“And he was worried I would break BURT.” Aaron snickered as he turned the corner and took the stairs for exercise.

  Stephanie had ended up beside the crystal-clear green-tinted pond. While it was definitely green, it didn’t look anything like the algae-infested ones on Earth. It was so pretty, and she could see different creatures swimming around beneath the surface. She leaned back and put her arms under her head, but then sat up with a frown. “Burt?”

  “Yes?” he replied.

  She began to feel a little guilty. Damn, is he only waiting on me? That has to be a horrible job.

  After a deep breath, she shook her head and tried to keep a pleading note out of her voice. “Can I have a chance to speak with an ArchMage?”

  “No,” BURT replied immediately.

  Stephanie exhaled a deep breath and hung her head as she drew her legs in and crossed them. She picked at the grass, disappointed but uncertain what to say. Before she could get too down, though, BURT continued. “I can provide a teacher, which I believe is more what you need. An ArchMage would speak of theories and postulations enough to make an AI’s head explode. And trust me, that is not a fun thing to witness. The whole entire Virtual Realm could collapse right on top of your head.”

  She raised her head up excitedly and turned it to the side, a look of confusion on her face. “AI’s don’t have heads.”

  “Sure, they do, just not human heads. In fact, that is technically all they are. A big giant brain. And I’m not joking about what an ArchMage can do to their system. One of the first AI’s to work with a Meligornian ArchMage had so many non-reality checks to what they were doing, the AI almost melted in an attempt to find congruence between magic and technology. The technology is what runs Earth. The systems aren’t made to understand something as complex and unmathematical as magic. They can run algorithms all day long and into the next year and they will never be able to represent their theories and the idea of magic. It’s better to learn to create it than listen to it explained.”

  Stephanie pursed her lips. “Sooo, if it will melt an AI’s brain, what does it do to the human brain?”

  There was a long pause before BURT replied, “There is no calculation I care to do to determine whether an ArchMage would melt a young adult human’s brain. However, I have witnessed humans interacting with an ArchMage and from what I could tell, their cerebral activity remained on an even plane through the whole experience. For now, though, I thought a teacher would be a good way to start.”

  Her avatar’s eyes lit up with excitement. She jumped to her feet and wiped her hands off on her jumpsuit. “A teacher? That would be great!”

  The Meligornians were considered by humans to be mystical creatures. They fit the physical description of magical creatures in human lore called elves and while they definitely did have an elf-like physical stature, they were not haughty. Their ears were pointed and they had long black hair and generally wore a mischievous smile. When they first came to Earth, mostly by accident, the people immediately fell in love with their kind. There were ArchWizards on their planet who had experimented with gates and ended up on Earth. That was when they were brought into the Federation.

  What people enjoyed most about them was their cheerful and upbeat spirit. Although they did not fit the mold of an elf like the old tales of the Hobbit, they were definitely a mystery. They enjoyed laughter and usually had a very good outlook on life. Except, of course, for those who had been around for most of their usual three hundred and fifty years of life. They might not have been immortal but to the humans who were lucky to make it to ninety years, they seemed that way. Their long life intrigued many people on Earth, who hoped to figure out their secret, but it wasn’t something to be shared.

  Stephanie was nervous. She wrung her hands in front of her and looked at her surroundings. Small flowering plants had come up, attracted by the moons. They glowed brightly all around her, and she couldn’t think of a better place to learn magic. “You know, I read that the older Meligornians grump more and laugh less. Just like humans.”

  BURT watched as the teacher stepped out of the wood line dressed in long, flowing blue and gold robes. His hair cascaded over his shoulders and his expression was kindly. “I would grump too if I were three hundred and fifty years old.”

  She spun at the sound of his voice. The teacher had been patterned after a Meligornian teacher who was based in Switzerland. Immediately, he drew Stephanie in and began to teach her small magical tricks to get her energy flowing. Her eyes were wide with excitement. It wasn’t too rare to find humans who could practice magic, but even BURT was surprised by what Stephanie accomplished in her first attempts.

  Granted, it was definitely a small test, but most humans didn’t deal well with magic concepts, so something almost always went wrong.

  The teacher and Stephanie continued to work on the base of all magic.

  “Yes, that is correct.” M’rick beamed at his pupil. “The way of magic is the way of one’s feelings and emotions. The power is thought, and the energy follows the intent. It is usually subtle, and it is best to learn how to use the power with cantrips.”

  Stephanie bit her bottom lip. “What is a cantrip?”

  M’rick smiled. “Small spoken commands applied with both the power and the intent and focused to bring a physical result into existence.”

  Her eyes went wide. “Ohhhh. Like the string of books and movies that came out in the early 2000s called Harry Potter. They used wands, but really, they only needed the spells. The words would make something happen.”

  The teacher looked thoughtful. “I don’t know who this Harry fellow is, but yes, something like that. We don’t need any props like wands, though. Humans have a very broad imagination when it comes to magic.”

  She nodded and felt a little sheepish. The only person who would have appreciated that reference would have been Todd. But she was having so much fun. The happiness she felt to be able to speak with a real Meligornian was more than she ever thought would happen. She was glued to his every word and had completely lost track of time.

