She first came to me as a young woman.

She carried a Lust in her.

Lust for wisdom and power.

And the most conscious Demon I had ever seen.

In this life, and in all my recordings.

She asked for my name.

I never had one.

I don't think that up to that point I ever considered naming myself.

The People called me names.

But non of them appealed to me.

So I chose my own.

"I am Greed."

She was a smart one for her age.

She had nothing much to offer yet, and she knew it.

But she knew to ask the right questions.

"Where do the Demons come from?"

"Greed."

She paused.

And fell into thought.

"So what is their End?"

"Pride."

"Thank you. I will be back once I have more to offer."

And she left.

She returned a few years later.

Still a young woman among her kind.

She had learned a lot.

And had enough to offer to get the answers for the right kind of questions.

"How can I get a Greed?"

"You cannot."

"Why?"

"Once you loose it, it is gone forever."

"How does one loose their Greed?"

"You taint it."

"What taints Greed?"

"Ones emotions, ones actions and what you feed it."

"Thank you. I will be back when I have more to offer."

Our third meeting was about a decade later.

She now carried an Envy in her.

She envied me and all greed.

"What is Pride?"

"Stagnation, and eventually ones end."

"How can one get rid of a Pride?"

"One cannot."

"How can one avoid Pride?"

She amused me.

She was smart.

And she asked the right kind of questions.

And just maybe I was curious what she would become or what she would unleash.

"Never give in to pride. Only ever feed your greed.

Only by wanting for more, reaching for more and fighting for more will you eventually become more."

She noticed that she had received more than she had bargained for.

It must have surprised her.

I was not known to offer things for free.

"And what happens when one becomes more?"

She really was smart.

"Only by becoming more, can you potentially escape from your Demon.

And only by escaping from your Demon can you possibly reach immortality."

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I still kept something hidden from her.

It just was in my nature.

I wanted to see her decisions, not scare her.

"What are the other five Sins?"

"Intermediate and exchangeable existences, with just enough greed to not stagnate."

"Thank you."

Our fourth meeting happened again about a decade later.

She was now middle-aged for her people.

And still carried her Envy.

She must have spend a lot of time amassing knowledge to trade.

This time she truly came prepared.

Prepared to take as much from me as possible.

Amusing.

"Tell me everything you can on how to properly raise a Greed, please."

Ah, no more questions.

More of a demand really.

But she was polite about it.

And she had enough to offer.

So she got what she bargained for.

"Start with the very young. Do not taint them, let them make their own decisions. Just sort out those that loose their Greed, so that they do not taint the others.

The best way to feed Greed is like you would feed a hunting dog. Only ever enough to keep it wanting for more.

Do not lie to a Greed. You do not need to share everything, but never lie.

Never overfeed a Greed. If Greed looses it's balance it will more easily slip out of control and turn into something lesser. Therefore when acquiring something new don't feed Greed everything at once. Instead always keep back at least two thirds and if needed feed it a little bit of something else to compensate. Balance is key.

Do not attempt to take from a Greed. Greeds are hoarders, they will freely discard things they consider useless, but they will react violent if one tries to take. If Greed claimed something you want then exchange it for something else or wait till he bores of it. But do not try to take from a Greed by force.

Greeds thrive on novelty and balance. So to minimize the risk of taint you have to offer Greed a variety of different things. Therefore you either have to seek the adventure and travel the world, or make the world come to you. Raising a Greed is a team effort. You can attempt it on your own, but sooner or later you will fail to provide. The later it happens, the more violent the feedback and backlash one will receive from an unhappy Greed. If you know that you will fail to provide, taint the Greed and make it lesser. If you fail to provide and Greed feeds on you, be prepared to loose everything, including everything in your surrounding."

It was a lot to take in for a mere mortal.

She thought about it for about a week.

Sitting in my shadow and just thinking, planning, scheming.

Her ambitions and thoughts were delicious.

"If I raise Greeds for a quarter of a century and gift you all I learn, would that be enough to learn how to become like you?"

I had seen that coming.

I had just expected it would take her longer to reach that conclusion.

It seemed that the greed in her was strong.

She must have fed it well over the years.

And her Envy was changing,

It would become Lust again.

Lust for greed.

Mortals.

So amusing.

"Maybe. But only barely."

"How long would it take me to prepare if I knew everything?"

She was so smart.

"If you can offer enough to learn everything it would take you at least another decade to properly prepare."

"Thank you."

She left me again.

She knew that time was now against her.

She was one of the smartest among all I had met, but she was still only mortal.

So short-lived, even those races more attuned to nature barely got older then a century or two.

In the following years I sometimes heard from others about her 'school'.

People praised her for re-discovering Greeds.

Especially those bored nobles.

They got Greeds for their collections, and were apparently willing to pay her handsomely for it.

And sometimes people tried to offer me a "newly" discovered Greed in exchange.

Mortals.

But she kept true to her desires and returned to me eventually.

A quarter of a century was nothing to me, but she had turned from middle-aged to elderly.

Still, she did not loose herself in pride.

And her Lust had gotten stronger.

I was so proud of her.

"Is all this enough to learn everything?"

"It is."

She smiled.

"Do you think I have enough time left to prepare and succeed?"

This was a first.

People normally did not ask for my opinion.

But she had always been smart like that.

"Maybe. You should hurry. But do not abridge things."

"Thank you."

It took her nearly half a year to learn everything.

She was not young anymore.

But she had prepared well.

As soon as she had learned all she needed she called in favours from all those rich people she had dealt with over the years.

And against my prediction it only took her eight and a half years to properly prepare as far as I could tell.

Nine years all together if one included the learning phase.

She really was special.

And when she was ready she returned to me.

She knew that she had nothing left to offer, but she still came.

And I indulged her.

"Will I succeed?"

"I do not know. For I am the only one of my kind."

"What will I become?"

Ah, she noticed.

I expected she would.

"Something akin to a Demon and a Divine. A being of pure energy. An aggregation of mortal minds, their Demons and all your surroundings."

"Will I retain myself?"

"Your old self will become a small part of your new self. One part in a billion. But it will not be lost."

"Would you name the new me?"

"Yes. You shall be Eve."

"Eve?"

"The first woman according to an old human religion. Greed enticed her to eat a fruit of wisdom thereby breaking Gods command."

"Did Eve ever regret her decision?"

"Why would she? She and her mate were Gods most beloved creation, and despite their sin they founded the human race and all their decendants were eventually granted forgiveness by God's son."

"Thank you."

She left for the last time.

She went for one of the regions bordering my area.

Far enough to not overlap with what I considered mine.

But close enough to communicate.

At least I hoped so.

And then you became.

I never knew how the birth of one of our kind happened, because I was the first.

But experiencing your coming into this world was spectacular.

No explosion, no implosion.

No bright light or loud sound.

You just became.

Like a Demon.

And everything she amassed as sacrifice just ceased to be.

Faster than the blink of a mortal eye.

Just gone.

I reached out to you.

And I named you Eve.

For you were once a woman, given wisdom by Greed.