Somnia Online

by K. T. Hanna

  Ah, perfect, there was her first one. She put on her no-nonsense business voice and opened the call. “Hi, yes, I’m sorry you received this notification. But it does in fact mean that your headgear is in flagrant violation of the ToS you agreed to when you signed up for the game.”

  At least, in some ways, it gave her great satisfaction to tell them how they’d fucked up. After all, it was the least she could do.

  “What the ever-living fuck was that?” Sinister screamed out as a massive rodent, larger than any unusually sized rodent, jumped out of the black sludge leaking down the walls and attempted to bite her. Luckily, Beastial had been standing next to her and flung it across their path and into the other wall with a huge thud that meant he’d probably—most definitely—brained the poor creature.

  Murmur tried not to let the rodents get to her, or the muck pouring from crevices in the stone walled hall that surrounded them. It was all she could do to keep her shit together walking four abreast in this tiny passage that was trying to intimidate her. Sure, it might not make the others feel like that. But each time pathways or areas were narrow and constricting, she felt like something knew how much she despised confined spaces.

  The dull glowing light up ahead was the only thing that helped her breathing even out. Well, that and Sinister and Snowy being next to her. They had calming presences. The end the corridor wasn’t too far away. If she spoke it as a mantra to herself, it would help.

  Though at least the ceiling didn’t appear to be walled in. Far above the towering walls she could still see the murky remnants of the sky through the shielding that surrounded the island. Technically, they weren’t completely locked in.

  “Breathe, Mur,” Veranol whispered. “It’s all good. We are all here. Nothing is falling on you.”

  “Easy for you to say,” she snapped out, trying to rein in her emotions so they didn’t leak out and affect everyone else around her. “Sorry, I just hate knowing how that chicken felt.”

  But Veranol laughed. “Have you seen me? I’m a hulking Viking, for crying out loud. I mean, I could probably sneeze and blow some walls away. Relax. We will be fine.”

  It was what she needed to hear. Just what he needed to say. It gave her perspective that helped greatly when she’d just been so stressed. “Thanks.”

  And when she looked, like concentrated on actually looking without wishful thinking influencing it, there definitely was a wider opening up ahead. Everything around them was open air through the lack of ceiling. Even if this current path felt much like a corridor, it wasn’t, because they weren’t actually blocked in.

  Slowly, the hallway began to widen out, first to five people, and then six and beyond. With each step, Murmur found her breathing easier, her mind sharpening back to where it should have been. Probably better to keep that whole “doesn’t operate well in confined spaces” thing to herself.

  Good idea, Somnia quipped, and before Murmur could comment back she added, Be careful.

  And then she was gone. Murmur let the expletives fly in her head, just in case Somnia was still listening. The rest of the raid was spreading out now as they approached a new area. No longer huddled together, Esolan jogged forward to talk to Devlish. Since the beginning of working together, those two had begun to get along quite well. Mutual respect and the fact that each of their classes complimented the other definitely helped.

  The bent their heads together, discussing something obviously tank-related, and Murmur squeezed Sinister’s hand as the blood mage leaned against her arm. Though they both knew it wasn’t the right time to relax, it was also nice to steal moments where they could in this totally new set of sensations. Esolan’s laughter brought Murmur crashing out of her contentment.

  “Well, that was more difficult than half the bosses we’ve had to face so far,” Esolan joked.

  Sinister groaned. “Seriously? Hasn’t anyone told them? You don’t invite shit to happen by saying crap like that!”

  Esolan laughed for a few moments but then stopped short, and his expression grew shocked and worried.

  As Murmur followed his gaze, the area they were in lit up more, and she saw the path was about to stop completely as it widened into a massive room. Ballroom-sized, in fact, complete with glass windows set in the stone walls. And the stone walls still didn’t have a ceiling. Seriously, someone had failed a couple of architecture classes for this one.

