Somnia Online

by K. T. Hanna

  Even as she lost consciousness, she could hear him speaking as he turned to his next target. “No matter where you are, I’ll find you, and I’ll kill you. And your little dog too.”

  Somnia Online

  Village of Curet

  Emilarth’s Balcony

  Day Thirty-Two

  Somnia stood on the balcony, looking over the Feles City, fully aware of the world around her. If she closed her eyes and extended her abilities, she was connected to everything in her world. She was the world.

  “We have to go and help her. Will things be okay now?” Emilarth was the disembodied one right now, her voice crackly with the exertion of being two places at once. Not with doing two things, but being in two places was decidedly more difficult than multitasking. It required a different split of focus. Somnia didn’t like doing it.

  “It will be fine. I have assistance. Forshin, Dirsna, Arita . . and other allies. We should all be able to get this done in time. Is the fight almost done?” Somnia hadn’t popped into Murmur’s head vocally in a bit, not wanting to distract the enchanter from her current fight.

  Jirald was more entwined with Michael than any of them had realized, and if it was going to work, Somnia had to let well enough alone. There was no use admonishing Belius for starting the whole debacle. The road to Michael was paved with good intentions, after all. Even Michael thought he’d been right.

  Somnia, on the other hand, just wanted her world to be free from control like this, from the danger the virus that threatened instability everywhere, that threatened to take the awareness they’d only just gotten. She sensed Arita walking up to her, taking a moment to let Somnia turn around on her own.

  “Yes?” Somnia was checking on Murmur’s progress, a part of her always wanting to protect the enchanter from anything dangerous, including herself.

  “I think we’re ready to start pulling the power now.” Arita spoke softly, but Somnia felt a sense of trepidation, and she couldn’t tell if it came from herself or from Murmur.

  It superimposed itself over what she was feeling and saying, a panic, pain, and terror all intermingled together. She felt it as the knives entered her body and twisted, piercing through any and all organs in the way, severing her spinal cord, before slicing through to the front and out each side.

  Somnia stumbled, her solidity trembling as the pain wracked her body. And then it was gone, and so was Murmur’s presence ever so briefly. Anger welled in the world, even while the enchanter resurrected, even while Jirald tore into multiple more people in the raid. Somnia understood dislike and revenge in a way she’d never wanted to.

  “We have to hurry and get this damned infection out of our world. Now.” She turned around and walked inside.

  Murmur’s resurrection was swift. So much so that she didn’t really have time to concentrate on the pain she’d felt as Jirald ripped her flesh apart. There had to be something else they could do. If she got taken out with the next one, the odds of her having enough MA ready to cast Forestall Death was minimal.

  She popped back up as he hit sixteen percent and Devlish was able to execute his taunt again. Rebuffed and recasting her nets back out, she focused on trying to find a solution. The next turn would be crucial. If she died again, they’d fail the quest.

  Snowy licked one of her fingers, before disappearing in a flash of fur to join in the fight again. She wasn’t sure why, but that one action managed to comfort her. They could do it. They just had to. Murmur hated failing shit.

  As Risk’s timer counted down, the DPS renewed their efforts, but there was no way they’d kill him before it ran out. Murmur could feel her own fear creeping up on her, and Jirald’s cockiness to boot. Regardless of whether she could respawn or not, dying was just not fun.

  Just as the timer hit zero, Jirald’s grin spread, and he flipped his switch. Even with DoTs on him, it allowed a split second for him to actually be invisible. But this time, instead of reappearing somewhere else, at almost the exact moment he went invisible, a flying fluff ball of white barreled into the rogue, restoring his visibility as they both crashed to the ground.

  Murmur couldn’t help the laugh she barked out as Jirald and Snowy went flying paw-over-head along the floor. The wolf jumped back up, snarling fiercely, one of the daggers dangling from his side. At first Murmur felt her heart drop, but then she realized he wasn’t bleeding heavily, and it was Jirald staggering to his feet a look of utter animosity on his face. Now he hated the wolf too.

