The voice resounded through the air as though bounced between pillars of gentle light, as disembodied as the invisible speaker. Muscles tensed beneath the marble skin as a cold chill crawled along the spine, and as he gazed around to try and behold the owner of the voice he took a step back, then another.
Demonic gazers snapped back to a single spot as the God of Flame began to manifest, and as the guardian of light steadily grew more visible Djinn felt how his initial confidence slowly drained away. Wings, horns, oh he could fight both wing and horn if he had to, and probably more than one at a time when great things like life and limb was at stake. But this fire that that caused his heart to race, this light that for a moment seemed to blind him and gaze into his very soul... How could he fight that, or the overpowering aura that belonged to this lithe but truly magnificent steed?
Djinn was a vain creature. He was blessed with pleasant looks and he knew how to make most of them, prided himself on pleasing the eye and liked to surround himself with beautiful things. Next to this divine being he felt big and clumsy, ragged and unkempt; he wanted to huddle and shrink away, turn into slime and slip away between the rocks...
But no. He wanted power.
He wanted it bad enough to speak in front of this divine one who had spared precious time to accommodate the selfish desires of a mortal. Hell if he'd waste an opportunity like this.
"Indeed, I am greedy and selfish enough to want this power for myself. I suppose it is in the nature of dying things to want - at least I've always lived a life of craving, and doing what I can to sate it." It was an interesting topic to discuss, truly. Even beneath the piercing stare of the Sun God and faced with an unsettling look of expectation on the handsome face he felt tempted to extend upon it.
"When it comes down to it, I probably don't deserve anything, least of all that which I long for. I'm selfish and generally not very nice, I lie and deceive as easily as I take lives..." The powerful shoulders shrugged briefly, then the black-tainted eyes of the stallion moved to meet the golden gaze of the god, meeting one merciless smile with another, as if trying to show to the other the exact depths of his deprivation.
"Ultimately, it's your choice whether to grant my wish or not, and to set the price. What would you charge for the ability to control the world around me? I can offer but myself, the things I know, see, feel, hear and taste, the actions of my body and my thoughts. There's nothing I won't do, not price that is too steep. Truly, I will accept any task, pay any price.
This is how greedy I am."
For a moment there was silence. Will tested, options weighed, his own limits explored to see if he truly was willing to do anything like he'd said. Would he kill, maim, devour flesh or dig up bones, bathe in fire or carve himself to pieces to gain what he wished for? The answer was unsettling even for the black-maned steed, for even though he found some options revolting and loathed the thought of others, nothing was closer to him than himself, nothing meant more...
A sudden laughter cut off whatever tension that had been caused from his part, and with a lopsided grin the stud rolled his eyes at his own words.
"Sorry, that was a boring answer. True, but not very entertaining. How about I assemble a skeleton from only different bones? Or I could collect pink flowers from all the lands in Helovia, or maybe find out a truth from five different creatures... Or should I leap into the Heart? I could do that, I just don't know how I'd get back up again. Hmm... or maybe.." The voice gradually lowered as more and more suggestions poured from his mouth, ridiculously easy ones mixed with suggestions of murder and disfigurement, all in a jumbled mess that would have seemed comical if they hadn't been spoken so seriously. At this rate it seemed the lightning-marked horse could go on forever, seeing as how his imagination appeared endless.
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Greed [Any god]
