Vale cleared her throat as they ventured down the tunnel.

  “Caledon, you were surprisingly accurate with your assumption. That attendant didn’t suspect a thing. How did you know it would work?”

  “It was something… that my father taught me actually.”

  Shiver and Vale exchanged a glance.

  “Highlord Berevan Brimstone encouraging tardiness? I find that hard to believe, lordling. From Vale? Now that wouldn’t be a surprise at all.”

  “Excuse me, Shiver. When have I ever been tardy-“

  “You should have heard her snores, lordling. I had to drag her out of her bed the day we were catching crabs for my family’s dinner.”

  Caledon chuckled, as Vale blushed at Shiver’s words and attempted to catch the girl as she nimbly evaded her grip.

  “No, no. He taught me that the price for tardiness was more work. Which was doubly the case for the house responsible for managing an Archcity. If problems weren’t dealt with thoroughly, more would arise in their place.”

  “Not bad, lordling. Twisting his words of wisdom about managing an Archcity in service petty fraud and destruction of property. I’d say you have quite the stellar work ethic.”

  Caledon couldn’t help but shoot the glib girl a grin, even as the mention of his father pulled uncomfortably at the edges of his thoughts.

  “You’re one to talk. Besides… I’m pretty sure that was exactly what he instilled in my dear sister of mine if her… enthusiasm for breaking things and fighting people was anything to go by.”

  Playing the clueless, lazy servants had paid off for them. Caledon had come up with the plan when he noticed the senior attendant strolling around the garden to escape the revelry on his breaks. It had all come together perfectly, and House Flora had been none the wiser to their machinations.

  Shiver rolled her eyes, exchanging a grin with him.

  “You could learn a thing or two from the lordling, princess. Or maybe we just need to put you through a couple more trials of the crabs to strengthen that work ethic of yours, hmm?”

  Vale recoiled in horror, and visibly paled at the memory of Shiver dragging her out of her bed in Pov and Marta’s warm home, only to deposit her in Pince’s mud pit to scramble for crabs to catch in Shiver’s twisted vision of redemption. In hindsight, the girl had certainly chosen a strange way to make up for Marta and Pov’s intervention in their “heist” of the archaeologist’s guild.

  Their memories were gradually returning to them, now that Caledon’s Phobia had freed them from the effects of the Nectar. The events of Brimstone, their foray through Anhedonia – the Archcity of Fear, and their return to Brimstone Manor had all returned to them.

  Frustratingly, their most recent memories continued to elude them. Just how they had reached the very heart of the Dreadwood and found themselves in Flora’s mansion of madness and revelry continued to escape them.

  The last thing that Caledon could recall was their departure for the Archcity of Life, but he was sure that if his memories returned at the pace they were, the mystery as to the events leading up to the mansion would return to him.

  Seeing the shade of red that Vale had turned at Shiver’s words, and the glee that Shiver was deriving from her expression, Caledon couldn’t help but rise to her defence.

  “Playing dumb gets you places. Just look at how far Shiver’s come.”

  Shiver nodded in solemn agreement.

  “Careful lordling, you haven’t seen anything yet.”

  Vale rolled her eyes.

  “She’s right about that. The depths of her idiocy are endless.”

  Their banter was interrupted as they reached the end of the tunnel stretching out from the basement of the manor. Caledon’s eyes widened as he noticed a golden glow that seemed to creep into the darkness of the tunnel. Caledon held a finger to his lips as he crept forwards, approaching the tunnel exit with care.

  Then they glimpsed the interior of the cavern that awaited them. Caledon heard Vale whisper under her breath, as they absorbed the visage before them.

  “Insanity. Pure Insanity.”

  Pools of Nectar filled the chamber. The tunnel’s exit led down to a small cavern filled with pools of the golden liquid. They filled crevices that snaked around the cavern, with rock formations that protruded above the stagnant, golden liquid.

  To the right of the tunnel exit, were empty barrels stacked high in a corner. Presumably, the very barrels that the senior attendant had intended for them to fill with Nectar, to shuttle back to the mansion.

  At the very centre of the lake of Nectar, was a single golden flower.

