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To the public and all his fellows Ambrosius Goldenloin is the epitome of what it means to be a knight, even after the institute was brought down.
Brave. Charismatic. Honourable and just.
Which is why he’s sneaking out of his house in the middle of the night 6 months after Nimona came back to have a breakdown infront of a statue of his ancestors statue after constantly trying to rebuild a stable government.
This is not to imply that’s a regular thing, but only to state that he can make his way over with his eyes closed.
It was a week before the final touches on the new government were finalised and instead of relaxing in his shared house with Bal he was walking over towards Gloreth’s statue to cry?
He’s Ambrosius Goldenloin,if he can’t do this who can! He can do this, he can-
“I think I’m going to puke.” He ran over to the nearest trash can and started heaving.
”Nope I’m good.”
He tightened his sneaking cloak(it’s not a dumb name Bal) and continued stumbling elegantly walking the last stretch towards the statue.
Okay he can can do this, “Hey Glo-“
”Hey Gloreth”
He froze and slowly rotated his neck to the right and noticed a child in plain worn clothes with long red hair 20ft away from him, luckily they hadn’t seemed to notice him.
Nimona?
“It’s been awhile huh
He froze. They were talking about him right?
”God… or is it still ‘good Gloreth’ now. I wonder what you’d think of that”
He should probably back away, slowly.
crack
They didn’t seem to hear that luckily.
CRACK
And they’re now looking at him, he should say something right? And then leave and never think about this again.
The child was looking at him and yep that’s definitely Nimona.
”uhhhh hi? I didn’t know this spot was taken today, Great seeing you butineedtogo.” He rambled, suddenly regretting his decisions up until this point.
“What’s got you spooked Goldy.” Nimona asked,”You look like you’ve seen a ghost. And the only ghost that would appear here… well I doubt you’d be making that expression.” They joked.
He just hesitantly pointed at his eyes and their expression cleared.
”ah” they sighed and from one blink to the next their eyes went to normal.
“Well I seem to have intruded on something personal so I’m going to leave you to whatever this is” he said and Nimona just looked at the statue again, thankfully this time without sounding like they broke their neck.
He went to turn on his heel and start walking back to his house when Nimona spoke again.
”She called me sister”
What.
He looked at Nimona and asked “Gloreth?”
They ignored his question, “We played together, lived together. And she betrayed me, FOR THIS!”.
Nimona made a violent gesture that seemed to refer to the whole city
“She named me, said she loved me. Said I was her best friend, the sister she never had” Nimona started ranting.
”Are you okay?” He asked, his instinct getting ahead of him. And now they’re crying.
”Are you okay?” He asked going to wrap his arm around them to comfort them.
They seemed to lean against his arm.
”Why wasn’t I enough?” They seemed to plead.
”I’m sorry” was all he could offer, unable to process what was happening.
”I loved her in a way single life time couldn’t understand, was it as a best friend? A sister? Something more? I’ll never know.” Their eyes went back to glowing but the tears never stopped.
”I’m sorry”
”Because she left me and I can’t leave the pinata she made of her corpse”
He didn’t know what to do so he did what he could and hugged them.
“You remind me of her sometimes” Nimona confessed.
”Of Gloreth?”
”It’s not an insult. it’s just sometimes when your hair is in the corner of my vision, it’s like she’s there.” They revealed.
”I can dye it if you want, maybe I can match Bal.” He said, trying to comfort them.
”Ha. Are you kidding? Boss might actually kill me this time” Nimona joked in poor taste”
”Don’t say that, you know he’d lose it if anything happened to you again.” He said.
Nimona went quiet for a long while.
”Do you want to tell me about her?” He finally asked.
Nimona just continued being silent.
”If it would help you get it off your chest” he continued, hoping he didn’t step on a landmine.
Eventually Nimona spoke.
”She liked apples”