After making his way home Dev had a brief moment of discord: He was without work or pay for the foreseeable future, seemingly had been manipulated into accepting otherworldly power for reasons as yet unknown by a nameless patroness, and was host to an entity that had power enough to move Dev forward in time that looked like a nightmare. All within less than 48 hours and it all started with a murder that was currently unsolvable.

He strode into his kitchen and retrieved a bottle of whiskey and a glass. He put a single cube in the glass and poured himself a hefty serving of the amber spirit. What an apt word for the situation. He lifted the glass to drown his sorrows but stopped short. He peered through the liquid. It didn't look like it could solve his problems by offering a maudlin escape. He dumped it into the sink and fumbled a cigarette out of a bent pack; it was bent but still in one piece. He searched his pockets for his lighter and remembered how She had lit hers without one. Dev focused on the tip of the cigarette and imagined it lighting by itself.

Nothing happened.

He sighed and turned on the stove to light the cigarette on. The Warped Entity materialized next to him, offering a small turquoise flame on it's finger tip. Dev flinched but obliged and took a deep drag.

"Thanks I suppose." Its form was less mortifying than it had been. Or was Dev just getting used to it? "Why do you look like that?" The creature moved toward his dinette and in a small motion produced the book out of thin air. It swept its other arm around offering Dev a seat. He slumped heavily and let his head fall back. Maybe when he looked across the table again, the entity would be gone and Dev will have had woken from the most strange of dreams. He took another breath of smoke and pulled the butt away while raising his head. No such luck. It was meticulously positioning the book in the center of the table, adjusting it by millimeters then framing it with blackened hands, presenting it to Dev. As if to say, 'It's yours!' Dev's revulsion was also shrinking away. He snorted haughtily.

"So what am I supposed to do with it?" The entity made a sharp movement with its hand pointing at the book. "Yeah, I see it." If ageless cosmic beings could look exasperated, that's what this creature was doing. It pointed at Dev with one hand and produced the turquoise flame in the other. "I know. You're offering your power. But I don't want it. I refuse." He took the book and threw it across the kitchen. The creature appeared next to it without moving, crying out in a silent call. It was weeping, he realized and felt it's sobs in his soul. It brushed off the book and offered it back to Dev.

"I'm afraid." Dev admitted. Afraid of power and madness. Afraid that he would succumb to horrible depths of depravity he had seen in the contents of the book. He extended his had to take book and when he touched it he saw. Down the rabbit hole he flew watching the whole of human history. This creature had been worshiped as a god multiple times: Vishwakarma, Talos, Salus, Mimir, Fuxi, Sango, Amala, Itzamná, Thoth, and even Jesus Christ. Always either a protector or inventor but never truly a god. Just power with consciousness that wanted to help these tiny little pink creatures.

It existed before humans as well, influencing every dominant creature to ever walk the Earth. Always steering toward growth and progress, even down to an atomic level, engineering evolution with the help of other cosmic entities. All the way back to when Sol was just beginning to burn, sparked into life by Pandemonium.

But over time magic was hoarded by the greedy and envious. Less and less was it used for betterment and more often for exacting one's will over others. Dev saw the moment when Harmony was lost. Near the time of the birth of Humanity a choice was made by Something more powerful and beyond the kin of the Cosmos and all that dwelled within. Let the new souls replace the old. And the Power was split and scattered. Galaxies were formed and destroyed in an instant as the few most Powerful were shattered to become trillions of new lives. None in existence had authority to question the decision.

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There were survivors of the Choice. Pandemonium Harmony held together. As a concept, together, the words made no sense. Quite literally opposites of abstract definition, yet the creature seemed to embody them. There were others, too. Dozens, maybe hundreds of cosmic powers still had enough energy to possess objects and instill their power on a smaller scale. Unfortunately, they hadn't been prepared for human nature. Perverted and abused they had lost control of progress and many times humanity had faltered. Most recently in the form of a second World War.

Dev was on his knees clutching the book. Tears poured out of his blinded eye, dripping luminescent turquoise onto it. A haze hung in the air. It parted to reveal Pandemonium. Its skin was as black as night and you could occasionally see the twinkle of a star on it. Its hair was flowing as if underwater, long silvery grey locks brushing the ceiling. It appeared as a man with broad shoulders and a commanding presence. Its facial features were arranged, to Dev's relief, correctly. Its eyes were closed. It opened its mouth and a deep sound of boulders crashing to the earth emitted. It opened it's eyes and Dev was blinded by a bright blue light that flooded out. He felt the charge of electricity and smelled ozone burning and tasted blood in his mouth.

His senses were overloaded but could still feel the book in his hands. He opened it and all the sensations began streaming into it like a tornado. Dishes fell out of open cabinets, the dinette smashed against a wall, water shot out of the broken faucet. Dev stood up and held the book open in front of him as a shield. The whirlwind dissipated and he stood breathless and alone in a ruined kitchen.

Dev almost fainted when there was a knock at his front door.

-

After assuring his neighbors that everything was alright, Dev locked the door behind him. What a sight he must have been, bleeding from his nose, mouth and ears, soaking wet, clutching a book like the holy scripture. It would be a miracle if he ever got invited over to another backyard barbecue. He braced himself to face the clean up in the kitchen.

But the disarray was gone. No water. No debris. As if on cue, Pandemonium Harmony flickered into existence, sitting in the seat where they had started. Cutting a very different image from even minutes before Dev stared, slack jawed. He was looking at himself as a photo negative. Inverted colors and strange blue glow emitted from the edges of it. He finally heard a voice.

"Sit." Nodding dumbstruck, Dev sat. "Give me the book." Dev handed it over. Holding it in one hand and waving the other, Pandemonium changed it into a small notebook, similar to the very one Dev used to take notes. It floated in front of him and dropped into his open hands. "This form suites you better. Now, you can take me everywhere with you."

"You're so different!" Dev said still flabbergasted by the new appearance.

"This form and that of the book are for you, Devlin Brígh. Everything I am is for you. When you touched the book for the first time, I felt in you something I had not in too long, a conscience. You are a good man, a policeman. But good men, arguably better than you even, have been corrupted by me in the past so I will ask only this of you. Don't disappoint me. I am your power, you can change reality around you. Don't use me for more atrocities. Please."

Dev considered the words of the nearly all powerful force before him. It could end him. From everything. Forever. And it was begging him. He had never been so humbled.

"I'll do my best." They both breathed a sigh of relief and Pandemonium Harmony extended his hand.

"Then it is my pleasure to serve you." Dev shook their hand.

"Do I really have to call you Pandemonium Harmony?"

"Well, it's only a title, technically. Assigned hundreds of years ago by a former practitioner who needed a label for me. Do you have a preference?"

"I don't know, I don't want to change something that has existed for hundreds of years." Dev said a little embarrassed that he had even brought it up.

"While I am yours, you may call me anything. I will respond to what ever you call me, even if you don't decide on something. My existence is service, and I serve you." Dev shifted uncomfortably. "If you rather, think of me like a partner. You get my power and I get to help."

"Help how?"

"I thought we might start at the nexus that brought us together: by solving the murder done in my name."

"Alright, P.H. Can't you just tell me who the guy is and who killed him?"

"At one point, yes, but that was thousands of years ago. I am no longer omnipresent"

"I was only partly serious." Dev said widening his eyes. "I don't have any leads now that the book is different. Where do we start?" The note from the woman slipped out of the notebook as Dev presented it. The writing had changed:

I felt that all the way across town. Come to the Muehlebach Hotel. I will meet you in the lobby.

"Oh, I think I may be of use."