Initializing

by K. T. Hanna

  “I don’t wanna,” Rashlyn pouted.

  Devlish smiled, “Well, let’s not give them advance warning of our arrival. Rangers scout ahead—let us know if they have any lookouts as well.”

  The group spread out, and began to tread the way to the south side of the forest, but Jinna stopped Murmur, grabbing her arm briefly. His brow was furrowed and he looked like he didn’t know what to say.

  “What is it?” Murmur asked, a little worried.

  “That move. That move Jirald used.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what it is. And I’ve unlocked two hidden abilities, involving sneak attacks. But that one is not from our normal school, and it’s not one of the hidden ones I’ve found. Be careful, please, Mur. There’s something about him that makes me uneasy.”

  Murmur forced herself to move, feeling the knot in her stomach twist as they hurried after the groups.

  It was difficult to make their way quietly through the forest given all of the foliage scattered throughout it, but they did their best, hoping they only sounded like large wild animals. Murmur glanced at her stats several times.

  Thought Sensing 48

  Thought Shielding 49

  Thought Projection 31

  Apparently she was using the hell out of Thought Projections without so much as a...thought.

  She really needed to stop laughing at her own jokes, especially since in this case it was in rather poor taste.

  What the hell was she doing that made her project so much?

  Sinister: You okay? You seem a little off.

  I’m okay, just a bit jumpy since Jirald pulled that shit.

  Sinister: OMG I WAS ABOUT TO KILL HIM!

  Calm down, Sin. I’m okay, and I’ll be fine as long as I stick with my friends.

  Sinister: Just don’t go anywhere without me, okay? I worry.

  I promise.

  Sinister: Liar

  Murmur couldn’t think of another response, so she let the conversation die there. They finally caught up with where Merlin and Exbo stood waiting for them. From their position behind the trees, they could just spy one of the lookout towers. They were made out of tightly bound wooden planks with multiple levels.

  “How are we supposed to take one of those out, without alerting the whole goddamned village beneath?” Beastial whispered in a harsh voice.

  Merlin shrugged. “I could, potentially maybe, one shot it if I manage to get the shot through the eyeball and use my In the Lights of Their Eyes hidden skill.”

  “Could you both do it?” Murmur crept forward.

  “What, you mean take an eyeball each and hope at least one of us hits?”

  Murmur nodded.

  Merlin shrugged and spoke softly. “I mean I’m willing to try it, but these things don’t tether, and there are no guards here to save our asses.”

  “I literally only just activated it. I don’t even get how it works yet.” Exbo fidgeted, his eyes downcast.

  “It’s easy, I’ll explain it to you.” Merlin grinned at the other ranger, and the tension dissipated.

  Murmur thought for a few more seconds. “I wonder if I can charm it. Like charm it, have it kill the other lookout up there, and then just park it until we work through some of the village.”

  Havoc looked at her, the others stared at her. “That’s pretty fucking brilliant actually. If the charm fails, you have that instant distance stun, right?”

  Murmur nodded again, her grin widening. “We just need better line of sight for me.”

  “Without him seeing us, of course.” Merlin tsked under his breath.

  Turning to Rashlyn, Murmur smiled. “We’ll take care of the lookouts first, and then you guys can take the right side, and we’ll take the left.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” The monk gave Murmur a quick hug. “Don’t let that fucker get you down, Mur. You’re pretty damned special.”

  Touched, Murmur hugged her friend briefly in return. There was no need to get all soppy now. “How about we just go level like a bat out of hell and become the most amazing guild on the server.”

  “Oh, I like your plan better.” Rash grinned, and everyone began to creep forward.

  It didn’t take long for Murmur to move into range, and they managed to hide behind a tree trunk that seemed like a blindspot for the weird gnolls. She stood with the two rangers, waiting for the right time to hit the closest lookout. “You two fire at the second one as I charm the first, and that way I can direct the pet to finish off the second if you don’t manage it. Remember, these guys are ridiculously clever.”

