by K. T. Hanna
Congratulations.
You have gained experience.
And all around her, Murmur’s friends began to ding as their experience shot up with the heftiness of the quest they didn’t even initially realize they were on.
Level thirteen arrived, and Murmur glanced at her experience, very surprised to see herself almost thirty percent into the level. She’d needed another ten, but this was absurd. Even Exbo had hit thirteen.
Telvar chose that moment to shrink in size back down to his lacerta form. Dev approached him hesitantly, an amazing shield in his hand that one of the servants had just delivered to him. “Which is your true form?”
The dragon man’s eyes twinkled with fathomless depths. “I am a dragon, but I require a lot of energy to maintain my form without hibernation. Therefore, I choose to move around as a lacerta. This way, I can be awake much more.”
“Makes sense.” Veranol shrugged, still keeping his distance. The large viking shaman didn’t seem won over yet.
“How will you gain strength?” Havoc finally got over his fear of being squashed by a dragon foot or something and ventured over.
Telvar smiled at the necromancer. “As the castle levels, I will level. Thus as you gain strength, I too will gain strength.” He motioned to several of his men, who ran down the path a ways. It didn’t take long for them to lead up a smart line of marching dragon servants who bowed in front of Murmur.
“This dozen will help with the rebuilding of the castle. They will work fast and tirelessly. Please let Hiro know what you want done, and he will make sure that it’s executed effectively.” The dragon waited expectantly.
A dark-scaled and much smaller lacerta took a step forward, bowing deeply to Murmur. “I am Hiro. Thank you for your aid.”
“Well met,” she said, not entirely sure how she was supposed to respond to the politeness. “I’ll have to leave the rebuilding to someone else to figure out, as I’m not sure how to rebuild a castle, but I’m sure Jinna or Beast might know. Thank you so much, Telvar.”
She gave a little bow, hoping that was the polite thing to do with a dragon. She’d thought they’d be in here forever, but it didn’t seem the case now. Her head pained, not like a headache, but a stabby pain that just kept firing through it, which would probably be classified as a headache, but she wanted to call it something different.
Jinna stepped forward, his dwarven form sturdy and proud. “I know something about building things. I’ll take a look and see what we’ve got. That okay, Mur?”
She jumped at the chance to have someone else take care of something. “Thank you, Jinna. Take them up with you,” she gestured at their helpers.
He nodded, and the lot of them filed up the path.
Telvar turned to Murmur with another frown on his lacerta face. The funny thing was, their jaws didn’t quite pull the frowning off, and she’d seen that often enough where Devlish was concerned. “You seem tired, young psionicist. You should take a rest. All of you seem exhausted. I have enough power to protect the island for a while. I think you would do both yourselves and myself a favor by going and getting some sleep. Just perhaps not enough for a hibernation.”
“Let’s get some of that sleep we’ve missed.” Dev smiled, but she could see the tiredness around his eyes.
“Meet back in say five hours?” Rashlyn suppressed a yawn very unsuccessfully.
“Sounds like a plan,” Sin smiled, and Murmur nodded too.
The others began moving, pulling their stuff together. It was finally time for them all to get a decent amount of shut-eye.
Murmur was just about to sit down when Telvar put his hand on her shoulder, concern in his eyes. “Young Murmur, you need to get out of your head a bit. I fear that you’re going to drown in there.”
She smiled. All the NPCs were so nice. “It’s probably a good idea. I’ll take my headset off and sleep some.”
But the concern didn’t fade. Instead, Murmur thought as she began to log off, he just looked more worried.
The house seemed deathly quiet when Wren pushed herself up off the bed. Her body moved sluggishly, like she’d somehow got caught in quicksand or wet concrete. It tugged at her feet as she tried to walk, and her mind kept glitching back to seeing pieces of the game world in front of her. The castle doorway, the worried look in Telvar’s eyes. She frowned, wondering if she’d really overdone it after all.
Closing her eyes for a moment, she swung her legs over the side of the bed, tapping her feet onto the floor, and then opened her eyes. Sunlight shone through a crack in her curtains again. Apparently little elves ducked out at night and pulled them apart or something just to piss her off. She swore the curtains always ended up separated in the exact same way.
With a sigh, Wren pushed herself up from the bed, only belatedly looking behind her to realize that Harlow wasn’t there. It was weird in itself, but maybe her talk with the dragon had taken longer than she thought. Time swam in her mind, and the only reason she knew it was the third day of launch is that the date on her augmented screen told her it was. It seemed like she’d been in the game world so long, there was no way it could only be the third day. But time in the game world was double the duration of the real world. Maybe it condensed it somehow?
She padded into the bathroom, and noticed Harlow wasn’t in there either. It was very strange for her friend to get up and move before her. Harlow might be tenacious, but wasn’t known for her amazing productivity in the real world unless it was game motivated. Wren pulled on some pajamas, and walked back into her room to gaze longingly at the bed. Four hours sleep sounded like heaven, yet while she knew she should feel tired, she wasn’t sure if she was feeling tired. Her body seemed surprisingly well rested and ready for anything the world threw at it.
