{-Alfonse-}

If it weren't for how short the ride back had been, he'd probably had fallen asleep on the way there. Midway through he'd gotten considerably tired and, despite the amount of things Chrys had given them to think about, it didn't keep him from immediately going to his room.

He was one of the first up the next morning, at Kiraat's request keeping himself busy by helping out (he honestly couldn't complain, feeling like the older had done too much for them already to just accept without payment). Of course, Kiraat had pulled him over when he passed by the stables.

The pegasus he'd been tending to immediately trotted over to Alfonse, rubbing her head against him until he finally started petting her. "You don't see very many pegasus outside of the ones used in the military nowadays, and much less those with a dappled coat. She must've cost a fair bit."

"You'd think," Kiraat remarked, joining them. "But that's not actually the case. This is Lani, Umber's old mount. He found her when she was still pretty young—for a while they were almost inseparable. I've been looking after her for about twenty-three years now. Glad to see she's still got the same spirit she had back then. Haven't seen her this happy in a long time."

"How old is she now?" Alfonse couldn't help but smile at her; there was just something in the way she looked so pleased to have him petting her.

"Oh, I dunno… thirty-five, maybe? None of us really knew how old she was when Umber found her." Kiraat shrugged. "When he died, I just took over her care without really thinking about it. He'd been so close to her I didn't want to just leave her on her own. She's kind of like that perfect reminder for me of how nothing's really the same anymore…"

Alfonse's small smile faded. "Are… the rest of them dead, too, then? If you don't mind talking about it."

"Out of the original eight of us—me, Zenas, Takane, Umber, your parents, and Veronica's parents even if we weren't really close—only two of us are still alive," Kiraat answered. "But, sometimes, it feels like it's just Hen. After some mistakes I made in the past, Gustav kept her from really interacting with me. Last time that I know of that she acknowledged my existence was this time five years ago."

"What happened five years ago..?" The question came out before he could think it over.

Kiraat seemed confused by it, at least. "You mean you don't remember? Or Hen didn't tell you?" He shook his head. "Let's start here: what do you remember about that summer?"

"Normal Order of Heroes stuff," Alfonse replied hesitantly. "Honestly the most eventful thing I can think of was when we made a trip down to the beach." And how the others had continuously teased him about reading, but that probably didn't fall under what Kiraat was looking for.

"Well, I guess you were pretty sick then… but I feel like someone would definitely remember when they cough up blood for two weeks…" Kiraat mumbled, seeming to forget Alfonse was there. "Then again it wasn't normal, either…"

"You say that like a lot of fifteen-year-olds cough up blood," Alfonse pointed out. Not only had both he and Sharena forgot that she got cut by a nightmare before, but he also couldn't remember ever coughing up blood? Somehow, he found himself wondering if Anna or Zacharias remembered; but there wasn't a chance he was going to confront the former with the question, nor was there even a possibility of asking the latter.

And of course, like everyone else when he wanted to know something (even if he felt like this time wasn't intentional), Kiraat immediately changed the subject. "I think Veronica's coming for you."

Just as he said, the youngest of the group was walking towards them. She somehow looked younger in the white-and-gold sundress Fauna let her borrow—along with most of the other clothes she'd brought—and, if not for her occasional stumble, she might've even looked elegant.

"Are you alright?" Alfonse asked when she was close enough, forgetting the pegasus and moving a little closer to her.

Veronica nodded slowly. "I had a headache and it was talking to me again, so I did what I needed."

"You should be careful with that," Kiraat warned. "Gods forbid you overdose on something. I'm sure it's not all pleasant things in those drugs of yours, and a girl like you would be lucky to survive it."

Alfonse had a question of a much different shade, though. "You're not running out of them, are you? I knew you were able to make a handful before we left, but that should be nearly gone by now."

"I'm fine. And if I run out, I'll simply make more… it's why Bruno showed me how to do it." Veronica looked up at Alfonse. "Speaking of, I'd like to talk to you. I haven't found the right time to ask until now and, talking to Chrys yesterday, I decided this would be the best opportunity." Hearing her talk a little longer, it wasn't hard to hear the slight slur of her words and her absent tone. Really, only her expression portrayed that nothing was wrong at all, even if she looked at him in a way that showed that whatever she wanted to talk about was serious.

"Of course," Alfonse agreed. He waved goodbye to Kiraat and followed Veronica back inside. "What is it?"

She sighed, sitting down at the kitchen table. "I know he didn't send you anything about my arrival, but did Bruno happen to send you anything else recently?"

"I've been checking the spot we'd put them before every time I'm able, but I've never gotten anything." He hadn't expected to; really, he'd thought it was more of a way for him to send something to them rather than the other way around. Still, he sat down at the table as well.

"Well, long story short, he'd been digging around at the palace when he'd found a collection of letters." She seemed less than pleased to be the one saying it. "But of course we only have the ones from whoever sent them. It appeared to be a conversation between our father and yours—or possibly your grandfather, a name was never mentioned—relating to the current state of things. I didn't bring them with me, but I'd hoped he would've told you about it. With any luck we could've compared what he'd showed me to what you found and actually learn something."

"I might not have anything, but that doesn't mean we can't still try," Alfonse pointed out gently. "I don't think I would've found anything, anyway; it's pretty likely they would've been burned, especially after what happened between Askr and Embla. Father never liked the idea of people learning about all of that—not from what I'd seen, at least."

"I'd really like to say I don't blame him, then again it makes everything a lot more complicated for us. It's an affair none of seemed to want yet no one cared to stop it. They've left us on our own to settle something we're only a part of because of them…" She shook her head slowly. "There was a lot of replies, at least, and Bruno suspects there was more other than what he'd found. At first, it was akin to any normal conversation. I know he didn't let me see much of it—I keep on feeling like he's mad at me for something lately—but there wasn't any mentions of kids, or anything that could've specified the time they were sent. But it got less pleasant as it continued; the last one he said was there was a request to meet at the border. We don't know what happened after that."

"Can you tell me a bit of what you do remember?"

"Not currently, no. My head's… blurring up a bit, I think. It still hasn't gone away yet… either of them. Maybe later this evening or tomorrow, but… not right now…"

Alfonse got up before she did. "I can bring you to your room."

She winced as she got up and practically stammered to the door. When he'd gone to help her, her voice was cold and distant when she told him, "I'm going to rest. Please don't bother me." Even quieter, she added, "I don't know what I'd do to you if you did…"

((A/N: Random fun fact for this AU! I've decided that only black pegasi were originally native to any given World of Zenith. Then, through selective breeding and cheating the rules of the worlds a bit, white pegasi came into existence. Those with dappled manes are considered incredibly rare and often quite expensive, especially if they're well-trained.

Lani likes Alfonse, but absolutely hated Gustav. Literally no one liked Gustav… I don't think even the fandom likes Gustav.))