by K. T. Hanna
All in all, she felt okay about the battle. A few of deaths to learn the first fight and very luckily none on the other. It wasn’t about to be their best fight ever, but given the circumstances, she didn’t expect it to be.
“What was that all about? You know I don’t need any fucking mana. I could have laid into the damned boss mob.” Jinna’s voice cut like a porcelain knife. Right into her heart, clean and gushing.
Murmur told herself it wasn’t him, and that the AIs would figure something out, but it didn’t mean it hurt any less. Taking a silent deep breath, she turned around to face him, trying to keep her expression impassive and calm. “Both of those mages had earth magic, which made damaging Venotzi easier. Resurrection also grants them twenty-five percent mana, at that point, more than they died with. I made the call based on the DPS in the raid at the time and on what I believed to be our best chance to defeat it.”
She could feel Merlin standing there, watching them, ready to pounce, but Jinna didn’t seem to care, and to be honest, Murmur felt safer knowing the ranger was backing her up.
“That’s bullshit, Murmur. You’ve just got it into your head that you know everything better than everyone else.” His tone was snide, filled with acid, and his face contorted into an expression she’d only ever seen on Jirald before. “You better hope you keep your friends close enough, because if you keep going like this, they’re all going to be enemies.”
He didn’t wait for a response, but turned on his heel and went back to his newfound little group. The gathering appeared to have grown larger. Dalvin and Cardishan stood with them now, and Murmur felt like a heavy stone dropped to the bottom of her stomach as she watched them.
“What the hell was that about?” Merlin asked quietly. Murmur ignored the question for a moment and chose instead to make her way back to the loot she’d been going to view originally.
“I’m not sure. He’s been in a bad mood this entire dungeon,” she said quietly, trying to convince herself of how much of it wasn’t Jinna, that it was just Jirald playing some sort of tic-tac-toe with the damned virus and spreading it through the headsets. She had to look at it that way, because the alternative…
If she let herself think for even a moment that Jinna really felt that way, she’d cry. And right now, she just didn’t have time for it. Reaching out and trying to calm herself wasn’t working right then, so having Merlin there helped. At least a little bit.
“I can talk to him. Hell, let me go and talk to him. That’s not okay in any way.” Merlin’s anger was visible in the way he held his body, the way his brow contorted and how he seemed ripcord ready to rip the rogue apart, but she shook her head.
“It’s okay.” Those words took a lot more effort to say than she’d anticipated. All she had to do was agree with him, but she couldn’t because that might risk Merlin too. And if there was anyone she couldn’t afford to risk with infection, it was her group. Her constant group. Not Merlin, or Devlish, or Beastial, or Havoc, or Sinister.
If Jirald managed to tackle any of them…she wasn’t sure what she’d do.
Somnia Online
Continent of Curet: The Glacier Lakes Dungeon
Version 8.4282.5 - Triggered by Murmur of Fable
Early Day Thirty-One
Jirald watched as Jinna laid into Murmur, and the smile that crept across his face held no happiness at all. In fact, he’d probably call it gloating, and damn did it feel good. He watched as she paled at Jinna’s words, as she clenched her fists, and as Merlin apparently didn’t appreciate what had been said either. But neither of them pursued their guild rogue, and neither of them looked back once they walked away.
Not as much of a reaction as he’d wanted, but still, better than nothing. He’d managed to spread his dissatisfaction further in this raid. Now they had six people. But Risk was becoming a problem, far more resilient to the influence of Jirald’s hatred than he’d expected. Not to mention Karn was constantly in her father’s ear and extremely adept at avoiding any and all contact with Jirald…
Never mind. They’d be prepared to turn on her by their next fight. And he was certain that their next battle would be their last. Or at least, their last in this dungeon. Six or seven people turning against the raid leader upon tackling the final boss of a game. They’d never defeat it, and he’d get to absorb any and all of the getashis he managed to retrieve from her, for whatever reason he wanted.