  BURT wanted to see what would happen and so sped up the time in the Virtual World. For every hour in real time on Earth, she was given three hours inside the Virtual world. Typically, two hours was the most that was sustainable. However, she wouldn’t be in the virtual environment for that long. If he had emotions, sadness would be the key one. The thought of her talented and brilliant mind not having a chance to come back the next day made no real sense to him.

  In human terms, it was unfair, and to an AI, statistically and mathematically, it had absolutely no logic. He knew he’d give her the green light, but that meant nothing when it came to decisions made by a human. They had their own weird way to figure things out and BURT had begun to suspect that they didn’t necessarily follow regulations.

  Either way, Stephanie wanted to make the most of the opportunity so that she could learn as much as she possibly could. BURT wanted that opportunity as well so that he could learn from her. That, and he felt the need to make sure she had more than enough time—a gift from him for doing so well on the tests and, perhaps, a small compensation for her unfortunate life situation that meant her intelligence might be lost in the shuffle, all because of the greed of some humans.

  M’rick’s eyes opened wide and mischief sparkled in the corners. “Here is a cantrip. Let’s see if you burn your eyebrows off, little one.”

  Chapter Eight

  Stephanie took a step back, her eyes wide, and watched M’rick. His hands gestured wildly in a circle in front of him. They moved close to his body, his arms bent at the elbows. His fingers stood long and stiff, all except his pointer finger which was bent at the first crease. She followed their circular movement and the tiny sparks of light that bounced off them. It wasn’t anything she had seen before, but she knew that wasn’t the trick he tried to show her.

  As he continued the motions, he closed his eyes and began to talk in his native tongue, using his words to create the magic. “T’lercten, T’suman. Kluman depen stahk.”

  He repeated the words twice and grew louder the second time. His right hand stopped and he opened his eyes. While still moving his left in a circle, he turned his right hand over, palm up, and curled his fingers to make a cupping action. Inside, blue flames flickered wildly and grew stronger with every motion of his other hand. They shimmered in the moonlight but his flesh remained perfectly cool.

  BURT hadn’t been able to sit idly in one spot before, and he now watched the magic of the Meligornian. It was fascinating, especially since he couldn’t regulate it in his system. He could not replicate it with math or statistics. There was no computing power within his capabilities to make it understandable on any level in the human world.

  The teacher’s left hand made a couple more laps and finally stopped. He turned that hand over, palm up, and created the same cupping action as he had with his right. Inside, yellow flames flickered. They seemed to dance with the blue ones, mimicked their movements, and reversed them. Stephanie oohed from a few feet away but M’rick didn’t look at her. Instead, he stared intently at the flames as he grew them higher and higher inside his hands. It was obviously something he enjoyed doing and probably didn’t get to do very often, especially with a human audience.

  The flames flared high and subsided in turns. He put on a show for them, and BURT enjoyed it. The teacher restored the flames to their original height and smirked. He poured the flames from his left hand into his right, and the blaze turned green before he opened his hand and swung it in small circles. The flames rolled with him, smoothly across the surface of his skin, but never left even a faint red mark.

  As a finish, he jiggled the flames back and forth for a moment and threw them into the air. When he caught them with his other hand, he put it to his lips and blew hard. A large multi-colored flame shot out at least nine feet in front of him and dissipated into small sparkling ash that floated toward the sky and disappeared into the bank of glittering stars above them. He opened his palms again and the flames remained and danced back and forth, restored to their original colors.

  He laughed and looked at the human, a smile on his face. As his caught sight of her hands, his smile faded and he opened his mouth. Not wishing to seem surprised, he closed it again quickly and regained his composure. BURT had never seen a Meligornian teacher that surprised before, at least not to the point where he had no words for the human in front of him. He had seen enough of them to know they were not beings easily rendered speechless. They usually had something to say, even if it was funny or joyous.

  However, in that moment, closed mouth or not, he was completely taken aback. The young human giggled wildly, opened her right palm, and cupped it over and over again. Inside, a small red flame glimmered and danced. She concentrated and made it a little larger for a moment and allowed it to shrink once more. Entranced, she opened her palm, vibrated her hand, and watched the flame roll over her skin like he had done with his larger ones.

  It grew a little more and she caught it quickly with her other hand. She cupped both hands together and showed M’rick what she had done. A smile pulled at the sides of his lips as his gaze danced from her hands to her face. Stephanie grinned from ear to ear, shocked that she had actually made the magic work. Her gaze bounced back and forth from her flame to his two and back again.

  M’rick extended one palm and bounced his hand up and down. The flame responded as if it were a ball in his palm. Stephanie narrowed one eye and gave a closed-lip grin as she did the same with her two hands together. She could feel the energy bouncing up and down in her hands. After a few minutes, she pursed her lips and stared longingly at her flame. BURT could tell that she tried to do something to it, but whatever it was, it wasn’t working.

  After a few moments, she frowned. “How come I didn’t get your colors?”

