by K. T. Hanna
“We need to concentrate on gaining skills, and on leveling so we can enter the damned areas to begin with.” Beastial sounded like he was in a bad mood. Maybe he hadn’t had enough sleep.
Racing to the top in this game hadn’t been a race so much as a marathon, and the lack of sleep was starting to wear on her friends.
Murmur studied him and realized that he, too, was more solid. The headsets must have arrived for her main group. It made her look closer at everyone who logged back in.
“You do have a point.” Jinna pushed forward, and Murmur’s head began to swim with everyone who was trying to pitch in on what they should do. “But as long as we go to Richnai, we will have all six keys, and reach the level we need to get the others.”
Murmur paused. He had a really good point. “Okay. Let me think.”
“Step back boys, this could be dangerous.” Sinister couldn’t keep the giggle out of her voice, but everyone stepped back anyway. A chuckle escaped Murmur too.
“Shut it, blood mage, or I’ll withhold mana,” Murmur added in an evil edge to her cackle, and Sinister put her hands on her hips. “Shh. I have to think.”
“Takes a lot out of her, that does,” Havoc intoned wisely.
Murmur ignored him and his more solid self but let herself laugh on the inside. It felt good to spend time with others. Living in her head a lot of this time wasn’t good for any part of her health.
“Okay. So.” She paused, trying to make sure she’d sorted everything in her mind. It was full of different sectioned areas devoted to information and voices that leaked through to her. In order to concentrate on anything, she’d had to learn to partition it all. But damn if it didn’t make sorting shit out annoying.
“We know we need to hit Richnai Fortress. It’s important that we be self sufficient even if Exodus don’t join us, or hell, if we approach Spiral and they turn us down too.” She paused, thinking it through. “Neva already has the armor we got from the last dungeon for our upgrades. It’s important to strengthen our characters. So let’s go get level forty-eight and then grab some decent damn sleep.”
“Sounds like an actually logical plan.” Mellow smiled, twining their hand around one of their strands of hair. Their little Tiachi jumped from finger to finger in a way that resembled an old game called hopscotch.
Murmur smiled at the interaction. “My head is so full of shit right now, I’m amazed I remember what my name is.”
“Then I guess we’re gating back to Firtulai?” Sinister sounded excited, and if the grin on her face was anything to go by, she probably was.
“I have never been as happy as I am right now to have a way to get to where I am bound.” Devlish smiled. “I feel like being able to portal there allows for me not to feel so tired when we finally arrive.”
Rashlyn chuckled. “Typical lizard. So lazy.”
“Shut it, cat.” But Devlish grinned.
Maybe it was because they could see a light at the end of their climb, that they were close to hitting the real challenges. Murmur personally thought that was a huge part of it.
“How many of us have the new headsets?” Havoc asked as he looked around the castle grounds as if he’d never seen them before. “Because these are amazing. If this is the way Murmur has been seeing shit, then I am totally jealous.”
“Really?” Mellow sounded mildly interested. “We don’t have them.”
“No. I asked for them one group at a time.” Murmur tried to sound apologetic. “They have to be adjusted manually right now, so getting eleven at once was a bit of a stretch.”
“Not complaining, Mur, just commenting.” Mellow smiled at her. “But now I can’t wait.”
“Is the headset really worth the risk?” Exbo voiced what Murmur was unsure of herself.
“I think so. I mean, they researched it, ran it past the AIs, and I tested it briefly. We should be good. About as safe as any device that’s going to give you full immersion.” She shrugged. “Half the population thinks full immersion fries your brains anyway.”
Exbo grinned. “Good point. Then I can’t wait to get mine. Hurry it up.”
She laughed, and with it went her tension. Slowly a sense of excitement was creeping up on her, and she suddenly couldn’t wait to get out to Richnai fortress and finally reach a level where she wasn’t restricted anymore.
“Once we get there, mount up and make our way across. I don’t think any of us have been near here before, so it should be exciting.” Murmur actually felt like it might be the truth.
“Don’t follow Mur, she’ll probably get you lost.” Havoc joked and received a glare from Sinister for his trouble.
“What are we waiting on then?” Beastial was next to the wall tapping his foot. “Can’t stand around here yapping all day. We have experience to get, and dungeons to defeat!”
Murmur smiled and nudged her friends along with a bit of friendly encouragement through her sensor net. Sometimes it was like herding cats; at least her abilities made it easier.
Murmur stepped away from the bind spot she’d used to the side of Multagen. She stretched and scratched her wolf’s ears again. Chi chittered close to her ear. The first time they’d been here she hadn’t stopped to appreciate the beauty of this continent. It was, at least appearance wise, hands down the prettiest one of the three.
Even from here, slightly higher than the port, she could see over the walls and to the waterfalls that cascaded from either side of the city into the ocean. Even now, with the sun beating down and hot, the spray that drifted on the wind made everything cooler. Like an illusion. The sun would still burn.
It was the home of gnomes after all. Tinkerers all of them, magically inclined. From this vantage point she could see the magic that made it appear normal, that made it seem like less than it was. It wasn’t foreboding like Darshin’s black hewn rock, nor formidable like Pelagu’s mixture of dark elf and viking architecture.