“What’s the plan, then?” Jinna growled out when he got over to the group. “I’m sick of this shit. I want to get what’s coming to us now, not later.”
“Patience,” Cardishan drawled out. “We can’t act until the next dungeon, right?”
Jirald turned and looked at the witch, still not entirely sure why it worked on him and apparently not on Mellow. Although Mellow had been a friend of Murmur’s for years. Whatever, though. Maybe some of Fable were more prone to suggestion than others. “Well, we can’t act, but we can definitely make things uncomfortable. Pick at her leadership and whittle down her confidence in herself.”
Risk moved at the back of the group, his arms crossed as he bit his lip. Something about the way he fidgeted made Jirald want to go over and put his arm on his shoulder again, but Risk wasn’t fond of physical touch. Maybe one more boss fight and he’d try again. He couldn’t afford to lose the leader of Spiral. After all, he had the actual leader of Exodus.
He moved back to where he’d been sitting and watched the group of them discuss their plans and motivations, and the things they disliked about how everything was run. It was so easy to manipulate people into believing what he wanted them to, especially when they were stuck in a situation that was out of necessity and in no way ideal.
But something set him on edge, like he was being watched, and he turned to figure out just where the sensation was coming from.
Snowy stood at Murmur’s side, his eyes glowing a strange and subtle red as he watched Jirald. No matter how the rogue moved, those eyes followed him, and understanding shone in them, like he knew exactly what it was the man was up to. It was chilling.
Jirald shook himself and made himself stop jumping at shadows—at damned AI dogs, for crying out loud.
But Snowy’s gaze didn’t leave him, penetrating, like he could see through everything all at once. It shook Jirald down to his core and took away all of the joy he had at seeing the raid slowly turn against Fable and its leaders.
If he hadn’t known Snowy was just an AI, he would have expected to be torn apart in the next fight. But as part of the machine, it couldn’t do that. Jirald needed to temper his imagination.
“Everyone move out,” Devlish called as the raid began to disperse from loot division. Murmur didn’t feel up to ordering anyone about. The tiredness ate at her, and the whole swimming in water thing was starting to make her limbs tired. In the game limbs. She didn’t even want to contemplate it.
Raiding, like this anyway, had lost some of its luster. Just because she liked completing things first didn’t mean she wanted to race past the best parts.
She squeezed Sinister’s hand, wishing there was a way for them both to just disappear together. But there wasn’t with this connection in her brain. There really just wasn’t at all.
“You know, I’m proud of you,” Sinister mumbled as she leaned against Murmur and gave her a side hug while they swam.
It was far more difficult a feat to accomplish than one might think, and Murmur would have been impressed if she hadn’t been so busy feeling so very sorry for herself. “What for? Wallowing in my own self despair to the point where I really just want to go home and sleep?”
Sinister shrugged. “Sure, I’m proud of that too, but really I was prouder of the fact that you’re not letting your mood affect everyone around you. A while ago, before they talked to you, you were leaking every emotion to everyone and not realizing it. Your sadness, your irritation, your anger and frustration. Seriously, it was like a roller coaster ride from hell. I know I certainly didn’t enjoy it.”
“Oh.” Murmur’s mood plummeted even more. She hadn’t realized that at all. Getting control over the emotions she leaked out to everyone was the best decision she’d made all game.
“Hey. Snap out of it, Mur. That’s not why I told you. I’m telling you because you’ve grown since then and aren’t doing it anymore, and you’re not doing it half deliberately anymore, either. So take the fucking compliment.” Sinister play punched her in the arm and grinned up.
“Fine. I’ll take the damned compliment then. Be like that and see if I care.” Murmur almost wanted to stick her tongue out, but that would have been a little too juvenile. Even though Sinister made her feel somewhat better, Murmur was still having a bit of difficulty getting over the hump.
