As her eyes came to life for the very first time, a bright flash of light blinded the girl. Once her eyes had adjusted, she looked around the room she was in to gather her bearings. A very clean work room with lots of mechanical and electronic devices neatly in their places, a very tall man standing to her right working on a computer. He had brown hair tied back in a neat ponytail and a sharp jaw, with piercing green eyes. The gentle sound of a radio hummed on in the background, and the song playing was over a hundred years old, or so her database told her. A piece of music called daisy bell.

After a few minutes, the song finished its play through. The girl, fascinated by this thing humans called music, spoke internally with her software and had it write a verbal communications program. Within a few seconds, it had done as commanded, and for the very first time she was able to speak.

“Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do...” she began singing in broken, synthetic English.

This seemed to confuse the man, who turned around with a bit of a frown. He looked around the room and then at the robot on his table. His eyes widened a little bit for a few seconds before a gentle smile broke onto his face and he relaxed again.

“Welcome to life, my dear.” he said, coming over with a few steps.

He began unhooking some of the cables and such connecting her to the apparatus above the table, and with the press of a button, it moved up towards the roof to give the girl space. As he did this, the artificial intelligence within the girl improved upon the newly made voice module, which allowed her to speak with more fluency and less breaks in speech. The girl, eager to see what improvements had been made, began to sing the song again, this time while taking in more details of the workshop. Not a single speck of dust littered the floor nor any surface, and each tool was neatly hung up or behind glass cupboards and drawers. The room was a sterile white, lit by gentle and warm light, and the gentle hum of a power plant could be heard somewhere behind the walls with her enhanced hearing. The automatic diagnostic systems ensured her that all systems were online, thus she attempted to get up.

“That’s it, slow and steady now.” said the man, putting an arm around her back to help her sit upright. “Don’t move too fast. You need to get used to controlling your limbs first. I am unsure how long it will take before you can walk.”

“Who are you?” asks the girl, turning her head to look at him with a slight tilt.

“I am your father, Tempus Avant.” he says, holding her hand.

With this, the girl tries to stand up off the table, and Tempus has to catch her with his free arm before she tumbles to the ground. The systems within her quickly write a program for control over basic movements, and the girl steadies herself with the help of her father.

A small piece of code is added to help her balance herself, and the girl manages to stand up straight. She takes her first few steps, a bit shaky, as the system writes and rewrites itself to ensure adequate muscle control. She manages to get over to the table and looks around again, taking in the workshop once more before her eyes land on a mirror. Moving slowly towards it, Tempus is right behind her the whole way. Once she is before the glassy surface she just stops and stares into her own eyes, examining the being before her. Big silver eyes and long silver hair, dangling just above the floor. A tall, slim and sleek physical body, petite in frame, wearing a black one-piece dress that stretched down to her knees.

“How do you feel?” asked her father.

“I am operational.” she says, stepping back from the mirror she was leaning on, looking down at her dress and running the material over her fingers. It was... soft. Soft and smooth.

“Well, it seems like your faculties are intact. Still, I’m surprised by how little time it took you to walk on your own.” said the man, adjusting his glasses and sighing in relief.

“Father... what is my designation? My...” she stopped for a moment, running through the dictionary in her head before landing on a single entry. “What is my name?”

This caused the man to stop and think for a second, running a hand over his chin. After a few seconds, he smiles softly and puts a hand on her shoulder.

“Well, since you seem to like that song so much... how about Daisy Belle? With an E at the end. It’s the French word for beautiful.”

“What is French?” she asks, causing Tempus to chuckle a bit.

“You will learn with time. For now, I would suggest getting used to controlling your body, and we can proceed from there.”

“Affirmative.” said Daisy, standing up straight and bringing her hands up to touch her face. Her skin was also soft, but not as soft as the dress. Daisy began to hum her song again and as she did, Tempus put an arm around her.

Daisy tilted her head in curiosity, copying his movement and putting an arm back around her father while leaning on him. Is this what humans called a hug?

Later that day, Tempus had taken Daisy out of the workshop and into the house. She was quite eager to explore her world and looked in detail at everything in sight. She very quickly accepted her environment as her father had gone to pour himself a cup of coffee, sitting down on a black leather couch opposite of the television. Tempus had turned on the radio next to him, and while soft songs from a time long past drifted out from the modern machine, Daisy could also hear a pot gently boiling away in the kitchen. The roaring fireplace kept the space nice and warm.

But what really caught her attention amidst the calmness was a small black cat with big purple eyes, staring silently at her from in front of the reclining chair. She approached cautiously, tilting her head in curiosity. Taking a seat in the chair, the cat looked up at her as Daisy reached down to gently run her hand over its soft fur. The cat began to purr and, soon enough, it jumped up onto her lap, surprising Daisy a little as the feline settled down on her legs with closed eyes.

“Her name is Sakura.” said Tempus. “Named after a type of tree. The word is Japanese, but when translated into English, it means cherry blossom.”

“Is that a language, like French?” she asked.

“Yes. You’ve been doing your research I see.”

