Anomaly (Somnia Online Book 2)

by K. T. Hanna

  “This is my home town! What do you think?”

  Impulsively, Murmur gave Jinna a hug. Perhaps Sin was rubbing off on her, or else she’d become more emotional since learning her truth, but she found herself needing that physical contact more often in order to still feel alive. Numbness was all too welcome, and sometimes it was just nice to break it.

  Veranol looked around, his hulking viking body quite literally dwarfing all the members of the village who were still running around about their business in the city. “I like this place. I think Frangit may as well be its sister city. Well, sort of anyway.” He turned a pointed look toward Murmur.

  Murmur held up her hands, grinning, and kept an eye on the fountain with its fierce axe wielding dwarf sculpted in mid leap. She could have sworn its eyes followed her.

  You have noticed yet another statue within a fountain. You’re getting observant. Lucky you. Now think about all of the fountains you’ve seen so far, and find the common thread. Go on, you know you can do it.

  She blinked at the scrolling text, fighting a scowl so as not to alert others, and pushed on with what she’d been about to change the subject with. “I had no idea where to go to level on Tarishna, but Merlin and Havoc said there are places around here that are perfect. So maybe we should start looking at those?”

  Jinna nodded. “They’re right. I didn’t think about it, mainly because I know Murmur’s never been partial to snow, but...” He winked.

  “Wait. Did you all know we were going into snow? It’s going to be freezing.” She didn’t think they understood that right now she could feel everything in the world, taste things, smell things. While they were in full immersion, she was stuck here if she wanted to maintain her brain functions. Things felt more real to her. She took a deep breath and pushed down on the bewildered anger that rose in her chest. There wasn’t time for that now. Instead, she crossed her arms and spoke. “I’ll need a cloak.”

  She rummaged in her inventory trying not to panic, when Devlish cleared his throat to get her attention. “Mur. You’re in quilted armor. You’ll be fine.”

  His eyes held a hint that he might know why she was upset, that he might have discovered her growing attachment to Somnia. And yet it only made her panic more. She tried to nod and agree with him, but the motion came out jerky and she stopped trying to find the cloak she knew wasn’t there.

  “Yeah. You’re right. I’ll be fine.” Maybe if she said it often enough, she’d convince herself.

  “We should bind here.” Rashlyn grimaced, and then pouted. “You know, we could have gone to my home town too. Cat people are awesome.”

  Dansyn laughed, being one himself. “That they are. It was a toss up for me between dark elf and feles.”

  “Shut up, you’re biased.” She glared at him, but it was only half-hearted because the two of them started laughing.

  “Damn cats. Why couldn’t anyone have rolled a luna? I prefer dogs.” Mellow muttered, eyeing them with distaste. “You’re not gods, you two.”

  Which only made them laugh harder.

  Murmur watched her friends and felt her anxiety leak away. Their banter was fun; she hadn’t realized how much she’d missed it while they were logged out, and while she wrestled with her own insecurity. Until now, they’d all been so tense.

  “See?” Devlish stood beside her, his eyes focused on the argument still taking place in front of her. “They love you, we’re all here for you, and we’re all real too, okay?”

  An errant tear tried to work its way loose and she fiercely wiped it away. “Yeah. I see.”

  “Good!” He stood for a moment in companionable silence with her, not saying anything before he continued. “Rely on us Mur. we’ll do whatever it takes.”

  Relying on people wasn’t something she’d ever done well. It was probably a good time to learn.

  Having a dwarf in their party—one who’d apparently finished more quests in their home village than they let on and seemed to be well known by the townspeople—came with its own benefits. Jinna managed to arrange for rope and ice hooks, mallets and some hardy winter gear for Mellow who seemed to like their flowing robe to have as little coverage as possible.

  “Take it.” Jinna held out the woolen robe with tufted sleeves, determination etched all over his face.

  Mellow crossed their slender arms. “No. I’m not feeling it, I love the robe I’m wearing.”

