Somnia Online: Fragments - Chapter Fourteen (Patreon)

Just in case you missed the initial post that went up before I started posting chapters. This is basically a first draft. The end result will probably be about 20k longer and far better. The purpose of putting it up is to show everyone how editing works, let you read in advance and comment if you want to, and of course, to give my Patrons something special.

Anyhu! Here we go:

CHAPTER ONE

Underlying

Murmur glanced dubiously at the disc her Tiachi had produced. "I'm supposed to ride on this?"

Harish nodded, a bright grin on his face. "I've not sold a locus their Tiachi before. This is fascinating. Most of the high level locus I've met just apparate places."

Swallowing a frown as she glanced around, she realized he'd probably just met Belius in one form or another. He popped up everywhere. Her friends were picking out their mounts, Sin seemed to be going for a Synthclaw. Which looked like a horse, but had claws for feet, and two sharp horns at the tip of its head. Like a double unicorn, except the horns were slightly curved and serrated on one side. The fact that it was pitch black, didn't instill confidence in Murmur either, but if that's what Sin wanted, no one was going to talk her out of it.

Since the others were almost done choosing, Murmur guessed she should probably try hers out since she didn't exactly get a choice. It was almost like a theme within the game. Don't give Murmur any fucking choices.

She sighed as her little Tiachi flitted around her head, up and down, to the side... it's tiny face earnest as it passed in front of her eyes. "Yeah, yeah 'Chi, I get it."

The disc was about three feet in diameter, with a handrail that seemed to have no attachment to the base and floated about where her waist would go. She assumed it would either cradle her back if she didn't want to balance herself, or else, she could use it to hold onto. Gritting her teeth, she took the short step up and placed her hand on the rail. Chi darted in and out of her vision, chattering wildly, tapping on her hand and tugging at her finger.

Murmur moved her feet, and realized the board conformed to her foot shape once she faced the correct way, with, as she'd guessed, the bar at her back for support. With her feet molded and the bar lending her that bit of solidity, it was actually comfortable and took the weight off her joints.

She wasn't going to question the logic of it, so she smiled at Chi, who seemed satisfied and entwined herself on one of Murmur's strands of hair, giving it a double glowing bulb. Now she had Snowy and Chi. Pretty soon, the way this was going, she'd have an entire army of familiars. At least Chi didn't cost any MA to maintain.

Dev rode up to her on what looked like a large alligator with strangely longer legs. "Ready?"

"Seriously? You're riding one of your own?" Murmur's words came out flat.

The tank laughed. "I didn't think of it that way, but he sort of matches me, don't you think?"

Murmur leveled a glare that was just as flat as her initial response. "Sure. Whatever you say."

Merlin laughed as he trotted up to join them on a nice and plain chestnut horse. "I'm sticking with the tried and true. You two on the other hand have..." but his words broke off as Sinister joined them.

"Holy fuck, Sin. What is that?" His eyes held a good dose of fear.

"I've been saving. A Synthclaw is the perfect mount for a blood mage. I'm broke now, but Jareth is the perfect mount." Her grin was almost full gloat. Murmur didn't have the heart to tell her that not everyone would have wanted one for a mount. Besides, if her sensor net was even partially correct, Jareth seemed to have its own opinions about things, so she thought it better to steer clear of those comments.

"Where to, boss?" Mellow asked, and Murmur spun to see if they'd been allowed a broom. But no, they too were on a disc, with green undertones.

"Some ancient ruins in the Curet jungle. We can go via Cognitia and see that city if we want." She didn't mention that her intention to see the city was purely because she wanted to inspect the damned fountain and see if the binders there set off any red flags. No one but her seemed to have picked up that quest from what she could tell through her HUD. And she'd hate to think about how many steps behind they'd be if they did now. Of course, the odds were it probably didn't work that way in Somnia either.

"Sounds like a plan." Beastial nudged his horse forward. It looked like a clydesdale. Tall at the wither, with fluffy feet. The draught horse was perfect for Beastial's viking build.

Murmur fell into line next to Sinister, wondering at the slight tension there still was between them. She didn't want to admit it, but it pained her more than she'd realized. Fighting was something they'd done so rarely through their lives that she didn't know how to deal with it.

Add to that riding as second in line irritated the crap out of her, and her nerves were fraught. She was used to leading, but she understood why they wouldn't let her. Become a jumbled figure, amongst them, so that people like Jirald had to get past them all to get to her. He'd painted a target on her, and it bothered her more than she cared to admit.

"Hey." Sinister pulled Mur out of her self analysis.

"Yeah?"