  Its enticing golden petals were tightly shut, curled vertically around a bulbous object contained within, its shape betrayed by the curve of the petals.

  Nectar fountained from the creases in the flower’s petals.

  Vale’s face grew pale at she stared at the leaking liquid, that dripped down into the curling river of golden liquid below them. Providing a steady source of the insidious “drink”, enough to fuel the revelry of an entire mansion of nobles.

  “Don’t tell me… that’s what we’ve been drinking.”

  A wave of nausea overcame Caledon, as he came to the same conclusion. Then, doubly so, at the broader implications of the cavern. His voice came out in a broken whisper.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “You don’t suppose… this was the work of Highlady Solastra?”

  Vale nodded with a shudder.

  “I don’t know anyone else that would be capable of it. Creating a flower that creates a liquid which suppresses our memories…”

  Shiver stretched a hand outwards, calling her elegant, curving blade of frost to her hand, as he cerulean eyes scanned the room methodically.

  “-and our Fearshaping.”

  Vale’s eyes widened.

  “You don’t suppose this mansion was a trap for Fearshapers? What else could House Flora’s intentions be, other than to keep them distracted, in eternal revelry?”

  Caledon paled at the thought. Just how long had Solastra Flora’s “guests” been trapped in their amnesia. Was that what would have awaited them, if he hadn’t come to his senses, and they had failed to break free of it?

  There was not time for idle questions when Solastra Flora’s atrocity lay before them.

  “Less talking. Let’s go.”

  Shiver lunged down the slope, leading to the edge of the golden liquid contained in the crevice.

  She called her Fear, and Caledon gaped as three large shards of ice formed in the air, hurtling towards the plant at Shiver’s command.

  Was she always able to do that?

  “Wait, get back!”

  The flower’s petals unravelled, knocking aside Shiver’s oncoming projectiles. As the flower bloomed, the petals opened to reveal a glowing orb hovering within.

  “Get bac-“

  The glowing orb sent out a blinding golden wave that washed over them in an instant.

  Caledon flinched as it induced a similar sensation as the Nectar – attempting to weed its way into his mind. To influence his memories, to make him forget. More than that, the flower was attempting to influence his perception of it. It was not a target to be destroyed, but something precious, to be protected.

  He watched as Shiver stumbled in her approach, new ice shards that she had conjured, falling uselessly to the ground.

  Caledon’s vision flickered, and he gripped his temple as he struggled desperately to maintain his grip on reality, and his memories.

  He summoned his Phobia to him, and golden flames poured in a torrent from the dark, metallic torch in his grip, alight with his flames of corruption, mitigating the influence that the flower sought to impose on him.

  Caledon relied on the same strategy he had employed, when combatting the Nectar they had consumed, and it worked just as he intended.

  Seizing the small opening, Caledon leapt towards the small island on which the flower was located. As he soared through the air, he watched helplessly as the golden orb’s glow began to swell in intensity at a rapid pace.

  Then he felt it once more.

  The familiar sensation that he had lost himself to on the rooftop, when the elves around him had bowed. His eyes widened, as he felt himself unconsciously bring his Fear into reality.

  [xuxxoxxtx xx xhx xxxexx]

  His skin curled as he felt himself impose the invocation of his Fear onto the flower, and watched as the light flickered – as if in surprise that its influence had successfully been resisted.

  The split second was all that he needed, as he completed his leap, cleaving downwards with the torrent of flames that poured from his Phobia. He watched as his flames tore through the delicate golden petals, hungrily consuming the Nectar that coated them. Eventually, the blaze spread to the golden orb within, and he saw a crack splinter across its immaculate surface.

  Then the orb shattered.

  Caledon stood paralysed, as the flower rapidly began to wither. He watched entranced, as a strange, glittering golden haze began to seep out of the flower’s remains.

  Then Caledon felt a yearning call out from within him, at the sight of the haze.

  Caledon drew it in.

  His Fearcore hungrily consumed the glittering golden haze. Caledon noticed how it seamlessly worked its way towards his Fearcore. Then he gasped as the death of the flower gave shape to an invocation that carved itself across his Fearcore of corruption.

