"Cassius!" my sister shouted behind me. I tried to ignore her, stomping away from Jorrvaskr and toward my own home. I wanted nothing to do with her. Nothing to do with whatever excuse she would come up with.

Still, I spun around, challenging her to continue. "Leave me alone, Karalissa. You've done enough."

"What are you getting at?" she asked, but I just continued toward my house. I reached the door, and I fumbled with the lock. "Talk to me!"

I got the door open, and I couldn't suppress a laugh. I couldn't look at her, but I spoke to her over my shoulder. "You know, for someone who insists that I'm the one who doesn't like to talk, you sure seem to have a lot that you failed to mention." I entered my house and slammed the door in her face.

I was seething, smoke trailing from my lips as I crossed the room. On my way up the stairs, Lydia passed me. I tried to grab her, hold her to me for comfort, but she wiggled past me and went straight for the door.

"What the hell are you doing, Lyd?"

She opened the door, allowing Karalissa to come inside. "This needs to be aired out. I'm tired of you leaving all the time." Karalissa stood in the corner near the door, ready to take whatever I had to dish out to her. Lydia continued, though. "You haven't been doing any planning with Ulfric, have you?"

My eyes darted between the two of them. I folded my arms across my chest. "No."

Lydia smiled. "Of course you haven't. Because you're avoiding Karalissa."

Karl looked furious. "Why are you avoiding me?"

"Because you're a liar, Karalissa!" I shouted back at her, my chest rumbling and vibrating the entire room. "I can't stand to be around you right now."

"I'm not a liar!" she yelled, holding her arms up in utter confusion.

"I told you everything, Karalissa! I told you all about my adventures away from you. The battles I saw, the people I met. I shared the woman I love with you, and you don't even have the decency to mention that you're a gods damned werewolf!"

She blinked at me. "You're mad at me because I didn't tell you that I'm cursed with the blood of a beast? A beast that I hardly have any control over myself, let alone the ability to flaunt it about and bring it to supper whenever I want."

"I'm mad because you lied about your time at Jorrvaskr. Skjor turned you the night that he died, didn't he? And you feel responsible because if you hadn't let him, he wouldn't have gone out that night."

Karalissa stood in front of my door with her mouth agape. Lydia gestured to her. "True, or not?"

She looked between us, then closed her mouth. "True."

"And you didn't tell me because…"

She took a second to think about an answer. "I didn't want you to think I was a monster."

"You are a monster, Karalissa! You're a damned werewolf!" I shouted at her. "And I eat dragons. I kill people by shouting at them! Why would the idea that you can turn into a giant dog bother me?"

"On the topic of shouting, tone it down a notch, Cass. That's worrisome." she noted, pointing to the trail of smoke slithering out of my throat with each word I spat at my sister.

Karalissa shook her head. "I'm sorry, Cass, I just didn't—"

"Oh, I'm not done." I interrupted. "I could very easily forgive that, because I understand. I didn't tell Ma that I'm the Dragonborn because I didn't want to answer all of the questions. I didn't want her to look at me like I'm the savior of Skyrim, the way everybody else does." I took a breath. "What I can't forgive is that you didn't tell me about Vilkas."

"Vilkas? What are you—"

"How could you not tell me that you're getting married, Karl?" I lowered myself to sit on the stairs, feeling utterly defeated. "Do you know how much that hurts me? I'm your brother!"

"Cassius, I can explain…"

"Please do, because I really don't understand."

Karalissa shifted from foot to foot. "It doesn't seem like you like him very much, Cass."

I blinked at her, absolutely dumbfounded. "You're joking, right?" When she shook her head, I laughed. I stood and continued up the stairs, headed for my room. "Wow."

"We're not done with this, Cass." I heard my wife call from the base of the stairs.

From the hallways, I shouted back. "No, I am done, Lyd. I never would have kept something like that from her."

Karalissa groaned. "I was going to tell you, Cass! I wanted to tell you right after we decided to get married, at dinner with Ma in Solitude. Right before the Gourmet caused a riot in the street."

I laughed again. "And you never had another opportunity?"

"It's hard to find a spare moment of your time, Cassius. You're so involved in this Civil War, you don't hear anything unless the sentence starts with 'Ulfric Stormcloak'."

I walked back down the stairs, looking between both of the women standing in my living room. "I'm not that difficult to talk to, am I?"

Lydia sighed. "I am not saying Karalissa was right, because she definitely was not. But you are difficult to talk to when you're involved in another matter that you're passionate about."

I shook my head. "Karl, do you really think I'm cold and unfeeling? That I wouldn't care that my little sister is getting married?"

"No, Cass. I don't think that." Karalissa said. "But what you don't understand is that I already know what you're feeling."

I blinked at her. "I don't understand."

She sat in of the chairs at the table in the corner. "Cassius, the beast blood gives us other abilities, too. Other than just the transformations. Aela can sense heat and track footprints that never existed, Vilkas can put thoughts in your head. I can feel others' emotions. Everyone's. The difference is they choose when to use their abilities, and I can't. It never stops."

"I don't follow."

"Every time you see me with him, you feel disgusted and uncomfortable. Not because I'm with Vilkas, but because I'm with someone. The idea of me being in love and getting married literally makes your stomach turn, and I don't know why. So why would I tell you, if you can't even stand to look at us?"

I felt a twinge of guilt in my stomach. Karalissa pointed. "And now you feel guilty because you didn't know I could tell."

As she spoke, I was shocked. She snorted. "And now you're surprised because I'm not making this up."

I was growing irritated that she was feeling my own emotions before I could voice them. She raised her arms in confusion. "And now you're angry. Why are you angry?"

I scowled at her. "Karalissa, stop doing that. It's creepy." She shrugged. "I don't know, Karl. It's not that I don't like him, because I do. He's a good man. It's just the idea of you being old enough to get married that makes me uncomfortable. When I look at you, I don't see the Harbinger of the Companions or Vilkas' wife or even a warrior. I see my little sister, who had to sit on a stack of books at the supper table until she was eleven because she couldn't reach anything. I see the little sister who picked me flowers every day when I had the flu. I see the little sister who was so embarrassed at the Bard's College that I had to make a scene to divert the attention from her. And I see the little sister who cried and cried after we left home, even though she thought I couldn't hear it."

Karalissa sighed. "Well, I didn't know that."

"And it's because I don't talk." I took a breath, walking to sit in the chair beside her. "I'm sorry I made you feel like you couldn't talk to me."

"And I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the beast. Or Vilkas."

I put my hand on her shoulder. "Karl, if you love him, I love him."

She smiled. "I do. I love him."

I groaned. "Ugh, that's so gross." Lydia laughed from across the room, where she leaned against our bookcase. "So when's the wedding? Lyd and I want to be there."

Karalissa shrunk into her seat. "Well, we've been putting it off for a while now, but Vilkas wants to get married this weekend."

"That's soon." I said to her, a scowl on my face.

She shrugged. "I know, but it's what he asked for, you know. For his birthday."

"Awww." Lydia cooed from her bookcase.

I held my hand up at my wife. "Don't "aww' that. It's gross. Why is he so nice?" My sister shrugged. "Alright. This weekend, then."

Karalissa smiled, leaning forward in her seat to hug me. "I promise I'll never keep secrets from you again."

"Good." I mumbled, winking at Lydia from where I sat. She smiled back, a knowing smile, because we had a little secret of our own. For that matter, I had my own secret. But now was not the time.

Soon enough, I could promise my sister the same.