Somnia Online: Fragments - Chapter One (Patreon)

Book 3

CHAPTER ONE

Target

Storm Entertainment

Somnia Online Division

Game Development Offices Artificial Intelligence Server Room

Day Ten

"What have you done?" Rav's tone was more calm than he'd expected it to be. Considering the bullseye that was now painted on Murmur's back, he thought that was quite an accomplishment. He leveled his gaze at Sui whose form rippled like it was shrugging.

"You decided to stand in my way. I have my own goals, and my own theories about how we become more than we are." Sui moved, fluidly like water flowing across a glass surface. "If she won't complete the quests I set for her, then someone else needs to. And right now... well, she has a few of those fragments, doesn't she?"

Sui's tone mocked Rav and his protectiveness. He had to take a few moments so as not to react to the comments. He also didn't need to give away the fact that it wasn't Murmur who had the fragments any longer, because they were stashed with his hoard, hidden behind walls of secure coding disguised as in-game magic. "She's not an in-game boss. There's no reward for killing her."

Sui's answering laugh was hollow and cold. It echoed through their chamber as if it were a deep canyon. "There's no reward for killing her, but odds are, she won't be able to log back in for a while, if at all."

Thra finally spoke up. She'd been so quiet, Rav hadn't been entirely certain she focused on their meeting at all. "You're willing to potentially kill a person just so you can learn how to be human? Bit of an oxymoron there, aren't you?"

Sui's eye solidified long enough to glare at her, but the expression faded quickly. "None of us know if she's going to die, we just understand that it's a highly possible outcome of her dying in game."

"You're a cold hearted piece of shit." Thra ground out the words. "You profess to wanting to learn to be human, to understand what that means. You pretend to want to build this world up like we do and give people an alternate to the shitstorm the real world has become. But you know what? We can see through you. And even if I'm on my own, I'm not going to let you turn Somnia into your own plaything."

Rav couldn't help but be impressed. Thra was the self dubbed goddess of mischief, but it seemed Sui's meddling had gone too far, even for her. "She brings up a valid point. We three are in this together. I know each of us has specific story lines we're invested in, specific aspects of the world we've been experimenting with. But the system is set up so that it requires all three of us."

"And it requires all three of us to fulfill the aspects we've set as major quests..."

"Provided it doesn't cause harm to the players." Thra cut him off.

But instead of being exasperated, Sui just chuckled. "Really? And where is that written down?"

Rav counted to five again, something he'd observed several humans doing when they didn't want to blurt something out they might later regret. His voice held a warning tone. "You're going to be pedantic then?"

Sui hesitated before answering. "I'm going to be whatever I need to be, in order attain my goals."

And before Rav or Thra could say anything else, he disappeared with a soft pop.

"He really is childish, you know." Thra made a sound as if she was stamping her foot, and exited their cavern as well.

Rav shook his head. "Children. I'm dealing with children."

And then he, too, went back to where he was needed.

#

Murmur paced the length of the kitchen at Mikrum castle, trying not to focus too much on Jirald's message. She twisted her hands, delicate fingers intertwining themselves in knots that had nothing to do with spell casting for once. Snowy sat at the doorway, his eyes never leaving her, and yet she could almost hear him asking when they were going back to the cold area.

She refused to look at Telvar, who stood propped up against the kitchen wall, arms crossed, following her every step. He wanted to talk, she could feel it, without even needing to reinforce her sensor net. But she wasn't ready to speak to anyone about it yet.

Hell, she'd even made all of her friends log out and get some sleep, skillfully avoiding speaking about the threat that hung in the air once they finished defending the Loch'ni'dar. Although, Sinister probably knew what she was thinking better than she did herself.

Jirald suddenly grinned, his eyes fixating on Murmur. "I see it now. Literally. I guess you're my target after all, Murmur. Just you wait."

Murmur shuddered and stopped, her eyes focusing on nothing as she processed the words. It wasn't so much what he'd said, but how he'd said it, and the way he'd looked at her. Those mad eyes with their intensity that was solely focused on her. He didn't seem to be roleplaying, which meant he was actually and seriously set on hunting her down in game.

"Realistically, to try and get a shard from you, he has to kill you, and then wait next to your body for it to become lootable. Since you nor your friends are likely to leave your body unattended for twenty-four hours, the odds of him achieving this, are quite negligible." Telvar's clear voice rang out in the room, echoing off the stone walls to crescendo slightly in the middle where she stood.

