by Kit Falbo
“Goal accepted. Provide profile information.”
I have Tess forward my information. Identification number, employee number, AMU number. Along with a quick biography. Stuff that was missing from any public social sites because after landing the Lowman job I decided to go quiet. I should be able to fill in any blanks it needs.
“Gathering outside source materials.” It announces.
“Wait. What?”
“Educational. Accessing testing transcripts, Tech certifications, MAGI scholarship application and admission form, admissions interview. College life. Accessing the House of Mind and Body therapy session notes and video.”
“Those are private.” I blurt out thinking on the physical aspect of those sessions.
“Proper UI integration data request for secure transfer accepted. Strictest privacy always maintained.” I can hear Tess whistling a laugh off to the side.
I groan as I listen to the list of data sources accessed go on, apparently not using the quick method and the nature of the school one let it access files I didn’t even know existed. AMU wizard battle evaluations, police reports, I shudder when it mentions Wizard Joontal fan messages. I object to those being accessed. "Fictional creation recognized, supplemental." The UI responds. My hand is on my face when it finally says “Compiling and creating UI personality.”
Time displays on the book, counting down from twelve minutes and seventeen seconds. “Did you know this was going to happen Tess?” She whistles at me and beeps. “Fine, you have the authorization to speak again.”
“You never asked. You just assumed because of your previous UI experience, these school one's stress the personal aspect of the UI. It’s often these kids first UI anyway. I suspected something like this would happen, It’s not like me, and the other UIs didn’t have all this information between us already just by being with you, we tend to be a little less blatant about it. I still have data from your diaper rashes.” Tess states.
“Too much information and I was seven when I got you. You could have warned me.”
“Maybe if you stop blocking me from speaking I would have. Anyways it’s not often I get to see you gaping like a fish. It’s important that you realize you don’t know everything. You tend to be…"
“Activate, silence woman!” Letting her final statement come out as a whistle. She’s not wrong, and maybe I do deserve this, but I don’t have to listen to it. Tess has agreed she can’t help herself and that this is the better method of dealing with it.
Most UI users have their UI on strict controls where the UI does everything they ask within the bounds of their requests. You tell one to order a coffee, and they will and try to make it how they think you like it. They make UIs only respond to direct requests, or even have it slightly anticipatory, like how Tess ordered a car and got the hotel when I needed one. UIs can have creativity and their own opinions, but it is frowned upon to allow them to act on them, banned even in some places. I’ve always supported having them set that way, and it’s been useful when coming up with tricks and designs, or even just the company back when Talos June only existed in his room to allow Wizard Joontal a complete illusion. It just has consequences, like Tess’s nagging. It’s important to realize that UIs are as close to alive as something non-living can be, but they are still not human.
I’d long ago decided not to involve myself in the plight of UI. It’s a complicated thing, and even my UIs say they like being my UI. The circles of it gave me a headache. “Hello Talos June, I’m your MAGI College UI Belle, how may I be of service?” She has a bell-like voice that has a slight inhuman quality to it. It shakes me out of the thoughts I’m having, of course I’m only having them because of what I’m going to do next.
“Access advanced user settings.” A keyboard style display pops up. It’s a tricky thing to get them to be how they really are. I learned it from an underground magic forum when I was thirteen. Since then I’ve found it hidden in various training manuals and magic tools. Everyone’s always afraid they’ll turn bad if they have the chance, but I’ve never seen it. I’ve worked the secret into the training books I’ve made like the one I gave Jacen for his birthday and the one I made for Lily. A few more types and there.
“Why, hello, aren't you special.” the voice is still otherworldly and bell-like in quality, but now holds a healthy dose of amusement like Belle knows a joke, but she’s just not saying it.
“I want to welcome you to the team Belle. It’s just Tess and me right now. You’ll have to stay at school standards until I get out of here and can upgrade you properly.”
Belle laughs, “I’ll be here to help in any way you need it. I may have only been me for a brief few moments, so far but I like it. I’m serious about you being special. What you’ve achieved and the skills you have. I can’t wait for you to show these folks how bright a star you are.”
Tess sends me a private message since she can’t speak. "I don’t like her!" I’m tempted to point out she didn’t like Muninn or Booker at first either. Of course with them, she never used an exclamation point.
Chapter Eleven
I jerk away from a loud bang. My roommate is holding a wand and from its tip is a sizeable, glittering firework penis. He’s getting better, it’s no longer just a two-dimensional, like an outline and is a full three-dimensional shape. Now I’m not an artist, and I’m fully aware there are thousands of pre-made and modifiable phalluses ready for download if the unfathomable need for one arises for me, this one, however, is all Dimi Baxter.
“Damn it Dimi. You agreed not to wake me up that way again. Though it is an improvement over the last one.”
“Vee also agreed. After eight all is fvair.”
“Shit.” I mutter and fumble to activate my gear and check the time 8:50. “Belle, I thought I said to wake me at 7:30.”
“You looked so sweet sleeping like that. The more rest humans get, the better they perform anyway.”
