Was I in the right place?
I glanced around and spotted Wesley. Yep, this was the right place. My trainer, a middle-aged man of few words and a slowly receding hairline, looked at home in one of the booths, already talking with someone. Wesley met my gaze, gave me a shallow nod, and went back to pretending we didn’t know each other.
Right. Because I was here with a job to do.
After a thirty-minute, non-detailed overview of what being a scout for the Organization would entail, we’d departed to assess my ability to pick out who in this bar was suspected of having an ability. While the Organization knew who the target was, I did not. I had an hour to try to sniff out who this person was before Wesley would step in and help. He knew who we were here for, having identified this person earlier in the week.
No one sat at the tables near the large window with one-sided glass—was this place trying be suspicious to attract more customers?—so I casually walked down the aisle and picked a spot about a two-thirds of the way down the bar. One of the bartenders, dressed in an off-the-shoulder dress with ruffles and cinched with a corset and belt, swept by to place a menu in front of me. I thanked her and looked over the drink menu first.
I blinked, then squinted again at the names. Roll for Initiative, Eldritch Blast, The Mimic, Con Save…? What were these? I flipped the menu over and was equally confused by the food names. Dice Bites, Barbarian’s Feast, Goodberry Pie…
I pulled out my phone and frowned at the silenced notification that lit up my screen.
Leo.
Damnit.
I ignored it, opening my AI assistant and asking it about The Drunken Dryad, the name of this place, and started reading.
The Drunken Dryad is perfect for adventurers seeking a cozy yet fantastical spot for a fully immersive dining, bar, and gaming experience. With its themed menu inspired by classic RPG (role-playing game) elements and an unbeatable interior design, this establishment blends charm with cutting-edge tech in its rentable game rooms — offering the ultimate RPG experience for up to twelve players. Ideal for regular meet-ups or full-scale parties, The Drunken Dryad transports guests to another realm rich with lore, magic, and unforgettable atmosphere.
Oh. That made sense.
I put my phone face-down on the bar and started reading through the menu descriptions. While Roll for Initiative sounded fun, rolling a die for one of twenty drink options, I decided to pick NPC Morgan, a basic drink of rum and cola. Dice bites, a variety of deep fried cheese cubes, sounded delicious, and I asked for both when the bartender—or should I say barkeep?—returned to take my order.
I glanced around the bar, taking in the people. A group of three men and a woman sat at another booth, sharing a large variety of food in what looked like The Halfling’s Platter. Wesley and another woman sat in the next booth, and I watched as a small drone designed to look like a twinkling fairy descended on their table and dropped off two shots. One was blue and smoking while the other was red with a faint glow. Wesley grabbed the red one. I’d have to ask him what it was later, because that looked awesome.
The bell above the door rang, and I glanced over to find a large group decked out in full fantasy gear: belts and pouches, cloaks and… was that person wearing chainmain armor with a stuffed dragon on his shoulder? I looked ahead at the shelves of alcohol to keep myself from staring: I didn’t want to give the wrong impression or come off as rude. I had a person to find, after all.
Once the group disappeared into the back rooms, presumably to host a game, I continued my perusal. Ten more people were scattered about. Two met my eyes as I looked around, and I quickly dropped my eyes. Mercifully, my drink and appetizer arrived then. The Dice Bites were labeled with the different types of cheese, and I quickly grabbed two cheddar jack and popped them in my mouth.
While I chewed, I pulled back my sleeve and checked my bio-screen again. Nothing had changed from earlier this evening, not that I’d expected any different. I tugged my sleeve back down.
What the hell was I supposed to do now? How was I supposed to find out who this target was without looking like a creep? I couldn’t see things unless I stared at people, and then I’d come across as a weirdo who didn’t have personal boundaries. No, thank you. Was I supposed to fail to teach me… something? Either way, I had to try.
I let out a sigh and glanced towards the door, hopefully looking like I was waiting for someone. I raked my eyes over everyone I could see while facing that way. No one was giving me anything to work with. They all seemed so normal, healthy, unbothered. No one was fidgeting, or—
“Um, excuse me,” came a voice behind me.
