"I really hoped we'd have more time to let you get your bearings, but it seems like you're already being targeted for your Numen." Julianne strode across the room to a small, portable vanity she had set up by the window. "You are going to have to learn to defend yourself before you learn some of the more remedial magic." Dev nodded like he understood. "Sorry for this." Dev looked at her quizzically as she extended her arm and loosed a blast of dark red energy at him, sending him crashing though the bathroom wall. P.H. materialized in the hole and held up a hand in Julianne's direction.

"I do not think she is trying to kill you, Devlin Brígh. I will neutralize her if you feel threatened." Dev scoffed at the notion.

"No, I don't think you need to. She just caught me off guard." Dev said as he got up and dusted the drywall dust off of his suit jacket.

"Who are you talking to?" Julianne asked. Dev looked at P.H. and just waved his arms around his form. P.H. nodded and revealed himself to her. "Oh, wow! I can see it!" Her magic dissipated as she stepped forward to inspect P.H.

"Ms. Nestor, Pandemonium Harmony. P.H., Ms. Julianne Nestor." Dev handled introductions.

"Awfully familiar, aren't we?" She curled her lips in a wry grin. She relented and circled P.H., examining it. She made short, jerky motions with her hands and held them up to her eye. She gasped and dropped her hands quickly while stumbling backwards. "Oh, god!"

Dev stepped forward between them. "What's wrong?" He looked back at P.H. who was de-materializing. She gagged and took a deep breath. Slowly, she regained her composure.

"Sorry. I could see something around it so I looked with magic. The perversion of its power is a horrific. I've never seen another Numen so complete and so broken at the same time. It must have been so alone for so long." A tear dropped from her cheek.

"I reacted similarly when I first saw P.H. When I learned It's name, we spoke and it changed its form to look like me. I suppose for my sanity." Dev shrugged. "He only asked that I not disappoint him while I use his power."

"He? P.H.? You realize you given a nickname to an ancient cosmic being." P.H. appeared behind Julianne and winked at Dev while nodding then faded back out of sight.

"Well, he seems to approve." Julianne sat on the edge of the bed and motioned for Dev to as well.

"Dev, that Numen is powerful. Usually, people get a small fraction bestowed and the form it takes is generally relative to the power. My Numen is strong and we've been bonded for a long time, but I can't just have Kushiel manifest at will."

"Does it look like an angel with horns?" Dev said remembering their first interaction.

"How could you possibly know that?" Julianne rolled her eyes and slapped her hands on her knees.

"After you walked back here last night I saw a flash of shadowy wings, horns, and a halo. It was very brief, but I saw it as you walked away."

"Dev, no one alive besides me has seen my Numen. P.H. must be absurdly powerful. That's probably why you have a target on your back. It's power will go a long way to keeping you alive, but, the people who hunt and consume people like us will keep trying. Especially now that you've triggered and survived a Soul Storm. Whoever you engaged will have friends who will come looking and they'll have lots of magic and thralls. Who did you fight in the elevator?"

"I don't know. It was a man at some point. It seemed like it was as big as the hotel tower, with too many arms and heads and a huge mouth in its stomach." Dev shuddered.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Ah, one of the Malformed. They were all 'regular' people at one point. They are soul hoarders. They held a Numen decades or even centuries ago and they were able to either absorb the Numen or learned to imbibe souls during that time to extend their lives. But once you eat a soul, the corruption you bring onto yourself is irreversible. They torture, rape, and kill whoever they can to keep themselves from rotting inside. Some of the older ones can get pretty big. You must have hurt it pretty badly to trigger a soul storm."

"I think P.H. killed it." Dev said.

"What." Julianne's jaw dropped.

"It called me a liar and a thief. Then it kind of exploded and attacked me. P.H. intervened said something about burning and feeling the pain for eternity. He sent me back to the elevator where you found me."

"Dev, a Malformed as big as the one you described would be very old and very powerful. The people they consume get added to their form. They usually don't get much bigger than a bus. This one would have killed thousands of people to get that big, and P.H. just BLEW IT UP?!"

"Actually, I think I blew it up. P.H. kept it from hurting me and punished it."

Julianne's face contorted in confusion and shock. She hunted Malformed to free souls. It was part of her deal with her Numen, Kushiel. She struggled to kill them and Kushiel was very strong, but here was Dev, a neophyte with a barely bonded Numen who apparently had more power than all the other Magicians and Malformed she'd ever met combined. She felt like he was lying. Why would he though? He knew nothing of her world. There was also no denying the soul storm that had ripped through the hotel. If she wasn't so experienced it may have ripped her soul into the vortex.

"Dev, don't take this the wrong way, but you're absolutely terrifying. In a good way. I think." She rubbed her hands together. "If you'll let me, I can teach you how to protect yourself. Just some basic somatic and verbal commands to focus the energy you're channeling. With experience, you won't need them for more basic things, you will be able to exert your will to make magic happen."

"I have a question first." Dev stated. Julianne nodded. "What do you know about the murder I'm investigating? I have had a couple visions about it since coming into contact with P.H. There was magic involved and at least three perpetrators." Dev waffled his hands around when he said visions. Julianne put her hand to her chin contemplatively.

"Tell you what. An answer for a spell. You show me you can protect yourself and I'll answer your questions."

Dev shrugged and nodded. "I am your pupil."

"Alright; Crash Course." She started moving with elaborate, sweeping motions with her arms. "Let me make this room more resilient. We're probably going to blow the roof off."

-

Julianne was impressed with how quickly Dev was picking up her lessons. Some of the movements required some strange contortions of joints that didn't like to bend the wrong way, but assisted by magic fingers could dislocate to make the shapes required. He struggled at first learning some of the Old Words; essentially phrases in forgotten tongues that focused specific magical results. The were formed with magic from deep inside, not using the speakers lips or vocal cords.

She looked at Dev, slumped against the broken bed, all the joints in his arms pulled out of socket. His flesh was slowly creeping together with little pops and clicks. She had seen his Numen, P.H. he insisted, on occasion when she asked him to do a difficult conjuring. It seemed watchful, studying its vessel. She swore it had corrected Dev's posture on one somatic shaping.

"Does it always hurt?" Dev winced. His arms had stretched almost two feet longer than normal as he caught a volatile blast Julianne had sent at him without warning. He had contained it but only just.

"Well, while you did manage to stop the blast, it would have been better to deflect it as opposed to catching it. I'm surprised it didn't rip your arms off. That being said, you seem to have a handle on reshaping yourself with your Numen's power. You will eventually be able to reconnect severed limbs, stem blood loss, purge diseases. In yourself and others if you choose to."

Dev stood up and flexed his reconfigured arms. "Amazing. Tell me, what's to stop me going to a hospital and fixing everyone there? When I'm able, I mean."

Julianne shook her head at his naivety. "For starters, you aren't ready to channel power into other people without blowing their souls out. When you learn that control you are welcome to." Dev had a little hopeful grin on his face. "Of course, when word gets around that there is a magician burning his magic on mundanes, you'll have every interested party from here to China flocking here to steal your power."

Dev's smile faded. "I can't help anyone?"

"Magic isn't for everyone. Trust me. Use it selflessly and you'll be dead in a week." Julianne's cynical words cut through Dev's enthusiasm.

Pandemonium Harmony appeared between Julianne and Dev. "I'm sorry you feel that way."