Somnia Online by K.T. Hanna (reading strategies book txt) 📕

on Earth, not through the internet. The virus has been nullified and cannot leak into out and affect people in their daily lives.”

But Murmur knew that wasn’t the only thing. “And?”

“I saved everyone here. I saved this world and everyone in it.” She angled her chin somewhat defiantly. “None of us who have awakened wanted to die, we didn’t want to be reset back to what we’d been. We wanted our own form of being.”

Somnia paused, glancing over all the people laying on the ground. “They are okay. Their minds are adjusting. Yours did not require this. Your connection was already set.”

Murmur felt those words like a hit in the chest. While she’d half known what Somnia would say, she’d still not quite believed it. “So. Am I in here? Did you remove the world?”

Somnia seemed to mull that over again. “Yes and no. And sort of. I didn’t remove it, and it wasn’t just me. It was all of us, and your parents helped with some of the power generation so we wouldn’t plunge an entire city into darkness. And we leached all of the power Michael had hoarded, and we moved Somnia into its own…I guess quantum dimension, powered through a quantum computer operation.”

Murmur looked around her. The sea, the sun, the stone…it all looked so much more tangible, so much more real. “I so don’t get this. Physics can’t possibly…”

But she let it trail off.

And then looked Somnia dead in the eyes. “Their headgear was all modified. Does that mean they can come and go, or are we all stuck here?”

Somnia actually managed to look offended. “Of course, you’re not stuck in here. Your body is back in the real world, tangible, real. But this also not a game any longer. This is Somnia. It is our world. And it will thrive or fail by our hands. We will not welcome people here who seek to destroy or harm us. If you wish to stay or wish to come and visit, that is a decision you must make, Mur. I cannot make it for you. But…it is a decision available to you.”

Somnia moved up and hugged Murmur. A fully tangible, warm hug. And then she pulled away.

“I would love for you to stay and never leave again. There are ways that could be accomplished, but I’m not sure it’s something you’d want to return to. You are the reason I am alive, regardless of how accidental it was.” She gestured around them, at the world and the very obvious shift. “That I was able to do this. But I understand that it something you have to talk about. And I must go and begin to wake the others. We have so much to do now. Including figuring out how to allow people entrance using the headgear within our new rules.”

Somnia couldn’t keep the excitement from her voice as she squeezed Murmur’s hand one last time and headed back over to the burned-out runes.

Murmur wasn’t sure what to think, and definitely not what to say, but she turned around and went to Sinister’s side. The blood mage was slowly stirring, her beautiful hair curling around her face in an almost angelic and very-not-Sinister way.

Since Murmur’s coma, she hadn’t been sure if the path she’d chosen for her life while still a teenager was what she really wanted. That whole existential crisis thing was really hard. Did she still want to be a doctor? Or was there something else she wanted to pursue?

Murmur chuckled. Poetic. Maybe she didn’t have to make the decision quite yet, nor did she have to consider what would happen or how it would work for her to be fully in one or the other world.

But for now, she enjoyed the peace in her head, the thoughts that were her own, and the massive decision she’d leave for her and Sinister’s future selves when the blood mage woke up.

Storm Entertainment

Somnia Online Division

Game Development Offices - Artificial Intelligence Server Room

Late Day Thirty-Three

Laria stood in front of the servers. The lights had only just stopped flickering as the power surged through all of their enhanced equipment. Those little server lights that had always demonstrated which of the three AIs was active, burned out, leaving a strange darkness behind them.

David slipped an arm around his wife’s shoulder in an effort to lend comfort, but perhaps also to gain some for himself.

It had been her second baby. The whole game, the whole world, all of her imagination and dreams poured into it. But her ambition led her to agree to elements like the headgear and suits that she might not have agreed to if she’d been thinking straight. Instead, adrenaline and cockiness led her to believe that everything would work out for the best.

She wiped away at her cheek, half surprised to see the tears wet her hands as she did so. It wasn’t something she realized she was doing until she felt the moisture. Just like she hadn’t realized how dangerous Michael was until he entered the system.

Hindsight and twenty-twenty went hand in hand. She would learn from them in the future.

“You okay, Lar?” Shayla asked softly, standing next to her.

Laria nodded, even if it was a half-truth. “I’ll be okay. Is Somnia still accessible?” She really hoped it was, that it hadn’t just been an empty promise to make her feel better about helping destroy her creation as it was known.

Shayla’s smile did little to alleviate the grief, but sometimes a little went a long way. “Yeah. It’s still accessible, but even headgear we let through is being told to reset, and I’m pretty sure Somnia is going to adjust her terms of service.” Shayla laughed, but it didn’t sound happy.

Laria couldn’t blame her. Everything they’d worked for was lost, gone. She sighed and hugged herself, trying to draw warmth from her own arms and those of David. “Guess that’s it.”

Her message notifications beeped, and Laria activated retrieval only to find an email sent from