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Unlike his many counterparts in many alternate versions of the Askran kingdom, Kiran adamantly refused to allow the summoned heroes to witness the summoning process. Once a hero left the area of summoning, they never saw the area again. Kiran didn’t do this out of any kind of maliciousness, quite the opposite in fact. He kept the summoned heroes from observing summons in order to protect their feelings. He had already caught on very quickly that many of the Heroes had loved ones who they missed in their worlds, ones that could very well be brought to Askr by Breidablik. Equally quickly, he had caught on to the fact that he had no control over the summoning process. Breidablik chose who to bring into the kingdom of Askr at the end of the day, and no amount of ammunition orbs was going to change that.
While he knew that no hero would fault him for failing to bring a friend home, he also was able to sense the sadness that they felt upon hearing that they had lost a chance to reunite with a loved one. If they got sad because of failing to connect with a friend they had known back home, Kiran could hardly imagine how they would feel if they knew that Breidablik had denied them the chance at reuniting with a friend of theirs who had died in their world. For that reason, the summoning altar was locked with only Alfonse, Anna and Sharena being granted access in addition to himself.
Additionally, Kiran woke up early every morning, before even Lyn could wake him up, and checked the message boards for news of new worlds heroes could be summoned from. He tore the message from the board and stowed it away in his pocket, returning to sleep that would soon be broken by the Lady of the Plains, in order to avoid suspicion. As Kiran knelt in front of the summoning altar, he eyed the paper he had taken from the bulletin board this morning. “Departed Heroes” was the focus of this new world heroes could be summoned from.
If his gut feeling about this world was correct, he was glad for his stance on allowing the other heroes to witness summoning. He figured the previous “Fallen Heroes” world would have been bad enough, if the Hoshidan royals’ reaction to the Empty Vessel Takumi was any indication. Even still, at least then their sibling was still alive. The title of this world led Kiran to believe that it would be populated by heroes who had died in their own worlds, which meant that they likely had people in Askr who would miss them, and want to reunite with them.
Silently grateful that his failure to summon any of the Departed Heroes would not be able to cause the sadness of any of his new friends, he went on to read the names of the heroes in this new world. Yen’fay - Blade Legend, Phila - Knight Captain, Leila - Ostian Spy, Brendan - Fang’s Leader. Two heroes from Awakening and two from Blazing. Those were the worlds Kiran was most familiar with, so he was grateful for that. Still, one name stood out to Kiran. Leila, a spy that Matthew and Hector had often mentioned. From what he could gather, she had been in love with Matthew, planning to retire from being a spy along with him, before she was struck down by Jaffar, the Black Fang’s Angel of Death.
Kiran hated death, as much as it was often a necessity of war. However, her death stood out to him as being particularly awful. Whether that was because of Matthew’s heartbreak that he carried with him, even in Askr, or the cruel manner of her death, or how close she had come to leaving that dangerous life behind her, Kiran didn’t know. What he did know, was that he had to summon her. He owed it to Matthew and to Hector. So, Kiran picked up Breidablik, loading it with orbs, and picked up one of the 5 summoning stones that appeared. First was a red one, that awarded a Cain. Then a green one with Arthur. Two blue ones, with a Sully and a Gwendolyn. Then, he picked up the final clear stone, set it in the altar and fired. A puff of dust came out of the altar, before a brilliant flash of light fired up. The purple hair, the yellow scarf; as the dust settled and the light faded, Kiran could immediately see that he had achieved his goal. “I’m Leila, a spy for House Ostia. I had hoped to put that life behind me, but fate had other plans…” Kiran greeted her before hurriedly excusing himself from the summoning area. He directed Sharena to keep Leila where she was until he returned, tearing out of the summoning room at breakneck speed.
As he left the room, he called out, “MATTHEW! Meet me at the promotion altar!” As Kiran reached his destination, he looked around, trying to find Matthew. As he prepared to call again, he saw the man step slowly out of the shadows.
“What’s going on, Kiran? I’ve gotta admit, I’m surprised you called for me, you haven’t put me to work for a while. Just when I was starting to think that my line of work was just gonna be sneaking around here.”
“Heh, I never did finish training you, did I? Either way, it doesn’t matter. Can you grab me some colorless crests? The big ones, please.” Matthew did as he was told, as Kiran left and returned with a gigantic bag of feathers. He emptied the bag at the foot of the altar, and directed Matthew to drop the crests there as well. At once, they both disappeared, and the altar began to glow.
“Alright, Matthew, stand at the altar.”
“Huh, you’re promoting me? Not that I’m complaining, but I’ve been sitting here as long as I have and you’re just now paying attention to me? What, am I getting a new weapon?”
“Oh, hush.” replied Kiran as Matthew was enveloped in the glowing light from the altar. When the light faded, Matthew looked the same as ever, just with a slight golden aura to him.
“Huh, I feel weaker than before. But, I also feel like I can be stronger now, like some limit was removed. What did you do?” asked Matthew.
“No time to explain, I’ve taken enough time as is, book it to the summoning room!” called Kiran behind him to Matthew. As Matthew wondered what Kiran could possibly want from him in the previously forbidden summoning grounds, but he figured he’d have his answers later, so he ran towards the summoner, swiftly catching up to him. As Kiran approached, he was greeted by Sharena.
“Oh, so you promoted him? Nice! Also, it’s good that you showed up when you did, our guest is getting a bit antsy.” Kiran sighed in relief, grateful that Sharena knew well enough to not disclose the identity of his latest summon quite yet. He wanted Matthew to see it for himself. As Kiran entered the summoning room he heard a voice calling to him: “Oh, you’re back. Hopefully you’re not gonna keep me waiting any longer.” Behind Kiran, Matthew tensed up, thinking that he recognized the voice he was hearing. As he looked up, his suspicions were confirmed as a familiar face stared right back at him.
“LEILA!” “MATTHEW!” both spies yelled as they ran forwards, embracing each other in a hug and sharing a kiss.
“I thought, I thought I wouldn’t see you again, Leila.” said Matthew, beginning to tear up.
“Me too. When Jaffar killed me then, all I could think about was how I couldn’t live away from House Ostia with you, like we had planned.”
“Don’t worry about that anymore, you’re safe with me. I won’t lose you again.” Kiran smiled before clearing his throat to draw the attention of the happy couple..
“Well, it seems to me like you guys have some catching up to do. Matthew, I trust you can show her around? Ordinarily, I’d have Sharena or Alfonse do it, but you’ve been here so long, and I’d imagine you’re in no hurry to leave her side?” Matthew nodded, before running out of the summoning room with Leila in tow. As Kiran walked out with Sharena behind him, he sighed in happiness.
“I’m glad I could do that for him.”
Sharena turned towards Kiran and smiled as well, “Yeah, it’s great that we could reunite them! It’s always nice to see heroes bonding.”
Kiran sat down before responding. “Yeah. Tomorrow, they start training, but I wanted to let them have this for today.”
From afar, Kiran could see Hector pleasantly surprised by the revival of one of his former spies, excitedly chatting with both of them.
“They definitely deserve it.”