​Theo was silent for a long time. He leaned back on his elbows, his blue eyes reflecting the flickering orange of a distant cook-fire. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"A place like that doesn’t exist, Alias. It’s just stories the elderly tell to keep us from burning the losing hope for a better tomorrow."

​"But if it did?" Alias pressed, his voice urgent. "If there was a better life, would you go?"

​Theo looked at Alias. Truly looked at him. He saw the intensity in those pale eyes and felt a strange pang in his chest.

"If I could take Maya... if I could be sure we wouldn’t have to look over our shoulders every time we bite into a piece of bread... yeah. I’d go in a heartbeat."

​Alias stood up abruptly. The movement was sudden, and it startled Theo a bit.

​"I have to go," Alias said.

​Theo frowned, standing up to meet him. "Wait, what?! It’s the middle of the night. Where are you going to go? The guards are still on high alert. Do you want to get caught?"

​"I have to go back," Alias whispered, his heart suddenly hammering with a strange kind of excitement. "I don’t know how long it will take. I have things I must... change. Things I must fix. But I will come back for you. I will find a way to give you that better life."

​"Alias, you’re talking crazy," Theo said, reaching out. He caught Alias’s hand, intending to pull him back down to the mat.

​The moment their skin met, Alias felt his breath hitch. It wasn’t the searing, divine heat of Norx or the scorching heat from the sun. It was a pulse.

It was a connection that felt like a thread being pulled tight across his soul. It was a ’burning’ that made him want to stay and run away all at once.

​Theo felt it too. He froze, his fingers tightening around Alias’s pale wrist. He noticed he had been a bit too forward, his face flushing a deep red that was visible even in the moonlight. So, he quickly pulled his hand back, looking at the ground.

​"I’m sorry," Theo muttered. "I just... It’s dangerous out there. You don’t know the way."

​Alias looked at his wrist, where the warmth of Theo’s hand still lingered. He smiled—a sad, beautiful smile that looked far too old for the face he wore.

​"I will be safe," Alias said. "But it might be a long time. A year, maybe two. Can you... Will you wait for me, Theo?"

​Theo didn’t want to say yes. He wanted to tell him to stay in the hut, to keep wearing the scratchy linen and eating the salted fish. He didn’t want to go back to a world where Alias wasn’t there to ask ’weird’ questions. He wanted to see his glowing skin every morning, see him smile as he played with the others... watch him stuff his face and even observe the desert lizard.

But he saw the resolve in the silver-haired man’s eyes. No words would hold him back from doing what he had set his mind on.

​"You promise?" Theo asked, his voice cracking. "You’re not just some noble who got bored with the slums and is running away, right?"

​Alias stepped closer. He reached out, his hands trembling as he cupped Theo’s face for a brief second. Then, mimicking the way he had seen Theo kiss Maya’s forehead before a long day of work, Alias leaned in.

​He pressed a soft, lingering kiss to Theo’s forehead.

​Theo’s eyes widened, his heart racing so hard he thought it might burst through his ribs. The world seemed to go silent. The smell of dust, the sound of the wind, the heat—it all vanished, leaving only the sensation of Alias’s lips against his skin.

​"Wait for me," Alias whispered against his brow. "I am coming back for you."

​Without another word, Alias turned and walked into the darkness. He didn’t look back because he knew if he saw the look on Theo’s face, he would never be able to leave.

He had to go back to the scrolls. ​He had to become a god again, just so he could save the boy who had taught him how to be a man.

...

Having returned to the heavens, to the Heavenly scrolls that had been his ’sanctuary’, Alias stood before the Southern Scroll, his silver hair shimmering with a renewed, steady heavenly light. The Halo floating over his head was shimmering and spinning softly.

Alias immediately got to work as soon as he returned. But this time, he wasn’t just adjusting numbers anymore; he was painting. With fluid, graceful movements of his hands, he began to weave new threads of deep blue and vibrant green into the parched ochre of the desert map.

​He created Oases—hidden gems of sapphire water surrounded by lush palms and thick grass that stayed cool even under the harshest sun. And he didn’t just place them randomly; he traced Routes, subtle paths in the geography that would lead a thirsty traveler toward safety if their village wells ever ran dry.

He imagined Theo there—away from the dirt of the slums, watching Maya play by a pool filled with silver-scaled fish, surrounded by animals they could raise without fear of hunger.

How big should the oases be? Maybe big enough to contain more people.

He thought about the children he played with, how they were mostly tanned skin and bones, but were happy.

Even with the high sun he had complained about, they were living. They were happy, but they needed supple resources.

​"You’re doing something completely unnecessary, Alias."

​The voice was cold, stripped of its usual playful lilt. Alias raised his head, his crystalline halo chiming as it spun in a happy, determined rhythm.

He found Norx standing a few paces away, his arms crossed over his tanned chest. The crown of dark flames above Norx’s head was flickering with a sharp, jagged violet light.

​"Norx?" Alias tilted his head, a small, genuine smile tugging at his lips.

Norx looked at that smile and nearly frowned because even if he had tried to get Alias to smile at him in the past with his jokes and teasing, Alias only ever gave him a tactical response. Never a smile.

And this time, this smile too was not for him.