The school secretary held the door for him, beckoning Ryan to enter, and then closed the door behind him. There was a large device in the center of the room, a beige paneled blocky machine with a robotic arm that had a wide ring at its end suspended in the air. A picture of footprints had been stenciled on a mat underneath the ring, indicating where they wanted him to stand.

  There was a blonde woman making adjustments to the machine, who appeared to be wearing the same strange fabric the man, Tristan, had been wearing, hidden mostly by a long white lab coat. She turned, giving Ryan a beaming smile, her light blue eyes piercing straight into him, and he felt a mild blush threatening to climb up his face. He turned towards the long table set up to his right where the other two sat and froze as he locked eyes with Mae Yumeno. She looked almost exactly as she had when he saw her the previous night (aside from the flowing robes and deadly katana) and for a brief moment he thought he was caught. Her cold gaze had no hint of recognition, however, and he remembered he had been mostly invisible during their first encounter. Ryan rolled the orb in his pocket between his fingers, commanding himself to calm down.

  “Would you like to state your name, please?” she said, breaking the eye contact to glance down at her tablet.

  “Ryan Donovan,” he said with a little tremor in his voice.

  “Nice to meet you Ryan,” said the woman by the machine. He gave her a weak smile.

  “There's nothing to be nervous about,” said the man next to Mae. “The test is perfectly harmless, and most of us don’t bite.” His eyes rolled significantly towards Mae sitting on his left. She let out a long-suffering sigh but didn't say anything, so he continued. “As you should know, my name is Tristan Knight. Over by the Soul Scanner we have the ever so lovely Sarah Nightshade (no relation), and to my left the leader of our team, Mae."

  “Nice to meet you,” Ryan said, nodding to each of them.

  “Sarah needs to recalibrate the device,” Mae said. “So, we’re going to start with the Personality segment of the testing, if you don’t mind.” It didn’t seem to Ryan that the woman particularly cared whether or not he minded, so he just nodded. “You discover a sudden change in a routine environment—something that looks harmless but still feels off,” Mae began. “How do you respond? Do you investigate, seek help, or ignore it? Why?”

  Ryan considered the question. A sudden change in a familiar environment. What did they mean by that? He decided it didn’t matter what they meant and, having completely forgetting his plan to give the opposite response, answered the way he thought they might want him to.

  “Seek help, I guess,” he said.

  “Why?” Mae pressed.

  “Well, I don’t know what caused the change. It would be nice to verify with someone else that I’m not mistaken, and if things have changed, I don’t know if I would just be wasting time by trying to investigate myself. I don’t think I would be able to stand doing nothing; it would nag at me.” The two behind the desk nodded and wrote down notes on their respective tablets. Tristan asked the second question.

  “A close friend confides they’ve done something against the rules, but no one has been harmed. You’ve been asked whether you know anything about it. How do you handle that conversation, and why?” Ryan frowned. He didn’t like these kinds of questions.

  “I guess it depends on who asked if I know anything,” he said after a moment.

  “Why?” Tristan asked.

  “Well, if my mother asked, I would probably tell her, but if it was Principal Tomlinson,” he let that hang for a moment and shrugged. The two wrote more notes on their tablets. “Well,” Ryan blurted, feeling the need to justify. “You said it’s a close friend. It’s not like I have no respect for authority or anything.” The two continued to write their notes, unphased.

  “This damn thing,” the woman fiddling with the machine said, causing the other two to look up at her. She glanced over at them with an apologetic smile and threw another question at Ryan. “You see someone in trouble,” she said, “you think you know how to help them, but it will put you at risk. How would you choose whether or not to intervene?”

  “I uh, I don’t know,” Ryan said. Something about that woman, Sarah, made him want to come across as a hero who would throw themselves into the path of danger no matter the cost. Maybe it was the way her bangs swayed over the infinite depths of her blue eyes, or the faint suggestion of dimples on her cheeks when she smiled. Either way, something was making him stupid, and he couldn’t afford to be stupid in this moment. “How much help can I really give? How certain will the outcome be positive if I choose to act? It’s really hard to answer hypotheticals without specific context,” he finally complained. The woman gave him a sympathetic grimace and returned to her machine.

  “Just try to answer the questions as best you can,” Tristan said. “There is no right or wrong answer.”