Sin didn't look at her, but instead stared straight ahead, focusing between her mount's horns. "I didn't mean to overstep. I've just always felt like such a part of the family, and I wanted things to be okay again. For all of us."

"It's ok." Murmur realized it really was. She wasn't angry anymore. That had fled almost as soon as she got angry. But this awkward feeling between them needed to disappear. "I'm not sure how normal this is ever going to get."

"It will." Sinister's voice held steel. "We're going to get you out of here, or at least, out of here so you can use a headset to log in normally."

Murmur laughed, feeling more at ease than she had in hours. The sound got lost as their mounts clattered over the bridge that spanned the neck of Glacier Lake. She looked to the side, at the spires that rose out of the ice-cold water and frowned.

There was one particularly long dragon-like sea creature she could con that swam close to the center. Deep, deep red. Even at level thirty. It's eyes never left their party as they crossed, as if perfectly okay with their presence as long as they stayed far away. She shuddered before speaking. "That's probably one of the final castles."

"Yeah." Veranol spoke from behind, but kicked his mount up to ride next to Murmur's hover thing. "Like the one over on Tarishna in the marsh."

"Probably three end game raids then?" Murmur mused. They really did need to level, but since they were doing quite decently, she didn't feel the need to add more pressure. Somnia wasn't easy to level in. Although she didn't relish the idea of the rest of the guild catching up to them before they hit fifty, some of them might reach forty-nine just before they dinged. With the amount of experience needed in order to level that high, she was quite certain of it.

Veranol nodded. "Yeah, one on each continent."

"The keys don't add up." Murmur frowned. "One for each city worked, but if that's the case, including the ones in the middle, that would be fifteen."

"The world doesn't much run on logic," Sin's tone was distant. "I mean, look at us."

Havoc laughed. "We're fine. And I don't believe the dungeons necessarily match up with the cities."

"Guess we're going to find out." Murmur looked ahead of them, at the winding path and the changing landscapes as they kicked their mount's speed up a notch.

They continued on at a solid canter after the bridge. It took them all a little while to understand how to go at a faster pace, and Murmur watched Snowy galloping on next to them, his tongue hanging out of his mouth as the wind pushed his fur back.

All she had to communicate to Chi was that they needed to keep the same pace as the rest of the group. The hoverboard felt overly exposed and yet somehow still safe. It was like her feet had a nice and comfortable locked in spot and her body was supported at the back, making it sort of a leaning situation that didn't hurt her feet. Locus knees were definitely cushier than human knees, because there was no way she'd be able to stand this long in her real body without her feet starting to hurt.

The wind whipped at her hair, and she glanced at the tiny Chi perched on a strand at her shoulder, even though it put a crick in her neck. But the joy she saw on the tiny creature's face was worth it. Gallopping might be faster, but damned if it wasn't boring. Shouting conversations over the pounding of hooves, claws, and humming got annoying fast. At least the terrain changed from snow covered mountain tops and started to pan out to green grassy shores that led down to the lake, and forest on the other side. But the further they went, the more the ground to the north of the lake cracked, dry and brittle, sort of like death.

She glanced at Snowy again, slightly worried about him in a climate that warmed up even slightly, but he didn't seem to be unhappy and she was sure he'd tell her anyway.

So caught up in her own thoughts was she, that she didn't notice the rest were slowing down until Chi screeched in her ear like a warning, telling her they were slowing down. Which was amazing, but even more astounding was that the hover disc held her feet in place, gently decreasing the pace so that it didn't jolt her in the slightest.

Mur didn't see a city, and all of a sudden wondered just where they were supposed to leave their horses. Not that her or Mellow had a problem. The TiaChi created and took care of the hover discs. She supposed they had a name, but she'd not yet found it out.

"We'll have to walk the mounts from the treeline." Jinna squinted at the forest. "It'll be fairly dense in there, but we should be okay."

"How do you..." Exbo stopped, chuckling at himself. "Yeah, I see it."

Murmur glanced around and saw the carvings higher up in the trees, spelled out in the ones directly facing the road were the words Welcome to Cognitia.

#

The trees in the middle of the forest were so large, so encompassing, it felt like the whole place was hugging them. Murmur shifted, the tiny weight of her Tiachi against her shoulders as it slept on one of her hair strands, barely noticeable.

It took a few moments to focus properly amidst all of the greenery, but ivy covered walkways stretched between massive tree trunks that it would take three people to surround with arms outstretched. The creepers cascaded down the sides of some of the hanging bridges to create an almost waterfall effect.

Upon closer inspection, up high in the trees, she could see small hut like entrances built into the trunks, or maybe they were around the trunks, she couldn't tell.

