As soon as the crystal made contact, it came to life, exploding into light and hovering in the air. The force of the activation sent out a shockwave which reverberated through the cave, definitely breaking at least three pots and sending Felix flying backwards.

"BullSHIT that book isn't possessed!" Felix yelled over the roar.

"NOT A COINCIDENCE!!" Bridget screamed back.

Bridget had shielded her eyes from the initial burst. As the commotion died down and she looked up, the book was now calmly hanging in the air, its pages open. It glowed, more gently this time, radiating a bright white aura. The previously-dimmed lines on the cover were now alight, with the Rubato crystal in the center glowing brightest.

Felix got up from the ground and looked at the tome, his pupils having narrowed to slits due to the light and general adrenaline rush. Still, he regained his composure quickly. Bridget followed and walked around to the other side, standing next to him and both facing the open tome.

"What does it want us to do?" she asked, touching one of the open pages.

On the page that she touched, the magic ink outlined the shape of a hand matching the shape of hers. Bridget examined it, running her finger over the ink. "Felix, you try on the other page."

Felix glared at her and grumbled. "If I end up signing my soul over to eternal damnation because of this, I'm going to haunt you every chance I get." He took a deep breath, let it out, and placed his finger on the opposite page hesitantly. Accordingly, an outline of a larger hand, this one with claw-like nails, appeared on the page.

With the two pages waiting for an action, ink slowly filled in below each hand. The two watched — Bridget with fascination and Felix with apprehension — as words started to form.

"… Is this a fucking legal disclaimer?" Felix muttered once it had finished.

On Bridget's page, in flowy script: "The Maestro, Bridget Reed, shall lend Rhythm to her Resonator, Felix, and guide his hand in vanquishing the Corruption. Through this sacred covenant, the Maestro shall mend the wounds inflicted upon the world."

On Felix's page, in the same script: "The Resonator, Felix, shall act as a conduit for his Maestro's, Bridget Reed's, Rhythm, and serve as an extension of her will. In exchange, the Resonator shall gain access to power and skills that no Natural or unpaired Resonator may hope to achieve."

Under both hands, on both pages: "Accepting these terms binds the Maestro and Resonator through a contract stronger than any other force. If the Maestro and Resonator agree, they shall place their hands upon these pages and the contract is signed."

Felix took in the gravitas of the situation. "This… is a bit more than I was expecting to deal with today."

"You don't have a last name?" Bridget asked, completely missing the big picture.

"I'm lucky I have a first," he replied curtly, shooting her an annoyed look. "Really, that's what you got out of this?"

"Well, no… I just…" She retracted any further comments on the subject. "Well… " Bridget considered the words on the pages, "So I guess if we do this, we're stuck with each other."

"That's a lot to ask of someone I just met, and who I apparently will have to 'serve as an extension of their will'," Felix said. "Like are we equal partners here?"

"I think so, even if it's not the same on both sides. Look," Bridget said, pointing to the clause on his page. "You have some latent Rhythm, right?"

"Yeah, but it's not useful for much more than kicking up sand," Felix admitted. "If you're asking me to crush boulders with it or something, no can do."

"But I think if we link together, you will be able to do stuff like that. That's what it says."

"No, what it says is something very vague and nebulous."

"Based on my singular interaction with the time sage, I think vague and nebulous is kind of their thing," Bridget countered. "I mean, power and skills sounds straightforward enough to me - I help you unlock your potential. … Whatever that may be."

Try as he might, Felix couldn't help but admit to himself that the idea was enticing. After a lifetime of being cast aside for being different, not only being able to show Naturals that he was better than them, but also to do something good with it, sounded like a win-win proposal. Granted, he still wasn't sure how he felt about this whole "permanent bond with basically a stranger" thing, but something in his subconscious was nudging him towards it.

He looked over at Bridget again, this time more resolute. "Fine, let's do it." He put his hand on his page. The inked outline enveloped his hand with a soft blue glow. He expressed mild surprise, but kept his hand held up, and waited for Bridget to make her move.

Bridget took a moment to think. Imagine what the guys at the warehouse, nay, what everyone back all the way in Unis-Resonne were going to say when she returned from a simple assignment with a half-dragon in tow and a holy missive.

It all sounded crazy, and by many standards it was. Just 48 hours ago she was staring off at the ocean wondering where sand came from and how an ungodly amount of it all got deposited in one place. What would mom and dad think of her if she saved the world? Was this something she'd be eternally compensated for or would she have to keep explaining it to people? Would—

She was shaken out of her thought whirlpool by a piercing, irritated cough.

"I can't even read your thoughts yet and I know you're thinking of something stupid right now," Felix interjected, jerking his head toward the tome. "Look, either do it or not, my arm is going to cramp if I keep it up like this."

