By eight-thirty Friday, Camila had two fresh Sends.
I had twenty-nine Authority and a Master Quest that apparently expected a part-time bartender to discover whatever Vesper kept hidden from him.
Enough reasons to pay attention tonight.
Camila arrived five minutes early.
For once, she didn’t look like she belonged in an Aurelia conference room.
The dark green dress fit close around her waist and hips, ending well above anything she’d ever worn to work. Her hair fell loose over one shoulder, and the black heels did absolutely nothing to make ignoring her easier.
She looked hot.
There wasn’t really a more intelligent word for it.
I looked a second too long.
She noticed.
"Careful."
"I was looking at the equipment."
Camila lifted the Aurelia phone mounted on its small gimbal and gave me a look.
"Of course you were."
Talia appeared beside her.
"Keep that down until I clear the floor."
Camila glanced at the phone.
"It is down."
Talia’s expression didn’t change.
"No back corridor. No hotel side. If I tell you to cut the stream, you cut it. Nobody uncleared ends up on camera by accident."
Camila’s smile faded into something more professional.
"Understood."
Talia looked at me next.
"You’re working."
"I noticed."
Her eyes stayed on me for another second.
"Then work."
She walked away.
Camila watched her go.
"I still like her."
"You’ve known her for twelve minutes."
She shrugged.
"That hasn’t stopped me before."
Somehow, that didn’t surprise me.
Twenty minutes later, Talia cleared the first section and Camila went live.
I couldn’t see the analytics from behind the bar, but the comments moved fast enough to tell me people were watching.
"Friday night. Vesper."
Her smile changed when the camera came on.
Not bigger.
Sharper.
"And apparently someone at Aurelia decided trusting me with a live feed was a reasonable business decision."
She glanced at the screen.
"Let’s see how long they keep thinking that."
She was good.
I’d known Camila could present. This was different.
No slides. No meeting room. No preparation she could hide behind.
Just a phone and thousands of strangers.
The first creator Talia cleared immediately tried to advertise his jacket.
"So you actually paid for that?" Camila asked.
He laughed. "No."
Her eyebrow lifted.
"Much more interesting."
Thirty seconds later, she’d turned a sales pitch into a story about how he’d convinced the designer to lend it to him.
She did the same thing with a promoter a few minutes later.
Camila wasn’t just comfortable on camera. She knew when somebody was about to become boring and how to redirect them without making them realize she’d done it.
That was useful in ways a presentation deck never showed.
Talia stayed close. Twice, a tiny shake of her head sent Camila in another direction without argument.
While they worked, I watched the rest of Vesper.
Near the hotel-side passage, Graham Vale appeared beside a man in a dark jacket.
Mid-forties.
For half a second, I thought it was yesterday’s visitor.
Two guests crossed between us. By the time they moved, Vale was alone.
STEP BEHIND THE CURTAIN
Yesterday, I probably wouldn’t have cared.
Forty Master XP had apparently improved my curiosity.
Camila ended the stream after twelve minutes.
"Don’t go anywhere. We’re figuring out what you actually want to see."
The phone came down.
She studied the analytics.
"Well?"
"Eight thousand four hundred peak."
Her eyes lifted.
"That good?"
"For a first test? Good."
She kept looking at me.
"But?"
"I didn’t say but."
"You made the but face."
I glanced at the screen in her hand.
"There’s something in the numbers."
"What?"
"I’m checking."
Camila scrolled for another few seconds before catching her reflection in the dark edge of the screen.
"I need five minutes to fix my face."
"I thought it was already fixed."
She looked up.
"That was almost charming."
"Don’t spread it around."
A smile tugged at her mouth before she headed toward the restrooms.
Five minutes was enough.
I opened Quest Master.
CAMILA REYES
Player Level: 2
XP: 110 / 150
Alignment: 5%
Sends Available: 2 / 2
This time, I wasn’t interested in taking whatever the System happened to give me.
I wanted to see what five Authority could buy.
QUEST BIAS — REWARD TYPE
Cost: 3 Authority
I selected it.
AUTHORITY: 29 → 26
Three options appeared.
All useful.
None worth burning one of only two Sends.
Three Authority for probably good enough wasn’t good enough.
I opened Reroll.
REROLL — 2 AUTHORITY
I’d spent most of the week treating Authority like something to protect.
Maybe that was backwards.
Authority wasn’t a score.
It was something I could spend to shape what happened next.
I pressed it.
AUTHORITY: 26 → 24
Three new Quests appeared.
The third made me stop.
STANDARD QUEST — MAKE HIM LOOK GOOD
Choose someone whose genuine ability is easy to overlook.
Present that ability in a way that makes an audience actively want to see more.
SUCCESS CONDITIONS
Demonstrate genuine competence.Generate positive reactions from multiple viewers.Cause at least one viewer to actively seek further attention toward the Subject.
REWARD
+35 Player XP+35 CHA Progress
SYSTEM SKILL — SPOTLIGHT CONTROL I
I opened the preview.
DIRECTED SPOTLIGHT
Another Subject:+1 Effective CHA+2 Effective PRE
PERSONAL SPOTLIGHT
Self:+2 Effective CHA+2 Effective PRE
Duration: 15 minutes
Cooldown: 6 hours per mode
Thirty-five XP.
Thirty-five Charisma Progress.
A Skill.
Then I opened the hidden reward.
IF CHOSEN SUBJECT IS QUEST MASTER
+25 PRE Progress
SECRETARY Role XP: +3–5
Alignment: +2–6%
My attention stayed on the last two lines.
Twenty-five Presence Progress was half the distance between six and seven.
The Alignment range could put Camila close to Familiar Ground in a single Quest.
Five Authority for something that could improve both of us.
That was what I’d been looking for.
Quest Master was supposed to develop Camila.
Nothing said I couldn’t make sure her development benefited me too.
There were probably plenty of people inside Vesper who qualified as Subjects.
I didn’t care.
I pressed SEND.
QUEST SENT
Sends Available: 1 / 2
That didn’t mean she’d accept.
And even if she did, nothing guaranteed she’d choose me.
I put the phone away and went back to work.
A few minutes later, Camila returned.
Hair fixed. Lipstick fresh.
She made it three steps onto the floor before stopping.
Her gaze moved across Vesper.
The creator.
The promoter.
The staff.
Then the bar.
Then me.
Slowly, Camila smiled.
Oh, fuck.