Sjon woke up to a pleasant smelling room. He breathed in the morning air, and brushed his hair back. That was the best sleep he had ever had in his life. Well, his previous life. Never feeling this refreshed before, he pulled back the covers and went over to the wall where the door apparently was. Just as he got to the wall, it swung open, revealing Pilar standing right outside of it.

"I saw you woke up. The house monitors your sleeping patterns. You should get change, the results from the lab are in. There should be some clothing that fits you in there, but it might be a little big," she ordered.

It seemed like Pilar didn't get as restful of a sleep as he did. She quickly left, yawning.

Sjon looked to the dresser as the door conveniently closed. As he opened some of the drawers, he ran his fingers over the unknown fabric. It was as soft as cotton, but as smooth as silk. Nearly all the clothing was in pastel colors, all of them darker than his dark skin. He preferred to wear black, as it required less cleaning, but he assumed that this far in the future they must have some sort of automatic cleaning and folding system. He picked out a green high- collared tunic and some gray pants. The pants were a little too long, so he folded them up. It was difficult to get on the clothing, for there weren't any zippers or functional buttons. It all had these small strips of a strange fabric, and Sjon guessed they were kind of magnetic, but he confessed to himself that he didn't actually know how they worked. He guessed that he would just have to get used to this way of living. He was actually surprised at how little Cyrus looked from him. Aside from the abnormally long fingers, and his tall height, Cyrus looked like a regular old man.

Still, two billion years in the future seemed a little absurd. There must have been other changes to the human race, it almost seemed too easy to adjust. he had so many questions for Pilar, but he assumed they' would have to wait until after this whole 'magic' ordeal. He couldn't remember much about his own life on Earth, but nuances about culture came easily to him. He remembered hearing about magic on television, and being excited for interstellar travel, but didn't think it could ever really happen. Still, he walked to the area where the door was, trying to get it to open so he could discover a new aspect of his life.

After a few minutes of tapping the walls, Sjon finally figured out how to open the door. All you had to do was tap your foot in front of it, and it would open. After he got out, he walked to where the circular platform was, and tapped a discolored area on the wall. The white platform came up to where he was standing, and just as he stood on it, it descended into the living area.

Standing in the living room were Cyrus and Pilar, discussing what looked to be a tablet in their language, called... Kameng? Sjon walked over to the pair and tapped Pilar on the shoulder.

Pilar turned around to him. "Sjon, good, you're dressed. Your results are here," she stated, an ounce of hesitancy in her voice.

Sjon was confused. "What's wrong?" he asked, concerned.

"Well," Pilar started, "Do you remember what I told you yesterday about magic?"

"Kind of?" said Sjon hesitantly.

She sighed and explained again. "There are three categories. The two you need to know are Summoners and Controllers. Summoners summon, or call for, a certain 'element', and Controllers control that element."

"So I'm a Summoner and a Controller?" asked Sjon excitedly, against his better judgement. He seemed to be excited to be special.

"Yes. Well, kind of," Pilar started. "Your category is metals, you have summoning and controlling power over all of them, but the strength seems to vary by each specific one," she paused for a moment. "From what we've seen, it looks like the rarer the metal, the harder of a time you'll have summoning it, and the more common a metal, the more difficult of a time you'll have controlling it," she finished.

"That sounds overly confusing," protested Sjon, "the way you said it before made it sound so simple."

"That's true, it's not usually this complex, but I think this is an outstanding power to have. It opens up a lot of job opportunities once you can integrate into our society," Pilar assured him, "Iron is costly to remove from the cores of planets, but you should be able to summon it easily because it's so common," she finished.

Sjon sighed, although he was a little happier than he appeared, being praised like that. "So at least I'll be useful. Well then, how do I control it?" he inquired.

"That's a little more complicated.," Pilar shrugged. "If you've never accidentally controlled anything in the past, then it'll probably be very difficult to use your powers for the first time. Generally, people find controlling objects to be easier, so we'll start from that."

"When do we begin?" Sjon asked curiously.

"How does after breakfast sound to you?" Pilar replied with another question.

"Sounds great.," Sjon smiled.

Cyrus and Sjon were seated next to each other on some strangely shaped stools at a bar-like counter facing the kitchen. Pilar was using strange machines to cut meat and vegetables, and using the oven-like devices to cook them faster than it seemed possible. While she was doing all of this, she was chatting with Cyrus. Sjon noted that the words they were speaking almost seemed comprehensible, but not quite.

Pilar set two plates of something down on the table. Sjon looked down at what looked to be a steak with some vegetables on the side. He looked at Cyrus, who appeared to be using some sort of fork and knife to cut the meat, although they looked very different from what Sjon was used to. He picked up the fork, and looked at the tiny prongs. There were six of them, and they were so thin Sjon thought he could break them right off. He tried using it alongside the knife, and was surprised at how easily the knife cut into the meat, and how strong the fork was.

He picked up a piece of the meat and placed it into his mouth, expecting the taste of beef, but was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't as fatty as beef, but it was just as juicy, and had a similar flavor to venison. He dug in and finished the meal quickly, hardly thinking about why they were having steak for breakfast.

The vegetables adorning the outside of the plate were strange, and Sjon had no idea what they were, but eagerly tried them anyways. As expected, they were just as good as the steak. They were rich in flavor, and crunched just right under his teeth.

