Dev grabbed his coat and hat. He turned off the lights and stopped as he opened the front door, glancing back at P.H.
"Before we go, how is it that I was the only one to see you?" P.H. phased through the table, sliding through it and a nearby wall as if they weren't there.
"I picked you to wield my book so you can see me clearly. Others who harbor a dormant connection to the cosmos will notice something in their peripheral vision or catch snippets of my voice on the wind perhaps. You needn't worry, I am your secret. If you require my presence, I will react to your will and manifest physically. I have a feeling the woman we go to meet will want a demonstration."
"How do I talk to you without appearing to be a mad man? Only children speak to invisible friends." P.H. de-materialized before Dev's eyes. Dev's thoughts spoke without sound.
~In time, you will learn how to speak with your mind. In time, Devlin Brígh you will learn to read and influence others minds. Until you learn to dismiss me for respite I will be ever present and observe the world through your eyes. You only need to think of me and I will respond in kind.~
The mystery woman had also been vocal about 'In time.' Dev felt light headed. He had felt the crackle of magic in his brain as P.H. had communicated. There had been a pressure between his temples that felt like it threatened to give him an aneurysm. As the feeling faded, he missed it. He realized that even that minuscule taste of magic was enough to start an addictive cycle and that must have been how so many before him had fallen victim to their basest desires. He needed to be careful how he used it, when he knew how. He stepped through the door and blinked. P.H. stood in front of him.
"For now, I will speak to you since you are the only one who can hear me." The front door closed and locked itself as P.H. motioned to the car in the driveway.
-
The Muehlebach Hotel was a piece of Kansas City history. It had hosted several celebrities and even Presidents going back to Teddy Roosevelt. Dev looked up at the fairly new tower that had been erected a few years earlier. He had a feeling that She was at the top. His pocket suddenly felt hot and he quickly dug out the note. The writing had changed again:
I can see you, come on up. I have the entire floor to myself.
Dev entered the lobby and made his way to the elevator bank. There was a family with a small girl running circles around them. The father looked unbothered, the mother looked perturbed. He stood away from them and waited with his hands clasped in front of him. The little girl was talking but Dev wasn't paying attention.
The elevator doors had opened and inside was only darkness. Pitch blackness with a dim bulb dozens of yards away. He saw the dead man floating off the table and noticed faint blue green tendrils of magic lifting him to the ceiling. Walking into the room he searched the shadows for any sign of the perpetrators, hoping to see if the mystery woman had been present. Instead he heard a voice. It was a familiar, a man's voice, but Dev couldn't place it.
"Soon." A gloved hand reached to pull the chain on the overhead light. Dev noticed a golden watch up the sleeve. It also looked familiar. The light shut off and a green haze emanated from the corpse hanging from the ceiling.
Dev reached into his coat and withdrew P.H., brandishing the book in front of him. He felt magic poor out of his left eye and saw the turquoise glow start illuminating the room. Time stopped for him. He observed a drop of blood stuck falling from the body. The three figures from the first daydream stood frozen, hooded cloaks masking their faces. Dev felt himself floating in the stillness and urged himself forward. It felt like swimming. He circled each of the magical murderers, looking under their hoods. Even with P.H.'s magic augmenting Dev's sight, he couldn't penetrate the darkness covering their faces. He tried to roll up the sleeve of the man with the watch but couldn't touch or interact with them.
He inspected the body, closer than he had been able to previously. While there hadn't been any visible wounds found by Doctor Kaine, the magical trauma Dev was now witness to almost made him sick. The man's soul had been mauled. Dev found he could watch the sundering. The men had picked and chosen specific pieces of their victim and consumed choice portions of his soul. It would have been agony. Dev feels a foul presence invade this day dream.
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A creature with different parts fused together languishes on a huge marble bench. The Malformed: a huge, tumorous gut overhangs the bench sides, far too many arms, dead or dying heads sit at odd angles. A few of the cataract eyes from the heads look in Dev's direction, unseeing and rotten. A gaping maw bisects the gut, three tongues hang out, drooling black and green pus onto the immaculate marble. The 'mouth' opens and shuts, somehow making words.
