[center][h3][b]Asvarad[/b][/h3][/center]
[center][i]The Great Serpent[/i][/center]

He knew it was a dangerous risk, and yet even after Asvarad had gained the knowledge promised by the dying elder god and spoken his piece to the bickering divines he had lingered.  The action wasn’t impelled by some budding interest in his peers or their affairs, though one of them had prompted it.  Asvarad had seen the inquisitive little grey one study the remains of their creator and if the short god’s hushed exclamation was anything to go by?  He had discovered something worth knowing.  The great serpent longed for the chance to explore that possibility and so took on the risk of remaining, but the presence of other divines precluded him from doing as he pleased.

Asvarad had many eyes, and so had noticed as one goddess paled to see what Eleanna had done.  Another had cleaned and clothed the elder gods lifeless corpse when they’d first awoken.  To meddle openly with the creator’s body would bias them against him, and while he hadn’t any interest in their friendship the serpent god was in no rush to make enemies.  Whatever their attachment to the last victim of this world-trap, he would have to respect it.  At least, he would have to appear to have respected it.  So, while some of the divines began to head off, and the one named Benea’s ridiculous pet set to the task of turning the babbling Xavior’s proposal into a demand by wrapping itself around the node, Asvarad breathed in. 

In the span of the serpent’s breath he watched Xavior build a tomb around the elder god’s body, another peer predisposed to needless sentiment, and Benea’s nascent little faction depart alongside her.  Only as Asvarad watched them begin to shrink in the distance did he exhale, and when he did?  His breath was alive.  Before the serpent, invisible in the air, was a creature that could not be seen nor felt without magic or power.  At least, when it didn’t wish to be. 


Asvarad looked into the emptiness and shaped the air with the slightest exhalations.  Coiled up in the warm sun he lounged away from the others, crafting his own servant in plain sight.  The flowing currents of air, hidden from all but the serpent who was watching for them, took the shape of a gaunt approximation of a human.  One whose hands had too many fingers and who looked out from two sets of serpentine eyes facing both ahead and to the side.  In lieu of skin the servant sported minuscule fine black scales, and each one of their thick nails ended in a sharp dark point.  When his servant’s body was complete Asvarad began to work on its mind.  Unlike others, he had no need for a pet.  A thousand thousand careful adjustments to a floating knot of air and power, and at last the invisible creature fell to the ground without a sound or any clear indication it existed at all.

It had been created with a purpose, and Asvarad welcomed it into the world with terse explanation and a projected thought laden with the serpent god’s authority, [color=785A6E][i]“Servant, you have not been created without reason.  I require the skull of our-”[/i][/color]

[i]“Excuse me, Servant?”[/i]  A shrill thought bursting with indignation cut off Asvarad and the Servant’s not quite Human features contorted in invisible annoyance, [i]“You're naming me Servant!?  And now I’ve gotta a pull skull out of a warm body!?  That’s disgusting.  I was just created and from what you bothered to put in my head I already know that’s disgusting.”[/i]

[color=785A6E][i]“I have given you no name”[/i][/color] Asvarad thought back forcefully enough to give his creation a headache, [color=785A6E][i]“That is for you to decide, your obedience however is [u]not[/u].  You will do as I ask.  Whatever aversion you feel is passing, I would create nothing ill-suited to its purpose.  Be grateful, of all creatures Servant you alone will always find joy in your work.  I have made certain of it.”[/i][/color]

For a moment Asvarad’s Servant simple stood there, half sunk into the ground and totally still.  Any thought of learning how to walk without substance abandoned to listen to its creators painful retort, and issue one of it’s own, [i]“So I have to scoop out brains, and I’ll enjoy it even if I don’t want to, but I get to pick my name?  Geez, aren't I lucky.”[/i]

[color=785A6E][i]“More than you know, ingrate.”[/i][/color] Asvarad’s thought boomed in the Servant’s head and took on a such a weight that it couldn’t be gainsaid or denied, [color=785A6E][i]“Fetch the skull as soon as it can be done without attracting unwelcome attention, bring it to the place marked twenty one on the map, and present yourself to me there.  I’ve no time for this asinine quarrel.”[/i][/color]

That said, or thought, Asvarad turned and slithered away with all the speed a small mountain of muscle could provide.  The Servant watched their creator depart, carving a great path through grass and brush that seemed to attract a few of the humans already enticed south by the horned god and seeking an easy route, and cursed as it looked back to the node, [i]“Just couldn’t have been created by one of the others.  Nope, it’s brains and gore for me.  Good thing I’m a freak who’s already excited just thinking about it.  Stupid fucking snake.”[/i] 

Of course, Asvarad hadn’t taught the Servant proper speech.  Had he, those few who remained around the first node would have heard the increasingly foul-mouthed specter as it figured out intangible locomotion and made its way to the tomb Xavior had erected with a mix of anger, building exhilaration, and more anger about that.

[hider=Summary][b]Summary[/b]:
Asvarad sticks around because he thinks Brey saw something in Peninal’s body.  Unfortunately everyone is getting all sentimental about the corpse they’ve been defiling and now a certain snake can’t study the body without annoying them.  Thankfully, our flawless hero has a solution.  Instead of something reasonable like waiting around or explaining himself to anyone Asvarad created a sentient specter that can shift between a material and immaterial form.  Unfortunately that specter has thoughts about this whole thing.  Double unfortunately, Asvarad doesn’t give a shit.  The snake issues the order to steal Peninal’s skull and slithers off.  Some humans follow the road ground into the soil by the 150 foot long snake that weighs a few hundred tons.  The specter continues to be upset, especially about the whole ‘enjoying your job’ thing Asvarad programmed into it.[/hider]

[hider=Might Expense]
[b]Might Expenditure[/b]
-2 Might expenditure to create the Servant.  The Servant is a sentient specter that can shift between a material and immaterial form.  Any object the Servant holds when transitioning between the material and immaterial will experience the same transition as the Servant, provided it is smaller than the Servant is.
2 Might Remaining.[/hider]