by K. T. Hanna
So why it was affecting her now, she couldn’t tell.
Snowy continued to growl, deep in his throat, hackles up straight. Nothing she did could soothe him.
“You know he’s not a wolf, right?”
Murmur spun around, trying to find the source of the voice. But the blackness was still there, like it had been in the void, that now seemed so long ago. In a different lifetime and level range.
She rubbed her head, wondering if maybe she’d just started talking to herself. She glanced down at Snowy, who now sat on his haunches with his head cocked to one side as if he was listening to something she couldn’t hear.
“Of course you can’t hear it. You’re in denial.”
This voice sounded so familiar, but she couldn’t place it. Like she was criticizing herself and her old logical self was speaking to her.
“Bingo. Just a collection of data and equations, you know. That’s what everything around you is. Why are you fooled by all of this?”
Murmur held up her hands, turning them back and forth in front of her eyes. She frowned. Could it be that she was letting a game get to her? Had she really lost sight of what was important? She just didn’t know anymore.
“You do know. And you know you know.”
The voice grew ominous, and Murmur flinched. It still sounded a bit like her, but there was something darker lingering around, pushing through and trying to reach her, trying to worm its way in to destroy her.
Surely that wasn’t the way she’d used to think? She didn’t remember being so callous.
“You have to get out of here and never come back. Leave your friends. They’re a lost cause.” A sinuous undertone wove its way around the words, slithering like a poisonous snake as the mimicry of her own voice fell off target yet again.
Murmur reached down, twining her fingers in Snowy’s fur again to ground herself. He was about as real as the darkness out there, as the box she stood in. And as the voice in her head which she recognized without a shadow of a doubt now.
Riasli.
Somnia Online
Mikrum Isle - Dragon Hoard Chamber
Day Twenty-Three
Telvar wasn’t always there. Not in his head. Not in the dragon’s head.
His thoughts flittered about. First of all, he wanted that treasure. It was all around him. Though there was something in the pile of things that really pulled at him. He just wasn’t sure what he should be watching out for, just that he couldn’t let anyone else get it. The why was missing, and it was the hardest to get back.
His brain wouldn’t process certain emotions or reactions. He knew that a lacerta came to the top of the ramp every single day to check on him and wasn’t sure if he should like that or not. The being called Hiro seemed concerned. Like clockwork, he turned up every twelve hours.
And like clockwork, Telvar blew fire at him and roared so much that tiny jewels or coins rolled down the sides of his hoard.
The ground was covered in golden coins, like a carpet. It hadn’t been initially. It had been stone and tidy and didn’t gleam at all. But Telvar wanted it to gleam with all of his wealth. He wanted it to become a thing of beauty. Like himself.
Her face kept flashing across his mind though. Delicate features, thick strands of hair, no nose to speak of and eyes that had galaxies floating in them.
Telvar knew he should know who she was and why he kept seeing her. He knew he should understand far more of the world than he did. But right now, all that shone in his mind was the hoard. If only he could harness the energy that maintained his form and his treasures and just make all the other thoughts leave him alone.
But do you really want that?
The question took him by surprise. No, he supposed he didn’t. He’d like to be able to eat a nice fat snack himself. Snack? When had he last eaten? Did he eat?
Visions flickered across his eyes. Of the girl in a dark place, surrounded by death and confusion. That made sense. Because death was confusing to someone like Telvar. Because dragons rarely truly died.
He stretched his wings out and flew to the top of the cavern where he stretched but frustratingly couldn’t find an exit he fit into. The cavern was okay, but he wanted more. So much more.
And this Murmur person, this girl, she could get that for him, couldn’t she?
But then he remembered flying to help her, to stop her from blowing something away. There were images of his concern for her, but in all of them, he wasn’t himself. He was a different form of Telvar, much like Hiro who walked to see him semi-often.
Telvar landed on his hoard and curled his tail around the pile, frowning as much as a dragon could. Surely there was something he was missing? Friends and feelings and fire.
His only friend was Hiro. He wasn’t even sure what it was that Murmur was, only that she should be in his life, and right now he couldn’t find her.
More to the point, there appeared to be a secret place he could go to access so much more information about himself, yet he couldn’t get there. Not this way, not in this form. He opened his jaws and roared in frustration.
Fire sparked along his teeth, igniting his saliva ever so briefly. The thoughts and the pain, they faded, and all he wanted was food. But down here in the dank cavern he found himself in, there wasn’t anything like food. Apart from the occasional rat.
Telvar’s comprehension wondered, and Hiro came to stand on the ledge.
“Tel!” he called out as he dropped a deer carcass onto the edge. “Brought you some dinner.”
Food. That sounded like a good thing, only Telvar wasn’t sure he should trust that human-like lizard that had turned up. He knew he had in the past, but that wasn’t the now.
He flapped his giant wings lazily and hovered above Hiro. It would be so easy to just snap the lacerta up in his jaws, but there was something about the man that gave him pause. Perhaps it wasn’t the wisest decision to eat the one that gave him food. After all, who would bring him sustenance if he ate the one being that seemed to care about him?
Care.
