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Nom hadn’t seen Katie since her knighting ceremony. He may have snuck into Blue Kingdom and watched through a window though. He was so proud of his baby sister, she looked so grown up in her armor. He couldn't stay long in case of being seen. It was safer not to stick around for too long, but he still wanted to see it happen. He never regretted leaving Blue Kingdom, but he did miss his sister.
Now he stood across the bridge from her as the new monarchs had a meeting. He never told the Red Kingdom that he had a younger sister. He knew they would question where his loyalty lied if they knew.
There would be times that Nom came across his sister while going around the two kingdoms. Most of the time it would be with other people present so he couldn’t talk to her plainly. Their first time talking alone was when Katie followed him away from Blue Kingdom. He had come over just to see what it looked like. All the new people that arrived meant they wouldn't know much about their history. It wasn't a good first talk since they just started arguing.
After that Nom would see Katie at random interactions but they never talked about the past. Eventually Katie wanted to start having sibling meetings. Nom was hesitant for fear of how his sister would see him. He had left her in a kingdom that had shunned their parents. He decided to go anyway to set the past aside and be with his sister again.
Seeing Katie away from any burden of the kingdoms was different. Under her silver armor was a pale green sweater and skirt. He didn't see a knight from the enemy kingdom, he just saw his sweet sister. They decided to have weekly meetings no matter what happened. Except this specific week Nom had something serious to ask his sister.
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In between meetings Nom would talk to a lot of people. One of these people was a rogue slime that was friends with Katie. The only thing she ever told Nom about her and 4C’s friendship was that he helped her with bandits on an adventure. After talking with 4C he noticed some information was missing or even opposite. Nom thought about how 4C explained there was a bounty set on the himself and Katie was one of the nights to respond to it.
He didn’t want to force Katie to talk about it. All he wanted was to know what his sister was going through. He hadn’t been in her life for a while and it was important to him to know more about who she was now. His hope for their meeting today was that he could get it clarified.
He originally planned to meet his sister at the blue gates since he was already there. As the small little group around him dispersed a pigeon dropped a note to him from Katie. He let out a low chuckle as he headed towards the jungle to meet up with her instead as the note said she was already there. Along the way he thought about how the conversation could go. Surely his sister wouldn’t take it horribly.
“And you call me blind,” Katie’s voice startled him.
“Excuse you,” Nom’s voice hitched in mock offense, “Normally you’re walking right past me.
“Farkle time!” Katie raced down the cliff side, Nom coming after her rolling his eyes.
On the way to their spot they talked about random nonsense. They briefly talked about the new monarchs and what they think. The pressure of what Frogue had asked Nom to do earlier in the day still weighed on him. Though he shook the thought away as Katie started talking about Owain.
“I believe me and the lion are on good terms now,” Katie’s voice came from behind Nom, “we cleared things up.”
“Oh,” Nom kept his pace ahead of her, “in what sense are we talking about?”
Katie chatted away about the base of her conversation with the Blue Knight. She explained how she got Owain to let her do what she saw fit and that he agreed. Nom would occasionally throw in a question to understand it more. As they got to their little “sibling farkle room” he slightly turned to her.
“I don’t suppose he still wants to kill me,” Nom had a hint of concern in his tone.
“I think it’s less you as a person and more just his distaste for the Red Kingdom. He’s agreed to deal with the rest of Red and leave me to deal with what’s going on with you.”
“Right,” Nom was not convinced, “I can understand that.”
The two ended their conversation as they gathered around the farkle table. Nom grabbed his small bag of dice and spread them out. Katie tried to wager gold, but Nom had to close that down. As they played farkle they went back to talking about their new monarchs and what they think. They talked casually for a while, Nom slightly bringing up the disappearance of Cherri’s child.
They talked about how the kingdom's rebuilding was going. The conversation was mindless small talk that just seemed to stall the inevitable. The idea of building something to bring the kingdom’s together, even though the Red kingdom wasn’t keen on the small tavern that was made before. As their conversation continued it only stalled the burning question in Nom’s head.
Eventually he worked up the courage to address the questions he wanted to ask. He thought back on their previous conversation regarding oaths and how Katie talked. The thought of his oath he made the week before and the wonder of why Katie was so focused on him choosing a good oath.
“This might come off as awkward,” Nom was hesitant as he spoke, “I heard something, and I just want to clarify it. It just doesn’t seem to align with what you told me the last time we spoke.”
Nom looked up from the table to meet Katie’s eyes. A nervous smile paired with a confused look as she tried to guess what Nom was going to say.
“You remember how you told me about the adventure with 4C,” Nom paused waiting for his sister’s reaction before going on, “I heard some things that weren’t aligning with what you told me. Specifically that there was a bounty on 4C’s head from the blue kingdom and that you went against orders.”
“Where,” Katie’s face fell, “where did you hear this?”
“I just heard it,” He watched his sister’s eyes.
“How did you hear it,” Katie tried to question, but Nom stuck to his stance, “What are you asking?”
“Is it true?”
“I mean,” She turned slightly away, “yes 4C had a bounty on his head.”
