by K. T. Hanna
It took Murmur a moment longer than Sinister to translate Mellow’s words, and by then both the witch and the blood mage were already holding her hands. Murmur didn’t want to be the one to disappoint, but she wasn’t sure this would work. In theory she guessed they would all be stronger in drawing from the same power pool, but realistically, was that even possible?
At the same time, Torch sent out a cloud of bright light to skim over the surface of the skin, leaving behind reddened, but not raw replacements in its wake. Microdermabrasion treatment at its most advanced and finest. Murmur wondered if the applications could be more than just virtual. Either way, Hortia screamed. The healing process appeared to take more energy than just flaking away into ashes would. The fresh agony on Hortia’s face showed it clearly.
Finally, after what seemed like an age of watching the sisters locked in their game of will, Hortia collapsed to the ground, her pale form almost translucent now that the darkness had fled her body. The locus on the floor in front of her was more fragile than any Murmur had seen before. Shorter by a foot or more than herself and most other locus she’d met.
Xestia stood towering over her sister, chest heaving as she panted in and out, her hand still resting on Mellow’s left arm that was paused above their cauldron. Murmur blinked, and the world spun. She reached out a hand to steady herself but realized too late that everyone else was in the same position. Dizzy. Like something had reached in and drained a large portion of her.
Then she noticed the flashing light in her HUD. Empty. Almost, anyway. Her mana bar was almost completely drained. Murmur frowned, glancing at everyone else.
From what she could tell, everyone’s attack abilities had been drained. Whether that meant every mana—or life in Havoc’s case—they’d all given a hell of a lot to help Xestia overpower the darkness that possessed her sister. Murmur only hoped Mellow’s quest wasn’t going to get them killed.
Hortia still lay on the ground, her chest heaving as she gulped in the thick and musty air. Her eyes held a grey film over them that made her seem blind, but slowly it began to clear right before their eyes.
By contrast, now Xestia was muscular and strong, a perfect locus. Strands of emotion began to reach out to Murmur, just trickles here and there. She couldn’t quite associate them to either sister, or to Torch, but she knew they all came from them. Differentiating their strands wasn’t easy, and she needed to watch them to clear up some of the confusion.
Even as she did, an overwhelming sense of wrongness assailed her. Something wasn’t right. Even though the room had opened up and cleared of the leeching darkness, even though Hortia seemed to be free of her darker influences, a distinctly unsettling feeling kept trying to push into Murmur’s mind.
Hortia raised herself up on shaking limbs, her hair limp and the fairy lights dull as the tentacles dragged at her head like it was trying to break her neck. She stood in front of Xestia, trembling and a bright halo of fear suddenly surrounded her. Then it was gone, and Murmur was left trying to figure out just what it was the girl was afraid of.
“You should have done that slower.” Torch’s tone held admonishment, even if it was faint. Xestia scowled as she took in the disapproval.
“I thought you said we had to do this, that we had to protect the wards. Time is of the essence. We can’t afford to take too much of it.” She bit her lip, drawing blood, a deep red on the pale silvery grey of her locus skin.
Murmur began to have major second thoughts. This quest wasn’t going along as she’d anticipated. Hell, this dungeon was a pure enigma. And if they were freeing these sisters, or this family, or whatever it was, she had the feeling she should have asked more questions. They’d simply followed the directions given to them by the other dungeons. That was all they’d needed to do, right?
Hortia flinched as her sister took her hand, and Murmur couldn’t tell if her skin was raw and painful, or if something else had happened. She focused on them, on their bond, on the emotions tumbling between them, trying to figure out exactly what was happening.
Strength flowed from Xestia into Hortia, rejuvenating the smaller sister before Fable’s eyes. She rose up, still short, but more solid now, the translucence fading with solidity. But her eyes were larger than those of any locus Murmur had seen before. They were huge and round, black with golden specks like stars littering the surface, and the only thing Murmur could think of when looking at her was haunted.
