2 "Amnesia"

The man's face turned from puzzled, to afraid, to horrified in a split second, his blue eyes also began to fill with tears his expression changing to match hers.

"K-K-Kayla" he sobbed through large hiccuping breaths. "You really don't remember anything?"

She blinked away the waterfall of tears that were still seeping from her eyes, her lashes now covered in tiny water droplets. Trying to regain her calm demeanour was not going to be easy but she tried her best and searched her mind for anything relating to this world.

In every book she had ever read when people reincarnated in new worlds they were gifted with the existing memories of the person's body they had entered, but she was not so lucky. Slowly she shook her head, she really didn't know anything about the person that had lived in this body before her.

The man looked crestfallen as if he had just lost everything that was precious to him, although, in a way, he had. The house wasn't much to go by but he didn't seem very wealthy, and his daughter seemed to be all the family he had.

Slightly ashamed for her previous joy at getting to start anew in this body Kayla curled into a small ball with her arms hanging limply either side of her. This was not what she had expected at all, she thought that having been reincarnated her chance at being someone who actually mattered would be easily within reach. Just then the man's voice pulled her out of her grieving trance:

"Can you move your arms at all Sweetie?"

Focusing all her will on the point just below her shoulders where flesh became metal she attempted to move her arms but they stubbornly refused to shift at all, even after her face started to flush red with effort. She sighed and gave in, turning her face to look at the man she said.

"I'm sorry, they wont move no matter how hard I try..."

The man wiped away his tears with the end of his sleeve and reached into his pocket, pulling out what looked like a tiny bronze coin and placing it on the centre of his forehead. It glowed slightly and then stuck there as his eyes began to dart around as if he was reading something she couldn't see. Confused she squinted at the area in front of his face as if that would help her perceive what he was seeing but all that she could sense was a faint pulse of silver light every few seconds.

There was a soft clicking sound and the coin fell from his forehead into his outstretched palm, he looked her straight in they eye, this time not as distraught as before, the light in his eyes seemed to hold the tiniest glimmer of hope.

"Although it seems your incompatibility with the arms is over 90% there have been a few recorded cases where it has been resolved to almost 30%. There is still hope Kayla, and you might even regain your memories with this training technique that I have sent you."

"Sent me?"

"Oh right, sorry. Your Link is here." The despair returned to his eyes slightly when he saw the full extent of her 'amnesia'.

He reached over to the tiny desk beside her bed and retrieved a coin similar to the one he had been holding a moment ago and gently placed it onto her forehead.

The moment it touched her head she felt a sharp jolt in her mind causing her to freeze for a second, and if one had been paying attention to her face they would had noticed that for a split second her eyes flashed silver, the same way they had in the darkness before. However the shock disappeared almost as quickly as it had appeared, and when the data from the Link began streaming into her mind she didn't feel the shock at all.

A transparent blue screen that resembled a hologram appeared in front of her eyes, littered with numbers and letters that didn't appear to make sense. A muffled voice could be heard from in front of her:

"You navigate with your mind, just think of what you need and the Link will take you there."

This piece of technology reminded her of all the futuristic novels she had read even though this world hadn't given her a futuristic vibe at all. She thought with all her might "Received," if it worked like email in her previous life then she presumed that this would be where she would find the technique. A faint swoosh noise sounded and the screen in front of her began to reassemble itself into recognisable words. The message from her Father was there and also there were a few previous messages that had already been read, it seemed that even though she was the person in this body now all traces of the person before her still existed.

The message opened and immediately a book materialised in front of her, it fell through the air and landed with a soft thump on her bed. She looked at it with curiosity, it seemed this world had some form of cultivation manuals although it didn't seem to be training the strength of the body but rather the strength of one's connection with the machines that she was coming to understand ruled these people.

Her Father whistled sharply and a small object flew through the air towards the books. It was bronze in colouring, with a body similar to that of a bird but not with feathered wings, instead with thin transparent ones, resembling an insect, that spun in tight circles above the main body. It extended its thin legs and picked up the book as if it weighed nothing and placed it on the tiny desk.

"I'll leave you to rest, once you wake up we can discuss what will happen from now on."

The man turned to leave, seemingly regretful that she couldn't begin training her spirit to accept the arms straight away. To him it must have felt like that his daughter had died rather than survived, and Kayla resolved herself to be the best daughter for this man, he didn't deserve to know that in fact his daughter had passed away because of the operation and she had just taken over the body.

As his frail figure left the room she slowly picked herself up, and knelt before the window, her arms still lying useless beside her. And the sight that greeted her was not at all what she had expected...