Toya took Remedy by the arm and marched her through the house. “YOU LET HIM PUT HIS BLOOD IN YOU?”

“I WAS PASSED OUT!” Remedy squealed as she tried to pull herself away. She had a backpack slammed into her chest. “OOF” Was the air that left her lungs as Toya threw her up onto Karith’s back. Remedy was soon behind her grandmother as they flew off towards Horae Island. Remedy was all busted up from cuts, wounds, and even a broken arm.

Once they got to Horae they landed near Jace’s cottage. Toya grabbed Remedy over her shoulder and after a pick of protesting she kicked the door in. “JACE!” Toya hurled her granddaughter at the tamer. “You want to tell me why you had the bright ass fucking idea to put your blood into my granddaughter to heal her? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU TWO IDIOTS HAVE DONE?!”

Remedy shook her head and Toya glared. “No, of course, you don’t. You are two idiots. Two peas in a god damn pod.”

“He IS A GRUMPY ASS OLD MAN GRANDMA DON’T PUNISH ME!” Remedy squealed out as she lifted herself off of Jace.

“You are every bit as responsible as he is for this mess. You are just as grumpy as he is too so don’t give me that bullshit.” There was a fire in Toya’s eyes. “For the next year… You two are to live together and do everything together.” Taking two necklaces out she threw them to both of them. "Put these on… I'll explain the situation more once you do." Remedy put hers on without question but more so with a pout but the feeling from the necklace made her jump.

"A heartbeat?" Remedy batted her eyes as she looked up at Jace then to Toya.

Things hadn't exactly been a picnic since he had sent Toya's gold dragon back to Sularia with Toya's granddaughter unconscious in its claws. Honestly, he had passed out in the frigid glaciem tundra for a while before his healing had kicked in enough to allow him consciousness long enough to get back to his tree in Venti. Since then he had spent the majority of his time bedridden due to the pain and lack of strength to do anything much more than the most basic of tasks. He couldn't figure out why he wasn't healing. Something like this had taken him only a couple of days to heal once upon a time, but now he was pushing nearly two weeks and it was almost as bad as the day it had happened. The wounds had sealed perhaps, but the mauling across his side and chest was still red and purple from bruising and bleeding, and faint blue veins of light latticed his chest. Those veins were the most perplexing part. He couldn't figure out what they were from. 

When he heard the tell tale approach of Toya's dragon, he stiffly struggled to get a shirt on as his pseudo-wyvern Gogi and Ataiyoan house dragon hissed and shrieked about Toya approaching and being in a foul mood. That was obvious, he could hear her berating someone as she approached. He barely had the chance to stand up with his shirt pulled on all the way before Toya had kicked in the door. He barely had time to register what was happening before she was throwing, yes throwing, a ragdolled Remedy at him bodily. He caught her, and fell backward into the wall by the fireplace. He saw stars as his entire upper body erupted in pain, and he put Remedy on the floor quickly as he sucked in air to keep himself conscious. He wanted to throw up the pain was so bad. He was seeing stars as Toya was yelling at him about using his blood to heal her. 

"What the hell are you going on about?!" he demanded trying to catch his breath as he straightened up. "I saved her ass, that's what! And who the hell are you calling old?" he demanded in return of Remedy who had called him a grumpy ass old man. He was still trying to process what the hell was going on when Toya made the announcement that Remedy would be living with him for the next year. His already pale face went ashen. 

"LIKE HELL SHE IS!" he barked as Toya threw the necklaces at them. He caught it with his claw and looked at the rather plain beaded trinket. "What the hell is this?" he demanded. He looked at Remedy as she commented she could feel a heartbeat. He could feel one too, through the necklace, light and fluttering rapidly. "I'm not putting this on," he growled softly. "We had a deal, Toya. I would work here for you and take care of the island as long as I was allowed to be undisturbed. Babysitting your granddaughter was nowhere in our agreement."

