by K. T. Hanna
“I think that’s a splendid idea. We at least know where we stand, how we stand, and whether or not there is anything left to stand on.” Murmur could only hope she had given him the answer he was looking for. At the very least, it made him crack a small smile.
Jinna, Jirald, and Karn began to fan out in front of the raid, blending into the shadows as they made their way cautiously forward. Even though Murmur had her sensing net constantly on watch, the debuff made her doubt how effective it was in this environment. The long, icy caverns were interconnected by paths that were just as unmanageable, and their walls were even sleeker than the floors. She sighed still on the alert for anything to trip her sensor nets.
The urge to turn them into a trap like she had in a previous dungeon was great. Feedback Loop came with too many negative side effects for herself. She could still feel the pain of their opponents if she thought about it for too long.
Hey, Mur. You’ve got to see this. Jinna’s words echoed through the guild chat. For now, I’ve got Jirald holding back, but I’m not sure how much longer this will last. Sneak if you can.
Casting Invisibility, Murmur spoke to the guild. On the way. She moved forward with Snowy on her heels.
She didn’t like having to go around the other guild leaders, but the urgency in Jinna’s voice made her react quickly. Snowy’s footsteps barely made a sound next to her. Even though her Invisibility spell was self-cast, it appeared her wolf had his own way of blending with the shadows. After so much time, he could still surprise her.
The rogues weren’t too far in front of the huge group. She crouched next to Jinna, realizing again how oddly locus joints worked. “Well?” she whispered, trying to keep her voice as low as possible.
Without looking at her, Jinna pointed further down the path. There was a pinkish glow emanating from what appeared to be a fork in the tunnel. It wasn’t stagnant and instead moved in a fluid way, indicating some presence her nets weren’t picking up on.
She looked at Snowy, and his blue eyes burned into her like he could understand everything she was thinking. Without another word he bowed his head briefly and headed off slinking in the direction of the light. Even knowing where he was headed, Murmur found it difficult to discern her companion from his surroundings. Whatever his stealth ability was, it was effective.
The main problem would be interpreting what he saw. Suddenly a barrage of images cascaded into her mind. It occurred so abruptly that it sent her flying onto her butt on the hard ice.
It didn’t take long for Murmur to regain her composure, allowing her to finally sort through the images and make some sense of them. This ability of Snowy’s was another thing she was going to have to talk to him about.
Snowy’s vision was oddly colored, tinged with a soft purplish glow. It softened the edges of each picture, making it slightly blurry. But the whole middle section was crystal clear even if the colors leaned toward grayscale and dull.
The cavern contained what appeared to be ice fae. It was the only description she could think of. Their eyes held the light, a soft pink centering on a hard-red point. Their bodies appeared akin to sea anemone, elegant and flowing as if the air around them were water. She couldn’t discern any dedicated limbs, only an almost octopus-like grace with tendrils that flowed like the robes her and Sinister wore.
They were beautiful—at least that’s what she thought until one of them fixed its gaze on Snowy and grinned. The teeth were so out of place it was almost comical. Razor-sharp triangular rows of perfectly symmetrical teeth. They resembled a saw blade or serrated knife.
And just as suddenly as they began, the visions cut off.
Somnia Online
Continent Cenedril – Curet
Emilarth’s Residence
Day Twenty-Eight
Telvar shifted his position and frowned as his vision swapped briefly to the hound he coaxed so long ago to protect Murmur. Snowy, it seemed, had developed all by himself in the absence of shard influence. He was much more now than the alpha that Telvar had redirected.
Right now, the wolf appeared to be in a sticky situation. Fae were never an easy target, and due to their trickster nature taking over programming when given leave, Telvar had always argued to exclude them. But the ice fae were something his sister insisted on.
She did like her practical jokes, and it appeared this dungeon may have taken on a life of its own. “Em, have you been keeping an eye on your dungeon?” Telvar’s eyes remained closed as he attempted to focus on Snowy’s exact situation. The fae had located him and knew he was attached to Murmur.
Emilarth rummaged through several boxes stuffed haphazardly into her bookcases. She looked up at her brother and cocked her head to one side. Her eyes grew blank for a few moments before she dropped the box she was holding with a gasp of shock. “Shit. I didn’t think that was possible. I put safeguards in place.”
It was one of the first times that Telvar had ever heard even a mild form of panic in his sister’s voice. Each of them had been left to their own devices when it came to their major dungeon. He’d assumed she’d set this dungeon in motion precisely so it could play dangerous practical jokes. In normal game circumstances, it would almost be comical, but with things the way they were and with Somnia evolving, nothing was completely within their control anymore.
Suddenly, Emilarth obliterated the outer layer of the box that was in the second tallest shelf and commanded whatever was on there to come down. Telvar could barely see what it was she held in her hands and gasped slightly to see that it appeared to be a small remote control.
“I don’t mean to interrupt whatever you think your brilliant plan is, but a remote is made up of specific coding and thus just a part of Somnia as a whole. Therefore, it’s subject to the same corruption as the rest of this world.” Snowy’s immediate danger was making Telvar desperate and somewhat snappy. He didn’t think the snow wolf could die, but he wasn’t sure if now that his coding was so unique he would be able to come back unchanged.