  Time seemed to slow as the rangers drew their bows while Murmur cast her spell. She released it a split second before they did, and it hit the level sixteen mob, instantly charming him. The arrows hit home in the other mob a split second later and the second lookout fell to the ground, twitching. Murmur directed her pet to sit and stay where it was, and the first step was complete.

  She smiled up at Exbo and Merlin. “I can just leave him there, or I can call him around the back way to us?”

  Devlish had crept forward to see how they were doing. “I’d say bring him here. The lookouts don’t seem very strong, but as far as I can see, the villagers are all group elites.”

  Directing her little pet to use the rear staircase and skirt the outer trees away from the village and to come and find her, Murmur soothed its thoughts and walked back to the group to set up for their demolition of the village.

  The sound of pounding feet stopped her in her tracks, and suddenly her lookout appeared, rounding the corner, running for its life with a group of eight mobs running after it.

  And they all looked really pissed off.

  Storm Entertainment

  Somnia Online Division

  Software Development Team Offices

  Second day—Morning

  “What do you mean the transcripts are gone?” Shayla pinched the bridge of her nose between her forefinger and thumb and tried, probably in vain, to will away the headache she knew was coming.

  James colored a bright shade of red that did nothing for his sallow complexion. “The transcripts. The initial transcripts from all the meetings Ava coordinated, they’re gone. They were in her folders, and now they’re gone.”

  He held his hands up to the side in a shrugging sort of helpless motion. James squared his shoulders and looked his boss right in the eyes. “I’ve asked the data extrapolation team if they could look into it for me, and they’re assigning a couple of guys to give her server the once over. It could even be a glitch.”

  Shayla’s shoulders sagged, and she half fell into her office chair. Who on earth would even want Ava’s meeting notes? “This launch is vital to our company. Everything we’re doing here is integral to the continuance of not only our employment, but also to that of anyone else wanting to enter the virtual technology circuit. And let’s not forget the monetary support for this whole project is backed by the military for very specific reasons no one seems to want to let me know about.”

  “I know.” James said, and his eyes searched her office. Shayla waited for him to finish. There were no personal pictures, no cutesy office decoration items, except one random glass turtle paperweight that she used whenever she had actual paper on her desk.

  He finally continued. “The minutes have to be there. She had so many discussions with him—they can’t all disappear into thin air. She spoke about him all the time.”

  Shayla nodded, wondering how none of them had thought to double check. “Thank you for checking, James. Can you keep trying please? I’ll see if I have time to dig some stuff up from my end, but all I have are the doodles I wrote myself, from the earlier meetings. If we don’t have the ones only Ava attended, then we can’t compare anything at all.”

  He nodded, swallowing as his eyes darted back and forth, as if he wanted to ask something. “Can I get you anything?”

  She smiled, and her eyes seemed tired. “Not unless you can manage an infusion of youth into my old bones.”

&
nbsp; James laughed. “You’re not old.”

  “No.” Shayla shook her head. “I’m not, but I sure as hell feel like it.”

  He left the room and headed down the hall toward Laria’s office determined to get some answers. Shayla was acting out of sorts, the data extrapolation team seemed to be angry over some strange output mechanism they couldn’t fix in the reports, and Laria was being far too quiet about everything.

  Laria wasn’t known for being quiet.

  Real World Day 3: Somnia Online

  “Oh, shit.” Devlish turned, already sprinting. “Run!”

  “They’re not going to tether.” Murmur muttered, extending a raid invitation to Rash so they could better coordinate for the incoming shitstorm.

  “Will need a ward or five.” She picked one off in the distance, and then another. Two Mez’d, six to go, and the gnolls were upon them. Caught in the thick of the group, she area effect stunned them, allowing her to Mez two more, and insta-stun another as one of Veranol’s wards slammed over her.

  “Peel one off me each, Dev, Rash.”