"The poacher of my power has returned." The guttural voice ripped through the air, a noise of violence. "Thief. I am forced to subsist this way. But even in its absence, I am not powerless. After our time together I can rend spirits from the fabric of reality. I learned from observation. Unlike you, cheat." The decay pulsed and burst from boils. This thing exuded power. Foul though it may be there was no denying its strength. Both physically and magically.
"I didn't steal anything." Dev offered. The abomination shook with anger.
"LIAR! You come here, to the Void Room, to my space, with my power and spout falsities!" With each pause it reached out a limb and drug the marble toward Dev. It was massive, he was reminded of how he had just looked up at the Hotel mere moments ago. "Prevaricator!" It roared, shaking the ground around them. A fist the size of a small house with too many fingers smashed down next to Dev nearly knocking him off his feet. "Return what is not yours!"
He didn't know where his courage came from. He looked upon the creature with neither fear nor awe. He could see what it really was. In the center of the being was a man. Not counting the welded flesh of the hundreds of people he had consumed for magic, it was just a man.
"You first." Dev spoke softly. The Void Room echoed and the creatures flesh began to ripple. Then it began to fail and tear as liquefied tissue exploded around Dev and the man. Screams of thousands of souls filled the space. His ears were bleeding but Dev held firm. He took a step toward the man. The Malformed lashes out with magic and Dev weakens as the energy cuts through him.
"What have you done!? I will end you for this!" Dev raises his arms to shield himself from the magical assault and feels Pandemonium emerge.
"You perverted my power for over a century just to fulfill your twisted desires. After you lost my influence you continued to abuse and steal souls to keep you alive! Now you raise your hand to assault my new host. YOU DARE?!"
With shrieks of fear and agony as the Malformed is repaid in kind. Pandemonium flays his soul into a million strands and burns each strand individually. "I condemn you to an eternity of burning torment. As further punishment, your mind will remain intact so that you may still feel the torture you instilled on your victims. May you never find peace." P.H. turns back to Dev and waves his hand.
"You need to leave this place." Dev's head is spinning and he thinks he can hear someone calling his name. His body reacts to his mind returning like waking from a dream of falling. Slowly he recognizes that he is in the elevator at the hotel, alone and sobbing.
-
The elevator doors open and the mystery woman charges in, her arms covered in dark red magical energy. Upon seeing Dev she dispels her magic and helps him to his feet and to her room. He slumps against her bed wallows in anguish. She quickly goes to her suitcase and removes a vial of liquid and a couple of paper envelopes. She pulls the topper off the vial with her lips and rips the envelopes open with her teeth. Pouring in the powdered ingredients and shaking the vial with her finger covering it, she kneels next to Dev.
"Drink this. You've just been through a Soul Storm." Dev is unresponsive. She grabs his chin and holds his head back while pouring the contents into his mouth. Something latches onto her wrist before she can finish. "Devlin, you need to swallow this. Let me help you." The magical tether loosens. As Dev's woe fades she cradles his head in her lap, shushing him and stroking his hair with her fingers.
"Thank you." P.H. appears for a moment before the woman. Dev sits up looking embarrassed.
"I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me..." He rubs his eyes and shakes his head. The woman stands up and offers her hand to help him up. He looks up at her and sees his tear stains on her dress.
"It was a Soul Storm. Any time a large quantity of displaced souls are released, they have a hard time returning to their rightful place. It takes time for them to figure out how and in that period they essentially become a hurricane. Anything or anyone magically attuned present will either be caught in the storm or, if you're lucky like you were, you'll experience the feeling of the soul-wrench they suffered through. The lucky part is that you get to keep your soul." She adds quickly. He accepts her hand and climbs to his feet. Still holding her hand, he gives it a firm shake.
"Thank you. I came here to question you in regards to the murder and I feel like you just saved my life. I don't even know your name." She shakes his hand back.
"I'm Julianne Nestor, Master Magician."