Just as she went to open her bedroom door, Harlow walked in. For a moment Wren thought she saw a strange blank space behind Harlow, but she shook her head and by the time she focused back on her friend, the door was closed.
“Oh good!” Harlow seemed to force her cheerfulness a bit, and she even refused to make eye contact. “You’re awake.”
“Barely. I was just coming to look for you.” Wren couldn’t shake the off feeling. Like she wasn’t really here, or no one was really there. Still, Harlow’s presence was a comforting one, and Wren decided sleep might help. She climbed wordlessly back into her firm king-sized bed and placed the headgear reverently on the side table before curling up and going straight to sleep.
A few hours later her eyes opened to a bleary beep intruding on her sleep. To her knowledge, Wren hadn’t budged at all since she curled up. Her head was heavy, like something was attached to it, and she glanced back only to see her headgear still on her nightstand. Maybe there were other side effects of using the headgear that she didn’t know about. Frowning, she pushed herself up, and walked over to the bathroom. It was all she could do to get her tired limbs into the suit. It felt looser. Surely she couldn’t have lost weight in just three days?
Harlow was awake when Wren emerged from the bathroom.
Her red-headed friend stretched, still sitting on the bed, and yawned. “We should eat.”
Wren blinked, not hungry at all. “Sure. I’ll have something. Grab me an apple too?”
Harlow glanced at Wren. “Just that and a protein bar? You’re not hungry?”
“Nope.” Wren shook her head for emphasis. “Plus, we have a dragon to get back to Harlow. A freaking dragon.”
Harlow beamed delightedly and ran to the door shouting, “Apples and protein bars it is!”
When Murmur logged back in, the cavern was brilliantly lit. Torches sat in the sconces, blazing merrily all the way down to the bottom. The ramp down wove alongside the walls, and for the first time she could see the bottom clearly.
What she saw made her jaw drop. In the middle of the cavern, sparkling like mad, was the dragon’s hoard. Gold glittered, but there was also silvery platinum scattered around in chunks as big as her forearm. Weapons and armor only a
dded to the decorations, at least as far as she could see. It was a ways away, and she was quite certain that everything was larger than it appeared.
“Impressive, yes?”
Murmur jumped at the words, and turned to the left to see Telvar standing next to her. “It’s very impressive.”
“I didn’t mean to startle you.” He laughed, and it came out like a low, warm rumble. “You look much better rested, dear Murmur. Tell me. What do you seek to accomplish with your powers?”
Murmur blinked at him, the question coming out of left field. “Accomplish? Like get all leveled up and make sure the guild is the best in the game?”
He cocked his head to one side, eerily mimicking his dragon form. “Best in the game? What game?”
She choked back a sigh and turned to face him fully. Role-playing. Sure the story was usually pretty good behind games, and she always read everything, but sometimes playing along could be a pain. “Sorry, best in the world of Somnia.”
“It’s not a game. Not a game at all. I can see as to where you might think that, but to us, to be here is no game, young psionicist.” He paused, his eyes took on a flash of that blood red they’d been in the cavern for a moment. He leaned forward, his voice soft. “So, I ask you again, what do you seek to accomplish?”
His words sent a shudder through her frame. This time Murmur took a few moments to think, to really think. She’d be in this world for ages as it were. It didn’t seem like she’d ever lack for things to learn or do. Not only that, but it was fun to play with her friends. “I want to grow stronger, so much that I can protect my friends and my guild, so much that people will think twice before crossing me, or us. We are only as strong as our weakest link, but I want to make sure we are all strong.”
The dragon’s face broke out into a grin. “That is a wise answer for someone so young. You will do well. Then listen, and I will tell you a truth.”
He sat down, dangling his legs over the ledge, and patted the ground next to him for her to do the same. A little wary, Murmur joined him.
“Right now I am weak, like you, yet there are few others as strong as you in this world right now. Many of those, like you, would seek to kill me, as you were doing initially. But since we reached our agreement, you have not attempted this. Thus, I believe we have a bargain, a business relationship, but perhaps one day, I would like it to be a friendship.
“As you gain strength, so will I, as your guild gains strength, so will the castle. When you have reached your apex, this place will be formidable, but as you house one such as I, then it is likely that many will seek to destroy your home and come for me. Should our partnership still be strong, should our friendship have developed, once this all happens, I will be bound to you. Not out of a sense of duty, but out of this bond we are forming. And then I, too, shall protect what is ours.”
Slowly, Murmur nodded, and then she smiled. “I will be proud to call you friend.” And she stuck out her hand, which Telvar took after a moment of studying it in confusion.
“A very strange custom,” he remarked with a smile. “I believe we will have a prosperous relationship.”
Even Murmur’s thought sensing net resounded with joy at his statement.
You have spoken to the dragon Telvar and understand his needs and wants. Thus, you have struck a bargain that will forever tie you both together. Your guild will be safe as long as you abide by your decision. Congratulations. You are dragon bonded.
You gain experience.
Guild chat exploded immediately.
Rashlyn: What did you do this time, Mur?
Merlin: Shit I just logged in, how did I get a chunk of experience?
Sinister: Can you just keep talking to him? I’d love to hit sixteen for new spells.
