There was a tug on her leash and she followed the guidance, setting her bare feet carefully on the uneaven stones beneath them. She felt a breeze of cold air that softly tugged on the thin fabric of her long dress and took another step forward.

Suddenly, she heard whispering all around her, as if there was a large crowd waiting for something to happen. Their whispers echoed from the stone walls of the room, and Aki knew it had to be a vast hall, almost like a Cathedrale, where the echos sounded distant and lost themselves under the arch of the roof. She was freezing in the cool air, wearing nothing except the thin dress, but the excitement and the nervousness was pumping hot blood through her veins.

They halted, and for a moment she stood there, waiting. Her own breath seemed too loud in the sudden silence.
She could feel the gazes of the crowd almost physically, she knew all these strangers were watching her, and she felt that she couldn't take it any longer.
Just as she was about to panic, she heard steps on the stone floor, coming up to her.

She held her breath.

He stepped closer, shielding her from the crowd - so close that she could feel the heat of his body - and the next moments, there were his hands on her neck, taking off the leash. The feeling of his leather gloves brushing her skin made her shiver as his fingers traveled up her neck, running softly through her hair to the back of the head were the cloth of the blindfold was tied to a knot.

"I'm proud of you, Aki", he said softly, and a moment later, the dark cloth before her eyes was pulled away and she was looking in his green eyes. He smiled at her. "I will guide you now."

At once, her fear was forgotten - when he was with her, she would never falter.

He took her hand and she followed him, not looking at the crowd that had gathered in the large hall around the raised circle in the middle. All faces were turned to him in his plain, dark gown with the white piece of cloth around his neck and her in her red dress, as they approached the large, yet plain altar made of white marble.

There were no windows or spaces in the stone walls, so they had to be underground, maybe beneath the abbey, and the only light came from the large black candles that stood in a circle around the altar.
When they had passed the circle, a murmur started to rise and echoed from the walls, growing louder, until Aki could distinguish that the crowd was chanting, but she could not distinguish any words in the steady rising and falling of the voices.

Aki closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She knew what was coming, and she wanted to do it.
For him, she could do anything.

He lifted her up and gently put her down on the cold surface of the marble altar. She lay down, following the guidance of his hand on her chest, until her head touched the stone. When she looked up to the man above her, she knew she could do this the way he told her to.
He believed in her, and she trusted him completely.

He had taken out a knife and proceeded to cut the fabric of her dress, slowly ripping it apart, from the seam upwards. She felt the blade brush the skin of her legs, her stomach, her chest - tickling, but not cutting her - yet she held her breath until the last thread snapped and the soft fabric slid down from her body, revealing it completely to the gazes of the spectators.
Yet as she looked up, she saw that hewas looking at her, too, his eyes following her naked form - and that was all that mattered.

It had been a rainy day in October, and the cold wind had been howling through the passageways, the wooden doors and the cracks in the windows, but something had been drawing him outside, he told her later. It had been a feeling, almost a premonition. He had known that she would come.
There he had found her, huddled together on the stairs of the doorway, searching shelter from the rain and the wind. He had taken her in, wet and shivering and pitiful as she was, and as she refused to tell anything else but her name and that she couldn't go home, he allowed her to stay.

Aki didn't fit in with the other pupils that were attending the school in the abbey, but she seemed to be happy as long as she was in his presence. She was always searching for him, insisted on praying with him and confessed to him for hours just to be near him, asking him all her questions and telling him all her secrets. He then learned that she ran away from home, but he didn't send her back - because she trusted him, of course, but mostly because she intrigued him.

She was different from every other person he had met so far, responding to him in a way he had never experienced before.
She was perfect.

When he told her to have faith, she had faith in him.

When he told her to believe, she believed in him.

Divine had become the centre of her own little universe.
His words were her truth.

One day, he had asked her to come to his room. Aki had been nervous, anxious that she had done something wrong, but he had soothed her, stroking her hair and allowing her to sit on his lap. She needed closeness and affection, craving it so much it would have been inhuman to deny it to her.
Aki pressed her body close to his and listened.

"I know that I can trust you, Aki", he said. "Tonight, I will show you something you have never seen before. But you have to keep it a secret."
She promised immidiately, though he already knew Aki would never betray him.

So he had introduced her to his own beliefs, the idea of those chosen by God that take revenge on the sinners in His name and he had given her a taste of the ecstasy of praying, with her mind clouded and their bodies so close they could have melted into one, his hands and lips on her skin, and she had felt so close to salvation like never before.

It was then that he decided that she should perform the ritual with him, Divine, God's representantive on Earth.

She was standing in a small room, dressed in a long red dressed that he had given her and that was barely conceiling anything, but the only thing she could think about was her racing heart and him stepping up behind her, putting a dark piece of cloth over her eyes.

"I need your trust, Aki."
She would have given him anything if he asked for it.
"I trust you", she said firmly, although her voice was only a whisper.