“Affirmative, father. My background processes have been gathering relevant data. I think I like learning.” said Daisy, scratching Sakura along the head gently. For the first time, she felt her mouth curl into a smile without reason.

“Excellent. Because I have a lot to teach you in the coming days.” said Tempus, taking the final sip of his coffee before putting it on a saucer beside him. 

“Well, off to the kitchen sink with you.” he said. 

After a second or so of delay, Daisy witnessed something peculiar; the saucer began to lift itself off the table without warning, and slowly it crept toward the kitchen, going past her. Daisy’s systems threw out an error on what she was seeing and she frowned, very puzzled.

“Father... how is that little plate defying physics? I see nothing moving it.” she asked.

“The little plate is called a saucer, and its levitating using magic. Enchantments, to be precise.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“This is impossible. Magic is a product of the human mind, is it not? Something that is only mentioned in books called fairy tales for story telling purposes.”

“That is how it USED to be.” said Tempus, having closed his book. “Magic was only discovered to properly exist ninety or so years ago, in 2010. I do not expect you to understand how it works at this time, but suffice it to say...”

Tempus held out his hand, palm up, and within mere seconds it lit on fire. Daisy froze, her systems quickly taking action to research the topic. Tempus let the flame dance on his hand for a few seconds before putting it out, and he laughed heartily at Daisy’s little face being lit up with inspiration. Once the search was complete, a basic program was compiled. She lifted her hand, looking at it and diverting processing power. It took a full seven and a half seconds for the code to execute, but once it did, a fire lit on her hand just as Tempus had shown her. Her father’s face suddenly changed from a smile to shock, as he blinked a few times.

“Daisy, how did you learn this so fast?” He asked, getting up from his seat and coming over to look her in the eyes. She tilted her head in a bit of sadness, as he had scared Sakura off her lap.

“Research and development.” she said. “I believe my systems are faster than a human brain. May I please see more applications of magic?”

Tempus thought for a moment, rubbing his chin while looking down. With a click of his tongue, he stood back up and went to the middle of the room. Stretching out both his arms to either side and closing his eyes to concentrate, curtains of light began to appear around the room in varying shades of colour. Daisy’s eyes widened at the sight as she processed what was happening before her, the magic beginning to fade after a few seconds as Tempus went to sit down again, wiping his brow with a handkerchief.

“That’s about all I can manage for now.” he said. “Maintaining magic is never something I’ve had an aptitude for.”

Daisy stood up just as the optimizations to the magic program finished, and this time, it activated within only one second as she reached the middle of the room. It was a little harder to maintain magic of larger scale, but still next to nothing for her processors. Curtains of light began to spiral around her silky black dress, dangling just above the floor. Wings made of these same curtains came out from her back like an angel, and a halo formed above her head like the crown of a princess.

Tempus stood back up and grabbed his notepad, writing some things down in it before coming over to ruffle her hair. He was clearly impressed, and this time, Daisy knew it by his face. She gave her father a hug, the spectral effects fading.

“I need to make a quick phone call. Wait for me here, okay?” he said.

“Affirmative.” said Daisy, looking around for Sakura one more time.

After a day had passed, Daisy was lying back on the double couch looking through the wealth of human knowledge on the internet. She had taken quite an interest in the theory of music and the intricacies of magic while her father sipped coffee from his mug on the recliner. Sakura had jumped up to lie on Daisy’s stomach, sleeping the day away while Daisy absent mindedly pet her. She was fascinated when Tempus had told her that half of her body was organic and run by magic, but that didn’t last very long once she found out she could connect to the WiFi. With the continued hum of music and her father reading the news on his tablet, all was at peace.

And then the doorbell rang. Tempus frowned a bit, getting up and putting his coffee and tablet to one side while Sakura perked up to the new noise. Daisy looked over at the front door from the couch, coming back to her senses and disconnecting from the router.

“Mira, you’re here already?” she heard her father ask.

“It’s rare I get a cryptic call from my brother practically ordering me to pay a visit.” came another voice, this time a sultry woman. Tempus stood aside to let her in, and Sakura jumped off Daisy to go and hide under the couch.

The woman who came in was short, but her hardened face clearly showed that she had seen some things in her life. Shoulder length brown hair, pure blood-red eyes, and very little make-up. She was pretty by most standards, and wore a tailored suit of black with very thin stripes running down it like rain, along with black silky gloves. She put her hands behind her back and leaned forward a bit as she walked in, keeping her manners about her as she looked straight at Daisy on the couch. Daisy studied her and remained silent, pushing herself upright into a seated position. After Tempus had closed the door, this woman named Mira spoke again.

“Now, Tempe, what’s so important that I had to fly halfway across the world in a day to see?” she asked over her shoulder, raising a brow in curiosity.

“Straight to the point, without even saying hello?” grumbled Tempus.

“Yeah, well, you’d better have a damn good reason to force me into cancelling my sermon. I was about to speak in front of the world.” she growled.

“Oh spare me.” retorted Tempus. “Anyhow, I wanted to ask you for an urgent favour, but first... I want to introduce you to my daughter. Daisy, this is your aunt Mira, my sister.” he said.

