Her parents quickly shot her desire to learn magic down: We can’t afford that; Neither of us knows magic nor anyone who knows magic; magic wouldn’t be helpful to you. These were just a few of the reasons her parents had come up with, some of them obviously being lies- not taking any complaints from Eos before coming up with a new reason she couldn’t learn magic. Her eyes slowly became more and more downcast as her parents continued to speak, to create excuses. She shuffled back to her room silently, stifling tears.

However, two things her parents said to get her to stop asking stuck with her. We’re Apepi- we can’t use magic. Why do you want to learn magic too? She knew that was wrong. She could learn magic. She knew that much, but she didn’t know where to start. That was her issue, she had a lot of unknown unknowns about this world. But she needed to learn magic. She wanted to learn magic; she wanted it before she was even born. Eos knew that her past life wanted magic, he wanted her to become a mage.

Well, I suppose he wanted to be a mage, but I’m here now, so I might as well do it for him. Eos thought, Besides I can already use whatever magic is in my eyes now. Eos looked around her room- she was getting irritatingly familiar with it after the trip into the woods. She knew her eyes were now a poisonous green, and whatever was enchanting her eyes could draw lines, signal information in the same, poisonous green.

How do I activate that? She wondered, and as soon as the thought finished, green lines began to race across her vision, filling out the corners of her vision. The top right simply said “Settings”; the bottom left read “Low magic concentration”; and the bottom right was empty. She noticed she could read these now that she knew English. She tried to look at settings, but the lines moved with her vision, proving her efforts fruitless. Instead, she thought of the word “settings”, and after about a second, the green lines in her vision morphed into a settings screen.

A few of the settings immediately caught her interest, such as “Combat AI” and “Nano det” being the two that she was interested the most in. She attempted to activate Combat AI by thinking about it, and heard a resonant voice in her head, sounding entirely mechanical and flat.

“Combat AI enabled. Machine learning algorithms initiated- cognitive ability lacking, outsourcing computational power. Connecting to Hyper Uplink Relays. Connection failed. Connecting to Stellar Link Satellites. Connection failed. Connecting to Aetherspherical Cloud. Connected. Computational power outsourced. Machine learning algorithms finalized. Combat AI initiated. Sight will be recorded and analyzed. Suggestions will be given when desired.”

Eos was stunned while the voice spoke before it eventually ended. She wasn’t quite sure what she just activated, but she didn’t want to risk disabling it; she decided to play with the other settings first. Besides, she figured that getting suggestions would be helpful whenever possible. Eos tried to look at Nano det, then remembered she needed to just think about it.

“Nano det…” She wondered aloud in English, “Like detonation?”

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She thought about it for a bit, then the settings disappeared and were replaced by words in the same putrid green. Nano det activated. Nano det shortcut activated. Settings are no longer required to activate and deactivate Nano det.

After Eos finished reading the sentence, it disappeared and the settings reappeared. Immediately, she saw a setting she overlooked before: “Disable help.” Disable help? She thought, Why would I ever want to disable help?

Eos realized her mistake instantly, as a pop-up “Help disabled” appeared in the vile green, and suddenly every green line in her vision disappeared.

“Hey! Wait! Come back here!” Eos shouted, beginning to panic, “I still need help!” After a few moments of pleading, she collapsed into her bed and started to cry, “Please… I need something, anything to get me started. I need to know something…” Eos’s sobbing began to quiet, trying to focus on enabling the help, or settings, or anything to get the lines back. Before she could focus on anything, however, there was a light knocking at her door.

“Eos? Are you okay?” She heard Moore say in common. He opened the door just as she lifted her head off the bed, and sat next to Eos. “I’m sorry that we were so harsh on you,” He continued, “but we just want you to be safe.” Moore put his hand on Eos’s head.

However, Eos was stunned at what she saw when Moore entered the room- he was glowing. He had a green haze around his body, but he seemed oblivious to it. Eos decided it was probably best not to mention it. She simply nodded in agreement at his statement and sat up in her bed.

“Magic is dangerous,” He continued, “people who know useful magic can be expected to do a lot.. Even people with simple magic are busy, and constantly in danger; for example, there’s a rumor going around about a farmer a few towns north of here- he used magic to make his crops grow exceedingly well, even in bad years. But, when his neighbors found out…” Moore paused and drew his thumb across his throat, “they blamed him for every bad year in the last few decades.”

Eos nodded in understanding, “But that wasn't because of his magic, right?” Eos asked, “It was because of the people he was around…”

Moore nodded, but decided to elaborate, “Humans are fearful of what they don’t understand, and nothing is understood less than magic.” Moore chuckled, “Even your mother and I don’t understand it, and we read histories for a living. Trust me, no one understands it.”

Eos tried to plead with him, “So I can’t learn magic?” She attempted to look at him with puppy dog eyes and noticed him melting.

“I’m not saying you can never try to learn it,” He admitted, “But not everyone can use it, especially us. But I’m saying that we don’t approve of you learning it, and we won’t help you.”

So much for unconditional support, Eos thought. “Mhm okay.” Eos replied. I’m going to be alone on this then. She knew she shouldn’t be angry, but it was hard not to be.

“By the way,” Moore said, “I sent a letter for a good friend of ours, a doctor, to come to take a look at you. He’s good, but it’ll take him a few days to get here.” Moore took Eos’s hand in his, “So don’t hurt yourself anymore before then.” He gently squeezed Eos’s hand, before kissing her on the forehead, tucking her into her bed, and leaving the room.

Amber light from the setting sun fell into the room, and Eos’s eyes hurt from the crying earlier. She knew Moore had heard her cry, could see her wet, red-and-green eyes. She wondered why he never commented on it, before the radiant light and the warm air gently lowered her into sleep.