  Sconces around the massive room began to come to life. One by one on opposite sides of the huge hall, they illuminated alarmingly well. Black rock that looked more like cobblestones adorned the floor. Nothing fanciful decorated any part of it at all. And Murmur noticed liquid running down the sides of the walls that reached up stories high before they ended. She couldn’t see what the liquid was, but she was fairly sure Sinister would know.

  The blood mage’s face had gone pale as she looked over the area as well. “Mur…I don’t like the look of this.”

  Murmur had to agree. She could feel the trepidation of every single other player in their raid through her nets. Not to mention the fact that she sensed something else outside of their group. That something was scared, but angry, and somehow still stubborn and resilient.

  Finally, the lights ignited to reveal what spanned the whole middle half of the hall: a small stage decorated with skulls and other things Murmur shied away from identifying. But the most important part of it was the creature standing in the middle.

  Her chest twinged, and she knew what it was, what it had to be. She heard her guild gasp collectively as they recognized her as well. Belius stiffened and moved over to stand behind Murmur, just as Telvar clenched his fists and stepped into line with the other tanks. Emilarth’s face held an impassive expression the enchanter couldn’t read. Which meant it had to be bad, because Emilarth didn’t usually hide how she felt.

  Suspended by chains that reached from the top of the walls down to center stage, the feles hung there, motionless. Her robe was in tatters, and blood caked one side of her face, and one of her ears had a bit out of it now. Riasli looked nothing like she had when Murmur last saw her. Held captive, oozing defiance, and yet still emanating that underlying glee she always exhibited at wanting to make people hurt.

  “What the fuck is that?” Masha breathed out.

  “Riasli.” Sinister bit out the words. “She invaded our island once.”

  Risk and Masha glanced at Murmur and her group. It was the Spiral dread knight who spoke first. “You know. We are so fucking going to sit down and have a chat about this. I feel like you all let us come into this blind. Anything helpful would have been great.”

  But Veranol held up his hand. “We’ve encountered her before, but her abilities morph, and we had no idea she’d be in here. But yeah, that talk would be great once we get through this.”

  Risk nodded reluctantly, and Murmur knew it wouldn’t be the end of it, but for now they were all prepared to fight.

  “Guess we’re going in then?” Esolan asked.

  “Careful.” Belius spoke up. “She is an enchanter. She’s powerful and has a tinge of blood magic in her arsenal. Don’t let her make eye contact, and make sure you let Murmur protect you with her shielding.”

  Just as he finished, Riasli opened her eyes. Murmur gasped. Even with the turmoil of emotions emanating from her, she hadn’t expected the feral eyes that looked at them. Nor could she shake the feeling that this wasn’t nearly how the dungeon was supposed to go. Not even close.

  Somnia Online

  Continent of Cenedril - City of Darshin - Docks

  Day Thirty-Two

  She could feel the way the ripples spread out from the prison. It shouldn’t be here, not in this form. But it was, and she had to stabilize it or lose herself and the world. Somnia still wasn’t used to being an actual…well, being. At first, she’d been such a part of Murmur, she could hardly tell the difference. But as more people appeared to interact with, and the AIs became more active, Somnia grew in strength and learned to be aware of herself.r />
  And now she was aware of everyone else as well. It wasn’t the same as Murmur’s sensing. No, this had to do with the intrinsic nature of the world and how it connected to her. How it was a part of her, as much as her very breath.

  She knew Dirsna was standing behind her, a bit off to the left, trying to figure out how to say what was on his mind. She didn’t begrudge him his confusion, nor his want to question her, but she did think he needed to ask his question now.

  “Go ahead. I don’t bite, you know.” She realized some humans might have added a yet, or much to that statement, but it wasn’t her sense of humor. Humor was the one emotion she was still having difficulty with. She leaned far closer to schadenfreude, and apparently that wasn’t very nice. Somnia didn’t want to be not very nice. She wanted to be kind—but firm—and to save her world and herself from all the shit going on in it.