They swam silently, stopping here and there where trash mobs jumped out at the raid. Rather stupid, really. If it were up to Murmur and she was a mob and saw a huge raid coming their way? She’d flee like there was no tomorrow. What idiot actually pathed right into a group of thirty leveled up raiders?
“Hey, Sin?” she asked tentatively as they spied a huge swarm of incoming shrimp humans again.
“Yeah?”
“Just promise me you won’t listen to what anyone else says about me, please?” Murmur wasn’t sure, but she thought there might have been a tremor in her voice.
Sinister eyed her and laughed. “You should know well enough by now that I know all your dirty secrets, Wren Summers.”
Just that sentence, those words, and it was all Murmur needed to get her head out of her ass and concentrate on their goal again. It shouldn’t be like that, but Sinister always had a way about her, maybe it was just how she was for Murmur, but the enchanter would take that.
She waded into battle with the rest of them, determined to get to the end of the bloody zone and be done with it. The swarm of prawn humans was larger than last time, and all at once. Twelve of them in one go. Looked like another stun fest. Stunning underwater fest.
Murmur shook her head at the logic of it and began to cast her AoE rotation. Flux, Shift, all of them, over and over on repeat. It was probably the most repetitive thing her class could do, and yet it came with this feeling of power and danger. One resist too many? And she was a hairsbreadth from dying. One mistimed rotation, and she could wipe the whole raid.
The way the rangers’ rain of arrows peppered through the raid, skillfully avoiding allies and piercing the prawn people instead, made her smile. Blizzards of ice shot through the water, surrounding them, freezing them in place momentarily. Being able to attack trash mobs with so much force gave at least a temporary feeling of invincibility.
Pity it didn’t always work that way on a boss. Spells cast by the mages and Havoc were a joy to watch, as was Leeroy’s cleaving scythe. All in all, it was a beautifully executed massacre, and for just a few moments Murmur felt pretty good about it. Until she saw the massive cave ahead of them.
The cave rose out of the floor of the lake, sandy ramps leading up into it. Rocks formed further up, breaching the water top in an almost rounded roof. They could hear the roars from where they stood gathering the loot from their latest trash encounter. Even the water around them trembled with the sound.
“Guess we’ve found the next boss, then?” Beastial muttered as Shir-Khan laid his ears back.
Murmur nodded. They’d at least found the place where they’d need to fight the next boss anyway. The entire raid managed to grow quieter at once. Moving as stealthily as thirty people could through water, they approached the destination.
Murmur paused, taking in the sight. “Let’s not all go in at once. Send in Karn and Snowy.” She deliberately left those she felt she couldn’t trust out of it. And Jinna scowled her way for her troubles.
“What the hell is his problem with you this raid?” Devlish whispered to her. “Did we miss it? Did we forget his birthday or something?”
Murmur shrugged somewhat uneasily. “I’m not entirely sure. I just know he’s not really being himself right now. Maybe he’s too sleep deprived.” Really, she was trying to be generous in her thinking.
She watched as both Karn and Snowy moved into the mouth of the cave. It wasn’t a small entrance. Probably two or three school buses across. It looked like a large mouth waiting for them to step inside so it could snap shut.
Silence fell over the raid as everyone waited.
Karn spoke over raid’s written chat: There are guarding shark…things? Four sets of three on either side of a large ramp that seems to go up a long way and emerges out of the water, if the glare off the top is anything to go by.
Snowy sent Murmur images that showed just what they were in her mind. A type of shark that resembled a centaur, except the legs were fins and the proportions were all wrong. The ramp up to the top of wherever it led was wide and appeared to be quite long.
“Do you think you can stealth up the rest of the ramp?” Murmur asked.
Probably. Maybe. Might want to let Snowy do that; they seem to be sensing me. They keep looking in my direction, and he’s on the other side.
“Stay safe. Don’t risk them discovering you.” Murmur knew it sounded weird, but she was fairly certain if the creatures knew they were coming, they’d be more prepared than they already were.
