regards.

  Icey’s voice emerged as a whisper.

  "Then you’ll just have to distrust me."

  Shiver almost tripped over herself as she continued her passage forward.

  Hold on now… I wasn’t expecting that.

  She watched as Icey glided down from her shoulder, and shot forwards into the darkness. Shiver cursed as she broke out into a run, finally emerging from the end of the corridor.

  The Floors of Delirium were… nothing like she expected.

  Shiver had suspicions about what awaited them in the third stage of Fear, Delirium. From the name of it, she assumed that it presented more of a “mental” challenge than the others. Something to do with their nightmares perhaps?

  In all of Icey’s “contextual” wisdom, she recalled that her guide had stated that the importance of nightmares differed based on the stage of Fear they languished in. From the stages of Fear that the academy had clued them in to, they were as such:

  Anhedonia

  Trepidation

  Delirium

  Dread

  Serenity

  Five stages of Fear for Fearshapers to progress through before they were released from the Fears that cursed them. A journey that brought with it risk and power in equal measure.

  So what then, would the Floors of Delirium have looked like?

  What Shiver wasn’t expecting, was what looked like a Feardamned school grounds. An academy within an academy. She frowned, her mind racing with theories.

  Shiver followed a path to a large fountain, bordered on either side with an overgrown lawn of grass. Wildflowers emerged from the weeds, from between the cracks of the pavement on which she walked.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Shiver halted before the fountain, carved in the likeness of a male elf. He bore the grey robes of the academy that they had found on the copses. He was seated in a serene pose of meditation, bringing to Shiver the image of those elves of the Jade Isles with their peculiar culture.

  Walking around the fountain, she saw Icey standing still before the immense grounds that unfolded before them. She jolted in surprise as Shiver gently picked her up and placed her on her shoulder. Shiver gave her guide a soft smile.

  "It’s strange, don’t you think? There were some dormitories for Fearshapers in Anhedonia. But none in the Floors of Trepidation. But nothing like this. It’s almost as if the true academy lies here."

  Shiver walked the silent grounds, and her eyes widened as she came upon a strange sight.

  A battlegrounds?

  No… an arena.

  Towering grandstands bordered it on either end, capable of housing thousands of elves. The arena itself was paved in wide squares of stone, perhaps delineating the boundaries of the fights.

  How could she tell it was an arena? That was betrayed, by its appearance. Cracked and worn, Shiver noticed the telltale of fights between Fearshapers. Drawing closer to the stone, she sought to infer the nature of-

  One of the stone slabs was shattered evenly, cracks spidering out in uniform, orderly intervals. The mere impact at a single point would not have created such a pattern. It was…

  Unnatural.

  Another had plant growth blossoming forth from its cracks, beautiful roses emerging from amongst deadly thorns that had the benefit of time to truly blossom.

  Shiver stared, as she glimpsed the remains of a slab that seemed to have melted. The very middle of the immense square slab on which the fight was sunken inwards, creating a small crater.

  She proceeded forward, noticing that while some of the slabs contained the signs of fights long passed, many of them were untainted, having presumably been replaced. She stepped on once such slab, unmarked by damage.

  "Shit!"

  "Shiver! Are you alright?"

  Shiver let out a yell as it fell to dust around her. She stared unblinkingly at the immense stone slab that had just turned into dust before her very eyes. She felt a chill come overcome her.

  Fearshaper.

  A word that the orphan girl had not paid much attention to, in her life in Brimstone. The term from a world so far away from her. For all the mystique and power they supposedly possessed, they were not especially prevalent or pervasive in elven society, bar perhaps, the Highlords and Highladies of the Archcities.

  Shiver smiled, as she felt a tinge of regret at being born at an inopportune time.

  I know that I’ve thought it before… But this…

  She shook her head.

  "What do you think it would have been like, Icey? Being here in its glory days? Surrounded by other elves descending into the depths of their Fears, calling it into reality and twisting it to their will?"

  The little ice cube regained some of her vigor.

  "It would have been… fun!"

  Shiver let out a laugh. Then her expression twisted, as she was reminded why she walked the floor. The faces of the people she loved most, ending a casual dream.

  Then she brightened.

  "We shouldn’t keep Vale waiting too much longer. Let’s go “temporarily relinquish” whatever we can find here. I haven’t seen a single body… the place seems to have been swept clean. But maybe we’ll be lucky."

  ---

  With a bit of searching, Shiver finally found the dormitories.

  They had been swept clean, entirely. Not a single book or possession was left behind, which would have left Pevir in horror. Shiver passed through room upon room of emptiness, lit only by flickering golden orbs of light.

  She sighed, as she exited the dormitories and headed towards a large, black, windowless building.

  "Last building… I promise."

  She entered the building, and was immediately enveloped by darkness. She blinked, as her eyes adjusted to the lack of light, and pressed forwards, finally emerging into a vast, sweeping room.

  "What… in Insanity…"

  The room was arrayed with rows upon rows of glass… tanks?

  Hundreds of them.

  Similar to the tanks that restaurants in the upper circle sometimes used to show off the fish that would later be landing on diners’ plates. Each was much bigger than a mere fish tank.

  Shiver strode up to one, and noticed that it had been filled to the brim with a strange liquid that was difficult to make out in the darkness. From the meagre light that shone through from the entrance, she could tell that dust and grime had settled on its surfaces of the tanks that still held their liquid.

  Some of the others had broken, and were empty of what they had previously contained.

  "I’m stumped. The arena made sense, but this…"

  Shiver shook her head, and walked out of the eerie room.

  "It looks like there’s nothing here but more cryptic clues Popsicle, we’d best be getting-"

  Shiver halted in her sentence as she strode past the stone slabs of the arena, glimpsing something in the distance that she hadn’t seen before, over one of the towering grandstands that obscured it.

  "Is that…?"

  When she jogged over, Shiver’s eyes widened. For before her, was an enormous ward - just like what she had encountered before the Floors of Trepidation and Delirium. Only, this one bisected the entirety of the space beyond her.

  In that space, was a small black mansion.

  "Vale… I promise I’ll make it up to you."

  "Shiver… are you sure about this? Sometimes wards are in place not to keep you out, but to-"

  Shiver rushed forwards and bounced off the ward.

  "Hey!"

  She rubbed at welt on her forehead that was slowly beginning to form.

  "Well, that’s new."

  Then she placed her palms on the ward and pushed. She gritted her teeth as she continued to apply more force.

  Then she saw the barrier flicker.

  Ok, I’m getting somewhere. When in doubt, just push harder.

  Then, she heard a familiar feminine voice. The same voice that spoke to them when they entered the void pods.

  Authorisation granted.

  She flew through the barrier as it flickered out of existence, her arms spiraling as she struggled to catch her balance at the sudden lack of existence.

  She took a step into the barrier, and it flickered back into existence.

  "Shiver…"

  "I’m sure it's fine, Popsicle. What’s the worst that could happen?"

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