  Murmur tried not to laugh as Jinna almost growled. “Look, it might not be real weather, but it’s going to feel real, so just put the robe on so we don’t have to listen to you gripe about how cold it is.”

  “Whatever, I’ll wear the damned thing.” They grabbed the garment, stalking off to one of the vacant small huts used for changing.

  Murmur contemplated bathrooms in this world. Every house had one. Oddly enough. How functional they were, she had no idea. And those massive compost pits beneath them...well, she was glad she hadn’t had to use one yet. Presumably that was being taken care of in her capsule back in the real world, and wow did that make her not want to think anymore. And if they ate in-game and it tasted and made her feel full, was that just her brain tricking her, or would her character...

  “So not going there,” she muttered under her breath, earning a raised eyebrow from Sinister.

  Finally Mellow joined them again and Murmur patted their shoulder. “Hey. I think you look sexy.”

  Mellow smiled. “Thanks, Mur.”

  Murmur liked Mellow; they were a good person. Sometimes the guys could be a bit insensitive. She glared at them, hoping Mellow didn’t notice and they had the grace to look a little abashed. Besides, locus had to stick together right?

  “Excellent then, since everyone is bound. Off we go!” She knew she sounded more positive than she felt, because snow sort of creeped her out. It was crunchy and soft, but could be hard and deceptively deadly if you slipped on it. Sometimes it could be beautiful and wondrous, and then other times it absorbed dirt and pollution and took on this evil macabre appearance. Snow was a mystery she didn’t really want to understand. Ever.

  As they passed the front gate, Jinna waved merrily at the guards, greeting them by name. He never ceased to surprise her. “Hey Mur. Take these.”

  He passed her six small vials with a strangely viscous bright orange mixture in them. She narrowed her eyes, trying to identify them.

  Fire potion

  Duration: five hours

  Effect: Ups your resistance to cold by 25%

  She gaped, and felt herself getting all emotional again. Which was something she really had to get a handle on, because she didn’t like not acting like herself. She’d never been an emotional person, but apparently her brain wasn’t listening to her since all the confusion got dumped on her head. Still, gulping down her stupid tears, she smiled at Jinna. “Thanks. Really. Thank you.”

  He smiled in that jolly way that only he could manage and patted her hand like her dad did sometimes. “They were a quest reward for some obscure thing I did when I started here. Sometimes you remind me of my daughter. You’re a good sort, Murmur. Don’t worry, we’re all with you.”

  “I know.” She said, and slowly she realized she really did. It seemed everyone cared—except her mother who hadn’t even contacted her though she had to know that she’d found out. Maybe she was waiting for Murmur to contact her. Then again, her father hadn’t dived in to say anything either. Considering he’d been present in the simulations of their house, she knew he knew all about it. She found herself scowling again.

  After several dozen feet, she sighed and pulled up the chat to her mother. It was difficult to decide what to say. Sinister and Havoc walked on either side of her, lending her comfort as they forged on ahead with Jinna leading the way since he knew the area better.

  Taking a deep breath, she sent her mother a message.

  I won’t be logging out for a
while. You know why.

  For once the answer was almost immediate, making Murmur think her mother had indeed been giving her space and let her make contact first, while watching her the whole time. She wasn’t sure if it irritated her, or made her feel better.

  Laria: I understand. Thank you for letting me know. I miss you.

  Murmur stared at the words, at her mother’s name, and confusion ran through her system. She knew deep down that Laria had only done what she’d done so that Murmur could stay awake, be accessible, and use her brain while whoever she had working on it tried to figure out a way to reverse what was done. She knew this, yet...it was still so freaking hard. They’d kept her out of the loop, a loop that was vital to who she was and how she existed. A loop that could have gotten her literally killed in the first few levels of the game before she met up with her friends.

  I know. I’m okay. I’ll be ok. It’ll work out somehow. Don’t worry about me.