“Daughter?” asked Mira, now very curious. “I wasn’t aware you were married.”

“I’m not.” replied Tempus, turning off the radio. “Daisy Belle is an artificial intelligence. The world’s first artificial intelligence.”

Mira stood silent for a few seconds before smiling and beginning to chuckle.

“Tempus, brother... Do you honestly expect me to believe-”

“Daisy.” Tempus cut her off. “Would you mind opening your chest plates?”

“Affirmative, Father.” said Daisy, standing up and dropping her dress. 

Before Mira could object, the panels on Daisy’s chest popped out of place and slid open. Mira was silent and blinking as her smile faded and her eyes widened. After the ten seconds it took her to comprehend the truth, Daisy watched as she stumbled backwards. Tempus had to come forward and catch her, and help Mira to the reclining seat. Daisy closed her chest panels and put on her dress again, eyeing Mira the whole time out of curiosity. At this point, Mira was shaking badly.

“Mira? Mira, can you hear me?” asked Tempus. Slowly, Mira’s head creaked up to look at Tempus, and after some deep breaths, she spoke again.

“Tempe. Do you know what you’ve done?” she asked, clearly rattled. “You’ve played God. You’ve created life.”

“I have created life, but that’s hardly playing God.” Tempus sighs.

“Miss Mira, are you okay?” asks Daisy. “I am detecting an elevated heart rate and you are shaking.”

Mira turns to look at Daisy for a full few seconds before looking down at the floor and answering.

“I’m fine, thank you. I could use a glass of water, if you don’t mind.”

“Affirmative. Standby.” said Daisy, activating her magic to produce a glass. 

This time the code was even faster than before, activating in less than a second, and almost instantly after the glass had been made it began to fill up with water. Once this was done, it was offered to a starstruck Mira who was back to blinking, only this time she went pale as well.

“T-Tempus... Did you see-”

“Yes, I know. Fascinating, isn’t it? All I did was show her a basic fire spell yesterday and she’s already able to do this much.”

“Yesterday? How old is she?” asked Mira.

“Daisy only came online yesterday evening.” said Tempus, stroking his chin. “It’s been about twenty four hours at best.”

“Twenty five hours, seventeen minutes, and thirty two seconds.” replied Daisy.

With that, Mira stood up and began pacing back and forth across the room, making Daisy a bit uneasy. She went to stand nearby her father and held his hand for some small comfort, gently squeezing. With some controlled breathing, Mira soon had her heart rate down to normal levels, and with a bit of hesitation, she turned to study Daisy one more time.

“Tempus, can you and I have a chat in private?” she asked.

“That... might be for the best.” he agreed. “Daisy, would you please wait for me in the workshop? I will come and fetch you when we are done.”

His hand was squeezing hers tight.

“Affirmative, father.” she said, gently letting go of Tempus hand and turning to walk to the workshop. Once there, she sat on the table she had woken up on, her enhanced ears listening to the conversation held in the other room.

“Tempe. I understand why you did this, after she left you, but... you’ve really fucked up this time.” starts Mira.

“One, we agreed not to talk about her ever again.” came her father’s voice, clearly angry. “Two, I did not make Daisy to get some satisfaction out of proving her wrong. I made Daisy because I wanted a child.”

“What you’ve done is wrong. You’re toying with fire here! You’ve abused the power of God’s gift of magic and made-”

“Made what?” Tempus asked, daring her to say it. “Magic is a tool just like anything else, and I used it to bring my dreams to fruition. Are you going to take her away from me just because she isn’t a human being?”

“I- No... no, I’m not going to take her away from you.” said Mira. “I’m not going to tell anybody about this, and I hope you won’t either. I just hope that your child will see the afterlife when she eventually passes.”

“You say that like she doesn’t have a damn soul.” growled Tempus.

“Living, breathing beings have souls. She is made of, what, metal? Magic? A combination of the two?” asked Mira.

“Metal, magic and organic matter. Her body can heal like that of a living being.” said Tempus.

“You... you actually finished that formula?” croaked Mira. “Oh, God almighty...”

“Yes, I did. But I did not invite you here simply to tell me how wrong I am.” said Tempus, clearing his throat. “I invited you here to ask an emergency favour. You have connections, and I want to get Daisy’s magic power tested. Discreetly, I will add.”

The room was silent for a full thirty seconds.

“Are you out of your mind?” came Mira’s shaking voice. “If someone else finds out what she is, the whole world will put a target on your back. Religious groups will be the least of your worries! If this gets out to the military...” she trailed off.

“Which it won’t. Now that we know Daisy can do magic, we have to test the upper limits of her powers and find out what she can do. Mira, this could be the greatest achievement humanity has ever made! Please, don’t let your faith blind you.”

Another few seconds of silence.

“Very well,” she conceded. “But I’m going to be there for this.”

“Agreed. You SHOULD be there. Maybe her alignment will prove you wrong.” said Tempus.

“If she has one at all, brother. If she has one at all.”