The world, as far as Lily was concerned, was a roaring singularity of screaming red-orange-white. Fire everywhere. Whenever she opened her mouth, more fire came pouring out from her lungs, rising like bile through her esophagus. She was smoking in reverse, acrid and burning smoke billowing its way out of her body instead of her breathing it in. The blaze ripped through the world, tearing it apart by its seams. Fire ate everything and spat it back out, half-digested and diminished. Grey, ashen. Nothing but shrieking warmth from all around. Lily couldn't see the shark devils past the wall of flame that she'd vomited up, but she'd like to see them try to survive the heat. Faintly, through the inferno's cacophony, she heard a monstrous screaming, the sharks burning away to a crisp, Lily figured. She cackled, half laughing half coughing as the heat continued to pour out.When the world stopped exploding, Charlie poked his head around the corner. The hallway looked exactly like anyone could predict a hallway would look after the equivalent of a bomb detonated in the middle of it. Only the skeleton of the architecture remained standing, bricks and concrete, charred and blackened but still unbroken. The hallway had housed trophy cases carrying sports memorabilia and whatnot. Nothing more than rubble at this point. "Really did a number on this place, huh?" Charlie ran a hand through his mess of black hair, "Wonder if you blew up whatever the source of the shark devils was too." Lily, leaning against what remained of a wall for support, slowly slid down it. She huffed, trying to gulp in air, but her lungs never took in enough air for her to speak. In lieu of words, she leveled an incredulous look at Charlie for the suggestion that any object could have survived the inferno that she'd released on the place. "Don't give me that look," Charlie gingerly stepped through the wreckage, nudging particularly big pieces of rubble out of the way with the tip of his sword, "Loads of occult objects are more durable than they'd look." Occult Vision — Level 10​ Charlie's eyes gained a faint red tint. He scanned across the ruined hallway, looking for a trace of occult energy that he could track. Off on the far side of the hallway, something was leaking tiny amounts of residual occult energy into the atmosphere. He began to pick his way over to the object in question "Heads up," Evan spoke in Charlie's ear, "Police are on their way. ETA, something like ten minutes." "Easy," Charlie replied. He summoned his Inventory into view. His DOA badge stood proudly in one of his Inventory's boxes, "Just gotta figure out some kind of lie to tell them and flash our badges. How's a gas leak explosion sound?" "Police aren't the only problem. The Boss is on her way too. She'll get here before the police do by the looks of it. Three minutes away, about." Charlie paused. "Shit." "Yeah, means we really fucked this one up." "Something like that," Charlie agreed. He pulled the item that had been giving off the occult signature out from the rubble. Scorched black and heavily warped, Charlie could just barely identify it as a football helmet. Charlie walked back to where Lily was sitting and held it up for her to see, "This look familiar at all to you?" Lily was still struggling to breathe. "Oop, sorry, didn't realize how much that explosion took out of you. I mean, makes sense. A bit insane in terms of output, but I guess it comes with a lot of recoil, huh?" Charlie said, "Okay, try smoking a cigarette. Might help." Lily glared at him. "Trust me on this one," Charlie said, "It's just a hunch, but I've been living as a sorcerer for a while now. It's an educated hunch. Smoking's probably gonna help you out here." "Owe me… an explanation," she huffed. With shaking hands, she took her lighter out of her back pocket and lit another cigarette, the last one in her pack. She took a drag. Her lungs filled up to capacity like they were designed for smoke, not air. Lily immediately felt the energy returning to her bones, heat surging through her veins, warming her down to the tips of her fingers. "Yeah, figured," Charlie tried for his usual confident smile but only managed a lopsided grimace, "You're a sorcerer now. Means you're one of the bad kids. We get rewarded for bad behavior, y'know?" Lily shook her head and stood up. She stumbled as she rose to her feet, black spots darkening the edges of her vision. Another puff of smoke, and her head felt a little clearer, "None of this makes any sense." "I mean, you already kind of know the schtick with us. Sorcerers. For one reason or another, we've got occult powers. Something or other about extreme stress and arcane frequencies, whatever, whatever. I don't know the science behind it, just that it's got something to do with a lot of strong emotions. Same reason devils are born. Lots of strong emotions, usually over a long period of time," Charlie pulled a sleek badge out from his Inventory in a crackle of red electricity. He sheathed his sword and showed Lily the badge, "See this? DOA badge. Department of Occult Affairs. They're the sketchy government organization that conscripts us to fight devils." "Never heard of it." "That's the whole point," Charlie explained, "Devils are born after loads of people feel strongly about something. If people knew there was a government organization responsible for dealing with devils, if they knew devils existed and thought of them as a threat, then that'd only give more power to the devils. Is the reasoning from the higher-ups, at least. We keep things hush-hush. No non-sorcerers know about us." "And nobody, I dunno, questions where their tax dollars are going? Or like people like me? What if I blab about you guys online or something? Or really public stuff like this? There's gotta be more people talking about this, right?" "DOA's got people like Evan, tech-manipulators and all, to quiet things down on the internet," Charlie shrugged, "DOA's a big government bureau, and they're full of literal magic-users. I figure if they want someone silenced, it's gonna happen." Lily felt the smoke from her cigarette, black and heavy, settle in her body. Charlie continued, "But now you're a sorcerer. Means you can join us and fight devils. Y'know, if you want." "If I want? I get a choice in this now?" Lily thought that the whole talk with all the secrecy and the 'they can silence you by force if they want' would be leading to forced conscription. "There's always a choice," Charlie turned away and tucked the ruined football helmet, the apparent source of the shark devils from earlier, underneath his arm, "Our boss is gonna be swinging by in a second. I'd talk to her. She can give you a better run-down than I just did." "I thought that was a pretty good talk, for you at least." "Thanks, Evan. I thought so too. I was just trying to be modest." Charlie tossed the football helmet into his Inventory. Then, as though he'd just forgotten something, he turned back to face Lily. "Oop, just one more thing: sorcerers always get their powers after some huge amount of sustained stress. That means we're all a bit fucked in the head," Charlie winked at Lily, "That includes you too."