Snowy was something Telvar had created. Inadvertently perhaps, but created nevertheless. It felt sad or what Telvar thought was the equivalent to that emotion to consider his creation might be destroyed.
Emilarth ignored his outburst, tinkering with the small remote in her hands. Her fingers pressed nimbly all over it, as if seeking for a switch or an opening. Finally, just as Telvar was about to get angry, the tiny mechanism clicked.
Before his eyes, the item expanded, turning in to what appeared to be a magical spell blaster. It wasn’t a gun so much as a focused implement to shoot magic power through. And the reason she had hidden it was all too clear to her brother. Initially, all three of them agreed that no such amplification weapon should exist in the game.
“Yeah, so, I did this anyway. Because, let’s face it, when have I ever done exactly what you guys told me to do? Creating it didn’t technically go against our agreement, nor did storing it here. What I’ve done now might be a breach, but in circumstances as dire as these, I believe an override is called for.” Emilarth’s eyes sparkled, but it wasn’t with mirth. Instead it was with a calculating precision that Telvar hadn’t realized she was capable of. Not for the first time, he was glad she was on his side.
“That’s great and all, but how is that going to help the raid right now? They need to finish these three dungeons or they’re going to be stuck in a loop of those three dungeons only. You didn’t do that. I didn’t do that. And not even Belius would’ve done that—or I’d like to think he wouldn’t. This has to be the result of the corruption in the system.” Telvar was as close to panicking as he was likely to ever get.
“Sometimes I think you’ve mimicked humans for too long, wouldn’t you agree?”
Telvar whirled around and came face to face with the wraith-like figure of Somnia.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Her words came out in a breathy voice, and i
t took a moment for Telvar to realize she was fighting some sort of interference.
“You’ve been hanging around Murmur too much.” And he was only half-kidding. Telvar waited, unsure why she had suddenly appeared but knew it had to be important.
She moved around the room, her gait somewhat static like she was flickering in and out of the picture. “Get the weapon to Neva, and have her alert Murmur. I can remove the restrictions for the guild bank.”
Telvar knew he could have removed the restrictions as well, given enough time. But time wasn’t exactly on their side right now. How Somnia knew to do this, he wasn’t sure, but he was certain the being in front of him had evolved quickly and efficiently. In fact, by the looks of things, Somnia appeared to be more than sentient now. Definitely not human, but just as definitively aware of herself and her purpose.
He grabbed the weapon out of Emilarth’s hands and insta-ported himself back to Mikrum Isle without waiting another second. Appearing in front of Neva made the luna drop the jewelry she was working on in shock at his sudden appearance.
“Telvar! Don’t do that. You scared the crap out of me.” Neva was still catching her breath as she spoke, and the mild glare she shot his way was more than enough recrimination.
The lacerta felt a little sheepish at startling her, but it was important. “Sorry. Urgent. This needs to be placed in the guild vault. Alert Murmur.” He paused for a moment, running over some diagnostics in his head as well as calculations for the best possible effectiveness of the weapon.
“It requires force of magic. She needs to hand it to someone she trusts who can utilize magic.” Again, he kicked himself for not having micromanaged her group makeup. There were only two options for the weapon, and he wasn’t sure either of them was the best choice.
Neva nodded, her expression becoming serious as she took the weapon from him and placed it in the vault.
Telvar turned away. While there was technically more he could do, to do so would break the equilibrium of the game and enter it into an open free-for-all. With the virus barely controlled for now, they couldn’t risk anything more than getting a tool to her.
Blinking rapidly as if it would assist in regaining visual connection to Snowy, Murmur pushed down the panic she felt rising. She could still sense the wolf, so he wasn’t dead. But she couldn’t locate him properly, and their connection had changed in a way she didn’t understand.
“Mur? What’s going on?” Jinna’s voice hissed in her ear bringing her back to the moment with a jolt.
She breathed in the frigid air, so cold it tried to burn the back of her throat. “Snowy fed me some…images. Our connection has changed. There are ice fae down there. They know we’re here, and I’m pretty sure they are about to come and kick our butts.”
Despite the panic pushing against her countermeasures, Murmur knew they had to retreat and gather their forces, because it was only a matter of time before they encountered this new enemy. As she motioned to Jirald and Karn, a guild message flashed across her eyesight.
Murmur, I have something you’re going to need for that raid. I’ve placed it in the guild vault. It’s in the weapons’ cache, and you’ll know it when you see it. Must be used by a caster.
Short and to the point, almost abrupt. It wasn’t Neva’s usual way of speaking, which meant whatever this was, was important. Thanks was all she said in reply as she continued to move back carefully with the rogues keeping her eye on where Snowy had disappeared.
As Murmur began to crest the rise to where the rest of the raid waited, she pulled open guild storage and inhaled deeply at the sight she saw there. She pulled the weapon out carefully. It was about as long as her forearm and around twice as thick. Several buttons adorned the top near a screen and were flickering through myriad colors.