I twirled around on my stool so fast I nearly fell off. The stranger reached out a hand to steady me.
“Sorry,” he apologized, looking down at me with earnest hazel eyes. There was a boyish smirk on his face, and paired with the messy mop of brown hair I doubted he was a day older than twenty-one.
“I’m okay,” I reassured him, resettling myself on my stool.
“This might sound weird, but, um…” He glanced back at another booth of patrons, presumably his friends, before turning back to me. “Do you have one of those screen thingies?” He swirled a finger, pointing at my left arm.
“A bio-screen?” I clarified. “Yeah, I do. Do you want to see it?”
It wasn’t like me to offer to show off body parts to strangers, but maybe it would be an in with him and his friends. I could at least rule them out, if nothing else.
His eyes lit up like I’d offered him a puppy.
“Yeah, if you don’t mind! I applied to the trial, but didn’t get in. Probably because I’m still so young. I’ve got some time.”
No.
It couldn’t be.
Could it?
I tried to keep my exterior calm while I internally contemplated the odds of someone with LaShoul’s approaching me.
“It shouldn’t be that way,” I said honestly. “I swear the only reason I got one was because of who I know. What’s your name? Maybe I can see if I can help.”
The latter was a lie: I wouldn’t ask Leo for shit, especially not after that hug earlier that I regretted. I had to maintain my boundaries, and I’d totally skewed them earlier today by letting him in. It was my fault, and I’d be damned sure I didn’t give him any reason to think we could be more than polite acquaintances and coworkers from here on out. Plus, Leo would never grant me this favor.
“I’m Zev.” He stuck out his hand, which I took. His other hand reached up to scratch behind his ear.
“Callie,” I answered. I pointed to the seat to my right. “Sit here: it’ll be easier to show you.”
He eagerly took the seat, and I pulled back my left sleeve. I tapped the screen, bringing it to life. Zev let out a low whistle.
“Man, that looks cooler than I thought,” he said, leaning close. A tawny finger reached out, as though to touch it, before he caught himself. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” I tapped around on the screen, pulling up my ‘normal’ stats like oxygen, pulse, blood pressure. “It’s pretty awesome. So this is what it looks like, basically a whole bunch of hospital monitors rolled into one device. It’s powered by my body, from things like heat. Never needs charged.”
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Zev watched, enraptured, as I scrolled through and showed him how it worked while being careful to keep away from my other stats.
It was interesting. I hadn’t paid much attention to my general wellbeing after developing my magical ability: I’d been a little preoccupied. But I could see that my heart rate was lower, my cortisol minimal, and even my sleep was steady, none of which had been the case early on: everything had been a bit wobbly. I pulled up my stats from the last month, explaining to Zev how being able to see long-term trends from the constant input of data had helped me better manage my LaShoul’s. Another lie, but I believed if I hadn’t developed an ability that the bio-screen still would have helped.
“That’s incredible,” he breathed, leaning closer to my arm to get a better look. He rubbed the side of his neck and pulled away. “What are… I mean, what do you do differently now? To help. If you don’t mind me asking.”
“I don’t mind, but…” I hesitated, trying to decide what to say. I pulled my sleeve down and carefully turned my stool to face him. “What works for me doesn’t work for my friend. So I’ll tell you, but you can’t think it’ll be what helps you too, okay?”
The light dimmed in Zev’s eyes, and unease washed over me. I couldn’t tell him anything, not with Wesley right there probably listening. The only thing I could do was hope that Zev had developed an ability or that he would.
“Making sure I stay hydrated helps with headaches afterwards. Electrolyte packets, too,” I said. It was true, though it helped with recovering from using my teleportation, not LaShoul’s episodes. “Hobbies, too. Mental health matters. Having something to focus on when recovering, like a book or TV series or something. Listening to my body when it tells me I’m doing too much and taking a break. Hard with work, obviously, but it’s not a bad idea to keep compostable paper plates and bowls on-hand to minimize dishes. I can’t say that the bio-screen taught me how to avoid episodes, but recovery is easier.”
Zev nodded, quietly taking in my words. I took another gulp of my drink and chased it with two more cheese bites.
