by K. T. Hanna
“It would do that to all of you?” Murmur whispered.
Telvar watched her, his lizard like eyes blinking slowly, as if gauging her reaction. “If we choose to absorb the Shards, then yes. It could drive all three of us mad.”
Summer Residence
Home of Laria, David, and Wren
Wren’s Bedroom
End of Day Six
“She knows, Mrs. S.” Harlow’s voice pulled Laria out of her sleep. “I’m so, so sorry.”
“S’okay, sugar.” Laria struggled to push herself upright, glancing frantically at the time in the corner of her vision. How had she slept for four hours? Shit. Shayla was going to skin her. She’d promised to be back ages ago. But that wasn’t Harlow’s fault, so she took a deep breath, trying to wake herself up properly. “It’s okay. She was going to find out sooner or later. She can be a clever little shit.”
The last managed to wrangle a smile out of Harlow who began to laugh softly, a small smile on her lips. “Yeah. She is. Nosy too. And obstinate when it comes down to it.”
“Thank you, Harlow. For sticking by her.” This time Laria leaned forward and squeezed Harlow into a hug. The girl clung to her for several moments, her small body shaking.
“You know,” she whispered into Laria’s long hair. “I can hug her like this in there. I can smell her skin, feel her touch, and hear her laugh. What you did for her, for me, for all of us—we should be thanking you that we still get to keep our friend. You should log in too and see her. I know you need it too.”
This time Laria hugged tighter, fighting the tears of her own she was sure were coming. She was used to being the strong one, but Harlow had never ceased to surprise her. Not then. Not now.
Slowly, she managed to disentangle herself from the girl. “Then you go back in there and keep her company for me, okay? I have things to take care of out here, things to figure out. Give her a hug. Let her know it’s all right to hate me for now.”
“She wouldn’t hate you, Mrs. S.” Harlow smiled. “But I’ll do the rest of it. Stubborn she may be, but stupid she is not. I’m going to grab some food and come back up.”
Laria nodded, holding her smile in place until Harlow darted out of the room. The effort it took to act cheerful was ridiculous. Just a couple of steps and she could look down at her beautiful daughter. There were so many things they had left to explore together, so many games to pursue, so many things she knew they could program together and ways to break glass ceilings with hammers.
But right now all that surrounded them was shattered glass.
“I’m so sorry, baby. I’ll figure out a way to get you back. I’ll find a way to bring you back to us—whole, if a little worse for wear.” She ran all of the scenarios through her head again, grasping at several and dismissing them off hand. There were things she just couldn’t fix.
Then the idea hit her so hard she thought her head was going to snap back. “But she is aware now.”
For the first time in the last couple of months, Laria’s smile was genuine. As the plan formed in the center of her mind, she finally saw a glimmer of hope.
“Murmur. There’s a young guild member here. A luna. She says she knows you and would like to see you.” Hiro’s words ripped Murmur out of the heated conversation she was having with Telvar over the Shard.
“Sure, I’ll be right there,” she said, reaching for the amulet that still lay on the table, but Telvar was swifter. She glared at him.
“You are not keeping this on you. Your mind is strong and your will is stronger. You are the ideal candidate to give this to because you will feed her a ridiculous amount of power. Me? She can’t pull any power from me. I’m stronger than this, literally. Now go. I’ll talk to you later.” His tone was firm, almost father-like.
“Fine.” Murmur put her hands on her hips, strengthening the glare as if looks might kill. “You know Tel, sometimes you can be a real killjoy.”
He shrugged. “I like killing things.”
She rolled her eyes and left the room, grabbing the stupid skirts in one hand so she didn’t trip up the steps as she took them two at a time. Sometimes Telvar could be the most infuriating individual. And then there was the question of why he’d chosen a male body. Really, couldn’t he have been anything he wanted to be? She got dragon, like totally got dragon. Who wouldn’t want to be a freaking dragon? But then again, Telvar was very likely not the only character he played, which irritated the crap out of her, for no reason she could understand.
Stepping out into the lower level of the castle she realized she’d been below for a lot longer than she thought. The restoration of the lower level was moving at a rate of...really fast builder-animal things? Beavers maybe? Her analogies needed some work. She stepped through an actual room that led to the downstairs now instead of a weirdly-shaped antechamber. It was still roughly hewn, but the place was starting to take shape. What wouldn’t real world companies give to be able to use some of these time management quirks that seemed to come built into the game?
Shading her eyes, she stepped out into the courtyard and headed over to the area they were building onto the side of the castle.
“Hey Hiro.” But she didn’t need to go any farther, because she saw exactly who was waiting for her. The small luna with the white muzzle stood, nervously knotting her hands together as she peeked around. Her guild tag showed Murmur that the girl had joined their guild, and she wasn’t sure when that had happened, but a small fire of joy burst in her stomach and she walked over to the other with quick and sure steps.
“Neva? Is that you? How did I miss your joining the guild?” She smiled at the small tailor, suddenly filling her own head with a plethora of orders to have her execute. Had they all been stockpiling their crafting material? She sure as hell hoped so. She’d stopped selling her own.