“Mur! Come on!” Sinister yelled at her, already mounted on her godsdamned nightmare horse beast. The others were already mounted as well, and she blushed, having been caught in her daydreaming.
“Welcome to our island home,” both Devlish and Exbo said in unison.
“You’ve been practicing that haven’t you?” Murmur asked, already knowing the answer when they started laughing. “We’ve already been here, and you didn’t do that then. But it is a nice looking continent.”
Her two guildies grinned in response.
Even beyond the city she could see trees towering with beautiful white blossoms, and more rivers wound out toward the horizon. She hadn’t noticed much of it before. They’d been in such a rush to make it to the Threshold.
She summoned Chi and got herself settled comfortably, following the others as they moved out at a trot. The area around them was picturesque and calming.
“You’re being really quiet, Mur, are you okay?” Sinister sounded a bit concerned.
Mur just nodded, feeling a tranquil sense of comfort sweep over her. “Yeah. I didn’t really take in the surroundings last time. Not that we went this way, mind you. I just didn’t realize it’s quite beautiful. And peaceful.”
“It is, isn’t it?” Sinister reached out a hand to lay against Mur’s shoulder, and for several moments nothing was out of place. No sense of urgency. Just this serene permeating peace.
“We probably need to pick up our pace though.” There was an off feeling in the back of her head. Not quite like a warning, but like something wasn’t right. She supposed she should check on her sensor nets. But it was so lovely on the path, so perfectly not urgent. Surely, they had ten minutes to enjoy it?
“Spoil sport.” Dansyn smiled belatedly and urged his white tiger into a slow canter.
Murmur didn’t pay him any attention, but she raised her voice and called to Devlish who was up the front of the little procession. “Dev, lead the way. Sinc
e you’ve lived here, I take it you probably know your way around.”
“Gee. Thanks for thinking of me.” He winked at her with scaly joy and kicked his lizard up a notch too and called back, the words almost lost on the wind. “Just so you know, I’ve never been this way before, but I do have a map.”
The rest of the group groaned as they followed the lacerta, and Murmur just enjoyed the speed and the wind in her face as her Tiachi matched its speed to everyone else’s.
Even leaving the city behind, the surroundings were still pretty and delicate. “That’s so odd. For a city on a continent with gnomes, humans, and lacerta, you’d think it’d be a little less fine.”
Havoc laughed. “You forget what the way to the Threshold was like, obviously. This has gnome refinement written all over it. Like they said, it’s okay, we’ve seen what you’d do—let us take it from here.”
“Point.” Sinister laughed too.
Murmur rode her disk in silence. Exclamations sounded from the group as they traversed the land. She was astounded by how easy it was to follow the path. The road was paved with gravel and not just dirt, and it appeared to head straight to Brevint, the gnome city. The ride was smooth and the road wide enough that nothing attacked them while they stayed on it.
All in all, the journey was quite boring. It was probably why the surroundings had to be nice. She wondered if they’d have been more readily attacked if they weren’t almost fifty.
There was an air around them, like nothing could harm them. Nor could it touch them. They were beyond reach and beyond reproach. Everything they did was perfect. Though the last didn’t sound quite right, Murmur still liked the overall message. It was certainly nice to feel appreciated.
Off to the left-hand side as they had made it about half way to what she was sure was Brevint, was another road that diverged from the main path. If she squinted, she could see shining crags jutting out of the ground in the distance. Sun reflected off them, sending rainbow rays cascading around it. Opulent, even with rocks.
“Most of the island is made up of strange crystal-based rocks. Whenever something gets mined, it’s just a beautiful way to refract light. That over there.” And Devlish pointed to the spot Murmur had just noticed. “Is the high-level dungeon on this island. It’s called the Caverns of Ni. I’ve been wistfully longing for them since I rolled a lacerta. Cannot wait for us to make it that far.”
Murmur couldn’t help but agree, though she did wonder what had gotten into Dev. He never usually spoke like that. She nodded, hoping he didn’t expect her to answer verbally. She was suddenly in a mood where silence suited her better.
Pulling up the guild inventory, she was glad to see that Neva had arranged for some more stock of mana and health potions to be crafted and placed in the guild vault. Not only that, but there was more food. Which was good, since Murmur had kind of let that lapse in the wind once they’d gathered their crafting force together.
And the damned feeling at the back of her mind started tugging harder, like it was trying to rip her brain out. She closed her eyes briefly, trusting Chi to do her thing, and tried to gain perspective, but still all she was left with was confusion.
Out to the right was a field of gorgeous green grass. Lush and tall, it rippled in the wind. Horses grazed on it, raising their heads to watch curiously as their group traveled past. The breeze smelled fresh and brought the light taste of saltwater with it. Murmur wanted to sleep, to just stay where she was, curl into a ball in the grass and sleep.
That’s the danger of Firtulai. Do not let it lull you.
Murmur sat up straighter, glancing at her friends as the sense of urgency gripped her tighter than ever. “Hey. Wake up. Eyes ahead. Let’s try a gallop.”
