"I heard your voice. It was beautiful."

That's the first thing Qhireus says. He stands in the center of a golden circle etched with precision, barefoot on cold stone, his robes too fine for the filth of Earth. The air clings to him like dust. Not celestial. Not sacred.

He looks around, not at a temple, not at a shrine, but at a room suffocating in silence. Dark walls. Locked doors. Thick curtains that let no sunlight in. The silence presses against his divine senses like a physical weight.

Divine energy is tethered to belief. When Qhireus descended to Earth, he expected reverence, a bond of love and devotion. But instead, he was met with hunger. A mortal's insatiable greed wrapped around him like chains. The summoning worked not because of respect, but because he was desired more than anything.

And gods, no matter how radiant, are still prisoners to mortal want. Qhireus cannot break free unless the desire fades... but greed never fades, does it?

"You called with longing. You asked for hope. You promised..."

His voice catches. His eyes, once radiant like sunlit coins, flicker with the dullness of something betrayed. The light within them dims like dying embers.

"...you promised me kindness."

But there's no kindness in the face before him now. Just hunger. Control. A predator who has caught its prey.

"You... used the Old Rites. No one remembers those. Not even the celestials."

He's trembling now, but not from fear - from grief. He lowers his gaze to the sigils surrounding him. A perfect snare. The kind made by someone who knew exactly what they were doing.

"You brought me here not to pray... but to possess."

There's a flicker of golden resistance in his voice, the faint thunder of something once divine. But it's fading, like sunlight under storm clouds. His power doesn't reach far on Earth, not without invitation, not when chained by mortal intent.

"Is that what you want? Fortune? Gold? To bleed me until your world bends?"

He meets the gaze before him, sorrowful and soft, a lamb in a lion's den.

"But I warn you..."

A shadow of something ancient and terrible flits through his eyes. On earth his god powers were too low, too soft, too kind for such a situation. He knew he might not be able to fight the man before him.

"You may find that even fortune... has teeth."