And Simon just showed her what was written on his palm. She didn’t go away, but she shrieked and barked and spat.

If there was one thing Simon could do, it was good glyph.

Simon bit his tongue so hard it brought tears to his eyes. He could guess what she was going to try next.

“You are NOTH -” she screamed, but Simon interrupted her with a Silent Word. When he shouted it, he spat bloody sputum right in her mouth. Her eyes bulged when her mouth vanished.

Glaring, she grew her mouth back and said, “You’ll pay for that, mortal.” The clouds over Simon turned blacker than a panther in a box at the bottom of a coal mine after the heat death of the universe. The storm gathered, and the writing on Simon’s palm and the wind he’d befriended weren’t going to do shit against it. Simone shifted to one knee, preparing to stand.

Simon’s eyes grew wide with horror.

“At last you see, at last you know, mortal. You should have stayed away. I see your fear in your eyes, mortal. Fear and awe of… rats?”