Devlish blinked sleepily and pushed his mount forward. Their speed picked up, forcing all of them to focus, all of them to pay attention to where they were going and what they were doing.
Murmur glanced back at the beautiful pasture and saw dark shapes writhing beneath the green close to the path, like they’d been waiting and biding their time, and Murmur had just deprived them of an easy snack.
Somnia Online
Curet - Tree-Top Overview
Late Day Twenty-Two
Emilarth stood watching over her city. The view was something that soothed her, and she definitely needed it right then. She could see small feles down there, running and catching balls. All of them but computer generations of her mind, of how she saw this city being. This city that had produced Riasli, a blip on her otherwise idyllic turf.
They needed a cure, all of them did. Or else Somnia would disappear and become a quagmire of wrong and hatred. Michael’s greed was growing in strength, tainting everything it came into contact with. Shayla and Laria needed to come up with the antivirus quick so they could save everything. While she would have liked to try it herself, she knew that she was too close to the virus itself. And if she caught it, well, all the AIs would be done for.
She still expected it to have seeped into her, to have infected her like it had Telvar. Rav. Who she still hadn’t been able to cure. Still hadn’t been able to even contemplate how to go about it. If Laria failed, they were all doomed.
No pressure or anything. Though the human woman seemed to revel in anything challenging. Hopefully that would aid them here.
Suddenly, Hiro stood next to her. It took a lot of effort, but Thra managed not to overreact to his presence. It would have been a different story had it been Belius. At least she didn’t have to deal with that right now.
“What is it?” she asked, knowing what it was anyway but needing to hear the words out loud.
Hiro paused. “He’s getting worse. He’s fighting it more than ever now, and I’m not sure if even the cavern will last for what’s to come.”
“Would you rather him give into it?” She knew the answer, of course, and Hiro glared at her for asking it.
“Of course I don’t want him to do that! What I want is to know what to do.” He sounded helpless, hopeless. Hiro was an extension of Telvar, but so much more than that. He’d developed into his own person, begun to have his own identity as opposed to just being a part of the AI. In response, Telvar had given him more autonomy. “I just want to know how I can help him and how I can keep him from destroying the island he loves.”
“I don’t know how to fix this. What would you have me do?” Emilarth asked him, her tone soft. He didn’t answer her, and she hadn’t really expected him to. “I can’t do much. I think you’re fooled by what we are. I cannot program new solutions, only work with what I have. It’s a dangerous virus for me to touch. I took a risk just giving it to Laria. I can’t risk touching it again.”
“But he trusts you. He needs you.” Hiro’s frustration was real. It was a miracle he’d managed to transport himself to here.
It wasn’t a function afforded to lower AIs. But then, like Riasli, Hiro was developing all on his own and doing a fabulous job of it. Except better. Because Hiro wasn’t infected. At least not yet.
“I know. And I’ve done what I can. They are working on a cure. Please. I know how hard this is.” Thra found herself biting her lip, truly overwhelmed by a quick flash of emotion. Perhaps it was frustration, or maybe even sadness at what was happening, but it was something she’d never felt before.
She’d have been overjoyed at the progress if the situation wasn’t this dire. Hiro nodded. “I’m sorry, Emilarth. I didn’t mean to take my frustrations out on you. I’m just at a loss. I have to rebuild the castle and make it so no one realizes what has happened.”
“Those who need to know—they know, Hiro. You’ve done well.” It was all she could say to ease his mind. “You should go and take care of the job he gave you. When he returns to himself, he’ll be so proud of you.”
Hiro glowed with the praise and disappeared with a nod of his head. Emilarth stood there, waiting for the chill to
die down. The thing was, being connected to the world as they were, she knew when things were approaching. Like now, she was fully aware that something was about to happen, and she’d not wanted Hiro to be there when it did.
She closed her eyes and felt the breeze of the trees against her skin, listened to the noises echoing up to her from below as the children played and the adults indulged them. She could hear the players receiving and completing their quests. Enjoying themselves in a world they had no idea was on the brink of falling apart.
All of the interconnectedness, it made her smile, made her hope beyond measure that Laria was able to do what they’d asked of her.
And then the wind changed. From cool and welcoming to hot and hostile. It whipped around her, and she flattened her ears. The smell was unmistakable, musty and old. Just like how he’d presented himself to the world.
“You know it’s time, don’t you?” Belius’s voice was no longer his own. She could hear the slimy silkiness of it reaching through to her soul, the corruption that dug down deep.
She didn’t dignify anything he had to say with words, only shot him a defiant look.
“I had hoped you’d play it like this. Don’t worry, Emilarth. I have the perfect torture planned for you.”
Gnomes, being small, didn’t need super huge houses. They’d been amazing hosts and built most of the buildings so that anyone could enter them, regardless of height. But that was a portion of the problem. They were tiny houses, with tall doors, and it just made them cuter.
The sun was beginning to set, and the two moons had already crested the horizon.
“It’s going to be difficult enough to navigate these mountains in the light, let alone the dark. The fortress is built into the mountains off of a narrow path just outside of town.” Exbo drawled the words out. If Murmur was right, and she was fairly sure she was, he really didn’t want to navigate those mountains during the night.