"Wow." Sinister breathed out the word, echoing the thought in everyone's heads. Murmur could tell from her sensor net that everyone simply stood there in awe. She had to admit it was pretty damned impressive.

"Anyone any good at climbing?" Rashlyn crossed her arms, squinting at the trees.

"Not that good." Murmur sighed and cricked her neck from side to side, suddenly overwhelmingly tired. It washed over her in a wave of sleepiness, lulling her into...

She blinked, looking around at all her friends. Everyone except Merlin looked like they were about to fall asleep standing up. Her MA was full, baring Snowy's thirty-five, so she had a full load to spare. Without a second thought, she extended her Shield Expansion over the whole group, protecting their minds from whatever was making her sleepy as fuck.

A wave of renewed energy rolled over her, and she could see the others blinking back from their induced stupor even as a jolt of pain ran through her head from using one hundred and ten MA at once. She grimaced, clamping down on her teeth to lessen the pain, though it didn't quite work.

Slowly, as if by magic, a group of five elves exited the cover of the forest, pushing through one of the ivy waterfalls to stand in front of them. The lead elf was as tall as a locus, their pointed ears long with an abstract trace of curling at the end. Narrow blue eyes surveyed them, and the green of their tunic and pants kept shifting so much it was difficult to keep them in sight.

"Well. We weren't expecting a psionicist." The lead elf spoke, and Murmur couldn't tell if it was sarcasm or irritation that formed the words.

"I am Lideshu - the captain of the perimeter. It's my job to keep unfriendlies out. And while I would say you're not unfriendly as you travel with one of our kind, I do find it quite disruptive that you have magic powerful enough to interfere with my inspection spell." He stopped, standing right in front of Murmur, and made direct eye contact. "I see however there are no ill intentions, simply a wish to protect yours from something you didn't recognize."

Murmur nodded, uncertain how to respond without smacking the smug elf in the head. Something about Lideshu really irritated her. "Sorry. It's against my instincts to let our minds be probed by something we can't identify."

Lideshu inclined his head. "As I said, we weren't expecting a psionicist."

Before Murmur could give in to the sarcastic comment sitting on the tip of her tongue, the elf suddenly turned to Merlin and gave a half bow. "Merlin. It is good to see you again. May I ask the purpose of your visit?"

Merlin returned the strange gesture and spoke more formally than Murmur had ever heard him before. "We are on our way through to the Jungle of Curet, and I wanted to show them my home town." He said smoothly.

"Excellent!" Lideshu clapped his hands and the creepers parted to reveal what looked like an ivy wound wooden elevator. It was massive with waist high railings made of ivy wound wood. "Much easier than climbing the trees, wouldn't you say?"

Lideshu winked over his shoulder at the group, giving Murmur proof that he'd been listening when they first got there. He must have some form of enchanter as his class make up, because his thoughts had been far too well quieted for her sensory net to pick up. Which gave her pause for thought - perhaps she could upgrade her sensory abilities and refine them, hone them. To focus in on areas with an absence of thought, because that would often imply that someone was trying to mask them.

Thought Sensing (175)
Thought Shielding (175)
Thought Projection (175)

You have reached the next stage of your hidden class. Adjusting and refining your skills is a huge step. For this perspective your skills have leveled enough to allow you to reach level four of Mental Affinity. Please see a trainer at your earliest convenience. Sooner than later. Like seriously. An extra fifty base MA is nothing to scoff at. Off you go.

Murmur frowned at the notification. After all, she didn't know if she'd be able to trust the elves. She'd never met their trainer before, and they didn't seem entirely on the up and up. At least not what she'd witnessed so far. So perhaps she had to wait for Curet. First though, she needed to see the damned statue in the fountain.

The lift moved smoothly, which led Murmur to believe that some form of magic powered it. Stepping out on the platform at the top of the elevator was surreal to say the least. Varying shades of green adorned every platform, leaving little room for wood to peek through. Elves, also clothed in a variety of nature's colors roamed everywhere. They'd not been visible from below. Two wooden hanging bridges left off from the elevator's platform to others. One was far longer and Murmur couldn't make out where it ended up, but the other one led over to a huge platform around a spectacular tree, and there, winding around that trunk, was a fountain.

#

Upon closer inspection, the fountain was carved out of wood, hardened in a way that resembled petrified wood. Murmur frowned as she took in all the elves dancing around it. Or at least, they appeared to be dancing at first. In fact, their movements flowed so easily into one another that the fighter, rogue, archer, and mage appeared to execute a dance as she circled the structure. Water flowed, gently pumped through arrows, fingers, swords, and daggers.

It was the most beautiful of the fountains she'd seen so far.

