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Katie gasped as she sat up, her head whipping as she attempted to gain her bearings.
She was surrounded by the intoxicating scent of lavender, something soft beneath her hands.
The lavender fields behind Red.
She sighed and flopped back down onto the picnic blanket, rubbing a hand over her face and trying to remember how she got here.
She groaned loudly at the memory that surfaced.
That weird dark place… the smell and taste of iron heavy in the air and so thick on her tongue she could almost bite through it… the pounding of her own heart in her ears…
And Nom.
Her older brother, laughing just as brightly as the day he-
Don’t think about that.
He had looked at her with the softest eyes and the biggest grin, and they had spent who knows how long yelling at each other and screaming together and running and chasing and laughing in that weird hellish place.
And at the end of the… could she call it a dungeon? It had certainly had the same vibe as the dungeon the Creaking King used to inhabit, although infinitely more bloody and terrifying.
Anyways, at the end of whatever that thing was, the voice had told them both that only one could make it out. Only one person could make it out of the dungeon. Katie had tried to cajole Nom into ascending, tempting him with the thought of seeing their friends again, but she knew in her heart what option he had picked.
“Katie, no matter what you choose, you know I can’t be mad at you.”
“Nom, you know I-” Katie felt her voice break, trying desperately to hold back the tears that were already falling. She couldn’t lose him. Not again.
“Shh. It’s okay. Hey, hey, look at me. It’s all gonna be okay.” Nom approached her with a gentle smile tugging at the corners of his lips. He looked so much younger in the coat and pants he wore in place of his armor, although she was sure he would say the same about her in her pretty mint blouse and cute little white skirt.
He brushed some of her hair out of her face, bringing his hand down to wipe away her tears. “I love you, Katie. I always have, and I always will.”
She watched, helpless, as he gently pulled away, shoes tapping against the stone bricks as he made his way down the opposite hall.
KATIE?
Katie shrieked at the voice, sitting straight up again. “Nom?”
Nothing.
“Nom?” she called again, scrambling to her feet, head on a desperate swivel. “Nominal?!”
KATIE? WHERE ARE YOU?
“Nom? Where are YOU?” She cried back, just barely holding down more tears.
UH, I’M IN A… BLACK VOID.
Despite her desperation and her need to see her brother, she couldn’t help but huff at the nondescript answer.
IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU’RE COMING FROM ALL AROUND ME.
“Yeah, well, it sounds like you’re in my head.” Katie huffed back, running a hand through her hair.
And freezing.
Some had fallen into her face with the motion, and she stared at the streaks of black in her usually ginger hair.
She lifted her other gauntlet to look at her reflection, nearly shrieking in surprise as she saw her whole head of hair was stripey, and one of her eyes had turned from olive green to a deep brown, almost black.
She remembered, suddenly, what the Voice had said to her after she chose to Sacrifice.
“The Ritual accepts your Unity. You become one, bound in shared flesh.”
“Nom…?” Katie whispered. “Are we… did we become… one person?”
I DON’T KNOW, DID WE?!
“You can stop screaming, I’m right here,” Katie grumbled, running a hand through her new hair.
Right. Sorry.
“Wait, so does this mean…”
Katie closed her eyes, relaxing her body. At first, nothing happened.
And then Nom appeared right in front of her.
He grinned widely as he caught sight of her, reaching to pull her into a bone-crushing hug.
“Nom,” She murmured into his shoulder, tugging him as close as physically possible to her body.
“Katie,” he mumbled back, burying his nose in her hair.
They stood like that for a moment, just breathing each other in in this strange void, Nom stroking Katie’s hair and Katie doing her best not to sob.
At some point, they both ended up kneeling on the invisible ground. Katie hummed and reluctantly pulled away. “Wait, so, if we share a body now, that means you can take control too, right?”
Nom’s eyebrows lifted, and he closed his eyes.
A second later, Katie heard his voice echo from all around her. OH HELL YEAH!!!!!
She snorted, and instinct told her to close her eyes as well.
And then she was peering out of the body’s eyes, even as Nom controlled the movements.
It felt odd to not be able to control where she was looking or what she was doing, but she was content to just sit there and let Nom get used to the new body.
At least, for the time being.
ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ⚔︎⛉⚔︎ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ
The first time it came to light among the other citizens of Bannerfall was during a meeting between Queen Graecie and Queen Bekyamon on the bridge, while they were trying to decide the exact agreements of the truce between Red and Blue.
They had called for a break, and everyone had found a spot in the grass to chill and hang out.
Katie could feel Nom staring at Scott out of the corner of their eye.
She allowed it for a while, but when he started more openly watching the little flower mage, she got fed up. “Would you cut it out?”
She said that way too loudly.
The entire gathering turned to look at her, and her cheeks went crimson.
4c, who she had been talking to and who had been in the middle of saying something, shrank back. “Sorry?”
Her eyes widened. “Oh no no no no no, it’s not you 4c,” she hurried to placate. “Nom’s being gross in my head.”
More silence. She could’ve sworn she heard a cricket chirping.
She dropped her head into her hands, grumbling. “Fuck me, man.”
Nom took the opportunity to switch them out, and Katie felt a grin split the body’s face nearly in half. “Man, I’m just tryna watch my friend, and Katie goes and makes it a problem.”
Katie snickers as everyone reacts to Nom’s voice, distinctive in its volume and thick Irish accent, coming out of the body’s mouth.
After Nom gave the gathered people a quick explanation about how he and his little sister ended up sharing a body, he switched back out, allowing Katie to take the lead again.
From then on, it became common for their friends to be able to recognize who was controlling the body based on mannerisms and movements, even before they spoke. Katie and Nom, unable to agree on where to live, even with the peace agreement, instead compromised to build a house in the forest, far enough away to not be directly part of either kingdom but close enough to be involved in affairs and interact with their friends.
Despite all of Katie’s qualms about living in constant reach of her brother, she actually found it quite nice.
Like maybe, this could all work out.