​Hearing Kael’s voice, Theo felt his heart shatter. This little one, he had not been able to share him. But he was here now, safe and sound thanks to Alias.

He shoved the sight of the miracle he had just witnessed to the back of his mind, and didn’t care about the silver light or the snapping of fingers that turned everything anew. He was simply overjoyed because his son was alive.

His son was running to him.

​Theo sank to his knees, his arms spreading wide open to welcome the boy and Kael collided with him, burying his face directly into the crook of Theo’s neck.

Theo wrapped his arms around the boy’s small frame, pulling him so close it felt as though he were trying to merge their bodies to keep him safe from the world.

His hand cradled the back of Kael’s head, his shoulders shaking with a silent, fierce emotion that had everything to do with the fatherly love he had grown for the boy.

He had almost lost him, and in that near-loss, the last of his resentment had been utterly incinerated.

​"I’ve got you," Theo choked out, his voice thick and raspy against the boy’s hair. "I’ve got you, Kael. You’re home."

​Maya dropped down beside them, her hands flying over Kael’s arms and back, checking for wounds, her tears fresh but born of an overwhelming, breathless relief.

"You’re safe. Oh gods, you’re safe," she sobbed, pulling both her brother and her nephew into a chaotic, trembling embrace.

​Alias stood perfectly still at the edge of the vibrant grass, his fingers loosening from the folds of his silk robes.

For all his vast knowledge of the cosmos, for all his ability to measure the exact distance between burning stars, a sudden, profoundly human wave of anxiety gripped his chest.

​He felt entirely awkward. The silence stretching from the porch felt like a yawning chasm. Now they know, his mind whispered, the thought heavy and cold. They know I am not a man. They know I am the one who wove the water and the trees. Will they look at me with fear now? Will they treat me like a statue on an altar? Will they... will they still want me?

​To an Architect, the concept of being excluded from the story because of his grandeur was a logical conclusion.

Humans feared what they could not measure. He braced himself for the distance, his silver eyes lowering slightly as he prepared, with a heavy aching heart, to step back into the shadows of the grove he had created and never return.

​But then, the tangled knot of limbs on the porch shifted.

​Theo, whose hand was still buried securely in Kael’s hair, slowly looked up over the boy’s trembling shoulder. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

His blue eyes were rimmed with red, thick with the residue of tears and the unimaginable exhaustion of a man who had died and been reborn in the span of a single afternoon.

There was no fear in his gaze. There was no cold reverence or distance.

​Slowly, deliberately, Theo unlocked his left arm from around his sister and his son, extending it outward toward the edge of the clearing.

He didn’t speak—his throat was too tight with emotion—but the open invitation of his palm was louder than any roar of thunder.

​Beside him, Maya lifted her face from Kael’s neck. Her eyes were still blurry with tears, but a soft, tearful smile broke through her exhausted features.

She, too, reached her arm out, her fingers gesturing for him to close the distance. Even the little boy, Kael, peeked through the fabric of Theo’s shirt, his small, blue eyes fixed on the silver-haired man with a profound, unblinking gratitude.

​They weren’t bowing. They were calling him home.

​Alias’s heart gave a massive, violent leap against his ribs—a frantic, joyous thump that sent a genuine shiver of warmth rushing all the way to his fingertips.

His eyes, usually as clear and steady as polished mirrors, instantly grew watery, the pearl-like drops gathering at the corners of his lashes.

​He took a single, hesitant step forward.

​The moment his foot pressed into the grass, the brilliant halo above his head shattered into a thousand tiny, glittering specks of light, dispersing into the air like a cloud of harmless fireflies.

The unearthly radiance clinging to his pale skin dissolved entirely, the divine pressure vanishing from the yard until he was left with nothing but the soft, flowing fabric of his white robe.

The god retreated and the companion remained.

​Alias didn’t walk. He broke into a soft, hurried glide across the lawn, the space between the grass and the porch disappearing in an instant.

​He sank to his knees right at the edge of the wooden floorboards, throwing himself forward into the space Theo had left open for him.

Theo’s arm instantly came around his waist, pulling him flush against his broad, solid chest with a desperate, crushing intensity.

On the other side, Maya’s smaller arms wrapped around his shoulders, while Kael shifted his grip, one of his tiny hands reaching out to lock into the silk of Alias’s sleeve.

​The embrace was chaotic, tight, and smelled heavily of sweat, dust, and the sweet, lingering scent of jasmine.

​Alias buried his face into the thick curve of Theo’s shoulder, his fingers digging into the muscle of the man’s back as the tears finally spilled over his cheeks.

He was crying because the warmth of their bodies felt so real. He was crying because the mud had accepted the light, and for the first time in eons, he didn’t feel like an observer. He felt like he belonged. Truly... belonged.

They had seen his light and not bowed their heads. They had seen his light and extended their hands instead, inviting him into the warmth of their embrace and giving him a place he could call... Home.

​The four of them held each other in the quiet evening light, their shared, ragged breaths forming a singular harmony that rose above the broken world outside.

The shadow of the lower ward, the threat of the heavens, and the malice of the gods were all pushed past the borders of the oasis.

In the sanctuary of the porch, surrounded by the water he had called and the wood he had blessed, Alias wept alongside the family he had chosen, completely surrendered to the heavy, beautiful weight of being loved.