  Birthed from its death.

  Then his vision went white.

  The flower bloomed, its Nectar gracing the creatures that supped on it. Would-be predators were reduced to guardians, after tasting its flesh. No creature would be capable of threatening it. None that threatened it would evade its influence.

  [Nectar of the Osepria]

  He watched as severed pieces of the flower drifted down into the golden liquid, carrying with them, flickering golden flames still flaring at their edges.

  Then Caledon scrambled back as the drifting pieces of burning petal touched the still surface of the river of Nectar surrounding him. As Caledon leapt away from the island on which the flower was perched, he watched as the flames of his Phobia took to the liquid effortlessly, and watched as a burning wave spread across the surface of the liquid.

  The Nectar was burning.

  Yet, Caledon could not feel the heat of his flames.

  Then his eyes widened, thinking back to the brief moment when he felt as if he had been one with the flower. Experiencing what it had experienced.

  He felt the invocation at his fingertips, itching to be called.

  Zel appeared in a flash of flame, scrutinising him silently. The final remains of the Nectar burned away in a haze of golden flame, the cavern fell into darkness.

  Caledon whispered under his breath, as he regarded the invocation he had received which would give form to his sickening Fear. Its purpose still remained a mystery, and Caledon was intent to let it remain one. If the flower gave him the ability to affect the memories of those he came into contact with…

  “I will never use you.”

  “Then you are a better man than I thought you were, Caledon Brimstone.”

  Caledon froze, at a familiar voice that echoed in the cavern. He whipped his head around, and he saw Vale and Shiver lying prone on the cavern floor, having been knocked out by the golden wave emitted by the flower.

  Where did that come fr-

  “Still, the invocation is yours to use as you wish. Congratulations are in order. Not many escape my – affectionately termed – Mansion of Madness. You have certainly impressed me.”

  The voice was accompanied by a light, sardonic clapping.

  Then, he watched helplessly as plants erupted from the earth all around him. In a single, brief second, Caledon watched in horror as the cavern was seeded with dozens of glowing Oseprias that sprouted to full maturity, resembling the plant that he had slain, in a matter of seconds.

  The sudden return of the light to the cavern made him shade his eyes, the intensity of the brightness emitted by the sheer number of flowers giving him the impression that he was standing in daylight, under a midday sun.

  Caledon paled, a sense of despair overtaking him, as he watched petals encircle golden orbs above them, Nectar beginning to fountain from the buds, and fill the crevices of the cavern once more.

  A familiar old woman emerged from behind one of the Oseprias, dignifying him with a soft smile. Her hair was tied up in a humble bun, and the slightest lines of aging marred her face. In every regard, her appearance was just as unassuming and unremarkable as it had been when he had first spoken to her.

  Save for one, small feature.

  Bright yellow irises burned with the fervour of the sun, as they drilled into his eyes.

  “Madame… T?”

  “The nickname that my friends know me by. Feel free to use it, Highlord Brimstone. It’s a relief to see you take after that father of yours.”

  She snapped her fingers, and roots like blades shot outwards from the ground beneath him.

  They approached faster than the rapier of the blademaster in the courtyard. With blinding speed, one of the sliver-thin roots pierced his thigh.

  He watched helplessly as he watched the roots stab into Shiver and Vale where they lay prone.

  “Had you turned out more like your grandfather… I would have aimed for your throat.”

  Caledon screamed, as he felt his veins burned, every modicum of Nectar purged from his system in a single instant. Caledon toppled to the ground in exhaustion, the vine receding back into the ground.

  Highlady Solastra Flora chuckled, her eyes filled with amusement.

  The sickening sensation of his Fearcore of corruption within him, was growing more defined with every passing moment, as the Nectar was purged from his system.

  Then, Caledon felt a familiar resonance, and it birthed familiar words that flickered in his vision.

  Progress to Fearcore consolidation: [30%]

  Fearcore integrity: [Stable]

  “W-what…”

  Then, the words were followed by the return of the rest of his memories.

  His memory of his journey through Trepidation.

  In the Dreadwood, the Archcity of Life.

  patreon.