...Perhaps so, but it is the mask closest to my heart, and one I have not been able to bear freely in a very long time. It is hidden either behind another mask, or else buried behind that which an Ascian does and is, without any memory for the person beneath.

[When he acts as an Ascian, it is a role - to those they use, Emet-Selch is no different from Lahabrea or any other. Such is clear enough in how they are so often addressed as 'Ascian' to their faces.

He smiles weakly.]

I cannot turn back time on what I am any more than I can make anew the flesh I once possessed, my dear. I cannot be that which I am not, nd often are the times that Hades seems a stranger.