"Do not make a sound until I tell you to", he said, his voice was clear and calm in the darkness around her.
She nodded.
"I will be with you when the ritual begins." He kissed her neck, softly, and left her alone in the dark, shivering and yearning for his presence.

Now that she was lying naked beneath him, the need to be close to him was almost unbearable. Yet she knew she had to be strong for him, so she remained silent and didn't move. Divine was handed a small, black candle by one of the cloaked men surrounding them, and he lit it on one of the large sacred candles of the circle.
It was an unbearable long moment until he finally turned back to her, softly brushing the bangs from her cheek. She looked up in his eyes and something in his gaze made his words echo in her head:

Do not make a sound until I tell you to.

She held her breath when he held the candle up above her exposed body, her eyes fixed on the melting wax that was collecting on the rim as he slowly tipped the candle, causing a drop of wax to drip on her naked skin. Aki bit her lip as she felt the small sting on her upper belly, before the wax cooled again and she relaxed. It wasn't as hard to bear as she had expected - it was only a small pain and it passed away quickly. So she braced herself and looked up to Divine, to show him she could take it.

There was a hint of a smile on his lips, as he moved the candle and more black drops of wax fell on her white skin, burning slightly, more teasing than hurting.

She closed her eyes, almost savouring the sensation of the always re-occuring pain and release, until an unexpected burning, worse than what she had experienced before, made her flinch. She could just prevent herself from hissing by biting her tongue, trying to focus on the sudden pain on the sensitive skin of her breast and to accustom herself to the sensation.
There was another sharp pain, and another, and it was so difficult not to gasp or move - then it stopped, and she drew a few deep breaths.

Divine had sensed that she needed a moment to recover.

She opened her eyes and saw, that he had been circling her and now had arrived at her legs. He let one hand travel over her thigh and she followed his touch, opening her legs without thinking and revealing a bit of the soft skin of her thighs to him.
She had almost forgotten about the candle and as he tipped it again, she had barely enough time to prepare herself for the strange sensation. He continued slowly now, one drop after another, from her knees down her thighs, where the skin became more and more sensitive to the heat and the pain.

It was almost too much.
Aki's legs trembled, the burning pain on places that had never felt anything except her own touch before made her mind dizzy and caused heat to rush through her body, sending shivers over her skin.
When he finally blew out the candle, there were tears in her eyes and he saw the confusion her first experience of pain combined with pleasure had left her in.

He softly petted her head and she knew it meant he was proud of her and she was doing right.
That gave her all the strength she needed.

A man dressed in a cloak came up to Divine holding out a silver cup in his hands. Aki could only see a glimpse of his face under the shadow of his hood, but she thought she recognized one of her tutors.
Divine took the cup and held it up, causing the murmured chanting to rise until Aki could hear that they repeated the same phrase over and over, yet they words were seemed not to be in Latin and made no sense to her. Divine set the cup on a small column next to the altar, took one of his gloves off and dipped his fingers into the substance. When he lowered his fingers to her skin, Aki shivered with anticipation, almost arching her back to meet his touch.
It felt cool and pleasant on her tortured skin.

He drew a line across her chest with a red liquid, and Aki knew that the cup was always said to contain the blood of Jesus, although it was turned into red wine, so she did not question it. After he had dipped two fingers in the liquid again, Divine drew a second line, completing the cross, down from her neck over her upper body down to her hips- Aki gasped with surprise when his fingers touched her between her legs. She just couldn't helpt it, the wet, cool touch was so welcome and soothing on the hot skin.
He looked at her and Aki feared that she had ruined it all and failed him, but there was a smile on his lips.

Before Aki could understand what he meant or even hope for something to come, Divine's fingers pressed inside of her, causing her to gasp even louder. Her fingers were searching for something to hold on, but they slipped on the marble surface, and so all she could do was toss her head to the side and moan with abandon, her body twisting under the touch of Divine's fingers.
She could not think, she could not formulate a single thought, she just knewthat this was what she had wanted all along.

When he bent down to kiss her, she put her arms around his neck, pulling him closer and kissing him with a desperate passion.
She didn't what she was doing, but he was guiding her and she responded to his every move.

His hands were on her skin again, caressing her breasts, her hips and her thighs, causing her to moan into the kiss and to tremble beneath his touch. He had put his glove back on, as if she was too precious to be touched with bare hands and the leather was cool on her burning skin.
When he parted her legs, she instinctively moved her hips to meet him, but as he slowly entered her, her fingers were digging into his skin and he felt her tense around him.

"I'm with you, Aki", he whispered into her ear.

Then he thrust inside of her, just the moment that she loosened her grip, and she screamed with pain and pleasure, clinging onto him as if her life depended on it; her moans were echoing from the large roof of the hall, and she vaguely noticed that the crowd had become silent by now.

"Praise the Lord, Aki", she heard Divine's voice close to her. "Sing your praise to him."

Yet all that would come out of her mouth was his name - the name of her saviour, her guidance and her only truth; as if her very soul was calling out to him to give her absolution.