Bridget shook herself back to reality. "Right! Sorry…" she said sheepishly. Bridget closed her her eyes and put her hand on the corresponding page. Like Felix's, it glowed as well. Hers, however, was yellow.

With the two having struck the deal, the blue and yellow auras grew brighter and bigger, until they converged on each other. Bridget looked on it with awe, and Felix sincerely hoped he wasn't going to regret this.

Upon touching, a stream of earthy brown light shone out of the pages as threads of yellow and blue grew from their hands and became an ever-strengthening rope. After having reached a certain thickness, the Rhythm rope tied itself around both of their wrists on either end. Once it secured their bond, the rope tightened and flashed. It broke off into sparkling light that filled the cavern like an aurora and faded away. Its job now done, the tome's glow subsided and it gently descended from the air and into Bridget's waiting hands, softly closing shut. The Rubato crystal in the center of the cover flashed brown, then also went quiet.

And then the two stood in silence, their breathing the only noise in the cavern.

Bridget was the first to speak. "So… do you feel different?" she asked Felix, looking at her hands and the tome. She didn't feel physically different, but she felt like there was a presence there that had not been there before.

Felix looked at the hand he had used to "sign" the contract like it was a foreign object, turning it over a few times. "Not really…?" He turned to her. "Do either of us look different?"

"Maybe you got taller?"

"I'm serious, Bridget."

"Sorry, sorry!" She scrutinized his face and body for any differences. "No, none that I can tell. What about me?"

"Nope, nothing." Felix pointed at the tome. "Maybe there's something in there?"

"Good point," Bridget said, opening it to see if it had any clues for them. The page that had been open with their hands and the contract had had its words wiped away, with only the handprints remaining. Bridget's handprint was still, but Felix's glowed subtly with the same earthy color that had enveloped the tome just now. "Huh, weird."

"What do you think it means?" Felix asked, perplexed.

"I'm not sure, but it's pulsing like… a heartbeat, almost?" she deduced. "Hang on a sec," she said, putting her free hand on Felix's chest.

"Hey—!"

As soon as she did, she was able to match the beat of his heart with the glowing of the handprint. Lending even more evidence to the theory, as Felix jumped back and his heart started racing in apprehension, the handprint started pulsing more rapidly. "Look, it's literally your heartbeat," she said, pointing again at the symbol.

Cautiously stepping forward, but careful to avoid being accosted again, Felix grumbled in apparent agreement. "So you have some kind of lifeforce-tracker on me. That's not creepy at all."

"I mean, if you're supposed to be using Rhythm to do stuff, it would be logical that there's only so much you can draw on before you'll run out. So I guess this is how I can track your energy levels."

"Like I said, definitely not creepy at all. So how exactly do I use this alleged power?"

"Good question," Bridget said, turning to the next page. "Hey, look!"

What had previously been completely blank now had a small list of what looked like names, with values next to them, along with a list of… modifiers?

Bridget looked at Felix, and thought carefully to avoid another faux pas. "Felix, are you fluent in reading Naturalian too?"

"Yeah, mostly." Felix replied, looking over her shoulder. "That's definitely Naturalian. But they're just kind of… words? Like this one here just says 'sandstorm'," he said, pointing to the first line. He muttered something to himself reading the next line. "This line is… uh… 'Hit By A Rock'."

Bridget tried to make sense of it. "Are these like attacks?"

"If they are, I hope you're not telling me that you're going to yell 'Throw a rock at them!'" at evildoers."

"I mean, let's try. Is there anything important on that wall?" she said, pointing to the one in front of them.

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"No?" he said. "That's just… cave. Doesn't go anywhere."

"Okay." She took a deep breath and pointed at the wall again. "Felix…" She squinted to make sure she was getting the inflection right. "Colpito da una Roccia!"

Nothing happened.

Felix looked down at his hands then at Bridget. "I mean, I think I felt something there, but it was like a buildup with no payoff."

"Oh, is that what this second column is for?" she intuited. "Look, there's more words here." She held up the tome for him to look at.

"Huh, maybe. Those just go from 'very weak' to 'very strong'." he translated, glancing at them.

Without warning, Bridget pointed again, closing the tome and visualizing an attack. "Colpito da una Roccia, Piannissimo!"

It was like another presence took over Felix's body as he thrust his hands into the earth and wrenched a head-sized rock from the ground. In the same motion, he chucked the boulder at the wall, where it embedded with a loud crash, then fell onto the ground.

Somewhere in the cave, another pot broke.

After the assault on the innocent, hopefully non-load-bearing wall was done, Felix flitted between the wall and his hands in bewilderment. "Did… did I do that…?" he asked, borderline catatonic. "Did you… make me do that…?!"

Bridget did a little fist pump of success. "I think I got how it works!"