  The third one was bashing against her with a vicious looking club, and while she had a decent ward on, she still grunted with the impact. She managed to Mez the bashing gnoll, but not before the ward fell and it smacked her arm good. The sharp tacks on the end of the club scraped gouges in her forearm. A yell tore from her throat and for a few moments she felt a little dizzy as the Mez hit. Her stun about to break, she quickly took care of that one, and began refreshing her Mezes from the start. Then she started debuffing with Nullify, followed by a Mez on each mob to bring their magic resistance down and help with resists.

  “This will be close,” she grunted out through clenched teeth. The level sixteen mobs weren’t a joke. “I’m barely going to be able to keep these guys Mez’d, so you need to take care of those as quickly as possible.”

  Murmur’s pain levels stung through her head, making it hard for her to concentrate. She could have used Phase Shift, but she didn’t, even though she knew that failing to use it could cause her mastery to lessen. She was still a bit scared of her Mental Acuity skills. They were effective, and yet the backlash on her was unpredictable. Maybe deadly.

  She stood up a little straighter when Sin managed to shoot a heal over to her, but the wound was still bleeding, probably poisoned. She’d need a cure, but that could wait. It wasn’t bad enough that it’d kill her. Yet.

  Keeping six mobs Mez’d with a spell that lasted twenty-four seconds was not fun, and resists made it all the more treacherous. Murmur looked back at the groups with a frown that overshadowed her pride in their teamwork. Both mobs were almost dead. Relief was within reach!

  Refreshing the Mezes, again she watched in slow motion as the current targets died, and the others pulled the next two. Her hands shook slightly as she readied them for the inevitable wave of Mezes she’d have to cast next.

  Beast’s pet swiped at two too close together, and the four nearby Mezes broke, and while two of them converged on their respective tanks, the other two came right at Murmur.

  “Shit. Shit.” She activated her area effect stun when the two were close enough, but one resisted and broke through to her, tearing at her skin. Puncture wounds sent blood gushing from her arms, splattering into the undergrowth. She screamed and Mez’d it while one of its claws was hooked into her arm. Unable to pause, she stunned the other, knowing she still had to re-Mez the ones in the back.

  Tears ran down her face, and blood seeped out of multiple wounds, running down her body to drip at her feet like spilled paint.

  She coughed up blood too, refusing to watch her health and trusting her healers. Pain tore through her body like she was being ripped open. But the heals weren’t raising her health. They were sending heals. They were. But her health stayed dangerously low. She got the mobs back under control and stumbled back to lean against a tree, wishing now she’d called for that initial cure. With so many wounds and poisons working through her system now, fighting it became difficult. But if she died now, their groups would be overrun.

  Activating a singular Phase Shift, she shifted the most recent attacker into the oblivion of its own mind. She was unsure how long it would remain there, but was also too tired to care. Then she shifted the farthest one as well, and a dull pounding began in her head. She mentally cursed Belius. These abilities might seem fantastic but were a literal pain.

  Murmur coughed again and slumped against the tree trunk, her head swimming.

  “I got the other one close to you, just try and rest.” She could hear Dansyn’s voice, but it seemed so far away. Her Mental Acuity was down to forty-five, and only slowly increasing.

  She nodded, and saw the other two finally fall. The guild took Dansyn’s opponent and the other Mez’d one, and the phase shifts were still holding.

  “Dan?” She coughed, a wet, rough sound. “Can you make sure they don’t...can you do both?”

  He knelt down quickly, and looked her in the eyes. “Hey, don’t worry. I can do two. You rest.”

  Murmur smiled, and coughed again, pain wracking her frame like she was on some sort of torture device. Her head swam, and her arms ached. Looking down at them, she could barely recognize them as limbs. Necrosis was beginning to form around the wounds the gnolls had inflicted. A pustulant fragrance rose from the holes, making her want to lean over and empty her stomach. She could even see her veins as the poison traveled up farther and farther in glowing light that added a sickly green to her usual subtle purple undertone, all despite Veranol’s cures hitting her whenever he could. Who the fuck thought this much immersion was a good idea. She started to feel like she really might die.