Once close to the feles, the elves knew how to perform magic through movement. You are correct! This fountain shows a classic beauty that neither race have remembered, the lost art of movement magic. Take heed, as you know the fountains are connected, and remember ancient times, in ancient places, where they may be discovered again.

Murmur blinked. Twice. Cryptic had to be a god of the game.

"I take it you like the fountain then?" Lideshu stood next to her, his slimy grin plastered on his face as he focused on the fountain and not her.

"It's lovely. Just like the rest of them." She left that there, and walked over to Devlish, who if the way he held his shoulders was anything to go by, was feeling just as uncomfortable as she was.

He glanced at her, shifting his weight slightly and laid a hand on the hilt of his axe. "I think we need to get moving or we'll never find those ancient ruins. At this rate we'll be traveling through the dark world anyway."

Murmur nodded, reading what he didn't say that lay underneath the words. Devlish wasn't comfortable, and he didn't want to stay there, because he didn't trust the elven guards. Even the skin around Merlin's eyes and mouth were tight, and he caught her eye, trying to convey something to her as well. It seemed everyone, and her sensor net picked up overwhelming unease. Supplies be damned. She had enough food cooked for them in her bags to whether the road. She'd thought coming to the elven city was going to be a way to relax and take in some of the beauty.

But while it was beautiful to look at, the attractiveness only ran skin deep. Beneath the ivy laced streets of Cognitia lay something Murmur wasn't quite ready to tackle yet.

#

Summer Residence

Home of Laria, David, and Wren

Summer Condo

Twelve Days Post Release

"I don't really care that you think this is all your fault." David started, his tone like the one Laria knew he used with students who tried to beg a better grade. "You need to stop acting like you're in this alone and consult me. Damn it Laria, she's our daughter not just yours."

Laria cringed at his words, knowing he was right and get the guilt still gnawed at her far more than she believed it did him. "But you didn't push to get an early headset. You didn't walk up to the insane genius man and inadvertently ask him to make your daughter into a secret guinea pig. I did that. It's all on me."

"But we both checked the headgear, and even though it had a few anomalies, neither of us thought they were severe enough to produce what they did." It infuriated her how calm he could keep his voice, how reasonable he remained no matter how heated she got. How he was always the one holding it together, while she could barely function outside of her head.

"I know." She finally admitted, her shoulders slumping as she leaned forward on the table, arms outstretched. It was so much quieter in their condo without Wren. Even thought she'd have been playing the game non-stop, she still would have been in here on occasion. Raiding the fridge, eating every apple in existence. "I know it, David. I just don't like it."

He raised an eyebrow at her, reminding her of when they first met in person, so many years ago. He'd been a young and idealistic IT major, and she'd loved that about him. His theories on how to maximize game time and push their characters had made her giddy to know him.

"If you liked it, I'd be even more worried about you than I am now. You need to sleep. This pattern of behavior you're exhibiting is bad for your health, and if you get sick, how are we going to get Wren back. Think beyond just the now, Laria, I know you're capable of it." He reached out to take her hands in his, squeezing them gently and filling her with a warmth only he knew how to give. "You've got to stop this me against the world mentality and grow up. You've got your dream job, and your dream game. Sure, there may be a few hiccups, but you can't sit and throw a tantrum and just push through it and hope for the best. You need to think, to develop a strategy. You need to stop adulting like you game."

Laria's first reaction was anger, and she tried to snatch her hands away, but David held on fast. She scowled at him, angry at his words, but after a couple of moments she realized it wasn't just his words she was angry at, but the truth in them. He was fucking right. Yet again. Like always. Her calm, stoic, amazing husband always knew just how to get to the heart of the matter. Laria was, in fact, treating this somewhat like a game. Because Wren was stuck in a game. And if there's one thing Laria had always been good at, it was being the best gamer she could be.

Taking in a deep breath, she nodded. "Fine. Fuck you too. I'll sit down and make a plan instead of going in guns blazing."

"Axes wielded?" He laughed, and she watched as relief ironed out the wrinkles that had formed at the edges of his eyes. She'd worried him, like always.

"Sorry." She whispered the words, knowing that she apologized to him on a regular basis, that she was always having to say she was sorry. Every day she waited, without quite realizing it, for him to realize he'd married a lunatic and leave her. But he never did. Instead, he sat with her through thick and thin, made her rash mind think things through when she'd rather attack them head on.

"It's what I'm here for, remember? Got to save my tank." The past dripped from his reminiscent tone, and Laria leaned into his shoulder.

"Even now you're still saving me, still saving us. I don't know what I'd do without you."

Her only answer was a tight squeeze of her shoulders, and she knew, clear as day, he felt the same way.

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