"Pilar, thank you for the meal," he politely spoke up.

"What?" she responded, being previously in a conversation with Cyrus, "Oh yeah, no problem!" she beamed. "Did you like it?" she asked hopefully.

"It was more delicious than anything I've ever had on Earth," he replied, praising her for her efforts.

"Thanks, little guy," she said in a sing-song voice, obviously elated at her work being praised.

Sjon, however, was disappointed. He wasn't that little. He was around 5'8", not too tall but not short either.

"What do you mean, 'little guy'?" he asked, offended. "You're just some freakishly tall giant," he blurted out.

Pilar was surprised at this sudden and uncalled-for outburst. For a second, Sjon was worried he had seriously offended her, but then suddenly, she started laughing.

"You think I'm tall?" she chuckled.

"Aren't you?" he asked, "You're what, six foot four?"

"Sjon," she started, "the average height of a male here is around seven foot six."

"What? You're kidding!" he exclaimed, standing up.

Cyrus laughed.

"Don't worry," Pilar giggled. "Male celebrities are all around your height, it's a beauty trend," she stated.

Sjon grumbled, but noticed that Cyrus and Pilar were done with their food as well. "Can we get started?" he asked her anxiously.

"Fine, fine.," she waved. "Follow me," commanded Pilar, walking towards a wall.

As they got closer to the wall, the door opened.

Inside the wall, there was a fairly large room. There wasn't much inside aside from a table and two chairs. It was a little colder than the rest of the house, and seemed to have no scent. Pilar sat down on one side of the table, and Sjon followed. Cyrus waited outside the room, and started to leave right as the door closed. Sjon pulled out the chair and sat down, wondering how the furniture was so sturdy with its oddly curved legs. Pilar pulled out a bag made of a sleek material, and emptied it onto the table. From the bag came various bits of shiny metal. The edges looked sharp and fine, while the metal itself was very thin, almost like flakes.

"It's called milium," Pilar started, "it's one of the rarest metals in the universe," she explained, and looked to Sjon to see if he understood.

"How do I control it?" he asked, looking away from the bits of metal.

"You just imagine where you want it to go," Pilar replied. "Watch," she spoke, holding up the bag.

Pilar stared with intent at the bag, her deep, brown eyes focused only on the task at hand. Sjon noticed that her eyes moved up with anticipation, just before the bag started to float in the air. She followed the bag with her vision, never taking her attention away from it, as she moved it up towards the ceiling, to the side, and then back down again, into her palm. Sjon stared in amazement.

"Magic is real..." he muttered under his breath subconsciously.

Pilar chuckled. "If you think that's amazing, you should see what other people do," she chimed. "I'm actually pretty weak," she paused for a moment, looking at Sjon, who had an arrogant look on his face. "You know, you're not that strong either," she scoffed, "Your scores indicated you can't do too much right now, but if you train really hard, you might be able to do great things."

That statement fueled Sjon's competitive drive. It would have been great to be inherently powerful, but if he could work his way up to a greater level, that'd be fine too. He stared at the metal flakes with intensity, ready to become as powerful as he could.

▅ ▆ ▇ █ ▇ ▆ ▅

"Why won't they MOVE!" Sjon yelled, his voice echoing across the room.

Pilar sighed, ready to leave the boy to work on his own. They'd been at it for hours, and he couldn't do anything. The metal pieces never budged a bit.

"Sjon, calm down, you won't be able to do anything when you're so worked up."

Sjon groaned and stood up from his chair, holding his head in his hands. He started pacing around the room.

"Why won't they move, Pilar? I'm focusing all my attention on them, I'm doing what you said!" he yelled at the wall.

"I don't know what to tell you, Sjon, I never had this much trouble when I was learning," Pilar groaned, her face lying on the sleek table.

Sjon just groaned and kept pacing across the room, desperately trying to get his nervous energy out. Pilar opened her eyes and smiled, watching him. He was so cute, a little boy trying so hard to achieve what he wanted too. Maybe she would play with him a little.

"Hey, Sjon?" sShe asked.

"What?" he replied, irritated.

"How old are you?" she inquired, a smirk on her face.

"Sixteen," he replied grumpily.

Pilar stood up from her chair. "Seriously? You're so young!" she exclaimed, surprised.

Sjon stopped pacing. "Well, how old are you?" he asked, frustrated with the energetic ginger's constant questioning.

"Biologically, I'm 31," she mused, looking to his face for a reaction. "But technically, I'm 48."

"What?" Sjon replied, confused.

"Because of Cyrus, w. We don't age anymore, remember?" she lectured.

"Right," nodded Sjon, "You look really young," he murmured.

Pilar laughed at the comment. "Thanks!"

Sshe smiled as she sauntered over to him. She came closer to him, probably closer than he would've liked. Sjon smiled weakly at her. She leaned over his shoulder, her lips just brushing his ear.

"You're really cute when you're mad," she whispered into his ear, as sensually as a whisper can be.

Sjon quickly backed away towards the wall, and in doing so, accidentally opened the door.

Sitting at the kitchen counter was Cyrus, and when he saw Sjon stumble and fall out of the door, he seemed to laugh, and said something in the strange language.

Pilar replied with something, and she turned to Sjon. "Time for bed," she smiled, as if nothing had happened.

Sjon shivered, and walked to his room, not exactly excited for the next day.