Felix felt like he needed some of those herbs he gave Bridget earlier, but opted for sitting on the floor next to the little crater he had created. "What the shit…"

"Okay, so like, literally you are a conduit for this Rhythm," Bridget explained, completely nonplussed. "I said the words and thought about you attacking the wall, and it happened!"

Felix put a hand on his head, trying to make sense of it all. "So… you just… imagine these things, and use my body to make it happen? This isn't how I thought it was going to work…"

"Sounds right to me," Bridget replied. "'cept I think there's a spoken component to it too because you haven't been receiving my thoughts to attack the wall the past four times I thought it."

"Can we not destroy my house any further?!" he hissed at her, tail swishing.

Bridget laughed nervously. "Okay, okay!" She walked over to Felix and sat down. "So how did it feel? For you, I mean."

He looked over at her and seriously considered the question. "Well, besides having a component of my free will taken away… almost… good? Like a burst of adrenaline but one where you feel good at the end." He looked at his hands again. "And it tingles a little." He returned the question, "How did it feel for you?"

"Not sure. I think I'm getting tired," she replied, with a yawn accentuating her point. "I wonder… if it would get worse the more we did."

"That would make sense," Felix conceded. "Like a workout almost, and I imagine we're pretty out of shape."

Bridget opened the tome again and lay it on her lap. "This page seems pretty empty… I wonder if we'll figure out more… as time goes on." Her eyes had already started drooping.

"Seems logical," Felix agreed. "Let's walk before we run though, yeah?"

Bridget nodded and yawned again. "Maybe we sleep before we walk…"

Felix looked at her with concern. "You're really going out that quickly? You sure it's not your head?" he asked, hesitating before putting his hand on her injury to check.

Bridget gently pushed his hand away, though not offended. "No, my head's fine… I think it's just been a really, really long day," she said. "All this… is a lot to process…"

"You've got that right," Felix sighed. "So, what, you just want to call it a night?"

Bridget had already gotten up and started trudging to the bedroll on the ground. "Yes…"

Felix, who definitely had a lot to break down from the day but wasn't exactly sleepy, sighed. "Okay. Well, good night, I guess."

She laid on the bedroll and pulled the hide blanket over her, rolling over facing away from him. She cuddled her knapsack. "Night… Felix…" And with that, she was out like a light.

Left with his thoughts, Felix questioned if being able to fall asleep that quickly counted as a superpower. Just what did the future have in store for him now? In any case, this wasn't how he was expecting to spend his days. It was all so much to take in, but something about it felt… right. As strange as it sounded, going through everything he did in order to serve some greater purpose almost felt like destiny. Having been basically alone, and then truly alone, for so long… it was going to be tough to get used to having someone around again. Even more so, having someone around who didn't loathe his existence.

After a few minutes of being within his head, he figured even if he wasn't going to sleep, he might as well just lay down and wait until he got bored enough. Being a winged creature, his bed was on a ledge in the cavern, next to a particularly wide streak of Rubato. The glow had always comforted him, like a night light. With a light hop, he jumped up onto the ledge and made himself comfortable so he could stare at the ceiling until dreams took him.

Felix took one last glance at the sleeping woman on the floor, who had already started lightly snoring. That… might take a bit to get used to, he thought.

"Night, Bridget."

Morning came, like all the others before it. But this one was like the dawning of a new life, with a firm divide between the then and the now. The sunlight streamed in through the ceiling of the cavern, directly onto Bridget's face. "Mnnnh," she moaned, regrettably awoken by the holy rays of the sun. She slowly got up, looking around. Well, she at least didn't imagine the events of yesterday since she was still in a cave and — yup — the bump on her head was still there. Which meant…

"Felix?" she called out, looking around.

"Yeah," he responded from somewhere up high. Bridget followed the sound of the voice and saw a tail hanging lazily over a ledge.

"How'd you get up there?" she wondered, rubbing her eyes. "Wait, don't answer that."

"You sleep okay?" Felix asked, gliding down gracefully. "You've been out for a while, it's late morning."

Bridget asked the question to herself. She thought so? "I guess I needed the rest," she admitted. "I only got a couple of hours of sleep yesterday after getting this holy missive, then it was me and Humphrey in the desert — Humphrey!!" she suddenly realized. "We got separated after the scorpions…"

Felix frowned in concern. "The camel?"

"Yeah," Bridget said sadly. "He ran in the opposite direction and I don't know if he made it out…"

Felix looked down. "Hard to say. But I don't think those animals attack their own. They seem to mostly have a thing against humans," he explained. "Those things have a good sense of smell, right?"

"So I'm told. We use scent packets to basically guide them between outposts. Just wave it under their nose, give them a good whiff, and they know the way." She stared at the floor. "But that's if they don't get… sidetracked."

"Maybe he made it to … Grandina?" Felix asked after briefly hesitating. Even now, the name put a lump in his throat and a pit in his stomach.

