Dissonance

by K. T. Hanna

  Masha raised an eyebrow at him and stepped closer. “You’re spacing out. I wanted to say that was a good fight. You beat a few of the DPS who’re higher level than you. And you took the least damage of any of them. Guess it pays to have been a healer, eh?”

  Jirald grinned, turning his full attention back to his friend. “I guess you could say that. Seriously, though. I know how hard it can be to keep people alive when necessary because some of them weren’t paying attention to shit on the ground, or chose not to see shit on the ground, whatever.”

  He sighed with a roll of his shoulders, suddenly feeling a deluge of fatigue roll over him. “Basically, I’ll make your job easier, and you’ll heal me when I actually need it.”

  “Good plan.” Masha smiled, and then it turned into a frown as he flicked the monster with the tip of his shoe. “I still don’t know what this was. I’d expected Erichu to be human, but this wasn’t. It was mutated beyond recognition, and while the Erichu I read about fits with the lore of the game, this rendition of him doesn’t. At least not quite, although I guess it could be a mutated version given events unfolding differently than anticipated?”

  “True.” Jirald looked down too as he saw Ishwa heading to loot the corpse. “But the point is we defeated our first dungeon, and we’ve got one of the keys. Now I actually feel like we can begin the race to the top.”

  Hazenthorne wasn’t going to make it that easy for them. Considering there had been no true set up for that boss, and no real hint that what they were encountering was about to trigger a boss fight, Murmur surmised that the entire world was adjusting and adapting as its inhabitants leveled up. The world was gaining new senses and perspectives, and even defenses like limbo. Which left perhaps only the most vague of underlying directions present in most of the zones.

  The theory fit in with most of her thoughts about the zones and the world. She had more questions for Telvar, and she’d have to ask them once they left this dungeon, once they defeated that damned queen. Two dungeons had already been taken down without their contribution, and Murmur felt a stab of irritation at the thought. However, it was always inevitable. They couldn’t be everywhere at once, and other people were entitled to game firsts.

  She couldn’t help feeling greedy and wanting the glory all for herself, for Fable.

  Snowy’s limp had disappeared as they explored the long corridor from the Spidoptria to a massive set of stone stairs. He clung to her side, pressing against her legs with his hackles up, like he was guarding her. She ruffled his shaggy fur, so happy he hadn’t died, because she didn’t like to think that maybe he could die permanently. That wasn’t something she was willing to test out, even if most of the NPC deaths she’d witnessed eventually respawned, including the guards from Verendus. But Snowy wasn’t a normal NPC. He was a charmed head-of-the-wolf-pack NPC, and she had no idea what rules might apply to him.

  The hall around them smelled different. Damp undertones still lingered, but there was a sweet smell that permeated everything around them. Sitting so close to a marsh couldn’t have been good for the foundations; even stone could wear away over time. But the sweet smell? There was something slightly off about it, and it made her spidey sense tingle.

  The inside of the castle was nothing like it had been before, and she had no doubt that everything they’d encountered so far was a test pushing them toward Arita. None of this was the way it had been intended.

  Yet, there was still the same air, underneath the changes. The castle wasn’t suffering or angry, it was merely bemused, and the inhabitants in it, all of their opponents as well. Apart from their slightly hostile demeanors, that is. She didn’t begrudge them it. They were, after all, supposed to be their enemies, and while there might originally have been different options open to whoever reached the castle first? There were no longer.

  “This is too quiet,” Havoc whispered, and Sinister shot him a death stare. He shrugged his shoulders and continued. “I’m only speaking the truth. We all know there’s something waiting for us, because there are suddenly no monsters in our path.”

  “There’s still no reason to tempt fate,” Sinister grumbled, and Havoc widened his grin.

  “Do you think the Spidoptria was an intentional creature?” Mellow voiced the thought that had bugged Murmur since they began the fight.

  “No. Not really. I think it was simply something that developed where there once was a boss, or a need for a boss. It took over. I think.” Even as she spoke the words they didn’t sound right in her mind. And the gentle pressure around her only reinforced that, like the castle was calling her thoughts lies. She checked her shields, clamping them down in case something was trying to weasel its way in and subliminally affect her thoughts. Only they seemed air-tight, and she attributed it to paranoia instead.

  Murmur glanced down at Snowy, who still stuck to her side like glue, his eyes too busy darting here and there to look up at her. She forced herself to relax, breathing in deep and releasing the pent-up breath. And then she sent her focus out along her webs, the tendrils of them now like fingers that sorted through everything they encountered. It had grown so much more complex, not only since the limbo, but since she’d hit rank four of MA. All the strands of her awareness brought back more information than they had previously. Subtle differences in mood and though fluctuations sounded types of alarms in her mind, allowing her to categorize threats appropriately.

  The world was so much larger now—so much of it no longer hidden from her perception.

  She followed the trail tentatively at first, a part of her mind flowing through the thoughts and sentiments of everything the castle had to offer. There was hunger for fights, for human blood—there was hunger for the guts of anything. And there were the gargoyles, who just wanted to sleep, and the hounds who wanted their old master back.