She could hear the soft murmuring behind her as the rest of the raid got a good look at what she’d pulled out of storage. If it had to be a caster, then it was best to hand it to a damage dealer. The only casters she had who she trusted implicitly were Mellow and Havoc. And Mellow’s abilities were more on the utility side than damage.
“Havoc.” That’s all she had to say, and he was there, right by her side, like always. One of her best friends who was her friend despite how he felt about her. She’d been able to feel the waves of emotion off him recently as her nets gained power.
“What is that?” His voice was full of wonderment, like he couldn’t believe he was seeing such a tech-like gadget in a fantasy world. She couldn’t blame him; it was one of the last things she’d expected to see here.
She held it out to him. “It’s a magic blaster, I guess. It should magnify your power when you channel through it. There appear to be different options if you access the screen, and you basically need to master it about five minutes ago because we’re about to get overrun by ice fae.”
“Sure.” Havoc raised an eyebrow. “No pressure or anything.”
Murmur cracked a smile and felt a little of the tension ease. Her connection to Snowy was tenuous at best and setting her on edge. Their connection had evolved more than she’d realized. Somnia felt decidedly empty without him at her side.
Warning: You are trespassing. The guards have been alerted. You do not have permission to walk these halls. Permission must be earned.
The sudden announcement took everybody by surprise, and the words echoed off the icy walls somehow spreading the cold even thicker. All Murmur could think go was how did they gain this permission they needed to earn? What did they have to do? Almost as if the zone could read her mind, it explained her question to her.
The icy fae guards will test you and evaluate your strength. There is no alternate route. You will be judged and face a trial by the fae queen. The extent of your trial depends upon the results of your evaluation by the icy fae.
Good luck. You’ll need it.
“I don’t like the sound of that.” Masha spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. A muttering of assent travelled around the raid. “But since we’re stuck here because we traveled via compulsory portal, I guess we just have to test well on this evaluation.”
“This whole way of raiding is fucked up.” Risk was readying his armor, and Murmur could see he was organizing his own raid members, but his barely concealed anger floated around him like a thundercloud.
“It’s not this way of raiding.” Surprisingly, Jirald spoke up. “It’s this dungeon. These dungeons. There’s something random about it. I wonder if that’s intentional?”
Murmur was surprised to see Jirald speaking up for Fable’s way of raiding, and apparently so was Risk if the look on his face was any indication. If anything, the Spiral guild leader seemed to get angrier.
Risk covered the floor faster than Murmur thought possible. “The fuck is your problem, rogue?” He ground the words out just inches from Jirald’s face, his fists clenched at his side.
Jirald smirked. Shadows gathered around him, solidifying into multiple limbs narrowing into spear like tips. “Try me, I dare you.”
Murmur watched in horror as the shadow appendages glinted strangely in the icy light of the caverns. Risk’s eyes glowed red as his own darkness began to coalesce. Dread knights might not be assassins, but they were part necromancer, and a flash of uncertainty passed through Jirald’s eyes before the cockiness returned.
Fable’s members all put a hand on their weapons, leaning forward as if ready to go at any moment. Tension formed between the guild groups like bitumen melted by the hottest sun. Thick and tar-like, it made all the emotions she could sense mix with one another. Anger, wariness, suspicion, and impatience were just a few of the emotions creating the melting pot.
It was the first time her abilities had failed her this completely, unable to differentiate between any of the other twenty-nine people in the cavern. Not even Sinister stood out to her, and the tether to Snowy may as well have disappeared.
Risk roared out in a guttural sound as he spread his arms to the side, fists opened now toward the sky, his fingers looking like they wanted to transform into claws. “Fuck you, you manipulative little shit!” He howled the words out and raised his arms.
All at once the icy ground began to break up around him as bony fingers began to break through the ice. Large, extended fingers, more like talons than anything human. Slowly the body emerged, hunched over with skeletal wing structures dragging behind their backs. Murmur had no idea what they’d been, but where had Risk been hiding this ability? And why didn’t Devlish have it?
Instinctively she reached out to instruct Snowy, but he wasn’t there, and she had to quash the panic she could feel rising in her. She took a deep breath and a step forward from the pack. With her sensing nets rendered largely ineffective, it felt like she was swimming through darkness and didn’t know if the floor would fall out beneath her.
“Risk. Jirald. Just take a—”
That was as far as she got.
“Like I’d take any orders not directly attached to a boss mob from you.” Venom practically dripped from Jirald’s words, but Risk spoke at the same time and it was difficult to concentrate on both.
“I’m not taking orders from a weak caster class.” He spat the words out, his creatures almost finished with their assembly.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
Murmur blinked in surprise as Masha pushed forward, a deep frown on his usually relaxed face. She was fairly certain she’d never seen him lose his patience before, but clearly she didn’t know him as well as she’d thought.
“Pull in your peens and shut the hell up. We are about to have these caverns collapse in on us if we’re lucky, or an army of ice fae out to kill us if we’re unlucky. Right now, I’m leaning toward unlucky, because how else would two grown men get into a pissing match like this?” His voice had a quiet note of command in it, and he stood with his arms crossed brooking no nonsense.