  Then she paused and as an afterthought added: I do still love you both. Because she did, and she didn’t ever think she’d stop, even if she might resent them right now.

  Turning her attention from her conversation with her mother, Murmur squared her lighter shoulders and started listening to Havoc and Sinister’s very weird conversation about draining life in the different ways they both accomplished the task. It was easy to fall into a rhythm and feel at home with them. It was easy to walk with friends in a world where everything felt real.

  Even as skeletons began clawing their way out of the frozen ground as the group walked past a rocky outcrop.

  Storm Entertainment

  Somnia Online Division

  Game Development Offices—Laria’s Office

  Seven Days Post Launch

  Laria stared at her screen.

  I still do love you both.

  The words echoed through her head in Wren’s voice and the screen in front of her made them so much more real, tangible, solid. There was always too much going on for her to only use her augmented reality devices, so screens often solved her dilemma. She screenshotted it, just so she could remember that her daughter didn’t fully hate her. It made things much easier to bear. All she wanted to do was put her head down on her desk and nap, but that wasn’t an option, not with all of the alerts flying around her. Games could be a pain in the ass, even if your AIs were practically alive.

  The knock at her door startled her, and Laria whirled around, automatically triggering her screen to go dark, but she sighed in relief when she saw David waving a coffee at her. Tension leaked out of her shoulders and she motioned her husband inside and to close the door behind him. She rose and hugged him.

  His arms always protected her, held her close and leant her warmth her own body could never seem to produce. Even from the days when he’d healed her tank ass way back when they first met, he’d always been her stopper to death and despair. How had he known she really just needed this? Honestly, Laria didn’t care. She’d give him enough credit that he probably just knew her well enough.

  “You doing okay?” he asked, whispering into her hair, stroking the tiny pony tail and twisting the strands that escaped it gently.

  Laria nodded. “As well as I can from here. I just worry.”

  “It’s all good. Wren’s vitals are all checked and her medical bag is all changed and set up at home. She seems very content the way she is right now. Harlow is by her side.” David pulled back and raised an eyebrow. “You on the other hand need a decent night’s sleep, in an actual bed. You’re not going to be any use to anyone if you collapse because you’re overextending yourself.”

  She scowled at him. He’d always been the logical one. And he was right, damn it. “I know. I know. I’ll take some actual care today and come home at a normal time.”

  “No, I mean it seriously.” David’s tone took on that icy strictness she knew he sometimes used with students. “You’re going home, and you’re taking care of yourself. You won’t do anyone any good if you don’t take some time to rest. Let alone Wren.”

  Laria pulled back, her eyes wide. David rarely spoke to her like that. Her immediate reaction was to get her back up and curse him out. But she knew he was right, which probably angered her more. “I said I’d come home at a normal time! What do you want from me?”

  “I want you to stop putting Wren above and beyond yourself. What good will you be to her, to me, if you break down?” The rawness in his voice tugged at Laria, bringing her down from the angry cliff she stood on. She took two steps forward and wrapped her arms around him in a fiercely tight hug.

  “I’m sorry.” She mumbled into his neck. “I’m so sorry. I’ll get rest today. I promise.”

  “Heard and noted.” Shayla stood at the doorway a grin on her face. “I heard you say that. You can’t pretend you didn’t. I’m going to hold you to that. I’ll make sure you leave by four this afternoon.”

  Laria opened her mouth to backtrack, but Shayla shook her head. “No. Listen. It’s relatively quiet today. We’re going to be rolling out our first wave of patches based on the data we’ve received and the programming we need to adjust for, tomorrow. There are going to be glitches. We will get complaints, and we will need you to monitor the full code as its applied, and when it fucks up. I need you to be at one hundred and twenty percent in the A.M. So do us both a favor, and get some rest.”

  It sounded heavenly, but every person in this room knew it wasn’t going to be as easy as that. Laria would probably just go and sleep next to the capsule again.