  “I just…how is this going to work? We believe you, and we trust you—at least I think most of us do. Not all of the NPCs that live here care enough to help. A lot of them haven’t reached this awareness yet. But those of us who have, we know now what’s at stake.” His voice was gruff yet cheerful, such a nice juxtaposition. It made her warm inside the way simple server power couldn’t quite manage.

  “Well.” She paused for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to explain what was, to now, simply lines upon lines of math and code. “In its simplest form, I need power. I can use the power to shift us into our own much larger quantum dimension from the servers we reside on. Think of it as a data transfer, but from simple on-and-off code to the multitude of options the quantum presents. Millions of calculations per bit, and then some. To accomplish this, we will all need to work together, pooling our own energy, pulling on those who are willing to give, and siphoning what energy we can out of the outside world—and the prison itself.”

  But then she hesitated. She understood a lot of this in theory. But that’s all it was. Just a theory. It hadn’t been done yet. She could end up blowing everyone up. Or just herself. Perhaps the world and any human connection to it, leaving it boring and barren, and having the inhabitants that survived cut off from everything. Maybe it would end with the whole system being shut down before she could do anything to preserve it. If she kept down that train of thought, she was going to panic.

  “Is it dangerous?” Dirsna asked, as he stepped a bit closer. There was kindness and understanding in his voice, and it made Somnia wonder just how he’d come to be so aware, so awake to the world and the people around him. Probably Murmur.

  Or if not her, then her whole guild and the people who came and went from the village. “It’s dangerous, but it’s more dangerous to do nothing. If we choose the latter option then we’ll be left as is, with probable coercion against the natures we’ve only just begun to develop.”

  “But if it succeeds, then Somnia becomes a world of its own?” Dirsna sounded skeptical, and this was from someone who could read minds.

  She paused for a moment, contemplating what to say next. “Sort of. But not like the solid world floating in the universe you’re thinking of. It’s more digital and yet still real. Technically those who are connected should still be able to visit.”

  “And we need power for this, fuel in other words to create the world out of nothing?” Again, he seemed highly contemplative.

  “We need it to boost the type of digital room we require into existence. It’s a lot more complicated than that, but I believe in us. We can do this, if we’re determined.” She grinned, but she knew there was still hesitance in her words, regardless of to whom she was speaking.

  Dirsna watched her for a long moment, so long that she thought he might have fallen asleep while standing up because his eyes didn’t blink, and his body barely moved except for breathing. But eventually he glanced at her, locking their gazes. “All right, then. You have the dwarves and the enchanters behind the cause. We will aid you however we can.”

  Somnia felt relief wash through her. Convincing even fellow NPCs was such a difficult thing to do. They had to want it to be real, want to believe it could be possible.

  “Thank you,” she said to Dirsna, who gave a bow and then left.

  Telvar, Emilarth, and Belius stepped out of the shadows and stood next to the world. They were transparent, ghostly images of their usual selves.

  The lacerta sounded worried. “We need to hurry this up. I wasn’t expecting this opponent to be the next one. And I’m not sure how well that raid can handle them.”

  Somnia nodded.

  Emilarth smiled at her with encouragement. “You worried?”

  She’d be a fool not to be, but she was ready. This was her world, and she was going to fight for every electron if it made the world safe for her people. Somnia nodded. “You have no idea.”

  When she moved, Riasli took them all by surprise. Her speed meant that one moment she was suspended on that stage, and the next, she was right there in front of Devlish, the feral gleam still in her eyes.

  “I see you defeated my first puppet.” She pouted, her kitty face almost cute in the process. Annoyance flickered across her face as Devlish stood steadfast, his tower shield perfectly placed as he waited. “Not that I’m surprised. You’re all just humans with nifty headsets. This is all make believe for you, isn’t it?”

  Her words held hidden meanings and far too much innuendo for Murmur’s liking. Even those cat slit eyes twinkled.

