Work Text:
It had been… what, two days? Three? Since Nom’s death. Scott wasn’t sure; he’d been struggling to sleep in the past few days, half due to the preparations to sail and half due to nightmares and insomnia. Every time he closed his eyes it seemed like his brain just looped on last conversation with the Creaking King… and Nom’s last words. The awareness of his inability to do anything to change his friend’s fate did not make it any easier, because where guilt used to sit now there was just a silent regret of not doing more before it was too late, not playing one last round of farkle, or even just chatting a little bit longer; his grief didn’t know where to stick to, so it covered everything, overwhelmingly strong. He knew that it wasn’t any easier for the others either, so often him, Mae, Katie and 4C would spend the afternoon together, causing the first two to postpone finally getting on that boat and leaving in exchange of some pleasant time with Nom’s family.
It was late in the night, and the mage had been reading books for quite a while trying to find a way to fall asleep; way too often he had been staying up all night because he just somehow could never actually manage to sleep, and just ended up passing out from exhaustion the morning after. The more classical remedies didn’t work, and next on his list was trying to find some sort of sleep spell, before trying out getting hit in the forehead by a brick to fall unconscious as an actual method (which was offered by 4C as a joke, but Scott was truly starting to consider it if nothing else worked).
He was so tired that he didn’t even realise it when he actually did fall asleep. He opened his eyes to a white void surrounding him, so bright yet not bothering his eyes at all, that made it impossible to tell if there was actually anything in there, be it a ceiling or a floor or anything of the sort. The only thing that proved the existence of something in that place was the fact that technically, he was standing on something, because he could feel that he was standing on some sort of surface.
He looked around; the place was quiet, and he couldn’t feel anything within it, be it sounds, smells, textures… it quite literally felt like a void of absolute white nothingness. Or well, that was until he spotted something.
There was a figure in the distance, seemingly laying down on… the ambiguous surface they were on, in lack of better terms. They didn’t appear to be moving, probably unconscious or something of the sort; Scott started walking in their direction, but then stopped for a second when he recognized who it was.
Nom was just laying there, looking peaceful in a way the mage had never seen him look in all the time he had known him. His brown hair were messy and he was wearing his glasses, even though one would assume he would normally remove them to sleep. His appearance was the same as how it was when Scott first met him, before the Creaking King’s corruption started to alter his features. The only thing that felt a little out of place in the mage’s eyes were the clothes; Nom was nearly always wearing his armour, but in that moment he was just wearing simple clothes, more akin to what a traveller or a regular citizen would wear. Maybe that was one of the things that added to the peacefulness of the scene, and Scott couldn’t help but think that maybe, if the future where the knight got the chance to sail happened, maybe that would’ve been what he would wear. Something fitting for someone that needs simple yet comfortable clothes for the days spent at the sea.
As he started walking towards his friend he was interrupted by a voice behind him.
“Scott? Where are we?”
He turned around, surprised at hearing a familiar voice; a familiar redhead rogue was standing there, looking confused. Mae.
“I honestly do not know” he replied, gesturing around “I don’t even know what ‘here’ is”
She walked closer to him, and then noticed the figure in the distance. “Wait, is that..?”
“Looks like him, but I haven’t gotten close enough to check…” was Scott’s reply.
The two of them took a few more steps in the direction of the person, before their walking was interrupted by an invisible wall. Even though running into it didn’t hurt, it still gave a weird sensation of touching something both solid and incorporeal at the same time.
“What..?”
“Huh..? Is this a magical wall or something?” Mae tried sticking her hand through the invisible wall, but even though it seemed to go through, it still wouldn’t let them pass. It was incredibly odd.
Their confusion was soon interrupted by two more voices joining them.
Turning around they were faced with Katie and 4C; the four of them tried to guess what was going on, and Scott was starting to think that maybe, he wasn’t just dreaming.
“So you think we were kidnapped?” Katie looks at the slime with both doubt and worry in her expression.