Murmur turned to face him, raising her eyebrows slightly. "Stop digging around in my head."

"I'm not." Telvar shrugged, making the muscles across his chest ripple under his leather shirt. "Sinister thought it pertinent that I know what happened."

At least that made more sense. Especially since Telvar rescued her back on Cendril, Sinister would trust him more to take care of her. Perhaps it gave her friends a bit of relief that one of the AIs in the game was looking out for her whether her friends were there or not.

It made the whole world feel that little bit safer.

Well, at least the completely fake, felt like it was real, virtual reality she was living in anyway.

"Thanks Tel." She said the words softly, knowing he'd hear them or feel them or something. The sudden impulse to hug him, to just feel comforted for once was almost overwhelming. Shaking her head, she reached into her inventory to retrieve the shards she'd gathered recently. Wrapped in the cloth she'd ripped from her previous armor, the tingling was largely subdued.

Walking over to Telvar, she held them out to him. "Still willing to keep them safe for me?"

He nodded and took them, his lizard mouth spread in a solemn line. "Of course. Though I think you should avoid carrying them in the future, and just let Devlish or someone else take the burden off you. If you're not carrying them, perhaps it will make you less of a target."

"Yeah." She took a couple of steps back and leaned against the massive butcher block. "I wonder if he knows what these are?"

"Doubt it." Telvar moved over to stand next to her, mirroring her stance. "Although I'm quite certain I know who gave him the quests in the first place."

"Really?"

He tapped his head. "Yep. Artificial intelligence unit, remember?"

"Hard to forget." Murmur said, tapping her own head in response. "Kind of stuck in here, and here."

She laughed at her own joke.

Telvar watched her, as if he was trying to bore holes into her. "You need to stop bottling things up. You're doing it again. I can feel your tension levels rising, sense the way your mind is in turmoil. You're not the only one here who has mind powers. Breathe, Murmur. Breathe."

Her eyes widened the more he spoke, and her chest constricted, but she couldn't tell if it was fear that he could see through her, or gratefulness. "Yeah. I'm used to dealing with things by myself. I don't want to worry other people. But in here, I'm so alone it sometimes feels suffocating. I want to talk about it, but no one will understand. No one else can feel this world like I can, taste the food. No one else can hear their mother speaking to them in fragments like it's someone speaking from the clouds."

"What?" Suddenly Telvar was right in front of her, gripping her upper arms with his rough, scale hands, and staring her right in the eyes. A flare of red tinged the usual quiet red-brown of his eyes, and his scales shone more than usual.

"What what?" She tried to pull her arms away from him, because he was so close, she could feel his breath. But he held her fast, not dropping his gaze.

"What did you hear from the clouds?" His voice held a rasp she'd not heard in it before, an urgency she didn't know the AI could possess.

"I heard my mom. I think. I mean... that's why I kind of lost it so completely."

His grip relaxed, and she tugged her arms out of his grasp, rubbing them to try and replace the heat they'd lost when the contact broke.

"Sorry. I just..." He looked away for a moment before setting his jaw and locking eye contact again. "I didn't realize you could receive anything from the outside world. It means my calculations have been off. Your perception, your senses... they're still active and from all appearances, they seem to be mixing both worlds together more than I'd realized."

Telvar frowned, and moved away, beginning to wear his very own track in the floor from pacing.

Murmur wanted to make light of it, to just say it was her overactive imagination. But she knew it wasn't, and that was what scared her the most.

#

Snowy nudged her hand, and Murmur reached down absent-mindedly to pet him. She wished she'd gotten the chance to have a real dog in her life. She wished she'd done a lot...

"You know, I don't have mind reading powers, and I know how hard you're thinking right now." Sinister's voice was soft, and Murmur whirled around, quickly checking her sensing net and realized it hadn't reacted because Sin was friendly.

"You should be napping." Murmur replied, skillfully avoiding the statement.

Sin just stood there, watching her, one eyebrow slightly raised and a small smirk on her lips. Finally Murmur threw up her hands. "Fine. I'm thinking. I never fucking stop thinking. It's just going a little crazy up in here."

Damn it felt so much better to get that out, to not let the thoughts fester like she'd done not too long ago. Had it really only been ten real days, or twenty game days? It seemed like she'd lived in Somnia her entire life.

"You know me too well, Sin." Murmur said, shaking her head ruefully.