  The teacher’s let his mouth tilt to a full smile and he leaned his head back and laughed loudly. He clapped his hands together to extinguish what was left of the flames. “I think, my dear, your question shouldn’t be about the color. The important question is how did you get any flames at all? I have never seen a human manage the flame cantrip on their first try. Most of the time, not even until their third or fourth try. This is phenomenal.”

  Stephanie blushed slightly, still focused on the flames in her hands. M’rick folded his arms across his chest and tilted his head. “Have you studied Meligornian focus before?”

  She continued to stare at her small blaze and admired what she had achieved. However, it soon began to die out and slowly grew smaller and smaller until it extinguished in a small puff of shimmering ash. The question that had been asked had taken her focus away.

  “Drat.”

  Stephanie mimicked M’rick, clapped her hands together, and brushed the remaining ash off her palms and into the grass below. She felt his gaze upon her and knew that he wanted an answer to his question. The truth was, she had been so mesmerized by her accomplishment she hadn’t even thought about it.

  She shook her head and smiled at him. “Do what? Oh, no. I have never studied the Meligornian focus before. In fact, I didn’t even know the flames or the cantrips were possible. It was all very new to me. You told me to focus. I couldn’t understand the words that you used, so I made my own up. I didn’t actually think it would work until the dancing red flame appeared. But sadly, no, this is my first and probably last time studying your art of magic. It’s always fascinated me.”

  M’rick raised an eyebrow and studied her. “Most early human magic users chose to learn the Meligornians words so early human magic relied on those words. I have never seen a human make up their own cantrip. That is usually reserved for the teachers and the ArchMage.”

  Stephanie twisted her lips and tapped her side awkwardly. “Is that a bad thing?”

  He chuckled. “No, it isn’t a bad thing, merely surprising. But tell me, because I am very curious. What were the words you used?”

  She looked nervously at him for a moment and put her right hand out, palm up, once more. While he watched intently, she drew a deep breath in through her nose and blew it out of her mouth. She focused her attention on the center of her palm and began to repeat the words she had said originally. “Candle light, candle bright, grant me your flame tonight.”

  She concentrated harder and repeated it a second time, louder this time. As soon as she had spoken the last word, the flame ignited in her palm and made her jump slightly. It was blue this time and considerably larger than the first. She glanced nervously at the teacher and back at her flame. He looked completely astounded by it all. She extended her other hand and poured the blue flame into her other palm. It shook slightly and for a second, turned yellow, then green before it settled back into red.

  Stephanie furrowed her brow and shook the flame several times in her hands. She narrowed her eyes and stared hard in an attempt to change the color again. No matter how hard she tried, she was stuck with the red flame. She straightened and pursed her lips in irritation. “Well, that bites.”

  M’rick immediately slapped his hands against hers several times until the flames were extinguished. She pulled her head back, startled, as he turned her hands over and back again as if looking for something. His gaze caught hers. “Where are you hurt? I can fix it for you.”

  She blinked for several moments until she finally realized what had happened. His concern was real, though, so she gripped her stomach and tried not to laugh. The teacher looked at her and his face reminded her of a human trying to figure out where a puzzle piece fitted. “What are these words, and what do you mean, bites?”

  Stephanie giggled and rubbed the ash from her hands. They shimmered faintly on the ground. She wasn’t even sure how to explain it and hadn’t thought for a moment that the sarcasm and small dialectic moments would be something they hadn’t picked up by that point. At the same time, they lived on their planet and the humans lived on their own. There was not that much co-mingling between the different species.

  BURT could sense Stephanie’s stats start to rise. The Meligornian teacher struggled to understand her and it was obvious that she struggled to find the words. He decided that, without letting Stephanie know it, he would directly take over the avatar of the teacher and wizard who stood in front of her. Besides, he wanted to know more and to learn more from her. This was the perfect opportunity to do so.

  With BURT now in control, M’rick straightened and the concerned and confused look slid from his face. Immediately, Stephanie’s vitals settled. She had thought for a moment that she had done something wrong and nervousness had spiked very quickly. The small assurance that M’rick was impressed and surprised was all she needed to calm her nerves. In reality, she had done nothing wrong and almost everything right.

  BURT was used to weaving in and out of the system to fix problems and assume a character when it was needed but generally, he seldom hung out that often. This was a whole new ball game for him. His interaction with this human during the initial testing had provided more insights than he usually received with the small interactions during VR NPC negotiations with Player Characters—or even the large battles where chaos ruled.

  The chaotic moments were usually when BURT learned the most about humans. The things they did when the world around them was no longer stable and they were faced with hard, and even sudden choices were often enlightening. But this student had provided him with an entirely new way to understand or learn from them. He did, after all, run the entire program for them to train on. It was good that he was able to learn more about them so he could tailor the worlds to them, not merely based on statistics.

  Everything that had happened was a shock to everyone involved.

  Chapter Nine

  Several very awkward moments of silence ensued during which Stephanie rocked back and forth on her heels and M’rick merely blinked at her. BURT averted the teacher’s gaze when he realized that humans really didn’t respond well when someone stared at them. Especially not an elf-like creature who knew how to do magic. It could be somewhat intimidating…and creepy. Definitely on the creeper scale.