Lion Head Mesa i made wine from the lilac tree

"We have a god, Bes.

He adores the infant, he guards the birthing chamber. But Bes saw that many babies were stolen from life too soon, and so he made himself—"

The scent that ringed this place brought with it words from long ago. They clashed with the constant cacophony that was Sheogorath, but ultimately won out, and as they did, the pale-golden face arose in her mind.

'Pharaoh,' he'd called himself. And had he gotten all that he had wanted?

His smell was as strong here as Maegi was weak. She'd dragged herself once more from the sea, clinging wraithlike to the foothills of the mountains, heading toward Blackfeather Woods and an intended death (again).

Yet here she stood. Weak-limbed, each bone in her body casting rippled shadows across her ivory pelt. Lackluster, mismatched eyes. A broken heart to match her battered face.

"—Ugly. Warped. Deformed. All so his gruesome face would scare away the clutching spirit, the black dog who waits to devour the innocent hearts. His sacrifice was that even now the children whom he means to protect fear his features."

Would that Bes had granted her the same power—to keep her children safe.

She howled for @Ramesses.