The little luna’s eyes lit up brightly, and her smile widened. It made Murmur wonder how old she actually was.
“I saw Beastial put out a notice specifically recruiting crafters with no requirement to level for combat. I’ve never been good at the combat part of things, but I adore crafting, and I’ll learn them all eventually. Thing is...I’m so sorry, but I sort of used you as a reference. I told him you’d bought your level thirteen gear off me. I think that’s why I got an invite. I’m only level six right now.” She seemed hesitant, like she thought Murmur was going to reject her because she’d not asked to use her as a reference first.
Instead, Murmur smiled and bent down a bit. It was odd that Neva was so short, obviously deliberately, but Murmur had gotten used to a luna’s being almost on the same eye-level as her. “It’s fine. I was actually just about to reach out to you and have you make a new set for me, if you were able. I see you’ve managed to level your skills up a bit.”
Neva laughed. “Crafting does give a trickle of experience, but nothing like combat and quests do. I basically raised my tailoring and alchemy as high as I could manage with what I had on hand. I’ve been a bit starved for resources.”
“Oh, that’s right. Didn’t you say your brother was helping you?” Murmur recalled their earlier conversation.
A shadow passed across Neva’s eyes. “He doesn’t really like me to tag along. We usually join a guild together, but I wanted to strike out on my own for once. That’s why I was looking for somewhere my skills could be used and not have me treated like the little sister no one wanted but who got dragged along anyway because she could mix potions.”
Murmur laughed. “You know what? That’s awesome. Because their loss is totally our gain. You are so welcome here. You let me know what you need and I’ll get you access to whatever I can manage.”
Neva’s eyes lit up with so much eagerness, Murmur again questioned this game’s ability to encapsulate true emotion into its visages. The way the game characters expressed human emotion was so real it was eerie.
“Oh wow. Do you
think maybe—do you think I could have my own herb garden? You know, for potions? That would be the best possible thing ever.” Her feet twitched, almost like she wanted to jump for joy.
“I don’t see why not. Hiro,” Murmur raised her voice to call him over. “Can I grab you a moment?”
Murmur leaned down a little farther and whispered to Neva. “He’s pretty much in charge of all the allocation and building stuff around here.”
“Hey Hiro, this is Neva. For now, she’s our alchemist and tailor. She’ll need a workbench and if possible, do we have an area she could plant an herb garden?”
For a second Hiro frowned, but Murmur could almost see the thoughts racing through his head. Or computations or whatever the fuck this game gave its NPCs to think with.
And then he lit up. “I know just the place. We’ll eventually even have compost for you to use. As for now, I almost have a workspace ready. It’ll be the only one for a while as we’re setting up the workshop as an extension to the castle, and I just don’t want to spend more time on it while I still have the castle to get done. But it should do for now. Also, we’ve started shifting the guild storage to that room as well. So if you give us an hour or two, everything should be set up for you, Neva.”
“Oh wow.” Tears of joy ran down Neva’s face. “Thank you! Thank you! Can I look through the inventory you have? Even sort it?”
Murmur smiled and called up the guild interface to adjust Neva’s rank. She made a special master crafter rank for the girl and gave her access to the inventory they’d already amassed. Fairly impressed by the amount they already had, she remembered it was more than just her and Rashlyn’s groups contributing.
It was like she’d just inherited the little sister she never knew she needed or wanted. “Have a ball. I need to get something sorted myself.”
“Oh, Murmur?” Neva’s tone was tentative, like she wasn’t sure if she should be calling the guild leader by her name.
“Mm?”
“Your robe looks kind of tattered. Did you want a new one? Leveling the skills has been slower, but I’m up to level twenty-three gear now, if you want something.”
Murmur blinked, sudden hope flourishing in her. “Wait. Do you think you could make not a robe? So I’d have cool looking pants and a tunic instead?”
Neva’s brow furrowed in thought, and then she smiled. “Actually, it might take me a bit, but I should be able to make something specifically for you!”
“Really?” Murmur was intrigued.
“Yeah, something brand new no one else has. What’s your favorite color?” Neva’s enthusiasm was catching.
“Purple. I like anything purple and silvery.” Even though she tried her best not to get her hopes up, Murmur was failing abysmally.
“Excellent. I’ll get right on that as soon as I can use the station. And potions. I’ll see what potions I can make. I’m sure that by now you probably need to travel with some.” And with that, the small luna girl skipped off after Hiro, following him to her workshop.
Murmur watched, smiling to herself. Something was going to hit the fan. It had to. Things were going way too well right now.
“Hey Mur!”
She turned around and eyed the speaker, relaxing only slightly when she noticed it was Dansyn. Were her friends already done with their nap?
She turned, not quite ready for everyone’s company again. It had been nice just being by herself, talking to Telvar, sorting shit out in her head. And hell, she hadn’t even got around to cooking new food, which they desperately needed. “What’s up?”
Dansyn raised an eyebrow, and she suddenly felt guilty. It wasn’t their fault she was going through what she was, and they’d been amazing for the most part, except for that whole withholding-the-truth thing. They’d tried to make sure she didn’t suffer trauma from finding out in the wrong way, although realistically they’d failed at that. The freakouts in her mind were all her own doing.