  It only managed to backtrack a fraction before the venom charged its way ahead again. With two mobs in thrall by Dansyn, and the groups still fighting two, Murmur didn’t think she’d make it to see the end of the fight, but she was pretty sure the others would survive. So they could resurrect her.

  She smiled, interrupted only by the grimace of pain streaking through her body, and rested her head against the kind tree behind her as she sank down to the ground. Her pet had died somewhere along the way. Next time she’d have to be more careful with commands. At least no one else would die for something that was ultimately her fault.

  “I’m so sorry, Mur,” she heard Sinister’s voice but couldn’t really focus.

  “Poison is definitely the shittiest way to die.” She laughed, coughing up more blood. The tang in her mouth was foul, as if she could taste the toxins in her own blood.

  As Dansyn brought the final two to the group, Murmur closed her eyes and let the beckoning darkness claim her.

  When Murmur opened her eyes, everything was dark. In the distance she could hear a soft dripping sound, like someone had left a tap on, or else a shower. While there was no light, she could tell the place she was in was vast. Air rippled through it like a current through water, which was when she noticed her hands were wet. Unsure if it was water or blood, Murmur brought it to her nose to sniff.

  It held no smell, not even that sort of fresh smell of water, which was strange unto itself. She frowned, trying to see better in the light, and knowing her locus vision should be kicking in. After all, she’d never died before and hadn’t thought to ask Sin or Exbo what it was like.

  “Hello?” She called into the darkness, only belatedly realizing she probably shouldn’t have done that in case there was anything in there that meant her harm.

  Pushing herself up, it seemed she retained no damage right now except for the lightheadedness that just wouldn’t go away. Her arms felt a little numb, prickling sensations working their way up them. She shook them to try and wake them up fully, but if her arms had had mouths, they would have laughed at her.

  “Ah, you’re awake.”

  A voice echoed throughout the expanse. At first it sounded a little like Belius, and yet, not quite.

  “No, I’m not technically Belius, though he and I share many goals, in a way.” There was a
faintly metallic chuckle.

  “Where am I?” Murmur wanted a sense of grounding so she could figure out how to get out of this place. “Am I dead?”

  “No. No, not quite.” And suddenly she saw a figure, shadowy but non-threatening, enter her vision and stop about ten feet in front of her. “This, dear Murmur, is your mind.”

  “My mind?” She raised an eyebrow skeptically, trying to place the voice she was certain she’d heard before. “My mind is a big black box.”

  The hooded figure nodded their head. “Exactly. Sort of like an airplane, where you can see everything that has happened and extrapolate what might occur in the future. A representation of the mind if you will.”

  “So, I haven’t died, I’m just stuck in my mind?” She mulled the words over for a few moments and realized that could be the moments before in-game death.

  “Your mind is very unique in this world, Murmur,” the shade continued.

  “Everyone keeps saying that,” she muttered, irritated by it already. Cocking her head to the side, she put her hands on her hips defiantly. “I don’t get why.”

  The shade took a step back, studying her, its hand on its chin. “Why, perhaps you do not understand after all. I find that quite tantalizing.”

  “Know what?” She yelled it, sick of everyone else deciding what she did or didn’t understand.

  “That is something you must figure out for yourself, not something I can tell you. Telling you may cause a backlash in your brain, figuring it out will help you grow. And if nothing else, I do not wish to damage you in any way.” The shade’s voice almost sounded, fond of her, and yet she didn’t think they’d met.

  “Then what do you want? Hurry up, I need to get back to dying so my friends can revive me and we can kill shit.” She was irritated, angry, and for some reason suddenly famished.

  “You cannot die, or I should say, it could be bad for you to die in your current state. Thus, right now, you are not dead, and your friends are trying valiantly to revive you, barely keeping the poison at bay. You really should have asked for a cure earlier. Your health is hovering right next to bleeding out.” The shade took a couple of steps closer and hesitated.