Fusion (Somnia Online Book 6)

by K. T. Hanna

  “Oh no, Tel.” Her irritations vanished as she rushed to help her friend, replaced by new anger at Belius and what he’d done to his own brother.

  Murmur continued to marvel at the fact that Telvar always appeared so real to her. Not even in the sense that he was human, but in the sense that the world around them was real and therefore he was too, by default. She pushed the threads running through her mind to the side and focused on her friend. Sinister’s hand moved up to rest lightly on Murmur’s shoulder as she crouched down next to the AI, lending her the strength she needed to see to him.

  One of these days she was going to have to sit the bloodmage down and talk to her. There were far too many Sinister-centric thoughts running around in her head now that there appeared to be more room. Maybe it would be best to allocate those thoughts their very own playground. Today wasn’t the right time for a talk, though. Telvar needed them.

  Kneeling in front of him, Murmur cupped his chin and directed his gaze to her own. She could see the exhaustion in the way his skin rippled, like the graphics hadn’t been quite completed and were compensating where they could because of frame-rate issues. He wavered in and out of cohesion. “Hey. Tel. Can you see me?”

  He chuckled low in his throat, but she could see the trail of effort even that took him. Simply keeping his coding together was costing too much power. All around her the energy usage for all different aspects of the world trailed like tiny sparks of mana.

  “I’m not blind, Murmur. I’m just a little broken.” He breathed out the words as if he needed oxygen. Which was what worried Murmur more than anything else, considering he wasn’t actually human.

  She reached forward, not entirely sure what she was trying to do, and placed her hand on his forehead. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on his mind.

  It was a labyrinth of complex pathways and circuits, firing much like a real brain but with so much more usable capacity the rest of the human species would be jealous. Dark spots lingered over several integral sections of his programing. As far as she could see, those impeded his return to his normal self through his own computing powers.

  She frowned and muttered softly, still not opening her eyes. “Stay still, this is delicate.”

  Murmur wasn’t sure how she knew, only that she did. Carefully, she inserted her mana directly along the paths that led to the shadows. It felt like she was being gently guided through the process and made a note to speak to Somnia later on.

  The tendrils of shadow didn’t want to let go of their hold; that much was obvious. Brute force wasn’t going to work if she ever wanted her friend back. And she did.

  Gently, she guided the light to clear the dark, her own confident mana picking away at the remnants of dirt that tried vainly to stick to Telvar’s persona. Who he was had been clouded, influenced, and they’d tried to redirect his programing to hurt those he loved instead of taking care of them.

  She shuddered to think what might have happened had Telvar not managed to maintain some semblance of sanity and imprison himself down in his lair. Without a physical exit while he didn’t have control of his facilities, he’d been forced to stay in the one place.

  She wondered if it had bene pure luck that the virus couldn’t get control of his administrative abilities. It could have teleported him anywhere otherwise. Had he been free to roam over the entire world of Somnia, she had no doubt that the outcome would have been catastrophic.

  It felt like Belius must have been aiming for exactly that.

  His tension began to ease. Sinister’s hand remained gently resting on Murmur’s shoulder, lending support and understanding that the enchanter realized she might rely on a bit too much. She directed her focus to the lacerta, despite her ability to partition her thoughts better than ever before.

  Finally, she rocked back onto her heels and opened her eyes. “That’s about as good as I can do for now. It’s mostly cleaned up. I think you just need to maintain it yourself now.” She felt more tired than she wanted to let on. Considering the amount of work she’d just put in, the amount of concentration it had taken, she wasn’t surprised at the mental fatigue.

  What she really had to do was figure out just what her trance earlier had changed in her, and why she could feel everything going on in a world that was suddenly far too real. She stood and only managed to avoid falling over thanks to both Snowy and Sinister’s help.

  “Mur?” Devlish stepped forward, a frown on his face. “Are you okay? You look, well, paler than normal. And sort of different.”

  Sinister butted in and answered before anyone else could. “Pretty sure that trance changed some of her settings. I know it did for me.”

  “The only difference you two have is that headset.” Merlin laughed, but there was a sense of nervousness underlying the sound. “I’m rethinking whether I want her mom to give me one of my own. Right now the one I’ve got seems pretty damned nice and non-game character altering.”

  Rashlyn laughed, but the sound came out harshly. “I don’t know. Seems like Mur just keeps getting more powerful.”

  The rest of the group laughed with her, but Murmur could see the unease as if it was a tangible thing. The air around her friends shimmered with speckles of jealousy. Its sickly green color reminded her of vomit, and the thought sobered her more than she’d have liked.

  “Powerful?” Sinister crossed her arms, and Murmur could feel the heat of that glare without even glancing at her friend. She tried not to notice the cold area on her shoulder where Sinister’s hand no longer rested.

  “Sure, she’s powerful. But it’s not like she asked for it.” Sin’s voice quivered a bit, and Murmur stepped forward to take up her turn to comfort.

  “Yeah. I know.” Rash sighed and ran her hand over one of her ears, like a cat washing itself. “It’s just hard to see my usual play style not giving me the advantages I usually get.”