“I just said that the invisible wall reminds me of when I was taken by the Rogue God, not necessarily that we were kidnapped… in our sleep…” there was a slight hope in 4C’s voice, clearly not wanting to repeat certain past experiences.
“I mean if we wake up this will all be gone, so I believe we can just chill for now…” as much as Scott tried to sound reassuring, he was worried too. After all, it was quite the odd situation.
Their conversation was soon interrupted by a loud sound, resembling the noise made by closing a metal gate violently; they turned around, looking at what made the sound.
Behind the little figure that was Nom stood what at first appeared to be a massive, silver-coloured metal gate, with blood stains on it and pure darkness on the other side; but when looking more carefully one would notice how the darkness extended way farther than the gate’s height, and above… was something that vaguely resembled a head. The figure itself was hard to see clearly, as if it was blurred by some sort of weird mist, but they could feel the being’s gaze on them. A silent pressure that didn’t feel threatening but for sure felt dangerous.
A few seconds afterwards, which was not enough time for them to recover from the sight, another figure appeared, jingles and ringings accompanying them. It was way smaller than the first one, but still bigger than a human, and it didn’t look humanoid. It resembled some odd mix between a canine and a feline, with six limbs, a cat-like tail split in two at the end, bird-like back feet, long, fluffy fur and a cruel grin on its face. It was purplish and bright yellow, with heavy-looking gold jewellery decorating its body. When it looked in their direction, its grin became so wide that it looked like it surpassed where the jaw normally would end; it felt wrong, and looked quite uncanny and creepy. It almost seemed like it was about to speak before a third figure appeared, the delicate sound of a flute preceding them.
This one looked way more akin to a human than the other two, but it was at least four times the size of a human and bore three faces; the left one kind and cheerful, the middle one neutral and more mysterious, and the right one just looked like a skull. They had a dull green colouration mixed with brighter lime details; they had mismatched horns and arms, with one looking like it was made out of some sort of plant-like material, while on the other side there were three bug-like wings. Their clothes, if one could call them that, were very odd, and their overall appearance was hard to read, along with their intentions.
The first one to speak was the one resembling a mix between some sort of feline and canine.
“So… why are we here again?”
Their voice sounded very cheeky and arrogant, and mixed with it was the sound of bells and chimes, a cheerful jingling that seemed to say ‘try and get me, I dare you’.
“The trial” the response seemed to come from above, a deep, melancholic voice mixed with the sound of clashing metal and the creak of some sort of metal gate.
The purple figure turned towards the metal gate, looking towards the head high up above it. “Well, then why do they” and pointed at the little group with one of the ends of their tail “Have to be here?” they sounded annoyed, but also… somewhat pleased? It was hard to tell, especially with the jingles accompanying their words.
There was a sound that resembled both the wind and a flute, that was followed by more jingles that somehow sounded both annoyed and very full of themselves; the sound continued for a bit, with metallic sounds occasionally joining in, and the only way to tell there was actually a conversation going on was how the beings in front of them were moving in response to the others’ supposed words. In the meantime Scott had turned back to the others, to discuss the situation, and realised that while Mae and Katie looked confused, 4C looked absolutely terrified.
“4C? Are you okay?” he asked, taking a step towards the rogue, who shook his head. “That.. that’s the Rogue God” he murmured, tilting his head in the direction of the purple creature. “And the greenish one is the Mage Goddess, so I can only assume that… the other one… is the Knight God”
Looking back at the beings behind him, Scott would admit that he could very easily believe 4C’s words, but that didn’t make it any less terrifying. They were trapped in some invisible box in a white void with three gods with them, something that was very easily the opposite of safe.
After a bit of silence on the mortals’ part, and the very odd discussion happening near them, Katie spoke. “They mentioned a trial… what could it be about?” she asked, looking at the others.