  The castle wasn’t full of resentment so much as it was resigned to the fact that circumstances had changed. On her journey through everything she encountered two more bosses who were not in the throne room, who were not Arita, and who were quietly awaiting Fable’s arrival while the defenses around them ramped up for expected attacks.

  “The bad news is they know we’re coming.” She sighed, and couldn’t help but release a small chuckle.

  “What’s the good news then?” Devlish rose to the bait.

  “The good news is that we know they know we’re coming.” Without waiting for their groans to dissipate, she forged ahead, forcing them to follow her.

  Beastial took three steps farther on before he realized Murmur had stopped and hurried back. She stood, watching the fork in the path intently, like it would give her some sort of sign as to which way they should go.

  “You know,” she said, concentrating on the darker corridor to the left. “This one sort of sings in my head. Like it’s saying: go away, please go away, you don’t want to come down here, trust me.”

  Then she turned toward the well-lit corridor to the right. “And this one is lying its ass off too, beckoning to us like it’s the friendliest direction in the world. If only you guys could hear what these walls were thinking, the very stones of this place.”

  She realized she’d said the last out loud and hoped they chalked it up to her being an enchanter, and not, as she was coming to fear, a complete and utter basket case.

  “So we have to go right. Because the darker hallway only wants us to think it’s scary, the right one actually is.” She put her hands on her hips and smiled wide enough to reveal her sharp little teeth.

  “If you say so, Mur.” Devlish smiled and pushed past her to lead the way. “If the building is talking to you, might want to keep that to yourself.”

  There was a nervous round of laughter that passed through the rest of them, and Murmur shrugged, pretty nonplussed by it. “Remember the limbo.”

  “Like we were going to forget that.” Sinister sounded cranky. “I swear it’s still leak
ing into the back of my mind.”

  Murmur raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

  Sinister shrugged. “I don’t know. It feels like even though we left it and we’re back in the world of Somnia, it never really left us. So, it’s always sort of there, just out of reach.”

  “Accurate.” Havoc muttered under his breath. “Since I don’t have telepathic abilities or anything, it’s not like it can affect my skills, but it’s sort of like a pool waiting for me to jump into it if I catch on fire.”

  Murmur took a deep breath analyzing the descriptions and watching as the others nodded their heads in acknowledgement. It wasn’t just because the castle was bloody creepy and infecting those around them. It was because limbo had affected them all. In different ways sure, but she’d been foolish to think she was the only one impacted when they’d been in there with her the entire down time.

  She kicked herself for being so blind and tightened the shielding she held around them. They weren’t prone to being this introspective about things, and as soon as the reinforced shielding hit, the change was immediate. Their postures relaxed and their expressions lightened. And she continued.

  “Anyway, when we were in the limbo, I managed to hear the thoughts of the NPCs. I managed to hear parts of Somnia I didn’t realize I could. Now I can’t read actual minds yet, but I can tap into NPC thoughts,” She waggled her eyebrows at them. “And since we came out of limbo, I’ve been able to sense more about areas, about monsters, about things and opponents, like everything has a mind, even if it’s primitive.

  “While I wouldn’t say I’m a mind reader, I’m able to pluck enough emotions and directed thoughts out that I can come to conclusions anyway.” Murmur waited to see how they’d feel about that, especially Sinister. But her best friend just grinned at her, and slowly, deliberately, she winked. Murmur’s cheeks burned at the gesture and she quickly looked away, studying the others, but not before she flashed a smile at Sin. One of these days they were going to talk. As soon as they’d conquered the castles and killed all the shit.

  You don’t want to go this way.

  Murmur blinked, frowning, and tried to glance surreptitiously at her friends, but none of them seemed to have heard it. Which meant it was aimed at her. Suppressing a sigh, she listened closer as she took very deliberate steps further down the hall. The voice hadn’t quite sounded like Riasli this time—but it could just have been the echoes.

  This isn’t a friendly warning.

  Again, almost like a cacophony of bells played behind the words, they echoed through her skull, triggering her stubbornness tenfold. Unsure how to direct her response so that it was spoken internally, she tried pushing her thought out. We’re heading down this way whether you like it or not.

  Everyone stopped cold and stared at her, and Murmur could feel laughter cascading down the hall, as if to say, nice job, newbie.

  She groaned and looked up at her friends. “I guess that wasn’t as directed as I was trying to accomplish, was it?”

  “Damn, Mur, that was loud!” Veranol winked at her, covering his ears exaggeratedly. “But seriously. Who were you talking to?”

  They’d stopped, in the middle of the hallway she knew they probably shouldn’t be standing in, but she gestured subtly to Snowy for him to keep an eye out, and felt him shift his position against her.

  “Ever since we were in limbo.”

  “Here we go again.” But Merlin was grinning, leaning on his bow and waiting. Murmur didn’t like the relaxed stance, but she knew he could shift attention in the blink of an eye.