He took a deep breath and pushed on, focusing on her intently. “Have you checked any of the Somnia Online information lately? Like the online and forum stuff?”
Murmur blinked. Since Telvar revealed things to her, she’d been ignoring the real world. Not that she was convincing herself it wasn’t there, but every time she thought about it, a deep-seated panic started to emerge and twist at her gut. The forums, as people still called them, weren’t anything like the ones of old, but instead sort of virtual mind gathering places that acted like an active chat on threads at all times. “No. Should I have?”
He scowled, but she instinctively knew the expression wasn’t directed at her. Mainly because her thought sensor was starting to get that much stronger, she almost felt like with a small push, she’d be able to hear his thoughts, not just read the gist. The ethics of such a situation bothered her, but so far she’d yet to give into temptation.
He shook his head. “Yes, because you should know, and no, because it’s the shit you totally hate. Guild politics.”
She cringed. There was nothing she liked less than guild politics. “Exodus?” She raised an eyebrow in anticipation.
“Yeah. Really just shit talking. Except Jirald is still in the guild and making their douche baggery look even worse than usual.”
She heaved a huge sigh, looking him square in the eye, and gave in. “Fine. Tell me all about it.”
Her eyes threatened to blur so much they’d send her blind. Murmur hadn’t even been scouring the forums for long. But the discussions made it obvious. Exodus were throwing down the gauntlet with baiting and downright insults. It didn’t seem like Masha, but she didn’t know Ishwa well...
Titles like Endgame is approaching, First to Fifty—taking bets now. She might want to jump in on those conversations, but all they were doing was baiting any-and-everyone and there was no way she’d bite. Why couldn’t they have just stayed in one of the other games? Logically she knew it was because they had so many branches in different games with members from all across the globe. But it didn’t mean she couldn’t wish they’d never set foot in Somnia. Fable was a small guild, not a multi-gaming conglomerate.
She felt a weird sort of sense of ownership over this world, over its characters and perspectives and abilities and the damned mushrooms that grew out of the ground. Dansyn stood next to her, fidgeting while she scanned the pages. He was a good bard, and she enjoyed his company, but he’d always been one of the quieter members of their group.
Finally, she exited out of the forums, blinking her eyes in the mid afternoon sunlight of the game. “Well. That was sobering.” She tried to make it sound like a joke, but was pretty sure it didn’t work at all.
“We’ll just ignore them like we usually do and let them fall on their faces. But it does mean we need to get to leveling. Twenty isn’t going to wait around for us to hit first. Exodus isn’t going to be resting either.”
“But the queen cut us off from that avenue of leveling.” Dansyn ventured. “Should we head out somewhere else then? Might take a bit of traveling.”
“Yeah. We’ll head to one of the other continents. I have to cook, or else we won’t have any food to help our regeneration, and then it doesn’t matter how many mana tides I cast on you, that mana isn’t coming back.” She sniffed the air, sure there would be a fire pit somewhere, and then almost kicked herself because she’d spent the majority of the day in the kitchen talking to Telvar right next to the beautifully lit stove. She could easily have multitasked while doing that. Especially while she’d had to watch his bloody empty husk. Seems she always had the greatest thoughts in hindsight. As long as she tried not to think about the corpse that previously hung there, cooking down there would be a breeze.
“You want to come to the kitchen Dan?”
He shook his head. “I have to log off. Mom needs me to run an errand. I’ll be back in an hour...just wanted to make sure you saw that. As much as you hate guild poli
tics, I also know you despise being uninformed. It’s not like anything they’re saying is damaging, they’ve always been more vocal than us.” He winked and sat down to log out.
She smiled as he disappeared. All these years and she’d never realized how much her friends watched out for her, how much they knew about her and her idiosyncrasies. And how much they simply accepted her for who she was. It was a pretty great feeling.
Somnia Online Location: Spider Camp
Near Ululate
End of Day Six
Jirald slammed his fist into a tree trunk, but even that didn’t detract from the pain in his head. Leveling was taking forever, and Masha wasn’t being sympathetic in the least. Killing spiders became boring and monotonous, and while poisoning his opponents could be fun, being poisoned was the opposite.
Yet again, Murmur was the source of his problems. Training her might have been a bit juvenile, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time, and now he was missing a heap of his loot, and a whole level of experience. Luckily there had only been a few pieces of gear on the one inside the Hazenthorne compound. It had been the only corpse he couldn’t retrieve even with Masha’s help.
He sighed and ran a finger through the short locus tentacle braids he’d opted for. Their small lights shone like fireflies in his vision and he took a deep breath. It didn’t matter what he did, or how he tried, Murmur was always there, like a thorn in his foot, or a splinter waiting to happen. Despite managing to get his own set of hidden skills, and accessing more power than he’d previously had, she had to come along and be just as strong, if not stronger. She had the most amazing luck, all the time, in every game he’d encountered her in. He’d seen her play. She didn’t seem to be anything special, so it had to be luck, didn’t it?
He glared at his fist and the rivulets of blood, from the impact with the hard tree bark, began running from his knuckles, wishing it was hers.