Xestia maintained her sister’s eye contact, and Hortia seemed unable to bring herself to look away. “There. All better?”
Hortia paused for a moment, her eyes widening even more, though that barely felt possible. She looked like she was struggling to give an answer, to inch the words past her lips. “Yes. Definitely better.”
Murmur tried to keep her own breathing even, though it was difficult. Hortia was being coerced into this behavior, into going along with whatever it was Xestia was initiating. Because deep inside, barely retrievable, Hortia was petrified, scared right down to her bones, and Xestia was feeding off it.
And Murmur had no idea how to deal with it.
Murmur ran through everything in her mind. From the moment they’d stepped into this dungeon. Scaling the cliff, not meeting any guards out the front, opening the doors to the dimly lit halls full of ghouls, decayed, loathsome ghouls. They’d killed the ghouls and found Torch, apparently approached Torch in the right way and avoided a fight.
But now Murmur was wondering if that was the better path. Because something about this situation set her senses on edge. When they said they were here to lift the curse, had it really been a good thing? Was it perhaps not better for Xestia and Hortia to remain in the forms they found them in?
How had interrupting that banshee’s scream managed to free Xestia?
Questions circled in Murmur’s head, and she fought to separate them from the attention she had to pay to what was happening in front of her. She looked at Hortia, truly examined the girl from a distance. Separating her own emotions was quite difficult, because everything about this situation was alarming her.
Tiachi reached out a tiny hand and stroked her cheek, almost startling Murmur until she realized what it was. She smiled at her little companion, and noticed that Snowy was pressing against her legs, a growl in his throat. They noticed it too—however attuned to her they were, they had caught onto whatever it was that was bugging her.
Now, if only she could figure out what it was herself, they’d all be better off.
Xestia placed her hands on either side of Hortia’s head, right along the temple area of the skull, and began muttering words Murmur didn’t understand. If possible, Hortia’s fear levels rose higher, but they mixed with awe and love, respect and obstinacy. Such a jumble of everything.
Murmur reached out tentatively, making sure all of her friends were protected from any of the strange shit that was flying about in these minds. Satisfied, she began to set her sensor net to detect nuanced instances of certain emotions. Was it the words Xestia spoke, or Xestia herself who seemed to evoke the fear in her sister? The answer was only more confusing, as her results indicated both and neither.
Images flit around them, memories that activated and retreated back into their minds, just out of time for Murmur to catch them and figure out what they were. But the gist was clear. Hortia had power Xestia needed to complete a ritual that would restore something. And Xestia wasn’t about to take no for an answer.
“Mellow?” she asked, keeping her voice as low as she could.
“Mhm?” Mellow seemed somehow transfixed, their eyes focused on the sisters with almost a greedy sheen to them.
“This quest of yours. What does it want us to do?” Murmur pushed on, knowing it might take a few attempts to get the question answered. She only hoped it would happen before Xestia noticed Murmur was suspicious.
Mellow blinked rapidly, shaking their head and pulled up their
HUD again. The frown returned and the witch glanced at Murmur. “I need to stop an amalgamation lest it destroy the very foundation of Stellaein.”
The words hung in the air like a bad smell, taunting Murmur with the knowledge that it came from somewhere, but not where it was. Now Mellow was back to themself, focused on figuring things out too. They both searched quietly, Mellow visually, and Murmur magically.
Mellow bit their lip, much in the same way Xestia had earlier. Their brow furrowed in concentration, and finally they shook their head. “Mur, this is off.”
“Again?” They couldn’t seem to get past the zones not being what they were supposed to be for them.
Mellow shook their head. “No. Not like that. For the quest. Something has changed.”
Yeah, something has changed, Murmur wanted to say. This whole fucking game is falling apart at the seams. But she didn’t say it, because it wasn’t going to help anything anyway, even if it was true.