  “Well, maybe just before that. When we were still in the Riasli-inspired ruins. Ever since, my abilities have been stronger than they were, significantly. I couldn’t read minds or sense much more than vague intentions, or project into someone else’s, but now? Now it seems I can project actual words, I’m just lacking a lot of finesse.” She smiled, feeling a little weird at the admission. It was something she’d kept mostly to herself the whole time, so to say it so openly now felt awkward. “This place whispers in my head, and I know it sounds crazy, but it’s not. Just like I can hear mom and dad, and sometimes other things, I can now hear this place.”

  “So,” Sinister stepped closer and tugged at Murmur’s hand, a small smile on her face. “You’d say that limbo sort of amplified you?”

  Murmur chuckled. “Yeah, I guess it did.”

  Sinister chuckled. “Go Mur, amplify that shit!”

  “You’re an idiot.” Murmur said, laughing at her friend, and temporarily ignoring the warning bells firing off in her mind.

  Which in hindsight was a very bad idea.

  Snowy chose that moment to tug on her tunic, and the low growl in his throat sent vibrations running through her. They all turned to look at the source of his warning, only to see a slowly-encroaching slime begin to ooze its way along the walls, dripping from the ceiling onto the floor as it made its way toward them.

  “That,” Merlin said, his bow at the ready suddenly, “does not look good.”

  Everyone turned and ran back down the way they’d come. There was no choice; it was blocking the way forward.

  “What the fuck is that?” Devlish forced out as they ran, but when they got to the path choices again, it appeared the slime had taken over. Murmur kicked herself for not having listened, for not having tried to understand everything. Telling her friends things she’d kept to herself might have made her relieved but it had also apparently made her complacent. She’d got caught up in the questions, in discussing how she was evolving with her friends, in the way Sin’s eyes shone in the subdued light.

  “I have no clue,” was the only answer any of them had. Not even with reaching out more could Murmur determine what it was, only that it wanted them, and wanted to feed off them, and she had the sinking suspicion that however it went about that wasn’t going to be nice.

  I can’t fucking tank slime. Even though Murmur could tell that was the exact sentiment running through Devlish’s mind, she didn’t actually hear the words. It was in the way he held himself, in the aura he projected, even through the determination and the fear. Devlish wasn’t one to back down from a challenge, but she had to admit she didn’t like the oozy slime that was slowly-but-surely pushing them into what was no doubt a trap.

  It hadn’t been trying to guide her to safety. No, the bloody thing had been attempting to get her to go to the trap regardless of safety. It wanted them to fight, it needed them to fight, and from what she could sense from that stuff, it was hungry—and they were its meal.

  Snowy’s growling didn’t stop, like he was trying to fend it off with his anger. It made Murmur wonder if he had special abilities, like an attack increase or something, anything that might help her solve this current problem all at once.

  She just couldn’t figure out how to pull up that information. The corridor they were forced down was so dark, Merlin had to juggle running with holding a flame arrow, and adjusting his speed so it didn’t blow out. Mellow’s glow vials seemed to get swallowed up by the darkness and even Murmur’s locus vision wasn’t much help.

  Finally, Merlin motioned for them to stop, barely visible in the lack of light. “We have to try and get in here. We need to go in here, it’s where it’s been ushering us to this entire time.”

  She had to squint, but Murmur could vaguely make out a set of doors. The entrance was wide, and beckoning and yet undoubtedly a trap. Being pushed into this room, into the dark, light-swallowing room. It made her stomach flip queasily.

  It was like a hostile version of limbo.

  Once they’d all stepped inside, the doors flew shut behind them, banging so loudly every single one of them jumped and whirled around so see the slime pushing in from the gap under the door.

  Storm Entertainment

  Somnia Online Division

  Game Development Offices

  Day Sixteen
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br />   Laria threw her pen across the desk, its tip thudding softly against the desk. It wasn’t nearly as satisfying as making the inner tube of ink explode, or having it break and leak everywhere. The screen nibs were so soft and squishy.

  It didn’t matter how nice the pens were, the fact was she just couldn’t make sense of why the hell the Fable kids had been stuck in the game when it went down. On top of that, she didn’t have any idea how she was supposed to hide the fact in the report that was due in less than two days.

  “Less than two fucking days,” she muttered, putting her head in her hands.

  “What was that about two days, and can I help?”

  Laria sat back with a start, looking up and blinking her eyes to adjust them to the light that was so much brighter than the pleasant darkness had been in her hands. Her eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms. “James. How fortuitous that you opened my door and just walked in without knocking.”

  He seemed shocked, and she knew it was feigned for sure. “It was open, and I heard you mumble, so I thought I’d offer my help.”

  Laria scowled and sat back down, engaging her augmented work place again. She knew the door hadn’t been open. He was snooping again, and she’d just about had enough of it. That was some seriously corporate espionage level of suspicious right there.

  “Not unless you can rewind time, make sure the servers didn’t shit themselves for no apparent reason I can find, and thus alleviate a large portion of my workload.”

  She concentrated on the information in front of her again, hoping against hope that it had suddenly changed, but knowing there was no way for it to have. Her other hope, that James would leave her be and close the door behind her, also didn’t hold true.

  He stood there, waiting, watching her, making her skin crawl with the strangely benevolent look he had on his face. “Any idea why the servers shut down?”