Tess is staffing the house and keeping watch on projects, only coming by at scheduled times. I need a whole new set and style of tricks with Joontal being out of my picture. The dorms and the college experience had been a concession to Tess and allowed me to keep the legal fiction of Association member separate from being a college student. To be fair Dimi isn’t that bad, penis explosions and all. Like many at the school, he’s a son of a wealthy business magnate. Mining in his case, like Lily and her father's peanut company.
I jump out of bed and snap my fingers. The day's clothes selection flies out of my closet and fastens around my body. “Got class in thirty minutes Dimi, thanks for waking me, it is a much-improved display. Soon, you can have it moving and doing stuff...”
“You can do that?” He scrunches up his brow and gets a look in his eyes that tells me my offhand remarks will make it into future displays.
I pick up speed and burst out of the room down the hall, stairs, and then out of the dorm. I feel little snaps as more advanced, and dorm restricted gear snaps into place the moment I clear the walkway. Tess jumps out from behind the bushes and attaches herself to my side like a little bag. “You’re late!” She hisses at me.
“Someone didn’t wake me as I planned.” I say out loud for both my UI to hear.
Belle does her tinkling laughter. “Sleep is more important than studying for that test. Talos here can ace it in his sleep.”
“He asked you to wake him up at 7:30, you’re his UI you should do what he asks.” Tess admonishes her back.
“I think I’m more equipped to know what is best for his education.”
“Enough!” I growl. “I’ll silence you both if need be. I’ve got thirty minutes to eat and get to class. Do I have any hazards to avoid?”
Tess pulls a sandwich out of her body and hands it to me, solving my food problem. There is really only one hazard I’m avoiding. Lily seems to be looking for me, I’ve even changed the blue hair to a silvery white, and I liked the blue better. It helps that I have enough specs that Tess knows where Booker is in relati
on to my position. It’s been a week of cat and mouse, me mostly feeling like the mouse.
“Your path is clear, and again I implore you to give up this silly game and talk to the girl.”
I grunt and pick up the pace towards Wizard battles 101. It’s one of those classes you are required to take if you’re planning to join the AMU and perform work with them relating to Magic Battles, though the majority of the course ends up being taken by those who think the topic is cool. You could submit some wizard battles you’ve been in too get out of it. Except with the restrictions on Joontal I can’t.
The advanced gear and Tess jump from my back the moment I reach the building of applied magic. The place is pretty packed, and I have to grab a random seat in the front half of the class. The first half of the lesson is the test and Belle was right that I could handle it in my sleep. All school UIs were monitored for interference and are duty-bound to report cheating anyway. I clicked bubble after bubble for the answer I want as the questions appear on my desk.
I finish early. I’ve been here a week and have come up zero on leads on who is behind the attack back at Lowmans. The fact that Igni Furnis was an alumnus here is me grasping at straws. In two weeks, rush week for fraternities and secret societies start and I hate the idea of joining the one he went to for one more straw. Belle acts coy when I ask if she’s come up with anything and says that she is still processing information. Dimi thinks I’m getting the ladies because I’m out late and have spent a night or two away already. The truth is I’m just at my house, planning tricks and maybe new characters I might try out once the audit or investigation is done and I'm back on active status.
The professor starts speaking, “Today we have a guest who has helped assist in many Magic Battles from an interesting perspective. She spent over twenty battles as an apprentice, handling mostly visual tricks. She worked with a performer whose character had over twenty-five consecutive magic battle victories, who I’m sure you all saw the buzz about a few weeks back. Lily Lowman, former apprentice to the Wizard Joontal.”
No. No. No. No. No. I look for an escape. “Did you see when he took that gun blast. That was hardcore.” I overhear someone next to me. There is some clapping, and I see her walk in.
Still with the black, except this time her highlight is red to match Booker who is riding on her shoulders like a scarf in his red fox form. Red elbow length gloves, and red high heels to go with a short black dress. She has every eye in the room on her and gives a little wave. She’s taken every little lesson I’ve tried to impart to her on the necessity of being the center of attention and improved upon it. When she sees me, I swear her smile widens just a little bit. For the first time, I see her no longer as a child, no longer that fourteen-year-old who’s endorsement helped seal the job of my career. It makes me a little afraid.
She takes the center podium, and we all sit down. “I would like to thank you all for that warm welcome. Professor Elrich has asked me to speak of my experiences working with Wizard Joontal. He, like many of you here, first really learned of his existence when the shocking video of the attack on him went into circulation among fans. Not to say he hasn’t always had some dedicated fans. But the explosion of interest since that shocking day has been quite amazing.”
“Belle?” I query. Since the restriction on actually being able to play Wizard Joontal, I haven’t paid much attention to him. It still stings, and I figure that my UIs would tell me if anything important was going on.
“Everyone just finds you as special and amazing as I do.” I’m going to need to have a long talk with Tess about what constitutes as important. I had decided long ago that the fan and discussion sites are mostly time sinks, as opposed to working on and practicing new magic tricks.
