"You have got to be kidding me." Damari spat, standing up and moving as far away from Rhode and Bea as possible, who only rolled their eyes at his complaints. "There is no way I am bonding myself to her."

Alena began to laugh, pretending to wipe a tear from her eye when Damari chanced a look at her. "Oh don't worry, Damari, the feeling is mutual." she assured with a smack to his shoulder.

Amphitrite looked to the ceiling as though she were praying to the gods for more patience. "I'm sorry to say this you two, but the bonding is necessary in being able to pass Hecate and reach the gates in time. Without the bond, I'm afraid you will be lost forever."

"How does that work?" Damari asked casually, spinning one of the bowls of water on his knee as he spoke. "I thought all I had to do was come on this little journey and everything would work itself out."

"It's the complete opposite actually." Rhode spoke up, moving herself closer to make him feel her presence and be trapped by it. "Your lives are on the line every second that you are swimming in those seas. Every move you make could be your last, you foolish boy, even if you do have Alena as your body guard. Without the bond, you can kiss that small sense of security you have goodbye."

Damari snapped his mouth shut, and Alena smothered yet another laugh. 

Benthesicyme left the room quickly at her Mother's wishes to retrieve something from her room before returning shortly with an unsureness of what she was to do when she saw the confusion and hostility in Damari's eyes.

"He believes that we wish to harm him, Mother." Bea addressed serenely, as if she were talking about something as simple as the weather. "A ruse of sorts. Although he doesn't truly mind being bonded to Alena, in fact--"

"Benthesicyme, I think that's enough." Amphitrite reprimanded, watching as her daughter's eyes glowed with the after math of her reading. "Bea is able to read thoughts from both the human body and mind. Their reaction to anything around them, the way their body and mind work, gives off waves that she is able to perceive into words."

Bea held something tightly in her hands as she nodded. "It would have come in handy with poor Calder, but alas, I didn't have the capability then."

"So you're like an oracle?" Damari asked suspiciously, moving back the slightest inch from Bea.

"Oh heavens no, that is something completely different trust me." she said with a laugh, loosening her grip on a small box in her hands, setting it down carefully onto a table next to the chairs. "Although, this bonding is something different as well, so perhaps you shouldn't trust me."

"Good to know." Damari gasped out, his face turning a sickly green.

"Men." Alena said to Rhode who nodded her head all too knowingly. "Oh I know," she mumbled, plucking the petals off a rose that she had pulled from her hair, "my husband Helios can be quite the pain from time to time. It does him good to be thrown back into place."

"Helios?" Alena asked.

Rhode nodded again. "Aye, as I recall it, he was the one that reported Persephone's capture to her mother."

"Yes.." Alena whispered, trailing off when she heard the man's name, trying instead to focus the attention back onto the bond, "but how exactly would this bonding help us in going against Hecate?"

Amphitrite made her way to the box, tracing her fingers over the fine engravings of roses, mermaids and shells which were each outlined by a series of grafts that circulated the box like a crown.

"It would allow you two to share your thoughts, your emotions, and perhaps in the rarest of cases, your strength from one another. With these possibilities at hand, you'd be able to rely on each other if you were ever separated, which Hecate will no doubt try to accomplish."

Lifting the lid off the box ever so gently, Amphitrite began to search through its contents.

Rhode came up next to her Mother with a smile and moved her to the side. "I know how it's done, Mother; tis why you summoned us here, so you may at least allow us to do our jobs. Or hurry along with them before our husbands arrive."

The Queen's form straightened at the mention of her husband, but she hurriedly relaxed when she saw Damari's look of uncertainty yet again.

"I promise no harm will come to you in the bonding," she assured, while Alena looked at her dubiously, "it's only a means of protection."

"But I don't want another person inside my head!" Damari countered ravenously. "There are no boundaries once she is inside my mind and that is personal!"

