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While a distinctly different feeling from the jumping he had just tried, Derrek could see some of the relation. With time and training, such jumps would not be out of his league. For now, however, he needed a moment to readjust himself. Once that moment had passed he took a look around and surveyed the room. "Yes. This will do fine."

"Just a moment. I need a bit of time to plan this." Derrek looked around the room to try and plan out this ritual. Pulling out the piece of paper, he wrote down some seemingly random numbers and letters and symbols. He then knelt and lay the piece of paper on the floor in front of Aethi. Disconnecting the chain he wore around his waist, he lay it on the floor around Aethi in a square, eventually fastening the ends together again. He then untied the bandage ends from his arms and allowed them to uncoil from his arms. As they coiled and danced in the air, Derrek wove them into a six pointed star which moved to hover a foot above Aethi's head. Drawing forth a piece of chalk from the inner pockets of his robe, Derrek drew a large double circle on the floor, larger than both the floating six pointed star and the chain square. Around the edges of both circles Derrek drew runes and equations to aid the spellcasting. Derrek drew another smaller circle within the chain square, directly around Aethi.

Derrek retreated to the edge of the circle. He stepped carefully outside the large circle without disrupting the runes. He drew one more circle, barely touching the large circle. That one, Derrek sat in. Placing the orb of unbinding in front of him, he went over one last time the impromptu sigils and foci he had made. It ought to help some, but if he'd made a mistake, it would instead turn detrimental. Content that all was in order, he placed his hand on the orb and looked at Aethi. "I'm prepared. Are you ready?"

Derek would have smiled. At least she had no illusions about how it would feel to almost literally be torn in half. She was prepared for it (or she thought she was, at least), so there would be no issue there. At least, that's what Derrek would have thought if he hadn't been settling into a trance to enact the spell. With one hand on the orb still, the other moved to tintersection of the circles. Placing his hand on the circles, Derrek muttered:

Ilyta Taragol Fthan
Ilyta Dmuzolik Katakn
Ilyta Ghorn Piquin
Togthil Mak-txul Froq
Wmpiv llilldz vtob

As the final word hung in the air, the large chalk circles and equations began to spin and contort eager to fulfill their purpose. The chain remained stationary, grounding the subject within the world that is. The floating star of cloth began glowing at each of the tips. The small circle in which Aethi sat remained motionless, as did the one Derrek sat in. Where his hand touched the circles, they could not move. Muttering a few more words under his breath, Derrek released his hold on the circles and raised that hand towards the ceiling. Instantly, the twisting chalk circles shot into the air, overlapping perfectly with the cloth star. Each point of light on the star shot a beam towards the small circle in which Aethi sat. The star began to lower and contract. Soon, the cloth of the center was wrapped tightly around Aethi's torso, both to hold the spell to her and to keep her from escaping it with her motions. Lifting the oro with the non-chalked hand, Derrek placed it in the hand already over his head. The orb began to glow darkly while Derrek's left hand (the one not holding the orb at this time) reached forward.

And then it was before him. The core of this spell. Aethi's core essence. This was what he needed to untie. Up close, it was far more complex than Derrek had imagined. As he lowered his right hand, the orb continued to float over his head. Reaching both hands towards it, he plucked at and tested the resiliance of the strings. Then, slowly, he began to pull one far to one side, trying to dislodge it from its fellows delicately.

One strand was freed. That would make a good place to start. A pity there didn't seem to be any end to work with. That would have made the process infinitely easier. In theory, if he could disconnet a strand and use those ends to untie the knot, it would become easier. However the consequences of snapping a strand of the very essence of a person was different from Derrek's earlier personal disconnection from reality. He could try to connect it again later, but the consequences were too risky.

He saw, vaguely, Aethi's reaction when he was touching the strings. He figured the experience of quite literally feeling someone touching and pulling on the strands of essence would be odd, and her reaction confirmed this. However, if she thought it was bad like this, she ought to be grateful for the bandages and the circles. Besides pulling the knot out in a far more kind manner than if they were not present, they had the effect of partially mitigating whatever experiences were felt from their manipulation.

Derrek continued on his work. The one string had led to three others becoming untied. This seemed to have little effect on the mass as a whole, but at least it was a start. This next strand would free many others. However, it was lodged quite firmly in the bull of the strings. Therefore, Derrek was forced to slide his fingers directly into the heart of the grouping of strings in order to try and loosen this one.

Well, that string was now loose. It had indeed freed several other strands to be pulled and manipulated free. There was just one problem now. Whenever Derrek relinquished his hold on a strand, it began to constrict, pulling itself into the knot once more. There were only so many strings he could hold at once, so something needed to be done about this. Holding the strings carefully, Derrek began working on a plan. Looping the strands together, he bound them to the space around them. He had wanted to avoid this, as such an experience was bound to be unpleasant. However, it would allow him to use his hands more freely to undo the knot. The less time he had to spend trying to separate out the loops and catches of this tangle, the better.

Eventually, even the first temporary binding for the threads was filled. Any more, and it would begin to knot there too. Derrek frowned, creating several other binding spots to attach the freed threads too. 30 minutes into the untying and he was less than an eighth into the knot. This was going to be a long spell. Breathing deeply to renew his trance, he reached into the knotting and continued his arduous task.

~~~Four and a half hours later~~~

The spell had lasted longer than he thought it would have. Twice now he had been forced to renew the energy of the seals and the foci lest his work go to waste. The air around him appeared in his eyes nearly a tapestry. Threads stretched out in each direction, yet each came back to the significantly smaller knot that was left. He had as of yet been unsuccessful in freeing a single thread. He had an idea as to why, but it was trouble if he was right. Twist, tug, and bind. Work continued.

Unfortunately, Derrek had been correct. With so few strings left, the final strings came loose with much less effort. Finally, the knot that was Aethi-Naeh was completely stretched out before him, tied in various places around Derrek. However, his initial theory regarding the nature of the knot was incorrect. While there were indeed distinct colors of the thread to represent the individual identities, it was not, as Derrek assumed, many smaller threads wound in and around each other. It was one long thread that gradually transitioned from one color to the other. It if hat been independant threads, all he'd have to do was sort them out and retie them. Now, he had to make a cut. He had to literally decide where one person ended and the other began. Ah well. This would likely be the most painful part. Derrek stood and took hold of the unbinding orb that hand remained in the air until this point and began moving the threads around. He oriented the strings so that a great concentration of each color sat on opposite sides of the chain on the floor with Aethi in the center. Once they were stretched in this manner, he examined the center of the transition. He had to cut with surgical precision. Where he cut could vastly change the identities of each. Examining it carefully, he made his decision for each. Reaching out his hand, he held his fingers around the first thread as if throwing out scissors in Rock-paper-scissors. Then, with a deep breath to steady himself, he snapped his fingers shut. Turning quickly, he repeated this process for the other thread. each side flew back towards the concentration of its own color. The two ends on each side were drawn to each other and reattached, a thin line and a discoloration of the thread near the cut. Each side, released from the binding, wound itself back together and sank back into the bodies of the two girls, who sat now directly outside the chain. Each of them sat in a chalk circle akin to the one that Aethi was in, though there was no trace of that circle any longer.

With a sign of releif, Derrek sat down. "There."