“Thanks for showing me, Callie.” Zev moved as though to leave. But something felt wrong in letting him go so quickly. My hand reached out on its own and landed on his forearm.
“Are your friends…?” I wasn’t sure how to word my question without sounding insensitive or like I was pushing for information.
He shook his head. “No. They… don’t know. About me, I mean.”
I nodded in understanding. “It’s difficult.”
“Yeah.” Zev’s gaze got lost staring at the bar top for a few moments. He made no move to shake off my hand, but I pulled my arm back anyways.
“You know,” I hedged, shifting on my stool. He turned his head toward me, propped an elbow on the counter, and rested one side of his chin in his hand. “I started going to this support group. For people like us. Do you want the info? Just in case?”
“Support group?” A furrow appeared between his brows.
“We meet every two weeks to talk about things. Loren, who’s a… therapist? Psychiatrist? Something. She leads us. It’s… honestly, it’s really nice knowing I’m not alone in all this. Sometimes she assigns us homework.”
“Really? Like what?”
“Well, the first time I went, she told us we all had to do something for ourselves. Simple, easy to do. It’s actually how I met a new friend.”
“Oh yeah?”
I just shook my head and smiled. “It’s a funny story: he tried asking me out as his homework because he’d stopped trying to date.”
Zev grinned and tried to hide it by rubbing a hand over his jaw. “He tried? So, you shot him down?”
“Nicely,” I said. “But absolutely I told him no. I’d just met him! And I wasn’t exactly convinced he wasn’t just trying to check off a box for the homework, you know? So we exchanged numbers and became friends. After a while, he convinced me to go on an actual date with him. Anyways, the homework is things like that, not actual assignments. Honestly, I felt like I got stuck in a rut, living my life and just waiting to… you know. Going to this meeting and putting myself out there helped get me out of it.”
Zev winced as the front door chimed. He ran a hand through his hair and grabbed the strands at the base of his neck for a few moments.
“I guess,” he sighed again, letting his hand fall to his lap with a soft smack before pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Could I get the info? I’m not saying I’ll come. Work schedule and all that. But I… maybe I’ll try.”
“Sure,” I answered, taking my phone and tapping his. I quickly typed out and sent him the information. “Can I ask you something?”
“Uh, yeah?”
“I’m working on an app for people with LaShoul’s. Because, like you said, work schedules can make it hard, but also more rural areas too, you know? It’s also a health log, so users can input symptoms and stuff, and then have an algorithm or AI assess it to try to help.”
“Kind of like the screens?”
I shrugged. “Sort of. This wouldn’t be as accurate, obviously, because it can’t track everything. But I don’t know what else it’s missing, or what else people would want, you know? But if you had an app like that, what would you want?”
Before Zev could answer, a heavy hand clapped down on his shoulder. Zev jumped at the touch.
“Woah, man, sorry,” the newcomer laughed. “You’ve been jumpy lately, you know that?”
Zev shrugged the hand off his shoulder and rubbed his temple. His friend, presumably. Bright blue eyes with a hint of gray took me in as I looked back at Zev.
That was… too many times to be a coincidence, the constant touching of his neck and face. It reminded me of my hands, how they’d tingled before my ability manifested, and even now from heavy use.
Without a doubt the target was Zev. And if it was someone else, then there were two people in this bar with abilities, and Zev was or was going to be one of them.
The friend interrupted my thoughts. “While I appreciate you keeping Zev here company, we’d like to steal him back now. You’re welcome to join us.”
“Oh, um, thanks, but…” How did I get out of this? I checked my phone and noticed my hour of ‘hunting’ was almost up. “I was supposed to meet someone. They, uh, obviously didn’t show, and I want to make sure they’re okay.”
“Someone stood you up?” The friend leaned closer and I caught a whiff of citrus, which clashed against the whole tall, dark academia vibe he had going on with the black jeans, black sweater, and black-rimmed glasses. “I wouldn’t give them the light of day.”
“It’s not like my friend to make plans and bail without saying anything. I really should go check on them.”
I looked to Zev and widened my eyes, hoping he’d catch on. Thankfully he did, standing up and making his friend retreat several steps.