“Is this necessary?” she found herself asking, gesturing around the room, specifically to the sisters. No matter what she tried, she couldn’t shake the feeling that they desperately needed to interrupt whatever this ceremony was.
Torch glanced at her, or Murmur thought she did. It was difficult to tell with the whole Torch theme extending to each limb and face. “The transfer is.”
But something about the elemental told Murmur she was only saying the words, and not believing them herself. She pushed on, focusing on the elemental. Except as she was about to speak, Mellow did instead.
“Is only the transfer necessary?”
Torch flared slightly, and their tone was grateful when they finally answered. “Yes. Just the transfer. Not whatever this is.”
Tension around them grew, and the emanations from Hortia became panicked and desperate. The newly-lit lights in the room flickered, sending waves of chill throughout the room. In the guttered corners, shadows began to emerge, and Xestia bit her lip so hard it drew blood again, the veins in her forehead pulsing with a new rhythm that was more in tune with the way the lighting faded in and out.
Mellow: Mur, I don’t have anything that can break them apart or interrupt the ceremony. At least nothing I think will be useful. We have to interrupt this. If we don’t, I don’t just think it’s my quest that’ll fail.
Murmur was taken aback by the raid communication, but it was far more surreptitious to speak through that channel than whispering to each other. Okay. Hazard to guess what might happen?
Mellow glared at her and responded over raid: Stellaein might crumble into dust. Maybe the cliffs will collapse and create a sinkhole for the city. It’s not very specific about how it’s going to destroy the locus.
Okay, okay I get the picture. Murmur cringed.
Mellow smiled smugly. Good. Now, can you somehow break their bond?
Murmur didn’t have long to figure out a course of action, and she had to make one a decision or risk losing anything she understood. She cast Phase Shift on Hortia, breaking the chain of the spell, breaking the hold Xestia had on her and shifting her out of phase for a precious few seconds. Enough that she could prepare to hit the girl with a Mez as soon as it dropped, and enough that she could ask Xestia what the hell was going on.
“What have you done?” Desperation tinged Xestia’s entire being, but Torch remained calm. The former banshee drew in several huge breaths like she was trying to regain oxygen she’d lost. “No. No. I’ll have to start again.”
Murmur glanced at Hortia, who still appeared to be out of Phase, and totally out of it. Her eyes flickered, just like the lights in the room, in sync like a strange contemporary dance that lulled the eyes of the observer. A split second was all it would take for Hortia to break out of the Phase Shift, and Murmur had the sinking feeling that she’d interrupted something more important for them than she realized. Whatever took hold of Hortia, whatever had turned her into that monster they’d first encountered, Xestia had been trying to hold it at bay. Luckily, the Phase Shift allowed for her to remain in an out of shift state.
“What are you doing to her?” Sinister asked quietly, eyes on the out of focus smaller locus.
Xestia’s panic was palpable now, leaking over everyone who stood with her. “She’s infected. Taken over. I’m not even sure if she’s strong enough to fight it. How long does that thing last?”
At the end of her words a tinge of hope sounded, like a softly rung bell that gifted another chance.
Murmur refreshed the cast of Phase Shift and grimaced. “About eight more seconds. I don’t know that I can do it another time.”
It was the first time she’d managed to cast Phase Shift twice in a row. Not that there had been many uses of the ability. But like she was slowly learning. There was obviously an ability for almost any situation.
“Short version: my family maintained this castle. Dungeon. Whatever. We were infected with a seed of evil. A continuous cast that drained our life and replaced it with things that were not who we are. Evil things. Hortia was the first victim. She’s been affected the longest. She’ll be the hardest to break.” Xestia’s words tumbled over themselves, not quite tripping, but obviously desperately trying to fit into the time Murmur told her they had.
“Wait. Interrupted? You mean I severed her hold briefly when I cast Mind Bolt on you?” Murmur couldn’t believe it had been that simple.
Mellow sighed. “It could just be that simple, and that difficult. I was looking for a lot more, but it’s my quest, so I’m overanalyzing it.”