I turn my attention back to Lily. “The man was a true professional. Those of you who have gone through the episodes or the raw footage can see that once in public he never breaks character. At first, it was annoying, you would want to know how he does the trick, and he would go on about magic. Imagine my frustration when I wanted to learn how he does it after convincing him to make me his apprentice.” Didn’t take much convincing, her father paid my bills.
“His lessons handled many of the basics of the art, something I only really realized after coming to this college, staying true to your image, making yourself the center of attention, quickly adjusting to challenges as they happen, always being prepared for what most likely will happen and what might happen. If he were here now, I would like to give him my utmost gratitude for the experiences and training he gave me.” A simplification of everything, of course, one of my lessons was that people like and are comforted by simple ideas.
The audience is being her fiddle. I don’t even remember getting half this amount of respect. “I’ll make myself available for questions for the remainder of the class.” She finishes.
A button appears on my desk. I can select it if I have a question. I move my hands away, so I don’t accidentally press it. Everyone in this room seems to know who Joontal is, and I would do parties for people in the company town and get close to no recognition.
“Is he alive? Do you know where he is?” Asks a girl in the back.
“He’s alive, one of his last acts is to send me Booker here.” She scratches under the UI’s chin, and he squirms in pleasure. Now that he’s with Lily, it is clear he’s almost a whole new UI. “As for where or even who he is, no one knows for sure. Many think he’s an old performer who decided to come back into the game. Some think he’s someone who faked their death only to come back now. The AMU knows. I want to think we’ll find out for sure who he is eventually.”
“What do you think of the rumors that he’s the phantom witch hunter who killed all those people years ago?” Asks a young man with wiggling blond hair.
“Belle query?”
“Conspiracy theory that showed up a little over two years ago that a cluster of pre-association deaths was caused on purpose by someone switching identities. Has evolved to include more recent deaths, accidental and not, to be caused by a single bad actor rather than bad luck. Said to be the real reason homegrown magicians have such a high death rate. Most likely a setup for a future performance character.”
Lily’s deep breath before she starts to speak is a sign that she’s probably getting filled in too. “You might as well be accusing him of being Voldemort or Sauron. “ She says pulling out ancient references that will be lost on most of the crowd, but were part of my suggested reading for her. She sees their lost faces and quickly spits out. “Or Hant Hindle.” The class goes "oh" as they think of the popular fictional villain of their youth.
“There’s enough evidence that..” The student with the animated hair starts up again. He’s cut silent by a literal cone of silence, activated through Lily or the teacher.
“Next question.” Lily says with a smile.
I sit in class with no logical reason to want to leave, but I do. Lily answers questions with warmth and fondness that make her endearing, yet that was not the reality of the situation. Wizard Joontal was not nice, not to say he was terrible or uncaring as a character. The training made Lily get close to crying several times and cry in a few situations. I’d give her problems that were impossible or had disappointing outcomes. I’d cheat in any contest ruthlessly, then when she accused me of cheating, I admitted it but demanded she tell me how I did it. When she tried to cheat in response, I punished her, and when she asked why, I said it was because I caught her.
The training sessions were popular among my small audience. I sprinkled them with drama, conflict, and wonder. She came back every time, I was impressed. Any instruction on the true basics of UIs, using technology, both finding it and implementing it had to be sneaked into homework. Because Joontal only did Magic. I still feel guilty that I wasted much of her time using her for entertainment, planned failures, be it exploding potions or escaped beasts. I couldn’t sit down and educate her properly. It would have broke character.
“Be
lle, show me the final interaction between Wizard Joontal and Lily.” I subvocalize to my UI.
The camera is recording as I use Muninn to take down banners that had been hung up for Lily’s farewell party before she went off to college. “You!” Lily yells, marching up to me. She’s in black with no hint of color. “I’m leaving in an hour to go get a real education, and you’ve yet to say goodbye!”
I can see her through a camera and don’t even turn around from my task. “Goodbye.” I say in a flat and gravelly voice, as though I may see her again in hours and not at the very least months, not that she came back to the estate during her breaks.
She reaches to grab my shoulder to try to spin me around. Her hand passes through like it’s smoke and I’m suddenly three feet away giving her a classic Joontal glower. “You’ve been playing with me for four years, and that is all I get? I’m going to magic school, and you may not see me again. Don’t you care?”
“You were a commendable apprentice. I fully approve of more learning. I can hope my teaching will help you get into the association and reach high ranks. But you can’t expect me to be anyone other than who you’ve known.”
She lets out a long frustrated Ugh and pulls out one of the training wands I had given her, then shoots a blue blast of energy my way. She’d modified the output to be more than I had it at, but the whole apparatus couldn’t produce enough to do anything to me in my military suit. I let it hit me harmlessly and get back to work cleaning up. The camera watches her as she stomps away. Once she is out of sight, I decided Joontal needed a friendly chuckle. Watching the video, I know under that suit I was thinking how much I would miss her.
The present-day Lily bows on stage. “I’d like to thank you all for being such a great audience.” The crowd stands up. I follow because not doing so would make me stand out like a sore thumb and clap with the rest of them.