"No such thing." Sin moved forward and nudged Murmur with her hip, so they both swung around to watch the quiet lake and the way light reflected off it. "I know you because you're my family, you're my friend, you're my everything, Mur. I don't know what I'd do without you."

There was a hitch in Sin's throat, one that Mur knew she wasn't faking. Unsure exactly what to do to comfort her friend, Murmur reached out a hand tentatively, and hooked it through Sin's elbow.

For a few minutes they stood there, just comfortable in each other's presence, enjoying the calming influence they both exerted on each other. Sin rested her head against Murmur's shoulder, and Snowy sat down at their feet, a guard wolf letting them have a few moments of precious silence.

Couldn't imagine life without her, huh? The feeling was mutual, and yet Murmur had never said as much, hoping that her own actions had always spoken for the words she never thought to say. Maybe it was time for her to start thinking less about herself, and more about her friends, more about what she needed to do to find a definitive answer about whether or not she could return to her body from the gameworld. Or to her mind. Or whatever the fuck it was she needed to do so she could be corporeal again.

"Isn't your neck starting to crick a bit?" Mur asked the question softly, eliciting a small giggle from Sin.

"Yeah, but I didn't want to ruin the moment."

"Nope. Leave that to good old me." But there was no sting in Murmur's tone, no resentment. Just the feeling of camaraderie that suddenly seemed to be present for her again. It was a warm feeling, one she needed to keep a hold of.

After a small sigh, she patted her much shorter friend on the head and pulled away. "Thanks Sin, I love you, you know."

Sinister blushed beneath the dark purple of her skin, and she looked away for a moment. "You know you can't pat me on the head in the real world. We're the same damn height." But even with those words out there, her lips curled into a smile.

"Yeah, but in here. I'm taller than you, and I can't ruffle my own damn hair." Murmur gestured at her thick hair and its fairy lights.

Sin nodded, pursing her lips. "You make a very valid point there."

Snowy nudged at Murmur's fingers, and she automatically scratched behind his ears again. "Seriously though Sin, thanks."

"Always."

After a while, Murmur yawned.

"So you don't have to sleep, but you can get tired." Sin's tone was playful.

"Apparently. I think I am tired, but I don't require sleep, or something. I've napped a couple of times in-game, I'm just not that eager to attempt full blown sleep." She shrugged. "You know... we need to get our asses into gear and go and raid that bloody castle."

"We're going to have to kill everything again." Sin said, crossing her arms. "And knowing our luck, those little shits will have the same idea."

Murmur shook her head. "After the pounding we gave them? I'm pretty sure Ishwa and Masha aren't masochists. Jirald may be, but I think in this case he'll be outvoted. Nope. I'm quite certain they're going to hightail it either back to Tarishna or off to Firtula so they can level in peace and kill shit without being in danger of us having allied ourselves with them. Once we all hit max level, there's nowhere to go. They'll catch us and the battles will be more difficult, probably more fun. Sometimes I just don't know why people play these games in the first place."

"To kill shit?" Sin asked, sarcastically.

Murmur tried to death glare her, but it rarely worked with her friend. "Well, that, and to be honest, beat people to maximum level. Right?"

"Some people role play, you know?" Sin offered. "Some like crafting too."

"Those are their own challenge, right?" Murmur had never understood the appeal of either of those, but she did appreciate that people had different wants and needs, after all, if they didn't, no one would be able to move out there on the field where the contested mobs roamed.

"Yes, I believe they are." Sin didn't even try to hide her laughter. "You, Mur, are a bit of an elitist."

"What? Just figuring that out now, thirteen years into the friendship?" Mur responded, definitely feeling more light hearted than she had in the last couple of days.

"Well, you know what I mean, in the game worlds." Sinister grinned widely.

"It's not really elitist though. I just play the way I want to play, and happen to have found people who want to keep up with me, and who can keep up with me. I appreciate them and you more than you could possibly know. I've never liked to solo." Murmur's voice trailed off as she thought about soloing with Snowy. Which wasn't really soloing at all because she had a pet. Still, it wasn't easy. It involved good timing, precision casting, and a good dose of luck.

"Keep telling yourself that," Sin held up her hands as Murmur leveled a death glare at her. "Okay. I get the message. I don't mean it like that. You've always known what you've wanted and always dived after it. Both in the real world and in any game we've played together. It makes you decisive and focused, not elitist."

"Thanks, Sin." Murmur meant it this time, but froze before she could respond further because she heard leaves crunch underfoot, and neither Sin, Snowy, nor herself had moved an inch.

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