  “Hard work?” Mellow paused. “Hard work still yields results. Just think of how much stronger we are than all the other guilds out there right now.”

  “But are we really?” Jinna butted in, in that quiet dwarven way of his. “I mean, are we really stronger than others? We haven’t changed our approach to this game that much. Perhaps to the dungeons, but for the most part, we are grinding our way to the end-game to defeat the big bad. Nothing has changed there. So we are still working hard, aren’t we?”

  He shifted stances before continuing. “Or is it, because of Mur’s connection to this world, that we have we just been approaching things differently? I know that I personally have never played a game in the manner we’re playing this one. Not even with you all.”

  Murmur didn’t say anything. She couldn’t. Because there was a portion of her mind that knew Jinna was right.

  Storm Entertainment

  Somnia Online Division

  Game Development Offices

  Late Day Twenty-Four

  Shayla ran her hands through her hair and let her head fall into them as she covered her face. Laria was still working on the whole headgear reboot debacle, but, yet again, it seemed they’d avoided harsh consequences. Some might call their luck good, but it was starting to approach being dangerous. One of these days something was going to happen that they wouldn’t recover from, and Shayla knew it was going to be huge.

  She signed and felt Laria’s gaze travel to her.

  “Why are you sighing and not working? We barely managed to get out of this one and we still have no clue what it is that went wrong.” Laria’s tone was tight, her voice hoarse as if she’d been crying for hours. While Shayla knew better, she also knew her friend was teetering on the brink of collapse right now.

  If anything else happened to Wren, Laria was never going to forgive herself. Sucking it up, Shayla put on her best friend and boss cap and met Laria’s eyes. There was panic in that gaze that she was valiantly trying to hide behind annoyance, but over twent
y years of friendship made that difficult. Still, Shayla didn’t point it out. Instead, she knuckled down to figure out what had happened and what they could do to prevent it happening again.

  “We sort of know what happened. The headsets are fresh and require closer integration. They’re wearing the ones we helped them with. The reboot took what? Twelve seconds or so?” Shayla navigated her way through the programing. She was rustier than Laria, but the thrill of making worlds had never lost its luster. That, and choosing her words carefully so as not to break any of Storm’s contractual obligations made coding that much more appealing.

  “Yeah. About that. 12.178 to be precise.” Laria sounded like she spoke from outside of herself, as if all her thoughts were jumbled in that head of hers. “These headsets will be the death of me.”

  She dropped her head down to rest on the desk but Shayla couldn’t think of what to say. Pushing herself up, she walked over to Laria. “It’s not your fault, you know.”

  “How do you figure?” Laria’s muffled voice was barely understandable.

  “You asked for a headset, not a modified, drag-your-daughter-into-a-virtual-world-while-in-a-coma headset. Stop beating yourself up. This glitch doesn’t seem to have harmed her. Didn’t David say she seems fine?” Shayla used her most soothing voice, attempting to ease Laria’s frazzled nerves.

  “Yeah, he did.” Laria pushed herself up again and shook her head. “Damn it. I need caffeine. Do you want some?”

  Shayla smiled, about to answer when there was a knock at her door. Looking over, she froze for a split second before her brain let her move again. She let a fake smile spread over her face. “What can we do for you, James?”

  His eyes were glassy, with no emotion whatsoever. Their calculating gaze only rested on Shayla briefly before moving to Laria who was doing her best to imitate the cool indifference Shayla exhibited.

  And she was failing abysmally. With a sidestep, Shayla moved slightly in front of her friend and tapped her foot, the smile still plastered on her face. She could have cut the tension with a knife.

  Finally, after taking two steps into the room and crossing his arms, James spoke.

  “I’ve come here to mandate that you share the adjustments you’ve made to recent headsets with your investor.” He wasn’t even smirking. Just confident in his demand as Shayla heard an email land in her inbox.

  “That should be in the legal documents outlining our contract and your obligations.” James moved as if to leave. “I trust that we’ll have your full cooperation. After all, the design of the headsets belongs to both our businesses.”

  Shayla could feel Laria tense, but she elbowed her lightly, and answered the tall egotistical jerk. “Adjusting the headsets? I’m not entirely sure what you mean?”

  This time James’s eye twitched, and Shayla did her best not to show glee at her minor victory. “I know a lot more about what goes on in this office than you think I do. Just give me the plans. We know you’re keeping developments from us.”

  “I’m afraid you’re mistaken.” Shayla took a deep breath and a step forward, thanking her lucky stars she was obtusely careful with her words. “We’ve adjusted a few headsets at the specific request of individual users. Those headsets do not belong to us, nor are they any type of prototype. We don’t have time to develop the headset more than it already has been.”

  For the first time since knocking on her door, James seemed at a brief loss for words. It didn’t take him long to recover, and he scowled briefly, the only break in his perfect countenance.

  “There should be no activities that invite a conflict of interest. You know that, Shayla.”

  “Of course I do.” Shayla’s smile widened. “How would it be a conflict of interest to assist existing owners with issues that might have arisen with the headsets they’ve already purchased from our manufacturer at no charge? I’d love clarification.”