“I realize you saved her… but you did a lot more than that kid,” Toya stared at him for a long time. “I want you to take notice of both of your wounds now.” She could see it even now. They were finally starting to close. Remedy was barely conscious from Toya ragdolling her but she could feel herself getting a little bit better than she was before. “You’ve managed to poison each other. When Remedy healed you with Angelic magic it was one half of an ancient pact that can be sealed with blood. It’s not something most people know about. When you added your strong blood Jace… You created a pact so strong that Angela doesn’t dare try and break it. She thinks she could kill one of you.”

Remedy staggered getting up wit ha grunt. “What does that mean? Is that the reason you are having us live together for a year?”

“More than that. You two have to watch your asses.” She jabbed Jace in the arm hard and Remedy squealed in pain.

“THAT HURT! What the hell Grandma.”

“It’s like poking a voodoo doll but both of you effect each other. You cannot leave each other’s sides if you go out adventuring. You cannot so much as scratch yourselves without the other feeling it. The reason for the necklaces is so you can monitor each other in case you need it. Gifts from Angela… Artifacts that will disappear in one year’s time. This is about babysitting you moron. This is about your lives. You two caused this and we can’t fix it. So… It’s either you live here on Horae or you come live in my house for a year Jace. I think I know your answer.”

Remedy put her hand on her hips and started to tap her foot almost furiously. “And I don’t get a decision in this?”

“Well no… You really don’t. Fate hasn’t been kind to either of you so I hope you come to terms with each other quick. The better friends you are the better this will be for your health. If you continue to brood against each other… This is going to be one very long year for you both.” Toya threw Remedy’s pack on the ground and walked out the door leaving them both there to think about it.

“This isn’t fair…” Remedy fell into a nearby chair. “I don’t like it when my life gets torn apart…” She looked sad for a long time. “What will Astrid do without me for a year?”

Toya had a point. Even the few moments that he had been standing beside Remedy, he could feel his pains begin to fade. He lifted up the corner of his shirt to reveal the bottom of his injuries and saw that even as they spoke they were beginning to fade. "So you are saying we inadvertently created an ancient blood oath? Like… in the stories of dragons giving half their hearts to dying humans?" Jace asked, trying to wrap his head around the situation. "How the hell does someone just 'accidentally' do that?" He suddenly decided he didn't want the answer to that. If a Goddess couldn't undo it, then this time he had REALLY screwed up. He felt like punching something, but was stopped when Toya jabbed his arm to make a point. He made a face. She was small, but she could hit, that was for sure. He rubbed the spot as Remedy squealed and yelled at her grandmother. Jace listened silently, glaring, as Toya went into detail about what was going to have to happen. When it came down to it, it was either live with Remedy there on the island, or go back to Sularia and live there, and she was certain she knew what his response was going to be. 

"Not a snowball's chance in hell," he said firmly, which easily answered both Toya's query and Remedy's demand about getting a choice. His face darkened visibly and muscles in his face twitched when Toya suggested this was Fate. His fist and claw clenched so tight that it was almost certain Remedy could feel the bite of his nail on his palm as he stared at the spot where Toya had previously been filling before she had left his abode. 

He ignored Remedy as she fell into the nearby chair and began whining about their current predicament. "FUCKING BRILLIANT!" he roared as he turned and punched into the central pillar of the tree house that his claw drove clean through the wood. Anger still flaring, he pulled his claw from the hole and took a couple of deep breaths before he looked at Remedy. 

"Your sister will be fine. Who knows, she might actually get to have a life without you sheltering her," he replied abrasively. 

Remedy’s eyes flashed up at Jace and there seemed to be a deadness to them. “Whatever. What the fuck do you actually know.” She pushed herself up out of the chair and made her way towards the door. “And screw you.” She slammed the door open and made her way outside. She didn’t care if Jace was going to follow behind her. She didn’t care where she was going to go. She just kept going. The stupid necklace was giving her a heartbeat and she had half a mind to do something about it. So she took it and threw it into the cottage before she got too far.

