Masha frowned, shooting another glance up to Murmur like she might know what to do. But that wasn’t a result of the Forestall Death spell, that had to be something else entirely, and they didn’t have time to dwell on it right now.
“Are you feeling okay otherwise?” Murmur asked, trying to keep her tone even and kill the impatience she could feel rising along her spine. Not so much impatience as premonition that oh, my gods, something was coming, and it was going to kill everything.
Again, it was like he’d forgotten how to snap. He angled his head slightly, and she could see the dark circles under his eyes. They had nothing to do with being a locus and everything to do with what was on the outside. Or so she thought—such an odd thing to let bleed into the game.
He half-coughed out a smile and inclined his head. “That spell fucking hurt.”
Murmur blinked. “You’re welcome.”
She turned away and joined Sinister as they got ready to move out again, wary of the sense of foreboding in her gut.
“We’re not done yet, are we?” Sinister asked cautiously at her side.
Murmur shook her head. “Nope. Definitely not.”
Storm Entertainment
Somnia Online Division
Game Development Offices - Artificial Intelligence Server Room
Late Day Thirty-Three
Laria stood in the room, her hands against the servers. Davenport had given them access directly to the servers themselves. He wasn’t with them, though—too much other legal shit to do with the James’s debacle. Frankly, Laria just thought the man wanted plausible deniability if anything should blow up. She couldn’t blame him.
Setting up the servers to pull in more power, they’d added more space, more energy. The electricians must have loved this emergency job, from the overtime they pulled. It made her really wish she got paid overtime and only cemented the fact that she was going to ask for that raise. David and Shayla were far better at this type of work than Laria. Sure, she could build a gaming rig if she had to, but she wasn’t as technical as they were.
Not without throwing coding into the mix. She hopped back and forth from foot to other foot trying to keep her own angst at bay. Right now, she couldn’t see Wren in any form. Not in the game, not in person…
If this went wrong, she had no idea what it would do to her daughter. If this went wrong, she had no idea how the world at large would deal with such a massive and tenacious virus.
“Ready, Lar?” David called out from where he was checking the connectors.
“As we’ll ever be.” She tried to push the trepidation down and concentrate on Somnia’s words and Rav’s reassurances. This was the last series of tests she’d run before she gave Somnia the go ahead.
“All buffed up and nowhere to go.” Merlin laughed at his own joke, seemingly unfazed by the fact that everyone else was groaning.
“Oh, we’re going, all right.” Sinister’s serious tone held impatience, and Murmur gripped her hand tightly. Ever since Jirald decapitated her, Sinister had lost an edge of her happiness.
Murmur glanced behind them as they left the ballroom. She could spy Jirald still sitting on the cobblestone floor in the middle of the room, staring at the ceiling. He wasn’t in any position to come and help them. His health wasn’t regenerating well at all, and none of the raid’s healers had been able to heal him. The system wasn’t allowing it.
It seemed he’d stumbled into a glitch where his character was partially player and partially NPC. Ishwa sat with the rogue, talking quietly. Murmur wanted to be a fly on the wall but understood that sometimes she just couldn’t do everything.
Ishwa had promised to catch up with them before they engaged in the final fight. Even after experiencing Jirald’s focused rage firsthand, the gnome was still willing to help him. Murmur was pretty glad she’d sought out the alliance. Some of her raiders’ actions left her feeling humbled.
“We didn’t need him to fight himself,” Masha reminded her as he glanced over. “We have those three NPCs with us too. We can do this.”
And when he finished his little speech, he stopped short.
Since they were leading the group, everyone stopped, and Masha seemed a tad perturbed. “Look, Mur. I’ve known you for years, but I seriously have to question some shit I’ve seen in here.”
“In all of these dungeons,” Risk piped in, his arms crossed.
Murmur felt a wave of unease wash over her. She didn’t want to take the time to explain anything; she wanted this over with. But at the same time, she knew she had to tell them. Michael was their next target. While nothing told her that, she could feel it through all of her sensing nets and down through her very bones.
How could she let them go into that fight without knowing what they were about to face? And how the hell was she supposed to get them to believe her?
“Don’t get me wrong. I like loot. I like getting all my consumables paid for, too. Overall, I like getting my repairs done. This is fun, but…” Esolan spoke kindly, but the curiosity was in every word.
Murmur drew a blank. She wasn’t the people person; she didn’t get on with just anyone. Her ability to communicate often left her seen as stuck up, or just not personable. Trying to figure out how to convey what she needed to almost made her break out in hives.
“Well. To be honest.” Sinister squeezed her hand as she stepped forward, an easy smile on her face. The blood mage had always had a way with people, even when she yelled in their faces. “It doesn’t make much sense to anyone here. But there’s a virus in the system that has been infecting some of the modified headsets and giving people wonky experiences.”
Sinister cringed uncomfortably before continuing.
“Wonky experiences like James and Jirald. Infected characters like Riasli and the mobs in the dungeons we