“Well it doesn’t seem to necessarily involve us. Maybe we’re just meant to be witnessers?” Mae said, a bit hopeful. Both her and 4C seemed to really dislike being in an invisible box.
“And what are they talking about now” the Rogue God’s voice made them all turn in his direction; he was looking at them with the disdain of an actor looking at a crowd chatting during a show instead of paying attention.
“Doesn’t matter. We must continue” the deep voice replied, the Knight God. The low rumbling and metal clattering that followed each of their words made they seem more intimidating than they already appeared to be.
The Rogue God didn’t like the response, sighing loudly with the sound of ringing bells falling on the floor following it, and then speaking again. “I don’t get why I have to be here, when he’s one of yours, not mine. And for all I care, that guy” a flick of the tail towards Nom’s figure, that had nearly been forgotten with everything going on “Can just stay dead. I don’t like him”
“Is this your final judgement,” a raspy, creepy voice spoke, seemingly coming out of the Mage Goddess’ skeleton face; it would’ve been scarier if it wasn’t accompanied by the gentle sound of wind chimes, but it wasn’t exactly comforting either “Or do you wish to wait and think before deciding?” this time, it was the middle face speaking, voice neutral and monotone.
“It’s final, now can I leave?” the purple creature grinned.
“No” a choir of three voices, one raspy, one neutral and one cheerful, replied, with gleeful flutes playing alongside the word. The Rogue God suddenly looked extremely upset and disappointed, their tail flicking down.
“Let’s continue” the monotone voice spoke again. “So, we must decide what this one’s fate is. We’ve already been waiting too long to make this decision.” she had lightly pointed towards Nom. “It doesn’t matter if we have witnesses or not.”
Scott was confused, but also… it couldn’t be what he hoped they were referring to, would it? What were the chances of the Gods were discussing whether or not Nom should come back to life? It wasn’t… normal, to go against the cycle of life like that, but the knight’s death hadn’t exactly been “normal” either, so it wasn’t totally out of the question. He looked at his friends, seeing the same realisation he came to on their faces as well. He just hoped their hopes wouldn’t immediately be crushed.
“It was his fate to die, but that fate was caused by a divergence in his original one created by that Creaking’s meddling with it.” the Knight God spoke. “The question is if we want to follow what happened or what should’ve happened.”
“I mean he took that deal willingly didn’t he?” the Rogue God snickered “And now he’s dead, so, end of the story!”
“I thought you said you had made your decision” the Mage Goddess commented, the cheerful voice of the smiling face sounding surprisingly serious while still being gleeful.
“I did” was the cheeky reply.
“Then why are you still speaking?” this time it was the raspy voice speaking.
“Because I want to”
Scott could feel the death stare being given to the Rogue God even though it wasn’t directly facing him.
“Aaanyways” the canine-looking deity spoke again “I don’t even understand why we’re considering to bring this guy back. It’s against the natural order of life”
Suddenly, a violin-like sound came, seemingly coming from everywhere all at once, and soon ceased; but the expression on the Rogue God’s face had changed. “Ah. So it was you. Well, I should’ve expected it, this is your domain after all” he commented “So you’re also on this whole thing of changed fate being not the natural one anyway so it can’t be trusted on this, I see”
The violin sound reappeared, sounding like it was being carried by the wind from somewhere far beyond that place.
“Huh. I guess that makes sense… it’s not like I’m an expert on this kind of things anyway”
The violin didn’t reply; in the silence, the Rogue God muttered to himself. “Could’ve told me she was here…”
“So” the Mage Goddess picked back up the conversation, as if they hadn’t been interrupted “like she said, manipulation of one’s fate can and will affect them in such a way that one can try and fix said fate, and in this case, it would also automatically revert the… effects, of this fate”
The other god didn’t reply, but he looked fairly annoyed by the whole thing.