Rhode removed a white crystal rod from the box as her mother continued on. "I know, dear, but it is either privacy or the security over certain death. You wouldn't have much privacy if you were dead now would you?"

Alena leaned herself over towards his ear, her lips just touching the outer rim of his ear as her breath blew heatedly against his skin. "You know, she's got a point there."

Pleasuring in the way a low groan rose up from his chest, she flicked her attention quickly to the corded muscle that rose and fell with each even breath. She wondered whether his distress was from her close proximity or the torture he seemed to find in being bonded to her.

Following the crystal rod, Rhode withdrew a bag of spices along with a bottle containing more mysterious liquid.

"And the journey begins." Alena uttered enthusiastically to Damari, knowing that it would take an army to wrestle the liquid down the maniac's throat before he willingly swallowed another drink given to him by a stranger.

Granted the Queen was a kind woman along with her daughters, perhaps Triton was, Alena still wasn't sure about him, but all were strangers none the less.

She admitted that even she was beginning to grow uneasy with the idea of being bonded to Damari, but doing so would guarantee her promise to his mother would be carried out, and not with only her efforts in doing so.

"We need you two to sit directly across from each other if you are willing to do this." Rhode said clearly, like she were explaining something to a child. "Only then will we be able to continue the ceremony."

Bea had plucked both of the water bowls that had been previously unoccupied from Damari's attentions and set them each next to the two open chairs. The Queen stood to the side while Rhode moved behind one chair and Bea behind the other.

Alena could see the battle waging in Damari's eyes, the battle between survival and pride, with pride winning the fight when she took his hand in hers and drew his conflicted blue orbs to hers.

"This could be the only chance we have of succeeding in this quest," she said, begging him to understand where she was coming from with her eyes. "I promised that I would keep you safe, and if you ever wish to see your family again, this is the only way."

His teeth grinded against each other as his glare began to disintegrate, his last resolves burning away when he saw the unconcealed desperation that flew across her face.

He wanted to resist her, he truly did, but he would stare at her haunted figure and know there was no way in the heavens that he would be able to do so and still manage to make it away with his life.

You know what the bonding entails and as soon as that trap is sprung, there is no way of escaping, he criticized himself. There was no way he would be able to hide what was running rampant through his dreams.

And your heart you fool.

The thought caught him unawares and he immediately stomped down on it, there wasn't any way that he would allow himself to have any feelings for Alena, he'd learned long ago that love was a weakness and he refused to be a slave to it again.

His sigh was filled with regret, but he let Alena coax him to the nearest seat, his body slumping with defeat as he adjusted himself on the cushion.

Rhode stepped forward with the spices and placed a handful in each of the bowls of water, stirring the mixture and then adding the lightening blue liquid to the mix.

"Do you both willingly comply to the bonding and all the effects that come with it?"

Alena looked up at Damari one last time, reading the worry in his blue eyes and feeling guilty for putting it there.

Damari gave her a short nod of consent before looking up to Rhode, her hand poised above his bowl of water with the crystal rod in one hand and a rose in the other.

"We do."

Rhode flinched again very vaguely, her movement almost unnoticeable, but there all the same as she dropped the rose petals into the water that now began to steam.

The Queen's breath rushed out of her in a burst of relief, her faint smile directed at Alena as Bea stepped forward and stirred the unknown concoction with the crystal rod handed to her by her sister.

The same outcome occurred with the bowl in front of Alena, steam began to float off from the surface as Bea dropped the remaining rose petals into the water.

"Once you're bonded together, you must know that there is no going back. Your pain will be each others pain, each emotion intensified beyond comprehension." Rhode warned, lifting Damari's hand to hold over the bowl. "There will be no returning from this."

Bea held Alena's above the bowl as well, watching her sister for a signal to continue.

"We understand." Alena said, ignoring the dread that crawled up her spine at the knowledge of Damari being inside her head. The only positive thing she could think of was that her species was known for concealment and foreplay of emotions. She could only hope that her powers would aid her now.

"Very well."

