Chapter 306
He fell silent, not an ordinary silence, but a total muteness that encompassed the absence of sound, expression, and even breath.
His body was like a perfect statue, with no rise and fall of the chest, no blinking of the eyes, only a static existence amid the flow of time that continued to move around him.
All internal processes seemed to halt in order to process the meaning of the touch and the explanation he had just received.
This silence was not empty, but filled with considerations spinning at immeasurable speed, a deep analysis that touched the core of his existential questions.
During that muteness, the only thing that moved was Aldraya's gaze.
His sharp, unblinking stare was fixed entirely on Theo's face.
That gaze was not merely seeing, but an intense transmission of data, an attempt to convey the full complexity of feelings and hopes that could not be expressed in human words.
Within the depths of those emotionless eyes lay a profoundly human message, a paradoxical longing for someone like him.
Theo, who had long learned to read body language and the nuances behind Aldraya's lack of expression, understood the message clearly.
He caught the waves of meaning flowing from the former angel's gaze, unraveling them with a sensitivity honed through their cooperation.
Realizing this, Theo let out a short breath.
A sigh that contained a mixture of tenderness, empathy, and perhaps a trace of guilt for being unable to fulfill the unspoken expectation.
In his low murmur, almost like a prayer or a confession to himself, he tried to articulate what he understood from Aldraya's stare.
He murmured that, more or less, Aldraya was hoping for something impossible.
Aldraya wished that Theo was not a human encountered midway through his long journey of life, but someone created from the very beginning by Quil-Hasa, the same Creator.
Aldraya imagined an alternative world where Theo had existed alongside him since his heavenly childhood, standing as part of his original environment, experiencing the same stages of growth and curiosity in the Heavenly Land.
That meant that, deep within his small yet real hope, Aldraya desired not thirteen Supreme Angels as recorded in heavenly history, but fourteen.
And that fourteenth figure was Theo.
Aldraya wished that Theo had been born like him, as one of the Supreme Angels, as a brother, as part of his original sacred nature, not as a mortal human encountered later during his exile.
That hope was the deepest desire to have someone who fully understood him, not from an external perspective, but from within the same essence.
Awareness of that profound and complex reality slowly surfaced in Theo's mind.
He understood, with a certainty weighed down by heaviness, that since the moment of salvation long ago, a fundamental shift had occurred within Aldraya.
The love Aldraya radiated toward him, toward Theo as an individual, had far surpassed the intensity and quality of any devotion or love Aldraya had ever given to Quil-Hasa, his own Creator.
This was not merely gratitude or dependence, but an existential bond that had replaced the spiritual center of gravity within Aldraya.
Theo had become the new axis of Aldraya's personal universe, replacing the dogma and God he had long upheld and later abandoned.
At first, Theo believed that he could manage this unique emotional turmoil.
He thought he could restrain and channel the depth of Aldraya's emotions in the right way, keeping their dynamic within the safe corridor of cooperation and friendship.
He tried to position himself as a guardian, a guide, and a partner, without opening the door to more intimate interpretations.
However, all of those beliefs and management strategies were now faltering.
His gaze turned toward Aldraya's eyes that were staring at him at this very moment.
That gaze was intensely overwhelming, radiating a concentration of feeling so dense it almost felt physical.
Within those sharp, unblinking eyes, if one dared to interpret them, there was a message that was clear and continuously evolving.
From the very beginning of their meeting until this second, Aldraya's desire to be "possessed" by Theo in the most human and most corporeal sense—that is, the desire for sexual union and all forms of physical intimacy—had never faded.
On the contrary, that desire had grown stronger and stronger, crystallizing from a love that had surpassed the boundaries of logic and even his own spirituality.
Confronting the reality of that gaze left Theo truly confused.
This confusion was not superficial, but a deep strategic and emotional deadlock.
He was trapped in a dilemma that seemed to have no perfect solution.
On one side, there was a great responsibility to maintain the stability of Aldraya's emotions.
Love that was so strong and so centralized was a fragile force, easily turning into destructive obsession or shattering disappointment if not properly nurtured.
Theo wanted to preserve that stability, ensuring that Aldraya's love did not become a monster that consumed him or fracture into irreparable shards of heartbreak.
Yet on the other side, every attempt to maintain that stability carried its own risk.
Keeping distance could make that love grow stronger through challenge and longing.
Offering warmth and attention could instead be interpreted as a signal to draw even closer.
"We almost forgot our main objective here."
Huuuuh!
"Look, Ilux and Erietta are still happily chasing each other over there. Let's refocus."
The moment of mutual stillness between Theo and Aldraya felt exceedingly long, far beyond the count of ordinary seconds.
Time seemed to thicken around them, isolating the two from all the bustle of the carnival surrounding them.
Aldraya remained motionless, unblinking, with his entire consciousness seemingly condensed into a single beam of gaze fixed upon Theo's face with unwavering intensity.
That stare was a question, a hope, and a demand conveyed in a wordless language.
Theo, on the other hand, struggled to maintain composure amid the storm of confusion raging within him.
He stood upright, trying to regulate his breathing to keep it steady, while his occasionally blinking eyes were the only sign of his human fragility.
Each blink felt like a small attempt to momentarily escape the burden of that heavy gaze, while also an effort to retain focus so as not to drown completely in the sea of emotions emanating from the figure before him.
Inside himself, a fierce debate raged between the instinct to respond to something so profound and the rational responsibility to keep the situation under control.
He realized that this prolonged silence was itself dangerous, because the empty space would be filled by Aldraya's interpretations and hopes, which could grow increasingly unchecked.
He needed to break this cycle, to divert their focus to something safer, something that had been the original reason they were here.
Finally, after deliberation that felt eternal, Theo decided to speak.
His voice emerged, slightly heavier than usual, as an attempt to normalize a situation that had crossed professional boundaries.
He put forward a suggestion that was simple and direct.
He stated that it would be best for them to refocus.
To refocus on their initial mission, on the reason they were standing in the middle of this carnival.
He verbally redirected their attention to Ilux and Erietta, whom he described as still enjoying their game of chase somewhere over there.
To be continued…