Bridget looked up at Felix with newfound hope. "You think?!"

"Well, it's our only shot. Plus you still have that stupid box to deliver, company girl." Felix smirked at her, hoping it came off like the joke he meant it to be.

"Let's go then!" Bridget insisted, getting up.

… And then immediately needing to brace herself to stop from falling right back down.

Permeating the entire cavern, a thunderous gurgle.

Bridget looked over at Felix wearily as he wondered what ungodly noise had erupted from his new partner.

"…do you have food around here?"

A short while later, with full bellies and a healthy supply of water skins, the two stood on a ledge at the entrance to the cave in the full heat and intensity of the sun. Bridget noted that they were higher up than she thought; while they weren't at the top of the cliffs, they were at a height where the average passerby wouldn't even be able to see the entrance. Suitable for the desert, Felix had equipped a pair of lightweight boots that his pants tucked neatly into and a cloak that helped catch the breeze. He stretched exaggeratedly, letting his wings fan out to their full width and soak up the sun.

"Do you lock up or anything?" Bridget asked, looking back at the entrance. She clutched her knapsack, hoping once more that whatever was in this chest was important.

"Oh, yeah, I've got my keys right here," Felix said, miming going through a keyring. "No, Bridget, I am the only sentient living soul out here for miles."

"You're not worried about your stuff?" she asked.

"With an upbringing like mine… you learn not to get attached to much," he replied simply. "Anything perishable or useful like the food and herbs gets sealed up in a container that the animals can't get into, and if they really want to crash at my place to get away from the heat, whatever." He looked out at the horizon and did some mental calculations, dotting his palms with mystery math. "I think we can get to Grandina in a few hours, right around the end of the hottest part of the day," he estimated. "It's going to be a scorcher on the way there. Not a problem for me, but for you…"

"Walking?!" Bridget asked, incredulous. "There's no way—"

Felix stared at her and gestured to his bonus appendages. "Hello? Wings?? How do you keep forgetting I have these things?! They're like the first thing everyone else notices!"

"But… surely you can't… I mean, I'm fit, but I'm not light," she said, struggling to convey the concept of "there's no way you're carrying me that far."

"Unless you have an evocare cammello spell in that tome of yours, I will have to," Felix retorted.

Bridget relented. "Okay, smarty pants, how much can you lift?"

Felix walked toward her. "Let's find out," he said, scooping her off the ground with a small eep! of protest and bridal-carrying her, with her arms around his neck.

Both of them looked at each other in surprise.

"You're carrying me like it's nothing?!" Bridget exclaimed.

"I don't get it," Felix said, having struggled to not drop her out of shock. "It's no different from carrying a woman-shaped reed bundle." He paused. "I didn't mean for that to be a pun, I swear."

Bridget looked at her hands above her, which were glowing yellow. "That's weird… Maybe this is some kind of bonus we get from being linked together?" As a test, she lifted her hands off of his neck.

"Hgck—!" Felix grunted, his knees buckling from the unexpected weight.

Bridget slapped her hands back on his person, and sure enough he was able to regain his composure (and posture). "I think I'm lending Rhythm to you or something." Before she could lift her hand off again, Felix slapped it with his tail.

"Please stop experimenting, because you're going to take me out and then we'll really be in trouble," he said through gritted teeth. "Are… you ready?"

Bridget looked up at him, then down at the sands below, then finally back at the cave. She met her gaze with his once more. "Yeah, I think so. Let's go."

"Right." Felix took one last look at his home too, having a feeling it would be the last time he would see it for a while. He took a deep breath and leapt into the air, wings expanding to their fullest as he and Bridget shot off into the east with a burst of sand.

As the wind rushed by her, Bridget took in all the sights and sounds. Seeing the earth from this angle was breathtaking, especially for a human. Even if most of it was sand, she saw shadows of dunes, tiny indicators of life amongst the barren landscape, and other features she never would have been able to appreciate from the ground.

Felix, a bit more used to this, grinned down at her as he kept them steady by riding the wind currents. "What do you think?" he shouted over the noise.

"It's incredible!" she shouted back. "You're so fast!"

"One of my many redeeming qualities," he replied. "Made getting out of trouble a lot easier."

"Do you do this often?" Bridget ask-shouted.

"For supply runs, all the time. For, uh, social calls, not really," he said. He pointed to the left a ways in front of them. "There's an oasis with a spring that way, that's where I get water and herbs and shit. From up here it's pretty easy to find what you're looking for."

Bridget looked over her shoulder, still bewildered by it all. And with Felix as her partner… this could become just as regular for her, too? How amazing…

"Anyway, you let me know if you're getting uncomfortable, and I can adjust," Felix offered.

"Yeah, I will!" Bridget called back.

And so the two continued toward their destination, the only things breaking up the monotony of a clear blue sky besides a shining orb of fire.

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