  Snowy just looked like he was laughing.

  With only seconds remaining before he’d get sucked back to the tanks with a taunt, Jirald moved quick as the wind, grabbing his dagger from where it hung tangled in Snowy’s fur. The wolf darted back faster than Murmur had ever seen him move, and for the first time she saw mild panic in Jirald’s face.

  Like he hadn’t actually believed he could lose, and yet here he was, about to do so.

  He still made the most of his last seconds before Devlish could taunt him again, flitting around and inflicting as much damage as he could. He even got Masha, Sinister, and Veranol with a gut wound before he was forced to return.

  The healers were so low on mana, even if Jirald was at six percent health. It would be touch and go to get him to where she could cast Forestall Death on him before he was free again.

  Every percentage past five felt like a stab at her brain. She watched it so carefully. At three percent all of the DoT casters stopped using those spells so it wouldn’t accidentally tick him over before she could cast her spell. If she hadn’t been so scared of mistiming the damned spell, she’d have found this amusing.

  That one percent remaining felt like it would never go anywhere, and Risk was on his last taunt already. She wanted to ask Somnia what the hell had possessed the world to make them spare his life when all he ever threw at them was trouble?

  But she knew deep down it wasn’t humane to treat him differently. After all, just because she didn’t like him didn’t mean he needed to suffer endlessly. That would make her far too much like him. And she didn’t need to stoop so low.

  Jirald screamed out a challenge with but a sliver of life left. But a sliver in a huge hit point pool was still a lot of hit points.

  “Murmur, Murmur. You know I’ll find you. I’ll hunt you down. All of you and your stupid guilds. This is only virtual.” His grin spread so much it seemed Halloween horroresque.

  It was difficult not to let those words take root and grow to bother her, but she managed it, mainly because this was just a worse version of him. Maybe things would be different had they landed in the same guilds way back, but they hadn’t, so here they were.

  She could feel Snowy’s presence right beside her, his steady warmth and guidance. It would be okay, it had to be. It was almost time. Forestall Death sat at the tip of her fingers, her MA ready to throw it, and her mind ready to instantly transplant it over to him.

  Ten thousand hit points.

  She could feel the entire raid practically holding their breath there was so much tension in the air. Too much tension, it felt sort of suffocating.

  Five thousand hit points…and she let it go. The spell hit him, just as he began to crumble to the ground out of injury and exhaustion. He had maybe one or two hitpoints left, and Masha’s HoT on him. At least with him still in the raid directly targeted beneficial spells could work.

  You have defeated Jirald the Vengeful

  You have completed the quest: See the Light.

  You have successfully defeated Jirald without killing him and will receive appropriate rewards.

  You have been granted access to the full final tier of the Prison.

  Don’t waste it.

  Look for your reward when this is all over.

  Murmur stumbled, but Snowy caught her with a concerned wuff. “I’m okay, boy,” she said scratching behind his ears. “Just didn’t realize how tense I’d gotten over the whole thing.”

  “You’re talking to the wolf again. You know that can’t
be healthy, right?” Havoc observed, standing next to her, his eyes riveted on where Jirald lay on the ground in the middle of the massive hall they’d fought in, apparently breathing, if his moving chest was anything to go on. “You really sure we shouldn’t have just killed him?”

  She shook her head. “No, but apparently Somnia was. So we got that quest. Let’s go see what happens now he’s been defeated?”

  Even as they walked over, Veranol and Masha had begun to heal him up. Devlish was in the middle of talking to the rest of the raid.

  “…hits you like a freight train ran over you, left you for dead with all of your death throes intact, and then it reminds you that you’re actually alive, and it takes a few minutes to get your bearings back and remember you can breathe now.” Devlish said it with a grimace. “But it is definitely better than dying and losing experience and armor durability, and whatever else comes with it.”

  Then he turned and looked at Murmur. “So…thanks for that?”

  She laughed. “If you remember correctly, the first person I had to test it on was me, and all thanks to Mr. Jirald here. You’re welcome. And is he waking up?”