“We must decide” the deep voice of the Knight God came, almost starting due to how silent they had been. “Whether or not reverting the fate is what must be done”
“Well, he caused that fate himself, and he seemed pretty aware that it would probably lead to his death when he took the deal” the Rogue God spoke again, the gleeful jingle of the bells not matching the coldness of their tone. “So it’s not like he didn’t expect this outcome or something like that. He seemed pretty willing to go through with it at the very least”
“That is true” the Mage Goddess spoke “But at the same time, it wasn’t a certain outcome from the start; and his intentions behind making that decision were probably one of the reasons of his certainty of the outcome. He didn’t seem to expect to die in such a way, he seemed fairly sure he would die on a battlefield.” The smiling face muttered something akin to ‘Mortals and their useless wars’.
“He kept his new Oath until the end. Respected it more than one would ever expect from an Oathbreaker” the Knight God spoke again, the only sound behind their words being the rustling of leaves, the most peaceful sound accompanying their words that had been heard since the start of the conversation. “While not received officially, it was clear that it was an Oath he wanted”
“Why are you even bringing this into the conversation?” the Rogue God sighed, snarky and annoyed. “That has nothing to do with the creaky topic at hand”
The other god proceeded to ignore him and continued speaking. “He actively opposed the Creaking King despite the deal, and not once he considered switching sides. He always knew where his loyalties lie, at least”
“Loyalty is an admirable thing, when placed in the right people” the Mage Goddess muttered. “Though this, unfortunately, does not aid us much in the current situation”
“That is true.” the Knight God replied.
“He had an unfair end, and his own guesses of the consequences of his action can’t be fully used to state his awareness of the situation he brought himself into. That we can say” the skull face of the deity of magic murmured, raspy and more whispery than before. “We could always ask our little guests what they think of this situation, too…” the face grinned, as much as a skeleton could grin at the very least. “I’m sure their input would be much appreciated”
“We can’t do that! You really think you’ll get an impartial response from them?!” the Rogue God jumped in, looking shocked at his fellow deity.
“As if you aren’t partial, …” the Mage Goddess murmured, the last word sounding like a fast jingle of multiple windchimes; the other god’s actual name. He was fairly offended by the comment and glared at her, tail twitching.
“It is true that they might lean into asking for their friend back” she continued “But I would also hope that they have a reason, and explain themselves”
“... let’s ask them then”
After the Knight God spoke, they could feel the eyes of all the gods on them; while they weren’t threatening, it was still truly terrifying.
The little group stayed silent for a bit, too scared to say anything, but then Mae stepped forward and started speaking. “He… he promised he would train me! And he said he wasn’t leaving, but it feels like he did…” her eyes were watery, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to fall. “He wanted to sail… and me and Scott wanted to go sailing for him, but it would be better if it was with him…”
She was trying very hard not to cry, so Scott hugged her, hoping to bring at least a bit of comfort. “I don’t think I have an impartial opinion… I just miss my best friend” was all he said to the gods, while still holding Mae.
“He was… is, my brother, and 4C’s brother too. He always tried to fix things, but he often just made things worse because he never considered that we care about him, and so he never put his own safety in consideration when making decisions… if I had the chance, I would try to make him understand that. That he doesn’t have to try and do anything for our sake, that we want him to be safe as much as he wants us to be…” Katie spoke up, her gaze nearly challenging the gods’, living up to her title. “He’s always been stubborn, but with more time, I’m sure we could find a way to make him understand”
4C didn’t speak, but he held Katie’s hand, both for her and for his own sake.
After a bit of silence, the Mage Goddess hummed. “I guess we now know what they think”
“I don’t see how this helps” the Rogue God muttered. “It doesn’t aid us in the decision making at all”
Surprisingly, the Knight God spoke up. “That can only be said if we don’t take their opinion into account” he said “But I think we should at least consider their point of view.”
“Don’t tell me you just listen to random mortals now!” the tail of the god of rogues was lashing back and forth, clearly radiating anger.
