Chapter 2: Introductions

Astra cast a look at Aleron, only to find him smiling at her. Apparently, there were more than a few things he hadn’t told her. Looking at his smug face now made her feel somewhat irritated.

“… You could have given me a heads up,” she said to him, a little exasperated, but his smile didn’t diminish. Suppressing her sigh, Astra turned her gaze to the imposing man behind the desk and bowed. “Yes, your royal highness, I'm from another world. It looks like Aleron has already informed you of quite a few things.”

“On the contrary,” the prince replied, “beyond that one fact, he has told me little. Please, sit, both of you.”

He gestured to the sofas to one side as he rose from his desk and went to plop unceremoniously down on the largest armchair himself. His cold, stiff demeanour from the throne room seemed much more toned down within the privacy of his own office.

Aleron guided Astra to sit before settling himself beside her. There was tea on the end table, and three cups already prepared, one of which he took and handed to the still confused noirette. The slight pout to the edge of her mouth made him suppress a smile. “I apologize for not informing you beforehand,” he told her, not at all apologetically given that he was chuckling while he spoke. “My errand from the Crown Prince was a matter of top secrecy, so there was not much I could say about it.” He had told her what the errand was, but not that he'd been assigned that errand by royalty, of all things. 

Astra sighed as she took the teacup from him. “I was wondering why you lied about retrieving the Relic from Lyndra.”

The Crown Prince’s eyes gleamed as he took a sip from his tea. “You have it, then?”

Aleron reached into the folds of his uniform and pulled out a round white stone, which he then set gently on the tabletop.

The prince, and his guard who had shifted to stand beside the sofa, both leaned forwards slightly to get a better look at it. “This is the Hero’s Relic?” the prince asked, the confusion in his voice evident.

Indeed, for something with such a grandiose title, the stone, which was small enough to fit snugly in Astra's palm, seemed sadly lacking. Though its surface was very smooth, the stone itself was dull and plain, sitting there quietly on the table. 

Astra had put two and two together when she had seen the emblem above the castle gates. “This is the crystal from Ateolan history, isn’t it?” she asked Aleron, seeing him smile proudly and nod. “No wonder you were sent to retrieve it… but why was it in Lyndra, if it’s part of this country’s legacy?”

“I am afraid I do not know,” the Crown Prince replied to her as he stared down at the object in question. "Calling it a 'crystal' seems to have been an exaggeration." Then he shook himself and looked up with a cordial smile. “Introductions are late – forgive my manners. I am Crown Prince Corrin Ronne Ateole. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Miss Astraea. I hope that this world of Onaria has treated you hospitably since your arrival.”

It was a courteous greeting, and manners dictated that she reply in kind, but Astra hesitated.

If she was being perfectly honest, she could not say it had. Being suddenly thrown headlong into a fantasy world, while exciting, had not been easy. The journey to the capital alone had taken several months, and all of it had been a far cry different from the sorts of adventures she liked reading about in books or watching in shows.

Still, it probably wasn’t a good idea to say as much in front of this prince. “I’m honoured to be here, your highness.” Better to keep it short and sweet.

“You’re a masterful actress, by the way,” the prince went on, raising his brows at her. “I was under the impression that you and the Captain had not prepared a story beforehand.”

“We hadn't.” Aleron patted Astra’s shoulder with a proud look. “Astra is a quick thinker.”

“Your Lyndran accent was a little forced, though.”

Astra could not help but smile at that brutally honest assessment. “Was it really that bad? I apologize.”

“I suppose it was only obvious to me, who has heard the real thing every day for years on end.” The prince threw a look at his guard, who continued to stand still without saying anything. Shrugging his shoulders, he sat forwards again. “May I ask you some questions?”

Astra glanced at Aleron to find him nodding at her, and straightened her posture a bit. She had not expected to reveal her identity so soon after arriving, but if Aleron trusted the Crown Prince with this information, then so did she. “Ask away, your highness.”

“The world you came from – tell me about it.”

The young woman did not respond right away, instead picking up her teacup to take a sip. Seeing that she was collecting her thoughts, none of the men pressed her.

After settling herself, she began to talk. The more she did, the faster the words came, and her story came pouring out. Neither the Crown Prince nor his guard interrupted her; they only listened, taking in everything she said.

Astraea Luan was a university art student and international business minor who loved fiction and fantasy and held dreams of publishing her own works someday in the future. She had a single roommate, her childhood friend Lexi, who was a geology student. In her own words, she described her life as 'nothing to be excited at, perfectly ordinary'.

She told them about the world she had come from, called ‘Earth’, where swordfights were a thing of the past and Thunderbirds, or anything similar, didn't exist in reality. Privately, she wasn’t sure that using the moniker 'Earth' was an accurate way to define her ‘world’. What exactly was the definition of ‘world’ in this case, after all? Was it the country? The planet? The entire Solar System?

“It’s… it’s very different from here,” she finally said, not knowing where to start.

It was dizzying to consider explaining everything about modern society to this fantasy-world prince. She already felt like she’d been rambling too much.

Luckily, the Crown Prince was evidently more prepared than she. He had more specific questions that made it easier for her to sort through her responses – namely, regarding how she had met Aleron and their time together from that point.

The story wound forwards. Astra recounted an afternoon when she had gone out the back door, intending to go for a run, and had happened upon two men in the middle of climbing up Lexi’s persimmon tree with the intent to steal the literal fruits of her friend’s labour.

One was carrying the other on his shoulders, as the tree was too thin to scale, and both were dressed like some sort of live-action roleplayers, with swords and daggers. The taller of the two men (she wondered why he was the one being carried, given his height) had long purple hair and near-golden eyes, and all three people had frozen, unsure of what to do.