“I really do hate everything.” She looked up at the sky before continuing her way into the trees. It had been a long time since she was left to the silence of her mind. Since she let herself be tired of everything. The past thirty years of her life flashed before her until she saw herself as a little girl. The moment the news of her father’s death had reached not only her but her mother. Astrid hadn’t yet been old enough to even remember much less understand why her father hadn’t come home.

Estrella’s descent into weakness was so soon after that… that it gave Remedy whiplash. Astrid and her had lost both of her parents so young… Then she lost her grandfather to gods know what and her grandmother was a pool of alcohol and violence. Still, her feet kept going even though she wanted to collapse under the weight of everything.

What Jace had seen in her eyes in that moment before she had stormed out had alarmed him, perhaps more than the entire situation. He had seen that dead look in her eyes in his own many years ago. He struggled for a moment, trying to decide whether or not he was going to just let her waltz off. He growled to himself when he remembered that she was not in any condition to defend herself against the fairy dragons, let alone anything bigger than Gogi and Kato his personal house dragons. 

He stomped out of the house and followed after Remedy. Fortunately, the easiest path to follow was probably the one she was going to take, but she still had a few minutes on him. He wrapped the corded necklace that Toya had left for him around his claw a couple times, and tucked Remedy's into his pocket as he went to follow after her. 

"Remedy!" he called out, only half enthused about finding her. "Remedy, come back!"

The sounds of nature were weird to her especially with her head pounding the way it was. She made her way over to an embankment where she walked across it and looked at the water. Why the hell should she care what Jace felt? Why should she even stay there? Why the hell did it matter if she did die? She had a good run, didn’t she? She wasn’t even from Revaliir. She started to let her thoughts drift farther and farther south.

Remedy heard her name from his lips but didn’t even acknowledge him. She kept going and she was stubborn about it. Her side began to ache as she put her hand on her wound. The movement unbalanced her and she slipped off of the embankment and down into the shallow end of the water. She let out an aggravated scream. “JUST SCREW OFF AND LEAVE ME BE!”

From the way, she was trying to move Remedy couldn’t get herself up so she just HMPPP’d and sat there in the water. “This sucks ass…”

Jace heard the splash and rolled his eyes as she screamed at him to leave her alone. He moved through the trees and stood above her on the embankment and folded his arms and watched her just sit in the water like a small child throwing a temper tantrum. It was almost adorable. Almost.

"Remedy, please come back to the house. You are going to end up getting yourself hurt or worse out here in your condition. And I'm not too keen on my injuries getting any worse than they are," he insisted flatly. 

There was silence between them, nature and the fairy dragons filling the air around them as the dryad trees around the edge of the embankment turned to look at them and see what was going on. "Come on, get up out of the water, or we'll both catch our death," he said.

“Go die,” Remedy hissed up at him. The little half angel crossed her arms and looked forward as the water rushed by her and started to drag her a little bit. There was a disgruntled noise from her lips as she held herself in place. She was not happy with this situation at all. “I don't even want to be here. Screw this place.”

After several minutes of not moving, she finally gave him a deep begrudged sigh. “Besides even if I wanted to. I am stuck in this mud. I can’t get out because of my leg.” Remedy wouldn’t even make eye contact with him because it was embarrassing. “I’m going to die of a cold because I can’t get my ass out of the mud.”

She crossed her arms tighter as the wind blew and she shivered. “Can you please just get me out of this mud hole?”

"If you die, I die. If I die, you die," Jace said, heaving a sigh as he put his hands on his hips.

"I don't know about you, but I didn't survive a world consuming war, and an egg snatcher aided by a frost dragon just to die here of exposure in the mud," he said. He carefully picked his way down the embankment to the edge of the water and mud and wade over to Remedy.

"Give me your good hand," he ordered simply before he hoisted her up to her feet. He lifted her out of the mud with a slurp, and carefully waded out of the mud and back up onto the embankment. He set her back down once they reached solid ground. He wasn't rough about it, but he wasn't exactly the most gentle either. As far as he could tell her feet and legs weren't injured. If they were it was an injury previous to their blood pact, otherwise he would have been able to feel it too.