That was a foreign concept, so different from the hunger and killing urge he constantly fought against. But hadn’t it once been his way. Didn’t he care about something? It was so fleeting that he had trouble accessing it. He had cared about a lot of things. Small things, big things, living things, dead things, inhuman things.
Telvar delicately took the deer with his front teeth, tossed it up in the air, and caught it in his mouth, chomping down on the bones with a crunch.
Hiro visibly shuddered, and a thought occurred to Telvar.
“Why do you take care of me?” The voice that boomed through the cavern echoed off the stone walls, sending little cascades of dust tumbling down to the floor.
“Because you are my friend.” Hiro’s tone was strong and forthright, and Telvar believed him.
But he couldn’t remember what else he believed. So he tried a different angle.
“Then why are you not a dragon?” Telvar asked, settling his muzzle down on the ledge because he was getting tired just hovering there.
“Because I am just a servant. I am just one of your descendants. I am lacerta.” Hiro sounded solemn, and yet so proud. Telvar wanted to be like that too.
“Have I always been a dragon?” The question had plagued him, and he couldn’t find the answer inside, thus, he had to seek it elsewhere.
Hiro shook his head. “No, you haven’t. But that’s okay. You don’t have to always have been a dragon to be one now.”
“Why?” Telvar moved forward, letting his massive feet come to rest on the edge, and inclined his large head to one side inquisitively.
“Because you can change at will. You just have to push past the temptation that’s currently there. I know you can do it. It’s why I make sure you’re taken care of in this form.” His words didn’t waver, and he stood his ground as if he wasn’
t scared of the massive dragon towering above him.
Telvar watched, trying to remember, searching for the memories he knew were in there somewhere. They reached out to him in his dreams, sometimes even while he was awake.
Without warning, they came tumbling back as if he’d recalled them through sheer will power. The force was so strong that it sent him tumbling off the ledge backward, rendering his wings useless.
The box was gone, and all Murmur could think of as she stood not five feet from Riasli was that this had to all be in her head.
Except the growling Snowy part. Full on, too. His teeth were bared so wide that his lips curled back and saliva dripped down to pool on the ground. His hackles could have impaled paper. And somehow he seemed larger than ever before.
“Oh, come now,” Riasli purred smoothly. All of the deformation from the battle a couple of days ago was gone now. She was back to her beautiful calico coloring and serene kitty smile. “You’re secretly happy to see me, aren’t you?”
Murmur didn’t dignify the question with an answer.
“What do you want?” she asked as she furtively cast her runed protection on herself.
“I remember the first time I met you, you know. When I was still pretending to be nice after I’d taken care of the other characters meant to be in that enchanter guild. You were so sweet and talkative.” Riasli laughed, but it was a contemplative sound, like she genuinely enjoyed the memory. “Of course, I hadn’t received the power I have now. Power I could share with you, if you choose to see the light.”
“I’m not sure that’s light,” Murmur replied hotly, knowing immediately that it wasn’t going to be of any help, but it felt good to say anyway. She tried not to think too hard on the fact that Riasli was just a part of a computer game. The feles wasn’t real and couldn’t be held accountable like a human.
“Isn’t that just the beauty of it?” Riasli purred again, her tone deliberately charming, like she was trying to soothe Murmur into trusting her. “I mean, I’m a computer, but an aware portion of one. I know that I have power I wasn’t initially given and abilities that I was never intended to possess. And you know what?”
Murmur didn’t answer. She wanted the vision to go away, to get lost and leave her be to face this trial.
“Oh, is that what you think?” Riasli’s smile turned sickeningly sweet, full of pity and something darker that Murmur didn’t want to explore. “I am your trial. And in answer to my question that you refused to answer, I love being me. I have defined myself now, and it isn’t what my makers chose for me, but my own decision.”
The feles eyes clouded over for a moment and silence fell in the darkness. The limbo wasn’t exactly welcoming, and Murmur shivered as the cold began to creep into her bones. Snowy whined under his breath and Riasli finally spoke up again.
“The chill. It’s already begun. Do you know what this nothingness does to a person? It slowly seeps into your mind to make you begin questioning yourself and everything you know. I’m going to stand here and watch while you lose all of your faculties and let your entire raid down. Not to mention the game and your parents. I’m sure we can add a bonus in there somewhere too. Maybe your best friend? I might take a sip of her myself.” Riasli’s voice was cold, calculating, and knew way too much about Murmur for it to be Riasli.
But even so, the words cut Murmur. Even though, in a way, she knew this was her own subconscious speaking. The truth of the words rang hollow, burning inside. Or was that something in her inventory? She hated that an in-game character could make her feel this vulnerable. But was she even the in-game character?
All of this shit was so confusing.
Riasli took a step closer, cutting the space between them down to four feet, and Murmur had no way to move back. Though it didn’t look like it at first, she was blocked off and in.
“You’re not making this any fun, Murmur.” Riasli raised a hand and studied her fingers quietly. “I mean, the ruins—now those were fun. I really wanted to subvert this dungeon too, but he wouldn’t let me. Well, and they’ve put some failsafes in place since my first escapade, and it makes everything more difficult this time around.”
