Grounded ~Book Four of Winged~

Connections

I stand off to the side of a slow-moving river nearby the temple with Etheriel, Dominic, Eli, Zerach, Belphegor, and Azrael. Beleth stands on the other side of the river drawing symbols into the river bank on that side that match the ones that he drew on this side. He finishes up the symbols and throws the stick he was using off to the side. He appears on this side again and grabs the bag of stuff that Dominic went and got for him. He takes out several chunks of dark, black rock and sets them at certain points within the drawings he made. After placing eight of the rocks at specific places, he pulls out a small cotton bag and starts sprinkling the particles from inside of it around us before dumping the rest into the river. The powder clouds the water and slowly settles at the bottom and travels down the river. Beleth splashes into the river and stands in the middle of it, the water a little below his knees. He looks at me and holds his hand out for me, wanting me to join him in the water. I hesitate before taking my shoes off and stepping into the cool water. I walk to him, taking his hand and he positions me a couple feet in front of him. The water is over my knees here. His eyes search mine before smiling down at me. He summons his Demon blade and I watch wide eyed as he starts carving symbols into his arm. He doesn't make any pained expression while he digs into his flesh with the knife.

"Is he going to do that to Trinity too?" Etheriel whispers. Blood starts dripping into the water rapidly from his arm. He finishes and unsummons his Demon blade before sticking two fingers into the blood. He carefully moves my hair back before he presses those two fingers against my forehead. I can't see what he draws, but he moves his finger around all over my forehead so I assume he is drawing symbols or a design of some sort. He gathers more blood on his fingers from his arm several times in the process before moving my hair behind my shoulders and starting to draw on my chest that is exposed from my tank top. I stare up at him as he gently rubs his blood around on me. The cuts he made on his arm are not healing strangely maybe it's because he made them with his Demon blade? He stops drawing on me and holds the arm with the symbols straight out from his side. He closes his eyes.

"Addānika!" He brings that arm straight up now toward the sky. "Anse yei!" Thunder rumbles loudly overhead and causes me to look up. The sky darkens as the symbols carved into Beleth's arm stop bleeding and start to glow brightly. He drops his arm and it continues to glow a golden light as he summons his Demon blade once again, but with the other hand. He drags the blade up his other arm and my eyes widen as the blood spills out and quickly drips into the river. His eyes are still closed and he starts chanting something in a different unrecognizable language. The water flowing past my legs grows warmer and I look down to see the water around us in a diameter circle is keeping all the blood from his arm in this area and not letting it travel downstream like it should. The water gets hot slowly around me and I feel the heat travel up my legs and into my body, dwelling on the blood drawn symbols and patterns on my chest and forehead.

"Kholiak, abnok, jat!" Beleth says loudly before chanting something else in a different language again. The heat dwelling on the drawn symbols and patterns grows immensely and I wince in slight pain. The circle of water that is retaining his blood and getting really hot begins to bubble around us. I look around in the water rapidly before Beleth is suddenly offering the demon blade to me. I take it hesitantly and notice he has sliced open his palm. I bring the impossibly sharp knife to my own palm and wince as I slide the blade across, slicing into my palm easily. Blood seeps from the new cut on my hand and drips down into the water. His bleeding hand grasps my hand that is also bleeding and he pulls me forward a step.

"Jakha dei moi chay... Meinos." A sharp pain explodes in my head and I bring my free hands to my head as I cry out suddenly. The pain spreads rapidly through my body and I scream out in horrid pain. My legs begin to give out from under me and Beleth rapidly brings me to his body, holding me up against him. Lightning starts to rapidly flash overhead along with booming thunder. I grit my teeth and look up at Beleth to see pain in his eyes. He's experiencing the same pain as me yet he isn't reacting. Another sharp stab of pain explodes in my head, spreading through my body, and I let out a loud cry, squeezing my eyes shut.

It's almost over. Beleth's pained voice distantly whispers into my head and I force a nod, unable to say anything through the pain. My head grows heavy through the pain and suddenly I am falling. I open my eyes and Beleth is still holding me against him, but we are falling backwards. It's like time is slowed down, but neither of us move. Neither of us are able to move at all actually. As soon as we hit the water, time speeds up with a loud splash and everything goes completely dark and cold.

The first thing I notice is the warm grasp around my hand. The same hand that I had cut for the ritual Beleth was performing. Beleth. I open my eyes and look around rapidly. I let out a sigh of relief as I see him standing next to me, holding my bleeding hand with his bleeding hand. Blood drips from our hands every once in a while. He stares down at me with a caring look on his face. I look away from him and around at our surroundings. The sun is high in the sky, but isn't blinding to look at. We are surrounded by large, tall trees in all directions. At the base of some of the trees are small flowers growing close to the ground. The air around us is warm and comforting. Birds fly occasionally overhead from tree to tree.

"Where are we?" I question. It's like I'm dreaming, but everything is way to clear and real around us.

"This is where our united consciousness exists. This is the space our minds share with each other through our bond." Beleth replies and I look up at him again. He is still staring down at me, but this time he has an analytical look on his face instead of his former caring one. I stare up at him and we search each other's eyes. The space our minds share with each other? Our bond?

"This is what was created at our connection and it exists only to us in our minds. No one else can trespass into this mindscape. This space is what connects us and keeps us as one, in a way." He continues talking and I look around slowly again.

"Keeps us as one?" I question lightly and look down at our bleeding hands still joined together at our sides.

"Yes, the ritual I used to connect me to you, my lifespan to you, unites closer than what you and Asmodeus did. The ancient, dead ritual I used connects us more than just in life force. You are me and I am you." He replies calmly.

"If we are here in our minds, where are our bodies?" I question curiously since I remember us falling into the flowing river yet I don't feel any sensation that would say that happened actually happened to us.

"We are still outside the temple. In the river still if no one pulled us out of the water." He replies and turns, facing me.

"How do we leave this... place then?" I ask and he brings his hand to my cheek. His touch feels so real. His hand is warm as he rests it against my cheek. He tilts my head up slightly, staring down at me intently.

"You just have to take a step back out of this place." He says calmly and smiles. I close my eyes and try to shift back to consciousness. I feel the gradual change of sensations around me.