Snowy shot back images to her along with conveying the distinct feeling that the wolf totally thought they could take all of the opponents in there and thank you very much.
“We have organized trash mob groups to fight through before we even get into the dome proper,” she announced over the raid. “More like guards. There appears to be a massive cage or jail cell in the rear of the cave, but there are too many mobs for Snowy to make his way through any further.”
Come back. She sent the message through her connection to Snowy, and to Karn in a message.
“First things first.” Devlish took charge, after glancing momentarily at Murmur. He could probably see how much this strange behavior from friends was beginning to affect her. “Gear up—put on any new pieces you may have gotten in this dungeon. Check your supplies and see Beastial if you need any stocked up on.”
He turned to Murmur. “So, does it look like the four groups are chained together?”
Murmur shook her head. “Probably not. Just two groups of three. I mean, I can probably Mez them since they’re not bosses.” She could even hear the fatigue in her own voice. No wonder Devlish was worried.
It seemed in refraining from letting her emotions dictate what the group did, she’d managed somehow to drain herself through her reading of the emotions they were actually feeling. Empathy was downright exhausting.
The raid buffed, prepped, and got themselves ready in short order. Snowy stood at Murmur’s side once more, allowing her the opportunity to gain some of his courage as she scratched his neck. She had another bad feeling about this, and last time she’d had one, the damned boss mob had split itself apart to reveal its mother.
Devlish called out for the raid to move in, and Murmur tried to quiet her unease, even as the shadow of the cave mouth swallowed them whole.
Storm Entertainment
Somnia Online Division
Game Development Offices - Shayla’s Office
Day Thirty-One
Davenport frowned as he ran through the feed David passed to him. Staven stood next to the door, guarding it. Laria chewed her fingernails while she waited on her boss, already having perused the information herself. It echoed so much of what she’d been through with Wren, just perhaps not as deep a case as hers was back then. Either that or she was now desensitized to all this crap.
She knew Davenport was trying to discern the different between James’s and Wren’s readings. While James’s were very similar, the deviations from the norm weren’t as large as Wren’s had been. Just the same pattern. She wasn’t a neurosurgeon, though…
Brainwave readings like that had always scared her the most. She didn’t understand them nearly as much as she did the other things. So Laria waited, watching as
Davenport’s expressions flickered through myriad emotions. As David stood with his hands behind his back, rocking back and forth on his toes. She bit her lip, and Shayla reached over and gave her a hug.
“I don’t even like the guy, and I feel like shit for him,” she whispered a few decibels too loud.
Shayla shrugged. “Just because he’s a douchebag doesn’t mean you have to wish him something worse than death.”
“Come on, you two.” Davenport finally blinked away his screen. “It’s not even that bad. It’s not quite at the level Wren’s was at the height of her attachment. Though there’s something else in there that I don’t quite understand and will need my experts to look over.”
His brow wrinkled as if he was trying desperately to figure out just where they’d gone wrong with the whole project, not just this one login. Overall, the man was known for his attention to detail, and it had to chafe that they’d all somehow missed a heap of details in the lead-up to launch.
“For now, we will keep him in his apartment. I’ve reached an…” he winced slightly as he sought the word he was looking for, “agreement with our business partners, and for now we are monitoring the situation for them.”
“His connection isn’t as deep, because his headset, while following the same specifications, isn’t a precise copy of Wren’s. It would have been made before hers, too. I haven’t been able to sever his connection to the mainframe in any way because his character cannot currently be located.” Davenport pinched the bridge of his nose and scrunched his eyes up like he was trying to force the answers out of his skull.
“It could be much the same as it was when Wren and her whole raiding party managed to somehow enter limbo. Into a place in the game space where they were neither in it, nor out of it?” Laria ran the computations they’d used over in her head. They’d researched into every aspect of her coma. “I mean, it was like the world with no coding, a sort of bubble-wrap area, when the servers shat themselves that time.”