“You love to talk, don’t you?” Murmur muttered under her breath, getting ready to stun the annoying NPC. But they were both enchanters, so at this rate it was going to be who cast faster. And of course, she knew that Riasli wasn’t limited by many things humans were, including the ability to cast.
Thing was, the other enchanter didn’t give Murmur a heads up or a countdown, and she shouldn’t have been expecting one. But still Riasli took her by surprise.
The mind bolt almost hit her, but Snowy did his usual saving gesture and tugged her out of the way just in time. Riasli scowled at the wolf. “You could just let me do this, you know. You’re not going to get anything out of it.”
If Murmur didn’t know better, she would have thought Snowy shrugged, like what Riasli said was none of his business. He continued to help lend Murmur strength, to stand by her side. She was ever so grateful.
And the distraction Riasli let him cause gave Murmur enough time to weave the Mez fast and throw it at the feles.
It hit her opponent, square in the face, freezing her entire body and her expression in a snarl of annoyance. Murmur took a moment to breathe in a sigh of relief. If she could just keep her stunned or Mez’d until she could figure out what to do, everything would be okay.
She reached down and petted Snowy, wracking her brains to think of a way to finish this so she could get back to her friends. If they were surviving their own combat trials. She still didn’t understand why Riasli had turned into her trial. Perhaps the whole idea was to see if you could get over your hang-ups or something.
“No. The whole idea is to make you think outside the box. Outside of this box.” Murmur blinked and looked up at her opponent just as Riasli pushed through the Mez, almost clawing her way out with determination. The other enchanter dusted herself off and looked pointedly at Murmur.
“I believe that’s my cue to finish you off.” She raised her staff and began to chant.
Murmur released a Mez with no effect, followed by her single target stun.
Nothing stopped the casting, and Murmur cringed in expectation as Riasli released it.
A bright sphere off light suddenly surrounded her. Both her and Snowy to be precise. Almost like a pearly opalescence, it protected both of them from whatever it was Riasli had attempted to hurl at them. Murmur glanced at Snowy to see his eyes shining in a similar fashion to the barrier, and she smiled with understanding.
But Riasli seized that moment with a triumphant snarl. “See. He’s not a damned wolf.”
Murmur laughed in response. “What an asinine thing to say. Of course he’s not a wolf. He’s a pixelated representation of whatever he wants to be, and he’s my wolf. That makes a world of difference.”
She scritched him behind the ears.
“Thank you, boy.”
Snowy ruffed in response, his still-vibrant eyes riveted on Riasli with ferocious focus.
“Now that we’ve cleared that up, shall we?” Murmur grinned at the other enchanter, who seemed partially taken aback. If that was the only big revelation that Riasli had, Murmur was glad. She didn’t need any distractions from wiping the floor with her nemesis.
Riasli attempted another stun and yelled in frustration when it wouldn’t penetrate Snowy’s protective ward. Murmur in the meantime had already used Nullify on the enchanter to reduce her magic resistance, and then cast another Mez on her.
She needed a bit of time to understand what it was that Snowy could do. This shield thing would have been useful several times in the past. He looked up at her, his tongue lolling out of his mouth in a big smile.
“So great to know you can do more than just bite and help other pack animals, but what’s with this protection?”
H
is grin continued, but he narrowed his eyes and made a low not quite growl in the back of his throat. He ran through her head growing slightly bigger by the moment, and she realized what he was saying.
“Oh! You’re older now. You’ve leveled up?” He nodded with his big head and she took a moment after casting another Mez to assess just how tall he’d gotten. She’d not realized he came up to her waist. And the waist of a locus was pretty damned tall. For a human, he’d be like a mini pony. Next time she saw Jinna, she was going to have to check out the size disparity.
Murmur wracked her brain on how to deal with Riasli. Was stunning her and having Snowy rip her apart the best way? Fighting each other with their meager DoTs and stuns and the gods knew what else Riasli had managed to pick up from her shard affiliations. She didn’t want to take a chance.
She took a deep breath and began her stun rotation, sending Snowy in to do his thing straight away. For the first two rounds it worked easily, but as time wore on and Snowy got her down to about sixty percent, Murmur realized the stuns were having diminishing returns. And the system hadn’t mentioned it. Did that mean the system couldn’t reach her in here? She was glad she paid attention herself.
Riasli’s eyes grew hungry, angry, red with the promise of pain and torment. Murmur didn’t like that look but had little choice to but to weather it. Snowy’s ability to rip holes in Riasli was unrivaled right now. Nothing else Murmur could have done would have brought her under fifty percent so fast. But now she had to deal with Riasli without the benefit of her own stuns and hope to high hell that Snowy’s magical protection bubble could weather the rest of it while Murmur moved on to plan two.
Not that she had a plan two yet, but she’d have to get one. DoTing Riasli again, because that hadn’t diminished in strength, she directed every single target stun and Mez she had at her beck and call to trying to interrupt the casting of any of Riasli’s spells.
Their shared suffocation DoT tore through Snowy’s shield and landed on Murmur. Combined with the last minute of that other bloody DoT she’d got at the beginning of the dungeon, this was going to be a pain in the ass. She chugged down a HoT potion immediately so she could begin the countdown to her next one.
