A week before Cale’s first Birthday...

  Cale had been hard at work, to an outside observer it would have looked like he just loved to play, but if one looked hard enough they would have noticed that Cale wasn’t doing much playing. His days were filled with attempts at physical activity while also trying to keep an eye out for his mother's watchful gaze. There had been a few times where she had caught him holding on to a door while he was working on his grip. Another time she found him on top of the cupboards, and he was successful in evading her for almost a whole minute! One time he really did need her help when he was trying to climb over the chairs and got his little diaper stuck on an armrest. That one was a close one since he could feel a poo coming on and he doubted his mother would be impressed with what would have happened next.

  Outside of his workout attempts he still had to deal with the occasional baby brain battle, sometimes he would wake up in his mother's arms and he couldn’t recall how he got there! Those moments would have been more concerning to him if he didn’t realize that it was probably his body’s way of telling him to take a break. So, when that happened, he would rest for the day and use the extra time to look at whatever was happening with his soul. He was a little sad that he hadn’t really made any progress in that realm.

  Back when he was first starting his endeavor, he tried to probe his soul with his mind, but that didn’t go anywhere. It wasn’t until recently that he could start to feel what felt like a core inside of him. It took a lot of concentration and focus to feel even a small sliver of his soul. But he chipped away at it every day until he had a vague idea of what his soul might look like. The image of his soul in his mind reminded him of those old photos of planets. You could see the generic shape, but the details were missing, and it was pretty much just a blur. There was one part of his soul he was not able to feel, it was a black spot in the fuzziness that didn't exist.

  He had tried to focus on it to maybe see what made this part different, but he was unable to interact with it in any way. He really hoped this wasn’t something that would come back and haunt him later. The risk of that happening was high, especially since he really had no idea if what he was doing was helping his soul get stronger or doing absolutely nothing at all. He had hope though.

  The system had started to check up on his soul more often and he was thinking that he was close to maybe having it finally work. If only the entity that had made the interface had bothered to make a progress bar. God forbid the creator add some quality-of-life features or maybe even a support number.

  At the moment Cale was snuggling with his mother on the couch as she read a book, and he was very jealous he couldn’t read any of the words. As he stared at the pages, he noticed a different type of text start scrolling across his eyes. Looks like the interface was checking up on his soul again. He was surprised, usually there was at least a week in between these checks. Cale’s eyes grew wide! He just had one of these yesterday and now already another one? He had to be close, was this the one?

  #`Checking Soul pattern against existing registration`

  #`Soul pattern located… Previous records loaded`

  #`Starting Soul Check Protocol… used for twins, triplets, and those with potential mental deficiency`

  #`Soul Check Completed, anomaly verified and matches previous record.

  #Soul Details Loading:

  #Soul category, Single. Twin+ Check Negative

  #Soul Size: S+. Warning. Soul walls have reached satisfactory strength.

  #Warning: Anomaly detected. Unused Soul seed detected on edge of soul.

  #Warning: Age of soul does not match integrated conscience.

  #Notice: Default interface not found. Loading backup.

  #Notice: Backup interface found. Size smaller than expected. Errors Suppressed.

  #Notice: Installation of interface will resume shortly.

  Cale couldn’t believe it! Finally! He was going to get a system or something! He wasn’t fully sure what he was going to get since he was just guessing, but he really hoped it was something like the video games he used to help create. Something where he could keep stats that helped him grow.

  #Notice: Brain activity higher than expected, installation will start when activity is lower.

  No! Cale screamed, thoroughly startling his mother and making her throw her book in surprise. Cale immediately closed his mouth and noticed his mother staring at him intently. He was unsure if he had actually said the word, he had definitely thought it, and he was not sure exactly when babies in this world were supposed to start talking. The way his mother was looking at him told him that maybe he had said the word no, which he wasn’t sure was even a word on this planet. He still couldn’t tell what anyone was saying and theorized that the only reason he could read the text in front of his eyes was because it was talking to his soul directly. As Cale’s mother thoroughly scrutinized him, he figured that saying nothing was probably the safest choice. There was a lot he did not know about this culture and for all he knew this world might think he was possessed and throw him away!

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  Cale waited patiently as his mother checked his baby body for injuries or anything out of the ordinary. After a minute when she had determined nothing was wrong, his mother settled back into her book and Cale attempted to relax through his excitement. He did think it was very rude of the system to not let him watch this thing install onto or into his soul. He wasn’t sure why, but he WANTED to know what it was going to be like, and tomorrow was basically an eternity for someone less than a year old. As Cale fell into a deep thought about what tomorrow would hold, he slowly fell asleep. He was fully asleep by the time his mother put him into his little crib and tucked him in.

  In the realm unseen the connection to his soul strengthened and if one was observing it, it would look like it had started to hum. Without anyone but Cale knowing, the interface started to install on his Soul.