“So you went against what you stood for,” Nom was trying to understand, “You were sent to collect the bounty and then he came back with you.”
“It was resolved. He helped fight against the bandits and came back with me.”
They went back and forth between Nom trying to understand the story and Katie deflecting any further information. She was hiding something and Nom could sense it. He just wanted to understand what she felt was so wrong about the event. He just wanted to understand more about what he missed.
“I just want to understand,” Nom tried to reason, “If it was just some random mission why would you hide this. I’m not trying to be aggressive Katie, I just want to be able to be there for you.”
“Don’t,” Katie turned away, “don’t ask me about this please. Just stop.”
Katie started rambling on and pacing the small room. The more she asked him to not ask, her voice became more panicked. He tried to reason with her reaching for her arm to calm her down, but she moved away.
“Katie, we agreed to be honest with each other in here," he gestured around the room.
“And nothing happened,” she was only pulling away from Nom.
“I explained to you why I left the Blue Kingdom. Why can you not speak honestly about this with me? You know I’d understand.”
Katie tried again to deflect the importance of the mission. Yet if it wasn’t so deep then he felt there was no reason to hide it. The more their conversation went on, Nom got worried that there was something greater than 4C.
“I don’t know what you want me to say. Who told you?”
“I’m not telling you who told me. I just want you to be honest, you’re my little sister and I want to understand who you’ve become. A lot of stuff has happened and you’re different now.”
Like a broken record Katie asked what Nom had heard. He explained that he just heard there was a bounty on 4C’s head and that Katie had gone against orders to protect him. For the fourth time during the conversation the true story was repeated, but there was still something Katie was hiding.
“Did you,” it started to click, “break your oath?”
“Don’t,” Katie’s voice shook, “Don’t ask me that.”
“Katie,” Nom’s voice softened as he tried to assure her.
It wasn’t any use though. She started spiraling accusing Nom of having waited for this moment. He tried to back track and convince her he didn’t mean it to come off like that, but Katie wouldn’t listen. The back and forth was defensive on both sides, Katie trying to defend her reason for not telling him and Nom trying to defend his way of asking.
“Listen,” Nom broke the back and forth, “we can forget I asked. You don’t have to tell me, I understand.”
“No, no it’s too late. You want to know that I’m an oath breaker? That the little sister you held in praise broke her oath?”
“This doesn’t change how I see you,” He tried to reach for his sister, but she only backed away.
“But it should,” Nom could see Katie breaking down, “Even though you just got knighted, you’re a better knight than I am.”
There was a moment of silence as Nom tried again to reach for his sister. She didn’t move away, but instead his hand stopped. He saw how Katie was staring at anywhere but him, shame and fear in her eyes. He didn’t understand why she would hold him above her. He was ready to give up knighthood before coming to the Red Kingdom because of the pressure. Yet she still fought for his approval.
“You want the truth,” Katie finally looked at Nom, “You really want to know the truth?”
“Yes,” Nom kept his voice soft, “it’s why I asked Katie.”
“I went against orders, yes. I went to that swamp and we got him. 15 knights so ya, we got him and they wanted to execute him for stealing. He didn’t seem guilty to me, I couldn’t believe he deserved it. He was alone in a cage with people who wanted to hurt him for no reason,” Katie took a breath, eyes filled with a pitying rage, “but when I tried to voice my opinion I’m called a traitor. Told I’m going against orders, that it makes me a traitor like my brother. That’s the truth Nom.”
Nom felt her push him back tears starting to form in her eyes. He stood there speechless trying to find something to say.
“They lifted their swords,” Katie continued on, “I lifted mine. You wanted to know what happened, that’s what happened. It’s why I don’t carry my weapon around any more. 4C is here because he was alone, everyone he cared about left him alone. And you know what, I saw myself in him. I knew what he felt like because I was alone too.”
“I’m sorry,” His voice fell, “You don’t need to prove yourself to me Katie. You think that breaking your oath will ruin how I see you, but it doesn’t. It won’t change that I’m proud of you. If anything it makes me prouder of you.”
“Wait,” Katie cut him off, “wait a minute. The only people that know are Gracie and 4C. 4C has no reason to tell you it makes no sense. Gracie told you? She promised.”
“Katie,” Nom tried to stop her, “That’s not what’s important.”
“Gracie told you,” Katie’s voice became angry, “she had no right to tell you.”
“Katie,” Nom tried to grab his sister’s shoulders, “that’s not what’s important. I’m trying to tell you.”
“No, that is what's important.” Katie brushed him off and quickly left the little room.
Nom stood there alone, their half finished farkle game sitting abandoned on the table. He just wanted to tell her he was proud of her. She stood up for what she thought was right, it made him proud. He stood there for a moment in silence before leaving.
As he went back to the Red Kingdom he thought about it. He didn’t realize it was a possibility to go against orders. He had killed the blue prince earlier that day and now he learns he could have defied orders. Nom believed Katie was braver than he could have been. He knew his sister was smart, but he wished she listened to him. There was no going after her, he chose to give her time to calm down and they could talk more the next week. For now he returned to the Red Kingdom and attended to his duties.