  “You and a friend face a sudden crisis,” Mae continued the questions. “Your friend insists on a risky solution that might solve the problem quickly, but your gut wants to call for help. Do you listen to your friend or go with your instincts.” Ryan’s eyes had grown slightly wider at this hypothetical. Did she know about his conversation with Ryan yesterday? He thought about Jeremy trying to spy on him through the smart paper. Would it be that much more difficult for the Ministry of Integrity to hack into such a device? The dispassionate tone with which she asked the question quelled his paranoid thoughts somewhat. This didn’t feel like an interrogation or attempt at entrapment.

  “Got it!” Sarah cried triumphantly over the machine, forestalling his response, then toned down her jubilation when she caught a look from Mae. “We need to verify calibration,” she said sheepishly. Mae sighed and stood up.

  “Very well, I’ll do it.” She hopped nimbly over the table and approached the device, standing with her feet planted upon the painted shoe prints. Sarah activated the machine, and the arm brought the hoop down and up Mae’s body, making several passes before returning to its resting position.

  “99.7%,” Sarah said. “Looks like we’re back in business.”

  “Very good,” Mae said, stepping off the mat and gesturing towards where she had stood with a quick sweep of her hand. “Mr. Donnovan, if you would. We can finish the personality test after.”

  “Uh, ok,” Still fiddling with the orb in his pocket, Ryan stepped onto the mat, aligning his feet with the painted shoes.

  “Don’t worry,” Sarah said. “You won’t feel a thing.” She activated the device, and the arm began to move down. As the ring passed around him, he felt the orb in his hand heat up as if it were absorbing whatever radiation the ring was off-putting. Sarah had a frown on her face. “That can’t be right,” she said. Looking up at Ryan she smiled apologetically. “Tristan, would you mind?” she asked, ushering Ryan aside so she could stand on the mat. Tristan came around from the table to the controls of the device. It took a scan of Sarah and he shrugged.

  “97.8%, well within your normal potential,” he said. “Ryan, do you mind standing on the mat one more time for us?” Ryan assented and moved back into place. They did another scan, this time all three of the team members looking from the results back to him.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Well,” Tristan said, “thanks for your time, Ryan, I think we’re done for now. Let the secretary know to send the next student in please.” Feeling a bit of whiplash from the sudden abrupt ending to the test Ryan turned uncertainly to leave. As he put his hand on the doorknob he took a last look over his shoulder and saw the result they had been looking at.

  “Soul Potential: 0.00%”

  After the boy had left the three took a moment to discuss the results before the next student came in. They were all rather perplexed, for different reasons.

  “No one scores a zero,” Sarah said. “There has to be something wrong with the machine.”

  “It seems to be reading us OK,” Tristan said. “And zero isn’t completely unheard of.”

  “Now I feel bad making fun of the twelve percent guy,” Sarah sighed. “I won’t feel comfortable it wasn’t the machine until we get a few more normal readings from the other students.”

  “I’m not sure it was appropriate to end our session with him,” Mae said. “We were only halfway through the personality test.”

  “What’s the point, Mae?” Tristan asked. “With zero potential, it’s not like he’s going to be a candidate for the Astral Academy early admissions. Hell, he probably won’t even get in through general admission.” Sarah nodded agreement.

  “You guys are only looking at one of the results from the Soul Scan,” she said, her eyes glued to another part of the screen. It read

  “Astral Affinity: A?g?s In????a??”

  “I think that’s just more evidence something is wrong with the machine,” she said, though the other two look unconvinced. “The lights did flicker earlier.” She added.

  “Or the machine is confused, reading someone who lacks the potential to even have an affinity, and spouted out nonsense.” Mae was unconvinced and wrote down what she saw on the screen, symbol by symbol.

  “So, your anti-densifying worked?” Derek asked. Ryan had waited until they were back in their classroom, where the acoustics made it easier to have a hushed conversation without everyone hearing, before he told them about his results.

  “That’s the thing,” Ryan said. “I never had a chance to even try. Everything was moving so fast, and the machine was being calibrated by that woman.” Lisa looked at him sharply after the way he had said the last word in that sentence.

  “Woman?” she repeated. Ryan smiled innocently. “Well, it’s impossible for you to have zero potential,” she said. “With what’s been going on with you the last few days, I actually expected you to beat my score.”

  “What did you end up getting Derek?” Ryan asked, having just remembered he hadn’t heard yet.

  “He won’t say,” Lisa responded for him.

  “It’s not important,” Derek said. He didn’t sound embarrassed, and Ryan looked at his friend thoughtfully.

  “It’s not like you got worse than Ryan,” Lisa said.

  “Hey,” Ryan complained. “I’m right here!” They all chuckled.