  ***

  The next morning Cale awoke in a daze. He didn’t recall falling asleep and his little eyes were having an interesting time trying to find the ceiling. As he woke up, he kept wondering why there was a blue tint to his room. Cale slowly stretched his little baby body and as his arms lifted over his head, he realized they were a little blue tinted as well. His sausage fingers looked a little less sausage-y today. That was when it hit him.

  The INTERFACE!

  His eyes dilated in his excitement, his brain speeding up as fast as a little baby can crawl, and before his very eyes he saw the interface. It looked a lot like a hovering piece of glass with dark blue edges and a lighter blue for the background. His eyes worked from the top to the bottom, and he found that though it looked a lot like the computer screens he was used to back home, it looked very elementary. The interface looked a lot like a webpage, but it looked like a webpage from the early days of the internet and had a lot of open space with nothing in it. Overall, it was odd, but he was willing to move past it at the moment. He realized that there was some information that he could read about halfway down.

  #Name: Xavier

  #Age: 11 +/- 11

  #Soul Size: S+

  #Interface Type: #Error#, files missing.

  #Magic Affinity: Not measured

  #Imported Skills: None

  #Created Skills: None

  #Areon System Signal Strength: Good

  Cale looked at his details with disgust. Why was he named Xavier? He knew this mother called him that, but he was hoping he could pick his own name! And what is up with his age? Eleven plus or minus eleven, does that mean he could be anywhere from zero to twenty-two? The interface is missing files?! But he could have skills! Maybe that is what his mother was using that day when he saw her in her workshop. For all the answers he had he now had double the questions. Cale’s eyes wandered down to the last line, a signal strength meter. It reminded him a little like the Wi-Fi symbol back home only he wasn’t sure if this covered the whole planet or only the city he was in.

  Cale played around with his interface for a bit to see how it operated. He found that he could open and close it by willing it in his mind. When it was closed, he noticed there was a faint white icon in the lower corner of his vision. It didn’t seem to get in the way; he didn’t even notice it until he needed to. He re-opened his interface and tried to rearrange the modules inside of it, but he was unable to get them to do anything. Next, he tried to change his name, but he realized he couldn’t find a menu or an options button.

  No wonder that being with the scary eyes came and got me; this thing is a mess! he screamed inside his head. Next, he tried to interact with it using his hands, which did nothing. He then put his head against his crib to see if the interface would move, but unsurprisingly, it did not. Cale sat down in his crib and rested against one of its walls while he thought about what to do next. There was no way this thing was made by some god, it had too many flaws to be divine. It was around this time that his mother came into his room, he looked her in the eyes, and he noticed a little sparkle behind them and a huge smile on her face.

  “Xavier, you are awake!” He heard her speak. His brain took a second to process that he could understand her. As he processed this his mother rushed to him and picked him up and put him into her arms.

  “Oh, did my little darling sleep well?” she asked him while slowly swaying him back and forth, “I know you can’t understand me, but I was beginning to worry! You go to daycare soon and I haven’t been able to officially name you yet!”

  Cale’s mind went numb, then slowly rage started to build up in him as he realized it was HER! She named him Xavier, and she had only done it a few hours ago! Cale couldn’t help it, he cried. He had lost the one connection he had with his true self, his name. He bawled his little baby eyeballs dry of tears and no matter what his mother did, she couldn’t console him. Finally, after exhausting himself with crying, motivation started to set in. I must be able to change my name, he thought. The interface HAD to have a settings or configuration page. He would figure it out and he would make this right, no matter what his mother said. He looked at her with disgust on his face, he thought that maybe over the past few months he had made himself clear that he didn’t like his name, but as he thought about it, he got a little less upset. There was no way for her to know that he wasn’t even from here. Plus, she had been taking good care of him over the past few months while he attempted to strengthen his body and soul a little.

  Then he had a devious thought, he wasn’t sure when babies in this world started to talk, but as far as he knew, he had not said anything since the interface had been installed. Since he understood what his mother was saying there was a chance that he might be able to say at least one word or so.

  Cale opened his eyes to see that his mother was holding him, and his head was on her shoulder, this was the perfect time to say something that only she could hear. So, he snuggled into her neck, close to her ear and said, “d-ay car-e.” Considering he had never spoken this language before and that he was less than a year old, he thought it came out pretty well. His mother pulled Cale away from her and held him in front of her, he stared at her while she stared at him. He could tell she wasn’t sure if she was confident if he had really said something, so he decided to try again. “D-ay c-car-e” he spit out. It was harder to speak with the way she was holding him.

  “Oh, your first word!” she exclaimed before she started to ramble to herself, “A bit early for a baby, but then again this is my first child. Too bad he didn’t say mommy or daddy, that would have been so cute!” At this point Cale zoned out, he was tired from all the crying and the excitement of having an interface. His mother had pulled him into her in an embrace, and he decided to let sleep take him. When he woke up, he would work on changing his name. After all, a baby has to have his priorities.