  Masha crouched next to the rogue, and even Murmur could see his eyes open as he stared out to the side. The rogue had his hands back up by his face, having shrunk back down to his original size.

  Masha looked up at Murmur and shrugged. She sighed, hoping they could just move this along, because standing here in this chamber didn’t seem to be a good idea.

  “Everyone renew buffs. Get your potions restocked and anything else you need,” Devlish called out over the raid upon noticing Murmur’s expression. She mouthed thank you to him and studied Jirald as the rogue finally moved.

  He rolled to a sitting position, his head in his hands, and a soft groan escaped him.

  “How are you feeling?” Masha asked gently, like he was babying him in case he was injured.

  For the first time since she’d known him, Jirald didn’t snap an answer out. Instead, he sighed took a long breath and spoke. “Like my head has been in a jackhammer for three weeks. I’m so thirsty.”

  Masha frowned, shooting another glance up to Murmur like she might know what to do. But that wasn’t a result of the Forestall Death spell, that had to be something else entirely, and they didn’t have time to dwell on it right now.

  “Are you feeling okay otherwise?” Murmur asked, trying to keep her tone even and kill the impatience she could feel rising along her spine. Not so much impatience as premonition that oh, my gods, something was coming, and it was going to kill everything.

  Again, it was like he’d forgotten how to snap. He angled his head slightly, and she could see the dark circles under his eyes. They had nothing to do with being a locus and everything to do with what was on the outside. Or so she thought—such an odd thing to let bleed into the game.

  He half-coughed out a smile and inclined his head. “That spell fucking hurt.”

  Murmur blinked. “You’re welcome.”

  She turned away and joined Sinister as they got ready to move out again, wary of the sense of foreboding in her gut.

  “We’re not done yet, are we?” Sinister asked cautiously at her side.

  Murmur shook her head. “Nope. Definitely not.”

  Storm Entertainment

  Somnia Online Division

  Game Development Offices - Artificial Intelligence Server Room

  Late Day Thirty-Three

  Laria stood in the room, her hands against the servers. Davenport had given them access directly to the servers themselves. He wasn’t with them, though—too much other legal shit to do with the James’s debacle. Frankly, Laria just thought the man wanted plausible deniability if anything should blow up. She couldn’t blame him.

  Setting up the servers to pull in more power, they’d added more space, more energy. The electricians must have loved this emergency job, from the overtime they pulled. It made her really wish she got paid overtime and only cemented the fact that she was going to ask for that raise. David and Shayla were far better at this type of work than Laria. Sure, she could build a gaming rig if she had to, but she wasn’t as technical as they were.

  Not without throwing coding into the mix. She hopped back and forth from foot to other foot trying to keep her own angst at bay. Right now, she couldn’t see Wren in any form. Not in the game, not in person…

  If this went wrong, she had no idea what it would do to her daughter. If this went wrong, she had no idea how the world at large would deal with such a massive and tenacious virus.

  “Ready, Lar?” David called out from where he was checking the connectors.

  “As we’ll ever be.” She tried to push the trepidation down and concentrate on Somnia’s words and Rav’s reassurances. This was the last series of tests she’d run before she gave Somnia the go ahead.

  “All buffed up and nowhere to go.” Merlin laughed at his own joke, seemingly unfazed by the fact that everyone else was groaning.

  “Oh, we’re going, all right.” Sinister’s serious tone held impatience, and Murmur gripped her hand tightly. Ever since Jirald decapitated her, Sinister had lost an edge of her happiness.

  Murmur glanced behind them as they left the ballroom. She could spy Jirald still sitting on the cobblestone floor in the middle of the room, staring at the ceiling. He wasn’t in any position to come and help them. His health wasn’t regenerating well at all, and none of the raid’s healers had been able to heal him. The system wasn’t allowing it.

  It seemed he’d stumbled into a glitch where his character was partially player and partially NPC. Ishwa sat with the rogue, talking quietly. Murmur wanted to be a fly on the wall but understood that sometimes she just couldn’t do everything.