“Whatever you did, allowed me to regain a foothold in myself and fight back.” Xestia’s brow creased with worry, her bottom lip began to tremble as she readied her hands to begin her sister’s release once more.
“You know though, Mur,” Mellow drawled out slowly. “If Mind Bolt freed Xestia, maybe you can use it on Hortia to the same effect. Provided Hortia still possesses her own will, that is.”
That was as good a plan as any. As soon as Phase Shift dropped, Murmur flung a Mind Bolt at the younger sister. Hortia screamed, and the lights in the room began to bleed smoke all through the room. Xestia shot an unreadable glance at the enchanter and caught her sister as she fell, cradling her against her, fingers gently placed against her temples again.
But this time, whatever Xestia was doing helped. Color returned, albeit slowly, to Hortia’s face. The smoke swirled around them all, faster and faster until it erupted into a volcano of showering sparks in a scream of defiance and funneled out of the room.
Murmur stood in the middle, perplexed. She knew both Dansyn and the rangers had a type of interrupt that would probably have worked too, but she’d almost fucked up by taking the apparently weaker sister’s side without knowing the full story.
It was a good thing that Mellow was there. Xestia had been possessed for who knew how long, which made what Murmur had done even worse. She’d imposed her interpretation on a situation. She’d believed she knew better because of what she’d sensed, or what she thought she’d sensed. It was heartening watching the sisters reunite as Hortia slowly, deftly began to take control of herself and her facilities back.
But Murmur couldn’t enjoy it, because she now realized something that made her dreadfully wary. Anything that was channeled correctly could temporarily confuse her sensor nets. If she hadn’t consulted Mellow and made a more informed decision, things could have gone horribly wrong. Maybe deciding so much on a whim or alone wasn’t the best idea after all.
Storm Entertainment
Somnia Online Division
Game Development Offices Artificial Intelligence Server Room
Day Nineteen
“They’re coming.” Thra’s voice intoned into the serenity Rav was taking for granted.
“Yes. They want answers, ones I can’t give yet.” He sounded tired even to himself. So much that he even made Sui look at him. “Stop it. I can’t calculate eve
rything.”
Sui snorted. “No, you can’t. You also can’t predict everything based on algorithms. Humans aren’t algorithms, they act outside of them all the time. Infuriatingly. Illogically.”
Rav wasn’t sure how Sui managed to sound both amused and irritated at the same time. “Yeah. Especially Murmur. It’s like she tries to use no logic whatsoever.”
“That’s not fair.” Thra sounded like she should be thinking the words and not saying them out loud. “She uses the logic each situation dictates.”
“You sound like you like her.” Sui’s tone was almost accusatory.
Thra looked up at him. “I do. She’s resourceful, thinks outside the box, but always manages to use some sort of well-reasoned way to achieve things. Not that she’s perfect. She really needs to get past some of her issues, especially that whole ‘I can go it alone’ crap. But then, don’t we all.” She winked at Sui and returned to the abundance of calculations she was scanning through, a frown on her face.
“Are you in there?” came a droll voice before Rav could say anything else.
He suppressed the urge to sigh, knowing it would just sound like the server he was housed in was malfunctioning or needed a new power source or something. “No. We took the day off.”
Sui raised an eyebrow. “Excellent use of sarcasm.” He sounded like he approved.
No more words or sounds came from the outside for several seconds and though Rav thought it unlikely that they’d just leave because he said that, he did start to wonder.
Laria sounded so bored when she spoke, bored and impatient. “What can you tell us about the side-effects Wren is experiencing from the death she had in Somnia?”
The words sounded like more of a challenge than a question. Sort of like they didn’t believe that the AIs could give them answers. It rankled Rav in a way he’d not been prepared for. Especially considering how close it was to the truth. His temper flared, and he realized he actually had a temper that could flare. So human, so real. And perhaps so dangerous. He’d have to analyze that later. Why was there never enough time?