The other deity seemed unfazed. “They didn’t come here by their own volition, but by ours. At the very least, we should take into account what they say, because they knew this mortal personally”
The Rogue God didn’t reply, but he glared in the direction of the other two deities.
“He seems to have made mistakes, but not necessarily have been ill-intentioned. That is a point in his favour” the Mage Goddess commented. “Though, I suggest we discuss this… amongst ourselves”
The Knight God replied in the language that only appeared as sounds for mortals; soon, the three of them were actively discussing in that language, leaving the group fairly left out, even though none of the four dared speaking.
Scott was sure that the others were in his same situation, both hopeful and not daring to get their hopes up. It was a cruel thing, to allow them to hope for Nom to come back, and possibly crush the hope forever soon after. He stared at the figure of his friend laying down, looking so small compared to the deities around him. Scott couldn’t help but wish that he was awake, that he would say something, hear him speak again without the struggle that came with it in his last moments. One couldn’t help but have the selfish wish of more time in a situation like this.
It took the gods what felt like hours to come to a decision. It seemed that the Mage Goddess was the one to deliver the outcome to the four mortals.
“After an… unnecessarily long discussion, we have come to a conclusion” she spoke; they could feel her gaze on them even though her eyes didn’t seem to actually look anywhere. “This was not an easy decision to make, nor an easy outcome to give. Be aware that things like this are unlikely to ever happen again, and this was a… special situation”
While not visible, Scott could tell that her gaze was gentle, like one looks at a kid or a little, innocent animal. “We’ve decided to grant Nominal a second chance, since his first was ripped away from him far sooner than it was supposed to. Things could be… different, but we hope we made the right decision. You shall find him tomorrow, in the same place he left your realm”
Scott could feel tears coming in his eyes; he hoped, prayed it wasn’t all just a dream. Hoped that when he woke up the day after, it was real; he wouldn’t be able to handle the truth if it wasn’t. It would be too cruel.
The morning after Scott was a bit groggy, probably caused by finally sleeping somewhat decently after days of nearly no sleep. It took him a second to remember what he had dreamed; but before he could do anything, he heard his front door nearly being broken down with how hard it was being knocked on, and when he went to open it Mae basically jumped on him and nearly threw him on the floor.
“Scott! Please tell me it wasn’t just me and you actually also had a weird dream where there were the Gods and Katie and 4C and-” she was speaking really fast, like she couldn’t keep her thoughts in.
He interrupted her. “I did… do you think it was real? Should we go find Katie and 4C?”
“Yes!! We should go, immediately! We need to check… it has to be real, right? Otherwise we wouldn’t have the same dream I think… it would be such an odd coincidence…”
She started dragging him out the door, and he was thankful that he fell asleep wearing his regular clothes the day before. He nearly forgot to grab his staff with how hurried she was.
While they were sprinting towards Blue Kingdom’s gate they stumbled upon Graecie, who was talking to Owain. “Oh, where are you two running off to?”
“Uhm… we had a dream that possibly wasn’t a dream and we’re going to check on it… it’s a bit absurd but…” Scott spoke, but before he could continue, Mae spoke up. “We both had the same dream of being in… some white void, and the gods were there! Like, the Rogue God and the Knight God and the Mage Goddess… and long story short, they said that Nom is back! Something about his fate having been changed by the Creaking King and them restoring it or something, but well Katie and 4C were also there so we’re going to find them to see if they actually had this dream as well and it’s true, and not just a dream!”
“What? That’s…” Owain sounded confused.
“It sounds improbable, but also too specific to have been just a coincidence… do you want company in checking if it’s true?” Graecie spoke kindly, but Scott knew that she was worried about them.
“I mean I wouldn’t mind… we’re heading to Red first, then we’re going to go to Nom’s grave” the mage replied, to which Graecie nodded and started following them, Owain tagging along in a somewhat unconvinced manner.
When they started approaching Red they spotted a familiar slime and redhead heading out of the gate; once they spotted the four Blue Kingdom members they immediately started walking in their direction.
