Amadeus frowned as he crouched down on the cold stone of the temple steps, taking in the young woman's broken and beaten form. The bundle wrapped tightly in her arms was crying and wriggling about, her little chubby face barely visible among the cloth that tried in vain to keep her hidden. Her cheeks had begun to turn red from the cold as she wailed for the world to hear.
This is why he'd been so drawn to one of his temples, a rarity in more recent years. So few who worshipped him truly needed his help.
The poor thing must have been starving, possibly starting to freeze to death in the chilly midwinter air. Her mother must have been seeking shelter in the hidden-away temple, but it seemed that she wasn't quite able to make it the last few steps.
Amadeus sighed. Humans could be so resilient when it came to their kin, even at the cost of their own wellbeing.
The man reached down to pull the baby girl from her mother's stiff arms, his long, bright coppery hair falling over the both of them, a stark contrast to the dirty and torn cloth that she was wrapped in.
A brief pass of his hand across the woman's face and he felt the final shred of her resistance fade. Her child was safe now, her final prayer before the chill in her bones rendered her motionless.
"Shhhhh it's okay, I'm here to help you," Amadeus soothed as he straightened with the child in his arms, her screaming subsiding as she was pressed against the warmth of golden skin.
He caressed her face with soft fingers, easing her discomfort as he quickly healed the wounds she'd suffered from the cold. A long-forgotten spark of familiarity shot through Amadeus as the girl moved her head to gnaw on his fingers with her gums, her warm hazel eyes staring up into his soul.
"Do you have a name, little one?" Amadeus asked curiously as he began to walk with her back into the temple, leaving behind the shell of her mother. The temple attendants would no doubt clean up and clear her body from the steps once they awoke with the morning sun to find her. "I have the perfect name for you if you don't."