  “Attention Students,” came a voice over the overhead sound system. “The Alpha Team has finished their preliminary testing and will be adjourning to go over the results. It will be a few hours, so you may break for lunch. We will be showing a movie in the auditorium for all those who wish to attend. Thank you, that is all.” The students shuffled back to their homeroom.

  “I guess we’re all lunching in the cafeteria today,” Derek said gazing out the rain spattered window at the hazy world beyond.

  “To be honest, I’m not even hungry.” Ryan said. His gut still felt like it had a dozen rocks in it.

  “I don’t eat lunch on Tuesdays,” Lisa said. Both boys turned to her with raised eyebrows. “What? I’ve never eaten lunch on a Tuesday. If anything, I should be pissed that neither of you ever noticed!”

  “Psh,” Derek scoffed dismissively. “Of course we knew.”

  “Yeah,” Ryan agreed. “We were just messing with you.”

  “Uh huh,” Lisa did not sound convinced.

  “Well, I’m not insane like you two,” Derek said, “so I’m going to go get lunch. You sure you don’t want me to grab anything for ya?” The other two shook their heads and he took off along with most of the rest of the class. The teacher excused herself and left the few remaining students to lounge in the classroom until the movie was scheduled to begin.

  “So,” Lisa started, scooching her chair closer to Ryan so she could whisper. “How did you manage a zero on the Soul Scan anyway?”

  “Maybe the machine really was malfunctioning,” Ryan didn’t sound convincing even to himself. He had a theory in his right front pocket, but he still wasn’t comfortable telling anyone about the orb. He had thought that his inhibitions with regards to his secret would loosen over time, but it seemed to be quite the opposite. He was ever more protective of his, what did Lisa call it again? Eidolon.

  Lisa seemed to read that there was something he wasn’t telling her. Ryan didn’t like keeping things from her, but he also had the sense that there was something behind her interest that she wasn’t telling him. She opened her mouth as if to speak but then closed it again. Ryan decided to change the subject.

  “Can you tell me more about affinities?”

  “Oh, can I!” she said, suddenly excited. “They are, aside from potentiality readings, the single largest factor in determining one’s success as an Astral Traveler. There are things in the Astral that are quite dangerous, and without spending time in a controlled setting, working on honing your projection, and developing a sense for your affinity, I doubt you would make it back out again. Ryan nodded while feeling like an idiot. Yeah, who would just dive headfirst into the Astral without knowing what they were doing? Lisa wasn’t done with her diatribe though, so he tried to pay attention.

  “There are several types of affinity that have been categorized into three groups: Damage, Defense, and Support. There are sub-categories, but they all generally fall under the umbrella of those three. Damage specialists are usually the front line operators, who are focused on dealing the most damage as quickly as possible. Defense specialists are usually the flashiest ones, who draw the attention of astral anomalies and provide various forms of protection for themselves and their teammates.

  “The tank,” Ryan said, but Lisa quickly gave him one of her patented “don’t interrupt” looks before continuing unabated.

  “Support specialists are usually some type of healer and tend to have a focus on boons and banes, as well as some ranged attacks. They rely much more heavily on the Defense specialist than the Damage dealer does.”

  “But you said your affinity was Ice,” Ryan said. “Does that mean all affinities are elemental in nature?”

  “Not always, but it is usually the case. Lightning, Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, your typical elemental wheel. There is some crossover and some hybridization. Like Tristan Knight, for example, is known as an Earth-Fire Cinder type.”

  “And Mae is a Lightning type damage dealer?”

  “Hm, so you do pay attention to these things,” Lisa said accusingly.

  “Lisa,” Ryan admonished. “These are quite possibly some of the most famous people in the world. There are some things you can’t get away with not paying attention to.”

  “Fair enough,” Lisa conceded. “But technically she’s also a hybrid Lightning-Wind type. Very fast. Very deadly. They say that—before the Crisis was over and the Astral gates were closed—the government was worried she was too powerful to control. That they had plans to take her out if she showed even the slightest sign that she wouldn’t comply with the Ministry.”

  “She doesn’t seem like the type to break the rules,” Ryan said, thinking about her strict professionalism during his interview, and during the brief time he observed her in the astral.

  Derek returned with a few extra sandwiches (“Just in case!” he said) and told them it was movie time. They headed for the auditorium along with everyone else in the school. Before filing in, Ryan excused himself to the “restroom” and headed to his locker. While everyone was occupied with the movie, he wanted to use the opportunity to check on the Janitor’s closet and, hopefully, finish his Quest. He had no idea what kind of items he could get with a gold store token and didn’t intend to wait until afterschool to find out.