Beautiful Cries

Chapter Eleven: The Unbreakable Bond

"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.