Crown Prince Corrin’s eyes were sparkling. “And then?”

A snicker slipped from Astra’s lips as she turned to the side and gave Aleron a mischievous, knowing look.

The knight had the grace to look embarrassed, passing a hand over his face as he sighed and confessed, “And I was so startled that I dropped Ladron on the spot to draw my sword.”

Astra bubbled into laughter at his answer, and even the prince smiled.

Despite Aleron’s threatening action, Astra had not been fazed so much as utterly confused. After asking several times if they were cosplayers, leaving Aleron and Ladron equally befuddled, Lexi had come outside with lowered brows asking what was the matter.

“It took the better part of an hour to get everything straight,” Aleron sighed, brushing back his hair. “Both parties were completely lost.”

“Once we understood one another, though, things were quite simple from there,” Astra pointed out. And it was true; once Lexi and Astra had finally managed to come to terms with the dizzying truth that Aleron and Ladron were not from their world, things had progressed much more smoothly. Lexi had suggested allowing the two men to stay in their small home for a few days – provided they didn’t try anything funny – and as it became increasingly clear that the men had no idea how to return to Onaria from here, those few days had somehow stretched into months, and then years.

"So the relic is what took you and your companion to Miss Astraea's world?" the Crown Prince glanced at Aleron for confirmation, and Aleron nodded. “In that case, how did you end up returning?”

At that, Astra’s eyes also shifted to Aleron, who looked apologetic. “I’m afraid we don’t know much, your highness,” she said after a moment or two, “Only that the hero's relic was involved.”

Now that all eyes were on him, Aleron coughed awkwardly into his fist and said, “We researched numerous ways to use the stone, but with no success. However, without any seeming rhyme or reason, it suddenly transported not only my companion and I, but Astra and her friend who were also present, back to Onaria. It placed us at the same location we left from, in the Lyndran mountains”

As he spoke, he felt, as always, the twinges of guilt. Through their involvement with him, and his errand, Astra and Lexi had gone from ordinary students to being dumped, in their modern day clothes, into the harsh snowy environment of northern Lyndra. Forget the shock of being in a new world, they had all nearly frozen to death within the first hour.

And what had followed, even after escaping the cold, was far from pleasant.

The Crown Prince, a look of interest on his face, questioned them closely on the experience of inter-world travel and the appearance of the Hero's Relic at that time.

“When it was active,” Aleron recalled at the prince’s prompting, “it took on a wholly different appearance. The surface of the stone became lustrous, like a pearl, and it reflected light in multiple colours. It truly resembled a holy relic of ages past, for all that it looks like a plain river rock now.” The Crown Prince had said earlier that 'crystal' was not an accurate depiction, but when the Relic was in use, it certainly resembled a beautiful gemstone.

“I remember it activated after I picked it up,” Astra added, “but I don’t know if that had anything to do with it.” To demonstrate, she reached forwards to touch the stone, but nothing happened. “Our theory was that something must have happened on the Onarian side to make it react.”

“During our journey back to the capital, we studied the stone further, but were unable to determine how to use it.” Aleron gestured to both Astra and himself. “As such, I thought it only appropriate that I and my companion take responsibility for Astra and Lexi’s safety, so I brought her to the palace with me.”

The prince was nodding; he agreed that it was only right for the Captain to take such action. “I apologize for getting you involved in our country’s affairs, Miss Astraea,” he said, politely lowering his head to her. Astra hurried to say that it was alright, and the prince smiled at her. “You said you had a friend who was also brought here? Are they in need of any assistance from the crown?”

Astra shook her head. “She’s in the care of our other travelling companion in the city, highness,” she explained, thinking of Lexi and the ever-cheerful Ladron, whom she already missed.

“I see. Well, for as long as you are staying here, we shall make your experience as comfortable as we can.” Seeing that dazzling smile directed her way, Astra could only return it hesitantly. Though his first impression had been strict, she was rapidly beginning to think that this person was not bad, and had excellent manners.

Their conversation dragged on for quite some time. The crown prince, after spreading a map on the table, had Aleron document the route he had taken both to Lyndra and to return to his home country of Ateole. Astra had drained her tea while answering more of the prince’s questions about Earth, which were mainly focused around questions of culture and the fascinating fact that her country had no monarchy.

“You truly abolished the caste system?” he had asked, astonished. “How do your people function without a definition of status?”

Astra had taken an entire half hour to try and explain the concept of democracy to him. When he brought up the question of public safety, she had to figure out how to describe the concept of the police. She thanked her lucky stars that she had Aleron there to back her up – the knight, after two years in her world, was familiar with concepts of both Earth and Onaria, and was able to come up with accurate metaphors which were much easier for the prince to grasp than Astra’s halting explanations.

It was not until the office had been dyed in reddish-golden light through the thin curtains that the Crown Prince looked up and suddenly clapped his hands, a rueful expression on his face. “The afternoon has come and gone. I’ve kept you both for too long. You must be exhausted, having only just made it back. Captain, you haven’t even visited the barracks yet, have you?”

“I have not, your highness,” Aleron replied, and the prince laughed as he pocketed the Hero's Relic, rose to his feet, and ushered them towards the door.

“Then I won’t keep you any longer. Miss Astraea, I am still curious about your world – may I invite you for tea soon, that we might discuss it at length?”

“It would be my pleasure, your highness,” Astra replied, and the prince seemed satisfied by her response.

He saw them out at the door with a cheerful smile, seemingly in a much better mood now that he had gotten so much new information as well as the legendary stone he had sent Aleron to find.