In between battles, sometimes Kiran would take out a small, rectangular device and start tapping at its screen.
When it first happened, Alfonse said nothing. Not because it would be rude to ask, but because he hadn't particularly cared.
There was a firm line between the Askr royal family and the Heroes.
He wasn't going to cross it.
Sharena and Anna had not approached with his level of cautiousness. It was both of them, in fact, who did not hesitate to show her around Askr. Then, Kiran would sometimes take out that device, but only when Sharena and Anna were out of sight. She'd hold it up in front of her face or raise it to the sky and tap something, but Alfonse still had not questioned her.
Today was different.
He would be lying if he said he didn't find it suspicious. No one possessed such technology in the kingdom of Askr or Embla. Kiran herself arrived wielding a weapon that looked like a (what she called) 'gun'. In the rare times she talked about her world, there would be words and descriptions he never heard in his life nor lying between the pages in the archives.
Cars, planes, skyscrapers… If anyone held doubts Kiran was from another world, her vocabulary alone would convince them.
They were deep in the belly of the neighboring woods when he realized Kiran had stopped walking by his side in awkward silence. Turning, he found her crouched by a plain-looking flower with soft petals caught in a curtain of light parting between from the treetops. Her hood was thrown back, copper hair pulled into a loose braid that dangled over her shoulder.
He waited. Waited. And when she fished that rectangle out of her pocket, decided she wasn't getting up any time soon.
She started when he tapped her on the shoulder. The object slipped from her grasp before clattering to the ground. "Geez, don't startle me like that- er, I mean, please don't sneak up on me, Prince Alfonse."
Brief guilt bubbled in his stomach. "Sorry," he meant it. "and just call me 'Alfonse'. You don't need to be so formal with me, summoner." Alfonse inwardly cringed. Kiran. He meant Kiran .
"Then you ," she jabbed him lightly in the chest with her index finger. "do the same. Enough with the 'summoner' crap…"
He narrowed his eyes. Always had an… eloquent way with words. His attention was quickly returned to the device, which Kiran swiped from the ground. "I've been meaning to ask…" (she ceased viciously rubbing the screen with her coat sleeve.) "You stay behind a lot just to play with that. I don't know what you're doing, but usually when the army moves out, you're supposed to go with them. I didn't think I'd have to tell you this, but it's dangerous out on the battlefield. What would you do if there was an ambush?"
Kiran doesn't look up from her ministrations, moving to only tuck a lock of auburn hair behind her ear. "I mean, I've got Breiðablik…" she trailed off, and Alfonse knew she didn't have an excuse.
"You do." he agreed.
"...so as long as I have ammo- orbs , I can just shoot them in the face, right?"
He was helpless to the soft one-note laugh that coughed out of his chest. "You and I both know that's not how your weapon works."
"Alright, you got me." she threw her hands up in mock-surrender, smirk tugging at her lips. "Seriously though, don't worry about it. All I'm doing is snapping a few pictures." and she waved the device for emphasis.
Alfonse blinked. "You're… drawing?"
"Oh, right," she stood next to him, clicking a button on the side. The black screen lit up with a picture of the summoning stone. On top of the image were white numbers. "Not really 'drawing', but just taking a picture. This has a built-in camera." she paused. "You guys… do have 'cameras', right?"
No, they didn't. "No, we don't." Alfonse answered, unable to pry his eyes from this newfound discovery. He was almost afraid to touch it.
"It's kind of like something that captures what you see into a film, or in this case, a digital album. It… downloads the images you see if you click a button. Anyway, look at this." she drew a finger up the screen and opened to another picture. This time, there were little shapes strewn across the background. She selected one and in each individual square that popped into existence were all of Askr. He recognized the Dining Hall, one of the dishes from a few nights ago, the training grounds, Feh, and the flower she had been kneeling in front of earlier.
And they were all in such fine detail
(except the one of a white, gold blur. He had no idea what that was supposed to be)
that it was as if Kiran had 'downloaded' paintings that took people months and months to create. "Is this all part of your technology magic?"
"I'd hardly call it magic." Kiran chuckled, pulling away. "It's just a phone. A lot of us don't leave home without one."
He tilted his head just slightly. "A phone?" he echoed.
"That's a lesson for another day." she held up her 'phone' so the back was facing him. "Say 'cheese'!"
The only thing that escaped him was a stammered, "H-Huh?"
White light exploded from the phone and Alfonse flinched.
"Shit, sorry, I have auto-flash on!" she turned the phone so it was facing him. To his horror, on the screen was a 'picture' of him with eyes squinted and face scrunched in discomfort with a hand raised midway up to block out the offending light.
It was not the most flattering thing he had the pleasure of seeing.
"See? It's you."
Heat bled into his cheeks and he turned to hide his burning face. "Yeah, that's me…" he paused. "Don't show that to anyone."
"Sure, sure." Kiran laughed. "I'll delete it."
Alfonse wasn't sure what 'deleting' entailed. Maybe it was some 'technological' version of erasing, but he wouldn't mind waiting another day for that definition either. He followed her, knowing it would be unwise to trust Kiran's directions on her second time patrolling. "So you're taking these pictures of our world?"
She hummed an affirmative, stuffing her hands in her pockets. "Figured I should make the most while I'm here. Not like my friends back home'll believe me. They'll probably say I downloaded 'em online since I can't draw or anything. Oh, 'online' is—"
"—I think Sharena and the others would want to hear about that too." he cut in hastily. "My brain's still catching up with everything you just told me."
"It is a lot of info, huh? Maybe I should be a part-time teacher to the Order of Heroes and tell you a bit about my world."
He shook his head. "You do enough for us already. You've only been here for a few weeks, but you're a natural when it comes to tactics. Plus, as far as I know, you're the only one who can summon heroes."
"Thanks," Kiran said, suddenly bashful. "I'm... glad I can be useful to someone in this world."
Her words lingered in the air for too long. They felt different, woven in a tone of voice that he didn't normally hear from Kiran. He couldn't explain why, but he didn't like it.
"You must have been useful to someone back home." he assured. At the quizzical look she gave him, he began to backpedal his speech. "We're all important to someone even if we can't understand why. I don't know anything about your world, but I'm sure you have a friend or sibling that cares about you."
Alfonse tried not to feel too offended when she laughed softly.
"Trying to cheer me up, huh?" she nudged him gently in the arm.
"Did it… sound that bad?"
Kiran shook her head swiftly. "Not at all. I just wasn't expecting it to come out of you, that's all." her lips twisted into a small smile. "You always seem distant that it's just a little surprising. I didn't know this side to you existed."
( "I know it's hard, but you should lighten up a bit more, Alfonse! " Sharena said. "All the Heroes are so kind!")
He could try. It was okay if he just toed the line. He could reach Kiran and the others without crossing it completely... "Well, let's finish the patrol and I can show you more of the castle. You still haven't been to the library, right?"
It was interesting, how in a place surrounded by green and shrubbery, Kiran's eyes were the brightest, almost as if he were holding an emerald beneath a ray of light. "I think I would like that a lot, actually. Thank you."
And Alfonse found himself smiling too.
.
.
Omake.
"It's a camera."
"Huh?"
"That's why Kiran's been able to take such good paintings."
"..."
"..."
"Alfonse. I know. And they're called pictures . Kiran let me take a few of them yesterday. Did you see all the cute ones of Feh? Those were by me!"
"...Oh."
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