"No," Asar-Suti said. "I'm free, and have visited many worlds since I came here. But I can't go back to my own - my Ihlini were the villains of our tale, and while only reconciliation could bring the Firstborn back, my tradition, my fortress, had to perish. Valgaard was brought down on me in a fiery uproar that I caused myself, when the Cheysuli Kellin and his Ihlini love Ginevra threw her father into my fires. I am vanquished, and have found a new lease on life here that I had never expected."
"Villians often disguise themselves in stories, but even so, you don't seem like much of one. Are you going to kill me?" he asks curiously, taking a sip of his drink.
"No, that would be pointless - I'm not one of those Dark Gods that kill for the sheer hell of it. We had one on the bar at one time, by name of Kal Torak - he was a total desaster and an ugly spot of the good name of Dark Divinity!" he said. "We had a goal - we failed to reach it - we were vanquished, as is perhaps the fate of all our kind in world like ours."
"You seem curiously cheerful for a vanquished dark god," Miniver observes. "Also rather... well... purple. No offense or anything, but you don't look the part."
"You don't want to see me looking the part," Asar-Suti said. "I wear this shape again, like the body I had when I was a young sorcerer, long before I became more and more powerful and turned myself into a god. As a god, I was the purple fire at the fiery volcanic heart of the fortress of Valgaard, nothing more, nothing less. But it's hard to interact with people in a bar when you're a purple puddle of magical fire."
He smiled. "It's especially hard to love a faun in any practical meaning of the word when you're a purple puddle of magical fire. That's the main reason for me to stay in this place, and in this shape."
"I shift my shape at will," Asar-Suti said, "and I shifted into my original shape for almost less time than the human eye can perceive. I did not want to burn or blind you."
"I can lend anybody a spark of my magic," Asar-Suti said. "Even my Ihlini overlord Tynstar could pass on some of my magic to his Solindish mistress Electra. But to call on magical power of your own, that would require a gift you'd have to be born with."
"Oh. That's unfortunate. I thought maybe people had magic they just don't know how to use..." He sighs and takes another drink. "So... why purple? That's not a very evil color."
"I always liked purple," Asar-Suti said. "Much more stylish and magical than ordinary orage fire, don't you think? You must understand I never aimed to be evil for evil's sake - there was a goal to be reached, a balance of power to be guarded, a status quo to be preserved, and we never hesitated using whatever was necessary for that. Especially my Strahan could use tortuously baroque and bizarre means to a simple end at times. That was all our evil."
"I dunno. The flower children wear a lot of purple, when they bother getting dressed and you can see what color their clothing is under the gutter-grime." He wrinkles his nose. "I guess it's all right. It's a color of nobility, even royalty."
"It is the colour that I am used to," Asar-Suti smiled. "My things are violet or purple; my faun lover's things are mostly brown or greenish. The colours combine unexpectedly nicely, too."
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"No, that would be pointless - I'm not one of those Dark Gods that kill for the sheer hell of it. We had one on the bar at one time, by name of Kal Torak - he was a total desaster and an ugly spot of the good name of Dark Divinity!" he said. "We had a goal - we failed to reach it - we were vanquished, as is perhaps the fate of all our kind in world like ours."
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He smiled. "It's especially hard to love a faun in any practical meaning of the word when you're a purple puddle of magical fire. That's the main reason for me to stay in this place, and in this shape."
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He reaches out and touches Sooty's chest, as if to feel whether there is lava in his veins.
"A dark god in love with a faun is a very beautiful story," he says, smiling.
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Lovely, purple, powerful fire.
But he was all solid all the time, really, firm warm flesh dressed in ordinary fabric. Just everything somewhat purple.
"It is a very lovely faun," Asar-Suti said, with a little smile.
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O.O!
He doesn't quite fall off his chair, but he comes close. Then grins. "That's amazing! How did you do that??"
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He grinned.
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