She had never seen anything so beautiful.

The giant had his back to the woman, as tall as the icon held high by the procession crowd at the celebration she had encountered the last time she had entered the city. As a girl who grew up on the edge of the desert, she was so shocked by the grand scene of the time that her hands and feet were numb, and she almost fell to her knees.

But now she realized that compared to the person in front of her, the saint outlined in lapis lazuli and gold looked shabby and clumsy. She is now even beginning to perceive the dissonance of the form of the icon in her memory, the defect of the color scheme—obviously, this is not the knowledge she has learned, but a natural awareness of inferior products in the face of true beauty, like the instinctive rejection of coarse tea and light rice after tasting delicacies.

For this change, she could only panic in her heart, a fear that was once boundless to her. She even began to wonder if she could tolerate the whole world that seemed so rough to his side if she looked at it like this.

The man in the corner in the robe, or rather the human thing, moved. The feeling of dizziness and addiction is dispelled by fear. A floating halo shrouded in eerie machinery gave way to a more practical aura—a smell of sharp, metallic grease that was out of place with yellow sand, scraping the skin like a blade.

The guy turned his head, his pale cheeks sunken deeply, as if they had been indiscriminately attached to his skull. His facial features can be described as handsome, even delicate, but they are magnified in equal proportions on a massively deformed skeleton, making him more like a beast or a swollen corpse than a human.

The most terrifying thing was the completely black eyes, from which she felt like a lamb to the slaughter, to be examined from where to go under the knife. The sharp weapon in the other party's hand made this fear more tangible.

The hiss swam up the spine like a viper, it was a language, and neither the roar of a beast nor the howl of a ghost could have such a complex and tortuous rhythm. She retracted her legs and hung her head.

The giant turned from the cradle and said something gently. She stared at the ground, where the metal was brighter than her small bronze mirror, and the eyes of the man in the corner rolled upward, and the white-haired giant just smiled, teasing the child in his arms with his fingers.

"Don't take it personally." He said, "Victor has always been like this. ”

It was the first time she knew Colchis could speak so smoothly, and even briefly worried that the gritty pronunciation would cut his throat. The woman's lips twitched a few times, and she considered a word that might be appropriate: "Your Excellency......"

"Oh, please don't call me that. I'm not God, I'm Vogrim. He smiled kindly.

"Okay...... Mistress Fogream. The name flowed like water from her lips and teeth. The thing with a woman's face was still pounding on something in the corner, snake-like limbs flying, stirring up noise and sparks. It was this being who had kidnapped her to this strange place of metal construction, and if it weren't for the hell that the old people had said, she would have been on her knees and praying.

Fogrem shrugged, "Don't be so nervous, we need your help." ”

"Help?" She repeated the word, remembering the legends of the village elders who had told them about the deal with the devil, and tightened her grip on the corners of her clothes.

"Yes, a child needs to be fed."

She bit her lower lip tightly to keep it from screaming. The plot of the deal and the price passed through her mind in a haze, tangled into a single word, and the only thing she could say now: "Yes." ”

Then Fogham laughed like a legendary demagoguery: "Forgive me, then, for apologizing on Shelley's behalf for her faux pas." Maybe you'd be willing to go to her freshly repaired bathroom and clean it up? ”

-----------------

The woman tread cautiously on the slippery deck with the corners of her skirt—a word that Mistress Fogham had just told him. He said it used to be a ship for them to sail in the stars.

The starry sky, it sounds so far away. But she had heard stories of the adventures of the crew, the ocean that was wider than the city and the banshees that rose from it. By contrast, she could see twinkling stars at least every night. Adults say that those little ones with big needles are actually as big as the world beneath her feet, if not better.

She didn't know why she was upset. Whether they knew there was a better world out there, or even so they still fell into this desert.

"I thought the heavens were where the gods lived." She said.

"Oh, they live higher, in places you can't imagine, but that's a good thing."

The woman shook her hair, which was still sapoury, and for the first time felt that they were soft and light. Restoring the bright color of the blonde consumed hot water in the past was enough to buy her life. The villages on the edge of the desert are not cruel, but they have to be ruthless. Vogrim's admiring gaze fell on it.

"Do you love your child, darling?"

Her expression stiffened. "He's everything to me...... My lord. They said that the child who died in infancy could not be buried, and threw him into the desert. I...... I just want to find him, and only the child who dies in the earth can ascend to heaven and go to the kingdom of God. ”

"I'm sorry, but don't worry, I just fell out of the sky, there's no heaven there." Fogham laughed again, and the adult seemed to find anything interesting.

"I ...... Thank you so much......"

"So can you do it to love another child? Nurture and care like a mother for a newborn, innocent child? We are willing to repay as much as we can, because coercion does not bring true love, as we all know. ”

"I ...... I do. She clutched the corners of her dress again and stammered, "Do you need me to swear?" Tell...... Tell you my name or something? ”

He stopped where he was, looking at the jewel-like eyes from the top of the temple. "No, don't, and I need you never to say it."

“…… Yes. ”

"Oaths have always bound both sides. And the name, I'm sorry, dear, you're so beautiful. ”

"I ...... I ......" The woman looked down and looked at her freshly cleansed body, which had been dusted two hours earlier. Blonde hair draped softly over the collarbone. She didn't quite understand why the man who had given everything could say this.

"I just wiped the dust off the gemstones, but it's you who really sharpen it." As if to see what she was thinking, Fogham said gently.

"But...... Compared to you......"

"Beauty is no big or small. Even if it produces the most plain crystal, the beauty it presents is still precious. Beloved, this is the only thing that transcends quantity and strength, and not even the gods can take it from us. The harmony of a speck of dust is also its spoils of war against the universe. It's a struggle, dear. His glowing eyes were fixed on her face. And in Colchis, you have a fruitful battle. ”

He put his hand on her shoulder. "So please don't tell me your name. All beautiful figurations can be regarded as part of a grand concept when they are not known, but once they are known, they have to mourn their glory. I don't want my soul to be torn apart yet. ”

"I ...... I promise you. She muttered.

"Thank you, dear." Fogreem's expression was solemn.