Rhode plunged Damari's hand into the bowl at the same time as Bea placed Alena's in the heated plumes of steam.

The warmth radiating from the water encased Alena's hand and shot tendrils of heat speeding through her system, it was a foreign but pleasant feeling to her.

She could no longer tell whether she was sitting or laying down, the heat overwhelming her to such a degree that she found her eyes drooping with drowsiness while she the water lapped at her skin tenderly.

Picking up the crystal rod that Bea had placed on the table, Rhode dipped it into the water as she removed Damari's hand, his tanned skin trapped in a carefully sculpted bubble of water, looking almost like it were made of pure glass.

Alena couldn't take her eyes off of the fluid way in which the water moved and slid in its bubble around his hand. She was so taken in by it that she hadn't realized a complete carbon copy of the bubble on Damari's hand had formed on hers as well.

She was baffled, the way in which the water flowed on her skin without falling seemed nearly impossible, yet there it was, not caring whether it defied the laws of gravity or not.

The rod morphed in the water precariously, it's pure white color changing into that of a deep and dark blue.

Rhode was careful as she removed it from the water, handling it like a newborn child as she turned Damari's palm skyward.

Bea mimicked her moves and Alena felt her breath hitch as Rhode settled the blue writhing rod onto Damari's water covered skin.

As soon as the rod touched the water it shot towards Damari's wrist and wrapped itself around him, attaching itself to his skin with a snap and causing a sharp hiss to escape him.

Alena jerked at his sound of pain, an undeniable need to protect him taking over as her body squirmed uncomfortably in the seat.

"It is merely the bonding taking place, Alena." The Queen explained soothingly. "Your emotions are being wrapped with his as the rod is with your skin."

The sharp jab in her wrist didn't register until Alena saw the dark blue streak wrapping itself  securely around her lower arm.

The feelings intensified and Alena started to gasp for breath, her desperation for breathing becoming severe as a heavy weight pressed itself on her chest.

She had been void of so many emotions for centuries and when the gates broke open she knew she would never be the same.

Rhode took Alena and Damari's hands, moving them in such a way that they both had a firm grip on each other.

"Döaž golgor dë freithen." Rhode murmured under her breath, her eyes turning into molten gold as she clutched tightly at the pair's bound wrists. "Wilêhir amagrän ōl freithen."

"What is she saying?" Damari asked firmly, his voice steady as he watched Rhode dip her hand into the bowl in front of her and whisper again more ardently.

"She is asking for permission from the gods." Amphitrite said breathlessly, enraptured by the skill at which her daughter spoke. "If they allow it, your bond will be complete, if not...then..."

"Then what?" Alena asked urgently. "You never told us anything about the gods denying us the bond!"

The Queen smiled sheepishly and stood next to Bea rigidly. "Well, no one has been granted the power of the bond in over four hundred years."

Silent and terse, Alena tried to throw a convincing smile on her face. "Then I'm sure it should work considering that...oh...NO ONE HAS GOTTEN THE BOND IN OVER FOUR CENTURIES!"

"Um, Alena?" Damari whispered.

"How do you expect us to gain the bond and make it through the gates harm free if this bonding isn't even guaranteed!?" Alena's one fist clenched shut as a burning ache eased through her stomach.

"Alena..." Damari whispered again.

"--I mean, it's insane! No offense to you, your Majesty, but I should know insane don't you think? Nothing more crazy then trapping your best friend in the Underworld right? After being the one that basically handed her to the madman who owns it in the first place?"

"--Alena." His voice grew louder.

"--Call me crazy! I lost my best friend! The one person in the world that I was entrusted to protect! I failed!" Her laughter held an icy chill to it as she continued on, "I deserved to be tortured, I deserved to be punished, and now I deserve to DIE!"

"Alena!"

Damari's shout brought Alena out of her emotion rattled mind long enough for her to scream. "What?!"

And then all she could see was white.

~*~*~*~*~