“I’m assuming that it was real then” Scott said when the two were within earshot.
“Well what we saw was real. I don’t know if the outcome is… I don’t really trust the Gods” 4C replied, rightfully a bit doubtful of the whole thing.
“So, are Graecie and Owain like, accompanying us, or..?” Katie asked, specifically eyeing the latter one.
“Yeah, now we should go!” Mae’s excitement was contagious, and as everyone started walking in the direction of the cliff Scott truly hoped that the ‘dream’ was true; he wouldn’t be able to handle how crushed Mae would feel if it wasn’t. She had already suffered enough when Nom died, she didn’t deserve to go through that again.
When they started approaching the gravestone the mage started looking around. The cliff looked peaceful, the pale willow guarding the headstone’s branches slowly swaying in the morning breeze. Nothing seemed different from how it looked the day before, when the little quartet had gone there to play farkle; Scott was already ready for disappointment when 4C suddenly sprinted towards the grave.
That’s when he noticed it as well. A figure laying down in the grass near the tree, wearing the same exact clothes as he was in the ‘dream’. Nom.
He started running as well, Mae and Katie following while Graecie and Owain continued on just walking, probably to respect the quartet’s little moment with their friend.
The knight was unconscious, but alive; the second she approached him Katie sat down and placed his head on her lap, her eyes watery as she looked at her brother’s face, that she barely looked at when his appearance started to change, when the corruption took away what made them look alike and changed him into a permanent reminder of the one awful decision he made that costed him his life.
4C sat near her, looking at his brother like one looks at something they aren’t sure is real but hope it is; near him was Mae, that clearly wanted to hug Nom, but let Katie have her moment with her brother. Scott just stood behind them, silent, looking at his best friend. It wasn’t just a dream.
When Nom opened his eyes his sister started to actually sob, his brown eyes staring into hers, the one matching feature of theirs finally visible again. He didn’t speak, but maybe he just didn’t manage to, because Katie immediately hugged him so hard that it probably left him breathless; luckily for him, Scott and 4C were there to tell her to maybe not accidentally hug her brother to death the second she got him back, which earned them a glare but she let go enough to allow him to actually breathe.
After the hug, everyone went and hugged Nom as well, even though Katie was still holding her brother and clearly had no intention of letting him go.
It took the man a bit to actually say something, either because of the possible overwhelmingness of coming back to life, or because he didn’t know what to say. “I told you guys it wasn’t a goodbye forever”
“You- you absolute idiot. You can’t possibly be saying that. You died! You were dead and we couldn’t do anything about it. You-” Katie hugged him again, but it felt more like she wanted to hit him and didn’t just because he had just come back to life. “Don’t you ever do that to me again”
“I… I’m sorry, Katie.” Nom gently caressed her hair, his hand slightly trembling, which didn’t go unnoticed by Graecie, who was standing silently nearby.
“I think he’s probably tired after all of this… let’s bring him back to Blue to rest, okay? You can stay with him, of course” the elf spoke gently, approaching the group while Owain overlooked the scene, not moving.
After staring at Graecie for a second Katie nodded, and the two of them helped Nom stand up; the man was surprisingly unstable on his legs, and Scott was worried at how weak he looked, even though it was probably fair considering the whole experience.
But the half-elf wasn’t the only one that noticed the knight’s struggle.
“Oh” Nom murmured, leaning on the two holding him, fairly lucky that they were two knights and thus people fairly strong physically.
“Can you walk?” Graecie whispered to him; he looked at her face for a moment before replying. “Uhm… I think so, just… not fast” he spoke, looking disappointed.
“Don’t worry. We can walk as slow as you need.” she said, smiling softly at him, while Katie just looked at him with worry.
Soon, the group started slowly walking towards Blue Kingdom. Like the Mage Goddess had said, maybe things would be different… but at least, they were all together again.