>>5325471In your chamber, you again attempt the ritual which brought you Persecutor and Mother. You light a candle, and place the amulet before it, reciting the word:
“Oh Lords and Ladies of Eternity and Infinity, oh Lords of the Endless Black, oh Ladies of the Deep Flame. It is I, your prince! It is I, your servant! Your first among sons and daughters beseeches you, and I offer up this great tribute, in hopes you will hear me, and guide me, and make me a part of your Grand Design!”
The smoke begins to billow out into a widening column, almost like a spiraling serpent rising—ascending?—to the ceiling. However, then it does something that feels… Wrong, to your intuitive understanding of the Dark God which you hoped to summon here: it splits asunder, so that thin streamers of smoke billow upwards, sideways, downwards. The reach out, encircling the room, and you, in a tentacles embrace. At their centre is the flame of the candle, which is no larger than before, but shines brighter, and is a queer blue-green-purple. It carries the aspect of an eye—an all-seeing, all-knowing eye, masterful and insightful.
You recognize not the Serpent Ascendant, god of glorious victory, but instead the Dark God of magic and secrets, patron of mages and scholars. The Master of the Insightful Eye. The Baleful Beholder.
“I am not who you expected, or sought,” the God ‘speaks’ directly rom the back of your own mind, as his eye fixes upon you.
“No,” you admit.
There is no use in lying or flattering an entity like this, already dwelling deep in your own mind with all the comfort of a welcomed guest—or a confident burglar.
“Why not?” the Beholder asks.
“It is not meant as an insult,” you speak truthfully. “It is just…”
“A matter of preference, and of affinity, yes,” the Master notes. “But why?”