  Shayla narrowed her eyes and turned her attention to David. “You’ll be at home. Make sure she sleeps. I don’t even care if you have to put shit in her food to get her to do it.”

  He nodded. “Don’t worry. We’re all prepared at home.”

  “Seriously, you two. Give it a rest. I’m not a child, I just have a lot on my plate.” She put her hands on her hips and glared at them.

  This time Shayla moved forward and gave her a very quick hug. “We know. That’s why we’re doing this.”

  “It’s for my own good. Yada, yada. Yeah I get it. But I don’t have to like it.” She turned her back and plopped herself back down at her desk. “I’ll be out by four, now let me get my work done.”

  She waited until she heard the door close again, knowing they were giving her privacy to steam about their treatment. Even though she knew she needed a break, even though she knew they were right, leaving and sleeping meant less time trying to figure out how to get her daughter’s consciousness back into her body.

  Murmur reflexively cast her group Mez and got two resists, but managed to catch three of the five. These were level sixteen solo mobs, and all fell in mere hits. Not as scary as she initially thought.

  “Don’t worry!” Jinna laughed. “When we get closer to the camps, I believe the skeletons that pop out at night will also be group mobs. They’re just trying to warm us up.”

  Beastial grumbled while rolling his shoulder. “Here I was gearing up for a nice fight and these things crumpled like paper.”

  “There, there. Poor wikkle Beast.” Sin teased him, but petted his cat, who seemed to love the attention.

  “Traitor,” he whispered to Shir-Khan.

  “He’s not a traitor. Are you, pretty kitty witty,” Sin was now eye level with the tiger, who was purring up a storm. “Shir-Khan just has good taste. Mostly.”

  Murmur shut out their petty little quips. Somehow, they grated on her nerves—to the point that she needed to walk away. “Well, Jinna, lead the way.”

  “It’s not far. We could have cut through some trees back there, but there’s no path and it’s a bit of a climb. Not sure how those alien fingers of yours would go with rock climbing.” He grinned mischievously at her, and she really wasn’t sure if he was old enough to have a daughter her around her age. Just sometimes, like right now, he seemed as young as any of them.

>   Still, the snow path was a well-trodden area, compacted and strewn with stones making good footholds and few icy patches. The cold air squeezed Murmur’s chest as she breathed, coming out of her mouth in soft tufts of visible air. She tried to look around subtly and see if the others had the same problem, and almost sighed in relief that they appeared to. However, they’d been correct too; her armor was warm.

  “Just over that crest of hill now, might be best to try and stick to shadows as much as we can. Those who can invis should. As far as I know there are two camps of golems up here. They’re constructs made by the dwarves that went horribly wrong. It’s kind of a cool story...” Jinna’s voice fell as everyone’s blank stare encountered him. “None of you study the lore of the world, do you?”

  “Not really, or always...or ever really.” Beastial brushed a hand through his hair and looked away.

  “Tsk. Making me show my age, kids.” Jinna cleared his throat. “Anyway, golems are pretty hard to kill, even if they’re slow. They have magical defenses and comprise of mounds of clay that can mold to you or your weapon as skin. Their tongue is their power source. Usually powered by the command on their tongues, these guys are clever enough to have figured this out and given each other new commands. In order to neutralize them, you must cut their tongues out. There are two camps of them, with about two dozen surrounding each.”

  “How do you know all this?” Rash’s tone held a hint of jealousy, as if she wished she had all the info.

  Jinna blushed slightly before answering. “That first day was a lot of reading for me. While you can skip the reading portion of some of the side quests, it’s far better not to. So, I didn’t.”

  “Great. Group mobs then?” Devlish asked, his eyes serious as he brought the conversation back to the upcoming battles.

  Jinna nodded. “As far as I’ve been able to tell. I remember some of the kids when I first leveled coming back screaming about the golems. It even took the guards a bit to fight them off when they got to the city. They start at level twenty, so well need to be on guard.”