Alias pursed his lips, his heart racing in relief. Thank goodness. He thought and closed his eyes for a second. Theo hadn’t changed his mind.

"I found it," he said. "I found a better place."

Maya dropped her spoon into her bowl with a splash. "A better place? Truly? You aren’t joking, Mister Alias? You aren’t just telling us stories?"

Alias shook his head, his silver hair catching the morning light. "It is not a story. It is a place with clear, deep water and silver fish. There is green grass for animals to graze, and trees that will give you fruit even when the sun is high. We can build a house there—one where you don’t have to sweep the dust from your bed every morning."

Maya looked at Theo, her breath catching. The hope in her eyes was so bright it was almost painful to look at.

Theo, however, didn’t move. He leaned back in his chair, his broad shoulders tensing.

He wasn’t the teenager with impossible dreams anymore; he was a man who had learned that nothing in the South came for free. He looked at Alias, his gaze searching, almost skeptical.

"Alias," Theo said, his voice low and cautious. "A place like that in the middle of this desert? It sounds like a mirage. Who does it belong to? I’m not interested in trading my freedom to some rich merchant or a lord just to sit under a tree."

"It belongs to no one," Alias replied, meeting Theo’s skepticism with a gaze that didn’t waver. "The paths I found lead to a place the maps do not show. It is waiting for someone to claim it. If we find it first, it belongs to us. It will belong to you, Maya, and whoever else we choose to bring."

Theo stared at him for a long beat. He looked at the honesty in Alias’s face, then at Maya’s trembling hands, and finally at the calluses on his own palms. He had spent ten years protecting a small patch of mud. The idea of something more—something beautiful—was terrifying.

"You’re sure?" Theo asked, his voice rough. "No masters? No one to come and take it away when they realize it’s worth something?"

"I will ensure it," Alias said, and for a second, his voice held a hint of the divine authority he usually kept hidden. "No one will take it from you."

He would make sure of it.

Theo let out a long, shaky breath. A slow, rugged smile—the kind that reached his eyes and softened the hardness of his face—finally broke out. He reached across the table, his large, warm hand covering Alias’s smaller, paler one.

"Alright then, Moon-boy," Theo said, his thumb brushing over Alias’s knuckles. "If you say it’s there, we’re going. Maya, stop staring and start packing. We’re leaving the dust behind."

Alias felt joy in his heart.

"You can trade my silk. Trade it for money we can use to buy a cart, animals, and food we will need on the way," Alias said, his voice almost breathless. "Theo, I shall lead you to a better place."

A soft chuckle escaped Theo’s lips, vibrating in his chest and making his eyes sparkle.

"It almost seems like you left for ten years just to search for this place." He laughed.

Alias shrank back a little, picking up his spoon, his face slightly heating up. That’s because I spent all my time making a better place for you. He thought, but knew he could never say those words to him.

But it was fine. This was fine.

This joy, and a happy life with Theo... this was what he wanted to experience.

"A happy life with a mortal? Are you insane, Alias?" Norx, watching from high above in the heavens, gritted his teeth, his grip on the railing causing the beam to snap. "You have to come back to your senses, Alias, or you will regret it."

Unknown to these threats, Alias began to pack up with Maya while Theo went to trade the silk.

The exchange was swift. Theo knew the right people to talk to, men who didn’t ask questions when a common laborer showed up with fabric that looked like it had been spun from moonlight.

By the time the sun reached its midpoint, Theo returned to the house with a heavy clinking pouch and a wooden cart pulled by two sturdy, long-eared desert pack animals.

"We will move tonight," Theo announced, his face tight with a mix of adrenaline and focus. "Traveling by day is still too much for Maya, and we need to be mindful of the supplies."

"But won’t there be thieves in the night?" Maya asked, concerned.

"I know a path the thieves don’t know," Alias said, and Theo nodded, turning to him.

"We’ll follow your lead, Alias."

Alias looked at Theo, the pure devotion in his eyes, and how he did not question anything. Why did he not question anything?

"Do you not doubt a single thing I say?" Alias asked, his voice soft and almost uncertain. "You are prepared to throw away your life here, pack up, and follow me. What if I am actually leading you to a pit? What if—?"

Theo reached his hand out and swiped Alias’s hair behind his ear, smiling.

"I told you before. I have a good hunch, and my hunch always told me you were a good person," Theo repeated, his voice dropping into a low, steady tone that made the air around them feel still. "Besides, Alias, I’ve spent ten years in this district. I know what a dead end looks like. This?" He gestured to the small, packed room and then back to Alias’s face. "This is the first time in my life I’ve felt like I was actually walking toward something, not just running away."

Alias felt a strange, fluttering pressure in his chest. It was a sensation he couldn’t quite map out—like a star collapsing and being reborn all at once. He didn’t know how to respond to that kind of faith.

It wasn’t the worshipful fear the priests offered to the sky; it was a choice. Theo was choosing to believe in him.

"Okay," he whispered.

And he planned to make sure that he did not let down Theo’s trust.