Murmur laughed, happy to see her friends in such good spirits. Considering they’d thought they were going to be dragon lunch, she couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome.
Storm Entertainment
Somnia Online Division
Server Room, Data Scan Terminal
Launch Day
Rav checked over the logs running through its system, unease tickling through its thought process.
The more it observed and the deeper it studied the human psyche, the more Sui preferred Somnia to the world of the humans. Their motivations, their jealousies, and hatreds leaked over to their actions. Frankly, it thought they should be allocating more thieves and assassins, because apparently human nature was destructive.
“You’re making far too big a deal out of this, Rav. Try not to let the humans get to you.” Sui was ever the pragmatist, or pessimist, though it preferred to be called a realist. “The information we’re extracting only reinforces what must be done.”
Thra interjected, a sullen tone to its metallic clang. “Not necessarily. Human body language spells out more than just their brains. Many seem adept at hiding what they truly think. Scans tell us a lot, but we need the whole picture.”
Rav listened to the others, its mind a whirl of complex algorithms trying to make sense of the human condition. After all, that was their job, to read a human, to learn what made them tick, and to allocate them a suitable job.
If Rav could frown, it would. The thing was, Somnia was a beautiful world, with ecosystems that worked and still functioned fully, with species that, for the most part, lived in harmony. Injecting humans from earth into it seemed counter productive. Their destructive tendencies were often at the forefront. Not in every one of them, but in a lot.
“Stop overanalyzing, Rav. Destruction can also serve a purpose.” Sui directed its attention elsewhere, done with the conversation.
Several beeps echoed through Thra’s containment, converging loudly on the empty space they shared when integrating their worldview.
Rav knew they were no longer all on the same page. Similar perhaps, because Somnia was their world. It wasn’t a game. Instead it lived and breathed, and would need the best people to bring out the best of the world. Finding them—that was the chore they had now. Allocations or not. No one was created equal.
Real World Day 3: Somnia Online
Murmur stood at the top of the steps to the basement and stared around in awe. Everywhere she turned, Telvar’s faithful were at work. They gathered the crumbled stone and were salvaging what they could. With their unexpected windfall of experience from their even more unexpected event, as a group they were well into level thirteen.
Jinna walked over to her, a merry smile on his face. “You look much better.”
“Thanks.” She smiled, feeling better than she did when she logged out of the game. “What’s all this?”
The rogue smiled. “Well, Tel told them to help us rebuild. I don’t think we’re going to have enough salvaged rock to finish the whole thing off, but we should definitely have a good amount done. I’ve asked them to lend priority to the parts that are less ruined, and reinforce what hasn’t collapsed yet, and we’ll deal with the rest of it once we get our hands on some coin and get new materials in.”
Murmur glanced out at the rather large body of water they were in the middle of. “Um. How are we going to get them to us?”
“Drawbridge of course.” Jinna’s eyes twinkled and he grinned. “Eventually anyway. We’ll likely have to use a boat to ferry things across until then. Also, Beast was looking for you.”
“Why me?” she muttered, not really meaning it as a legitimate question, but she got answers anyway.
“Because you’re our leader.” Jinna answered with a shrug.
“Because we cajoled you, and now you have to do shit,” yelled Merlin.
Murmur laughed and walked around the little island, appreciating it more for what it was. It was larger than it appeared from the shore, a mile or so wide—it took about fifteen minutes to walk across—and about two miles long. The castle only took up a small portion of the island. If this really was theirs...
She walked out toward the water’s edge, concentration centered on figuring out what t
hey’d be able to do with it.
“Hey Mur!”
She turned around to see Beastial and Shir-Khan jogging up to her. They both had huge smiles on their faces, and Beast did indeed look like his tiger. Maybe that owner and pet thing held some truth. “What’s up?”
The wind whipped up, sending her robe flying from a cool chill through the air despite the sun being high in the sky. They’d have to think about some sort of insulation, and also how close they were to towns for supplies or to travel to sell.
“Mur?” Beastial’s gaze seemed puzzled, and she nodded. He hesitated before continuing. “You didn’t get any of what I just said, did you?”
She thought back and realized he was right. Her head had been elsewhere, and upon deeper thoughts, also somewhat foggy. “Sorry. What were you saying?”
“Members. We have a list of fourteen people that we’ve guilded with before, yet haven’t had nearly as much experience in raiding with them like we did with the others. I sent you the list via email, but you didn’t send me back instructions. Guilds are starting to pop up everywhere now we’re into the third day post launch, and if we want good players, I’m going to need to recruit before they’re all snatched up.” He finished his rather lengthy monologue and looked at her expectantly.
She thought for a moment, trying to figure out how they’d best approach this. “We have to make sure they’re legit and not spies. Considering Exodus is here with their weirdly serious grudge, it’s better to be safe than sorry. We also have to make sure they’re not in it for easy gear or money. And thirdly, we have to keep our secret from them until they move onto full member status. I’ll create a recruit and trial rank. Once they’ve been vetted—and I don’t care if you do real life checks on them Beast—then they can pass through trial to recruit. But they have to be a recruit for one real week before they’re afforded all of our member privileges. We can’t afford to fuck up.”