  James didn’t say anything, but she could have sworn he was grinding his teeth.

  “No? Shame.” She paused before taking another step toward him. “Do come and inform me when you can clarify the matter. The details of the contract cannot be altered without the consent of both parties, so if there’s any further requests, we’ll have to have a group meeting.”

  James’s smirk returned. “Fine. Just know that I’ll be back to figure out exactly what it is you’re up to.”

  “Games, James.” Laria finally spoke up and moved out from behind Shayla a look of quiet fury on her face, somehow tempered with disdain. “We are developing games.”

  He glared at her, spun on his heel and slammed the door behind him.

  Snowy’s warm breath whuffed at Murmur’s hand, and she scratched behind his ears absentmindedly. He was a steady presence by her side, and it had come to a point where she missed it if she logged off and into her world. The real world.

  Glancing down at him, she saw his eyes glowing with a bright blue, watching her back, like he knew everything that was going on inside her head. He didn’t seem scared; he seemed determined. Perhaps that’s what she needed from everyone.

  She watched from outside the crafting hall as the others interacted with Neva. They took turns, eagerly debating the best gear, the best upgrades. Level forty-eight. They’d finally done it. Six more keys to go, though she had no idea where to get the second set of them. For now, she was focused on the high-level dungeons.

  Sort of.

  “Mur?” Sinister came and stood next to her. There was a difference to her friend’s aura now. More determination, less indecisiveness. She wore self-assurance like a new robe, confident in her own abilities. All Murmur wanted to do was hug her and never let her go.

  Instead, she simply chose to answer. “Yes?”

  “I know there’s armor you want, why are you stuck out here?” Sinister’s words slithered through Murmur’s mind as it turned them over for ulterior motives and hidden meanings.

  Concluding that there were none, Murmur sighed softly. “There’s a lot of things going on in my head right now. Things I’m trying to categorize.”

  Even while she spoke the words, her mind was already flitting around, expanding her sensory nets, checking on Telvar and on the rest of the guild. She wasn’t going to let anything hurt her friends again. They needed to feel better, to feel safe. She would make everyone feel safe.

  Sin plopped down next to Murmur on the opposite side of Snowy, draping one arm over her shoulders, and one leg over her knee. “You think too much, Mur. Sometimes, you just got to go with your gut.”

  Something inside Murmur stirred, a hiccup of breath tried to choke her as she felt a flush rise in her cheeks. She let her right arm snake around Sinister’s waist, so glad of her proximity, of how tangible she was. Not only in the game, but in real life. Always there. She let her head rest against Sinister’s, fully aware of how close they were right now, and of how much she’d been neglecting this need over the last week.

  “Go with my gut, eh?” Murmur whispered the words right next to Sinister’s ear, her newfound confidence with the worlds and her place in them emboldening her.

  Sinister hugged her tighter, and they sat there, heads resting against each other, drinking in their presence in an intoxicating concoction of heat and desperation. Murmur didn’t want it to end. If she could have frozen time, right then and there, she would have sat that way forever.

  There was no need to panic about the big bad virus infection, no need to fight, to worry, to order people around. All she had to do right now was sit in quiet contemplation and feel good about where she was.

  And if she really wanted to, with just a slight flex of her mind, she could make everything go her way. Make everyone happy. Make everyone forget their fears. Force everyone to let go of the things that ate them up inside.

  Wouldn’t that be a good thing?

  Not necessarily.

  Why not? she a
sked, not wanting to get into it, but also not wanting to avoid the potential conflict in her head.

  It would be too easy. Humans require conflict. They thrive on fears. They pursue happiness. Giving them what they want without letting them experience it is not a logical action.

  I’m human. Murmur mulled the word over in her head. Sparks of information flew from vast different areas of Tarishna, lending her insight into the whole continent. Or at least, I was.

  A pause. You are. But you are also more now.

  “More…” Murmur breathed out the word, letting the wind carry it away as she hugged Sinister tighter to her.

  “You need to open up more to me.” The bloodmage twined her hand around one of Murmur’s strands of hair and looked up at her. “You need to realize you’re not alone. Not in here. Not anywhere.”

  Murmur leaned forward, a brief rush of heat coursing through her. Kissing Sinister’s forehead softly, she extricated herself and cupped her friends face. “I know. I’ve always known.”

  Standing up, she let her fingers comb through Sinister’s hair. “But right now, we have work to do, viruses to kill, and a world to create.”

  Snowy walked steadily at her side as Murmur made her way over to Neva, leaving Sinister touching her forehead and staring at her from behind.

  Neva waved as she saw Murmur approach the workers’ benches, her luna face lighting up with happiness.

  “I can’t believe you did it! You guys actually did it! You’re big enough now to move onto the huge dungeons. I cannot wait to see what you bring back for me to craft with.” Neva’s tail twitched with excitement.

  “What makes you think we’re bringing back stuff for you?” Murmur teased, but her heart wasn’t in it. There was too much to do. She couldn’t let him infect her friends like he had Telvar, like he almost had her. They needed to figure out how to put an end to Michael’s interference, before the world came crashing down.