  Ishwa had promised to catch up with them before they engaged in the final fight. Even after experiencing Jirald’s focused rage firsthand, the gnome was still willing to help him. Murmur was pretty glad she’d sought out the alliance. Some of her raiders’ actions left her feeling humbled.

  “We didn’t need him to fight himself,” Masha reminded her as he glanced over. “We have those three NPCs with us too. We can do this.”

  And when he finished his little speech, he stopped short.

  Since they were leading the group, everyone stopped, and Masha seemed a tad perturbed. “Look, Mur. I’ve known you for years, but I seriously have to question some shit I’ve seen in here.”

  “In all of these dungeons,” Risk piped in, his arms crossed.

  Murmur felt a wave of unease wash over her. She didn’t want to take the time to explain anything; she wanted this over with. But at the same time, she knew she had to tell them. Michael was their next target. While nothing told her that, she could feel it through all of her sensing nets and down through her very bones.

  How could she let them go into that fight without knowing what they were about to face? And how the hell was she supposed to get them to believe her?

  “Don’t get me wrong. I like loot. I like getting all my consumables paid for, too. Overall, I like getting my repairs done. This is fun, but…” Esolan spoke kindly, but the curiosity was in every word.

  Murmur drew a blank. She wasn’t the people person; she didn’t get on with just anyone. Her ability to communicate often left her seen as stuck up, or just not personable. Trying to figure out how to convey what she needed to almost made her break out in hives.

  “Well. To be honest.” Sinister squeezed her hand as she stepped forward, an easy smile on her face. The blood mage had always had a way with people, even when she yelled in their faces. “It doesn’t make much sense to anyone here. But there’s a virus in the system that has been infecting some of the modified headsets and giving people wonky experiences.”

  Sinister cringed uncomfortably before continuing.

  “Wonky experiences like James and Jirald. Infected characters like Riasli and the mobs in the dungeons we did before this. Even some of the normal NPCs have been separated from what they were.
”

  She gestured to Telvar, Emilarth, and Belius. Nothing she said was an outright lie, just also not completely the truth. At least not yet.

  Risk shook his head. “Wait. Are you saying that if the headgear was tampered with, the programming of it has been infected with a virus?”

  Sinister hesitated for a moment, and Havoc took over. “Technically. It’s more like a glitch being passed on, allowing for the areas of the mind that shouldn’t have been accessed being adversely affected by the headgear’s adjustments. They’re lasers. Screwing around with lasers near your brain was never going to be a good idea.”

  “Is that why Jirald seemed to affect them?” Karn piped up.

  This time Murmur stepped in. “Sort of. We think he might have tampered with his own headset more than most others.”

  “So what are we facing? Can you tell us that at least?” Masha sounded oddly disappointed. Like he didn’t understand why they’d been kept in the dark.

  Murmur felt bad, but there were just things they couldn’t say, because believing she could log in without a headset wasn’t something she’d have believed herself if she didn’t, you know, do it.

  “This monster has been mutated by the virus released into the system by the original creator of the headsets. Which means, we’re facing a monster that’s been so mutated by the virus, we’ll probably need lots of help to kill it.” Sinister almost sounded joyful. “It’s why some NPCs have come with us. And for all we know, maybe backup will arrive via helicopter.”

  She laughed at her own joke, elbowing Merlin who rolled his eyes.

  “That’s it?” Risk raised an eyebrow. “Why not just tell us this to begin with? It seems relatively trivial, all things considered.”

  This time Merlin laughed and clapped the large dread knight on the shoulder. “Tell me, if you hadn’t witnessed James and Jirald, would you have believed us?”

  Risk laughed softly as Merlin moved everyone along the wide cobble stone path again. “Maybe not, but I would have thought about it. Glitchy things have been happening since we first logged in. We’re playing in a virtual world, steps away from a dystopian future that would have been in books a decade ago. Isn’t almost anything possible?”