He just watches me with those ancient, accepting eyes. No wonder he thinks me a child.
“I’ll let you get settled in. Tomorrow, we can order some clothes and stuff for you on the Internet.”
“What is the Internet?” he asks.
I laugh, feeling a little bit more grounded.
“You’ve got a lot to learn, my friend. Welcome to the twenty-first century.”
The next morning,Layden and I eat breakfast together in his room, which feels far more normal than it should. He’s astounded by how good Lucky Charms cereal tastes and eats three bowls. Remembering how much he likes meat, I microwave him some bacon, which he also freaks out over.
It’s fun to introduce him to things. So next, I take him to my computer lab.
I drag another chair into the setup I have in front of multiple screens. Sabra was never interested in tech much beyond social media stuff, following celebrity gossip, and connecting with fellow mages, i.e., she was a mostly normal teenage girl despite usually being locked behind these walls with me.
Vlad brought her to live in the compound with us a year after I got here when her mother first went into the psych facility. It was lonely for both of us at first. She was suspicious of me, being Vlad’s granddaughter. He’d put her family through hell, so she didn’t want anything to do with me at first. And even though she grew up with a mage mother, who was on the brink of losing it completely, Sabra had always been more… normal than me. She’d gone to school with other kids and liked to be outside.
Even once we became friends after a couple years, when I’d disappear into this room of monitors, she had no interest in joining me.
But as soon as Layden sits down in the chair beside me, his eyes light up. Especially when I turn on the screens and introduce him to the Internet.
“So you mean the whole world is connected now—everyone, everywhere—and you can see them and communicate with themthrough this single screen?” He sounds so excited as he asks the question. “Without ever leaving this room?”
I laugh as I nod. “It takes a little practice to learn how to navigate everything, but yes. You can play any game you can think of with people, take classes and earn a degree from a university, run an entire business, sell things, meet people and just chat…”
I show him Google and how to use it. The basics of where and how to buy things.
“Or,” I say, pulling up an anonymizing web browser, “you can use something like Tor to head to the dark web, which is where things get really interesting.”
“The dark web?”
I nod. “It’s where a lot of the hackers hang out.”
“You are one of these? A hack?”
“A hacker,” I correct. “I like to keep an eye on things.”
I glance over at him as I navigate around to show him what phishing scams are and how to watch out for bots, and then I take him deeper to show him what I do on a daily basis: watching out for what’s going on in the world as far as espionage, players who might be looking to threaten Vlad’s little kingdom of control or any dangers that could compromise us on a national or global scale.
Layden stares determinately at the screen, eyes bouncing between it and the keyboard I’m navigating with confidence. “I want to learn everything.”
I grin at him. “Let’s hope you’re a fast learner, old man.”
“I want it.” He’s so earnest. “More than anything.”
“More than breaking the curse on you?”
He shrugs. “If I can navigate this Inter-net and be here with you, what do I care about that world out there? Everything I need is here.”
It’s more than a little short-sighted, but I still feel stupidly warm inside to hear him say shit like that. Being here in this room, just him and me, I feel the safety I did yesterday when I was in his arms.
Are you a selfish little girl, or not?
It’s selfish to keep him here all to myself when I should be focused on helping him get rid of the curse. But still, he’s so enthusiastic about learning Linex and the basics of Python that I text Sabra and ask if she can come tomorrow instead since Layden is still settling in today.
Hours later, I order take-out from my favorite burger joint and enjoy every face Layden makes as he eats a greasy burger and fries for the first time.
“What have they done tofoodsince I’ve been away?” he asks as he devours his third burger. I made sure to order extras for him, knowing his appetite. “How did they learn to make it so much more… flavorful?” He shoves a handful of fries in his mouth.