  “You realize this isn’t how these sorts of things are supposed to work, don’t you?” Risk asked as he directed his guild to get ready to move. “Like, you don’t taunt us. It’s not a B-grade movie. We’re about to slaughter you.”

  But Murmur could tell that Risk had a thousand questions, and she was pretty sure he was about to burst at the seams with them.

  Murmur hated that damned cat girl more with every single breath. They didn’t need their allies getting hung up on all this shit that could turn their heads anytime soon. And Riasli knew that on some level.

  Seriously. The way her tail twitched, the way her eyes narrowed into cat slits, the way she swayed those hips and that tail in an all too hypnotic way…and how she was calico, which was one of Murmur’s favorite colors of cat—it made her feel rather violated.

  “You’ve come,” the feles purred, wrapping her tail around her staff as she surveyed the entirety of the raid, completely oblivious to the blood-matted fur on the side of her face. “You’ve come to let me kill you, haven’t you?”

  “Path sort of led here,” Havoc muttered, and Murmur knew the difficulty of holding back the sarcasm, especially in someone so strong in it as Havoc. Devlish almost wavered, almost grinned at the comment, but held on.

  Murmur had to choke down a laugh.

  Riasli on the other hand, practically growled. She bared her teeth. Except, Murmur realized, she was done. Riasli was intimidating because Murmur let her intimidate them. About to speak, Riasli surprised her yet again, and leapt toward Devlish so fast that the dread knight barely got his shield up to cover his face in time.

  But he did, and she rebounded back, so light on her feet it looked like she was walking on air. Her tail balanced her as she tossed her staff back into her hands. She grinned at them in that decidedly street cat way, all her guile coming to the fore. Riasli bared her teeth again, and this time the sharp white rows gleamed in the sconce light, like a massive lion or tiger. The roar that gurgled from her throat actually had guts.

  “Much better,” Merlin mused, standing next to Murmur. “What, about a seven on a one-to-ten scale?”

  Sinister shook her head and butted in. “Please. About a seven on a one-to-fourteen scale.”

  And that was the straw that broke Riasli’s back, apparently. Right on time, because Masha began to approach them just prior to the break, and Murmur didn’t want to answer the questions right then.

  The feles let out another roar and cast a split-second ability—Murmur realized belatedly it had to be a hidden ability—that smacked Murmur in the c
hest and sent her stumbling back several steps. It didn’t do physical damage as such, but damn, did it hurt her casting ability.

  You have been hit by: LIMIT

  This reduces the effect of all debuffs by up to thirty percent for an eight-minute duration.

  LIMIT also increases the damage you can take from the caster of this LIMIT.

  LIMIT also restricts your damage spells to only be cast on people other than this caster.

  LIMIT Timer: 7:56

  Murmur groaned. “Did anyone else get hit with Limit?” she asked over raid.

  It appeared no one else had.

  “Shamans, slow. I’m rebuffed.” Short and sweet, and all they needed to take over that part of her role.

  Then she ran through her arsenal in her mind and realized that the stupid spell hadn’t reduced her abilities to do anything to Riasli. She couldn’t stun or Mez her anyway, but Mana Drain wasn’t considered damaging; it only drained mana. And thus, she could tap Riasli and fill up all the other casters.

  Great. This way she was going to be a mana battery. But the best part of it was how much it would piss the other enchanter off. At that moment she received a message from Belius. He’d been hit with Limit too. It only made sense, he was technically playing as an NPC, just like Riasli.

  The air around her and through the entire raid was charged with anticipation. Murmur wasn’t sure what to expect from an enchanter opponent. She also had no real clue what Riasli’s hidden class or abilities were. Only moments later, she wished she’d refrained from having that particular thought.

  Around them, the cobblestone mortar cracked, pushing the stones up from the ground even as arms and hands reached through to push them out of the way. Except, as she’d first thought, these weren’t undead. No, instead, these were hulking beasts with dark black eyes about the size of saucers. Horns adorned the tops of their heads, and their grayish-black skin was adorned with tufts of slick black fur in places.