“Of course you should go check on them,” Zev said. “You never know when something might be serious.”
“Thanks for keeping me company while I waited. It was really nice talking to you.”
Zev directed his friend back towards the booth they’d come from, and I chugged the rest of my drink, chased it down with three more cheese cubes, and paid my tab on my phone. I hopped off the stool and made my way towards the door.
Wesley was already outside, hugging his friend—date? Partner?—goodbye. They separated and walked in opposite directions. I exited and turned right to follow Wesley towards the car we’d taken to get here a couple blocks away. When he arrived, he unlocked it and climbed in. I hesitated a moment, not sure if I was supposed to do the same, but he lowered the window and gestured for me.
“That was lucky,” Wesley murmured quietly after I shut the door. His voice was soft and gravelly, reminding me of my dad when he’d read bedtime stories to me even though he was exhausted from a long day of work.
I missed my dad. I was excited for him to move here, even though I still didn’t know how I was going to explain things to him. Or even if I could. But I’d gone long enough keeping myself away, and now that I could get him back without hurting him? My heart ached.
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “This bio-screen is like a magnet. Zev was the target, right?”
“No, but his friend that approached you at the end was.”
I gasped, turning in my seat. “They don’t know about each other!” I said excitedly like I was in high school and dishing out fresh gossip. “Zev told me his friends don’t know he has LaShoul’s. And he said his friends weren’t like him.”
Wesley’s eyebrows jumped up, the most expressive he’d been towards me.
“Now that’s a coincidence. We’ll add—Zev, you said?—to our list. Maybe we’ll get them both.”
“Zev has an ability. Or will,” I tacked on.
The corners of Wesley’s mouth drooped into the slightest hint of a frown. “What makes you say that?”
“He couldn’t stop touching his face and neck. Like it was bothering him, or a compulsion or something. For me it was my hands that were tingling, and I use them to help direct my magic.”
Wesley let out a booming laugh. I jumped at the loud, sudden sound.
“Magic, huh? Is that what you call it?”
I shrugged. “Why not? Magic is just science we don’t understand. Seems to fit to me.”
Wesley chuckled but let it drop. “You didn’t get the target, though.”
“No,” I agreed. “But does finding another one count?”
Wesley just sighed and turned on the car, inputting the directions in to head back towards the Organization. The car zipped into traffic, and Wesley let his hand rest lightly on top of the steering wheel.
“This hasn’t happened before. I think it’ll be a success. That screen of yours sure did help.”
“Yeah, it did. It’s like a LaShoul’s magnet,” I joked. “Could be useful, though.”
Wesley hummed, which meant something, probably. While he focused on the road as the car drove back, I pulled out my phone and shot off another message to Zev.
Callie: If you can’t make the meeting but want to talk to someone who understands, let me know.
After a moment, Zev liked the message but didn’t respond.
Maybe I’d been too pushy. I didn’t mean to make him uncomfortable or feel pressured into going, but it was a way I could help.
I put my phone away and stared out the window. I wish I knew if he’d already developed an ability. If he had, that would mean I could tell him about things, right? Or at least I’d be able to—
Wait. Wait a damn minute.
I yanked my sleeve back from my arm, earning a curious glance from Wesley. I ignored him.
There was a way I could tell if someone else was using an ability around me. That secondary gamma Leo had programmed might still be programmed in, and—
Yes!
There it was, sitting there collecting data silently, hiding in the background. The alerts were set to off, but it was easy enough for me to switch that and re-add it to my favorites and main screen. I didn’t need the primary gamma: I had the new stats for that. Getting secondary gamma alerts would at least help me know if I ran into someone else with magic.
Once adjusted, I went back to the home screen. My stats still showed up first, but if I scrolled, there they were. There had been almost a constant, steady stream of secondary gamma. But with Wesley there, I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t just him the entire time. And if Zev’s friend had actually been the target, it could have been him instead.
I’d need to meet Zev again to know for sure. But if the Organization wanted me to help find people, then this bio-screen could fast-track me there. And it gave me immense satisfaction that I was using the bio-screen—Farley's tech—to do it.